Zhou Jun and Li Guangbi left the Governor's Mansion and went to Huamen Tower, a prestigious gathering place in Liangcheng.
Huamen Tower is not a building, but a long street composed of restaurants, wine shops and prostitutes' houses.
Li Guangbi entered a wine shop. As soon as the shopkeeper saw him, he hurriedly walked out of the shop cabinet and led him to a private room inside.
After the two of them sat down, Li Guangbi said to Zhou Jun: "The wine in this shop is very good, why not eat some?"
Zhou Jun listened and nodded in agreement.
Li Guangbi ordered Liangcheng's unique wine and some dishes from the shop, but refused the company of Hu Nu, a prostitute.
After the shop owner left the room, Li Guangbi asked Zhou Jun: "Did Erlang come to Liangzhou this time to take up the post of Supervisor of the Mutual Market?"
Zhou Jun answered yes.
Li Guangbi smiled bitterly and said, "You know, Erlang, this job may be very hot."
Zhou Jun was puzzled and asked in detail.
Li Guangbi first turned sideways, looked outside the door, and after confirming that no one was there, said: "The protector of the royal capital was originally Shuofang, the military governor of Hedong, who took over the military governor of Hexi and Longyou from Huangfu Weiming. Outsiders only said,
The Protector-General wears the seal of the generals from all directions, controls thousands of miles, and has powerful soldiers and towns. They are all under his control. He is unparalleled in the limelight and has overwhelming power... But only those of us old people who have followed the Protector-General in the north and south, know the twists and turns.
risk."
Having said this, the store owner brought wine and food into the inner room.
Li Guangbi kept silent and waited for the wine and food to be served before continuing: "Since the early years of Tianbao, Longyou Jiedushi Huangfu Weiming defeated the Tubo army several times and pushed the army to the southwest of Huangyuan. During the four years of Tianbao, Huangfu Weiming made great contributions.
We are eager and determined to attack the important Tibetan town of Shibao City."
"Shibao City is a strategic fortress of Tubo. The terrain is dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack. The defenders of Shibao City took advantage of the danger to hold on and sent letters asking for help. Tubo general Mangbuzhi led his army to rescue and obtained the cooperation of the little king of Tuyuhun.
, cooperate with the soldiers guarding the city inside and outside, and attack the Tang army."
"Huangfu Weiming was eager for quick success and only focused on attacking the city and neglected to send reinforcements. As a result, the Tang army suffered heavy losses. His deputy general Chu Xu was killed in the battle and had to retreat."
Having said this, Li Guangbi took a sip of wine, shook his head and said: "In order to cover up the defeat, Huangfu Weiming had to forge military records and go to Beijing to offer prisoners, deliberately turning the defeat into a victory. The saint was happy and gave him a large reward. Originally,
, when the matter has reached this point, the merits and rewards are all his fault, and it has nothing to do with the Protector and Shuofang Army."
"Unexpectedly, Huangfu Weiming had a secret meeting with the prince during the Shangyuan Festival this year. He was reported and demoted to the governor of Bochuan. Someone also suggested to the saint that the royal guards should wear the seals of the four generals. As a result, Longyou and Hexi were all in a mess.
Was thrown over."
Zhou Jun asked: "Mess?"
Li Guangbi circled the thumb and index finger of his right hand to make a copper coin shape, and said: "Hexi, Longyou, there are ten thousand people in the large army, one thousand small soldiers, and Fengxu Luo soldiers, thousands of miles away, and the fierce generals and elite soldiers are gathered in the northwest.
Huangfu Weiming was defeated at Shibao City, and all supplies and food fell into the hands of the enemy. The army's food and salary were not paid for a long time. In addition, there were many powerful people in Longyou Town, Hexi Province, and there were serious land annexations. Therefore, the army's expenses were already insufficient."
"Take Guangbi's Chishui Army as an example. There were 33,000 soldiers. When Li first came, many of them had not received their pay for three months. Seeing this, Wang Duhu had no choice but to allocate money and silk from Shuofang.
For emergency purposes. However, the military strength in Hexi and Longyou is greater than that in Shuofang and Hedong, so the money and silk needed is naturally not a small amount. The money and silk transferred by the Protector can only solve the urgent need, not a long-term solution. Therefore, the Protector
We can only seek other ways to deal with food and salary issues..."
When Zhou Jun heard this, he suddenly had a bad premonition and asked, "What do the Protectors plan to do?"
Li Guangbi: "Business tax."
Zhou Jun: "Business tax?"
Li Guangbi: "In the early Tang Dynasty, in order to promote mutual trade, almost no commercial tax was levied in the northwest frontier. In the Wu Zhou Dynasty, there were laws on customs and municipal taxation. Nowadays, public and private trade in the world has always set a tax of twenty qian, and the governor plans to increase this.
One standard to obtain money and silk for the army."
Zhou Jun began to recall historical books while listening to Li Guangbi's narration.
Before the An-Shi Rebellion, the commercial tax in the Tang Dynasty was 20/1000.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Zhao Zan, the Minister of Household Affairs, proposed the "Momo Removal Law", which greatly increased the commercial taxes of the Tang Dynasty.
At the beginning of the first year of Xingyuan (784) of Dezong, the law had to be abolished because it touched the interests of too many noble princes.
At present, Wang Zhongsi actually intends to increase commercial taxes in order to solve the military salary problem plaguing Hexi and Longyou.
Zhou Jun sighed in his heart, Wang Zhongsi was probably forced to do this and had no choice but to take this approach.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jun said to Li Guangbi: "I'm afraid there will be a lot of resistance if the Protector raises commercial taxes."
Li Guangbi: "Who says not? Take the city of Liangzhou as an example. Seventy percent of the residents in the city are engaged in business. Among them, the nine surnames of Zhaowu admire commerce and regard wealth as life. Moreover, in the territory of Liangzhou, these
The Sogdians are deeply entrenched and intertwined, and control many aspects of government affairs, economy, people's livelihood, farming, etc. Raising business taxes is tantamount to making enemies of them."
Zhou Jun felt his head pounding. He suddenly remembered something and asked: "Wait a minute, my job is to be the Supervisor of the Mutual Market. Is it possible that Du Hu wants to...?"
Li Guangbi sighed, looked at Zhou Jun and said, "I'm afraid Erlang will be tired."
Zhou Jun calmed down and said: "Even if the Protector-General wants to use mutual trade as a breakthrough to increase commercial taxes, Jun is so soft-spoken and he is new to Liangzhou. How can he convince the people? Why doesn't the Protector-General find a local official to convince everyone?
"
Li Guangbi shook his head and said: "The Protector has already contacted the An family and Kang family, which are the largest families in Liangzhou City, but with little success."
Zhou Jun felt helpless when he heard that Wang Zhongsi planned to raise the commercial tax on the mutual market, and he was the supervisor of the mutual market, which was equivalent to pushing himself to the forefront of confrontation with businessman interest groups.
From this point of view, I am afraid that if I get involved in the muddy waters of Liangzhou City, I will find it difficult to extricate myself.
After drinking wine with Li Guangbi for a while, Zhou Jun had something on his mind, so he found a reason to leave first.
After leaving the door of the wine shop, a gust of breeze blew by, which made Zhou Jun sober up and walked along the street towards the inn.
Just when he was thinking carefully about how to act in the future, he suddenly saw a figure in his field of vision.
I saw a charming and beautiful woman, holding a pink and jade-carved girl in her arms, buying candy cakes at a stall with a smile on her face.
The profile of that beautiful woman became more and more familiar to Zhou Jun, and he couldn't help but walk over.
When he reached the beautiful woman's side, he called out with a slightly uncertain tone: "Fengniang?"
The beautiful woman's body trembled, and she turned around to look at Zhou Jun, with an expression as if she had seen a ghost.
Zhou Jun was shocked, took another step forward, and asked again: "Is it really Feng Niang?"
Goldilocks hugged the girl and kept retreating back.
Just when Zhou Jun wanted to take another step forward, two burly men stepped forward and blocked the former's way with unkind expressions.
Zhou Jun frowned, and just as he was about to scold loudly, he heard Feng Niang say in a deep voice: "Back off."
The two strong men looked at each other and moved out of the way.
Jin Fengniang hugged the confused girl, sighed deeply, and said to Zhou Jun: "Erlang, come with me."