Jiaozhou. .

As soon as Li Chao's ship sailed into Jiaozhou Zichenghe Port, known as the sweet port, Yang Shidao, the Guangnan Xuanfu Envoy and the governor of Jiaozhou, was waiting there. "Zhen La, Funan and Chameng envoys were all in Jiaozhou and have been waiting for a month."

Li Chao pinched his chin and said, "Let me guess, is Funan coming to ask us for help and borrow troops, hoping to send troops to attack Zhenla with the Tang Dynasty?"

‘And Zhenla wants to ask us to destroy Funan together?”

Master Yang opened his mouth wide and was extremely surprised. King Zhao went to the deep mountains and forests for more than a month, almost isolated from the world. How come he came out, he was even more clear about the matter between Zhen La and Funan than he did.

"Why did King Zhao know what happened to the envoy of Champa?"

Li Chao smiled and said, "The Zhenla Kingdom and Linyi are enemies and wars have occurred many times. Now that Funan and Zhenla are fighting, Linyi must have joined forces with Funan to fight Zhenla. Linyi's envoy came, and he must have wanted to join forces with us to deal with Zhenla."

Master Yang gave a thumbs up, "King Zhao is so tall and knows the southern barbarians well."

Now the Tang Dynasty calls the area outside the Tang Dynasty in the Indochina Peninsula the South Barbarians. Many people do not know the situation of this South Barbarians, even the Guangnan Dao Xuanfu envoy like Yang Shidao, still can't understand the neighbors in the southwest.

However, Li Chao still knows more than they do.

Zhen La, Cambodia in later generations, was once a vassal state of Funan. Among all the ancient Southeast Asian kingdoms that once existed, Funan had a relatively broad territory in China. Its jurisdiction was roughly equivalent to the entire territory of Cambodia in later generations, as well as the southern part of Laos, southern Vietnam and southeastern Thailand. It also had many vassal states around it. Zhen La was once one of its vassal states.

"There was a record of Zhenla in the Sui Book, saying that Zhenla Kingdom is southwest of Linyi Kingdom, and it is 60 days away from Rinan County. The country's surname is Kharry!"

"King Zhao has a good memory!"

"Let's go, let's go into the city first." Li Chao was not interested in standing on the dock all the time. The group went ashore and entered the city directly to Li Chao's house.

As soon as they returned home, Hong Shi and Si Niang came over.

They worked hard from Hanjing to take buses and boats, and finally even came south across the ocean. However, after arriving in Lingnan, they didn't have much time to accompany Li Chao. From Qinzhou to Jiaozhou, Li Chao threw them here to the Fengguo country. He went there for more than a month, and it was only in November that he came back.

"Sanlang seems to have lost weight." Hong Shi looked at Li Chao with some resentment.

Li Chao reached out and pinched her face, "You have just lost weight, but it looks good to be thinner. I just came back, and I want to take a bath first and ask someone to prepare hot water for me."

Red Line immediately said, "I'll go and prepare now."

The hot water in the bathroom was ready, and the red line simply drove the maid away. Most of these maids were women from Lingnan, and even some Kunlun female slaves. They were all black like charcoal, with big foreheads, and two rows of big white teeth were exposed with a smile, which was very scary.

She didn't want these lowly female slaves to have an opportunity.

"I didn't expect that your massage technique has improved. It's quite comfortable and the strength is just right."

Li Chao was lying in the bathtub, enjoying the massage of Hongshi's just right strength, moaning and making a sound when he felt comfortable. Li Chao hummed comfortably, but the redshi's face became redder and redder.

I haven't been intimate for a long time. The heat in the room was rising, and Li Chao was lying there naked again. His strong muscles and the sound made the red line feel uncontrollable.

After all, she is also a woman who has given birth to children, no better than when she was a girl in the past.

As I pinched my hand, I couldn't help but go down, from massage to caressing.

Li Chao was feeling comfortable, but he found that his hand was getting weaker and weaker. He couldn't help but chuckled all the way down.

Hongzhi was awakened by the laughter, blushed and poured water on Li Chao's face in anger.

"Stupid girl, I'm against you! Let's see how I deal with you, husband." Li Chao grabbed her arm and pulled it hard. The red line was pulled down from the bathhouse with a roar, splashing a pool of water.

The clothes on his body were immediately wet, revealing his delicate figure.

Li Chao grabbed it, "Well, it seems like he has grown a lot."

Red Line was weak all over.

"Mr. I'm about to have my family!"

After taking a erotic shower, Li Chao felt refreshed and Hong Shi was unable to change clothes for her. In the end, Li Chao called two black female slaves to serve him dress and comb his hair.

When Li Chao left the door, the red line had not yet gotten up.

Front yard flower hall.

Cheng Qian had already taken a shower and changed his clothes, and was having tea and chatting with Master Yang.

There were several officials next to him, including the Sansi Envoy of Guangnan Road, the newly appointed Speaker of Guangnan, and the Guangnan Maritime Conductor.

The patrol envoy was an eunuch, the speaker was a civil servant, and the customs chief was a military general.

This is also a relatively interesting combination. Guangnan Road is quite large, not only with Jiaozhou, but also with several states to the south. The border on the south side of Guangnan Road and the Linyi Kingdom is roughly the southern boundary of Hejing Province in later generations.

Although it is far away from the Central Plains, there is Jiaozhou, a big port. In the south, Tangzhou has even crossed the Changshan Mountains of the east-west border between Vietnam and Laos in later generations, and has been deep into the Mekong River to the west.

It has to be said that the Central Plains dynasty is not very powerful. Although there have been intermittent in the middle for so many years, the territory of Jiaozhi has never stopped developing and stabilizing.

"What are you talking about?" Li Chao sat down with a smile.

The Marine Commander said that he was talking about the Marine Command.

The Tang Dynasty established Maritime Trade Bureau in all coastal roads, which were specifically responsible for maritime trade and ports. The Tang Dynasty had a unified and complete set of regulations on the maritime system. Their main responsibility was to issue public certificates for sea merchants, that is, a license to go to sea.

According to the goods declared by the merchant, the personnel on board, and the places to go, they will be sent to the public voucher. Send a ship to inspect to prevent the entrainment of weapons, copper coins, gold and silver coins, as well as female entourage and fugitive soldiers.

Cheng Qian listened very carefully and was very interested in these new things.

The patrol envoy was a eunuch from Hanjing, with a grade of not low and a fourth-rank eunuch. He could come to the local area to be a patrol envoy. This was a fat man. Even if there were censors and Xuanfu envoys from various departments supervising them, even if they didn't understand greed and had a little gray income, they would be rich.

In Guangzhou, there was a legend in the past that the governor of Guangzhou could earn 30 million yuan by just one trip to the west of the city. 30 million yuan is a full 3,000 guan. One trip would receive 3,000 guan from the merchants, which shows how high the profit was.

The patrolman was about forty years old and fat. He heard that he was quite dedicated and not greedy.

"In addition to issuing public certificates, our Maritime Bureau also needs to check the actual ships returning to the port to collect taxes on imported and exported goods. The goods are valued in the customs and then taxes are drawn. The tax includes tariffs of 1 per 20 goods, and also ship responsibilities, which are levied according to the size of the ship. In addition, for some goods, there are additional taxes."

"Even for some imported goods, our Massenger has the right to buy some goods transported by the ship at the market price. In addition, after taxation, these goods must be issued with public certificates we have to be allowed to be transported and sold to other places."

The official chuckled and explained to the prince that the Maritime Bureau still has great power, and now there are a lot of taxes received by ports every year. They collect tariffs, ship responsibilities, and more taxes on certain goods, and even directly purchase certain goods and then sell them to earn the difference. They make a big money.

Of course, all of this money was entered into the treasury of the court, not into the treasury of the emperor.

The customs under the Maritime Contract Department is the specific service office of the subordinate, which estimates, levies taxes, and private collections for various goods.

"King Zhao, how do we answer the request of Linyi Zhenla Fuyu Three Kingdoms?" Yang Shidao turned back to the topic and asked Li Chao.

When it comes to Gentiles, especially wars, Yang Shidao still cannot make a decision. If he asks the court, it will take a lot of time to go back and forth.

"Zhenla was originally a vassal state of Funan. In the 12th year of Daye, the king sent envoys to pay tribute. During the Sui Dynasty, Linyi State boldly invaded Jiaozhi, which led to the Sui Dynasty sending troops to conquer and defeating its capital and returning." Li Chao said slowly. Funan was once the overlord of the Indochina Peninsula, but now it has fallen.

The former vassal state dared to fight Funan.

Originally, Zhen La was very respectful to the Central Plains before, but they had not paid tribute for many years.

As for this Linyi, he had not yet attacked Jiaozhi, the southern border of the Central Plains and the South.

After Li Chao's words, Yang Shidao immediately understood Li Chao's attitude.

To put it bluntly, these southern barbarians are all biting dogs.

In fact, in the southwest of Jiaozhou, there are not only Zhenla, but also the three kingdoms of Fuyu and Linyi. These three kingdoms are just the strongest. There are countless small countries scattered between the three kingdoms, most of which are dependent on the Three Kingdoms.

Now Zhenla is in a big situation and wants to swallow up the old master Funan. Zhenla's neighbor and feudal enemy joined forces with Funan to fight against Zhenla.

Now the three parties are in a group, and they are a bit indifferent, so they all want to seek support from the Tang Dynasty.

However, the attitudes towards the Tang Dynasty were somewhat different. Funan and Linyi joined forces, but their strength was not as strong as Zhenla, so they really wanted to ask the Tang Dynasty to send troops to help the war.

Zhen La just hopes that the Tang Dynasty will not interfere.

"Do you know that there are more than 20,000 families in Yishana, the capital of Zhenla." Li Chao said suddenly.

More than 20,000 households, that is 110,000 or 20,000 people.

Cheng Qian was surprised, "There are so many people." With a city with a population of more than 100,000, there are not many in the Tang Dynasty. This is the situation that only after the prosperity of industry and commerce in several major port cities over the years.

"When their king went to court, he sat on the bed of five-spice and seven-treasures, and hung treasure tents on the bed. The treasure tent was made of colorful wood as a pole, ivory, and gold tins as a wall. It was shaped like a hut, and when it swung, it shone golden light, like red jade. There was also a golden incense burner made of gold in front of him."

"The slippers worn by the king are made of ivory. They are wearing ancient Bei Chaoxia clothes, colorful clothes around their waists and abdomen, drooping down to their calves, golden treasure hats, pearl necklaces, leather boots, and gold hanging on their ears."

"The custom of Zhenla Kingdom is that it is not the son of the king's wife, and cannot be the heir to the throne. Moreover, on the day the king ascended the throne, all brothers must be punished at the same time, making them disabled. Some cut off one finger, some cut off their noses, and distributed them to remote places to provide them with living expenses, and they are not allowed to be officials."

"They think that the right hand is clean and the left hand is dirty!"

"The Zhenla Kingdom respects ghosts and gods. They offer a god named Podoli. The sacrifice is made of human flesh. The king kills people every year and uses human flesh to sacrifice ghosts and gods at night."

Cheng Qian was stunned when he heard this.

This is really a custom of La Kingdom, too cruel and barbaric.
Chapter completed!