Feng Xing

With a gust of cold wind blowing, fine snowflakes floated in the sky, Feng Sheng realized that it had already entered winter.

The cloisonné enamel smoker exudes bursts of heat, warm and harmonious. The coldness in the south of the Yangtze River is different from that in the capital city, with a damp moisture that can penetrate into the bones of people.

The room was so quiet that a needle could be heard falling.

Feng Sheng gathered the padded robe on her body, put down the teacup: "Then according to what you said, in fact, you have already made this kind of national calamity through maritime business?"

This is a heavy word.

Chen Hao lowered his head, a layer of sweat appeared on his forehead, but he didn't even dare to wipe it off.

He was wearing a stone-blue silk cotton gown, with a black brocade belt around his waist, and a mutton jade ring hanging from it, with a string hanging from it. Dark complexion, tall stature, sword eyebrows and high nose, he can be regarded as handsome.

Just looking at his attire, no one would believe that he was just a small shopkeeper in the shop below the Huang family a few years ago.

In fact, at his age, without any financial background, just a farmer's background, it is already very good to be a shopkeeper.

Not only smart, but also bold, careful and ambitious.

Feng Sheng did not ignore that when Chen Hao was talking to her just now, there was a kind of ambition called ambition shining in the obscurity under the half-closed eyelids.

He really had to be ambitious, otherwise, why would he dare to take risks and go to sea to do business because of the Huang family's stick to beat mandarin ducks?

Doing business at sea, without a family background, without a backer to rely on, is also close to death.

Feng Sheng admired him a little bit.

Contrary to her, Chen Hao felt a lot of pressure.

He learned from his mother-in-law and wife that this Princess Wei is not an ordinary person. Even though he didn't know much about the transformation of the Huang family back then, from just a few words, he knew that this woman moved the majestic crown prince by herself, turning her hands into clouds and rain, The situation in the two Huaihe Rivers was disturbed.

But in fact, deep down in his heart, under his seemingly respectful face, there is still a subtle contempt. He thinks that this woman must be good-looking, so that she can drive dignified court officials to her. The shadow of King Wei.

But this kind of thought disappeared in the short time of talking with her for less than two quarters of an hour.

Although Princess Wei didn't know much about maritime affairs, her sentences hit the point, even leading him by the nose inadvertently, so that he revealed many things that he hadn't planned to reveal before.

The words he said could be joked in a small way, but it is not uncommon to say that it is not uncommon to say that family raids are carried out in a big way. Chen Hao even had the idea that he shouldn't come to see Fang Fengsheng. If he didn't come to see Fang Fengsheng, at most he would lose a lot of money, or he could find other ways to solve it.

But now he has become a piece of meat on the chopping board, ready to be slaughtered.

At the same time, something called ambition was roaring in Chen Hao's body.

He knew that he came from a humble background, and it was luck to be able to get to where he is today, but at the same time, it was also related to his keen vision. If it can be done this time, it will be a world-shaking change for him.

The Huang family used all their strength to seek an official position, but they have been scratching their heads and have no way to go. If he becomes—

He thought of his lovely wife at home, although she was spoiled and spoiled, she was really kind to him. He was just a nobody back then, but she was willing to sacrifice her life for him. There is also the mother-in-law, although she had been against them before, but after accepting him, she really planned for him, and even angered the father-in-law.

He, Chen Hao, was not an ungrateful person. He still remembered that when he was in love with his beautiful wife back then, he dreamed in his heart that one day she would be crowned with a phoenix crown and beautiful clothes, and her life would be in his body, so he knew that there was only a thin line between crisis and opportunity, so he still gambled.

This is probably a common problem in maritime merchants. You must know that in maritime trade, you will either make a lot of money or lose your entire family. If you don't have the gamble in your bones, you dare not get involved in this business. However, it only took Chen Hao a few years from a layman to a little fame.

All these thoughts are only for a moment, and Chen Hao also knows that to hide at this time is courting death, so he replied with a wry smile: "The so-called business itself has a profit-seeking nature. The princess probably doesn't know it, because the officials of the imperial court are incompetent. From the establishment of the dynasty to the present, the business on the sea has been divided up by the rich and powerful families in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangzhou and other places, and there is not much left. The things that the Yi people like in Dazhou, from silk, porcelain and tea to some handmade fine objects , Once shipped back to their country, they will be looted.

"Many nobles in their country are even proud to be able to wear clothes made of silk from our country. Our merchants ship a lot of things from the country to the sea every year for trading, so they get a lot of silver and some rare imported goods. But in the end I The dynasty has a vast territory and abundant resources. These things are nothing more than ingenious skills to us, and those who can afford them are only wealthy families.

"But has the princess ever thought about how much farmland in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has been converted into mulberry and how much farmland in Fujian has been turned into tea gardens in order to weave a large amount of silk and cloth? My dynasty was peaceful and prosperous, except for the occasional war at the border. In recent years, it has been peaceful. The population is increasing every year, but the farmland that can be used to feed these people is decreasing day by day. There are so many officials in the court, and that big official does not have a lot of land under his name, but he doesn't have to pay a penny of taxes."

Chen Hao became more and more excited as he talked, and couldn't help standing up: "Take Suzhou as an example. In peacetime, a stone of rice is only one tael, and it is even cheaper during the harvest. Now it has risen to more than ten taels. The reason for this price is that the officials back then It has been properly controlled, and it is estimated that it has risen to more than 30 taels in other places? Just like this, once there is a disaster in a certain place, and there is still a shortage of food, where does the food go?"

Where did the food go?

Although Feng Sheng had been caring for her husband and teaching her children these years, they had to settle down from the position of the King of Wei, but she still knew a little about the affairs of the court.

The imperial court has rules and regulations for those who are famous and famous. Starting from scholars, as long as they can pass the exam, they can be exempted from a certain amount of exorbitant taxes and corvee.

A Juren can be exempted from taxes on 1,200 mu of land, and there are more Jinshi, and the ranks will increase sequentially.

Can a Juren have a field of 1,200 mu?

Of course not, except for some families who were born in rich families, but nowadays there are parents who do not separate families, and clans rule even below the county level. These places cannot be supervised by the imperial court, so the imperial court uses the clan to rule the village.

And in the case of this kind of close union, whenever one person wins the election, needless to say, people with the same surname will also come to vote. Some even took advantage of their family power and power to oppress ordinary people, and took advantage of others' property.

It seems to be just one example, but how big is the Great Zhou Dynasty, how many scholars and officials there are in each prefecture and county, these are all digging the corners of the imperial court to fill their own pockets.

Of course, there is also the reason that Chen Hao said, this is something Feng Sheng once thought about, but didn't take it to heart.

But there is another point, once she chatted with King Wei, but it was too complicated, and in order to protect himself, King Wei has been avoiding suspicion and not entering the court, so naturally there is nowhere to start with this matter.

That's the way the imperial court collects taxes - folding colors.

The so-called folding color is to fold the original color.

In layman's terms, it means that farmers who should have paid rice grains as taxes were converted into silver taels or other items. However, most of them are still converted into silver taels. Only when there are local specialties, such as a certain place with a lot of silk, can they be converted into silk as a tax.

Such a situation seems to facilitate the payment of taxes and the cheapness of the transportation process, but it breeds bad policies such as color loss and fire consumption, dripping and kicking dendrobium.

These situations did not form overnight, and changes will not take place in a short period of time, just like the fire consumption in this zhese, which is precisely the means used by many low-level officials to subsidize themselves. In order to get promoted, these low-level officials gave the money to higher-level officials.

Also known as ice charcoal filial piety.

Even the king of Wei is already low-key enough, and there are not many people below who send ice charcoal as filial piety during summer and winter.

Of course, you don't have to accept it, but it has become a common practice in the court. If you want to employ people, don't you need to be reassured by employing people?

It is also because of this that the entire imperial court, from the county magistrate to the officials of the three provinces and six ministries, pretended to be ignorant and deaf about the fire consumption.

Because if you move this, you will move their pockets.

Therefore, it's not that no one has mentioned this matter in the court, but everyone shouted and beat it like a rat crossing the street.

It seems that these are nothing more than bad governance, but just as Chen Hao said before, the court collected money as taxes to enrich the treasury, but there was less food to be collected.

So where did the food go?

When Feng Sheng was young, he heard his father's "teaching about ancient times", and he knew that the greedy county magistrate partnered with the local gentry and wealthy households to lower the price of grain when collecting exorbitant taxes, so that the peasant households paid enough to pay the taxes they should pay. Because the price of grain is too low to sell at a price, we can only make up for it with silver.

These grains were collected at low prices by wealthy gentry households and sold at high prices, fattening the silverfish, but the farmers became poorer as they cultivated the fields, so that many people abandoned their lands one after another, or offered themselves up as slaves, or found another way out.

A variety of reasons are intertwined, so it is obvious that there are disasters in only a few places, but food shortages are everywhere.

The majestic Zhou Dynasty had such a vast territory, which can be described as a vast land and abundant resources, but the lack of food caused turmoil in the country. And those high-ranking officials and relatives of the emperor who have a vegetarian meal are still fighting and fighting because of their own selfish interests, regardless of the country and society.

Feng Sheng's mind was full of thoughts for a while, while Chen Hao was still talking.

"...So going back to the previous sentence, the so-called business itself is profitable. These situations are not only noticed by Xiaomin..."

"So you guys teamed up to transport grain from neighboring small countries and ship it back by sea to sell?"

Chen Hao hesitated for a moment, and said with some embarrassment: "It's not about joining together, it's because they found it profitable. Those barbarians exchanged a lot of our supplies with silver, why don't we spend the silver and exchange it for what we need?" The goods and materials brought back will benefit the country and the people. And this kind of business is not often done, but it is..."

"It's just that when there is a shortage of food and the price of food soars, you take the opportunity to make a fortune from those big households hoarding food?" Feng Sheng's cold voice interrupted Chen Hao's words. Her voice was so steady that almost no emotion could be heard from it.

This situation made Chen Hao a little confused.

He had seen Wei Wangfei listening intently before, thinking that he could use this to catch the other party's eyes and get on the way of Wei Wangfu. Before that, he had often inquired about the affairs of the court through the channels of himself and the Huang family, and he knew that if he could solve the crisis of King Wei this time, he would definitely be important in the future.

But now this situation...

Chen Hao couldn't help but glance at Feng Sheng.

When Feng Sheng saw him today, he was still dressed as a man, but he didn't deliberately disguise, and he could still see many traces of being a woman.

He couldn't help thinking that he was a woman after all, maybe he didn't understand the benefits of it at all, so he was indifferent to his words. But after thinking about it again, how could it be that she has shallow knowledge when she can bring down countless officials by herself?

It's just that the positions are not equal, so that even if Chen Hao claims to be extremely intelligent, he will still inevitably feel uneasy when encountering the inscrutable superiors.

"What the princess said, the common people don't refute it, but the princess knows why it is also a disaster. Last year, there were no less disasters in various places than this year. Why is the situation this year much more severe than last year?"

Feng Sheng looked over.

Although it was just a casual glance, Chen Hao felt an inexplicable pressure.

"Originally, this business was doing well last year. Whether it was through smuggling or through the Shibo Department, as long as some money was spent to transport food in, it would not be a problem. But starting this summer, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, in the name of suppressing and preparing for bandits, ordered The Marquis of Jinghai cooperates with the various guard stations along the coast to patrol the coastal areas." As a result, many smuggling sea merchants were cracked down, and food could not be transported in at all.

"So you turned around and begged to see me?"

At this point, Feng Sheng finally understood why Chen Hao didn't get to the point after he came, but talked to her in a roundabout way.

They just want to achieve the goal of cooperation through the hands of King Wei, or through the power of King Wei's mansion.