"Prime Minister, what's wrong? When I was in Chang'an City, I remember that you could drink a thousand cups without getting drunk. Today, you only drank a little. Could it be that you can't hold the glass steadily? I think this wine should be fine. It's the same as the Datang Tianniang sold in Chang'an City."
Li Xiang shook his wine glass and said, the wine in the glass gave off a fragrance, and Lu Dongzan felt humiliated again. Although he wanted to stop drinking this kind of wine, among the Tubo nobles, Datang Tianniang had become a habit. This kind of liquor seemed to have magic. After you drank such a wine once, other wines were like plain water, and no one could drink it.
In addition, Li Xiang has already figured out everyone's mentality. If you don't drink it, it means you don't have money. All the nobles are scrambling to buy it. Who wants others to say that they don't have money? The life of the nobles is to show off. It's not easy to get such a product. If you don't rush to buy it, others will think that you have an unstable foundation.
Lu Dongzan had never paid attention to this before, but after his subordinates investigated it, he knew that Datang Tianniang was too powerful. In addition to the high selling price, the various freight costs along the way were also relatively expensive. It can be said that through the export of this liquor, all industries in the Tang Dynasty benefited, and the only one who suffered was Tubo.
After working hard for a year to earn money, the slave owner spent all the money earned by thousands of slaves in a year to buy this thing in order to live a luxurious life. He finished it in two bites at the banquet.
This is of no benefit to the entire Tubo. In order to continue to compete, the slave owners have fallen into a dead end. They must buy more luxury goods to make themselves stand out from the crowd. As for the life and death of these lower-level slaves, it has nothing to do with them, and they have never considered this at all.
Nothing may be seen in the short term, but if time goes on, the distance between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty will become farther and farther. The Tang Dynasty earns a lot of money from Tubo every year. After a period of time, the gap will become larger and larger, and Tubo may not be able to support it. The Tang Dynasty will be able to take over Tubo without bloodshed. Liquor is just one of the commodities, and other commodities are also constantly corroding Tubo.
Lu Dongzan had read some records of the checkpoints. The Tang Dynasty had controls over Tubo. Many things related to war were strictly prohibited from export, or there were certain quotas. On the other hand, the Tang Dynasty opened its doors to Tubo for luxury goods like this. As long as you have enough money, I have enough quantity and will be responsible for delivering it to you.
"Master Prime Minister?"
Li Xiang saw that Lu Dongzan didn't speak for a long time, and he didn't know what was in this guy's head, so he could only gently touch the table with his wine glass to pull Lu Dongzan out of his thoughts.
"What do you know?"
When Lu Dongzan said this, he felt a little cold all over. Li Xiang couldn't have mentioned food for no reason. We just talked about the issue of food, and Li Xiang was already preparing to block the border. If someone else said this, Lu Dongzan would think he had a problem with his brain, but Li Xiang was the third most important person in the entire Tang Dynasty, and he absolutely had the right to block the border.
"I don't know much. I only know that food prices in Tibet have skyrocketed, and I have more than enough food. How much more food? It's enough to feed your people for a year. But I'm not giving my food away for charity. I want more profit."
Li Xiang's face looked very relaxed, but the more relaxed this guy looked, the more Lu Dongzan hated him. They were obviously top figures from both countries, so why was I the one who worried every time they met? Whether in Tubo or Tuyuhun, it seemed that there was no way to catch this guy. If it weren't for the relationship between the two countries, Lu Dongzan really wanted to pick up the wine jar next to him and make Li Xiang's head explode.
Of course, as the prime minister of Tubo, he would never let me do this. When you went to the Tang Dynasty, they let you come back safely. Although Li Xiang wanted to kill him very much, he finally let him come back. This is the great style of the Tang Dynasty.
But if Li Xiang were to cause trouble in your territory, how would you explain it to the Tang Dynasty? Putting that aside, Tubo was already in turmoil. The border regions were filled with Li Xiang's cronies. If anything happened to Li Xiang, these people wouldn't even dare to lead their troops south to crush Tubo without Chang'an's consent. That would engulf the land in bloodshed. So Lu Dongzan lowered his hand to the side, trying to stay away from the wine jar to avoid being tempted.
"I know you have grain, and I also know you've bought a lot of land in the Tang Dynasty. But the Tang Dynasty has plenty of grain, and not all of it is in your hands. You and your son can't control all the merchants in the Tang Dynasty. They're all buying grain at high prices anyway. I can negotiate with them and not let you make this money."
Lu Dongzan sneered and said that what he said was theoretically feasible. All the major families had trade routes to Tubo. Even if Li Xiang blocked the border, a batch of grain would still be shipped in.
"Your Excellency, the Prime Minister, has studied the Tang Dynasty thoroughly, but you should also have heard that the major families have very close business cooperation with me. If I were to inform them, I believe that not many would cooperate with you. At the same time, I am using official force to block the entire border. How much food can you still get?"
Li Xiang sneered and countered Lu Dongzan's moves. Although Lu Dongzan's brain was quick, in the face of absolute strength, all kinds of conspiracies and tricks were of little use. No matter how many ways you come up with, our strength is stronger than yours, and the same method can break all of your ways.
Lu Dongzan clenched his fists, breathing heavily as he sat there, just as he had outside Chang'an. When he ran out of ideas, he could only express his dissatisfaction in this way. Many people in the audience were wondering, hadn't the two of them just been chatting happily? Why did our Prime Minister's expression change now? Was there something wrong with what they were talking about? If so, would the Tang army intervene in Tubo's affairs? If they had such an idea, then the lesson of Tuyuhun...