Yi Feng heard the shouting downstairs and looked at the young man. The guy waved his hand and signaled that he didn't know what was going on.

When I walked downstairs, I happened to see several young men in soap clothes and boots wearing black hats pouring in from outside, led by a few people in their twenties, all with neatly trimmed beards, and wearing horizontal knives around their waists, and seven or eight men dressed as servants behind them, also wearing horizontal knives, scanned the people in the inn lobby with sharp eyes as soon as they entered. When the shopkeeper in the inn saw them, he looked a little uneasy, and hurriedly stepped forward with a smiling face. Several flag guards sitting in a corner were visibly secretly on guard, and their hands were also on their waists.

The leader who came in was a group of lustful servants, and Liu Wenqi, who was the leader, spoke angrily at Bai Zhi behind him, and sat down directly at a table in the hall.

When Wei Zheng saw this, he had almost guessed the identity of the other party. Soapy clothes and soap boots, and can also wear swords and swords, such an appearance, no matter what you ask, you can know that it must be a local snake. This place is so close to Youzhou City, these people are most likely the servants in Youzhou City. Without waiting for Liu Wenqi to interrogate, Wei Zheng took the initiative to step forward, first took out a piece of silver collar, handed it over quietly, and said with a smile: "My surname is Wei, I am from Julu, and I came back with some horses from the wilderness." He pointed to Xu Deyan, who was sitting on the side: "This is Uncle Xu Wulang, who is in charge." He also said that Wang Bao was the head of the guard, Yi Feng was a cousin, and the others were all Wei guys.

Liu Wenqi took the ingot of silver and shook it in his hand, and quietly glimpsed that the silver was in excellent condition, and such an ingot of five taels of silver could be exchanged for at least eight thousand five-baht meat good copper coins. If you exchange it for old money that is not in good condition. It can also be exchanged for about 10,000. In normal times, this amount of tea money is a lot, and even a little rich. But now, how can Liu Wenqi look at this money. Now that the geese have passed, he wants to pluck some hair. When he was outside just now, he had already seen that this caravan was not very numerous, but there were more than a hundred good horses, as well as many large and small packages, and it seemed that they were all rare things that Huai Huang had entered. He was somewhat familiar with horses, and they were all more powerful than the iron-hoofed horse he had bought for forty dollars some time ago. Such horses. It's completely at the level of a war horse, and it doesn't even look like it's just stocked in the pasture, but it should have gone through strict training. In the past six months. He also knew that there were many war horses in Huaihuang going south, and he heard that most of them were Tiele war horses captured by the Huaihuang army in the north, and this kind of horse was sold to the south, which was very rare. Extremely profitable. Those who have money. are willing to pay a high price to buy one or two of these war horses, whether they are riding or pulling a cart, it is a very face-saving thing.

I heard that such a good horse can be sold for at least 120 yuan, and after arriving in the Central Plains or Jianghuai, it can even be sold for a high price of 15 or even 200 yuan.

Liu Wenqi put away the ingot of silver, and said politely on the surface: "Recently, the north shape is not too peaceful, and a certain person was ordered by the above." Set up a card here to levy business travel tariffs, regardless of whether it is going north or south. Those who carry goods with a value of more than 10,000 yuan will be taxed at 20 per 1,000 yuan, and bamboo, wood, tea, lacquered horses and cattle will be taxed at 10 per 1. I see that you sell all good horses, and the price of each horse is more than 100 yuan, and if you are a master, you will calculate it according to 100 yuan per horse, and the tax will be 10 percent, and the change will be erased, and you will not count the other goods you carry, so you will pay a tariff of 1,000 yuan. ”

"Tariffs? A thousand? Wei Zheng couldn't help but be stunned when he heard Liu Wenqi's lion open mouth. I often take this road, and I have never heard of the imperial court setting up checkpoints here to collect taxes in the past, not to mention, it is still such a high tax of ten taxes. Is there some misunderstanding about this official? As he spoke, Wei Zheng took out another silver collar, and this time he sent it over in ten taels.

"We were just ordered to listen to what they said we would do. Of course, since Shopkeeper Wei is so easy to talk to, I think things can also be discussed. Otherwise, your horses will be counted at the price of forty pieces of silk each, and you will pay the tariff of four hundred pieces of silk for ten taxes. Liu Wenqi saw that Wei Zheng was very good-looking, and his surname was Wei, and he was from Julu, so he estimated that it was likely to be related to Julu Wei. Julu Wei clan is a big clan in Hebei, the scholar clan Gaomen, once in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Eastern Wei and Northern Qi are all eunuch giant clans, even after entering the Sui Dynasty, there are still many clansmen who enter the customs and enter the dynasty as officials. And the person who can sell hundreds of war horse-level good horses from Huaihuang is definitely not simple. He set up a private checkpoint under the banner of Youzhou Mansion, but in fact, he didn't want to make things bigger. Therefore, he also took the initiative to borrow the ladder to go down the wall and discounted the tariff.

Nowadays, the price of silk, the Central Plains is very cheap, the silk is the appearance of ten stone millet, and five stone millet is worth three stone rice, the current rice price in the Qingqi area is ten wen per bucket, the price of millet is six wen per bucket, one stone millet is thirty wen, and ten stone millet is only six hundred wen. However, in the Guanzhong area, the price of rice has risen to 20 wen per bucket, millet 12 wen per bucket, and the price of silk has also reached 1,000 to 1,200 wen. Hebei should be the origin of silk weaving, so the price of silk is slightly cheaper, but it is basically stable around Pi Juan Qianwen.

Forty horses of silk are four hundred pieces of money. Compared with the opening at the beginning, this is already a four-fold discount.

However, 400 is still not a small number. Yi Feng's brows couldn't help frowning, he had already judged from the fact that the other party could discount the tariff so lightly, and he had already judged that this tax would definitely not be established by the imperial court, and it was unlikely that it was even officially established by the Youzhou Governor's Office. Otherwise, no official would dare to change the tax of 1,000 guan to 400 guan if he collected more than a dozen yuan. He estimated that it was very likely that these people had set up the checkpoint privately. Because as far as he knew, the Sui Dynasty was a dynasty with very little tax revenue.

Originally, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, both the Northern and Southern Dynasties, because of the frequent wars, each dynasty had a variety of taxes, and they were only to maintain the government of the imperial court. However, after the Sui Dynasty unified the world, especially after the pacification of Nanchen, Yang Jian, the son of heaven, implemented the uniform land system in the world three times, and determined the system of paying taxes for rent and moderation, and many of the original commercial taxes were also abolished or reduced.

The current commercial tax of the Great Sui includes two kinds of customs duties and municipal taxes, and the municipal tax is a tax levied on the shops in the commercial markets of each city, and the tariff. It is the tariff collected by the imperial court on those merchants at some passes, rivers, and ferries all over the world. But there are very few of these levels, and they are generally on the frontier or important passes, and the first thing is to defend. The second is the collection of taxes. From Huaihuang to Youzhou, Daning Pass is an official tax collection gate, and Jundu Pass is also an official tax collection gate, and here, there should not be a pass at all. This is neither a pass nor a river crossing, as long as merchants do not enter the city. You don't have to pay at all.

It is said that the commercial tax at this time accounted for a very small part of the imperial court's tax, and the commercial tax of the imperial court was very simple, and there was a transaction tax in the early Northern and Southern Dynasties. If the transaction amount is 10,000 yuan, the seller's tax is 300 yuan, the buyer's tax is 100 yuan, and the total tax rate is 100 yuan and 4 yuan. However, it was canceled shortly after the establishment of the Sui Dynasty. At the same time, various mining taxes have been abolished. Private individuals can open mines, and there are basically no taxes, and gold, silver and copper are completely left to private mining. Even the special taxes on salt, tea, wine, iron, etc., which were originally levied, are now not taxed except for the monopoly system of liquor in preparation for war. Compared with the monopoly of salt and iron in the Han Dynasty and the monopoly of salt, tea and wine in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, various minerals were taxed. Even the situation where houses have to be taxed is extremely relaxed.

The Sui Dynasty only retained the two major taxes, tariffs and municipal taxes. It's also much lower than the original. Although there are tariffs, it is impossible to set up checkpoints everywhere, and sometimes there is not necessarily a tax checkpoint within a state. Yi Feng and the others had paid taxes once after passing through the military capital and entering Youzhou, but they had more than 30 people and more than 100 horses, and each of them was only levied 10 yuan according to the number of heads, and the total amount was only 300 yuan. This should not even be called a customs duty, but a customs clearance fee. Now this group of people has not even revealed their identities, and as soon as they come up, they dare to open their mouths to shout for the imposition of the 11th tariff, which is even more ruthless than the original Tiger League's blocking and robbery. Therefore, Yi Feng was almost certain that although these guys would not be Green Forest bandits, they were definitely corrupt servants in the public gate.

"You set up customs here to collect taxes, do you have official documents from the imperial court?" Yi Feng stopped Wei Zheng, who was about to give money. It's not that he can't afford to give a few hundred dollars, nor is he reluctant. Rather, this road is the two necessary roads for Huaihuang to go south, and it is also very important for Huaihuang. If this group of people is here to block the road and collect fees without any scruples, it will be a cancer for Huaihuang's commerce, and since he has encountered it, he will definitely have to take care of it.

"What do you mean by that?" Liu Wenqi raised his face and glared at Yi Feng.

"There are no tariffs in this dynasty, let alone one tax of ten, even if there is no tax of twenty thousand. My Great Sui Emperor Xià benevolence and love for the people, the beginning of the founding of the country has already canceled the tax on customs clearance, although the pass Hejin also set up a high checkpoint, but more is to investigate and rescue illegal smuggling, as for the fee for passing guò, it is only for those caravans who pass a little money for customs clearance, at most ten cents per person. A self-conceived wilderness went south, through the infinite gate, Daning Pass, Jundu Pass three official checkpoints of the imperial court, each checkpoint is each person to pay ten wen customs clearance fee, there is no difference. After speaking, Yi Feng said coldly to Liu Wenqi and his party: "Hurry up and lead these people of yours away, I will just treat what happened just now as a joke." ”

Liu Wenqi was intimidated by Yi Feng's momentum, and he couldn't refute it for a long time, and only came back to his senses after taking two steps back. Immediately annoyed and angry, he took two steps forward and shouted: "Diao Min profiteer, I see that you are clearly a spy of the Turks, brothers, take down all these spies who infiltrated my territory in the name of selling horses!" ”

A group of Youzhou's Pinzi Bai Zhizhi Yi and other servants of all colors drew their knives one after another and shouted. Although these people are not officials, they are all the head snakes of Youzhou Mansion. At this time, when I saw that the matter was getting bigger, I started to be ruthless. directly buckled the hat of Yi Feng and other spies, and was ready to take them down directly, and then throw them into the prison at that time, and then arrange a few prison tyrants and cell bosses to give these guys some shady hands, and they will die violently, and this matter will be fated, and if they are done, the more than 100 high-grade horses will become theirs. This is a great gift worth tens of thousands, wealth touches people's hearts, birds die for food, and people die for money.

As soon as Wei Chigong and Cheng Yanjin and the other flag guards heard Liu Wenqi and others draw their swords, they immediately roared, and all the hula came out from all over the place.

Liu Wenqi and the others hadn't figured out the situation yet, and at this time, they only heard the screams of each other suddenly sounding outside, and after a burst of ping-pong sounds, the hustle and bustle outside suddenly became quiet.

This kind of tranquility made Liu Wenqi and other more than ten people standing in the hall uneasy.

Kicked to the iron plate!

In the silence, a steady and powerful footsteps sounded in the air. Cheng Mingzhen and Li Wenxiang entered the lobby.

"It's all done outside." Cheng Mingzhen reported. Li Wenxiang grinned and said with a smile: "It's all a group of silver-like wax spearheads, which are too unbeaten, and the shouting is so earth-shaking." As soon as he moved his hands, he didn't even have to pull out the knife, and he was all knocked to the ground in a few strokes, and he threw knives and sticks one by one and begged for mercy and called his father. There are a dozen more here, maybe some of them can be beaten. ”

In the lobby, the atmosphere became a little strange for a while.

Liu Wenqi and others all copied knives in their hands, but they didn't dare to move. On the contrary, it was Yi Feng and Wei Zheng and several others. On the contrary, he sat in the hall leisurely, and did not take Liu Wenqi and the others in his eyes at all. Liu Wenqi was holding the unsheathed knife in his hand, and he didn't step forward at this time. Neither is it backwards. The sweat on his head was pouring down, and the clothes on his back were already wet with sweat. He already regretted it a little at this time, these people are not idle people at first glance, and they should not be greedy.

"You can go." Yi Feng picked up a cup of freshly brewed tea. Took a sip. Then he didn't turn his head to speak.

Liu Wenqi felt that he had been tumbling in the water for a long time, and finally grabbed a life-saving straw, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Put the knife into the sheath, took a few steps back, and felt a little shameless, and finally mustered up the courage to turn around and hug Yi Feng's hand, "Catch money in Xia Youzhou Mansion Liu Wenqi." I will leave today, and he will meet again in the future. Leave. Leaving a sentence, Liu Wenqi turned his head and wanted to leave.

"Wait!" Yi Feng shouted, Liu Wenqi's face changed sharply, and his remorseful intestines were about to turn green. thought that the people he had provoked with what he had just said had changed their minds, and even the people next to him were secretly complaining one by one at this time.

"Who are you Liu Wenjing?" Unexpectedly, Yi Feng asked an unexpected question.

"If you are talking about the Qin Wei Mansion, the Qin Wei Yi and the third division Liu Wenjing, then it is the brother." When Liu Wenqi talked about his brother, his courage also increased a little.

"Liu Wenjing is still serving as a personal guard in the pro-guard mansion?" Yi Feng whispered to himself, then raised his head and said to Liu Wenqi: "I once robbed Liu Wenjing once, but I never thought that now his brother will come to rob me once." Let's go, I hope you won't be so bold and reckless in the future, otherwise you may not meet people who are as good at talking as I am. ”

Liu Wenqi's face was completely blood-red at this time, and after hearing this, he hurriedly panicked and left. After exiting the inn with the people for hundreds of steps, he felt his breath smooth again.

"Liu Erlang, let's just retreat, maybe these people were just bluffing just now." A few of them finally recovered at this time, but they still wanted to save face. They didn't even know who the other party's name was, so the wolf bèi withdrew, and after going back, if it was spread out, it would be a shame and a big shame today.

"We were unlucky to get home today, and we didn't expect to meet this one. But we are also lucky, this one is in a good mood and does not want to embarrass us. If you can get out of the way, you can burn a few pillars of incense when you go back. Liu Wenqi said with palpitations.

When Yi Feng mentioned that he had robbed his brother just now, he immediately had some reactions, who he met today. His brother was robbed once in his life, and his eldest brother once talked about the robbery to himself afterwards. The person who robbed the eldest brother was called Yi Saburo at that time, and he is now this handsome Yi Shuai. At that time, the eldest brother went to Hedong to run errands, and once he had a conflict with several passers-by when he stayed in a hotel. As a result, the next day, they were robbed halfway through, and the robbers were the same people who had clashed with them in the store before, and then they used the power of the government to arrest each other. No one expected that after these people were taken away by the officials, they immediately fled halfway, and then waited for them to arrive halfway, and then ransacked them, leaving only a pair of calf-nosed shorts for them, and walked away.

That incident is a deep memory for Liu Wenjing, before he came to Youzhou, the eldest brother also told him about this matter again, let him go out, be careful and low-key.

I didn't expect that I would actually meet Yi Saburo today. Thinking that he actually wanted to blackmail Yi Feng, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. When the eldest brother met Yi Feng, Yi Feng was just a horse thief in Yanshan, and now, Yi Feng is already the governor of Wuzhou and the grandson of the emperor who lives in the people. If Yi Feng really wants to care, whether they can get out of the inn alive today is a question.

"Do you know who that man is?"

"A person we can never afford to provoke, let's go, I'll treat you to the Zhangjia restaurant in front, everyone eats pig's head meat and drinks wine, drink happily, and suppress the shock." Liu Wenqi flicked the horsewhip, turned over on the horse, clamped the horse's belly, and galloped, he only hoped to get as far away from that person as possible, and he could only hide far away if he couldn't afford it.

In the inn, Wang Bao looked at Liu Wenqi and the others who were far away, and said disdainfully, "These city fox society rats, just let them go, isn't it too cheap for them." ”

"Forget it, these people are from Youzhou Mansion after all, so it's inconvenient for us to meddle too deeply, and we don't have time to make more troubles this time." Easy wind shakes his hand. In my heart, I was thinking about Liu Wenqi's eldest brother Liu Wenjing. This guy is a talent, maybe after entering Beijing this time, I can have a chance to talk to this guy and see if he can use it. (To be continued......)