Datang: Huchi served as a bodyguard, but refused to enter the court as an official

After all, Liu Yexuan's tea still lacks the essence.

There are not many real tea masters in total.

There are eight thousand tea practitioners in the world, and they all regard Chai Lingwu as their patriarch.

There are countless real tea-making techniques.

What Chai Lingwu is proficient in is nothing more than kneading, frying and so on.

Many people think that tea is just a simple high-grade agricultural product.

In fact, in Liu Bai's eyes, apart from the few types of tea he often drinks, the remaining tea can be regarded as high-grade agricultural products or a financial product.

The Liu family started with tea.

After Liu Bai came to Datang, the first shop he opened was Liu Yexuan.

Liu Yexuan brought the most primitive accumulation of capital to the Liu family.

After that, there were mines in Youzhou, and all walks of life spread all over the world.

A cup of tea, leaves floating up and down, just like life, worth savoring carefully.

It is saturated with endless truth.

Just like now, the cup of tea that was thrown on the ground by Liu Bai.

"The circulation value in the market doesn't mean anything. You have worked as a servant in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, so you should know how much tax the Liu family's tea industry pays every year!"

Liu Ji nodded.

"Although the lower official often clashes with the prince, he still highly respects the prince's way of making money. During the locust plague in the second year of Zhenguan, if it were not for your potatoes, half of the people in the world would starve to death, but no one knows. The tax paid on tea helps us defend our country."

From the sixth year of Wude to the second year of Zhenguan, Liu Ji served as the Minister of the Minbu.

He knew too well how much the imperial family had back then.

It is no exaggeration to say that it is precisely because of Liu Bai's existence that the imperial court can be maintained until today.

Back then, the reason why the emperor rushed to seek revenge from the Turks was because the Liu family had paid a large amount of taxes.

He was worried that this batch of taxes would be embezzled by civil and military officials for his own use, so he couldn't wait to spend it.

Otherwise, if he wants to take revenge again, he will have to wait at least three more years!

And in these three years, the Turkic people will definitely have sufficient development.

They don't have to worry about any disaster at all. They are short of money and food, so they come directly to the Central Plains to grab it!

And those three years were also the most difficult three years for Datang.

With the destruction of Jieli, Datang had a chance to breathe and laid the foundation for further development.

"To this day, the Liu family's tea is spread all over the world. Needless to say, the consumption in the Tang Dynasty, and the export trade alone accounts for more than [-]% of the entire Tang Dynasty's export trade. Among them, Tubo accounts for the majority. Tuyuhun occupies a small portion, and the two countries mainly consume low-end tea products.”

Liu Ji nodded again and again, his back became straighter and straighter.

Although he didn't like Liu Bai, he had to admit that Liu Bai had a lot of money in his stomach.

This person seems to have a magical power, he can always find business opportunities with the keenest eyes.

Before that, no one was doing export trade.

Merchants in the Central Plains look down on foreigners.

But after the caravan that helped the Liu family took several carts of tea bricks and climbed up the plateau, this situation was completely reversed.

The herdsmen seem to like this kind of bitter stuff very much.

You know, what they buy is the lowest-end tea.

If it were a tea glutton like Liu Ji, he would be able to vomit for three days after just one sip.

Tea has opened the door for Datang's external development and expansion!

Once upon a time, the imperial court controlled those ethnic groups on the plateau with food.

Now food is no longer taboo.

A tea brick weighing two catties can be exchanged for wool ten times its weight.

This alone is enough to make the peoples on the plateau unable to break away from the rule of the Central Plains dynasty for generations!

"As the saying goes, what is rare is the most expensive thing. It is also tea, which grows from the same tree. Some are sold cheaper than millet because of their rough production methods, while others are more expensive than gold because of their sophisticated craftsmanship. It’s expensive, it’s all caused by the market.”

Liu Bai took out two cups and put them in front of Liu Ji.

"Now I have two boxes of extremely precious tea. The taste is beyond heaven. There is nothing like it in the world. A box of ten taels of gold. Will you buy it?"

Liu Ji smiled casually.

"Naturally, I want to buy it. Xiaguan is a tea lover. Although 20 taels of gold is a lot, I can still get it out by biting my teeth."

Liu Bai put away one of the cups.

"Now I will burn one of the cans, and the remaining one will cost 40 taels of gold. Do you want to buy it?"

Liu Ji's expression seemed to have really seen the incomparably precious tea leaves being burned.

Distressed gasped.

"This this"

Liu Bai smiled slightly, and said: "I remind you again, this jar is the only one left in the world, and its taste is far beyond the reach of other teas."

Liu Jie gritted his teeth and said, "If it's what the prince said, even the lower officials are willing to pay 40 taels of gold!"

Liu Bai smiled very happily.

"That's right. Rare things are more expensive. As long as you talk about this place, even if it's a piece of shit, you can still sell it to you for 40 taels of gold!"

Liu Ji was stunned.

He suddenly understood what Liu Bai meant.

In the simplest terms, Liu Bai is extremely good at watching people order dishes.

It is also a kind of tea, sold to herdsmen on the plateau, it may only be worth a handful of wool.

Because his purpose is not to make money from those herdsmen.

It is to control the wool in their hands and indirectly control the basis of their life.

If it is sold to the nobles in Chang'an City, it will be more expensive than gold.

After all, there are only a handful of people who can really drink the quality of tea.

There are countless arty people.

They foolishly think that as long as it is expensive, it is good.

How much it sells depends entirely on one's mouth.

It turns out that this is the reason why the Liu family made a fortune.

Liu Ji fiercely gave a jolt.

"Then you created the Money Printing Bureau for the purpose of"

Liu Bai looked at Liu Ji meaningfully.

"Fortunately, you have been honest during this time. Presumably the emperor sent you here because of your intelligence and ability. If you dare to obstruct the development of the money printing bureau, I am afraid that the heads of your whole family, young and old, will already be in the air." Chang'an city gate is closed"

Chapter 1658 Letter to Liu Jin, Cheng Yaojin also came

Liu Jie left in a daze.

He found a huge plan.

Perhaps, what he discovered was just the beginning of this huge plan.

At this moment, he finally understood why he came to build this city that would be destroyed sooner or later.

Liu Bai sent him out of the mansion very politely.

Looking at the slightly hunched back of this middle-aged man, Liu Bai felt a lot of emotion in his heart.

The prosperity of Zhenguan is not due to Li Er alone.

Those old ministers who followed him to fight the world, although their ideas are outdated, they are still conscientious and never give up their responsibilities.

They are the bricks and stones that opened this great era.

After returning home, just as Liu Bai sat down, he received another letter.

This letter is very long, more than ten pages.

After Liu Bai read the letter, he frowned deeply.

"Left Wuwei"

It has been half a month since Liu Jin and the others investigated the case in Tingqiao Village outside Chang'an City.

Liu Bai was still wondering before, but calculating the time, Liu Jin and the others should have already left for more than half of the time.

Why has there been no news since then?

It turned out that they have not left Chang'an until now.

Instead, I encountered a shocking case!

From the letter, Liu Bai learned that the case was a big one.

The Chang'an camp was completely rectified, and more than a dozen heads of generals of rank six or above were beheaded.

General Zhang Gongjin of Zuo Wuwei was dismissed from office and confiscated!

All because of the corruption of ink in the army.

It is not one or two people who are greedy, but hundreds of officers!

It was not just one or two people who were injured, but more than 1 soldiers!

Prior to this, corruption of ink in the military was not uncommon.

It can only be said that these people were unlucky, just in time for the reform of the military ticket, they were caught by the court, and they became a model.

Liu Bai was very angry.

The reform of military tickets is the prelude to the reform of banknotes.

It is simply unrealistic for the common people to accept banknotes instead of gold and silver.

The soldiers don't need to think about this, they are used to obeying the orders of the court, and they will send whatever the court sends them.

As the most important task of the Liu family at present, Liu Bai does not allow any stains on the strategy of the military ticket.

Even though Zhang Gongjin had a good relationship with him, Liu Bai did not intend to expose this matter easily.

It's just that he didn't expect that it was Liu Jin who discovered this.

It seems that this kid has great ambitions.

As soon as he left the palace, he gave himself a big gift.

If the corruption of ink in the military is discovered after the paper currency reform is actually implemented, it will bring about an extremely bad chain reaction.

Even the soldiers raised by the imperial court no longer trust banknotes, so what should they say to explain it to the common people?

"Call Hongying over here!"

Liu Bai said to Xu Chu.

Soon, Hongying will arrive!

Liu Bai called her over because he wanted her to protect the safety of his two wives.

The three of us are not in the base camp, so we can't be too careful.

But the situation in Chang'an was equally urgent, and Hong Ying became the most suitable candidate when no one else was there.

"I'll explain to Shen Wei, you go to Chang'an immediately, and hand over my letter from the young master to Liu Jin!"

Hongying was startled.

Back in Chang'an, she didn't have any objections.