Chapter 36 Confrontation with the court

Three million taels of silver is not a small amount for anyone, even Emperor Longqing, you must know that the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty is only about 18 million taels, according to the merchants, this 18 million taels is only gross profit.

Although the two seem to be far apart, one is the imperial court that collects taxes from all over the world, and the other is just a small merchant, which is not comparable at all in nature.

Since it is a gross profit, it must be removed from the cost before it can become the annual surplus of the Ming Dynasty, but for the imperial court that raises millions of troops and tens of thousands of officials, this silver is simply stretched thin to use, where does the surplus come from, even so, it has to be thanks to the military service system established by Emperor Taizu, if it is not possible to solve most of the military salary problems on the spot, otherwise the eighteen million taels are far from enough to spend.

Combining these two points, this gap is immediately reflected, how can Emperor Longqing not be surprised.

"Your Majesty, the reason why this thorough carriage and horse shop is so prosperous is that it relies on the power of the court ministers to bully ordinary merchants, otherwise, how can a small carriage and horse shop earn so much silver!" Song Qingyang's words landed loudly: "And their income is good, but they have caused the tax revenue of my court to decrease, they are really treacherous businessmen who do not deduct anything!" ”

Emperor Longqing nodded slightly, and a feeling of envy and jealousy arose in his heart, he was rich all over the world, but he could still only live a frugal life, and even the broken gold bricks in the palace were not replaced, but such a humble merchant was so rich, and he was so pitiful compared to him, which was really a great irony.

"Your Majesty, the ministers have their own music!" Zhao Zhenji, who had been low-key for a long time, suddenly walked out of the ranks.

Since the last incident, Zhao Zhenji felt a great loss of face, but it stopped for a while, but the idea of wanting to be the head of the household department has become stronger and stronger, which is also the only way for him to get rid of the shadow of that day, if not, I am afraid that he will not be able to raise his head in this life.

But it is not easy to be promoted to the head of the household, not only to be extraordinary, but also to be supported by someone, the best way is to be favored by the emperor, but Zhao Zhenji can see through the last time, the emperor can't look down on himself at all, so this way is not working.

The almost way is to take refuge in a powerful person who has the ability to promote himself, several times in today's court, in addition to Gao Gong, there is only the emperor's cronies and eunuch Feng Bao, in Zhao Zhenji's view, Gao Gong is pedantic, in addition to you who he really appreciates, even if you give him no amount of silver, it will make him unhappy.

But Feng Bao is a good fortune and everyone knows that as long as the silver is delivered, then you will be his guest, and everything else is just a mirror.

Zhao Zhenji is not short of silver, and the household servant who can do the three products, how can there be no one to be filial, but in order to make Feng Bao happy, he still gritted his teeth and sent the 1,000 taels of gold buried deep in the ground that he had accumulated over the years to the door, which was also the biggest wealth in Zhao Zhenji's hands, if it was not enough, he could only sell a few shops in the capital.

One thousand taels of gold were piled up together, which was enough to dazzle people, and it gave people the feeling that it was much more shocking than ten thousand taels of silver of the same value, to be honest, although Feng Bao had received far more bribes than this amount in recent years, he had never seen so much silver at one time, and he was stunned and stupid at that time.

The next thing is logical, Feng Bao pretended to be polite and accepted all the orders, and he was watching and serving tea, with a hearty smile on his face, and a cup of tea, the two of them were already friends who talked about everything.

This time he and Song Qingyang made a plan to move Shen Chongming, Feng Bao's first thought was Zhao Zhenji, this person is a household servant, although he is not a hall official, but the power in his hands is not small, and it is easy for him to modify some account books of the household department.

Having said that, I have to mention the role that Zhao Zhenji assumed in this matter, Feng Bao put a lot of effort into killing Shen Chongming with one blow, not only did he and Song Qingyang busy with this matter, but also invited a lot of helpers, and this Zhao Zhenji was one of them.

Feng Bao instructed Zhao Zhenji to do a very simple errand, that is, to tamper with the account books of the household department and cut half of the taxes paid by Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop over the years, so that even if Shen Chongming was guilty of heinous crimes, in the face of Emperor Longqing under anger, once Gao Gong came forward to defend him, he would inevitably be implicated.

Zhao Zhenji is not stupid, and he also knows that once the matter of tampering with the account books without permission is found out, he will definitely not have his own good fruit to eat, if it is an ordinary time, he will never take this risk, but at the moment, under the orders of the ten Feng father-in-law, he still wants to ascend to the throne of the household book with his help, if he refuses this time, not only will he be promoted to the household department of the book of the yellow, but I am afraid that he will settle the accounts after the autumn and clean himself up.

In response to such a situation, Zhao Zhenji knew that it was too risky to do so, so he could only bite the bullet.

Emperor Longqing really doesn't have a good impression of Zhao Zhenji, he is old, not to mention that he can't do errands, and he likes to play some cleverness, which is really far worse than others.

In addition, he was in a bad mood now, and when he saw that Zhao Zhenji was about to speak, his brows were twisted into a big pimple: "Zhao Aiqing, if you have something to say later, let Song Aiqing finish talking first!" ”

Zhao Zhenji felt sad for a while, was he so unwilling to let the emperor see him? I had the heart to retreat and no longer get involved in this matter, but for the position of the head of the household, Zhao Zhenji still gritted his teeth and stood up: "Your Majesty, the thing that Weichen wants to make clear is also about getting through the carriage and horses!" ”

Looking at Emperor Longqing's surprised and inexplicable expression, Zhao Zhenji's heart rushed to a burst of happiness, and without waiting for him to ask any more questions, he said directly: "Your Majesty, if according to what Lord Song said, the silver taels earned by this Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop over the years should be paid 300,000 taels of silver according to the laws of the imperial court, but the account books of the household department know that the taxes paid by Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop over the years are only a little more than 100,000 taels!" ”

Emperor Longqing's mouth was wide open, and the ministers who knew that Shen Chongming was related to Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop also looked at Shen Chongming with surprise on their faces, this Shen Chongming was so bold, not only dared to rely on his identity to bully ordinary merchants, but also dared to pay taxes secretly, if the two crimes were punished together, no one would be able to save him.

"How daring!" Emperor Longqing lost his temper on the spot, gritted his teeth at a group of ministers and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, such a bold businessman, if he is not severely punished, where is the majesty of the imperial court!" ”

"Song Aiqing, do you know who is the behind-the-scenes owner of this Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop!" Without waiting for the ministers to speak, Emperor Longqing turned his head to look at Song Qingyang, who had an indignant face, and asked, this court official who supported Tongda Carriage and Horse Shop to accumulate money and secretly pay taxes must be the owner behind the scenes.

Song Qingyang sneered in his heart, and the show began: "Emperor Qi, the shopkeeper of this accessible carriage and horse shop is Xiao Pengcheng, a classmate of Wechen, but Xiao Pengcheng has always been treacherous, and Wechen has never been at odds with him, and he has no intersection over the years!" Song Qingyang's first sentence was to clear up his relationship.

But back then, there were two people in the Guozijian who had a very good relationship with Xiao Pengcheng, and they called their brothers and sisters embarrassed and traitorous all day long