The rise of maritime trade has not only led to the development of the six major port cities and the prosperity of the industrial and commercial manufacturing industry, but also increased the number of smugglers and pirates. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

And sometimes, pirates and smuggling are not separated.

Compared with the maritime trade of the Ming Dynasty, an important reason why the Tang Dynasty did not prohibit it was that the imperial court set up a city and customs department, and could receive a lot of tariffs a year.

Datang has set up six port customs bureaus, and all merchant ships entering and leaving the sea must pay customs duties before entering or leaving. The customs duty is divided into ship tax and banknote tax, the ship tax is charged according to the size of the ship, and the banknote tax is 20 tax on the ad valorem of goods. It also banned the export of certain important materials, such as copper coins, iron materials, weapons, etc.

Twenty taxes and one banknote tax are naturally not high, compared with the huge profits of sea trade, this tax is actually very small. But the imperial court is not so simple, the ship money and banknote tax are only the customs tax, and there are also supplementary taxes. Supplementary courses are often higher than regular taxes, sometimes even several times as much.

These positive taxes will naturally be converted into the cost of commercial goods in the end, which will increase the price of goods and reduce profits accordingly. So, smuggling began. Some smuggle just to evade customs revenue, while others, to smuggle some embargoed goods.

"Smuggling is terrible?"

"Of course, smuggling is very powerful, as long as there is a profit, there will be a large number of smugglers. If there is a 20% profit, smugglers are quite active. And if there is a fifty percent profit, the smuggler can take a risk, and if there is a double profit, the smuggler dares to ignore any law. And if there is a triple benefit, they dare to commit any crime, and they will not hesitate to kill people and set fires. ”

Li Chao said.

"Do you know what the two most emerging businesses are today?"

"Maritime trade?" Cheng Yanjin asked.

Li Chao shook his head.

"No, it's smugglers and sea smugglers. These two professions, known as the most emerging professions, are also the most lucrative industries. As long as you are willing to take risks and take risks, then basically you don't need any capital and no difficulty, and you can get huge profits. ”

"Well, the new salt policy of the imperial court today is indeed a bit cheating." Cheng Yanjin used a new word, the extremely high price of salt, it is strange that the illegal salt dealers do not rise. The wholesale price given by the imperial court to the salt merchants was 60 yuan a pound of salt, and the salt merchants had to sell it at a higher price. Salt is not worth so much money at all, and a few pennies and a pound are remarkable, which means that directly smuggling and selling salt has several times the benefits.

"Smuggling at sea is no less profitable than selling smuggled salt. Make a small boat, then bypass the port customs, quietly leave the port, trade with merchant ships at sea, buy and sell goods, and make a lot of money on their goods just by evading taxes. ”

"Tax evasion and smuggling, it's a felony."

The imperial court cracked down on smuggling very severely, because smuggling harmed tariffs. The imperial court now earns 12 million a year from the salt tax plan, and 5 million from customs revenue. Such a large amount of tax must be guaranteed to control smuggling. If smuggling runs rampant, salt taxes and customs duties will inevitably drop sharply.

For smugglers, selling more than one stone of smuggled salt is a beheading, more than one bucket is exiled to a labor camp, and more than a pound is a heavy punishment for re-education through labor. Smuggling at sea is also severely cracked down, and smugglers who possess smuggling boats are hanged as soon as they are caught, and their servants are exiled to labor camps.

But in the same sentence, although the crackdown was severe, the huge smuggling profits made many people take risks. Even in a short period of time, there has been a relatively large smuggling industry chain, with some people organizing and selling smuggled goods, some transporting them, and some going to sea.

In the chain, there are many local heroes involved.

Li Chao is not a smuggler, he is a truthful taxpayer, so for them, smugglers affect their interests. Those people don't pay taxes, so goods can be cheaper than theirs. Both exports and imports are hindering them.

What makes Li Chao most dissatisfied with the sea smugglers is that they are really not afraid of death, and they don't care about the law, they will sell whatever they want to make money.

Copper coins, gold coins and silver coins of the Tang Dynasty, even bronze and iron tools, even iron and steel, and even weapons.

Datang's iron-smelting technology and sword craftsmanship are leading the contemporary and most advanced. As a result, some smugglers built underground workshops, made Tang knives and other swords privately, and then exported them to neighboring countries.

Tang knives, Tang crossbows, and Tang bows have become extremely popular commodities in neighboring countries.

Snake Island is in the middle of the Bohai Strait.

In the strait between Dengzhou and Dalian, there are a total of 32 islands, large and small, scattered like a string of pearls. The straight-line distance of the strait is only 200 miles, and there are these large and small islands, which makes the transportation between Dengzhou and southern Liaoning convenient.

It was a traditional shipping route with a large number of merchant ships, which also allowed pirates and smugglers to flourish here.

"More than a thousand." Cheng Biting Jin's eyes were red, "Dengzhou Thorn Shi is really useless." ”

Li Chao said unhurriedly, "In fact, there are tens of thousands of smugglers on the islands in the entire strait and those displaced people who have fled to the sea illegally. ”

"How is this possible?" Cheng Yanjin has been in Dengzhou for so long, and it is the first time he has heard such news.

"What's impossible, the island is not only for pirates, but also for the families of pirates. In addition, there are many strongholds of smugglers on the island, and they have even established many workshops on the island to produce and process prohibited exports. Some of the big smugglers simply set up docks and trading markets on the island. You don't know how lively the archipelago is, and they even build houses, workshops, farms, and fish on the island. ”

As long as there are enough interests, there are people to do everything.

On the Silk Road, the Hu merchants of the Western Regions crossed the snow-capped mountains, crossed the vast Gobi Desert, and trekked hard, not because of the profits brought by the Silk Road trade.

"If you are a thief, then why should we go to Baekje Silla Goguryeo first, just to practice in this archipelago. Tens of thousands of people, all of them have to be captured as slaves, how many labor vacancies have to be filled. ”

He scolded Dengzhou again for being useless.

"Don't scold the history of the assassination, the history of the assassination is also very good, at least Dengzhou Port has today's development, and he is also indispensable. Besides, the matter of encircling and suppressing pirates and cracking down on smugglers is beyond the control of the assassination. That is under the control of the garrison and the Yamen of the Municipal Shipping Division, and the imperial court is also impressed by the rampant smuggling and pirates today, and has not officially set up a sailor, and the Municipal Shipping Division and the Customs have also set up an anti-smuggling team, step by step, no need to rush. ”

Although the imperial court moved a little slowly, it was not too late.

These smugglers were able to make such a big deal before, but in fact, it was indeed the local government that turned a blind eye. Of those smugglers, a few of them were really barefoot, all of them had heels, and behind them were local tyrants.

But the connivance of the local government does not mean that the imperial court will conniv.

No matter how prosperous the Miaodao Islands are, it will not last long, and once the imperial court attacks, they will be wiped out.

Li Chao was too lazy to pay attention to some smugglers, and if he didn't bite the gold in the process, he had to practice with them and arrest people, and Li Chao did not object.

Snake Island, a small island, is only thirty miles away from Dengzhou, and a group of thousands of pirates are actually entrenched thirty miles away from the home port of the Fubo Fleet Sailors, which is also funny, but it is a fact.

On the islands next to them, there are other large and small groups of pirates, and many smuggling strongholds, but they have always been safe. Because everyone guards the port of Dengju and the Silla route of Dengzhou, they can eat with their mouths full of oil, and there is no need to fight among themselves.

Li Chao and Cheng Yanjin didn't even think of a battle plan.

Because no, really not.

The government has always ignored them, making them almost forget that they are pirates, in fact, they rarely kill people and goods, and their current way of survival is gentler.

Send a few boats and collect money at sea every day.

The merchant ships passing on the route are very cooperative, as if paying taxes, send some money, and then send some goods, and then you can pass smoothly. The pirates are even familiar with the people on the merchant ships, and they have a harmonious atmosphere every time they collect money.

They even sometimes sell their own smuggled goods to merchant ships, and sometimes they will give priority to the merchant ships returning to Dengju to buy some goods from Silla Goguryeo, all at acquaintance prices.

In this respect, the Red Viper pirates are really forgetting that they are still pirates.

Their nest is only thirty miles away from Dengzhou Water City, and more than 1,000 people are entrenched on a small island, where there are docks, shelters, stockades, and even a warehouse and field of their own. Planting vegetables and growing grain on it, more than 1,000 people lived a chic and moisturized life.

When Li Chao's ten merchant ships approached, several small boats on the sea did not come close.

They recognized the flags on the mast, especially the flags on the two leading boats, the white tiger and the bird Li Branch, which was the flag and family crest of the Li family, and the people of the red viper would not come to ask for favors.

Such a top giant, they can't afford to mess with it.

In the past, they only thought that each other's well water did not interfere with the river water.

But today, the ships turned a corner and headed for them.

"What a big ship, three masts and eight hundred ships."

"I feel that the two of the Li family are a little bigger, and it is estimated that there must be a thousand materials."

"Ba Shang Li is arrogant, you look at their merchant ships, the decoration is different. The blue and gold lacquer is so beautiful to look at, and the bow portrait, which is a dragon, and I estimate that this bow portrait alone is worth the money of a three-masted ship. ”

"Why do they seem to be heading towards our island, what are they going to do?"

Snake Island.

The island is peaceful, and the pirates' boss, Red Viper, is a woman who is famous far and wide. It is said that in her early years, she was a female general in the Jianghuai Du Fuwei army, and later Du Fuwei died violently in Chang'an, and the Fugongshi rebellion, and the Jianghuai army was wiped out. This female general came to the island with more than 100 men, established a foothold here, slowly recruited some old departments, picked up family members, and started a business without capital.

Morning.

The red viper is inspecting several workshops on the island, a Tang knife workshop, and a copper coin workshop, all of which are imitations of the imperial court horizontal knife and Zhenguan Tongbao, which are very marketable outside.

The red viper is very ambitious and has vision, knowing that it will not last long to be a pirate, and in the past two years, it has also begun to take advantage of the benefits of sea trade to prepare for whitewashing.

She heard that Zhao Guogong Li Chao is now in Dengzhou Water City, she has been looking for someone to dredge up the relationship these days, and wants to talk to this Zhao Guogong who has hands and eyes, not for anything else, but just to be able to accept Zhao'an and live a stable life.

"Big boss, no, we're blocked!"

A big man came running, his face flustered.

"Who blocked it?" The red viper asked calmly.

"Lee・・・Yes・・・Ba on the Li family's ship~"