Datang: Just been appointed as the crown prince, the counterattack system is here

Chapter 133: Above the Zhenguan Period, there is the real heyday of the Tang Dynasty! [Please subscribe]

After more than ten days of preparation, Jiangling has been filled with a strong festive atmosphere.

The streets and alleys are filled with various decorations, lanterns, cruise ships, and various street stalls.

There were people beating drums and gongs, blowing trumpets, and celebrating in any way they could.

Although most of the things were made after Li Chengqian came to Jiangling, he still felt they were very fresh.

To be honest, it is difficult to feel the strong festive atmosphere while staying in the palace.

As the sky gets darker, the lanterns begin to light up.

Li Chengqian and Li Yuan changed into casual clothes and went out for a walk with Du Caigan and others.

Countless people of the Tang Dynasty with black hair and black eyes, as well as many foreign merchants with blond hair and blue eyes, all wore kind smiles and felt the rare joy of the New Year.

Before Li Chengqian came to Jiangling, Jiangling was an important city in the south. After Li Chengqian came to Jiangling, this important city in the south had the potential to develop into a capital.

Especially with the upgrade and transformation of the Huang family's canal transportation, various novel commodities were transported to various states and counties, attracting a large number of foreign merchants, making Jiangling famous in just half a year.

I believe that starting from next year, Jiangling's small commodity economy will set off an unprecedented economic trend in the Tang Dynasty.

At that time, Jiangling will develop into another economic center after Chang'an.

It is precisely because Jiangling is getting better and better that the lives of the people in Jiangling Prefecture are also getting better and better.

Many street vendors put on new clothes, smiled, and greeted every customer warmly.

"Sir, there's a delicious kebab place over there. I'll go there and win you over with my virtue!"

Du Caigan has been particularly active recently because his wife and children also moved from Chang'an to Jiangling and now live in a townhouse next to Jianghu Villa.

This is the house designed by Li Chengqian specifically for core members. Each villa is over 500 square meters, enough for a family of several people to live in.

Moreover, because it is a townhouse, Du Caigan, Ma Zhou, Cen Wenben, including Xue Rengui and others will not feel unfamiliar.

When they have nothing to do, Li Yuan will invite them to hold open-air parties on the lawn of Jianghu Villa.

Of course, this only applies when their wives and children are not here. Now that their wives and children are here, if Li Yuan invites them again, they will probably have to come secretly.

After all, those entertainment programs made Li Chengqian blush and were not suitable for children.

"Alright, there's no need to convince others with virtue. Just take your wife and children and go have fun today! Buy whatever you want, it's all covered, young master!"

"Thank you, sir!"

Du Caigan was overjoyed when he heard this. He picked up his daughter, shook off his wife and son, and ran away.

Mrs. Du and her son stood there, somewhat at a loss, until her son gently tugged at Mrs. Du's robe and they reacted.

"Sir, this..."

"Hahaha!"

Li Yuan threw his head back and laughed, then took out a bag of gold and handed it over: "Our grandson is not short of money. If you spend it all, put it on the account and he will reimburse you! If you want to divorce, I will also help you with the decision!"

Madam Du took the gold from Li Yuan and bowed: "Thank you, Master. There is no need for a divorce!"

As he said this, he turned his head to look at Li Chengqian and smiled shyly: "Sir, can you wait for him to come home and let Commander Xue come over to beat him up?"

"Uh, this."

Li Chengqian's mouth twitched, and then he turned to look at Xue Rengui.

Xue Rengui patted his chest and said, "No problem!"

Afterwards, Mrs. Du took her son to find Du Caigan with satisfaction.

"Aren't you going to have some fun?"

After watching Mrs. Du Caigan leave, Li Chengqian turned his gaze to Ma Zhou.

Ma Zhou shook his head: "I won't go. I don't really like festivals. I'll just stay with the young master and the master."

"Ah!"

Li Chengqian snorted and handed him a bag of gold, saying, "Then stay with us. Buy whatever you like. If you spend more than you want, we'll deduct it from your salary!"

"what?"

Ma Zhou couldn't believe his ears. He stared at Li Chengqian blankly and said, "Why, Master? You said before that you would treat everyone equally!"

"I did say that, but they are a family. Are you, a single guy, worthy of being treated like them?"

"I"

Ma Zhou was left speechless.

According to his age, he should have been the father of several children.

But because he was too unruly during the years he was in Bozhou, and he came from a poor family, almost no good family was interested in him.

Time flies like this, and I'm still a single guy at the age of 26.

Cen Wenben, who is five or six years older than him, is now the father of three children.

Cen Wenben patted his shoulder with a smile and said jokingly, "Master Ma, you must work hard this year!"

After saying this, he brought his wife and children and walked straight to Li Chengqian and Li Yuan, bowed and said, "Master, Master, I'm planning to take my wife and son for a stroll too!"

"Okay, this is yours. If you spend more than you want, put it on the bill!"

Li Chengqian smiled and nodded, then handed Cen Wenben a bag of gold.

The Cen Wenben family bowed again, then left with a smile.

At this moment, Li Yuan curiously cast his gaze upon Xue Rengui and asked, "Rengui, what about you? Are you also single?"

Xue Rengui subconsciously glanced at Ma Zhou when he heard this, and shook his head: "I'm not a single dog!"

"How come you're not?"

"Yeah! How could you not?!"

Li Chengqian and Ma Zhou both looked at Xue Rengui in surprise.

Xue Rengui scratched his head a little embarrassedly and said, "I have a girl I like, and I swear I will marry her in the future!"

"Unrequited love?" Ma Zhou curled his lips.

Xue Rengui quickly explained: "It's not unrequited love, she likes me too, it's just..."

"It's just that your family has fallen on hard times, and you feel you're not worthy of her, so you want to start a career and then go back to marry her, right?"

"How do you know, sir?"

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes at Xue Rengui and said, "That's how it's played out in TV dramas!"

"TV series?" Xue Rengui looked puzzled.

Li Chengqian waved his hand and handed him a bag of gold. "Since you have a fiancée, keep this bag of gold for her. Tell me what you want to buy and I'll buy it for you!"

"Thank you, sir!" Xue Rengui happily saluted Li Chengqian.

The four of them continued walking on the street, but Ma Zhou looked a little unhappy.

It seemed that Li Yuan was celebrating the New Year with the people for the first time. He found everything new and wanted to buy everything he saw. After a while, packages of all sizes were piled on Ma Zhou and Xue Rengui.

"Boss, I need to buy some goods."

Just next to where Li Yuan was shopping, a blond-haired, blue-eyed Western businessman came to the stall.

The vendor's expression suddenly changed, and his smile vanished. He then said indifferently, "What do you want? Choose for yourself. Our store's rule is that if you are not a Tang Dynasty citizen, the price will be increased by 30%. If you don't want to buy, don't touch it!"

After hearing this, the group of people around, who had already gotten used to it, started picking out the products they liked.

But the Western businessman was obviously unhappy and said in stiff Tang Dynasty dialect:

"Boss, what do you mean? I'm a guest from afar. Isn't the Tang Dynasty the most hospitable? When I was in Chang'an, the officials from your Honglu Temple even received me!"

"Chang'an is Chang'an, Jiangling is Jiangling. If you're on our territory, you have to abide by our rules. Also, why are you trying to bluff me? Can't you see I'm introducing the products to a customer? If you keep talking nonsense, I'll beat you up!"

The street vendor waved his fist arrogantly, with a hint of ferocity in his eyes.

A group of Tang people nearby also joined in the commotion, obviously in support of the stall owner.

Li Chengqian, who was not far away, saw this scene and raised the corners of his mouth slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.

Although the Tang Dynasty could tolerate these foreign merchants, once they arrived in Tang Dynasty territory, they had to abide by the rules of the Tang Dynasty and not act like they were superior to others.

Is it possible to expect preferential treatment in everything?

Obviously impossible!
The preferential treatment of the Tang Dynasty can only be given to the people of the Tang Dynasty!

After Li Chengqian took charge of Jiangling, the first thing he adjusted was the tax system. All foreign merchants who came to Jiangling to purchase goods were subject to additional customs duties and foreign business taxes.

Even if merchants from various states and counties come to purchase goods, commercial taxes will also be increased.

There was no way. The commercial tax in the Tang Dynasty was too low, so low that Li Chengqian felt like it was giving it away for free.

For example, the Tang Dynasty only collected one-tenth of the tax on the more expensive dragon incense.

You should know that this kind of spice costs only a few strings of coins abroad, but when sold domestically, it can cost more than a hundred strings of coins.

With only one-tenth of the tax, these foreign businessmen can still make a lot of money.

For example, domestic commodities such as silk and porcelain are taxed less than one-tenth domestically, but when sold abroad, the profit can still be dozens of times higher.

The Tang Dynasty not only ignored such huge profits, but also issued laws stipulating that foreign merchants could trade freely and no heavy taxes could be imposed.

This is so fucking outrageous.

Although the main tax revenue of the Tang Dynasty was agricultural tax, Li Chengqian never expected that the country would pay so little attention to commercial tax.

Therefore, when he came to Jiangling, he stipulated that all goods sold to foreign merchants would be subject to a 30% markup, and all goods entering Jiangling to purchase at the market would be subject to tariffs. In addition, all goods sold abroad would be subject to a cross-border commercial tax.

In a nutshell, the tax is so high, buy it if you want or not.

Seeing the Tang people around him making a fuss, the Western businessman didn't dare to say that he knew any important people. He quickly put on a fawning expression, nodded and smiled, and said, "Sorry, boss, please be busy first. Let me take a look. Your products are really beautiful. I really want to buy them!"

Seeing that the Western businessman was so tactful, the stall owner did not want to refuse the money. He just said, "Wait!" and started introducing his products to other customers.

The Western businessman was waiting on the side in a somewhat comical manner.

The Tang people around him were at a loss whether to laugh or cry, but they didn't pay any more attention to him.

As for Li Chengqian, who had been silently watching them, he smiled and retracted his gaze. He turned to look at Ma Zhou beside him and said, "You have to take care of this matter. Don't just think that the commotion just now is fun. If you don't take care of this matter, there will definitely be big problems in the future!"

"Yes, this foreign businessman has a good temper. If he encounters a Turkic businessman with a bad temper, problems will indeed arise in the future!" Ma Zhou nodded in agreement.

"No, what I mean is, when friends come, there's wine; when enemies come, there's swords and guns!"

Li Chengqian shook his head and said sternly, "No matter who you are, as long as you come to the Tang Dynasty, you must abide by the laws and regulations of the Tang Dynasty. Do you understand?"

"This"

Ma Zhou hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "I understand."

But then Li Chengqian said proudly:

"All races in this world will sooner or later become citizens of the Great Tang, whether they are Turks, people from the Western Regions, Arabs, or Europeans. One day, the Great Tang will conquer every nation and integrate all races."

"By that time, there will be only a few random people left among all the races in the world. If they are not treated differently, they will be insignificant."

"but."

He then changed the subject and continued, "That's not possible now. We must maintain the nobility of the Han bloodline and not let these foreigners pollute our bloodline. Otherwise, how can we be worthy of our Chinese ancestors?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yuan, who was shopping nearby, immediately stopped his shopping, turned around, and nodded in agreement, saying, "It's not easy for the Han bloodline to continue. The Five Barbarians' invasion of China is still a pain for us Han people. Even our Li family has some Barbarian blood, which is an unspeakable shame for our Li family!"

At this point, Li Yuan suddenly seemed to remember something, pointed at his face, and said:

"Grandson, do you know how upset Grandpa felt when Emperor Yang of Sui called his face 'grandma's face'? The face of us Han people is the pride of countless ancestors and countless heroic sons and daughters!"

"This"

Upon hearing this, Li Chengqian and Ma Zhou looked at each other in surprise.

Especially Li Chengqian, who has lived two lives, has particularly deep feelings.

In his previous life, many people were dissatisfied with their faces.

I always feel that I was born into a bad family.

But they never thought that this face had been the pride of China for thousands of years.

Some people always think that we have grudges against each other's ancestors, but not against each other's current people.

However, if this hatred does not continue, how can we be worthy of the thousands of years of pride of our ancestors?
I've let my ancestors down, who can I be worthy of in this life?!
People who call weakness magnanimity, betrayal openness, and shamelessness personal freedom deserve to be cut into pieces!

Thinking of this, Li Chengqian couldn't help but clench his fists. He knew that his ultimate goal in coming to this world was never to compete for power with Emperor Li II, but to solve the problem from the root.

If you can't solve the problem, solve the person.

"Grandpa, the prosperous Tang Dynasty I want is not the Zhenguan Reign, but something above the Zhenguan Reign!"

Li Chengqian came back to his senses and said in a firm tone.

Li Yuan and Ma Zhou looked at each other and couldn't help but smile knowingly.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

At this moment, a sudden explosion sounded in the night sky of Jiangling.

Many people who were sightseeing, stall owners, and even foreign merchants were startled by the explosion and looked in the direction of the sound.

"Wow! It's so beautiful! What is this?!"

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(End of this chapter)