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Qin Mu only stayed in Tianyi Pavilion for half an hour before leaving. He used this half an hour as a time to give his brain a rest. The most important thing at the moment was to deal with the Zheng family first.
After returning to Qiulu Garden, where he was staying, Qin Mu found Sima Kai and said to him, "Tianyi Pavilion has a large number of rare books. You should find someone to print them immediately. I will allocate the required expenses from the inner treasury."
Sima Kai was very happy to hear this. According to Qin Mu's suggestion, it would be fine to just print it out as it was, without any major editing. This job was not too hard, and he could also read a large number of rare books that he had longed for. For a scholar, this was a dream job.
"Don't worry, King Qin. I will do it right away."
"Don't be too happy too soon. I have something else to give you. I want you to compile a book, a mathematics textbook for children's enlightenment education. I remember Xu Guangqi said that mathematics is the mother of encyclopedias. However, China has always lacked mathematics enlightenment textbooks since ancient times.
As the saying goes, it takes ten years to grow a tree, and a hundred years to cultivate a person. These missing teaching materials must be completed as soon as possible. I will allocate as many manpower and funds as you need, as long as you give me a satisfactory result. "
The smile on Sima Kai's face froze immediately. To be honest, he was not very good at math, but he couldn't refuse.
Seeing his embarrassed expression, Qin Mu could not help but scold him, "Look at you. You are not good at math, so why don't you find someone who is good at it? Wasn't Zhuge Liang good at wielding swords and guns? Didn't he also command thousands of troops to fight on the battlefield? I only asked you to coordinate this matter, and I didn't ask you to compile it alone. You look like your father has died. If the Prime Minister of the Great Qin knew about this, I would peel off your skin."
"Your humble servant... King Qin, please don't let my father know. I know I was wrong and will do my best to complete this matter. King Qin, please forgive me and don't let my father..."
"Go away. I don't have time to argue with you. Just do it now."
"I obey your order."
Afterwards, Qin Mu once again summoned Jin Lei, Yang Shen, Gu Junen, Shi Chunqiu, Lin Jihai, Cao Weijun and others to discuss the matter.
"King Qin, it is not difficult to organize a caravan to Japan. Just leave it to me. As for the accompanying delegation, you can appoint anyone you like. The personnel traveling to and from Ningbo are very complicated. I am sure that there must be Zheng family's spies among them. As long as we pretend to do it, the news should soon reach Zheng Zhilong's ears." Cao Weijun said very affirmatively.
Yang Shen said, "King Qin, I have thought about it. If we can accurately grasp the whereabouts of Zheng's fleet, we can ambush them. In fact, the location is not important. We can use the cover of night to launch a night attack. The difficulty lies in how to accurately grasp the whereabouts of Zheng's fleet."
Gu Jun'en continued, "On the vast ocean, even if we can track the Zheng family's fleet, it is impossible to send news back in time. The only possibility is to find out the time when the Zheng family departs from the port, and then calculate roughly when and where they will arrive based on the distance and speed."
For this mission, we can only rely on Ye Bushou. Those present include Ye Bushou's deputy commander Yan Gaofei and the chief commander He Ningzong.
"Mr. He." Qin Mu called out the name directly.
One of He Ningzong's usual duties was to sort out the various types of news reported by night watchmen from all over the country and report them according to their importance.
The last time Zheng Zhilong suddenly attacked Taiwan, Ye Bushou was not able to get the news in advance, which made Qin Mu extremely dissatisfied. Since then, Ye Bushou has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the Zheng family in Fujian, and finally succeeded in buying off a few people in the Zheng family army.
But whether these insiders can spread the news depends on what He Ningzong and Yan Gaofei say.
"Replying to the King of Qin, part of the Zheng family's fleet is now stationed in Taiwan, and most of it is in Fujian. There is frequent travel between the two places. If Zheng Zhilong sends troops from Fujian to the north, it will not be difficult to get the news. If he only sends troops from Taiwan to the north, I dare not guarantee that I will get the news in time."
Zheng Zhilong's fleet has 3,000 ships and more than 100,000 people, most of which are armed merchant ships. It is impossible to send all of them north. So if he wants to send someone, it is hard to say whether he will send the fleet from Fujian or the fleet stationed in Taiwan.
Yan Gaofei thought for a moment and said, "King Qin, there is another way we can try. Send more fishing boats with carrier pigeons out to sea in the Wenzhou area. Once we find the Zheng family fleet passing by, we can release the carrier pigeons to report the situation. This may also work."
Qin Mu nodded and said, "Do it immediately. In short, we must try every possible means. Once Zheng Zhilong takes the bait, we must grasp the exact time when the Zheng family fleet will head north."
"Yes, King Qin."
Gu Jun'en continued, "King Qin, I think it is necessary to prepare Wenzhou and Quzhou. Once the navy can severely damage the Zheng family's navy, the Zheng family's army will be in chaos. At that time, we can immediately attack Fenshui Pass and Xianxia Pass and quickly break through."
After listening to this, Qin Mu pondered for a moment. The preparations for a land war were not yet sufficient. At least the allocation of food and fodder had not yet arrived. It was actually not appropriate to launch a full-scale war in Fujian at this time.
However, the opportunity for war often does not wait for anyone, and there are very few wars that come only when you are fully prepared.
The so-called "everything is ready except for the east wind" is often just an ideal state, which is rarely the case. Most wars come when you are not prepared.
"Prince Qin, Fujian has not suffered a major war since Jiajing defeated the Japanese invaders, and the people are still very prosperous. If the army can quickly break through Fenshui Pass or Xianxia Pass, it should not be difficult to obtain food and grass supplies from the local area."
"Yes." Qin Mu said lightly. Gu Jun'en meant to use war to support war, which means that after entering Fujian, there may be some cases of taking advantage of the rich, which is very common in war. As long as they don't go too far and kill everyone, and let the rich "donate" some military rations, it's still okay. "Okay, I will tell Yuan Zongdi of Wenzhou and Liu Fangliang of Quzhou to prepare. Do you have anything else to add?"
Everyone present stopped talking, so Qin Mu continued, "Let Yang Qing and Prefect Cao organize the business delegation and the diplomatic mission together, and make the event as loud as possible."
"Your Majesty, I obey your command." Yang Shen and Cao Weijun stood up and bowed together.
After the meeting, Qin Mu was alone in his study dealing with some memorials from Nanjing, including the appointment of Aobai. According to the cabinet, Aobai was to be temporarily appointed as a guerrilla general.
Qin Mu felt that a guerrilla general might not be enough of a stimulus to the Qing Dynasty, so he approved the appointment of Aobai as a lieutenant general. After thinking about it, he instructed to appoint Zu Dabi as a guerrilla general, regardless of whether Zu Dabi accepted it or not, and issue the appointment first.
The other memorial was an urgent report from Wu Jinxi, who was far away in Sichuan. It said that Liu Wenxiu, who was trapped in Zunyi, could not hold on any longer and his will had wavered. He was willing to accept the amnesty, but the condition was that he could guard one side with tens of thousands of his men. He also proposed two options: Luzhou Prefecture or Jiading Prefecture.
Qin Mu rejected the memorial without a second thought. This is not the same as before. If you continue to be allowed to rule your own territory, how different is this from not accepting the amnesty? No, either accept the reorganization and be an honest person, or wait to become a ghost.
The last memorial was a proposal submitted by Cao Weijun, the prefect of Ningbo, to set up a Maritime Customs Office. After Qin Mu read it carefully, he sent someone to send it back to Nanjing and asked the six ministries of the cabinet to discuss it first.
The establishment of the Maritime Customs is a major event involving a wide range of aspects. It is necessary to let the six cabinets and ministers of various departments discuss it in detail first and clarify the various regulations.
Qin Mu himself also thought about this matter, hoping to learn from the more complete tariff system of later generations, so that the functions of the Qin Dynasty's Maritime Customs Office can be more complete and play a greater regulatory role in the domestic economy and foreign trade.
After all, he was born into a wealthy family in his previous life and had some understanding of tariffs, so he found a piece of white paper and wrote down everything he thought of. The formula for calculating the taxable amount of tariffs in later lives is: Taxable amount = Duty-paid price x applicable tax rate.
The key lies in the four words "applicable tax rate". The formulation of tax rates for various commodities is based on the premise that it will promote the domestic economy and import and export trade.
To put it more clearly, the tax rate for different commodities should be determined according to domestic economic needs. If too much import of some commodities will cause an impact on the domestic market, they should be controlled by high tax rates.
In summary, the effects of tariffs can be roughly divided into four aspects:
1. Safeguarding national sovereignty and economic interests
2. Protect and promote the development of domestic industrial and agricultural production
3. Regulating the national economy and foreign trade
4. Raising national fiscal revenue
Qin Mu recorded these four functions and sent them back to Nanjing as a guideline for formulating the customs duties of the Qin Maritime Customs. He asked the ministers in the court to discuss the details accordingly.
After Qin Mu finished doing all this, he suddenly heard Li Shi come in and report that there was a man outside the palace who claimed to be the prince of Korea and wanted to see him.
North Korea? When Qin Mu heard Li Shi say these two words, the first thing that came to his mind was: the great Paektu Mountain revolutionary family, the great leader of the North Korean people, Kim Jong-un... that cute look.
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.(To be continued..)
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