Longzang

Chapter 458 World Affairs

"With silk prices rising, will those brocade merchants simply accept it? What if they band together to drive down prices?"

Regarding the Prince of Jin's question, Wei Yuan was naturally confident and said, "Silk is finite, but brocade is infinite. The amount of silk available is the same as the amount of land available; this can be calculated. Ice silk is even less produced."

"But with brocade, as long as you're willing to spend money training artisans, you can get as much as you want. With more brocade comes more brocade merchants, and they certainly won't be of one mind; they'll only try to drive up silk prices. So as long as we have silk, we can raise prices at will, until all brocade merchants are no longer making a profit."

This conclusion was actually drawn by ordinary people in the mundane world, and Wei Yuan thought it made a lot of sense, so he casually tried to sell it to the Prince of Jin. As for whether the Prince of Jin accepted it or not, Wei Yuan didn't care.

Anyway, if there is no Prince of Jin, someone else will make changes. As long as Wei Yuan continues to collect silk, someone will plant more mulberry trees.

While Wei Yuan has already collected a considerable amount of silk, it's still only a drop in the ocean compared to his planned future usage. Therefore, the stockpiling process will be lengthy. Meanwhile, the old Taoist priest Chuhe has already set off for Ningxi County once again. This time, he will seize all the silk reserves of the major brocade merchants in Ningxi. By the time he returns, only the silk farmers in Ningxi County will have any silk left in their possession.

The Prince of Jin closed his eyes slightly to conceal the rapidly flashing divine light.

He thought about it carefully for a moment and realized that what Wei Yuan said would indeed be true. In particular, the Ningxi counties were not under the control of the Prince of Jin, and the royal family occupied less than one-tenth of the total local land area. Just as Wei Yuan said, even if he didn't change the mulberry cultivation, there were plenty of others who would, and banning mulberry cultivation was impossible in the area. The only feasible plan was to change all the farmland under his control in one go before anyone else could react, so that he could get the first bite of the biggest profit.

At this moment, Wei Yuan added, "It's relatively easy to impose taxes on silk now, and it can be established as a precedent. Otherwise, it won't be so easy to impose taxes once the price of silk rises again."

These words hit the nail on the head. If silk prices were to truly soar, would the local powerful clans allow the Prince of Jin to monopolize this lucrative opportunity? In that case, the silk tax would certainly be impossible to implement.

A glint flashed in the Prince of Jin's eyes. He said, "You truly possess great talent! If you can resolve the crisis in the national treasury, I will certainly reward you handsomely. Oh, by the way, what did the Crown Prince say to you at the banquet he hosted tonight?"

"The Crown Prince told me not to do anything, just to focus on heading west."

"What did he promise you?"

Wei Yuan said, "I want the land west of Hanyang Pass, but the Crown Prince has not yet given me an answer."

The King of Jin pondered for a moment, then asked, "My life is nearing its end. What are your thoughts on the future King of Jin?"

"This is a matter for Your Majesty's family, how could it be my concern? My heart is set on external matters, I only wish to fight against the Wu tribe and live a peaceful life. If Your Majesty wants to ask, you should ask Lord Lü Wenbai and Lord Xu Tongshou."

The Prince of Jin closed his eyes slightly, seemingly lost in thought, while Wei Yuan sat calmly, watching the smoke rise gently from the incense burner.

After a long while, the King of Jin opened his eyes and said, "The fate of the Jin Kingdom rests on your shoulders, not on Lü Wenbai and Xu Tongshou. You want the Western Regions, I can grant you that, but it will be done step by step, piece by piece, before my time comes. What else do you want?"

Wei Yuan's heart stirred, and he said, "I want people. Countless refugees die every year in the Great Jin, but my Qingming is short of people, so I would like to ask Your Majesty to allow me to recruit refugees in Ningzhou."

"You have grain, but how many refugees can't you recruit? Here's what I'll do: I'll give you a token. Any caravan carrying this token, regardless of size or what it's transporting, can move freely within the Great Jin territory, and no one may obstruct it."

Wei Yuan immediately expressed his gratitude and then said, "For every refugee brought back by this caravan, I will offer five taels of silver."

King Jin was taken aback, then a smile finally appeared on his face. He shook his head and said, "Wei Yuan, what do you need so many people for? Actually, you have land and food now. Even if you only rely on the internal reproduction of your territory, it will be enough to increase the population several times over in a dozen years."

Wei Yuan said, “Your Majesty knows that Qingming has a secret technique that can enable mortals to gain cultivation in a short period of time. These refugees are just laborers in normal times, but they can be used as soldiers in times of war. I will send them to the battlefield first, and the well-trained elite soldiers can stay behind to wait for the opportunity to fight and decide the fate of the world in one battle.”

The Prince of Jin suddenly realized and laughed, "That makes perfect sense. These people are a burden elsewhere, but they are useful only here. The plaque will be sent to you tomorrow, and I will also announce this matter to all the ministries."

Once the matter was settled, the Prince of Jin's expression gradually became more distant, and he said, "I am going to cultivate myself; you may leave."

Wei Yuan left the side hall, where Zhao Tong waited outside before leading him back to the capital. As they took off, Wei Yuan sensed someone observing him from the shadows, and the gaze seemed somewhat familiar.

Back at the inn, Wei Yuan sat by the window, spread out a map, and silently studied it.

The Prince of Jin suddenly came to see him late at night, and unsurprisingly asked about the matter of choosing an heir. However, Wei Yuan had not expected him to inquire about the empty treasury. Wei Yuan took the opportunity to offer his plan to convert rice paddies to mulberry fields, and also obtained permission to recruit displaced people, which was a great gain.

However, the Prince of Jin made no mention of the new army or the new weapons, which surprised Wei Yuan.

According to Wei Yuan's original plan, once the new army was successfully trained, his importance would decrease, and even if the Prince of Jin did not take action to suppress him, he would at least no longer need to bestow titles and rewards upon him.

However, the Prince of Jin's current behavior is unexpected. Wei Yuan guesses that either there is a problem with the new army, or there are other reasons that force the Prince of Jin to continue to win him over, and even to offer more bargaining chips.

Wei Yuan looked at the map before him and drew three circles on it. The innermost circle represented Qingming's current territory, the middle circle extended to Hanyang Pass, and the largest circle represented Qingming's maximum expansion radius of ten thousand miles. If no unforeseen events occurred in the future, Wei Yuan intended to acquire at least all the territory west of Hanyang Pass. Both the Prince of Jin and the Crown Prince implicitly acknowledged this range. After all, in their view, the Shattered Domain was merely a barbaric wasteland, utterly worthless, and the Witch Domain was far more difficult to reform than the Liao Domain.

Granting Wei Yuan a piece of land that originally did not belong to the Western Jin Dynasty in exchange for his loyalty and support seems like a very worthwhile deal. There are many similar examples in historical records, where a powerful figure was enfeoffed to a remote and uncivilized land, where he had to fight his way up to conquer the territory himself.

Wei Yuan was also pleased with this outcome.

As for Hanyang Pass, it wasn't something Wei Yuan necessarily needed. If the Xu family were to reopen Hanyang Pass in the future and intend to use it as a base to invade Qingming, then Wei Yuan would build another city opposite it, and then set up heavy artillery behind the city to bombard Hanyang Pass. Wei Yuan didn't believe the Xu family could withstand his relentless bombardment.

The future expansion of Qingming into Hanyang Pass is a long way off and need not be considered for now.

Before they knew it, it was noon. Wei Yuan boarded the carriage and headed to Li Weisheng's residence for a banquet.

Li Weisheng was transferred to the capital and is now working in the Ministry of Personnel. His official rank has risen to the fourth grade, which qualifies him to attend the morning court session. However, in the capital, his fourth grade is only considered half-up, half-down, so he was very particular about the time of his banquet for Wei Yuan, which was held at noon.

This was a private banquet hosted by Li Weisheng, with only the two of them present and no other outsiders in attendance.

After a few rounds of drinks, Wei Yuan said, "Lord Li is an old friend, so please speak frankly."

Li Weisheng said, "There are indeed two things, so I'll speak frankly. First, the King of Wei has sent a message that he wants to reconcile with Lord Wei."

Wei Yuan laughed and said, "I get along very well with the King of Wei, how could there be any past grievances?"

Li Weisheng smiled and didn't dwell on the matter. He then said, "The second matter concerns Xu Xi, the prefect of Bianning County. He has been lobbying to be transferred from Bianning County to another post. However, there are no vacancies, and everyone is concerned about Lord Wei's feelings. They don't know if you would be willing to let him be transferred, so the ministry has been keeping this matter under wraps."

"But I'm thinking that if he doesn't leave, Lord Sun Chaoen will find it difficult to move forward, so I wanted to ask Lord Wei for his thoughts."

Wei Yuan said, "It's a good thing for everyone if Lord Sun can take this step forward."

"With Lord Wei's words, I am relieved." Li Weisheng immediately drank three cups to express his gratitude.

"Having discussed the important matters, there is another small matter." Li Weisheng leaned forward slightly and said, "I have heard that Lord Wei has recently been buying up large quantities of mulberry silk, causing the price of silk to soar. He has also been acquiring mulberry and grain fields in several counties in western Ningzhou. I wonder why this is, could you please tell me?"

Wei Yuan smiled slightly and asked, "I'm afraid it's not just Lord Li who wants to know, is it?"

Li Wei'en cupped his hands in greeting and said, "Indeed, there is a certain lord who would like to know more details."

Wei Yuan understood immediately and said, "I have my own uses for collecting silk, and I will only collect more in the future. Soon, I will have bought up all the raw silk in the seven western prefectures of Ningzhou. So if Lord Li has connections and spare money, he might as well go to Shanyang Prefecture to buy some land, preferably grain fields, and then plant mulberry seedlings. But he should be quick. If he is too late, things may change."

Wei Yuan stopped there, and Li Weisheng didn't ask any further questions. With the connections of that important figure, he naturally knew what the unspoken variables were.

After catching up for a while, Li Weisheng suddenly said, "Lord Wei, there is something I still don't understand. In the past, Lord Wei always tried to find ways to take in refugees, which is truly a blessing to all people, and I admire him very much. However, if it is just about helping refugees, there are actually many other ways. Moving them thousands of miles to Qingming is really a waste of manpower and resources. I don't know why Lord Wei is so persistent?"

Wei Yuan chuckled and said, "Everyone has their quirks, and I'm no exception. I just want to keep all the people I've helped under my nose, just like some people like to count their immortal silver every day."

Li Weisheng also laughed heartily, as if he really believed it.

Afterwards, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves immensely, and Li Weisheng escorted Wei Yuan to the gate of the mansion.

As Wei Yuan boarded the carriage, he recalled Li Weisheng's last question. He had given a random answer, and Li Weisheng knew that Wei Yuan didn't want to answer it.

In truth, Wei Yuan initially acted purely on instinct, as Qingming was indeed short of manpower at the time. Li Weisheng was right; to help mortals, one didn't necessarily need to relocate to Qingming; it could be done in other prefectures as well. But Wei Yuan wanted more than just to feed them. Merely feeding mortals was meaningless; they remained valueless.

To enable them to live a meaningful life, many things need to be changed.

After meeting the Crown Prince, Wei Yuan finally understood that the things he wanted to change would never be allowed by powerful families, nobles, or royalty.

The world is like a banquet that has already begun, and the table is already full of people. If you want to add someone, you have to drag someone down with you. Whoever it is, they will fight to the death.

That's why Wei Yuan wanted to set up a separate table. What dishes were served, how they were eaten, and who could sit at the table were all up to Wei Yuan. Once the new table enjoyed the meal, the people at the original table would want to change the menu.

(End of this chapter)