There is heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below.

In the land of fireworks in the south of the Yangtze River, there have been countless wealthy businessmen who have risen here, and even rich enough to rival the country, but this is only a few after all, and behind their glamorous and beautiful are more people who are bankrupt.

This is a paradise and a frightening purgatory.

In the past, "Sven Zaiz", the white-walled and blue-tiled Donglin Academy, at this time, it was a broken monument, like a military chaos.

Several horsemen were wielding long knives in the street, directing the craftsmen to collect the demolished earth and stones, and then sell the land.

The silver taels in exchange were to be sent to the inner money of the Jingshi Emperor.

More than a dozen scholars in green shirts silently looked at the Yiyong Hall that had been razed to the ground, recalling that the academic style here in those years was comparable to the green pine in the court, and the lush evergreen.

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

The right eunuch Wei Zhongxian was born, and he soared to the top with flattery, less than a year, the party henchmen in the DPRK and China were all over the place, Yang Lian fled, the Wei family, and the chicken and dog ascended to heaven.

Wei Zhongxian pretended to give a lecture on Feng Sanyuan, made a lot of nonsense, rode out in all directions, and bloodily suppressed the Donglin party.

After all, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, Fanzi is still somewhat restrained, but the emperor of Jiangnan Tiangao is far away, and since Wei Liangqing came, the sky in Suzhou has changed.

Wei Liangqing is the nephew of Wei Zhongxian, the governor of Suzhou, and he is even more powerful than the real power of the local government offices such as the Governor's Office.

The scholars all said that the collusion between factories and guards, and the prosperous land south of the Yangtze River is now chaotic, and it is not as good as before.

In recent days, the factory guards have made frequent moves, and even the five cities and the local government have turned a blind eye, and even more, they actually cooperate with the factory guards.

At worst, they drove away the scholars and smashed the premises, and at the worst, they arrested people and sent them to prison, and ordered the craftsmen to demolish the places where they were taught.

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

The scholars were puzzled, and could only blame everything on bad luck, the court was full of evil ghosts, and the eunuchs covered the sky, which was the misfortune of the ministers and the misfortune of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, a group of merchants came to the side of the street.

One of the horsemen who commanded the demolition of the academy noticed them and turned his head to look over.

Ti Cai just glanced at it, and did not cause trouble first, but it still shocked the merchants, and pretended to pass by Ti Cai calmly.

These merchants are different at first glance, some of them are Japanese people, plus returned overseas Chinese, men and women, there are many of them.

"What is this doing?" A child of about 17 years old was full of doubts when he saw Ti riding in the street.

"Wei Gelding gained power, and Ti rode out to suppress dissidents." Li Dan snorted coldly, "These fans are demolishing Donglin Academy again." ”

The child who had just asked was even more puzzled, and his eyes flashed with big questions.

"What's wrong with demolishing Donglin Academy?"

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

This Li Dan is Zheng Yiguan's uncle.

Zheng Yiguan also has a famous name in later generations, that is, Zheng Zhilong, but at this time, he and Zhu Youxiao were the same age, and they were still messing with Li Dan.

Li Dan is very prestigious among the Daming maritime merchants, and his status is similar to that of the overseas Chinese in Japan.

This time, he returned to Daming from the Hirado Domain in the east, intending to transport a batch of goods for sale and make another windfall.

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

You don't have to say what tariffs you have to pay before you let them go.

Li Dan can do such a big thing, there are many ways in the local area, and there are naturally old acquaintances here in Suzhou Mansion.

Overseas businessmen have been running for many years, and they have already made a lot of money, and the tariffs are useless to Li Dan, and no one dares to really collect taxes from the Li family.

After paying more than 200 taels of docking tax at the wharf, Li Dan took the group off the boat and went straight to the Suzhou Mansion.

He was full of anger in his heart and wanted to go to the prefect of Suzhou to seek justice.

Merchants collect taxes, since ancient times, the same is the case in the Ming Dynasty, the maritime cargo docking tax is one of the additional taxes, the official statement, is to be charged according to the size of the ship and the goods.

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

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

According to the previous routine, every time he transported goods from the Ming Dynasty to the Wa Kingdom, Li Dan would entertain local officials and give gifts in private, commensurate himself as a friend.

In this way, all kinds of taxes that were originally tens of taels or even hundreds of taels can be solved by spending some silver at one time, and there are no worries about the future.

Under the chain of such official and business interests, the magistrates got some advantages, the businessmen took huge profits, and the imperial court suffered a big loss.

This is also the reason why commercial taxes have always existed, but they are basically not collected.

The existence of the superintendent department directly has the effect of curbing the collusion between officials and businessmen, but there are also drawbacks, and the people below will compile a ranking to deal with rich businessmen and steal money from them.

Zhu Youxiao understands a truth, if you want the horses to run, you have to let the horses eat grass.

The people below you can swallow some of this money, but I have to take the lion's share!

You have interests, and I can also make my own system, and also create a chain of interests that serve me.

Hearing that it was Li Dan who asked to see him, Kou Shen, the prefect of Suzhou Prefecture, attached great importance to it and immediately introduced it into the inner hall.

The Hangzhou Longjing served by the servant was full of aroma, but Li Dan didn't have any intention of tasting tea, he got straight to the point:

"Master Fuzun, my ship was charged a docking tax of two hundred and eighty taels at the dock, and said that if you want to go to sea, you must verify the goods and then pay the tax."

"You have to give an explanation for this!"

Kou Shen rolled his eyes when he heard this, and said in his heart This is the new policy of the imperial court, and the superintendent is in charge of power, you think this is something that this official can interfere with.

"Since I went to the Hirado Domain to trade, my Li family's ship has never been taxed so heavily!"

"There is only one docking tax, which is several times more than all the taxes and silver last year, what kind of thing is the superintendent, and how dare you do this?"

"On the way here, I also saw Tiqi dismantling Sanyuanfang Academy, and a bunch of students gathered at the door crying and crying, what did it look like!"

"It's only a few months, has this Ming changed the sky?"

Li Dan was born in a rough man, and he didn't talk about etiquette when he spoke, Kou Shen frowned when he heard it, and he had a headache when he thought of the matter of the superintendent department.

These days, there has been more than one troublesome businessman caused by the superintendent.

"Ship Owner Li, the imperial court issued a new policy, the canal tariff was increased by sixty percent, and the supervision department was specially set up to investigate the collusion between officials and businessmen..."

After listening to him, Li Dan sneered a few times.

"Investigate the collusion between officials and businessmen, and the court can figure it out!"

"What should I do? Master Fuzun, you have to give me an explanation, I have a hundred or dozens of ships, but they are still waiting at the dock to transport goods to the Hirado Domain! ”

"The deal over there has already been negotiated, stuck on this head, this matter is not over!"

"What did you ship?" Suddenly, Kou Shen asked.

"Thirty-five ships of sugar, five ships of Qinan, thirty ships of musk, and six ships of deerskin..."

"Why do you ask this?"

"With so many goods, it will be troublesome to get under the hands of the superintendent." Kou Shen stood up and said, "I'm afraid this two hundred and eighty taels of docking tax is just the beginning. ”

Listening to Kou Shen's words, Li Dan also realized the seriousness of the matter.

This tariff is 60 percent, which is not much change for ordinary small businessmen, they have fewer goods and fewer ships, and many of them can't even get the citation, and they can't charge much.

But for a maritime merchant like himself who wants to do large-scale overseas trade, this tax is on point.

I often have to go to sea to trade, and every time I collect like this, isn't this the same as blatantly grabbing money?