Chapter 455

Northern Xinjiang is the only way to the ice field.

More than three months have passed since the most magnificent fortress in Northern Xinjiang was built overnight. As the season changes from the beginning of spring to the middle of summer, even the Weifeng City, which is very close to the ice covered ice sheet, reveals its warmth everywhere.

In the middle of these three months, under the guidance of Chi Weihan and other people, the vendors and residents of Wuji and nearby towns moved to this newly established city one after another, and Gufan published a temporary regulation on taxation since last month. If anyone knows that Gu fan dares to publish tax regulations privately, it's a big crime of conspiracy. But Gu fan doesn't have to worry at all, because the documents under the Ministry of war say that Weifeng city should be self-sufficient in finance.

How can we be self-sufficient? There must be only taxes.

Therefore, the Weifeng City garrisoned by Gufan has certain financial autonomy, but this matter is also a double-edged sword, which means that all the funds should be raised by Gufan himself. It is impossible for the imperial court to allocate military funds like Yan Tianjun.

As a matter of fact, when Gu fan accepted Chi Weihan and his gang of hooligans, he had already made suggestions with him. It's better to unify the standard and frequency of taxation. Although they all take protection fees and road money, once they are given the high sounding title of Taxation, they will look better immediately. The tax collectors are no longer the robbers who fight openly, but routine business, What pays taxes is no longer the soft bag that succumbs to the power of obscenity, but the soft bag that supports your work. Once you come and go, everyone looks much better.

Moreover, collecting funds in the name of tax revenue is not easy to arouse the public's antipathy. It is precisely because of this that Gu fancai asked Chi Weihan to find several large merchants who had moved to Weifeng city and some leaders of the caravan team as far as possible the day before the tax regulations were promulgated, and asked about the previous collection of protection fees and road fares, and their income.

Originally, this should be very private information, but for one thing, Gu fan's reputation in Northern Xinjiang is too big. A total of 20 people came. Eighteen of them trembled with excitement when they saw Gu fan's real face. This amazing and gorgeous young commander is the national idol of the people in Northern Xinjiang. Originally, Gu fan's outstanding achievements and great strength were greatly praised by those storytellers in the streets. In addition, high officials and noble people love to listen to them, so they boasted more and more, which reached a climax after the prince xingzhenxuan's gloomy return to the capital. At that time, you can hear the story of "Xiao Hou Ye got the moon tower and left Prince Ye" in teahouses of almost all cities in Northern Xinjiang.

Now, seeing this idol, those businessmen still know all about it, and let Gu fan know the operation of the caravan near the ice sheet, and even some details of the economic field.

Therefore, after the promulgation of the tax regulations, countless businessmen were very surprised to find that the tax rate set by Gufan was one tenth of their income, not one fifth or one twentieth, which was just within the acceptable range for all. As for the tax on the caravan, you can choose to pay it on a time basis, that is, one tenth of the value of the goods. You can also pay it on a monthly and yearly basis, just like other merchants.

In this way, merchants don't have to worry about gangsters making trouble and blackmail in the shop every so often. After all, they have paid taxes.

After a month's implementation, although there were only a few merchants from Wuji in Weiyuan City, the good thing was that the passing caravans cooperated very well. Some caravans even falsely reported the prices of a lot of commodities in order to please Gu fan, the big tree of Hougu's family in Pingyuan, and they just overcharged a lot of taxes. In such a month, the tax revenue has also reached 10000 taels of silver.

Apart from the wages given to the people and the "military pay" of the bandits, let's call it that for the time being... The balance is still quite large, which makes Gu fan very satisfied. Fan Suiyang, the Marquis of Tiebi, also took great care of Gu fan's prestige city. Under the pretext that the city was named by his majesty, he had four broken crossbows and six Yuanrong giant crossbows stolen from the Ministry of war to Gu fan's prestige city. These things are deadly defensive tools and the enemy of the dog army cavalry. If you really want to meet them, these ten crossbows are on the city, Fifty thousand troops are not allowed to enter the city. When fan Suiyang, the Marquis of iron wall, sent Gu fan this gift, he did not forget to send a batch of armor and weapons that could arm ten thousand people. The uniform equipment of the main battle army also wiped away the traces of Yan's army. It must have been prepared for those bandits who were collected by Gu fan.

Our young Marquis, Gu fan, is not stupid enough to hand out all these ten thousand sets of handsome and excellent equipment. Instead, he only gives them to the new centurion of the bandits, who is Gu fan's new centurion, and rewards them month by month. Only those who do not disturb the people and act recklessly can get a set of equipment worth 100 liang of silver. As for those who have already got the equipment, Then pass it on to Gongfa and give it pills and other rewards.

As for the task of training those bandit soldiers, Gu fan didn't do it by himself. Instead, he gave it to the remaining 40000 soldiers of the cloud wing department. If they couldn't bring out a single person, the signboard of the cloud wing Department of the forbidden army would be really smashed.

It is precisely because of the two months' implementation that almost all shops in Wuji agreed to move to Weifeng City, and many shops in other cities and towns took the initiative to move to Weifeng city. After all, there are strong city walls and stable public security in the city. If the generals who guard the city are not corrupt, why not?

Two months later, some well-known restaurants and shops in Shenyang City also took the initiative to contact Gufan, hoping to open a branch in Weifeng City, hoping Gufan can give some preferential treatment in terms of taxes. In fact, Gu fan was not stupid either. He knew the military significance of Weifeng city and what kind of economic significance it represented when it was on the road from the ice field to northern Xinjiang.

As a result, Gu fan's answer was almost the same. He said with a smile to the well-off merchants, "I'm glad you came to Weifeng city to open a branch, but the tax can't be less. All the shops have the same tax, one tenth of it. In fact, if you don't say anything else, just look at Shenyang City. The total tax of 7788 should be at least one fifth, right? We really have a good deal here.... "

So that half a month later, Gu fan's lines have been recited thoroughly. Even when having dinner with Huan Lingyue and Bai siyao, Huan Lingyue complained that Gu fan always put too much salt in his own dishes. Gu fan clearly wanted to argue: "I've worked very hard to make it..." who knew that what she blurted out was "I'm already very preferential...", Huanlingyue coldly casts a look of disdain, while Bai siyao laughs wildly, claps the table vigorously, and tells Chang Feng the joke. Chang Feng tells Xie Yuxiang and Meng Wuhen the joke. As a result, in that week, the most favorite words of people in the whole Weifeng city when they encounter things are "I'm already very preferential.". This makes Gu fan, who sometimes goes out to do business, shake his head all the time after hearing it, indicating that he is very helpless.

The most magnificent building in Weiyuan city is naturally Gufan's commanding mansion. Although Gufan has not been granted a marquis, he doesn't know that it was the craftsmen who designed the mansion who deliberately flattered him, but someone wanted to set him up and carved eight auspicious beasts on the eaves of Gufan's mansion... This is what the Marquis mansion can use. Finally, Gufan asked people to demolish two auspicious beasts one by one, Only when the number is changed to six can the matter be considered as over. Even if Gu fan is far away from the star emperor in this majestic city, it doesn't matter if he trespasses. After all, he only trespasses to the rank of marquis. If he trespasses to the standard of his majesty, he will be in big trouble. But there are always countless people who guard the frontier with heavy troops. They can't tell when a small report will be printed. If Gu fan was just an 18-year-old general, he might be high spirited and informal, but he was reincarnated for two generations. How could he be so naive? Apart from the auspicious beasts, there are two majestic and enlightened beasts carved in front of the gate of Gufan's commanding mansion. The gate is only ten feet wide and three feet high, and the style is incomparable. There are five in and five out in the mansion, which is no inferior to tiebihou's mansion. Behind it is a wooden pavilion that imitates Bai siyao's residence in BEIYAO palace, Only here is Gu fan's own design, which makes Bai siyao happy for a long time.

However, the tranquility of all this was completely broken after an urgent military information letter was sent to Weifeng city.

"Wang aogang, the left-wing king of Canrong, succeeded in usurping the throne, killed his two brothers and became the new king of Canrong!" In addition to this sentence, there are several pictures of the civil war. The first battle is between the left wing king aogang and his brother, the right wing king a Tiemu. As the two most powerful wing kings in the dog army, aogang guards the ice field to guard against the Beidou Dynasty. A Tiemu guards the Southern grassland and supervises the Tuoba tribe and Gongyang tribe, There are also heavy soldiers in hand. Because aogang took the initiative to depose the old king and usurp the throne, almost all the old generals and ministers in gourong supported the right-wing king a Tiemu. Even some generals in aogang's army fled to a Tiemu's army in disguise. The military gap between the two sides reached two to one, which was totally one-sided with a Tiemu.

But at this time, Tuoba and Gongyang turned to support aogang and launched a crazy attack against the rear of a Tiemu army regardless of the loss. When Gu fan was on the grassland, he knew that the fighting power of the barbarians of Gongyang and Tuoba was much higher than that of the dog soldiers. If these barbarians started to storm, they would be just wild animals. When a Tiemu's army was in chaos, aogang led a team of only a thousand brave men to fight their way through the customs. He rushed into a Tiemu's camp and took advantage of the chaos to kill his brother. After killing a few diehard elements with iron and blood, he eliminated an all-round war between dogs and soldiers. The next few were small-scale uprisings and rebellions. The upper and lower wing kings, the weakest of them, were directly attached to aogang, while the upper wing king was secretly assassinated before the rebellion. It took only three months for aogang to oust the old king, usurp power and become the real king of the whole Canrong, and most of them used the means and methods with the least loss. Even in order to achieve the goal, the fighting capacity of the whole nation was safeguarded to the greatest extent.

What is more worth mentioning is that aogang's means of suppressing the rebellion was to kill the initiator, while the rest of the followers used the policy of appeasement. Under the combination of soft and hard, the national cohesion of the gourong clan, which was gradually centrifugal because of the division into four winged kings, was gathered again.

When Gu fan received this military information, he was drinking tea with Bai siyao in tingxue upstairs in the backyard of his mansion.

It is still on the spacious balcony, a table, a pair of chairs, two people sitting, wooden tea sets, lingering fragrance. Bai siyao saw that Gu fan's brow was locked. Knowing that something was difficult, he quietly handed over a cup of green tea and said in a soft voice, "Gu fan, this is Shanglin tea from the caravan. It's from your capital. I tried it. It's made by the way of cooking tea in BEIYAO palace. Do you like it?"

Gu fan slightly raised his head and looked at Bai siyao, but he took the cup with his left hand and handed the military information to Bai siyao with his right hand, saying, "have a look, siyao." Bai siyao nodded, reached out her hand and took it. After only a few eyes, she began to laugh and said to Gu fan, "what? Are you afraid of Oka now“ I'm afraid it's not... "Gu fan quickly argued that, after all, aogang is different from the general opponent. He is still his rival. If he is lower than his rival in front of his lover, wouldn't he lose face“ You'll cheat. " Bai siyao curled her lips and said, "when you looked at the intelligence just now, your brow was so bad that it was like an" eight "character. It was very tangled. I'm not afraid. What is it? "“ I think it's right for me to stay in Northern Xinjiang this time. " Gu fan explained: "if we didn't build a powerful city, I'm afraid that now the Hourong Jingqi of aogang has been killed to Shanhai Pass."“ Do you mean you have foresight? " Bai siyao narrowed her eyes and asked with a smile“ I can't talk about foresight. In a word, I know that aogang will never die, and Northern Xinjiang will never be at peace. " Gu fan shook his head and said, "I've never seen such a war enthusiast. I'm not as good as him. He's just a war maniac... You see, I've only been in Northern Xinjiang for less than a year, and he has launched two wars of more than 100000 people in a row. It's crazy." Seeing Gu fan shaking his head, Bai siyao said, "Gu fan, I don't think your total aogang is comprehensive..." "eh?" Bai siyao continued: "what he likes is not the war itself, but the feeling of conquering others after victory. This is the source of his confidence and strength, and there are only two ways he can get... "Bai siyao said here, understatement:" war and women. " Gu fan was dumbfounded by Bai siyao's explanation. Then he sat down slowly, looked at Bai siyao in front of him and said, "do you think he won't give up?"“ Naturally, otherwise, the dog Rong throne that he had worked so hard to get was not wasted? " Bai siyao raised her lips slightly, looked at Gu fan and said, "it's a gamble for her life." Gu fan also nodded and said: "yes, in the past, he could only mobilize half of the troops of the dog army on the grassland, because he was only a wing king after all. Now he has become the real dog army king, so he can launch a war against the Beidou Dynasty with the strength of the whole country... How many troops can he mobilize?" Gu fan stared at the green tea in his wooden cup and said to himself, "half a million? 800000? Or a million? One and a half million? "“ Do you think all his troops will come to your prestige city? " Bai siyao looked at Gu fan calmly and asked slowly“ What else? " Gu fan shook his head and said, "I bet there's no one in the world who hates me more than him. I'm afraid he doesn't hate me as much as if he were evil." Bai siyao stood up, picked up the teapot and added some tea to Gufan, then slowly sat down and said to Gufan with a smile, "Gufan, I might as well make a bet with you. Aogang can't prove that he is attacking Weifeng city."“ Why? " Gu fan frowned and said, "siyao, you haven't had a war. How can you know?"“ This is the same as the principle of practicing martial arts... "Bai siyao explained:" even if his million troops win our prestige city through the sea of people tactics, they will face huge and terrible casualties. Even if they are elite in a hundred battles, no matter how sharp the spear is, they can't wear the script. Then he will win a battle and lose the whole war, It's a cheap price for Beidou Dynasty. " Gu fan after Bai siyao such a reminder, he also suddenly feel that what she said is very reasonable. If the Weifeng city has not been built, or its combat power is not so strong, aogang will certainly go all the way to break the Weifeng City, enter the mountain customs, and then plunder the whole northern Xinjiang. But now the Weifeng city is not only powerful, but also has many experts. It is no less difficult to win than to take down the mountain customs line, Only the unscrupulous man will attack with his own will... "Then how will he attack?" Gu Fan said: "if you want to make a detour, it will consume a lot of food and grass." Bai siyao shakes her head and says, "after all, I haven't fought a war. Gu fan, what I give you is just a reference. I hope it doesn't affect your thinking..." Gu fan hears that Bai siyao is modest. He goes to her side, slowly embraces her waist with both hands, and whispers in Bai siyao's ear: "where, where, You are almost my female military adviser... "At this time, suddenly, Bai siyao didn't seem to grasp firmly, and the wooden teacup in her hand fell on the floor with a bang. Bai siyao's face also changed suddenly“ No... something's wrong! "