Chapter 148 North Sea Dragon King
The sea breeze was blowing gently, and Xu Qiuyue's hair was flying in the wind.

Xu Qiuyue still remembers the legend from her previous life, that there was a dragon in the North Sea.

Beicheng was not a place of exile in the past. In the past, Beicheng had good weather and good harvests. Although the people here did not farm, they could earn a lot by going out to sea to fish every day.

Those sea fish were made into salted fish, which could be stored for a long time and transported to other towns to be sold at very high prices.

But I don’t know what happened, North City has been getting worse and worse over the years.

North City is actually a good place.

Because Xu Qiuyue knew very well that three years later, a big man named the Dragon King of the North Sea would appear here.

He crowned himself as the Dragon King of the North Sea.

Rumor has it that this man was born a pirate.

Later, Xuan Jiuqing suggested that since North City was a barren land and fighting a war would be costly and laborious, they might as well give North City to the Dragon King of the North Sea as his fiefdom.

Then the Dragon King of the North Sea only needs to pay a tribute of 10,000 taels of silver every year.

Emperor Sheng thought that since Beicheng didn't pay any taxes every year, he could make it a fiefdom and earn some money. Although it was a little less, it was better than nothing.

Moreover, the imperial court sent many people to attack the North City, but unfortunately, they never took it down.

Emperor Sheng had already spent all of Sheng Kingdom's money on refining the elixir of immortality, and the national treasury was penniless.

Then Xuan Jiuqing set his sights on those wealthy businessmen. Anyway, those businessmen had no background, so he would rob whoever was rich.

I don’t know what’s going on, it’s obvious that businessmen don’t have any power.

Those businessmen are gone.

But the people of Shengguo became poorer and poorer.

So poor that we can barely make ends meet.

Everyone hates businessmen. Xu Qiuyue used to hate them too, thinking that businessmen made so much money without doing anything.

But later, Xu Qiuyue realized that the world cannot function without businessmen.

No one is born superior.

At least every penny of a merchant's money is earned by himself, but what about the rich and powerful? All their money comes from exploiting the common people. Why do they stand so high and mighty?

The fishermen were silent for a long time, and then the oldest one spoke to Xu Qiuyue: "Madam, these pirates are actually just desperate.

There are many islands on the North Sea. The pirates were originally from our North City, but the taxes in the North City were too heavy, increasing year by year.

The imperial concubine liked to grind pearls into powder and apply it on her face to maintain her beauty. However, the pearl tax became heavier every year, and the pearls in the sea became fewer and fewer, so the sea dwellers could only go to the deep sea to dig for pearls.

I don’t know how many sea dwellers died tragically in the deep sea.

At that time, the officers and soldiers ordered those sea dwellers not to go ashore and they had to stay on the sea for the rest of their lives. If they had just stayed on the sea all the time, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

But for some reason, after staying at sea for too long, everyone started to become weak, couldn't eat, their faces turned extremely pale, their teeth started bleeding, and most importantly, all their legs were broken.

This is the curse of the sea god, cursing the sea people for digging too many pearls.

However, the officers and soldiers thought it was an epidemic and did not allow them to go ashore.

The Sea Goddess said that the disease would be cured immediately as long as we go ashore.

But after coming ashore, who will dig these pearls?

As a result, these sea dwellers could only get sick and die on the fishing boats, and finally be buried in the sea.

Perhaps the sea monsters in the sea are the incarnation of these sea dwellers.
The surviving fishermen were unwilling to become like this, so they found a new island and lived on it, and their illness was cured.

But no one is digging for pearls anymore! The pearls in the shallow sea have been dug out.

In order to rebel against the imperial court, they became pirates.

This world is too difficult.”

The old fisherman began to cry as he spoke.

"Madam, these pirates have consciences. Our fishermen's boats have never been plundered. If life gets better, who would want to be a savage on that deserted island? The witch said that the court angered the sea god, so the North City has become like this!
Now with the advent of pirates, the imperial court forced people to go to sea, and even if they caught pearls, they would be robbed, and pirates often attacked people from the imperial court.

No one in the imperial court would force the common people to become pearl divers.

The sea god also had pity on these sea dwellers, so he stopped the sea monster from attacking them, in order to protect the people of the North City and put an end to the disaster of pearl fishing."

Xu Qiuyue did not have much sense of belonging to the imperial court.

Therefore, Xu Qiuyue did not feel too resentful when she heard such counter-remarks.

Pearl powder is indeed a skin care product commonly used by noble ladies in Beijing.

But the pearls that people use are basically produced in river water. Some people also specialize in cultivating pearls. Few people use pearls from sea water.

And you don’t need so many pearls!

Xu Qiuyue suddenly remembered that Xuan Jiuqing had complained to her in her previous life.

A Taoist priest once said that the pearls in the sea contain the essence of heaven and earth and can slow down aging.

Therefore, Emperor Sheng would bathe with pearl powder every day, and all of them must be sea pearls.

But where can we find so many sea pearls? Even if we had more, they would not be enough for Emperor Sheng to take a bath every day.

Anyway, the pearls have been ground into powder, so even the sea dwellers who fish for pearls every day can't tell the difference.

Xuan Jiuqing asked Xu Qiuyue to cultivate pearls and make fake ones at that time.

Because the rice and other things grown by Xu Qiuyue are particularly good.

Xuan Jiuqing knew that Xu Qiuyue had a certain talent in this area.

Xu Qiuyue was also thinking about Xuan Jiuqing at that time. Xu Qiuyue soaked the pearls in the spiritual spring water to warm them. Later, Emperor Sheng liked the pearls presented by Xuan Jiuqing very much, and Xuan Jiuqing received a lot of rewards.

The reason why the North City was abandoned by the imperial court was because of pirates.

There is another reason.

Linhai City is very close to the capital, making it more convenient for the court to govern.

Therefore, most of the sea people are in Linhai City.

The court gave up the northern city for another reason: it was a place with poor mountains and bad waters, and all the pearls in the sea had been almost dug up.

The reason why Xuan Jiuqing spoke up for the Dragon King of the North Sea later was that the Dragon King of the North Sea promised to provide Xuan Jiuqing with three hundred pearls every month.

There has been no pearl fishing in the North Sea for many years.

By the time the Dragon King of the North Sea came out, they were able to collect some pearls.

The Dragon King of the North Sea was a smart man, and he gave the pearl-hunting mission to Xuan Jiuqing as a benefit.

In this way, no tax will be paid to the court.

Once taxes are imposed, they can be accumulating layer by layer.

At the beginning it was three hundred, and then as it was added little by little, it became three thousand.

Moreover, the Dragon King of the North Sea knows how to raise pearls. He does not dig out the small pearls but keeps them.

In this way, pearls will always be there.

Actually, three hundred a month for Pearl is a little less.

In the past, the North City sent 100,000 pearls to the capital in just one month.

It was also because of this that the magistrate of Beicheng County was promoted and transferred to the most wealthy Yangzhou, becoming the former prefect of Yangzhou. He was once very much favored by Emperor Sheng, but unfortunately, he stood on the wrong side.

No matter how the crown prince targets other princes, he is still the son of Emperor Sheng, and Emperor Sheng will be more tolerant towards him than others.

The prefect of Yangzhou was just an outsider.

So he became the previous prefect of Yangzhou.

The prince had no choice but to take action and promoted his son to be the prefect of Linhai City, allowing him to continue collecting pearls in Linhai City.