Chapter 183 Fan Chunren? Just a Puppet!

Judging from his age, the King of Wu seemed much older than Zhao Zhen.

After all, Zhao Zhen's hair and beard were not yet gray.

But the King of Wu already looked like an old farmer.

However, Wei Yuan could keenly sense that under the almost decayed body of the King of Wu, there was a lot of spirit and energy, far beyond the Zhao Zhen who was already immune to the cold.

Later, the King of Wu brought Wei Yuan to the simple courtyard.

Next to the courtyard was a small field with many fruits and vegetables planted in it.

King Wu personally brought two chairs and said with a smile:

"There are very few visitors here, and I don't have any good wine. This plum wine is brewed by me personally. If you don't mind, General Wei, please have a taste."

Wei Yuan was not polite. He sat on the chair, took the wine gourd from King Wu, opened it and smelled it, then took another sip and praised:

"Not bad, it's really top quality. King Wu can also brew wine?"

King Wu said: "Suzhou fruit wine is famous all over the world. There are very few people here who can't brew plum wine."

Wei Yuan said: "You are not an ordinary person."

King Wu stroked his beard and said: "It's the same. I have lived in Suzhou for a long time and I have become half a Suzhou person."

The plum wine he brewed is indeed top quality, sweet and sour. The key is that it is brewed by the prince himself. Ordinary people may find it difficult to drink.

Wei Yuan took another sip and said:

"We have drunk the wine, admired the scenery of Taihu Lake, and talked a lot. What exactly did the prince want me to say?"

King Wu said: "General Wei seems to be a little impatient."

Wei Yuan shook his head and said: "As the saying goes, time is money. Instead of having the time to chat, it is better to use time to exchange for gold."

King Wu smiled, "General Wei is really interesting."

"In the past two years, the court has issued salt notes, causing Suzhou to lose most of its fiscal revenue."

"Now that the salt tax is being reformed, the people of Suzhou have a hard time."

"Fortunately, now that sea transportation has been opened, this king wants to find a way to prosperity for the people of Suzhou."

Wei Yuan put on a thoughtful look,

"The prince wants to do the sea transportation business, In this matter, you should talk to the city's shipping department or Lord Fan Chunren Fan. "You have to seek the prosperity of the people of Suzhou, and I have to calm down the pirates for the people of the southeast." Wang Wu nodded, "Wei Shuai's words are reasonable." "Since they are all for the people, this king will not be circled." They are all related to sea transportation. The permission of Fan Chunren, the Southeast Governor, is needed.

Otherwise, if there is trade with overseas countries, there will be trouble.

Although Wei Yuan is not a governor, he has no right to ask about maritime trade.

But he is the Southeast Recruiting and Appeasing Envoy. Without his permission, no ship can go to sea.

Moreover, generally speaking, before the Japanese pirates are completely wiped out.

Some larger business dealings with overseas countries require military soldiers to escort, and the army takes part of the profits.

Of course, the escort here does not mean sending those caravans to overseas countries.

But sending them to safer waters and returning immediately.

In short, if you want to carry out free trade overseas, you can offend anyone, but you can't offend Wei Yuan.

"With your power, King Wu, do you still need my help?"

Wei Yuan asked.

King Wu said: "Everyone knows that shipping should be done sooner rather than later. Once this opportunity has passed, it will be even more difficult to gain any benefits."

"If General Wei agrees, the people of Suzhou will be grateful to you."

If Wei Yuan does not allow certain caravans to go out to sea or does not send troops to escort them on the grounds that the Japanese pirates have not been eliminated, then the shipping business will be difficult.

But these things are just a matter of Wei Yuan's words.

The Japanese pirates are not fools. They know who can be offended and who cannot.

They dare not touch ships escorted by the army.

Once the business is done, when returning, the caravan will generally not have too many problems along the established route.

"What King Wu means is that if the problem of Japanese pirates is more difficult, do you need the Danglu Army to escort your Suzhou merchant ships?"

Wei Yuan asked again.

King Wu nodded, "I hope that the ships in Suzhou can go out to sea in the first batch."

This is also decided by Wei Yuan.

Everyone wants to be the first in business.

Because once more and more merchants participate in shipping, the court gradually intervenes, and it will become increasingly difficult to make money from shipping.

But no matter what business it is, as long as you are the first to do it, you can always make money.

"In return, I will double the price of merchants from other states."

Only after hearing King Wu say this did Wei Yuan feel moved.

The Maritime Customs considers how much money the army can get for each escort.

Only the extra money can fall into Wei Yuan's pocket.

For example, a fleet can make a profit of up to one million taels by signing orders with overseas countries.

Then according to the regulations of the Maritime Customs, the army responsible for escort can get a reward of about 30,000 taels, which is 3%.

In the event of a war, this share will be much higher.

This is not included in the tax revenue of the court.

The profit that King Wu said to share with Wei Yuan is not a few percent, but a full double.

In other words, for a million taels of profit, King Wu will give 30,000 taels to the army and another 30,000 taels to Wei Yuan.

Don't underestimate 30,000 taels.

Because of the profit of one million taels, 100,000 taels should be paid to the court, and this is the tax for ordinary silk transportation, which is 10%.

If it involves some confidential goods, such as military weapons and ironware, the tax may be 40% to 50%.

Then it has to be distributed to merchants at all levels, and the actual profit is relatively small.

It can be seen that the King of Wu has made up his mind to do the sea transportation business as soon as possible.

"I have to wait until I arrive in Liangzhe before I can make a decision."

Now, most of Wei Yuan's information about Liangzhe comes from the Imperial City Department. He must go there in person to know the specific situation.

The King of Wu nodded and said, "I am very happy that you can come. As for what I told you, I am not in a hurry."

"You may meet many merchants and officials who come to offer their courtesy along the way. You can wait for the price."

He is very confident about the price he offered.

Wei Yuan did not say anything else.

After returning to the army, he first asked Yang Huairen,

"Did anything unusual happen in the army during the days when I was away?"

It was hard to tell who was a friend and who was an enemy during the trip to the southeast.

It was also unclear whether there were spies planted by the emperor in the new army.

In short, we should be cautious in everything.

Yang Huairen shook his head and said, "Everything is normal, please rest assured, General Wei."

"It's just that there are many noble families, officials and even merchants along the way who want to come and see you."

"I refused them all on the grounds of marching."

It's understandable that noble families and merchants came to look for Wei Yuan.

Half of the officials came to look for him to make some money, and the other half wanted to earn merit.

Once he could take the lead in getting involved in sea transportation, the money he earned could offset several years of tax revenue for a place. If this wasn't merit, what else could it be?

When the Ministry of Personnel reviewed him, he would at least be promoted one level.

If Fan Chunren went to the southeast, he was in a situation where no one cared about him or welcomed him.

Then Wei Yuan was the exact opposite.

Fan Chunren needs to go to Suzhou in person to be received by the governor of the area.

This is also the rule of the court.

While Wei Yuan did not go to Suzhou, the famous families and officials in Suzhou could not sit still and rushed to curry favor with Wei Yuan. This is the difference between the two sides.

After all, who let Wei Yuan have soldiers? As the King of Wu said, this is power!

Fan Chunren? Just a puppet!

In the southeast, Wei Yuan has the final say.

"Pass the order down, we will not go through the prefectures to Liangzhe, but along the coast. If there are officials, merchants, etc. coming, they will not be seen."

"This commander wants to inspect the coastal defense affairs of Liangzhe."

Although the Great Zhou did not have a navy, it did have coastal defense, that is, castles, watchtowers, beacon towers, etc. were set up along the coast.

The number of coastal defense troops is roughly the same as that of the city defense troops in the important towns of Suzhou and Hangzhou, about two to three thousand people.

Of course, for the well-equipped imperial army, these are all miscellaneous soldiers wearing cloth armor and vulnerable to attack.

But even if they were a ragtag group of soldiers, there was no reason why they could not defeat the Japanese pirates.