Fenghou

Chapter 1203
When Hu Yun returned to Lin'an, Dong An found him. Five wealthy businessmen were willing to pay [-] guan, hoping to leave Lin'an as soon as possible and go to Jingzhao.

At noon, Hu Yun met five proprietors. Besides Wang An from Lao Yao Teahouse, Hu Yun also knew another person, Li Shao, the proprietor of Qingyun Restaurant.

"Why, Li Dongzhu is leaving too, and Qingyun Restaurant is sold?"

Li Shao sighed, "Uncle Wei Guo took a fancy to Qingyun Restaurant, even drank five glasses of wine, and paid me ten taels of silver for each one, even if I sold it at half price, no one dared to accept it. I can admit it, and leave with the house deed and title deed, I believe that one day when I come back, that piece of land will still be mine."

Hu Yun comforted him and said: "There is no other way. He can occupy your restaurant, but he cannot occupy your land in a short time. Even if he colludes with the government to forcibly change the land lease, you can still change the land lease by appealing in the future. But it takes time and luck."

Of course, Hu Yun can only comfort him. In fact, once the land deed is changed, basically he will not come back. Just like Bianliang, many houses that were taken back by the puppet Qi officials were taken back, but all of them were used as official houses, and they were not returned. to the original owner.

Hu Yun called the five people together, and said to them: "Treasurer Dong told you the plan, do you all accept it?"

The solution Hu Yun said was to exchange their copper coins for silver, and then give them the copper coins in the same proportion after arriving in Jingzhao.

Wang An raised his hand and said, "May I ask Special Envoy Hu, we also have some gold and silver, do we want to exchange them together?"

Hu Yun asked, "How much gold and silver do you have?"

"Each family has a few hundred taels of gold and a few thousand taels of silver, which are accumulated little by little."

"What else but gold and silver?"

"The others are some jewellery, which don't occupy much land, such as house land, silks, jade and other properties. They are all sold. If they can't be sold, they are also given to relatives."

Hu Yun nodded, "I bring the gold, silver and jewelry with me. I only exchange everyone's copper coins. Let me make a count and see how much copper coins need to be exchanged."

Hu Yun counted, five families, a total of [-] taels, and [-] taels of silver.

He said to everyone: "I will tell you the process. First, everyone will go back and put all the copper coins in boxes or sacks. Then tonight and tomorrow night, I will send ships and warriors from door to door to receive the copper coins. The day after tomorrow Early in the morning, everyone will go to Xiaoshan County by boat and exchange for Wanshi Seaship in Xiaoshan County. At that time, you will see your own silver. Here I want to emphasize that since you choose me, you must trust me, trust me or trust me His Royal Highness King Yong, please sign and pledge, there is still time to withdraw, but we must keep it a secret for everyone."

The five rich merchants have been thinking about it for a long time, and their property has been sold, so it is too late to turn around now. More importantly, they dare not go to the black market to exchange too much silver, and they will be watched by robbers. After much deliberation, they can only trust King Yong. people.

Without any hesitation, the five of them signed and pledged on the entrustment agreement, entrusting their wealth and lives to Hu Yun.

That night, Wei Yanzong led more than a dozen cargo ships to transport the copper coins of each household to the special envoy of King Yong. It was the safest place. Zhao Gou reached an agreement that there are three places in Lin'an City that belong to Prince Yong's Mansion, one is the Special Envoy's Mansion in Yujie, the other is the "Beijing News" newspaper office, and the other is the warehouse in the south of the city. If the Song army forcibly breaks into these three places , it is regarded as declaring war on the Western Army.

On the third day, at dawn, the five families came out from the back door of the "Beijing News" newspaper office with their families. They lived in the newspaper office last night. They all carried a few heavy boxes, which were their own gold and silver.

The samurai carried the big box to the big ship for them, and everyone boarded the ship with their wives and children. The two big ships sailed out of the city with the banner of the Western Army.

If it is an ordinary cargo ship, when going from the city to the canal, there will be two checkpoints. One is at the city gate, and the other is the checkpoint outside the city entering the canal. There were not many checkpoints before.

But now the imperial court is becoming less and less confident, and the inspection is becoming more and more strict. Unless there is a special pass, all ships must strictly check the tax bill and board the ship for search.

There are special ships with special passes, such as official ships, military ships, and special envoy ships. At present, there are only two special envoy ships, the special envoy ship of Jin Kingdom and the special envoy ship of King Yong.

In the past, special envoy ships were exempted from inspection for passenger ships, but since last year, if there are less than three special envoy Qianshi cargo ships, they can also pass without inspection.

Therefore, it is basically impossible for the five wealthy merchants to smuggle [-] copper coins and a large amount of gold and silver out of the city privately, unless they file with the government, find someone to guarantee or pay tens of thousands of guarantee money, or buy goods to pay taxes , leave the city with the tax bill.

The two large ships arrived at Nantumen. Outside the city was the moat, and then entered the canal from the moat. After traveling south for more than ten miles, they sailed into the Qiantang River.

Nantumen is the same as other city gates. There are guards and tax collectors. When goods enter the city, they have to pay taxes, and when goods leave the city, they need to check the goods list. The goods list is somewhat similar to the invoices of later generations. After the tax collectors get the goods list, they disembark with the soldiers. Go to check, the goods are all right, and the tax collector will stamp a stamp on the list.

When going to another city to sell goods, you need to show the list for tax payment. After returning to Lin’an, the businessman has to submit the list and tax bills to the tax office, and the business is considered over.

In the past, there was no need for any list, and there was no need to go to the so-called review of the tax office. However, in the early years, Sichuan and Shaanxi implemented commercial tax exemption, which led to a large number of merchants purchasing goods in Jiangnan and then going to Sichuan and Shaanxi to sell them instead of selling locally in Jiangnan. There were shortages, rising prices, and the imperial court had no business tax revenue.

The imperial court had to take measures. Since last year, it has added tax cards in various places. It is possible to sell goods in Sichuan and Shaanxi, but you must pay the tax before leaving. The imperial court is afraid that merchants will escape the checkpoints by taking small paths, so they implement a cargo list and review system. Merchants If you don't take the tax bill and the goods list to the tax office for review within one year, it will be regarded as tax evasion and arrest, and you will not only be fined heavily, but also convicted and exiled.

Of course, there are still many ways to evade taxes. The most common way is to take advantage of the difference in tax rates. For example, the goods purchased on the cargo ship are silk and satin, but the cargo list says hessian cloth. The tax rate for silk is one cent, and the tax rate for hemp is only three Percentage, there is a [-]% tax rate difference in the middle, and the quantity is often underreported.

But this kind of tax evasion is often the talent of the powerful. The tax card does not dare to offend the powerful. It often says as much as it is, and it is what is written on the list. It will not disembark to check the goods carefully.

Ordinary businessmen dare not evade taxes easily. Ordinary businessmen use the method of bribing checkpoints, but there are many checkpoints along the way, and the money for bribes is often much higher than the tax money. .

A dozen ships were queuing out of the city. Checking the list and searching the ships was slow. Two large ships passed by, and the soldiers shouted "Stop!"

Wei Yanzong stood at the bow of the boat and held up a gold medal for exemption from inspection. Only the special envoys of Prince Yong's Mansion and the envoys of the Kingdom of Jin have gold medals for exemption from inspection. Several soldiers shrank back in fright and asked, "Is it also in the back?"

"Two ships together!"

The soldier waved his hand and shouted, "Let go!"

The two large ships sailed out of the city gate and headed south along the moat. There was a checkpoint at the mouth of the canal ahead, but it was also unimpeded for the envoy ship.
In the afternoon of that day, five wealthy businessmen and their families changed into the Wanshi Sea Ship in Xiao County, and they also got their [-] taels of silver.

It was only at this time that all the people finally gave up their hearts. They handed over the copper coins they had accumulated for several generations, but they didn't get the silver. For two days, their hearts were hanging in the air.

Two hours later, the Wanshi cargo ship set off, slowly turned around and headed towards the Yangtze River.

(End of this chapter)