Lord of the House

Vol 11 Chapter 6: interest

On March 20th, Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu presented the discount of the price increase and reduction of the jins of salt and the reduction of the 1st levy.

The increase in the price of salt has plummeted by 90%, and the tax reduction and exemption of a small amount will be combined, and the revenue of the Ministry of Household will likely drop by more than 2 million taels. This move is no trivial matter.

Although some people have the mentality of watching Huaidong's good show, they intend to condone, but some officials strongly oppose it. When Cheng Yuqian, Yu Xinyuan, Shen Rong, Yuan Guizheng and others remained silent, Zuo Chengmu tried his best to oppose the two.

Zuo Chengmu was the second prime minister, and only under Cheng Yuqian, he opposed it with all his might, and the queen mother could only convene ministers above the fourth rank in Chongwen Hall to discuss the matter.

"The annual income is used to support the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers guard the borders and the country; the reduction of salt and tax, so that the people can benefit temporarily, but the officers and soldiers are not nourished, the borders and the country are not guarded, and the enemy invades the land, and the people are displaced because of small profits. And suffer great harm," Zuo Chengmu did not sit on the seat, but stood in front of the hall and gave a generous speech, "If the two political affairs come out, it will be a great harm to the society..."

Lin Xuwen nodded desperately in his heart, but at this time he had to stand up to refute Zuo Chengmu, saying: "Ordinary people say that the prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River have been rich and prosperous since ancient times. , the previous harm was not yet Jing, and Zhejiang County was trapped again, and it was difficult to flow all over the land; since the Dingding of Jiangning, the people's livelihood has not been recuperated, and repeated levies have been imposed, and the people cannot bear the burden. There are as many letters as snowflakes from the county’s deportation to the Ministry of Households. If it causes civil unrest, it will be like Huaisi in the past, and the current situation, which is barely maintained, will fall apart…”

Not only are the people overwhelmed, but the pressure to levy taxes is all in the local governments and counties. The additional levy has always been for the local government, and the reduction of the tax has always been welcomed by the local government.

Most of the current officials gained fame and careers because of their reading of Confucianism. It is rare for officials who are really familiar with finance. In the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, there are really few people who can give an overview of the central government.

The Ministry of Household wants to reduce the burden on the people. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is naturally a good thing. Not to mention Zhang Yan, those who are interested in watching Huaidong's good show, and those officials who are not well-known, have also written to support the reduction of the burden and "please ask for orders for the people."

Although this time only officials of the fourth rank or above were called for court discussions, there were many supporters and few opponents, so Zuo Chengmu's voice became very low-Lin Bie pressed the knife with his hands and was given a seat with the first assistant Cheng Yuqian. After the emperor and the empress dowager, he quietly watched all the ministers discussing in the court.

Although Emperor Yongxing was still sitting on the dragon chair, his face was pale, and the feeling of being seized of power was not a good feeling. After returning to Jiangning, he fell ill and indulged in alcoholism, causing others to doubt his body. Can't survive for many years. At present, officials are already discussing the establishment of the reserve.

Lin Fu saw all these kinds of things in his eyes, but he didn't make a sound.

Zuo Chengmu's voice was naturally weak, and it was difficult for the court to change the result.

After the court discussion, Lin Fu planned to go back by car, Zuo Chengmu chased him out of Chongwen Palace: "Chongguo Gong, Chongguo Gong..."

Lin Fu lifted the curtain of the car, saw Zuo Chengmu and Zhang Yubo chasing out of the palace one after another, and asked with a smile, "Zuo Xiang is chasing after him, what can I teach you?"

"Empress Chong, it's a temporary solution to the people's expectations, but I hope Chongguo will take the overall situation in mind and remove these two documents!" Zuo Chengmu said. He also directly knew that Lin Fu directly took the idea behind the two accounts of the Ministry of Household. To save it, he could only talk to Lin Fu.

Zhang Yubo hesitated, but he did not intend to chase after Zuo Chengmu; Lin Fu asked him, "What does Yubo think?"

"Jiangning, Chizhou, and Huizhou have to rest and recuperate, and it will be difficult to lose taxes to the Ministry of Household within three years," Zhang Yubo said. "Reducing the burden on the people is also a top priority, but the annual income of the Ministry of Household needs to be reduced so much at once, and it will be difficult to maintain; A natural and man-made disaster, there are loopholes everywhere..."

Lin Fu lifted the sky to look at the eaves of the Chongwen Hall in the palace wall, and then turned his face to Zuo Chengmu and said, "Others can't wait to watch this court screw up things, and Zuo Xiang resists them, so they won't be afraid of causing hatred? "

Zuo Chengmu was stunned there, unable to figure out Lin Fu's city for a while, and forced a wry smile: "For the sake of the society, how dare you cherish your body?"

"This is the end of the matter, and it is inevitable for this court to return. If there is any regret, let's find a way to remedy it!" Lin Fu watched other officials come out of the palace one after another, and had no intention of saying too much to Zuo Chengmu in front of the palace. Say goodbye and leave.

Zuo Chengmu was disappointed, standing in front of the hall, watching Lin Fu drive away in the car.

Lin Fu got into the car, Zhou Pu rode in armor to protect the car, and said to Lin Fu through the car window, "This old left man is not bad."

Lin Fu smiled and said: "Zuo Chengmu can be fair, and he has never been flattering in the court, but he will not follow us at this time..."

*************

At the end of March, a decree was officially announced to the world about the price increase and discount of the jins of salt and the reduction of the tax for one ounce of service.

Because of the smuggling of salt, the five existing salt merchants were caught and jailed, and their salt shops and salt stores in various prefectures and counties were also directly dispatched by the Salt and Iron Division to take over the salt officials and turned them into official camps.

The price of the pound of salt is reduced to 20 yuan, and the price of salt received from the salt household remains unchanged at 10 yuan. The price of salt in various prefectures and counties is limited by 50 to 70 yuan according to the distance.

Salt officials and private officials are both involved. The salt and iron company's salt pound is the salt tax, and it is the annual revenue of the Ministry of Household;

The revenue of the government-run salt trade is attributed to the prefectures and counties. One is to further reduce the local tax burden, so that the local prefectures and counties will pay more attention to the issue of anti-smuggling salt. The faculties are integrated into the place through this—the hundreds of salt officials are all officials drawn from the Huaian and Hailing prefectures.

Right now, it is not possible to directly play a big role in the seven palaces in the south of the Yangtze River. It is also a means to save the country by arranging the people first, which is not in conflict with local interests.

The salt dispute has been tossing around for nearly two months. When the price of salt was reduced to less than 70 yuan, the public grievances were quickly and completely subsided. Together with the tax reduction and exemption, local governments and counties responded with praise. In other words, the biggest resistance to the investigation of the salt matter will be eliminated.

In the first ten days of April, preliminary results were also obtained on the interrogation of Mao Wenjing, commander of the Zuo Huyan, and the raid on his home.

Mao Wenjing inherited his father's position, and his father and son served as the captain of Zuohu Salt for 22 years. In total, Uncle Tang, the censor who oversaw the case, confiscated 19 Mao's mansions and more than 320,000 taels of silver in Weiyang Mansion. In the area under the jurisdiction of the Huainan Salt Plant, more than 800 hectares of privately cultivated grain fields were confiscated.

Given that Mao Wenjing's case is hard to overturn, Weiyang's officials are more or less grieved by the salt merchants, but Jiangning's officials and gentry are completely different.

Before Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne, except for a few who held real power in Jiangning's six divisions, most of them were mausoleum guards sitting on the bench. After Emperor Yongxing was enthroned in Jiangning, the supervisors of the six temples in Jiangning took real power, but wars were still frequent, financial resources were tight, and there was no way to get it, so many officials came back to Jiangning from Juchao, and many officials did not pay their salaries because of the delay of the Ministry of Households. into the dilemma of starvation.

The gentry in Jiangning City were also the most concentrated, but due to the destruction of Jiangning City, the gentry suffered the most. Afterwards, the Zhejiang and Fujian troops entered the city and controlled Jiangning for a short time, but they also concentrated on looting the gentry inhabited the urban area.

As a result of the war, a strange phenomenon appeared in Jiangning, that is, the price of food soared and the price of land plummeted. Many gentry and wealthy know that the chaos outside the city is more chaotic, but to maintain a family's livelihood in the city after looting, they can only take out the land deed and sell it at a low price.

When it comes to corrupt officials, the people hate them, but there is nothing that hates corrupt officials more than a large group of gentry officials who want to be corrupt but haven't been corrupt for the time being and are in trouble. There was a scream of killing.

Zhang Yan could not be blamed for his oversight.

Empress Dowager Liang, Emperor Yongxing, Cheng Yuqian, Yu Xinyuan and others, of course, did not want Zhang Yan to leave, and finally charged them into the treasury with a one-year salary penalty. Whatever they want to accomplish, it is hard for them to stop it, either overtly or covertly.

Since there are too many salt households and salt soldiers involved in private salt, in order to stabilize the production and transportation of the Lianghuai Salt Fields, they can only deliberately relax when they are convicted, instead of going to the root and delaying the production of salt.

Mao Wenjing was finally sentenced to be executed, and eleven of his children were sentenced to exile and confiscated their family property. The punishment was the most severe.

Two of the five salt merchants involved in the case fought fiercely with private forces during the investigation and ban on illicit salt, but only the principal and accomplices with murder cases were sentenced to be executed. In addition, these five companies were sentenced to fines ranging from 100,000 taels to 300,000 taels of silver, and they did not carry out the most severe inspections.

During the smuggling period, the merchants and salt households who were not involved in the case, regardless of whether they were involved in smuggling before, will be pardoned for their previous crimes. Wang Xueshan, as the former minister of household and Xie Chaozhong, had a higher rank, and the sentencing procedure was more complicated than that of Mao Wenjing, so it has been delayed until now.

Wang Xueshan used punishment, and the Xingbu, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Police all sent officials to carry out punishment—Lin Tingli came back from prison and said to Chen Yuan and Lin Fu, "Before Wang Xueshan is sentenced, I want to thank you..."

"Thank you, thank me for not destroying his three clans?" Lin Bie smiled, looked sideways at Sun Jingxuan next to him, and asked with a smile, "Is there a saying that 'wives and children's are not in danger'?"

Sun Jingxuan was stunned, and for a while he didn't understand what Lin Fu meant.

Emperor Yongxing hated Wang Xueshan to the core, and wished to send all his nine clans to the execution ground to die. Cheng Yuqian and others put the responsibility for the defeat on Wang Xueshan and Xie Chaozhong's heads, and naturally they would not be soft-hearted - the initial convictions for Wang Xueshan, Xie Chaozhong and others were that the three generations of barbarians had confiscated their family properties, and their wives and daughters had been confiscated. Camp prostitutes.

Still at Lin Fu's insistence, Wang Xueshan's father and son were sentenced to be executed for the crime of betraying the enemy, and their property was seized. Among Wang Xueshan's relatives, except for three adult concubines who were sentenced to exile and relocated to Yizhou, the other minor children under the age of sixteen were not convicted, adopted by relatives, and did not involve wives and concubines. The punishment was much lighter than the initial punishment.

Wang Xueshan only thought that Lin Fu was merciful to his Wang family, but he didn't know that Lin Fu couldn't do the behavior of three tribes of Yi people, and his wife and daughter acted as prostitutes.

In addition, Han Bin confessed to dozens of people who had been hiding in Jiangning's hidden piles and secret rooms, and he was sentenced to exile for commutation. Soft hand did not force a confession too harshly, and was finally hanged. My QT room is open! More vulgar official QT room number [9167] Click to enter

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