Professional Ethics of a Concubine

East Palace.

Crown Prince Xie Jin was discussing the alliance between the two countries with his tutor Ye.

Officials from both countries were very efficient. In just two days, they finalized a preliminary alliance agreement, which also listed the commodities traded between the two countries, the initial transaction shares, and so on.

For example, the trade list provided by the Gulan Kingdom includes jade, such as the famous Hetian jade, spices such as benzoin and frankincense, as well as Western specialties such as wine, carpets, and pomegranates.

In addition, the most important thing is the horse. The war horses in the Western Regions are stronger and have better speed and endurance.

To form a cavalry, good war horses are essential, which is also in short supply in the Great Zhao.

However, war resources such as horses, like salt and iron, are resources that are tightly controlled by the state. The number of horses offered for trade by the Gulan Kingdom in a year is only over a thousand.

But Xie Jin was certainly not satisfied with this number. He wanted at least double the number of war horses, to two thousand.

The more the merrier.

When Su Ting heard Xie Jin's request, he immediately rolled his eyes and said, "Are you trying to steal the horse?"

Even if your mother is a biased empress, you can't do this.

Two thousand horses, absolutely not.

Su Ting made his attitude clear and refused to give in.

He had already felt the powerful aura of the Great Zhao, and he didn't want his own country to supply war horses to the Great Zhao to provide them with additional support.

He was arguing here for some petty benefits, but he didn't realize that his home was about to be robbed.

His empress was planning to send the Gulan Kingdom away to help her son unify the north and achieve her difficult goal of unification.

If you ask why the empress didn't consider giving the throne to her two children, the fifth prince and the fourth princess, it's very simple: the empress felt that they were not capable enough.

She committed treason and stole the imperial power, raising the national strength of Gulan to a new level and expanding its territory outward.

Therefore, in her opinion, the throne should be held by the most capable person, rather than inherited by bloodline.

However, since she had an outstanding son named Xie Jin, she naturally wanted to find ways to get him into bed. There was also a sense of guilt in this, and she wanted to make it up to him.

Xie Jin did not confront Su Ting. Since the two thousand war horses could not be negotiated, he decided to talk about other things first.

Let Su Ting see something that makes him excited, and then renegotiate.

"Your Highness, you should ask Lord Su for cotton. The Hetian jade, wine, and spices on it are all luxury goods.

There is no way to improve people's livelihood, and the only thing we can do is to get some money from the dignitaries."

Ye Qingzhi looked at the items on the trade list and spoke.

Winter is coming soon. Compared with warm clothes such as fox fur, mink fur, and silk cotton, she also misses the soft cotton jacket.

Although cotton was grown in Da Zhao, it was not popularized. The output was very low and only the nobles could afford it.

Presumably, cotton cultivation was popularized earlier in the Western Regions and the yield was higher, because some of the cotton was first introduced from there.

It is necessary to promote and popularize cotton planting as the economic value of cotton is too high.

"Okay, thanks to Qingqing for reminding me that cotton is indeed very important." Xie Jin agreed.

"I'll ask Lord Su about their cotton production and ask for more cotton seeds so that we can promote planting in Dazhao next year."

At this time, the eunuch came to report that Zhou Shutian came to ask for a meeting.

"Lord Zhou should be here to announce the good news. Qingqing, please go with me to meet him." Xie Jin said to Ye Qingzhi with a smile.

"You should also listen to the harvest of your experimental fields and the fungi you asked people to tinker with, to see if there is any progress?"

"Okay." Ye Qingzhi felt a little guilty when she heard him talk about growing fungi.

"I just mentioned it briefly, and I can't give any advice on planting. Just let the people below do it. It will probably cost a lot of money to make it successful."

"It costs money, of course. How can researching new things not cost money?" Xie Jin said with a smile.

"The soap, sugar, and method of purifying salt you mentioned earlier have all been successful after a period of experimentation.

These alone are enough to give you a great credit, and I will report them to my father and ask for your credit."

"Stop, stop, stop, Your Highness, stop talking. I am just a half-baked liar. Thanks to the hard work of the craftsmen below."

Ye Qingzhi covered her face with her left hand, waved her right hand, and said with great shame,

"Don't give me credit for my achievements. Instead, give more money to the craftsmen below to encourage them to innovate more in the future."

Who in my family understands? Reading novels can really increase your knowledge!

Although she had long since returned the chemistry knowledge she learned in junior high and high school to her teachers, she had read a lot of farming literature before and had a general understanding of how soap was made, how sugar was refined, and how salt was purified in ancient times.

Although she didn't know how to operate it, she still had an impression of the general direction and key technical points.

After all, in eight out of ten farming novels, the heroines make their fortunes by making soap or sugar, and some of them are even written in great detail!

Of course, there are also many people who make tofu and braised meat, but these two methods are too common and not suitable for use in the royal family. White sugar and soap are more advanced.

For example, if she wanted to make white sugar, she remembered that she had to use yellow mud water to bleach it, but she couldn't remember the specific steps and didn't quite understand them.

However, she gave a key point and idea, as well as the effect she wanted to achieve. The craftsmen below had a specific direction and it was easy to accomplish the task.

Although she no longer needed to do business to save money, she really couldn't spend her money unless she did charity.

However, soap, white sugar, and pure salt are all good things and can definitely be classified as ancient luxury goods.

Since these luxury goods are made by the royal family, who would dare to steal the recipe or sell counterfeit products?

Once discovered, you can be dealt with immediately, and your entire family will be killed or laid to rest.

These luxury goods are indispensable daily necessities, but they are of better quality and have no trouble selling them.

Not only can it be sold to the big families in Da Zhao to earn money and grain from them, but it can also be sold to Chu, Dayan and other countries to earn money from the enemy countries.

The royal family has money in hand. If you want to recruit soldiers, buy horses, build walls and roads, it’s just a matter of a word.

Moreover, since the royal family and the national treasury had money, they could reduce taxes and levies. There was no need to excessively exploit the lower-class people and increase taxes to support the army, etc. This would give the people time to recuperate.

"Qingqing, you are too modest." Xie Jin said to her seriously.

“You just made a suggestion, but without your suggestion, these things would take longer to produce.

We are not the vested interests, and we do not make the money. There is a huge difference between the two.

The craftsmen should be rewarded, and you should also be rewarded."

Ye Qingzhi nodded and agreed.

Isn't it just that the superiors just talk and the subordinates run around, but in the end the superiors still gain both fame and fortune and eat meat and drink porridge?

Tsk tsk, what a feeling… Otherwise everyone likes power.