The next morning.
Lu Bu had summoned Yan Xiang to his residence early in the morning.
"I hope I didn't disturb the envoy's dreams."
Lu Bu apologized.
"No worries, I believe that General Che Ji had summoned me to the residence long ago and should have given me a reply.”
Yan Xiang said politely.
"That's right. Your Crown Prince is a dragon among men. My daughter is a social climber. My wife and I are very much in favor of this marriage.”
Lu Bu's reply was completely within Yan Xiang's expectations.
"General, you are wise. It is a joyous occasion for our two families to form a good relationship. I will go back and inform His Majesty and His Highness.”
"Alright then, according to the ancient etiquette, I will marry my daughter off after the three matchmaking and six betrothal gifts.”
Yan Xiang could not help but sneer when he heard that and said,""His Highness the Crown Prince has already said that when your daughter marries over, when Guangling will be given to you, General will decide for yourself.”
Yuan Yao didn't want to suffer the same loss he had suffered from Er Qiao. Besides, Er Qiao was right in front of him, but Lu Bu's daughter was different.
After the three matchmakers and six betrothal gifts, it would be a year later. At that time, wouldn't Lu Bu be at a huge loss if he went back on his word?
"Uh... Alright then, the wedding will be simple. The envoy will be the bridal escort. This time, he will bring my daughter back to Shouchun.”
Seeing that the other party had not fallen for his trick, Lu Bu did not play any more tricks and readily agreed.
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Shouchun.
"Your Highness, this lowly official did not fail your orders and has already brought the secondary consort back.”
After Yan Xiang returned, he immediately came to report.
"Not bad, thank you for your hard work, Duke Yan. Go back and rest.”
Yuan Yao signaled for Yan Xiang to leave. Yuan Shu was still at the side. He did not like Yan Xiang no matter what, so he did not want to cause trouble for Old Yuan.
"Humph! You really don't hurt me! A county's land changed into a secondary consort?”
Yuan Shu said angrily. He was very dissatisfied with Yuan Yao's decision.
"Hey! Just wait and see. Lu Bu would suffer. In the end, he would realize that he had lost his daughter and not gained anything.”
Yuan Yao said confidently.
"Really? You're scamming me again."
Yuan Shu had a deep impression of his son's tricks. After all, this fellow often cheated his father.
"I'm not going to talk to you anymore. I'm going to see how the training of Yaksha Camp is going.”
"Morality! Get lost!"
Yuan Shu flicked his sleeves and said.
Yuan Yao came to the camp outside the city.
As the name suggested, the Yaksha Battalion was a new army that was inspired by the five hundred soldiers.
Yuan Yao used the remaining 400 personal guards as the foundation and selected 10,000 people with astonishing physical strength from the army, then trained them.
"Yuan San, how's the training going?”
Yuan San was the captain of the bodyguards. He was the son of the Yuan family and had always been by Yuan Shu's side. He was very loyal and reliable.
"Greetings, Your Highness. The progress is not bad. The men selected are all good men in the army. They have experience in fighting enemies on the battlefield and are all first-class elite soldiers!
With a little training, he could quickly familiarize himself with the combat methods.”
"Very good. Pay attention to strengthening your daily weight training. This time, I've forged full-body heavy armor for you. When you wear it and don't have any strength, I'll hold you accountable!”
What Yuan Yao wanted to create was a heavy infantry. Combined with a unique combat technique, it would be able to restrain the invincible cavalry in the north.
Although it would cost a lot of money and the limitations of the troops were very strong, it was also a solution that had no other choice. There were no horses in the south, and a clever housewife could not cook without rice. They could only use this method.
After Yuan Yao inspected the army, he returned to the Imperial Palace.
Just as he entered the palace, he bumped into Yang Hong.
"Greetings, Your Highness. I have something to discuss with you.”
Now, all the officials in the court would directly look for Yuan Yao if they had any problems. They knew that he was the one in charge.
Even if he went to find Yuan Shu to show his loyalty, Yuan Shu would immediately chase him to Yuan Yao's side.
"Let's go to my Eastern Palace.”
Yuan Yao indicated for Yang Hong to follow him. Hearing this, Yang Hong landed behind Yuan Yao, not daring to show the slightest bit of disrespect.
"What is it, Duke Yang?"
Yuan Yao asked after he sat down. A palace maid at the side served tea for the two of them in time.
"Your Highness, the newly established Yaksha Battalion is too expensive. Putting aside the armor, it is too wasteful to let ten thousand people eat meat every day.”
Yang Hong said bitterly.
"Sigh! If he didn't eat meat, how could he have the strength to fight? You get what you pay for. The Yaksha Battalion is my trump card, I can't mistreat them.”
Yuan Yao waved his hand and said. There was no room for discussion.
"But the Imperial Court's treasury is about to run into a deficit.”
Yang Hong said as he handed over the account book.
"How is that possible? Old Yuan had been a skinner for so many years. He had scraped all the land in Lianghuai clean. How could he not have money?”
Yuan Yao emphasized. It wasn't like he hadn't entered the national treasury before, so he knew how many things were inside.
"Your Highness, you've misunderstood. There's still a lot of food, but five baht isn't enough.”
Taxes these days were not just money. The commoners did not have much money left.
Basically, taxes were paid with grain or cloth woven by their own families. They rarely paid taxes directly with five baht.
Food was the foundation of the country. The grain in the national treasury could not be exchanged for money. The cloth market was limited, and the common people could not make a few clothes a year. Although they could be exchanged for money, the efficiency was too low.
"What about the business tax? How much is the imperial court's business tax?"
The business tax was basically five baht, Yuan Yao asked.
"Yangzhou's commerce is not developed. The wealthy merchants in the world are basically in the north or Shu.”
Yuan Yao thought for a moment and realized that all the wealthy merchants he could think of seemed to be in the north.
Even the closest family was in Donghai County, north of Xu Prefecture, which was not connected to Lianghuai at all.
Yuan Yao began to think about how to attract the wealthy merchants to Shouchun.
"Pass on my order. The imperial court will exempt all road taxes and checkpoint taxes. Shouchun will abolish the city gate tax!”
"Your Highness, you can't! Isn't this just messing around!"
Yang Hong immediately became anxious.
Exemption from agricultural taxes could also win the hearts of the people. Merchants were only after profits, so they had no gratitude.
"There's no need to say anything else. This is my strength order. I have to carry it out to the end. Whoever dares to commit crimes and bully merchants, don't blame me for being ruthless!”
Yuan Yao didn't explain much to Yang Hong. He didn't know much about economics, so he couldn't explain it clearly.
"This old subject obeys."
Yang Hong had no choice but to agree. He wanted to discuss it with Yuan Shu later.
Yuan Yao had already established his prestige in the court, and the officials in the court did not dare to disobey him.
Compared to Yuan Shu, the officials felt that Yuan Yao was even more difficult to deal with.
Yuan Yao waved his hand, signaling for Yang Hong to leave.
The essence of commerce was circulation. Whether it was goods or money, they had to be circulated quickly for commerce to become more and more prosperous.
The reason why commerce was not developed in the Han Dynasty was partly because of the suppression of the imperial court, and the social status of merchants was very low.
On the other hand, there was the problem of commercial taxes. The collection of commercial taxes was too rough, and customs and road taxes were imposed on the transportation route, which prevented the goods from flowing too far away.
Because the farther a cart of goods went, the higher the cost.
The city gate tax was even more unreasonable. As long as you pulled the goods into the city, regardless of whether the transaction was successful or not, the corresponding tax money would be deducted when you entered the city.
In other words, they had to pay taxes first before they were qualified to buy or sell. If they could not sell it, they would be considered unlucky. The imperial court would not refund the tax.
If Yuan Yao abolished the road tax and Shouchun city gate tax, all the wealthy merchants in the world would flock to him.
Even if it was to save money, they would travel thousands of miles to Shouchun to trade.
"Mm, let's do it this way. We'll specially divide the Longevity Spring City into a trading area and a business street.
The business tax would only be collected after the transaction was completed!
In the long run, Shouchun would definitely become the commercial center of the world. As the number of transactions increased, the business tax would naturally increase instead of decreasing.”
Yuan Yao,"You must be joking!" What kind of place was Lianghuai? Do you understand the Yangtze River Delta? This place was not a poor place by nature.
Although it was only half a triangle in Jiangbei, it was still a triangle!
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