Liu Fucheng's warehouse was not far from the pier. In order to stack the goods, it occupied a lot of land. Because there were more and more merchants coming and going from Tianjin, he bought a piece of land near the warehouse to build an inn, just in time to entertain Hwang Tae-gil and his party. This warehouse was still a long way from Tianjin. To enter the city, it would take an hour by horse carriage. Hwang Tae-gil wanted to settle down first.
For the convenience of transportation, the warehouse was close to a branch of the canal. After checking in, Hwang Tae-gil could see the pier dozens of meters away when he opened the window. It was already dark, but the pier was lit with torches and a row of pulley cranes were working. The laborers on the pier lifted the standard wooden boxes of goods onto the shore. In a short while, they could empty a boat.
"These Hans are quite diligent in their work, much more nimble than our subordinates." Zhe Zhe moved closer to the window and looked outside. "I see that there are a few maids in this inn. They are good-looking, obedient, and sensible. I just don't know how much they are worth. If they are suitable, why don't we buy a few? "
In Zhe Zhe's view, being willing to spend money to buy slaves was already a great courtesy. Hwang Tae-gil stared at the laborers for a long time. After looking through their entire work flow, he replied in a low voice: "The Han people here are not servants of anyone. They are hired, they are paid for their work. "
The word "hired" was strange to Zhe Zhe. She had never heard of it before. The people around her were either masters or servants, there were no other identities. She looked at Hwang Tae-gil's gloomy face and quickly thought of something interesting. She said: "Master, there is a tofu shop opposite this inn. The tofu we eat tonight comes from there. I just went to take a look. It is a very big house. "
In the past, Zhe Zhe had never eaten tofu before. In the past few days in the Central Plains, every meal was delicious. She especially loved to eat tofu. When she heard that there was a tofu shop nearby, she quickly went to take a look.
"That tofu shop has at least a hundred people. I heard that they are so busy that they don't rest all day. They also said that it was the merger of several original tofu shops, and the bank of the 'Revolutionary Army' gave them a loan to expand it to such a large scale. I saw that they used oxen to pull the mills, and they had stoves that burned coal, and big, big pots.
The strangest thing was that all of them had to wear aprons and masks. It was said that there were often officials who came to check on their hygiene. I wanted to learn how to make tofu, but they didn't allow it. They said that they were afraid that I would dirty the production line. Humph … My god, let's go and sell some tofu shop, okay? In the future, I'll whip them and make them make tofu for us. "
Zhe Zhe spoke casually, like a child who didn't know anything trying to please an adult. Hwang Tae-gil's mind was in a mess. How could the heart of his great enemy be so prosperous? He snorted impatiently and didn't want to talk. The Great Fujin immediately shrank back and did not dare to speak again.
They were supposed to rest after dinner, but Liu Fucheng invited Hwang Tae-gil and his wife to the night market. He could tell that this Tatar youth was rich and respectable. First, he wanted to curry favor with him, and second, he wanted to show off the goods in Tianjin. As long as he provoked the other party's desire to buy, it would be easier for him to do business. Although Hwang Tae-gil didn't feel good, he still brought Zhe Zhe and Gu Yuanwei to the street.
"This was originally a piece of wasteland, but the 'Revolutionary Army' transported too much cargo through the canal, so they had to open it up as a dock. Because of the dock, the road was also opened up. Two months ago, there was only one street here, but now there are three streets. In just these two months, the land price has tripled. I now regret buying too little land. "
Liu Fucheng was obviously not on good terms with the 'Revolutionary Army', but this didn't prevent him from introducing the place to Hwang Tae-gil as a landlord. "There are many merchants coming and going from the dock, so there are many people living here. There are police on duty at night, and there are many people who are willing to go shopping. The shops only close very late. "
Listening to Liu Fucheng's introduction, Hwang Tae-gil came to a bustling street. These were the two rows of shops on the side of the road. It was only about two to three hundred meters long, but in the eyes of the Female Zhenren, this street with its lanterns on at night was like falling from the sky. Under the rule of the Female Zhenren, there were only curfew soldiers and the cold wind at night. It was impossible to have such a comfortable and relaxing place.
At first glance, Zhe Zhe liked this street. She begged Hwang Tae-gil a few times, then waved at the servant following behind her and happily strolled from shop to shop. Although Hwang Tae-gil was not happy, he still smiled generously at Gu Yuanwei and Gu Yuanwei, "Both of you came to Dajin from the Central Plains, so I think it's been a long time since you've seen such prosperity. Don't be restrained tonight, just buy whatever you want. "
Gu Yuanwei nodded and smiled as he followed Hwang Tae-gil into a cloth shop. As soon as they went in, the shop assistant came forward to greet them. Seeing that these people were not ordinary, the shop assistant didn't say much. He just said, "Sir, please feel free to look around, our cloth shop has a full range of goods, and the price is fair."
Hwang Tae-gil didn't know much about cloth, he only knew that the materials in the shop were very expensive, and not ordinary people could afford them. He relaxed and asked the shop assistant, "Didn't you say that thick cotton cloth is the best sold in Tianjin? Why don't I see it here? "
The shop assistant smiled modestly and said happily, "Sir, what you're talking about is the machine-made cloth that our Grand Marshal shipped from Liaodong. That kind of cloth is really good, solid, soft, and cheap. Other shops can't sell it. As soon as the machine-made cloth hit the market, it beat the cloth shipped from Song Jiang Prefecture. People love to buy that kind of cloth.
The cotton cloth that we sell now can't be compared to the machine-made cloth. We have to admit that the Grand Marshal is really good. So we only sell silk or printed colored cloth here. Now that there are more and more rich people in Tianjin, a noble like you should have a few bolts of silk. Am I right? "
As the shop assistant spoke, he brought a few bolts of the best silk in the shop. Hwang Tae-gil reached out to touch it, it felt really good. He asked about the price, and sighed, "It's still quite cheap."
Hwang Tae-gil said 'cheap', but in his heart, he was scolding the Jin merchants. The latter bought a lot of goods from the Female Zhenren's territory, and they definitely had some cloth. The price of the silk was ten times higher, it was really a big profit.
The shop assistant didn't understand the meaning, but he thought that the customer was satisfied, so he quickly said, "Now that there are no more cloth merchants messing around, it's convenient to transport the goods by water, and there are fewer bandits and robbers, it's much more convenient to do business here. So everything in Tianjin is at least 20% cheaper than other places. "
"I heard that your tax burden is quite heavy." Hwang Tae-gil had read the Revolutionary Army's newspaper, so he wasn't completely clueless about what happened in Tianjin. The newspaper would reflect the real situation among the people, and Zhou Qingfeng's power made him not mind exposing the problem publicly.
The shop assistant smiled awkwardly, and secretly glanced at the direction of the shopkeeper. He lowered his voice and said, "Of course, we feel that it's best not to pay taxes. But if we don't pay any taxes, then we will become the same as the Daming government. On the surface, we don't pay taxes, but we will have to spend a lot of money secretly. But we can't say this to our shopkeeper, he doesn't accept it. "
"How much tax can your Grand Marshal collect in a month?" Hwang Tae-gil asked.
"The day before yesterday, the tax bureau collected more than thirty thousand silver yuan in the first month," the shop assistant said.
Thirty thousand silver yuan didn't sound like a lot, it was about twenty thousand taels of silver.
But the shop assistant continued to say, "The newspaper also said that the tax bureau said that they will fully expand the tax collection work in the Tianjin area. They will also establish an independent tax police to ensure that the Grand Marshal can collect enough tax for construction. By the end of the year, the monthly tax collection will be increased to three hundred thousand. The new tax bureau chief also said that anyone who dares to not pay taxes will face a merciless attack from the tax police. "
The shop assistant also secretly found the latest newspaper, "Sir, have you seen the latest issue of the Revolutionary Times? The words from the top are very fierce, our shopkeeper has been having a headache these two days. In the past, we could fool them with a few taels of silver, but now we have to pay a lot of silver yuan. "
Hwang Tae-gil didn't feel anything about the fierce words. No matter how fierce they were, who could be fiercer than him? He was only shocked at the tax collection ability of the Revolutionary Army's tax bureau. Three hundred thousand silver yuan a month, four million silver yuan a year. And this was just the Tianjin area. If this' Revolutionary Army 'occupied a larger area, wouldn't they be rich?
In the early years of the Wanli era, Zhang Juzheng carried out the 'one whip' financial reform and collected taxes for Daming to live, greatly improving its financial situation. But the annual tax was only two million taels of silver, which was about three million silver yuan. Even at the end of the dynasty, including the Liao Dynasty's pay, training pay, and suppression pay, it was only fifteen million taels of silver.
The Revolutionary Army collected a few million taels of silver in a small Tianjin area, how could the people here not rebel?
Hwang Tae-gil looked at the newspaper again and found that the Revolutionary Army not only collected taxes in Tianjin, but also in Liaonan and Dengzhou. The commerce in Liaonan was not very developed, but Dengzhou did business with the whole of Shandong and collected more taxes last month than Tianjin. In the end, the article also predicted that the total tax for next year would be more than ten million yuan and praised the Grand Marshal's ability to rule the world.
The newspaper also published an advertisement for collecting taxes — death and paying taxes are inevitable. Whoever dares to not pay taxes to the Grand Marshal, we will let him die.
Vomiting blood … this kind of blatant demand for money was too ruthless!
The Jurchen searched the whole of Liaodong, and so far they only got about ten million taels of silver. But this was a one-time income, they could not count on it in the future. If they wanted to get more money, they could only continue to rob. But now facing the natural stronghold of Shanhai Pass, they could not rob even if they wanted to.
"Tianjin is a prosperous place, it would be good if we could capture it. But unfortunately … "Hwang Tae-gil was actually very smart. He could feel the vitality of the Revolutionary Army's vigorous development, and he also knew that the Ming Army was easy to fight, but the Revolutionary Army was not.
After thinking deeply, Hwang Tae-gil could only find two ways out. Either they could attack the capital by detouring through Mongolia like the Jin merchants, or they could break through Shanhai Pass and kill their way into the colorful world of the Han people. But Hwang Tae-gil was the last of the four beilei, and his power was also the smallest. Now the entire Jurchen military group was immersed in the joy of conquering the whole of Liaodong, and temporarily had no desire to plunder.
Hwang Tae-gil was lost in thought, and then he heard the waiter next to him asked, "Sir, do you want some silk?" He asked back: "You can read?"
The waiter smiled shyly: "After graduating from primary school, it is easier to find work. When I save more money, I still want to study for one or two years, and finish high school. Then I can get double my monthly salary. Sir, what's wrong with your face? Are you sick? "
"Nothing." Hwang Tae-gil just found out that this servant like waiter could actually read the newspaper, and he was very unhappy. It was like seeing dozens of strong Han people doing manual labor in the day, he felt it was ridiculous and unacceptable. He waved his hand. "I want all of these bolts of silk."
Hwang Tae-gil was sulking, and heard Gu Yuanwei say to his disciple Yang Jian: "Disciple, these silk colors are not bad, let the waiter wrap them up."
"Okay, I will immediately call the waiter over. But, Master, can you lend me a few taels of silver first? I also think these silk are good, and I want to sell a few to make clothes. "Yang Jian said:" It is easy to let the waiter wrap them up, the problem is I don't have money. "
"Master has raised you for so many years, but I have never asked you to show filial piety, and now you are asking me for money?"
"Master, it is not that I don't want to show filial piety to you, but I really don't have money."
"The Khan gave you a farm, servants, and a lot of gold and silver, how can you not have money? Now your status is not ordinary, and you are also a vassal of the Jin Kingdom, but you can't even take out a few taels of silver, don't you feel ashamed? "
"Master, you know that my wife is very fierce. She knows that I came out this time, but she didn't give me a single tael of silver. Master, lend me some first, I will buy a few bolts of silk to make my Fujin happy, and then I will return it to you immediately. The silk that you like will be mine, and I will buy it to show filial piety to Master's wife. You are also a vassal of the Jin Kingdom, but you have to lend me some first. "
Yang Jian looked at Gu Yuanwei anxiously. After staring for a long time, Gu Yuanwei blushed and sighed: "Master, I also don't have money."
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
