The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

In the eighth year of King Qin, the midsummer season was the peak of trade among various countries, and this year's trade in Xianyang City was busier than in previous years. The merchants entering and leaving the city all had large and small bags on their horses, and the smiles on their faces were extremely bright .

Because of the dry climate and low rainfall this summer, Qin State is located inland and has been more affected than the Eastern Five Kingdoms. The lack of water during the grain filling period has resulted in almost no production of summer grain in Qin State this year.

Under such circumstances, selling grain in Qin State naturally became a seller's market, and the price was easy to negotiate.And wait for them to transport the grain, and then buy Qin cloth when they go back, and they will naturally earn back a huge difference in price.

Anyone with some business sense knows that Qin is full of business opportunities at this time.Some people did not take the usual way. Others brought grain into Xianyang, but they brought indigo.

These businessmen also made a lot of money.

Previously, in order to buy enough grain, the merchants of Qin State naturally let go of the export of Qin Bu. Since Qin Bu was to be exported, it naturally increased Qin State's demand for Polygonum indigo.

Although it is not as profitable as grain, the manufacturing cost of blue indigo is low and the risk is small, which is much more cost-effective for small and medium-sized merchants than smuggling grain.

That's right, the grains that entered Qin State were all smuggled goods.

When they learned that there was a shortage of grain in the Qin State, the kings of the six countries immediately raised their heads and laughed. They wiped their tears and cried to the envoys of the Qin State who came to buy grain, saying that their brothers had no surplus grain. Behind his back, he quietly cheered for the disaster of Qin State.

food?Grain is not for sale, even if it is thrown into the river, it cannot be sold to you!They wished that Qin would starve and die everywhere, so how could they sell grain and grass to Qin at this time?

These kings not only cut off the official procurement channels of Qin State together, they also prohibited domestic businessmen from contacting Qin State businessmen, and offenders were severely punished.Of course, they also know that a complete blockade is impossible, but the harder it is for merchants to export, the more expensive it will be for Qin to buy these grains.

Even if Qin's national strength cannot be weakened because of this, they are also very happy to let Qin lose a few more pieces of meat.

But I don’t know if they are superstitious, they always think that Qin’s food should not be eaten up because of a disaster—for this, Qin said that they stocked up in advance because the big witch calculated that there might be a disaster next year.

Oh well, then I can't give it!Qi Qi, the king of the five countries, waved his hand to express that he could do nothing. On the contrary, the country of Zhao, who had been a deadly enemy before, unexpectedly sold some grain to the country of Qin, which ushered in the attention of the other five countries.

Zhao Guo showed his hands on this, and his old cousin must help some. Besides, they rely on Qi Guo, a large grain producer, to earn a fortune from Qin State and then go to Qi State to buy it back. In fact, it is very cost-effective.

There is no way, Zhao Guo's economic conditions are not very good recently, brothers, forgive me, forgive me.

Forgive the devil!

The five countries have expressed that they don't understand that you are an old cousin who subsidizes each other when the relationship is good, and knocks each other's minds away when the relationship is bad.

Now that all countries are in lockdown, where did the endless caravans in Xianyang City come from?Could it be that King Qin really bought it with a broken tooth and Xue Tun at a huge price?

of course not.

The State of Qin spent more than ten years on overhauling water conservancy projects. If they couldn't even survive a drought, King Zhaoxiang would probably jump out of the grave and beat his grandson violently.

There is no shortage of food in Qin, but Yiren still adopted Lu Buwei's suggestion and opened up a special case of exchanging food for nobles.

The rules for exchanging titles are very simple. As long as the grain is transported to the border, according to the amount of grain delivered to the grain and grass officer, it can be exchanged for the title of a private title, and this kind of private title can also be transferred, which is consistent with the treatment of receiving a title for military service.

Almost from the day when this news was implemented, the gates of the granaries at the border gates of Qin State were almost never closed again, and even in the end, Qin State’s food evolved from supporting the border gates from various places at the beginning to supporting various places at the border gates. .

The grain on the front foot was delivered to the border, and the grain on the back foot was transported from the border to various places by car.

The main reason why the people responded so enthusiastically was that there had been no large-scale wars in Qin State in the past few years. Under this circumstance, many talents from various countries have been absorbed.

There are not a few rich and talented people like Wei Liao's family, but because they don't have military merits and titles, they live a bit of a boring life.These people don't lack money or connections, they just need a venue for them to perform.

In addition, the same is true for merchants. For them, only when they have power can they keep their money. Otherwise, they will be like the merchants of Wei State.And as long as they have titles, they will have a way out in Qin, and then they will be able to settle in Qin. Wouldn't it be nice to have dual citizenship?

"If it weren't for this method, it wouldn't be easy to use..." Yiren couldn't help shaking his head when he looked at the documents sent by the generals from all over the border. In contrast to the past, every time he came to play a book, he asked for food. The papers he received these days It's all about asking him to quickly transport the food away, they can't take it anymore.

This feeling is particularly subtle, if Lu Buwei hadn't told him about this situation in advance at the beginning, Yiren was mentally prepared, I'm afraid he would be tempted to turn his head into a normal act.

The other person sighed softly, turned his eyes, and suddenly looked at Zhao Zheng who was sitting on the sidelines listening, "Prince, do you know why my father said that this method can't be used much?"

The prince of Qin who had been listening quietly raised his eyes when he heard the words. The black-haired young man had deep eyebrows and long eyelashes. His eyes lightly fell on Lu Buwei, and then looked at his father. After worrying that this law will become the norm, domestic merchants will become more powerful?"

The other person smiled, nodded, and said: "This is one point, but it's not the main reason. Zheng'er think about it carefully?"

Zhao Zheng pondered for a moment, this time he thought for a little longer, and then he said with some hesitation: "Father is worried that in the future, the people of Qin will wait to send food in exchange for nobles, and ignore military achievements?"

The stranger laughed, and he glanced at Lu Buwei, his eyes were full of pride.Lu Buwei also smiled and bowed slightly, "Your Highness is wise, I admire you."

Shang Jun took advantage of a hole and blocked everyone's way to climb up, leaving only farming and military achievements.If the people of Qin want to get better treatment, they can only choose one of the two, and military merit is the priority.

This is the foundation of the state of Qin and the basic national policy.

Judging from the current situation, the people are very keen on exchanging grain for nobles. It can also be imagined that if this opening is opened, Qin will reap a lot of capital in a short period of time, but in the long run, such behavior is killing the chicken and picking the eggs.

"All policies are double-edged swords. Behind the huge benefits are likely to be traps." Yiren said to his son patiently, "It's not scary to be calculated by others, but to be calculated by yourself. The former can still see that, The latter are barely visible."

"My son is taught." Zhao Zheng clapped his hands in response.Seeing his serious expression, the stranger knew that his son had listened, so he stopped talking and asked the child to go to riding and archery lessons.

Zhao Zheng obediently withdrew from the hall, leaving space for the adults who were about to say things he couldn't hear.

The stranger who didn't know that he planned to be seen through by the ghost's son turned to Lu Buwei and said, "Lu Qing's plan is very good. I heard that almost all the blue dyed cloth in Xianyang city is sold out?"

"Ninety percent of the sales are sold." Lu Buwei hooked the corner of his mouth, and he exchanged glances with the stranger.Yiren smiled slightly, meaning, "We all have a good son."

"Goodbye, Your Majesty."

...Can you still take it like this?Yiren couldn't help shaking his head and laughing, knowing that his husband was joking with him, he waved his hand, "I'm not being polite to you, this time, Lu An did a really good job."

Lu Buwei cupped his hands when he heard the words, with a serious and humble expression on his face, "It's just my job to seek a position in my job, and I can't deserve a compliment from the king."

"Sir, you are really..." Watertight...

The stranger felt a little helpless for Lu Buwei being so cautious, he shook his head again and again, "Fortunately, An'er is different from Mister."

"An'er was trained by the king, and he is different from his fellow ministers."

The stranger waved his hand, not taking Lu Buwei's humble words to heart. He could see how meticulously his gentleman raised his son, and Lu An's growth was worthy of Lu Buwei's cultivation.

One year after entering Shu, Lu An sent a piece of brocade to Xianyang.Although the pattern of the piece of cloth is simple, the repeated cycles of bold colors and regular patterns make it a very exquisite work.But to King Qin, although brocade is precious, it is not uncommon. What is rare is that Lu An said that this piece of brocade was woven by a novice weaver in only five days.

The reason why brocade is expensive is because its output is small, and the reason for the low output is that the patterns on it need to be interlaced with warp and weft threads, and each pattern requires a little bit of thinking and control by the weaver.Therefore, every piece of brocade is the life experience and hard work of a weaver, and even the same weaver can rarely make two identical works.

However, Lu An said that he could make a novice weaver weave such a high-quality brocade in just five days, even Yiren and Lu Buwei had doubts at that moment.

But it's true.

The secret is that Shu County is now using newly developed looms.Different from the previous looms, this new loom is very large, almost three times the size of ordinary looms, because dozens of heddles are placed at the back end of it.

These healds are threaded with warp threads according to the pattern needs, and the conduction device is set.The weavers who use this kind of loom do not need to know what kind of patterns they want to make, nor do they need to think about how to adjust the color matching. All the patterns have been preset in the healds. The mother only needs mechanical action to drive the healds sequentially to complete a cycle of patterns.

The only trick is to thread in the weft and make no mistakes, a simple job that any careful man can do.

This loom was the prototype made by an old man in Shu County. It was led by Lu An and transformed by many top weavers in Shu County.

Qin Wang specially named it Jacquard Machine, which means that the pattern is self-contained when its movement is lifted and released.

The appearance of this kind of loom greatly reduces the dependence of brocade cloth on skilled labor, allowing brocade cloth to be mass-produced on a large scale.As long as the healds are in place and instructions on how to thread the threads are in place, this loom can produce brocade cloth of the same pattern in different colors without limit.

Now that the secret of indigo dyeing has been almost deciphered, and people in the streets and alleys can afford indigo, King Qin decided without hesitation to give up indigo and promote brocade cloth in the future.

Now that he wants to give up Aizen, he is going to add more firewood to Aizen, "It's time to spread the technology of printing."

That's right, the main reason why Qin cloth still occupies a place in the blue dye has been popular is that the technology of printed cloth has not been leaked.Although some people in various countries had vague ideas and adopted the method of covering a certain piece of fabric to prevent the dye from contacting the indigo to form natural patterns, but because the sealing effect was not perfect, the printed cloth they made was not as good as Qin's pattern. Generally clear, the printing effect is not satisfactory.

Qin's calico still dominates the mainstream market because the substitutes are of poor quality.Therefore, from the day when calico became popular until now, there have been countless people who came to Qin to steal the formula.If it wasn't for the secret of Qin's calico cloth being hidden in the hands of a certain merchant rather than the King of Qin, this recipe would have been leaked long ago.

But thanks to it, Qin's secrecy ability and security technology have been honed.Yiren thought for a while, then smiled and said, "Let's give it to Wei Guo. This time they have put in a lot of effort, so it's just a thank you."

The two smiled at each other.

The State of Wei did make a lot of efforts this time, and the business of the State of Wei was on the verge of collapse in the hands of the late King Wei Anyu.After the death of King An, the businessmen of Wei State immediately took advantage of the unstable handover of the old and new kings to win over the new king, and they made frequent moves under the indulgence of the new King Wei.

The state of Wei had a large amount of cultivated land, and although most of it was awarded to the domestic soldiers, the state tax revenue was low, but the grain output was quite considerable.Merchants from the State of Wei, who had been sluggish for many years, took advantage of the situation and bought a large amount of grain from the folks of the State of Wei. They indeed became the main force of the grain delivery army of the State of Qin.

What will be the result of handing over the printing method to these Wei businessmen who have been suppressed for many years and finally found a chance to rebound... King Qin said, what does it have to do with me?I'm just a poor old king of Qin whose secret recipe was stolen.

Lu Buwei tacitly stated that he would quietly hand over this technology to the merchants of the state of Wei, and would never let the merchants of the state of Wei see anything wrong.

The two monarchs and ministers held hands and looked at each other, feeling that their tacit understanding had reached its peak.

"By the way—" Yiren suddenly said enthusiastically, "An'er hasn't been crowned yet, right? Is there anyone who will definitely praise you?"

Lu Buwei's eyebrows twitched, and he said cautiously: "I have already discussed with Mr. Xun." Seeing that the other person's expression faded, he added, "It's just that the current situation is not looking good."

"Huh?" Yiren was a little disappointed, and immediately showed an expression of interest when he heard the words, "Why? Xun Qing is not willing?"

Lu Buwei smiled wryly and said: "There is a huge talent gap in Shu County. An'er poached a lot of people from the Xianyang Academy in order to teach and educate..."

The students of Xianyang Academy are all students of Xun Qing, and the outstanding ones among them are the candidates who Xun Qing wants to pass on the theory, and Lu An took all these people away, which is poaching his husband's corner, so Xun Qing naturally knew how troublesome he was without mentioning it.

Thinking of his son who has become thicker-skinned in recent days, Lu Buwei couldn't help but think before entering the palace... He seemed to see the officials sent by Shu County enter the city.I don't know if that's someone sent by An'er?

It should be said that there is a tacit understanding between father and son. At this moment, the officials sent by Shu County are standing innocently at the gate of Xianyang Academy.

As expected, he was rejected.

As the only official school in Qin State, Xianyang Academy is the official school headed by Confucianist Xun Qing. It is the most yearning place for young people in Qin State.Many talents came out of this school, and now they all work in the bureaucracy of Qin State.

There were people coming and going here, and he was quite conspicuous standing here wearing the soap robe of a petty official.

However, except for the occasional tourists who came over curiously, the people of Xianyang did not give him a second look, because it is too common recently.The little official himself was also prepared. After being blocked from the door, he unhurriedly took the equipment from Guo Xiama and started to build a stall on the spot.

"Sir, the county of Shu sent people here again..." Eldest brother Mao Heng slowly entered Xun Qing's elegant room, with obvious helplessness on his face, "Do you want to invite me in?"

Xun Qing was going to be furious when he heard the words, "That brat is going to ask for someone again, isn't he? See you there!"

"But..." Mao Heng hesitated, and then said, "I heard that the people who came this time... set up a stall at the door."

stall?What stall?

Xun Qing followed Mao Heng and walked quickly to the gate of the academy. Before he reached the gate of the academy, he saw a bustling crowd at the gate from a distance, and the vast expanse was filled with his disciples. He raised his eyebrows, and immediately felt I had a bad premonition, and when I walked a little further, I heard a familiar voice say loudly:

"We in Shu County have outstanding people, and everyone has the desire to seek knowledge. However, the high mountains and roads are far away and the closed environment is difficult to achieve, but our desire for knowledge has never diminished. We sincerely invite all people of insight to come to Shu County to support education."

"As the saying goes, it is better to sit down and talk about the Tao than to stand up and practice. You have learned something, don't you want to find a place to practice one or two? Shu County will re-divide counties and townships this year, and there will be a large number of grassroots jobs. This is a godsend opportunity."

"Now those who sign up to enter Shu can enjoy three years of living, transportation, board and lodging subsidies, and if they pass the Shu county's selection test, they can take office directly! Don't miss it when you pass by! My classmates."

Xun Qing finally couldn't bear it anymore, he stopped and said, "Lu An!"

Hearing the sound, the little official in soap clothes blinked his big round eyes and looked very clever.Before Xun Qing came to the front, he quickly finished the last sentence: "Welcome everyone to come to the south, to the grassroots, to the place where the Great Qin State needs it most, and let's build our Da Qin together." Meishu County!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he hurried to Xun Qing and bowed in front of Xun Qing, "Student Lu An, I pay my respects to you, sir."