Wang Shao, a native of Caozhou, Shandong, was a six-year jinshi in Hongzhi.

Last year, Wang Shao served as the political envoy of Shaanxi's Youbu, returned to Beijing at the end of the year to report on his work, and was promoted to the political envoy of Zhejiang's Zuobu at the beginning of the year. After receiving the order, he went home halfway to save his relatives, and then came to Zhejiang to take up his post slowly, and he only arrived more than half a month earlier than Wang Yuan.

How much can a political envoy who has only been in office for one month be greedy?

Wang Shao was not greedy for a penny, so a certain gentry came to ask for words and gave 1,000 taels of pen fees.

Is he afraid of a bird?

Well, I'm a little scared!

Other officials in Zhejiang did not know Wang Erlang's prestige, but Wang Shao knew it very well.

When Wang Yuan destroyed the country in the Western Regions, Wang Shao was in Shaanxi. Even, when Wang Yuan, Zhu Ying, Zhang Wei and others returned to Beijing, he was also received outside Xi'an and heard a lot of details about the destruction of the Western Regions. Then tens of thousands of kills, I heard that tens of thousands of people have been killed, and he is simply a living Hades.

Wang Shao returned to his hometown in Shandong at the beginning of the year, and heard that when Wang Yuan was governing the river in Shandong, he cut down several officials below the seventh grade. was hacked to death on the spot, without going through the three divisions at all, and there was no fault afterwards, and the patrol did not dare to impeach him.

Can't be provoked, can't be provoked!

Wang Shao wrote several pairs of words in a row, and in exchange for the servant, he said: "Send it to Chen Yuanwai, and say that the official's calligraphy is clumsy, and one character is not worth a thousand taels, and write a few more for him to make up." ”

Okay, it's over, the matter of Beiguan, Zhejiang, has nothing to do with Wang Shao from now on.

What is really anxious is Ren Jian, the political envoy of Zhejiang's right-hand cloth. This old man has been an official in Hangzhou for several years, and he is about to step down in a month, and he actually encountered this kind of incident at a critical time.

"Uncle Ren doesn't have to worry, let him check for another year, and he won't find any problems." Zhejiang according to the inspector Yuan Xuan said.

Ren Jian said anxiously: "How can you not find out the problem?" Even if the accounts are definitely fine, but there is a problem with people! He only needs to take over Beiguan for a month, and everything is clear when the tax and silver are compared! ”

Naturally, the officials of the banknote customs will not be stupid enough to directly embezzle taxes and silver. Their main input is to extort merchants from and out, and to falsely report and conceal the amount of tariffs, and these things do not need to be accounted for.

One of the five major banknotes of the Ming Dynasty, the annual tax revenue of Zhejiang Beiguan is less than 30,000 taels of silver.

And how much was it during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty?

More than 1,200,000 taels!

Wait until Yongzheng vigorously grasps corruption and reforms the tax system, and there will be more!

Local officials in Zhejiang definitely dare not eat alone, and there must be benefits to coming and going to the imperial history, and even the bigwigs of the household department are also beneficial. Including Wang Qiong, who once served as the secretary of the household department, most of them have been transferred by interests, and the officials of the Zhejiang Qing Officials Division of the household department must also be full of brains.

Wang Yuan dared to check the accounts in Beiguan, Zhejiang, and the officials of the household department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate must have offended a lot by him.

……

Day 2.

Wang Yuan sat on the edge of the canal basking in the sun, and asked Bao Chaozhen to ask, "From yesterday to today, how much mercury is in a day?" ”

"One thousand six hundred and ninety-six taels of silver." Bao Chaozhen said.

Wang Yuan asked again: "How much was the tax silver in Beiguan last year?" ”

Bao Chaozhen said: "Twenty-eight thousand six hundred and thirty taels of silver." ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "In other words, if we collect taxes here for a month, it will be worth the tariffs of last year?" ”

Bao Chaozhen said: "It doesn't take a month, sixteen or seventeen days is enough." ”

"It's amazing," Wang Yuan sighed, "Bring Yu Zhi, the main person of the banknote!" ”

Not long after, Yu Zhi was forked by the sergeant. This thing looked haggard and couldn't stand steadily, and after being put down by the sergeant, he sat directly in front of Wang Yuan.

Wang Yuan threw the two tax forms over and asked, "Master Yu, why can I collect nearly 1,600 taels of taxes a day, but you can only collect 80 taels of taxes a day?" ”

Yu Zhi's mouth was dry: "It must be...... It must have been a lot of ships yesterday. ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "Otherwise, I'll take a few more days to see, I can't keep having more boats." If this is the case, I don't have to go back to Beijing to be a waiter, just stay in Zhejiang to collect taxes and calculate balls. This official is a prosperous businessman, and he can increase the tariff for the imperial court by twenty times. ”

Yu Zhi is just a junior brother who has been an official for less than two years, how can he withstand such a scene. He cried and said: "General Wang, he has only been the head of Beiguan for four months. I was forced, there are seven taxation bureaus under the jurisdiction of Beiguan, and if I don't obey them, I won't even be able to move one taxation bureau. ”

Wang Yuan pointed to the dense boats on the river and reprimanded: "With such a gathering of merchants, only eighty taels of mercury a day are collected, you people are so bold!" ”

Yu Zhi bowed his head and was silent.

Wang Yuan pointed into the distance again: "More than ten miles north of this place, all of them are lake villas, densely populated, and business travelers are weaving. Look at this banknote street, what kind of road has been trampled on? There are so many potholes that even the wheels have to sink in. Even if you want to be greedy, at least you have to get some money out and fix the road! Corrupt officials can still tolerate it, just being greedy and not doing things is damned! ”

Yu Zhi's face was swollen and red, and he was ashamed, after all, he was still in the novice stage, and his conscience was not completely extinguished.

Wang Yuan sat back in his chair: "Tell me, how did you make money." ”

Yu Zhi is also out of the way, he is directly responsible, and he is likely to be pushed out to carry the black pot. Since there is no way to live, then seek survival in death, and spit out everything to the outside: "Merchant ship ......"

"Wait," Wang Yuan said to Bao Chaozhen, "Write down everything this person says!" ”

Yu Zhi slowly got up and sat on the stone pier on the side of the road: "When merchant ships come and go, they should extract goods as taxes, and in order to facilitate taxation, the value is often estimated by the customs officials. For goods of 1,000 taels, the highest valuation can be 1,800 taels, but it is basically estimated at about 1,500 taels. The businessman didn't dare not give it, and the overestimated tax money went into his private money bag. ”

Wang Yuan clapped his hands and said: "Wonderful, eat Shangjia, and then eat the imperial court, you are eating on both sides." If you calculate according to yesterday's tax silver, plus the silver you extorted from merchants, you must embezzle at least seven or eight hundred thousand taels a year, right? It's worth one-tenth of the annual tax revenue of the household department. ”

Yu Zhi said: "I have been in office for a few months, and I have only been divided into two or three thousand taels. Wang Shilang, do you really dare to investigate to the end? ”

"Why don't you dare? Keep talking! Wang Yuan said angrily.

Yu Zhi smiled gloomily: "Merchant ships and passenger ships pay taxes, and they all give stamps (tax receipts)." There are two sets of banknote seals, one for the imperial court and one for the taxpayers. The latter was cleared in January, and the previous month's had been burned, and this month's was all seized by the general system of Wang. ”

It was good in the Zhengde period, but it was only awesome in the Wanli period.

Because of the corruption in various places, the Wanli Emperor could only send the Tai Overseer to pass. At the beginning, the tax revenue did increase greatly, but gradually it became less and less, because the eunuchs were so powerful that the merchants preferred to take a detour to take land transportation, bypassing Hangzhou and then entering the Grand Canal and taking the waterway.

In comparison, civil officials are indeed greedy, but they have little impact on the local economy. In order to increase tariffs, it was inconvenient for the eunuchs to directly embezzle too much, so they turned to scrape oil from the merchants, which caused the local economy to decline.

Wang Yuan suddenly asked: "Master Yu, do you want to be a Qing official?" ”

"Who doesn't want to be a Qing official?" Yu Zhi laughed.

Wang Yuan said: "From today onwards, if you follow me, you will be the only Qing official in the world!" ”

Yu Zhi was stunned, and in an instant, he heard the sound of immortals, and the whole person was full of energy, and he got up and bowed: "I am willing to follow the king to saddle before and after the horse!" ”

Wang Yuan said: "Anyone who comes to you, don't give a good face, let them come to negotiate with me directly." This year, at least 300,000 taels of silver will be reported to the household department! ”

300,000 taels of tax silver, which is equivalent to a direct increase of ten times, Yu Zhi returned to Beijing to report on his work, and he was absolutely incorruptible.

Wang Yuan said to Bao Chaozhen: "Give it to Director Yu to sign and draw." ”

Yu Zhi stiffened his head, signed and pressed his fingerprint on the confession, with this handle in Wang Yuan's hands, he could only follow Wang Yuan all the way to the black.

As for the banknote accounts, they will continue to check and take away the evidence if they find any problems.

Wang Yuan didn't believe it, there were still people who dared to burn the Governor's Mansion to destroy the evidence, and the thousand firecrackers were not burning sticks!