Most of the trade transactions in the wilderness are bartered, and the transaction can be concluded after the exchange of goods and quantities is negotiated. The value of the goods purchased by the merchants in Ba Yuan may be increased many times when they are transported to Shanshui City, and in the same way, the goods purchased from Shanshui City can be sold in Ba Yuan and can be sold many times over. This time and again, it is quite profitable!

But the benefits of the world are not so easy to obtain, the caravan has to walk in the desolate and steep mountains for more than ten days, many places are still rugged and difficult to travel, sometimes they have to encounter the threat of torrential rains, poisonous insects and beasts, cattle and horses may be lost, often need to hire samurai guards, every time in and out of the wilderness is a very costly adventure, but also very profitable.

The Council of Elders of Shanshui City also saw the benefits, so they suggested to Ruoshan that Shanshui City could also organize a caravan to trade in Ba Yuan. This road was opened up by Shanshui City, and the benefits could not all be occupied by the original caravans of Ba. If you want to walk through the mountains with heavy loads, who can compare to the tribesmen who have lived in the wilderness since childhood?

Ruoshan also felt that it made sense, so he handed over this matter to Gu Xin to be responsible. Gu Xin organized products and manpower in various ministries, and organized caravans to trade in Bayuan. The places where goods are sold and exchanged are, of course, mainly in the bazaars of the high city. Gaocheng is the closest city on the edge of Bayuan to this wilderness, and the people of Shanshui City can't get around Gaocheng out of the wilderness.

When the caravans of Shanshui City entered Gaocheng, they encountered something they had never thought of, that is, to pay taxes. It was not without cost to build castles and bazaars to provide a safe place for people to buy and sell and get what they wanted. The tax levied by the various cities on the Bayuan to the caravans entering the city for trading was basically 1 out of 30, that is, if you transported 30 animal skins, you had to hand over one.

Most of the time, the caravans were taxed in goods, and after the castle received them, they were either distributed to the people who worked for the castle or sold in the special shops in the bazaar. There were also caravans that paid taxes in currency. The so-called currency is the intermediary of transactions, the money used by people. Gold, silver and cloth can be coins, at that time the most used by the people was shell coins, Ba Yuan did not have sea shells, people used pottery shell coins.

Although the caravan in Shanshui City was surprised, they also paid the tax according to the regulations, and when they returned, they reported the matter to the Council of Elders. The elders of Shanshui City discussed for a long time, and most of them agreed that Shanshui City also levies taxes on foreign caravans. Since it was the decision of the Council of Elders, the Lord of Wakayama City also agreed.

However, Shanshui City has no city gates, and there is no shadow of even the city walls. Then the place of taxation is set up in Shanshui Pass, which is the gateway to enter and exit this wilderness, and the tax rate is the same as that of Gaocheng, which is also one out of thirty. There is no tax on exiting the customs, and taxes are only paid when entering the customs, and Shanshui City's own caravans are of course exempt from taxes.

This practice of Shanshui City is very normal, and almost all the cities on the Bayuan also do this, but when the news reached Gaocheng, the lord of Yuegeng was very unhappy. Some time ago, the business road was opened. Yue Geng organized the caravan of Gaocheng to go to the wilderness to trade, of course, it was profitable, and he almost monopolized this source of wealth because of the geographical location. No other city can compete with him.

But it didn't take long for Shanshui City to organize its own caravans to Gaocheng, and they learned quite quickly! Moreover, these people had lived in the wilderness since childhood, explaining that they had been trained and selected to be strong samurai. It's better at traversing that kind of road, and it's faster to go back and forth. The caravan of Bayuan has made two round-trips, while the caravan of Shanshui City has made more than three round-trips. They shipped the barbaric produce directly to the high city to sell it. Then they bought the things produced in Ba Yuan locally, and the most needed were all kinds of utensils and cattle, horses and livestock, which of course reduced the profits of the Gaocheng caravansera.

With more cattle, horses, and livestock, not only did the level of production in the wilderness increase, but the caravans were able to carry more goods. That's it, Gao Cheng can't stop the caravan from outside, but fortunately, there is more tax revenue. But then Shanshui City also began to collect taxes, and most of the people who paid the taxes were the caravans of Gaocheng.

Gao Cheng had a monopoly on this source of wealth, and the caravan organized by Yue Geng had a high profit at first, but now his profit has dropped significantly. Of course, the city lord of Yue Geng was very dissatisfied, in his eyes, it didn't matter who the city lord of Shanshui City was, Ruoshan was nothing more than another big fish shell. He was still waiting for Ruoshan's stammering and sending all kinds of benefits, but he didn't expect Ruoshan to take him so indifferently.

So Yue Geng issued an order, and the tax on the caravans from Shanshui City was increased by two times, becoming one out of ten, while the caravans from other cities were still the same as the original thirty out of one. When the news reached Shanshui City, the elders were furious and demanded that Wakayama raise the tax on the caravans in Takashiro to 1 out of 10. Ruoshan shook his head and said, "If someone does something stupid and shouldn't be, should we follow suit?"

The tax on goods at Shanshui Pass remained unchanged at one out of thirty, while Gaocheng alone collected high-priced taxes on the caravans in Shanshui City. It didn't take long for that to change.

To enter the territory of Shanshui City, one must pass through the Shanshui Pass, and no caravan can avoid this pass. But Gaocheng is different, Ba Yuan's caravans can not enter the city at all, only trade in the nearby villages, although it is more troublesome to do business, but it is also more advantageous than entering the city.

Moreover, the tribesmen in the wilderness were originally very honest, and when the sergeants guarding the gate asked them where they came from, they would answer truthfully, and their clothes were not the same as those of other people in Ba Yuan, so they were easy to identify. But after a long time, because of the choice of interests, people naturally learn to be cunning and disguise. Some caravans in Shanshui City dressed up as Ba Yuan residents, and when they entered the city, they lied that they came from other places, and the tax they paid was still 1 out of 30.

Therefore, Gao Cheng's approach did not gain any benefits, but made the caravan more willing to trade in Shanshui City. The practice of the Shanshui City caravan was also noticed by Lord Yuegeng, so he ordered people to pay attention to the investigation, which led to two very serious conflicts.

A caravan from Shanshui City panicked that it was from another city, and the sergeant guarding the city also learned well when he heard the order, and found that the goods were all barbaric specialties, so according to the order of the lord of Yuegeng, not only to confiscate the goods, but also to arrest people in front of the gate of the city lord's mansion to be shown to the public. The gang blew up the nest on the spot and started with the sergeants defending the city.

Shanshui City sent caravan members, among whom there were no old, weak, sick or disabled, all of them were brave and good fighters. The number of sergeants guarding the city gate on weekdays is not too large, and they are not opponents at all when they fight, and they are beaten one by one with blue noses and swollen faces.

These savage people also knew that they were in trouble, and they didn't even want the goods they were carrying, so they led their horses and abandoned their oxen, and ran away before the great army of men and horses in the city arrived. Such an incident made the lord of Yuegeng deeply angry, and happened to receive a report that there was still a caravan in Shanshui City that was trading with people in the villages outside the city, so he sent a patrol army to take the punishment.

There are more than 30 people in this army formation, lined up with swords, guns and weapons, the leader is a Second Realm monk, and there are two squad leaders who have refined the strength of the mountain, and of course it is easy to deal with ordinary people. As a result, they were unlucky, because the leaders of this caravan from Shanshui City were Bo Zhuang and Yue Niu'er.

Bo Zhuang is a monk who has attained perfection in the Second Realm, a soldier in Shanshui City, and at the same time has practiced the martial arts in the strength of the mountain, while Yue Niu'er is the leader of the main part of the tree in Shanshui City and a monk in the Three Realms. There were about twenty men under their belt, all of whom were from the elite military formation trained by the mountain master, and they were all trained to open the mountain.

It is impossible for an ordinary caravan to have such an exaggerated military equipment, at most hire a few such samurai to escort them. But the caravan in Shanshui City is different, Ruoshan has trained an elite military formation that is completely out of production, but it is useless in today's wilderness, and it doesn't take so many people to protect Shanshui Pass, if it is disbanded, it would be a pity, it is better to let them form a caravan, which can not only ensure the safety of the road, but also be regarded as a marching exercise.

There is a relatively large village about twenty miles away from Gaocheng, after Gaocheng levied heavy taxes on the caravans of Shanshui City, many people chose to trade here, and gradually formed a bazaar of a large scale, and today Lord Yuegeng sent a patrol army to copy this bazaar.

When Gao Cheng's army rushed in, Bo Zhuang did not hesitate to give the order to move. These elite warriors under him have all fought against all kinds of fierce beasts in the treacherous and savage wilderness all year round, and they have trained to open the mountain, and after training in battle formations, they have won a great victory as soon as they move. The team sent by Lord Yuegeng left behind more than a dozen corpses, and most of the few who survived were wounded, abandoning their knives, guns and weapons and fleeing in a hurry.

Bo Zhuang and Yue Niu'er didn't run away afterwards, they then completed the transaction, organized a team and left, and returned to Shanshui City as usual. The people took the armor and weapons they had taken, and formed a formation on the road. When Lord Yuegeng heard the news, he sent another army with a larger number of people to chase after him, but he was still defeated, and more than a dozen corpses were left behind. Then Bo Zhuang led the crowd to rush back to Shanshui City as fast as possible.

Why did Bo Zhuang want to kill people? The reason is very simple, because the other party has already used swords, these savage people will naturally not show mercy, since it is a battle formation hedge, what else is there to be polite!

It was not without reason for Bo Zhuang to do it, because there was no rule in the Xiangmuro country, and the caravan had to trade in the city. It's just that it's more convenient and trouble-free to trade in the city market, even if you pay the goods tax, it's worth it, and the more people go there, the more prosperous the market and the city will be. However, Gao Cheng levied such a high tax on the caravans of Shanshui City, so there was no need to enter the city to trade anymore.

And Bo Zhuang also has an identity, he is the soldier of Shanshui City, and he was officially reported to the monarch by Shanshui City and canonized by the monarch. If the patrol sergeants of the city in Gaocheng do things that do not conform to the etiquette and law, and they also carry swords and soldiers to commit crimes, and try to assassinate the master, then of course their guards must kill the assassins with all their might. (To be continued......)