"I heard that the tax on Hardmen has increased again?"

"Who said no! At noon, I sent two hundred kilograms of tobacco leaves to Lao Yufeng to the shop in Gulou. After the city gate paid the tax, the shopkeeper's face looked so ugly. Guess what? Five cents of the money was increased by three cents!" The talker took a few bites of noodles, picked up the wine bowl and took a sip.

A guest at the next table couldn't help but say, "This cigarette has increased. The alcohol tax, cloth tax, silk and leather have all increased! From now on, seven cents of silver will be charged for every 100 kilograms of wine."

The drunkards in the room were stunned for a moment when they heard this, and someone said in surprise: "Be serious about this?"

The man said earlier: "The notices at the city gate have come out! When I passed by in the afternoon, many people gathered around to read it."

When everyone heard this, they were very upset. Several of them had some knowledge of the current situation and a motto appeared in their hearts, the grasshopper behind the autumn.

The current situation is like the lice on the bald man's head. The Northern Navy captured Shengjing and Jinzhou, heading straight to Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan; Shandong had already reached Wuding Prefecture, and soldiers were stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River.

At this time, someone said to the middle-aged man who was settled at the counter: "Shopkeeper, will our wine increase the price tomorrow, right?"

Manager Guan Guan, who was pulling out the abacus beads, smiled bitterly and explained: "Kuang doesn't want to do it either, but if the eighteen wine merchants in Chongwenmen all rose, our small profits would have to rise with it."

In the mid-Qing Dynasty, the sales of alcohol in the capital were monopolized by eighteen wine merchants, and the wholesale stores were concentrated outside Chongwenmen. Anyone who sells wine inside and outside the capital had to purchase goods from there.

A guest sighed, "I can't afford to drink wine and smoke tobacco leaves. What's the matter?"

While picking up the abacus beads, Manager Guan listened to the discussions of the people, he knew that the Qing Dynasty's move was obviously to plunder the wealth of the people before retreating to the west. It only made the people at the bottom of the country suffer, and the tariffs will eventually fall on them.

At this time, a friend who came from the kitchen came over and whispered: "Shopkeeper, Yongye is back."

"Where is the person?" Manager Guan raised his eyebrows, knowing that what he asked him to investigate should be eye-catching.

"He said there are too many people here and I'm back to the yard."

"Then you can watch it first, I'll go back."

Manager Guan came out from the back door of the door of the "Changfa" room, walked east through an alley, and walked in the first alley on the left. Finally, he came to a two-in-one courtyard at the end of the alley. This was his residence.

He had just knocked on the door knocker twice, and the door opened half a slam. The person inside was carrying a lantern. When he saw it was him, he quickly let him in. When he arrived outside the main hall, a thin man in his thirties was waiting there.

"Yongye, have you eaten?"

"I'm not hungry. The shopkeeper, I found it."

"Go into the house and say." Manager Guan Guan said to the person who was carrying the lantern behind him: "Go to the shop to serve two bowls of rotten noodles. Yongye ran away for a day, and he was afraid he would be hungry."

When the two of them entered the house and sat down, the man called "Yongye" spoke, "I went to Xidan Pailhouse in the morning, and after noon, I ran to Sanlihe and went outside Shuncheng Gate in the afternoon, and I found out all of them."

Manager Guan calmly lit a cigarette for himself and said, "What do you mean?"

"That man was in Daxing. A few years ago, he was apprenticed at the Xijiurutang Pharmacy in the south of Xidan Pailou. After he got out of the army, he went to a pharmacy called "Guangshuntang" in Sanlihe. According to the pharmacy, the man often went out to prostitution after earning money. He got dirty diseases in less than half a year and had poisonous sores on his body. The pharmacy shop was serious, so how could the owner keep such a person? He drove him out of the pharmacy two months ago. He had no business and had illness on his body. He didn't dare to go home for the time being. He is now in the street outside Shunchengmen."

Shunchengmen is also called Xuanwumen. The former is the title of the Yuan Dynasty and was only changed in the Ming Dynasty. However, the people in the capital still use the name of the Yuan Dynasty, which has continued to the Republic of China in history. For example, Chaoyangmen was called "Qihuamen" in the Yuan Dynasty, Chongwenmen was called "Hadmen", Xizhimen was called "Heyimen", Deshengmen was called "Jiandemen", etc.

"It's not easy to find so many in a day. In this way, you can work hard for a few more days. From tomorrow, keep an eye on him for three days to see who he is in contact with on weekdays. Then find an opportunity..."

When Manager Guan said this, he raised his hand and made a gesture of wiping his neck.

Yongye nodded, still a little confused. He didn't understand why the shopkeeper was interested in a bouncer named Lin Qing, and even wanted to get rid of it. What he didn't know was that the shopkeeper Guan in front of him was actually a mess.

This order was issued by Wang Changsheng, the number one person in the North Navy Intelligence Bureau. He dared not question it and had to follow it. Of course, Wang Changsheng would never explain it to them. This order actually came from Zhao Xin, who was thousands of miles away.

For Zhao Xin, he didn't want to let Lin Qing grow bigger, and then one day there would be a "attack on Beijing City incident". Just like he forced the Qing Dynasty to hand over the refugees in eastern Sichuan to himself, the roots of the White Lotus Sect should be dug, and the roots of the Bagua Sect should be dug. And not only Lin Qing, but also people like Li Wencheng, Feng Keshan, and Liu Zhixie should be found to eliminate future troubles!

On October 28, 199th year of Qianlong, Yonghe, who had ended his trip to Liaodong, brought the Northern Navy's reply letter and returned to Tianjin with his companion Fu Chashan.

After landing at Zhigu Wharf, the two of them used the guard's waist sign to ask for two fast horses at the post station and headed straight to the capital. When they saw the gray Beijing walls, it was already the last day of October.

Originally, everything went smoothly during this trip, but I had arrived at my doorstep, but when I passed Chaoyang Gate, something happened.

Many people in later generations were familiar with the Chongwenmen tax gates that Heshen had in charge, but they did not know that in the Ming and Qing dynasties there were tax gates in the nine gates of the capital. Not to mention selling goods and luggage, they had to pay a tax of two cents when they went to the city to sell vegetables. Cha Siying of the Kangxi era once wrote a poem to mock him: The nine gates were taxed, and the horses and chariots were connected one after another. The internal envoy collected flowers and taxes, and plundered two cents of money every day.

The tax institutions in the capital city in the Qing Dynasty were generally divided into three parts. One was the State Administration of Taxation of Chongwenmen. In addition to Chongwenmen, the tax customs under its jurisdiction also included Lugou Bridge, Dongba, Haidian, Mujiayu, Shixia, Banbidian, and Zhangjiakou, a total of eight departments; the other was the Left-wing Taxation Bureau, which was responsible for the taxes of Anding, Dongzhi, Chaoyang, Dongbian, Guangqu and Zuo'an in the east; the other was the Right-wing Taxation Bureau, which was responsible for the taxes of Desheng, Xizhi, Fucheng, Xibian, Guang'an, You'an and Yongding in the west.

As a bannerman in the capital, Yonghe certainly knew that he would collect taxes when he brought his luggage to the city. He thought that he could only get half a penny with his guard's waist card, so he took the money from the mattress. But when he was taking the money, the tax collector at the gate of the city saw that he and Fu Chashan's mattresses were bulging. After carefully examining their clothes, the horses became scheming. So when the two arrived at the gate, they opened their mouths and had to let go five taels each before they could let go.

Yonghe and Fu Chashan were too lazy to argue, so they showed the guard's waist card with the combination of Man and Han characters, and scolded him: "Do you know who you are? Open your dog's eyes and see clearly!"

The tax collector glanced at him and his heart suddenly stumbled. But the water that was poured out after he said something was not taken back. Besides, as long as there was no emperor's order, let alone the sixth-rank guard, even if Prince Beile and a first-rank official came into the city with his luggage, he would have to pay taxes.

He first bowed respectfully, and said with a careful tone: "The two adults are not saying that they want to enter the city, but the court has a system. From the day before yesterday, the tax rules and regulations of the nine gates of the capital have increased, and the notice is posted there. The two adults can go and see it. The villain is also ordered to handle the matter, so please don't make things difficult for the small ones."

"this......"

Yonghe had nothing to say. He had no intention of looking at the notice and did not dare to let the other party check it. You should know that the two of them had not only more than thirty pieces of marten fur, but also several boxes of first-class ginseng from Changbai Mountain, they bought them at the Beihai Trading Club in Shengjing City.

Speaking of which, since the Qing Dynasty lost Heilongjiang and Jilin, the prices of furs and ginseng in the pass have soared. Although the Qing court adopted a tacit attitude towards maritime merchants' trade to Anping Port, the tax collected is very heavy as long as they are not sold to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Now a top-notch sable fur is sold at a price of twenty taels of silver in the capital, and doubles in Jiangnan. Rare things like first-class ginseng are as high as five hundred taels per kilogram.

When Yonghe and Fu Chashan saw mink and ginseng in the newly opened Beihai Trading Company in Shengjing, they were both surprised. They did not expect that the items that could only be enjoyed by the royal family and the royal ministers were sold openly on the shelves, and anyone who had money could buy them. Especially when they asked about the price, they were all moved, thinking that if they bought some and sold them back to Beijing, they would definitely make a big profit.

So the two bought ginseng and mink fur for the travel expenses they brought and the 500 taels that Cha's family respected, and now they only have less than twenty taels left.

Yonghe was still hesitating, but Fu Chashan next to him was anxious and cursed: "Bastard! Even if you have to pay taxes, why should you have ten taels?"

The tax collector whispered: "If you think it's too much, let the villain test the goods in the pony."

"Don't you let me test it?" Fu Chashan raised the whip in his hand as he spoke. When the people behind him were waiting to pass the pass, they were so scared that they retreated.

Unexpectedly, the tax collector said with his neck, "The little man has seventy mothers at the top and hungry babies under him, so the whole family will point to the villain's errands. If he doesn't inspect the goods or pay taxes, he will go to the city. If the villain loses his errands, he will have to beg for food if he doesn't say anything about his errands."

Fu Chashan's face was so angry that his face turned pale, but he didn't dare to really suck it.

"Forget it. Just give it to you ten taels."

Yonghe didn't want to make a big deal, so he turned around and took two silver ingots out of the bag and stuffed them into the tax collector's hand. The tax collector knew that the guards in the palace were not easy to mess with, so he let them go after collecting the money.

The two entered the city, rode west along the Chaonui Street, turned north at Dongsi Pailou, and crossed Dengshikou to Dong'anmen Street. When they arrived outside Donghua Gate, it was already noon. After showing their waist signs to the guards on duty at the door, after waiting for more than half an hour, an eunuch hurried to the door and said that the emperor summoned the two to the Yangxin Hall to meet.

When the two followed the eunuch to the East Nuan Pavilion of Yangxin Hall, they found that the Minister of Military Affairs Dong Gao was also there.

"Slave Yonghe (Fu Chashan), come to the emperor!"

"I will be given a seat without a gift. Master Dong will also sit."

Jiaqing was very excited when he saw his titty brother coming back safely. He gave a wink at the eunuch Zhang Jinzhong. The latter understood and waited for the two eunuchs to bring the slap to Yonghe and the others. He asked all the eunuchs in the hall to retreat, and he guarded outside the gate of the Yangxin Hall.

Seeing that the eunuchs had gone out, Jiaqing finally couldn't hold back and asked anxiously: "Can this trip go smoothly? Taizu, is Taizong's mausoleum safe?"

Yonghe replied: "I ask Emperor Hongfu, everything is fine. However, the Khan Palace and Shengjing Palace were damaged, and most of the houses in the city were destroyed."

"I am ashamed of my ancestors!" Jiaqing's expression was a little depressed and his eyes turned red. He had already learned about this from the secret spies' reports before, but now after confirmation by Yonghe and his two people, he still feels sad.

As soon as he said this, the three men, who had not yet sat on their butt, hurriedly knelt on the ground along the skull, kowtowing to the mud. The so-called "the master was worried about his ministers' hard work, and the master was humiliated to death." Jiaqing took over such a mess as soon as he ascended the throne, and no one would feel good if he changed it.

Dong Gao choked with tears and said, "I ask the emperor to carefully consider the dragon body. There is still something to do, but there is still something to do!"

Jiaqing sighed, picked up the handkerchief on the kang table and wiped the corners of his eyes, and said, "Master Dong doesn't need to comfort me. I know what the situation is now, you know, and all the civil and military officials in the court know. I just can't understand. In just ten years, my Qing Dynasty has reached such a level that I can't even defend the land of my ancestors... Forget it, you all get up and sit down. Yonghe, Fu Chashan, tell me about the journey, and who have you met."

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Yeah! I will briefly explain it first. If there are any shortcomings, please make up for Fu Chashan."

The report was right that the two agreed in advance. When Yonghe saw Jiaqing nodded, he began to tell the story: "Mr. and Fu Chashan arrived in Jinzhou on the eighth day of the 10th month and came ashore from Matigou. The first official Zhao Ni was a young man named Shen... On the evening of the ninth day of the 10th month, Mr. The slaves followed the man surnamed Shen to Shengjing. Mr. The slaves waited for two days at the post station before they met, but it was not Deng Fei, the general under Zhao Ni, but a man named Li Rui. This person is the chief of staff.

, the third person in charge of the Northern Pirates commanding the Liaodong troops. The slave read him the letter written by Lord Dong, but he didn't say anything, and only asked the slaves to go back to the guesthouse... Oh, it's the inn, waiting for the reply. The next morning, someone named Li took the slaves and the two of them to visit the Khan Palace and the Shengjing Palace, and went to three more imperial tombs. On the fifth day, he gave the slave a reply, saying that the reply was written in it. Because the matter was secret, the slave did not dare to open the seal privately."

After Yonghe said that, he took out the letter from his arms and presented it with both hands. Dong Gao, who was beside him, came forward to take it, pinched it with his fingers, and confirmed that there were no other foreign objects inside, so he placed it on the kang table.

However, Jiaqing did not read the letter immediately, but asked in an incredible tone: "You said that you arrived in Jinzhou on the eighth day of the October 19th, and then set out for Shengjing the next morning, and arrived that night?"

"Yes. The man surnamed Chen took the slave and the other two to a strange car. The car had four wheels and no cows were needed. A man who controlled the wheel and installed a disc with his hand. The sound was like thunder. The slave couldn't understand what magic tricks the North Sea pirates used. The man surnamed Chen said that he used a machine to replace the cows. The car was running fast after he got on the car. The slave and Fu Chashan were very dizzy. If it weren't for the snowy roads that were slippery in Xiaoheishan Station, he would have been able to arrive in Shengjing before dark."

Jiaqing thought for a while and asked, "Master Dong, have you ever mentioned such a strange car in the previous report of the Ministry of War?"

Dong Gao pondered for a moment and replied: "Two reports mentioned. Three years ago, when Mr. Zhang Jia came across a green-skinned monster car when he led his army to fight Zhao Ni, he was said to be able to run by himself without a cattle and horse, and he could fire while walking. However, I have never heard of such a ridiculous thing. I just thought it was the general who led the team and was confused and guessed that someone must have pushed it."

"So how many such strange cars are there under Zhao Ni?"

"This... I ask the emperor to forgive me!" Dong Gao kowtowed and said to himself that I don't know! Even Fu Kangan and Agui don't understand, and even more so, everyone in Neo-Confucian would understand.

"This matter has nothing to do with Master Dong, get up." After saying that, Jiaqing pondered outside the window for a while, and said, "I never understood something before, but now I know it. No wonder every time the North Sea pirates attacked a land, they first broadened the post road. With that kind of car, it will arrive in half a day. Oh! No wonder..."

Dong Gao instantly understood what Jiaqing meant, that is, why the military supplies of the North Navy can always be guaranteed without any worries. He could run 350 miles in half a day, but then 700 miles a day. This is too scary. With such logistics supply and the power of the North Navy's weapons, let alone Fu Kang'an and Agui, even Fu Kang'an's father is useless.

"The emperor has no fault of the wise and wise. However, I think that Zhao Ni's car is only suitable for use in vast plains. When it comes to rugged and difficult mountainous areas or rivers, it is probably not very useful."

Jiaqing's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he nodded in praise and said, "This is right. Master Dong, please help me see what the Beihai Pirates wrote in the letter."

Dong Gao quickly got up, picked up the letter from the kang table, carefully tore open the envelope, took out the letter, opened it, and glanced twice, confirming that there were no insulting words in the content, and then he read it in a deep voice:
Chapter completed!