Back in the Lotus Pond Courtyard at night, Zheng Shuqing asked the beautiful maid to make tea, but unfortunately Fang Chongyong was so tired that he almost fell asleep, and sat on the stool with his face drooping and napping.

Zheng Shuqing waved his hand lightly and motioned for the maid to leave.

"Did you come up with a way to wander around today?"

He was very impatient, and the pressure of 300,000 guan was not something ordinary people could bear. He was also very tired like Fang Chongyong, but he was tired.

"There must be a way, and I walk on two legs."

Fang Chongyong rubbed his eyes and said a little impatiently. Zheng Shuqing is too verbose, and he is not calm at all, isn't it only 300,000?

After the Anshi Rebellion began, the imperial court casually made donations among the rich people in Chang'an, and even when it was not done, it was more than this amount!

"Isn't this nonsense, who doesn't walk on two legs?"

Zheng Shuqing looked at Fang Chongyong with disdain, and asked angrily, he didn't bother to care about his own image, and his words were very vulgar.

He always felt that Fang Chongyong acted carelessly, and he couldn't control it at all!

"Okay, okay, I said no."

Fang Chongyong kneaded his temples while sighing and said, "There are two ways to do both, but for the time being, there is only one way that can be used." ”

"Then you still don't say it?"

Zheng Shuqing's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to shoot the case.

"It's simple, I see a lot of Kuizhou docks, and there are quite a few people engaged in ship repair and shipbuilding. After inquiring, most of the ships in Shu came from Kuizhou. We can just sell the ship, and we can basically make up 300,000 yuan. ”

Fang Chongyong said with some interest, as if he was talking about a trivial matter.

"Selling ships? Have you ever inquired about the price of a boat? Are you because I don't know what the price of the ship here in Kuizhou is? Are you taking Ben for a fool? ”

Zheng Shuqing shouted while slapping the table, already furious.

"No, no, I'm thinking, if one sells for a thousand, it will only sell for three hundred. Kuizhou is located at a critical point, can't it be sold for 300 ships in half a year? ”

Fang Chongyong said disapprerovantly, as if he was talking about selling a few catties of meat.

But also, in the Tang Dynasty, Yangzhou and other places produced more than 300 large ships a year! As long as the ingredients are complete, this thing can be built very quickly.

And Kuizhou is the shipbuilding center of Shudi, with a long history and strong technical strength, and there are many craftsmen engaged in shipbuilding for generations! Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, an average of two ships a day.

Fang Chongyong felt that it was just sprinkling water.

"Here in Kuizhou, two or three hundred ships are already very remarkable, and even bigger ones can't pass through Kuimen at all! Have you ever thought about it? ”

Zheng Shuqing roared at Fang Chongyong, and the spittle star was about to spray on his face.

Datang's shipbuilding industry is extremely developed, not to mention a hundred runs, on the wide river in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, some big ships can accommodate more than 3,000 people, and even grow vegetables on them, and a thousand runs can only make a lonely!

However, this has nothing to do with Kuizhou, because those big ships can't drive at all, and the draft is too deep, and it is easy to run aground in the Three Gorges. The question Zheng Shuqing said was a matter of common sense, but Fang Chongyong had his own ideas.

He took a deep breath and said:

"Envoy, we said that this ship will cost a thousand, so it will have to be a thousand. It's not obvious, what we are offering is not a boat, but the qualification to pass through the gate.

There are many ships, some of which are so big that they are easy to run aground; Some are small and easy to overturn. Isn't it dangerous for these boats to get into trouble in the turbulent river and end up blocking the waterway after passing through the Kuimen?

The passage is blocked, and it affects everyone. Let's stand up now and set the rules, how many ships, what kind of ship type is more safe to pass.

Are we using our own reputation as a guarantee, collecting hundreds of yuan from them and issuing a customs clearance permit, is this excessive? ”

Fang Chongyong said it confidently, but Zheng Shuqing was stunned.

"Uh, if that's the case, wouldn't it be better if we just sent the customs clearance paperwork?"

Zheng Shuqing asked in a low voice, feeling that Fang Chongyong was doing something extraordinary. Now that you've decided to play a big ticket, why hold back?

The Tang Dynasty was open-minded, and there was no shortage of local officials who took risks.

"Envoy, if we only issue customs clearance documents to collect money, we will be denounced to the imperial court, saying that we forcibly ask for bribes! After all, we didn't get the official documents of the imperial court, and now we just can't help it, and we don't say that the money we collect for customs clearance documents is in accordance with the law.

But we are now selling ships, no, we are suggesting that those merchants who have cleared customs buy local ships that meet the requirements in Kuizhou, and we have not taken a penny, this is a business matter.

As for those businessmen who are in charge of shipbuilding along the coast of Kuizhou, they will voluntarily donate some money to do good deeds for the government in the future, and we are embarrassed not to accept it, right? ”

Fang Chongyong said conclusively, very confident.

Because it is necessary to ensure the safety of the waterway, it can only pass the "standard" boat, which is responsible for the smooth passage of the waterway, and is responsible for the personal safety of the people who sail the boat, which is logically fine.

Because the standard boat is only available locally, the businessmen can only go to the local area to buy the "standard boat", and if the standard ship has an accident, it is the problem of the Kuizhou government, and the government is making a guarantee, and there is no problem with this logic.

Because the shipbuilders expressed their gratitude to the government, they voluntarily came out to donate money to the government, and this logic is also not problematic.

Because the imperial court needs money, Zheng Shuqing sent the money to Chang'an or transported it to a certain place according to the instructions of the imperial court, and this logic is even more problematic.

As for the price of the local standard boat in Kuizhou, it has nothing to do with the Kuizhou government, it is all commercial behavior, and the purchase and sale are free.

If you don't buy it, you can continue to see the scenery in Kuizhou, and no one forces you to clear customs.

After saying a lot of twists and turns, Fang Chongyong reached a logical closed loop.

Zheng Shuqing was so shocked that he couldn't speak for a long time, and after a long time, he asked with some doubts: "Won't this provoke a popular uprising?" ”

"No, building so many boats, the local people are too busy to do it, and they are counting the money until they are soft, who will make trouble. Helping the envoy take care of the city is almost the same, and whoever makes trouble is the enemy of the people of the city. ”

"The ministers of the imperial court, I am afraid that it will take many years before they can realize the painstaking work of making the king do this. Many people will understand what you do in the future. Unifying the standards of the boat and making it uniform can ensure the safety of the ship to the greatest extent. As long as it is the same ship and sails according to the rules, it will not capsize or run aground.

What do you think? ”

Fang Chongyong said eloquently, whipping into the inside, as if there was really such a great light and a tall one.

Zheng Shuqing's heart was a little relieved, and he nodded slightly and asked, "Then what if it is a boat of the imperial court?" There are quite a lot of imperial court boats passing through the Kuizhou River Pass. Are we going to force them to change ships too? ”

Fang Chongyong: "......"

This Zheng Tingshi is thinking too much. It's enough to eat the dividends of the merchants, do you still want to use this set of operations for the imperial court?

"Envoy, there's one more thing."

Fang Chongyong said with a straight face: "Please write an official letter and ask the soldiers of Dongyang Mansion to come to Kuizhou Mansion to help when the time comes." There was no shortage of servant warriors armed with swords and clubs on the merchant ships, and if we forced our way through the gates, we had to have someone who could control the scene. Yang Ruoxu's fifty crossbowmen were only afraid that they would be despised by others.

If we fail to hold back at the critical moment and allow some ships to escape, then all our previous efforts will be wasted.

Tomorrow, I will go to the many docks outside Kuizhou City to inquire about the type of ship suitable for crossing the river pass, and pick the best one, and the excellent one will not delay the good things of the king. ”

Hearing this, Zheng Shuqing's face was a little tangled. If he could, he really didn't want to take the risk. But there doesn't seem to be any other good way at present, who knows if Fang Chongyong's other "bad idea" will work?

It's better than this!

"It's okay, let's arrange it, if you need any help, just say it, there's no way back, alas!"

……

During the first century of the Tang Dynasty, inland waterway shipping was extremely developed.

In order to ensure the sustainable development of the shipping industry and strengthen the management of water transport, the imperial court has set up a top-down complete water transport affairs management and law enforcement agency, from legislation to implementation to supervision, it can be described as a trinity!

Among them, the "Ministry of Water", which belongs to the Ministry of Industry of Shangshu Province, is responsible for the legislative and administrative review of water flow and boat navigation.

The "Metropolitan Water Superintendent", an independent organ directly under the Shangshu Province, is a special water transport management agency at the central level outside the six ministries of Shangshu Province, which is responsible for supervising and inspecting the work of water flow, river embankments, shipping and Jinliang, and most of the supervision and administrative management tasks are also carried out by the Metropolitan Water Superintendent.

The "Water and Land Transport Envoys" or "Zhudao Transport Envoys" dispatched by the central government are responsible for coordinating the relationship between the two, especially monitoring whether the government's transportation is running smoothly.

But there is a blind spot in these institutions, which is not, or deliberately not determined.

That's the question of who collects the tariffs on the waterways. Different states and counties are different, and it is not possible to generalize.

To Fang Chongyong's surprise, most of the river tariffs collected in Datang were handled by the local states and counties.

In fact, this is also very understandable, because if the Ministry of Water and the Metropolitan Water Superintendent are in charge of these matters, it is easy to have serious conflicts with the civil affairs of local states and counties. Moreover, it is impossible for the central government to send many people to work outside.

For example, considering the situation is the tun supervisor who guards hundreds of acres of red lotus rice fields, in the entire Kuizhou, he is the only official directly under the central government, and the others work in the fields, they are all tenants! There is no imperial court at all! The same is true for the officials who manage the farmland.

Another example is Kuizhou, if the central government directly collects tariffs, even if there is no problem with personnel, it will greatly weaken local financial resources.

Because the Kuizhou government has not much other input except for the tariff, which is the largest head, and the total tariff is much higher than the rent charged by the local government! It's also almost an order of magnitude more than the commercial tax!

Will these levels dominate at that time? Will it cause chaos in local finances? Will it be resisted and constrained by the local government?

The answer is self-evident and certainly unavoidable. The choice of the imperial court is also very realistic, how to manage it.

If we do not count the collection of river tariffs, this is a complete set of water transport management systems, and it also raises the management of water transport to the level of the law, and comprehensively implements water transport management with safety as the theme.

Some of them are already as fine as Fang Chongyong's previous life.

For example, before or during the voyage, the shipowner must conduct a safety inspection of the ship at any time to ensure that the hull is impermeable. If there is water seepage, it should be eliminated in time to avoid causing navigation accidents and ensure that the ship maintains a good seaworthiness condition.

For example, when a boat is berthed, it must be marked to facilitate the identification of ships and passengers. Boats and bamboo rafts should avoid each other during the voyage, and if the upper and lower boats meet at the rapids and dangerous shoals, the boats on the water should take the initiative to avoid the launching boats, especially the Yangtze River, where the rapids of the dangerous shoals are significant, and they should be strictly implemented to avoid accidents in rushing.

Failure to comply with the above regulations will result in a penalty of "flogging of fifty lashes".

All the rules are exceptionally detailed.

However, the ideal is plump, and the reality is skinny.

The strategy of the center of the Tang Dynasty was very good, and the arrangement was not ingenious, but it was ...... It seems that there are not enough people, and the policies formulated cannot be truly implemented. The phenomenon of capsizing and sinking of ships in the river is still frequent.

Because the number of officials in charge of the "water affairs" in the whole country is less than 400, or 362 to be exact.

That's it, including the role of department head and chief bookkeeper, and even fewer can really go down to the grass-roots level.

But in the huge territory of the Tang Dynasty, there are more than 100 rivers! If you only expect these people to do things and deal with those complicated affairs, then even if they are busy from dawn to dark, they will not be able to finish without sleeping or eating!

Therefore, the local state and county where the river section is located have assumed the task of "assisting" in the management of the river. In other words, the Metropolitan Water Superintendent does not go down to the grassroots level at all, but only regularly listens to the "reports" of the local states and counties.

The people of the capital water supervisor are all deployed in the key node city and work there. For example, big cities such as Jiangling, Yangzhou, and Luoyang.

Specific to Kuizhou, there are no officials of the water supervisor in charge of management, and they are all "carte blanche" to the Kuizhou government. Who let Fucheng be next to the Kuizhou Jiangguan, Zheng Shuqing was silent, who dared to stretch out his hand to take care of it?

Responsible for the task of anti-smuggling and intercepting river ships, Yang Ruoxu and those united soldiers under his command are "part-time", except for Yang Ruoxu, who is hanging on the military post, everyone else is "temporary workers", and this kind of work is hard, not to mention, there is no oil and water to fish, and on weekdays, it is often three days of fishing and two days of drying nets.

As long as there are no ships rushing to evade taxes, and large ships capsizing and blocking the shipping lanes, they generally will not be dispatched.

Early in the morning, Yang Ruoxu posted a notice at the ferry outside Kuizhou City, asked his subordinates to beat gongs and drums, and then blocked Kuizhou Jiangguan! No ships are allowed to pass through!

On the wooden board where the notice was posted, there was a large piece of paper that read:

According to the new regulations of the imperial court, in order to ensure the safety of the waterway and avoid the capsizing or running aground of ships, only ships of designated ship type and designated carrying capacity can clear customs!

For more information, please ask in front of the government office!

If someone forcibly breaks through, he will be punished as a bandit.

Seeing this notice, the merchants who ran the ship were all dumbfounded. Kuizhou commercial port can indeed hoard goods, but can not say that always stay here, if you can not clear customs on time, the consequences are not big, say small that is really not small.

One after another, merchants went to the government office, but found that the front of the government was already full of people.

There were a lot of notices posted on the wall outside the palace, and a bunch of people crowded there to watch, and many people who came after them couldn't squeeze in at all.

"The Shu River is turbulent, and ships are prone to capsizing, making it easier to run aground and block the shipping lane. The new policy of the imperial court, from now on, the boats passing through the Jiangguan must be uniformly regulated, and a unified customs clearance certificate will be issued by the Kuizhou Jiangguan. One boat has one permit, and those who do not have a license are not allowed to pass the customs. ”

"Urgent delivery of goods through customs, each ship, must pledge 500 yuan, if the next customs clearance custom new ship, you can with the customs clearance permission, the pledge money will be redeemed. If it is no longer cleared within one year, it will be redeemed by the Kuizhou government after expiration.

Or all the goods on board can be unloaded, the empty ship will be cleared, and the goods will be treated as drifting. You can also unload the cargo first, and change the ship after the new ship is built. ”

"There is a dock around the capital city of Kuizhou to build a ship, in order to ensure that the first to come to the orderly, you must first go to the government to handle the customs clearance documents, and receive the license plate, and then use this document and license plate to go to the dock to customize the standard boat. The dockyard will be built in order, and the government will ban its construction qualifications. If a businessman comes to apply for customs clearance documents without permission, the government will not issue them. ”

"This customs set up a red name system, forced customs clearance, in Kuizhou City as a traitor, privately built a ship or forged customs documents in an attempt to fool the customs clearance, once verified, permanent cancellation of customs clearance qualifications."

Where is this new rule, this is the strong buying and selling of red fruits!

"The dog officer is rampant, let's go sail and fight with them. I don't believe they can stop everyone! ”

A strong man in a green brocade robe raised a hand and shouted. Suddenly, an arrow shot from a distance, directly through his throat!

"There are those who dare to make trouble, he is a role model!"

Wang Zhonghe, a burly man in leather armor, walked out of the yamen, still maintaining the posture of archery, holding the horned bow and not putting it down. Behind him, more than a dozen heavily armored soldiers lined up to wait for the enemy.