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Volume 1: Who Rides the Star to Break the Void Chapter 515: Food Scholar Travels to Guangzhou

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    "Is this Guangzhou Port?" A sailing ship with a four-cornered sail began to approach Guangzhou Port with the help of the monsoon at the turn of spring and summer every year.  This is a man-eating sailing ship. At this time of year, there are always people from Dashi and Persians sailing thousands of miles, bringing products from Dashi, Tianzhu, Nanyang and other places to the Tang Dynasty, in exchange for gorgeous silks, porcelain  , white copper, and in recent years there are also strong and durable ironware, crystal clear glass, and light, soft and sweat-absorbent cotton.  "I heard that the Tang people have not been friendly to us in the past six months." The ship owner Raziz said worriedly.  "It's inevitable, what you did last year" Scholar Abdouge who came with the ship shook his head, disapproving of Raziz's statement.  "This is actually not a good time to come to the Tang Kingdom. Last year, they changed the emperor. The new queen and her husband were not as easy to talk to as the emperors of the Tang Kingdom in the past. When we do business in the Tang Kingdom, we have to pay heavy taxes."  Raziz was not ashamed of his plundering of Guangzhou last year: "As for what happened last year, didn't the saint say that he would take away the property of those who disbelieved, kill them, and take their wives and daughters as slaves?"  , That is just. What are you doing here, scholar? ""Study, the sage said, even if the knowledge is far away in China, you should go to seek it."  While he was talking, a small boat approached. Several sailors in military uniforms on the boat, one of whom held a compass in his hand, ordered them to stop the boat from a distance.  "This is the pilot. All ships entering Guangzhou Port must be navigated by their pilots. If they land and dock without their guidance, the people have the right to arrest them." Raziz whispered: "Last year  "Don't mention it again." Abdulge nodded and watched the pilot lead a few soldiers onto the boat, and then asked a few questions. Abdulge only understood a little bit of Tang, but he couldn't understand the pilot.  They spoke with a strong local accent, so I had no idea what they were talking about.  He only saw Raziz carefully saying something to the Tang people with a flattering look on his face, but the Tang people just sneered. After a while, the Tang people spoke, seeming to ask Raziz about the identities of the people on the ship.  Qiz's expression changed and he replied a few words. The man slowly took out a pamphlet and registered them one by one.  After a series of procedures were completed, they were allowed to approach Guangzhou Port. When the ship slowly entered the port, Abdouge noticed that there were several places where Tang people were busy on the high ground on the shore. They seemed to be building some fortifications. He spoke.  Asked Raziz, Raziz shook his head. He had never seen this fortification before.  ¡°I¡¯ll ask the pilot for you,¡± Raziz said.  After chatting with the pilot for a while, Raziz looked strange: "That was used by the Tang Dynasty to defend against pirates. It was called a fort, and they probably put trebuchets and heavy crossbows on it, right?" Last year's Dashihe  The Persians' capture of Guangzhou was an act of piracy, and Raziz was also involved in it, so when he talked about it, he looked a little weird.  Abdulre's expression was somewhat serious. As a food scholar, he had a close relationship with the Abbasid royal family. This time he came to the east, except that he had heard that the mathematics and medicine of the Tang Dynasty were very developed, so he came here to study.  , is also responsible for spying on the reality of the Tang Dynasty for the Abbasid Dynasty.  Now that the rule of Mansur of the Abbasid Dynasty has been stabilized, the last male of the Umayyad Dynasty has also been driven to Iberia. Although the war with the Byzantine Empire is still in a stalemate, the empire can already spare some of its strength to look eastward.  The theory of Eastern wealth that had been circulated in Dashi before naturally aroused the interest of this greedy civilization.  "If the Tang Dynasty is really as rich as you say, then it really needs to be on guard against all kinds of bandits." "I hope the true God will give us this land." Raziz barely concealed his greed.  After docking at the port, officials first boarded the ship in two batches to verify the goods on the ship, and then asked Raziz to register and pay taxes.  Datang's foreign trade tax was unified at 15% after the Ding Reform last year, but at the same time a supplementary book was created. For agricultural products, mineral products and some products that Datang did not have, the tax rate was reduced to 10%.  5. For some pure luxury goods and hobby goods, the tax rate may rise to 20% or even 30%.  After the calculation is completed, the ship owner can choose to pay taxes directly with goods, or pay coins. "Is this the new coin of the Tang Dynasty?" Seeing Raziz take out pieces of beautifully printed paper and hand them to the officials, Abdouge asked.  Surprised: "I heard that people in the Tang Dynasty used a special thing for coins This is the first time I've seen it. They didn't use gold coins?" "They also used gold coins, silver coins and copper coins, but because gold and silver were scarce and expensive,  Copper coins were heavy and difficult to carry, so they used flying money as precious metals as currency. In the early days, flying money was just a voucher, which could be exchanged for precious metal currency at any time at the bank. Later, they thought flying money was troublesome, so they printed this kind  ¡­¡± The new currency is a major event hosted by the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Tang Dynasty. It was issued on the first day of the first lunar month of the second year of the Qianyuan year of the Tang Dynasty this year  Speaking of the era name, "Qianyuan" is taken from the sentence "Great Qianyuan" in the "Book of Changes", but it is the same as Li Heng's era name in the original history, and Ye Chang has no taboos about it.  The quantity of this new currency, called Qianyuan banknotes, was not too large, because at this time gold, silver, and copper coins were also issued in parallel. However, the old copper coins were required to be exchanged for new ones.  Coins are gradually withdrawing from circulation Because of the flying money of Anton Bank, paper money can be easily implemented in places with relatively developed commodity economies, but it will take some time for those remote places to accept this new thing.  "I really don't know if I didn't come here The papermaking technology of the Tang Dynasty was also one of the goals I came to learn. Unfortunately, I actually captured a group of craftsmen from the Tang Dynasty, but they were rescued" Abduge  He clicked his tongue a few times.  The Great Eater acts as a merchant to communicate between the East and the West. He is most aware of the convenience of such tokens, which are easy to carry and hide. As long as you pay attention to anti-counterfeiting, these banknotes are better than precious metals and gems.  After all the procedures were completed, they were taken to a room, where people in white robes took their pulses, touched their foreheads, measured their heartbeats and body temperatures, and confirmed whether they carried infectious diseases.  After this process was completed, they passed through an iron gate at the dock and finally entered the mainland of Datang.  But as soon as they went out, they were stunned.  There is a small square outside the door, but in the middle of the small square, a sill cage has been set up. There are several pigs and a group of people in the cage.  "Ah" Raziz looked at those people curiously at first, but when he found out that he knew two of them, he immediately changed his color and wanted to cover his face with a scarf.  But at this moment, one of the two people shouted: "I found one, Laziz, he was also involved in last year's incident." Laziz had previously stopped in Southeast Asia. Before coming, he was among other businessmen.  They exchanged paper money for the Tang Dynasty, but they did not expect that the local officials of the Tang Dynasty would come up with new tricks in order to retaliate against Dashi and the Persians for looting Guangzhou last year.  They tied some Tibetan people who were found to have participated in last year's incident, including those with minor crimes, into cages, forcing them to renounce their belief in the predatory evil god and live with pigs.  What they have to do every day is to keep their eyes open. If they can identify other people who participated in the robbery, they will be able to reduce their sentence by one month for each one they report.  As for those who committed a serious crime, they would naturally either be executed and their heads hung in front of the city gate of Guangzhou, or they would be sent as slaves and spend their days in a dark mine.  When Raziz heard this acquaintance calling him, he turned around in fright and wanted to run away. However, after last year, the imperial court dismissed the original Lingnan military envoys and transferred elite soldiers and generals from the north to strengthen the defense of Guangzhou.  , the people over there had already dispersed and surrounded them, and in a blink of an eye, they all surrounded Raziz and his party.  Abdouge turned pale and crossed his fingers: "These barbarians, these barbarians." His eyes were still on the people who were locked in cages. These people were actually locked together with pigs. They were all  The believer of the true God When the spear was pointed at his neck, he realized what had happened. Under the threat of the weapon, he finally calmed down.  A group of them were implicated by Laziz, and they were all arrested and interrogated. After ten days of screening, Abdouge was released after a warning because it was his first time in China and he had not committed any crime.  But after coming out, he quickly realized that without Laziz, a guide who was familiar with the Tang Dynasty, it would be extremely difficult for him to do anything.  For this reason, he made up his mind to stop in Guangzhou first, learn the language and writing of the Tang people here, and then go north to the capital of the Tang Dynasty, the great city in the sky and the incomparable glory in the legend of the Persians.  "Dear mentor, this is really a tragedy. The language of the Tang people is easy to learn, but their writing is so difficult. I still can't understand why there are no letters in Chinese characters. It took me four months to complete it.  I learned five hundred words. Despite all the inconveniences in life, I was still very surprised by the changes in Guangzhou City.  , intending to build Guangzhou City into a capital city in the southern part of the Tang Dynasty, so in the past four months, I witnessed buildings rising from the ground. After the streets were leveled, they were paved with building materials called cement, and then solidified into  It's as solid as stone slabs. On both sides of the street, various trees have been transplanted from the mountains. Even in the midsummer that just passed, I didn't feel too hot The only thing that makes me regret is that there is no holy temple here, and they don't allow believers of the true God.  Churches were built here, but various pagans were allowed to build their own evil temples here. " "Guangzhou is indeed a city worth having. I saw goods from all over the world in the market here, from spices, dyes, silk, and tea.  From such specialty products to industrial products such as cotton, ironware, and glassware, it is very annoying to talk about it. In the past, glassware was an important commodity that we exchanged for silk and porcelain from the Tang Dynasty, but now the Tang Dynasty has been able to mass-produce better products than us.  For glassware, we have to use precious stones and incense.There are all kinds of rare treasures in exchange for their glassware.  The people of the Tang State were very proud to say that their wise ministers wanted to turn the Tang State into the "workshop of the world". As long as the raw materials of the Tang State were available, they would be able to produce all handicrafts. If they did not have the raw materials, then they would import the raw materials.  .  The Tang businessman who told me about this matter was very firm at the time. He believed that this would become true. God is above. I hope the wisdom of the sages can enlighten me, because I have a terrible idea. If the Tang people  If we can really produce everything in the world, then is it necessary for us cannibals to exist? We can no longer sell any goods to the Tang Dynasty. Without the benefits of trade routes, we can only rely on oases in the desert and food in the Gobi.  Shuidian, do we still have a way out?  " "My worries may not be unnecessary. In the past few days, I have counted the ships going to sea at the port. In three days, a total of thirty-eight ships have gone to sea, of which twenty-eight are Tang's own internal merchant ships and passenger ships.  If you want to go from Guangzhou to Quanzhou, Huating, Dengzhou and Lushun, I heard that these ports are at least as prosperous as Guangzhou, and Lushun and Dengzhou are even more prosperous than Guangzhou.  The other ten ships will ride the monsoon southward. In the past, most of these ships belonged to Dashi and Persia, but now only four of them belong to us, and the remaining six belong to the Tang Dynasty.  The navigation technology of the Tang people was very advanced. The compasses and astronomical devices they used could help them position themselves more accurately at sea. I am afraid that it won't be long before the Tang people's ships will penetrate deep into the Persian Gulf. And our people,  He could only work as a sailor for them on the ship.  " "I plan to stay here for another two months. On the one hand, my speaking skills need to be further improved. On the other hand, I can't wait to go to Chang'an City to study.  I heard that they have opened a national university called the Imperial College there, which recruits international students from surrounding countries. I might be able to go there and try my luck, even if I cannot enter to study there.  Although Guangzhou is a very prosperous port, the academic atmosphere here is too weak. Maybe it will be better in a few years. I heard that the Tang Dynasty is planning to build a university here.  Perhaps only a country as wealthy and powerful as the Tang Dynasty could establish universities in all important cities.  " After reading the letter to his mentor again, Abdouge closed the envelope, called a carriage outside, and sent himself to the port. Today, a food businessman he had recently met was about to return to his country, and Abdouge wanted to entrust him  He took his letter back to the country, but when he arrived at the port, he saw countless people gathered together, seemingly watching something. "What happened?"  "He stepped forward and asked. "The fort is going to test the cannon. Don't you, a Tibetan, know that?  Someone saw his beard and uniform and asked with a smile, "Testing cannon?"  "Abdouge recalled that when he first arrived in Guangzhou, he saw the fortifications being built. At that time, Raziz said it was a place where catapults were fired. Now it seems that this is not the case. He also looked over there eagerly and waited for a long time.  After that, an earth-shattering sound was suddenly heard, and then a cloud of white smoke rose up, covering the direction of the fort. Several huge water pillars appeared on the vast sea. Abdoure visually inspected the water pillars.  The distance from the fort is only two or three miles for a few
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