After this list, Bao Baochun and the other four began to check on the ship one by one. The tall and majestic stallions occupied almost half of the space on the ship. Four pairs of Haidongqing stood on the thick beams and looked at the four people coming with cold eyes. Two of them were pure white, one was sky blue, and the other was pure black, and they were not covered with a single hair. The divine horse was abnormal, but their feet were tied with thick chains, restricting their movements.

Seeing these four pairs of Haidongqing, Bao Baochun and the four showed a hint of love on their faces. If they hadn't known that this bird was extremely ferocious, everyone would probably not be able to help but touch Haidongqing's feathers with their hands. In addition to the horses and Haidongqing, there were ten beautiful girls on the boat, one of the twin sisters had outstanding appearances. The two were as fair as jade, and they stood there almost exactly the same. Seeing Bao Baochun and the other four coming, the ten girls looked at them curiously with their eyes wide open, and they looked innocent and innocent.

This twin sisters are Li Shixu's daughter. Li Shixu's family has produced beautiful women for several generations. His eldest daughter married Dorgon. The twin sisters have been very beautiful since the age of thirteen or fourteen. They are known as the peerless genius of North Korea. If nothing unexpected happens, the twin sisters will give Dorgon as their concubine this year. However, when he heard that the Manchus were defeated by the Ming Dynasty, the Korean monarch and ministers were very excited. Naturally, they would not give these two to Dor and immediately forward them to the Ming Dynasty.

For Haidongqing, the four of them dared to watch carefully. For these ten girls who wanted to offer to the emperor, the four of them did not have the courage to look at them. They continued to lower their heads to check the items. In addition to the previous items, ginseng, leopard skin, t

Li Shixu took it with a angrily humming. Everything on the ship could be exchanged for a large price in the Ming Dynasty. He had tested each of them by himself. He only looked at it and knew that the price was basically the same as the price he expected in the Ming Dynasty, and it would be lower. However, he spent only five or six thousand taels of silver to buy these things in North Korea. He was not willing to spend thousands of taels of silver to pay taxes. His eyes turned: "The four adults had already spent all the money before they came, and they had no silver to pay taxes."

"That's simple. Only half of the goods are stored in the customs. Using this as a deposit, you can borrow taxes from the Ministry of Revenue Bank. Within one month, the adult sells half of the goods and pays the loan from the Ministry of Revenue Bank and then transports the remaining goods away. Of course, half to 10% of the tax must be paid during the period as the interest and storage expenses of the Ministry of Revenue Bank loan. If the timeout is exceeded, it does not matter if the person pays the interest and storage expenses for another month. The adult's goods can be contacted in the warehouse run by the Ministry of Revenue Bank. If the goods are stored in the warehouse run by the Ministry of Revenue Bank, twelve months. After the adult has not taken the goods away, it will be confiscated." Bao Baochun explained with a smile and asked: "Sir, whether you need this service is necessary. You can introduce it to the adults."

Li Shixu heard it, and the Ming Customs was doing everything. When he heard Bao Baochun's question, Li Shixu quickly discussed with a young man of 27 or 28 years old in plain clothes. This young man was Li, the younger brother of the current North Korean king, and was named Linping Magistrate. The two were naturally Li Weigao, but Li was the deputy envoy. The reason was naturally because of the daughter of the Twins. The king and ministers of the North Korean state had high hopes for the Twins, hoping that after being favored by the Ming Emperor, the security of North Korea could be strengthened.

Li was living in Chenyang with his brothers for ten years. After Li returned to Pyongyang, he regarded this period as a great humiliation. He always advocated the expansion of military troops to prepare for war. North Korea originally had only 700 imperial guards, but in just a few years it expanded to 7,000 people. It was also inquired from Manchus. North Korea has been perfunctory on the grounds of being prepared for Japan. In fact, North Korea had already reconciled with Japan, but after it expanded to 7,000 people, North Korea's finances could no longer support it. With a 7,000 troops of 7,000 people, it was of course insufficient to get rid of the Manchus' rule. Li was very interested in the customs policy of the Ming Dynasty and was the main minister to promote the Ming Dynasty to learn from the customs. However, North Korea's conservative ministers were extremely powerful. Even if the emperor and his relatives pushed at the same time, they were still obstructed by the establishment of customs.

This time, the Manchus were defeated by the Ming Dynasty, and the power of ministers led by Li increased greatly. The conservatives could no longer prevent North Korea from setting up customs. Li came over to inspect the operation of the Ming Dynasty customs and was preparing to go back and do the same.

Xu was reluctant to pay taxes and fees, and was even more reluctant to suppress half of the goods and deduct taxes from the loan. According to Li Shixu's estimate, half of the goods were worth at least 15,000 taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty, not to mention paying interest. However, Li was very interested when hearing about the bank loans and instigated Li Shixu to agree. Although Li Shixu was the main person and Li was the deputy, Li was the prince after all, but he was just a county duke. Li Shixu finally nodded helplessly.

When he saw Li Shixu, he clicked on his promise. Bao Baochun signaled to a companion. The companion immediately turned around and got off the boat. After a while, the customs officer just went down, followed two workers wearing white clothes and with the words "bank" embroidered on them. After checking the goods, he quickly filled out a document and handed it to Li Shixu. He said, "This adult, as long as we sign a word on it, the tax can be paid by us.

”

Li Shixu carefully checked the document. This was a loan agreement. The place written on it is no different from that in the previous one. The place given to him was the best loan interest rate. Signing this order means that he had to pay at least one hundred and seventy taels of silver more interest. However, Li Shixu still signed it without hesitation. For goods with tens of thousands of silver, the interest rate of more than one hundred and twenty taels of silver is not too large.

After doing all this, Bao Baochun and the other four left. The remaining land was the relationship between Li Shixu and the Ministry of Revenue Bank. Various procedures were assigned. As it was almost dark, Li Shixu and others had to rest on the boat. They bought all kinds of fresh fish, meat, sparse vegetables and other places from some small boats below to make a fire to cook.

second

It took a day to take Li Shixu to direct the workers in the dock to pull half of the goods from the bank of the goods department directly into a large market not far away for sale. This market was specially built after the customs was established. It covers a vast area. At first glance, there is no limit to the entire market. Merchants with local accents are loudly negotiated in the market. You can even see many Westerners who are tall and deep in sight. As soon as Li Shixu and others pulled the gifts over, they were immediately surrounded by a group of merchants and asked about the price.

In fact, these things brought by Li Shixu are very popular. Korean ginseng is famous, and Li Shixu brings all the fine products. The rest of the fur, paper and mats are sold very quickly. It took only half a month for Li Shixu to sell all the goods, and even the things stored in the warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue are no exception.

After selling these things, Li Shixu's mood rose again. Although he paid a tax once, Li Shixu had earned nearly 20,000 taels of silver by half a ship of goods. Looking at the ten boxes of silver coins filled with them, Li Shixu couldn't help laughing and regretting that the 100 stallions and four pairs of Hai Dongqing could not take action, otherwise he could earn at least 10,000 more silver coins. However, Li Shixu was not worried and presented the things to the Emperor of Ming Dynasty. The things given by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty would definitely be far more valuable than these things.

After selling the goods in Shanghai, Li Shixu's large ship sailed and turned into the Yangtze River channel. Two days later, it only arrived in Nanjing. On the dock of Nanjing on the Yangtze River, large sea boats are not allowed to enter except for naval fleets and ordinary official ships, and foreign ships are strictly prohibited from entering. Li Shixu could only make an exception because he was an envoy. This rule was established after the customs was established. Of course, before the customs was established, foreign ships were not allowed to be parked at all except Macau, Guangdong, and Fujian. Naturally, there was no need to say that the entry of the Yangtze River was prohibited.

As soon as Li Shixu's ship arrived at the Nanjing Wharf, officials from the Ministry of Rites were waiting there and led Li Shixu into the Lifan Courtyard. As for the tributes brought by Li Shixu, they were also accepted by the Lifan Courtyard. After Li Shixu and his party visited the emperor, he would personally transfer them to the emperor.

After arranging to live in Lifan Courtyard, Li couldn't wait to ask Li Shixu: "Mr. Qinglin, how do you see the customs of the Ming Dynasty?"

"The Lord Linping, according to the ministers, is simply profitable. He also needs to charge taxes for tributes from vassal states, which is really a shame for the Chinese Dynasties." Li Shixu replied. Li Shixu was still worried about the tax on the tax he had drawn thousands of taels of silver. You must know that thousands of taels of silver are already a large sum in North Korea, and he can support hundreds of soldiers for a year.

"No, I don't think so. As long as all ships are treated equally, the customs taxes can be maximized. Otherwise, if you treat the vassal states preferentially, should you treat the royal relatives, the royal relatives, and the meritorious ministers? If this continues, the customs will be relaxed and useless. I used to hear people saying that the customs tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty was as huge as tens of millions of taels in the year, but at first I didn't believe it. Now it seems that the entire customs tax revenue is probably far more than tens of millions of taels." Li said excitedly, as if the tax revenue of tens of millions of taels himself.

"Far more than ten million taels." Li Shixu also jumped a lot. Although he had heard that the income of the Ming customs was not low, the land tax in the Ming Dynasty was only more than ten million taels a year. No matter how much a small customs charge, it would not be more than ten million taels. It was precisely because of this idea that Li Shixu was half-believing about this rumor, but now Li said it was far more than ten million taels. Li Shixu asked, "Master Linping, did you calculate it wrong?"

", Qinglin Gong, do it, we will collect more than 3,000 taels of tax per ship. During the half month we were in Shanghai, there weren't several large sea boats coming over one day. Their ships were larger than ours and carried far more cargo than us. How much tax could such a ship be charged? One ship was 10,000 taels, and several ships were tens of thousands taels. I heard that there were some fleets coming from the West, and at one time there were more than a dozen large ships. This customs was just a gateway to the Ming Dynasty. In the south, there were other customs in the Ming Dynasty."

If Li Shixu thinks that this is not the case, it is possible that it is not more than 20 million taels. North Korea's annual taxes are still collected in physical form. The total annual taxes in the country are only more than 1.5 million shi. Not only do they have to cope with the expenses of the king and many ministers, but they also have to cope with the excessive demands of the people. They can pay only more than 500,000 shi of grain for raising the army every year. This is already tight and tight for the royal family and ministers. Li Shixu certainly does not expect that North Korea can get so much income even if it is only one tenth. With the extra one million taels of silver, the North Korean army can immediately double.

The Manchus had only a few hundred troops in the country, but they were like the Emperor, but they were domineering in Korea like the Emperor. Although the Li Dynasty expanded the imperial guards to 7,000, they did not dare to deal with these hundreds of troops. If there were tens of thousands, hundreds of Manchus could even be killed. If there were tens of thousands of people, hundreds of Manchus would need to borrow troops from the Ming Dynasty. The Koreans could drive Manchus away by themselves. I believe that at this time, Manchus would not have been able to invade North Korea like they did more than ten years ago and capture all the princes and concubines. As a result, the three princes worked together in Shenyang for ten years.

Li estimated that Ming Customs' income exceeded 20 million taels last year, which was close to the total fiscal revenue of the Chongzhen period. In addition to commercial tax, salt tax, land tax, and profits from the Ministry of Revenue Bank, the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue reached more than 70 million taels last year. The land tax revenue, which had always been the big head, ranked third, only more than 13 million taels, which was not only lower than customs tariffs, but also lower than the profits of the Ministry of Revenue Bank opened by the court. This is also the reason why the emperor was ambitious to promote rent reductions in China. Even if the court abolished the land tax, it would be much more prosperous than during the Chongzhen period. However, agriculture has always been the cornerstone of a dynasty's stability. At least it is not realistic to abolish agricultural tax at present.

In fact, the reason for such a small amount of land tax is that the north is destroyed, and Wang Fu basically exempted all agricultural taxes from several northern provinces. In addition, the newly reclaimed wasteland has a five-year tax exemption period. As tax collections for the north and the reclaimed wasteland gradually recover, it is normal for the court's land tax revenue to increase to more than 30 million taels of silver.

The more income the more money the court spends, the more it will naturally increase. The recovery of several northern provinces will not only not provide taxes for the court for the time being. Instead, huge amounts of money will be invested to restore the pensions of soldiers who were disabled in various facilities that were damaged by the war, in order to prevent officials from corruption.

It is absolutely impossible to abolish the land tax after the salary has increased several times.

Li Shixu suddenly became furious: "Master Linping, as soon as you go back, you and I will join forces to submit a request to the king to establish a customs. However, most of the merchant ships entering Pyongyang now come from the Celestial Empire. If taxes are collected, will it anger the Celestial Empire?" In the last sentence, Li Shixu said with concern.

Li Ye suddenly fell silent. More than 80% of the merchant ships that can be traded in North Korea are from the past merchant ships in the Central Plains, and 20% are from the country and Japanese merchants. If only 20% of merchants can be taxed, it is meaningless. They will only stop going to sea because they become unprofitable. But if they tax the merchant ships in the past merchant ships in the Central Plains, the Ming Dynasty's attitude will be crucial.

"Don't worry, Mr. Qinglin, I think that since the Ming customs can be treated equally, we must treat them equally. North Korea and the Ming Dynasty have been friendly for generations, we have always been very respectful. The Ming Emperor has always been good at serving North Korea. This time, he knows our difficulties and will definitely agree with our request. The Ming Dynasty can be taxed 10 and one for one, and we can tax 120 to show our respect for the Celestial Empire."

Li Shixu thought about it and became optimistic again: "The Lord Linping is considerate and admires him. Besides, the two daughters of Xiaochen have entered the palace. If they can be favored by the Emperor of Ming Dynasty, North Korea will definitely be worry-free."

Li's brows also stretched again, obviously having absolute confidence in Li Shixu's twin daughters. These two sisters are not only beautiful, but also very smart. They are good at cooking various medicinal foods. Li Shixu has also carefully cultivated and served since childhood. Li Du had thought about recruiting these two people into the palace, but it was only introduced to Dorgon. Dorgon sent someone to ask for it before giving up.

Just as Li Shixu and Li were talking about their ambitious plans, the Ming Dynasty monarch and ministers were also talking about the Korean envoys who came here. Since the 17th year of Chongzhen, various vassal states have cut off their tribute to the Ming Dynasty. Like the Yongle period, it has to be said that North Korea has once again taken the lead and became the first vassal state to come to pay tribute.

Although North Korea has been respectful to the Ming Dynasty since the Great Taizu, and every year he went to Beijing to pay tribute, and he had to ask the Emperor of Ming to enthrone. It can be said that no vassal state has achieved such a state. Although after the "Bingzi Gua Rebellion", North Korea cut off the Ming Dynasty's tribute, it is no wonder that North Korea has made this move. After all, the king has become prisoners of others. Later, although the king was released, only three princes were taken to Shenyang as hostages, and another Manchu army was stationed in the territory. In this case, North Korea cannot maintain its tribute relations with the Ming Dynasty. Now that the Manchus are defeated, they will immediately send envoys to come. It can be said that they have done their best.

Qian Qianyi, Shi Kefa and others all advocated a grand reception to the envoys of the North Koreans. After all, this was the first tribute from a vassal state in several years. In the eyes of the literati, the four barbarians were even more important than a victory on the battlefield. Once foreign barbarians came to the court, it would be an amazing event. Moreover, it was the first time since the rise of the Ming Dynasty. It must be perfect. First choose a good and auspicious day, then pave the ground, mobilize the people in the capital to welcome them on both sides of the road, and then summon the Korean envoys to the palace. The gifts given to North Korea must be generous. Even if North Korea has some excessive requests, they can agree, so that they can be perfect.

But Wang Fu came from later generations. On the one hand, he tried his best to de-Sinicize South Korea, and on the other hand, he also stole various cultural heritages from China. He regarded various inventions and even celebrities from ancient China as all South Korea. Now he inevitably angered his emotions on the upcoming North Korean envoys. When he saw the hot line discussed by everyone, he regarded it as the last event before, and couldn't help but interrupt everyone, saying, "My dear friends, little North Korea, come here, I will summon it to you according to the ceremony. Why do you have such trouble? As for what you think of North Korea, you will go to the merchants after I summon it."

Everyone was stunned and felt the emperor's dissatisfaction. The rising emotions just now suddenly became cold and looked at each other. Now the emperor had just returned from a great victory, and the taxes of the court were rising. Now there are vassal states coming to pay tribute. Everything is going smoothly. I really don't know where the emperor's dissatisfaction comes from.

"Your Majesty, the dynasty has always been respectful to the Ming Dynasty and is the first vassal state to come to the court. If we do not welcome each other grandly, how can we demonstrate the demeanor of our great country in the Celestial Empire?" Qian Qianyi replied carefully.

"What is the demeanor of a great country? I think that the demeanor of a great country can be achieved by making the people of their country live and work in peace and contentment, and the people can eat and wear warm clothes. As for Emperor Yang, in order to induce the foreign merchants to come to court, he not only ordered his country's shops to let the foreign merchants eat and live for free, and hang silk on the treetops to make it rich. Not only was it not the demeanor of a great country, but it was just deceiving himself."

After the emperor said this, everyone did not dare to say anything. If he persuaded the emperor to welcome the Korean envoys, wouldn’t it be like he would persuade the emperor to be Emperor Yang?

"What the emperor taught is that the emperor is a model for the people in everything," Qian Qianyi changed his attitude and flattered him.

Qian Qianyi said this, Shi Kefa and Qu Shi~the two were even more embarrassed, and they had to smile bitterly: "The emperor is wise, I can't wait."

Ma Shiying has not spoken just now. Since Shi Kefa entered Beijing, Ma Shiying has obviously been much more cautious than before. He never thought that the emperor would suddenly transfer Shi Kefa from Yangzhou to the court. The emperor's mind is indeed unfathomable. Now that all five people in the cabinet are filled, Ma Shiying's capital may be replaced at any time, making him rely on the emperor's intentions in almost everything.

"The emperor is wise." As soon as Ma Shiying's words fell, it was equivalent to a final say in how to receive the North Korean envoys this time.

"Dear friends, if there is nothing else, take your leave." Wang Fu said calmly.

Everyone quickly stood up and saluted: "I will leave, long live my emperor! Long live! Long live!"

After saying this, everyone came out one after another. When the ministers had left, Wang Fu murmured to himself: "Hmph, it's a good horse, a falcon, and a beauty. The Koreans are so generous. It seems that the intention is very small this time. These ministers actually discussed and agreed before the other party expressed their intentions. It's really speechless."

After saying that, Wang Fu couldn't help but shake his head, and he really couldn't understand the literati's attitude of treating foreigners.

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Chapter completed!