Chapter 99: Rescue

After Zhao Xiao left, Song Yuzhu kept opening the system map, trying to check the situation at sea. Unfortunately, the map only showed the territory of Daqi, and it turned into a mosaic when the distance exceeded. She had no choice but to focus on state affairs and teaching her sister.

June is almost here, and the horses agreed with the Kingdom of Jin should be delivered. Five thousand horses are to come from Yinshan Mountain and be sent all the way to the outside of Longxi Pass, but the Kingdom of Jin has been slow to fulfill its promise.

Bai Yizhou sent a message back, saying that the Kingdom of Jin would most likely break the agreement and asked the emperor to make preparations in advance.

When Song Yuzhu heard this, he was so angry that he immediately ordered the army to take the short artillery to the outside of the pass for training, and bombarded the border of the Jin Kingdom for two days.

As expected, artillery had a greater deterrent effect. Within a few days, the Jin people arrived with horses, including 5,000 horses, half of which were male and half were female.

The Jin Dynasty produced war horses, which were of excellent quality. They were not only tall but also had top-notch running speed and endurance. In the past, if you could capture a stallion during a war, you would be rewarded with a second-class merit, which was higher than killing ten Jin people!

The soldiers at the border were drooling when they saw these horses. They wondered which barracks would get these treasures.

After much deliberation, Bai Yizhou decided to first build a cavalry battalion, whose soldiers would be specifically responsible for charging and patrolling.

In the past, the Jin people were difficult to fight because their horses were good. Every time they encountered them, they could not catch up even if they could defeat them. Now this cavalry battalion is responsible for dealing with the Jin people. Whether it is a frontal war or a guerrilla war, they must be defeated and convinced.

*

After dealing with the Jin people, Song Yuzhu planned to start reorganizing the business.

The business environment in Daqi was relatively relaxed compared to the previous dynasties, and the construction of official roads promoted the circulation of goods.

Because merchants had to travel long distances and it was inconvenient to carry too much money with them, counters and money houses appeared, which were similar to banks in later generations.

The commercial tax in the prosperous dynasty was one in twenty, which was very low. Low taxes accelerated the development of commerce, but also indirectly led to merchants becoming richer and the people living in poverty.

After Song Yuzhu ascended the throne, he changed the business tax to 10% and 5%, which is 15%. Although it was a big increase, with the Jiangnan Lin family's incident, other merchants did not dare to challenge the prestige of the official uniform.

In ancient times, commercial taxes were relatively scattered. In addition to checkpoint taxes, there were also entry taxes (that is, taxes collected when entering the city gate), as well as sitting taxes and door taxes, that is, taxes on stores and stalls.

However, the standards for implementation vary from place to place. Some places collect several payments at the same time, while others only collect one payment.

Song Yuzhu ordered the Ministry of Revenue to draft a commercial tax law, abolishing the entry tax and only collecting store tax and sitting tax, with the sitting tax being only half of the entry tax.

To give a simple example, in the past, whether merchants or civilians, everyone had to pay a city entry tax when entering the city.

Things are different now. The Zhang family owns an oil mill, which makes a profit of 300 wen a day. As for the 15% tax, they need to pay 45 wen in tax.

Li Si, who sells fried fruits at a stall outside the door, makes a profit of 100 wen a day. He takes 7.5%, which is rounded off to 8 wen.

After the new commercial tax law was promulgated, many people brought agricultural and sideline products from their homes into the market. Without the city gate tax, they would not waste their money even if they could not sell their products.

Upon seeing this, the Jiangzhou government specially ordered people to build a large farmers' market for local people to set up stalls in the city.

Common people only needed to pay five cents to go in and sell goods for a whole day, but those who bought goods did not need to pay.

Relying on this income alone, the Jiangzhou government made a net profit of 300,000 taels of silver a year. This money was used for local infrastructure construction. It was praised by the emperor and became a model for emulation in other places.

*

In addition to the rapid development of commerce, ordinary people also embarked on the road of innovation and creation. There was a citizen in Jinzhou who actually invented the pencil.

Yes, it is the kind of pencil used in later generations. The core is made of graphite and clay, the outer shell is wrapped with wood, and the outermost is wrapped with fine hemp rope. Although it looks simple, it is cheap and very suitable for promotion in schools and for poor people to use.

Song Yuzhu rewarded the pencil-making craftsmen and ordered them to open a pencil factory. He improved the pencil-making process, used steam machines to make molds, and could produce more than 3,000 pencils a day. Each pencil was sold for only two cents. Once promoted, it became popular all over the country.

Many small vendors saw the business opportunity and bought goods to sell in schools. They added a cent or two to the original price and could easily sell them out.

You should know that an ordinary writing brush costs thirty or forty coins, not including ink and inkstone. This is one of the reasons why ordinary people could not read in the past, because the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone were too expensive.

With a pen, paper is naturally indispensable. Shi Chengwen, a businessman from Qian'an, invented a kind of paper made of hemp and tree bark, and named it Qian'an Shi Paper.

Although this kind of paper is not as absorbent as rice paper or as smooth as cotton paper, it is cheap, costing only three cents per foot. People could cut a few feet of paper and take them home to sew a writing notebook for their children.

The new paper and pens increased students' opportunities for learning. People's lives became better now, and they were willing to spend a dozen cents to buy their children a set of learning tools.

Schools were established in various places, and going to school had become an indispensable thing for children in Daqi. Children who did not study for a few days would be looked down upon.

In addition to these, many small commodities were constantly invented and created, and the Great Qi Dynasty ushered in a golden period of rapid development.

*

At the end of June, Song Yutong started to learn. He entered the palace at noon every day to study and continued to study until lunchtime.

At such a young age, she had already learned the Three Character Classic and the Rules for Being a Good Pupil and was familiar with the Four Books and Five Classics and Zhu Xi's Family Instructions.

Originally, Song Yuzhu planned to teach her personally, but unfortunately, as he taught her, he found that he doted on his sister too much and could not bear to punish her severely when she made mistakes. This might not be a good thing, as it would spoil his sister.

He had no choice but to ask a scholar from the Hanlin Garden to teach his sister. Li Jie just caught his eye. Many of this man's ideas were the same as his own, so he thought he would not teach his sister in the wrong way.

Song Yuzhu's high-profile education of Song Yutong made the ministers in the court vaguely discover something. The emperor valued his sister so much, but did not confer any title to the concubines in the harem. What was going on?

When Song Yuzhu first ascended the throne, no one in the court dared to persuade him to enthrone his concubines. After all, he was still young and it would be best for him not to focus all his attention on love affairs.

Moreover, there was the example of Emperor Longwu of the previous dynasty, who had exhausted his body due to his obsession with beauty, causing the Dasheng Dynasty to fall into crisis. The ministers did not dare to offer beauties privately.

It has been four years since Song Yuzhu ascended the throne. Since last year, ministers have been submitting memorials to the court, requesting the emperor to appoint an empress. There are also many ministers who have daughters at home, and they want to use the relationship between their children and in-laws to climb up the ladder.

Song Yuzhu always used the excuse of being busy with state affairs to evade the issue.

Starting this year, the number of memorials requesting him to enthrone the empress has gradually increased, and can be seen almost every day. Even Qin Fengtu found an opportunity to persuade him once. The royal heir is related to the foundation of the country. Many dynasties perished because they failed to cultivate a good heir.

Song Yuzhu was frank and told Qin Fengtu directly: "I don't like women, and I have never thought of appointing a queen, and I don't have such plans in the future."

Qin Fengtu was stunned: "Then, then the heir to the throne..."

"I intend to pass the throne to my sister."

This was the first time he told anyone other than his parents and Zhao Xiao about this matter. Song Yuzhu looked at Qin Fengtu carefully, not missing a single expression on his face.

After Qin Fengtu was surprised, his expression gradually became serious: "Your Majesty, please think twice. It has never happened before that a woman ascended the throne."

"I know."

The king and his minister looked at each other, and Qin Fengtu knew what was going on. He lowered his head and said, "Then I can only do my best to pave the way for your majesty and the crown prince."

Song Yuzhu stood up and walked quickly to Qin Fengtu's side. She stretched out her hand and pulled him up, saying, "I knew that you, my dear, would not let me down!"

Qin Fengtu stood up, his back was soaked. He knew that the emperor was testing him. If he said something wrong, he would be squeezed out of power.

"Your Majesty, have you told anyone else about this?"

"No, I just told you."

Qin Fengtu's heart moved slightly. He realized that he had defeated Xu Xiang this time!

In fact, Xu Bing could guess the relationship between him and Zhao Xiao. As for other people, Song Yuzhu neither cared about them nor planned to tell them about this.

However, the number of memorials urging him to marry a concubine increased instead of decreasing. Seeing that he was irritated, the eunuch Li Dehai cautiously said, "Your Majesty, why don't you just marry a girl and put her in the harem as a decoration, so that you don't have to be bothered by them every day."

Song Yuzhu gave him a cold look, which frightened Li Dehai so much that he immediately knelt down and kowtowed, "My servant is so talkative, my servant is so talkative!"

"You are so talkative. Can't I think of this solution?"

Li Dehai didn't understand why the emperor didn't do this, it was obviously a very simple matter that could be solved.

Song Yuzhu had his own considerations. He could have brought Zhao Xiao to the public and announced their relationship. But the ancient people had a problem called "following the example of the superiors". The King of Chu liked thin waists, and many people in the palace starved to death. If he made Zhao Xiao his queen, the people would dare to marry male wives and take male concubines.

It is better to avoid such things that disturb social stability as much as possible. We need to find a way to shut the ministers up.

Song Yuzhu rubbed his brows and said, "Go send someone to summon the people from the Imperial Observatory to the palace."

"yes."

*

The next day when the court was in session, another minister brought up the matter of enthroning a harem, and Song Yuzhu made up a story for them in a vivid and moving way.

"When I was young, I was in poor health. My parents tried every possible way to cure my illness but failed. One day, a fortune teller came to the street and told me that I was a golden dragon who had come to the world and was not adapted to the earthly climate."

The ministers were confused and didn't understand why the emperor suddenly brought up this matter.

Song Yuzhu continued, "The fortune teller also said that I cannot marry a mortal woman before I turn thirty, or my life will be in danger."

"ah……"

"Is there such a thing?"

The ministers were talking about it, not knowing whether it was true or not, but they had indeed heard of folk legend that the emperor was the reincarnation of a golden dragon.

Song Yuzhu said, "I didn't believe it at first. Yesterday, I asked the Taoist priest Chang from the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to tell me a fortune. The fortune said that I can only marry after I am thirty years old. Otherwise, I will die."

The hall was now silent and no one dared to speak. If anyone advised the emperor to establish a harem, it would be a crime of regicide!

It is better to believe such things than not to believe them. Thirty is thirty, it is only ten years. The emperor does not care about women and focuses on state affairs. Maybe this is a good thing.

Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Song Yuzhu smiled in his heart and said: Ten years later, the situation will be completely different, and then it will not be up to you.

(End of this chapter)