Chapter 457: World Affairs

"The price of silk is rising, how can those brocade merchants accept it obediently? If they unite to suppress the price, what will happen?"

For the Jin Prince's question, Ji Weiwei Yuan was naturally well-prepared and said: "Silk is limited, but brocade can be infinite. How much land there is, there will be how much silk, which can be calculated. The output of ice silk is even less."

"Brocade is as much as you want as long as you are willing to spend silver to train craftsmen. The more brocade, the more brocade merchants, and they will definitely not be of one mind, but will only try every means to drive up the price of silk. So as long as there is silk in hand, we can raise the price at will, until all brocade merchants make no money."

This conclusion was actually reached by mortals in human fireworks. Ji Weiwei Yuan felt it made sense and sold it to the Jin Prince by the way. As for whether the Jin Prince accepted it or not, Ji Weiwei Yuan didn't care.

Anyway, without the Jin Prince, there will always be others who change. As long as Ji Weiwei Yuan continuously collects silk, someone will naturally add mulberry trees.

And now the amount of silk Ji Weiwei Yuan collects seems to be very large, but compared to the potential usage in Ji Weiwei Yuan's plan in the future, it is still just a drop in the bucket, so the process of hoarding will be very long. And now the old Daoist Chuhe has set off and is on his way to Ningxi County again. This time, the old Daoist will sweep up the silk stocks of the major brocade firms in Ningxi. When the old Daoist returns, only the mulberry farmers in Ningxi will have some silk stocks.

The Jin Prince closed his eyes slightly to hide the high-speed flashing divine light.

He thought about it carefully for a while and found that it would really be as Ji Weiwei Yuan said. Especially since the seven counties of Ningxi were not under the control of the Jin Prince, and the royal family's land was less than one-tenth of the total farmland in the area. Just as Ji Weiwei Yuan said, he didn't change to mulberry, and there were plenty of people who would change to mulberry, and in the local area, he couldn't even forbid mulberry. The only feasible plan was to convert all the grain fields in his hands at one breath before everyone reacted, so that he could eat the fattest first bite.

At this time, Ji Weiwei Yuan said again: "It is still easy to tax silk now, and it can form a fixed example. Otherwise, if the price of silk really rises, how can the local noble clans let this piece of fat be swallowed by the Jin Prince alone? At that time, the silk tax will inevitably not be implemented."

These words hit the point directly. If the price of silk really rose sharply, how could the local noble clans let this piece of fat be swallowed by the Jin Prince alone? At that time, the silk tax would inevitably not be implemented.

Cold light flashed in the Jin Prince's eyes, and he said: "You really have great talent! If you can really solve the crisis of the national treasury, I will definitely not be stingy with rewards. Oh, by the way, the Crown Prince invited you to a banquet in the evening, what did he say?"

"The Crown Prince told me to do nothing and just look west."

"Then what did he promise you?"

Ji Weiwei Yuan said: "I want the land west of Hanyang Pass, but the Crown Prince did not answer."

The Jin Prince pondered for a moment and asked again: "My life is not long, what do you think of the future Jin Prince candidate?"

"This is the Great King's family affair, how can I consider it? I am dedicated to the outside, just want to fight the Shaman tribe and live a stable life. If the Great King wants to ask, then you should ask Lord Lu Wenbai and Lord Xu Tongshou."

The Jin Prince closed his eyes slightly, not knowing what he was thinking, and Ji Weiwei Yuan sat steadily, watching the smoke in the censer rise curlingly.

After a long time, the Jin Prince opened his eyes and said: "The national luck of the Jin country is on you, not on Lu Wenbai and Xu Tongshou. You want the land of the Western Regions, I can promise you, just step by step, piece by piece before my deadline arrives. Besides that, what else do you want?"

Ji Weiwei Yuan's heart moved and said: "I want people. The number of refugees who die in Great Jin every year is countless, but my Qingming still lacks people, so I want to ask the Great King to allow me to recruit refugees in Ningzhou."

"You have food, how many refugees can't you recruit? Let's do this, I will give you a token. The caravan holding this token, no matter the size, no matter what it carries, can move freely within the territory of Great Jin, and no one is allowed to block it."

Ji Weiwei Yuan immediately thanked him and said: "For every refugee this caravan brings back, I will offer five taels of silver."

The Jin Prince was startled, and then there was finally a smile on his face. He shook his head and said: "Ji Weiwei Yuan, what do you want so many people for? In fact, you have land and food now, even if you only rely on the reproduction within the boundary, ten years of time is enough to increase the population several times."

Ji Weiwei Yuan said: "The Great King knows that Qingming has secret methods, which can make mortals have cultivation in a short time. These refugees are usually just labor, but in wartime, they are soldiers who can be driven. I will send them to the battlefield first, and the hard-trained elite soldiers can stay behind to wait for the opportunity of the battle, to set the world in one battle."

The Jin Prince suddenly realized and smiled: "This is the right reason. These people are burdens elsewhere, and only here are they useful. The token will be sent to you tomorrow, and at the same time, I will announce this to all departments."

This matter was settled, the Jin Prince's expression gradually became high and far, and said: "I want to practice, you step down."

Ji Weiwei Yuan exited the side hall, Zhao Tong was waiting outside, leading Ji Weiwei Yuan to fly back to the Royal City. At the moment of takeoff, Ji Weiwei Yuan felt that someone in the dark seemed to be observing him, and the gaze seemed a bit familiar.

Returning to the post house, Ji Weiwei Yuan sat by the window, spread out the map, and looked silently.

The Jin Prince suddenly came to find him late at night, and it was no surprise that he asked about the establishment of the heir, but the inquiry about the empty national treasury was something Ji Weiwei Yuan did not expect. Ji Weiwei Yuan took the opportunity to offer the policy of changing grain to mulberry and obtained permission to recruit refugees, which was a big gain.

It's just that the Jin Prince didn't mention the new army and the new military equipment at all, which made Ji Weiwei Yuan a bit surprised.

According to Ji Weiwei Yuan's original expectation, if the new army was trained successfully, his importance would decrease, and the Jin Prince would not have to suppress him, at least he could not give rewards.

But now the Jin Prince's performance was unexpected. Ji Weiwei Yuan guessed that either the new army had a problem, or there was another reason, which made the Jin Prince have to continue to win him over, and even add more chips.

Ji Weiwei Yuan looked at the map in front of him and drew three circles on it. The innermost circle was Qingming's current territory, the middle circle was drawn to Hanyang Pass, and the largest circle was the radius of ten thousand li when Qingming expanded to the limit. If there were no other variables in the future, then Ji Weiwei Yuan would at least get all the territory west of Hanyang Pass. Both the Jin Prince and the Crown Prince implicitly agreed to this range. After all, in their view, the Broken Domain was a barbaric land and had no value at all, and the Shaman Domain was far more difficult to transform than the Liao Domain.

Giving a piece of land that didn't belong to West Jin to Ji Weiwei Yuan in exchange for his loyalty and support seemed quite cost-effective. In history books, there were no lack of such examples, dividing a fierce man to the land of barbaric aliens, and the fiefdom depended entirely on himself to fight.

Ji Weiwei Yuan was also happy to see this.

As for Hanyang Pass, it was not something Ji Weiwei Yuan must get. If the Xu family restarted Hanyang Pass in the future and wanted to use it as a base to invade Qingming, then Ji Weiwei Yuan would build another city opposite it, and then set up heavy artillery behind the city to bombard Hanyang Pass. Ji Weiwei Yuan didn't believe the Xu family could withstand his wild bombardment.

In the future, Qingming's expansion into Hanyang Pass was a very distant matter, and there was no need to consider it for now.

In the blink of an eye, it was noon, Ji Weiwei Yuan boarded the carriage and went to Li Weisheng's mansion for a banquet.

Li Weisheng was transferred to the Royal Capital and was now serving in the Ministry of Personnel. His official position had risen to the fourth rank, and he had the qualification to attend the morning court. However, in the Royal Capital, his fourth rank could only be said to be half-up and half-down, so the time for him to invite Ji Weiwei Yuan was also very particular, placed at noon.

This time, Li Weisheng set up a private banquet, only the two of them, and no other outsiders were present.

After three rounds of wine, Ji Weiwei Yuan said: "Li Lord is also an old friend, if you have anything to say, just say it."

Li Weisheng said: "There are really two things, then I will say it directly. One is that the Wei Prince sent a message, wanting to resolve the previous suspicion with Lord Wei."

Ji Weiwei Yuan laughed and said: "I have been getting along well with the Wei Prince, where is the previous suspicion?"

!.

Li Weisheng smiled and didn't entangle on this, and said again: "This second thing is about the Bianning County Magistrate Xu Xi. He has been active recently, wanting to transfer away from Bianning County and change to another place. It's just that there is really no vacancy, and the second is that everyone is worried about Lord Wei's thoughts, not knowing if you are willing to let him transfer, so the department has been pressing this matter without discussion."

"It's just that I thought if he didn't leave, Lord Sun Chaoen would be difficult to take a step forward, so I wanted to ask Lord Wei's thoughts."

Ji Weiwei Yuan said: "It's a good thing for everyone that Lord Sun can take a step forward."

"With Lord Wei's words, the subordinate is relieved." Li Weisheng immediately drank three cups to show his gratitude.

"The business is over, there is another small matter." Li Weisheng leaned forward slightly and said: "I heard that Lord Wei has been buying mulberry silk in large quantities recently, causing the price of silk to rise sharply, and also collecting mulberry fields and grain fields in several counties in the west of Ningzhou. I don't know why this is, can you reveal it?"

Ji Weiwei Yuan smiled slightly and asked: "I'm afraid it's not just Lord Li who wants to know, right?"

Li Weisheng bowed his hands upward and said: "Indeed, a certain lord wants to know more detailedly."

Ji Weiwei Yuan understood in his heart, so he said: "I have my own use for collecting silk, and I will only collect more in the future. Soon the silk stocks in the seven counties of western Ningzhou will be bought up by me. So if Lord Li has a way and spare money, you might as well buy some fields in Shanyang County, preferably grain fields, and then change to mulberry seedlings, but be fast. If it's late, there will be variables."

Ji Weiwei Yuan only said this much, and Li Weisheng didn't ask more. With the connections of that big figure above, he naturally knew what the variables Ji Weiwei Yuan didn't say were.

The two chatted for a while, and Li Weisheng suddenly said: "Lord Wei, I have always had one thing unclear. In the past, Lord Wei has always tried every means to absorb refugees, which is truly a Buddha of all people, and I admire it very much. However, if you just want to relieve refugees, there are actually many ways. Moving them thousands of miles to Qingming is truly laboring the people and wasting money. I don't know why Lord Wei is so persistent?"

Ji Weiwei Yuan laughed and said: "Everyone has some strange habits, and Wei is the same. I just want to see the people I help stay under my nose. This is like someone who likes to count immortal silver every day."

Li Weisheng also laughed heartily, as if he really believed it.

Afterward, the host and guest had a good time, and Li Weisheng sent Ji Weiwei Yuan outside the mansion gate.

Boarding the carriage, Ji Weiwei Yuan remembered Li Weisheng's last question. He answered randomly, and Li Weisheng naturally knew that Ji Weiwei Yuan didn't want to answer this question.

In fact, when Ji Weiwei Yuan first did this, he relied entirely on instinct, and Qingming was indeed short of people at that time. Li Weisheng was right, wanting to relieve mortals didn't necessarily require moving to Qingming, and it could be done in other counties. But what Ji Weiwei Yuan wanted was not just to feed them. Mortals have no value just by being full.

If you want to make them have meaning in life, you need to change many things.

And after meeting the Crown Prince, Ji Weiwei Yuan finally understood that the noble clans and the royal family would never allow the things he wanted to change.

The world is a banquet that has already begun. The seats are full. If you want to add one person, you have to drag one person down. No matter who it is, there will be a life-and-death struggle.

So Ji Weiwei Yuan wanted to open another table. What dishes are on this table, how to eat, and who can sit at the table can all be decided by Ji Weiwei Yuan himself. Only when the new table eats well will the people at the original table want to change the menu.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 458 =====