Qianqing Palace in the capital.

"Your Majesty~"

"They just don't want to pay taxes, so why are they so angry?"

Empress Zhang came to Emperor Hongzhi's side with a cup of ginseng tea and said softly.

Her two younger brothers have been locked up by Emperor Hongzhi for several days, and she is also very distressed as an elder sister, and has pleaded with Emperor Hongzhi many times.

"If I just didn't want to pay taxes, I wouldn't be so angry~"

"Do you know that they ordered their men to kill more than a dozen court officials, so unruly and bold, this is the consequence of what you have always been."

Emperor Hongzhi looked at Empress Zhang and said.

"The concubines know that they did go too far this time, but they are still young and ignorant, so they can teach a good lesson, and they just know that they are wrong."

Empress Zhang nodded and said.

"Just know it's wrong?"

"If it weren't for your sake, they would have beheaded them, and I would have only locked them up for a few days, which would have been a very light, very light punishment."

Emperor Hongzhi sighed, there was no way.

Because of this incident, the government and the opposition do not know how many officials have impeached the Zhang brothers, and they have always offended a lot of people, and there are not even many people who have said good things to them.

"The concubine knows~"

"But the concubines also heard that the people of the tax yamen have seized their shipyards, cement factories, etc., and if this continues, there will be no way to do this business at that time."

Empress Zhang is also helpless, she has pleaded with Emperor Hongzhi many times, but Emperor Hongzhi still hasn't let go, obviously she won't stop punishing her.

Think about it, who let them kill the court officials, in the past, they were all ordinary people who were rampant and domineering, bullying men and women, and everyone turned a blind eye.

It's different to kill the imperial court officials, not to mention that this time it was Liu Jin who led the tax work.

Liu Jin is not so easy to mess with.

Even if Empress Zhang is very partial to her Didi, she will not say that Liu Jin is not.

Emperor Hongzhi can now use endless silver, can take back military power, and can make the government and the opposition obedient, all of which depends on Liu Jin.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also has a lot of silver, and their family can be said to owe Liu Jin a lot, a lot, and Liu Jin takes these properties they purchase, and divides tens of millions of taels of silver every year.

It's all real money.

She can tell the difference between right and wrong, and she is also a person who knows good and bad.

"You let them pay the taxes, and I will decree that the seal will be lifted."

"Pay taxes honestly in the future and be a man~"

"The two brothers earn millions of taels of silver a year, and they don't even pay a little tax, and I and the prince's estate pay taxes."

Emperor Hongzhi thought about it and said.

"Yes, the concubines will let them pay taxes~"

When Empress Zhang heard this, she immediately laughed happily.

It doesn't matter if you are locked up for a few days, anyway, you won't starve to death, and you won't freeze to death, in this palace, you don't have to worry about food and clothing, with her, there is nothing.

But the industry under this command can't be stopped, there is nothing to stop for a day or two, and after a long time, it will be over.

Watching Empress Zhang leave, Emperor Hongzhi shook his head slightly.

It has always been too much for the Zhang brothers, otherwise they would be arrogant to this extent, even the officials of the court would dare to beat them to death, if they were replaced by others, they would have to shed their skin if they didn't die.

"Your Majesty, the cabinet elder, the British minister and others are here."

At this time, Xiao Jing came over and whispered.

"Announce them in~"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly.

Soon, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang of the cabinet, Tong Zhong, the secretary of the household department, Wang Wei, the British minister Zhang Mao and Liu Jin also walked in to participate in the small court meeting once a day.

"Let's all sit down~"

Emperor Hongzhi saw everyone coming in, and nodded slightly.

"Your Majesty Xie~"

Everyone sat down in front of Emperor Hongji.

"Your Majesty, there are many people across the country who have impeached the tax yamen in various places, saying that the tax arrest is barbaric and rude, reckless, and has no king's law, and arrests people at will."

After chatting casually, Xie Qian also took out a note and said respectfully.

When Liu Jin heard this, he glanced at him slightly.

This Xie Qian, he is now the most powerful backer of Jiangnan Shilin in the government and the opposition, and he has always opposed the collection of commercial taxes, because this greatly damages the interests of Jiangnan merchants, big families, gentry, and big landowners. Rainbow Literature Network

Commerce in the Jiangnan area is very developed, and according to the new "Daming Tax Law", commercial taxes are collected more, much more than those collected by factories and workshops.

In the case of factories and workshops, the tax rate is 100 taxes and 3, which can be said to be a very low tax rate, and the tax rate of merchants and commercial houses is 100 taxes and 8, which is five points higher than the tax of factories and workshops.

On the Jiangnan side, everyone does not pay taxes, which is almost a habit.

But when the tax arrest is about to start operating, the Jiangnan area is also full of mourning, too many, too many people have been arrested by the tax arrest and put in prison, including some powerful people, scholars, and so on.

"Yes~"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, and took the song to look at it, the song was written very badly, and said that the tax arrest was a cool official, a tyrannical official, a tyrannical leviion, bullying men and women, and almost doing all kinds of evil.

However, Emperor Hongzhi still knows this in his heart.

In recent years, the power of the factory guard has been growing, Emperor Hongzhi has transferred more than two million taels of silver to the factory guard every year from the internal funds, and the fans of the factory guard are all over the Ming Dynasty, and nothing can hide from the eyes of Emperor Hongzhi.

Regarding tax arrests, he naturally ordered to keep an eye on them to see how these tax arrests acted, and whether they would go too far.

Judging from the situation reported by various localities, although these tax arrests are hard-core, they are principled.

They are generally directly arrested and imprisoned among the bigwigs of the tax yamen, starving you, making you unbearable and taking the initiative to pay taxes.

They never hit anyone, they don't scold anyone, and of course, if they encounter resistance during the arrest process, they will also let you know why the flowers are so red.

In general, the core of tax capture is to let you pay taxes, and after paying the tax silver, there is nothing to do, and if you don't call the tax silver, you will be locked in prison, bitten by small animals, starved and frozen.

There is no such thing as doing all evil as stated in the note submitted by Xie Qian.

Many of them are because the object of taxation is a person with status and status, and where they have suffered such grievances, it is natural that they will inevitably impeach and arrest the tax quickly.

"Liu Jin, look at this song~"

Emperor Hongzhi looked at Xie Qian, then at Liu Jin, thought about it and said.

"Yes~"

Liu Jin respectfully took the recital and read it very quickly.

Then he thought about it and said: "Your Majesty, Zhugong, I also have the latest statistics here, this is the number of tax silver received in Tianjin in January this year, as for the tax silver in other parts of Daming, it is still being counted, and it is estimated that it will be reported in a few days." ”

Liu Jin also took out a cup of music, the first month passed quickly, and the matter of the busy tax yamen passed all of a sudden, with the hard-core taxation of tax arrest, Tianjin was the first to count the numbers.

"Why did you come out so quickly?"

When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he immediately became interested, and quickly picked up the song and looked at it.

"This Tianjin first month received three million two hundred and twenty-one thousand taels of tax silver in one month?"

Soon, Emperor Hongzhi also said in disbelief, looked at the numbers on it again and again, and confirmed again.

"Yes, Your Majesty, in Tianjin alone, more than three million taels of tax silver were received in the first month~"

"Among them, Tianjin Bosi received 1.2 million taels of tax silver, and Tianjin Tax Yamen received more than 2 million taels of silver from commercial taxes~"

"At present, the tax money has also been escorted to the capital and handed over to the national treasury~"

Liu Jin nodded solemnly and said.

"How is that possible?"

"In this Tianjin alone, you can receive three million taels of tax silver a month?"

Emperor Hongzhi was a little dumbfounded, this, this, is there too much silver, in his opinion, it would be good for Tianjin to receive hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in a month.

Counting the sum of all parts of the Ming Dynasty, it is almost the same to receive 10 million taels of silver a year, but who knows that now just Tianjin is here, and more than 3 million taels of tax silver have been received in a month.

"It's unlikely, isn't it?"

Not only Emperor Hongzhi, but also these ministers present all showed unbelievable expressions, is this tax silver received too much?

"Your Majesty, Princess~"

"The household department did receive the tax silver escorted from Tianjin yesterday, and the total amount is indeed more than three million taels of silver."

At this time, Tobe Shangshu Tong Zhong stood up and said.

"How can there be so much tax silver?"

Emperor Hongzhi shook his head in disbelief one after another, this tax silver is too much, this is just Tianjin, if the entire Ming Dynasty is counted, I am afraid that there will be millions of taels of silver this month.

"Your Majesty, Princess~"

"There's nothing strange about that."

"Tianjin is an important town in the north of my Ming Dynasty, it is the largest port in the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time, there are many factories, workshops, commercial houses, etc. in Tianjin, and the tax silver collected three million taels of silver this month is not much."

"Everyone thinks it's less, mainly because the imperial court couldn't collect taxes and silver at all before, so they think this number is very large, and now they are serious about collecting taxes."

"In the past, those who evaded taxes and refused to pay taxes suddenly had nothing to hide, and this tax money naturally increased all of a sudden."

Liu Jin smiled and explained.

In the past, the imperial court couldn't collect taxes at all, and the local governments basically didn't collect taxes, because there was no benefit to collecting taxes, and it had a bad reputation, and the merchants didn't pay taxes, so it was not called tax evasion, that is, no one asked you to collect taxes, and you would take the initiative to pay taxes? The only thing that can collect some tax is the salt tax.