I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 849 - Chapter 849 Swimming

Chapter 849: Swimming Chapter 849: Swimming Editor: Atlas Studios Qi Haoran was soaking in the water with Little Bear, and a guard who was good at swimming was teaching them step by step.

While Little Bear could already swim back and forth for a while, Qi Haoran was still struggling in the water.

Little Lion and the other two children cheered as they rushed over.

Qi Haoran almost choked on water when he heard their voices.

A few guards stopped the three children before they rushed into the lake.

Tiger Head looked at his father and brother who were soaking in the water and reached out to remove his clothes.

He shouted, “I want to play with water too.” Little Lion and Little An had already quickly taken off their outer clothes.

Qi Haoran hurriedly got someone to stop them.

He only dared to let Little Bear into the water because he was already six years old and had always been strong.

Besides, he’d also cultivated internal energy.

On the other hand, these two twins were only a little more than two years old, and Little An had always been weak.

How could he dare to let those three kids into the water?

Without putting on his clothes, Qi Haoran picked up the three boys and carried them away from the lake.

Only then did he coax them.

“You’re still young now.

You can enter the water when you’re older.” Tiger Head struggled.

“I want to repay my country, too.” Little Lion nodded fiercely and said seriously, “Father, you can’t discriminate against us for being young.” Little An was confused.

“You can repay your country just by playing with water?” “We’re not playing with water.

We’re training.

If we swim well, we can protect the country in the future.

This is what Mother said.” Little Lion repeated his mother’s words seriously.

Tiger Head chimed in, “Yes, yes.” Qi Haoran couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Rascal, you have such a good memory when it comes to remembering these things.

Why is it so difficult for you to memorize our genealogical tree?

And you.” Qi Haoran aimed his spear at Tiger Head.

“Don’t agree with everything your brother says.

You’re the older brother!” Little Lion said angrily, “I’m clearly the older brother.

Daddy, you’re going back on your word again.” Qi Haoran choked and changed the topic.

“Even if Tiger Head becomes the younger brother, he can’t always listen to you.

He has to have his own thoughts.” Little Bear had already swam for two to three rounds.

Seeing that his father was still trying to reason with his three younger brothers, he shouted, “Father, just let them go into the water.

I think they’ll definitely learn faster than you.

Look, I can swim now, but you still can’t float.” Qi Haoran: “aEUR|” Qi Haoran stared at Little Bear without saying anything.

Did this brat specially come to rub it in his face?

“Mother already said that children learn faster.

Father, you have to listen to Mother.” Qi Haoran was extremely regretful.

If he could turn back time, he definitely wouldn’t agree to let the children sleep on the same bed as them.

Even if they cried about being unable to sleep in an unfamiliar room, he shouldn’t have allowed that.

The three of them had learned everything that the couple had said.

Tiger Head was fine, for he could not remember things for more than a night.

However, Little Lion could remember things for a few nights, let alone Little Bear, who could now remember everything.

He did not know if swimming was useful to them, but the idea of repaying one’s country by learning to swim now was completely nonsense.

He had promised Mu Yangling to learn how to swim because he had nothing to do and the weather was extremely hot.

Secondly, he had come with the intention of just giving it a try.

To him, land battles were far more important than water battles.

This was because almost all of Great Qi’s enemies came from land, such as West Xia, the Jin Kingdom, and Tibet, which was gradually becoming stronger.

However, Ah Ling, who had always listened to him when it came to military strategies, was very insistent that both sea and land were equally important.

She practically forced him to learn how to swim and even wanted to write about the importance of the sea to Great Qi to be sent to Qi Xiuyuan.

If he had known that Ah Ling hated pirates so much, he wouldn’t have told her about the pirates along the coast.

It turned out that when Mu Yangling found out that Fan Zijin was going to work in Guangdong, she sighed that they were going to part again.

Qi Haoran told Mu Yangling about Fan Zijin’s desire to make a contribution and that they would be able to reunite in two to three years.

At that time, Fan Zijin would probably be transferred back to the capital for good.

Since he mentioned the sea trade in Guangdong and the pirates in Fujian, the indignant Qi Haoran also sighed with worry about the increase in salt price.

However, Mu Yangling was shocked to hear that the southeast coast was under the threat of pirates.

According to the timeline, this should be the South Song period in her previous life, where sea trade was very prosperous and South Song wasn’t bullied too badly at sea.

However, the current situation in Great Qi was clearly different from the South Song Dynasty in her previous life.

Mu Yangling checked the ancient books and found out that the root of the trouble came from Great Zhou.

Emperor Shizong, who had transmigrated, should also have known about the importance of the sea to a country.

Furthermore, the Great Zhou’s coastline was very long, so he strongly supported sea trade during his reign.

At that time, the Imperial Court even had a national fleet that specialized in sea trade in Southeast Asia.

Alas, the good times did not last long.

When it came to Emperor Gaozong’s era, he disapproved of the way his Royal Father had fought with the commoners for benefits.

It should be said that Emperor Gaozong and his father, Emperor Shizong, held different political views.

However, Emperor Gaozong could only abide by Emperor Shizong’s decree about not imposing a maritime ban.

Still, he removed the fleet of the Imperial Court and Emperor Shizong bit by bit.

Later, he also reduced the military salary, rations, and armaments provided to the navy.

Because he gave preferential treatment to the land army at the same time, although there was opposition to this matter, it was still carried out with the support of a few army generals.

When Emperor Gaozong’s descendants took over, due to the threat of the Jin Kingdom and West Xia, they focused all their energy on land battles.

The navy was repeatedly weakened, and in the end, it was difficult to even maintain the basic military formation.

Similarly, the Imperial Court could not prohibit sea trade on the surface, but they could prevent them from going out to sea by increasing the taxes imposed on sea merchants.

According to history books, the heaviest tax amounted to 40% of the value of goods.

The sea merchants were responsible for paying for the costs of purchasing goods and the risks of going out to sea.

Now that the Imperial Court was taking away 40% of the value of the goods by setting up checkpoints and collecting taxes, it was equivalent to taking away 80% of their existing profits.

The originally prosperous sea trade immediately decreased.

The only ones who could persist were some rich sea merchants, and there were very few sea merchants who could persist until now.

Most sea merchants turned to conducting trade at the port and waited for foreigners to buy them.

As long as they did not go out to sea, their taxes would be the same as ordinary merchants and would not increase.

When Emperor Jingyan ascended the throne, the southeast coast was plundered by pirates.

The Jin Kingdom and West Xia were also eyeing Great Zhou covetously.

In order not to be attacked from both sides, he officially banned sea trade altogether and sent Zhu Feng to guard Fuzhou.

Only then did the coastal situation improve.

Until now, only Fuzhou and Guangdong had ports for foreigners to dock at.

Just as Fan Zijin had said, demand exceeded supply, resulting in chaotic sea trade in those two regions.

In order to let foreigners choose their goods, there were often price wars which ended up benefiting those foreigners.

Qi Haoran saw the hardships caused by the fluctuation of the salt price due to the threat of those pirates and banning sea trade.

Meanwhile, Fan Zijin saw the depression of the sea trade.

However, the thing that stood out to Mu Yangling was Great Qi giving up its entire territorial sea rights and sea trade altogether.

Of course, it wasn’t that she had foresight, but it was due to those memories retained from her previous life, allowing her to stand on the shoulder of history and look back.