Not only Cao Qian, Wei Qun accidentally noticed that the Xuzhou merchant ship sailed into Jinling again, and it also came into the sight of many people.
However, most of these people had the same idea as Wei Qun, believing that after the battle in the Wuchuan Valley, Xuzhou got rid of the suspicion of colluding with the rebels and the Shu army, and began to seek closer ties with the hinterland of Dachu.
Information such as the types and quantities of personnel and goods carried by this Xuzhou merchant ship were passed to Jinling in advance after entering Wuling County, Langzhou via the Ruan River.
Therefore, those who can know this information in advance will also know that the Xuzhou merchant ships entered Jinling again after a lapse of two years, mainly for profit-although the southwestern states are not allowed to pass through, but all the passes have to be strengthened.
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Although Xuzhou is connected to the Langyuetan, Shaoheng and Shaoheng states through the Yuanjiang River and the Xuefeng Mountain Post Road, and bulk goods such as tea, medicine, cloth, and iron can be exported nearby, these states and counties mainly rely on self-sufficient family manor economies and small farmers.
The economy is the main focus, and the demand for external goods is relatively limited.
Once the tea medicine Butie exported from Xuzhou to Langyuetan, Shaoheng and other states exceeds a certain scale, the selling price will be suppressed, making it difficult to capture more profits.
Not to mention the medicinal materials, mules and horses, gold and silver utensils, pearls, jade, and spices from central Guizhou, Nanzhao and other places cannot be sold at high prices in the Hunan states.
The truly large-scale commodity consumption market in Dachu is still in Jinling, which is prosperous in the south of the Yangtze River.
Just like Qianyang cloth and Yandang spring wine, the price in Langzhou and Yuezhou is nearly 30 to 40% lower than in Jinling.
For rare items such as gold and silver vessels, pearls, jade, ivory and spices, the price difference between the two places is even more astonishing.
Therefore, the appearance of the Xuzhou merchant ship in Jinling was seen by some people as the Marquis of Guizhou Yang chose to surrender in the face of real interests.
Xuzhou is a Jizhou Prefecture, which is also a Fanzhou in the ordinary sense. Merchant ships entering the country need to report to the local Salt and Iron Institute Supervisor or the market shipping yard under the jurisdiction of the Salt Envoy Department.
After extracting and purchasing a portion of the goods and collecting them as overtaxes, trade with local merchants was allowed.
The Salt and Iron Envoys were located in the market of Shenjiaji, which was right next to the inn where Cao Qian led his envoys from the Kingdom of Shu. The ship Cao Qian was on was ordered to stop at Shenjiaji and was also regarded as
Perform normal ship handling.
Cao Gan had no way to run to the dock to see if it was a merchant ship coming from Xuzhou. He sat in the room and continued talking to Wei Qun, telling him some of the latest developments in the Kingdom of Shu.
After all, Wei Qun is still the right person.
Towards evening, a noisy quarrel came from the stone street in front of the inn. Cao Gan and Wei Qun walked to the window facing the street and saw many people surrounding two officials from the market arguing about something.
After listening for a while, they realized that the people surrounding the officials in the market were all merchants who had entered Jinling on Xuzhou merchant ships. They had quarreled because they were dissatisfied with the new system of drawing and buying by the Salt and Iron Envoy.
After listening carefully for a while, I realized that the Yan and Iron Envoys imported the goods from the Fan Prefectures to the Jingzhao Prefecture of the Great Chu and the Jingzhi Prefectures. In addition to continuing to make one-tenths of all kinds of goods, they also made new ones.
It is stipulated that 40% of the goods must be purchased at a low price as a sale.
This is equivalent to directly erasing nearly half of the profits that these merchants and others can earn.
Cao Gan saw Wei Qun's confused look. He must have been imprisoned in Dutingyi these days and had no chance to contact the outside world. He was also unaware of many detailed changes in Jinling City.
Regardless of whether the new system implemented by the Salt and Iron Envoy is aimed at Xuzhou, Shu State will also be bound by this system if it wants to export goods to Chu State after re-entering the alliance.
Of course, Cao Qian knew in his heart that the quarrel among the merchants on Shiban Street was futile, and he was ordered on this trip not to get entangled with the Chu State on these minutiae.
Cao Gan called several of his guards who had accompanied him to Xuzhou to come upstairs and asked them to identify whether there were any familiar people among the merchants. If so, they might be spies sent by Xuzhou to Jinling on merchant ships.
It was a pity that his retinue did not recognize anyone familiar.
…………
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The ceremonial certificate of the Lord of Shu was carried into Jinling City by officials from the Ministry of Rites of Great Chu and Honglu Temple, but it was like a stone sinking into the sea, and no news came from it.
The merchants who set out from Xuzhou finally had no choice but to accept the new regulations of the Salt and Iron Envoy. After batches of unpacked and bought goods were transported into the warehouse of the market, they then went through the tooth merchants to communicate with the merchants in Jinling City.
Merchants contacted and sold the remaining goods in bundles.
On the fourth day, Cao Gan still couldn't see any clues. He was somewhat unable to calm down, so he couldn't help but hire a awning boat the next day, and took a few followers to go boating in the name of fishing.
On the Tang River, I took the opportunity to observe Xuzhou merchant ships at close range, but still gained nothing.
In the evening, Cao Gan returned to Shenjiaji by boat. When he was about to return to the inn, he passed by a commoner and heard the commoner whisper to him: "Miss Chunhong from Yingchun Tower, playing the piano."
It's so wonderful that my husband would like to invite Mr. Cao to come over and listen to the piano together at night."
Before Cao Qian could see the man's face clearly, the man had already walked straight over and merged into the dense flow of people in the Shenjiaji Evening Market without looking back.
It is the most important town and port in the west of Jinling City in Shen Jiaji's works. It also has teahouses, restaurants, inns and prostitutes.
Jinling City was severely damaged in previous wars. At the same time, in order to limit enemy spies from penetrating into the city, bulk cargo transactions were designated to be restricted to a few towns outside the city that were relatively intact, not affected by the war, and had convenient transportation.
This also made Shenjiaji more lively and prosperous than ordinary county towns.
Seeing that it was getting late, Cao Gan did not go back to the inn, but walked directly to the Yingchun Building at the south end of the street. After asking the waiter, he went directly to the second floor and sat in a small pavilion.
Yingchun Building is a wooden building with a zigzag structure. There are many small rooms on the second floor. Push the window and look inside. Across the patio, there is a small hall open on all sides.
There are geishas playing the piano and singing in the small hall, and guests can sit in the small pavilion and drink in the elegant room, where they can have a clear view, but it is very elegant.
It was not until Xu Shi (7 o'clock in the night) that Cao Gan heard someone from the small pavilion next door walking in under the guidance of the Yingchun Tower clerk.
Cao Qian waited for a while and confirmed that the guy from Yingchun Building had gone out. Then he walked to the window facing the patio and looked next door. He saw Feng Liao already standing in front of the window there, looking over with a smile.
:
"Master Cao, I haven't seen you for a while!"
"When the Xuzhou merchant ship entered Jinling again, I expected that the Marquis of Qianyang would send an important person to make the trip first, but I didn't expect that an important person like you, Mr. Feng, would come over." Cao Gan asked with a smile, "I'm going to
Over the past few days, I have heard Xuzhou merchants quarreling with officials at the shipping market. They seem to be dissatisfied with the new sales system introduced by the Salt and Iron Commissioner. Has Mr. Feng gone to the Salt and Iron Commissioner to complain?"
"The internal and external troubles of Chu have not yet been resolved, and the official salaries for raising troops and wars cost hundreds of millions. It is a helpless move to levy more commercial goods to make up for the lack of national funds. How can Xuzhou not understand the overall situation and take advantage of it?"
Are you going to bother yourself with such a trivial matter?" Feng Liao said with a smile.
The new regulations of the Salt and Iron Envoy Department have been established and will be implemented not only in Jinling City, Jingzhao Prefecture, and all economic and administrative states in Dachu. This means that the goods from Xuzhou must be imported into the nearby Langyuetan, Shaoheng, and Shaoheng prefectures.
In addition to paying taxes, he was bought at a low price of 40%.
If this was all a trivial matter, Cao Gan secretly thought that Feng Liao's trip to Jinling on behalf of Xuzhou really had other motives.
Of course, Cao Qian also knew that Feng Liao's meeting with him at this time was not to reminisce about the past or simply to show off the Xuzhou merchant ship's ulterior motives for entering Jinling again. He did not ask Feng Liao any riddles and directly asked: "Master Feng invited me to come to Yingchun Tower to meet him."
See you, what can you tell me?"
"My lord expected that someone from the Marquis of Changxiang would be on an envoy to Jinling this time - since it's Mr. Cao, it's the best thing to do - he specifically ordered me to hand over this list to Mr. Cao." Feng Liao stretched out his hand to hand over the list.
A one-page list was handed over to me, and then he retreated into the small attic room next door.
Cao Gan walked back to his seat and spread out the list. What was written on it were some matters related to the border between the two countries via the Qianjiang River when the Marquis of Qianyang hoped to negotiate peace between Shu and Chu.
Obviously the Marquis of Qianyang, Han Qian, was worried that he would send people to Yuzhou to meet with the Marquis of Changxiang for negotiation, and then the Marquis of Changxiang would send people to pursue him to Jinling. He might not be able to catch up with the peace talks between the two countries in time, so he simply called
Feng Liao went directly to Jinling to intercept him.
It was just this list that made Cao Qian more and more confused. It was hard to understand that the Marquis of Qianyang actually asked Yuzhou to significantly increase the price of exporting well salt to Chenxu Sizhou and various Jisuzhou in central Guizhou via the Qianjiang River. At the same time, he also ordered Qianyang Bu, Bingjia, etc.
Fine ironware, marine canvas and other Xuzhou products were imported to Yuzhou for a comprehensive low-price purchase.
Cao Qian understands that the Marquis of Qianyang wants to use this to further distance himself from Yuzhou, but if he really wants to follow the list, Xuzhou will be unprofitable?
Could it be that the Marquis of Qian Yang was really so afraid of Emperor Chu?
Cao Qian lightly pressed the wall of the wing, walked to the window again, and asked: "Master Feng, are you sure there is nothing wrong in this list?"
"It's not wrong. As long as Mr. Cao does this, Yuzhou won't suffer any loss." Feng Liao said.
According to this list, Yuzhou will not only not suffer a loss, but also take advantage of it. Cao Gan confirmed that it was correct, and of course he would not refuse to help.
