The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 611 Taicang
Hearing Li Yan say this, Wenjun turned her head in surprise, only to see Li Yan shrugged at her, smiled knowingly, his eyes curved like crescent moons, rolled his eyes charmingly, revealing two charming dimples on his cheeks, looking pretty and charming, with a charming and graceful demeanor.

Li Yan was stunned for a moment, wow, this is incredible!
The beauty of the Tang Dynasty is the most beautiful in the world, but I am still dawdling at the age of twelve or thirteen. I don’t know how many beautiful and magnificent scenery I will miss.

No, I have to grow up quickly, grow up quickly.

Henglian opened his eyes wide, opened his mouth in surprise, turned his head to look at the sun that was almost rising above his head outside the palace, and really wanted to ask, Your Highness, aren't you having lunch now? Seeing the master and servant opposite him start to flirt, Henglian didn't bother to pay attention to these two dogs and men, so he responded and hurriedly went to make arrangements.

After waiting for a while, Li Yan walked slowly to the door of the hall accompanied by Liu Renyuan and Sun Renshi. He took a look and immediately glared at Heng Lian in annoyance.

Normally, when the prince went out, he would be accompanied by a horse-drawn carriage. But this time, in order to cure Li Yan's procrastination, Heng Lian directly prepared a horse for Li Yan without even asking for permission.

Heng Lian glanced at Li Yan awkwardly and said, "Your Highness, I will not go to Taicang. I still have to prepare lunch and itinerary for you. The emperor's errand is more important. When you come back and have lunch, you can set off directly."

Li Yan looked up at the sun and saw that it was almost noon. He felt a little embarrassed and said after thinking for a while, "Oh, Henglian, go to the East Market and West Market later and transfer five clerks from the City Office who are familiar with the prices of various commodities in the market."

"Prince, what are the main supplies?"

Heng Lian was speechless. He knew it was a serious matter entrusted by the Emperor. The prince had not made a thorough plan in advance. He just thought of one thing at a time and gave the order right before leaving. It was too unreliable.

"Ok?"

Li Yan was afraid that he had not considered some things, but Heng Lian was mature and prudent, and some things were more comprehensive than he thought, so he simply said: "The Yongtong Canal has been washed away, and the supplies from Luoyang are blocked at the Tongguan Pass, blocking the road for hundreds of miles."

"As a result, the military rations could not be transported to Chang'an. Father asked me to clear the customs. I need to find some officials who are familiar with the market prices of bulk commodities coming from Luoyang. That's why I asked you to transfer some from the two cities to help me classify and identify them. You just said that it was bulk goods coming from the east, and the officials in the two cities would naturally know which ones are more familiar with them."

Zhang Xuansu in the original drama had already thought of a proper solution for this matter, so Li Yan no longer had to worry about it. He could just take it and use it.

Besides, the blockage of Tongguan Road is not a big deal. In the past, no one cared and allowed the vehicles to be blocked. As long as the emperor pays attention to it and the court sends people, we can cut off the source of the problem or impose military control.

After all, as long as there is power and the army, there is nothing that cannot be handled.

You have to know that this was a feudal era where people were divided into different classes and imperial power was supreme, not a democratic society with clear politics. He was not afraid of any influence from public opinion. As a person whose mind was completely liberated and who had returned to the feudal era, he could handle the matter calmly even if he did not have Zhang Xuansu's idea of ​​imposing heavy taxes.

"Okay, I got it. I will make sure that all these people are ready when His Royal Highness the Crown Prince comes back." Heng Lian responded seriously.

"Well, I am assured that you can do the job."

Li Yan comforted Heng Lian, then mounted his horse, took two tutors and twenty to thirty guards from the Neishufu, and headed straight for the south gate.

Taicang in the Tang Dynasty was a general term for all granaries. In the capital area alone, there were several large grain storage areas, including Guangtong Granary, Hanjia Granary, Yongfeng Granary, and Changping Granary. There was a large storage area west of Xuanwu Gate, east of Fanglin Gate, and north of Ye Ting Palace. The food and fodder for the hundreds of thousands of troops from the North and South Yamen guarding the capital were drawn from here.

In addition, about 30 miles north of the city, near the confluence of the Wei River and the Ba River, is the Yongfeng Granary in Xinfeng County. Grain transported by water from the southeast via the Yongtong Canal is directly stored in the granary. Grain and fodder to be transported to the northern border areas are directly extracted from here without having to enter Chang'an City.

In a general sense, Taicang also refers to the Changping Warehouse in the East Market. The grain here is transported from these two warehouses for the people living in Chang'an. Of course, it is mainly used to supply the operation of the imperial palace, and part of the salary of officials will also be directly distributed to avoid competition between officials and civilians for grain.

The daily food rations of hundreds of thousands of people in Chang'an City were mainly supplied through the East and West Markets and the grain warehouses in various small markets. These were usually circulated freely through the operations of merchants traveling from south to north.

Sometimes when the market supply is insufficient, Taicang will release some of its stored grain to the market to adjust supply and demand, stabilize prices, and ensure people's lives.

The Taicang government office was located in the Changping Warehouse near Shengyefang in the East Market. The storage and withdrawal of grain and fodder in other warehouses in Guanzhong had to go through the procedures in the government office. Then, with the issued procedures, they could go to various convenient places to withdraw grain.

The Tang Dynasty had a vast territory. After the autumn harvest every year, grain was stored in the granaries of various prefectures, counties and cities. It would then be slowly transported to the capital during the free time after spring plowing every day. Therefore, whenever tax grain came to the capital, there would be grain transport convoys stretching for dozens of miles.

When military headquarters from all over the border areas came to collect grain, they were escorted by military officers, and sometimes the transportation had to continue day and night. It was impossible for them to all come into the city, which was inconvenient.

When Li Yan's cavalry arrived at Taicang, Hu Cheng, the chief officer of the Ministry of Revenue, and a group of warehouse guards from Taicang Office were already waiting there. Hu Cheng was a short fat man who looked very funny. Li Yan didn't know if the supplies of materials for each warehouse guard were very abundant. Anyway, no matter where they were, there was no thin person guarding the warehouse. They were all fat and bloated.

Seeing Li Yan getting off his horse, Hu Cheng stepped forward and said, "I, Hu Cheng, the chief officer of the Cangbu Division, pay my respects to Your Highness. May Your Highness, the Crown Prince, live a thousand years."

"Get up!"

Li Yan greeted him and walked towards the warehouse, saying, "Hu Cheng, please follow me to Cang Ao to check it out. The rest of you should do your job and don't delay your official duties."

The others left, and Hu Cheng led Li Yan and the two tutors Li Yan brought with him to walk around the warehouse. After looking at several warehouses in a row, Li Yan nodded silently: "Hu Cheng, how much food is left in the warehouse now?"

"My Lord, there are about 40,000 to 50,000 tons of grain stored in several warehouses in the capital."

"Oh, that's how it is!"

At this time, even Liu Renyuan and Sun Renshi who were following behind him were shocked, but Li Yan nodded without changing his expression. Li Yan was not very clear about the concept of 40,000 to 50,000 shi, but it was probably a lot.
Hu Cheng saw that Li Yan did not show any astonishment on his face, but was very surprised. When he saw the two people behind the prince winked at him, his expression changed. Suddenly, some sweat slid down his forehead and he wiped it nervously.

Hu Cheng rolled his eyes, thought for a moment, and explained, "Your Highness, there are five warehouses of different sizes near Chang'an City. The largest one, Yongfeng Warehouse, has 200 warehouses and can store up to 1.5 million dan of grain. Of course, under normal circumstances, it is impossible for all of them to be fully stocked. It is already good enough to be able to store more than half of them."

"The smallest storage capacity of the other warehouses is 500,000 dan. The five warehouses have regular inflows and outflows, and the regular storage capacity is about 1 million dan. At the lowest point, it is no less than 700,000 or 800,000 dan."

"Oh, I see"

Li Yan nodded in a bureaucratic manner, and then his brain reacted. He paused, opened his eyes wide, looked at Hu Cheng, and said angrily: "What?"

"Hu Cheng, you idiot, that means there are only 50,000 dan of grain in the entire Tang Dynasty warehouse. Do you know how dangerous this is? Not to mention the grain shipped to the border, how much grain do the hundreds of thousands of troops in the capital need to eat in a day? How long can these 50,000 dan last?"

"If we run out of food, Chang'an City will be in chaos. Can you afford to take on this responsibility?"

"I"

Hu Cheng was frightened by Li Yan's sudden outburst. With a look of panic on his face, he knelt down all of a sudden and said tremblingly, "Your Highness, please do not blame me."

"I am only the chief officer of Taicang. It rained heavily for several days recently, and the Yongtong Canal was washed away. The grain transport was blocked, and the Tongguan land route was blocked. The grain from the east was blocked in front of the pass, stretching for hundreds of miles, and could not be transported in. However, the grain withdrawals from various places continued, only outflowing but not inflowing. The grain was decreasing like running water, and I have no way to deal with it."

"Your Highness, please think of a solution quickly. If this continues, the capital will run out of food."

Li Yan was stunned, then he remembered, isn't it?

This is exactly what the emperor asked me to do. It's really unreasonable for me to be angry at Hu Cheng.
Thinking of this, Li Yan calmed down, waved his hand, and the two tutors retreated. Then Li Yan's face became very friendly and he helped Hu Cheng up. However, Li Yan didn't know that this kind of leaning forward and backward made Hu Cheng even more frightened.

When His Royal Highness the Crown Prince arrived in Taicang today, he acted as if he didn't know Hu Cheng and treated him in a very businesslike manner, which really made Hu Cheng feel uneasy.

"Hu Cheng!"

Li Yan said gently: "I grew up drinking your mother's milk."

Well.
As soon as this sentence came out, Li Yan was a little stunned. No matter how he listened to this sentence, it always sounded a little weird.

This information was of course obtained from the original drama. In addition, Li Yan looked at Hu Cheng in front of him in surprise. He had an unshaven beard and looked to be in his thirties. Hu Cheng's mother was also in her forties or fifties. Hu Cheng was more than twenty years older than him, with a difference of more than twenty years. Could his mother really still have milk?

Li Chengqian was still young at that time and had no impression of it. Li Yan never asked about these things later. He shook his head and threw away the strong feeling of discomfort.

(End of this chapter)