Movie: Get Alpha Dog at the start

Chapter 166 Life is like a play, it all depends on acting skills (ask for a monthly ticket!!!)
In order to eliminate the bad influence caused by Shen Congxin, Qin Hao specially wrote an announcement to let the soldiers know the military discipline to abide by and the benefits they can get after going to sea. There are literate soldiers in front of each bulletin board to preach, after all With the illiteracy rate these days, soldiers are basically not expected to be able to read and write.

This announcement immediately caused a sensation in the water village, and the veterans cheered.

"It must be that Lord Hou loves us big soldiers."

"Don't talk about it, Lord Hou is here, and our life will be easier."

Some of the recruits were a bit inexplicable.

"When did this group of officials count their words? I'm afraid it's just another joy."

"Yeah, how can anyone dislike having a lot of money these days and divide it with us big men?"

The veteran was not happy when he heard it.

"Bastard, when did Lord Hou break his promise?"

"That's right, the last time I went to sea, I really made a fortune. Otherwise, where would I get the money to marry my mother-in-law?"

Some of the recruits are skeptical, and some are full of longing. Don't look at men these days who have three wives and four concubines. In fact, it is very difficult for ordinary people at the bottom to marry a wife.

Qin Hao was not in a hurry to go to sea, but had a one-month intensive training first. Since returning from the sea last time, Shen Congxin was transferred back to Bianjing. These soldiers have not undergone systematic training. In order for these soldiers to form effective combat effectiveness, intensive training is a must.

Although the recruits complained, but under the leadership of the veterans, there was no trouble. In addition, the food was much better than before, so the soldiers were willing to work hard if they could eat enough.

On the other hand, Sheng Changbai encountered a lot of trouble in setting up the shipping office, mainly due to the resistance from Mingzhou maritime merchants. These maritime merchants are all very rich, and they will contribute a lot of benefits to local officials every year.

Collusion between officials and businessmen is a common phenomenon. Now that the imperial court wants to start collecting commercial taxes from maritime merchants, it will naturally touch the interests of local officials.

That is to say, Sheng Changbai came down under the order of the saint, otherwise his body would be found in the sea some morning.

But on the surface, there is no way to start, and the local officials have many tricks behind their backs. After Sheng Changbai established the Shipping Office, the first thing he did was to check the sea-going ships with more than [-] materials.

However, these ships seemed to have evaporated from the world. Sheng Changbai was busy for several days, and there were only two registered in Mingzhou. They were still the kind of sea-going ships that were in disrepair and were about to be scrapped.

Sheng Changbai could only lead a team to investigate by himself, but wherever he went, someone always leaked the news in advance, so that he could not find anything, and Sheng Changbai was devastated.

On this day, Sheng Changbai came to Qin Hao's water village to complain to him.

Qin Hao secretly smiled, this is the gap between ideal and reality, Sheng Changbai's methods are still a little tender.

"Has Zecheng ever thought about why these maritime merchants would rather spend money to bribe officials than pay commercial taxes?"

This question stopped Sheng Changbai, bowed to Qin Haoshen, and asked for advice: "Please also ask Zihan to teach me."

Qin Hao helped him up, and said sternly: "It's actually very simple. The Haiyun Yamen has just been established and has no credibility at all. In the eyes of these maritime merchants, the Haiyun Yamen is here to steal money. They not only want to continue to bribe officials, but also turn over the money. Commercial tax, taking such a big risk, and finally giving all the profits to others, if it was you, would you be willing?"

Sheng Changbai was stunned: "So that's the case, Zihan, what should I do to convince them?"

Qin Hao smiled: "It's actually very simple. You just need to let them know that after paying the commercial tax, those local officials can't exploit them. Over time, the credibility of the shipping office has been established. Naturally, no marine merchants are willing to take the risk of ransacking their homes. risk to bribe those officials.”

Sheng Changbai said thoughtfully: "It's just that it may be difficult to do."

Qin Hao shook his head: "It may be difficult for others, but Zecheng, don't forget that the officials standing behind you are the imperial court. As long as these people are not motivated by interests and want to rebel, they will not dare to fight with you." Face it head-on, Gu Tingye's anti-smuggling office is also idle, you can sing a show together with him."

"play?"

Three days later, Gu Tingye captured two sea-going ships in a small bay near Mingzhou Port. The ships were filled with spices brought back from overseas, which were priceless.

Naturally, the two ships were not registered, and Gu Tingye led people to arrest the smuggled maritime merchants overnight.

Gu Tingye was interrogated overnight. The sea merchant was full of food, but he was very courageous. He not only refused to explain, but also clamored.

"I am a relative of Liang Zhizhou, who dares to touch me?"

Gu Tingye smiled, very happy, seeing that the guy in front of him managed to amuse him, Gu Tingye decided to execute the sentence himself.

"What rank is the Zhizhou official? Do you know the official rank of this Marquis? Don't say that you are just a relative of Liang Zhizhou, it is him himself. As long as he breaks the law of the country and falls into my hands, he will not be able to live or die!"

"Ah~~~" Fatty let out a heart-piercing scream, paying the price for his arrogance.

Seeing that the fat man fainted from the pain, Gu Tingye also stopped and asked someone to pour a basin of cold water on him to wake him up.

Seeing Gu Tingye's grinning face, the fat man was so frightened that his soul flew away. He no longer had the arrogance he had before, so he hurriedly begged for mercy.

"Master Hou, please forgive me. I will pay the tax. Isn't it okay to pay the tax?"

Gu Tingye propped up the fat man's chin with the whip, and said with a disdainful smile: "Now you know you have to pay taxes? It's too late."

Suddenly the subordinate reported: "Master Hou, Liang Zhizhou is asking to see you."

Gu Tingye seemed a little surprised, and patted the fat man's face: "It seems that you are really a relative of Liang Zhizhou, that's just right, bring him here, let him also see, what is the end of disobeying the court's decree!"

Soon Liang Zhizhou was taken to the prison. Looking at the fat man who was beaten to pieces, Liang Zhizhou's forehead was dripping with sweat.

"Gu Guhou, can you show me some favor?"

Gu Tingye smiled disdainfully: "Liang Zhizhou knew the law and violated the law. Do you think it is because of your kindness or the court's law?"

Liang Zhizhou was furious, but he was so stunned that he couldn't speak.

"Brother-in-law, save me, find a way to save me!"

Liang Zhizhou could only stare at him: "Shut up, I told you a long time ago, don't break the law of the country."

Gu Tingye looked very disappointed: "It's rare that Liang Zhizhou still knows the national law, so I won't send it away."

"Hmph." Liang Zhizhou hated secretly, but he had nothing to do with Gu Tingye. He could trip up Sheng Changbai, but when he met Gu Tingye, he was considered a scholar and met a soldier.

When they got home, Liang Zhizhou's wife cried when she saw that he hadn't brought him back. Liang Zhizhou's head grew bigger and he yelled.

"It's mourning, I'm not dead yet!"

The wife stopped crying and begged, "Sir, my brother is the only man in my family, you must find a way to save him!"

Liang Zhizhou sighed: "Then Gu Tingye is the Marquis of Ningyuan, and he is trusted by officials, so what can I do?"

At this time, the master next to him suddenly said: "Then Sheng Changbai and Gu Tingye are close friends, why not go to him and find a way?"

"Sheng Changbai? Aren't they the same breed?" Liang Zhizhou asked suspiciously when he heard the words.

The master shook the paper fan lightly, and smiled: "Otherwise, the shipping office and the anti-smuggling office seem to be established together, but they are not monolithic."

"The more commercial taxes collected by the shipping office, the greater the chance of Sheng Changbai's promotion. The same is true for the anti-smuggling office. The more smuggling is seized, the richer the sea merchants are seized, the more trustworthy Gu Tingye will be. If everyone pays Doesn't Gu Tingye, the leader of the anti-smuggling yamen, have nothing to do with commercial taxation, and vice versa."

Liang Zhizhou suddenly said: "Mr. is a great talent, Liang has been taught."

So Liang Zhizhou went to find Sheng Changbai non-stop, Sheng Changbai naturally refused in every possible way at first, until Liang Zhizhou brought out the master's words, Sheng Changbai agreed to go.

Witnessed by Liang Zhizhou and Fatty Haishang, Sheng Changbai had a fierce conflict with Gu Tingye.

Sheng Changbai accused Gu Tingye: "You are punishing without teaching. The shipping government has just been established, and there is no time to register merchant ships. Naturally, there is no way to pay taxes."

Fatty burst into tears when he heard this: "Master Sheng is right, these two boats went out to sea a few months ago, I just didn't have time to register, I will pay the tax!"

Liang Zhizhou looked at Gu Tingye who was choked and speechless, and immediately felt better, thinking: You have today too!
The fat man was released in the end, so Liang Zhizhou naturally wanted to entertain Sheng Changbai in the most popular brothel in the area.

This is what Sheng Changbai wanted, and he said in a loud voice after drinking three rounds of food and five flavors.

"When I came out of Bianjing, the officials said that the function of the shipping office is not only to collect taxes, but also to create a better business environment for the majority of maritime merchants. Everyone in the Jinghai Navy has heard of it? After paying the tax, if you encounter pirates or some native robbers at sea in the future, you can get the protection of the Jinghai Navy, and there is a high chance that the lost goods will be recovered."

"In addition, after our shipping office raises taxes, we will also be responsible for the repair and expansion of the terminal. In the future, it is estimated that the Mingzhou terminal will be expanded to more than ten times its current size."

Mingzhou has been a very prosperous area for maritime trade since ancient times, and the main customers of brothels are precisely these maritime merchants. Hearing Sheng Changbai's words, the maritime merchants all have a thoughtful expression.

Sheng Changbai let out a belch and continued: "And as long as the sea merchants pay taxes at the shipping office, they can get a tax clearance certificate. After that, no matter where the goods shipped back are sold, they don't have to pay any exorbitant taxes. Grace from home!"

As soon as this remark came out, all the maritime merchants present were moved.

Why are merchants unwilling to pay taxes?Because they transported some cheap porcelain and cloth from the Song Dynasty to overseas in exchange for spices, gold, ivory and other products of the local natives. After returning, they still had to sell them in various places. It also directly led to the high price of various commodities.

But if you only need to pay the tax once, although the 20% tax is a bit heavy, it is not unacceptable. After all, the number of people they usually manage is far more than this ratio.

The most important thing is that there is a legal way, and who is willing to take the risk of being ransacked? Everyone has accumulated a certain amount of wealth with great difficulty. If they are caught, they will go to jail if they return overnight before liberation. The risk does not match the benefit. In the case of direct ratio, businessmen also have to think about trade-offs.

That night, many maritime merchants came to the maritime office to inquire about the specific policies. Sheng Changbai also received some relatively large maritime merchants in person, and also put up notices in each place.

Not to mention that this trick really worked, some maritime merchants soon registered their ships, and Sheng Changbai also gave a one-month deadline. He was ransacked and sent to prison.

After a busy month, more than [-]% of Mingzhou's seagoing ships have been registered. Of course, there are still many seagoing merchants who are lucky.

At this time, it was Gu Tingye's turn to act. Gu Tingye personally led the team to catch a few typical cases, and severely punished them.

Naturally, there were many memorials impeaching Gu Tingye and Sheng Changbai's excessive taxation in the imperial court, but under the large amount of taxes and the gold and silver seized, these impeachments did not shake Zhao Zongquan, but made him see clearly the faces of many high-sounding civil servants in the imperial court.

One month later, Qin Hao's fleet finally set sail. Along with him were more than 30 mighty sea vessels. These were merchant ships of nobles. Now that he had received the money, Qin Hao would naturally fulfill his promise. , and make a fortune with these nobles.

The journey of this trip was not smooth. Less than a month after leaving the sea, there was a storm at sea. Fortunately, Qin Hao's fleet was all old sailors, and he led the fleet to avoid the most violent area of ​​the storm and circled around the edge. , even so, two merchant ships were lost.

Afterwards, all the way to Siam in a calm and peaceful way, the nobles were instantly dazzled. They did not expect that there was such a paradise outside the Song Dynasty. All kinds of subtropical fruits were huge, and the wheat ears in the fields were so heavy that the straw could not stand straight. Waist, of course, they are most concerned about all kinds of gems, pearls, agate, and gold.

The natives didn't pay much attention to these things, and some even used gems to build stone houses, which made all the dignitaries sigh: Prodigal sons, and then exchanged these gems with cloth and porcelain.

"Haha, as expected, as Lord Hou said, this overseas is really a blessed land!"

"Well, these natives are too lazy, they don't want to move when they sleep there all day, otherwise they can collect a lot of jewels."

On the return journey, Qin Hao did not go with them, but went to further seas to explore the waterway. This time, Qin Hao's destination was the East Indies, known as the Spice Islands.

In fact, this channel has been explored by many sea merchants, such as Sumatra, Java, Borneo, etc. have been reached, but with the navigation technology of the Song Dynasty, this route is too risky, and these islands are rich in spices. It can also be obtained in places such as Siam and Chenla, so few sea merchants are willing to take risks.

However, Qin Hao knew that sooner or later, places like Siam and Chenla would be raided by the Great Song maritime merchants, so he still needed to explore further waterways in advance to plan ahead.

Almost half a year later, Qin Hao came to the East Indies, known as the Spice Islands. As the name suggests, the island is full of various spices.

In the Song Dynasty, the role of spices was not only for cooking, but also for incense.

Ancient people didn't take a bath every day. For this reason, there was a special holiday for taking a bath, which was called "Shu Mu", so that there would inevitably be a smell on the body, so incense became a good product to cover up the smell, just like the French who invented perfume is a motive.

In many cases, incense is also used on the clothes of honored families. Almost every honored family has its own unique secret recipe for incense. Naturally, the more unique the incense, the more it can show the family heritage.

The consumption of spices is huge, but the inland production is very small, and can only be obtained through sea trade, which makes the price of spices extremely expensive, and good spices are comparable to gold of equal weight.

And these spices can be found almost everywhere in the Spice Islands.

In addition to the spices, Qin Hao caught three rare white tigers on a small island in the Bay of Bengal on the return journey. They were bound by their limbs and carried to the boat with bamboo poles.

In ancient times, white tigers belonged to auspiciousness, and it would be the best to present them to Zhao Zongquan. In order to prevent these white tigers from dying, Qin Hao specially arranged the largest cabin for them and fed them live food every day.

But even so, after half a year of sailing, only one survived in the end. When he arrived at Mingzhou Wharf, Qin Hao hurriedly surrounded the white tiger with a forest to let it recover.

Gu Tingye rushed over after hearing the news. When he saw the white tiger, he thought it was Qin Hao who dyed it with something. He insisted on doing it himself. This guy is really born with supernatural power. Facing the white tiger that was rushing towards him, he pressed it to the ground and couldn't move. .

Qin Hao hurriedly pulled the thing away, the white tiger that was finally brought back would not be worth it if he killed it.

"It's really a white tiger?" Gu Tingye was still holding a handful of fur in his hand, and found that it was all white from the inside to the outside, so he believed it wasn't dyed.

Back in the water village, Qin Hao asked about Gu Tingye's situation in the past year.

Gu Tingye narrated what happened in the past year with pride. In the beginning, many maritime merchants paid taxes, but there were still corrupt officials who blackmailed them. These maritime merchants came to Sheng Changbai for help, and Sheng Changbai also fulfilled his promise. After collecting evidence, these officials were reported to Zhao Zongquan.

Zhao Zongquan also knew that in order to establish the prestige of the maritime government, he must be severely punished, so he dismissed these officials for investigation, and finally sentenced them to exile on Shamen Island. Basically, these people are unlikely to come back alive. But it has nothing to do with him who dies in exile!
Sheng Changbai also gained the trust of the maritime merchants by virtue of this incident, and gradually most of the maritime merchants chose to pay taxes honestly. As for those who dared to evade taxes, it was Gu Tingye's turn to act.

Gu Tingye's style is much simpler and rougher than Sheng Changbai's. He took people, tortured them, imprisoned them, and ransacked their homes in one go. He was also dubbed "Gu Yanluo".

Qin Hao's heart suddenly moved: "Cousin, your three-year filial piety period should be coming soon, right? When are you going to marry Minglan?"

Gu Tingye chuckled: "Actually, I have already gone to the secretary's house, and the date has been set. It's on the sixth day of June. I was worried that my cousin would not be able to make it out. Now I just come to drink my wedding wine."

(End of this chapter)