In the Bianzhou River section of Tongji Canal (Bian River), Junyi Port, the cargo piled up on the wharf, huge steam cranes roared, unloading a large amount of cargo from the ship, or hoisting the cargo from the wharf to the ship. Countless young and strong men were busy under the crane, and the supervisors who were commanding loading and unloading kept blowing their whistles.

Although there was still light snow in the sky, the dock was in full swing, and the steam crane was spraying steam from time to time, almost dispelling the cold. Du Yan, who was in the middle, even felt a little hot.

After the unloading of a steamship in front of him, Du Yan looked at his pocket watch, recorded the time, and then took out the booklet and flipped through it.

According to the information provided by the Transportation Department, a steamship with a cargo capacity of 500 hu was unloaded by a steam crane, which could be completed in half an hour on average. Now, he observed the unloading of the ship throughout the journey and timed it, confirming that it took 35 minutes.

He also told me to speed up? Haha, it's timeout, come a few more times, just wait for punishment!

Du Yan was full of malicious thoughts and asked his attendant to record the hull number of the ship and the loading and unloading start and end time so that it can be used when summarizing the materials in the future.

As the new head of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Du Yan went to Henan to work as a businessman. While completing his business affairs, he also had to observe the current shipping situation of Tongji Canal. After returning, he would report what he saw and heard to the head of the department for review.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs Duzhi Department is in charge of the world's rent and taxes, and the benefits of water, land, road and water, and annual distribution. The shipping of Tongji Canal involves the transfer of materials in the southeast. Of course, Duzhi Department has reason to pay attention.

Now, he is collecting evidence and preparing to find fault. When the officers accompanying him saw that the visitor was not good and his palms were sweating, he quickly asked his men to go to the dock to supervise the supervisor and speed up the loading and unloading.

Of course, this kind of small move could not be hidden from Du Yan, but he remained silent and began to ask some port-related questions.

Since he is deliberately looking for trouble, he has to keep asking questions. The more the other party says, the more flaws there will be. If he hides something, he must hide it from him.

Du Yan came prepared and did a lot of homework in advance. He read a lot of relevant information about the port, so he could not escape the clever words.

After six or seven years of being in the ghost place in Nanzhong, Du Yan finally got through and was transferred back to Chang'an as he wished, and served in the Ministry of Civil Affairs, surpassing most of his "students" in one fell swoop and achieving great progress in his career.

But this is not enough. The competition within the Ministry of Civil Affairs is fierce and if it performs poorly, it is easy to be overthrown and "exiled" to places such as the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works.

Du Yan didn't want the opportunity he had finally obtained wasted like this, so he had to have further outstanding performance.

What is outstanding performance? First of all, you must do your job well, and secondly, you must know how to do things.

The so-called "knowing to do things" means finding a way to attract Shangguan's attention. Otherwise, if there are so many officials in the six ministries, how could the officials of the Zhengshitang notice his Du Yan's name?

Taking Tongji Canal shipping affairs as an example, he walked around Henan and after returning, he said in the report that "Tongji Canal shipping is as normal." Then after the report was submitted, he had nothing to do.

If he said that there were various shortcomings in shipping affairs and then listed one fact, then the head of our department would definitely call him to ask questions after reading the report, and then the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs read it and said that he would not let him express his feelings in person.

Nowadays, the shipping of steamships in Yongji Canal, Tongji Canal and major rivers is something the court attaches great importance to. If he is so good at doing things, his name will definitely have the opportunity to be mentioned at the Political Affairs Hall meeting.

No matter how small the opportunity is, it is still an opportunity. If you only know how to become an official, you might be unable to get up even if you waste more than ten years.

Du Yan is not a matter of being an official, but he is asking for high officials and generous salaries, but he has no elders to support everything. He can only rely on himself, so he must find a way to climb up.

Being an official is a science, and it is not enough to do things just by doing things, you have to manage it.

He figured it out. If he didn't want to be an official, he would be a servant with others and would not be able to do anything, how could he get the man to pay attention and use it?

Du Yan was ordered to go to Henan to work in business. The so-called "observation of shipping affairs" has a more meaningful approach, but he did not plan to deal with it and had to find a way to "get things".

Du Yan worked as a affairs officer in Nanzhong and knew how to deal with the clerks. At this time, he kept asking questions, all kinds of numbers, which made the officials sweat, but at least they could explain it clearly.

Du Yan kept asking questions and asked questions, and he found a question from the other party’s answers from the other party’s answers.

"Tea freight volume increased by 30% year-on-year?"

"Yes, the freight volume of tea has been rising. Tea produced in Lianghuai and Jiangnan goes north through Tongji Canal and then goes to Yongji Canal to enter Hebei. There is no need to worry about sales."

The official answered carefully, hoping to divert the person's attention. Du Yan was quite surprised when he listened. He didn't drink tea, but after staying in Nanzhong for so many years, he gradually got used to it and could never quit.

When he returned to Chang'an, he found that many of his colleagues were also used to drinking tea, most of whom were from Hebei.

Originally, there were tea shops in Chang'an, and officials also drank tea, but after he came back, he confirmed that the trend of drinking tea was really popular in Chang'an.

It's no big deal, but now, he really feels how attractive the tea is.

Following the direction pointed by the official, he looked at the tea ship unloading goods on one side of the dock, and suddenly had an idea: for such a big tea deal, the tea is taxed according to ordinary goods. If the court collects tea tax, how much can it be received?

......

"Charging taxes? Catalog taxes? What is the difference between killing chickens and retrieving eggs? You tell me about taxes when the market collapses? Who will be responsible for the market?"

"No, I'm just confused..."

"No, no, no, do you know this kind of thinking is very dangerous? How can you...hey? Where did you say it just now?"

"Liaodong, Liaodong."

"Oh...oh yes yes yes, Liaodong... Let me tell you, once Xiangping recovers, will the situation in Liaodong be stable even if it is stable..."

In the bedroom, Yuwen Wen was talking with Yang Lihua. A few days ago, the good news came. The official army conquered Liaodong City. Yuwen Wen was very happy. He was in a good mood for several days and often laughed.

Of course it is worth being happy. The recovery of Liaodong is a great contribution. Although the contribution belongs to the soldiers of the Eastern Expedition, as the emperor, he also has this honor.

After ten years of sharpening the sword, the unsheathed sword cuts iron like mud. The official army recovers Liaodong, which means that Yuwen Wen is very close to that "small target".

What is the small goal? Restore the territory of the heyday of the Han Dynasty.

Although the former places of the four counties in Han Dynasty have not been restored, the situation has been opened up when the recovery of Liaodong is restored. Next, we must manage it carefully and develop Liaodong well. In this way, we can cure the root cause.

As for Goguryeo...

The Eastern Expedition has not yet ended. Whether to destroy Goguryeo in one go, Yuwen Wen decided to hand over this issue to the front-line general (actually the Chief Secretary Wang Wang) and make a decision on his own.

Yang Lihua on the front line did not care about the survival of Goguryeo, but only cared about when his son Yuwen Weihan would be able to do his job. After all, this battle is almost a year long.

She just talked to Yuwen Wen and then made tea, so the topic turned to tea.

Yuwen Wen spent more than 20 years in order to promote tea, and now he has finally achieved results. Tea trading is becoming more and more profitable, but he feels it is not enough.

Therefore, it is impossible to collect taxes. You will never collect them in your lifetime. Whether it is a 20-tax or a 30-tax, it is a behavior of killing chickens and getting eggs. He must continue to work hard to make drinking tea irreversible, regardless of north or south, east or west.

This process was not completed in the original history until the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and he hoped to "speed up".

When everyone can’t live without tea, they can collect taxes when their son’s generation.

Thinking of this, Yuwen Wen narrowed his eyes. After the middle Tang Dynasty, the vassal states were divided, and the Tang court relied on the Southeast financial responsibilities to pay tribute to the lives. In addition to the salt tax, the tea tax was also a considerable income. The vassal states in various places also relied on the tea trade to support soldiers.

"At that time", the border countries were also inseparable from tea, so the development prospects of tea trade are very considerable, but the natural evolution over the past 100 years was too slow, so Yuwen Wen wanted to "speed up".

.This involves eating habits, and it does not have much effect by relying on administrative orders, so the profit-seeking nature of merchants has to be used to promote the rapid development of tea trade.

As the saying goes, "The world is bustling for profit, and the world is bustling for profit." Only by keeping tea trading high profits can the entire industry grow explosively. He thinks that it would be bad if he collects taxes now.
Chapter completed!