Four years later.

The southern end of the Chu State, Linwuyi, Linwuguan.

A convoy of more than 100 horse-drawn wagons is at the gate, full of goods of all kinds.

Siguan Yin, who was guarding the gate, was inspecting a bronze plaque that looked like a bamboo knot, with fine words on it interlaced with amalgam gold.

"The Zhuxia soldiers will be in the year of Heze, the month of summer, the day of Yihai, the king will be allied in Heze, and the Wei people will return to Yuguan. The great worker Yin Xi took the king's order and ordered Yin to reverse and cast gold for the Mo family in Sishang. One hundred and fifty cars. No muskets, gunpowder, or books are to be carried. Self-binding Lou Xiang, Geng Linwu, Geng Cen Yang, Geng Chengyi, Geng Changsha. If you see its gold festival, you will not be levied, and if you don't see its gold festival, you will be levied. ”

This kind of gold and silver wrong craft is monopolized by the royal family, and it is difficult for ordinary people to imitate it, but it is difficult for the craftsmen over there to be overcome, but they have always obeyed the law when they pass the customs there.

Four years ago, the Heze Alliance, the princes seemed to be arguing with each other, but in fact, they were speaking according to their strength.

The Wei state was weak, and the Sishang Mo family intervened in the return of the Wei state to Yuguan as the reason, so that the king of Chu continued to be tax-free for five years, for which the king of Chu ordered the great worker Yin to cast several sets of tax-free copper festivals.

People all over the world couldn't help laughing, saying that the king of Chu bought back Yuguan with tariffs, but the king of Chu heard this rumor in the court but laughed loudly: "If you don't kill a person and don't use swords, the Chu people have Chu Pass, why laugh?" ”

In fact, it was because the attitude revealed by the Mo family was that they did not want the war to continue, and clearly expressed their attitude towards the situation in the Central Plains, neither hoping that Wei would be strong, nor would they want Chu to recapture Daliang, making Daliang City an unspeakable thorn between Wei and Chu.

The second is that the internal reform of the Chu State is in an extremely intense time, a large number of feudal lords were moved to the newly opened Cangwu, Dongting and other frontier areas, internal instability, Qu, Jing, Zhao three clans are extremely dissatisfied with the centralized change of the Chu king, the Chu king continued to take out a large number of loans to buy weapons and armaments.

Although Si Guan Yin, who was stationed here, was not qualified to follow the king to participate in the alliance back then, and he didn't know all kinds of intrigues and intrigues during the alliance that day, he still knew the bright origin of the copper festival cast four years ago.

Linwu is the fief of Linwu Jun, but Linwu Pass is subordinate to the Inner Palace, and it is the southernmost important trade border pass of the Chu State, and it is also the southernmost point of the Chu State's rule.

At that time, the king of Chu used the help of the Mo family to train the new army, and attacked Baiyue, Cangwu and other places before attacking Wang Ziding, and carried out not too effective rule here, and sealed a large number of feudal lords to the border in order to centralize power.

Now the Nanhai Chamber of Commerce in Sishang has destroyed Yangyu and bound Lou, and Linwu, as an important transit station, is far from being a gathering of merchants, but it also brings huge income to the King of Chu every year.

Goods outside the duty-free festival are subject to tax.

Si Guan Yin looked at this duty-free festival, that is, to take a formality.

The leader of the opposite caravan habitually took out a few betel nuts and handed them over, and Siguan Yin thanked him and put them in his mouth to chew.

This is a custom that came from the Yang Yu of the Binding Lou, which is said to prevent miasma, and is very popular in the places where Xia Yi live together in the south of the Chu State.

"These people in your Chamber of Commerce have to make a lot of money a year, right? Just carry a little bit of your own private goods and take them with you, which is also very profitable. ”

The leader of the caravan was a man in his forties, missing two fingers, and an officer who was supposed to retire from the Righteous Division.

Hearing what Linwuguan Siguan said, he hurriedly said: "This is unspeakable. The public is public, private is private, not to mention the strict internal investigation of the Chamber of Commerce, the people of the Supervision and Inspection Department must also investigate, it is okay to do trade, but through the Duty-free Festival of the Chamber of Commerce to buy and sell goods with their own money, that is to be punished. Because of this, I was thrown into the southernmost port of Konyo to serve as a laborer......"

"That's why you have to be modest, I don't carry private goods, I can get a lot of salary every year, and my life is okay. However, if he carried some private goods, although he gained some more money, he had to serve many years of hard labor, and his original blessing became a curse because he did not control his greed...... The words of Taoism still make sense. ”

The conversation between the two is in the Chu Si dialect, which can be understood, but it is not authentic Chu Yin or Si Yan.

Siguan Yin laughed and said: "Relying only on self-cultivation, I'm afraid it won't work." You're not afraid of being caught by the inspectors......"

As he spoke, several of the officials in charge of the points replied: "Siguan, there are a total of one hundred and ninety-four chariots, of which twelve are thirty taxes and one one, and the rest are the chariots, horses, retinues, and food needed along the way. ”

Siguan Yin signaled that he knew, and he didn't bother to check, he couldn't afford to provoke the people of the Mojia Chamber of Commerce, the internal relationship was complicated, and it was said that there were some nobles of the Chu State who had invested in it, and if they wanted to bribe, they would generally look for those private businessmen.

So he asked, "There are no muskets, gunpowder, and books in the car, right?" ”

"No, no, absolutely not. But there are four cars of arquebuses, which are Lin Wujun's, we just help carry them, I don't know if Lin Wujun told you? ”

Siguan Yin Xindao Lin Wujun still needs to talk to me? Linwujun's fief is the southernmost place, and there are many people around it, and it is necessary to fight all year round, and the king can only turn a blind eye to this matter. Besides, it's not that your Mo family needs "long-term work" in Yangyu, Lin Wujun uses this to make a profit, what do I care about your business? It's not good to provoke you and provoke Linwujun, as for the king, he is far away in Yingdu, but his words can be listened to last.

He muttered in his heart, and then stopped asking about these things that had little to do with his own interests, and instead asked: "How did you do in repairing the river in Lechang Gorge?" ”

The name of Linwu originates from its proximity to the upper reaches of the Wujiang River.

Wujiang River is the upper water system of the Pearl River, Lechang Gorge is the most difficult section of waterway in the south of Linwu, two years ago the Mojia began to build a pass in Lechang Gorge, level the waterway.

The main labor force is still those "long-term workers", and the money given every month is not small, and after the work is done, they can be allocated land.

Linwujun's main source of income is human trafficking, because Linwuyi Chu State has only been established for a few years, there are not many Chu people, and there are many people in Cangwu, Linwujun relies on this kind of conquest to earn hundreds of gold a year, and opened a gold and silver mine in Linwu, and the fiefdom is not any income at all.

Linwu is not only the upper reaches of the Pearl River, but also the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River, where the canal cannot be built, and it is a very critical transit station.

The Mo family already had several cities in the South China Sea, and the rebellion was basically stable.

Especially two years ago, the Sishang Mojia recovered from the Great War in the Central Plains and immediately sent regular troops along the coast of Yue to the South China Sea.

After a large number of local nobles, priests, and other literate people with local culture were basically executed on the grounds that "it is a great sin to support one person for all people, that there are living sacrifices, and that they are unwilling to hand over the land and return it to the people", the rebellion has disappeared and has been cut off from the roots.

In addition, the Mo family's policy here is to tend to build a local area, and the major shareholder of the Nanhai Chamber of Commerce is the Mo family itself, on the one hand, immigration, on the other hand, to improve people's livelihood, on the other hand, to destroy the local culture, it has been pacified in a few years, and even has been recruiting soldiers locally.

The special location of Linwu makes it possible for Linwu to enter the Yangtze River through the Xiangjiang River; It can also enter the Pearl River through the Wujiang River; It is also an important passage in the Nanling area.

Guan Yin of Linwu Guan knew that after the alliance four years ago, the Yue Kingdom had completely declined, and the fleet of the Mo family could be berthed at the ports of the Yue Kingdom on the Yangtze River, and all goods in the entire Vietnam country were exempt from duty and passed through the Yangtze River.

However, from the Yangtze River to Dongting and then to the waters of the Xiangjiang River, although it is an important waterway within the Chu State, it is all countercurrent.

The goods on Sishang are mainly from Surabaya to Hangou, into the Yangtze River, part of the Yangtze River, part of the Yangtze River along the Yueguo Hai'an Line to Yangyu, and then from Yangyu and other places to the north for sale.

After the land reform in Yangyu, the local productive forces were liberated, the consumption level was also increasing, and more special goods began to flow into the Chu State.

Once the river channel of a section of Lechang Gorge is repaired, Linwu will be an important passage connecting the north and the south, and he, the secretary of Linwu Pass, will also rise to the top, which is a matter related to his vital interests.

As for the various things between princes and feudal monarchs, it has nothing to do with him, and this can be regarded as a standard bureaucrat after the centralized reform of the Chu State.

The construction of the border pass and the road and waterway of Lechang Gorge was not completed at this time, but there was also a basic prototype, otherwise there would not be nearly 200 horse-drawn carriages this time.

Under the tax-free policy, it was difficult for the local handicraft industry of Chu to compete with various goods in Sishang, although the king of Chu increased his income and power by centralizing power, but the frontier areas such as Cangwu opened up were divided into some dotted cities on both sides of each river system that were directly under the jurisdiction of Chu, and the rest of the places had actually become dumping grounds for Sishang goods.

The leader of the caravan replied to the words of the Linwu Guan, who symbolically circled around the last few carriages to see if the goods inside were the same as those on the list.

When he looked at the last few cars, Siguan pointed to the tightly sealed boxes on the cars with some confusion and asked, "What's in here?" Can you open it and take a look? ”

The leader of the caravan smiled: "Feel free to look at it." It's all tools, measuring mountains and rivers. ”

"Four years ago, Heze would join the alliance, didn't our giants say it? The Mo family regards Yu as holy, and if there is chaos today, the mountains and rivers of Kyushu are hidden in Luoyi and difficult to appear. One is for the future transshipment trade, the second is to prevent further floods and fires, and the third is to make the mountains and rivers manage. ”

At that time, in the alliance, the princes were asked to agree that the Mohist survey team should travel in various countries without obstruction, including in the event of war. These are all for the sake of the covenant, and we have carried them with us, so that they can be checked. ”

Si Guan opened the box and saw that there were some strange tools inside, and he didn't recognize too much, but he also knew that many of the Mo family's skills were beyond his ability, so he waved his hand and said, "Go over." ”

Just as he was about to leave, Si Guan suddenly thought of something and said: "In Linwu City, Wang Ziliangfu is patrolling the border on behalf of the king, and he may have to check it when he enters the city." ”