Just like this, it is not a big deal. The taxes collected by the court are really not too much. Moreover, the burned cargo ships, that is, the three small ships, did not burn the fleet along the canal. Qian Dafang and they lost no money. Their fear actually came from their inner fear.

And this kind of fear can be said to have been formed over hundreds of years.

Because since Shang Yang's reforms, the idea of ​​emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce was established. Merchants were very humble. If the court exploited farmers too hard, then farmers would revolt, because the main people of each dynasty were farmers. Once all farmers in the world started to make trouble, the country would be over.

The scholars rank first among the four classes. They have the protection of the system. Almost all the ruling classes are composed of scholars. Even if they fight, they are still a dog biting a dog.

Although craftsmen are humble, they are not much better than merchants. Industry and commerce are one, but craftsmen are responsible because craftsmen work, and they will not recruit anyone to provoke anyone.

Only merchants are the most embarrassing. Merchants’ purpose is to make money, and making money is endless, so they will definitely hurt the interests of others. Moreover, merchants make money with wisdom, and use wisdom that is not recognized by the secular world to make money. When those landlords and farmers see that merchants are busy with their left and right hands, they can grow land for several years. Can they balance their minds? Therefore, as long as the court punishes merchants, everyone will applaud them. Since ancient times, many dynasties have encountered problems, especially financial problems, they will use merchants to attack them. Once the merchants are rich and fat enough, they can also use merchants to divert conflicts.

The power of merchants is too humble and has no power to resist. In fact, it is not much better now. Although the merchant class began to rise under the leadership of Han Yi, it was only in its primary stage, and this force is still the weakest among the four classes.

It is precisely because of this idea of ​​emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce that the merchants are like frightened birds, so scared that they are as if the sky is about to collapse.

Even a big family like the Yuan family is no exception.

"Grandpa, our losses are not big, just three small cargo ships, and some others have suffered some minor injuries."

After listening to Yuan Xiu's report, Yuan Xi and the others were still very solemn on their faces, without a look of gratitude.

"Loss is second!" Yuan Xi sighed and said, "The key is that the court's response is uneasy!"

"Yes!" Yuan Le was also worried and said, "Now that Han Yi is not here, we don't know whether the court is really going to calm public anger or start suppressing merchants. Moreover, the court lets Li Yifu take charge of the Commercial Taxation Bureau, which is extremely bad for us!"

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "If the court just wants to calm the anger of the public, we should support it, but if not, we will be in trouble." At this point, he said, "No matter what, we have to look at it first. But during this period, we must be extra careful in everything and we must avoid this happening to us."

Yuan He said: "If this is the case, why not take advantage of the situation to turn the focus to Jiangnan, or even Lingnan. I always feel that it is not very stable to do business in Chang'an. After all, Chang'an is at the foot of the emperor. If something happens, it must be done with Chang'an's merchants first. If something happens, we can deal with it calmly."

What this means is that at least we can still run away.

In fact, this matter is not very serious, but even the Yuan family wants to run away, which shows the mentality of this ancient businessman.

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "The fourth brother is right. In fact, our Yuan family's wealth has been shifting to the south. Now we can increase our investment in Lingnan. Let's do this, I will write a letter to Mudan to see what their couple meant."

......

Gold store!

"Those idiots still want to stay here. Humph, I don't care about them anymore. I'll leave first."

Qian Dafang sat in the VIP room, eating candied fruit while muttering.

After a while, Sang Mu walked in and said, "Old Qian, this is your golden ticket."

Qian Dafang took the gold ticket and ordered it. This was not a small amount. A gold ticket was worth 100 cents. He ordered it several times and was sure there was no mistake. Then he carefully put it in the box and said to Sang Mu: "Sang Mu, have you not told Brother Han about this?"

Sang Mu said: "My benefactor is filial at home at this time. How can I be embarrassed to disturb him in this small matter?"

Qian Dafang twitched and said, "This is not a trivial matter. Once the commercial tax is levied, it will be five cents today, and it may be fifty cents tomorrow."

Sang Mu smiled and said, "It's not as serious as you think. The court imposed commercial taxes, but it was to calm public anger. What is this tax for your old money?"

"Yes, this little tax is nothing. But just my little goods can be burned out in less than half a day!" Qian Dafang rolled his eyes and said.

Sang Mu smiled but said nothing.

Qian Dafang looked at Sang Mu again and said, "Hey! Sang Mu, did Brother Han really not leave any tricks when he was leaving?"

Sang Mu shook his head and said, "When my benefactor left, I just asked me to manage the transaction, but I didn't leave anything. Anyway, my benefactor will be back in two or three years."

Qian Dafang sighed and said, "I don't care. Anyway, I plan to go to Yangzhou to find Brother Han. If you can do this Chang'an business, I will do it. If I can't do it, I won't force it." When he spoke, he kept paying attention to Sang Mu's expression, but unfortunately Sang Mu had no expression on his face.

He was bored by himself and could only say goodbye with a gold ticket.

After he left, Sang Mu sat in the VIP room, frowned, and after a while, he suddenly shouted outside: "Come here!"

A girl in a uniform immediately walked in.

Sang Mu said: "Go and tell me that Chunzhi is calling me."

"Yes."

After a while, a young woman in her twenties came in and said, "Master, are you looking for me?"

Sang Mu nodded and said, "If I remember correctly, Cao Hui also has a loan in our financial store."

"Yes, Cao Hui borrowed 100 stale money from our financial store at the beginning of this year."

"This account may become a bad one." Sang Mu sighed: "The world is not peaceful now, and our financial store has to shrink its loans. In the future, any loan of more than fifty taxes must be passed by me."

"yes."

......

......

Daxingshan Temple.

"Dad, it seems that we have all guessed wrong. Empress Wu recalled Li Yi's mansion to Chang'an, not for the sake of the scholars and commoners."

Cui Jieren became more and more confused as he spoke, and said, "After Li Yifu returned to Chang'an, he did not revenge on Li Chongde's brothers, and asked Li Chongde to add his family tree to the Li family genealogy of Zhaojun, as if he wanted to win over our aristocratic family. In addition, in the Xuzhou case, according to the child's opinion, if there was no instigation from the local aristocratic people, the villagers would not dare to cause trouble. This book gave Queen Wu and the others a chance, but judging from the current situation, Queen Wu seemed to be interested in favoring them. Could this be their trick to get to the table?"

"They went for Han Yi." Cui Pingzhong's eyelids drooped, as if he was thinking about something, and he didn't know whether it was for him or for his son.

"ah?"

Cui Jieren looked at Cui Pingzhong in surprise.

Cui Pingzhong was stunned, raised his head and looked at Cui Jieren. After a while, he said, "Think about it, Han Yi made an unparalleled contribution. His father's grave was washed away. Han Yi returned home to mourn. When Li Yi's mansion returned, Xuzhou burned the merchant ship. Han Yi's father's grave would not collapse sooner or later, but it was washed away on the eve of Han Yi's prestige. Xuzhou's cargo ship would not burn sooner or later, but it would not burn until Han Yi left. How could there be so many coincidences?"

Cui Jieren asked: "The first thing may be a coincidence, and the second thing may be the gentry, the landlords are afraid of Han Yi, so they choose Han Yi to leave before doing this."

"But have you ever wondered why they were afraid of Han Yi, a farmer-born child? That's because Han Yi has always been deeply supported by His Majesty and the Queen. Now they are no longer afraid, and I think the reason may be the same."

Cui Pingzhong said: "Actually, after I returned to Chang'an, I was only doing one thing, that is, to observe Han Yi, study Han Yi's reforms, and even indulge in this regard. I always thought that Han Yi was planning something, and I also wanted to know the answer. I once thought that I was very close to Han Yi, but as these things happened, I felt that I was in a fog, and Han Yi became close and distant in front of me. It was not until after this incident that I suddenly realized. If there was a conflict between Empress Wu and Han Yi, then all this could be explained clearly."

Cui Jieren said in surprise: "How is this possible? Queen Wu has always trusted Han Yi very much, and there has been no conflict between them."

Cui Pingzhong said: "If I had known the reason, I would not have been confused at the beginning, but judging from the development of this matter, this possibility is very high, and something unknown to us must have happened here."

Cui Jieren pondered for a moment and said, "If this is true, Han Yi's father's grave is most likely the move of Queen Wu."

"No."

Cui Pingzhong said: "I think it was Han Yi's own hands and feet."

"What?"

Cui Jieren looked at Cui Pingzhong in shock.

Cui Pingzhong said: "Although Han Yi is very glorious, he actually has no power in the court, far less than Empress Wu. In fact, as long as Han Yi is taken down, those merchants are just some ants. They deal with merchants first to weaken Han Yi, which is a waste of time. The key is that Han Yi is deeply trusted by His Majesty. With His Majesty's protection, Empress Wu has no choice but to do it. It happened that Han Yi made an unparalleled contribution at that time. If I were Han Yi's enemy, I would definitely light another fire, so that Han Yi would become a general and prime minister, and his achievements are overwhelming, which aroused His Majesty's suspicion. This is the most effective way to deal with Han Yi. Empress Wu is extremely smart and cannot imagine this.

Therefore, if that was just an accident, God was helping Han Yi. However, based on my observations on Han Yi, everything he did was actually intentional, and there was a connection between everything. It can be seen that he was not a person who was willing to entrust his life to God. He hoped that everything was in his own hands. If it were someone else, I might believe it was an accident, but I don’t think it was an accident or a coincidence that happened to Han Yi. However, this was extremely beneficial to Han Yi at that time. If my previous assumption was not wrong, there was an irreconcilable conflict between Han Yi and Empress Wu, then I would be sure that Han Yi himself did it."

Cui Jieren was stunned for a moment and said, "This---this is really unbelievable. How could he do this? This..."

Cui Pingzhong said: "The shocked expression on your face is the reason why he chose to do this, because no one believes that he will do this, so that he can hide the truth and lay the foundation for the next step."

"Next step?"

"good."

Cui Pingzhong said: "I remember I told you that Han Yi's reform ideas are from bottom to top, which is completely opposite to the reform ideas of those wise ministers in ancient times. Since ancient times, reforms have been initiated from the court. You must first convince Your Majesty and the ministers in the court to be able to implement them. However, Han Yi never made any suggestions for reforms, but in fact, the reforms have been underway. He is carrying out the identity of a businessman.

Therefore, Han Yi's real power is actually contained in the "lower", not the "top". Since he entered the government, he has done something. He has built a new market, built Beixiang, built an amusement park, built Zhaoyi Academy, and built a civil security bureau. Each one is closely related to the people, but he can be said to have done nothing in the court. He chooses to stay out of the court. For hundreds of years, no official has been like him.

But it is precisely because of this that no one can detect how much power he hides. Because there is no precedent, it doesn’t matter whether he is the prime minister or not. Anyway, he has no power in the court. On the upper level, he cannot fight anyone. He has never suppressed any minister in the court because he does not have this strength. However, in the current situation, Empress Wu and the others are going to fight him under the lower level. Perhaps this is exactly what Han Yi hopes."

Cui Jiebian said: "But what is his purpose in doing this?"

Cui Pingzhong pondered for a moment and said, "Han Yi created the Six Sages of the Sages, a brand new idea."

Cui Jieren said in surprise: "What's the relationship between these two?"

Cui Pingzhong said: "Can you understand why Han Yi can create a completely new idea?"

Cui Jieren shook his head.

Cui Pingzhong said: "I can't. In the same way, I can't guess what Han Yi's ultimate goal is, because our thoughts are bound by Confucianism and Taoism, but he is outside Confucianism and Taoism. But as long as he understands his bottom-to-top reform ideas, he can still see some clues."

Cui Jieren thought for a moment, suddenly his eyes opened suddenly, and a bead of sweat as big as a bean flowed down, saying, "Let the 'lower' become 'up'."

Cui Pingzhong nodded and said, "Yes, only in this way can he be invincible and he can bring his thoughts to the extreme. If not, his situation would be very embarrassing. Everything he established would be easily overturned, just like now."

"Then he wants to..."

"Not necessarily, but we have no way to know, because we cannot understand his thoughts." Cui Pingzhong shook his head and said.

Cui Jieren suddenly asked, "Why did Dad tell the child about this?"

Cui Pingzhong pondered silently.

Cui Jieren said again: "Dad hopes that the child will stand on Han Yi's side?"

Cui Pingzhong said: "Do you think you are on the top or on the bottom?"

Cui Jieren frowned and thought for a moment, and said, "Is this why you have always supported Han Yi? But according to the child, you are not a person who cares about power."

Cui Pingzhong said: "This is just my reason to convince you."

"Why does Dad support Han Yi?"

"Because Han Yi gave me an unprecedented expectation. It would be too boring to always do the same thing. No matter how powerful Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, Du Ruhui and others are, they are just repeating Zhang Liang and Xiao He. If I enter the officialdom, I can't change anything, because I don't have the ability to create a new situation. Since the result will not change or not, I would be better off living a free and comfortable life."

Cui Jieren was silent for a while and said, "That is to say, Dad thinks Han Yi has the ability to create a new situation?"

Cui Pingzhong said: "I don't know whether he can succeed, but at least he has this intention. I have carefully studied his every move. His thoughts, his actions, and his behaviors are all people today, which I have never seen before. Then his intentions must be the same. Moreover, if you bet on Han Yi, you will make a big fortune, a timely help, and a strange thing to live in, but if you stand on Queen Wu's side, you will be just icing on the cake."
Chapter completed!