Zhao Xuan rode into the palace gates with a few guards, the snow on the roads of the palace had already been swept away by the attendants, but because the snow had been falling non-stop, the already cleared passages were covered with a thin layer again. Zhao Xuan rode his horse all the way to the inner palace gate before dismounting and throwing the reins to the guards. On the way to Zhao Xuan kneeling worship of the palace people were endless.
"Nu greets His Highness the Crown Prince!" The maidservant outside King Zhao's chambers saw Zhao Xuan walk in and saluted with a loud voice.
"Is the Great King here?" Zhao Xuan stopped his steps and stopped under the corridor of the palace where the King of Zhao lived. Zhao Xuan knew that his father was inside, and the maid on duty was actually speaking loudly for the people inside the palace, where there was not only the King of Zhao, but also the King's two young and beautiful concubines. Zhao Xuan had never met his father without informing him, and the maid was afraid that Zhao Xuan would see something unpleasant if he went in directly, and if he made the King of Zhao and the Crown Prince feel inconvenienced, the maid would not have any good fruit to eat.
Zhao Xuan waited in the corridor for not a moment, heard inside a burst of hip shivering sound, two young women dressed in gorgeous from the hall step out.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince!" The two women lowered their heads to greet Zhao Xuan, looking a bit fearful.
"Hmm." Zhao Xuan snorted lightly through his nose, not even looking at his father's two concubines, and with a flip of his black brocade robe, he strided into the palace.
The two young women were treated coldly by Zhao Xuan but did not dare to be dissatisfied, and had been half squatting until Zhao Xuan walked in and could not see his back before he dared to stand up.
Zhao Xuan's position as the future heir was unshakeable, although these two young and beautiful women were now very much favored by the King of Zhao, their fate was not in the hands of the King of Zhao, but in the hands of Zhao Xuan, and after the King of Zhao's hundred years of life, Zhao Xuan, if he looked at his own father's favored concubines in an unfavorable way, completed could order them to be martyred for the old king.
"Sister, we just complained about the Crown Prince in front of the Great King, will the Crown Prince realize?" The youngest woman was worried.
"It's not like you and I are the only sisters complaining, there are quite a few ministers of the royal court who have come to the king recently to complain." The older woman said this on her lips, but her heart was also uneasy, she didn't expect that just after she had spilled a few words of pettiness to King Zhao over not being able to buy Wu's daily supplies, Zhao Xuan came, and Zhao Xuan was precisely the culprit who made it impossible for her to buy the supplies of her choice.
"Yes, many noblewomen have many complaints as well." The young woman's eyes scanned the surroundings and she put her mouth close to the older woman's ear and whispered, "It's rumored that your daughter was chastised by the Crown Princess just because your daughter complained to her maids about not being able to buy soap to use."
"That your daughter has just given birth to the Prince's son." The older woman looked stunned.
Your daughter was Zhao Xuan's favorite concubine consort, and she had just given birth to a son for Zhao Xuan in May this year. Even though Zhao Xuan already had his firstborn son who was more than a week old, he still had a fondness for his second son, and King Zhao had rewarded your daughter heavily, and during that period of time, the Crown Princess's face was all gray.
The older woman was envious of your daughter, who followed the most powerful man in Zhao, and who was also very brave. After your daughter got a man in May, the older woman became even more jealous, as she was serving an old man who was nearly sixty years old and would never have an heir in her life. She was resentful of your daughter's good fortune as a concubine, but when she heard that your daughter had been beaten by her mistress, she realized that even though she had a son, she was still a concubine, and her mistress would punish her with no problem at all.
"Xuan'er is here." King Zhao reclined on the soft collapse, half covered with a brocade quilt. Although there was a fireplace in the palace and the temperature wasn't low, however, King Zhao was old and afraid of the cold, and he had a warming copper hand burner wrapped in brocade cloth placed at his knees.
This hand stove is copper on the outside and hollow in the center, which is used to place the burning coal. Both the copper stove and the coal come from Wu, the coal is special anthracite, a small piece of coal lit placed in the copper stove can be used for seven or eight hours, clean and convenient, the king of Zhao is very fond of this kind of heater.
"Father!" Zhao Xuan bowed and saluted his own father.
"Come sit by Lone." Zhao Dynasty beckoned to his son.
"Nuo!" Zhao Xuan patted the snow off his body and sat sideways on top of the soft collapse.
"This winter is abnormal again." King Zhao felt the cold air brought in by his son.
"This year seems to be colder than last year." Zhao Xuan was worried, last year's winter was early, this year was just as early, only this year's temperature was even lower than last year.
"Will the spring harvest be reduced again next year?" The King of Zhao hadn't asked about politics for several years, but not asking didn't mean he didn't know.
"This year the wheat was sown in time before the wind and snow fell, and before the snow fell the wheat had already emerged, and as long as the wheat emerged it was afraid of being covered by snow, and next year's harvest would not be greatly reduced."
Zhao Xuan has been paying attention to Wu's Wen Wei Po last year, that newspaper is mostly about literature, but weather farming and other aspects are covered, Zhao Xuan found that the weather forecasts and farming tips in the newspaper are just as useful to Zhao. Immediately, he asked Zhao's secret agents in Wu to buy fast horses to send the new newspaper back to Zhao as soon as it came out, usually in five days' time, Zhao Xuan would be able to see the new newspaper.
This year, as soon as Zhao Xuan saw Gongsun Pan's weather forecast, he immediately ordered all over the country to rush the autumn harvest, to rush the seeding, to rush before the arrival of the cold front to sow wheat, wheat seedlings are not afraid of the snow frostbite knowledge, it is from the Wen Wei Po's agricultural trivia on the knowledge that the fields can be fertile regardless of the method of cultivation, is also from the newspaper, except that the decree of Zhao Xuan can not be immediately let the people of the State of Zhao to know that the fertile planting of the fields in Zhao this year is not yet the This year, fertilizer cultivation in Zhao's fields is not yet the mainstream, and it is still the rotational plowing method.
Zhao Xuan looked at his son and nodded with satisfaction, last year, Zhao was affected by disasters, relying on Zhao Xuan ordered the construction of water conservancy projects in various parts of the country, the disaster was slowed down a lot, the people of Zhao than the surrounding vassal states are much better off.
"Xuan'er, you mustn't be too repressive to the worldly powers."
"Child understands." Zhao Xuan understood that this was a powerful noble to sue in front of his father, last year there was a disaster, many nobles who had a lot of private fields asked for a reduction in taxes on their fields, Zhao Xuan didn't grant it, the water irrigation on those nobles' private fields was much better than the civilians, and their private fields didn't have as much reduction in yields as the civilians' fields. These powerful nobles are very dissatisfied, sued to the king of Zhao, now the king of Zhao sent word, Zhao Xuan had to rethink, the nobles tax more or less must be reduced a little.
"Let's withdraw the army at the border, as long as we prohibit Wu's luxury goods from entering Zhao, we don't need to block all goods from Wu." The King of Zhao moved the copper furnace up a bit, the special coal in this copper furnace was almost used up, but Zhao Xuan sent heavy troops to station at the border at the mouth of the throat, not allowing merchants from Wu and other vassal states to enter the borders of Zhao to do business, and merchants from Zhao, were only allowed to buy some necessities from Wu to sell back to Zhao.
"Father, if we don't seal off the goods from Wu, the Kingdom of Zhao will be in danger!" Zhao Xuan suddenly gritted his teeth.
"Oh, why is that?" King Zhao was startled and sat up straight.
"My child banned luxury goods from entering Zhao for fear of the outflow of Zhao's wealth, but Wu doesn't peddle luxury goods to Zhao, yet it plunders Zhao's wealth all the same." Zhao Xuan looked around his father's chambers and felt more and more that he had made the right move.
"That powerful?" The King of Zhao frowned tightly, but it's just some small objects that would rob Zhao of all its wealth?
"Father, look at this palace, the vast majority of the supplies come from Wu, not only is this true in father's palace, but it's also true in my child's residence." Zhao Xuan spoke with a heavy heart. "Those important officials of the royal court are also like this, and even the commoners are after Wu goods."
Zhao Xuan couldn't figure out how a Wu country could make so many, so strange and attractive things, from clothes to shoes and socks, from all kinds of snacks and dried goods to all kinds of fruit wine (the fruit wine here is Nambu fruit wine, the fruits planted in the throat opening of the Wu country hadn't yet borne fruits), from rouge to soaps, from paper to oil lamps, all of these things could not be made by the Zhao country, even flints, they were all replaced by so-called matches of the Wu country, the kind of matches were made by taking a small stick and rubbing it against sandpaper, and sparks came out; the crown prince's house had abandoned flint for matches.
"Wu used these to trade away Zhao's gold, silver, and jewels, and last year, the transit tax collected at the Throat Pass border alone amounted to more than three hundred thousand gold, and you can tell from the transit tax how much wealth has flowed out of Zhao!" When the throat entrance border crossing officials complacently reported their achievements to Zhao Xuan, Zhao Xuan was shocked. After sending people to the bustling throat crossing to investigate, he decisively sent heavy troops there to block the entry of Wu's goods.
"Aren't there many merchants who just pass through Zhao, and their goods are sold at the Tien Zi Du? In that case, it is in my Zhao's favor to pass through the pass and pay the tax." The king of Zhao remembered that ministers whose family members were merchants had argued so.
"Hmph! It's a pity that my Zhao subjects love Wu goods too much, and the vast majority of those goods were bought by my subjects." Zhao Xuan's favorite concubine, Ooi Ji, was one of those who held Wu's goods in very high esteem, and after Zhao Xuan ascertained that huge amounts of Zhao's gold and silver were going to Wu, Ooi Ji's hobby infuriated him, and the Crown Princess took the opportunity to seek out and dispose of Ooi Ji.
"Alas, in that case, I will take the lead in not using Wu's goods." The King of Zhao said this and pushed the copper furnace in his hand violently to the ground.
"Father... , it's my child who is unfilial, and I'm tired of my father not being able to enjoy himself." Zhao Xuan gazed at his father moved.
"Crown Prince! Do take our family's society and grain as your priority, the descendants of the Zhao Clan, as it should be!" The King of Zhao's pale hand patted his son lightly.
"My child will live up to my father's high expectations."
While Zhao Xuan talks to his father, Chu Chao Hui and Zheng Yuming discuss their strategy.
"It looks like Zhao and Wu will have to have a war between them to settle the trade dispute." Chu Chaohui had always believed in fist talk.
"It's best if we can't stop the war, we can't swallow Zhao now." Zheng Yuming flipped through the urgent reports sent back by Huo Si Zhong, Wei Qing, and Zeng You. "It seems like Zhao is only blocking the border, with no intention of starting a war, and still allowing merchants from his own country to enter Wu to shop for goods."
"There's a limit to what you can shop for then, isn't there?"
"Not bad!" Zheng Yuming suddenly laughed. "Zhao's Crown Prince is thinking quite beautifully, not allowing Wu to earn money from Zhao, but also wanting to get the necessary goods from Wu, how can there be such a good thing."
Chu Chao Hui rubbed his chin, "You're saying that Zhao buys cheap salt in large quantities from Wu?"
"Yes, the price of salt on the shores of the East China Sea is half as cheap as in other salt-producing countries, and it can be supplied in large quantities; all the salt consumed by the whole country of Zhao is imported from Wu."
"In that case, there's no need to mobilize the army to start a trade war." Chu Chao Hui gave Zheng Yuming a smile full of meaning.
"Exactly, we do not use force with Zhao, only come to a commercial war without smoke!" Zheng Yuming's favorite Chu Chaohui and place is that he doesn't need to say it out loud, the other party understands what he means.
Wars without smoke often play the same role as wars with smoke.