Fu Tang

Li Congjia held back his anger and didn't make it too obvious, but he couldn't escape Shi Xueting's eyes.

Shi Xueting walked over and asked, "What is it?"

Li Congjia handed the painting directly to Shi Xueting, Shi Xueting opened it, sneered and said, "It seems that Yeluzhi's death didn't make him more vigilant."

Li Congjia said with a sullen face, "Li Congshan..."

In the middle of the talk, he was a little bit speechless, how do you comment?Shameless?Or should Li Congshan choose to commit suicide in that situation?

However, Li Congjia felt that he could not impose his will on Li Congshan. When encountering such a situation, he could choose to die or live. No one has the right to accuse Li Congshan of using any means to survive.

But now being forced to look at erotic pictures of Li Congshan and Ye Luxian is disgusting.

Shi Xueting asked: "Do you need to do it?"

Li Congjia was stunned for a moment: "Do it? You mean... kill Ye Luxian?"

Shi Xueting nodded, Li Congjia stared at him with wide eyes: "Crazy?"

Assassinating the emperor of a country is not like assassinating the powerless prince. Yelu didn't just bear the title of prince, but actually fend for himself in a corner of the palace. No one cares about him at all, but Yeluxian ...How could it be like him?

Shi Xueting said: "But he is threatening you."

Li Congjia originally wanted to say that Shi Xueting's anger was a bit heavy recently, but after hearing Shi Xueting's words, he had to ask, "Threat me?"

He was a little dazed, after all he only felt that Ye Luxian was disgusting him, probably because Li Congjia pushed him so badly that he had to bow his head to Datang, but he didn't want to bow his head so happily, so he thought of a way to disgust him, It also made him unable to speak out.

But when it came to Shi Xueting, how did it become a threat to him?

Shi Xueting shook the painting on his hand and said, "Can you guarantee that he only has one of these things?"

Li Congjia: ...

Li Congjia quickly understood Shi Xueting's meaning, probably...Ye Luxian has many such pictures in his hands, if Li Congjia continues to force him, he will... spread these pictures to the world?

He thought carefully for a long time before slowly saying: "Ye Luxian...shouldn't be so shameless?"

Shi Xueting asked back: "Does he have any face now?"

This sentence is so reasonable that it makes people speechless. Ye Luxian thought he could blackmail Datang, so he stretched out his face, and then was slapped back by Li Congjia, but Li Congjia still felt that it was not enough. After stepping on two feet, basically the surrounding countries know about this confrontation between Datang and Tubo, Ye Luxian still wants face?

The corner of Li Congjia's mouth twitched: "He has no face, does he want to put my face on the ground and step on it?"

Shi Xueting looked at Li Congjia with an unprecedentedly serious expression, even a little cold in his eyes.

Li Congjia was not used to it, so he couldn't help asking: "What's wrong?"

Shi Xueting asked slowly: "Is Li Congshan still alive?"

Li Congjia was a little surprised: "You mean?"

Shi Xueting continued: "Before leaving him alive was out of necessity. After all, you still need fame, but now... what's the use of raising him for nothing? What's the use other than causing you trouble?"

Li Congjia reflexively said: "Waste of food?"

After hearing this, Shi Xueting couldn't help laughing: "You are really... anyway, I don't think Li Congshan needs to live anymore."

Li Congjia said: "But Ye Luxian's threat to me has nothing to do with whether Li Congshan is alive or not. Instead, he is dead now..."

Shi Xueting smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, I will solve this problem."

Li Congjia looked at him suspiciously, and finally said: "You go to this matter..."

In the middle of his speech, he suddenly stopped and said, "Forget it, I'll take care of it."

Shi Xueting thumped in his heart and asked, "What's wrong?"

Li Congjia touched his face and said: "It's nothing, don't think about it, I just feel that these shameful things are left to you, and you are too wronged."

Although Shi Xueting himself is not a particularly kind person, Li Congjia still does not want to turn him into an executioner who can only walk in dark places. Shi Xueting is willing because that is what he wants to do, but he cannot make this Take things for granted.

Shi Xueting held Li Congjia's hand and kissed him, and said, "What's wrong with this? What's more, this is what I proposed to do."

Li Congjia hugged him and kissed him and said, "Okay, Chinese New Year is coming soon, don't talk about these things, let Li Congshan live two more days."

Shi Xueting disagreed: "Isn't it just right to get rid of the old and welcome the new?"

Li Congjia stared instantly: Is there such a saying?

In fact, as long as there are things that he wants to do, there are naturally various excuses. Shi Xueting has never procrastinated, and he wants to do things as soon as possible to avoid long nights and dreams.

Li Congjia seldom refuted Shi Xueting's decision, it was useless anyway, so he let him go.

Sure enough, a few days later, Li Congshan died suddenly. It is said that he died on the bed. Well, there were three men and three women in his bed at the time.

Li Congjia's mouth twitched when he found out, and couldn't help asking Shi Xueting: "Is he like this before, or did you do it?"

Shi Xueting asked back: "Did you see those people around him surprised?"

Li Congjia blinked, he didn't go to see those people at all, okay?Anyway, Li Congshan is dead, these people... probably won't survive, anyway, Li Congshan is also his younger brother.

Seeing his expression, Shi Xueting said helplessly: "You, forget it, I'll find Li Congshan's records for you later."

When Li Congjia saw him like this, he knew that Li Congshan was also playing crazy. In this case, no one would doubt the cause of his death.

Li Congshan's death did not have any impact on the court, and the only person who cared about his death was the Ministry of Rites - the situation had to be recorded, and a site had to be selected for burial.

Li Congjia was also considered kind. After all, he gave Li Congshan the title of county king, which at least made his tomb not so shabby. The only thing that needs to be considered is where to be buried.

Regarding this, Li Congjia said calmly: "Of course it must be attached to the imperial tomb."

After he said this, everyone looked at him. To be honest, the royal family has never concealed the cause of Li Congshan's death, and everyone knows more or less what Li Congshan has experienced before. Are they really unconvinced that he is Li Jing's son?

The Minister of Rites was also a little dumbfounded and asked: "Then...where should I choose?"

Li Congjia said: "Father liked Qilang very much before he was alive, let Qilang accompany him."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and then they were all relieved, well, their majesty is still so clear-headed.

Li Congjia's Wannian auspicious place has been selected and completed. The location is in Qian County, which is also surrounded by mountains. To be honest, Li Congjia feels very safe as a neighbor of a generation of empresses.

It was a land of geomantic omen, so many ministers were holding back their energy and wanted to work hard to be able to accompany the imperial mausoleum, and it would be better to be closer to the emperor. Now the king of Yin County will not occupy a position, so they can not worried.

Yes, Li Congshan's title was designated as the King of Yin, which sounds grandiose and reminiscent of Yin Shang, but in fact...it's Li Congjia's bad taste, and the homonym is just obscenity.

The court did not raise objections whether they understood it or not. Anyway, the death of a marginalized prince has nothing to do with them?With that time, they might as well study the content of the exchange with the Kara Khanate.

I don’t know if it was a good start for Datang and the Kara Khanate to start a mutual market. For the envoys sent by the Angkor Dynasty, which Datang had been guarding against before, they hoped to open a mutual market.

Li Congjia did not immediately agree to this, but discussed first to see if he could agree.

To be honest, if you only look at the surface, you may think that it is profitable to trade with Datang. After all, Datang has enough resources, and as long as you don’t anger Tang Huang, everything is very favorable in the mutual market. At the same time, it is much cheaper to let merchants sell between the two places.

Of course, the most important thing is that the transactions on the mutual market are duty-free, which is equivalent to the duty-free shops of later generations. Of course, there will still be other taxes and fees. However, most of the high prices of these things are usually due to tariffs. Adding on it won't cause the price to rise too much.

But only Li Congjia knew that every time he opened a mutual market, he had his own purpose. He opened a mutual market near the Yinshan grassland because he wanted to fix the tribes wandering in the grassland, so that it would be easier to manage, and economically. By eroding these tribes little by little, these tribes gradually became inseparable from Datang, and at that time they would be considered real Datang people.

The reason for opening a mutual market with the Kara Khanate is because Li Congjia wanted to sell weapons to the Kara Khanate, ease the relationship between the two countries by the way, and then sell weapons to the Shaman Empire.

His fundamental purpose is still to weaken, weaken the mobility of nomads on the grasslands, weaken the Shaman Empire and the Kara Khanate, let them compete with each other for territory, and don't want to hit Datang's head.

But he didn't plan to touch the Angkor Dynasty in the short term, so he didn't think about it at all at first.

Fan Zhi asked, "Does Your Majesty mean to open or not?"

Li Congjia knocked on the handrail and said: "Actually, it can be opened. Now we don't know much about Angkor. We can take this opportunity to exchange information. As far as I know, the climate there is warm and humid, and the products are extremely rich. Open a mutual market." There is no problem, but the types sold on the market need to be strictly scrutinized."

Fan Zhi and the others immediately understood what Li Congjia meant, which meant that weapons should not be sold, and a normal exchange would be fine. Ironware and various high-tech items needed to be inspected, and they could not be sold at random. Food and salt didn't matter. As said, then the Angkor Dynasty did not lack these things at all.

However, no one expected that the Angkor Dynasty also lacked salt!

Li Congjia was almost shocked to death, these places near the sea actually lack salt to eat!Really convinced!

"Let someone go and check, is the Angkor Dynasty really short of salt?"

Li Congjia always felt a little strange. It is understandable if the Khitan did not master the technology of drying salt. After all, they probably didn't know what the sea looked like before.

But the Angkor Dynasty has survived by the sea for nearly a hundred years. How could it not know that sea water can produce salt?

Li Congjia always felt that there might be a conspiracy, but he couldn't imagine what could be done by buying a lot of salt?Is it possible that the Angkor Dynasty still intends to buy out the Datang Salt, causing panic in the Datang Salt?

But for such a thing, anyone with a little brain knows that this road will not work.

Li Congjia, who was involved in the affairs of the Angkor Dynasty, should have focused on the exchange with the Kara Khanate, but now he is only focusing on the exchange with the Angkor Dynasty, fearing that something will go wrong.

However, the people sent out did not find anything at all, and found that the salt was indeed bought by ordinary people in Angkor, and of course there were also merchants who sold it, but it was only a small amount.

Just when Li Congjia was puzzled, Shi Xueting finally brought the news.

"The Angkor dynasty did not lack salt." Shi Xueting handed Li Congjia a document and said, "However, they do need salt from the Tang Dynasty."

Li Congjia put the document on the imperial case and rubbed his temples and said, "I just finished reading the scriptures, and I don't want to read the words, and I have a headache, so just tell me the result."

Shi Xueting walked behind him, and while helping Li Congjia massage the acupuncture points on his head, he said: "The salt in our Tang Dynasty is different from theirs. If you don't bring it up, no one has ever discovered that there is a need to add that to the salt. What? Iodine? The salt of the Angkor Dynasty was not added, and I don’t know where they learned about the benefits of iodized salt, so this time they bought salt in large quantities, mainly for iodized salt.”

After hearing this, Li Congjia asked, "Is there no other purpose?"

Shi Xueting shook his head: "I haven't noticed it at the moment, unless they hide it very deeply."

Li Congjia breathed a sigh of relief. It was just about iodized salt. Li Congjia touched his chin and said, "Iodized salt needs to be limited. If it exceeds the limit, tariffs will be added. Of course, there is no need to add too much. They must be able to bear it, but it still hurts a little bit." kind."

Now that he knew that the other party was in urgent need of such things, how could Li Congjia not seize the opportunity?Who would dislike a lot of money?Li Congjia is not very clear about whether the Angkor dynasty is rich or not, but even if you really have no money, you can barter. It’s not possible. You can follow Khotan’s surrender. If you surrender, you don’t have to restrict iodized salt. Iodized salt is in the Tang Dynasty There is no limit.

Of course, this is an extravagant wish of Li Congjia. If the Angkor Dynasty is good, who would be free to surrender?

Shi Xueting said with a smile: "In this case, I'm afraid Ji Shangshu will be happy again."

The Hubu Shangshu's surname is Ji, so he is called Ji Shangshu. The increase in tariffs means that the court's income has increased, which is indeed good news for the Hubu Shangshu.

Li Congjia said proudly: "So science and technology are the primary productive forces."

Shi Xueting already understood the meaning of this sentence, so he asked: "So you asked the academy to study water vapor?"

"What water vapor, that's steam! And I didn't ask them to study it, they discovered it themselves, I just gave them a direction."

Speaking of this, Li Congguo felt a little excited. He really didn't expect that the students of the academy and those scientific researchers could bring him such a big surprise. They actually discovered the power of steam. Although it was just discovered, as long as If the direction is right, maybe it will produce results?

Just when Shi Xueting was about to continue asking, Tao Fu stood outside and said: "Your Majesty, the Minister of Honglu Temple has something important to report."

Honglu Temple Minister?Generally speaking, if the Minister of Honglu Temple said something important, it must mean that there must be a diplomatic problem, good or bad.

Li Congjia immediately asked him to come in to report. The Minister of Honglu Temple didn't find it strange that Shi Xueting was here. Anyway, everyone knew that His Majesty had great trust in the national teacher, and they all gave up the idea of ​​competing with Shi Xueting, anyway. Impossible, and the way is different.

After saluting, the Minister of Honglu Temple said: "Your Majesty, Khitan has sent a letter of credence, apologizing for the suspension of wool supply, and hoping to resume the trade between the two countries."

Li Congjia said lazily: "Apologize? A verbal apology is enough? They trade if they want to trade? Have you asked us if we are willing?"

Anyway, I have cotton in my hand, and I have set aside a large area of ​​land for planting. Who cares if there is no wool, and for ordinary people, cotton is obviously more affordable. When cotton is fully popularized, it will be Khitan Beg them to buy wool, okay?

After listening to Li Congjia's words, Honglu Temple Minister knew how to reply to the Khitan. At this time, he did not advise Li Congjia to live in peace with the Khitan. Anyway, the two sides have already torn each other, and even if they reconcile now, it is only a superficial matter.

Of course, in fact, all the things between countries are just superficial problems. In fact, it is impossible for the two countries to truly be like brotherly countries, at least it did not exist when Li Congjia was the emperor.

After Honglu Siqing left, Li Congjia turned to look at Shi Xueting: "What did you do to make Ye Luxian bow his head?"

Although Li Congjia just put on an indifferent attitude, he was actually quite surprised. The members of the Yelu family are tough, and it is not easy for them to bow their heads and apologize. Maybe they would rather go to war than bow their heads and apologize.

Especially at this point, Li Congjia has already swollen Ye Luxian's face and stepped on his feet. Maybe even if Ye Luxian is willing to apologize, his courtiers are not willing. signed this letter of credence.

Li Congjia couldn't understand why Ye Luxian did this, so he could only ask Shi Xueting.

He really asked the right person, Shi Xueting smiled slightly and said: "It's nothing, I just threatened him, I didn't expect the effect to be so good."

Li Congjia looked at him suspiciously: "How did you threaten? It's so easy?"

Shi Xueting said: "Assassin, what a simple matter."

Li Congjia didn't continue to ask, because he didn't believe that just an assassin could make Ye Luxian bow his head. In fact, Shi Xueting didn't tell Li Congjia in detail that his so-called assassin was actually not a person at all, but a disease—smallpox.

The smallpox epidemic is still a terrible infectious disease for people today. However, Li Congjia was there in the Tang Dynasty, and Li Congjia directly named the direction-vaccinating people can make people immune to smallpox.

The next step is to develop vaccines. Although Datang's vaccines are still very rough, even if the vaccine is injected, there is a lot of risk.

However, there is no such treatment in Khitan. Shi Xueting directly asked his people to destroy a city with smallpox. This kind of threat is more terrifying than directly sending assassins to assassinate Yeluxian.

In fact, there is nothing to hide about this matter, but Shi Xueting always feels that what he did is hurting the peace of heaven. If the sky has eyes, then he wants to resist this crime alone. If Li Congjia doesn't know, then don't Will there be any retribution?

Li Congjia didn't expect Shi Xueting's methods to be so extreme. The news of smallpox in Khitan's side only made Datang strengthen his vigilance and guard against death, trying not to let the Khitan people contact with the people of Datang, and went The Khitan people had to be quarantined when they came back. For this reason, Li Congjia established a very strict defense system between the two countries.

Ye Luxian was really frightened. He felt that Li Congjia was simply a devil who would do anything to achieve his goal. Otherwise, how could he use such means?

The response from Honglu Temple was within his expectations, and the news that Datang was about to plant cotton was not concealed. In desperation, Yeluxian could only pay Datang according to the breach of contract, and renegotiate the price of wool.

But this time, Li Congjia did not continue to squeeze Khitan. After all, if Ye Luxian was really forced into a corner, Li Congjia would not want to see a real fight.

He can be sure that if Datang fights with Khitan, the Kara Khanate will immediately turn to deal with Datang. Although Li Congjia may not be afraid of a two-front battle, no one would like to be attacked by an enemy.

In the end, it was agreed that the price of wool would be calculated at the original [-]% discount. Ye Luxian was relieved when he found out. Even with the [-]% discount, the herdsmen still made money selling wool. The only thing that made him unhappy was Datang. The demand is low, no longer as much as before, but a specified quantity.

After all, in Datang now, wool products are more inclined to the rich, at least only well-off families can afford to wear them. The problem is that there are not many such well-off families in the entire Datang, so they can't consume so much wool at all.

After Khitan was half settled, when Li Congjia wanted to focus on the struggle between the Kara Khanate and the Shaman Empire, Liu Yi ran up to Li Congjia very excitedly and said, "Your Majesty, we will build the steam engine you mentioned. Already!"