"The Duke's Mansion is the founder of the country. It has a big tree with deep roots. There are many ways to make money. Is it necessary to do something like raising pirates?"
Mu Qingxue patiently explained:
"The benefits of sea trade are ten times or a hundred times that of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and mining. Even though the Duke of Ying has a great family and a great business, who would be dissatisfied with having too much money?
"But nobles have special privileges, and ordinary maritime merchants cannot compete at all. Moreover, hereditary nobles are not as difficult to evade taxes as ordinary maritime merchants. The nobles have many ways to evade taxes in large sums. No matter how much money they make, they will not pay it to the court.
How much tax.
"Therefore, the imperial court is very difficult for nobles to engage in maritime trade. For example, the Duke of Ying only allows two ships to go to sea every year, and one more is not allowed.
"Seeing that some ordinary maritime merchants can sail several ships every year, and a few large merchants can sail more than a dozen large ships a year, making a lot of money, how can the Yingguo government be willing to watch it?
Others make a fortune?
"So the Duke's government secretly raised a group of pirates to roam and plunder on the route from Yingzhou to Nanyang, and they were ruthless, not only robbing ships, but also killing people.
"The maritime merchants of Yingzhou could not bear the disturbance, so they could only make a large sum of money to the Duke's government every year, praying for the government to open up the network. In this way, the government would not even have to do maritime trade, and would only rely on pirates to collect money.
Tolls can make a lot of money.
"This move undoubtedly seriously interfered with the normal order of maritime trade and caused a large loss of tax money that belonged to the court. As early as the beginning of this year, some maritime merchants risked their lives to report this matter to the court, which attracted the attention of the court.
"It's a pity that the base of the pirates is far away in the Thousand Stars Islands in Nanyang. The Yingzhou Navy and even the Nanyang Navy also have the eyes of the government. Four months ago, the imperial court dispatched the navy to exterminate the pirates, but they were taken over early by the pirates.
At the sound of wind, they dispersed into the Qianxing Islands to escape, resulting in the failure of the encirclement and suppression, and only some insignificant scattered peripherals were captured.
"In addition, the Duke of Ying is in the capital and has connections in the court, secretly obstructing the court's investigation. The emperor's attitude towards this matter is also... difficult to explain in one sentence. As a result, the court has been unable to find irrefutable evidence that the Duke's government colluded with pirates."
The emperor's attitude is hard to describe?
From what she said, it seems that the opinions of the emperor and the court were not unified?
But when you think about it, it seems normal.
Throughout the dynasties, there seems to have been a struggle for power between the emperor and the court officials.
After all, the one who can completely control the court is either the founder of the country who conquered the world and can clean up the court at will if the court dares to disobey. Or it is the master of ZTE who can turn the tide and has enough prestige to suppress the court.
It is difficult for ordinary emperors to fully control the government, and there are even many emperors who are ignored by the imperial court.
In terms of economic interests, things like the emperor wanting to take money from the treasury and the court wanting to take money from the emperor's small treasury also happened one after another.
As for who is in power, the emperor or the court, it is more beneficial to the country...
Anyway, Shen Lang felt that, except for emperors such as Taizu and the Lord of Zhongxing, other emperors who relied solely on the advantages of reincarnation, grew up in deep palaces, and were completely out of touch were either mediocre or extremely unreliable.
, it is difficult to find a wise master.
It's okay if the emperor is mediocre, but if a particularly unreliable one is appointed, it will really bring disaster to the country and the people.
I don’t know whether the current emperor of Chu is mediocre and incompetent, or whether he has special skills.
In short, the Duke of Ying is poaching the country, but his attitude is still ambiguous and hard to explain. It is true that people don't know how to evaluate it.
While thinking about it, Mu Qingxue picked up the tea cup, took a sip of tea, and continued:
"This time I received news that the group of pirates secretly controlled by the Duke of Ying is posting hero posts and will join two other powerful pirates in the Qianxing Islands to hold a so-called 'Heroes Conference'
, form a pirate alliance and make a fortune together.
"This move can be seen as the ambition of the Ying government to annex the two big pirate groups and dominate the waterway from Yingzhou to Nanyang.
"Not only were the two big pirate groups invited to join the alliance, some single gangs of pirates who were both businessmen and bandits also received the so-called 'hero stickers'. What I want you to do for me is to sneak into a single gang.
Pirates, join this group pirate alliance and help me locate the pirate base!
"Actually, I should have handled this matter myself. But there are too many eyes in Yingzhou Prefecture that have been staring at me. Once I disappear for no reason, even if I don't show up for a day, it will trigger vigilance from many parties. It is too late to transfer people from other places, so,
I can only send you on this mission."
Mu Qingxue didn't know that the Duke of Ying had actually stumbled upon the news that she wanted to investigate the Duke's mansion and was sorting out some details.
If this pirate alliance hadn't been prepared for a long time, the stakes were too high, and the arrow had to be fired, and it was held far away in the Thousand Star Islands in Southeast Asia, even the Duke of Ying would have wanted to cancel this alliance.
But fortunately, Duke Ying was not determined to completely shrink all his minions and cut off all external connections, so Mu Qingxue got the chance.
After listening to Mu Qingxue's explanation, Shen Lang pondered for a while and said slowly:
"Thanks to Mr. Mu for trusting me and entrusting me with such a heavy responsibility, I shouldn't have the intention to shrink back, but with my strength...
"If you are among a group of thieves and your identity is revealed, you may not be able to protect yourself in time. How can you fulfill your entrustment?
"I'm not afraid of death, I'm just worried that I'll betray your trust and ruin something big."
What he said was really not a nice and beautiful thing to say.
He really wanted to help Mu Qingxue -
Although the assassination of Zhao Mengshan was done very well, successfully misleading the investigators and blaming the matter on the Blood Shadow Cult, but since the Duke of Ying's Palace may have colluded with the Blood Shadow Cult, Zhao Mengshan's sister, Mrs. Zhao, must know
The murderer is not a Blood Shadow Cult killer.
Furthermore, it is impossible to find out that this matter was done by Shen Lang through conventional means, but there are various extraordinary abilities in this world that are beyond conventional Taoism, witchcraft and so on.
This has always been a hidden danger for Shen Lang.
Now that Mu Qingxue wants to investigate the Duke's Mansion, it is undoubtedly a good time for Shen Lang to solve the hidden dangers. Once the Duke's Mansion of Ying falls and Zhao Mengshan is assassinated, who will care?
But as he said, with his current strength, once his identity is exposed, he may not only be unable to complete the task entrusted by Mu Qingxue, but he himself may be killed directly.
"Don't worry, since I've sent you on this dangerous mission, I won't let you die in vain."
Mu Qingxue said and took out a small pendant.
This pendant is woven with white silk thread, and its appearance is ordinary and unobtrusive:
"This is the 'Silk Shield'. When you encounter a heavy blow that can cause serious injury or death, it will instantly release dense translucent silk threads, wrap them into a cocoon shape, and protect you from head to toe. It can withstand the fourth level of truth.
A warrior with a high level of Qi will attack three times with all his strength, or a fifth-level Taoist monk will attack with three spells.
"Among the pirates in the South Seas, there are many strange people and strangers, and there are also criminals who have committed serious crimes in various countries, fled overseas, and joined the pirates, but there will never be warriors above the fourth grade, let alone those above the sixth grade.
Magic monk."
After that, he introduced to Shen Lang some information about third-grade warriors and above, as well as Taoist monks:
The realm of "reaching the third level" is known as the "triple ladder". Breaking through from the fourth level to the third level is the first step to climb the ladder. It is extremely difficult, even far more difficult than starting from the ninth level and cultivating all the way to the fourth level.
For this reason, fourth-grade true energy realm warriors are still common in the world. However, the number of third-grade warriors has dropped sharply. Even with the population base of Da Chu as high as 500 million, there are only more than a hundred third-grade warriors.
With the preciousness of a third-grade warrior, it is impossible for him to become as useless as a pirate.
Even if he commits an unforgivable crime in Dachu, he can still escape to the sea and find a small overseas country to become the king and dominate, or he can defect to a large overseas country or even the barbarians in Mobei to serve as a distinguished guest for high officials and dignitaries.
Not to mention Taoist monks.
Martial arts can be practiced with hands, but Taoism has a huge barrier to entry.
Basically, among every thousand people, there is barely one person with Taoist qualifications.
Moreover, most of these Taoist aptitudes, which are only one in a thousand, have mediocre talents and can barely reach the eighth level. Seventh level is the limit.
As for Taoist monks of the sixth grade and above, they can easily make a lot of money by refining some elixirs, potions, and magic weapons and talismans. It is extremely difficult for wealthy businessmen and officials to recruit Taoist monks of the sixth grade and above.
Even the Duke of Ying, a century-old nobleman, only has one fifth-grade Taoist monk and two sixth-grade Taoist monks who were trained by his family since childhood.
If a Taoist monk has such a noble status, why would he willingly degenerate and associate with pirates?
The same is true for wizards over there in the West.
Any little wizard of the third level can be the guest of a small or medium-sized noble. A powerful wizard of the fourth level or above can easily win the respect of the big nobles.
Of course, this does not mean that there are no pirates who know magic.
However, most of the people who become pirates are just random coincidences. They have mastered a few chaotic Taoist techniques and witchcraft, or they are talented people with low abilities. Their strength is limited and there is nothing to worry about.
After saying this to Shen Lang, Mu Qingxue handed him the "Machine Shield", then retracted her hand into her cloak and took out a pair of thin, almost translucent soft armor:
"This is the Golden Silkworm Soft Armor. It is woven with silk threads spun by the Golden Silkworm Gu. It is as light as a feather and is not afraid of swords. It can effectively resist the swords and sword thrusts of sixth-grade warriors. It is also effective against the external and internal energy of fifth-grade warriors.
Very strong defense.
"Even military muskets cannot penetrate it when fired at close range. The only flaw is that it is afraid of fire. Once it is directly burned by the flames for more than ten breaths, it will be reduced to nothing."
She handed this armor to Shen Lang:
"You can sew this nail into the middle of your underwear to hide it from people's eyes and ears."
Shen Lang took the "Golden Silkworm Soft Armor" and felt very happy.
He also has a piece of "Jiaoxiao Soft Armor", but because it came from a shady origin, he dare not take it out to wear for the time being, and just keeps it in the space of some fine pens to gather dust. But of course he can wear it when he goes overseas.
When the time comes, with a layer of golden silkworm armor, a layer of cross-woven silk armor, and the "silk shield", he will have the confidence to fight head-on against a fifth-level warrior.
What’s even better is that although the Jiaosu soft armor is not as defensive as the Golden Silkworm soft armor, it has the ability to avoid fire and water. Putting the Jiaosu soft armor on the outside of the Golden Silkworm armor will not eliminate the Golden Silkworm soft armor’s flaw of being afraid of fire.
Can it all be avoided?
Seeing Shen Lang taking over the soft armor unceremoniously, Mu Qingxue raised the corners of her lips slightly with a faint smile, knowing that he had accepted the mission, and immediately asked:
"What else do you need? Just ask."
Shen Langxin said, then I won’t be polite!
Then he said:
"I have a prescription. I hope people from Muda can help me prepare the medicine according to the prescription and make a batch of medicinal oil."
"Is it the matching medicated oil that can kill the 'muscle and bone refining' realm in ten steps? No problem. Is there anything else?"