"Whatever you say today, this king will forgive you for your innocence!" Li Li had already guessed from Cai Fu's abnormal words and deeds that he might know some hidden secrets, so he nodded at Cai Fu and replied with a stern expression.

"Lord Wang, the villain heard that the prince reached an agreement with General Dingnan of the Ming army in order to be the Tusi of Jiaozhi, and then not only let go of the Ming army in Qinghua City, but also gave Langjiang Mansion as a gift to General Dingnan, which made our righteous army miss the opportunity to drive the Ming army away."

Although Li Li agreed to his request, Cai Fu still seemed to have some concerns in his heart, and only after hesitating for a while did he speak, looking at Li Li cautiously.

"What else?" Hearing this, a sneer appeared at the corner of Li Li's mouth, and he asked expressionlessly, he had already guessed this matter, and now he was more concerned about another matter.

"Lord Wang, the villain heard that Mr. Ruan and General Chen have been getting closer recently, and the two often inspect military affairs everywhere, and have a very good relationship with the generals in the army and local officials." Cai Fu hesitated again, and then said tentatively to Li Li.

I have to say that Cai Fu's rhetoric is just right, not only not pointing out whether there is a conspiracy between Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan, but also hinting at the secret collusion between the two.

"Come on, let the Li Governor come to see this king." Hearing that Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan had a very harmonious relationship with the rebel generals and officials, Li Li couldn't help but clench his right fist, and his face became even more gloomy, doesn't this mean that Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan are gathering people's hearts? Then, with a frown, he shouted out the door.

Li Zhifu is Li Zhi, although Li is also surnamed Li but has no kinship with Li Li, but he is the first group of people to follow Li Li to raise troops to rebel, and he is stable and strategic.

At that time, Li Li abandoned the Thanh Hoa Province, which was heavily guarded by the Ming army, and instead attacked the Ming army's weak Nghe An Province, and the strategic change was made by Li Li, which made Li Li's team stand out from the rebels in Jiaozhi and gradually grew stronger, so Li Li has always trusted Li Li and regarded him as a confidant.

Now Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan are suspected of having ill intentions and plotting against each other, so Li Li naturally wants to call Li only to discuss.

"Lord Wang, don't alarm the Li Governor's Mansion." As soon as Li Li's words fell, Cai Fu hurriedly stopped him and said in a low voice, "Although the Li Governor's Mansion is loyal to the prince, he and Mr. Ruan cherish each other, and he will definitely speak for Mr. Ruan at that time, if the news leaks, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

"Come back!" Li Li couldn't help but be shocked when he heard this, and hurriedly called out to the soldiers who were about to leave outside the door, he almost forgot about this matter, Li only admired Ruan Yan's talent, and would definitely find a way to excuse him, if this matter reached the ears of Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan, then there was a chance that the two would join forces to make trouble, and then his situation would be dangerous.

"Lord Wang, the villain thinks that this matter is not suitable for publicity, according to the villain's opinion, the rumors outside are not credible, it is better to let the two General Li secretly investigate to see if Mr. Ruan and General Chen have two hearts, and then the prince will make a decision."

Cai Fu pondered for a while, and then gave Li Li a safe idea, after all, Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan were two important figures in the rebels, how could they be lightly convicted, otherwise it would cause a commotion among the rebels.

Li Li nodded thoughtfully when he heard this, or Cai Fu thought carefully, and when he collected the conclusive evidence of Ruan Yan and Chen Yuan, then he could do it, so as not to cause instability among the rebels.

Seeing Li Li nodding, the corners of Cai Fu's mouth couldn't help but flash a subtle smile, and then he regained a respectful look.

Compared with the dull and depressing atmosphere of Yi'an City, Xin'an City is filled with a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere, the overseas trade fleet that returned from Nanyang brought back a lot of exotic flowers and plants and rare birds and beasts, and was placed in the city after getting off the ship, which made the city empty alleys, and the people ran to the streets to see the excitement with great interest, and there was laughter and laughter everywhere.

In Yuntun Port, more than 100 officials from Yuntun City were divided into three groups and boarded the treasure ship of Zheng He, which was loaded with gold, silver, jewelry, amber crystal, white pearls, green jade, Sumu pepper, local products, seafood, and other items traded from the Nanyang countries.

According to the regulations, Li Yuntian had to levy a 100 percent tariff on goods shipped from overseas transactions, which meant that merchants had to pay half of the goods shipped to Yuntun Port as taxes, including gold, silver, jewelry, and local seafood.

In addition to the customs duties, the merchants also had to bear the cost of the escort sailors, which was about 10% of the total value of the goods, and this part of the cost was called military tax.

In other words, only forty percent of the goods shipped back from overseas trade belonged to the merchants, fifty percent were customs duties, and the remaining one percent was the military tax of the sailors, so Li Yuntian raised the sailors.

It seems that those merchants have suffered a big loss, but when you think about it, they still have huge profits.

Generally speaking, due to the difficult circulation of goods in ancient times, this makes the goods of overseas trade "scarce and expensive", so the profits of overseas trade are usually several times, more than ten times or even dozens of times, which can be described as an out-and-out profiteering industry.

Even if only forty percent of the goods go to the merchants, those merchants will still make a lot of money, enough to recoup more than three times the net profit they have paid, which is a great temptation.

Besides, without the organization of the government and the escort of the sailors, the merchants would not have been able to complete this overseas trade, so how could everyone complain about the tariffs and the cost of the sailors?

The officials of the Yuntun City Department are the most of the four city divisions of the Ming Dynasty, there are more than 100 people, and the officials here refer to the personnel in the establishment of the Yuntun City Division, both officials and officials, and do not include those who do miscellaneous and errands.

In Li Yuntian's planning, the Yuntun City Bosi was used by him as a pilot for the customs, sharpening the officials inside, so as to establish a complete customs system in the future to deal with the overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

It is worth mentioning that Li Yuntian divided more than 100 officials from the Yuntun City Shipping Division into three groups, inspected the goods on board respectively, and then checked the inspection results of the three groups of personnel, so as to avoid the phenomenon of omission and concealment.

In fact, it stands to reason that the goods on the ship must be checked after being unloaded by the Yuntun City Shipping Division, but the Yuntun City Shipping Division does not have a warehouse that can load so many goods, and at the same time, it is very troublesome to move those goods up and down, so Li Yuntian asked the people from the Yuntun City Shipping Division to board the ship for inspection.

When the officials of Yuntun City have checked the quantity of goods, they will issue three lists of goods, one is the goods subject to customs duties, one is the goods subject to military taxes, and the last one is the goods belonging to the merchants, and those merchants pick up the goods by virtue of the list of goods.

In order to ensure the authenticity of the list of goods, each list of goods is in triplicate, and one copy is handed over to the Yuntun City Bosi for safekeeping as a base; A copy is sent to the official who inspects the goods at the wharf yard for reconciliation, and the accounts are cleared and released; The other copy is kept by the merchant himself and handed over when he picks up the goods.

It can be said that Li Yuntian has formulated a set of systems for the customs clearance and entry of goods, which not only improves work efficiency but also avoids the interference of human factors.

Since the market in Cochin could not absorb the goods of overseas trade, the fleet would go north after inspecting the goods in Yuntun City, and dock at the Guangzhou City, Fuzhou City, Ningbo City, and Tianjin Port, and unload a part of the goods for sale at each of these four ports.

The overall proportion is that Guangzhou City unloads five percent of the goods, Fuzhou City unloads five percent of the goods, Ningbo City unloads five percent of the goods, and Tianjin Port unloads two percent of the goods.

As a result, you can find buyers nearby, saving a lot of intermediate transportation links, and then it is more convenient to spread the goods throughout Daming, which brings great convenience to buyers.

When Zheng Hebao's ship carried the goods counted, its value was also reported to Li Yuntian, conservatively estimated, the value of the goods brought by the overseas trade of the Nanyang countries is 12 million taels of silver, accounting for about 30% of the total financial income of the Ming Dynasty in a year, and three or four times the annual financial income of the Ming Household Department, you must know that the total financial income of the Ming Household Department in a year is only more than 3 million taels of silver.

If the taxes of this batch of overseas trade were handed over to the imperial court, it would mean that the imperial court would be able to get three million taels of tax silver, which was equivalent to an extra year's fiscal revenue.

Speaking of such a huge profit harvest this time, Zhao Yuancai, who was in charge of commercial affairs, made great contributions, and it was precisely because of his understanding of the commerce of the Nanyang countries that he was able to obtain such huge profits from it, and it also convinced the merchants who accompanied the ship.

Although Li Yuntian set that half of the tariffs collected by the Yuntun City Department should be kept for himself, and the other half should be handed over to the treasury of the Ministry of Households, that was something to be considered in the future, and at this stage he did not want to give the half of the tariffs to the Ministry of Households.

This is not that Li Yuntian wants to intercept that half of the tax revenue, but that he wants to send this half of the tax to Emperor Xuande to fill Emperor Xuande's inner treasury.

Due to the continuous wars and natural and man-made disasters during the period of Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Yongle, Emperor Xuande, as the son of the great tomorrow, did not have much silver in the treasury, and the reason why Li Yuntian was able to carry out overseas trade was all due to Emperor Xuande's benevolence, and he naturally wanted to give tariffs to Emperor Xuande, and at the same time, it was also to make Emperor Xuande realize the huge economic benefits of overseas trade.

As for the Ministry of Households, they did not ask Li Yuntian for this tariff from the beginning, the reason is very simple, the Municipal Department of Shipping is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Political Envoys, and its taxes are handed over to the local treasury, and there is no need to hand them over to the treasury of the Ministry of Households.

The reason for this situation is that in addition to the subordination of the city department to the local political envoy, it also has a great relationship with the implementation of the sea ban and the tributary system of the Ming Dynasty.

When Emperor Hongwu first set up the City Ship Division, it was to collect taxes on overseas goods, but after the promulgation of the sea ban, all the ships entering and leaving the City Ship Division were tribute ships that came to the Ming Dynasty, and the City Ship Division levied 20% of the low price of the goods on the tribute ships according to the traditional goods.

Because of the large difference between the import and export transaction price and the cost price of overseas trade goods, and the fact that there were no merchant ships entering the market except for tribute ships, the taxes that the city shipping department could receive were very small, and the household department naturally did not look at it.

Therefore, no matter how angry the household department is now, there is no way to ask for the tax money from Li Yuntian, otherwise it will violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty.