Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 243 0238 [Qian Chen Travels South]

Xunyang County, Luhe (Lvhe) shop.

The Lu River flows north from the mountains in the south and flows into the Han River here, forming a "U"-shaped bay and alluvially forming a large area of ​​arable flat land.Such farming conditions are rare in Jinzhou, which is full of mountains.

Further to the west, the Chong River (Ba River) also flows into the Han River, only 500 meters away from the mouth of the Lu River.

Counting the tributaries of the Chonghe River, it is equivalent to the confluence of four rivers. It is very interesting to set up a toll station.

However, the official tax agency used to have only one tea room.After Cai Jing reformed the tea law three times, even the tea market was abolished, and merchants could buy and sell tea with tea guides, without going through the official intermediary channels of the tea market.

The real legal toll booth is in Xunyang County, fifteen miles downstream!
Qian Chen dragged his fat body ashore, and was out of breath within a few steps. He pointed to the private fence and asked, "Who is in charge here?"

An official came running quickly: "Dare to ask what business the Shangguan has?"

Qian Chen took out his official badge, and then took out the official document issued by Zhizhou: "The prefect has an order to ban all private columns in the five counties of Jinzhou. Why haven't the columns here been withdrawn?"

The tax collector laughed and said: "I want to teach the superior to know that we don't tax the passing ships, but only tax the grass market shops in Luhepu."

Qian Chen's face darkened, and he pointed to the scattered boats docked by the river: "Do you think I'm a fool? What are those boats doing?"

The official explained: "Those merchant ships are all docking for supplies."

"Check the account!"

Qian Chen was too lazy to listen to his sophistry.

Fearing that the fat man would be beaten when he went out, Zhu Ming sent Zhang Tong and Li Bao to follow him.With more than 20 township soldiers, they rushed into the toll booth and ordered all tax collectors not to move around at will.

Qian Chen found out an account book without any loopholes, and indeed only collected taxes from shops in the town.

There are policies and measures to counter.

The officials in Xunyang County did not openly disobey the order of Zhizhou, at least they did enough on the surface.

Qian Chen asked the tax collector to open the treasury and saw two boxes full of copper coins, as well as a lot of herbal medicines, leather goods and other real objects, and immediately sneered, "How can you collect so much tax from just twenty or so shops in Caoshi? Are you fooling around?" What! Search, dig three feet to find out, there must be a set of private accounts!"

After searching for a long time, I couldn't find the private account.

Zhang Tong reminded: "You can search those merchant ships."

Qian Chen's eyes lit up, and he immediately gave the order: "Go and search the merchant ships to see if there are any tea-carrying ships."

Not long after, the soldiers came back and reported: "There are two tea boats, and the boats are full of this year's wax tea and early spring tea."

"Bring the captain here!" Qian Chen said.

The owner of the ship was a middle-aged tea merchant, and when he saw Qian Chen, he immediately bowed down and bowed down.

Qian Chen asked, "Can you be intercepted to collect taxes?"

The tea merchants dare not speak nonsense, for fear of being retaliated by officials: "There is no taxation here."

Qian Chen asked with a smile: "Where are you a businessman from?"

The tea merchant replied: "The grass people are from the Guanghua Army, and there are tea guides."

Qian Chen said: "Since he is a businessman from another place, I don't know the prefect of this prefecture. He is checking the private column for taxation. Cai Xiangsan changed the tea law, and the businessman insisted on selling tea. If he passes through the counties, if the local tax is intercepted by the local government. Stop it for one day, stick six [-]. Blocked for two days, plus two grades. Blocked for three days, one year in prison. Blocked for six days, two years in prison. Officials who collect taxes privately will be suspended from their posts and will never be used. Dispose of it, the officials will be assassinated thousands of miles away! As a tea merchant, if you conceal and do not report it, you can be punished together!"

The above punishment content was formulated by Cai Jing himself.

The roads in Chuanxia and Guangnan are still using the tea-horse method.For the rest of the roads, the method of tea introduction is used.

In the past ten years, Cai Jing revised the tea introduction method three times, constantly filling in various loopholes.In order to prevent the local government from collecting tea taxes indiscriminately and delaying the collection of money by the central government, the criminal law is extremely severe.

The tea merchant was in doubt, he looked at Qian Chen and then at the tax collector, not knowing what to do.

Qian Chen threatened: "Even people and boats will be impounded. If it is found out that there are tax collectors who have received money privately, the tax collectors and merchants will assassinate thousands of miles together. The decrees made by Prime Minister Cai are excellent, and local officials should strictly implement them."

"Official, spare your life!" The tea merchant knelt down in fright.

He was only here to buy tea and transport it to another place, and paying extra taxes was a last resort, and it would be a disaster if he was exiled for thousands of miles.

When the tea merchant knelt down, the expressions of the tax collectors changed drastically.

Qian Chen also said: "If there are people who report, they can be exonerated."

"I want to report!"

"I want to report it too!"

The little ones among the tax collectors shouted one after another.They just drank some soup, and being exiled for thousands of miles for those few pennies would be too nonsense.

A few minutes later, a set of private accounts for collecting taxes indiscriminately was found out from the cracks in the wall.

Qian Chen withdrew the account book and said to the chief official: "Take people back and explain to the officials of Xunyang County. This first offense can be forgiven. If it is committed again, the new account and the old account will be settled together! Even the county magistrate will Impeached. Hey, you have violated Cai Xiang's decree."

It is possible to set up column headers and collect taxes in towns, but the collection objects can only be collected from shops that take the opportunity to intercept passing business travelers.

Of course, the headers will be kept, but the tax collectors don’t need so many, and the county government officials will abolish them by themselves.

"The tax money is seized and taken away!" Qian Chen gave another order.

People can let go, money must stay.

Although Cai Jing's tea introduction law has strict regulations, the more remote the place, the more serious the phenomenon of arbitrary tea tax collection.

Take Chuanxia Road as an example, Chengdufu Road, Zizhou Road, and Lizhou Road implement the tea-horse method, while Kuizhou Road implements the tea-introduction method.

The terrain of Kuizhou Road is complex, poor and remote, and it is also a special case among the four roads of Chuanxia.As a result, local officials began to act recklessly, collecting tea tolls privately, and a shipment of tea was transported from Kuizhou Road. The tax and fee were several times the price of tea, and within a few years, the local tea industry was destroyed. The remaining tea gardens were destroyed. The Lord is all about smuggling.

Qian Chen said to the tea merchant again: "Go back and tell the tea merchants in the Guanghua Army that Jinzhou will no longer teach private tea in Jinzhou, so that they can rest assured to come to Jinzhou to do business. If you encounter a private farm, you can go to Jinzhou Yamen sue!"

"Yes!" The tea merchant was puzzled and dubious about it.

If it is true, it is naturally excellent, and they can make more money in the future.

Before the disposal here was finished, an official ship sailed over.

Mei Kan, the Zuozhi guest who had been spanked, brought several yamen officials to escort the boat, and Yang Pu sat on the boat to guard the money.

"Don't worry about the money, the prefect has a new assignment." Mei Kan handed over a letter.

After reading the letter, Qian Chen was inexplicably moved: "The eunuch trusts me so much!"

More than half of the gold confiscated from Hengkou and the copper coins confiscated from Shiyi were handed over to Qian Chen to take them to the south to pre-purchase grain.

This is a hard job and requires long-distance travel, but Qian Chen is very satisfied. He thinks it is a kind of trust.

The errand of inspecting the five counties was handed over to Mei Kan, and Li Bao followed to supervise.This is also a test for Mei Kan, who belongs to the head of the Yaqian officials and can be reused if he handles affairs properly.If he was not doing well, he would just call him out and let Wang Jia take over his position.

The next day, Qian Chen changed boats and set off.Zhang Ting led the town soldiers to accompany him to protect the grain money from being looted.

These more than 20 township soldiers were all recommended by Wang Jia, and some of them even worked as bandits.The bows and arrows of the Jinzhou Armory are no longer usable, and they are all equipped with the hunting bows of the hunters in the mountains.

It was a self-made composite bow made of bamboo and wood, without ox horns. The bow glue was made from animal skins, and the tendons of wild animals were used instead of tendons. The effective shooting range was less than 20 meters.Moreover, it is not used for a long time, and it will often crack within a year or two.

However, it is enough to deal with bandits!

The official ship sailed halfway, probably located in the east of Baihe County in later generations.During the Northern Song Dynasty, this was the junction of Jinzhou and Junzhou, surrounded by mountains in all directions, and the government's control was extremely weak.

While they were docking in the evening, more than a dozen small boats suddenly came out from a tributary of the Han River.

An official ship often means that there are goods, and there is only one traveling alone, so it is strange not to be targeted by bandits.

"The soldiers are in place!" Zhang Tong shouted.

Qian Chen was trembling with fright, but boldly came out: "Brother Zhang Xian, can you hold on?"

Zhang Tong said: "Don't drive, please enter the warehouse and wait."

Qian Chen quickly ran back, he stayed outside purely to cause trouble, it is best to leave the fight to professionals.

Zhang Tong's battle formation skills are not good, but his one-on-one skills are quite against the sky, and he also knows how to command battles.

He ordered the boatmen to sail away from the shore immediately, and divided more than 20 township soldiers into groups of two, and issued an order: "Don't shoot arrows if they are too far away, and shoot when they are close."

The official ship is large in size and the small ship is fast.

More than a dozen small boats of thieves quickly circled around to surround the official boat.

Ju Ming's binoculars are on Zhang Tong right now.

He observed the enemy's situation through the binoculars and carefully looked for the bandits who gave orders.The target was quickly identified. There was a bandit squatting on the bow, holding a knife in his right hand, making various movements with his left hand, and holding a bamboo whistle in his mouth.

Seeing the head of the thief circled to the side of the official ship, Zhang Tong also ran over, took out his bow and arrows and planned to shoot him - the one in his hand was not a hunting bow, but a birch bow brought from Puzhou.

"Applause!!!"

The bamboo whistle blew, and the bandits threw hooks at the official ship, and even shot arrows with little power.

The townspeople stood condescending, waiting for the thief boat to approach, and fought back with hunting bows.

"Whoosh!"

Zhang Ting bent his bow and set an arrow, aimed at the head of the thief, and shot it over with one arrow.

The distance was less than ten meters, just to be on the safe side, Zhang Tang still shot at the chest of the thief head, how could he miss it?

"The thief leader is dead!"

Zhang Ting yelled.

On the other side, the thieves turned pale with fright, and retreated by boat while protecting the head of the thieves, whose life and death were unknown. The "main battleship" retreated, and the other thief ships followed suit, leaving only a few floating corpses in the Han River.

After receiving the news, Qian Chen came out again, and he said with lingering fear: "There is no danger, there is no danger, fortunately, brother Zhang Xian escorted him."

Zhang Tong laughed and said, "It's just a few thieves, far worse than the Puzhou thieves."

Qian Chen sighed: "The Jinzhou and Junzhou are impoverished, the world is in trouble, and there are more and more thieves in the mountains."

Find another place to dock in front, rest overnight and continue to set off.

After crossing Yunxiang County (Yun County) and Wudang County, they entered the territory of the Guanghua Army, and finally there were no more bandits here.

Shi Yuangong stayed in Wudang County, which is the state capital of Junzhou.He took a large number of iron smelters, waiting for official ships and merchant ships, and headed to Jinzhou together to avoid being robbed by bandits halfway.

(End of this chapter)