At this time, an unexpected letter almost solved most of the doubts in the hearts of Qin Tai and the others, and also made Qin Tai have a new plan and arrangement for the things here.

"Yun Xiangsheng" is an inconspicuous small business, engaged in business trading. The so-called "merchant" means itinerant merchant in ancient times. In other words, there is basically no fixed site or business type for this kind of business. They make a living by selling local products to other places and earning local prices. Whatever business is easy to do, what kind of business is profitable, they will do what business.

Although it is a little difficult for the local people to remember, the imperial court and the local economy have developed greatly because of their existence. Without them, goods would not circulate, the economy of the North and the South would not be exchanged, and it would be impossible for the imperial court to obtain huge tax revenues. For the imperial court, agricultural taxes, which had not changed for many years, could no longer afford the expenses of the state. If agricultural taxes are increased, not only will the common people rebel, but even the local tycoons will oppose it. So the imperial court had to develop new money-making projects. It's a good idea to collect high taxes from merchants. Merchants can make money, and of course they can afford to pay a much higher commercial tax than the agricultural tax. Once the taxes are too heavy, the businessman cannot afford it and has to close his business. Then the family members of the imperial court or local officials took the opportunity to swallow up the rivers and territories that the merchants had beaten down. Not only is it beneficial to the imperial court, but it is also beneficial to local officials at all levels, so everyone likes to do it. In order to make money, businessmen had to pay heavy taxes in order not to give up the foundation they had worked so hard to build, and at the same time, they had to privately "honor" officials at all levels. This made the officials feel even more that the businessmen were rich, and although they had no face in doing business, they had a way to make money.

Because the merchants had no status, and there was a risk of doing business, and the customs were different in different places, the roads were not smooth, so the merchants did not dare to act alone. In order to consolidate the funds, but also for the safety of the merchants, these merchants had to set off in droves. It can not only reduce various risks, but also take care of each other to avoid all kinds of accidents on the road. Of course, businessmen don't trust others for no reason, and they don't trust the future of themselves and their families to people they don't know. Therefore, these merchants will invite people who are more familiar with them to join, and at the same time hire some powerful people to protect them along the way through acquaintances. Merchants who have a certain economic foundation will privately cultivate and nurture a group of subordinates who are more loyal to them to act as their bodyguards and associates. However, more businessmen could not afford to hire bodyguards, and it was even more impossible to train a group of subordinates, so they had to bring their relatives to do business together. Gradually, the inherent pattern of the northern merchant group was formed, and there were very few members or associates in a merchant group who were not related. Usually, fathers set off in groups with their sons, nephews, nephews, nephews, and brothers. These people are not only relatives, but also partners, and will do their best to protect the safety and interests of the business group when they encounter trouble and danger.

The merchant group already existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but the scale and number were not very large. There are many reasons for this, the first is because of the low status of businessmen. Once a businessman has money, he is not willing to continue to work, lest he be looked down upon. The second is that it is too risky to do business. This risk can be summed up in five points.

The first is the issue of cost. If a businessman wants to do business, he needs the capital to do business, and rich people will not be willing to do business on their own. Most people who want to do business need to borrow money from wealthy people to do business. Therefore, this capital has become a problem, and the businessman either has to sell the house and land to have the capital, or he needs to mortgage his family's land to a wealthy family. If this money is not earned, the family will be ruined. Therefore, unless the businessmen are sure, they will not gamble with the safety of their families. Even if you succeed and come back, you don't want to go through it again.

The second question is the type of business. Merchants, especially merchants, do not have their own fixed type of trade. So it's important to decide what business to do. There are countless businessmen who have chosen the wrong business industry, resulting in never being able to turn over, and their business has completely failed. Business is not easy to do, this is an eternal truth. So not everyone is suitable to be a businessman, and not any industry can make money. The industry that is really absolutely profitable has been monopolized by the imperial government from time to time, but it requires a lot of money and needs to take big risks. Ordinary businessmen do not have the ability or the courage to do such a big business. Businessmen have no choice but to do some small businesses with small profits and relatively risk-free businesses. But because of this, the profit of the business will not be very high, and the risk will not be reduced much. Businessmen need to be very careful every time they do business, so that they will seek profits, as long as they do not lose money, they will be considered good to do business. So after a long time, you will get tired of it and don't want to continue working.

The third issue is taxation. Merchants need a certificate issued by the local yamen to do business, otherwise they will not be able to easily cross the checkpoints in various places, let alone trade with the locals. Without the business license issued by the Yamen, it is not possible to openly purchase or sell goods. This is a rule set by the imperial court and local yamen, and it is also a blockade line that merchants cannot cross.

If a merchant did it privately, it would not only be very risky, but also the possibility of confiscation of all goods and money by the yamen at any time. The punishment of such unruly merchants is particularly severe, and in addition to the confiscation of all goods and money, there are more severe punishments.

Legend has it that in the late Warring States period, the Song people were barren because of the place, so many Song people went out to do business, and the most famous merchant was Lü Buwei, who was later famous for "strange goods". But more Song people were arrested by local governments for illegal business. Not only did they lose all their income, but they were also reduced to slavery or prisoners of war. Because of the "Battle of Changping", Zhao lost nearly 400,000 men at once, and not only did the country's survival have problems, but also defense became a big problem. In order to solve this big problem, in order not to be wiped out immediately by the hostile Qin State. Zhao Guo came up with a way that was not a solution, that is, to buy male ** subordinates from other countries. These people can not only help the Zhao people defend, but also continue the incense for the Zhao people. There was a relatively alternative phenomenon in history, the Zhao people paid a lot of money to buy back nearly half of the Song people, and added them to the Zhao people's sequence. Why are they all Song people? The reason is that the countries have arrested almost all the Song people who do business in various places, and not only can they confiscate their income, but also sell them to the Zhao people. Although these Song people lost their hard-earned money, they were unexpectedly reunited in Zhao soon after. Later, a historian inadvertently discovered a problem, the reason why the Qin State was able to unify the Seven Kingdoms in a short period of time and become a generation of hegemons. One of the reasons is the lack of information in various countries and the large backlog of goods. The biggest problem with this is the loss of businessmen all at once. Without merchants buying local specialties and buying and selling goods needed by the locals, and without the latest and fastest news casually brought by merchants, the Six Nations not only became deaf and blind, but also led to constant civil strife. The Qin State took advantage of this opportunity to completely solve this six long-standing confidants. Therefore, the behavior of the Six Nations to sell the Song people, especially the capture of merchants, is actually equivalent to ruining the future of the country.

The taxes set by the imperial court were not heavy, but they still could not support the huge expenses of the state. As early as the time of the Qin State, Qin Shi Huang formulated the most fundamental basic standard of agricultural tax based on the state's expenditure and the actual production capacity of the common people. Prime Minister Li Si issued the agricultural tax standard of "one out of twenty", which means that one of the farmers' income from farming must be handed over to the imperial court as a tax for every twenty years. This tax was not very heavy at the time, but with the addition of the poll tax and so on, every peasant had to bear a lot of taxes. If it was really evenly distributed on the grain income, the imperial court would be equivalent to collecting half of the tax. Qin Shi Huang estimated that according to this tax, the state would not only be able to bear all the expenses, but also store a part of the grain and money.

This agricultural tax has remained unchanged for almost hundreds of centuries since it was enacted. The land is still so much land, but the population is a lot more. Originally, according to Qin Shi Huang's estimate, such a tax would neither affect the imperial court nor force the common people to be anxious. But hundreds of years later, this phenomenon has changed, and the population is nearly five times larger than that of Qin Shi Huang, who could not eat enough food at that time, but by this time everyone could not eat enough. The imperial court also increased the number of officials and soldiers, and the expenses were getting bigger and bigger, and the tax revenue was not paid. However, if the agricultural tax on the common people is increased, more peasants will not be able to survive. These peasants who cannot survive will become disaster victims or displaced people, and soon they will become mobs or even rioters. In order for the country to have long-term peace and stability, and in order not to force the common people to rebel, the agricultural tax must be reduced instead of being raised. The emperor of the Sui Dynasty did not care about the life or death of the common people and did not reduce the agricultural tax of the common people in time, which led to the peasant rebels everywhere rising bravely, and Li Tang took the opportunity to take away the country of the Sui Dynasty.