Wacheng, Tang Dynasty Guild Hall.
Since Li Xiang left, Cao Lian has established a foothold here. With the support of some Tang Dynasty merchants, they have become a major force in the city.
Things had been developing in this way, which was good for them. At least no one dared to bully the Tang Dynasty merchants. However, more than a month ago, some disputes were reported in the border areas.
From that time on, no good news came. First, the ministers of Zhenla and Pyu held talks, and then formed a so-called military alliance to jointly resist the infiltration of the Tang Dynasty in the north.
Cao Lian felt at that time that their lives might become increasingly difficult. Before they could react, the government of Wa City had already started to take action and proposed multiple restrictive agreements to them.
Originally, they did not dare to do so because they had not decided to turn against the Tang Dynasty. After all, compared with the Tang Dynasty, their country was too weak. Once these strong measures angered the Tang Dynasty, they would have a hard time.
However, the Pyu court had already decided that they would cooperate with the Zhenla court to jointly fight against the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, these Tang Dynasty guild halls in their territory had to be eliminated first.
Although they have formulated policies, they dare not offend the Tang Dynasty too much. After all, the Tang Dynasty has not yet confirmed whether it will use military force against them. They have only received some information, which has not been confirmed yet. If your actions are too big, even if the Tang Dynasty does not intend to fight you, it will still have to fight you because your actions are too extreme.
So after thinking about it for a long time, they just made some restrictions. Today is the day when these restrictions should be implemented. Wacheng Zhifu has brought people to the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall, hoping to settle this matter with Cao Lian.
During this half month, Cao Lian kept making excuses, saying that he had something to do today or tomorrow, hoping to extend the time a little longer. But today, the government of Wacheng sent people to block the way, and he brought people directly with him, so Cao Lian could not make excuses anymore.
"Master Cao, you've really made it so hard for me to find you. I haven't even been able to see you once in the past half month. Today is the perfect opportunity to meet you. The court's official documents have been with me for half a month, and I have no choice but to ask for your help. I hope Master Cao can take care of me and get these things done as soon as possible."
The prefect of Wacheng was holding an official document in his hand, and Cao Lian had already known the contents. The reason why he had to hide from the local official was because he could not execute the document. If he executed it according to the terms above, then their Tang Dynasty Guild Hall would be useless.
The first thing is to guess the number of their armed personnel. Currently, there are nearly 300 armed personnel in the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall. According to the provisions of these terms, only 50 people can be retained for them. The capital of Wa City sent 50 armed personnel to ensure the safety of the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall.
If that is the case, it means that you are being monitored by others.
Since its establishment, the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall has provided a lot of confidential information to the country and has enabled the Changsun brothers to make some very correct choices. If they were surrounded by the fifty armed men sent by the prefect of Wacheng, they would not be able to send out any information.
The second thing is about personnel registration. Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall, some people are in the open and some are in secret. Everyone has their own responsibilities and works together to gather information for the Tang Dynasty.
Now the Pyu court is unwilling to do so. They want to register all the Tang Dynasty Guild Halls. No matter how many foreign-related personnel you have here, they must all be registered with us. If they are not registered, these people will not be able to enter or leave the Tang Dynasty Guild Halls.
Cao Lian was unwilling to accept this when he heard it. How could this be possible? Could intelligence officers still provide their true identities? If so, they would not be able to travel around in the Pyu Kingdom. If they were spotted, they could be thrown into prison at any time.
Another issue is the tax rate. It has been agreed before that the tax rate between the two countries will be reduced, and each side will only charge one twentieth of the tax when its products enter the other country.
This is extremely beneficial for the Tang Dynasty because the Tang Dynasty has a wider variety of goods and higher added value. The lower the tax rate, the greater their profits.
However, for Zhenla and Pyu, this was an extremely unfriendly tax rate. When the tax rate was lowered, the goods from the Tang Dynasty, even with the shipping costs, were cheaper than their own goods. Most importantly, the quality was better, which would make it impossible for their own goods to be sold, and even make them less competitive in their own country.
During this period, some merchants in the country have suffered huge losses due to the dumping of Tang Dynasty goods. Before, they did not dare to offend Tang Dynasty. Even if it caused losses to their own merchants, the courts of the two countries did not dare to enact laws to protect the interests of their own merchants.
Now they can't care about so many things anymore. They want to increase the tax rate threefold. Although the Tang Dynasty's products can still be sold, the profits are not as great as before. Moreover, this is also a situation between the two courts. If the Tang Dynasty has no objection, they will further increase the tax rate.
"Then let me take a look at these terms first. I'm just an official stationed abroad and don't have that much power. Everything must be approved by our court. If I make a decision on my own, I'll lose my head when I return. I hope the prefect can forgive me."
Cao Lian had a smile on his face, but his hands didn't move quickly, as if he had never known these terms.
"Master Cao, please stop talking nonsense. It's been nearly half a month since I received this agreement. If Master Cao really doesn't know about it, wouldn't that be ridiculous? I know exactly how many people in my office have been drinking with Master Cao."
The prefect said with a wry smile that after the establishment of the Tang Dynasty Guild Hall, his subordinates were severely infiltrated. It would be easy for Lord Cao to know how many dishes he would eat in the evening. Now you say you don’t know these terms. Isn’t that a joke?
"Absolutely not. We were just drinking and chatting about romance. We didn't get into anything specific."
If you don’t have evidence, I won’t admit it. This is the basic etiquette for overseas personnel.
