I

Yingmin Hall.

The cabinet ministers remained silent for a long time, some people wanted to persuade the emperor to punish carefully, but they didn't dare to make trouble at this time.

What happened to Fei Chun was actually not that big of a deal. The fact that his titles and appointments were all over the place was more of an example to show the emperor's attitude towards this matter. After Ding You came back and worked for a few more years, Fei Chun's promotion and dismissal would definitely resume. Only the title and cabinet rank, how much they can recover depends on how long Fei Chun can live.

If Fei Chun lived in his seventies and eighties, the chief assistant should not have to run away, and the title could at least reach the earl. Maybe when the new emperor is happy, he will give the title of duke to him.

There is also a very small chance that when Zhao Han was in office, he would restore the Duke to Fei Chun - Li Banghua was like this back then.

As for the punishment of the Zheng family, it is more like taking the opportunity to rectify.

The Zheng family has a duke, a son-in-law, several marquises and earls. Moreover, the influence in Fujian is too great, and it is also quite prestigious in the navy. This time, it happened to be a haystack and a rabbit to clean up.

The monarchs and ministers were silent for a long time, and finally Zhu Shunshui said: "If so many officials and merchants are dealt with at once, all major ports will be in chaos. There are not enough officials to manage the shipping department, and there are not enough sea merchants to transport goods to sea. After a year or so, it will Countless goods are backlogged at the port, and factories and people in the interior will also be affected."

However, Zhao Han said: "There are no bureaucrats in the Municipal Bureau of Shipping who are in the same boat. They will be promoted one to three levels in place, depending on the specific position and situation. The vacant positions in the Municipal Bureau of Shipping will be transferred by local county officials, and the operation of the Municipal Bureau will be resumed as soon as possible. As for the maritime merchants involved in the case, the heinous ones should be beheaded and exiled. The rest are just merchants who bribed and evaded taxes. Don’t check how much tax was stolen. The fines range from 150,000, 120,000, 80,000, 60,000 to 30,000 taels."

During the reign of Chongzhen, when transporting goods from Fujian to Manila, the average price of each ship was 50,000 taels of silver, and the profit margin was about 100%. Small boats cost 30,000 to 50,000, and large ships cost 112,000.

Now that the sea trade is booming, the sea merchants have already rolled up, and they can no longer smuggle, and the profit margin has shrunk to less than 80%. Moreover, short-distance trade makes less money, such as shipping goods from Shandong to North Korea, such as shipping goods from Shanghai to Guangdong.

Zhao Han's fine regulations, counting the back and forth shipments, are probably the total profits of those maritime merchants for one to two years, which must far exceed the customs duties they evaded.

If there happens to be a maritime merchant adding a new registered ship, then consider yourself unlucky, and the new ship will still be fined.

Such a fine does not comply with the provisions of the "Datong Commercial Law" and is completely a special case. Who made too many maritime merchants involved in tax evasion, making it difficult for investigators to find out?

In order to save investigation time, as long as the goods list does not match, it can be regarded as tax evasion, and there is no need to investigate further. After the fine, continue to investigate the next one. Otherwise, if you investigate each firm and compare each transaction, you will have to find out the year of the monkey.

Zhao Han continued: "It is inevitable that there will be errors in the review. The tax within a thousand taels is not correct, so we will not pursue it this time."

Wu Yingji said: "Your Majesty's punishment is so heavy, I am afraid that many sea trading companies will go bankrupt due to poor turnover. Especially in the past two or three years, the companies that have opened up and operate on loans are buying ships and buying goods. They must not So much cash."

"It deserves it for closing down!"

Zhao Han said angrily: "From now on, we will select a port every year and conduct a detailed inspection of maritime merchants. Just like this investigation, compare the accounts of the general department with the accounts of the merchant company, and strictly investigate and strictly control each transaction. .Every time the inventory target is selected by drawing lots, Shoufu, Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance, Shangshu of the Ministry of Commerce, and Zuodu Yushi of the Inspectorate must be present. The censor will supervise the whole process! During the lottery, officials from other departments can also come to observe."

No one said anything more.

Zhao Han didn't stop yet: "The merchants who were fined this time have all their business licenses marked with red marks, and if they dare to evade customs duties next time, their licenses will be revoked immediately. The merchants who were not punished this time will be given 'honesty' by the municipal bureaus of various places. "Management" plaque will be rewarded, and each family will be exempted from tariffs for one ship next year!"

After thinking for a while, Zhao Han said again: "The few officials who were killed and silenced were promoted to five ranks in their original posts. The Ministry of Rites drew up a table to reward them, and all of them were given the posthumous title of Wen Zhong. The children of these loyal ministers were recommended to send one person to college. If you have no children, you can adopt them from your relatives. Those who are recommended will be free of tuition fees, and they will be given five taels of silver per month for living expenses until they finish college."

When Qian Qianyi and his son got the news at home, they were both happy and heartbroken.

Qian Ruyi said with tears in his eyes, "These years have been for nothing."

"It's good if you can survive, and it's okay to lose some money." Qian Qianyi is very optimistic.

Qian Ruyi said: "Father, the trading company we partnered with the Xie family and the Xu family has only evaded tariffs for four years, and the total sum is only more than 20,000 taels. But our trading company is getting bigger and bigger, and last year it was a new one. If we add two boats, one big and one small, the big boat will be fined 150,000 taels of silver!"

Qian Ruyi wanted to cry but had no tears. The money he earned had already been used to set up a textile factory and bought a lot of inland river merchant ships. Now, the company's cash is definitely not enough for a fine, and the three shareholders have to pay the money together. His family did not have enough cash, so he had to take out a loan to pay the fine, or sell off the river fleet and shops.

Whether it's a loan or a sale, they will definitely be ripped off by someone. They come and go again and again, which means that they have been doing white jobs for the court for four or five years.

Of course, Xie Sanbin must have suffered the worst loss, because this guy is an absolute controlling shareholder.

"You can be content with it. Old Fei Ge lost his title of duke. You and my father and son just paid a fine." Qian Qianyi sighed, "Oh, Your Majesty, it is really... that reincarnation."

Qian Qianyi had four sons in total, the first three were all dead, leaving only the youngest in front of him.

As the youngest son, Qian Ruyi is young, only in his early forties this year. Because of doing business with Xie Sanbin, the past few years have become more and more prosperous, but now he is beaten back to the prototype a few years ago, and he has to endure a few more years of "hard life".

…

The signboard of "Guogong Mansion" was taken down, and the gate plaque was replaced with "Fei Zhai".

Mrs. Fei looked at the brand new lintel of her house, and was speechless for a long time. She wanted the old one and didn't like the new one.

Silently stepped into the gate, came to the main room and sat down, the whole family did not speak.

After a long time, Fei Chun said: "Xiao Qifeng and his son will be beheaded after autumn. The rest of the family members, as long as they are on the household registration book, and they will be separated within ten years, they will all be confiscated and exiled to Tibet. Even if he married daughter, will also be exiled in Tibet."

Hearing this, Mrs. Fei trembled, she didn't dare to blame the emperor anymore, she just asked: "Your third brother really wants to be exiled to Tanzhou?"

"Your order cannot be violated," Fei Chun said.

"My poor son!" Mrs. Fei burst into tears immediately.

Fei Chun comforted: "My child has inquired about it. As long as you don't encounter storms and do not suffer from any serious illnesses, you can live in Tanzhou. The climate there is not bad. It's just... I will never come back in this life."

Old Madam Fei wiped her tears and said, "Anyway, your title is gone, so why don't you beg the emperor any more?"

Fei Chun explained with a wry smile: "Mother, my child's current official status is only the Dongge University Scholar and the Minister of the Ministry of Finance. I am a second-rank official, but my mother’s first-rank edict has not been taken back. Doesn’t your mother understand what your Majesty means?”

"What does Your Majesty mean?" Mrs. Fei really didn't understand.

Fei Chun said in detail: "First, your majesty is saving face for your mother; second, your majesty is implying that the child should not complain, and that he will definitely restore his official rank in the future; third, no one is allowed to intercede, otherwise the child's Dongge University scholar , and my mother's first-rank life will definitely not be guaranteed!"

Mrs. Fei stopped crying: "Is there such a thing as saying? The emperor is playing riddles with our family."

"The cabinet officials can understand this kind of thing," Fei Chun breathed out, "so, mother must be careful in the future, and don't misunderstand the righteous son and daughter. Whoever gives you any gift, as long as it is not expensive, is fine. You can accept it, but you must remember to return the gift, and all gifts must be recorded."

Mrs. Fei sighed: "You are really tiring as an elder. You have to keep accounts even when you receive a gift. You are not as good as the county magistrates before."

Fei Chun said: "The founding sage is alive, who can be careless? Your Majesty is already very kind, but Emperor Hongwu killed a lot of people. Then Xiao Qifeng also ate the bear's heart and leopard courage. , I have been giving him money all these years, a total of more than 600,000 taels."

"More than six hundred thousand taels?" Mrs. Fei was dumbfounded.

Fei Chun added: "This time His Majesty sent someone to investigate the case, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Customs was also his confidant, and he even quietly informed the officials in various ports to ask those corrupt officials to destroy the evidence immediately, and even said that those who should be silenced should be silenced immediately. Not only did they embezzle, but they also committed the crime of deceiving the emperor!"

Mrs. Fei didn't care much about deceiving the emperor. Her focus was elsewhere, and she gritted her teeth and was burning with anger: "This Xiao Qifeng has been greedy for more than 600,000 taels, and he still pretends to be an upright official in front of me. This damn Mrs. Liu also said that she was poor all day long, and her clothes were poorer than the wives of the fifth- and sixth-rank officials. The couple are not good people, and they joined forces to lie to me. You should be killed, you should be killed!"

Xiao Qifeng embezzled more than 600,000 taels, not only the tax evasion commission of the merchants, but also the dry shares of some banks and firms.

It was really unstoppable, the officials and maritime merchants of the three major ports continued to send money on their own initiative.

After muttering for a while, Mrs. Fei asked again, "Where is Tanzhou?"

Fei Chun had no choice but to fetch the world map, which was a version three years ago, and the Hawaiian Islands were not marked.

But he was with the emperor and remembered the specific location and proportion. It is roughly at the latitude between Taiwan and Luzon, going east to America, two-thirds of the entire distance.

After measuring with a ruler, Fei Chun pointed to the Pacific Ocean: "It's here."

"There are seas all around, how do you live like this?" Mrs. Fei looked dumbfounded.

Fei Chun said: "Every year there is a caravan transporting supplies. Apart from not being able to enjoy it, there should be no shortage of things. I heard that there are enough bananas and coconuts there, and mother doesn't have to worry about the third brother not being able to eat fruits."