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The King of Qin cast a hook in the Yao River and caught a thousand-year-old giant turtle.
This news spread throughout Ningbo City like the wind. At first, some people doubted the authenticity of the rumor.
"Hey! Don't disbelieve me. Liu Jia Erlang was fishing on the other side of the river and saw the King of Qin catch the giant turtle. If you doubt it, you can go and see for yourself. The King of Qin was having his guards carry the giant turtle back to the city."
Thousands of curious people ran to the west gate and crowded on the roadside to watch. They saw the Qin King's carriage coming, with four guards carrying a door panel, and tied to the door panel was a giant turtle that must have weighed 100 to 200 kilograms.
As the saying goes, a turtle lives for a thousand years and a tortoise lives for ten thousand years. This turtle is so big, it must be thousands of years old. It must have become a spirit to have lived for so long.
People were talking about it and making all kinds of speculations. Suddenly, someone exclaimed loudly, "Oh, look, there seems to be words on the back of this turtle."
"Yes, I saw it too. There is a word on his back."
"Why are there words on the back of this giant turtle?"
"Who knows? This giant turtle has become a spirit over the years. Not to mention there is a word on its back, I think it can even call the wind and rain."
"Yes, yes, yes. I heard from the old man that after this thing becomes a spirit, it can also transform into a human form."
"Hey, Mr. Li, you can read and write, so why don't you tell us what the words are on the back of this giant turtle?"
"My eyesight is not very good, but it vaguely looks like the word 'Zheng'."
"Yes, yes, I think it also looks like the character Zheng..."
Everyone was excited. There was a word "Zheng" on the back of this old and powerful turtle. What did it mean? People couldn't help but imagine.
There was an old Taoist priest in the crowd, holding a fortune-telling flag in his hand. He stroked his long beard and said mysteriously, "My fellow villagers, I have calculated with my fingers. This giant turtle was originally the gatekeeper of the Dragon Palace in the East China Sea. It took advantage of the Dragon King's sleep to come to the human world to stir up trouble."
People were both believing and doubting. Someone asked curiously, "Master, haven't you heard that there are monsters causing trouble in recent years?"
The old Taoist replied confidently: "Do you see the word Zheng on the back of the giant turtle? Zheng Yiguan was possessed by its spirit, and that is why he has been roaming the East China Sea for many years."
"Ah, so that's how it is."
"Yes, yes, yes, the old commander is right. The word Zheng on the back of the giant turtle must refer to Zheng Yi Guan."
"The King of Qin captured him..."
"The King of Qin is the Purple Star God who has descended to earth. Haven't you heard of it? I heard that the King of Qin can even summon thunder and lightning to strike the Plague God."
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that, too."
Qin Mu sat in the carriage, listening to the discussions of the people on the roadside, and secretly laughed in his heart.
Li Xiangjun half-closed her bright eyes and looked at him, not knowing what to say. The word "Zheng" on the back of the giant turtle was put there by Qin Mu. At first, she couldn't figure out why Qin Mu put a word "Zheng" on the back of the giant turtle. After listening to the discussions of the people on the roadside, she suddenly realized.
Qin Mu did not lead his troops to Fujian this time, but the fact that he seemed to be leisurely fishing for a turtle by the Yao River was enough to defeat a hundred thousand soldiers.
Zheng Zhilong had just been defeated. The King of Qin caught a giant turtle on the Yao River, with the word "Zheng" on its back. After the people spread the word, the soldiers and civilians in Fujian were even less willing to resist.
"King Qin, I clearly saw that you didn't put out any bait." Li Xiangjun couldn't help but ask the question in her heart again.
She was present during the whole process. If Qin Mu had faked the word "Zheng" on the back of the giant turtle, how could he explain the process of catching the giant turtle? She saw it clearly at the time. Qin Mu did not touch the bait after getting on the boat, and threw the hook into the river casually. It was incredible that he could catch a giant turtle.
Qin Mu hugged her petite body and said with a laugh, "Xiangjun, are you doubting your own eyes?"
"No, I saw it clearly."
"That's it. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect that I could catch a giant turtle by throwing an empty hook into the river. It must be a coincidence." Qin Mu said this very honestly. Even he himself didn't expect how he would catch this big guy. After fishing it, he had an idea and that's how he got the blurry word "Zheng" on the back of the giant turtle.
"I don't believe it. How can such a coincidence happen in this world?"
“Uh... that can probably only be explained as me being the Purple Star Lord who has descended to the earth, hahaha..." Qin Mu laughed happily, as if even he began to believe that he was the Purple Star Lord who had descended to the earth.
Li Xiangjun put her arms around his neck, raised her pretty face and asked, "King Qin, what are you going to do with this giant turtle?"
This is really a problem. This giant turtle has become the incarnation of Zheng Zhilong, at least that's what the people think. So it has an unusual meaning.
From the perspective of animal protection, it is not easy for such a giant turtle to grow to such a large size, so it should be released. But if it is released, the people will definitely feel that it is like letting a tiger go back to the mountains, allowing Zheng Zhilong to continue to stir up trouble in the future.
Qin Mu thought for a moment, then smiled and said in an irrelevant way, "I live in seclusion on the shore of Hubei. We met in the late spring. The road is far and it's raining on the peaks. There are many turtle-catching people. Steaming flowers and making wine is just the beginning. Fish boats are poor places to stay. Don't be surprised that you come here so often. I am also a hermit."
Li Xiangjun listened and said thoughtfully: "What does the King of Qin mean? Do you want to cook and eat this giant turtle? No way, this turtle must have a spirit, how can it be eaten?"
Qin Mu really wanted to kill the giant turtle just now, hold a thousand-year-old turtle banquet, and invite ministers to have a good meal. After Li Xiangjun raised doubts, he also felt that killing it and eating it was not in line with his current political intention of recruiting the Zheng family.
"Take it back to the pond in Qiulu Garden and keep it there. When we get back to Jinling, we can bring it back to Jinling."
In fact, royal families in all dynasties had zoos, but they only raised auspicious animals like cranes, sika deer, etc. Well, let's collect some rare animals, open a zoo, and let the people visit. We can also charge admission fees or something. If you want to see this giant, you have to pay extra. This is a spirit, representing Zheng Zhilong.
Qin Mu suddenly felt that he was almost becoming a profiteer.
However, we really need to pay attention to the word "business". After the Zheng family was conquered, it is necessary to speed up the establishment of the Ningbo Maritime Customs.
During this period, Qin Mu had not taken care of the affairs of the Maritime Customs because of the war in the East China Sea. After returning to Qiulu Garden, he threw the giant turtle into the pond in the garden and thought about the tariff alone.
Through Cao Weijun's introduction last time, Qin Mu learned about the general method of tariff collection in the Song Dynasty. However, he believed that it was not enough. In later generations, as one of the three major types of taxes, each country had a relatively complete tariff system.
Qin Mu found a pen and paper and wrote down everything as he recalled. Tariffs in later times can be roughly divided into three categories: import tax, export tax, and transit tax.
Among them, import taxes can not only increase the country’s revenue, but also play a great protective role for similar domestic products.
The opposite is true on the export tax side. If the tax rate is too high, it will increase the cost of exporting goods and be detrimental to the competitiveness of domestic goods overseas.
However, there is almost no competition for China's largest products, such as silk, porcelain, tea, etc., which means that it doesn't matter if the export tax rate is a little higher.
Merchants will naturally pass on the high taxes to overseas consumers, allowing more silver to flow into Daqin.
Of course, it cannot be too high. If the tax rate is too high, even if there is no competition, the group capable of consuming will shrink and the export volume will decrease accordingly.
Tea may have a smaller impact, but it is extremely detrimental to the development of the textile and porcelain industries. Especially in the textile industry, if the export volume cannot be greatly increased, merchants will not care about the output, nor will they be enthusiastic about improving production technology, and the Industrial Revolution will be out of the question.
Well, it is necessary to set a reasonable export tax rate for textiles.
The collection of tariffs varies according to the commodity. Some are levied according to the price of the commodity, while others are levied according to the quantity of the commodity. Some commodities have sliding tariffs.
This sliding tariff is quite special. It is a tax that is set from low to high as the price of imported goods changes from high to low. It can play a role in stabilizing the price of imported goods. This must also be noted.
Qin Mu wrote down everything, and then consulted with Yang Shen, Cao Weijun and others;
Yang Shen, Cao Weijun and others were impressed by the clauses listed by Qin Mu, and they admired them very much. This also showed how much Qin Mu valued this aspect.
Qin Mu thought to himself, I don’t want to dig for food in the fields all day and impose taxes on those poor people all day.
In the future, customs revenue will be the largest source of tax revenue for Daqin;
And strive to surpass the Song Dynasty within five years and make the annual tariff revenue exceed 100 million taels. How can we not be serious about this goal
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.(To be continued..)
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