Liu Chang slowly opened his eyes and yawned.

He hadn't slept so soundly in a long time.

She sat up, opened her mouth wide, and kept yawning, looking at her grandmother beside her stupidly. Empress Lu was quite helpless. According to the etiquette established by Shusun Tong, anyone who dared to look at the Empress Dowager yawning was

It's disrespectful, but to Liu Chang, these etiquettes are just a fiction, and he has no intention of abiding by them.

Of course, even if he doesn't comply, Shusun Tong can still find various reasons to excuse the king's crimes and yawn at the Queen Mother? No, it's because the king is busy with state affairs and is extremely tired. This shows how diligent the king is...

Relying on such a skill, Shusun Tong succeeded from the second generation to the present, and Confucianism's voice is getting bigger and bigger.

"Mom!!"

"Hungry!!!"

Empress Lu had already guessed what Liu Chang would say, and was not surprised at all. She glanced at the palace maid not far away, and immediately someone walked up to Liu Chang with rice, rice and vegetables. Liu Chang frowned, "Why not?"

Where’s the meat?”

"It's getting late, just eat some vegetables and fruits."

"But I haven't eaten meat for a day!"

"If you don't eat meat for a day, you won't starve to death!"

"oh."

Liu Chang had no choice but to accept his fate and immersed himself in eating. He ate very quickly, basically not chewing, just swallowing. Liu Chang had a huge appetite and could eat three or four other people's meals in one meal, which means he was born in the emperor's family.

If he had been born into an ordinary family, he would have depleted his family wealth long ago.

Neither Liu Bang nor Empress Lu likes to waste food. The food at every banquet must be eaten cleanly, especially for ordinary meals. Liu Bang once asked Fan Kuai at a banquet:

Have you forgotten the poor days of the past? Then he asked him to eat all the meat and bones in front of him and not to waste them.

Under the influence of the two of them, Liu Bang's descendants have never been extravagant and wasteful in the pursuit of food. They eat whatever they have, and they will eat it cleanly. On the contrary, some of the second generation Chehou

They were extravagant and wasteful, slaughtering the sheep, eating only the waist and liver, and throwing away the rest.

Liu Chang quickly ate all the food and licked the bowl clean.

Liu Chang raised his hand to wipe his mouth with his sleeve, but Empress Lu slapped him on the back of his hand. Liu Chang retracted his hand and looked at his mother aggrievedly. Empress Lu took out the silk cloth and leaned forward.

Come, raise your hands and shout: "Lower your head!"

Liu Chang bowed his head obediently and let his mother wipe his mouth.

"I told you a long time ago, don't wear Yan people's clothes, don't wear Yan people's accessories... How many days can you wear it? The day before yesterday, you were wearing plain clothes, but today you are wearing black clothes!"

"Yanren's clothes are beautiful..."

Liu Chang muttered, and Queen Lu shook her head helplessly.

"Sir...you captured two county guards from Bashu?"

"Yes, these two thieves collected bribes from merchants... There are many merchants in Bashu, and their status is too high. Even the officials dare not offend them. If they are doing business well, then forget it, but they can bribe merchants to benefit themselves.

If you seek benefits, you won’t be able to tolerate it!”

Liu Chang lowered his voice and said: "Mom, I have already inquired about it. I heard that the largest merchant in Bashu is a woman, named Wuqing or something like that. I am going to call this person to Chang'an and use her to restrict these big merchants in Bashu.

Merchant, it’s okay if she obeys, but if she doesn’t obey, haha!”

Queen Lu narrowed her eyes, "You probably can't do it anymore."

"Ah? Why does my mother despise me so much? Whatever I want to do, there is nothing I can't do!"

"But she has been dead for more than twenty years..."

"Ah?? She's dead?"

"Why, do you still want to blame the person for not informing you before he died?"

"What did my mother say? I am not as stupid as my father."

The Qing that Liu Chang is talking about is Ba Widow Qing. Her ancestors relied on the convenience of mining to have countless family properties. It is said that the mercury in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor was provided by their family. She guarded the family property and was as rich as the country. She had a huge

Private Armed Forces, the First Emperor also respected her very much. By the Han Dynasty, she was dead and the family was not as good as before, but the foundation was still there.

Probably because the development time is still short, there is still some distance from the Central Plains, and the environment itself is superior. There are still many big merchants of the Bashu generation, and the Widow Qing is just the most famous among them. Their existence has indeed played a role in protecting the border in some aspects.

, the role of accelerating assimilation, but for centralized dynasties, their existence is not a good thing.

"The land of Bashu can be the granary of the Han Dynasty. Qin and Han both relied on this to achieve their great achievements. You cannot underestimate it."

"Don't worry, Mom, I will never do this."

"Who asked you to strictly inspect the land of Bashu?"

"It's my own decision."

"Then why does it look so like what Liu Jing taught?"

"How did my mother know?"

Liu Chang grinned, "My mother is wise! My mother..."

"alright!"

Empress Lu glared at him and then said: "Liu Jing is a man of great talent, but his ideas are too radical. We cannot kill all these merchants. If you kill them all, how will the specialties of Bashu be sent to the Central Plains? You, Tang State's

How can goods be sold to the State of Chu? Only by frequent exchanges of merchants can all countries be like one family and exchange materials, which is beneficial to the people."

"It's what my mother said..."

"Suppressing business does not mean destroying business... You can charge them high business taxes to subsidize mulberry farming, but you can't kill them all!"

"What does grandma mean?"

"Don't use too severe punishments on those merchants who pay bribes. Use them for your own use...use them to revitalize agriculture and make the people more convenient. If you want to hide wealth and provide it to the people, then you must use merchants to repurchase this wealth."

Received from the treasury, the cycle continues..."

Empress Lu carefully explained to Liu Chang the correct use of commerce and agriculture. Liu Chang could understand what Empress Lu meant. Make the people rich, let the merchants make money, and then earn through business taxes.

The money in the hands of merchants does not harm the farming of mulberry trees. It uses commercial taxes to make the national treasury sufficient, and then subsidizes the farming of mulberry trees. This cycle repeats, taking advantage of the characteristics of commerce to the extreme.

"You sit on a boat and fish, and you have to raise all the fish in the water. The water will flow slowly, and you can't exhaust the lake to catch fish..."

"But I don't like fish."

Liu Chang used the ancestral back talk until Empress Lu narrowed her eyes slightly, and then Liu Chang nodded hurriedly, "My mother is right!"

"What about Liu Jing?"

"Let him have a good time, how can he fish without a fishing rod?"

"good!"

Empress Lu liked Liu Chang's straightforwardness. No matter what he did, Liu Chang would never hesitate. He would do it as he said. Even if he made a mistake, he would do it first.

What Shuzi can't compare to is that he does things coquettishly and has no courage at all... Empress Lu was silent for a moment and suddenly asked: "How is Liu Ying doing lately?"

"He...has been depressed all day long. Every time I go to see him, he asks me about my mother's condition. She hasn't eaten much in the past few days and her health is getting worse. The imperial doctor said that he can no longer drink alcohol in the future.

Already..."

Queen Lu didn't speak, just waved her hand and said, "Go and do your own business."

"good."

When Liu Chang walked out of Changle Palace, he shook his head helplessly. His second brother just didn't understand his mother. If his mother said she wouldn't let him come, he really wouldn't come. He rushed straight in to find his mother. Who knew?

How dare you really stop him? How could my mother really punish him?

However, Liu Chang had more important things to do now, so he ignored his second brother's matters for the time being.

Liu Chang summoned Wang Tianqi and Liu Jing in the Xuanshi Palace.

Wang Tianqi had known for a long time that the king was going to see him, so he was prepared, but he didn't understand why Liu Jing would appear here. Wang Tianqi and Liu Jing knew each other but were not familiar with each other. Their relationship was just that they knew each other.

As Jiuqing, Liu Jing is more like a lonely minister than Wang Tianqi, a court official.

Liu Chang was pretending to be looking at the bamboo slips. When he saw the two people arriving, he hurriedly put down the bamboo slips and said with a smile: "The two father-in-laws are here!"

"Don't dare!"

Wang Tianqi trembled and saluted hurriedly.

It's not a good thing to be called "Father Zhong" by the king. Liu Chang stood up, smiled and pulled the two people to his side, asked them to sit down, and then asked: "Your Majesty, how was the interrogation of the two people?

"

"Your Majesty, they have all confessed their crimes. Please take a look at them."

Wang Tianqi was still very serious about his work. He wrote down the evidence of the crime, their confession records, and the appropriate punishment results. He knew the king's level, so what he wrote was relatively straightforward and simple, without too much nonsense. It was clear at a glance.

Liu Chang nodded with satisfaction and read all the evidence carefully.

"Why do you think the combined wealth of these two county governors is more than your own?"

"Just accepting bribes can do this. If I had known earlier, I should have made myself the King of Shu. Why should I be made the King of Tang!"

"Are Shu people so rich?"
To be continued...