Zhou Shixiong brought 30,000 taels of silver to Shenglong Mansion this time. Fortunately, there were 100 Jinyiwei as coolies. Zhou Shixiong divided the silver weighing about 2,000 kilograms into 100 pieces and asked the Jinyiwei to carry it. He originally thought that the money was enough to build a dock and warehouse, but now he took out most of the medicinal materials to buy, so the dock had to stop work. Zhou Shixiong thought about finding Zheng Du, but later gave up this idea. Zhou Shixiong didn’t know much about Jiaozhi’s history, but he still knew the last dynasty named Ruan of Jiaozhi.

This Zheng family, who had no impression of the Northern Dynasty, probably would not last long. Zhou Shixiong felt it would be more reliable not to involve it. With the gifts from officials, businessmen and nobles in Shenglong Mansion, Zhou Shixiong left Shenglong Mansion and returned to the Ming Dynasty on the first day of June. Halfway through Lang Sang Mansion, Zhou Shixiong handed over the gifts given by the powerful people of Shenglong Mansion, mainly from Zheng Du to Li Jie, and asked her to transfer the gifts of Ruan Phuc and Ruan Phuc Ajiang as a gift. After two more days of lingering with Li Jie, Zhou Shixiong left the Northern Dynasty in his arms and rushed back to Pingxiangzhou.

"Welcome to the commander." Chen Yongfu has been having a very awkward period. He has always been at work and resting on his daily basis. After becoming the director of the tax office, he has to work in the tax office every day. Although it is very pleasant to order money after closing the city gate every day, he starts to get upset after he has finished it. Only a small part of the money belongs to him, and the big part belongs to others. Chen Yongfu is very upset when he thinks of this.

Not long after becoming the director, Chen Yongfu discovered a very strange phenomenon. In the past, the city gate tax was all his own, but the money collected was much less than now. How could this happen? After thinking about it for a long time, Chen Yongfu couldn't find the answer. Zhou Shixiong happened to be back and passed by Zhennan Pass. Chen Yongfu wanted to ask the adult, see if he knew the reason.

"Don't give me a gift, Chen Qianhu will go back to the commander's yamen with me. If you have anything to discuss." Zhou Shixiong did not stop and asked Chen Yongfu to return to Zhoujiazhuang. On the way, Chen Yongfu handed over the account book of last month to Zhou Shixiong. "Sir, a total of 1,100 taels of taxes were collected last month. After the food and salary, there were still 500 taels left, and he had already transferred it to the yamen's yamen's silver treasury."

"Yes, 500 taels will be recorded in a month, so I can have a good New Year this year." Zhou Shixiong knew that in addition to operating expenses, there was also Chen Yongfu's share of the so-called food and salary, otherwise it would not cost half of the money.

"Sir, I have a question to ask for advice." Chen Yongfu took the opportunity to ask his own question. Why was he so much different from what he was now when he collected money?

"Chen Qianhu, haven't you noticed that there are too many businessmen?" Zhou Shixiong wanted to laugh but was embarrassed, for fear of embarrassing his subordinate.

"Sir, the lower-ranking official is in the tax office every day, how could he not know? The number of merchants increased is not much, at least not more than twice as much as before, but the tax bank is far more than that, and the lower-ranking official is puzzled." Chen Yongfu not only thought about the number of merchants, but also thought about whether someone embezzled the tax bank and greed for his money. If this person started to be greedy since he first took office, how could he hide so well?

"Actually, it's very simple. The people I sent do not charge money by car, but after estimating the total value of the goods, they take half of the value of the goods as tax." Zhou Shixiong brought the customs charge method. Although it is far less professional than the Maritime Manufacturing Corporation, its superior concept is advanced, and it changes in response to the changes in the total value of goods sold by merchants. Unlike Maritime Manufacturing Corporation, those who sell grain and jewelry charge according to the size of the ship, one loses to death and the other earns to death!

Chen Yongfu really didn't pay attention to the accounting offices recruited by the yamen. They took a form to write and draw every day. The form was said to be made by the commander and the purpose was to set charging standards for various goods and let the tax collectors charge according to the specified standards. These accounting offices only care about the accounts but not the money. Chen Yongfu kept checking who had touched his money, so he naturally had no time to pay attention to them.

Zhou Shixiongyi explained that Chen Yongfu suddenly realized. No wonder he had so much money. It turned out that he had dug up the wallets of those big merchants. Chen Yongfu was not an economist. He knew just from ordinary people that more goods were not necessarily valuable. The larger the transportation volume of a kind of goods, the less valuable this kind of thing was. For example, wood all over the mountains and a hundred trucks of wood were not worth a few dollars. Of course, there were also things with large quantities and high prices, such as salt and iron. However, salt and iron are strategic materials and cannot be calculated using this method.

Merchants who sell valuables take a big advantage in transit fees. They transport a truck of goods worth ten trucks of others, and only need to pay a truck of money. Anyone knows that this is a loophole. However, it is very difficult to change it. Technically, they cannot be familiar with the price of each type of goods, and they cannot change it at all. Zhou Shixiong did not know the prices of various goods. He just asked the traders to provide a purchase list and then collect taxes according to the price of the list.

A smart man deliberately made a fake list and the accountants didn't care. When others provided the same list of goods, they could tell what was going on. Afterwards, the counterfeiter refused to make up for the taxes. As long as they didn't leave Zhennan Pass and did not enter Pingxiangzhou in the future, the tax office would not pursue the matter. They just posted a few announcements at the closing of Zhennan Pass and Baiyun City, and wrote down the businessman's behavior.

Although Confucianism has always criticized all businessmen for being treacherous, the saint of merchants, Saint Tao Zhugong, once said that an excellent businessman must have credibility, and a person whose reputation goes bankrupt cannot be a merchant. The tax office is to crack down on the credibility of those merchants. He does not use the government forces to convict him, but reason with the merchants. The benefits of doing so are many.

First of all, the dissatisfaction caused by changing the tax collection method is comforting, and the wealth of merchants is not balanced. Like ordinary society, poor merchants account for the majority of the merchant group. Zhou Shixiong's tax collection method is only beneficial and does not harm them. He encourages the transaction of bulk low-value goods in disguise. Merchants who have always enjoyed legal loopholes are only a minority in quantity. With the support of the majority, these merchants cannot mobilize the merchant group to boycott Zhou Shixiong.

Secondly, the tax office is reasonable, and those wealthy merchants can only reason with the tax office. In terms of identity, Zhou Shixiong, the boss of the tax office, was an imperial envoy. As the saying goes, the imperial envoy was higher than the senior officials, and no one in Guangxi could be on par with Zhou Shixiong. In terms of power, Xiangzhou military commander was also a senior official of the third rank. Although his military position was not valuable in the Ming Dynasty, he actually controlled the official. Not to mention merchants, Guangxi Governor Wang Zunde dared to offend casually.

Since the use of force is not reasonable and has been occupied by others, the merchants can only bow to the tax office obediently. The fraud of bills is just a small action made by some self-conscious people, not a collective act. But Zhou Shixiong's approach is remembered in his eyes and reminded his subordinates who follow Zhennanguan's business road not to cause trouble in Xiangzhou, otherwise the family law will be dealt with.

A businessman lost his reputation, especially his public reputation, and he was not even a fool. The smart man who made a fake found that Ping Xiangzhou did not send anyone to arrest him, but he was not allowed to enter and exit Ping Xiangzhou. Although there was no important business path, the smart man could only accept it and planned to move out of Nanning Prefecture to Xunzhou Prefecture and start over. Unexpectedly, he posted a red paper to transfer the store, and not only did no one come to ask for the price, but even the customers he was familiar with were not coming.

It turned out that the content of the announcement was spread to Nanning Mansion with the caravan. The smart man had been given the title of a liar by the tax office. Who would do business with him? When the smart man was planning to transfer the store to a colleague at a low price, the colleague said, "You even dare to cheat the court, who dares to buy your things?" The smart man packed up the goods and was about to take his family out of Nanning Mansion. All the shopkeepers refused to follow him. They would rather go to the government office to get beaten on the charge of breach of contract than to cut off their relationship with the master.

At this time, the smart man knows that he is finished! Unless he changes his name and stays away from Guangdong and Guangxi, he doesn't think about doing business. His name is already even more smelly than stinky dog ​​shit, and he smells like Sanli in the wind. The smart man is worthy of being a smart man. He gritted his teeth and stomped his feet, sent his wife and children to his parents' home, and then ran to Guangzhou to board a merchant ship to sea. No one has ever seen his trace again.

Zhou Shixiong did not interfere in this matter at all. Everything was done according to the rules set at the beginning. There was no need to report it to Zhou Shixiong. If he hadn't seen the announcement on the city gate, he wouldn't have known about this.

Back at Zhoujiazhuang, Zhou Shixiong held a plenary meeting. "It's already June, and we'll set off at the end of the month at the latest, otherwise the consequences of misleading the emperor's appointment will be serious." What Zhou Shixiong said was scary, but he couldn't tell how much attention he paid to. Even Fang Zhenghua looked at him with a smile, knowing that this miracle doctor was not afraid of the emperor.

"This time I went to Shenglong Mansion to harvest a lot. The first harvest was to get the land for the construction wharf. The piece of land I bought last time will not move for the time being. I will talk about it when I come back." Zhou Wu bought a piece of river beach land when he went to Shenglong Mansion to buy slaves. Zhou Shixiong went to see it and found that it was not suitable for construction wharf and could only be shelved.

"I entrusted Ma San to manage the wharf. Now he doesn't have a suitable craftsman. Are there any good introductions for the two masters?" Of course, I have to ask these two for help when looking for craftsmen. In fact, Mao Weisheng, the general manager of the river engineering, and Qian Bijun, the general manager of the road engineering, also know many boatmen, but these two are now busy making three-way and one-level for Li's Villa, and have never returned to Pingxiangzhou.

"If the adults just build a dock and a warehouse, I'll send an apprentice over there." Gong Liu patted his chest very proudly, and there was no need to ask for someone for this small matter.

"I want to build a dock and gradually develop into a shipyard in the future, so a large number of craftsmen are needed." Zhou Shixiong dreamed that he would play a voyage in his own dream. Since he had arrived in the Ming Dynasty, he had the time to do what he wanted to do, and he had to do what he wanted to do.

"That's how I am also a boat craftsman, but I haven't built a ship by myself, so I have made a lot of models." Gong Liuneng became a master of imperial camp, and his woodworking skills must be top-notch. In addition, he has learned all kinds of woodworking-related skills, otherwise he would not be able to meet the requirements of the former emperor Zhu Youxiao.
Chapter completed!