Zhou Zifan was shocked, as a member of the Donglin Party, he is very concerned about national affairs and knows the country's tax situation. In the whole country of Dameng, the total tax paid by all oases is about more than 4 million taels of silver a year.

Why is it that the Great Meng Kingdom has such a huge empire, but the tax revenue is only four million taels so small......? This has to start with the tax system of the Great Meng Country, the people of the Great Meng Country are divided into four classes of "Shinong, Industry and Commerce", and among these four classes, "Shi" is not taxed, and belongs to the privileged class of tax exemption. "Shang" is low-tax, because the "Shi" of Dameng colluded with "Shang" to provide a low-tax umbrella for "Shang". "Workers" are craftsmen who make weapons, farm tools, vehicles and boats, and they mainly provide labor for the state, and use their work to replace taxes, and do not need to pay real money.

As a result, all the pressure on the state to pay taxes fell on the "peasants......

If you look at any modern person, you will know that the "peasants" are the poorest class, but the taxes of the state have to be borne by the "peasants." Isn't this nonsense? As a result, the Dameng country cannot collect much tax at all, and the huge empire, the vast territory, and the 200 million people only collect 4 million taels of silver in taxes.

Zhou Zifan, as a Donglin Party that is good for the country and the people, every time he thinks about it at night, he will also be deeply worried about the country's financial situation, and now he suddenly heard that a group of seamen can earn two million taels of silver by running Batavia once in two or three months, which is equivalent to half of the tax of the huge empire......

"Zifan, do you have any ideas to say?" said Yi Yun next to him with a smile.

"......" Zhou Zifan was silent for a long time before he said seriously: "After the official goes back, he will write a letter to the imperial court, so that the people above can seriously consider it, build an official-run fleet, and run a business to make money...... Solve problems for the country's taxation. ”

"Well! That's a good idea. Yi Yun was also full of joy when he saw that he had opened his mind, so he smiled and said, "You know. Why do you have to have cannons on the merchant ships that passed by just now?"

"Of course, this is to prevent pirates!" Zhou Zifan said.

"They're pirates themselves......" Yi Yun laughed, "they're guarding against Westerners!"

"Those barbarians?" Zhou Zifanqi said: "Haven't you already been defeated?

"No...... The barbarians were not defeated by me, they were defeated by these pirates. Yi Yun shook his head and said: "The barbarians are far more powerful than you imagined, they drive huge gunboats, they are mighty all over the world, and their tactical skills on the sea have already surpassed the level of our Dameng country for decades. You see, the battleship we're on now. The Henan named Feixiang, in fact, its original name was Feixiang Dutchman, and it was a Western warship. ”

Zhou Zifan nodded: "This subordinate can see it......"

"But you only see its appearance, you haven't seen its strength!" Iyun waved his hand. Facing the soldiers beside him, he ordered: "Suppose there are enemy ships approaching a nautical mile away, order the cannons on the left and right sides to open fire at the same time, and fire five rounds in a hurry." ”

At this order, the whole battleship came to life, and dozens of artillery girls ran around the deck and cabin, occupying the gun emplacements, and then, the guns on both sides. At the same time, it began to roar, and the huge battleship shook violently, and the cannonballs fell like rain on the sea in the distance, and one by one pillars of sand rose into the sky......

The power of these dozens of cannons in a salvo, even a brave military general will be so frightened that he hugs his head, let alone an ordinary civilian official. Although Zhou Zifan was very bold and had good concentration, he was still startled by this cannonball like a shower.

"Wow, that's amazing! So many cannons are firing together...... Ordinary ships would have to be bombarded with holes in an instant. Zhou Zifan exclaimed: "No wonder the Beiyang Naval Division was wiped out, it turned out that the Westerners' warships were so ...... at stake"...,

"Understood!" Yi Yun sighed, "If you want to eat the bowl of rice of the maritime merchants, it won't work without strong ships and cannons." ”

Zhou Zifan had basically understood what Yi Yun meant, and he said in a deep voice: "What does the prince mean...... You can make a lot of money by running sea trade. can make up for the shortfall of the treasury, but ...... If you want to run sea trade, you must have strong maritime strength, otherwise, merchant ships will be robbed...... Not only will you not make money, but you will also lose money. Isn't that so?"

"That's right!" Yi Yun laughed: "I don't think the Donglin Party is all old-fashioned, and your thinking is quite flexible." ”

Zhou Zifan was silent, what he received just now was too shocking, and it still took time to digest it.

In the next few days, Zhou Zifan was a little silent, as if he was thinking about something, Yi Yun occasionally said a few words to him, and he didn't belong to it. Zhu Qingqing Qingqing also deliberately ran in front of him to make a face, trying to see if he could recognize her, but Zhou Zifan didn't even look at her.

On this day, the ship arrived near Ningbo, and to the east of Ningbo was the famous Zhoushan Island, the lair of the Japanese Invaders. When he arrived here, Zhou Zifan was a little sober, nervous, and couldn't help but remind Yi Yundao: "Lord Wang, you have to be careful when sailing around here, in case you run into a widow, it will be a big trouble." ”

"Hmm...... The Wako is one of the main reasons for forcing the Great Meng Kingdom to ban the sea, right?" asked Iyun.

"That's right, the Japanese are burning, killing, looting, and eroding the coast, and we have no choice but to adopt the policy of banning the sea. Zhou Zifan said seriously.

"That'...... Have you ever thought about keeping the enemy out of the country? The Great Meng Kingdom where the Japanese invaders came by boat, let's use the boat to meet the Japanese invaders on the sea, why do you need to ban the sea? Why ban the sea?" Yi Yun laughed.

"This ......"

"Look, there is a Japanese ship in front of me!" Yi Yun's eyes were sharp, and he suddenly found that in the shadow of the island next to him, there was a Japanese ship that was desperately hiding, it seemed that this Japanese ship was out to fight the autumn wind, and suddenly saw Yi Yun's huge warship, and was fleeing in fright.

Yi Yun pointed to the fleeing Japanese ship and smiled: "You see, if we have a strong fleet, we don't need to fight at all, and the Japanese will run faster than rabbits." ”

Zhou Zifan looked at the fleeing Japanese boat, thinking about Yi Yun's words, and didn't know what it was like. In the next few days, Zhou Zifan stayed in the cabin, no longer came out to speak, he lay in front of the table all day long, swaying his pen and writing the chapters, a few days, Yang Yang wrote tens of thousands of words, but after he read it himself, he seemed to feel dissatisfied, picked up the pen and made many revisions, and when he finished writing, Yi Yun went in to see, it turned out that he wrote several things, namely "Maritime Trade Income and State Taxes", "Advantages and Disadvantages of the Maritime Ban", "Is There a Need for a Strong Fleet"......

Yi Yun couldn't help but nod secretly, this guy is not a sour Confucian, he is indeed a guy worth promoting.

After another two days, Yiyun's fleet finally returned to Wusong Port, the oasis of Shanghai, which had been absent for several months, and the development of Wusong Port had changed dramatically, and the wharf was built more neatly, and now it was divided into two wharves, one side was a civilian wharf, and a large number of merchant ships were moored. On the other side is the military dock, where Li Huamei's flagship is moored, as well as the giant dragon boat that came back first and the seven Dafu ships of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Yi Yun sailed the flying Henan, the Hyperion, and the stolen Dutch galleons to the military dock and parked them, and the 500 Dutch prisoners who had been captured were escorted by the soldiers and walked out of the cabin, and the people who gathered around the dock to watch immediately burst into loud cheers.

The girls who were waiting on the dock pounced happily and hugged Yi Yun to ask for warmth. ...,

Zhou Zifan also walked out of the cabin with him, and as soon as he raised his eyes, he saw the Royal No. 1 dragon boat moored beside him, as well as the familiar Beiyang Naval Division battleship, the Royal Forest Army, and the Shenji Battalion......

"Ah, it's all here, sure enough, the emperor must be here with you!" Zhou Zifan exclaimed.

"If you're not here, I don't count if I say it, you can find it yourself!" Yi Yun smiled and walked into the group of girls, ignoring him no more.

Zhou Zifan excitedly rushed into the dragon boat, looking everywhere, only to see that the dragon boat was full of craftsmen, they were repairing the damaged parts of the hull, and re-setting the cannon to the key part of the dragon boat.

When Zhou Zifan saw someone, he asked: "Where is the emperor?"

But no one paid any attention to him.

He found that everyone was trying to turn the dragon boat into a warship, not like before, more like a yacht that the emperor was traveling on. The exquisite carvings of the past are now gone, replaced by thick black iron armor, all the key parts of the ship have been wrapped in iron sheets, and the jade curtains hanging at the door of the cabin have also been taken away and replaced with two iron doors. The beautifully carved windows have also been replaced with iron-plated windows. The gun emplacements at the bow and stern of the ship are all equipped with iron plate guards!

Seeing such a modification, Zhou Zifan knew that he must not be able to find the emperor, because the emperor would not play in the warship, and the playful emperor would only play in the playground......

He sighed and decided to go ashore to look for it.

Walking on the dock, next to the free trade market managed by Li Huamei, Zhou Zifan saw that it was very lively, it seemed that there were a lot of people, this kind of place was what the emperor liked, he hurriedly rushed in, but just went in and startled him, only to see that there were many people in the market, and it was not from one country, it was people from various countries, all kinds of red hairy people, yellow hairy people, green hairy people...... One thing these people all have in common is that they wield a lot of silver tickets.

They carried, carried, and dragged all sorts of goods, and the whole market was full of goods and silver tickets...... In just a few breaths, he saw several business transactions of more than 100,000 taels of silver.