The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1330: tax
Chapter 1330 Taxes
After Zhong Xingxiao heard this, his legs almost went weak. First, his sister, the Queen Mother Yan, betrayed the ally and gave the Great Zhou an excuse to station troops on the border of Yan State. Then, with great difficulty, the idea of gambling on the country for the sake of the people and soldiers of the world… temporarily stabilized the Great Zhou. But then, his guards assassinated important officials of the Great Zhou court. This was like handing the knife to kill Yan to the hands of the Great Zhou!
A hundred years later, the Zhong brothers and sisters would probably be drowned in spit, and the Zhong family would never be able to hold their heads up again.
Zhong Xingxiao, who was slumped in the chair, was trembling in his heart. As he thought about it, he felt that there was no point in feeling sorry for the Zhong family who could not hold their heads up high. He should feel sorry for himself first and worry about whether he could still live.
Just when Zhong Xingxiao was feeling sorry for himself, another piece of news came. Zhong Xingxiao’s guard in the prison confessed in less than half an hour under Lu Jin’s hands, saying that Zhong Xingxiao had ordered him to assassinate Liu Rushi, because he knew that Liu Rushi was a famous talker in Da Zhou. He wanted to remove this stumbling block before the peace talks, and he had to make sure that the two countries would make a bet.
Zhong Xingxiao immediately fell back into the chair, thinking in his heart that it was over, and tremblingly picked up the pen to arrange his funeral affairs.
At the same time, Lu Jin changed out of his bloody clothes, put on his official uniform, and went into the palace to report to Bai Qingyan.
“He is a tough guy with a tough mouth. When I first saw him, I knew he was a ruthless person. He should not say anything even if he was tortured. I didn’t expect that he would give in in the end.” Lu Jin stood in the center of the hall, frowning and talking to Bai Qing in a serious manner, “I always feel that this matter is strange, but I still sent someone to deliver a message to Lord Zhong.”
During this period, the people who guarded Zhong Xingxiao’s door and did not allow outsiders to see him were Lu Jin’s men. Lu Jin naturally knew how restless the uncle of the King of Yan was.
The Queen Mother of Yan almost made their King Zheng of the Kingdom unable to return from Yunjing. If Lu Jin couldn’t mess with the Queen Mother of Yan, couldn’t he mess with the Queen Mother’s brother who came to him? Naturally, he had to send a message to Zhong Xingxiao, saying that the assassin confessed that it was Zhong Xingxiao who wanted to assassinate Liu Rushi. If he scared the uncle to death, then their Great Zhou would have nothing to do with him.
Bai Qingyan looked at the confession sent by Lu Jin, tapping the table with his fingers from time to time. After a while, he looked up at Lu Jin and said, “Bring this assassin here. I want to see him in person.”
As he spoke, Bai Qingyan looked at Wei Zhong again and said, “Go and invite the Ninth Prince of Great Yan to come and meet this Yan guard together. This will mean that our Great Zhou has not wronged the Yan State.”
“Yes!” Wei Zhong placed the teacup in front of Bai Qingyan and said, “Your Majesty, the Minister of Works, Lord Shen, has been waiting outside for a long time since he was summoned by Your Majesty.”
Bai Qingyan nodded: “Please come in…”
It was Bai Qingyan who asked someone to call Shen Tianzhi over. This time, Bai Jintong sent back three letters one after another.
The first letter contained the background of Wang Hanbing, a member of the Yan State envoy group.
The second letter contained the personalities, family backgrounds, and weaknesses of the officials in the delegation.
The third letter sent back was actually a secret letter. It looked like an ordinary family letter, but after putting the letter paper into the potion, the secret code would appear. After Bai Qingyan deciphered the code, he knew what Bai Jintong had written.
At the same time, Bai Qingyun’s letter from Ye Chengguan also arrived, and the content of Bai Qingyun’s letter was the papermaking method written in Bai Jintong’s third letter.
Bai Qingyan calculated the time and knew that the process of sending Bai Jintong’s letter back was very complicated. She must have sent letters to Bai Qingyun and her at the same time. After Bai Qingyun read Bai Jintong’s letter, he sent back the papermaking method before Bai Jintong’s letter arrived. It can be seen that Bai Jintong is now in Yan State and is probably under surveillance by Murong Li.
In the third letter home, Bai Jintong said… now that she has settled down in the State of Yan, she uses this method of papermaking. She has greatly reduced the cost of paper. Before, paper could only be used by royal relatives and officials, but now… ordinary scholars and wealthy families can also afford paper.
Because of paper… Cui’s Trading Company became famous in Yan State. Bai Jintong was smart. He did not simply lower the price of paper. Instead, he divided the paper into different grades. The most expensive paper was more expensive than before, and the method of papermaking was also more complicated. Bai Jinse said that it was Bai Qingyun who taught him.
The most expensive paper of Cui’s Company is named “Four Gentlemen among Paper” and is called “Gentleman Paper”.
Gentleman’s paper has a subtle fragrance, including the scent of plum, bamboo, chrysanthemum and orchid. Moreover, if this kind of paper is paired with the four special inks named plum, bamboo, chrysanthemum and orchid produced by Cui’s Company, the fragrance can be maintained for a long time. Therefore, it is very popular among the nobles and scholars of Yan State, as well as the daughters of the royal family.
In the State of Yan, there were even nobles who specially bought plum-scented paper and orchid ink to make their paintings emit a special fragrance.
Recently, the paper sold by Cui’s Company, which is more expensive than gold, is often sold out. The pre-orders are even in short supply until next year.
The reason why Bai Jintong wrote the letter was because she, a lowly merchant, was summoned by the Emperor of Yan, Murong Li. During the conversation, she felt that Murong Li was not as the rumors said outside, that the young master was being bullied. Instead, she felt that Murong Li was a man of great ideas and did not seem like a mediocre person, so she asked her elder sister to be careful.
She also said that Murong Li did not talk to Bai Jinse in detail, but only asked questions about papermaking. However, he did not force “Cui Fengnian” to hand over the papermaking recipe. He just jokingly asked “Cui Fengnian” to become a Yan citizen. After she refused, Murong Li had her released from the palace.
But a few days later, the second prince Murong Ping came to her and said that he wanted to give Cui Fengnian a chance to become rich. He said that he would try to promote paper in Yan State and also try to exempt Cui Fengnian from taxes.
But he had only one request, that Cui Fengnian must make paper in Yan State and that Cui Fengnian was not allowed to sell the paper to Da Zhou privately, because he planned to open a paper shop in Da Zhou under the name of Cui’s Trading Company. Naturally, in the future… all the paper he sold in the paper shop in Da Zhou would be bought from Cui Fengnian.
During this period, “Cui Fengnian” and his people could not leave the State of Yan. The second prince Murong Ping said… this was an opportunity for everyone to make a fortune together. He had fought for so many years but in the end he was not even given the title of a prince, so now he just wanted to get more silver.
Cui Fengnian is a profit-seeking businessman, and he is also profit-seeking, so they should hit it off. He also wants to cooperate more with Cui Fengnian, so he gives benefits to Cui Fengnian in Yan State and asks Cui Fengnian to give him the benefits in Da Zhou, which is mutually beneficial.
In order to test the Second Prince, Bai Jintong told the Second Prince Murong Ping that Murong Li had summoned him to inquire about the paper.
The third update is here. I am very sorry for the delay! Dear pen refill masters!