The custom on the first day of the first lunar month is not to go out, and every household stays at home.
On the first day of the first lunar month, the imperial court usually held a New Year's Day ceremony and hosted a banquet for hundreds of officials.
Li Ye's Qi Palace is no exception. There is also a New Year's banquet, but they are not on the first day of the first lunar month, but on the second day of the first lunar month. One reason is of course to avoid the suspicion of overstepping.
Another reason is that every household has to offer sacrifices on New Year's Eve, usually at midnight. Most people have not slept at night and are sleepy, so they need to catch up on their naps on the morning of the first day of the first lunar month.
Perhaps because the emperor was seriously ill this year, the imperial court did not hold a New Year's meeting or determine a new era name. Instead, it simply extended last year's era name by another year, Baoying five years.
On the morning of the second day of the first lunar month, more than 600 officials from Chang'an gathered in the Qin Government Building to listen to the New Year's speech delivered by His Highness King Qi.
Li Ye briefly reviewed last year's achievements. The most important achievement was that they obtained Guanzhong and Chang'an, and included Anxi and Beiting into their territory.
The frontier was stable. Although small groups of Tibetan troops continued to harass them, they were defeated and annihilated by the border troops.
There was a good harvest of food and the people were able to live and work in peace and contentment.
Looking forward to the new year, we will continue to stabilize the border areas, strive to innovate technology, and use technology to increase productivity, increase food production, make the people richer, and make the army stronger.
Li Ye's New Year's speech was not long, and then there was a banquet held in the Huaxianhui Building, where the King of Qi hosted a banquet for all his civil and military officials.
The dancers in many orchestras in Chang'an danced to the sound of music, and the officials welcomed the conversation, making it very lively.
Li Ye only drank two token glasses of wine and left. Everyone felt uncomfortable when he was present. But after he left, everyone was free from restraints and could all be in high spirits and drink to their heart's content.
While the New Year's Eve banquet was in full swing, Li Ye met with Dugu Ming in the official room.
Dugu Ming was not Li Ye's subordinate. He had resigned from all official positions in the imperial court and only retained the title of Duke of Guo in order to maintain filial piety for his mother, Ding You.
However, Li Ye still invited him to attend the New Year Ceremony.
Because of his filial piety, Dugu Ming did not attend any banquets, and naturally he did not attend the New Year's banquet. Moreover, when his daughter got married, he did not prepare a banquet, so he invited relatives and friends in Chang'an to attend a brief wedding ceremony.
"Yesterday, Taiwei changed her tune. I officially named her Liangdi, but I still want to save Taiwei's wedding ceremony until the seventh day of the first lunar month so that she can have a good memory."
Dugu Ming nodded, "Thank you for your understanding, dear son-in-law, and for giving me enough face."
Li Ye pondered for a moment and asked, "I wonder what my father-in-law's plans are after the wedding?"
When Dugu Ming saw that Li Ye had changed his name to his father-in-law, he felt happy and smiled slightly: "I plan to run in both directions in the next time. I will prepare a very comfortable boat so that the journey will not be too tiring."
"I remember that the Dugu family had a shipyard in Jiangdu?"
Dugu Ming nodded, "There are many shipyards in Jiangdu, hundreds of large and small. The Dugu family and the Dou family jointly opened a shipyard in Jiangdu. It was established in the 17th year of Kaiyuan. It mainly built 500-stone to 5,000-ton shipyards."
Shi's cargo ships are the second largest in Jiangdu, second only to the government-run shipyard."
"Have you ever considered building a ten thousand stone sea ship?"
"Of course I have considered it, but the construction of cargo ships or sea-going ships of more than five thousand stones must be approved by the court. In fact, such applications are easy to approve. The factories along the coast of Fuzhou and Quanzhou that build ten-thousand-stone sea-going ships have all been successfully approved.
, but for some reason, the imperial court refused to approve the application we submitted. Later I found out that the emperor did not allow the Guanlong nobles to build ten thousand stone ships, nor did they allow the Guanlong nobles to be involved in smelting and animal husbandry. The emperor was still on guard against us.
"
"It's okay now. I will go all out to develop shipping in the future and will need a large number of ships worth more than 10,000 stone."
Dugu Ming smiled slightly and said: "I can help you, but we don't build ships. We have no advantage in shipbuilding, but we can provide spare parts for sea-going ships. It takes five years to make the keel of a ten-thousand-stone sea-going ship. Guangjiangdu's workshop
In the warehouse, we have stored hundreds of thousands of stone ship keels, as well as various kinds of wood for sea-going ships, and there are countless more."
Li Ye nodded, "You have actually been preparing to build a sea-going ship, but you have never had the chance to build one!"
"It's true. The imperial court didn't allow us to build it, but we were unwilling to accept it. We kept storing and preparing materials. Now we are the largest shipbuilding material merchants in the world, and we also have huge profits."
"What about sea ships? Are there really none?" Li Ye asked again.
Dugu Ming smiled slyly, "There is a Wanshi fleet in Mingzhou, which has something to do with us. There is also a Wanshi fleet in Guangzhou, which is also related to us. If my husband needs a ship, I can think of a way."
Li Ye did not express his position immediately. He smiled and said: "I have two things to do with my father-in-law. First, I hope that my father-in-law can set up a shipbuilding school to train a large number of young craftsmen who can build thousands of stone ships. Should there be a problem?"
Not big, right?"
Dugu Ming nodded, "We have set up a textile school in Jiangning County, with more than 300 students. The response has been very good. We also have experience in running schools. I can arrange for people to set up a shipbuilding school in Jiangdu, Mingzhou and Quanzhou."
School, now that shipwrights have high incomes and are very popular, I believe the shipbuilding school will be very popular."
Li Ye took out another piece of soap and another piece of soap, put them on the table and said: "The big one is soap and can be used for washing. The small one has spices added and is called soap. It is used for bathing."
Dugu Ming was surprised. He picked up the soap and smelled it. He looked at it carefully and asked, "How is it made?"
"It is separated from mutton fat. It is not just mutton fat, but other oils can also be used."
Dugu Ming picked up the soap and went to the pool in the yard to wash his hands. He quickly figured out how to use it. After washing his hands, his hands were clean. He immediately praised: "Good things will definitely sell well. I need to make them."
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Li Ye nodded, "My four wives and concubines each contribute 5,000 yuan, and I will provide the technology. We will account for 70% of the shares, and my father-in-law will be responsible for the production and 30% of the shares. Is that okay?"
"Are you just trying to make some money for Taiwei and the others?"
Li Ye smiled and said: "That's right!"
Dugu Ming thought for a while and said: "It's hard to divide 70%, so let's do it! Each of them will get 20%, and I will get 20%. I will let the rouge factory in Xianyang be responsible for doing this!"
Dugu Ming can think openly. One is his daughter and the other is his niece. There is no problem in letting them make money.
Li Ye took out a booklet and a counter note worth 20,000 yuan and handed it to him, "This is a technical secret. There are also pictures. My father-in-law has put it away. If you don't understand, you can ask me!"
Dugu Ming accepted the money and booklet and said happily: "I will go to Xianyang Factory tomorrow!"
