October 2019.

The incense burner filled the room with smoke.

Master Fobao sat in the meditation room and had been meditating all day.

Of course, he was not meditating on the truth of Buddhism, but this kind of thing did not mean that he would not think about it.

But in the current chaotic times, if you really think about Buddhist philosophy, you will probably have died long ago.

Just yesterday, he had just received two news, one from King Liang from Yunnan in the south, and the other from Wang Baobao from the south of the desert in the north.

The news was the same as him, that is, King Liang received a letter written by him, the national master of Buddha Treasure, saying that he would go to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

To be honest, Master Fobao does have such a plan, but hesitated.

But this news was seen by King Liang and Wang Baobao of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, which would be awful.

It would be fine if I really contacted the Ming Dynasty. If I took a step back and directly attached to the Ming Dynasty, I would have a way to survive.

The key is that this is not related to the Ming Dynasty?

Master Fobao was so worried, although Wang Baobao wrote to comfort himself, saying that this was just a counter-espionage plan by the pseudo-District Zhu thief.

But the King of Liang of the Northern Yuan was not polite to him at all. The letter he came was full of questioning.

It would be fine if it was King Liang of Northern Yuan alone, but Master Fobao was not worried.

But there is still an Ando next to me.

This Ando's Tuyuan National Master competed with him.

The entire Uszang is still divided into two. The Buddha National Master dreamed that Andorra would be included in his own jurisdiction.

Isn’t this Tu Yuan National Master?

As long as there is a little chance, the Tuyuan National Master will never let go.

Isn’t it the best opportunity now?

The Tuyuan National Master has a good relationship with the Northern Liang King. If you take this opportunity to find the Northern Liang King for weapons and food, and then attack Kangba.

The King of Liang of the Northern Yuan Dynasty would really agree if he was not sure.

Will Wang Baobao stop it?

Master Fobao thinks it won’t, especially in the current situation.

Where did Wang Baobao get the extra power to stop the behavior of Tu Yuan Master?

In addition, in the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the combination of the Kangba and Ando regions of Uszang into one may be the most favorable situation at the moment.

Because of this, the Uszang area has enough power to launch an active attack on the Ming Dynasty in a tentative manner!

Master Fobao thought about it for a day and felt that the current situation could be said to be in danger.

Once the Tuyuan National Master attacks with the power of King Liang of Northern Yuan, everything will be over.

As for whether the letter from the counter-espionage was sent out by the Ming Dynasty, it should probably be.

And it is very likely that it is His Highness, the King of Liao of the Ming Dynasty.

Only the Liao King of the Ming Dynasty can come up with such a plot, right?

This is clearly to make yourself seize the time to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, it is not bad to defect to the Ming Dynasty. After all, Master Fobao is also a person who can understand the current situation.

The current situation is quite beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. Even if it continues to drag on like this, it will take three or five years to delay the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

Losing the resources and technology of the Central Plains, life in the Beiyuan will only become more and more difficult.

It is also unreliable to rely solely on robbing the Great Wall border every year to strengthen yourself.

This Ming Dynasty is not the Song Dynasty!

Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty is now full of martial ethics, but Yanyun is in hand, the border defense capabilities of the Ming Dynasty are not comparable to those of the Song Dynasty.

Not to mention that the Ming Dynasty is now full of stars, and the younger generation is also full of talents.

For example, the young King of Liao of the Ming Dynasty, who was less than twenty years old.

When I think of the Liao King of the Ming Dynasty, Master Fobao felt incredible. What were others doing when they were twenty years old? Why was this Liao King of the Ming Dynasty so fierce?

Under 20 years old, even Wang Baobao was defeated by his hands, let alone the battle of the Bohai Sea, which completely wiped out the Northern Yuan Navy. It was really incredible.

Master Fobao is still thinking about the problem here, and someone came over hurriedly outside.

Master Fobao originally wanted to continue meditating and retreating, but he did not see outsiders, but heard the man outside say:

"National Master, the envoy of the Yuan Dynasty is here."

Master Fobao hurriedly stood up and asked:

"Did you come from Monan? Or do you come from Yunnan?"

The man replied:

"It's from Mo Nan."

Master Fobao breathed a little relieved. He didn't want to deal with King Liang in Yunnan at all.

Since the Northern Yuan envoy has arrived, he will definitely not be able to continue meditating here.

He hurriedly stood up and followed the people to greet the Northern Yuan envoys.

When I arrived outside the bedroom, I saw the Northern Yuan envoy waiting there. When I saw Master Fobao, I greeted him with a smile on his face.

I have to say that Wang Baobao is still very good at selecting people.

The envoy sent was a Han man who was wise and knowledgeable. Not only that, he was also polite to Master Fobao.

And he reacted very quickly and directly sent envoys to appease the national master of Fobao.

If it were an ordinary national teacher, he would definitely be grateful at this time.

But the National Master Fobao is extraordinary. He is a very sensible person. Although he looked grateful and tears on his face, he said loyal words.

In fact, my heart is still full of ups and downs.

However, it is always a good thing to have the Northern Yuan envoy visiting.

Master Fobao arranged for people to take all the Northern Yuan envoys to rest and hold a banquet to entertain them in the evening.

After all the envoys went down, Master Fobao looked at the blue sky and sighed.

The road ahead is difficult.

———————

Master Fobao is facing the biggest problem in his life.

Zhu Qi followed the Shen family's horse gang team and brought Zhang Sanfeng and Bai Tang Yuer to the Gaochang territory.

Gaochang has a long history and was very famous as early as the Tang Dynasty.

It is a veritable regional, political, cultural and economic center, along with the Western Regions, and finally there is a key intersection of the Us Tibet Plateau.

Otherwise, Master Buddha Treasure would not have meditated here.

And it is one of the terminals of the Tea Horse Road.

There were countless caravans coming and going between Gaochang, and when they reached the city gate.

In addition to the Han people and Uszang caravans who were traveling, Zhu Qi also saw many caravans from the Arab world in the Western Regions.

Just seeing so many caravans, Zhu Qi seemed to see a lot of tax revenue.

Just collecting tariffs will result in an explosion in your wallet.

But unfortunately, the tariffs in ancient China were extremely irregular.

The main reason is that tariffs and taxes taught by ordinary people are calculated together, or in other words, they are more appropriate to call commercial taxes.

The commercial tax in ancient times was very simple. During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, there was only one commodity tax.

No matter whether you are a Ming people or a foreign caravan, as long as your goods exceed a certain value, you will get one in thirty to pay taxes.

Then it was gone.

Even such low commercial taxes, most of the time, most of the time will fall into the pockets of local officials, and the remaining half will be avoided by the vested interests behind the caravan through various means.

For example, the infamous rule that you don’t have to pay taxes in your own fortune.

Coupled with the chaotic functions of the tax authorities and the worrying professional level of officials of the Ministry of Revenue, etc., various reasons include.

In ancient times, taxation could only rely on agricultural taxation, which is why.

It is precisely because of this that those who say that in ancient China could only collect agricultural taxes, but could not rely on commercial taxes, because China was a completely agricultural country, which was really fartful.

According to historical records, before opening up the route of the new continent, commercial activities in China's dynasties accounted for more than 50% of the world's commercial activities.

During the Song Dynasty, it even accounted for more than 70%.

In other words, before the new route, every two commodity transactions in the world were completed, one occurred in China, or had direct connections with China.
To be continued...