"Now my Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue is only 5 million, and during the period of Emperor Chengzu, the Ming Dynasty's annual tax revenue reached 30 million, why is there such a big difference? Could it be that the population of my Ming Dynasty is not as large as that of Emperor Chengzu."

At this time, Wei Zhongxian felt like an ant on a hot pot with a white face, and he really didn't know how to answer Zhu Youxiao's question.

At the same time, I secretly hated in my heart that I had nothing to do here, so it's better to put myself here.

But you can't help but answer the emperor's question, if you don't answer, you will be guilty of deceiving the king, but if you answer, it will be even more of a crime of deceiving the king.

Wei Zhongxian naturally knows why Daming's taxes are so low, but if he says this, it will be the scholars and businessmen of the whole world who will be offended, and he will really die without a place to bury.

"How do you answer that?"

Wei Zhongxian kept rolling in his heart, wanting to come up with something that could solve the problem in front of him, not to make the emperor feel that he was perfunctory, but also to let the emperor know the truth of the matter.

"Back to Your Majesty, what I have always practiced in the Ming Dynasty is to hide the wealth from the people."

Wei Zhongxian racked his brains and finally remembered a sentence that was quite reliable, Yes, I am quite rich in the Ming Dynasty, but all the wealth is in the people, so your old man feels that his income is low.

"In that case, then I can rest assured."

Zhu Youxiao smiled slyly and made an expression of enlightenment.

Seeing this, Wei Zhongxian also breathed a long sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat on his head. It's just that before this breath came out, he was scared into a cold sweat by Zhu Youxiao's next question.

"Now that the Ming Dynasty is in trouble, the border is in turmoil, and there are displaced people inside and strong enemies outside. The 5 million taels of taxes in the Ming Dynasty simply cannot support the operation of the entire imperial court, and I plan to send you to the people to collect wealth. Let the people hand over their money and belong, and let the country get through this crisis first."

Zhu Youxiao looked at Wei Zhongxian, who was already frightened, with an innocent expression.

"Holy shit, you really want to kill me.

Listen, listen. What do you say, let me go to the people to collect wealth.

If those misers were really willing to hand over their property to me, my income would not be only 5 million, do you know how hard it took me to get this 5 million taels?

Could it be that I, Wei Zhongxian, also want to become Yang Rong in the Shenzong period?"

Who is Yang Rong?

Yang Rong was a eunuch beside the Wanli Emperor and was very popular with the emperor. Emperor Wanli once made a major decision, that is, to levy a mining tax, and he always wanted to go out and open mines to make money for the emperor.

In the middle and late stages of the Wanli Emperor, Wanli exhausted the originally abundant treasury in Zhang Juzheng's hands, coupled with the "Three Great Expeditions of Wanli", the pacification of the Yang Yinglong Mutiny in Banzhou and the two anti-Japanese aid to Korea cost a small amount of military spending. In addition, in the twenty-fourth year of Wanli, the palace suffered a fire, the Qianqing Palace and the Kunning Palace were destroyed by fire, and the following year, the Emperor's Palace, the Jianji Palace and the Zhongji Palace were burned down again, and at the same time, the war continued, the palace needed to be built, and the war needed money, but the treasury was empty. That's when the idea of a mining tax came up.

The Wanli Emperor sent the eunuchs around him down, and the collected mining tax flowed to the inner treasury of the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Wanli sent tax paying eunuchs to many southern provinces, and the obtained mining tax was not handed over to the household Taicang, but as the inner treasury of the Son of Heaven, which is also a small treasury.

This, of course, provoked resistance and obstruction from ministers who were dissatisfied with the emptiness of the treasury. Second, the eunuchs stationed in the provinces acted arbitrarily and arbitrarily in the provinces, extorting and extorting money, which aroused public indignation. Because the tax-paying eunuchs have greater autonomy over the local area, many eunuchs take the opportunity to blackmail, they probably point to a house at random, saying that there are mines on it, and they need to collect it, forcing the other party to break the fortune and eliminate the disaster, in addition, the eunuchs also take the opportunity to corrupt the mining tax that should be paid.

And Yang Rong is one of them, because the machine was beaten to death by the people, of course, this is only on the surface. Everyone knows the real reason, but it is just blocking the interests of those scholars, merchants and even officials in the court.

Wei Zhongxian felt that he was powerless to complain now, so he could only think about how to make Zhu Youxiao take back his life.

First, for the sake of his own life, after all, the events of the Shenzong period were not too far away. Second, for the sake of the stability of the Ming Dynasty, once the tax is really forcibly collected in the whole world, it will definitely make the scholars and merchants feel dissatisfied, and if it makes a fuss, it will .......

"Your Majesty should take a long-term view of this matter, and if you rashly levy additional taxes on the whole world, it is very likely to make the people dissatisfied."

Speaking of this, Wei Zhongxian muttered secretly in his heart, in fact, it was an official and a businessman.

"If Your Majesty needs money, the old slave is willing to pay a little tribute to Your Majesty."

Hearing this, Wei Zhongxian had actually noticed that what Zhu Youxiao said was actually just trying to make money.

"Deler, you actually want to get money, leave this matter to me, don't you make a mess of the country at that time."

It's just that Wei Zhongxian doesn't know Zhu Youxiao's appetite, but it's not just an income of millions a year.

Zhu Youxiao saw that Wei Zhongxian actually took the responsibility on himself, and knew that Wei Zhongxian should have guessed what he meant, of course, Zhu Youxiao didn't mind, and he must be able to increase some income for himself.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao himself laid a cloud of suspicion about the collection of taxes from all over the world, and Zhu Youxiao was naturally clear about the consequences of raising taxes.

"Since Otomo is so attentive, this matter will be handed over to Otomo."

Wei Zhongxian looked at Zhu Youxiao with a blank eye, and when he saw that Zhu Youxiao was no longer talking, he put down his heart that jumped to his throat.

"Oh my god, I was scared to death, I was scared to death, and I finally fooled this thing over."

"Hey, Daban, you said that businessmen have money or not, you see that Fan Li in the Qin Dynasty's Lü Buwei and Warring States Period were all wealthy businessmen in the world."

"My God, what do you want to do, Your Majesty?"

Whether the businessmen have money or not, of course Wei Zhongxian knows that those guys are rich and rival the country, but he can't dare to say it, for fear that Zhu Youxiao will have something to think about again.

"Your Majesty's merchants are all over the world, and although they have a little money, they are by no means as rich as recorded in the history books, and such people are only a few."

"Oh, in that case, uh-huh".

Zhu Youxiao touched his chin with a thoughtful expression.

"I've decided, I also want to be a merchant, I've already thought of a name, if the merchant connects to the four seas, then it's called the Four Seas Firm."

After speaking, he didn't wait for Wei Zhongxian to react, and directly ordered Wei Zhongxian.

"Then you go and call Li Fumin to me.

Hey, by the way, you won't forget Li Fumin, right? It's the same person from Huangzhuang last time."

Zhu Youxiao said that I kindly remind you, but don't make a mistake.

After more than half an hour, Wei Zhongxian, who had a cold face, looked at Li Fumin, who was trembling in front of him.

"Remember, you must tell the difficulties of doing business, let Your Majesty give up the plan to do business, if you don't give up, you can see the consequences."

Since Wei Zhongxian couldn't say anything, he only wanted to give up his plan to do business, so he could only turn around Wei to save Zhao, and let Li Fumin talk about the difficulties of doing business, wanting to use this to break Zhu Youxiao's idea.

"It's the ancestor, I and I just fought for my little life, you must make Your Majesty give up the plan to do business."

After speaking, he walked into the Nuanchun Pavilion with a majestic face, as for Wei Zhongxian, he was honestly standing in the Nuanchun Pavilion, after all, he had just tried to persuade Zhu Youxiao, but he was not less scolded.

"Alas, this old Zhu family really doesn't have a master to serve."

Half an hour later, Li Fumin once again walked out of the Nuanchun Pavilion with a majestic face. When Wei Zhongxian saw Li Fuming's expression, he was immediately overjoyed.

"Why didn't I find out that this kid still has this ability, it seems that I really don't have the potential to be Bole."

thought that seeing Li Fumin with a fighting face, Wei Zhongxian thought that the matter had been done, but the next sentence made Wei Zhongxian angry.

"Ancestor, the matter has been done. I'm going to find a suitable location in the capital and make some preparations for the Four Seas Trading House."

“……”。

Wei Zhongxian suddenly felt that there was something wrong with his ears, Lao Tzu asked you to persuade the emperor, why are you starting to prepare for business now.

"Who the is persuading whom".

Wei Zhongxian looked up at the sky with tears streaming down his face.