I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Chapter 136: The Envoy from the Roman Empire

On the other hand, although Leah had been sending people to the Rouran to ask them to submit to them, the Rouran people took advantage of the fact that they were a nomadic people and felt that Leah had no way to deal with them, so they kept arguing with Leah. To put it bluntly, they wanted to cheat for supplies, but they didn't want to submit to the Wu Kingdom.

Since these Rouran people refused to accept the toast and felt that the Wu Kingdom had no ability to defeat them, Leah would not continue to argue with them.

In March of 9 AD, Leah made up her mind to fight to the end.

So they prepared a large amount of supplies, food and logistics, and let Hua Mulan lead the army from Yanqi, Wang Jiajun from Yinchuan, and Pi Baozi from Datong. The three routes advanced together, determined to defeat the Rouran people in one fell swoop.

Another point is that the Indian Assassins that Leah had always wanted to capture as laborers have finally been found. And they are not Indian Assassins, but people from various countries.

Ever since Leah relied on Morgan's ability to build a highway of several hundred miles between Xinjiang and Hexi, this road has become a transportation channel between the East and the West.

Xinjiang and the Hexi Corridor are no longer the road of death that everyone fears, but a road to heaven that can make people rich.

On this road, countless caravans came and went. They came to Wu State, bought all kinds of fine goods from Wu State, and then sold them to western countries at higher prices.

The goods that Wu State sold to them were very expensive, but there was a way to make these goods cheaper, and that was slaves.

For example, in Wu State, a piece of glass about one meter long would cost one tael of silver, but a slave could exchange for ten such pieces of glass.

Are slaves valuable? To be honest, they are not valuable, at least not as valuable as ten taels of silver from the Wu State.

You have to know that no matter where you are, when everyone is hungry, human life is the least valuable.

The most important point is that the slave trade in the West was legal, and slavery did not end until the 1718th and th centuries, among which the black people suffered the most.

As a result, many illegal businessmen directly started trading slaves in other countries.

They sold these slaves to the Wu State, obtained a large amount of goods, and then resold them to other Western countries, making these merchants rich.

Although Leah does not like slavery, if the Wu Kingdom wants to develop and become stronger, some things still need people to do.

These things are all extremely dangerous, such as some extremely dangerous jobs when mining or opening mountains. In addition, she has planned to take over Qinghai and Tibet. If she wants to make these places habitable, it will require a lot of lives.

It is much more cost-effective to use these purchased slaves than to use one's own people.

Her own people will always be her own family. She will feel sad for a long time when one of them dies. Moreover, if too many of her own people die, it will not be good for her reputation and may even cause unrest.

But there is no need to feel sorry for slaves bought from foreign countries. Each slave costs only ten taels of silver, so there is no need to feel sorry for him.

Don’t talk about human rights or not. This thing is simply used by those in power to fool other people. In fact, its usefulness is not even as good as toilet paper.

Anyone who believes this has no brains.

Especially since she is an emperor, what she should do is to be a saint at home and a hegemon abroad, instead of being brainwashed by such brainless remarks.

Be nice to your family members, not to outsiders. That will only make others think you are a fool.

Of course, Leah is not really that ruthless. She has a time limit for these purchased slaves.

That is, as long as they worked hard for her for ten years, she could free them from their slave status, and even allow them to live on the land of Wu State and give them the identity of Han people.

As for whether they were in good health after working for ten years, that was none of her business. After all, slaves had no human rights and they might die one day.

By doing this, she was already a great saint to the slaves.

You have to know that once you become a slave, you will be a slave for generations.

But after working for at least ten years, they might not live long due to health reasons, but it would be a very lucky thing for their descendants to be able to live as Han people on the land of Wu.

Liya also thought about it. Qinghai and Tibet would rely on the lives of these slaves. When these two places were almost done, they would immigrate here and officially incorporate these two places into the territory.

In addition, Liya is also vigorously developing the shipping industry. Last year, Hainan Island and Taiwan Island were included in its territory. In this way, the two chicken feet were also obtained.

Finally, it’s the three northeastern provinces, which are the final frontier. The climate there is too bad, and we need to proceed step by step.

In short, her current focus is to first develop Qinghai and Tibet. These two areas are actually vast and sparsely populated. There are not many people, only some people who fled to these places during the Qin and Han dynasties, and some of the original indigenous people.

As long as Leah sends a large army, it will be easy to conquer the place, but after conquering, the problem becomes how to deal with the environment here, so Leah needs a lot of slaves.

Another thing is still information related to these businessmen.

That was the merchant envoy from Rome, and Leah knew this Roman merchant. He was the Pinov who was captured by horse thieves in front of Yumen Pass and was rescued by Leah.

This Pinov obviously forgot the time when Leah saved him. After arriving at the palace, Pinov took a look at Leah, then knelt down and said, "Roman envoy Pinov greets His Majesty the Emperor of Wu."

"Roman envoy? I wonder what Mr. Pinov wants to talk to me about?"

Leah was also a little surprised to see the Roman merchant. Her memory was very good, and even though almost nine years had passed, she still remembered the incident.

I didn't expect that this guy was also a Roman envoy.

But it was obvious that this guy didn't know Leah, and perhaps he had long forgotten that encounter.

After all, Leah looks only 15 years old at the moment, very, very young.

"Your Majesty, we would like you to establish trading ports in Dengzhou, Quanzhou, Songjiang Prefecture, Dengzhou and other places, and request Wu State to establish a customs and publish a tariff so that we can pay taxes according to regulations."

"Oh? For you merchants, isn't it a good idea to take the Xinjiang route? I know a lot about Rome. I heard that there is a distinction between the East and the West, right?"

Leah asked doubtfully.

Opening a sea route or a checkpoint doesn't really matter, but the route in Xinjiang should be closer, right? If you want to take the sea route, you have to go around a long way and it will take at least twice as long.

Chapter 137 Doing Business with Rome

"I didn't expect Her Majesty to know so much about Rome. In fact, although the land route is short, we need to pass through the Sassanid Persian Empire, the White Hun Han Kingdom, and some large and small countries. These countries set up checkpoints along the way. For merchants like us, the tariffs are too high and unbearable.

Pinov was a little surprised at Empress Wu's knowledge of Rome, but he quickly began to explain.

"I see." Pinov's explanation also made Leah understand why they wanted to open their own checkpoint.

Once they choose to go by sea, although the journey takes longer, in the end, they earn more because of the reduced tariffs.

Moreover, from the perspective of later generations, once she opened the borders in the coastal areas, she would indeed earn much more than in the inland areas. Opening the borders was still more beneficial to the Wu State.

But the harm is also not small. That is, many things in the Wu State cannot be blocked, such as firearms, which may flow out more easily.

After pondering for a while, Leah chose to open this path.

What is she worried about? If the border is not opened, won't she become the Qing Dynasty?

If you are afraid that firearms will be known and used by foreigners, then make your firearms stronger. As long as you have money and are stronger than others, then there will be no problem.

If you don't accept it, I will beat you into submission, just like the Eagle Sauce in later generations, which is so powerful that other countries dare not say anything. I am the only one who beats others, but others dare not beat me.

So Leah thought about it for a while and chose to agree.

Next, Leah asked her ministers to sign a series of treaties with the other party. As long as the treaties were ready, the customs would be set accordingly in the future.

A few days later, the other party came to see him again.

Because the tariffs set by the Wu Kingdom were too high and they were simply not treated as human beings, they wanted to find Leah to make a new treaty.

But the treaty proposed by the other party made Leah frown.

The first is that the other party wants to use a piece of land from the Wu State, such as Hainan Island and Taiwan Island, so that their Roman merchant ships can anchor there, live there, and store goods.

After giving them the same rights as Roman merchants and Wu merchants under Leah's rule, the re-export tax rates between several trading ports were abolished, and the Roman goods in the trading ports could be tax-free or tax-reduced.

Listening to the demands in the conversation, Liya almost laughed out of anger. Apart from the requirements of adding more trading ports, setting up customs, and publishing tariffs, which were relatively normal, the remaining requirements were just treating people like fools!

Isn't this a modern version of Britain's expansion under the guise of establishing modern business relations, attempting to turn China into a market for British goods and a source of raw materials?

Of course, Leah would not agree to such a request, and she gave the other party a clear answer.

"Go back to where you came from!" There are many merchants coming to Wu State to do business, and they don't lack a country like you, Rome!

The sudden change in attitude of the Empress of Wu Kingdom made Pinov confused.

Is there anything wrong with requesting the opening of a trading port? Is there anything wrong with requesting the establishment of a customs office and the publication of tax rates? Is there anything wrong with requesting that my Roman merchants have some human rights in your Wu State? Is there anything wrong with requesting a reduction in tariffs?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Besides, even if you can't agree to some conditions, let's discuss it properly. Why do you just tell people to go back to where they came from?

Is this the Chinese nation of etiquette that you call yourself?

I'm so angry! I'm shaking! I'm so cold! I'm going to feel sick!

Of course, the other party may not have thought so much, maybe Leah thought too much, but even if there is only a slight possibility, Leah will not allow such a thing to happen to her again.

After looking at each other in bewilderment, the trembling "Roman envoys" all turned their eyes to Pinov, who was in the lead.

Pinov had to suppress his anger but dared not show it. After all, he was facing a powerful super-empire emperor. Even if the other party was a woman, she had the power of life and death over them.

Pinov bowed to Leah and said, "Your Majesty, which of these clauses do you dissatisfy with?

Liya sneered and said, "What do you think? You want to rent land? You want to be treated like the people of Wu Country? You think a tax rate of less than 10% is too high?"

After hearing what Leah said, Pinov, who was in the lead, was stunned.

Let's not talk about renting land to live in and use as a warehouse, but what's wrong with wanting to be like the people of Wu State? What's wrong with that?

Your treaty forbids us to bring women into the city, buy Chinese books, ride in sedan chairs, or learn the Chinese language.

We are here to sell goods. Not only do we need your personnel to follow us at all times, but even the merchant ships must leave quickly after unloading the goods. We are not allowed to stay.

You, the Wu Kingdom, don't treat us as human beings. Why is it so difficult to get some human rights?

There is also the tax rate. Why do you think a 10% tax rate is too high? It should be around 40%!

Well, it doesn’t matter that we are barbarians in your eyes. After all, money is what matters, and this little thing doesn’t mean anything.

But if they travel by sea, it takes several months to go back and forth, and they have to pay half of their earnings as taxes. Is this what you call a 10% tax rate? You still call this a low tax rate? This is already treating them like pigs, it's better to go by land!

In desperation, Pinov had to patiently explain everything to Leah, and it was obvious that Her Majesty the Queen had no idea how terrible the customs tariffs set for them by the Wu Kingdom were.

After listening to Pinov's explanation, Leah realized that her subordinates did not set the tax rate at 10%, but directly at 40%.

Leah took the treaty from Pinov and read it carefully to see what it was all about.

After reading it, Leah was speechless.

The taxes imposed by Wu officials on these Roman merchants were divided into ship taxes and cargo taxes, among which ship taxes were further divided into real ship taxes and official gifts.

The real ship notes were 1200 taels for a large ship, 960 taels for a medium-sized ship, and 450 taels for a small ship.

This money is for the court of my Wu State, but the "official gift" is more interesting. All ships, regardless of size, must pay 1950 taels, and this money goes to the customs officials.

Similarly, commodity taxes are divided into regular taxes and irregular taxes. Regular taxes are 3.9% as stipulated by the Ministry of Revenue, and they also belong to the imperial court of the Wu Kingdom.

The "corrupt fees" are 6% of the total price of the goods, which also belongs to individual customs officials.

Chapter 138 Want to Buy Firearms

我们假设一万两的大船计算，这些国外的洋人需要缴纳的总税款为1200(船钞)+1950(官礼)+390(正税)+600(陋规)=4140两，税率为41.4%。

Of course, it is not scientific to calculate all of them in this way, because small boats have less ship money and carry less cargo, so the total price of the cargo is lower. In short, it is between 35% and 45%.

This is just customs. After the goods are circulated to the mainland, there are regular customs. Even if Chinese agents are responsible for the sale of goods, the freight, warehouse storage fees, and regular tariffs based on this will be transferred to foreign merchants.

Of these so-called taxes, half went into the pockets of local officials, more than 30% went into the court officials of Wu State and the royal household department, and only more than 10% went into the treasury of Wu State.

Liya took a closer look. Wow, her treasury could only get one layer of tax revenue. The Wu Kingdom had only been established for nine years. Could it be that these officials were already impatient to reach out?

More than half of this tax goes into the pockets of those officials.

To be honest, if you set the tax rate at 10% and your subordinates set it at 20%, it is not a big deal. However, if you set it directly at 40%, it is indeed excessive.

The most important point is that all this money flows into the pockets of these officials, and as the emperor, she can only take a share. Aren't these people deceiving their superiors and subordinates and seeking death?

Anyone who is a little smart knows that their master takes the lion's share and they take the smaller share, so that everyone can live in peace. Now these people let their master take the smaller share, so don't blame Liya for being rude to them later!

In addition to this, the officials under his command also stipulated that foreign women were not allowed to come to Wu State; foreigners were not allowed to ride in sedan chairs, buy Chinese books, or learn Chinese.

You are only allowed to enter the city three times a month, with no more than 3 people each time, and you must be accompanied by Chinese personnel at all times. Merchant ships must leave as soon as they unload their cargo and are not allowed to stay in China.

It’s no wonder that these foreigners feel aggrieved. Even Leah feels aggrieved for them.

I have to say that the Chinese people's vigilance against foreigners comes from the heart. If they are not of our race, their hearts must be different!

After figuring out the reason, Liya's expression remained unchanged. Although she was not right, she still said confidently: "Then bring out your conditions and let me take a look."

After getting Leah's permission, Pinov quickly put forward his request.

Pinov's request is that the Wu State treat them as human beings and reduce the tariffs.

After reading it, Leah marked out many unreasonable places set by previous officials, such as foreign women were not allowed to come to Wu State; foreigners were not allowed to ride in sedan chairs, buy Chinese books, or learn Chinese.

This is cultural invasion, how can we not allow it? We must let them learn Chinese and our Han culture.

Only in this way can foreign countries understand the strength of China. Just like modern English has become a compulsory course, only when the whole world learns Chinese can the strength of China be proved.