My life skills in Daming Liver

Fang Wanghai hesitated for a moment and said: "The imperial court set up the Chaoguan Office, but they didn't assign soldiers, nor did they give any posts."

The number of staff is the total number of officials and servants in a department. The Ming court has detailed regulations on the number of officials and servants that can be used by all levels of government. If it exceeds this amount, it will require the dismissal of redundant staff.

Fang Wanghai is now the target of everyone in Jiangnan. If he rashly recruits too many people, he will definitely be impeached by Suzhou officials.

Su Ze smiled slightly and said, "Of course not recruiting in the name of Chaoguan Office, but recruiting in the name of group training."

"Team training?"

Su Ze nodded and said, "Uncle Shi, have you forgotten? The imperial court ordered Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangzhou to recruit regiments to practice fighting against the Japanese."

After Su Ze's reminder, Fang Wanghai finally remembered that the court did have such an order.

Group training is to let local gentry recruit soldiers to fight against the Japanese. The imperial court not only encouraged group training, but also assigned the task of organizing group training to counties, and included the number of self-recruited group training in various places into the assessment of county magistrates.

However, the group training of the Ming Dynasty at this time is still different from that of later generations. The group training lasts for one year, and it must be disbanded after one year.

The food, grass and weapons for the regiment training are all self-raised, and weapons that are eliminated by the military guards can be purchased at low prices. The imperial court does not pay military salaries to the regiment training soldiers, but as long as they can kill real Japanese, they can receive rewards.

"But can we really recruit soldiers in Suzhou?"

Fang Wanghai was bumping into walls everywhere, he already knew the importance of having armed forces in order to collect taxes.

But he was a foreigner who was airborne, and the gentry who evaded taxes were all big families entrenched in Suzhou. Even if he recruited soldiers in Suzhou, it would be difficult to drive these people, let alone let them go out to check these Suzhou The tax evasion case of the local big family.

Su Ze smiled and said: "That depends on what kind of soldiers are recruited, Uncle Shi, you leave this matter to me, and I will definitely handle it for you!"

Fang Wanghai was also forced to do nothing, he said on the spot: "Then I will appoint you as a regiment trainer to recruit village bravery to protect the Chaoguan Office."

"The money for recruiting soldiers?"

Fang Wanghai said with a sad face: "Ru Lin, you don't know the difficulties of the Chaoguan Office. Originally, these subordinates in the Chaoguan Office knew how to exploit the ships passing by. There was great public resentment. As soon as I took office, I dismissed these people and raised money. A group of officials who can read and write."

"But these days, there are even less normal boat trips, and the funds are all spent, and the Chaoguan Office can't open the pot."

Su Ze didn't expect Fang Wanghai to be so miserable. From this, it can be seen that he was really suppressed by the entire Jiangnan officialdom, and even the funds for the Chaoguan Office were insufficient.

It's normal to think about it. Jiangnan's commerce is developed, and the essence of the banknote tariff is to convert the commercial tax, which the court did not know how much, into a verifiable amount through a series of operations such as tax credits.

As long as business taxes can be checked, in addition to violent resistance to taxes, businessmen in Jiangnan can only obediently pay taxes.

The biggest premise of Su Ze's bill customs law is to establish bill gates covering all shipping routes, and through these bill gates to firmly grasp all nodes in the transportation, merchants can be forced to pay taxes.

But the result now is that Fang Wanghai failed to fix even a single Huguan, and the Suzhou businessman would rather spend more shipping costs to detour Huguan, so that Fang Wanghai would not be able to collect taxes at all.

Seeing Fang Wanghai's misery, Su Ze could only say, "Uncle Shi, leave the group training to me, don't worry."

Fang Wanghai took Su Ze's hand, it really was reliable from his own family!

Fang Wanghai arranged for Su Ze to live in the side hall of Chaoguan Hall, but Su Ze did not start recruiting soldiers immediately, but brought Fang Aizhu and Lin Deyang, and invited a young local official from Suzhou, and plunged into Suzhou In all counties of the prefecture.

In the city of Suzhou Prefecture, Wu County is the first county of Suzhou Prefecture and also the Yiguo County of Suzhou Prefecture.

The yamen of the prefect of Suzhou is very grand. There are two big stone lions made of white marble at the entrance.

Because the Suzhou prefecture is the most prosperous in the world, the prefect of Suzhou is also known as the number one prefect in the world. Just after finishing a day's official business in the front office, Xu Shangzhen, the prefect of Suzhou, dragged her tired body back to the back house.

Sitting on the grand teacher's chair in the study, Xu Shangzhen thought that it was still the official business of the yamen.

A young man opened the door and came in. The study is the most important territory of Ming officials. Those who can freely enter and leave here must be the closest and most trusted people of the owner of the study.

"father."

As soon as the young man opened his mouth, a smile appeared on Xu Shangzhen's face. This was his youngest son, Xu Shixing, and also his proudest son.

Suzhou government had to take part in the provincial examination in Nanzhili, that is, the provincial examination held in Yingtianfu, which can be called the most intensive rural examination in the Ming Dynasty.

Southern Zhili includes Jiangsu, Anhui, and Songjiang Prefectures, and its area is comparable to that of Northern Zhili, and these places are all places where the King Juan of Ming Dynasty gathered.

Needless to say Jiangnan, Anhui is also a place with a long cultural context. In Huizhou Prefecture where Wang Daokun is located, there are dozens of archways for Jinshi.

And under such a cruel environment, Xu Shixing was still able to rank third in the Nanzhili Township Examination of High School, which was enough to show Xu Shixing's strength in reading.

Xu Shixing was only 21 years old this year, but his youth and high school did not make Xu Shixing frivolous and arrogant, but instead made him more restrained and thoughtful.

Xu Shangzhen likes this youngest son the most. He takes Xu Shixing by his side, personally supervises his study, and often entrusts him with some government affairs to exercise Xu Shixing's ability to handle affairs.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was not uncommon for father and son to fight in battle. Now the cabinet elder Yan Ge and the minister of the Ministry of Industry Yan Shifan are also father and son. Yan Shifan lives in Yan Ge old mansion and helps Yan Ge elder handle government affairs. old".

Of course, Xu Shi's behavior is low-key, and he doesn't rely on his status as the magistrate's son to be domineering. His reputation in Suzhou Mansion is still very good.

Standing in front of Xu Shangzhen's desk, Xu Shixing said: "My son ran to several chambers of commerce, and they all expressed that they would fight the imperial court's money customs law to the end. They would rather detour through Songjiang Mansion than pay taxes at Huguan."

Xu Shangzhen sighed and stood up. He told his son to sit down and said:

"These businessmen are really domineering, and they don't even think about it. The imperial court is now letting civil servants be envoys. Fang Wanghai is also a Jinshi, and he has read sage books. As long as they can pay a little tax, Then Fang Wanghai will never persecute him too hard."

"If Fang Wanghai collapses, the next time the court sends down will not be a civil servant."

Xu Shixing didn't know much about the operation of the imperial court, so he asked, "Father, if you don't send civil servants, can you still send taxes to serve as envoys?"

Xu Shangzhen said: "Civilian officials can't collect taxes, so they can only send eunuchs."

Xu Shixing was shocked, but he also felt that what his father said made sense. With that emperor's character, if Fang Wanghai couldn't do this, he would use more drastic methods and appoint eunuchs to collect taxes.

Xu Shangzhen sighed and said: "At that time, Suzhou Mansion will really never have peace!"

Xu Shixing asked: "That's why my father asked me to visit the leaders of those chambers of commerce, and persuade them to pay more or less, so that Mr. Fang will not lose face too much, and let the imperial court continue to appoint him as a bank envoy?"

Xu Shangzhen nodded and said: "That's what it means to be a father. It's a pity that these guys are short-sighted and clamored to know this elder and that minister. These words can only scare civil servants like Fang Wanghai. If the eunuch really came, they said It’s useless to know anyone.”

Xu Shixing also became worried, and Xu Shangzhen took the opportunity to educate his son and said:

"Shi Xing, I have been an official for my father for many years, and the way I summed up being an official is the word 'water'."

"The highest goodness is like water. The party in charge is to regulate yin and yang. It is necessary to reconcile the relationship between all aspects. Only when we work together can we get things done."

Xu Shangzhen sighed and said, "Now that Fang Wanghai is about to lose in the wrestling, these businessmen are still busy celebrating, but they don't know that disaster is approaching?"

Xu Shixing felt that he had gained some experience as an official again, so he said to Xu Shangzhen, "Father, what shall we do next?"

Xu Shangzhen said: "There's no way, Fang Wanghai's method of banknote customs is really ingenious, if it is really done by him, the commercial tax of the two prefectures of Su Song and one prefecture will be able to offset the land tax of the entire Southern Zhili. "

Xu Shixing took a breath and said, "So much?"

Xu Shangzhen said: "Look at the silk workshops in the city, with hundreds of looms running day and night, how many bolts of silk can be produced in a year?"

"You are looking at the cotton merchants in Songjiang Prefecture. Do you know what price a batch of Songjiang cloth can be sold in the north?"

Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture are often compared, but the main industries of the two cities are different.

Suzhou is the silk base of the Ming Dynasty, and Songjiang Prefecture is the cotton cloth base of the Ming Dynasty.

The same thing is that in Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture, textile workshops with hundreds of people working at the same time have appeared, and guild organizations such as silk guilds and cotton guilds have also appeared, and these guilds have even appeared monopoly guilds. nature.

When Xu Shixing heard that the Su and Song governments could receive such a business tax, he couldn't help asking: "These businessmen have earned so much, shouldn't they pay tax?"

Xu Shangzhen said: "Of course it should be handed over, but it must be able to be accepted. Don't you know who the backstage of those cotton merchants in Songjiang Mansion is?"

Xu Shixing immediately sighed, the most famous person in Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture is Xu Jie, the second assistant of the cabinet.

Although Xu Jie was an official in the capital, his family was still in Songjiang Mansion.

Since Xu Jie started his official career, the Xu family has more and more land in Huating County, and now the Xu family has the term Xu Bancheng, which means that half of the land in the entire Huating County belongs to the Xu family.

These lands are all cotton fields, and the Xu family has set up a textile workshop. Those who do cotton business in Songjiang Prefecture naturally know the great reputation of Xu Ge's hometown.

Both Xu's father and son believed that this time was a dead end for Fang Wanghai, and Su Ze had already wandered around Wu County.

Wu County is a water town, and the city is full of winding waterways. The whole city is full of boats and vehicles. On the bridge are bustling motorcades, and under the bridge are awning boats with long poles.

This lively scene of a water town, what is the Eastern Venice, is clearly a small Western Suzhou.

Su Ze went in whenever he encountered a silk shop along the way, and sat down to chat with the boss when he went in. He still had a Fujian accent at first, but after passing by more than a dozen shops, the Suzhou dialect that Su Ze spoke was not much different from the local one.

Lin Deyang and Fang Aizhu looked at each other, their young master's language talent was terrifying, Su Ze talked with these shopkeepers in Wu dialect, Fang Aizhu and Lin Deyang felt like a foreign language, they couldn't understand a single word.

Su Ze walked through 18 shops in one morning. When the sun was high, Su Ze pointed to a restaurant not far away and said:

"Let's go, let's get some food first."

Walking in, the restaurant has a banner with the words "Songhe Tower" hanging high, and a sign of "Hundred Years Old Store" is actually hung on the door frame. The enthusiastic staff greeted Su Ze and others upstairs.

On the Songhe Tower, the staff introduced Su Ze and others while leading Su Ze and others up the building:

"The third floor of my house can overlook the Changmen River. It is the restaurant with the best scenery in this area. The guest officer can be regarded as coming to the right place."

While introducing his own food and wine, the guy led everyone up to the third floor.

At this time, there was already a table of guests upstairs, three scholars in Confucian shirts were sitting by the railing, and the leader was a tall and thin young man with extraordinary appearance.

"Guest officer, please sit down here, the shop will bring the screen."

Then the waiter said to the tall and thin young man: "Mr. Xu is bothering you, the shop will separate the seats with screens."

There are only two seats upstairs with a view of the river. Mr. Xu, who is tall and thin, didn't care about it. The waiter quickly asked someone to move a screen with a hundred birds and a phoenix to separate the two seats.

But Su Ze could still hear the conversation in the other seat.

"Brother Yuanyu, that's what my father said. Your Taicang Wang family has a big business. If you can't do it, you can pay some money to Huguan. If you really want to replace Mr. Fang, I'm afraid the court will not let go easily."

A scholar about Xu Shixing's age sighed and said: "Brother Ru Mo, I understand what you mean, my Taicang Wang family has a big business, and it's not my turn to lead the family to do things. I can't change the things that the family has discussed together. "

Another scholar said: "If you want me to say that this lord is also responsible for his own fault, he proposed the money customs law, which competes with the people for the benefit, and now he can't get out of power."

Xu Shixing sighed and said, "Brother Weizhen, Mr. Fang has a good official reputation. He is also a Confucian official with a Jinshi background. It is best for him to handle the affairs. If it is really exchanged for the eunuch to preside over the Chaoguan, I am afraid that the whole Su Song will suffer. ah."

Hearing that someone was talking about the law of banknote customs, Su Ze immediately became interested. He called the waiter, bought the best rice wine in a restaurant, and went to the table next to him.

"I'm bothering you."

Su Ze ignored the astonished expressions of the three people, and introduced himself: "Su Ze, a student of the Imperial College, heard three brothers discussing the law of banknote customs. Su is also interested in this law. Can I hear your opinions?"

Xu Shixing had a gentle personality. Although Su Ze's opening remarks were very abrupt, Su Ze was a supervisor, so he was a juren just like them.

Since they are all scholars, Xu Shixing said: "Xu Shixing is the supervisor of the Lower Suzhou Mansion."

"Xu Guo, the supervisor of Huizhou Prefecture."

"Wang Xijue, Supervisor of Suzhou Mansion."

Su Ze's eyes lit up, darling, this is a collection of cabinet ministers in Wanli year.