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

"I see. It's not your fault. You don't have to blame yourself.

It’s a pity that our plan to make money failed, and we lost millions of strings of cash in a year.

What a pity. "

Hearing Jin Chunqiu's words, Li Shen shook his head and sighed. He had not expected that Baekje would make a comeback so soon.

After the Tang army withdrew, it immediately attacked Silla, leaving it no chance to catch its breath.

If he were given a few years, by the time soybeans were grown throughout Baekje, would he be able to make a lot of money from the food?

It can also control the lifeline of Baekje.

Li Shen suddenly felt a little regretful. It would be better if he had done it himself in the first place. Let Silla do this because they lacked experience.

If he had not been afraid of alerting Baekje because what he did in Goguryeo was too obvious, he would not have entrusted Silla to do this.

"Thank you, Your Highness Prince Ji, for your understanding. I am deeply ashamed." Jin Chunqiu stood up and saluted.

"It's okay. By the way, what do you want to see me for today?" Li Shen asked nonchalantly, waving his hand.

"Your Highness Prince Ji, we are here to ask for help," Jin Chunqiu replied.

"Help? What does that mean?" Li Shen looked puzzled.

Seeing King Ji's confusion, Jin Chunqiu could understand it. It was not surprising that King Ji was not in the court and did not know about their affairs with Baekje.

So he explained:

"Your Majesty, ever since Baekje attacked Silla, our Silla frontline has been in a tight spot, and we have been recruiting young men from all over the country to resist.

In addition, the conscription of laborers resulted in a shortage of young and strong people to farm the country, and large tracts of land were left uncultivated.

As this cycle continued, Silla's food supply could no longer meet the people's consumption.

Our Silla kingdom has been suffering from famine since last year, and it is even more serious this year.

If this continues, most of the millions of people in Silla will probably starve to death.

Therefore, I, the foreign minister, ask His Royal Highness King Ji to lend a helping hand and help the millions of people of Silla overcome the difficulties.

I, Silla, am grateful to you."

After saying this, Jin Chunqiu and King Jin Wen stood up and bowed deeply to Li Shen.

After hearing this, Li Shen frowned and looked solemn. Under the gaze of Jin Chunqiu and the others, Li Shen shouted to the outside:

"Go and call Chief Secretary Wang and tell him that there is something important to discuss."

After that, Li Shen said to Jin Chunqiu:

"Emissary Jin, please wait a moment. You know that I have been away from the court for a long time and I don't know much about the outside world.

However, I feel that if you are really in trouble, you should seek help from the court of my Tang Dynasty.

Did you find the wrong person when you came to me?"

Jin Chunqiu immediately replied after hearing this:

"To reply to His Royal Highness Prince Ji, to be honest, the foreign ministers have already prayed to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince during the court meeting today."

"Isn't that great? Silla is our vassal state, and the imperial court will definitely help us."

Li Shen interrupted.

Jin Chunqiu shook his head:

"Your Highness Prince Ji, if that were the case, then foreign officials would not come to Prince Ji's mansion to bother Your Highness.

Just now in the court, the officials had different opinions. Minister Tang said that there was a severe drought in Guanzhong and the people had no harvest.

The imperial court reserved the food for the people in Guanzhong, and there was no extra food to support Silla."

"That's good." Li Shen nodded, "Messenger Jin, I have also heard that there is indeed a severe drought in Guanzhong.

On several of my farms, hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land are unable to be cultivated. Not long ago, I went to the farm to offer sacrifices to the heavens and pray for rain.

I hope God will bless me.

Guanzhong is densely populated, with Chang'an alone having a population of nearly one million. The imperial court should mobilize grain to resist famine.

It’s not that the imperial court didn’t want to help Silla, but it was probably powerless to do so.

I believe the Golden Envoy should also know about the drought, right?"

Li Shen patiently explained to Jin Chunqiu and told him that what the court said was correct.

“Yes, I also understand the difficulties faced by the court, so I came to ask for help from His Royal Highness Prince Ji.

Tang Shangshu said that Prince Ji's palace had enough food for a million people.

I beg Your Highness King Ji to lend a helping hand and save the lives of millions of Silla citizens."

Jin Chunqiu didn't want to dwell on this matter anymore. Right or wrong didn't matter. His purpose in coming here was to ask for food.

"Your Highness, the Chief Secretary Wang has arrived."

Just then, someone outside reported.

"Let him in." Li Shen said.

After hearing this, Wang Xuance walked in from outside and was a little surprised to see Jin Chunqiu and his son.

Didn’t Prince Ji say that he was going to the Honglu Temple to find them? Why did they come to Prince Ji’s mansion?

But in the blink of an eye, Wang Xuance came to Li Shen and bowed:

"I see you, Your Majesty."

"Well, no need to be polite, just sit down." Li Shen nodded.

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

After Wang Xuance finished walking, he sat on Li Shen’s right.

"Xuan Ce, the Jin envoy just said that Baekje has been attacking Silla, causing Silla to lack able-bodied men to farm and food to be scarce, and famine has begun.

Have you heard anything about this?"

Li Shen picked up the tea and asked.

“Your Highness, there is indeed such news in the court, but this is a political matter and has no great use to Prince Ji’s Mansion, so I did not report it.

Due to food and grass shortages, the 5,000 Tang Dynasty soldiers stationed in Baekje received military orders to withdraw to Liaodong.

Without the Tang army, Baekje reacted quickly and immediately launched a large-scale invasion of Silla.

And they immediately sent an envoy to our Tang Dynasty, who presented their credentials, offered tribute, and expressed their willingness to be our vassal year after year.

Baekje attacked Silla unexpectedly and caught Silla off guard, defeating it and losing dozens of cities in a row.

As for the famine, I have not heard of it, but I think it is probably true."

"Your Highness Prince Ji, how dare we deceive Your Highness Prince Ji? Everything I say is true and there is no falsehood."

After Wang Xuance finished speaking, Jin Chunqiu immediately spoke.

Li Shen smiled and nodded and said:

“Well, it’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just that I want to understand the current situation.

But just now you said that you wanted me to help Silla.

I'm afraid this will disappoint the Golden Envoy."

“Your Highness Prince Ji, don’t you want to help Silla? Please consider…”

Hearing Li Shen's words, Jin Chunqiu stood up excitedly and wanted to continue begging, but was interrupted by Li Shen's wave of his hand.

"No, no, listen to me. It's not that I don't want to help you, it's that I really can't do anything.

According to what you just said, there are more than a million people in Silla. How could I give you so much food?

Wang Xuance, how much food does a population of over a million need in a year? "

"Your Majesty, based on the situation in Silla, if we just want to ensure that the people have enough food and don't starve to death, we need two million dan of grain.

If we want to feed these one million people every day, we will need at least four million dan of grain."

Wang Xuance calculated and replied.

"Look, Envoy Jin, it's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that I don't have that much food.

The annual output of Prince Ji's Palace should be around 600,000 dan, and even with the taxes paid by the fief, it is less than one million dan.

And our Ji Wang Mansion also has a winery. Envoy Jin should have heard of the wine-making business. Only three or four tenths of a dou of grain is used to make wine.

The unique craftsmanship of my Ji Wang Mansion is even lower, only one-tenth or one-twelfth of it.

The annual grain production of Prince Ji's Mansion is not enough for my Prince Ji's Mansion to brew wine. There is really no surplus."