Hand over the jade seal first [Infrastructure]

Chapter 347

To be honest, Xiao Zirong never thought that he would make a fortune selling medicine.

All he thought about before was to expand trade with other countries, and now the Northland has been occupied by them, so strictly speaking, the Silk Road has returned to his hands, and he has already begun to plan how to make good use of it up.

As a result, now it seems... let's stop for a while on any road.

Xiao Zirong first asked people to isolate the messenger and asked what happened in Persia.

Why did the plague go there?Did it come from the west at all?Up to now, he doubts how Yuan Ke got the plague out, if it came from outside, it can explain it.

It's just that what he didn't expect was that Persia had really suffered an indiscriminate disaster: they are now in a vassal relationship with Xie Da.

That is to say, Persia is going to pay tribute to Xie Da, and after Xie Da experienced the plague, the money in his hand was almost emptied by Xiao Zirong.

Now that they can't win against Qi, they don't dare to fight, for fear of being infected with the plague, why don't they have to find trouble with other countries that can't beat them.

Persia was the first to be exploited because it was the closest.

In the beginning, Heda would kill those poor slaves who could not be cured, or they did not want to be cured at all. Later, they found that killing was for nothing. It is better to squeeze the surplus value of these people and let these people fight for Heda. It's good to win, but it doesn't matter if you can't, lest they kill them.

You must know that killing people also requires contact with these infected people.

Then, after knowing that many people died in Heda, Persia felt that they could still support themselves, so they wanted to fight back, but they were beaten by Heda, and they were also infected with the plague. .

As for the news of the miracle medicine in Qi State, it was brought by merchants, but many merchants have always taken the sea route, and they don't know how the plague came.

And there were a lot of things during that time, Xiao Zirong didn't suppress the news that Heda almost slaughtered the entire Fuyang, and he didn't suppress the matter of buying medicine from them. Daren did some experiments and made sure that there is no problem before using it for everyone.

So when it came to folk rumors, it was Heda who brought the plague to the Central Plains. His Majesty had the world in his heart. Even if the people in the Northern Wei Dynasty were infected at the beginning, he still took the lead in developing a cure.

The businessman said so, and Persia also believed it. After all, the relationship between Persia and Qi has always been good, and private business exchanges are very prosperous, but Persia and Heda are real enemies.

So while hating Xida, they demanded to buy medicines that could treat the plague.

No matter how much Persia pays tribute to Heda, no matter how poor they are, they will never be as poor as the Persian nobles.

But now that nobles in Persia have begun to be infected, everyone is panicking.

If there is no cure, something big may happen, but now that there is hope, everyone pins their hope on Qi Guo.

Xiao Zirong felt a little tricky and asked, "How much will they pay for it?"

In fact, according to the form of Beidi, strictly speaking, the streptocin in their hands is not enough.

But this shortage is based on the index that all patients take streptavidin. In fact... many people can't afford it at all. Even though Xiao Zirong has lowered the price to almost the cost price, more ordinary people seem to still plan to take it. Resign yourself to fate.

Xiao Zirong had asked Jinling to urgently set up a factory to produce streptomycin before. He didn't know how long the plague would last, but it was always useful to have more.

Because the plague... is not only contagious to humans, it is called the plague because rats can also transmit the virus to humans.

Therefore, according to the current production cycle and quantity, it is not impossible to divide them out. Anyway, Xiao Xuexing has cut the mess quickly and set up several points to circle all the sick people. If there is no source of infection outside, the number of infected people will always be will come down.

As a result, the price offered by Persia was higher than that of Heda, which surprised Xiao Zirong very much.

He originally thought that Persia would ask Qi to lower the price on the grounds that the relationship between the two countries was good, but he didn't expect that the other party would actually pay more.

Xiao Zirong didn't ask the Persian envoy about everything, but called Xie Lianyun and asked her about the recent news from the Privy Council.

After hearing this, Xie Lianyun pursed her lips and said with a smile: "Boss is afraid of us."

Xiao Zirong's face was full of question marks: "What are you afraid of us doing? We have never bullied them."

Xie Lianyun said: "Because the regent beat Xi Da away."

Persians hate Heda, but they are also afraid of Heda. Heda’s fighting power is too strong, and now that distant eastern country can even beat Heda away, even as the country where the disease first appeared, they didn’t even develop it If there is any medicine that can be cured, they can only ask Qi State for help, and Persia dare not say anything, for fear that Qi State will not sell them medicine.

After hearing this, Xiao Zirong didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and turned to Xiao Xuexing and said, "Hey, speaking of it, both Persia and Heda are countries with their own beliefs. I thought they would ask their gods for help."

In fact, Qi also has beliefs, but the belief system of the Han people has always been very strange. They have never fanatically worshiped a certain god.

Xiao Xuexing smiled slightly after hearing this: "People who can sit in the position of ruler are not stupid, religion is just a tool."

Well, this is something he can only talk about privately with Xiao Zirong, and it's not easy to talk about it with anyone.

After all, there are still many people who believe in Buddhism in the court.

Xiao Zirong was emotional, and turned to tell the Persian envoys to sell them the medicine at the same price as Xida, but the transportation cost will still be added. As for the Persians themselves, he is afraid that the virus will bring it here.

In fact, there are not many places used by merchant ships to transport streptavidin, and they do not make a special trip to transport this stuff, they will also transport other commodities.

So Xiao Zirong earned a wave of shipping money for nothing, and made the Persians feel grateful to him, thinking that the emperor of Qi is really a gentle and good person.

This gentle and good man immediately adjusted the structure of the goods traded between Yuxu Trading Company and Persia, reducing the proportion of porcelain and silk, and increasing the proportion of food.

He even asked people to get out fried noodles, which are convenient to eat and satisfy hunger, and the most important thing is that the price is not high.

As for why the price is not high even though oil is used... Who told him to produce soybean oil? He had previously asked Yuxu Trading Company to buy a large amount of soybeans in Wei State, and then crush them into soybean oil and sell them.

To be honest, the oil output of soybeans is actually not large, and the process is also very rough. If it is not for the high oil price, it may not be easy to make money.

It is understandable for Xiao Zirong to ask the merchant ship to adjust the cargo structure, but why is it necessary to transport fried noodles with oil instead of grain?

Faced with such a question, Xiao Zirong said with a slumped face, "Because food is a strategic material, but fried noodles and other convenience foods are not."

If the transportation of grain really starts, the merchants below will do it when they see the emperor, so why can't they?

This is a bad start. As for other people transporting fried noodles like him, not to mention anything else, even if it is smuggled out, no one will buy it.

Xiao Zirong's so-called high quality and low price is based on a certain basis, and those ordinary people in a stable country will not buy this thing.

He let the shipment be based on the judgment of the shortage of materials during the epidemic. At that time, the price of food will soar and the currency will depreciate. The less developed the country, the easier it is to suffer such an impact.

At that time, I am afraid that not only will people die because of the epidemic, but more people will die because they cannot afford food. What is even more frightening is that these people may still be the middle class.

Xiao Zirong is also targeting the middle class, only they have money.

What's even better is that Persian money is generally gold or silver coins, so there is no such thing as a currency that is not in circulation.

Everyone felt that the emperor's order was somewhat inexplicable, and many people even disliked him.

If you think that food is a strategic material, there are other things, such as those hard scones that don't contain any oil.

Regarding this, Xiao Zirong felt that he didn't want to earn money from the poor, so was there something wrong with trying so hard to transport so many scones?How much money does the poor have.

Not to mention that there are people who really do this, they are still inspired by Xiao Zirong.

As a result, a boatload of scones was transported there, and after calculating the gas and other expenses, the profit made after adding and subtracting was pitifully small.

And because of the warm and humid climate over there, the plague has already broken out, so flashy things like silk and porcelain are indeed not easy to sell.

Of course, it's not that they can't be sold, it's just that the price is low, because now those who can afford to buy are the nobles, and the nobles are not stupid, so they naturally want to lower the price after they find that no one is robbing them.

Therefore, whether it is selling scones or silk porcelain, the profits have dropped a lot.

Only Yuxu Trading Company went upstream and made a lot of money.

The price of fried noodles they set is already cheaper than the food in Persia, so it is very popular.

Counting the money for streptavidin, the emperor's small coffers are full again!

Coupled with the fact that Beidi has been preliminarily controlled, Xiao Zirong happily said at the Xiaochao meeting: "Let's start to reward meritorious deeds."

There has been a wave of rewards for money and the like before, this time it is mainly about increasing officials and becoming nobles.

For example, officials from the Sangong and Liubu are not easy to transfer, so they give some false titles based on their merits, which is to give these people an extra salary.

Of course, those who have done more meritorious service will be given knight titles, but most of them are knighted because of their military exploits.

Xiao Xuexing, who had made the most contributions, was unable to be conferred a title. Xiao Zirong thought about it and directly added the title of Prince and Taifu to him.

So the regent changed himself and became the prince's teacher again, stepping into the ranks of the three princes.

The addition of officials and honors and the amnesty made everyone happy. At this moment, the emperor said, "Okay, it's time to discuss the construction of Chang'an."