Chapter 313: Eating everything
"Sir, the Lianghuai Salt Fields suddenly stopped distributing salt. According to my inquiry, someone from the palace transported all the salt from Lianghuai under orders!"
Li Shu was surprised when he heard his servant's reply: "How could this happen! Why did the court move so fast!"
"Sir, Qin Jin, the governor of Huguang, sent troops to block the waterway and prohibited Huguang's private grain from leaving the country!"
Cui Yuan, the Marquis of Jingshan, also received bad news at this time, and couldn't help but became furious: "Qin Jin, what are you doing, don't you even give me the face of this Marquis?"
Cui Yuan's servant hurriedly replied: "I heard that it was an order from above that only Xu, Ma, Jiao and other imperial merchants were allowed to leave the country!"
Cui Yuan understood this and sat slumped on the chair in a daze
……
In any case, the strike launched by the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan was a complete failure.
And at this time.
Mochou Lake.
It’s the Mid-Autumn Festival again.
The entire lake was decorated with lights, and the pavilions and pavilions were filled with fireworks. The Ming Emperor was in a good mood recently, so he decided to hold a banquet at Mochou Lake to entertain celebrities from all walks of life in Nanjing.
The powerful officials and gentry of Jiangnan, Hui merchants, and Shanxi merchants lost their wives and soldiers because of the failure of the strike. As a result, not only was the entire Jiangnan politically controlled by the central court, but the economic lifeline was also controlled by the central court.
This naturally made Zhu Houzhao feel extremely comfortable. Seeing that the economic life of the people in Jiangnan gradually returned to normal, the prosperous Jiangnan seemed to be back again. This made him feel happy with the people. He held a banquet to see the powerful officials in Nanjing. The gentlemen's smiles that are uglier than crying are sometimes more satisfying than watching a beautiful woman smile.
General Secretary Li Shu was originally in a bad mood. Ji Xuan, who encouraged him to strike, disappeared without a trace. He also lost hundreds of thousands of silver dollars because of the strike, and even offended his superiors. Therefore, Li Shu is now very depressed. He is so irritable that he vents his anger on his subordinates and family members.
But what Li Shu didn't expect was that just when he was depressed, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly wanted to host a banquet, and all officials of Nanjing's fifth rank and above were required to attend the banquet.
It would have been nice to meet the emperor, but Li Shu was really in no mood to meet the emperor now.
"Counsellor Li, after all, it is a feast in front of the emperor. It can be said that the emperor's favor is so great. Why are you looking so sad? Smile more and be happy!"
Xiong Ban came over and saw that Li Shu was depressed, so he tried to persuade him.
Li Shu could only force out a smile.
Like Li Shu, many officials and gentry who came to the banquet were not in a good mood, but they had to force a smile.
Zhu Houzhao looked at these officials and gentry and felt better. He even said some auspicious words himself: "My dear friends, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival night. Don't be too restrained. There should be a happy relationship between the monarch and his ministers. ”
Wang Shouren also took over the words: "That's right. Now that the new tax policy has been implemented, although there are merchants who do not understand the court's painstaking efforts and do not care about the people's sentiments, they have gone on strike and closed their businesses. But in the end, there is no danger. As of last month, the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau has added Tax bank has been Reaching more than 74 million silver dollars, the two provinces of Southern Zhili and Zhejiang can not only save the imperial court more than 9 million yuan in subsidies a year, but also have a balance of tens of millions of silver dollars, enough to fill the treasury of the imperial court and the two provinces. .”
Wu Wending also said with great enthusiasm: "According to the tax sharing ratio, the local area of Southern Zhili can get more than 10 million silver dollars in tax. I can also have sufficient funds to benefit the people of Southern Zhili. The seawalls in Qingpu area of Songjiang can also be built in advance. , and also, in order to realize taxation and benefit the people, I have decided to allocate five million silver dollars every year to reduce the six-year tuition fee for social studies and junior school students!”
Zhu Houzhao was very happy after hearing this: "This is very good. It seems that the new tax policy is still very beneficial. It can prolong the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. Dear friends, do you think so or not?"
"Your Majesty is wise!"
All the officials could only say yes in a hurry. They all had mixed feelings in their hearts, but no matter what, they still had to say with a smile: "Your Majesty is wise!"
"I am not wise in this matter. Cong Aiqing, Xiong Aiqing, Zhang Aiqing, and Mr. Wang Ge from the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau all took great credit. As well as you business representatives who are willing to stand on the side of the imperial court and the people of the world, you are also involved. It’s a lot of effort, the ministers say yes or no?”
As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he looked at the powerful officials and gentry from Jiangnan who were present at the banquet.
Li Shu and other powerful officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River hated these people so much that they had no mood to admit that they took the greatest credit. But now that the emperor was praising them, they had no choice but to hold their noses and admit it.
Wu Wending even bowed first: "A country can be as prosperous as it is today if it has both a wise king and a wise minister!"
Li Shu and other officials could only salute and praise him.
"A decree was drawn up to build Xianliangsheng shrines in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, and Hangzhou, and officials from each government were assigned special personnel to manage them to commemorate the contributions of Wang Shouren, Cong Lan, Zhang Jin, and Xiong Pei!"
Zhu Houzhao said this. Except for Zhang Jin, Wang Shouren and other officials who came forward to reform the tax policy on Zhu Houzhao's behalf were very excited. After all, as a civil servant, no one wants to be famous for generations.
Only Zhang Jin was helpless. From the bottom of his heart, he was unwilling to let the court reform the tax policy. However, at that time, the court discussion on the tax reform in Jiangnan made it impossible for him to stop the court from reforming the tax policy in Jiangnan. He could only rely on his being in Nanjing. The left minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs was given the opportunity to join the Jiangnan Taxation Bureau by His Majesty. He tried his best to protect the interests of the Jiangnan gentry in reforming the tax policy.
Therefore, now, Zhang Jin is not happy because the emperor has ordered the local government to build a shrine for virtuous people. He is really not happy in his heart. His Zhang family is a big family in the south of the Yangtze River and pays no less than 50,000 silver dollars in taxes a year. , enough for him to build countless virtuous temples.
But no matter how sad he was in his heart, Zhang Jinming still had to follow Wang Shouren and wait to express his gratitude to Zhu Houzhao, and he also vowed to continue to be a reform pioneer in the future.
What makes Zhang Jin even more uncomfortable is that he is obviously trying to protect the interests of the Jiangnan plutocrats, but most of the Jiangnan gentry still look at him with resentful eyes. He knows that it is obvious that the Jiangnan gentry does not regard him as one of their own. , which made Zhang Jin feel wronged and even more uncomfortable.
Zhu Houzhao now wants the local governments of Nanzhili and Zhejiang to build shrines for virtuous students such as Wang Shouren. On the surface, Zhu Houzhao wants to reward officials who work for him. In fact, he is disgusting with these Jiangnan people who appear to be upright and selfless but secretly oppose the imperial court. Officials and gentry. Li Shu and other officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River really felt disgusted at this time. They hated Wang Shouren and the others so much that they were not in the mood to see their shrines appear in the south of the Yangtze River, especially Cong Lan who was eager to scrape his own rank as a gentry in the south of the Yangtze River in the south of the Yangtze River. skinned northern officials.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the Jiangnan officials and gentry must feel uncomfortable in their hearts, but if they didn't like it, it would be uncomfortable. As an emperor, he sometimes couldn't go his own way, not to mention that these people were not emperors.
After the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Zhu Houzhao was preparing to leave Jiangnan. But before leaving Jiangnan, he couldn't help but think of the inheritance tax mentioned in the tax reform, and couldn't help but ask Wang Shouren: "What income can be generated from the inheritance tax."
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"Back to Your Majesty, Cong Lan and the others have already begun to send people to make secret visits to the people. As long as there are inheritance disputes among the people, they will send people to do the work and tell them that as long as they are willing to pay the inheritance tax, the imperial court will definitely uphold justice and intervene in the clan. Internal Affairs!”
Wang Shouren replied.
Zhu Houzhao nodded after hearing this. At this time, Wang Shouren, after pondering for a moment, suddenly said: "Your Majesty, during this period, based on the statistics of shops, workshops and factories during the tax collection period, I found that the industries of Li Shu, Zhang Jin, Ji Xuan, etc. They are all very big, especially Ji Xuan, a giant businessman in Huizhou who is a student, actually controls 124 commercial banks, with an annual profit of about 200 million silver dollars, no less than the Chen family! "
The Wang Shouren family was one of the early investors of the emperor, and its capital strength was only comparable to that of a few families in the Ming Dynasty. Now Wang Shouren said that Ji Xuan was not inferior to his own family, which also made Zhu Houzhao surprised by Ji Xuan's wealth.
Of course, the people of the Ming Dynasty are now very wealthy, and it is normal to have families richer than Wang Shouren's family. What really makes Zhu Houzhao think it is abnormal is that Ji Xuan's identity is just a student. How could a student have so much wealth.
"I will ask the Jin Yiwei to investigate this Ji Xuan. As for officials such as Li Shu and Zhang Jin, I will ask the Dongchang Inspectorate to investigate. Zhang Jin is okay. After all, although he was reluctant, he also contributed to the implementation of the new tax. It’s hard work, but other officials and gentry who are doing evil in secret cannot be forgiven as long as they are guilty!”
Zhu Houzhao then added: "I don't know when the Ming Dynasty started to collect the first inheritance tax. As long as the first inheritance tax is collected as a starting point, in the future, the court can directly intervene in the internal affairs of the clans of these officials, gentry and wealthy businessmen! ”
Wang Shouren also nodded. He also knew why His Majesty valued inheritance tax.
……
Li Shu returned home depressed after the banquet. The implementation of the new tax policy and the failure of the market strike caused him to lose a lot of money.
However, just at this moment, Li Shu's wife, Lian Shi, came over: "Master, you are finally back. Li Qing, who lived in the fifth house, died suddenly yesterday, but he only left one daughter. His wife, Mrs. Zhao, is Fuzheng." As a concubine, the elders of the clan intended for Zhang to die in order to earn a reputation for the Li family as a virtuous wife and to let outsiders know Our Li family has good tutoring, and both women and children are chaste! It will also help the descendants of the family gain a good reputation when they become officials in the future! As for the fifth-fang daughter, the housekeeper of the Dingguo family fell in love with her and was willing to buy her for five thousand silver dollars. She gave it to Duke Dingguo, but since you are the head of our Li family, it is up to you to make the decision.”
"The fifth brother is gone?!"
Li Shu didn't know whether he was happy or sad. After asking, he hurriedly motioned to the maid to change into plain clothes.
Lian nodded: "The mourner hasn't left yet, sir, you can ask yourself."
Therefore, Li Shu sent a message to the person who announced the funeral and asked the person: "When did your master disappear?"
"As I said to the lord, it was missing last night at Haishi!" After the mourner said this, Li Shu nodded, and while letting his maid dress him, he said:
"Come here, tell the whole family. Now go to Wufang's house in Xihe for a funeral. Tell the people under Wufang that now their master is gone. Don't think that they can seize property and steal property because Wufang is gone. If We know that we will not be lenient and let them live well without mourning. ”
With that said, Li Shu changed into plain clothes and hurried to Li Qing, a member of the Li family's fifth-fang clan. When he saw Li Qing's coffin, he started crying: "Fifth brother, why did you suddenly disappear? Tell me. You, you have been in business for so many years, you have earned a huge fortune, and you suddenly give up. You are exhausting us brothers!”
Li Shu cried for a while, and after seeing all his family members arrived, he stood up, quickly held back his tears, looked at Zhao, who had been kneeling in the mourning hall, crying, smiled coldly, and said to his confidant Li Jiu He ordered: "Bring the adulterer here!"
After a while, Li Jiu brought a weak person.
The people of the Li clan also secretly smiled when they saw this. They all knew what their clan leader, who was an official in the imperial court, was going to do. This kind of deprivation benefited everyone in the clan, and naturally no one felt wrong.
Only, the Zhao family didn't know about it yet. She just heard Li Shu, the clan leader and her male cousin who was still crying sadly just now, called the eldest master in the family, said to bring the adulterer here, and she couldn't help but become suspicious in her heart: "Adulterer,... What adulterer? ”
Here, Li Shu ordered again: "Bring the prostitute Zhao here too!"
Only then did Zhao realize that she seemed to have been treated as a whore. For a moment, she instinctively suppressed the pain in her heart because of the loss of her husband, and asked: "Master, when did the slave family become a whore? Since the slave family was born, she has become a whore." I have never left this courtyard, and I have been serving the fifth master since I was a child. How come the slave family has become a prostitute?”
Li Shu ignored Zhao and just asked the weak man: "Yuan Yi, is she the person you stole secretly?"
"It's her, it's her. Her name is Zhao Cuilian. She is said to be the fifth grandma of the Li family. She did that to me because she saw that I was fair. She also said that when her husband dies, she will raise me and live with me. Keep!”
After Yuan Yi said this, Ms. Zhao realized something was wrong and became very uneasy. She pointed at Yuan Yi emotionally: "You are talking nonsense! I don't know you at all! Why are you framing me!"
"My Li family is from a noble family. How can we tolerate a prostitute like you? However, the family scandal must not be made public. For the sake of giving birth to a daughter for our Li family, Li Zhao, the head of our clan can persuade the people to let go." You are a horse, you are martyred in the name of martyrdom If you hang yourself, our Li family will not clear you out of the family tree, and we will treat your daughter well when she grows up and adopt her to the third wife! Besides, you can't let your daughter know that your mother is an adulterer!"
As Li Shu spoke, he couldn't help but look at Zhao's daughter Li Dai. He suddenly realized that the twelve-year-old Li Dai looked like a beautiful woman, which made people very moved.
Zhao initially cried out that she was wronged, but later because the entire Li clan was blaming her for being ignorant, and knowing that she was irreversible, and in order to save her daughter, she had no choice but to agree to hang herself.
then.
Zhao was driven to the wing by the Li clan and asked to hang herself.
Here, Zhao's daughter was also adopted into the third bedroom, but at night, Li Shu had someone bring Zhao's daughter Li Dai to his home.
And here, Li Shu asked his brother Li Feng to preside over the funeral for the deceased Li Qing, the head of the fifth-fang family, and ordered: "Use the five-fang family's wealth to set up a running water mat, and tell everyone, the whole family, the whole village and neighbors, to be here for the next half month." Come to the fifth room for dinner, the elders of the clan Follow me to check the accounts of Wufang. Wufang has made a lot of money in Nanyang over the years. Now that Wufang has no one, we might as well take this opportunity to divide it up and use a small amount as the family property. We are close relatives. , naturally you need more.”
(End of chapter)