Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 461 Conditions
Liu Ye complained to Bai Tu about the grain price problem in Chu State. Obviously... he now suspected that Bai Tu had done this specifically in order to drive up grain prices.
Otherwise, what's the point of civilians practicing martial arts? Or the kind that specifically releases true qi!
Even thinking about it...
The State of Chu is really cruel!
In order to raise the price of grain, they even specially developed a set of Qigong techniques and tried every means to encourage the whole nation to practice...
Tsk tsk, so the State of Chu is desperately trying to increase per-acre yields, improve farming methods, and integrate farmland. It has finally managed to increase grain production, and is then trying to find a way to double consumption?
Bai Tu naturally disagreed with this and severely criticized Liu Ye's idea, insisting that this was for the health of the people of Chu and urging Wei to put the health of the people first.
Liu Ye would definitely just listen to this kind of words...
What’s the point of wanting the people to eat more grain, and also wanting them to eat more meat, eggs, vegetables and fish?
However, Liu Ye finally obtained preferential treatment for the State of Wei - for every five stones of grain and fodder traded with the State of Wei, he could get a discount of one stone, which was half of the tax.
Liu Ye even thought that if he worked harder, he might be able to negotiate other commercial taxes...
Because of the primitiveness of the commodity economy, now when the princes trade with each other, especially for strategic materials, even if they want to collect taxes, they are the one who has outflows. They try their best to raise taxes and reduce the outflow of resources. This is different from the situation after the great development of the global economy in later generations.
As for how to ensure that no one in Wei would take this opportunity to resell Chu's preferential grain?
Bai Tu said to Liu Ye considerately, "Don't worry, Ziyang. I, Great Chu, will naturally have a way to tell the difference. Let's talk to the Ministry of Rites about the warships first!"
After hearing what Bai Tu said, Liu Ye... couldn't help but feel uneasy!
But overall, the exchange between the two sides was very "pleasant". After all, the food was given a preferential price, and even the sea vessels were negotiable.
After Liu Ye met Bai Tu, he also made an appointment with the Ministry of Rites to officially deliver the "dowry" from the post station to the Chu Palace.
What made Liu Ye even more uneasy was that after he mentioned the matter to the Ministry of Rites, he also wanted to talk about the sea vessels in passing. However... the Ministry of Rites said that the "Supervision Office" for coordinating auspicious days and the "Foreign Affairs Office" for approving foreign transactions were not the same government offices and refused to talk to Liu Ye at all!
This reason is actually completely valid, but... Liu Ye always feels that these people are holding back for fear of scaring him away, so he plans to finalize the dowry issue first.
In theory, the dowry was sent by the royal family of Wei, that is, the Cao family, and Cao Cao had officially recognized Xiahou Juan as the princess of Wei.
Although there was no wedding ceremony, with Bai Tu's cooperation, the dowry piled up to fill half the front yard of the palace and was paraded around the city of Jinling with great fanfare. It was also from today that Xiahou Juan officially entered the Chu Palace.
But because of the previous incident of "adopting Lü Yan", no one thought that the princess of Wei could take over the throne, and... when Liu Ye personally delivered the dowry to the palace of the King of Chu, it was actually Lü Bu who personally welcomed it in!
As a ceremonial officer of Wei, Liu Ye was also shocked when he saw Lu Bu...
"Good, good, I have always been optimistic about this child Juan'er... Hahahaha, I am not here as the father-in-law of the emperor or the privy councilor, but as a father. Ziyang, don't be nervous. I will not have any opinion on Juan'er just because she is the goddaughter of Cao... ahem, Cao Cao." Lu Bu said to Liu Ye with a fake smile.
"Haha, General Lu is so righteous."
Even Liu Ye, who was used to being on diplomatic missions, had his fake smile twisted a little, and he didn't even correct Lu Bu for calling him by his name - he obviously understood that Lu Bu didn't call him by a derogatory name out of consideration for their "(fake) relative".
Later, when Liu Ye went to discuss the issue of sea vessels with the Ministry of Rites, it was proved that Liu Ye's premonition was correct...
"Tuyin County? Impossible!" Liu Ye almost jumped up from his chair.
That’s right, the request made by the Foreign Affairs Office was exactly Tu Yin!
How to trade and what the price is are not decided by the "Foreign Affairs Office". After approving the transaction, you can either trade with a private workshop that meets the requirements and pay taxes when exporting, or negotiate with the "Commercial Department" under the Ministry of Revenue about the production of the official workshop.
For seagoing vessels, the price naturally needs to be negotiated with the "Ministry of Revenue Commercial Department". However, now the "Ministry of Rites Foreign Affairs Department" does not care about the price at all. First of all, it sets a prerequisite - Tuyin County must be handed over to the management of the Chu State.
After all, the State of Wei was not the Gongsun clan of Liaodong, and Liu Ye did not accept such a request at all.
Bu Zhi, who passed the imperial examination last year with the second place in the household examination and had just entered the officialdom for less than a year, was now the adjutant in negotiations with Liu Ye and the chief clerk of the Commercial Department.
In theory, the talks are now being conducted with the Ministry of Rites' Foreign Affairs Office, but the Commercial Office has also sent an adjutant to provide "advisory services."
"Don't be anxious, Envoy Liu. We are doing this for the good of the State of Wei." Bu Zhi said slowly.
"Oh? Is your country worried that our Great Wei cannot defend its territory?" Liu Ye sneered.
Tuyin County, which is a county on the coast to the south of Youbeiping, is equivalent to the location of Tangshan in later times...
Beiping City in Youbeiping County is located to the east of Yuyang City in Yuyang County and close to the northern border. For the State of Wei, the east and west of Beiping City are sandwiched between the Gongsun clan, or in other words, it has the meaning of cutting across Liaoxi and Yuyang and Shanggu counties. At the same time, the north has to bear the pressure from the Xianbei and Wuhuan.
The reason why the State of Wei had to defend the city of Beiping was mainly for the land behind it - it was preparing to build a port here!
Moreover, the city of Beiping is relatively safe now, as for the north... because Gongsun clan took the initiative to teach several neighboring Xianbei tribes a lesson - Gongsun clan dare not move to Beiping, so they can only expand further north to ensure that Yuyang and Liaoxi are connected.
This part of the Xianbei is considered the Eastern Xianbei. Unlike the Xianbei in Heshuo, they have two "adults" Kebi Neng and Budugen confronting each other from north to south, so their strength is stronger.
The eastern part of the Xianbei was originally a loose sand after the death of Tan Shihuai. Both Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Du could attack and oppress them as they pleased.
That is, two years ago, after Yuan Shao destroyed Gongsun Zan, in order to ensure his influence among the northern ethnic minorities, he supported Suli and unified the Eastern Xianbei, which made the Eastern Xianbei barely have a "master".
Now that the Yuan family has been replaced, Suli dared not even say anything harsh and retreated northward obediently...
In theory, Youbeiping of Wei State seemed to be under attack from many sides, but in fact it was not dangerous, so Liu Ye thought Bu Zhi was talking nonsense.
Bu Zhi heard this and said : "Envoy Liu is worrying too much. Why do I think that Wei can't defend Youbeiping? What I'm thinking is that my king has said before that in the future, grain and many other materials will be given preferential taxes to our brother countries. I'm just worried that there will be lawless people who will use the excuse of exporting to Wei to actually stop in Qingzhou or even Zhouhu...
So I think that as long as Chu builds Tuyin Port in Tuyin, and emphasizes that the goods imported from Tuyin Port are for the brother country, there will naturally be no disputes! "
Liu Ye: ???
You are really a little genius! So in order to prove that the goods have arrived in Wei State, they have to give you a port county?
"And when it comes to building large ports, my Great Chu has always been very experienced... We are not here to seize Tuyin County, but to join in the construction of Tuyin County!" Bu Zhi said sincerely.
Liu Ye: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
