Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 491: Open and Secret Visits
The existence of the trading hall highlights the fact that money is collected from both sides. Domestic merchants have to pay a tax on exports, and Western merchants also have to pay a tax on purchases.

Of course, this tax has a high-sounding name, entry qualification certificate.

Surprisingly, foreigners did not protest against this blatant discrimination. Instead, they were very happy. Domestic businessmen all felt that these people were stupid.

Only Western businessmen know best how attractive such transparent and open fees are to them.

In the past, if you wanted to go to the Maritime Customs to do business, you had to pay money countless times. You had to pay for every procedure. Although the amount was not much each time, it added up to a lot.

The key point is that the goods of the Zhou Empire are irreplaceable. Westerners recognize this and are willing to buy tea and porcelain even if they have to hold their noses.

In contrast, although Jia Lian also collected money, he collected it in the open and did not have to go through so many procedures. In a hall, from registering at the door to completing the purchase of goods, it could be done in one day if fast, and two days at most if slow.

This is especially friendly to new businessmen. After all, if they go to an unfamiliar environment to do business, they would be afraid of not being able to find the temple door with a pig's head in their hand.

For some businessmen who have been coming here for a long time, it is acceptable. Although the previous relationships are no longer useful, they are not treated differently. They don’t have to worry or try hard to maintain the relationships.

Domestic businessmen do not have to worry about their products being maliciously rated or purchased at low prices.

After the new policy was introduced, Guangzhou's foreign trade became more attractive, and many Western merchants who had been purchasing in Xiamen also returned to Guangzhou.

The same goes for mainland businessmen. As there is a market with clear rules, they will naturally choose this place.

For a time, Guangzhou became more lively than in previous years, and people from other places speaking with accents from all over the country could often be seen on the streets.

Some Fujianese, whom Guangdong people like the most, would rather go to Guangzhou to trade than trade locally, even though there is a Maritime Customs in their local area.

This led to Guangzhou's market prosperity reaching an unprecedented level.

Jia Lian was very particular about accepting gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival. He only accepted gifts from officials, not from local gentry. If an official was found to have sent something on his behalf, Jia Lian would call the person over, scold him, and have him take the gift back.

After one or two times, no official dared to do this anymore.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the academy examination came. Jia Lian didn't care about it at all. He called the three officials and the education commissioner to take charge of this matter, and said that he would start the inspection work in the province.

Visiting local areas is also one of the governor's duties, and it is a relatively important job. The reason why he never went there was not because Jia Lian was lazy, but because many things were not sorted out and taken care of.

Now the first batch of soldiers for the navy has been recruited, the training of the new recruits for the garrison has also started, things are going smoothly at the Maritime Customs Office, the money problem has been solved, as has the equipment problem, and the construction of a new factory has begun.

Finally, he had time to go around. In principle, Jia Lian had to visit every mansion. Of course, if you don't go, no one will say anything, and the officials below are eager to do so.

Jia Lian chose Huizhou Prefecture as the first stop of his tour.

This choice naturally has its reasons. One is that it is close, so there will be no delay on the road. If you set off early, you can arrive in one day. The other is that smuggling is rampant here. Qi Yun knows this best. In order to prevent and combat smuggling and deal with pirates, there are many garrisons along the coast of Huizhou. There is no maritime ban in the Great Zhou Dynasty, but it does not mean that everyone abides by the law and pays taxes to do business.

These garrisons have the same names as those in the Ming Dynasty, but are actually different because they are financed by the provincial finances and are under the jurisdiction of General Qi Yun.

It can be understood as the coastal defense garrison that eats up the provincial treasury.

In this world, there are always some people who take advantage of the situation to smuggle and avoid a large amount of transaction tax. In the past, when the Maritime Customs Office was in control, the smuggling situation in Huizhou was very serious. Now it is better, but the improvement is limited. After all, path dependence has been formed.

During the period when Wang Ziteng was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, he nominally launched several operations to combat smuggling, but in reality he was targeting the opium trade because it made money quickly.

After Jia Lian launched a crackdown on gangsters and evil, the opium industry in Guangzhou suffered a severe blow. Now there are no open opium dens, and some hidden ones are still operating and have not been discovered yet. As long as they are discovered, according to Jia Lian's attitude, they must be resolutely cracked down.

The situation in Huizhou was much more serious. According to the information Jia Lian had, there were many openly operating opium dens in the city. The governor's office had issued a document requesting a ban on them, but there had been no obvious improvement.

Therefore, another purpose of Jia Lian's trip was to crack down on smuggling and ban the sale of opium.

Before setting off, Jia Lian summoned his trusted subordinates to carefully study the itinerary, trying his best to catch his subordinates off guard.

The fact that Lord Jia was not concerned about the college entrance examination and chose to go on a tour of Huizhou did not cause much commotion. Even the Sansi and the Education Department were secretly delighted.

The importance of the imperial examination system to a centralized dynasty cannot be overstated.

It’s not that Jia Lian is unaware of the importance of this, but he thinks that even if he keeps a close eye on it, the people below will still be able to pull off some tricks if they want.

Leaking the topic in advance is a very low-level method. Another cheating method is to leave a code in the article. When agreeing on the end of a paragraph or a sentence, use a pre-agreed sentence or a certain modal particle. In short, it's like an underground worker.

It should be said that the education system in Guangzhou was not greatly affected by Jia Lian's various actions. The main reason was that Jia Lian did not have the subjective intention to make trouble.

During the preparation period, Zhang Zhuzi, Jia Lian's most trusted head of the guard, raised a question: "Although there is no news about the secret flower that was previously rumored, we must be on guard against it."

The so-called cutting off someone's financial resources and killing their parents, what Jia Lian did cut off the financial resources of countless people. Who can guarantee that no one will take the risk?

The security work for this patrol was actually quite difficult.

Jia Lian was quite concerned about this suggestion. After all, he valued his life more than anyone else.

Think it over again and again and make arrangements.

After a fairly lively Mid-Autumn Festival, Governor Jia's team set out on a tour. Officials from all over the city saw them off for twenty miles. On the way back, Qi Yun said to the governor with some concern: "The people in Huizhou have complicated sentiments. I suggested sending a thousand soldiers for escort, but the governor refused. His safety is worrying." "The governor brought a thousand governor's standard-bearers. How can the general's troops be more elite than the governor's standard-bearers?" The governor gave Qi Yun a rude look and almost retorted, "You have defected to the governor, but you are not valued."

In fact, the officials were all very worried that something might happen to Jia Lian during his tour. They were not worried that Jia Lian would be killed, but that if something happened, whether Jia Lian was dead or alive, it would definitely cause an earthquake in the officialdom. To put it bluntly, they had been tossed around by Jia Lian enough, and they were really a little scared. Although the governor spoke bluntly, he had already written to the prefect of Huizhou, asking him to do a good job of security for the governor, and no one could save him if something happened.

After leaving the city, Jia Lian walked only ten miles before he got off the carriage and asked Yizhang and the group to continue moving forward. He changed his clothes, took fifty of his followers, and disguised himself as a merchant caravan, heading for Huizhou.

Huizhou also attached great importance to Jia Lian's tour and sent a team to welcome him early. If something really happened, the prefect of Huizhou would be the most unlucky one.

The caravan led by Jia Lian went ahead and was stopped when it reached Nanhai. This was a checkpoint set up by the Nanhai Guards to collect tolls.

After looking at the size of Jia Lian's caravan, they asked for 20 taels of silver before letting it pass. They said it was an inspection, but in fact they didn't. One of Jia Lian's staff came forward to pay, but the other party refused to accept the silver, saying that the stuff was too adulterated and not good for civilian use.

Jia Lian did not react to this, but just wrote it down in his notebook, saying that the tax station was set up privately to collect fees, and only silver was accepted, not silver dollars. And from the tone of the officer in charge, an important piece of information was revealed, that someone might be privately minting silver coins. This was a guess that shocked Jia Lian.

So far, no physical privately minted silver coins have been found, and Jia Lian is just guessing. Everything will have to wait until the real thing is seen.

Jia Lian's team continued to move forward, heading straight for Huizhou. Then the large group of people marched slowly, but they were not moving fast. When they reached Nanhai, they stopped directly. What worried Nanhai County was that the governor did not stay overnight in the city, and he did not see him when he asked for an audience. In short, there was a strong feeling of uneasiness.

The Nanhai County Magistrate summoned his subordinates to ask them if they had found anything.

Everyone said they didn't find anything, and asked if anything happened today that everyone didn't know about.

The county magistrate said that they had given instructions in advance, and that all the troops must be careful and cautious to prevent the governor from discovering any clues. Well, except for Nanhaiwei, the county government has no control over that place.

Speaking of Nanhaiwei, the county lieutenant had something to say. Today, Nanhaiwei set up checkpoints on the road to collect money. The county government officials who tried to stop them were beaten and two people were injured.

The county magistrate had a headache after hearing this and cursed, "Nanhaiwei, these bastards, die!"
And then there was nothing else. Although it is said that civil officials are superior to military officials, that is all old news. After the provincial garrison set up a new patrol camp, it deprived some of the local security rights, and the garrison below began to be active. They made all kinds of crazy moves. In theory, their main responsibility is to guard the coastline and crack down on smuggling. In fact, there are only a few active ships in the South China Sea, and no new ships have been added for many years.

The county magistrate knew the details of the Nanhai Guards very well. They had not been engaged in serious anti-smuggling activities for many years. Every garrison commander had only one goal after taking office: to make money. When they had made enough money, they would move to another place and continue to make money.

In order to make money, the garrison used all means possible. It was normal for them to turn a blind eye to smuggling, and they collected road tolls every now and then, but they couldn't do anything about him. He complained to Guangzhou, but a new governor had just taken office, and his superiors were all worried about their safety, and there was no follow-up.

After Jia Lian passed the South China Sea, he was only concerned with hurrying on his way. He had originally planned to reach Huizhou that day, but he did not expect to arrive there. Seeing that it was getting late, he looked for an inn to stay at.

When staying at the post station, the postmaster said that in addition to the normal fees, an additional ten taels of silver would be required.

Jia Lian, who played the role of the host, expressed his dissatisfaction: "Your post station charges a lot of money to begin with. For the sake of safety, I accept it. Why do you want to charge an additional fee?"

The skinny postmaster was not angry either. He smiled and explained, "My dear boss, you should ask the prefect about this matter. The prefect's office issued an order to receive the governor's eastern tour. For caravans with less than 30 people, five taels of silver will be charged as reception fee. For caravans with more than 30 people, ten taels will be charged. If you feel uncomfortable living in the post station, there is a village ahead. You can stay there."

Jia Lian immediately frowned when he heard this: "You are bullying outsiders who don't understand the market, right?"

The postmaster sneered, "Since the boss knew that this journey was difficult and chose to stay at the post station, why would you ask more questions?"

Jia Lian was being calculative on purpose, just wanting to get more information out of the postmaster. After all, the previous news was all passed on by the Dragon Guard.

Judging from the reaction of the postmaster, who knows what will happen at night if they stay in the village ahead. Maybe the whole village will turn into robbers, kill the caravan and steal the goods.

Don't think that this kind of thing is unbelievable. Not to mention in ancient times, even in modern times, similar cases have happened before, and the country has launched special rectification actions to crack down on car bandits and highway robbers.

For Jia Lian, the extra ten taels of silver was really nothing. It was worth it to obtain and verify the information.

But he still said disdainfully: "Everyone uses silver dollars now. Who would carry silver when going out? It's heavy, unsafe, and inconvenient to use."

The postmaster sneered and said, "I'll accept silver dollars, but I'll charge you 15 taels of fire consumption."

Jia Lian deliberately quarreled with him again: "What's the fire consumption? This silver dollar of mine was taken from the imperial bank. It's a genuine official product."

"You said it was an official product, right? Everyone knows that silver dollars are not easy to use and there are too many fakes. Besides, I don't care whether it's real or fake, this is the rule here."

The postmaster was very arrogant. Jia Lian showed a look of fear and reluctance. He took out fifteen silver dollars and threw them on the table: "Take it. It's really unlucky. This business trip will not make any money again."

After hearing this, the postmaster sneered again and said, "You outsiders are the most dishonest. Forget it, I am too lazy to say more to you."

After receiving the money, the postmaster turned around and left without saying anything else, perhaps because he was worried that saying too much would lead to mistakes.

Jia Lian felt a little regretful that he did not get more information. However, the people below did gain some information. They chatted with the people in the post station, such as the grooms and cooks, and drank some wine. They dared to tell anyone anything.

After analyzing the various information received by the people below, a conclusion was drawn. It is not known whether silver dollars were privately minted, but the local government has never accepted silver dollars and taxes are collected in silver.

Merchants from other places who only have silver dollars will be charged more. Well, it has always been like this.

Also, don't live in the village in front called Pengjia Village. People don't drink your wine for free, just this sentence, it can be regarded as a return of respect.

What is the specific situation? Jia Lian got the information from Long Jinwei. As for that village, if a group of dozens of people passed by during the day, it would be fine. But if they stayed at night, it would be hard to say. If it was a small group of three or five people, they might be robbed even during the day, not to mention at night. The key is that these people are too cruel and leave no one alive.

It can be said that the existence of this village is aimed at foreign merchants. Who told you to come here to engage in smuggling?

(End of this chapter)