Chapter 60 After the two had eaten and drunk their fill, Liu…

Once the two had eaten and drunk their fill, Liu Qingyue forgot about arguing with Qin Ren.

He was being held by Qin Ren while eating. Qin Ren was like a giant furnace, making his back covered in sweat.

The weather is very hot these days, and Liu Qingyue takes a shower before going to bed at night.

It was so hot that he immediately abandoned Qin Ren and went to take a shower.

His hair is long, making it troublesome and difficult for him to wash it himself.

Whenever this happens, Kaho would come over to serve him.

Qin Ren's hair has grown longer, but it's not particularly long yet.

In addition, he doesn't like strangers getting close, so he still doesn't have anyone to serve him personally.

While taking a bath, Liu Qingyue talked to Xiang Sui about this matter.

Liu Qingyue said, "Should I find a servant to attend to my husband?"

Upon hearing this, Xiang Sui frowned and said, "Isn't it unnecessary? Didn't the Marquis say he doesn't need anyone? Why should the master add someone to the Marquis's side? It might not be someone who makes things easy for him."

Xiang Sui, who served Liu Qingyue closely, naturally knew that Liu Qingyue and Qin Ren had not yet consummated their marriage.

Liu Qingyue had explained the reason to her, so Xiang Sui didn't think much of it, only feeling that the Marquis was a considerate person.

Now that she heard that Liu Qingyue wanted to add someone to the Marquis's side, Xianghui did not agree.

Liu Qingyue: "We don't need to add women or boys, but we still need a servant. For example, he needs someone to serve him when he washes his hair or takes a bath."

If he weren't lazy, honestly, he'd be better off doing this himself.

However, from childhood to adulthood, he was always the one being waited on; he had never actually served anyone.

Kaho: "No need for that. If it really comes to it, you can serve me, Master. It will be a little tiring, but I won't have to worry about anything else."

On this point, Xiang Sui and Liu Qingyue had the same idea.

Liu Qingyue nodded slightly, "That's fine. Anyway, I don't do much on a regular basis. If it really doesn't work, I'll go myself."

Coincidentally, he also didn't trust anyone else.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Qin Ren's character; he was mainly worried that others would covet his husband.

Qin Ren was the most handsome man Liu Qingyue had ever seen.

Even his own brother, Liu Yuze, was not as good-looking as Qin Ren.

Liu Yuze is also quite good-looking, but his good looks are more of a gentle and refined type.

He lacks Qin Ren's ruggedness and deep-set features; the two are quite different types.

Liu Yuze is the kind of handsome civil official, while Qin Ren is more like a dashing general.

After Liu Qingyue finished showering and dried her hair, she returned to her bedroom, where Qin Ren was already in bed.

Qin Ren takes showers much more easily than him; it's not as troublesome, and he can shower much faster each time.

Seeing this, Liu Qingyue combed her long hair, changed into a more comfortable short-sleeved pajama, and then went to bed.

Qin Ren raised his eyelids when he heard the noise, and Liu Qingyue smiled and lay down beside him, saying, "I bought a lot of cosmetics when I went back today."

"Well, do you need me to go with you to buy a shop?"

“I can buy the shop myself. The shops here are quite cheap, and I still have a lot of money.”

"Okay."

"It's when my shop opens, I need you to come and help me make a good impression."

Qin Ren was the Marquis of Yuling, and he was the most powerful person in this fiefdom.

Liu Qingyue still wanted him to go there, so that no one would be so blind as to cause trouble.

"Okay, let me know when you open."

"Um."

After exchanging a few more words, Liu Qingyue turned over and fell asleep facing inwards.

The weather is hot now, and he finds Qin Ren's body too hot, so he doesn't like sleeping next to Qin Ren.

Qin Ren wasn't angry when he saw this. He reached out and tidied up the tent to prevent mosquitoes from getting in, and soon fell asleep as well.

The following morning, Liu Qingyue and Qi Shi, along with Xiang Sui and Guard Yi, left the house.

He was lazy. On their way to the fiefdom, he told Qin Ren that he didn't want to open a shop anymore.

Now, thinking about the delicious food and drinks available in modern times, he wants to earn more money through his own efforts.

If he earns more money, he can buy more and better things in the modern world.

For example, clothes, cosmetics, and delicious food.

Another thing is vaccines. He wants to earn more money to see if he can get Qi Shi and his brother vaccinated as well.

Although Qi Shi and his brother cannot go to the modern era, he can bring the vaccine to the ancient era.

I heard that Qin Ren can get smallpox vaccines, and smallpox is very dangerous there.

Whenever smallpox breaks out in a place, in order to quickly eliminate the epidemic, sometimes an entire village or town would be trapped and die.

That was cruel and terrifying.

Even just hearing about it made Liu Qingyue feel terrified.

If possible, he hopes to earn more money and bring back more vaccines so that he can save many lives.

Liu Qingyue wanted to buy a shop closer to her home, which was the one Qin Ren was building.

Living closer to home makes his daily commute much easier.

Their new home was built in the south of the city, a slightly remote location where both houses and shops were very cheap.

In the capital, a shop costs at least four or five hundred taels of silver, and a slightly better location can cost over a thousand taels.

However, in their small county town, a shop only costs a few dozen taels, and the difference between the two is not small.

While Liu Qingyue was choosing a shop, Qin Ren was busy with a group of craftsmen on the other side.

He doesn't intend to get involved in the cement issue under his own name.

To the outside world, he could say that he accidentally caused this while building a house with the craftsmen.

That way, it wouldn't be considered that he did it himself, and even if the emperor found out, he wouldn't think he was hiding something.

Of course, he will still receive the final reward.

Feudal society is feudal society; even if good things are created by those below, the real rewards will not go to them.

As for whether Qin Ren would feel guilty taking it?

He was the one who came up with the idea of ​​cement, and he guided them to create it. Qin Ren felt no guilt at all in accepting the reward.

However, in order to win people's hearts, if there were any rewards, he would definitely give some to the craftsmen as well.

Qin Ren is no longer as short of money as he used to be, so naturally he doesn't need to care about money as much as before.

Speaking of money, Qin Ren already has someone making money for him.

The person who made the money was none other than Shen Wanying, who had been following him around everywhere.

When they had just arrived at their fiefdom, Qin Ren bought two shops for Shen Wanying.

Shen Wanying planned to use one shop to sell soap and the other to sell rice, flour, and cooking oil.

Shen Wanying is currently all alone, and he can only be in charge of two shops for the time being.

Once he becomes familiar with the area and gradually builds up his own network, he can open other shops.

The soap shop, just like in the capital, makes its own soap.

Shen Wanying bought a few servants and set up a small workshop with them.

Because the servants were bound by a death contract, there was no concern that the soap-making recipe would be leaked.

In addition, Shen Wanying was a businessman, and he was very good at running small workshops and shops, so Qin Ren was not worried that he would not be able to handle it.

Shen Wanying would give Qin Ren half of the soap shop's revenue.

As for the other shop, Qin Ren didn't want his money.

It wasn't that Qin Ren was too generous; it was mainly because Shen Wanying was doing business in his territory and would have to pay him commercial taxes.

The commercial tax in Da Yong is quite high, with merchants paying four-tenths of their income each year.

For example, if Shen Wanying earned one hundred taels of silver a year, he would have to take out forty taels to pay taxes.

Qin Ren has just arrived in his fiefdom and he has already adjusted the tax system.

Commercial tax was reduced from 40% to 20%, and land tax was reduced from 30% to 10%.

He collected less tax from his fiefdom, but the tax he had to pay to the emperor remained the same.

The tax he paid to the emperor each year was fixed, and 10% of it was taken from commercial taxes and land taxes.

Take Shen Wanying as an example again. His fiefdom did not have any tax adjustments, so he was required to pay 40% of the taxes.

He paid forty taels of tax out of one hundred taels of silver.

Of these forty taels, ten taels are to be given to the emperor.

When it reached Qin Ren's hands, there were still thirty taels left.

Now that the commercial tax has been adjusted, Shen Wanying only needs to pay 20% of the tax.

In other words, he paid 20 taels of commercial tax out of every 100 taels of silver.

Of this, ten taels still had to be given to the emperor, and the remaining ten taels of silver would go to Qin Ren.

Qin Ren's tax adjustments would not affect the emperor's national treasury, but only his own personal coffers.

The imperial court made this arrangement for two reasons. First, it was to avoid impacting the national treasury's tax revenue, ensuring stability in the central government's revenue regardless of changes in fiefdom taxes. Second, it indirectly curbed the practice of some princes and nobles with fiefdoms from attracting people from other regions by lowering taxes.

Qin Ren reduced taxes, so he had less money.

However, the surrounding people, seeing this, would want to come and live in his fiefdom in order to pay less tax.

If Qin Ren lowers commercial taxes, it will attract merchants to come.

Lowering land taxes will also attract farmers to come.

However, since there is only so much land in each place, many people who come here do not have land, so it will not attract too many people all at once.

Only farmers who don't own land and whose lives are the same wherever they live will be attracted by the land tax.

In addition, due to the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce, the status of merchants in Nanning was very low.

Once a merchant is established, their descendants for three generations are prohibited from taking the imperial examinations.

Qin Ren's move to reduce commercial taxes will not actually attract many merchants.

Because there are very few merchants in the entire Da Yong, and other people do not dare to easily become merchants, there will naturally not be many merchants in a short period of time.

Some princes and nobles with fiefdoms were also rarely willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of a small population.

So far, he's the only one like Qin Ren.

As for Qin Ren's actions, what was the emperor's opinion?

The emperor knew about Qin Ren's reduction of commercial taxes, but he didn't react much. He wanted to see what impact Qin Ren's actions would have on the local area and the surrounding region.

In his eyes, Qin Ren's fiefdom and his actions are now like an experimental field.

He wants to see how things change and then react accordingly.

Being an emperor is like being a leader who plays a management game from a high position.

He will stand higher and look down on everything from an outsider's perspective.

A wise ruler will immediately devise a solution when he discovers a problem.

A foolish ruler, when he discovers problems, will choose to live a carefree life, watching the people suffer like a spectator.

Qin Ren could only see that the new emperor was neither a foolish nor a tyrant.

Whether he is a wise ruler or not remains to be seen.