On the sixth day of the first month of March, Jia Rui and his entourage arrived at the Linqing Bank Pass on the Grand Canal.

At this time, Linqing was a prosperous industrial and commercial city. One of the five major granaries along the Grand Canal is here.

The storage capacity of Linqing is 3 million stones, so it is a famous grain storage and transportation center.

It is also a famous brick-burning base, with four or five hundred brick kilns and more than 20,000 related employees. Most of the building bricks in the capital come from here.

There are countless ships passing by, and there is an endless stream.

Banknotes, in fact, are tax cards, which are the places where the imperial court collects taxes.

There are three main types of taxes here, one is the ship material tax, that is, the tax is levied according to the size of the ship. This tax is paid by the shipowner.

The second is the excise tax, that is, the commercial tax. This tax is paid by the owner of the goods.

The third is the bamboo and wood tax, which is a general term, in addition to bamboo, wood, bricks and tiles also belong to this category. In fact, it is all kinds of building materials.

The first two are levied by the Ministry of Households, and the bamboo and wood tax is levied by the Ministry of Industry.

"Originally, there were a lot of these three taxes, but I never thought that now the central officials would also collect taxes. I don't have a charter, I have a mouth, and I can collect it as much as I want. ”

Chu Heyun said angrily.

Chu Heyun is a child who participated in the hospital examination at the same time as Jia Rui, and he is the candidate who was found to be hiding a note in the inkstone by the soldiers when he entered the inspection.

According to his own account, he was wronged, and it was the soldiers who deliberately tried to harm him for the sake of reward.

Jary believed him, because he himself was almost framed by the soldiers. If it weren't for his quick eyesight, he would have been deprived of his reference qualification this year.

If Chu Heyun really cheated, the soldiers wouldn't just let him go after a while by asking him to put on shackles and show the public. At least dozens of boards will be beaten against him, and it is even possible to be exiled to the army.

Chu Heyun's family has several boats for rent, collecting goods on the canal. This time the scientific expedition failed, and I thought of the south to scatter my heart. met Jia Rui on the dock of the capital, and the boat that Jia Rui is now renting is Chu Heyun's family.

The two are of the same age, and they are in the same department, so they are a little fateful, so they go all the way. Chu Heyun used to run with boats in the past, and he was quite familiar with the situation on the canal.

The Zhongguan that Chu Heyun said was a eunuch.

"The eunuchs also came out to collect taxes?"

This surprised Jarry.

Under normal circumstances, the people who collect taxes are the officials of the household department and the Ministry of Industry, and the eunuchs are the emperor's domestic slaves, so why did they come out to collect taxes?

"Naturally, he came out to grab money for the emperor, originally just to collect mining taxes, but now he also collects customs duties. The whole world belongs to his emperor, and now he is still here to compete with the people for profit, and this great virtue is almost over. ”

"Shhh, Brother Chu be quiet."

This kind of talk is simply a great rebellion, and if it is heard, it will be enough for him to drink a pot.

"Tianxiang is not an outsider, I just said that, I dare not say it if I were someone else. Okay, it's our turn, I'll go over to pay the taxes, today is the last release, I'll stay here tonight, and I'll leave tomorrow. If Tianxiang is willing, come with me to see it. ”

"It's okay, let's go with Brother Chu."

On the surface of the canal, there are two large iron chains. Only after paying the tax is that the chains are opened and the ship can walk. Some of the surrounding tributary waterways also have sub-customs of banknote customs, and cards are also set up to collect taxes.

Therefore, only after paying the tax and the money is cleared, the ship can continue to the next leg of the journey.

As soon as the two of them got off the boat, five or six people came up to greet them.

"Do you two pay taxes? I'll do it for you, quickly and well, and I promise that you don't have to pay more taxes. ”

"No, I often come and go, I can do it myself."

"What about taxes? If you do the goods tax, it will be cheaper than half, and if you do it yourself, you will suffer a loss. ”

"The people of Rongguo Mansion, what kind of goods tax do you still do? Move. ”

"It turned out to be someone from Rongguo Mansion, why didn't you say it earlier?"

A few people stopped following.

These people are the so-called customs sticks, similar to customs brokers, relying on the customs officers who are more familiar with the customs and tax expertise, to handle customs duties for others and profit from them.

Of course, if they meet a layman and a rich man, they will not be polite, so they will take the opportunity to slaughter a few more money.

Because he doesn't pay much attention to professional ethics, he is called a stick. It's similar to a litigator who often fights lawsuits for others.

The two didn't take a few steps before a stick chased after them.

"The two masters are from Rongguo Mansion, do you bring a boat? Liang Tou Zhang, six boats to Hangzhou, thirty taels of silver, do you want to do it? ”

This time, Chu Heyun stopped, waiting for Jia Rui to make a decision.

The so-called matter of bringing a boat, Jia Rui understands.

According to the law of Dade, the ships of officials, officials, scholars, eunuchs, princes and nobles did not have to pay taxes on the goods they carried.

Rongguofu belonged to the aristocracy, and if you carried goods, you naturally did not have to pay taxes.

It was precisely because of this regulation that some merchants found business opportunities, so they united with these privileged people and put their goods in their names, so as to evade taxes. The two sides dug the corners of the court and the emperor together.

From Linqing to Hangzhou, there are five banknotes and six ships with one foot in the beam, which naturally load a lot of goods and need to pay a lot of taxes. can give Jia Rui thirty taels of silver, and the other party's tax evasion is at least about one hundred taels.

Nowadays, many officials and scholars do this, and some southern people go to the capital to take the exam, and they are not afraid of no money. As long as you play your own identity, some businesses will take the initiative to come to the door. Hang the goods in his name.

Not only do you get a free boat ride for food and lodging, but you can also get a payment. Both the scholars and the merchants benefited, but the tax revenue was lost, and it was the imperial court that suffered in the end.

"A lot of people do this, some people even make money by bringing boats, if Tianxiang wants to do it, there is no need to be afraid."

Seeing Jia Rui's hesitation, Chu Heyun whispered.

"No, Rongguo Mansion is not short of these money."

Jia Rui likes money, but the purpose of his trip is to conduct scientific research and deal with the affairs of the Jia family and the Lin family, and he doesn't want to make trouble.

Although he had a good impression of Chu Heyun, it was the first time he had contact with him after all. There are also people from Jiafu on the ship, and they can't hide it from them if they bring the boat, and it is likely to leave a mouth and a handle.

What he has is a legitimate means to make money, a mere thirty taels of silver, and it is not worth the risk.

Chu Heyun looked at Jia Rui and sighed.

"Tianxiang has dignity and is admirable. There are not many such people anymore, and now there are a few people who have this ability and don't make money from it. Look at those two people, who have been working for several years, making money while traveling in the mountains and rivers, reciting poems and lyrics, and they are so happy. ”

When Jia Rui looked at it, he saw the appearance of two scholars in front of him, one of whom was holding a sign in his hand, which read, "Take the boat, Shenjing." ”

"No one cares about openly soliciting business like this?"

"Hmph, who cares if they all do this? Counting on tax supervisors and servants to take care of it? They're in the business too. ”

The scholar is also an elite person of great virtue, and even doing illegal business such as tax evasion openly is really degenerate.