Future library

Cheng Jinzhou, who trades in the Star Alliance every day, only earns 100,000 taels of silver per month. From this, we can imagine the huge temptation of this money.

After a year of development, the number of commodities circulated and distributed in De'an has reached almost one-third of that of Daxia, and even exceeds the commodity trading volume of the entire Northern Han Dynasty. Gentlemen who want to get a share of the pie are doing it for Cheng Jinzhou's sake. On the way, he hid far away from Jinchuan Province and set up a card. If it were other businessmen, they would either donate their property to the state or wait for the state to issue a Grant Thornton card.

In fact, the most unbearable people should be the princes of Daxia Political Affairs Hall. For them, one million taels of food per year is not too much, but it is different if it is all cash such as silver and money. Because silver is one of the forms of currency, and the government needs silver and brass to issue currency. Even with a simple economic concept, one can imagine that if a county can add one million taels of silver currency every year - and it is still increasing - it will have a huge impact on the national currency system. The several exchange methods that the gentlemen of the political hall are most worried about, whether it is money that is expensive and silver is cheap, silver is expensive and grain is cheap, or grain is expensive and money is cheap, will cause social instability, and millions of taels of silver or copper coins, if they are poured out for a purpose, Entering the market, given the level of economic development in Daxia, will definitely have a fatal impact.

Of course, the gentlemen from the political hall would not be stupid enough to come to De'an to ask for money, but they had other ways. Surrounding the four provincial highways in Jinzhou Province, card tolls are set up on the main avenues, and they are euphemistically called: Lijin.

In fact, Lijin's income is much more than 100,000 taels per month. Because De'an collects commercial taxes, as long as the materials are not traded in Jinchuan Province, there is no need to pay taxes, and tax evasion is also easy. This is not the case with the tariff called Lijin. All goods passing through must be paid. It's just that most of it was used by officials to line their own pockets. Even so, the total amount they handed over to the court exceeded 100,000 taels of silver.

This move was not only to make money, but also to test Cheng Jinzhou's bottom line.

He had requested a long time ago that all roads in Jinchuan Prefecture should not collect tariffs and other exorbitant taxes.

Just like the orders of all rulers, few people obey the rules perfectly when it comes to their own interests. Killing people can only be done with a nod, and scars as big as a bowl can be plugged with gold. Most of the officials have the same values, not to mention the support of superior officials.

Xu Guinian is an old man, and you can tell that something is wrong just by looking at Shi Mo's face. While cupping his hands, he hugged me shamelessly and said with a smile: "Brother Shi Mo, don't you dare to mislead me, brother, what is going on..."

Shimo's name is Shutong, but he is actually a secretary. He has his own judgment on what should be said and what should not be said. At this time, he nodded and said, "Do you know about Lijin?"

"Oh, I know, I was just waiting for you to arrive." Xu Guinian said and thanked you again: "Brother accepts your favor. I will have a banquet at Lin'an Hotel another day. I will send someone to get some information first."

Shi Mo returned the greeting with clasped fists and said polite words. He guessed that his master also wanted to understand the situation rather than punish Xu Guinian, so preparing some information would save both parties time.

Xu Guinian hurried to the Star Warlock's residence north of Jianhe River. After renovation, the area has been expanded more than ten times than the original, but it still cannot meet the requirements of the visiting Star Warlocks.

Regardless of whether they are in Daxia or elsewhere, Star Warlocks can freely find the local Star Warlock Association or Star Warlock Tower to live without paying rent, and they should have the same accommodation conditions as others. This is a Star Warlock. One of the rules of the warlock world, the same free terms also include food, transportation, etc. In other words, as long as you become an Astromancer, you can theoretically travel around the world without doing anything, and the Association and the Temple also encourage the mobility of Astromancers.

This kind of treatment, on the other hand, promoted the spread of star magic from a corner of the far west to the entire world. Naturally, the holy religion followed the steps of the star magicians.

When Xu Guinian arrived, Cheng Jinzhou was listening to a report from a church priest. When he left for the Northern Han Dynasty, the Holy Church finally came under his influence and began large-scale missionary activities. Although it was constantly restricted by Liu Kuang and other association star warlocks, it was completely different from the previous shrinkage.

The integration of the church is much closer than that of the Star Warlock Association. From the priest's mouth, you can hear terms such as "Fulin" and "Plough" from the extreme western countries from time to time. The Holy Church in other countries has great power, and in theory, they can dispatch direct armies.

Cheng Jinzhou also asked a few questions from time to time. He quickly thought of something and pointed at the map and asked: "Ligan is not far from the Northern Han Dynasty, right? Where is the city in the middle?"

"Free City Assyria. The territory of the cruel king Jacob." The white-clothed priest curled his lips and said disdainfully: "It was a country founded by a few fourth-level star warlocks. They were all guys who gave up studying mathematics. In our words, It is said that it is just fish and meat for the common people to enjoy themselves."

"No one cares?"

"No." The pastor chuckled twice. Several fourth-level star warlocks, if they pay a little attention to the establishment of relationships, it is difficult for them to suffer strong blows.

Cheng Jinzhou naturally had no position to evaluate the other party. He only asked: "Can Ligan use the Assyrian route to attack the Northern Han Dynasty?"

"Jacob? He won't agree. Moreover, there are many criminals in Free City, and there are also a small number of Star Warlocks. It would be too dangerous for the baggage to pass through them." The priest himself is a liaison priest; Coordinating the relationship between different countries and the organizers are also very familiar with each country. This can be explained clearly in a few words.

"In short, there must be support troops. This is the requirement of God's favored ones." Cheng Jinzhou said quite comfortably. He stayed on the grassland for a month and saved a lot of material costs for the church. Now it seems reasonable to make new requirements.

The church's support for Cheng Jinzhou has always been strong, and his reputation as "the favored one by God" is even more resounding. For them, if they can completely support the Holy Church in Daxia, it will be worth the expense.

Cheng Jinzhou doesn't care about the Holy Church or the Star Warlock Association, so he has a positive attitude and chooses valuable investments, so that the cooperation between the two parties will be more pleasant.

Xu Guinian waited until the white-clothed pastor left before speaking cautiously. I couldn't help but feel grateful for my good luck. The county magistrate is a low-ranking person, even in Jinchuan Province, he is not ranked high. He has never heard of the wonderful world that the priest said. Now that he has the opportunity to work under Cheng Jinzhou, it can be said that it is the best.

"Let's talk about Lijin." Cheng Jinzhou was a little tired. It wasn't that he had done too many things, but that he had been idle for too long. Now he started doing things again, which made him uncomfortable.

"Yes." Xu Guinian had already prepared and started speaking in detail.

In fact, the content is very simple, that is, the four provinces surrounding Jinchuan Province in Daxia began to collect lijin at the same tax rate - some places called it lijin. Since all transportation arteries are blocked, and the consumption and output of Jinchuan Province itself are very small, most commodities have had their skin shaved off.

Cheng Jinzhou listened, and he paid attention to the numbers and asked: "The tax rates are all 7%? Why is this number?"

"Everything is collected by the army. When the army collects money locally, it has to give a 30% discount." Xu Guinian was very familiar with this. He said in a low voice: "What you ordered is not to collect customs duties. But collecting taxes in the military is not counted in the government.”

"What countermeasures do you have?" Cheng Jinzhou leaned back in his chair. He didn't care whether the government or the army collected money, which affected his plans and troops.

What he hopes to see is the booming foreign trade of De'an, so as to obtain more overseas raw materials. If one day, Daxia can have a colony, as a noble, he will definitely be able to enjoy it.

Xu Guinian was already in his fifties, and his brain was very slow, so Ai Ai couldn't say anything.

Cheng Jinzhou didn't force him. He thought about it and said, "Well, how much money do we have in our treasury?"

"350,000 taels of silver. It's all in De'an." Xu Guinian remembers this number clearly. If De'an hadn't been such a star warlock, it wouldn't have been surprising if the treasure had been robbed.

"Then if the court collects taxes in a month, how much can it collect?"

"Four provinces? At least 1 million taels of silver are collected every month." Xu Guinian guessed with certainty.

"They've been collecting it for two months?"

Xu Guinian said in surprise: "Yes."

Classmate Xiao Cheng did not expect Xu Guinian to show his demeanor as the most capable official in the world. He silently calculated and said: "If you do this, go and make a notice first, saying that three months ago, the merchant who paid Lijin, You can come to me and get the money back with the note you paid at that time."

Xu Guinian thought about it for a while, then suddenly woke up and said: "Sir, those profiteers have already added the money they paid to things. They didn't lose money."

"Businessmen are not allowed to be profiteers in the future. So that they won't pay in the future, so what if we give them some benefits now."

"For three months, you need to prepare at least 100,000 taels of silver." Xu Guinian estimated a number and then shocked himself.

In the past 10 years, a total of 100,000 taels of silver had been put into De'an's warehouse, and he was a little suspicious.

"After the notice is issued, you can send another message to the four provinces, saying that I have a piece of paper worth ten cents and am going to go to them to exchange the money."

His idea is very simple. How much money has been collected by the governments in various places, he will get the money back with the note. Of course, the money received by the government must be less than the money on the note, but how could he care about so much? In the secular empire, there are really few people who dare to keep testing like Daxia. Come.

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