Chapter 1255 Freeport
They are now concentrating on making reforms, even removing the title of emperor, and even admitting to abandoning Ren Na, in exchange for Datang's trade with the Wa Kingdom and acquiesce in the conquest of the northern Ezo.
Baekje is relatively strong.
Both Baekje and Goguryeo were originally of the Fuyu clan, and they were the countries established by the Fuyu people when they went south. Therefore, when facing the Tang army, they chose to sign an offensive and defensive alliance.
But Datang didn’t even need to personally cut off the trade with Baekje, and then let the Three Kingdoms of Silla besiege Baekje, which already made Baekje too busy to take care of itself.
At this time, if Datang sent troops to Goguryeo, Baekje would not be able to support it at all.
Besides, Datang will not give him this chance.
After Li Ji was worshiped as the general manager of the Pyongyang Road March, Su Dingfang, the governor of Zhenbei, was appointed as the chief commander of the Shenqiu Road March.
King Jindeman of Silla was appointed as the general manager of the Yiyi Road March, leading the Silla army to assist, and the two kings of Gaya and Tamra were the deputy general managers, each leading their own troops to assist.
The Eastern Expedition of the Tang Dynasty is not only to fight Goguryeo, which is a corner of the peninsula, but also to fight Baekje together.
With this posture, it will be difficult for Baekje Mud Bodhisattva to cross the river to protect himself.
"Will it be too arrogant to fight against two countries at the same time?" Qin Yong is also a veteran who has experienced many battles. Generally, he will try to avoid this situation when using troops.
"Baekje and Goguryeo are connected from north to south, and the north and south are only more than a mile long. The so-called two-front battle is actually not that exaggerated. In essence, it is still water and land. And as I said earlier, compared with Goguryeo, Baekje, The strength is weaker, and it has never fought against the Central Plains army, so this is a weak breakthrough point. The imperial navy does not directly attack Pyongyang, but lands in Baekje first, which can be unexpected and quickly break through. As long as we can If we build a stable landing field, then we can also use the food and materials from the three kingdoms of Silla, Gaya, and Tamra. At that time, the navy will use ships to transport the elite of our Tang army over. At that time, this battle will not be water. The divisions advanced side by side, but the northern and southern cavalry flanked each other."
Although the Tang Army has sea-going ships, the Tang Army is better at fighting on land.
As long as they can gain a foothold in Baekje, when the 100,000 Tang troops land in Baekje and sweep from the south to the north, who can stop it?
"Will Saburo join the war?"
Qin Lang shook his head, "In fact, the outcome of this battle is already known before it is fought. It won't be too difficult, and it won't last too long. It will end in half a year, and it will only take a year or two to finish. The imperial court has already selected Li Ji and Su Lie These two generals have the chance to win, so I don't bother to think about it, not to mention, the imperial court didn't use my intentions."
This battle was intended to gild Li Ji to add prestige, and also to give Su Dingfang a chance to be gilded. Both of them are relatively young, one is the prince Zhan Shi, and the other is the prince Zuowei rate, both left by the emperor for Chengqian General, this opportunity to destroy the country is of course given to them.
Compared to conquering Liao, Qin Lang cared more about Japan.
The country of Wa has now officially changed to Japan as its country name, and it has been completely reformed. Qin Jun's trip to the country of Wa this time is also Qin Lang's arrangement. Although the eldest son is a concubine, Qin Lang also hopes that his son can get more experience.
Qin Jun went to the country of Wa with an important mission.
"If you calculate the time, you should be back soon, right?"
"Da Lang is growing up now. Not only does he look very much like you, but his personality is also very heroic. Judging from the news sent back from Wa Kingdom, Da Lang has lived up to his mission this time."
"Actually, the conditions we proposed with Wa this time are of great benefit to them. This is a win-win cooperation, and they have no reason to refuse."
Qin Lang sent his son Qin Jun to the Wa country, and the most important task was to establish a concession area in Chikushi Dazaifu. This concession was not just for the Tang merchants in Wa to obtain some things like extraterritoriality, but Qin Lang had a bigger plan of.
The first step is to rent the tens of thousands of acres of land next to Dazaifu and establish a concession. The second step is to reach a free port agreement with the Japanese country. The establishment of this free port is mainly to deal with the high tariffs of the Japanese country today.
Many Tang products such as tea and wine entered the Japanese, and the Japanese country imposed heavy taxes, such as tea, which imposed a heavy tax of 200%, and other things such as silk, porcelain, glass and spices. hard working.
They are in charge of foreign trade through Dazaifu, and have the same power as Datang City Shipping Department, managing and taxing imported and exported goods.
Bobuy sometimes even reaches one-third.
This is actually very unfavorable to Tang merchants, and the Qin family's current trade volume with Japan is very large, of course it is also greatly affected and the loss is not small.
Another one is that the Qin family is also planning to expand trade in the country of Japan, and even directly engage in some processing and manufacturing in the country of Japan. If they open a workshop and build a factory under the management of the country of Japan, not only will the constraints and jurisdiction be more complicated, but the taxation is also very unfavorable.
So Qin Lang hopes to rent a large piece of land, build a concession, and then exercise consular jurisdiction in the concession, which will be governed by the Tang people and will not be controlled by the Japanese country. He even wants to reach an agreement with the Japanese country to make the concession a free port.
Free port means that the concession will not be under the management of Dazaifu, Japan. In the concession, it is equivalent to Luzon, where commercial goods can be freely processed, repackaged, refitted, loaded, unloaded, stored, and re-exported, etc., without being controlled by the Japanese customs. , exempt from customs duties, and industrial and commercial taxes.
Only when the goods are leased out and enter the jurisdiction of Dazaifu, Japan, it is counted as customs entry, and tax declaration and tax payment are required.
On the surface, these demands of Qin Lang are unreasonable, and it is impossible for the Wa Kingdom to agree. But Qin Lang also came prepared, he gave Qin Jun a lot of bargaining chips.
Among them is that if the concession free port is established, the Qin family will set up gold and silver processing, copper production, coin casting, as well as banks, ticket offices, silk weaving factories, textile factories, etc. in the concession special zone renamed Tangjin. and many other industries.
After these industries are established, although they will not pay taxes to the Wa country, they will inevitably need to purchase raw materials and hire workers from the Wa country, and the products produced must also be given priority to the Wa country.
Although commercial goods do not pay taxes during the process of processing, they still have to pay taxes when they enter the Japanese customs. Besides, Qin Lang also threw out a bait, that is, these industries will not only hire Japanese people to work, but also sell some shares to them appropriately. Wa country will even transfer some technology to them appropriately.
These must be irresistible temptations for the Wa country.
If the free port plan is achieved, Qin Lang still has a third step, which is to reach a tariff agreement with the Japanese country, and Luzon will obtain the most-favored nation status for the customs duties of the Japanese country. In the future, the Qin family will import and export with the Japanese country through the free port of the concession, and the tariffs will be based on the agreement. The plan is to base the tariff at 5%, with appropriate increases or decreases for some goods.
In this way, we can avoid the heavy tariffs of the Japanese country today. Although the heavy tariffs are finally passed on to the consumers of the Japanese country, in the long run, it is also not good for businesses like the Qin family, because the tax is high. If the price is too high, the buyer's cost will increase, which will inevitably lead to a decline in quantity.
Generally, the export price of green tea is 20 guan a load, but when it is trafficked to the Japanese country, they have to levy a tea tax of 50 guan. Consumers in China are also mainly middle-class and above, but such a heavy tax will still hit the tea market.
So Qin Lang hopes to break this messy situation through concessions, free ports, and customs agreements.
This time, Qin Jun mainly negotiated in the capacity of the representative of the Luzon Mansion. Once the negotiation is concluded, it is limited to Luzon and does not represent the entire Tang Dynasty. After all, the Qin family does not have the qualifications to represent the Tang Dynasty. The goods of the Tang Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty involved a lot, and the Japanese kingdom may not be willing to let go of it all at once.
If Japan is willing to pass the concession, free port and customs agreement, Luzon will also give some benefits to Japan accordingly. For example, the new San Francisco port in Luzon will also set up a free port zone to set aside a place for free trade, which will also be given to Japan. The corresponding treatment, as well as the tariffs of the agreement, etc.
"Waguo has long coveted our industrial technology, Saburo, are you being too generous? Giving both shares and technology?"
Qin Lang smiled.
The so-called granting of shares is only a proper benefit. Allocating some dry shares that have no decision-making power but only dividend rights to Wa Kingdom will not affect anything. Besides, the industries that Qin Lang will establish in Tangjin Free Port will be separated separately. .
The so-called transfer of technology must only be the transfer of some low-level technology, and high-precision technology will naturally not be shared and transferred easily.
"I am interested in the resources of the country of Wa and its huge market. You can see that the country of Wa is rich in mineral resources, especially its reserves of silver and copper are quite amazing, and the price is relatively low. Another thing is that the country of Wa is handmade. The manufacturing and production technology of commodities is backward, whether it is textile or smelting, so our commodities have an absolute advantage here."
Many of the goods of the Qin family are not available in the country of Wa, and some are of lower cost, so the Qin family directly builds a piece of land in the country of Wa, and uses the materials and manpower of the country of Wa to process and manufacture them, and then resell them to the country of Wa , and the other part was sold to Silla and other countries by sea, and even returned to Luzon and Datang.
This can further reduce the cost of goods for the Qin family.
Cost is always the most important competitiveness of commercial products. Lower prices can often seize more markets, and with market share, of course there will be profits.
This set of logic is very simple.
Luzon and Wa are thousands of miles away, and the distance by sea is only a few days. However, if a free port is directly established in Wa, and a handmade commodity processing zone is established, the cost can indeed be reduced a lot and more markets can be captured.
What's more, after the tariff agreement is reached, the Qin family's goods will be more competitive, and the cost will be further reduced.
(end of this chapter)