Eight months have passed in the blink of an eye, and the Chamber of Commerce has begun to get on the right track, and gradually more commercial banks or individual businesses have begun to seek to join the Chamber of Commerce.

And our President Zhao, relying on the Chamber of Commerce, has successfully developed his own Xingang Yangshan Port near Huating County, because it is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, coupled with being in the transit zone of north-south trade, Yangshan New Port has a tendency to replace Quanzhou Port.

But Zhao Weiji didn't expect that his actions touched someone's cheese.

"Lord Wang, the people from the city shipping department are here again, saying that our seaport occupies the dual purpose of inland navigation and seaport, so the goods to be exported in our seaport should be increased by a commission, from one out of ten to one out of five."

"What, you're not kidding me, are you?"

All ports going to sea in the Great Song Dynasty have always had a tax rate of one out of ten, so when the tax rate of all ports is the same, Yangshan Port has a great advantage.

Because Yangshan Port is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, if inland goods need to be exported by sea, they can directly transport the goods to Huating by waterway and then export directly by sea vessels.

Although Yangshan Port is slightly farther than Quanzhou Port to the South China Sea, the cost of sea transportation in this era is much lower than that of land transportation, and it is also faster. If it is along the Yangtze River, or along the Grand Canal, or even along the Yellow River, the state capital can directly reach Huating by water transportation, and then directly transfer to the sea.

However, if you want to start from Quanzhou Port, you will have to go through a long stretch of land transportation, and the cost will be higher.

"What is the purpose of this unwarranted tax increase?" It stands to reason that only the tax increase in Yangshan Port will not help the entire tax revenue of the imperial court. After the increase of Yangshan export tax, the cost advantage of Yangshan Port over Quanzhou Port will be gone, and in order to reasonably avoid taxes, merchants will naturally choose to return to Quanzhou Port. In the end, the only one who is unlucky is Yangshan Port.

"It seems that someone is deliberately targeting us, and the only beneficiary of the decline of Yangshan Port can only be Quanzhou Port, go and find out who is behind Quanzhou Port?"

With the social network of the entire chamber of commerce and Zhao Weiji's connections in the imperial court, it was easy to find out who the owner behind Quanzhou was.

But when he learned of this result, Zhao Weiji still gasped. The master behind Quanzhou is: Kaifeng Yin and Shizhong, Xu Wang Zhao Yuanxi.

"I'll go and be the crown prince?" In fact, at this time, Zhao Yuanxi was not a prince in the real sense, but his actual status was basically a quasi-prince. Because his brother Zhao Yuanzuo Yongxi went crazy in the second year and burned down the palace, he was directly deposed as a concubine.

So Zhao Yuanxi became the actual eldest son. Although Taizong was in a dilemma on the question of whether to pass on his son or his younger brother due to the alliance of Jin Kui, due to the backward deaths of Zhao Dezhao and Zhao Tingmei, it was more reasonable to pass on the son at this time. So Zhao Yuanxi is basically the prince.

Knowing that the mastermind behind it was the crown prince of the dynasty, Zhao Weiji had to pay attention to it, and immediately ordered all the other fourteen members of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as his teachers and best students in the business department of Tsinghua Academy, to discuss countermeasures.

"Let's see, we are being targeted by the eldest prince, do you have any good ideas?"

When everyone listened to Zhao Weiji's introduction to the situation, they all gasped. Some even confessed on the spot.

"Otherwise, let's compromise, it's a big deal to go to Quanzhou Port and the exit will be over, why bother with the prince."

Zhao Weiji understands this part of the people who have confessed very well, since ancient times, the people have not fought with officials, not to mention that this person may be the future emperor. But Zhao Weiji didn't think so, because he had the impression that this prince had disappeared after three years, as if he had died of some sudden illness. And now it is the first year of Chunhua.

But Zhao Weiji can't tell everyone here, everyone can rest assured to fight with him, anyway, he will be gone in two years. Just when Zhao Weiji was still thinking about rhetoric and trying to persuade this group of people, Wang Bin suddenly spoke.

"I think we can fight the prince."

At this time, everyone was stunned, and turned their heads to look at Wang Bin with a monster look.

"Everyone, listen to what I said, first of all, King Xu is the master behind Quanzhou Port, and the official family must not know about it."

"How can you be sure that the official family doesn't know." The unconvinced have come to the fore.

"Do you think, will the official family allow their successors to go into business? Other remote side branches of the royal family are fine, but I'm sure the official family will not let their prince go into business, because first of all, the status of our businessmen is not high, and secondly, the interests involved in business are too wide. The royal family has hated collusion between officials and businessmen since ancient times, let alone the prince's business. Officials do not compete with the people for profit has always been one of the principles of our Central Plains Dynasty to govern the people with Confucianism. Listening to Wang Bin's explanation, everyone felt that there seemed to be a little bit of truth.

In fact, Wang Bin basically guessed correctly, Zhao Guangyi really didn't know that Zhao Yuanxi controlled such a large port. In fact, everything in this was arranged by Prime Minister Zhao Pu for Zhao Yuanxi.

In the first year of Duangong, Zhao Pu was appointed prime minister again, and after having the experience of being dismissed many times before, Zhao Pu decided to leave a way out for himself, and at this time he saw Zhao Yuanxi, the king of Xu who had just become Kaifeng Yin.

After dealing with Zhao Guangyi for many years, Zhao Pu basically figured out the emperor's thoughts, although he himself was a brother and a brother and became the emperor, but he still wanted to succeed his father and son after a hundred years. Otherwise, Zhao Yuanxi would be given the position of Kaifeng Yin.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Kaifeng Yin was basically equivalent to the prince, and Zhao Guangyi was Kaifeng Yin before he succeeded to the throne. Originally, according to the next heir to the throne of the Jinkui Alliance, Zhao Tingmei was also Kaifeng Yin before the accident. So when Zhao Yuanxi became Kaifeng Yin, everyone thought that this person was most likely the prince.

But at this time, Zhao Yuanxi was not the queen mother, although his eldest brother went crazy and was deposed as a concubine, but he did not die. And in the Taizu lineage, characters like Zhao Weiji have emerged. So he himself is walking on thin ice.

At this moment, Prime Minister Zhao Pu came to the door, Zhao Yuanxi was naturally overjoyed, one of the two needed the support of the imperial court, and the other needed to pave the way for their future political careers, so they quickly hit it off.

But it's not enough to have Zhao Pu's support, Zhao Yuanxi still needs the support of more ministers, but it's not that you can win people by saying that you can win over people, after all, you are only Kaifeng Yin and not a real prince. Therefore, at this time, it is necessary for Zhao Yuanxi to constantly communicate with the ministers of the DPRK and China.

But communication needs money, although the Zhao and Song courts have high salaries and incorruptible support, the royal family itself is very frugal. So Zhao Yuanxi doesn't have much money.

At this time, Zhao Pu stood up in a timely manner, and through Zhao Pu's network operated for many years, Zhao Yuanxu easily became the master behind Quanzhou Port.

Before the establishment of Yangshan Port, Quanzhou Port was one of the largest ports of passage in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the original Silk Road was basically broken because of the harassment of a few famous ethnic groups in the northwest in the previous year. Maritime trade became the largest trade route in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the port of Quanzhou naturally gathered caravans and ships.

But the good times did not last long, and soon Zhao Weiji established Yangshan Port near the mouth of the Yangtze River, Yangshan Port originally had the convenience of relying on the Central Plains water network system, and he established the Chamber of Commerce after more integrated commercial resources, so that Yangshan Port rose all at once.

Zhao Yuanxi, who felt that his financial route had been cut off, was naturally very dissatisfied, so he found Zhao Pu and decided to teach his annoying nephew a lesson.

Zhao Pu has been an official for many years, and he has deep roots in the court, and it is still easy to hide Zhao Guangyi from using the city to increase taxes through his strength, so there is the beginning of the scene.

But the facts that Zhao Yuanxi and Zhao Pu did must not be known by Zhao Guangyi, first of all, the prince is absolutely not allowed to do business. Then there is his own prince who actually colluded with the prime minister, and is ready to form a party in the court, which is even more of a matter that touches Zhao Guangyi's bottom line. The last point is that taxation is the foundation of the country, and changing the tax rate at will without the emperor knowing it is simply treating the emperor as nothing, how could Zhao Guangyi allow such a thing to happen.

"So in fact, there is not much power disparity between us and the prince, and without the official family knowing, the prince can not use too much power, so we still have a fight." After Wang Bin finished his conclusion, everyone regained their confidence.

"So what do we do with our first step?" At this time, Zhao Weiji asked.

"I think we can use the influence of the newspaper to poke this thing out first." At this time, a student from Tsinghua Academy proposed a solution.

"The gentry has a good idea, let's try it first, and then see how the court reacts." Zhao Weiji was very happy after hearing the proposal of this student named Wang Jin, because these students of his class already knew how to use public opinion.

"In this way, find someone to submit an article to Shilin Daily and poke this matter out. Then go and tell all the merchants who are ready to export, I will bear half of the commission at this stage, and they still only need to pay one-tenth of the tax, and I will pay the rest. ”

In order to temporarily stabilize the situation in Yangshan Port, Zhao Weiji decided that it would be a big deal for him to make some blood first, and when this matter was over, he would have to return his cheap uncle sooner or later.

……

Ten days later, in the main hall of the imperial palace in Beijing.

"Can anyone tell me what the tax increase in Yangshan Port in Huating is all about?" Zhao Guangyi was furious in the court. In fact, he had learned about it from the newspaper seven days earlier, but at first he didn't believe it. However, due to the influence of the newspapers, it was soon rumored in the market that the government was preparing to gradually raise taxes starting from Yangshan Port.

No matter what dynasty it is, tax increases will always cause panic among the people. So Zhao Guangyi couldn't ignore the news, so he sent someone to Yangshan Port to investigate, but he didn't expect that the export commission of Yangshan Port had indeed doubled.

This made Zhao Guangyi unbearable, how could he not know about the increase in commission, Zhao Guangyi, who felt that his rights had been stolen, must clarify this matter.

"Say, you're all dumb, go and bring me the Liangzhejiang Road transfer envoy back to Beijing, I want to ask him, who gave him so much power."

Just when Zhao Guangyi was angry in the main hall, two people in the hall looked at each other at the same time, and the eyes of both of them revealed the same word: What to do?