Sikong Coo stretched his waist and looked up at the bright moon.

Nice moonlight.

He remembered that there was an allusion to the Confucian sage, called the moon and the Wanchuan, saying that a moon hung high in the night sky, but countless moons could be seen in the rivers and lakes of the world, and countless moons finally returned to one moon.

Jinling Mansion is a river on one side, a river on one side, and a lake on the other, and I don't know how many moons.

At this moment, a subordinate came to report that the goods had arrived.

Sikong made a mistake, ordered his subordinates to light the lamp, and then strode out.

It's a remote compound, technically within a city, but it's a little different from the shantytown, and the roads are wide enough for convoys to drive in.

At this time, there is a fleet of trains outside the compound, about 20 cars, all lined up out of sight, and they are all two-horse four-wheeled vehicles, covered tightly with tarpaulin, because here are mostly compacted dirt roads, not the bluestone roads of the old city, so each carriage will leave deep or shallow ruts, from the depth of the rut marks can be seen, the weight of the goods loaded in the car is quite light.

The steward of the convoy jumped out of the first carriage at the head, carried a dead wind lamp, and took a document from his bosom, reconfirmed the address, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

This trip from Songjiang Mansion to Jinling Mansion is really good, the distance is very short, the client is generous, the only deficiency is that the client vaguely revealed that there are some problems with this batch of goods, it is best to avoid the inspection of Daomen City Botang and Jiangnan Province, they have not been short in this line of time, I don't know how many such things have been seen, I know it, and I don't care. If it is peaceful today, there are few robbers who stand in the way, there is no risk, and the government and the Daomen have become the biggest risk. Fortunately, he arrived smoothly and he didn't have to worry about anything.

In fact, according to the rules, these bulk goods must go through a strict inventory when they enter the city, not only to check smuggling, but also to check whether there are dangerous goods. However, those who do this have a lot to do with the city gate. The twelve city gates of Jinling Mansion, as long as you are willing to spend Taiping money, there is always a city gate that can open up the joints, and the goods will go from the city gates that have opened the joints, which can save a lot of checks.

After entering the city, the major warehouses were inspected again, so the city within the city gradually became a place for the distribution and turnover of goods. This kind of remote warehouse in a city within a city is really commonplace, and it is nothing.

The next step is to hand over the goods, and the money and goods are paid, and the transaction is over.

After settling the peace money, you can go to the surrounding brothels for a night, and you can rest for the next few days, drink some wine or something, and this day can be regarded as having a good time.

Thinking so, the steward saw Sikong Mistake at a glance, and determined that he was the principal here, so he took the initiative to meet him, and before he could speak, he had already handed over a paper flue-cured cigarette from the West, and when he seemed to take it in his hand, he immediately lit a match and waited for him to light it.

Sikong Cuo took the lit cigarette, but he didn't put it in his mouth, and asked, "When you entered the city, you didn't suffer from those Taoist masters, right?" ”

The reason why the Daomen is not asked the imperial court is because the Daomen has mastered a considerable part of the functions that originally belonged to the imperial court.

However, at that time, the Daomen that was still divided had begun to flourish the sea trade, in addition to the West Daomen to open up the Western Regions trade route, the South Daomen, the East Daomen, and the North Daomen successively opened up the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and the North Sea sea trade. At that time, Confucianism was known as the largest landlord, and Daomen occupied more than ninety percent of the maritime trade business and had the most powerful fleet in the entire East, so the dispute between Confucianism and Taoism was also called the dispute between land and sea.

In this case, after Da Xuan replaced Da Wei, he had to rely on Daomen for matters such as taxation of sea trade, although the predecessor of the Daxuan royal family and Xungui was the North Daomen, but the bulk of the sea trade was the East Daomen and the South Daomen, which is today's Taiping Dao and Zhengyi. Just like the formation of a sailor, without the cooperation of the Daomen, it was difficult for the Daxuan Imperial Court to make achievements, so the two sides reached a compromise, and the Daomen divided half of the fleet, mainly warships, to the imperial court, which was the predecessor of the three major naval divisions, and the imperial court handed over the power of maritime trade taxation to the Daomen management.

Daomen was established by the city to establish a maritime trade tax department, which is responsible for taxation, statistics, postal services, dredging ports, inspections, etc. On this basis, the Daomen enjoyed tax exemption or tax reduction, and the annual tax revenue was paid to the imperial treasury except for the part of the maintenance expenditure.

This is also the biggest difference between Taoism and Confucianism, Confucianism is hidden behind the scenes, by Confucian disciples into the court as officials, manipulating the government, the court is Confucianism, Confucianism is the court. As long as he is obedient and obedient, he will rule by the arch and hand over all the government to the courtiers, and he will be touted by Confucianism as the holy monarch of the ages. Later, the contradiction between the royal family and Confucianism was extremely acute, and the royal family even did not hesitate to lead the forces of Daomen to balance Confucianism, canonizing the five Daomen Dazhen led by the Heavenly Master, and even the Daomen's earth master Xu Wugui was originally from the Great Wei royal family, which gave Daomen the opportunity to defeat Confucianism.

Daomen felt that the experience of Confucianism was adopted, and it adopted a cooperative attitude, everything was laid out on the surface, and the division of labor was clear. After deciding on their respective division of labor, the Daomen did not interfere with the imperial court, and the imperial court did not interfere with the Daomen, and there was not much contradiction over the years.

Before these goods enter the city by land, they first take the sea route, and then turn from the sea route to the waterway, and the sea route is under the control of the Daomen. Therefore, it is common to ask this question.

Hearing him ask, the steward took out a few pages of paperwork: "It cost some Taiping money, just a formality, and the deacon and Taoist priest didn't look at it very closely, so they randomly checked two carriages, and the formalities are here, and there are a lot of them." ”

Sikong took the paperwork, glanced at it casually, focused on the seal of the Maritime Trade Tax Department of the Lower City Botang, and said with a bit of sarcasm: "It's very good to go through the motions and be perfunctory." ”

When the steward heard this, he couldn't help but beat a little drum in his heart, could this also be the Taoist head of the Daomen, come down to investigate and secretly visit, right?

Fortunately, Sikong Cuo didn't say anything more, and ordered: "Unload." ”

The steward greeted, and the carriages began to enter the compound in turn, and by this time the courtyard had been lit with several lights, and they were shining brightly, and they went in, unloaded, walked, and entered, and so on.

There were also some men in the warehouse, who lifted the tarpaulin from the carriage, which contained large wooden boxes, which were so heavy that even four men in the prime of life might not be able to lift them.

But the guys in these warehouses are all powerful, and only two people can easily lift the box.

Sikong took out the cigarette and opened a box at random, inside were glass bottles, he reached out and took out one, about three feet high, the thickness of the young man's hug, the glass was two inches thick, the metal base, sealed well, the liquid inside did not leak at all, and the liquid was soaked in something that looked like ginseng and seemed to be some kind of embryo.

A slight smile appeared on Sikong Cuo's face: "Very good." ”

The steward also saw this, and couldn't help asking, "What is this?" ”

Sikong glanced at him as if he were looking at a dead man, and replied, "It's a 'gift'. ”

"Whose gift?" The steward asked subconsciously.

Sikong pulled the corners of his mouth: "It's a gift from the gods." ”

The steward laughed dryly, not knowing how to answer.

Sikong Cuo suddenly smiled and said: "In fact, it is a high-grade ginseng medicinal wine, so that the canned wine helps to preserve the medicinal power, and it can be transported from Liaodong to Jinling, without paying taxes, and can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars, isn't it a gift from the gods." ”

"It turned out to be ginseng." The steward suddenly realized.

Sikong Cuo had no intention of explaining more, holding up the so-called "gift" and waiting for the unloading to be completed.

About an hour later, all the carriages were unloaded, and the wooden boxes were piled up in the small half of the yard, and the steward rubbed his hands: "Isn't it time to settle the final payment?" ”

Sikong Coo nodded, beckoned to a subordinate, and ordered, "Solve it." ”

The subordinate nodded and looked at the steward with a fierce gaze.

At this moment, the steward of the convoy felt that something was wrong, and turned around to escape, but it was too late.

Sikong Cuo's subordinate reached out and pinched the steward's neck, lifting him up with only one arm.

Then the five fingers exerted force, and the butler's neck was directly broken.

Sikong Tso was still holding the cylindrical glass bottle, intently admiring the "gift" in it, oblivious to the scene in front of him.

In the flickering lights, the other coachmen were also slaughtered, and none of them were spared, not even making a sound.

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