Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 694 Tuo Huan, you are interrogating women again, take a break
Zhu Wenkui didn't care much about what Guo Kang said. He just shook his head and said, "Since we're talking about religion, I have something to tell you. Master Daoyan wrote to me a few days ago and asked me to let you know when I have time, but you were working overtime in Alexandria every day, so I didn't have time to tell you."

"Ah? What's the matter?" Guo Kang asked hurriedly.

"Don't be so nervous." Zhu Wenkui said, "He said he also wanted to attend your conference of various religious sects."

"Every time he shows up, he'll give our church some work to do. How can we not be nervous?" Guo Kang spread his hands and said helplessly: "Look at his request, isn't it just an example?"

"It's not impossible to let him attend for a while." Zhu Wenkui seemed to have not realized the problem yet: "I didn't know how long you would hold the meeting at first. If it was over so quickly, it would be fine. But if there are many agendas and it will last for a long time, then we can indeed bring him a few times, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"He has helped our family a lot before, and it would be embarrassing to reject him directly this time. But you didn't invite him at that time, and I didn't think about this matter in advance. Now I don't know how to reply to him..."

"He is a Buddhist." Guo Kang explained: "Although we welcome him, this meeting is mainly to discuss the Egyptian issue, so it is a meeting between the Christians and the Muslims. There are no Buddhists in Egypt, so why does he have to come..."

"Master Daoyan said in the letter that he knew you would evade the question like this." Zhu Wenkui replied, "He told me that if you say his sect has nothing to do with Egypt, he will tell you that the principles of the world are fundamentally the same. Isn't the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom a branch of Taoism that has been Mediterraneanized? We are old acquaintances, and he has long understood it."

"Taoism has nothing to do with this place, but it can still play a role, right? Therefore, the methods he has learned in his life may not be irrelevant to this place. Letting him join in the fun will be a good thing for everyone, right?"

"Hey, don't say that." Guo Kang stopped him quickly: "Look, I said that this old monk has always been annoying the people in the church, that's it. Can you just say that?"

"Forget it, let's do this. After we have discussed with the Catholic Church and the Coptic Church, we will consider holding a larger meeting." He thought for a moment and said, "We plan to invite some Muslim authorities to participate, but if there are only two religions, it does seem too distinct. When the time comes, find an opportunity to invite him as well - anyway, even if I don't agree, he will definitely find a way to force his way in."

"There's no need to force it." Zhu Wenkui consoled him, "Master Daoyan also said that he doesn't have to cause trouble for you or take advantage of you. He has many ways to help you."

"In our subsequent engineering planning, we will consider reopening the trade route to the Red Sea port. This has been discussed before. After that, he will be able to take care of business matters, especially various operations that need to be carried out in advance at the source of goods."

"I believe that if trade is smooth, the cities along the way will soon resume prosperity, and the initial investment in Egypt will be fully recovered soon. Moreover, by then, there will be no need to say anything, everyone will know who has better governance, and the people will be more inclined to us."

"That's true..." Guo Kang thought for a moment and admitted, "After we finish things here, we still have to pay attention to the Red Sea. Right now, there is no large-scale trade organized by the government, but the goods carried by the caravans are already amazing. We should think of some ways in the future, especially to take care of the source of goods. There should be a lot of room for improvement. That's it..."

There are some things that Guo Kang himself cannot say clearly, but everyone knows them very well. For example, most of Rome's Eastern trade is actually smuggling. Since Monk Daoyan has already said this, it is obvious that he is not shying away from it, but is seriously considering this issue.

"There's nothing we can do about it." Zhu Wenkui understood what he meant and whispered, "No government can control this kind of thing. Every time we get news from my hometown, there's always talk about smuggling. But even if it's been banned, it's still a hot industry. The specific amount is so large that the government can't even find it. I guess a lot of it came here and was bought by us."

"Just know what I'm saying, and don't say anything." Guo Kang reminded again, "It's okay for us outsiders, but it's not nice to buy something smuggled out by your own family."

"No, this is what Master Daoyan told me to say." Zhu Wenkui didn't care much: "In fact, this is something that everyone has known for a long time, and he is also thinking of a solution now."

"How can this problem be solved?" Guo Kang shrugged: "If there is a good way, we will try it ourselves."

"The port of Dadu is the most important cargo transit point in the Mediterranean world. Now, it may not even need to be called 'one of the'. But we can only estimate how much goods are exchanged. Because what we know for sure is only the business run by Khan Ting himself, and those that have been investigated and paid taxes according to regulations. But you also know that most businessmen will definitely try to do something as long as they can save money..."

"Small merchants will hide their goods, and big merchants will even find an island in the Aegean Sea and build their own secret docks. One of the main tasks of the Golden Horn Navy is to go out and patrol, search and destroy these black ports. Moreover, a large number of warships must be sent, because such places are often the dens where pirates obtain supplies and sell stolen goods."

"Brother Shi told me before that there are so many ships coming and going that they don't even know how to check them. As long as they are out of our sight, these merchant ships will turn to pirates themselves." He said helplessly: "Even if we try our best to control the coast, we can't stop the pirates and merchants from other countries from pouring in. Now their navy soldiers generally know a few words of Italian because they have captured so many Italian merchants..."

"So, we ourselves are fully aware of how difficult it is to deal with smuggling. Moreover, it is estimated that it will be more serious than that of the Ming Dynasty."

"I heard that smuggling in the Ming Dynasty usually involved collusion with local forces to evade customs duties. However, this kind of business that sneaks in and out of ports is considered relatively restrained in the Mediterranean. Do you still remember the big case a few years ago?"

"You mean those people who built ships without paying any attention in Dadu?" Zhu Wenkui immediately thought of it.

"Yes." Guo Kang told him, "The passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea is only a little way near Dadu, and it is very narrow. Ships coming and going cannot escape the surveillance of the government. Therefore, smugglers made an amphibious boat with wheels."

"On the Asia Minor side, they found a small fishing port. Whenever a cargo ship came, they would row their boats over to pick up the cargo. After that, they would pull the boat and the cargo onto the land, follow the path behind the hills, avoid the sentries and camps around the Dardanelles, enter the Sea of ​​Marmara at night, and blend into the civilian ships. Then they would find a place to go ashore, and also take the path between the hills, bypass the Bosphorus, and deliver the cargo to the large ship docked on the Black Sea."

"The Black Sea is our inland sea. The taxes and import and export rates of the coastal ports are different. Therefore, many merchants are particularly keen on smuggling. The government never thought that someone could bypass this place by boat, so they only set up checkpoints in Dadu. The management of ships entering the Black Sea is much looser. Who knew that something like this could happen?"

"I only remember their ship, but I'm not very clear about the others." Zhu Wenkui thought for a moment and said, "At that time you dragged me to see it, and kept asking if the world had changed or not, and how could someone come up with such a thing." "Well, the flow of money has changed, and the world has naturally changed as well." Guo Kang said helplessly, "Those businessmen can make anything for you as long as there is profit. What's a land-based ship..."

"They are much more creative than the Ming Dynasty. There, the powerful usually collude with the sea merchants to control the ports, and then blatantly transport goods directly. Otherwise, how could they transport goods of this scale by smuggling?" Zhu Wenkui shook his head and said, "The grassroots officials, even the local chief officials, usually know about these things, but they will provide protection instead."

"Master Daoyan told me that he had noticed the changes in prices on his way here. The price of ordinary goods would increase several times when shipped west of Java. The net profit of ironware, porcelain and other items that are scarce overseas, especially large ones, could be more than 20 to 30 times."

"In China, if a business can double the profit, merchants will rack their brains to participate in it. And to be honest, this level of huge profits is beyond the scope of the law. Let alone the deterrent of the death penalty, even if the entire family is put to death, there will definitely be people who will continue to take the gamble."

"That's true." Guo Kang scratched his head: "Sometimes we can't manage it here because there are too many people involved."

"For a case like that, it's normal that you don't know the details, because many things can't be explained in detail. I didn't know about it until I was an adult and looked through the case files."

"The government report said that the local officials, fishermen and villagers along the way were bribed by the merchants to help cover up. So the news didn't leak out for more than ten years. In fact, it was not the merchants who took the initiative to bribe them - there were so many people that even if they were to find them one by one, they would not be able to take care of them all."

"In fact, a whole smuggling industry has long been established in the area, and even ordinary people have benefited from it. Local officials were not simply bribed, but actively participated in it. The highest officials involved were the chief officials of the various departments of the Shangshu Province. In addition, several important figures from neighboring countries were involved. In a few years, a complex network was formed. Even local officials who did not want to make money together could only turn a blind eye in order to stay safe in the area."

"This matter was exposed because of Tuohuan's cousin who saw it by chance." He told Zhu Wenkui as if he was telling a story: "It was the Johannes Nayan we met before - the Queen Mother always said that he was a useless playboy who only knew how to play around."

"He always liked to travel. One time, he was free and took a group of friends to go fishing. When they arrived, they were shocked to find that there seemed to be a boat sailing on the ground in the distance. The local official who received him wanted to keep him, but he felt something was wrong, so he made an excuse to leave on horseback. Instead of returning north, he took two trusted followers, left the road, went into the wild grass, and ran all the way to the military camp near the Ottoman front line."

"My father was serving as a coach in the camp at the time, helping to train the soldiers. He happened to meet him and took him in. Later, someone really followed him, but was not as fast as him. That's how the news got out."

"Oh my God, such a big fuss?" Zhu Wenkui was very surprised.

"Yes. The Khan was very angry at the time and personally led his troops to arrest people." Guo Kang said, "Just based on the property found at the scene, there were more than a dozen boxes of amber and gems, hundreds of barrels of high-quality Georgian wine, more than 3,000 pieces of local silk, and more than 400 pieces of oriental silk. Dozens of large and small land ships were seized, and I went to see them several times myself."

"There, we also captured many people who didn't have time to escape. According to the confessions of several merchants, they were directly under the command of Venice, and they were probably related to the Doge of Venice himself. There was another person who was simply the nephew of a Genoese senator. Can you imagine how much benefit there must be to allow these two groups to do business together..."

"Ah..." Zhu Wenkui was also dumbfounded.

"In fact, many officials in the country are involved. I estimate that there must be people from the Zhuguo family involved. For example, there are two people in the old Li family, and they are basically confirmed." He shook his head: "But Tuohuan told me that the Khan had only been on the throne for a few years at that time, so the queen and others had been very determined to ask him to stop and stop investigating."

"He had just started to lead the governance of the country and was quite aggressive. He was not satisfied with this and thought that if he couldn't manage this, what was the point of sitting on the Khan's throne? So he came to discuss it with my father again. My father was ready to help without a second thought, but my grandfather and my mother were also firmly opposed. In the end, they had no choice but to stop, investigate some officials in the Ministry of Revenue, and hastily closed the case."

"I think what they said is right." Zhu Wenkui reminded: "Some things, even if the logic is right, can't be done rashly."

"That's right." Guo Kang nodded. "I know something about this matter because Tuohuan told me some of it at the beginning of the year. He said that the Khan and his men were still brooding over what happened back then, so when they saw me causing such a big commotion, they immediately took advantage of the chaos. I'm afraid they not only wanted to take care of me, but also wanted to take the opportunity to retaliate."

"In this regard, Tuohuan is clearer-headed than those elders." He also whispered: "Those two people are actually quite easy to get carried away... Of course, you are not bad either. I think you can see the problem at a glance."

"After all, I have cases around me." Zhu Wenkui was helpless: "I know what happened when my father blindly reduced the number of vassal states..."

“Okay…” Guo Kang was also a little embarrassed, and quickly said, “Then let’s talk to Master Daoyan later to see what he is thinking. By the way, we have to call Tuohuan as well. This old monk is very cunning, I’m afraid he will fool me…”

"But it's been a while, right? Why haven't I seen him?" He asked curiously, "Isn't he near the government office?"

"I guess he went to see that Egyptian woman again." Zhu Wenkui said without hesitation, "The one he caught last time. He went to interrogate her whenever he had nothing to do. I don't know why he had so many questions to ask."

"What kind of fun is this?" Guo Kang was also a little speechless: "Leisure time is so scarce, you should take a break. There is still so much work to do overtime, how can you have time to play with women."

"Let's go, let's go and find him." He waved his hand and called Zhu Wenkui to go and find him together.

(End of this chapter)