After looking around here, Li Xiang came to another grain-producing area. Wheat was planted there just now, but high-yield potatoes were planted here.
In the 21st century, the average potato yield per mu can reach 5,000 kilograms. If the management is good, 8,000 to 10,000 kilograms is also possible. The seeds exchanged from the system are the best, and it says 8,000 to 10,000 kilograms. Li Xiang doesn't know how much can be produced here.
This was dug out in advance, so except for our own people, everyone else has left, so there is no need to be so careful with what you say. In fact, there is no need to send anyone to watch it. After the farmers dug this thing out, they didn’t think it was food at all, and they thought Your Highness was wasting the land.
A yield of 9,000 kilograms per mu is considered acceptable.
Then Li Xiang went to check on the sweet potatoes without stopping. As long as they were exchanged from the system, Li Xiang planted them in the experimental field. At present, the seeds in the system were all fine. In order to test them carefully, Li Xiang also tasted them and found that they could indeed be cultivated on a large scale.
At present, Li Xiang has purchased nearly six million acres of land across the country, and has almost become the largest landlord in the country. Of course, these lands are not concentrated in Li Xiang's hands. All of them are exchanged from the system. After creating a fake identity for them, they are turned into small landlords of various sizes. This way they can get away with it. On the one hand, they can deceive the Five Surnames and Seven Families, and on the other hand, they can deceive Li Shimin.
If all the crops were planted with wheat, with a yield of 2,000 kilograms per mu, it should be able to feed nearly 30 million people. But according to what Li Xiang knows now, there are only about 20 million people in the whole country. If the Five Surnames and Seven Families threaten them with food, Li Xiang can make them leave in an instant in half a year, not to mention the large number of potatoes and sweet potatoes.
Only after he figured this out in his mind did Li Xiang breathe a sigh of relief. Since his rebirth, what Li Xiang feared most was not the surrounding countries, but the Five Surnames and Seven Clans.
In the 21st century, Li Xiang knew a fact: the Tang Dynasty was so powerful, but who defeated it? After reading the entire history of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xiang realized that the Tang Dynasty was defeated by itself.
There was no external force that could threaten us, but the An-Shi Rebellion caused the entire Tang Dynasty to begin to decline. The elite Chang'an Imperial Guards were the strongest army in the country, and the Hedong Border Army under An Lushan was also one of the strongest armies in the Tang Dynasty. When these two armies collided with each other, the comprehensive national strength of the Tang Dynasty was destroyed.
Although the Five Surnames and Seven Families do not have any army now, they have arranged a lot of people in the court and the army. If they are confronted with a tough approach, it will not be good for the current Tang Dynasty. They must be slowly eaten into. However, there have been many conflicts in recent years. Li Xiang and Li Shimin are worried about the same thing, that is, food.
Food is the most important thing for people. These big families control a large amount of grain trade in the country. If they use this as a weapon, Li Shimin would probably have no way to deal with them, especially when a foreign war breaks out. He has to rely on them to deliver food. If these people are unwilling, the military food supply may be cut off at any time.
Now Li Xiang can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Although he only controls a very small part of the country's arable land, it is enough to feed the people of the country. After a few months of good harvest, Li Xiang can establish his own grain sales network across the country and slowly devour the foundations of the Five Surnames and Seven Families.
"How are the sales of Shiobiki?"
Li Xiang suddenly thought of another thing. If he had not gone to Tuyuhun to get this agreement, he might have participated in the auction of salt permits.
"The major families are buying like crazy, and the original pattern has been broken. Now the emperor is very satisfied and is waiting for us to put the best salt on the shelves across the country. By then, the major families will not be able to outsell us. They will lose a lot of money."
Qian Ping has been collecting information in this regard. Regarding the auction of salt permits, Li Xiang and Li Shimin can be said to have made enough money. When the major families raised money before, they put a large amount of collateral in Li Xiang's hands. That was the first time Li Xiang cut their leeks.
When auctioning the salt permits, they bought them at a price more than twice the actual price, which was equivalent to being cheated by Li Shimin again.
During these two times of being exploited, the wealth of their entire family dropped by at least 20%. Don't underestimate this 20%. For a large family, even 1% of it is a huge amount of wealth. Take the sale of salt permits as an example. Li Xiang earned nearly 8 million strings of cash.
Li Shimin made less money due to the lack of business operations and the lack of a capable person to control him, but he still earned nearly three million strings of cash, which was equivalent to a quarter of the annual tax revenue, and in disguise improved the financial difficulties of the Tang Dynasty court.
"The biggest loss should be to the Taiyuan Wang family, right?"
Li Xiang remembered the family that tipped off Tuyuhun. They used to be the largest salt merchants.
"Your Highness is mistaken. The Longxi Li family suffered the greatest loss in this auction."
When hearing this, Li Xiang turned around in surprise. Li Shimin claimed to be from the Longxi Li family, so why didn't he deal with the Taiyuan Wang family, but instead got his own family involved?
"I can't blame anyone for this. If anyone is to blame, it's the greed of the Longxi Li family. They dreamed of taking over one-third of the world's salt merchants through auction. They are probably celebrating now, just waiting for our salt to go on the market. That's when they'll cry."
Qian Ping's description was very apt. According to the price at the auction, each catty of salt must be sold for fifty coins to be worthy of the auction price, and this was for the lowest grade of salt.
But Li Xiang priced the whitest salt at 500 coins per catty, and with several grades below that, the salt merchants probably couldn't afford to set the lowest grade at 50 coins. All the intermediate grades would be priced lower, and according to their pricing strategy, the highest grade should be around 50 coins. Li Xiang had immediately lowered the price tenfold. If they got their hands on the precious salt, they'd be in trouble.
"No matter who they are, they are stumbling blocks to the development of the Tang Dynasty. We can kick them out at any time."
Whether it is the Wang family of Taiyuan or the Li family of Longxi, as long as one of them can get out of this shock, it will be worth all the time spent on preparations.
