Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"Your Highness, I would never dare to be disrespectful to you!"

Xiao Rui bowed respectfully once again.

Li Chengqian snorted coldly, having no interest in such trivial matters.

"Let me ask you, what do you think the total population of our Great Tang Dynasty will be at the end of this year, the fourth year of the Zhenguan era?"

Xiao Rui pondered.

"In the ninth year of Wude, the people of our Great Tang had only just recovered a little from the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and there were only five million households. If we calculate that there were four people per household, the population would be no more than twenty million."

"However, the new policies in Bingzhou in the first year of Zhenguan had an impact on the surrounding Guannei Road, Hedong Road and Longyou Road."

"The population growth rate in the southern region is still normal, but the division of households and land in the northern regions has led to a surge in the number of registered households. In the three northern prefectures alone, there are 3.8 million households."

"In the second year of Zhenguan, there were six million households, and an additional 230,000 households of Turkic people were added from the original Eastern Turkic people."

"In the autumn of the third year of the Zhenguan era, the Western Regions and those western prefectures were annexed, and the trade with the Japanese was encouraged on a large scale. The Western Turkic people submitted to the government, which brought in more than 300,000 households..."

Xiao Rui explained things fairly clearly, but the more Li Chengqian listened, the more of a headache he felt.

He gently touched his forehead.

He was the one who initially hoped for a population explosion, but now that the population has indeed grown explosively, he's finding it hard to laugh.

Xiao Rui's voice became increasingly cautious: "I estimate that, since Jiannan Circuit has also launched new policies, although the population census cannot keep up, the new population will increase by at least 20%."

"And at the end of the year, the people of Jiannan Road will finally feel at ease having received their allocated land for a full year. After wholeheartedly acknowledging the new policies that benefit the people, they will want to have children. At that time... we will also have to consider the birth rates in the various northern regions."

"I boldly estimate that the population of our Great Tang Dynasty may reach ten million by the end of this year!"

Tens of millions of people...that's a hundred million people!

Feng Daizhi, who had been silent all along, couldn't help but gasp.

He was nobody.

This was not only due to the teachings of his father, Feng Ang, but also to the survival strategy of the Feng clan of Lingnan during the Tang Dynasty.

When the Tang Dynasty had Li Shimin, the Grand General of Heavenly Strategy, they were like this. Now that another Holy Crown Prince, Li Chengqian, has emerged, the Feng family, the local tyrants of Lingnan, are even more cautious.

Therefore, even the Crown Prince Li Chengqian once sent Feng Daizhi to serve in Taiyuan Prefecture.

But he refused them all.

He dared not leave Chang'an.

Li Chengqian couldn't help but frown.

Of this 100 million people, the proportion of newborns is considerable. With his brutal pro-natalist policies, the saying "If we don't have children, who will inherit our vast fortune?" has become widespread.

As the saying goes, a half-grown boy can eat his father alive.

He also disseminated a great deal of knowledge about health and nutrition through newspapers.

Therefore, the living conditions of the "Zhenguan newborns" will definitely be higher in the future due to their affluent families.

Consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy products will surge, and as children grow older, food consumption will become an even greater expense.

"Hiss... Holy crap, holy crap!" The more Li Chengqian thought about it, the more horrified he felt.

"The people are the people. As the crown prince, those people are his offspring."

When Li Chengqian thought of those children born during the Zhenguan era, they were all densely packed around him, like an army of zombies, muttering things like "Hungry~ Eat~ Eat".

Li Chengqian's face paled slightly.

He... in this life, before even getting married, has already experienced the fear of being controlled by "baby formula money"!

"Your Highness, Your Highness?"

Seeing that Li Chengqian's face was extremely pale, Xiao Rui couldn't help but become nervous as well.

"Your Highness, has something happened?"

Li Chengqian took a deep breath, and at this moment, his gaze finally turned to Feng Daizhi beside him.

“Tianci, go ahead and tell me… Feng Zhuguo must have mentioned the Linyi matter to you as well.”

Feng Daizhi, with a complex expression, respectfully bowed to Li Chengqian.

He then sighed.

"Lord Xiao, there may be some changes regarding the grain supply from Linyi!"

Then he recounted how King Fan Fanzhi of Linyi had discovered that the Tang Dynasty was using cheap glass to buy large quantities of their grain.

Xiao Rui was taken aback when he heard this.

Without even thinking, he started speaking.

"So what? If they're unwilling to sell, then let's not buy it at all! Let's send troops to attack!"

Feng Daizhi looked embarrassed.

He had heard many stories of officials from the Taiyuan Prefecture faction who were shameless and could even make robbery sound respectable.

But Xiao Rui's almost instinctive reaction made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

“Ahem, Lord Xiao, you may not know this, but Linyi is a mountainous and remote place with complex terrain. Even the local natives may get lost in many places. Back in the Sui Dynasty, my father was ordered to annihilate the enemy who entered Lingnan.”

"Even after finally driving them back, it was almost impossible to pursue them..."

"The caravans that went to Lingnan to purchase grain under imperial decree have all bribed many tribal chiefs in Linyi, which is why they have been able to live in peace until now."

Xiao Rui rubbed his chin.

King Fan Fanzhi of Linyi realized that glass was worthless, so all the connections that the Tang Dynasty had cultivated were probably useless now.

"Hiss... This is a bit difficult."

Li Chengqian remained silent, but he actually had a plan in mind: to directly mobilize the Dengzhou Navy, or rather the Tang Dynasty's naval fleet, to sail to Linyi.

But as Feng Daizhi said, the Tang Dynasty has now offended all the tribes of Linyi.

While it's not impossible to ease tensions, Lin Yi is not worthy!

If you've been lied to, you've been lied to. Who told you wild monkeys to evolve so slowly? If my Great Tang hadn't lied to you, would you have had the chance to know that glass is nothing but a cheap thing?

This is what we call paid knowledge!

"Your Highness, why don't we wait and see what conditions the King of Linyi can offer? If that thing on his shoulder isn't glued on yet, and he only offers a token amount, we can pretend nothing happened."

"But if he makes exorbitant demands and doesn't know his own limitations... then it would be better to let Feng Zhuguo lead the troops and take Linyi!"

However, it seems that the slower something evolves, the bolder it is.

In the following days, Li Chengqian consulted with Li Ke about naval matters, preparing to complete the reorganization of the navy into a full-fledged navy as soon as possible.

Sun Yi, the personal eunuch on duty today, hurried over to report.

Queen Kim Deok-seon of Silla requested an audience.

Upon hearing the woman's name, Li Ke, who was lying in front of a nautical chart of the Tang Dynasty's coastline with Li Chengqian, couldn't help but glance at his elder brother, the Emperor.

This woman hasn't left yet?

Could it be that she really thinks she can win the Emperor's favor?

Li Chengqian frowned slightly. With important matters at hand, he had no interest in discussing any unofficial historical stories about the Crown Prince and the Queen.

Just as he was about to refuse outright, he heard Sun Yi whisper a message.

"She said she could help Your Highness solve the problem of the Tang Dynasty's food supply..."

Upon hearing the word "grain," a murderous intent suddenly flashed in Li Chengqian's eyes.

Li Ke frowned even more.

The Tang Dynasty is now thriving in all sectors and is experiencing a period of vigorous development.

If it weren't for the unexpected trouble caused by Lin Yi, who among those in power could have imagined that the Tang Dynasty would face a food shortage?

After all, the Tang Dynasty still has a large number of farms that have begun large-scale planting.

In at most one or two years, the Tang Dynasty could transform from a grain importer to a grain exporter...

"Let her in!"

Li Chengqian snorted coldly, and Li Ke also ordered his men to put away the nautical charts and other such items.

Soon, Queen Kim Deok-man of Silla, led by Son Yi, entered Hyeondeok Hall.

Although the other party had written Li Chengqian many love letters since arriving in the Tang Dynasty two months ago.

But this was the first time Li Chengqian had actually met the other person in person.

It must be said that with her goose-like neck, pink cheeks, and skin as smooth as jade, her appearance was indeed absolutely stunning.

A dignified and elegant oval face, radiating an aura of peace and prosperity...

Unfortunately, Li Chengqian, the future number one "nanny" of the Tang Dynasty, had no time to appreciate any beauty at this moment.

"Queen of Silla, what is the purpose of what you are saying? What do you mean by solving the food problem for my Great Tang?"

Jin Deman bowed respectfully, then took out a document that seemed to have been prepared in advance and handed it to the eunuch Sun Yi standing to the side.

"Your Highness, these are my guards. They've recorded the information they've gathered from various places."

After checking the documents, Sun Yi presented them to Li Chengqian.

Li Chengqian glanced at her, his eyes flashing with even colder killing intent.

Here, there were some messages about Lin Yi cutting off the Tang Dynasty's food supply.

Where did you get the message from?

Jin Deman bowed slightly: "The delegation from Lin Yi Kingdom has quite a few people this time. The Honglu Temple only arranged for some of them to stay at the Sifang Pavilion. Some others just happened to stay at the same inn as my guards."

"We learned of this around that time..."

Li Chengqian immediately snorted coldly.

Standing to the side, Prince Li Ke of Han crossed his arms, his face also icy cold.

"Your Majesty, it seems that the King of Linyi is indeed preparing to make exorbitant demands, otherwise even a nobody in the delegation wouldn't know about this..."

“They will definitely try to keep the news under wraps and come to me privately to negotiate.”

Li Chengqian nodded slightly.

"Sigh... there will never be a shortage of people in this world who want to die..."

He had already made up his mind, casually tossed the document aside, and looked at Kindeman.

"Your Majesty, you just said that you could solve the food problem for my Great Tang... Are you perhaps planning to let Silla take over this business for my Great Tang?"

He gave a half-smile: "Does Her Majesty the Queen also like glass?"

Kindeman: "......."

God the hell!

There are truly few in the world who can be as shameless as the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty.

The glass scam has already been exposed, yet they still want to exchange those worthless junk for a large amount of precious grain.

However, Kindeokman responded with a gentle smile.

"If it were a gift from His Highness the Crown Prince, I would love it even if it were just some wildflower that His Highness casually picked, let alone glass."

Li Chengqian: "???"

WTF?

What does "Kindman" mean?

Is it acceptable to simply accept Silla's grain for free?

what is this?

To starve the entire Silla kingdom just to make the Tang Dynasty's crown prince smile?