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

Chapter 624: Court Battle (Part )

The imperial official saw this scene, his expression remained unchanged, and he continued, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince not only imposed heavy taxes on merchants traveling through Tongguan, but also directly detained some grain caravans. Even if they paid taxes, they were all confiscated. This is plundering by trickery, and many grain merchants are clamoring to write to Your Majesty to protest against the Crown Prince's unreasonable brutality."

"Oh, Prince, you heard about this matter. How do you explain it?" Li Shimin, who had just been obviously biased towards Li Yan, now looked fair.

"Reporting to the Emperor, Father."

Li Yan sighed inwardly. At this point, it was useless to regret. He could only hold on.

Is Cen Wenben really so cunning?
But you will attack the enemy and rescue him, and this prince will take advantage of the situation to make things bigger, and my own crisis will naturally be resolved.

So he said calmly: "Father, after this crisis, I found that food is not only related to the safety of the soldiers on the border, but also to the survival of hundreds of thousands of people in Chang'an. It can be said that food is the most fundamental lifeline of the Tang Dynasty."

"This kind of material is a strategic resource for stabilizing the situation at this time. We must not let it follow the market like other commodities and allow grain merchants to raise prices at will. Otherwise, the people will not be able to afford food, and the foundation of our Tang Dynasty will be lost."

"Therefore, I suggest that the right to operate grain be nationalized and merchants be prohibited from operating privately and causing chaos in the market. I believe that only by controlling grain in the hands of the court can we stabilize the country and make the country more stable."

Li Shimin did not take it seriously at first, but after hearing the latter part, his face became solemn and he seemed moved.

"What."

The court was in an uproar. Many ministers' shops were engaged in grain business, which was a necessity of life like salt. It was a risk-free business. The most important things to do this business were financial resources and background.

Therefore, all the major families regarded this business as the fundamental guarantee of the family business. Upon hearing this, the prince suggested that the grain management rights should be nationalized. This was something that even the emperor could not do as it involved the interests of countless wealthy and powerful people.

Seeing this, how could everyone not know that Li Yan is making trouble? Okay, you guys just watch the fun, then I will drag you all into this, and see if you can still sit back and watch?
As expected, some important officials who had been staying out of the matter could no longer sit still and began to speak up, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely unacceptable. Food is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, so the old system cannot be easily changed like salt, iron and copper utensils."

Smart people have already started to come to the rescue: "Your Majesty, I think the people in the Imperial Household Department are just making trouble out of nothing. Now that the grain transport has been cut off, the price of grain has skyrocketed, the people can't afford to eat, and the soldiers at the border are not protected. What's wrong with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince temporarily centralizing the management of grain?"

"that is."

Some generals also said angrily: "If the soldiers are hungry and Jie Li kills them in Chang'an, the country will be in chaos and the people will suffer. What will those merchants do?"

"Isn't it just some food that was confiscated?"

"The grain merchants are going too far. Grain prices have skyrocketed, making it difficult for everyone to eat. Their behavior is, at best, hoarding and seeking huge profits. At worst, it's taking advantage of the country's misfortune and making money. It's simply despicable."

"I think we must give them a severe beating."

"You are meddling in other people's business when there are so many unscrupulous businessmen."

"."

The crowd began to attack the official from the Imperial Household Department, almost drowning him.

Li Yan smiled slightly when he saw this. These people were afraid that the emperor would go along with it, so they started to discuss their proposal. On the one hand, they also had other intentions. They were using such a tough attitude to hint to the emperor that it was impossible for the royal family to monopolize the benefits of the grain business.
Sure enough, when Li Shimin saw the chaos in the court, he was immediately overwhelmed.

After a while, when everyone's voices had quieted down, Li Shimin patted the imperial desk and said decisively: "I think what the Crown Prince said about taking over the management of grain is inappropriate, and I will not accept it."

"Your Majesty is wise."

All the ministers bowed and returned to their seats with satisfaction.

"Father, you are wise. I have not considered it carefully. I withdraw my suggestion!"

Li Yan saw that he had suppressed the other party and said, "Father, in fact, this official of the Imperial Household has misunderstood. The grain shipped to the capital was not confiscated. It was to prevent some unscrupulous merchants from taking advantage of the interruption of grain transport to hoard and manipulate prices."

"That's why they are temporarily withholding it. After paying taxes and fines, they can get their grain back. The court promises not to take advantage of them and return all of it to them. When the grain was seized, the checkpoints gave them a certificate of seized supplies, which has the signatures of the merchants, so there will be no mistakes in the quantity."

At this time, another official stepped forward and asked, "Why can't some merchants get their grain back even though they have paid taxes and fines?"

Suddenly, many officials stared at Li Yan again, because they also had their grain confiscated to varying degrees. Just now, they had only temporarily put aside their resentment and settled the dispute because of the issue of grain management rights. Now, after calming down, they heard Li Yan say that they could take back every grain of grain, and began to fight for their interests again.

Seeing that Li Shimin was also staring at him curiously, Li Yan explained, "Everyone knows that it is the rainy season now, and there is a lot of rain. Grain is a precious commodity and cannot stand rain or moisture. If the grain gets soaked and becomes moldy during the detention period, who will bear the loss?"

"We can't let the merchants bear the burden, but the court doesn't want to waste grain for nothing. After all, grain is so precious nowadays!"

"So, in the name of managing the circulation of money and grain from the capital to the border, I asked Hu Cheng to open the Taicang warehouse and temporarily store the grain to ensure that the grain would not deteriorate during the detention period. For this, I also took a lot of responsibility?" "Oh, I see."

All the officials nodded and said, "If that's the case, it makes sense. Your Highness the Crown Prince is very thoughtful and it saves us the trouble of transportation."

Some people subconsciously said what was in their hearts, but at this time, everyone was relieved. The food was still theirs, so it didn't matter.

So they all began to praise him: "Your Highness the Crown Prince is wholeheartedly devoted to the people, he is indeed a benevolent and righteous king!"

"I've said it before, Your Highness the Crown Prince represents the court, how could he possibly be interested in those petty gains and ruin the reputation of the Emperor and the court?"

"It seems that we have been worrying too much. Please forgive me, Your Highness."

Everyone smiled at him kindly, and Li Yan also declined generously: "We are all working for the emperor. It was the officials below who did not explain clearly, so there were some misunderstandings. It's fine as long as they are resolved. The ministers don't have to worry too much."

Seeing that the court had once again turned into a vegetable market and was in such harmony, Cen Wenben felt secretly resentful and looked at Li Yan deeply. This person was really difficult to deal with.
He racked his brains and finally came up with the idea of ​​using the opponent's force to his advantage, luring Changsun Wuji into the game, turning the situation around and setting a trap for the opponent. Unexpectedly, he was able to escape it after being manipulated by him.

Li Yan bowed his hands and said loudly: "My fellow ministers, we are still in the court. When we go down, you can inform the merchants that they can go to Taicang to collect the grain. However, occupying Taicang for such a long time will cost some fees, but it is not much, so don't worry."

"Of course. The prince borrowed the granary from the court to temporarily store the grain for the merchants, so they should pay the storage fee for the warehouse."

"Yeah yeah"

"As long as we can get our food back, everyone is willing to do it"

"."

Everyone immediately rushed to speak up and said cheerfully.

When Li Shimin heard this, his face, which was full of smiles just now, suddenly turned stern.

It turned out that after the grain transport was cut off, there were less than 50,000 dan of grain left in Taicang. Later, after the imperial guards of the capital and Chai Shao of Jingzhou took over, there should have been no grain in Taicang, but there were still soldiers transporting grain to and from Yunzhong and Dingxiang areas.

Li Shimin had no choice but to approve the customs procedures according to the court regulations. He originally thought that those people would find the prince if they could not get the food. When the prince was at a loss and asked for help from him, he would take out the hundreds of thousands of stones of food that he had secretly saved in the past few years.

But the frontier garrisons who came to collect grain came in batches, and more than 100,000 shi of grain were distributed each time. Neither Hu Cheng nor the prince asked for help from him.

Li Shimin knew that the canal transportation had not yet been repaired, and the grain and fodder transported by land through the Tongguan Pass was not large due to the difficult mountainous terrain. It was just a drop in the bucket. A large amount of grain still had to rely on water transportation through the Yongtong Canal. The grain in Taicang should have run out long ago.

But the extra grain he had sold exceeded 100,000 shi. Where did so much grain come from in Taicang?

If Hu Cheng wanted to move the grain in the warehouse, he would never dare to do so without his permission.

Originally, Li Shimin was thinking that after the court was dismissed, he would call the prince or Hu Cheng to Chengqing Hall to ask them what was going on.

Seeing the commotion in Chao Chang's house, he suddenly realized what was going on. He was afraid that the grain from these so-called temporarily detained grain merchants had already been transported to the border.

Taicang now is just an empty shell!

After the court officials who had thanked Li Yan in person left the court, they asked the merchants below to go to Taicang to collect grain, hoping to make a fortune while the grain prices were high, but it would definitely be a wasted trip.

These people are only concerned about protecting their own grain and taking it back without missing a grain. They have long forgotten that Taicang is the national granary. It is easy for grain to enter but difficult for it to take out. Every bag of grain must go through multiple approval procedures before it can be sent out.

Needless to say, Hu Cheng would continue to haggle with them on the grounds of paying the invitation fee. Even if they paid the fee, he would delay it temporarily on the grounds of court procedures. He would not return the "temporarily seized" grain to them until there was surplus grain in Taicang.

Although every grain would be saved, at that time, the Yongtong Canal was repaired, the water transport was unblocked, and the grain price dropped accordingly, and there were no huge profits like today.

This meant that the court took the grain at a high price and returned it at a low price.

But when Li Yan said this, it was obvious that he was a little childish. He was blaming himself for pushing the problem onto him and not helping him out. If he didn't fulfill his promise later, it would be his responsibility. But if he did, he would have to use the stored grain to deal with it.

In just a few breaths, Li Shimin figured out everything that was going on here. He glanced at Fang Xuanling below and saw that the other party also had a wry smile on his face. He probably also figured out what was going on here. Seeing the noisy court, the two of them looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.

(End of this chapter)