Although Shaonv already knew that Shao Xi was an official from the capital, she did not feel at ease. Although Shao Xi is present in the current crisis, what if Shao Xi leaves? There is no guarantee that the Zhao family will not use their power to come after her.
Now that he has offended Zhao Er, and today Shao Xi has humiliated Zhao Er like this in his own shop, I guess the Zhao family will not let it go.
Although Shao Xi can stay here for a while, if Shao Xi leaves one day, the Zhao family's power in Yujiang County will never let go of those who have offended them. How should I deal with myself then? Do we really want to close the gauze shop and move away from home?
This gauze shop is the only inheritance left by his father to him. He cannot give it up easily no matter what, but what ability do he have to continue fighting with the Zhao family? I wanted to live a peaceful life spinning and weaving in a stable manner, but I didn't want to cause so much trouble by chasing the ferry today.
Shao Xi seemed to have noticed Sha Nu's thoughts, so he smiled and comforted: "Girl, don't worry, I've already intervened in this matter today, so I won't let it go, and I won't leave if I can't get a result." This is from Yujiang County. There are still people in the Jingyuan Dynasty who dare to ignore the king's law and dominate one side. Since I have received the emperor's order, I will not turn a blind eye. I will not leave until this matter is resolved. If even you are here If I can't keep the gauze shop, wouldn't my job as an official be in vain? Don't worry! I'm here!"
After hearing what Shao Xi said, the gauze girl knew that there was no other way at the moment. Although her gauze shop was important, she hoped that Shao Xi could stand up for the local people. If we could eradicate the Zhao family that has dominated Yujiang County for many years, it would be a blessing to the local people and the merchants coming and going.
"Master Shao, since you have reached this point, I think I don't have to hide anything anymore. The Zhao family has become a nuisance in Yushui County. They are called local officials, but in fact they are the same as the bandits who are causing the nuisance. It is no different that it is normal to bully the common people in the village. Just the little Zhao Er controls the water transportation of the entire Yushui Town. Whether it is the local people, passing merchants, or passing tourists, they will be bullied. He made a stroke, otherwise it would be difficult to move forward. Although the Qinghaiziyun yarn made in my yarn workshop is of fine workmanship and excellent quality, it is also high-quality and cheap. Now, just because his Zhao family controls the trade route, it has resulted in The price of this cloud yarn is several times higher than before. Not only is it difficult for merchants to make money, but our yarn shop is also affected by this. Because the price is too high, sales are not smooth and we cannot sell in large quantities."
Shao Xi suddenly became interested when he heard what the gauze girl said. He couldn't help but asked excitedly: "I think your gauze is of excellent quality and beautiful. It is rarely seen in Yuanzhou, even in Daliang, Kyoto." It can also be called top quality. If you can sell your green mist and purple cloud yarn to the capital, it will definitely be sought after by the princes, nobles, and wealthy businessmen. If the price is not high, I think many well-off families can buy it. Come on, wouldn’t you, Yunsha, make a lot of money in this way?”
The gauze girl shook her head with a wry smile, and said helplessly to Shao Xi: "Originally, as you said, if the top-grade cloud gauze in my gauze shop is sold to the north, it will indeed be very popular. It's a pity that this Yujiang County All the yarn shops and cloth shops in the country were under the control of the Zhao family. The forced increase in yarn taxes caused the price of cloud yarn to skyrocket. Due to the high final price, the sales of cloud yarn were not smooth, and the huge profits were all taken by Zhao. Without our family's income, we yarn mills and cloth shops that make and sell yarn can only survive. This kind of thing not only happens in our yarn making and selling industry, many industries in Yujiang County are also affected by it. Suppressed by such heavy taxes."
Hearing this, Shao Xi couldn't help but frowned and said: "The imperial court does impose a gauze tax, but as far as I know, the tax levied is not very high! The Zhao family in Yujiang County has gained so much gauze tax. If the taxes were not reported to the court, wouldn't it mean that they were enriching their own pockets and taking it for themselves? It seems that this matter really needs to be investigated carefully. "
After saying that, Shao Xi waved to Old Wu, who hurriedly put down the wine bottle in his hand and ran over.
"Old Wu, although my father served in the Ministry of Rites back then, you also served in the 'Jingcheng Department', so you should know something about the Ministry of Household Affairs. As far as you know, the imperial court draws from the south of the Yangtze River every year, especially from Yujiang County. How much is the yarn tax collected?"
Old Wu lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said without certainty: "Old man, all I know are the accounts from more than 20 years ago. At that time, the annual taxes and silver collected by the entire Jiangnan accounted for about half of the Jingyuan Empire." 60%, which is almost more than 12 million taels. Yuzhou alone accounts for nearly more than 8 million taels, of which yarn tax accounts for more than 10%, about one million taels, and Yujiang County is It is a land rich in cloud gauze, and this place alone pays more than 500,000 taels of gauze tax every year. But this was only twenty years ago, old man, I don’t know how it is now."
"Yujiang County can pay five hundred thousand taels every year just for the gauze tax alone? What a good boy!"
At this time, Shao Xi thought of the more than 6,000 gold he had stored in Taihe Trading Company. If converted into silver, it would only be more than 60,000 taels. Even for this, he felt that he was a very rich man. Now it seems that his personal wealth and The finances of a huge empire are nothing compared to that.
Old Wu looked at Shao Xi's unseen face and felt speechless.
"Do you think the Jingyuan Empire is as big as the bookstore you opened? You feel like a rich man after making a few small sums of money. The entire Jingyuan Dynasty's annual tax revenue exceeds more than 20 million taels, but the expenses are also staggeringly large. Manage rivers, build water conservancy projects, develop farming, recruit troops, farm to support the army, provide relief to victims, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., where is the need for money? After this year, there will not be much left in the national treasury, especially when a sum of money has to be spent It's a big burden to support a free-loading official like you, and the money in the Lord's hands must also be used."
When Shao Xi heard this, the boss was unhappy and immediately replied: "Who is talking about free rice? I earned my money by my own ability. The Holy Lord gave the money to me because he wanted me to help him make more money. , I have never spent His Majesty’s money, I have spent all my own money.”
"Okay, okay, your skills are the best, you are the best, but besides you? How many of these officials in the court can really share the burden of the Holy One? Aren't most of them just eating corpses?"
"That's true. Officials' salaries alone are a huge expense every year."
Shao Xi turned to the gauze girl and asked, "How do you collect the gauze tax now?"
"I remember when I was a child, for every piece of yarn sold in the yarn shop to the cloth shop, the government had to collect 250 silver, and the cloth shop had to pay one or two silver to the government for every piece of yarn sold. But since then After the Zhao family became officials in Yujiang County, the gauze tax on the gauze mill increased from half a tael per piece, and the cloth merchant's tax increased to one tael and a half silver per piece. In this way, the government had to levy a tael on each piece of cloud yarn. Walk two taels. That’s not counting the numerous exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that are imposed on us in daily life. For example, today at the ferry, in addition to paying the normal ferry fee and loading fee, you also have to pay some favor money to the steward in charge of the ferry, otherwise you will We encountered all kinds of difficulties, which caused the goods to be unable to be shipped smoothly and caused more losses."
"So, how many yarn workshops and cloth shops are there in Yujiang County?"
"The exact number is not clear, but it is estimated to be over a thousand."
"The girl's yarn mill is considered a big yarn mill in Yujiang County? How many pieces of yarn can it produce every year? How many can the largest yarn mill produce in a year?"
"My yarn mill can only be considered a medium-sized one. With twenty or thirty workers, it can produce at most two pieces of cloud yarn every day, which is pretty good. In a year, it can probably produce about five hundred pieces. As for those large yarn mills, It’s easy to make a thousand pieces of cloud yarn every year, but the various expenses are also very high.”
Shao Xi lowered his head and began to calculate. Such a piece of cloud yarn was charged two taels of silver. According to a medium-sized yarn shop like Sha Nu and a medium-sized cloth shop like Boss Weng, five hundred pieces of cloud yarn would be charged every year. With a collection of one thousand taels of silver, the average yarn tax collected by thousands of yarn shops and cloth shops this year has exceeded one million. However, Yujiang County only pays five or six hundred thousand in yarn tax to the court every year. Where did the rest of the money go? ? This Yujiang County is already extremely corrupt in terms of yarn tax alone, not to mention other aspects. The amount is really astonishing.
Old Wu was dumbfounded when he calculated from the side. The total tax revenue of Yujiang County alone exceeds one million per year. In the past twenty years, the total tax revenue of the Jingyuan Empire for a whole year has been stolen. This is a What a terrifying number! If the Holy One finds out, I am afraid that even the Nine Clans will be killed. The Zhao family of Yujiang County is really too courageous.
Shao Xi looked at the shocked Old Wu and suddenly asked: "Old Wu, if the money you make every year is as much as the tax collected by the court every year, what would you think of using it for? I'm sure. It’s not just for eating and drinking!”
Old Wu suddenly became nervous at Shao Xi's words, and asked quickly: "Are you saying that the Zhao family embezzles a large amount of tax money every year for other purposes? What will they do with the money?"
Shao Xi smiled meaningfully and asked Lao Wu, "What do you think costs so much money? And this money has been spent for nearly twenty years. What can require such a large expenditure for a long time?" Think about it."
As soon as this question was asked, Old Wu reacted immediately and looked at Shao Xi with a look of horror, as if he couldn't believe Shao Xi's judgment.
"Master, are you saying that the Zhao family is raising a private army in Yujiang County? This large amount of money is used to recruit soldiers, buy horses, and support the army? If that is the case, what do they want to do? How many armies do they need to spend such a large amount of money? Are they secretly raising so many troops because they want to rebel?"
Shao Xi waved his hand, "Right now it's all just speculation on your part. It seems like we need to investigate carefully what's going on. However, it does seem that there is something wrong with this. It seems that this trip to Yujiang County will be different." It’s not going to go too well.”
Old Wu rolled his eyes and said, "You are really a bumbling star. Things happen wherever you go."
"Can you, old man, speak? Wouldn't this happen if I didn't come?"
