Chapter 83: Mutual Trade Market
Li Yueyao listened and comforted him, "It seems like this is all a trick of Gao Hongchen and his men.
First, the right prime minister was impeached and remanded to his residence, then he was assassinated yesterday, and today he impeached me.
It's just that we offended them too much before, which led to their fierce counterattack. It's to be expected."
The emperor listened, looked up at Li Yueyao and asked, "Aunt, what do you think of yesterday's assassination?"
“The Duke of Zhenguo said that some of the other side had skills similar to those of the Southern Li people.
The man chasing me once replied that his master was Gao Hongchen, so the Right Prime Minister and I concluded that the assassin was not Gao Hongchen, but the Nanli gang.
The emperor's face darkened upon hearing this. "At the morning court today, I have already ordered a city-wide search of the Zhenguo Palace. We must apprehend all of these Nanli people."
Li Yueyao nodded after hearing this and said, "This group of people has been entrenched in the capital for quite some time.
Last May, the Duke of Zhenguo had already spotted him in the capital."
Li Yueyao thought for a moment and said, "Send Gan Qing to assist the Duke of Zhenguo."
The emperor nodded.
Sun Fu was very tactful and went out to convey the order.
Li Yueyao thought for a long time and suddenly said:
"They want me and the Right Prime Minister to leave the court at the same time. What is their purpose?"
After hearing this, Concubine Xian continued, "You two are getting in the way at court. I'm sending you away first. I'm sure there will be some big plans later."
"That's right, but I didn't guess what they were going to do." Li Yueyao said.
After thinking for a while, Li Yueyao still couldn't figure it out, so she simply said:
"That's it, I'll just say I was frightened these past few days and won't be attending court for the time being.
Look, the Right Prime Minister and I are not here, what on earth do they want to do?"
The emperor nodded and said, "Well, that's fine. I want you to rest for a few days."
Xian Fei nodded repeatedly after hearing this and said, "However, Your Majesty, you must be careful in this matter."
The emperor was surprised when he heard this and asked, "Why should I be so cautious? Are they trying to force me to abdicate?"
"It's not about forcing you to abdicate. They're setting a trap for you in the court, or they're holding a collective vote to force you to comply."
The emperor nodded and said, "That's a possibility."
Li Yueyao laughed out loud after hearing this:
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. When they force you to express your opinion in court, just pretend to faint.
In the court these days, no matter how big or small the matter is, don't make decisions lightly.
They are setting a trap, and the people from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Dali Temple will hear it and refute it. You just need to go along with what they say.
When their true colors are revealed, we will have ways to deal with them."
The emperor nodded after hearing this.
The virtuous concubine continued, "Pretending to faint is a good idea. This will prevent them from chasing us from the front court to the Taiji Palace after the court session."
The emperor hesitated and said, "That's impossible, right?"
The virtuous concubine glared at the emperor and said, "Have you forgotten that when you ascended the throne, you refused to replenish the harem?"
The emperor remembered that when he first ascended the throne, his ministers asked him to expand his harem, but he refused on the grounds of mourning for the death of his predecessor.
This really stirred up a hornet's nest. The old ministers chased the emperor from Chuigong Palace to Taiji Palace, blocked the door for several days, and finally forced the emperor to give in.
Li Yueyao also said: "Whoever's interests are involved will naturally take it seriously."
After hearing this, Concubine Xian nodded.
When Li Yueyao left, the emperor sent a sedan chair to escort her out of the palace with great fanfare.
It was announced to the public that the Grand Princess of Jinyang was frightened and caught a cold yesterday and was feeling unwell.
At the next morning court, as expected, there were still people impeaching Feng Shenyu and Li Yueyao. The emperor was not angry today, and he collected all the memorials and kept them without sending them out.
The court started the discussion today with the Duke of Zhenguo investigating the assassination of Nan Li. All the generals expressed their willingness to fight and eliminate Nan Li.
Finally, somehow, it was brought up to the border trade.
The initial discussion was about setting up trading posts in the southwest and northeast border areas to increase mutual trade and facilitate trade.
The emperor asked the Ministry of War for its opinion, and the Minister of War Fan Yong said in a daze that this would benefit the livelihood of the people in the border areas and expressed his agreement.
The emperor also agreed in his heart, but when he thought of what Li Yueyao said yesterday, he held back and did not express his opinion.
Instead, he gestured for them to continue.
The next logical step is to discuss the issue of trade taxation in mutual trade.
The emperor, sitting at the top, felt more and more that something was not right the more he listened. How could it go so far?
Forget it, I'd better listen and see what they are going to do.
At this time, Gao Hongchen was still talking below:
“If we are determined to open a trade, it would be best to follow the border taxation system of the Taizong period.
The people living at the border are suffering greatly, so it would not be appropriate to set taxes too high.
I think it would be more appropriate to adopt a system of one-tenth of the tax revenue.”
Fan Yong had been confused by Gao Hongchen. After careful consideration, he felt that the 10% tax rate was indeed not high and relatively appropriate, and was about to speak.
Suddenly the King of Qin spoke up: "Prime Minister Gao, I'm sorry to interrupt you.
This king has also been to the northwestern frontier, where two countries are at war and the people are living in hardship.
There are also some small markets there. According to my observation, most of the people in these markets barter.
The only area where taxation can be mentioned is in the context of large-scale commodity transactions.
For example, horses, silk, tea, and salt, which were traded in large quantities with foreign tribes, were taxed.”
When King Qin said this, it was like a wake-up call, and Fan Yong suddenly woke up.
Yes, the people at the border all barter, so there is no need to discuss taxation issues.
Gao Hongchen was not considering the people at all, but the caravan.
So he turned around and looked Gao Hongchen up and down. Damn it, I almost got led into trouble by this old guy.
The emperor now understood that the opening of these trade markets was to pave the way for collecting taxes from the caravans in the future.
Fortunately, I did not explicitly agree to open the trade at the beginning.
Gao Hongchen listened to the words of the King of Qin and said with a smile:
“Your Highness the Prince of Qin is right, but the interests of the people and merchants need to be considered as well.
After all, border trade also carries risks.”
After hearing this, the King of Qin was very puzzled. What was Gao Hongchen up to? Why was he so concerned about the interests of merchants?
Haven’t you always looked down upon the merchant class?
King Qin had no idea that ever since Gao Hongchen's small treasury was stolen, he had been spending more than he earned, and that Fengshenyu and Li Yueyao had recently teamed up to target him.
He bribed the Star-Moon Killer Organization, hired secret guards, and also had to support Rongpin and her son in the palace, so he needed money everywhere.
In addition, the Ministry of Revenue was taken over by Feng Shenyu, and now the money from the national treasury cannot be directly transferred to his own home, and he is gradually becoming short of money.
He even fought over the dowry of his wife, Zhuang.
At this time, the Chen family, the first royal merchant in Jiangnan, came to him and said that they could become his new money bag, but the only requirement was to open border trade.
The token of surrender was 100,000 taels of silver, which was delivered to Gao Hongchen's house a few days ago.
After Fan Yong realized what was going on, he refuted Gao Hongchen's opinion.
The two of them went back and forth over this.
The emperor felt a headache after hearing this, and then said that he was not feeling well and hurriedly left the court.
The news soon reached Li Yueyao's ears.
Yesterday, Li Yueyao was sent back to the palace by the emperor with great fanfare, and then he claimed that he was unwell and was recuperating in the palace.
Feng Shenyu couldn't sit still anymore and hurried over to confirm the truth.
Seeing that Li Yueyao was fine, he shamelessly stayed and refused to leave.
He also instructed Cuiwei and the others to place a large bed near the window in Li Yueyao's dormitory, so that they could stay there peacefully at night.
Fu Shou was sent by the emperor to deliver a message, but he saw Feng Shenyu, who was under house arrest for reflection, sitting in Li Yueyao's house, eating and drinking with a comfortable look on his face.
I wasn't surprised at all and greeted them naturally.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com