Chapter 90: Officially Made Fine Iron
Bai Yizhou specially booked a room next to the caravan. The walls of the inn were not soundproof, so he lay on the wall and listened carefully to the sounds coming from next door.
At first, it was quiet next door, with no movement, but soon the sound of conversation could be heard from inside.
"Dad, according to Uncle Qiu, we may have to send someone to deliver the goods next time. Should we make two more trips?"
The driver's eyes widened: "You are trying to kill yourself! If you get caught, you will lose your head!"
"Fifty taels of silver per trip, and a total of us would make a hundred taels! If we can make three or five trips, we can save a lot of money. We can go back to our hometown and open a few shops, and we won't have to work as a clerk for others anymore." The man had an excited look on his face.
The driver smoked his pipe in silence, but he was secretly tempted. Fifty taels of silver was really a lot of money. Many people had never seen so much money in their entire lives. Even if they followed the caravan, the father and son could not save fifty taels of silver in a year.
"How about going back and discussing it with your mother?"
"Don't tell mom. She's a loose-lipped person. If she lets it slip by accident and someone with ulterior motives hears it, we'll both lose our heads!"
The driver was silent again, and after a while he said, "I don't know why Boss Lin gave so much iron to the Golden Man?"
"Who cares? As long as we can make money, that's all."
"You are young and don't understand. The Jin people are all wolves and tigers. If they attack us, they will kill us!"
The man laughed and said, "Dad, if the sky collapses, there will be someone taller to hold it up. We common people don't need to worry about it."
The driver sighed and stopped talking. The father and son extinguished the candle and soon began to snore.
Bai Yizhou next door, on the other hand, was not sleepy at all. His mind was filled with questions: Is there anyone in Daqi delivering iron to the Jin people?
Is he crazy?!
In the past few years of guarding the border, the most common enemies we have fought are the Jin bandits. Those people are bloodthirsty by nature and do all kinds of evil. Many villages on the border have been looted.
When these people came, they would slaughter the entire village without leaving any human beings alive. Men would be beheaded, women would be raped, and children would be trampled to death with horses' hooves.
Therefore, the border troops hated these Jin people the most, and every time they met they would fight to the death.
The Central Plains and the Jin Kingdom have a deep blood feud, so how could anyone collaborate with the enemy?
Bai Yizhou couldn't figure it out, and he didn't want to think about the twists and turns here. Traitors are guilty of capital crimes! The Jin people deserved death as well!
The matter was of great importance, so he did not dare to alert the enemy. He hurried back to the military camp overnight and wrote a letter to be sent back to Shangjing at an express speed of 800 miles.
*
The first month after the tax law was enacted went smoothly, and local governments have begun measuring land.
During this period, ministers would still come to the court every morning to request the emperor to abandon tax reform, but Song Yuzhu would just listen to them and wait until the land rights confirmation was completed at the end of the year before dealing with them.
What Song Yuzhu worried about did not happen, but he still felt a little uneasy.
I thought that after the tax was levied on each acre, the wealthy merchants would definitely come out to oppose it. However, only a small number of wealthy merchants in the north protested, while the largest merchants in the south of the Yangtze River did not make any move, as if they had already accepted the new tax law.
This is really not in line with common sense, Song Yuzhu suspected that they had other plans. However, it was a good thing that it could be implemented smoothly at the moment. If those wealthy businessmen could really abide by the law, maybe he would be able to fleece them less when he reformed the business tax in the future.
Today is a rare good day. The snow has stopped after several days in a row. The entire palace is covered with snow. The snowflakes are spread on the red tiles, which are crystal clear and very lovely.
“Brother! Brother!”
As soon as Song Yuzhu came down from court, he saw his sister, wearing a bright red cloak, running towards him. The little girl was wrapped up like a ball by her mother, and she dived into his arms, her eyes smiling into crescents.
Song Ping'er also came with her. The two little girls were four or five years old, at the age when they were lively and active.
Song Ping'er was better, she was more shy, but Song Yutong was a complete devil. After entering the palace, he was like back home, playing with cats and dogs, climbing trees to touch bird eggs, and his personality was wilder than that of boys.
Song Yuzhu was willing to pamper her, but of course he would also discipline her. Although she was young, she could recognize hundreds of words, recite hundreds of poems, and do addition and subtraction within 100. Even Mr. and Mrs. Song Bai were amazed at her intelligence.
"Why are you here so early? Are you cold?"
"It's not cold." The little girl shook her head.
Song Yuzhu pinched her little hand, which was warm and not cold at all. She picked her up and walked towards the study room with the shy Song Ping'er.
The two children loved being with Song Yuzhu the most because he could tell them many strange stories.
"Brother, the Monkey King you told us about last time was scolded away by the master. Did he come back later?" Song Yutong tilted his little head and asked curiously.
Song Ping'er also nodded. The two sisters had discussed this privately for a long time, and they felt that Sun Wukong would definitely come back.
Song Yuzhu told the two of them a story called Journey to the West. Unexpectedly, they still remembered it after half a month.
"Sun Dasheng, he returned to Huaguo Mountain and planned to continue to be the king of the mountain. Tang Monk took Zhu Bajie and Monk Sha to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures. Unexpectedly, they encountered a monster on the way. The two disciples were no match for the monster, and in the end, the three of them were captured by the monster."
"Ah!" The two of them widened their eyes at the same time and looked at him in surprise.
"What happened next? What happened next?"
Song Yuzhu was amused by their cute appearance: "Later..."
Zhao Xiao walked in and asked, "What are you talking about?"
"Uncle Zhao, your brother is telling us a story!" Song Yutong is very familiar with Zhao Xiao because Zhao Xiao often takes her out for horseback riding.
"Oh? Let me listen too." Zhao Xiao moved a stool and sat next to the two children.
Song Yuzhu noticed a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and asked, "Is there something wrong?"
Zhao Xiao waved his hand and asked him to continue.
Song Yuzhu said: "Later, the white dragon horse transformed into a human form and went to find Sun Wukong. When the Great Sage learned that his master had been captured by the monster, he was extremely anxious and immediately flew on a cloud to rescue Tang Monk. In the end, he rescued his master and his two fellow apprentices."
"Tang Seng also realized that he had wronged his eldest disciple, and finally the master and disciple reconciled and continued to go to the West to obtain the scriptures."
The two children clapped contentedly. This was what Song Yuzhu taught them: they should clap when they show their support to others.
The eunuch Li Dehai came in and said, "My two young masters, please go to the side hall with me to play."
Song Yutong knew that her brother was busy with other things, so she sensibly took Ping'er's hand and went to the side hall to play.
After the two children left, Zhao Xiao's face changed. He took out a letter from his arms and handed it to Song Yuzhu, saying, "I have read the urgent report from Xiguan. Please take a look."
Song Yuzhu took the letter and his expression changed immediately after taking a glance at it.
"No wonder the south has been so quiet for the past two months, it turns out they were waiting here!"
Zhao Xiao: "What should we do now? How about I lead my troops to attack the Jin Kingdom directly!"
Song Yuzhu waved her hand and said, "That's not right. Daqi has only been established for a few years and its foundation is weak. Once a war breaks out, even if we win, we will lose our vitality. We must first find out the person who is selling the refined iron privately!"
No matter how much defense you take, you can never guard against a thief in your own home! Song Yuzhu never expected that these wealthy businessmen would be so bold as to protest against him in this way.
Song Yuzhu was so angry that her teeth itched. They had never thought about what would happen to the entire Daqi Dynasty if they really fattened up the Jin Kingdom? Maybe they knew, but for their own interests, they didn't care about the rise and fall of the country or the life and death of the people!
"Ah Xiao, send someone to investigate this matter immediately and find out where the refined iron came from. There is no way that so much iron could have come out without some clues. Behead all officials involved without any leniency! As for the mastermind... escort him back to the capital. I want to interrogate him personally."
Zhao Xiao cupped his hands and said, "As you wish!"
*
In Longxiguan City, Bai Yizhou was guarding outside Baixianglou and had been selling furs for half a month.
He disguised himself as a Dawan person, wearing a hood on his head, a scarf around his face, and shouting in poor Central Plains dialect.
"Take a look, these are the top-quality furs from Dawan. You won't be cheated if you buy them~"
"How much is the fur?"
"Five hundred taels."
"Why don't you go and rob!"
Bai Yizhou said impatiently: "Are you going to buy it or not? If not, don't delay my business."
"Buy it!" The man actually took out a silver note from his pocket and handed it over.
Bai Yizhou looked up in surprise and saw that the man was waving a fan in his hand in the twelfth lunar month. He was wearing a green robe and had a smile in his peach blossom eyes. It was Liu Yanzi whom he had not seen for a long time!
"Brother Liu, why are you here!" Bai Yizhou stood up in surprise.
Liu Yanzi smiled and pressed him down with her fan: "Hush, His Majesty sent me to assist you."
The two hadn't seen each other for nearly three years, and their eyes were full of joy when they first met. This was not a place to talk, so Bai Yizhou quickly packed up his stall and took him into a grocery store on the corner of the street.
"I bought this shop. I usually let a few subordinates in the military camp manage it to monitor the activities of Baixianglou."
"General Bai." The shopkeeper stood up and saluted when he saw Bai Yizhou.
"This is Commander Liu who came from the capital."
The soldier immediately turned around and said, "Hello, Commander Liu!"
Liu Yanzi waved her hand and asked him to continue greeting the guests, and the two of them went straight up to the second floor.
"This time, the smuggling of refined iron was all thanks to you. If you hadn't discovered it, I'm afraid something serious would have happened. His Majesty asked me to praise you."
Bai Yizhou scratched his head embarrassedly: "It's just a coincidence. I saw the golden man in the city so I paid more attention. I didn't expect to find anything unusual."
Liu Yanzi sighed: "I haven't seen you for three years. You have changed a lot. I almost didn't recognize you just now."
The northwest wind is like a small knife. When Bai Yizhou left Beijing, he was still a fair-faced young general. In recent years, he has been shaved into a rough man with dark skin and a beard on his face.
Bai Yizhou smiled and said, "You have changed a lot."
Liu Yanzi waved her fan and asked, "Oh? How have I changed?"
"You are even more pretentious than before. It's so cold, aren't you cold when you fan yourself?"
"No, no, this is about grace over warmth."
The two couldn't help but burst out laughing at the same time.
There is always a lot to talk about when old friends get together, but right now the most important thing is to finish the tasks assigned by the Emperor first.
Liu Yanzi: "Has the caravan delivering refined iron come again?"
Bai Yizhou nodded: "The caravan came again on the sixth day of this month. This time there were ten carriages, and there were at least three thousand stones of fine iron on the carriages."
"so much!"
"I replaced the gatekeepers with my own men. When the caravan entered the city, I had the soldiers quietly lift up the oilcloth and take a look. The surface of the cart was indeed cloth, but underneath was blocks of fine iron."
Liu Yanzi was surprised and asked, "A block of refined iron?"
"Yes, about ten inches square."
"That's bad..." Liu Yanzi frowned and tapped her palms with the fan in her hand.
Bai Yizhou didn't know what was going on, so he quickly asked, "Brother Liu, what's wrong?"
Liu Yanzi said: "The ten-inch square piece of fine iron is made by the government. It seems that the thief who smuggled the fine iron is really in the court."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
