To the north of Yicheng, on the north bank of the Luojiang River, is Yibei Port, the largest naval port in Dongping Kingdom. From the Wangjiang Tower, you can vaguely see some sails and masts in Yibei Port, all kinds of ships of the navy entering and leaving the port, and the naval army stationed in Yibei Port to practice.

But what is even more tempting is the large and small boats and various characters along the river in Yicheng. The location of Wangjiang Tower is no longer a port where any ship can dock. This section of the port is made of bluestone, and the ships that are more than 10 zhang long are all docked densely. Looking at the carved patterns of the ship type and stern, it should be a ship belonging to several merchant families. Even the seaport here is different from the loading and unloading of cargo. On the Wangjiang Tower, you can also see the harbor where small and medium-sized boats are concentrated in the distance, and the barefoot porter struggles to carry the cargo bags tied with hemp rope and walks on the gangplank. In this section of the port, there are some sturdy men who are shirtless, pulling extremely thick hemp ropes, and using simple booms to transfer a large number of goods to the port. And every time a crane of goods landed, several porters immediately moved the goods out of the net pockets woven with hemp rope and placed them neatly on one side, and the small officials belonging to the port immediately stepped forward to count the goods and register them.

In particular, the "Maritime Cargo Flow Law" that began to be implemented four years ago will be the original landing tax, ship tax, sea lady head tax, pirate sweeping donation, port construction donation, river dredging donation, river sacrifice donation 7 taxes in one, from the original total of 20% or even more of the price of goods to 1% of the sales price of maritime tax, and then add the amount of additional taxes on goods.

Only the integration of seven taxes into a maritime tax seems to reduce the tax rate, but a year after the implementation, a total of four ports in the north and south of Dongping Province said that the tax received has increased greatly compared with the original. Many maritime merchants who had been smuggling took the initiative to pay their taxes to obtain the protection of the Dongping Navy. In the first place, the robbers and smugglers saw that some pirates who did not dare to report to the official were convinced, and felt that it seemed that the merchants were profitable, and many of them simply naturalized and turned to Chengcheng to start a serious maritime business.

The surcharge on goods is different, relying on the surtax on goods, Dongpingguo has mastered a tool that can be called macroeconomic regulation and control for the first time. Dongping's domestic grain is not abundant, but the purchase of grain from Chunnan used to be unprofitable for maritime merchants because of the high tax rate. Now, the surtax on grain is only 2 percent, and many powerful maritime merchants suddenly saw great benefits from it, and in the past few years, not only a large amount of grain has been imported into the Dongping Kingdom to keep the grain price at a low level, but also so that the Dongping Imperial Court can have the ability to purchase a large amount of grain stocks to prepare for disasters. Compared with grain, the Dongping Kingdom, which lacked pastures, lacked horses, especially the war horses produced in the Northern Liao Kingdom and even the grasslands further north, suitable for cavalry. As a result, the surcharge on the breed of horses is even more peculiar, not only is there no tax, but even a subsidy of 6% is given. However, for horses sold from the north, only 4 cents of the tax is paid. In the past few years, no less than 40,000 horses of all kinds have been sold from the north, which has reduced the price of horses in Dongping by more than half.

Although the tax rate is low, there are more merchants who pay taxes, but the officials of the four ports of Dongping Kingdom are too busy. Although the chief officials of various ports often turn their eyes open and do not delve into small amounts of red envelopes and broken silver, which makes the port officials really a fat difference that many people envy, as long as a conspiracy to smuggle is discovered, it is 30 military sticks and one year of criminal detention, and the port officials have been holding their tails and are never willing to engage in malpractice.

A little farther away in the harbor was a much larger crane, which, unlike the rudimentary human-powered cranes nearby, was connected to a tic-tac-toe winch drawn by four horses, and was actually driven by animal power. The young lady looked interesting, and was about to ask Xiao Er to call the shopkeeper to ask, when suddenly she heard a noise on the second floor of Wangjiang Building.

As soon as a young man in a cyan robe stepped on the second floor, he chanted in a very flattering voice: "Xiao Ke just learned that there is a beautiful woman coming to Yicheng, with an outstanding demeanor and fascinated people. Xiao Ke is willing to be a guide and a description of the local customs for the young lady. ”

The young lady frowned. She has met this kind of person a lot along the way. Dongping has a free atmosphere, and there are many rich young people who think they are personable, and there are always one or two who want to get acquainted everywhere. However, as frivolous as this guy is now, no, not just frivolous, this voice tone is simply ****. The young lady involuntarily showed a look of disgust.

Although the two guards sitting on the side did not see the expression of their young lady through the screen, they also knew that this kind of person was by no means pleasant. The two guards stood up together and stood in front of the young man. The young man couldn't see the situation clearly at all, and actually shouted there: "I admire your young lady and came here, you two slaves are so rude." He actually shouted at the top of his voice: "Miss has been in Yicheng for less than two hours, and it has already been famous in Beicheng, please give Xiao Ke a chance." That made the other guests in the restaurant look at each other. But Xiao Er cowered and hid aside, looking disgusted and helpless, obviously this young man didn't come here to make trouble once or twice, he was used to it.

"Uncle Liu, don't hit the boat." The young lady commanded in an extremely gentle tone. Manager Liu, who was sitting on the side, was stunned for a moment, then put another cup of tea in front of the young lady, and respectfully agreed: "Yes." ”

Manager Liu stepped out from behind the screen, ignored the young man's words, lifted the young man's shirt and threw it out, then turned around and walked back behind the screen, without even looking at it. The young man was thrown out of the building with a scream in his throat, and actually flew more than ten kilometers away and landed in the water of the harbor, between two large ships. The hand that Mr. Liu suddenly revealed was simply shocking. Although the guests in the Linjiang Building were dazzled, they were extremely frightened in their hearts, is this Manager Liu still human? There are a lot of characters in the rivers and lakes in the Linjiang Building, some people are drunk and inevitably have a fight, and the guests who often come also regard watching people compete as a pastime. But those who seem to be still famous in the rivers and lakes are not worth mentioning compared with this manager Liu. Throwing a big living person out of the water for almost 20 zhang and falling steadily into the water, without hitting the boat, it doesn't seem to hurt anyone, it's like putting that person in the water, it's not just a matter of strength.