Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 2910 Dangerously seen through
Outside the Great Wall, the sad wind is cutting, and the Jiaohe River has frozen.

There are hundreds of waves in the vast sea, and thousands of miles of snow in the Yinshan Mountains.

Outside Jiaohe City, Changsun Jun was sitting on his horse, the howling wind mixed with heavy snow like reed flowers hit his body, his thick armor was almost as cold and heavy as solid ice, chilling his bones.

Wrapping the outer cloak and pressing down the mink hat on his head, Changsun Jun looked at a group of Tang soldiers walking in with a frosty face.

This place is outside Jiaohe City, the only way to go to the Western Regions, and it is also the location of the Protectorate of the Western Regions, so there is an endless stream of soldiers and troops coming and going, even in heavy snow days, passing merchants are strictly checked.

Changsun Jun sat on the horse and looked at the group of soldiers gradually walking in. Among them was a son of a family who used to sit and drink in Chang'an City. Now he was wearing leather armor. There was nothing left, a face full of chilblains, only as strong and sharp as a steel blade.

"Where did you come from, where did you go, and what kind of goods did you sell?"

The head lieutenant sat on the horse, wiped the snow from his face, and asked in a deep voice.

When talking, the other hand is always on the handle of the horizontal knife at the waist, and the spirit is in a state of vigilance. If there is any abnormality, he will draw the knife out of its sheath and violently kill people.

Tang Jun has never been a gentleman of benevolence and righteousness. In Chang'an, in Shandong, and in Jiangnan, the benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust that Confucian children preached all day long are of no use in this land where Hu and Han live together.From the west of Yumen Pass to Dashi and Byzantium farther away, the Hu people believe in respecting the strong and survival of the fittest. All actions must be based on their own interests. Whoever has the biggest fist has the right to speak.

To reason with these barbarians who drink blood is tantamount to seeking death...

Changsun Jun sat on the horse and kept silent.

The merchant who hired Changsun Jun this time was Qin Changgeng, the Patriarch of the Qin Family in Tianshui County, Longyou Road. He smiled and said: "I am a native of Tianshui County, Longyou Road. This trip went to Damascus to sell 350 pieces of silk. All the officers and soldiers were ordered by the emperor to station in the Western Regions to protect the lives of our merchants. This is a world of ice and snow, please officers and soldiers to buy a glass of water and wine, to get rid of the cold."

The school lieutenant waved his hand on the horse, and the soldiers behind him stepped forward to check the vehicles one by one.

Then he said to Qin Changgeng: "The general was ordered to interrogate, but he didn't dare to enforce the law and break the law, so my brother accepted it, but he didn't dare to accept the money. Show me the IDs of everyone."

"Hey."

Qin Changgeng had no choice but to take back the money bag, and while calling over to his accountant to hand over various documents to the captain, he said with emotion: "I have been in business for several years, and I have traveled to and from the Western Regions more than ten or twenty times, like a captain Such upright people are indeed rare, and I admire them in my heart."

The school lieutenant took over the documents and looked through them one by one, and casually said: "Now the king of Hejian County is serving as the governor of Anxi, and he has cleaned up military discipline since he took office, and it is strictly forbidden to exploit and plunder past merchants. Do you dare to commit crimes against the wind?"

Qin Changgeng sighed: "I only hope that the imperial court can control the Western Regions forever and hold the Silk Road tightly in its hands, so that we merchants can make a fortune."

Since Pei Ju opened up the Western Regions trade route in the former Sui Dynasty, the army of the Central Plains Dynasty has always controlled the Western Regions, making the Silk Road unimpeded, and countless merchants became rich as a result of this, becoming a wealthy gentry.

In the middle of the court, it was said that the garrison of troops in the Western Regions cost a lot of money and dragged down the national treasury, but for merchants, they naturally supported the imperial court's permanent garrison in the Western Regions.

The captain smiled and said casually, "It's good for everyone to get rich, but don't forget to pay taxes."

The place to pay the tax is at a checkpoint just passed, and Qin Changgeng has already paid the full commercial tax. At this moment, he said quickly: "What the captain said is, how dare you evade taxes? Not to mention that since the Duke of Yue wrote to His Majesty to reform the commercial tax After that, we only need to pay taxes once, and we don’t know how much money we can save every year. The policy of ten taxes for Tang people and one tax for Hu people and four taxes for Hu people has completely suppressed the Hu merchants, and our profits are more than before. More than one. The imperial court takes such good care of us merchants, we are naturally willing to support the imperial court, do business and pay taxes, it is only right and proper!"

The tax rate of "ten taxes and one" is actually much higher than the previous taxes and fees. After all, the commercial tax was "zero" before this, and there is no such thing as commercial tax...

However, although there is no serious business tax, the various checkpoints privately set up by local governments on the way of selling goods, which ones are not plucked?Even showdowns in various places will eventually be passed on to merchants.

Calculated after a trip to the merchants, more than half of the profits must be made to the local governments...

Now that the commercial tax is fixed, you only need to hold the tax payment certificate, and you don’t need to pay a penny of taxes and fees all the way across the state. How can merchants not calculate how much they have saved inside and out?

The lieutenant jokingly said, "Hey, you're quite acquainted...that, Sun Jun?"

Chang Sun Jun didn't pay attention at first, but when he saw the captain looking towards him, he realized that he quickly jumped off the horse, bowed his head, and said respectfully, "I'm right here."

The school lieutenant flipped through the documents, and said, "Raise your head."

Changsun Jun's heart tightened, but he didn't dare to disobey his order, so he could only raise his head, letting the captain's gaze sweep across his face like a knife.

If his identity was found out, not only would he not be able to complete the task assigned by his father, but it would also lead to a series of consequences. After all, as a child of the eldest grandson's family, he went to the Western Regions with a concealed identity, what was his intention?
Although I put on simple makeup on my face, this captain knew me before, although I can't say I am familiar with it, but in case...

Fortunately, the school lieutenant guessed that it was just his duty, he called everyone by name according to their identities and papers, and returned all the papers to Qin Changgeng after feeling that there was nothing unusual.

Then he warned: "This trip to the west area is vast and sparsely populated, and the patrolling soldiers will inevitably be unable to take care of it, so the bandits are rampant. You should be more vigilant along the way. If you encounter bandits and robbers, don't panic. Form a formation to delay time, and then Set off fireworks to notify the surrounding patrolling soldiers to rush to rescue... Of course, if the soldiers can see the fireworks."

The Hudi is desolate and vast, the north wind blows the ground and the white grass breaks, and it snows heavily from time to time, even if a million troops are scattered like fish into the sea, how can they take care of it?Unless there happened to be patrolling soldiers not far from the left, it might not be possible to see the fireworks of the merchants calling for help.

Whether it is life or death, it depends more on luck...

Qin Changgeng hurriedly said: "Thank you for the reminder, Captain, this strong man Sun Jun is a guard hired for this trip, he is very skilled and well equipped, unless he encounters a large group of Turkic horse bandits, he should be safe to protect himself. "

The Turks were defeated by the Tang Dynasty in Mobei, and Jieli Khan was captured alive. He sang and danced in front of His Majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty all day long, fully demonstrating the talent of the grassland people who can sing and dance... The land of Longting was given by Xue Yantuo again Jiu occupied the magpie's nest, so he had no choice but to flee westward, relying on the natural dangers of the desert, to survive.

Although the Turkic people are often active among the countries in the Western Regions, they are afraid of the combat power of the Tang army and dare not travel scattered. They can only act on a large scale. Road to intercept and kill merchants.

"Oh?"

The school captain glanced at Changsun Jun again on the horse, his gaze passed the horizontal knife on his waist, smiled, and said: "Just be careful if you know it, it's getting late, let's get on the road."

"Here!"

Only then did Qin Changgeng lead the caravan to bid farewell to the captain and set off slowly.

Seeing the caravan slowly disappearing into the wind and snow, the captain rode on the horse, stroked the stubble of his chin, and thought to himself: Why does that guy named Sun Jun look so kind?It's like I've seen it somewhere before, but I can't remember it.

He is also a child of a family, although his family is not visible, but when he was in Guanzhong, he was also visited by high officials and dignitaries. Think carefully, how could acquaintances who have known each other in the past come to this icy and snowy Western Region to serve as guards for a caravan? Woolen cloth?

Shaking his head, he led his soldiers and stopped another caravan...

Changsun Jun didn't let out a long breath until he walked a long distance and looked back at the road that the wind and snow had already obliterated the way he came.

The captain's last glance almost made him think that he had been recognized.

Fortunately, it was hidden from the past in the end. After passing Jiaohe City, it was the depths of the vast desert. Tang Jun's influence was limited, and he would not be able to meet acquaintances and be found.

It's just that the long road to Damascus has just been less than halfway...

(End of this chapter)