"Brother Li, are you a member of the Goryeo royal family?"
"Your Highness, my ancestors were princes, but in my generation, they have fallen on hard times." Li Zida had drunk quite a bit, and his dejected appearance amused Qin Mo.
"I have some business opportunities that I'd like to expand into Korea. Brother Li, would you be interested in introducing me to some Korean merchants?"
"Your Highness, please give me your instructions. I, Li Zida, still have some influence in Goryeo."
Qin Mo didn't speak, but clapped his hands, and his guards immediately brought out two bolts of cotton cloth and silk. These two items were important commodities in the Great Xia's maritime trade and were highly sought after by neighboring countries.
"This... I wonder how much the Crown Prince sells each year? Goryeo is poor, and if he sells too much, I'm afraid he won't have enough money to pay the bills."
Qin Mo secretly curled her lips. Goryeo was poor, but the Goryeo royal family was not poor at all. You were just taking the opportunity to find a market for your Goryeo specialties.
"Ginseng, tiger skin, tiger penis, gold and silver are all acceptable. If all else fails... people aged twelve to sixteen will also do." Qin Mo bared his fangs. The things mentioned earlier weren't actually what he truly wanted. He'd take the gold and silver to Japan, where the gold and silver production was higher than in Da Xia. The bottleneck to Da Yuan's development wasn't money, but population.
Aside from the native inhabitants of the mountains, Dayuan only had tens of thousands of retainers and hundreds of thousands of families brought by Qin Mo's father. Even after more than a decade of reproduction, their population was only around four or five hundred thousand. The number of able-bodied men was less than one hundred thousand, and a large number of able-bodied men were needed for both laborers and sailors.
Qin Mo did not plan to have a large-scale migration from Daxia to Dayuan in the short term; that would be too conspicuous. After all, local officials would not stand idly by if a prefecture or county experienced a significant population loss. Goryeo, on the other hand, was different. With proper indoctrination, it would be easy to cultivate a loyal army of lackeys. The ferocity of Goryeo's auxiliary troops during the Anti-Japanese War was well-known.
"Is what you say true, Your Highness? Even a lowly commoner can exchange for Ci cloth?" Li Zida's face was full of disbelief. For many years, the Great Xia Kingdom had regarded Goryeo as a vassal state, and the people of Great Xia had never given Goryeo a second glance.
"I will send the steward of my household over then, and you can discuss the details." Looking at Li Zida's ecstatic expression, Qin Mo silently mourned for the vast number of young people in Korea. You were forced to leave your families, but you participated in the birth of a new era. Let's judge who is right and who is wrong in a few years.
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