Drive the RV back to Datang

Chapter 100 Chapter 103: Working with Li Shimin
"Ah?" Li Hao was stunned for a moment, then he realized and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty's appreciation is the honor of a humble minister."

Li Shimin said happily: "I want to engrave this poem on a plaque and hang it in the south study, so that all the princes can recite it three times a day, so as to remember the hardships of farming and stop wasting food."

Li Hao's eyebrows twitched: You haven't finished the rice in your own bowl, and you are thinking about educating your son. You are really good. You know, if you hang up my poem, I will offend all the princes at once. They probably will itch their teeth when they see me in the future.

Of course, this is just what Li Hao said in his heart, he dare not say it, otherwise Li Shimin will definitely cut him to death.

Li Shimin recited "Sympathy" again, and was about to turn back to the throne, and asked as he walked, "By the way, Shi Kuang, why did you come to see me at such a late hour?"

Seeing that he was finally willing to talk about business, Li Hao was agitated, and hurriedly said: "His Majesty, this minister is here to give money to His Majesty."

"Oh? Send money?" Li Shimin was just about to sit back on the throne, when he heard the words, he suddenly stopped, turned around and raised his eyebrows to look at Li Hao, his expression seemed to say, "Boy, did you forget to take your medicine when you went out today?"

Seeing his expression, Li Hao was immediately very upset. There was nothing he could do about it, so he could only smile dryly and said, "Your Majesty, this humble minister has brought His Majesty a big deal, with an annual income of one million yuan. Do you want it?"

"Million Guan!" Li Shimin gasped suddenly, and hurried forward to ask, "Are you serious?"

Li Hao said respectfully: "I dare not bully you, this business, today is the first day for me to do it, and I earned more than 6000 yuan in one day."

"Hiss—" Li Shimin gasped again, and looked at him suspiciously, "What kind of business did you do to make so much money? Could it be a robbery?"

"Hehe, Your Majesty is really good at joking." Li Hao laughed dryly and said, "To tell you the truth, it is actually selling things. Your Majesty has seen what my minister sells, which is the glass mirror that my minister gave His Majesty a few days ago. "

Li Shimin was suddenly stunned when he heard the words. He had seen the glass mirror before. He was really shocked when he saw it for the first time. Li Hao gave him several noodles, and he kept the biggest one for himself. .

If you talk about the glass mirror business, Li Shimin thinks it must be very profitable, because it is a rare item, but he did not expect it to be so profitable. After thinking for a while, he looked at Li Hao suspiciously: "Since this glass mirror is so profitable, how can you be willing?" Come share it with me?"

Li Hao smiled awkwardly, and said: "Your Majesty, there is a saying that the people of Chu are innocent, but they are guilty of the jade. This humble minister has little self-knowledge ability. Although he is a little smart, he has no foundation. This business is like a treasure, and this humble minister is like a private person. , it is bound to be jealous, and it will be difficult to last."

Li Shimin nodded repeatedly when he heard the words, and couldn't help but praise: "Although you are young, you are really outstanding in doing things with one step at a time."

"Thank you Your Majesty for your praise." Li Hao smiled and cupped his hands.

Li Shimin suddenly said again: "However! I heard that you have business cooperation with Duke Lu and Duke Zhao. Why don't you find a good uncle of yours to cooperate with, so that you will have more backers."

Li Shimin's words are very dangerous. It sounds a bit like Li Hao is forming a clique. In fact, he is just trying to test Li Hao. Li Hao can naturally hear it, and respectfully replied: "Return to Your Majesty, such a big business, the whole world Apart from His Majesty, no one can control it, besides, the boy only wants to make money, no matter how good the relationship between the uncles and the boy is, there is a clear distinction between them, if there is no money, there is no need to talk about it."

"You bastard." Li Shimin cursed with a smile, turned back and sat down on the throne, spreading his hands, "Tell me, how do you want to cooperate with me? How will you share the profits?"

Li Hao hurriedly said: "Returning to Your Majesty, this minister has already made up his mind. The minister is responsible for making and selling. His Majesty is responsible for sending people to protect the store property of the minister, and dispatching an accountant to manage the accounts. The money earned will be divided [-]-[-]% ,"

"Oh?" Li Shimin raised his eyebrows and said, "It's so easy to earn a million guan a year, and I have taken advantage of it."

Li Hao said: "No, Your Majesty, although Chang'an is big, there are only a few rich people. If this business is confined to a corner of Chang'an, the annual profit will not exceed 70 yuan."

Li Shimin stroked his beard when he heard the words, frowned and asked, "How can I earn a million dollars a year?"

Li Hao suddenly looked solemn and said: "Send a caravan to trade in the Western Regions."

Li Shimin narrowed his eyes when he heard the words, and suddenly frowned. Li Hao's words touched his irritability. This irritability is related to Gaochang. Gaochang is located in the northwest border of the Tang Dynasty (now Xinjiang), just on the Silk Road. The king of Gaochang was greedy and charged high tariffs from passing caravans, which was close to robbery. Many caravans were unbearably harassed. They often went back and forth for business only to earn meager profits. If they were unlucky and encountered bad weather or desert robbers, even Little life will be lost.

Merchants seek profit, no profit, how to do business, so there are caravans avoiding Gaochang, smuggling across the desert, although it is a bit dangerous, but it also saves a huge amount of money to buy the road.

However, nine out of ten of these caravans died in the desert, their corpses were eaten by hungry wolves, and their property was looted. Among them were many caravans from Datang.

When this matter was reported back to Chang'an, Li Shimin didn't pay attention at first, thinking it was the work of desert robbers, but after hearing a lot, he became suspicious. Even if the desert environment is harsh and there are many robbers, it is impossible to never return. Ah, the wise and mighty Tian Khan immediately guessed that it was very likely that Gao Chang was responsible, so he sent people to Xizhou to inquire, but he did not expect that he really guessed it.

After receiving the report from the spies, Li Shimin was very angry and wanted to send troops to attack Gaochang immediately. However, he held back. Why, because Gaochang is too far away, and there are deserts all around, so it is difficult to march. If you send troops to attack, Datang, who had just improved a bit, was about to be stretched again. If there were another natural disaster at this time, Li Shimin would probably suffer from insomnia again.

Gaochang is like a piece of psoriasis, cutting off the Silk Road between the Tang Dynasty and the Western Regions. The current Han and Hu caravans are less than half of what they used to be. Li Shimin is very worried about this.

Li Hao didn't know about Gaochang's affairs. He suddenly saw Li Shimin frowning, and his heart skipped a beat. He wondered if there was any difficulty in this matter. Sure enough, after a while, Li Shimin said leisurely: "The matter of sending a caravan to the Western Regions is not for the time being." Hurry up, let’s do a good job with Chang’an’s business first.”

Li Hao wanted to ask him the reason, but he held back. As a courtier, you should not inquire about the emperor's affairs, and earn less if you earn less, so he could only nod his head and accept the order: "Yes."

When Li Hao came out of Taiji Palace, it was already past the curfew time, Li Shimin specially sent Jinwu Guards to escort him to Taibai Tower to rest.

Early the next morning, Li Hao was woken up by a knock on the door, only to hear Lu Yun shouting outside the door: "Master, someone is coming from the palace."

Li Hao sat up with a grunt. Although he was disturbed, he was not angry at all this time. How could he be angry about making money, so he hurriedly got up, dressed and washed.

After Li Hao finished washing, led by Lu Yun, he rushed to the lobby on the first floor. He saw Xu Lian sitting there drinking tea. Li Hao hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile, "Morning servant Xu."

Xu Lian also got up and cupped his hands: "Morning from Li County."

"Please sit down, please sit down." The two invited each other, and then sat down.

After sitting down, Li Hao didn't have time to drink tea, so he asked: "Mr. Xu, why did His Majesty send you here?"

"Naturally, it's about business." Xu Lian smiled and pointed to the door, and asked, "Thirty Youwuwei will watch the store for you day and night, are you satisfied?"

Li Hao poked his head out and looked outside the door, and he saw thirty armored warriors standing neatly in three rows, so majestic, that the customers were afraid to enter the store.

Li Hao nodded with satisfaction, and said with a smile, "Satisfaction, how can I be dissatisfied with His Majesty's actions?"

"Your Majesty is naturally impeccable." Xu Lian took out a long red sandalwood box from his sleeve with a smile, and pushed it in front of Li Hao's door.

"This is?" Li Hao was a little at a loss.

"open to take a look."

Li Hao opened it according to his words, and it seemed to be a piece of bright yellow cloth. Only royals could use this color, and civilians would be beheaded if they used it.

When Li Hao opened the cloth, he was shocked. It was actually a banner with a golden dragon as the background pattern, and the word "Li" was displayed on the front and back. As for whether this Li is Li Hao's Li or Li Shimin's Li , no one knows, and no one dares to ask.

"Mr. Xu! This..." Li Hao was so shocked that he was a little speechless, and stared at Xu Lian with wide eyes.

Xu Lian smiled and said: "Didn't you want to ask His Majesty to be your backer? Since His Majesty has already nodded, you can't be stingy. This is much more useful than a gold-lettered signboard. With this flag, everyone knows that your shop, Half of it belongs to His Majesty, even without these thirty Youwuwei, no one would dare to move."

Li Hao was so excited that he rubbed his hands together: "Yes, yes, but You Wuwei is still needed, not afraid of ten thousand, just in case."

"Oh, that's really difficult." Xu Lian suddenly showed a look of embarrassment when he heard the words, "Before our family left, His Majesty explained that you can only choose one of the two."

"What the hell?" Li Hao stared blankly, "I've been arguing for a long time...choose one!"

Xu Lian just looked at him and smiled, without saying a word.

Li Hao was unhappy, very unhappy. Li Shimin was also the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty after all. They stood still there, but there seemed to be an awe-inspiring murderous aura coming towards them, and pedestrians on the street walked around them one after another, not daring to come within ten feet of them.

"Hiss——" Li Hao babbled, thinking to himself, "Stopping these things at the entrance of Qibao Zhai will not only scare off people with crooked ideas, but also scare away customers."

As soon as he thought of this, he stopped complaining, went back to the Taibai Tower decisively, and said to Xu Lian: "Xu Neishi, take these thirty right guards back."

"Okay." Xu Lian got up and said, "Our family will go back to report to His Majesty."

"Xu Neishi go slowly, I will see you off soon." Li Hao handed him to the door, and the two sides said goodbye.

Then Li Hao held a bright yellow flag, called Lu Yun, and went to Qibaozhai together.

When the dragon-patterned bright yellow flag was hung on the flagpole in front of the store, it immediately attracted many people to watch. Everyone guessed what was going on. Qibaozhai dared to hang the royal flag. The results of everyone's guesses were very consistent. , this was rewarded by the emperor. As for why the emperor rewarded this thing, it is difficult for common people to guess the reason. It belongs to the emperor.

The news was like a blockbuster, and it spread instantly among the official circles and noble circles. After hearing the news, many officials came to watch it, and then went to the store for a walk, and then bought something by the way. , Take it as flattering Li Shimin.

Li Hao never expected that this banner would have an advertising effect, and he was so happy that his eyes narrowed into two slits.

The business in the store was booming, and suddenly someone shouted from behind: "Master, Butler Du asked me to call you back!"

Li Hao and Lu Yun turned their heads and saw that it was Wang San, the concierge. Li Hao asked in surprise, "What happened at home?"

Wang San scratched his head, and said: "I don't know, I don't know. Steward Du only asked me to tell you that Lu Zhi came to you for something."

"Lu Zhi!" Li Hao was shocked when he heard that, Lu Zhi was his exclusive craftsman, and he had been letting him make crossbows in the underground secret room all the time, so it was no small matter for him to come to him for something.

"Go! Go back!" With a wave of his hand, Li Hao went to the store, led his horse and walked back. After exiting the gate of Chang'an, he rode his horse and galloped all the way. In less than an hour, he arrived home.

(End of this chapter)