"Trade with the west side?!"

Xianjue quickly savored the three flavors of Lu Yijian's words. What is the most profitable thing in the Song Dynasty at present? Of course, it is a transaction related to the Western Regions, and smuggling is the most profitable thing in transactions related to the Western Regions!

Obedient and listened to the voice. Xianjue knew Lu Yijian's plan. After he took some of his Buddhist children to Tubo to preach, he could join forces with the wealthy families in Dongcheng to control the smuggling transactions in the Song Dynasty.

Although Xianjue did not want Buddhism to become a tool for others to make money, it is different now. The Great Song Buddhists themselves also have to support themselves. Without the help of the wealthy families in Dongcheng, Buddhism has no way to make money.

The few incense money alone cannot meet the expenses of Buddhism. The huge Buddhist sect was not worried about money at all, but now it is so difficult.

The Buddhist blessing fields also need to pay grain to the court of the Song Dynasty. After the farmers in the Song Dynasty exempted the summer and autumn taxes, Buddhism still had to pay grain tax to the court. This is not enough. Why do monks pay grain tax that even farmers do not need to pay?

Buddhism also needs money. The so-called Buddha needs gold clothes. If there is no money, how can the temple be repaired if it is dilapidated? If there is no money, who will provide for the expenses of the monks?

What does food, clothing and consumption cost do not require a lot of money to support? Since the Buddhist community was targeted by Zhao Zhen, it has lost most of its investments. In addition, more and more people no longer believe in Buddhism, so the money for incense is even less.

The relationship between Buddhism and the wealthy families in Dongcheng is often used by each other. Now Buddhism has the opportunity to preach Tubo, so how could the wealthy families in Dongcheng let it go?

Lu Yijian knew that it was impossible to let the emperor change the idea of ​​using Buddhism to educate Tubo. Since it could not be changed, it would be better to maximize the role of Buddhism, so that the wealthy families in Dongcheng could gain the greatest benefits.

In recent times, merchants from wealthy families in Dongcheng have already set up chambers of commerce. This is a big deal. No one wants to make a mistake at this time, and it is even more impossible to do their best to help Buddhism overcome the current difficulties.

Lu Yijian was unable to help Buddhism, and the Buddhists could not join forces with the wealthy families in Dongcheng, so leaving the Song Dynasty to go to Tubo to preach was the only choice, but if the choice was chosen, they had more things to do.

Buddhism can become a bridge between the wealthy families in Dongcheng and Tubo, and become the most profitable bridge for trading.

Smuggling is the most profitable deal in any era. Xianjue is clear about this, and Lu Yijian is even more clear about it. In this era, smuggling is not only about bypassing the checkpoints and avoiding paying taxes to the court, but also about a business that exists for huge profits.

There were only a few words between Xianjue and Lu Yijian, but both sides knew that the most profitable thing for smuggling this thing was not ordinary goods, but things that could not appear on the surface.

There are already many things that cannot be bought or sold in the Debat market between the Song Dynasty and the Tubo market. The originally best-selling Tubo goods almost disappeared completely in the Debat market. Even if there are, no one dares to buy or sell.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to buy it, but that he doesn’t dare to buy it. Zhao Zhen has issued an order to ban most of the goods in Tubo. Even ordinary things will be charged Jinglao taxes. Who would buy Tubo’s goods? As for the goods in the Song Dynasty, there are many things that cannot be sold. Iron tools, medicines, cotton coats, sweaters, and even medicinal materials are not allowed to be sold, let alone military supplies such as beef tendons and horns.

Although the tea that Tubo people need most can be sold, the price is so high that it is so scary that Tubo merchants rarely afford it, but mostly rely on smuggling to obtain it.

Where can’t the tea from the Song Dynasty be sold? Not only Tubo, it can be sold even in the Western Regions!

The Western Regions of the Song Dynasty were very different from those of the Tang Dynasty. The Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty had become the Xinjiang Road of the Song Dynasty, and countless merchants were in exchange for this, and the imperial court also built city passes on the main routes of the Xinjiang Road.

The Western Regions of the Song Dynasty have been advanced to the west. As long as the Western Regions are convenient outside Tiemen Pass, they are collectively called the Western Regions, including the Seljuk Dynasty.

The Seljuk Dynasty, Europe to the west, was within the scope of the Western Regions.

From Lu Yijian's words, Zhong Xianjue knew that Tubo was already trading with the Western Regions, and goods from the Western Regions were the most popular in the Song Dynasty, including gems, spices, wool-woven clothing, gold and silver utensils, war horses and even slaves.

Some of the things cannot be sold to the Song Dynasty, while others have to be charged high tariffs. Naturally, merchants do not want to pay too much taxes. After all, these are things they brought back with great difficulty.

But this is the law of the court. You have to collect taxes when buying things, and you also have to collect taxes when buying things. The easiest way is to add the taxes and fees to the price of the goods to buy them.

Therefore, the prices of goods from the Western Regions in the Song Dynasty were very high, and some things were still priced without any remaining prices.

How good is it if you can save the taxes and fees and sell them at high prices to pay taxes? Merchants value profits, not that no one thinks of this, and there are people doing this, this is smuggling.

How profitable is smuggling? According to the earliest merchant in Shendu City, he was named Sun Sanjiao. He was not a businessman who traveled to and from the Western Regions or from the Song Dynasty, but a broker who specifically helped others smuggle things to the Song Dynasty.

This person didn't know what method he used, that is, he could make the things from the west bigger than the Song Dynasty. At the beginning, the imperial court did not pay attention to it, so he used that period to smuggle goods and became one of the top wealthy people in the Shendu City.

This is not a simple matter. Even if ordinary merchants make money, they can't think of becoming a wealthy family in Shendu City. If their family is in Shendu City, they are not considered wealthy even if they have money.

If you don’t have millions of dollars in available money, you can’t claim to be rich, and no one will recognize you as a rich man.

But Sun Sanjiao did it. Not only did he make money by smuggling, but more importantly, he was not punished by the court. The reason was very simple. At that time, the court had no law to specifically regulate smuggling.

If Sun Sanjiao was punished, it would be "destructed without teaching". The court could not do this, so he succeeded and quickly broke away from smuggling and started a legitimate business.

At the same time, there were a group of people like Sun Sanjiao in the Song Dynasty. They all made a fortune by smuggling and finally did serious business.

An ordinary broker can actually become one of the top rich people in the Shendu City. The degree of money making for this smuggling can be imagined.

Both Lu Yijian and Xianjue knew the interests of smuggling. This was not only as simple as smuggling money, but also tied the relationship between Buddhism, Tubo, and the wealthy families in Dongcheng.

The wealthy families in Dongcheng had not done smuggling transactions with Tubo before, but they were all fighting. The two sides were full of speculation and suspicion, and no one trusted each other.
Chapter completed!