Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 1970
In the twelfth lunar month, it is very rare for the sun to shine brightly for many consecutive days.

The whole Lishan Mountain has long been withered, the trees are dry, the cold wind is howling, and the snow in the shade of the ravine exudes a bone-chilling chill.

In the greenhouse, it is as warm as spring.

Lu Dongzan was wearing a brocade robe, and his thin and withered figure looked swaying. The wrinkles on his face seemed to be deeper than a year ago. Even his smiling expression made people feel a little gloomy and simple, but The Han Chinese costumes all over her body are still more pleasing to the eye.

At this moment, the number one wise man in Tubo, with his hands behind his back, followed Fang Jun, watching as Fang Jun led the old men with rich farming experience in the village, putting the green shoots in the pots on the kang in the corner of the greenhouse. The crops were carefully dug out, and then planted in the furrows that had been made, with a distance of about six or seven inches.

When the entire greenhouse is fully loaded, a valve at one corner of the greenhouse is lifted, and the hot spring water cooled for a while has a suitable temperature and flows into the ditch along the folded water channel.

"What is this?"

Lu Dongzan looked at Fang Jun's caring and caring appearance, and always felt that it was some kind of Ganoderma lucidum or fairy grass that went on like this?
Fang Jun glanced at him, washed the dirt off his hands in the water channel, and said casually, "It's a plant discovered by the navy overseas. It can bear green fruits, which will turn red when they mature. hot!"

"Very spicy?"

Lu Dongzan's eyes lit up, quite interested.

Tubo is located on a plateau, with high mountains and clear clouds, and the climate is extremely cold, so the diet is heavy on oil and meat, and the taste is very strong. The spicy taste can well take out the cold in the body, so it is very popular.It's a pity that spicy plants are too rare, and most of them are not suitable for the climate and soil of Tubo.

Fang Jun straightened up, there was already a servant wiping his hands with a towel on the floor, seeing Lu Dongzan's very interested expression, he thought for a while, and said: "The Prime Minister is here to attend the Zhengdan Grand Court Meeting, so you have to leave after the New Year, right? That being the case, let’s keep it for a few more days, the peppers will mature in about two months, and at that time, bring some seeds to the prime minister and bring them back to Tubo for planting, which can be regarded as a small benefit for the people of Tubo.”

Lu Dongzan remained cautious: "Isn't it like highland barley wine, like poisonous wine that people know it's poisonous, but they have to drink it?"

Right now, the whole of Tubo has been ruined by the highland barley wine.

This kind of wine is easy to brew, and the water is clear and tastes very good. Not only the Tubo people love to drink it, but also the people of the Tang Dynasty. sought after.

A piece of highland barley wine brought a lot of money to Tubo, and all wine-making workshops made a lot of money.

However, the consequence is that the food in Tubo has been greatly reduced...

The climate in Tubo is cold, the land is barren, and the food is mainly highland barley. Everyone knows that highland barley wine makes money.Even if Zanpu repeatedly issued orders to strictly control the scale of highland barley wine brewing, it didn't work.

Those nobles have long been fascinated by the strings of copper coins, and they obey Zanpu's order on the surface, but secretly they continue to gather barley and increase the scale of brewing.

Now in Tubo, the price of highland barley is already five times that of last year, and the market can only buy grain transported by Datang...

The life of the people in Tubo is like a day, because the highland barley produced at home can be sold at a high price, and then the rice and corn of the Tang Dynasty can be purchased at a much lower price. Doublers abound, and Zamp's coffers are gradually getting richer because of more and more taxes.

Lu Dongzan's earliest ideal seems to have been realized. The death of the Tibetan people due to hunger has reached the lowest level in history, but he is not happy...

The most important lifeline - food, is therefore controlled by the Tang people. Once the Tang emperor covets the land of Tubo and launches a big war, the first thing is to cut off the supply of food. Do the brave Tubo warriors go hungry to resist the attack of the Tang army? ?Or, slaughtered the horses under his crotch as military rations?
Fang Jun glared and said, "You're a good boy, right? At the beginning, it was the great minister who begged for help, so someone came up with the secret recipe of the highland barley wine. Otherwise, if someone organized the brewing by himself, the profit would be at least ten times what it is now! Anyway, I have done my best to be a landlord and treat you as a friend, do you want this chili love!"

Then, he walked out of the greenhouse shaking his hands.

Peppers can't be eaten as food. They can drive away the cold, but they can't directly improve the combat effectiveness of Tubo soldiers. Most importantly, this thing consumes more land.It is bitterly cold in Tubo, and the land is barren. If there is no fertilizer to cultivate the soil these days, if a crop of peppers is planted on a piece of land a year, it will basically be useless.

However, for people in cold and humid places, chili is a treasure bestowed by the gods. Once eaten, it is difficult to get rid of it...

If some hot peppers are planted on Tubo's not rich land, the national power will drop by another [-]%.

It seems insignificant, but if it drops a little bit, drops a little bit, and drops back and forth, it is hard to believe that in the future, Tubo will be able to take advantage of the trend from the plateau as it did in history, and cause so much trouble for the Tang Dynasty...

Lu Dongzan was not bewitched by Fang Jun's attitude, and said cautiously: "You have to wait until you are mature and taste it first..."

As the prime minister of Tubo, this one is a genius. When he should be tough, he can smash his head against a stone. When he should be soft, he can kneel down and call him father.

Fang Jun looked back and sighed: "As expected, he is the number one wise man in Tubo, he is smarter than a monkey when he is covered with hair."

Lu Dongzan's face darkened, and he said in displeasure, "I have traveled thousands of miles to visit Erlang, but I have encountered such harsh words. Is it the way to treat guests? Let's have hot pot at noon, and slaughter the fattest sheep. Shanggui's fine wine, maybe I will forgive Erlang for his rude words!"

Fang Jun's face darkened, and he said helplessly, "Are you here to fight the autumn wind?"

Lu Dongzan did not hold back: "The food at Honglu Temple is really unpalatable."

Fang Jun is speechless...

*****
It's a guest from afar, although Fang Jun doesn't welcome the Tubo Prime Minister very much, but the way of hospitality is always necessary. At noon, he entertained the Tubo Prime Minister in a house surrounded by greenhouses and guards .

After entering the house, several maidservants of the Fang family cleaned the floor, put a pot of mountain spring water on a small red clay stove to burn, and went to prepare lunch.

Fang Jun asked Lu Dongzan to take a seat, but there was no seat, just casually sitting cross-legged on the clean floor, there was obviously a fire dragon on the ground, the floor was warm when sitting on it, very comfortable and comfortable.Fang Jun took a jar under the coffee table, scooped out some bright green tea leaves with a wooden spoon and put them into the teapot. When the mountain spring water in the pot boiled, he lifted the lid to let it dry for a while, and then poured water into the teapot.

As the dense water vapor rises, a burst of delicate and timeless tea fragrance rippling.

Holding the teapot in one hand, Fang Jun poured tea into the two black pottery hat cups in front of him, motioned to Lu Dongzan, and said, "Please."

Lu Dongzan picked up the black pottery teacup, took a shallow sip, rolled the hot tea in his mouth a few times, and then swallowed it slowly, a light but meaningful sweetness flooded his mouth, and the bottom of his tongue produced fluid.

Divided into three mouthfuls and drank a cup of tea, he sighed and said, "Erlang knows that today's Tibetan nobles are addicted to tea. A catty of tea of ​​this grade is enough to exchange for ten yaks. At the beginning, tea flowed into Tubo, It was only used as a status symbol and was circulated among nobles. But gradually, everyone discovered that this kind of tea can remove greasy and reduce constipation, and it has become a necessity of life. However, the mountains and forests between Tubo and Datang It is densely covered, and there are several big rivers across it, the roads are not smooth, and the transportation is inconvenient. This kind of tea is rarely imported into Tubo, which makes the current price more expensive than gold, which is beyond the reach of many people. Erlang is really a good method. Tea alone can make a lot of money in Tubo every year, if you add the Turks and the Western Regions, it will take less than three or two years, and just tea is enough to make Erlang rich in the world."

Now tea has been popular in the Western Regions for a long time, and almost all countries, ethnic groups, and tribes that mainly eat meat regard it as a gift from heaven.

Year-round consumption of meat has made the body strong, but it has also caused frequent occurrence of various diseases due to indigestion, especially constipation, which has plagued the barbarian tribes for thousands of years. However, under these few leaves, it disappeared collapse.

This made Lu Dongzan even more in awe of Fang Jun, and he was astonished as a man of heaven. This man looks like a dude, but in fact, all kinds of methods are unpredictable. Under ordinary operations, unexpected results can often be obtained , can be called a strange person...

Fang Jun also admired Lu Dongzan's vision.

In history, the trade of tea began in the Song Dynasty, and gradually became an important pillar of the empire's finances alongside silk and porcelain. Not hesitate to start a war...

Now that tea has just come out and hasn't made too much profit yet, Lu Dongzan can see through the bright future of tea at a glance. This kind of vision is rare in the world.

Fang Jun played with taste: "If the prime minister is interested, from now on, the tea trade in Tubo will be in the hands of the prime minister alone, how about it?"

Not only was Lu Dongzan not happy, but he smiled bitterly and said, "Erlang, don't harm me..."

(End of this chapter)