Wei Youqing smiled: "Yes, Youqing is the lord of Pearl Island. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info There is a sentence from His Royal Highness King Chen, Youqing is the imperial businessman. ”

Li Chengyu was stunned for a moment, and then understood that he was referring to the fact that Pearl Island Zhuyu tea was set as a tribute. Pointing to his head and smiling, "Are you reminding me that Pearl Island Zhuyu Tea is set as a tribute to Chudi?" How could I forget? It's you, who know that tea is the lifeblood of Chudi's money and grain, and now it is the day of spring tea acquisition, but you travel everywhere, what should you be guilty of? ”

Although Pearl Island and Chu Land do not have a boundary, King Yun has already given both Pearl Island and New Island to Li Chengyu many years ago. Now, Li Chengyu has built a palace in Chu, and Pearl Island has naturally returned to Chu.

Wei Youqing has long understood in his heart that he is too self-willed, Yuan betrayed his master at the time, and as a magistrate, he has the responsibility to guard the land, but he casually opened the city gate for his own selfishness. If it is said that it is to save their sons, those who died in the war, who do not have parents, wives and children?

But for the sake of the little softness of being a first-time father, he hid it for him, Wei Youqing understood that he was really wrong. Fortunately, the master is Li Chengyu, and he easily let himself go. If it were someone else, I am afraid that I would be guilty of the same crime as the traitor. Even if he changes his father-in-law, he will be severely punished.

Wei Youqing was ashamed and wanted to ask for guilt again, Li Chengyu stopped him and said, "Go find Rui Yiming, now he and Zhang Ruoshui are preparing for the purchase of tea." I've already told them that when you come back, you can discuss it and bring me a charter. He half-jokingly said, "As long as you don't reach out to me for money, I don't have a penny...... Everything else is negotiable. ”

Wei Youqing understood that Lee Seung-woo was not joking. Although there was a truce in Chudi, the siege of Tanzhou was not withdrawn. The amount of food and grass consumed by the besieging army every day is a huge amount. In the past, when Chu was at war, the emperor specially exempted Lingnan from taxes for military expenses. Therefore, more than half of the military expenses of the war were provided by Lingnan.

But this year, Lingnan resumed paying taxes to the imperial court, and Li Chengyu occupied Chu and opened a mansion in Chu, so there was no reason to ask King Yun to pay money to raise an army for him. Although the emperor exempted Chu for two years of money and grain due to the new fall of Chudi, it has already passed half of this year, and if he can't accumulate enough money in a year and a half, Chu Di may not even be able to pay taxes in the third year.

Wei Youqing said: "Youqing understands my brother's difficulties. From the perspective of young people, it is not that Chudi has no money, but that the money is concentrated in the hands of those big tea garden owners. If my brother agrees to let go of the purchase of tea, I might as well let them come up with the money to buy tea, and then the government will collect a tea tax, I don't know what my brother thinks? ”

Li Chengyu smiled: "What do I disagree with? I said a long time ago that I wanted you to set up a tea merchants' guild. What do you do with a good idea? I only need money to raise the army, and also, Chu Di is newly determined, the Ma family's father and son and the king of Chu are in Tanzhou, people's hearts are unstable, and Chu Di can't raise taxes casually. ”

Wei Youqing said: "Yes, Youqing understands. Youqing thought, although we let go of the tea market and let the rich people in Chu take out the money to buy tea, we can't completely follow the rules of the merchants. Tea in Chu has always been purchased by the government, in order to increase the government's income. My brother is now short of money, and he can't watch the profits of tea flow into the people, and at that time, it will be even more difficult to come back. ”

Li Chengyu nodded, looked at Wei Youqing, and motioned for him to continue.

"The tea merchants' guild in Chudi is said to be tea merchants, but in fact, the rich are still those big tea plantation owners." Wei Youqing continued, "Let these big tea plantation owners come up with money to make up a share, whoever has more money is the leader of the Tea Merchants Guild. However, as a tax, the tax of the tea plantation owner is the tea planting tax and the land tax, and the tea merchant's tax is the commercial tax, each of which is its own. ”

"Yes, I have to complain about two taxes."

"The Tea Merchants' Guild and the Tea Gardeners' Guild seem to be two people, but in fact, most of the people in them are the same. There should not be a dispute over the purchase price as before. The tea is collected and sold by the chamber of commerce in a unified manner. ”

Li Chengyu said with a smile: "I understand what you mean, in the final analysis, it is still a tea monopoly, but it is changed to the Tea Merchants Association." Okay, as long as you don't need me to take the money, you can still have the money to support my army, you can do it. ”

Wei Youqing said: "Yes, I'll go to Manager Rui and Ruoshui to discuss." Tell them what your brother means. ”

Li Chengyu nodded, Wei Youqing said goodbye to Li Chengyu and came out to find Rui Yiming. Rui Yiming, who is in her Chinese New Year's Eve, is the former head of the Shinjima Royal Mansion, and now lives in the alley behind the Royal Mansion.

In the alley behind the palace, there are all small courtyards that are not big or small, which are small courtyards built together when building the palace, and are specially used for these people who have families in the palace.

Rui Yiming has a wife and three concubines in Lingnan, and his wife works as a housekeeper in Lingnan's Chenwang Mansion. Seeing that Li Chengyu did not pick up his family, Rui Yiming also left his wife and children in the palace. Now there is only one beautiful sixteen-year-old girl who is newly bought in Chudi.

Rui Yiming listened to Wei Youqing's explanation, and muttered, "That's it...... Who is rich and who is the boss in the Tea Merchants' Guild? ”

Wei Youqing understood what Rui Yiming meant, and now the three people in the Tea Merchants Guild are not going to say that Zhang Ruoshui is the son of the owner of the big tea plantation, and he is powerful. Only Rui Yiming appeared to be weaker. Wei Youqing knew that although Rui Yiming was capable, he had the problem of jealousy, and he couldn't see that the people around him were better than him.

"Manager Rui, it has nothing to do with money, none of the three of us can be the leader of this tea merchant guild. You and I are both people in the palace, and the Tea Merchants Guild can't make people look like the prince opened it. Ruoshui is the brother-in-law of the prince, and his father is the leader of the Tea Garden Lords' Guild. It can't make people feel that the entire tea business in Chu has belonged to his Zhang family. ”

Rui Yiming nodded, Wei Youqing's words were reasonable. He asked, "In your opinion, who should be the leader?" ”

"Whoever pays more will do it. Change it every year. Recognize money but not people. ”

Wei Youqing saw Rui Yiming's face showing a disapproving look, and said in a low voice: "The prince is short of money to raise the army. The leader of the Tea Merchants' Guild, since we can't do it, why don't we sell it for money? However, there is a charter here, and the leader cannot be the sole ruler. You can pick out the five companies that contribute the most money, and listen to the majority when you disagree. Naturally, these five are also changed every year. ”

"And how many of us?"

Wei Youqing smiled, "We are the deacons in the Tea Merchants Guild," he squeezed his eyes, "We are serving the bigwigs of the Tea Merchants Guild." Miscellaneous things such as forming caravans and managing money and accounts are naturally in charge of the three of us. ”

Rui Yiming couldn't help but smile and said, "It's just you ghost." It's just that these bigwigs are not easy to deal with, what if they don't agree with your charter? ”