When Li Yan suddenly asked such an inexplicable question, Li Ke next to him looked at Li Yan with a daze. Although he was not interested in what County Magistrate Xie introduced, he also heard it from beginning to end. However, he couldn't understand where Li Yan judged the decline in tax revenue in Suzhou and several counties?

However, when Magistrate Xie heard Li Yan's question, he was stunned. After a while, he woke up and stood up and bowed to Li Yan and said, "Your Highness King Qi is really a god. Since the second half of last year, some problems have occurred in the local and nearby taxes. Some time ago, Zheng Biejia from Suzhou also summoned us to discuss matters, mainly because of the tax reduction."

Hearing this, not only did Li Yun and Li Zhen wake up, but Li Ke showed a look of concern. After all, this is his fiefdom, and he also had to bear certain responsibilities for reducing taxes. Therefore, he was naturally very concerned. Li Ke was also very surprised, why did Li Yan know Suzhou more clearly than he knew?

Hearing the praise from County Magistrate Xie, Li Yan did not show any slight pride on his face, but continued: "Mr. Xie, I believe you know the reason for the reduction of taxes than us, so please explain it carefully!"

Although County Magistrate Xie still couldn't figure out what the King of Qi was going to do, he did not dare to neglect the other party's performance. After organizing the language, he explained the reasons for the reduction of local tax revenue.

In fact, this matter has a lot to do with Li Yan. It can even be said that the reduction in tax revenue in Suzhou was caused by Li Yan. This matter is a long story, and it has to start with the local economic situation in Suzhou.

Since the establishment of the ancient city of Suzhou in the Spring and Autumn Period, this is the famous land of fish and rice. It is not only rich in rice and tea. It also has one of the most important products, which is exquisite silk. Suzhou is known as the home of silk. Almost every family in the country grows mulberry trees and raises silkworms. Then bleach the harvested silk cocoons, and then use the delicate hands of women from the southern world to make them into extremely exquisite silk, and then sell them to all directions through merchants. Even the Eastern Roman Empire in the extreme west, the upper nobles are proud to wear silk.

It is no exaggeration to say that silk accounts for almost half of Suzhou's fiscal revenue. Originally, silk is a scarce thing everywhere, and Suzhou has never worried about the sales of silk. However, this situation changed last year. With Li Yan's huge investment in the textile industry and the increasing source of cotton, more and more cotton cloths flowed to the market, starting to squeeze the living space of other fabrics.

At the beginning, because the cotton textile technology was relatively primitive, the cotton fabric spun was very rough and had only an advantage over linen. So the only thing that was seized was the linen market. However, with more and more businesses entering the textile industry, coupled with the promotion of Li Yan, the textile technology was updated very quickly. In a short period of time, the quality of cotton fabrics has risen several steps, and the texture of cotton fabrics is becoming more and more fine and smooth, and has begun to compete with silk for the high-end fabric market.

In fact, in comparison, the texture and smoothness of silk are not comparable to cotton cloth. Therefore, the main clothing of wealthy families is still the first, and even some medium-sized families are proud of wearing silk. Therefore, no matter how exquisite the cotton cloth is, it cannot shake the status of top-grade fabrics such as silk.

But what is mentioned above only refers to the Tang Dynasty. Only a small part of the silk produced by the Tang Dynasty is used for sale in China. Most of the silk is actually sold out by sea or land. For example, the Silk Road starting from Chang'an. Although the goods on this road are not just silk, silk is the most representative product.

However, with the rise of cotton cloth, the merchants in the north suddenly discovered that they did not have to travel thousands of miles to the south. Then they begged grandpa and grandma to order more silk. Around them, there were a large number of cotton cloths that were cheaper and more wear-resistant than silk. These cotton cloths were transported out by merchants through the Silk Road. Although the selling price was lower than silk, because the cost was originally low, in comparison, cotton cloth still brought higher profits.

It is precisely because of this situation that cotton cloth slowly replaced silk on the Northern Silk Road and became one of the main products of the Tang Dynasty to the outside world. The sales route in the north was blocked, and the impact on silk production was very huge. Although shipping in the south could also solve some of the sales problems, due to the limitations of navigation technology, some of the silk was still accumulated.

The poor sales of silk naturally caused a series of bad consequences. First of all, the decrease in merchants purchasing silk, resulting in a decrease in the price of silk. Once the price of silk is reduced, the purchase price of silk cocoons will naturally decrease accordingly. The cocoons cannot be sold at the price, which makes silkworm farmers who make a living by raising silkworms on the verge of bankruptcy, and more and more people cannot eat. For example, the spring famine problem that County Magistrate Xie had to solve before coming, most of the people who could not eat were silkworm farmers, but these fishermen on the beach were not affected much.

The sericulture industry was hit hard. Suzhou, as one of the main production areas of silk, was naturally deeply affected. Silkworm farmers were on the one hand, and taxes were naturally much more difficult. Speaking of the Tang Dynasty, the taxes were relatively complicated, such as renting, land tax, household tax, etc. However, in the early Tang Dynasty, the tax was mainly renting, and the taxes were actually counted as capita tax, which means that the tax paid by each person every year was fixed. In theory, this tax would not be affected too much. However, now silkworm farmers cannot even eat food and naturally cannot pay taxes. Therefore, this main tax cannot be collected, and Suzhou's taxes were naturally greatly affected.

After Magistrate Xie finished speaking, Li Ke looked at Li Yan with a depressed look on his face and said, "Sixth brother, it turns out that the tax revenue of my fiefdom is reduced because of your reasons!"

After hearing this, Li Yan gave Li Ke a blank look and said, "Third Brother, what you said is wrong. In fact, you are also the main promoter of the textile industry. Now you have many textile factories under your name!"

Uh~! Li Yan's words left Li Ke speechless. Indeed, the textile industry in his house is managed by Wang Zihao, and there are also a lot of profits every year.

"Hehe~, in this way, Brother Qi and I have a share, and each of us has a textile factory." Li Zhen also scratched his head and smiled. The textile industry was just starting, and countless Chang'an nobles were involved. Li Yun and Li Zhen were naturally no exception. What's more, they are Li Yan's brothers, so it's more convenient to enter the textile industry.

County Magistrate Xie looked at the four princes in front of him with a little depressed depressed. It was their Chang'an nobles who took the lead, which led to the rapid development of the textile industry and caused the silk industry in the south to be hit. Now, not only their Suzhou area, but also other areas with relatively developed sericulture industries have encountered the same situation.

"Mr. Xie, the reason why I came here today is to solve the problem of silk sales, but this is not an easy task, so it may take several years." Li Yan saw the appearance of Magistrate Xie and smiled and told the main purpose of this visit.

"Your Highness, can you really solve the problem of silk?" Hearing Li Yan's words, County Magistrate Xie immediately stood up excitedly. He was a man who was worried about the country and the people. These days, the sericulture industry in Huating County was almost grayed out. Moreover, he was born in the Jiangdong clan, and the sericulture industry was the main economic pillar. Therefore, both in public and private, he hopes to solve the sales problem of silk as soon as possible.

"Mr. Xie asked this question wrong. No one in the world knows my sixth brother's ability. Not to mention that it is just a small sales problem, even if you build an industry that makes more money than silk, it is just a matter of easy handling!" Li Zhen was in a good mood because he had already smelled a trace of money from his sixth brother's words. If the sixth brother can do it this time, he will definitely be able to get a kick in the silk industry.

"Yes! This is not the one who is the one who is in charge!" When County Magistrate Xie heard this, he hurriedly apologized and smiled. The so-called concern is chaos, and he actually forgot that the famous His Highness of Qi was standing in front of him.

"Liulang, what can you do to solve the problem of silk sales?" Li Ke was still a very responsible person after all. Now that he knew that there was a problem under his rule, he naturally wanted to solve it as soon as possible.

"Hehe, actually, this problem is very simple. Silk still has a very good market overseas. The reason why the current situation is actually because of limited transportation capacity, the northern trade routes were taken away by cotton cloth, and the southern shipping capacity was limited. So my solution is to enhance the Tang Dynasty's shipping!" Li Yan said with a smile.

As soon as Li Yan said, not only Li Ke and Li Yun and Li Zhen were disappointed, and even County Magistrate Xie sighed. Li Ke said, "Liu Lang, aren't you nonsense? We also know how to enhance shipping, but this is not something that can be done overnight. If your shipping develops, the silkworm farmers in the Tang Dynasty would have been starved to death long ago."

After hearing this, Li Yan laughed a few times. After a while, he said, "Third Brother, you don't know. In fact, the shipping industry in Datang has been very prosperous, and it is even enough to take on the ability to develop shipping. It's a pity that our Datang's sea merchants are too timid, and the risk of shipping in Shanghai is too great. So when no one organizes it, few people are willing to run too far. I came to the south this time to solve this problem!"

"Liulang, what do you mean?" Li Ke seemed to understand something vaguely?

"My meaning is actually very simple. In the past two years, I will use Liuqiu and other places as a base to integrate the sea transportation forces of the Tang Dynasty, and then form a large fleet to sail outward to reduce the risk of sea transportation. In this way, my sea transportation capacity of the Tang Dynasty will increase exponentially, and the sales of silk will naturally be solved!" Li Yan suddenly stood up, took two steps forward, and said with a heroic look to everyone.

Although Li Ke understood Li Yan's words, he still couldn't understand one thing, that is, why did Li Yan bring them to Huating? After all, integrating the maritime transportation power seems to have no close contact with this place?
Chapter completed!