April,
Everything sprouted,
Yang Qi spread. The weather warmed.
The crops between the countryside sprouted.
The insects parasitized in the dense grass,
Also woke up with a buzz.
The caravan passed by the path,
Stepping on the grass,
Startled a black cloud of mosquitoes.
The horse kept sweeping its tail,
Chasing away the insects that bit it and sucked its blood.
"Stop. Pay the fee. "
A group of knights in front stopped them, looking sideways on the horse and stretching out their hands.
The leading merchant hurriedly smiled apologetically. "Sir Knight, we have already paid the tariff before."
"That doesn't count. That is to be handed over to the consul. We are in the territory of Master Amonin,
You have to pay another tariff. "
"You!" A young man in the caravan glared at him.
The merchant stopped him,
He whispered, "Forget it, forget it."
They had no choice but to fork out money to pay another heavy tariff.
"Father, how much tariff did we pay along the way? When we reach the place,
We still have to pay the local guild a protection fee, and the cost has long exceeded. "
The merchant heard his son's words,
He sighed. "There's nothing we can do about it,
We can only raise the price of the goods and sell them. "
"Wait." The knight weighed the money bag. "It's not enough."
"We paid according to the previous tariff. Not a penny less. How is it not enough! "The young man was angry.
"Hey,
You came from the south, right? The currency on both sides is different. The amount of measurement is also different. Your gold coins from the south contain too little gold. "
The caravan had to pay a large sum of money and pass the customs with a sad face,
They slowly walked away,
The mosquitoes sucked the blood of the horses,
They began to look around for living creatures,
Multiplying.
They rose in the grass,
Spinning, descending, flying in clouds, like a black fog.
The knights saw new pedestrians in the distance, a new source of wealth. They surrounded, closed, reached out, and pounced on their horses.
*
Pa!
The maidservant slapped another mosquito to death. She was frowning when her troubled master asked her, "Don't you have a mosquito net?"
"Miss, what tent?"
"It's a curtain made of gauze and other materials to cover the bed. It's specially used to block mosquitoes in summer." Lin Daiyu frowned. "You don't have it here?"
Back in the Central Plains, once the weather warmed up, winter mosquitoes would fly out. Needless to say, when he was in the Jia Family, he used the smoky silk gauze as the blinds.
Later on, when he followed his uncle to the south, there were a lot of insects in the south. Therefore, he couldn't do without a tent made from gauze.
In the summer, the house must be smothered with mosquito repellent herbs and hung with gauze curtains.
When she first came to Lushite, it happened to be a cold winter, so it was one thing. Now that the sun was high in the sky and the Yang Qi was sprouting, the mosquitoes had also awakened. Without the mugwort and mosquito net, she was annoyed by the mosquitoes and found it difficult to concentrate on writing.
"Yes, there is. But it's sold from the East. Normal people can't find it and the price is not cheap. "
"Don't be long-winded. I know you have the connections. Tell me the price." This maid used to serve the nobles and was knowledgeable. That was why Hathaway sent her over.
The maid reported a number. Daiyu did some calculations in her heart. She used to follow her uncle to the south. When her uncle was not around, she would be the one to buy the things in the house. Therefore, she knew a little about the daily expenses. After calculating and comparing, she knew that it was about twenty-four to twenty-five times more expensive than the Central Plains.
Although the Central Plains and Tai Xi were far apart, in recent years, with the opening of the Central Plains' customs, the ships had become more sophisticated. Therefore, the trade between the East and the West had become more frequent. When she was in the Jia Family, she had seen many new Tai Xi goods.
When she was in the Business League, she had seen many Tai Xi goods.
When she was in Abat, she had also seen goods shipped from the Central Plains to Luster.
Logically speaking, when goods were shipped from the Central Plains to Tai Xi, the price should have increased by three to four times.
Why was the price so expensive in Bona?
When she asked the maid, she explained: "Miss, the price now is already very cheap."
Lin Daiyu paid attention.
She paid attention to the price of goods in Bona and secretly compared it with the prices in Abat and the Central Plains. She found a problem:
When goods were shipped directly from the Central Plains to Abat, the price would only increase by three to four times.
And when goods were shipped from Abat, which was on the east coast of Luster, to Bona, which was in the middle of Luster, the price would increase by more than twenty times!
She asked the maid, and the maid said that it used to be more than that.
It turned out that there were many checkpoints in Luster's noble fiefdoms, and there were many taxes. Every time they passed a checkpoint, the royal family would collect it, the nobles would collect it again, and the church would collect it again.
According to the maid's words, "Dust tax, air tax, whatever. Aiya, anyway, the old men will slap their heads and collect whatever taxes they think of. It's much better than before. At least we don't have to pay taxes to the church anymore. "
It was a miracle that the price of goods could rise to such a level in a country.
In the Central Plains, there were also profiteers who took advantage of the disaster years to raise the price of rice.
But that was a disaster year.
Luster had not suffered a disaster yet, but it was already like this. Once there was a disaster, the price of goods would soar, and it would make people's hair stand on end.
Lin Daiyu thought about it and shook her head.
Such a situation was tantamount to putting the people of Luster on a thin ice hanging in a well. If there was a slight disaster, there would be riots one after another.
*
In the palace, the church's diehards had almost been cleaned up.
Most of the church's land had fallen into the hands of the royal family and the nobles around the royal family.
Many of the upstarts from the third class who helped Allan I return to the country, and the loyal old officials, as well as the nobles who stood on Allan's side in the attack on the church, were all waiting for Allan to divide the land.
Allan I's mood became heavier.
"Your Majesty, are the snacks not tasty?" The Empress sat beside him and looked at Allan I's thick eyebrows. She pinched a piece of snack with her jade-like fingers and brought it to his lips.
Allan I frowned and looked at the exquisite glutinous rice snack in front of him. "Lillian, do you know how much such a plate of snacks costs?"
"Well …" The Empress said, "I remember it was very cheap, about a dozen gold."
"This kind of glutinous rice snack sells for a dozen gold per box in Bona." Allan I sneered, "But in its place of origin, its raw material is sold to flour merchants for a few coppers per catty. It's made into snacks for ten shillings per box. But in Bona, it's a hundred times more expensive! "
The Empress was a little confused. She was born in a noble family and had eaten and used extravagantly since she was young. To her, a king's gold coin, a shilling, or even a penny (copper) made no difference.
The more the Emperor spoke, the more gloomy his expression became. "Even an egg, the most ordinary egg, from the outskirts of Bona, has to pass through several checkpoints before it can enter the city. The price has increased by more than ten times out of thin air. The residents of the town complain incessantly, but the farmers feel that their crops have been sold cheaply. "
"Oh, my dear." The beautiful Empress didn't understand these things at all. Seeing that her husband seemed to be getting more and more unhappy, she racked her brains for a while. "Are you blaming the palace's kitchen manager for buying too much? I know you're thrifty. If you're unhappy, we'll remove the manager and replace him. And those profiteers who dare to cheat the royal family at high prices, they will also be punished. "
"Lillian." The Emperor stopped her. He held his wife's hand and stared at her. "If I need your support, will you support me?"
She smiled softly, "My dear, what are you talking about? Of course I'll help you. Is there a wife who will betray her husband? "
"No matter what decision I make?"
"Of course."
Walking to the window, Allan I looked down with his hands behind his back, taking in all of Bona.
In his heart, he thought of the words from the outsiders in the east, "The four seas return to one, and the counties are enfeoffed. Coin money, measure. The same book, the same track. "
He remembered the poverty of Luster's people that he had seen when he was fleeing back then, and sighed.
Hopefully, Luster would also have the day when the four seas returned to one.
At that time, the coast of the land would be the king's land, and all under the heavens would be the king's subjects. Luster would be able to stand proudly at the top of Taisi; his subjects would no longer have to suffer from the current situation of division.
"Your Majesty." His trusted minister came.
After bowing to the Emperor and Empress, the minister said, "A few marquises and counts have come to ask when you will hold the conferring ceremony so that they can prepare."
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