A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 160: The Madness of the Nobles' Children

Li Yi presented auspicious signs, and the emperor named it Golden Shu. It produced two to three thousand kilograms per mu and could be harvested three times a year. It could be grown in sandy fields, dry land, and hillsides.

This news has now spread to the homes of nobles and officials in Chang'an.

The only people who could be granted the auspicious sign were a dozen or so people such as the princes, prime ministers, and secretaries. The auspicious golden potato has been a hot topic these days.

Not only did officials ask each other about things in the yamen, but even noble ladies would have lively conversations when they gathered together to drink tea and arrange flowers.

To be blessed with good fortune means one is naturally highly favored.

The four brothers of Yang Hongli had one Duke of a county and three Dukes of a county, but they were only sixth-rank officials. No matter how famous their family background was, it was not their turn this time.

Somehow Yang Hongwu found out that Li Yi had given him a nest of nearly thirty royal potatoes, so he took the opportunity to get four, one for each brother.

Money is not important, what is important is face.

It would be so proud if each of the four brothers had a golden potato.

In Li Yi's opinion, this idea was very strange, but the Yang brothers thought it was normal.

As nobles, their way of thinking is different from that of ordinary people.

Li Yi hesitated.

Yang Hongwu generously added another ten taels of gold, "Fifty taels of gold for four golden potatoes, no matter how big or small."

"Row."

Seeing that the other party was so generous, Li Yi agreed.

Yang Hongwu was a half-relative, as Wei Yijie was his uncle, and he married Wei Yijie's daughter.
Du Shiniang's second brother also married Wei Yijie's daughter.

Therefore, Du Jingtong and Wei Yijie are brothers-in-law, and Yang Hongwu is both the cousin and the brother-in-law of Shi Niang's second sister-in-law.

At this moment, they are considered relatives.

"The golden potatoes are currently in the palace's agricultural garden. His Majesty has asked me to plant them in the palace greenhouse, and they'll be ready for harvest next spring. By then, we'll have more potatoes to plant in the fields. Do you four want me to help plant them in the palace garden, or should I just give them to you?"

The eldest brother, Yang Hongli, was very tall. He had served in various civil service positions, from the Prince's Secretary to the Secretariat. But judging from the bulge under his clothes, he was obviously a muscular man.

This man has the air of a warrior.

The Hongnong Yang family, including Yang Su, is actually the core military family of Guanlong. Yang Su is a model of a general who became a prime minister.

He was a Confucian general who was an excellent commander of troops. He was best at large-scale combat. He even used cavalry against cavalry on the grasslands and adopted the tactic of cavalry mutual attack to defeat the Turkic cavalry army.

This person is both good and evil, both civil and military.
He was not only good at cavalry warfare, but also very powerful at naval warfare. He built the Dragon Tooth warship and destroyed the Southern Chen navy in one fell swoop. He was feared by the Southern Chen soldiers and was called the God of the River.

Yang Su fought countless battles in his life, using infantry, chariots, cavalry, and boats, and he was rarely defeated.

Among the top generals of the Sui and Tang dynasties, only Li Jing was the most similar to him. No wonder when Li Jing was young, Yang Su patted the couch beside him and said, "Sooner or later you will sit in my position."

It is obvious that the four brothers Yang Hongli should all be good at riding and shooting, and even know military tactics.

Especially the boss Hongli, you can tell from his eyes.

He smiled and said, "Then we will also entrust Uncle Qianshui to help us grow and raise the plants in the greenhouse. We will give him ten taels of gold as a reward for his hard work."

This kind of behavior of using money to slap someone in the face is very typical of the arrogant style of prominent families.

But Li Yi didn't care.
The Hongnong Yang family is indeed of high status. Even though Li Yi is now the son-in-law of the Jingzhao Du family, he is still far behind the Yang family.

Ten taels of gold are enough to buy a house in Shangnan City.

"If you're willing, Mr. Yang, you can also pick a few smart people who can take care of crops. I can show them how to plant and manage golden potatoes and pass on some experience."

"Okay, thank you."

Sixty taels of gold, this deal is a good deal.

Li Yi even had the urge to see who else wanted to buy Xiangrui.

Anyway, he had almost thirty, and after selling four, he still had a lot left.

When there are enough potatoes, one pound will be worth only a few cents.

Li Yi then got to know many young men from famous families, such as Wei Huaide and Wei Huaizhe from the family of Wei Hongli's uncle Wei Yijie. One was a doctor of the imperial court, another was a recorder of the left guard, and another was the prince's left captain.

The last time Li Yi clashed with someone from the Shuguo Mansion, the late Shuguo Mansion's Wei Kuangbo and Wei Yijie were cousins with the same grandfather.

One of Wei Yijie's sisters married Yang Zhao, the crown prince of the Sui Dynasty. The abdicated Emperor Gong, Yang You, was born to Wei. Another sister married Yang Yue, the mother of the four brothers Yang Hongli.

Wei Xiaokuan's nephew Wei Chong, whose daughter married Prince of Qi Yang Ling, and whose son Yang Zhengdao and Empress Xiao are still wandering in Hebei with Yu Wenhuaji, will fall into the hands of Dou Jiande in the future, and then be taken away by the Turkic Khatun, a princess of the Sui Dynasty, and be made Prince of Sui in Dingxiang.

Wei Chong's son is a good friend of Crown Prince Jiancheng, now the Crown Prince's Left Guard and General of the Cavalry Wei Ting.

The Jingzhao Du family and the Wei family have been neighbors for hundreds of years. It is said that the ancestors of the two families were actually mortal enemies a long time ago and almost wiped out each other. However, since the Han and Wei dynasties, they have intermarried for generations and have a very good relationship.

Many of the Wei family members came today.
A bunch of Wei family children almost all have titles, including the nine ranks of nobility: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, not to mention the scattered official positions.

Any one of them has a fifth-grade job.
There are three dukes in the Wei family, namely Duke of Hua, Duke of Yun and Duke of Shu, Duke of Shangyong, Duke of Xiangyang, Duke of Weixing, Duke of Guancheng, Duke of Henan and Duke of Wuyang, and six county dukes.

There are also seven or eight county dukes and county earls below them, and as for barons, there are countless of them.

Li Yi used to think that it was difficult to be granted a title, and that the title was of great value. Now he realized that among these top families, which one didn’t have two or three dukes of a country, or five, six, seven or eight dukes of a county or a county, or marquis of a county?
As for the sub-baron, the direct descendants of the big family who have reached adulthood can basically become a county magistrate or a county baron, or at least a casual position of the fifth rank or above.

Not to say that dukes and marquises are as numerous as dogs, but sons and daughters are indeed everywhere. It's too damn rampant.
Just like the third child of Du Ruhui's family, who was only three years old, also inherited the title of Marquis of Fengxiang County.

In the past, Li Yi felt that he had made several achievements by taking advantage of opportunities and was awarded the title of Earl, and he was quite proud of it. He felt that he had become a new noble by starting from scratch.

But now it seems that compared with those Wei Du disciples, they are nothing.

Just like Wei Erlang of the Duke of Shu who wanted to marry Shi Niang before, although he was the second son and could not inherit the title of Duke of Shu, he still directly inherited the title of Marquis of Huanggua County. This county title was also passed down from his ancestors.

After talking to these famous children of Jingzhao Wei Du, Hongnong Yang and others, I found that they were not the unlearned and undisciplined young men I had thought.

On the contrary, they are all very knowledgeable and can even compose a poem on the spot.

When talking about the general situation of the world, they can speak clearly and logically. Everyone knows military affairs and is proficient in riding and shooting.
It turns out that it takes at least three generations to produce a nobleman, and these prominent families have gone through hundreds of years and have all received elite education.

I am indeed a little envious.

But Li Yi didn't feel inferior or anything like that, there was no need for that.

He actually took the opportunity to sell some auspicious items.

The two sons of Wei Yijie, Huaide and Huaizhe, also bought a lucky charm for thirty taels of gold, which guaranteed greenhouse cultivation and the transfer of experience to their servants.

Then several Wei family members, Yang family members, and a man named Huangfu sold ten pieces of auspicious coins.
Fifteen taels of gold for one auspicious sign and one servant.

Li Yi sold a total of sixteen auspicious items, and he still had twelve left.

Shi Niang, come here.

"What has Lang been busy with? Why is he so happy?"

Li Yi smiled and leaned close to her ear, "These young masters from aristocratic families all came to me to buy auspicious signs. I sold them sixteen at fifteen taels each, making a profit of two hundred and forty taels of gold."

Du Li widened her eyes.

An expression of disbelief.

"Zhou Yu fought Huang Gai, one willing to fight and the other willing to be beaten. There was no forced buying or selling; it was purely voluntary."

Shuying, who had returned to Shi Niang's side, had returned to her usual chattering nature. "Why did Zhou Yu beat Huang Gai? I've never seen any record of Zhou Yu beating Huang Gai in my previous reading of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Shi Niang was surprised that Li Yi could still do business at this banquet.

It was actually more than the last reward from the emperor. The last time the emperor gave 72 ingots of gold, it was only 216 taels, but this time it was sold for 240 taels.

Those small potatoes could actually be sold twice. Once they were presented to the emperor and received a huge reward. Now they were sold to these young masters of wealthy families and received another huge sum of money.

"My dear, we both made a fortune today. You got a two million dowry, and I got 1.92 million as a gift."

Shuying was so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth.

The couple received 3.92 million yuan today?

You are not here to visit your relatives and worship your ancestors, you are here to rob money.

Even if you robbed money, you couldn't steal so much. If all this money was converted into copper coins, each thousand coins would weigh four pounds and two ounces, which would weigh more than sixteen thousand pounds.

Not to mention that a couple couldn't carry so much, even twenty people couldn't move more than 16,000 kilograms of money.

"This..." Du Shiniang didn't know what to say.

Li Yi also felt that these people were really rich. A potato cost fifteen taels of gold, which was enough to buy a small house in Chang'an.

He even had some doubts as to whether these people would regret their decision and actually give him gold.

But the facts proved that Li Yi was worrying too much.

In his eyes, fifteen taels of gold was a lot, but in the eyes of those young masters of noble families, it was just the money for a horse, or the money to buy two or three Silla maids.

The party isn't over yet.
The servant they sent home for the money returned with gold.
They found Li Yi one by one and handed him gold directly.

Gold ingots, gold bars, gold sheets, and gold ingots may be of different styles, but their quality and weight are all good. All the gold has the stamps of various gold shops and craftsmen.

Li Yi also smiled and wrote a receipt for each person.

These young masters received the note and agreed to send one person each to learn how to manage the Auspicious Golden Potato.

All this gold weighs a total of fifteen pounds.

Li Yi pulled Shi Niang to a deserted place and opened a box of gold to show her, which was shining brightly.

"hiss!"

Du Shiniang didn't know what to say. This "sending" of auspicious signs was actually true.

"They're not at a loss either. This is a sign of good fortune. Fifteen ounces of gold can buy one now, and in a few months, it will become a hundred or eighty. Plant them in the manor, and in no time, you'll be able to harvest thousands. It's a truly auspicious harvest!"

Think about welcoming Buddha bones and donating to temples, that's even crazier. Some people even donate hundreds of thousands of taels of silver without blinking an eye.
Paying fifteen taels now to get a piece of auspicious sign is a real thing. Not only does it give you face, but in a few months, you can get dozens of auspicious signs, which is a real auspicious sign that can produce two to three thousand kilograms per mu.

Shi Niang smiled and said, "My husband is just obsessed with money!"

"Hahaha, my wife still understands me the best."

(End of this chapter)