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

Looking at the letter from his younger brother, the young man felt for the first time that his younger brother was particularly unreliable.

If Xia Anran knew that his brother thought that stinky tofu was unreliable, he would definitely jump up and protest to show his brother.

If it weren't for the climate in Zhongshan that is not suitable for stinky tofu, he would have made this a long time ago!

It's not that Xia Anran hasn't tried it before, he also specially lit the kang earlier, but the air in the north is dry and needs to be sprinkled with water all the time to moisturize, even so, there is still no hair growth, which makes the little king depressed.

He especially likes to eat stinky tofu and hairy tofu, but he has no choice but to pin his hopes on his brother.

The key to stinky tofu is the marinade and the flora. If his brother can grow the flora of stinky tofu, then I will send him a courier on a hot day. The tofu will be soaked in the flora and fermented while walking. Wouldn't it be nice to eat it?

But he just took time to think about all this. Now, the caravan going south has arrived in Lunu County with a large number of cattle, sheep and hides.

During the exchange process this time, Xia Anran asked the officials to focus on exchanging livestock and cattle. Sheep only need to be exchanged in a moderate amount, which is enough to eat.

Although it is said that wool can also keep warm, according to his observations, the sheep that are exchanged now are goats that are easy to feed and eat. on the feathers.

The last batch of harvested kiwifruit was also included in the materials shipped from Zhongshan to the north this time. The hard kiwifruit fruits picked in early autumn are almost edible now, but the quantity is not too much, and a few were not hidden. The petty official took it as a favor.

The first time the Huns saw this fruit, they were skeptical of life. The northern men could not accept this kind of weird hairy creature, but after they really ate it, they all praised its taste sour and sweet, and immediately picked it up. None without hesitation.

Because buyers and sellers can't contact each other directly, the exchange of information is not smooth. Fortunately, they are the team sent by the county after all, and the county should naturally give some convenience, plus kiwis open the way...

As a result, in this exchange, Zhongshan Kingdom returned nearly a thousand strong cattle.

a thousand heads...

When Xia Anran heard this number, she was stunned.

This amount is not a big deal in modern cattle farms, but it is terrible in the Western Han Dynasty where the breeding conditions are mainly free-range.

Especially now that it is autumn, the north can already clearly feel the cold air from the northwest, and it is basically too late to plant pastures now, such a huge number of Zhongshan Kingdom is really difficult to support for a while, especially in exchange for the Xiongnu. Most of the cattle are the embarrassing period between the young cattle and the mature cattle.

At this time, a cow can still be considered a calf, still growing, eating a lot but unable to do heavy work, which can be said to be a very uneconomical age.

However, considering that the task of the cattle herd in Zhongshan Kingdom is not too heavy, the small official accepted this seemingly uneconomical business.

Xia Anran asked people to focus on exchanging cattle. On the one hand, it was to fill the vacancy of farming cattle in Zhongshan, and on the other hand, he also wanted to attract the blood of grassland bullocks. However, he originally thought that exchanging two or three hundred cattle was the limit. It was beyond his expectations.

After hearing about the amount of pasture they would consume every day while walking and eating weeds along the way, Xia Anran gasped in distress. After thinking about settling down... no, I have to find a friend to share the burden.

As soon as he got the news, he contacted the neighbors with better relations, and asked the neighbors in an almost courteous manner if they lacked bullocks to plow the fields?Do the heifers in your territory want a strong husband?For the health of the calves in the future, do you want to exchange some bullocks and go back?

What?You have a lot of bulls, so why don't you go back with some heifers?There are also enthusiastic heifers from the prairie!

The neighbors couldn't help but hesitate when they heard that there was a cow exchange.

Generally speaking, most of the cows only give birth to one calf, and the farmers will keep the female calf after the calf is born.Apart from being used as breeding cattle, male calves are basically not kept, and were replaced early.

After all, bulls have a stubborn temper and are difficult to pull. Before the invention of bull nose rings, bulls were the ancestors.

And after all the cattle in Zhongshan Country were put on nose rings last year, the strong and "docile" bulls suddenly became the upstarts of various families. They also bought calves, and the price of bulls was much lower than that of cows. The male calf has become an upstart.

The wave of buying cattle by the citizens of Zhongshan country last year itself affected the normal cattle buying trade in the surrounding counties and towns. Between the entry and exit, there is indeed a shortage of livestock in the surrounding counties and towns.

But if it can be managed in one place, no one will say at this time: We happen to be short of cattle, so that people can raise prices. Everyone ambiguously expresses that we can come to help. Look at the price~

The little official of Zhongshan Kingdom was also unambiguous, he silently compared a number, and seeing that the other party was confused, he immediately said that Zhongshan Kingdom can put the nose ring on the cow first, and when it is delivered to you, it will be a good cow.

Seeing that the other party was still hesitant, the clerk immediately gave a dry cough, calculated the living expenses of a calf from childhood to adulthood, and proudly said that our cattle are all mature cattle, the kind that can be used when bought.

What?If you want to raise a winter for nothing, hey, you are dead-brained, aren't you?

It is true that the fields are closed in winter, but if you put a cart on the cattle, can you sell those things in your village to our Zhongshan country?We are still collecting a lot of things.If you run a few more trips this winter, won't the cost come down?

Make sure you don't lose money!

Before leaving, the clerk who had received professional training from King Zhongshan was eloquent. He talked about "cost and profit" to "shopping malls are like battlefields", and then said, "If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." He said "you must run ahead of the market" and so on, and the other party was dizzy when he said it directly. Under the advocacy of "it's just such a small amount of money, you can't buy it at a loss and you can't be fooled" and signed a contract with Zhongshan State. made a trade transaction.

The little official who took the contract stuffed the document into his pocket, slid out and walked out, walking nimbly and coquettishly. By the time the neighbors realized that they didn't really need so many cattle, the other party had already ridden them. Run away with a fast horse!

Was, cheated!

The neighbors clenched their fists, saying that distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors?Is this the nearest neighbor method?Won't your conscience ache?

If the little official who has already opened the file to study who to look for next heard this sentence, he would definitely retort: ​​I have never heard this sentence, our King only said "brothers, settle accounts clearly"! ?

Fortunately, he didn't hear it, otherwise the unconnected family boat between Zhongshan and the neighbors would surely capsize.

Even though the little official lobbied hard and even traveled thousands of miles to Hejian Country to sell goods, he couldn't alleviate the pressure on the livestock in Zhongshan Country in a short time. Fortunately, Xia Anran also built a cattle farm himself. Naturally, they hoarded grass and made green storage, so Zhongshan Kingdom would not be under too much pressure in a short period of time.

In addition, the tofu manufacturing industry that is now consumed in large quantities in Zhongshan has also brought a large amount of bean dregs.These bean dregs are a very high-quality protein feed after a little processing. Although people can't accept this taste at all, it is a delicious delicacy with excellent palatability for herbivores.

It took only a month for Little King to open a small shop to sell tofu. Because of the huge demand, he had to switch from a shop that integrates production and sales to a shop that is only used for sales. The workshop for making tofu only Can find another place.

This delicious, convenient, cheap and filling food has become the welfare of the residents of Lunu County together with the ground chicken from the chicken farm.And when the caravans going south from Dai County pass through Zhongshan, they will undoubtedly be attracted by the long line of tofu shops, but their time is precious, and they can't afford to delay, so they can only regret to miss it.

Then they were pleasantly surprised to find that the road station in Zhongshan country also served this kind of food, and they could take away the storable dried tofu and bean coat after eating.

Although the price is a little higher than that sold by direct sellers in the city, the items are placed in small boxes woven from reeds, which look extremely delicate, and one can tell that this is a souvenir for tourists.

Naturally, no one raised objections to the little king's behavior of selling goods at the post station.

In this regard, the little king is plausible.

The operation of the Han Dynasty Post Station is all supported by the state's finances, and it basically loses money.

The small income of the post station is the cost of resting, lodging and drinking horses when the caravan stays on the road. Therefore, the annual income is very little.And any industry cannot be completely state-owned, because that would put too much pressure on the country, and we must work hard to find a way to be self-financed and release the pressure from the country.

So is there any problem for me to open a direct store here?It can also boost the income of our local post station.Xia Anran puffed out her small chest, confident and confident.His younger brother seemed to understand, but he still stretched out his paws to encourage his elder brother.

In fact, because the villages in Zhongshan are densely distributed, and the avenue is flat, the surrounding area is also flat, and there are many villagers selling food around the avenue, so the business of the post station is even worse.

But this kind of behavior is the same as the small advertisements on the highway, which harms others and itself.

Most of the vehicles walking on the avenue are high-speed vehicles, and the livestock do not have a brake function. In an emergency, there are still a few who can run over with their eyes closed. If there is an accident, most of them will suffer losses in the end.It's even harder to stop after it snows.

Therefore, recently, the villages along the road have received news that it is strictly forbidden to sell goods around the avenue, and if they must sell, they are absolutely not allowed on the avenue.

Of course, as a benefit, where the villages are relatively dense and the terrain allows, the little king extended a small flat area on the side of the road to allow carriages to stop. Short-term stops in the safety zone without affecting the normal straight-going convoy.

In the safe zone, nearby villagers are allowed to set up stalls on the side and exchange goods with caravans in small batches, and they are tax-free-this kind of treatment is only for the residents of the village.This kind of setting will first be tested in the section from Lunu County to Xinshi County in the southern section of Lunu County. If the effect is satisfactory, it will be extended to national roads at that time.

At the same time, as the last entrance to leave Zhongshan country along the road, the post station under the jurisdiction of Xinshi county is responsible for making up the final cut... Ah no, it is the responsibility of providing services for the merchants who are about to leave Zhongshan country and have not yet purchased special products.

The little king directly borrowed the live signboard of the post station, and built a small commercial area around the post station. The shops inside are almost all the current specialties of Zhongshan, including but not limited to: candles, paper umbrellas, white background color Glazed pottery, bean products, kiwi fruit, refined rice, etc.

Of course, meals are also indispensable.

Whether it's a food shop where you want to have a big meal together or a fast food stall that barely fills your stomach, there are also dry grain rice noodles for businessmen to buy before they leave. There are even soft and delicious rice cakes here.

Although the price is much higher than that of noodle cakes and millet cakes, many businessmen who are looking for freshness are willing to try these cakes with a bit of wine aroma.

The trial operation took only two months, and such a "highway rest station" has already created a fortune. Merchants are willing to stay here, and it also drives the consumption income of the post station. Several domestic enterprises in Zhongshan The post station is very stained.

All merchants have sharp eyesight.Soon, Little King received applications from many time-honored brands in the city to open a small store there. The second phase of the project will start when the winter is slack, and a similar one will be set up in Beiping County, the entrance of Zhongshan Country. In the shopping area, it is guaranteed that none of the caravans going south or north can escape.

Because the promotion of tofu was smoother than expected, a large amount of bean dregs were stored in the tofu workshop. Now these bean dregs are reprocessed and mixed with bran and crushed rice stalks, etc., and they are used as concentrated feed for feeding The cows who have just arrived in a new place are still full of anxiety.

Last year, the amount of soybeans planted in Zhongshan was just about to complete the mandatory task. Now the tofu industry in Zhongshan is mainly supported by imported soybeans.

However, many smart people have already realized the broad prospects of Shu from the current market conditions, and picked up hoes again when the land was still soft and could be cultivated.

Of course they would not use the paddy fields that were resting, but it would not be a big problem to open up a wasteland to plant some shrubs casually. It happened that the planting time of shrubs and wheat was staggered, and they would not affect each other.

The news from below was quickly reported to the counties and townships, and after layers of reports, it reached Xia Anran's case.

In the end, it was read from the mouth of the little prince Liu Zhi.

Liu Zhi’s learning progress has been rapid since he started to recognize characters. After Xia Anran put together a few children’s enlightenment reading materials, Liu Zhi’s savings level of commonly used Chinese characters has basically enabled him to understand ordinary documents. .

In order to improve the children's vocabulary, Xia Anran simply took Xiao Douding to work as a child laborer, calling it "training younger brother".

Liu Zhi had no objection to this, he obediently finished reading the report passed down from below, and then listened to his elder brother's instructions, either to pass the document to his elder brother, or to pile it aside for retention, and moved the document very quickly Divided into two piles.

The little king took a rough look at what he could handle. After he wrote down the instructions, he sent them to the prime minister for review. As for those that needed to be discussed in a meeting, he left comments and asked the historian to arrange a time to notify people of the meeting. It only takes half a day to handle a country's affairs completely.

This is not because of his outstanding ability, but because the prime minister's place is the busiest meeting point of the affairs of the whole country. Most of the government affairs sent to Xia Anran are new policies he invented, or documents that have been filtered by the prime minister. .He knew the cause and effect, and had a plan in mind, so he was naturally relatively relaxed.

"Brother, why are you suddenly willing to farm again?" Seeing that the handling of his brother's case had come to an end, Liu Zhi asked in bewilderment, "Before, when my brother promoted the continuous planting of sun and wheat, it didn't mean that farmers would not agree to it. planting, or are the white-haired seeds borrowing farm tools for nothing so that some people are willing to try planting?"

When Liu Zhi and Xia Anran pretended to be shop assistants selling paper umbrellas, they once met a farmer who planted beans because of the temptation of this great welfare.At that time, Liu Xiaozhu was still very angry at the unwillingness of these Zhongshan citizens to grow the products promoted by his elder brother.

Unexpectedly, after only half a year, these people would spontaneously want to plant. My brother obviously didn't give an order, these people are so strange.

"This is the guidance of the market." Xia Anran put down the ink pen, opened his hand towards his younger brother, and hugged the warm little Douding on his lap, then he took out a piece of blank paper and wrote two words on it --"market"

This little Douding knows that the market is a place dedicated to exchanging goods, but it seems that the market his brother refers to is not the only one.

Xia Anran asked others to fetch another board, which recorded the average daily transaction prices of wheat, rice, and bean in Zhongshan Kingdom, and these data were all ready-made.

After this year's autumn harvest, it is the first time to use the liquidation, and with the cooperation of the monitoring department under the Shaofu, the data in this form is extremely clear.

Liu Yi opened his mouth wide and watched the three lines intersect and run through them, up and down. After looking at them with his small head tilted for a long time, he said honestly, "I don't understand."

"It doesn't matter," the little king smiled and took a bamboo stick as a pointer, and said warmly with his arms around his younger brother, "Brother, I will teach you how to look at this."

The younger brother wanted to know, and the older brother taught him earnestly. Neither of the two brothers felt that there was something wrong, but it seemed to others that it was not the case.

"King Jiaodong is only six years old..." Zhidu said in disbelief to Qu Yi who came to drink at the mansion, "His Highness asked King Jiaodong to watch him handle government affairs."

Qu Yi smiled and poured himself a cup, "The two princes are brothers and sisters, so what's the problem?"

Where is brother and friend Christine!Zhidu smiled wryly, looking at the confused Taifu who pretended to be understanding, "Have you ever seen such a brother?"

Obviously he is still a child, the elder brother who raised his younger brother like a son, and the younger brother who started thinking about how to make money to help his elder brother fulfill his wish to have a hundred children when he was only four years old.

"Children." Qu Yi said with a smile, "Besides, what's wrong with helping each other?"

It's not good, it's not good, if it's really helping each other, if it's not... the intimacy now will become a problem in the future.

Zhi Du sighed, but he couldn't say these words.

Among the two thousand stone officials in Zhongshan Kingdom, the one he couldn't see through the most was Grand Fu Quyi.

Zhidu himself used to be the two thousand stones of the locality, and it is equal to the transfer from the locality to the county.Before Cheng Bushi arrived, he was also a local defender. During the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, he guarded the avenue of the rebel army's attack. It can be said that the two of them are well-known for their trip. Finding an inexperienced person can't grasp the current situation, but this Mr. Qu is very suspicious.

This person had no name or surname before, nor was he well-known, but the emperor named such a scholar as the Ninth Prince Taifu, and there was no objection in the court.

The status of Tai Tuo determines the starting point of the prince's future. If he can choose a great Confucian, for the prince, a layer of beauty will be paved on the road in the future. His status is even more important than the prime minister.

To put it bluntly, the prime minister is the king's housekeeper, and the Tai Tuo is the enlightenment of the king's thinking.

Therefore, he did not understand why His Majesty would send this little-known Taifu to teach the Ninth Prince.Until now, after he taught the two princes for a year, the changes of the two young princes gave him the answer.

Although it proved the talent of the Taifu, he didn't quite understand what the Taifu wanted to do.

The Ninth Prince trusted him enough, so he absolutely believed that the Ninth Prince brought the Tenth Prince with him to deal with politics after the Taifu nodded. This move was too sensitive, and it was tantamount to putting everything in Zhongshan in front of the Little Prince.

It is hard to say when the tenth prince will return to the capital. It is very likely that he will not come back when he enters the court this spring. How can he know if the tenth prince will tell the emperor about the Zhongshan Kingdom?

Although King Zhongshan’s various actions were not illegal, nor did he have any shady intentions, but they were not blameless—opening shops as a vassal king and competing for profits with the people could not be escaped; It's not illegal, but it's also wrong.Whether these matters will be blamed depends on the attitude of the emperor and the court.

Zhidu was in the middle of the game, with important affairs of the Zhongshan country in his hands, so he naturally knew that the little king had plans in mind.He vaguely knew that the little king had a goal that he wanted to accomplish, and he was quite curious about this goal, and he also had expectations, so he let go of many things.

But these things are fine in the country, if it is put on the table of the emperor, the situation will be different. The chaos of foreign countries is a big event in the heart of the emperor, and he paid a huge price for cutting the vassal. It is absolutely impossible to let all this come back again.

Therefore, after the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion was put down, the emperor quickly sent his son to occupy the position of his uncle and king with a different surname. The situation seemed to be stable, but this stability had a time limit.

As the emperor gets old and his son grows up, this sense of security will gradually dissipate, and those who are interested will use this to constantly provoke the relationship between father and son, and the more capable the prince will be, the more afraid the emperor will be.

And it is not only the emperor who will be vigilant against the princes, the same is true among brothers, and His Majesty's younger brother King Liang will also be.The nine and twelve princes are the closest in age. If they intend to seize the throne, it is not a problem for the ninth prince to pull the tenth prince into his side... But, the premise is that the ninth prince does not have a brother from the same mother.

"Prime Minister thinks too far..." Seeing him lost his mind for a long time, Qu Yi drank the wine in his glass and poured another one for himself, obviously very satisfied with the quality of the wine in Zhidu's mansion.He had already had a few drinks alone while Zhidu was thinking, and his eyes looked a little hazy when he looked at the chief seat, but his words made Zhidu very sober, "The vicissitudes of the sea can be a pillar, Wan Shan There must be a main peak if it is majestic."

As soon as he said these words, his color changed suddenly, his whole body was full of murderous aura, and his hand subconsciously touched the side sword, which was of course empty.Zhidu was awakened by this result, he took a breath to force himself to suppress the evil thoughts in his heart, and at the same time tried to maintain his composure, "You actually want to support Your Highness to compete!"

"Chasing the stag?"

Unexpectedly, Qu Yi gave him a strange look on his face, and he could see a little contempt in the eyes of this colleague, he shook his head, "The prime minister said that, but I don't understand His Highness." He smacked his lips, no The meaning of continuing to speak was to shake his empty wine jug at this man, and to indicate with his eyes that he was not attentive to guests.

Zhidu was about to be laughed at by him, but he still called the waiter, poured another pot for Qu Yi, and when he got down, Zhidu snorted and asked, "I'm so stupid, I don't know if the master can say clearly ?”

Qu Yi looked at the unrelenting Prime Minister of Zhongshan, and saw that he was not ready to let people go without getting the answer, so he put down the jug and sighed, "One night I watched the sky, and I saw two stars shining in the sky... "

"Although Zhi is not familiar with yin and yang, he also knows that there is no such phenomenon." Zhidu interrupted indifferently.

Qu Yi was choked by his colleagues, he didn't go to discuss this issue with Zhidu, instead he sat upright and said in awe: "Your Majesty will be prosperous for a long time, Prime Minister Zhi thinks too far, it's not as good as that."

Zhidu: ...?