Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1066 Five hundred virgins and virgins

Luoyang.

Seongnam, Baekje Embassy.

"Master Feng is here, if you are far away, welcome, forgive me."

Seeing the sudden visit of officials from Daqin Honglu Temple, the Baekje Mission came out to greet them together.

"You don't have to be so polite, I just came to take a look at Shangfeng's order, and I have a few words to bring along."

The chief of the eighth rank, wearing a blue official robe, twitched his beard and laughed, and Baekje Ambassador Fu Yuan quickly handed over a silver collar from his sleeve, at least five taels.

The lord of the seal accepted it calmly, and the Qingshui yamen of Honglu Temple only counted on these envoys to pay one or two tributes every year. Anyway, a small amount of money has nothing to do with it, so just accept it.

"Ambassador Buyeo, are you satisfied with this house?"

"It's nice, the place is big, and it's quiet."

"It's good if you are satisfied. I spent a lot of effort to find this house for you. It used to be a residential house before. It took a lot of effort to convince them to move out. Since you like it, why don't you just go for it?" Buying it with money can be considered your property, the sage also said earlier that all feudal vassals should establish embassies in Luoyang, and at the same time send people to stay in Luoyang to facilitate contact with the suzerain-vassal relationship."

The envoy of Baekje, Fu Yuan, is also a child of the royal family, although the relationship is a bit distant, but he is still a royal family. He has studied Confucianism since he was a child. Although he has a little accent in Chinese, he is actually not bad. His clothes and hair style, etc. , at first glance, I really can't tell that he is a foreigner.

In this regard, Baekje is quite proud. Baekje has been studying Chinese culture and Confucianism for nearly 300 years. The imperial court is written in Chinese characters, and even noble officials communicate in Chinese characters. In this respect They did better than both Silla and Goguryeo.

In the early years, they had been in contact with the Central Plains Dynasty, but because of the demise of Goguryeo, the people's attitude towards Daqin is not only paying tribute to Daqin, but also secretly wary. They are always worried that Daqin will destroy them next, so they ignore the warning and secretly Has been supporting the remnants of Goguryeo.

For this small request from Shangguo, Fu Yu'an naturally did not dare to refuse, nor did he feel the need to refuse.A house is only worth a thousand pennies, at most no more than three thousand pennies, which they still have.

This time they came to Luoyang to pay tribute. In fact, they brought more than a dozen ships of goods, not only to pay tribute to Emperor Qin, but also to many noble officials. Even if they paid tribute, it was actually a tribute trade. , It’s not a loss, and you can make a fortune immediately by transporting these Qin goods back.

This kind of tribute trade is much more cost-effective than Qin merchants transporting goods by sea to their Baekje trade. They don't need to go through the Qin merchants, and they lose a middleman, not to mention that they can save customs duties, and the profits are huge improve.

"Ambassador Fuyu, have you sold all your belongings?" Lord Feng asked with a smile.

"It's already been traded in the West Market."

"That's good. Your Majesty also confessed that if you still have unsold goods in your hands, I can buy them all from my court. Next time you come, you can bring more goods. It doesn't have to be until Zhengdan." Come, for example, the Longevity Festival on the birthday of the saint, the Qianqiu Festival on the Queen’s birthday, the Halloween on the Supreme Emperor’s birthday, the Virgin Mary’s Day on the Empress Dowager’s birthday, the crown prince’s birthday, and the Winter Solstice Festival. By the way, you can bring some local products to Luoyang for trading."

When normal merchants come to the Central Plains, the goods have to go through customs and pay taxes, but as tributes carried by missions, or as entrained goods, there is no need to go through customs and pay taxes. little privilege.

After all, the volume of this kind of transaction is still small, but it can make the princes and ministers of the feudal kingdom repay the sweetness and encourage them to come to congratulate more.

They make small profits, but the imperial court will never lose money. For the small loss of tariffs, the imperial court can earn more from the transaction.

When Fu Yuan heard this, he couldn't help but get a little excited.

They brought a lot of goods this trip, but they made a lot of money in the end. The various goods they traded in the West Market brought by Hu merchants from Daqin and other feudal states, as long as they brought them back to Baekje, they would definitely be sold. Can make a fortune.But now, the State of Qin actually encourages them to come several times a year, in the name of Chaohe. This is the benefit of exempting them from customs clearance taxes.

"The next time you come, bring five hundred boys and girls with you." Master Feng said with a smile.

The so-called virgins, virgins actually refer to children who have been eunuchs. Although there are not many people on the peninsula, several countries have ruled for a long time. They all learned how to use eunuchs in the Central Plains palace, and there are special institutions, and the technology is still very advanced. good.

Of course, the technology of the Central Plains is better, but Emperor Luo Cheng is reluctant to castrate the people of the Central Plains and waste people.So they assigned missions to the vassal states, three hundred in this family, and five hundred in that family, and asked them to pay tribute to virgins.

And virgins, of course, are also beautiful girls, and they have to be the daughters of aristocratic officials and wealthy families with good backgrounds. Not only do they have to be good-looking, but they also have to be young, with extraordinary conversation and temperament.

Master Feng even suggested that girls between the ages of 16 and [-] should be the best. After being selected, it would be best if they could be trained in etiquette in Baekje first, teaching them to speak Chinese, write Chinese characters and practice Chinese etiquette.

"The lacquer, rice, hemp, paper, and mink that you presented this time are all good. Your Majesty said that in the future, you will not be required to pay tribute to sea dongqing, hounds, etc., but you can pay more tribute to cattle, horses, and ginseng. Next time , you pay tribute to ten thousand cattle and eight thousand horses." Master Feng drank the tea ceremony.

Fu Yuan was startled.

Just asking for 1000 boys and girls made him feel a bit embarrassed. After all, Baekje is such a big country. If you want to send [-] young men and women to Daqin at a time, it is impossible to go back after sending them back. Now you are asking for such a thing. Many cattle and horses, ginseng, cloth, lacquered paper, etc.

"Don't worry, I will never take advantage of your vassals. No matter how much you pay, we will only add rewards. At that time, my Daqin's porcelain, silk, fine wine, fragrant tea, and exquisitely crafted swords and armor I will give it back to you later, and even Persian carpets, gold utensils from Fulin, spices from Tianzhu, etc.”

Fu Yu'an felt relieved when he heard this, but he still said, "I'm afraid it will be difficult to raise [-] cattle and [-] horses for a while."

"It's okay, you can come here often in the future, just bring three or two thousand heads every time you come."

After thinking about it, Fu Yu'an felt that there was nothing wrong with it, so he nodded in response, and solemnly took a pen to write down what Master Feng said verbatim.

"You can bring some tea servants who can cook and girls who can learn music, regardless of their backgrounds." Master Feng added.

"Of course, if there are prisoners who violate the law and the like in your country, if they are not easy to discipline, they can also be sent to the Central Plains."

Fu Yuan knew that this sending to Zhongyuan meant that the Baekje court would sell these prisoners to Qin as slaves.

(End of this chapter)