A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 562

Youzhou ushered in the third year of Zhenguan in the snowstorm.

Zhengdan.

Cui Dunli, the Minister of War of the imperial court's special envoy, and Pang Xiaotai, the deputy envoy of Zuo Lingjun Yifu Zhonglang, finally arrived in Youzhou.

Cui Dunli's ancestral home is Boling, and Youzhou is half of his hometown, but he actually grew up in Guanzhong. His great-grandfather Cui Xiaofen was a minister of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He killed eight of his sons, five of whom were killed together, and only three escaped into the pass.

His great-grandfather Cui You was a confidant of Yuwenhu in the Western Wei Dynasty and was given the surname Yuwen. His grandfather Cui Zhongfang passed the Ming Dynasty and Yuwenhu joined the army and started his career. Yang Jian founded the Sui Dynasty and was highly regarded. Renshou first paid homage to him. The governor of the state suppressed the rebellion of the King of Han Dynasty and worshiped the Minister of Rites.

Cui Zhongfang had two wives, one was the granddaughter of Li Bi of the Eight Pillars Kingdom, and the other was the daughter of Lu Zhengshan, the governor of Youzhou in the Lu family of Fanyang.

Looking at Youzhou City in the snowstorm, Cui Dunli couldn't help sighing,

"Mr. Cui, is he timid because of his closeness to his hometown?" An official of the Ministry of War laughed.

"Actually, I grew up in Xianyang, Guanzhong," Cui Zaima said, "I thought of something that happened three years ago."

Three years ago, that is, after the change of Xuanwumen Palace in June of the ninth year of Wude, Cui Dunli, who was the head of the right guard, was sent to Youzhou by the prince Li Shimin to summon Li Yuan, the governor of Youzhou, the king of Lujiang, to enter the court.

Li Yuan originally built a party, and was instigated by Wang Junkuo with ulterior motives. According to the rebellion in Youzhou, Cui Dunli was detained and forced to ask about the situation in the capital. Cui Dunli asked himself to be imprisoned without saying a word. Will,

From the sixth rank to the fifth rank, it will be promoted to six ranks, and gold and BMW will be given.

It was also because of this that he fell into the eyes of today's saints. After that, he was promoted to a scholar, and then to a minister of the Ministry of War. This career was also a meteoric rise.

His turning point was in Youzhou, three years ago.

Three years later, he came to Youzhou again as the Minister of the Ministry of War, but this time he was no longer facing the governor of Youzhou, Lujiangshan Li Yuan, and the right-leading general Wang Junkuo. Wu Huaiyu, the governor of Youzhou and the leading general on the right.

He was not in a hurry along the way, but while walking normally, he secretly sent people to Youzhou, Yanzhou, Yehuling and other places to collect information secretly, he didn't want to fight an unprepared battle.

"Cui Shilang's mother is Fanyang Lu, right?" Pang Xiaotai asked. This Lingnan barbarian, who claimed to be the youngest of Wu Huaiyu's lackeys, used to drive Wu Huaiyu in a purple robe and jade belt. Everyone knew that he was Wu Huaiyu's dog. To be ashamed is to be proud,
When I arrived in Youzhou from Chang'an, it was snowing heavily, and Pang Xiaotai still felt cold in his mink and sheepskin.

"My mother is indeed the daughter of the Fan Yang Lu family. General Pang may not know that my grandmother is also the Fan Yang Lu family." Cui Dunli didn't show any kindness to this southern barbarian. He always felt that this person was deliberately arranged by Li Jing in order to favor his student Wu Huaiyu. .

"As expected of the same five surnames, we have been married for generations," Pang Xiaotai murmured like a bear, and he didn't give the five surnames much face, anyway, he is a Lingnan barbarian.

"We have arrived at Cui Shilang's territory, so we don't have to work so hard in the future."

Cui Dunli ignored him. In fact, ever since Cui Dunli's ancestor was killed, eight of his sons were killed and five of his sons were killed. The third fled to Guanzhong.

Back then, Cui Dunli's great-grandfather even changed his surname to Yuwen, and his family actively married with the Guanlong nobles. It can also be said that they have actually become a part of the Guanlong Group, but they are far away from the old Shandong clan.

Although there are marriages, there are not as many marriages as with the Guanlong nobles.

Cui Dunli's grandfather first married the granddaughter of Li Bi of the Bazhu Kingdom, and then married the daughter of the Lu family of Fan Yang. His father died early and was only a county magistrate, so he married the daughter of the Lu family of Fan Yang. He himself passed the imperial examination and was famous as a young man. , Li Yuan personally selected him as the honorary guard and changed his original name from Cui Yuanli to Cui Dunli.
Cui Dunli later married Li Yuan's niece, the head of Gu'an County, and Li Yuan bestowed the marriage on her.

In the second house of Boling, the three brothers fled to Guanzhong. However, after several generations of development, the population is now prosperous and talents emerge in large numbers. For example, Cui Minqian was the minister of Huangmen as early as the early days of Wude.
Another example is Cui Zhongfang's 30 grandchildren, including Cui Dunli, Cui Yuqing, and Cui Shenfu brothers, who have now reached the fifth rank or above, and they are all young.

It is precisely because of this that the second house of Bolingcui, which was regarded as the poorest of the five surnames in the past, is now the best among the seven families of the five surnames, and even makes them compete to take the initiative to marry.

"It's really cold in Youzhou. I used to say that it was cold in Chang'an, but I didn't expect it to be even colder in Youzhou." Pang Xiaotai complained again, thinking that Cui Dunli was a dandy of a family, and the journey was too time-consuming. It is time to arrive in Chang'an.

"It's the first day of the new year!"

"I delayed General Pang's participation in the concubine banquet held by the governor of Wuda." Cui Dunli was still looking at Youzhou City, which was different from when he came three years ago.

He came here in summer at that time, and he remembered that Youzhou City was still a bit dilapidated at that time,
Now that winter is coming, Youzhou City, which is covered in silver, makes people feel taller, and even feels that there is a big difference.

people.

He suddenly came to his senses, it's the first day of the first lunar month, so why are there so many people coming and going in and out of Youzhou City.

Everyone doesn't stay at home for the New Year, Maodong, what are you doing here?
On the road outside the city, many fully loaded carriages and horses were traveling.

"Could it be that Youzhou is urging taxes and taxes, and it doesn't stop during the New Year?" A military attendant said what Cui Dunli wanted to say.

"Go and see."

They stopped several carriages, "Where are you from?"

"We come from Haijin Town," the people who were stopped, saw that this group of people were wearing official robes, especially after two people were wearing purple robes under their fur clothes, they hurriedly saluted and answered any questions they had.

"Haijin Town?" Cui Dunli had never heard of it before.

"It is at Dazhigu at the Sanchakou of the Canal. This year, Mr. Wu established Haijin Town, garrisoned troops, built salt farms, built Zhigu warehouses and Guangtong warehouses and other granaries and salt warehouses, and built Haijin Port Wharf. It’s bustling now, although the canals and seaports are frozen in winter, but when the spring thaws and the seals are unblocked, the canals and seas will come and go, and goods will come and go, and it will be even more lively.”

Cui Dunli and the others came to Youzhou in winter, taking the route of Puzhou, Taiyuan, Jingxing, Hengzhou, Dingzhou, Yizhou, and Youzhou, without going through the canal.

I really didn’t know that since Wu Huaiyu arrived in Youzhou, he began to plan and build a large industrial and commercial town at the junction of the North and South Canals in Hebei, integrating canals, oceans, and land transportation, and relying on resources to dry salt, etc., and now it has begun to take shape. It's a bit bigger, and there are even troops stationed in the fields.

This place is connected by canals and has the advantages of Haihe River transportation. The canal and the tail of Wuhe River meet at the mouth of Sancha River, Sanhui Haikou,

"Now our Haijin Town, that is the big wharf for transporting grain and silk from the south to the north. It is also a processing center for emerging handmade goods. A large number of workshops have been built, such as salt, grain, and cloth, as well as livestock, fur, and medicinal materials from the grassland. , and even the slaves from North Korea are extremely prosperous.”

The person who answered was an old man who looked like a shopkeeper.

"Then you are?"

"During the Chinese New Year in Youzhou, there was a trade fair, organized by Mr. Wu. Together with merchants from all over the country, he invited many tribal Hu merchants from outside the Great Wall to display and promote their products to help facilitate the transaction.

There are many good things, sugar, tea, wine, medicine, silk, cloth, porcelain, ironware, as well as livestock, slaves, furs, medicinal materials, all kinds of things,
This shopkeeper is the shopkeeper of a kiln in Haijin Town. Their business has [-] kilns, mainly producing bricks and tiles. With their excellent craftsmanship and convenient water and land transportation, their business is quite hot.

This year's street market renovation in Youzhou City, their firm participated a lot, sold a lot of bricks and tiles, and their firm also produced pottery.

This Youzhou New Year Fair is hosted by the Metropolitan Governor's Office. Its main purpose is to promote industrial and commercial development and drive the economy so that more people can earn more money, at least more job opportunities. It is also to compete with Xi, Khitan, Turks, etc. The newly attached tribes strengthened trade,
Use the handicrafts of the Central Plains to exchange their livestock fur and even slaves. Everyone will get what they get and exchange what they have, so that everyone can live better and avoid looting again.

Although they sell bricks, tiles and pottery, the fanhus still like their products, which resulted in a lot of orders, and they also had to ship goods from Haijin here during the Chinese New Year.

"Are these carriages going into the city all delivering goods like you?"

"Most of them are," the shopkeeper said with a smile, "This exhibition was indeed very successful. All kinds of goods were gathered together, especially many workshops like ours, which directly communicate with Fanhu Face-to-face transactions not only eliminate the need for middlemen to exploit, but also face more customers.”

The Metropolitan Governor's Mansion even has many other promotional and helpful functions. For example, many fanhus only have livestock, fur, and medicinal materials in their hands. They have no gold, silver or money, so it is inconvenient to trade. It will play a very good role. When Fanhu enters the market, he can first put his goods on the Dudu Mansion to evaluate the price, and then he can wait for the goods to be sold before buying what he wants, or he can find the goods first. The Governor's Mansion came forward, and the official Yanyun Bank came forward to give them a sum of money to buy the goods, and then repay the money after selling their own goods, plus a certain amount of interest.

"Is there a tax for this trade fair transaction?"

"Yes, two out of every hundred taxes paid, three out of every hundred housing taxes,"

"What kind of draw?"

The overtax is collected from the merchants who resell the goods, and the tax is levied at two hundredths of the price of the goods. The Youzhou Metropolitan Government stipulates that the resellers in the entire ten prefectures of Youfu are only levied once. As long as they do not leave the country and there is no transaction , the same batch of goods will only be taxed once.

As for the residence tax, merchants who open shops sell goods locally, or merchants who arrive at the place of residence and sell goods sell goods at a rate of three hundredths of the local price.

Workshops produce goods and sell them, and they also have to pay residence tax, and craftsmen who reach a certain scale also have to pay.

The same is true for this fair in Youzhou, only tax and residence tax are collected.

Residence tax is equivalent to transaction tax, which is levied once for each transaction, while over-tax is equivalent to tariff, which is levied during the trafficking and marketing process.

"Has no one ever collected taxes through customs?"

"No one dares. The Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is very strict. In the past, some people set up checkpoints privately. There were local yamen, some from the army, and even some big local clan families. But those who were found were severely punished. They will be sentenced to imprisonment and reform through labor, and after a batch of arrests, no one will dare to commit crimes against the wind, and it is not worth it."

(End of this chapter)