I'm really not the carpenter emperor

At that time, the day lily was cold!

As for why the Ministry of War is not used, it is simpler. At this time, the Minister of the Ministry of War is still Wang Xiangqian.

Now Wang Xiangqian is impeached by Cui Chengxiu, Gu Bingqian and other "eunuchs", and Zhu Youxiao just saw his resignation today.

This is nothing to be happy about, even if Wang Xiang went on, Zhang Minghe who came up would still be a member of the Donglin Party.

In the short term, the situation of Donglin civil servants in charge of the Ministry of War will not change.

That is to say, for a period of time, I can't rely on the Ministry of War.

Asking the Ministry of War to make firearms is equivalent to asking your enemies to make weapons for you. You don't need to ask, Zhu Youxiao can know the result.

As much money is thrown in, there is not much money. As for the development of firearms?Compared with their Qingliu name, they have to stand aside!

The matter of the Armaments Department was settled in this way, Bi Maokang left Xinuange with a radiant face, and Zhu Youxiao continued to read another book that Wang Tiqian had just brought just like a normal person.

Wang Tigan, who was standing by, didn't even have the guts to look at the emperor more.

Zhu Youxiao read the book quietly, and the Xinuang Pavilion gradually became audible. Wang Tigan, who had been beaten for no apparent reason, didn't even dare to move.

After some time, Zhu Youxiao asked casually, "What time is it?"

"Go back to the emperor, it's time to apply." Wang Tiqian cheered up and said hastily.

"Why hasn't Ye Xianggao come yet? Didn't he be asked to come and talk every day?" Zhu Youxiao asked calmly without raising his head.

Wang Tiqian thought for a while and said: "The elders of the pavilion failed to persuade the emperor because of the joint performance, and they are currently being impeached by the Kodao speaker, saying that they want to avoid suspicion in the mansion..."

The elders in the words naturally refer to all the cabinet ministers including the first assistant Ye Xianggao and the second assistant Han Yu.

"Hmph, they also have today." Zhu Youxiao was not without surprises. He insisted on pressing Ye Xianggao at the beginning in order to facilitate the current situation of internal fighting in Donglin.

Donglin's party became anxious, even biting his own people.

Immediately, Zhu Youxiao turned a page of the book and said, "Go and send an edict to remind you."

"Yes, my lord."

Seeing Wang Tiqian leaving with his mouth covered, Zhu Youxiao sneered a few times, how can the reputation of the elder and the emperor's teacher be so easy to bear?

……

Spring of the first year of Apocalypse.

The strong wind is gusting, stern like a knife, and Jiangnan, which has always been soft like spring water, seems to be cut by the wind, and the air is filled with blood.

In Suzhou City, a large number of businessmen are gathering at the pier, filled with righteous indignation.

The reason for the anger of these businessmen is naturally that it stems from the newly established Supervision Department by the imperial court. The admiral in charge of the Supervision Department is Wei Liangqing, the nephew Wei Zhongxian mentioned to Zhu Youxiao before.

When receiving the decree and getting the seal, Wei Liangqing was still farming in his hometown.

It was less than a year since Wei Zhongxian was promoted to Huang Teng. Although Wei Liangqing had written to him, the capital had never replied, so he was disheartened.

Suddenly he received an imperial decree that he and the five grandchildren of the Wei clan were enshrined as Jinyiwei Qianhu, and they did not need to go to the capital, but directly served in the new supervisory departments in various places.

After a little understanding of the effectiveness of the supervisory department, Wei Liangqing knew that this was a fat job.

Suzhou is an important place for canals. Since Jiajing and Wanli, there has been an endless stream of business travelers and tourists, and the incense is flourishing.

Wei Liangqing has been in Suzhou for more than a month, and already "the crowd is full of anger".

This outrage was naturally promoted by the local Donglin scholars, but in fact, the [-]% increase in tariffs had no real impact on the people.

Of course, unless the businessmen get angry and join forces to drive up local prices.

But if they do this, it will inevitably spread to the court, and the matter of increasing tariffs will become a big deal, and there will only be one result in the end.

Either Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao relaxed the tariffs, or the businessmen confessed and let the supervisory department levy violently on them.

The purpose of Zhu Youxiao's establishment of the Supervision Department is to disgust these businessmen who are greedy for money and have no country.

It's just that the intensity of this nausea is not strong at present, and those who jump out are small fish and shrimps, and the real big bosses are still shrinking behind.

"If you want to pass the customs, you have to pay taxes!" Wei Liangqing stood on the edge of the pier, followed by a group of officials from the supervisory department, and said to the businessmen below:

"The citations of the Supervision Office are now issued by our Supervision Department, and only [-] citations will be issued this month!"

"According to the emperor's will, additional tariffs will be imposed, and now one quotation will cost 2000 taels of silver!"

Upon hearing this, the merchants immediately exploded.

For businessmen who want to expand overseas, Wen Ci is equivalent to holding a qualification certificate for export trade.

Merchants who buy Wenyin will be sent by the local tax bureau to check whether they have the ability to trade overseas and canal water transportation.

If he slapped his face to make himself fat, he would naturally not be able to give him this quotation.

In fact, many people think that this verification is not necessary. If it is not achieved to a certain extent in China, how many businessmen will have the ability to get Wenyin to trade overseas?

The civil servants have always been the masters of the payroll office, and the distribution of quotations is naturally the responsibility of the civil servants.

Even if you know that a certain tycoon must have the energy to hold documents and cite overseas trade, the payroll bureau still has to check, it doesn't matter whether you have the ability, because you have to check one of the two results.

It depends on the performance of the merchants whether they can get the citations.

There are actual numbers of citations issued. For example, in the year of Wanli, the court stipulated that only 110 citations could be issued each month by the Supervisory Office of the Suzhou Government.

The crux of the matter lies in the number of "wen citations" issued each month stipulated by the imperial court.

This is just an official number. The civil servants in the Suzhou government have already established a system. They issued 110 cases openly, but they can distribute [-] cases secretly.

The imperial court stipulated that only a few taels or a few tens of taels of silver was required for quotations, but in private, it was possible to get thousands of taels.

I will give you quotations, and you will give me vain money, but neither of them will say a word. Who knows about this matter.

As for the court investigation, it is even less afraid.

There are so many wealthy businessmen in the world, and countless ones travel overseas all the year round. Can he find out?

Even if he found out, would he dare to beat them all to death?

This is just one of the collusion between the government and the businessmen. The methods of accumulating money by civil officials in the south of the Yangtze River can only be imagined by you, and they can't do it without them.

The income from the quotation alone is already quite a lot, but the imperial court only took the income from the one hundred pieces distributed every month, and the rest went into the pockets of the civil servants.

Even if it is these incomes, it is likely that none of them will actually go to the emperor of the capital in the end.

After Zhu Youxiao's imperial decree, the Superintendent took a chicken feather as an arrow and went down to compete with officials and businessmen for cakes.

This is what Wei Liangqing did. In the name of the imperial decree, he took the real power of the payment department to issue quotations into his own hands.

This is not over yet, the supervisory department raised the price on the ground, and the quotations that were originally dozens of taels per piece directly rose to 2000 taels.

How many times has the official price increased?

Secretly, if you a businessman wants to buy it again, you have to come to the supervisory department. Wei Liangqing has the final say on how much you want at that time.

Wei Liangqing is greedy, just like civil servants, but he knows whose dog he is, and doesn't bother to do those superficial things.

Of course he will keep some of them, but the rest will be sent to Zhu Youxiao.

Otherwise, let alone Zhu Youxiao, how could Wei Zhongxian tolerate him?

Chapter 44 Robbing the Money

There is heaven, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou.

In the land of fireworks in the south of the Yangtze River, countless wealthy businessmen have risen here, and even became as rich as a country, but these are only a few after all. Behind their glamor is more people's bankruptcy.

While this is heaven, it is also a terrifying purgatory.

In the past, "gentleman is here", Donglin Academy with white walls and blue tiles, now has broken steles, like a war.

Several Tiqi were waving long knives on the street, instructing the craftsman to collect the demolished earth and rocks, and then sell the place.

The silver taels exchanged must be sent to the internal funds of the emperor of the capital.

A dozen or so scholars in green shirts silently looked at the razed Yiyong Hall, recalling that the academic style here was comparable to the emerald pines in the imperial court, which were flourishing and evergreen.

It's a pity that later, when today's son was young, he was deeply deceived by the eunuchs.

Wei Zhongxian, the right eunuch, was born out of nowhere, and he rose to prominence through flattery and dedication. In less than a year, party members spread all over the court, Yang Lian ran away, and the Wei family, chickens and dogs ascended to heaven.

Wei Zhongxian took advantage of Feng Sanyuan's lecture, uttered nonsense, rode out everywhere, and brutally suppressed the Donglin party members.

After all, the capital is at the feet of the emperor, and Fanzi is still restrained, but the sky in the south of the Yangtze River is high and the emperor is far away. Since Wei Liangqing came, the sky in Suzhou has changed.

Wei Liangqing is the nephew of Wei Zhongxian, the admiral of the Supervising Department of Suzhou, and even more powerful local government offices such as the Governor's Salary.

The scholars all said that the factory guards colluded, and the prosperous Jiangnan land is now in chaos, not like it used to be.

In the past few days, the factory guards have made frequent moves, even the Wucheng soldiers and horses and the local government have turned a blind eye to them, what's more, they actually cooperate with the factory guards, and whenever there is a lecture in Donglin, the official dispatch will come.

At the least, they will drive away the scholars and smash the places, and at the worst, they will arrest people and put them in prison, and order the craftsmen to demolish the places where they give lectures.

Since Wei Liangqing came to Suzhou, this is the fifth large academy that has been destroyed.

The scholars were puzzled, and could only attribute everything to bad luck. The court was full of evil spirits, and the eunuchs covered the sky. This is the misfortune of the ministers and Ming Dynasty.

At this time, a group of businessmen came along the street.

One of the Tiqi who commanded the demolition of the academy noticed them and turned to look over.

Tiqi just glanced at it and didn't cause trouble first, but it still surprised the merchants, pretending to be calm and brushing past Tiqi.

These businessmen are different at first glance. Some of them are Japanese, and there are many returned overseas Chinese, men and women.

"What is this doing?" A child about 17 years old was full of doubts when he saw Tiqi showing off his power on the street.

"Wei Xie has gained power, and his cavalry is everywhere, suppressing dissidents." Li Dan snorted coldly, "These fans are demolishing Donglin Academy again."

The child who asked the question just now was even more puzzled, with big doubts flashing in his eyes.

"What's wrong with demolishing Donglin Academy?"

Hearing this, Li Dan frowned and said dissatisfiedly: "An official, how can you say such a thing?"

This Li Dan is Zheng Yiguan's uncle.

Zheng Yiguan also has a well-known name in later generations, Zheng Zhilong, but at this time he is the same age as Zhu Youxiao, and he is still hanging out with Li Dan.

Li Dan is very prestigious among the Ming maritime merchants, and his status is almost the same as that of the overseas Chinese in Japan.

This time, he returned to Daming from the Hirado Clan of Dongying, intending to ship a batch of goods to sell and make another windfall.

When the Li family's fleet passed through Suzhou, they encountered an accident because they were stopped by the supervisor headed by Wei Liangqing.

They will not let them go until they say what tariffs they have to pay.

Li Dan is able to achieve such a big, there are many connections in the local area, and there are naturally old acquaintances here in Suzhou Mansion.

He has been doing business overseas for many years and has already made a lot of money. Tariffs are useless to Li Dan. No one dares to collect taxes from the Li family.

After paying more than 200 taels of docking tax at the pier, Li Dan got off the boat with a group of people and went straight to the Suzhou government office.

He was full of anger and wanted to seek justice from the prefect of Suzhou.

Merchants have collected taxes since ancient times, and it was the same in the Ming Dynasty. Maritime cargo docking tax is one of the additional taxes. Officially, it is charged according to the size of the vessel and the cargo.

With so many goods, it is normal to pay 200 taels of docking tax, but businessmen nowadays are basically used to tax evasion.

Li Dan's family has a big business, and he almost forgot how to write the word "tax".

According to the old routine, every time Li Dan transported goods from Daming to Japan, Li Dan would entertain local officials and give gifts in private, commensurate with his friends.

In this way, all kinds of taxes that used to cost tens of taels or even hundreds of taels can be settled with a one-time payment of some money, without any worries.

Under such a chain of official and business interests, the local officials got a little bit cheap, the businessmen got huge profits, and the court suffered a big loss.

This is why business tax has always existed, but it is basically not collected.

The existence of the supervisory department directly has the effect of curbing the collusion between officials and businessmen, but there are also disadvantages. The people below will compile lists to deal with wealthy businessmen and steal money from them.

Zhu Youxiao understands a truth, if you want the horse to run, you have to let the horse graze.

The people below you can swallow some of this money, but I have to take the bulk!

You have interests, and I can also form a system of my own, and create a chain of interests that serves myself.

It was heard that it was Li Dan who asked to see him, Kou Shen, the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, attached great importance to it, and immediately brought him into the inner hall.

The aroma of the Hangzhou Longjing tea served by the servant was overflowing, but Li Dan didn’t have any intention of tasting the tea. He cut to the chase and said:

"My lord, my ship was charged a docking tax of 280 taels at the pier, and said that if I want to go to sea, I have to verify the goods and then pay the tax."