Pei Xingjian was high-spirited, with a hint of pride, and continued, "The land in Huating Town is barren, mostly saline-alkali tidal flats, it is difficult to grow food, it is said that it is poor and miserable, even if there is a coastal salt field that can work and make money every year, but the lack of materials can definitely not feed so many people." ”

Fang Xuanling sighed, "It was the merchants who fed these people, and they all belittled the merchants, thinking that they were not engaged in production, but just sucking the scourge of the people's ointment, which was very lowly. However, it seems that this is not the case now, although the merchants are not engaged in production, but their circulation and exchange of goods and goods can create profit and wealth from it, and feed back to the country, which is still valuable. ”

Confucianism is everywhere and has been the same since ancient times.

However, even if he didn't want to admit it, seeing that the Huating Town in front of him had prospered because of the merchants, he had to change his attitude towards the merchants in the past.

It is wrong to say that the wealth of the world is constant, and the merchants are not only able to create wealth in the process of colonizing and circulating goods, but also seem to cultivate more land than they can cultivate......

In this day and age, this is very subversive of human thinking.

Even Fang Xuanling, who was accustomed to seeing the huge wealth of his own Fangjiawan Wharf, was a little at a loss in the face of the wealth and prosperity of Huating Town for a while.

The truth is the truth, it does not mean that if you understand the reason, you can accept it gladly......

As early as the 25th year of the reign of King Qin, Qin destroyed Chu, which was convenient for Qiantang River Estuary to place Qiantang County, and when the Tang Dynasty was established, because of the avoidance of the country name, the "Tang" was changed to "Tang".

In the ninth year of the emperor's reign, Emperor Wen of Sui abolished the county as a state, and the name of "Hangzhou" appeared for the first time, under the jurisdiction of Qiantang, Yuhang, Fuyang, Yanguan, Yuqian, Wukang six counties. At the beginning of the state rule, it was in Yuhang, and the following year it moved to Qiantang. In the eleventh year of the emperor's reign, the city was built on the mountain of Phoenix Mountain, "ninety steps in sixteen miles on Wednesday", which was the earliest Hangzhou city......

This place is tightly choking the throat of the Qianjiang River, it has been the land of fish and rice since ancient times, prosperous and rich, and can be called "the southeast shape wins, the three Wu capitals".

South of Qiantang City, on the shore of Xianghu Lake.

A small building stands in the breeze and rain, the surrounding trees are still verdant, the nearby lake is as quiet as a girl who is about to be married, revealing a gentle and elegant tranquility, the slightest raindrop falls into the lake, the lake ripples in a circle, but it adds a bit of playfulness and agility......

Downstairs, the fragrance of tea is curling, quiet and elegant.

Four people sit opposite each other.

A middle-aged scribe leisurely drank tea, listening to the soft sound of raindrops hitting the banana leaves outside the window, and felt very poetic, but the two big and three rough men in front of him were really bad scenery.

is in a bad mood, and even the handsome young man with the next place doesn't look so pleasing to the eye......

"Alas......"

Sighing, the middle-aged scribe put down the teacup, raised his eyelids, looked at the guests in front of him, and said helplessly, "The autumn rain lingers, the beautiful scenery of the good day, you have to talk about these vulgar things that spoil the scenery?" ”

This person is handsome and extraordinary, but the two thin lips make the whole person look too mean and cold, even when he smiles, he is cold and indifferent, which makes people very uncomfortable.

Opposite him, a stout man with a bearded face, said, "Gongzi is a nobleman, and our servants naturally dare not disturb Gongzi's leisure, but now the value of the goods of each family has been gathered in Qiantang, just waiting to load the ship and go to sea, we have to come and ask Gongzi to get a charter." ”

The middle-aged scribe frowned and said, "It's good to go and load the ship, everything is done according to the previous rules, why do you need any regulations?" ”

The man said, "In the past, it was a small fight, and we naturally knew how to do things, but yesterday Fang Xuanling arrived in Huating Town, but we wanted to load the ship to the sea with such fanfare, in case it ......"

"What's in case?" The handsome young man sitting at the bottom of the middle-aged scribe said disdainfully, "What about Fang Xuanling?" It's just an old man who tells the old man, and he is not an auxiliary minister who ruled the world in the past, so there is nothing to be afraid of. ”

This young man is the son of the Langya Wang family and Wang Qi, the son of Wang Xue'an.

At the beginning, Xiao Yu was expelled from the "Golden Bamboo Garden", which made him lose face, but this year, Wang Xue'an died of illness in the spring, and the king lived in seclusion, and the Langya Wang family collapsed and gradually became a second-rate gate valve, and had to rely on the Xiao family who was in the middle of the day.

There is no such thing as "old and dead do not get along" between the family valves, and the families are entangled in grievances and grievances, and there are only interests in their eyes. And when it comes to the twists and turns, Wang Qi's grandmother and the wife of the old Xiao Mao of the Xiao clan are sisters, and he has to call Xiao Mao "Grandpa" according to his seniority, and the blood relationship with Xiao Mao's children is not too far, and they are commensurate with each other's cousins......

The middle-aged scribe was Xiao Mao's son, Xiao Cuo.

Just looking at the cheap nephew in front of him, Xiao Cuo really didn't like it.

Relying on his mother to be familiar with his wife, he often goes in and out of his mansion, and he also covets his daughter, which is simply unbelievable! My Xiaocuo's daughter, she is going to marry into the prince's mansion in the future, and now the family is even running a marriage with Fang Jun, how can she be married to a broken family like you?

Who is Fang Jun?

That's a first-class celebrity in the dynasty, at a young age, he is already a scholar of the military department of the school, no accident, he is about to officially take office after the Eastern Crusade, that is one of the nine Qings, and he must be one of the Zaifu on another day!

What's more, the royal sailors are all under the control of Fang Jun, if he marries Fang Jun, he will become his father-in-law, selling some goods overseas, where do you need to sneak in to avoid business taxes now? In the name of Fang Junyue's father-in-law, regardless of whether he is Su Dingfang or Pei Xingjian, dare to embarrass himself by borrowing the courage of the two of them?

Look at you Langya Wang again, what is left now except a tattered shelf?

It's just that the candidates for marriage have not spread to the outside world, Wang Qi naturally doesn't know, and he is still sitting in a spring and autumn dream, he really wants to eat swan meat......

However, this kid coaxed his wife to like it very much, Xiao Cuo was very afraid of his own lady who was quite a bit of a woman, and Wang Qi himself also had some talent, although the name of Langya Wang was worthless in his eyes, but there were not a few scholars who bought it, so he was responsible for secretly contacting various families to raise goods and smuggle them.

Hearing Wang Qi's wild words at this moment, Xiao Cuo didn't like it in his heart, and said indifferently, "Be careful to travel a 10,000-year-old ship, and if you are young, you should be cautious and not careless." ”

"Whoa."

Wang Qi hurriedly lowered his eyebrows and listened with his eyes down, but did not dare to refute it in half a word.

In his heart, he thought about the allusions of "lying on the salary and tasting the guts" and "hanging the beam and stabbing stocks", and now the Langya Wang clan is weak, and he naturally can't get up in front of the Xiao family. But as long as you can marry your daughter home, and then rely on your Xiao Clan's energy to revive the lintel, all the patience is worth it.

Xiao Cuo's expression eased and asked, "Are all the slaves and private soldiers properly arranged?" ”

Hearing this, the man who had never spoken, "Hui Gongzi's words are all properly settled, a total of 800 private soldiers in the family, plus the slaves transferred from various families, all have been trained in water warfare, although they are not as elite as the sailors and soldiers, but they are more than enough to deal with ordinary pirates, and the pirates who are idle for hundreds of pirates will definitely have to come and go." ”

The interests of sea trade are too great, even if a wealthy family like the Xiao family in Lanling is also red-eyed.

It's just that Huating Town is in charge of sea trade, and the taxes are really too heavy, and those profits are levied in vain, which is really like tearing off a piece of flesh and blood in the hearts of these scholars, and it hurts so much that it is difficult to breathe, and the smuggling act came into being.

However, in the past, in order to avoid the patrol and arrest of the royal sailors, everyone had to break it into pieces, and only dared to send a small fleet to the sea for smuggling, the scale was limited, and the profits were naturally small.

Since Fang Jun was about to lead the royal sailor to sea, the news was rushed from Guanzhong to Jiangnan, and the major families led by the Xiao family were gearing up, planning to take advantage of the sailor to go north to attack Goguryeo, take the opportunity to stop a super-large-scale smuggling activity, and make a lot of money!

To this end, each family sent out their private soldiers and slaves to follow the fleet after a simple training to defend against the pirates they might face.

The large number of pirates in the South China Sea were all wiped out by the royal sailors, and the remaining small groups of pirates were difficult to take advantage of in front of the heavily armed private soldiers and slaves of the major families, which is why the major families dared to put aside the smuggling of the sailors......

I can make huge profits by organizing my own fleet, so why should I rely on sailors to conduct formal trade and then pay taxes on the profits?

We are used to enjoying the privileges of the past and present, and our ancestors have been exempt from taxes for generations, and now they are allowed to pay taxes and taxes, which is even more uncomfortable than cutting meat......