Zhenguan Xiaoxian Wang Li Shen Li Shimin

Li Shen was not at all impressed by Wang Hongfu's flattery. It was not his job to care about the people.

All he thinks about now is how to make money.

How to make more money from eating.

"Okay, let's leave it at that for now regarding the merchants from the Arab Empire. Let's discuss how to target the Arab Empire.

The Hashim family alone is not enough, and after their victory they will still be the only dominant family, which is not what this king wants to see.

We need to send people to contact those countries occupied by the Arabs, such as Coptic,

After a country with a thousand-year heritage was occupied, there must be people who want to restore their country. We can support them.

This Xuan Ce requires you to send someone over.

As for the sea route, we need to notify Fuzhou to see how many large clipper ships have been launched there.

The manpower will come from the old people under Zhao Laosi. If he doesn’t have enough manpower, let him recruit it himself.”

Li Shen made careful arrangements.

At this time, Wang Xuance suggested:

“Your Majesty, I think we don’t talk about alliances with them, we only talk about business transactions with them.

What do they need and what can we satisfy them?

This way, our true intentions will not be easily exposed.

It is the same with our contact with other forces seeking to restore their country. It is just a business relationship. If they want food and weapons, we can satisfy them.

But it is just a business relationship. If the Arabs find out about this in the future, they will only think that we are profit-seeking merchants.

They would never think that we are trying to divide them and deplete their national strength.”

"Well, that's a good suggestion."

Li Shen nodded with satisfaction and continued:

“We really can’t reveal our intentions, and we can still make money through trading cooperation.

Oh, and we need to send someone to contact Persia, using my personal name.

Just say that the king sympathizes with their plight and condemns the robbery behavior of the Arabs.

This king is willing to help Persia resist the Arabs within his ability, and can pay them for the food and weapons they want."

"Your Highness, do you mean to let Persia hold back the Arabs?"

Wang Xuance immediately realized Li Shen's intention.

"That's right. We need to hold back the Arab army and make them flourish everywhere. If their army goes back to support us,

We will lure Persia to regain lost territory while counterattacking the Arabs.

And let the Persians unite with the Byzantines, and let the Arabs fight on multiple fronts."

After hearing Li Shen's words, Wang Hongfu interrupted:

"Your Majesty, Persia has lost most of its land, and I think they don't have much wealth left.

If we aid them, there is a good chance that we will get nothing.”

"You know nothing." Li Shen shook his head.

“Helping Persia does not necessarily mean getting gold and silver, but also their support, land, minerals, and even population.

Of course we can't donate for free, I'm not a fool.

The prerequisite for giving them supplies is payment. Now that they don’t have money, we can write an IOU.

We want land that can serve as an enclave of our Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, where we can station troops.

We can take their gold, silver, copper and iron mines.

We can also ask them for population, as a new race in Datang, to increase the labor force."

"But sir, what if Persia is defeated?"

Wang Xuance reminded.

"Defeated? If we lost, then we lost. We just gave away some food and weapons. How much money can we lose?

Just think of it as losing the bet, but what if Persia wins?

Not only did we achieve our goal against the Arabs, we were also richly rewarded."

Li Shen had a smile on his face. Isn't this what Western countries do in the Middle East?

War is always the fastest and most effective way to accumulate wealth.

"Your Majesty, what if Persia wins but refuses to acknowledge it or fulfills its promise?"

Wang Xuance poured basin after basin of cold water.

"Xuan Ce, if they don't fulfill their promise, then we will deal with Persia and ruin their reputation.

The Tang Dynasty did not allow Persian merchants to travel.

We turned around and helped Byzantium attack Persia.

Moreover, I don’t believe that after seeing the power of the Tang Dynasty, they still dare to act rogue against me.

Don't forget, we have an army on the border of Anxi Protectorate, which is not far from Persia."

His father has already said that tomorrow they will prepare to retaliate against those small countries that provoke the Tang Dynasty and rely on the Western Turkic forces.

Places like Yanqi, Qiuci, Yaoxian, Shanshan, and Khotan were all the main targets of the Tang Dynasty.

One is that they constantly provoke the Tang Dynasty, and the other is the geographical location of these small countries.

They are all located on the Silk Road to the Western Regions, and their geographical location is very important.

Attacking them was also to ensure that Tang merchants could travel to the Western Regions smoothly.

After hearing Li Shen's arrangement, everyone agreed. The strength of the Tang Dynasty had been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and distance was not a problem. The enemy would be punished even if they were far away.

"Okay, everyone knows the mission now. We will start executing it tomorrow. I don't want any mistakes.

Tomorrow I will go in person to discuss cooperation with those Arabs, and we should do a full job.

You all go get busy.”

After finishing the discussion, Li Shen felt a little tired.

"I'm waiting to retire."

Several people stood up, saluted, and left. They still had a lot of things to do, especially Wang Hongfu, who had the most things to do.

After they left, Li Shen returned to the inner house and told Lu Dingniang about the blanket.

Lu Dingniang felt a little distressed when she heard Li Shen's plan. It was not just the blankets that the palace had now. From what Li Shen meant, he wanted to purchase more.

Purchasing gold and silver jewelry from the Western Regions to reward servants made Lu Dingniang cry out that she was a spendthrift.

However, Lu Dingniang also understood that her husband was doing great things, even though the outside world said that Prince Ji was unlearned and only knew how to enjoy himself.

But Lu Dingniang knew that her husband was a man of great wisdom, and he just used his dandy ways to cover it up.

The next day

In front of Chunming Gate.

It was not yet dawn, but there were already quite a few merchants and common people waiting here, preparing to leave the city.

The garbage truck from Prince Ji’s mansion was also among them. It usually stood in the front row, but today it was in the middle.

Many people thought they were late after seeing this.

While waiting, someone saw two or three blankets covering the garbage truck of Prince Ji's mansion.

The color is eye-catching and the pattern is gorgeous. Although there is some dirt and dust on it, you can still see the extraordinary gorgeousness of the blanket.

Many merchants recognized at a glance that these blankets were produced in the Western Regions and were top-quality blankets from the Western Regions.

"Xiao Liu, today is finally our turn to get rich."

Two servants in Prince Ji's mansion who were in charge of transporting garbage were chatting.

The two of them did not hide anything, and one of them spoke to the man named Xiaoliu.

"Yes, Third Brother, it's finally our turn. Zhang Dou and Er Gou have made a lot of money in the past few months."

Xiaoliu's face was full of envy.