Jiuquan City is the administrative seat of Suzhou on Longyou Road, and the Suzhou Governor's Office is located in Jiuquan City.
Liu Chenbi, the prefect of Suzhou, was also a veteran official for a long time. He originally served as the prefect of Longyou, but he just wanted to get some gold plating, accumulate qualifications, and then transfer to the capital. However, he did not expect to encounter the An Lushan rebellion.
Now that the Tang Dynasty had lost both capitals, Liu Chenbi could only stay in Suzhou as the prefect.
Since Liu Chen could only stay in Suzhou, Liu Chenbi simply ruined his life. He recruited his subordinates to drink and have fun every day, or went out to hunt in the city. His life was actually good.
Liu Chenbi left all the affairs of the governor's office to his chief official, Dou Hao, to manage them.
The most important assessment of the Tang Dynasty's governorship of a state was naturally the taxation of Shangjie.
However, the taxes in the Tang Dynasty were more complicated. In addition to the grain that was rented and transferred, government horse farms were also built in special states like Suzhou, so Suzhou also needed to pay tribute to the court with horses.
However, the horse farm in Suzhou has long been abandoned and has no one to manage it. How to get these horses has become the biggest problem for the governor of Suzhou.
The horse farms in Suzhou were originally used by the local garrison to stock the fields. The emperor mobilized Longyou troops and transferred all the cavalry in Suzhou into the pass. Even the horse herders were all transferred away.
Without the people who know how to herd and raise horses, the horse farms will naturally gradually become abandoned. The Suzhou Governor's Office has tried many ways to revive the horse farms. However, due to lack of technology and money and food, they can only allow these horse farms to be abandoned.
Dou Hao, the chief minister, thought of many ways. In order to supplement the war horses of the imperial court, he could only send people to buy horses from the Uighurs.
However, the merchants sent to the Uighurs recently reported back that the Uighurs and King Jianning had signed a treaty on the mutual trade of tea and horses. The Uighurs had tightened their control over war horses, making it even more difficult to purchase horses.
Dou Hao convened a meeting of Uighur merchants at the Governor's Mansion, and the result was one - you can buy horses, but you have to pay more!
Dou Hao is extremely worried. Now the horse tax has been increased to the extreme. If the tax continues to be increased, I am afraid that no one will do business in the entire Jiuquan City.
Now that we need to add more money, where will the money come from?
Not only do they want more money, these Uighur merchants also put forward a condition: they also need to add Guazhou iron products to the delivered goods.
Guazhou Iron has now become a good iron tool that is familiar to the entire Longyou Road.
Guazhou iron is strong and durable, not easy to rust, and the output is large and the price is not high.
This kind of ironware quickly defeated other competitors and dominated the ironware market in Longyou.
The Uighurs also discussed with Shang Bo that they wanted to buy Guazhou ironware at the Tea Horse Market, but this request was naturally rejected by the players in King Jianning's palace.
The grasslands lacked iron tools, and even more lacked the iron smelting industry. If Guazhou iron was exported to the Uighurs, they could turn farm tools and kitchen utensils into murderous weapons with a little modification, which would be equivalent to subsidizing the enemy for a small profit.
Therefore, merchant stream players and official stream players discussed for a long time and compiled a list of prohibited exports.
Guazhou iron, medicinal materials, weapons and armor, textile machines and printing presses, books on the art of war and various advanced equipment were strictly prohibited from being sold to the Uighurs.
The Tang Dynasty prepared tea, ceramics, lacquerware, jewelry, silk, spices and other luxury goods for the Uighurs, and purchased Uighur war horses and grain.
The Uighurs were naturally dissatisfied, especially since the grasslands had a huge demand for ironware, so they strongly demanded that ironware be added to the trade list.
Shang Bo is still negotiating with the Uighurs here, and Prince Yidijian is not a fool. Since he can't buy it from King Huijianning, he can buy it from other places in the Tang Dynasty!
As a result, the Suzhou Governor's Office in Jiuquan became the party squeezed by the Uighurs.
Dou Hao felt his scalp was numb. Nothing in Jiuquan City was worrying.
Dou Hao came from a big family. He failed in the imperial examination and chose to become an official in the frontier. He originally wanted to achieve military success and return to the two capitals, but he was trapped in Suzhou with Liu Chenbi, the governor of Suzhou.
Just when Dou Hao was in a state of panic, the leaders of several wealthy clans in the city teamed up to find Dou Hao.
Dou Hao received these wealthy leaders in the side hall of the Governor's Mansion. As a Confucian official, Dou Hao was still very close to these local sages. After all, he himself also came from a wealthy family. Compared with those ignorant mud-legged people, Dou Hao
These local sages can always take care of the governor's worries.
After all the "village sages" sat down, Dou Hao asked his servants to serve tea, and said with a smile: "If it weren't for the strong support of all the sages, the war horses requested by the court could not be gathered so quickly last time, so I would have given you tea instead of wine.
Here’s to you all.”
The chiefs of all the big clans raised their tea cups one after another, and the atmosphere in the side hall was full of joy.
At this time, the oldest and most prestigious leader of the Huang clan stood up and said: "Chang Shi Dou, we are here to take the initiative to share the worries of the Governor's Mansion."
An expression of surprise appeared on Dou Hao's face, and he quickly said: "All the wise men can actually take the initiative to relieve the country's worries. Our Suzhou is indeed the most benevolent city in Longyou!"
Patriarch Huang said with a smile: "We have already discussed this time, and we are going to make up for the shortfall in horse purchases for the governor's office! We will make up for the shortfall no matter how much money is left!"
Dou Hao was so moved that he almost cried. What does it mean to be a good person? This is called a kind person!
As expected of a wealthy family in Suzhou, they were able to sacrifice themselves to share the worries of the imperial court!
However, Patriarch Huang changed the subject and said: "But this time the Falcons want Guazhou Iron, so we, the common people, have no choice."
Dou Hao said with a heartbeat: "We, the governor's office, will come up with a solution. At worst, we will send people to Guazhou to buy iron. When the time comes, it will be renamed Suzhou Iron and sold to these Uighurs."
The problem of buying horses was solved, and Dou Hao was in a good mood.
At this time, several clan leaders exchanged glances, and it was Patriarch Huang who said: "But this time we passed the test, what will we do next time? Dou Changshi, we are here to provide advice to the governor's office."
Dou Hao was in a good mood and immediately said: "If you have any suggestions, please submit them as soon as possible. I will submit them to Prefect Liu in person."
Patriarch Huang said: "Now that the Suzhou racecourse is abandoned, it is really sad that this large piece of land is abandoned. We want to rent the racecourse from the Governor's Mansion to plant mulberry seedlings."
Dou Hao was stunned. As the governor of Suzhou who actually controlled Suzhou, Dou Hao understood that the price of silk was rising three times a day.
It's just that Hexi has never been a silk producing area, and the biggest profits have been made by merchants in the customs.
Seeing that such a large piece of cake has been profited by the silk merchants in the pass, the local wealthy people are naturally interested in getting a piece of the pie.
Although there is also sericulture and mulberry farming in Hexi, it is only sporadic and not as large as Jianghuai.
But mulberry trees can also be planted in Hexi, and silkworms can also be raised and spun. Is this method feasible if I rent the land at the horse farm to plant mulberry trees?