Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1472 Ender
On the Tongguan city wall, the sergeants opened their mouths wide in surprise.

The newly built first-class national road is actually very spacious, almost covering the entire valley under the plateau, but when the huge four-wheeled carriage hits the road, I feel that only such a wide road can allow such "luxury cars" to pass smoothly. hinder.

Sure enough, the imperial court took one step and three steps in doing things. There are roads first, and then cars. The rules and regulations are clear, leaving people speechless.

"Stand up straight, don't look around!" An officer came over, took a scabbard and knocked a few sergeants who were lying on the female wall to watch, reminding them.

The once important town of Xiongguan no longer has serious sergeants guarding it.

The Zhenguo Army in the early years was the last regular army to defend Tongguan.After this army was abolished and merged into the Forbidden Army, Guanneidao once dispatched state soldiers from various states to defend in rotation.Later, it was basically confiscated and sent to guard the customs.

Up to now, even the number of Tutuan villagers has been greatly reduced.With only a few thousand people, Tongguan who can guard farts!Their greatest role is to guard the various tunnels near Tongguan under the command of tax collectors, and to intercept merchants who try to take small paths in and out of the pass, so as not to let them evade taxes.

After the Great Xia was established, although there were three capitals, everyone with a discerning eye knew that Luoyang was the main one.The military value of Tongguan is greatly reduced. It is estimated that from now on, it will be guarded by Xiangyong in rotation.

Unless the imperial court stays in Chang'an for a long time, the importance of Pujin Pass and Tongguan will increase greatly, and they will become the inner six passes like the previous Tang Dynasty, with heavy troops stationed there.

But that's probably out of the question.

"Long live my emperor!" Sheng Jia appeared far away on the post road, and officials, local tyrants, gentry, and elders from Tongzhou, Huazhou and even the opposite Puzhou stood beside the road and shouted in unison.

"Long live my emperor!" No one gave an order, and there were sparse voices from the Tutuan villagers on Tongguan.

Commander Xiangyong was a little surprised.

He is an old soldier who retired from the Imperial Army, a native of Yanzhou, and a former soldier of the Taining Army.Although respectful and obedient to saints, there is absolutely no such heartfelt support.

In fact, he was very curious, what benefits did the sage give to the people of Kansai, and was it worth it?

"Why this?" He walked up to a familiar sergeant and asked in a low voice.

The sergeant glanced at him, and said in a low voice: "The three brothers of my family have less than forty mu of land, which is still very barren. When my father was alive, he always said that if such a barren land was given to the three of you brothers, it would be a waste of land. None of them are having a good time.”

The conductor nodded, this is the truth.

They are from Gyeongju, which is originally a poor place. Some counties and townships are still short of water, and there is actually not much harvest from farming.If the thirty or forty mu of land is divided among the three brothers and taxes are removed, if the wife and children want to keep their wives and children from starving to death, they will have to eat a lot of wild vegetables, melons and fruits in certain seasons, and their living standards will drop off a cliff.

"So, my father left all the land to me, saying that this is the will of the saint, and the eldest brother will inherit everything." The sergeant continued: "The second and third brothers took some floating money and went to Xiangyang. Last year, a businessman from my hometown I went to Xiangyang to buy tea, and when I came back, I brought a letter from my second and third brothers, saying that they had settled down in Nanzhang County, and that the second brother married a wife, so they could eat enough.”

After listening to the conductor, he didn't know what to say.

According to the concept of their hometown, this seems inappropriate.The brothers were separated, and I was alone, and there was no one to help me when something happened. No matter how I thought about it, I didn't think it was appropriate.But what they say is true, are they poor together?
The three brothers divided up the family property, each with about ten acres of land. After paying the tax, he might be able to eat enough by himself, but what about marrying a wife and having children?The husband and wife plus two or three children will have to eat up the remaining food in a year, and if the harvest is a little bit poor, they will go hungry.

After the child grows up, not only does his appetite increase greatly, but he also faces the dilemma of separating the family again.Dividing up again this time is really troublesome, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to eat enough.

From this point of view, it seems reasonable.However, after all, it is hard to leave the homeland, and the graveyards of the ancestors are all there. If you go to other places, you will have no roots. Once you are bullied, you will not even have a helper.

The command is still somewhat unacceptable.Now that the world is peaceful, if you stay in your hometown, you can always find some odd jobs to make ends meet, right?There is really no way, it is okay to plunder passing business travelers, just like Cai thief.

"Long live my emperor!" The holy driver stopped on the post road, the emperor and empress got out of the car hand in hand, and the sergeant shouted twice more.

Kansai is really a royal summer iron plate!The commander secretly said in his heart.Xuan thought that he was also from Kansai, and his family from Yanzhou would move here before the end of the year.One day in the future, his son will also shout like this at the top of the city, right?

Under the city of Tongguan, a group of business travelers who were about to detour to the forbidden pit also stopped.

They came from Jingzhou, carrying several carts of tea, preparing to cross Tongguan and enter Guanzhong.But it's impossible right now, there are cavalry soldiers of the forbidden army everywhere, driving the idlers far away, so they can only walk through the forbidden pit.

"Even if someone seeks to usurp the throne in the future, as long as the descendants of the Shao family go to Chang'an, it will be a situation where the two emperors of the east and the west stand side by side." Someone said: "It is strange today, he is not from Guanzhong, so how can so many people do it for him?" Shout?"

"Qilang, you will die on this mouth sooner or later." Another person scolded: "You can arrange it today? If someone reports it, we will be implicated as well."

"It's okay for Wang Shifan to arrange to rape and humiliate Li Tang's harem today, I don't care about it." Qilang was not convinced, and returned his words.

"What Wang Shifan said is true, what you said - bah, you got involved." The speaker himself laughed angrily, and said: "In short, if you don't change, you won't be taken out if you go down. Stay in the mountains for the rest of your life to watch the tea farms, lest you get into trouble."

Shichiro was obviously a little scared.

He is not afraid of going today, but he is afraid of living in the mountains for the rest of his life, so he changed the subject and said, "Third brother, that four-wheeled carriage looks pretty good, can we buy one and take it home? It shouldn't be complicated. Look, it should be very convenient to find someone to make it and use it to transport tea in the future."

"I heard it was made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs..." Third Brother hesitated: "I'm afraid it's not so easy to allow outsiders to make money from the business they use. But it's really good, much better than mule carts and donkey carts. It's used to transport goods If it is, I reckon it can save half of the money, or even more.”

"As long as we can make it, the saint will be fine even before he falls asleep." Qilang was affirmed by the third brother, and he smiled playfully again, and he didn't hold the door.

The third brother was so angry that he kicked him and said, "Hurry up!"

Qilang touched his butt, and drove the carriage away first.

The third brother was worried, and chased after him, and said earnestly: "I know you are young and energetic, and you have been a martial artist before, and you are not convinced by anyone, but today is different."

"How is it different?" Shichiro asked.

"Today, we are very kind to merchants." The third brother said with a serious face.

"Where does en come from?"

"We didn't bring much copper coins with us when we went out this time."

"I'm also surprised about this." Qilang was going out for the first time, and he really didn't understand these things, so he asked, "Isn't there still silk?"

"The silk is sold to rich families in Chang'an to make clothes, not to be used as money." The third brother said: "Brother has a stack of silver dollar bills from Chang'an Fang City in his arms, and this is for business."

Qilang seemed to understand it all at once. He had seen this thing before, but he didn't pay much attention to it, so he didn't think about it.

"Understood?" The third brother gave him a squinting look, and said again: "With this thing, the business can be done several times more, and the common people will benefit from it."

Merchants know how many businesses have lost due to currency issues, it is simply incalculable.With silver dollar bills, how much tea can be sold in a year?And if more tea is sold, the price will gradually drop, and the common people will also get real benefits.

This is the case with tea, isn't it the case with other commodities?

To put it bluntly, the world is not so out of stock, some products should not be so expensive.Just like their family, they used to pick the best batch from the tea garden to sell, and they couldn't sell too much.But now there are more merchants holding silver dollar bills to inquire about prices, and the tea that could not be sold in the past can also be sold outside, which increases income-the income of tea sellers increases, and tea buyers also benefit, and the government can charge more. A little tea money, everyone is happy.

"According to what you said, isn't the sage the patriarch of our merchants? It's time to build a shrine to worship incense." Qilang asked stupidly.

The third brother laughed, kicked him again, and said, "Who dares to worship the emperor?"

After kicking, he said again: "But someone said what you said before."

"who?"

"Kansai merchants." The third brother said: "A group of upstarts who made a fortune by trading woolen cloth."

Qilang heard the sourness from the third brother's mouth. Obviously, the business of woolen cloth is not worse than tea, and even more profitable.

He subconsciously touched the sweater on his body, it was a little prickly and not soft enough, but it was really warm.

"Many of those merchants were originally poor." The third brother continued, "But they are courageous, foresighted, and ruthless enough to get involved in the woolen cloth business before others, and suddenly made a fortune. Today I am full of praise. I chatted with a few of them at Pude Station in the past. They even sent their children who are skilled in bows and horses to join the army and went to Liaodong to conquer the Bohai Sea to express their gratitude. Such prestige today, Who did it?"

"When King Le'an went to Luoyang, didn't the people in Guanzhong say long live?" Qilang muttered, and then made a subtle dodge to avoid another kick from his brother.

"No one in Chang'an misses King Le'an anymore." The third brother almost staggered, stabilized his figure, and said angrily: "I went to the West Market in a few days, talk to more people, you Know who is the real saint in the hearts of the people in Guanzhong. In the early Tang Dynasty, the government urged the class, and the people had no money in their hands, so they were eager to grab the land. Now that we have silver bills, we merchants don’t need to hoard so much copper coins. There will be no shortage, and it will not be so difficult to pay taxes. Think about it, what a kindness this is."

Qilang finally became serious and said, "I want to take a good look."

After all, he looked back to the north.

In the post road surrounded by soldiers of the Forbidden Army, the canopy was like clouds, and the cheers were like thunder.

Some emperors can make people awe and feel his majesty.

Some emperors can be loved by the people and feel his kindness.

It all sounds good, but these are two levels, one sky, one earth, the difference is too much.

(End of this chapter)