Yangzhou, Tianning Temple Palace.

It's time for the noon dynasty of father's kindness and filial piety.

Emperor Chongzhen of the Great Ming Dynasty looks in a pretty good mood today, because he is going to be a father again! Wei Qinghui, who is in her early thirties, and Wei Xuanzhi have just been cherished out of the happy vein.

If he can give birth to a son, Zhu Cihong's "only son" status will be gone......

On the same day, he also received news from Datong. Acting King Zhu Cijiong is still in the palace in the city of Datong Mansion, with Wang Yongji, Gao Di and Jiang Huang three loyal ministers to protect him, and tens of thousands of Datong elite soldiers to guard! If Zhu Cihong dares to do something rebellious, just wait for the king to raise troops and make it difficult!

In addition, there is no news from Nanjing - no news is good news!

Now the Son of Heaven and the crown prince have been stationed in Yangzhou, Zhao Zhilong, who manages the Nanjing garrison and is in charge of the Nanjing Governor's Office, Xu Hongji, the Nanjing garrison, Han Zanzhou, the eunuch Han Zanzhou, and Pang Tianshou, the eunuch of the former imperial horse supervisor who went to Nanjing to do business, did not come to Yangzhou to greet him......

What does this mean? This shows that the Ming still has loyal ministers!

In addition to the eunuchs and lords in Nanjing who did not bow to the rebels, Chongzhen also knew that Zuo Liangyu and He Tengjiao in Huguang, Huang Degong and Ma Shiying in Fengyang also did not defect to the prince.

And Liu Zeqing, who was stationed in Shandong, and Liu Liangzuo, who was stationed in Runing, Henan, were just dealing with Zhu Cihong on the surface.

Now the courtiers who have really taken refuge in Zhu Cihong, a rebel son, in addition to these traitorous ministers, that is, Su Guansheng and Li Ruolian in Denglai, Lu Fan and Li Shiyuan in Qingzhou, Gao Jie in Xuzhou, Lu Zhenfei in Huai'an, Tang Fan in Runing and a few other chaotic ministers and thieves.

So in Chongzhen's view, he is still very promising. But now we need to keep a low profile so that we can continue to deceive the prince......

Chongzhen glanced at Zhu Cihong, who was embattled, but saw this rebel smiling and holding a recital, and his face was almost glowing. Seeing that the ministers had finished paying their respects, he smiled and said: "The four major salt generals of the Hui Gang here in Yangzhou and the imperial merchant Su Sheng, who has been following the dynasty, jointly signed a petition and requested that after the abolition of the salt law and salt administration, the two Huai salt affairs will be arranged...... Give the imperial court a tax of 6 million taels of silver every year! Although most of Chongzhen's seventeenth year has passed, they still gave the court 3 million taels! ”

What!? 6,000,000 taels of silver a year......

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his cerebral blood vessels almost exploded.

He has been the emperor for 17 years, and he has not received 6 million taels of silver from Lianghuai Salt in 17 years! Zhu Cihong came to Yangzhou, first said that he would abolish the salt administration and salt law, and then arrested four salt generals, so it was 6 million taels a year...... What does this mean? This shows that the two Huai salt affairs were originally rich, but they were swallowed up by corrupt officials and profiteers!

Just one Lianghuai salt business, 6 million taels will be corrupted a year, and there must be corrupt officials and corrupt officials in other yamen. How much silver do they have to covet the Ming Dynasty in a year? The emperor himself is so bitter, he is reluctant to eat, and he has no money to pay his military salary, so he almost beat Li Zicheng to death, but you courtiers are so greedy...... Have you given all your conscience to the dogs?

"However, the salt tax of 6 million taels does not need to be dissolved, and it is stored in the salt merchant bank jointly run by the five major salt federations in Yangzhou...... Yanshang Bank is a business that specializes in the trading of membership tickets, loans, and exchanges. With Huaiyang salt industry as a guarantee, it is enough to make people feel at ease. If the money is deposited in the account of the Salt Merchant Bank, it will not be managed by the Ministry of Labor, and when the money is needed, it will be used by the Salt Merchant Bank. And there are five cents of annual interest, and there are two or three hundred thousand taels a year. What does Tobe think? ”

Hearing this, the Hou Shangshu of the Household Department got up and said with a smile: "Back to Your Highness, the Household Department thinks that this method is very good, and the silver received by the Household Department can be deposited in the Salt Merchants Bank in the future, and it will also save those small officials who are in charge of the treasury to be greedy for ink." ”

What the? As for the few pieces of silver in the household department, there are still people who want to be greedy for ink!?

Chongzhen was about to die of sadness when he heard this, he was already so poor, and the little officials in the household department were still greedy......

"What Hou Qing said is very good," Zhu Cihong nodded with a smile, "But you can't give it to the salt trading house, and you have to set up another maritime trading house to manage customs duties and southern, northern, and eastern concession taxes." The money of the household department will be in charge of the two major commercial houses! ”

Customs duties and ...... South, North and Oriental Franchise Tax? Emperor Chongzhen was stunned and stunned, what is the South, North, and Oriental Concession Tax? How much can I collect this tariff and the Northern, Northern, and Oriental concession taxes? Don't be millions, right?

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is wise!" Hou Sui sent a heartfelt sycophant in time.

He is now in the same boat as Zhu Cihong, and Zhu Cihong does treat him well. The second assistant of the cabinet, the official of the East Palace, and the secretary of the household department, and promised to make him a merchant Qiu Bo when he arrived in Nanjing, and would give him a house and land in Nanjing. In short, you don't need to be corrupt to be prosperous!

Moreover, Zhu Cihong is very strict with his financial accounts, and he has no chance to be greedy...... Since there is no greed, it is better to have more than one thing.

Zhu Cihong nodded and said: "The decree on the issuance of the salt contract and the permission to open the salt bank has been drafted by the palace itself, and the cabinet will look back and draw up a decree." ”

"Minister's order."

The five elders got up together to receive the order.

Zhu Cihong waved his hand and motioned for them to sit down, and then lowered his tone: "The salt merchants and officials in Yangzhou are not all good, and there are also some ill-intentioned people, not only evading salt taxes, embezzling bribes, but also suspected of colluding with prisoners!"

There are also some traitors whose crimes have been exposed and they want to escape, but fortunately, Jinyiwei did a good job and did not let them escape! Zhu Chunjie, tell me, how did the trial go? ”

"Returning to the Chitose Lord, the minister personally interrogated the four captured salt merchants, and did not verify that they had colluded with the thieves. However, they have confessed to the crimes of selling illicit salt, evading salt taxes, and bribing officials! ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, he didn't plan to investigate the collusion between Yangzhou salt merchants and the thieves and the Dongyu - Yangzhou and the thieves and the Dongyu couldn't fight, why collude? As for the four unlucky old West Salt Bosses selling illicit salt, evading salt taxes, and bribing officials, they can't be relied upon.

Because Zhu Chunjie's brother Zhu Chunchen also accepted bribes from them......

Zhu Cihong asked: "Who did they bribe to?" ”

"There are officials of the salt administration, as well as local officials of the two prefectures of Huaiyang, as well as officials and nobles of the two capitals in the north and south......"

Zhu Cihong smiled: "I know, you did a good job." But Jin Yiwei doesn't care about this, since it's not a reverse case, let's transfer it to the Metropolitan Procuratorate! Zuodu Imperial History! ”

"The old minister is here!" Feng Yuanyang stood up tremblingly.

"Can the Metropolitan Procuratorate handle the case now?"

"It's not very possible," Feng Yuanyang said, "When the Chitose Lord was in Dagukou, he said that he wanted to reform the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and said that he would let the Metropolitan Procuratorate concentrate on investigating and dealing with official corruption, and also laid off many imperial histories, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate lost a lot of people when he was on a southern tour, and then many imperial histories were transferred to other positions. There are almost no Imperial Historians who can do anything now......"

"That's ......," Zhu Cihong said with a smile, "Then let's find a few imperial historians who can do things first!" ”

The reform of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is a process of boiling frogs in warm water, and what has been completed so far is to abolish the original Metropolitan Procuratorate system!

If it doesn't break, it won't stand!

The Ming Dynasty's Imperial Procuratorate managed too much, that is, it did not care about corruption and bribery of officials. And Zhu Cihong's idea is to let the Metropolitan Procuratorate focus on anti-corruption, and it is better to ignore other things.

There is no need to care about the orphans and the elderly, inspect the warehouses, check the money and grain, encourage the school, praise the good people, get rid of the beetles, correct the customs, boost the discipline, rectify the rituals of the court, sacrifice and supervision, the gains and losses of political affairs, the interests and diseases of the military and the people, and so on.

In addition to letting the Metropolitan Procuratorate take on the heavy responsibility of catching corrupt officials, Zhu Cihong also wants to make the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the yamen of the whole official, obedient and listen to his own words!

So he first turned the Metropolitan Procuratorate into an empty shelf, and now it was time to stuff people inside.

Zhu Cihong smiled and said: "Let's fill in the gap in the imperial history of the right capital first!" After overcoming the difficulties of the British Duke Zhang Shize is a meritorious hero, he is loyal and can overcome difficulties together, which is a rare loyalty, and he can serve as the imperial history of the right capital! ”

。 m.