Time Travel: I am the idle king Li Shen and Li Shimin in the Tang Dynasty

Swallows do not return to the late spring, and the apricot blossoms are cold.

Li Shen saw Wang Hongfu and Wang Xuance off, and stood under the eaves of the study, looking at the lush greenery in the yard with some emotion.

Flowers bloom and fall, filling the sky; another year comes and goes.

I am twenty-one years old now, one year older.

Suddenly I felt as if I had grown a lot, my body was not as strong as before, and my energy was not as good as when I was young.

"Alas~ I'm getting old." Li Shen rubbed his waist in an old and frail manner.

This earned him the cold stares from several of his personal servants behind him.

Shitou, Chunxiang, and Dongmei are all older than Li Shen.

They didn't understand why Prince Ji felt this way and where he got the courage to say that he was old.

"Your Highness, it's time to eat." Shitou walked over and whispered to Li Shen.

"Okay." Li Shen nodded, turned and walked towards the dining room.

When Li Shen walked into the dining room, Lu Dingniang and her family were waiting.

Seeing Li Shen coming in, everyone saluted immediately:

"See you, Your Majesty."

Li Shen smiled:

"Haha, no need to be polite, just sit down."

As he spoke, Li Shen sat down first, followed by others.

"Shi Tou, go to the wine cellar and get a bottle of good wine." After sitting down, Li Shen instructed Shi Tou.

"My ladies, please share a drink with me today." Li Shen said happily, looking at his wives and concubines.

"Your Highness, is there any happy event today?" Lu Dingniang asked with a smile.

"No, it's just that I suddenly want to have a drink with you." Li Shen shook his head.

After a while, Shitou came back with a bottle of wine, and took out utensils and a glass cup.

Shi Tou is very skilled at this and he will leave the wine alone for a while after opening it.

At this time, Li Shen glanced around.

"Hey? Where's Xixi?" He found that his precious daughter was not at the table.

"Your Highness, Xixi caught a cold and is feeling unwell. She just took some medicine and is sleeping now."

Lu Dingniang replied.

"Is he sick? What happened? Did the nurse and maid not take good care of him?"

Hearing that his daughter was ill, Li Shen frowned and looked a little unhappy.

"Your Highness, this has nothing to do with the nurse. It's all because Xixi was too spoiled. She refused to listen and insisted on bathing One, Two, Three, Four herself.

As a result, he accidentally sat in the basin of water, got his clothes wet, and caught a cold.

Your Majesty, you need to take good care of Xixi, she is becoming more and more lawless now."

Wu Meiniang explained that even she, the biological mother, began to accuse her own daughter.

"What? She fell into the basin?" Li Shen didn't hear anything else but heard that his daughter fell into the basin.

This is really shocking.

"No, I have to go and take a look." Li Shen stood up.

Lu Dingniang quickly pulled Li Shen back:

"My dear, Xixi is still sleeping now. Why don't you clean up the mess and wait for Xixi to wake up before visiting her.

The doctor said it was nothing serious and that he would be fine after a rest and some medicine."

My husband is different from other nobles. Other nobles like sons, but my husband likes daughters.

Li Shen loved both his eldest daughter and his third daughter very much.

His son Li Shen didn't even look at it.

He is usually very strict with Yangyang, often checks his homework, and never indulges his son's bad habits.

None of the women in the yard can handle this.

I don’t know whether I should have a boy or a girl.

Look at how Prince Ji treats Xixi; he treats her better than the eldest son born to Princess Ji.

"Yes, Your Majesty, let's have our meal first and then go visit Xixi." Wu Meiniang also advised.

Only then did Li Shen sit down.

However, he still instructed the maid:

"I'll tell the kitchen to cook some of Xixi's favorite dishes after she wakes up.

Also bring some fruit over, the medicine is too bitter and Xixi doesn't like taking medicine.

Bring some more sugar."

After Li Shen finished speaking, he was stunned and suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Sugar! Oh my god, how could I forget about this."

"My dear, what did you forget?" Lu Dingniang asked hurriedly.

Everyone at the table looked at Li Shen.

"Nothing. I just suddenly remembered something, a very big thing."

The sugar of the Tang Dynasty is similar to the traditional brown sugar. At that time, the Tang Dynasty sent a study group to India to learn India’s advanced sugar-making methods.

After returning, Li Shimin carefully developed and produced sugar whose quality was better than that of Indian rock honey.

Nowadays, the sugars produced in the Tang Dynasty mainly include honey, sucrose and maltose, and icing sugar and rock sugar are also produced.

Although it is also shiny, it is yellow instead of white.

Li Shen has never thought about this problem for all these years because he rarely eats sugar and he only eats fresh fruits.

Today he suddenly remembered this matter. This is a good opportunity to make a fortune.

"What is the price of sugar in the palace?"

Thinking about the sugar business he was planning to start, Li Shen began to ask questions.

"Your Majesty, the sugar used in the palace is all top-grade tribute honey and top-grade rock honey.

Tribute honey is not sold outside, but rock honey is 60 coins per ounce. "

"So expensive?" Li Shen opened his mouth in surprise when he heard the servant's reply.

In the early Zhenguan period, the price of grain was only five cents per dou. Even if Li Shen controlled the price of grain, it is now only between fifteen and twenty cents.

The price of rock honey is sixty wen per two taels, which is nearly one guan of money per catty. This is too expensive.

“Your Majesty, our rock honey is of the highest quality, but the yield is very low, so the price is high.

There is also another kind of sugar made from bamboo sugar cane, which costs about twelve cents per ounce.

The cheapest is 6 maltose, which costs 8 cents per pound.

This kind of candy is usually bought by ordinary people during festivals, and it doesn’t taste that sweet.”

At this time, Su Xiaoxiao spoke up to explain for Li Shen.

She and Liu Ruyan are in charge of the management of Tianshang Renjian. She herself was born an oiran and belongs to the lower class.

I am quite familiar with these things.

Li Shen nodded after hearing this. In the Tang Dynasty, sugar could be used as medicine.

In addition to being used as medicine, it is also enjoyed by wealthy families, and ordinary people only buy a little during festivals.

And he bought the cheapest sugar, which Li Shen naturally understood.

Just like lobsters, ordinary people in later generations can afford them but are reluctant to buy them.

Not everyone will buy it to eat during festivals.

"Come on, let's eat and chat. The food is getting cold. You should be sober now. Pour some more for everyone."

Li Shen pondered for a moment and then waved to everyone.

If you don't pick up your chopsticks, others won't dare to pick up their chopsticks either, otherwise it would be breaking the rules.

The maid poured a cup for everyone. Li Shen picked up the cup, shook it, and looked at it carefully.

It’s said that Li Shen didn’t know how to taste wine before.

But there are so many good things. If you drink them often, you will naturally know what is good and what is bad.

After looking at the degree of wine clinging to the glass, Li Shen nodded with satisfaction.

(I looked up some information about the price of sugar, it should be correct.

And I really didn’t want to buy lobsters this year.)