The Golden Age Chapter 785: Mashang

Qin Xiao smiled and said: "Where is Tao Aunt Luoyue? Does Mr. Hua know her origin?"

"There is no one cares about that wasteland, so we don't care much about it. We discard it there." Hua Kuan explained: "Seven years ago, a Taoist girl suddenly came to the house and said that she wanted to buy the wasteland. At that time, the villain almost forgot that there was still that piece of land. Someone came to buy it. Naturally, he couldn’t ask for it. The villain knew that if the waste piece of land was not sold, it would probably be ignored in a few decades. Since Daogu wanted to buy it, The little man gave a very low price, and the Taoist aunt paid her the next day. The little man also gave her the title deed. The abandoned Taoist temple on the ground naturally belongs to her." After a pause, Cai said: "That Dao Gudao is called the Three Wonders, but on the signed document, the inscription is Luo Yue."

"Three Musts?"

"Exactly." Hua Kuan nodded and said, "Master of the Three Great Masters was in his early forties. These seven years have passed, and now he is more than fifty. The villain was also very curious at the time and asked why the inscription was Luo Yue. She only said that she bought it for someone else, she didn’t want to say more, and the villain didn’t ask too much. At the time, she thought that as long as the wasteland was shot anyway, the villain didn’t really care about other things at the time. I did ask her where she came from. She only said that she wandered around the world and didn’t want to work anymore. She wanted to settle in Hangzhou, but she didn’t say much else."

Qin Xiao frowned and said: "So, you don't know where they came from?"

"They?" Hua Kuan was a little surprised: "My lord, who are you talking about? As far as the villain knows, only the three masters of Taoism live in it, alone, and no one else."

Qin Xiao was also a little surprised, and asked, "Mr. Hua doesn't know there are other people living in it?"

"It turns out that there are other people living there." Hua Kuan said in embarrassment: "After Master Sanjue bought the Taoist temple, he also took an extra sum of silver and asked me to help find some people to repair the Taoist temple in the past. It took more than a month. After the repairs were completed, Master Sanjue moved in. The villain heard that there was only one person when she checked in. After that, the gate of the Taoist temple was closed all the year round, and the place was very remote, so there was no villain. Too much inquiries. The villain thought she was always alone."

Qin Xiao thought that even the original owner of Taoist Temple knew very little about the things inside. It seemed that Luo Yueguan was really isolated from the world.

I wanted to inquire about Daogu Luoyue’s origins from Hua’s family, but I didn’t get what I wanted, but now I know that the old Daogu’s Taoist name is Sanjue. This number is a bit strange. I don’t know whether she has it. Which three must.

Hua Kuan looked around and saw that there was no one. He took a few things from his sleeves and came forward to present them to Qin Xiao: "My lord, I can save my life, I can't repay it. This is before the house was ransacked, the villain The few bills of exchange that have been stolen can be taken out from any Baofenglong bank. Please accept this dim sum from the adults."

"Mr. Hua is polite." Qin Xiao pushed back and said, "I just did what I should do, it must not be done. Also, Master Fei from Dali Temple is bringing some officials to count your confiscated properties. You make a list as soon as possible and send it to Master Fei. When you look back to organize your belongings, it should be yours and will be returned. Although there is no guarantee that everything will be returned as many as possible, there is always nothing left."

Hua Kuan was even more grateful, and knelt down again. Qin Xiao stretched out his hand to stop him and shook his head and said: "Mr. Hua must never do this. It is the duty of the court officials to let the people live and work in peace and contentment. You are all citizens of Datang, protect You, of course."

"If the officials are all adults, why can't my Datang prosper?" Huakuan's eyes were red.

"By the way, Mr. Hua, I want to ask you about some business matters, so please sit down first." Qin Xiao asked Hua Kuan to sit down, and then asked softly, "The Hua family should be a big family in Hangzhou. The business is not small, right?"

"Compared with the above, there is more than the below." Hua Kuan respectfully said: "The Hua family mainly deals in the business of medicinal materials. In the three states of the south of the Yangtze River, the Hua family is not inferior to anyone when it comes to the business of medicinal materials."

Qin Xiao smiled and nodded, after thinking for a while, he asked, "Can someone in Jiangnan do horse business?"

"What the lord is talking about...a war horse or a private horse?" Hua Kuan asked softly.

Qin Xiaodao: "How about a war horse, how about a private horse?"

"The imperial court’s horse control is extremely strict." Hua Kuan explained: "The founding Emperor Taizu conquered the world and fought **** mountains and rivers. Although he conquered the world, it also caused a large number of war horses to be lost due to the tragic war. Datang Liguozhi At that time, war horses were extremely scarce. Therefore, Emperor Taizu issued an order to encourage people to raise horses. As long as horses are raised, they can not only be supported by the court, but can also be sold directly to the court at a high price. Therefore, at the beginning of the founding of the country, the raising of horses was in full swing." /

Qin Xiao wondered: "Then why is my Datang Warhorse still so scarce?"

"Failure is also in the order of raising horses." Hua Kuan sighed: "The court bought horses at a high price, and more and more people raised horses, but there are very few people who really know how to raise horses. Many people will raise horses. Horses are used as pigs, kept in circles, and fed all day long. Adults also know that the more they want to raise good horses, the stricter the selection of horse materials. The feed for pigs is almost the same. This is not because the people are unwilling to come up with good materials. Firstly, the civilians simply cannot spend so much money to prepare good materials. Secondly, it is also because there are not many really good horse feeds. The Tusun people in the north, their horses eat wild food from the grassland. Only such horse food can produce good horses. Where can Datang get such natural horse food?"

Qin Xiao nodded slightly, and Hua Kuan continued: "The court spends a lot of money on horses every year, but the horses purchased by officials really meet the conditions of war horses are one in a hundred. And because the middle is profitable, many officials depress the people. The price of horses is very high. It is said that the people sell horses at high prices, but there is not much left in their hands. On the contrary, it has fattened many corrupt officials. As a result, the number of horse owners has decreased year by year. The court was embarrassed and overwhelmed, and the requirements for the purchased horses became more and more stringent. In the end, there were very few people raising horses. The most important thing is that because of the large number of people raising horses, there have been many horse dealers, and some horse dealers do business. It’s huge. Buying horses from the people, you can even collect thousands of horses on hand. These horses later became the source of rebellion. Many bandits own a large number of horses, come and go like the wind, looting people’s wealth, and unscrupulous."

Qin Xiao couldn't help shaking his head, thinking that the original intention of the court was to hope that the Tang Empire had a strong cavalry army, but it was really going to be implemented, but the taste changed.

"So later, the court banned people from raising horses, but only set up horse farms in various places, and the officials raised the horses." Hua Kuan saw that Qin Xiao was very interested in this matter, and explained in detail: "The money spent on horse farms every year is not counted. Only a few, but the number of good horses that were really produced was very few. Later, when the Xiling Racecourse was established, the racecourse in Guannei was reduced a lot. The good horses produced were paid to the Ministry of War, and those ordinary horses that did not meet the conditions were circulated among the people. These are private horses, but there is a record of every horse that came out of the horse farm, and all horse dealers who do horse business are backed by the government."

"Listening to the king is better than reading ten years." Qin Xiao smiled and said: "Mr. Hua said this, and I understand a lot." After a pause, he said:

"However, in our Datang, there are also many northern grassland horses circulating. As far as I know, the Tusun people prohibit their horses from entering the Tang Dynasty. Why are there still horses flowing in?"

Hua Kuan laughed and said: "In the earliest days, those Tusun people on the grassland were worried that after their horses flowed into Datang, Datang’s cavalry would become more prosperous, so they pledged to each other not to let Tusun horses be sold to Datang. However, at that time, I was in great power in the Tang Dynasty. Many of my goods in the Tang Dynasty were liked by the Tusun people. On the surface, the Tusun people did not trade with us in horses, but in private, many tribes still trade with us with horses. Goods, but because of the covenant, I dare not fan out and the quantity is limited. In recent years, I have heard that the Tusun Durhu tribe has become stronger and stronger. It has annexed many tribes and has become the most powerful tribe on the grassland, Durhu tribe. Once again, all tribes in the grassland were called together to swear to each other to prohibit war horses from flowing into the Tang Dynasty. This time it was no longer just an affidavit as before. As long as there are tribes selling horses privately, once they are known, Durhu’s tribe will attack with other tribes. Therefore, there have been fewer and fewer prairie horses flowing into Datang in recent years."

"In other words, there are still Tusun people selling horses to us?"

"Yes." Hua Kuan nodded and said, "People die for money, and birds die for food. Prairie horses are now very expensive. As long as they can sell horses to our Tang people, horse dealers can make huge profits. On Tusun's side, or in our Datang, there are many horse dealers working in the border area, secretly engaged in the war horse trade. Adults don’t know if they know the Tusun people? They live by water and grass, and their greatest wealth is cattle and sheep. Horses, in order to obtain the goods they need, they need to trade with their own livestock. The most valuable of these is the horses. After the vows of the grasslands, the large tribes will be fine, but if the small tribes cannot carry out the horse trade with us, their lives will be more convenient. It’s getting worse, especially in the year of disaster, they have to trade with those horse dealers in private.” After a pause, he said in a low voice, “Hangzhou Ximen’s family is in the horse business. They sent a lot of people in the border area, secretly. I contacted the Tusun horse dealer, and many of the war horses in the Hangzhou camp were bought from the north by the Ximen family and bought to the government."

"Simon's house?"

Hua Kuan said: "Ximenhao, the patriarch of the Ximen family, just came to visit the governor's mansion to thank you, but there were too many people, and the adults didn't pay attention. If you know that the adults are interested in horse trade, you should just keep him, he We have a clear picture of this business. Our Hua family and Ximen family are family acquaintances, and they are also relatives of children. We used to chat with him occasionally, so we know a little bit. Adults, if you want to know more details, the villain should go immediately Hand him over."

"This time Ximen's family is also implicated?"

Hua Kuan nodded and said: "Thirty-one people from the Ximen family were taken to prison. Ximenhao’s father had passed away a few years ago, but his mother is still alive, but this time in the prison, the old man suffered a serious illness. The oil ran out and the lamp ran out. It was just the last breath. He was about to die in prison. But the adults helped Ximen's family wash their grievances, and the old man passed away that night after he was released from prison and returned to his home. Ximen Hao felt that the old man could pass away in his own home. That is a blessing. If he died in prison, it would be his life's grief, so I am grateful to the adults."

"Speaking of which, Ximen's family is now having a funeral?"

Hua Kuan nodded and said: "The old man was released from prison the day before yesterday, and a mourning hall was set up yesterday. Originally, Ximenhao was in the funeral period, and it was difficult to go out, but he knew that we were going to come to thank Master, so he just took off his filial piety and insisted on joining us. Come here together. Now go back and continue to do the funeral. After the villain leaves, he will also come to help."

Qin Xiao stood up and said: "The old man passed away, I should go to worship, Mr. Hua, let's leave immediately."