After I was reborn, I became a plug-in for the country

The foreigner, who claimed to be a British aristocrat, was accompanied by Xu Risheng, Bai Jin, and people arranged by the Guangzhou prefect to play around Guangzhou, and did not leave for Beijing immediately.But almost at the same time, another person had already set off and hurried into the capital.

Yangzhou wealthy businessman Yang Yanqiu, since cooperating with the imperial court, has become one of the giants among the Jiangnan wealthy merchants two years ago. In the Jiangnan area, the name of Cao Yin weaved by Jiangning is not necessarily famous.

Yang Yanqiu's business mind is almost innate, his wrist is very flexible, and he is very willing. He has never sought to monopolize all the profits in business, and he is especially generous with the distribution of profits to his next family.Therefore, it is highly respected by collaborators, and it is becoming more and more popular in the Jiangnan area.

Especially after the imperial court moved out the decree to indirectly encourage commercial development, the south became more and more prosperous, and his business grew bigger and bigger, almost becoming another living sign of the silk weaving industry.

But things are unpredictable. Last year, a flood in the south not only affected the livelihood of the three provinces, but also hindered the development of commerce in the south.Moreover, after the flood, the imperial court had no intention of reducing or exempting commercial taxes. Under the heavy pressure of tax and money, the merchants in Yangzhou were inevitably stretched in business.Naturally, the Yang family could not escape this catastrophe, which indirectly caused their business profits to plummet.

The Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce was also established quickly after the flood. At that time, while the wealthy businessmen tried their best to save their losses, they also tried to find new ways. They wanted to reopen the business opportunities that had been cut off before.It's a pity that the flood has spread too far, and the imperial court is busy with disaster relief, so it doesn't care about the merchants at all.

Yang Yanqiu came to Beijing this time to ask for a favor, to ask the emperor and the prince for permission to temporarily reduce the commercial tax in the Jiangnan area, even if it is only reduced by [-]%, it is also a time for them to breathe.After all, last year's disaster was really serious, and there is no way to get so much tax money.

If the merchants can't slow down at this time, their business operations for many years may be ruined.

Although the business of the Yang family will not reach the point of "the autumn of life and death crisis", but with a heart to heart, he really does not want Jiangnan merchants to continue to be so embarrassing.Everyone is almost like ants on the same rope, which affects the whole body. If a merchant's money is short, it may involve four or five merchants at the same time.

Yang Yanqiu's route to Beijing was decided to take a boat from Yangzhou to the Henan area, and then change to a horse-drawn carriage to enter Beijing by official road.This is much slower than going directly by water, but helplessly, a dam is being built on the Henan side, and the river is blocked, so it can only be changed in a cumbersome way.

After traveling by water for seven days, half of the journey has been completed.

Sitting in the carriage, Yang Yanqiu flipped through the account books he had brought to submit, and couldn't help sighing heavily, saying that he was going to Beijing to ask for a favor, but he didn't have any plan in mind to guarantee that it would be done.

It was not his original intention to go to Beijing to ask for forgiveness, but it was people from the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce who came to him together. He couldn't save the face of his regular customers and many cooperators, so he was forced to go to Beijing.The second is that he himself knows that even if he is Tuo Da, he himself has no right to speak in front of the emperor.

In the final analysis, the imperial power is so powerful, compared to him, he is just a businessman with no foundation.Not to mention that because the floods have not been eliminated, the profit distribution to the royal family on the books in the past two years has been decreasing year by year.He is not a person who likes to bring his bleak side to the public for public criticism, so he is not particularly sure about trying his best to reduce business taxes.

Yang Yanqiu recalled that before, a group of merchants from the chamber of commerce surrounded him with entreaties and entreaties, and felt extremely uncomfortable.Calling the lizard to shake the tree, that's all.How could the imperial court order a meeting to discuss taxation for a person of merchant status?

Thinking that most of what he asked would fail, he couldn't help but feel even more sad.

At the end of summer in the 27th year of Kangxi, some people were worried, some were happy, and some were itchy.

The itchy person is Yao Qisheng, Admiral of the Fujian Navy.Especially after the Jingshan Arsenal started working at full capacity, transported [-] artillery pieces to Fujian, and equipped them for the navy.He looked at Dongying Island opposite him, as if he suddenly saw a piece of Dongpo meat after being hungry for a long time, so greedy that he was almost drooling.

I can't blame Mr. Yao for being greedy. From before he strongly advocated taking back Ryukyu, and even before he first wrote a booklet requesting the expansion of the Fujian Navy, he was very greedy looking at Dongying, which is only across the sea.It was just that it was more urgent to take back Ryukyu at that time, so he suppressed his thoughts and devoted himself to helping the imperial court train soldiers to fight at sea and try to take back Ryukyu.

Two years later, he strongly recommended Shi Lang to lead the troops to help the court recover the lost land smoothly.Originally thought that the timing was about the same, and I could ask for an order to lead troops to conquer the Japanese pirates, but the navy had just been built, and the force was not particularly strong, and the Japanese pirates and bandits were famous, so they could not act rashly.

This waited for another four years.

In the past four years, he has continuously trained and increased his troops, and repeatedly asked for orders to expand the navy, so that one day he can lead the Daqing Navy to wipe out all the Japanese pirates who have been endangering them for many years.Don't look at the Japanese pirates who have been honest in recent years, but they are born like flies, and they want to try whenever they see a crack.

In case the Qing Dynasty is weak in the future, it is very likely that they will be targeted again.Rather than being constantly harassed afterwards, it's better to call now and get rid of them completely, without fear of their sudden invasion.

Yao Qisheng estimated the current strength of the Fujian navy. Since he first asked for an increase in troops, the navy already has [-] soldiers, [-] sails, and [-] cannons, enough to form a fleet.The power of deterrence is several times higher than when it was just built.With so many troops in hand, he was even more greedy for the Japanese pirates on the opposite side.

Especially recently, I always receive letters from Shi Lang, complaining that he has no battles to fight and is too leisurely.

Yao Qisheng stood on the head of the water looking east from time to time.He felt that he had endured for a long time, especially now that he had enough manpower, and there was a more powerful cannon modified by Dai Zi on board.Although he doesn't know the strength of those ineffective Japanese pirates, he still has great confidence in his soldiers.

Moreover, isn't military training just for actual combat?

It's itchy, but he would never dare to do such a thing as killing first and playing later.

Therefore, after a few days of itching, he could only add a little more selfishness to the routine greeting, and asked Kangxi to agree to send troops to conquer Japan.He also explained earnestly that the distance between the two places is really close, and as long as the emperor allows him to check the weather, he can get there in ten days at most.

Because Yao Qisheng was in a hurry, this letter was expedited by [-] miles, so that when Kangxi received it, he thought that a small foreign country in the south was not open to it, and wanted to try the Qing army's weight, so he took the initiative to send troops to train. resources.

As a result, when he opened the notebook, what he saw was Yao Qisheng's request to fight Dongying, and Kangxi was a little dumbfounded for a while.

Infiltrated by Confucianism for many years, he was not a very belligerent person in the first place. Before he attacked Junggar, it was only because the border area was unbearable and he had to do it to show the country's prestige.Mie Sanfan was because Geng Jingzhong and the others were too arrogant, forcing him to take action.He couldn't just watch his throne being challenged.Hitting Ryukyu was to regain territory, and it was a last resort.

In short, every battle in the past was put on Liangshan by someone, and it was a last resort.

In Kangxi's thinking, it is heroic to take the initiative to fight the enemy when the enemy comes, and it is foolish to take the initiative to provoke trouble when the country is peaceful and the people are safe.So after reading Yao Qisheng's excerpts, he casually put them aside, and didn't even give Zhu a comment, obviously he didn't take the matter seriously at all.

However, not long after Kangxi received this note, the foreigners in Britain also set off, and together with Xu Risheng and Bai Jin, they also entered the capital by water.At this time, the Briton didn't know that he would see a big scene in this ancient oriental country that he hadn't seen in the past 30 years.