Jingshan Hou Cui Yuan was also shocked at this time, he couldn't believe that the tax collectors of the IRS would dare to bombard his Hou Mansion because of the levy.

But Cui Yuan still didn't forget his respect for the marquis, and still said to Ma Yinglong and the others in a fierce manner: "You guys, you are rebelling!" ”

"Why do you say that, Master Hou, we are just collecting taxes, taxing by the will of the imperial court!"

As he spoke, Ma Yinglong led people to break into the inner courtyard of the Jingshan Hou Mansion, and began to ask the Jingshan Hou Cui Yuan Yuan account book, and copied them all.

After waiting for three or four hours, all the properties of Jingshanhou were taken care of by Ma Yinglong and others.

Immediately, Ma Yinglong said: "Master Hou, your various industries add up, the total annual income is about 540,000 silver dollars, according to the corresponding tax rate of the imperial court, you need to pay taxes of 52,100 silver dollars this year, this batch of silver dollars, we will transport it away first, you still have more than 400,000 silver dollars worth of property, and even more than 200,000 yuan in cash, so as not to bankrupt your family!" You don't have to worry too much, the court wants to maintain the peace of the society, and you can't stop collecting taxes and leave! ”

Ma Yinglong waved his hand as he spoke: "Ship the tax silver away, give the tax payment voucher to Jingshan Hou, let's go!" ”

Jingshanhou looked at a tax payment voucher in his hand, and then looked at the several cars of silver dollars that he was transported away by the National Taxation Bureau, and was naturally very distressed: "I want to see the emperor, I want to see the emperor!" These IRS people deceive people too much, they deceive people too much! ”

Like the Marquis of Jingshan, the powerful gentry of Nanzhili and Zhejiang were all subjected to compulsory taxation measures, and some were even killed.

Naturally, these powerful officials and gentry reacted fiercely.

But Zhu Houzhao doesn't care about these, because no matter what, as long as he wants to make Daming better, he must take this step, and these vested interest groups such as powerful officials and gentry must be offended! There is no way to do this, and it is simply impossible to expect vested interest groups to discover their own conscience and give up a part of their own interests!

Is it difficult to accept paying taxes, there are many rich people in later generations, but they still have to be levied obediently when they should be taxed, to put it bluntly, the rich people in this era still have no sense of the country, and they do not have the consciousness that they also need to contribute to the national public service.

The scenery of Mochou Lake is good, Zhu Houzhao is either planting small tadpoles on the Jiangnan people in the house, or watching the small tadpoles germinating due to spring by the Mochou Lake, and the gunshots and shouts outside the garden seem to have nothing to do with him.

"Your Majesty, Jingshan Hou Cui Yuan, Nanjing Tongzheng Secretary Right Senator Li Shu, and Inspector Yushi Wang Dao are all asking to see Your Majesty outside the palace, and they all want to impeach the imperial court for the tyranny and extortion that has caused the people's resentment to boil", after Gu Dayong reported to Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao only waved his hand after hearing this: "Let's just say that I am very busy now, and the internal affairs have been handed over to the cabinet, so let the cabinet scholar Wang Shouren go to see them." ”

When Wang Shouren came to these powerful officials and gentry, he didn't say much, but said: "The tax collection is the responsibility of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau, and how it is formulated is also formulated by the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau. ”

When the powerful officials and gentry saw that Wang Shouren didn't care, they had no choice but to scold Wang Shouren, and even began to impeach Wang Shouren.

But Zhu Houzhao did not care about any impeachment of Wang Shouren.

Unless it was a rebellion, it was impossible for the current powerful gentry to stop the imperial court's tax collection work.

The powerful officials and gentry were also aware of this, and because of this, they became more and more dissatisfied with the status quo of the imperial court.

……

Li Shu was one of them, and as an official of the General Administration, he also found that His Majesty the Emperor was inactive in this regard, so he was even more disappointed in his heart.

But Li Shu did not know how to fight against the courtiers and how to force the inactive Emperor to abandon the policy of tax reform.

At this time, a scholar named Ji Xuan found him, and this Ji Xuan only said that he was a wealthy merchant in Huizhou, and because he had his own views on the new tax policy of the imperial court, he rashly came to see Li Shu.

Li Shu saw that Ji Xuan offered rich gifts, and his family also had many dealings with wealthy businessmen in Huizhou, so he also saw Ji Xuan.

"Now the imperial court in Jiangnan with a new tax policy, the rich to levy tyranny, has made the rich families are full of complaints, the towns in the south of the Yangtze River overseas Chinese merchants need to register to receive business vouchers and pay taxes before they can do business, students can't bear to see the world's merchants because of the new tax and chaos, can not sit back and watch the court officials and traitors to carry out wanton and violent acts!"

"Therefore, the students intend to invite the major powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan to join forces with us and other wealthy overseas Chinese businessmen to resist the new tax policy of the imperial court, so that the imperial court can understand that such a wanton expropriation can only force the people of Jiangnan to have no way out!"

Ji Xuan said this, so that Li Shu couldn't help but be very shocked, as a member of the Jiangnan Haoqiang gentry, he was also dissatisfied with the new tax policy of the imperial court, but he was not a serious businessman, and he never thought of the rich expatriate businessmen to unite against the imperial court, but now, Ji Xuan said this, which also made him a little interested, and asked: "Mr. Ji may wish to elaborate." ”

"Strike!"

Ji Xuan dipped some tea and wrote these two words on the table.

Li Shu nodded: "Li can contact the local rich gentry in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places, but I don't know how much capital you can come up with in Huizhou." ”

"Within a month, if a merchant in the Jiangnan area comes to Jiangnan to purchase, Ji will cut his own thanks!"

After Ji Xuan said, he said goodbye to Li Shu, stayed at the Xiaguan Wharf, and only after boarding the ship did he say: "Go back and tell Changshi that Ji will not let His Highness's three million silver dollars be spent in vain, if the imperial court can't give up the tax reform this time, Ji is willing to thank His Highness with death!" ”

……

In this levy, the interests of not only the powerful gentry were damaged, but also the interests of ordinary merchants, as well as high-level hired talents such as craftsmen and professional staff managers.

These people also began to be dissatisfied with the current policy of the imperial court.

People like Ji Xuan found this opportunity, and when they could not take advantage of the ordinary people, they wanted to unite these ordinary merchants, craftsmen, professional staff, shopkeepers and other middle classes, and prepared to put economic pressure on the imperial court and force the imperial court to abandon the new tax policy.

"Stone butcher, shut down your pork shop! The Ji Xiang Guild will pay you money! You won't have anything to lose! Moreover, you have to understand that Ji Xianggong wants you to do this for your sake, as long as the imperial court has to give up the new tax policy because we have all gone on strike, you don't have to pay so many silver dollars every year! ”

At this time, the people sent by Ji Xuan had already begun to ask the ordinary merchants in the market to close their shops.

Coincidentally.

At this time, the salt merchant He Hang also received a letter from Li Shu and began to instruct his shopkeeper: "According to my father-in-law's instructions, transport all the salt to Huguang, and don't come to Jiangnan to sell it this year!" ”

Here, Cheng Rixing, the protégé of Jingshan Hou Cui Yuan, also met with Li Shu's servant Zhan He: "This is all the salt quotations of our Hou Ye, and all of them are sold to you at eighty percent of the price!" As long as the imperial court can give up reforming the tax policy this time, the salt introduction will naturally be cheaper for you at that time! ”

"Please rest assured, this strike is the joint action of all the big families and Hui merchants in our Jiangnan, and the Jin merchants have also joined in, and the silver dollars in reserve this time are no less than 300 million, and when the time comes, Jiangnan will have no salt, no tea, no oil, no grain, and even men have no prostitutes, and women have no fat to sell!"

After Zhan He spoke, he said goodbye to Cheng Rixing.

Therefore, when the tax collection work was in progress, the major shops in Jiangnan began to close their doors, and the merchants also returned to their hometowns with the original goods, and some staff and shopkeepers also began to take the initiative to resign, and even some green buildings began to close, and even the storytellers and singers were no longer open.

Jiangnan is already a commodity economy, with a high rate of urbanization and a non-comparable number of citizens, so daily life is highly dependent on commerce and trade.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Koch Cloth Store is no longer open, from now on, you weavers go back!"

The owner of one of the largest cloth shops in Danling Town, Zhenjiang Prefecture, also began to shut down his cloth shop, leaving more than 100 weavers unemployed!

Not only that, but the workshops and factories in all industries began to close down one after another, and a large number of low-level craftsmen and workers lost their jobs, and these low-level craftsmen and workers had no source of income without work, and people became panicked.

This is not the most frightening, what is really scary is that with the extension of the implementation of the new tax policy, more and more Jiangnan Shimin find that the price of daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil and salt is getting higher and higher, and they will even not be able to buy it, and some of them were still open yesterday and closed their stores today.

"Your Majesty, at present, these merchants have gone on strike, and it is difficult for the ministers to buy enough eggs, white flour and other things for a while, in the eyes of the ministers, they are resisting the new tax policy of the imperial court, and the price of a chicken in Jiaxing has also risen to fifty silver dollars!"

Gu Dayong also reported the situation outside to Zhu Houzhao at this time.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, and only looked at Wang Shouren: "How many unemployed workers and craftsmen are there?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, Ying Tianfu Yin has just reported, there are more than 40,000 unemployed people in Nanjing alone, and now they are all in a state of hunger and cold, fortunately, Yan Song, the secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, has left more than 100,000 stones of sweet potatoes in Nanjing, and it is difficult not to starve to death, but the food supply of so many officials and troops in Nanjing has also become a problem!"

Wang Shouren replied.

"It seems that as you expected, these powerful officials and gentry and the wealthy businessmen from all over the country who came to Jiangnan to do business really began to use their most ruthless tricks, and would rather strike the market and damage themselves in the short term than let the new tax policy of the imperial court be implemented smoothly", Zhu Houzhao threw the fishing rod in his hand into the lake and stood up angrily.

"Exactly, it can make the entire Jiangnan strike, and it can also be seen that behind this must be supported by the Jiangnan chaebol with strong financial resources, I am afraid that there are other rich businessmen from other places, but our court is not vegetarian, although this strike has forced the people of Jiangnan to lose their jobs and even starve, so that they all complain that the new new tax policy of the imperial court is wrong, but the boycott is naturally not small for these powerful officials and wealthy businessmen, they boycott for one day, they will make one less day, and now this depends on who has more financial resources and who lasts the longest!"

Wang Shouren replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Did Xu Jing and them go to Nanjing?" ”

"All can arrive in Nanjing within this month, the Xu family, the Liu family, the Luo family, the Jiao family, the Ma family, the Zhang family, and the Chen's family, the seven heads of the seven families who had His Majesty Longen as the royal shareholder all came in person, Cong Lan has gone to Yangzhou to meet with them, and now the salt farms such as Lianghuai and Changlu have been ordered to prohibit the sale of salt to salt merchants, and the Chonggonggong of the bureau is estimated to be able to bring salt back within four or five days!"

After Wang Shouren said, Zhu Houzhao didn't say more, he and Wang Shouren had already expected that the powerful gentry in Jiangnan would do this, after all, these people are no better than the peasants who have nothing, and few people really want them to rebel at the risk of being condemned.

But what is different from the Ming court in the past is that the country also has a group of die-hard chaebols, these big chaebols are all related to Zhu Houzhao, they are the largest bureaucratic capitalists in the Ming Dynasty, and even manage the huge state-owned assets of the imperial court for the imperial court.

Therefore, it is not so easy for the chaebols in Jiangnan to really fight with Zhu Houzhao and the Ming court economically, not to mention Zhu Houzhao, the emperor, even Wang Shouren's own Wang family can also come up with a huge asset of one billion silver dollars, otherwise, Wang Shouren will not be willing to come to Jiangnan for Zhu Houzhao to implement tax administration.

After the country entered industrialization, it was inevitable to enter the era of imperialism, and it was inevitable that trust capitalists would appear, and the top-level political families that held the power of the empire would naturally inevitably become super chaebols.

And under them, there will be the so-called Jin merchants, Hui merchants, Jiangnan chaebols, etc.

However, because these people are all Zhu Houzhao's lackeys, and they are all families closely related to national interests, they are also relatively low-key, so the chaebols in Jiangnan will ignore the existence of these people, just as they ignore Zhu Houzhao, of course, maybe these chaebols in Jiangnan are more confident and have more powerful assistants.

At all costs.

Under the covert manipulation of the Jiangnan chaebol and the wealthy businessmen, the strike in Jiangnan continued, and at this time, Xu Jing and other imperial businessmen also went south because of Zhu Houzhao's secret decree.

Yangzhou City.

Xu Jing, who manipulated the national capital of the Ming Dynasty with no less than 100 billion silver dollars, sat in a large four-wheeled carriage wrapped in silk, looking at the large number of unemployed workers who had nothing to do and only relied on sweet potato gruel to get by, and the people of Jiangnan who walked listlessly due to lack of oil and water, and said to Cong Lan, who was also in the carriage:

"Cong Butang rest assured, Xu came to Jiangnan this time, naturally he will not bring nothing, Xu has prepared a hundred million silver dollars this time, and has signed a contract with Ye Butang of the Infrastructure Construction Bureau, and decided to use this money as the pre-construction money for the construction of the Yangtze River Bridge in Nandu, even if the bridge repair is not successful, it doesn't matter, at least it can meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of workers to make a living!"

"The student also brought 50 million silver dollars this time, the student's uncle has always been grateful for His Majesty's kindness, has always wanted to do something for His Majesty, and also told the student that everything in the Liu family is His Majesty's, now the student is said to be the person in charge of the Liu family's property, but it is still in charge of His Majesty, the student is not as concerned about the people as Lord Xu, the student just wants to build a large royal garden for His Majesty in the southern capital and Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yangzhou, these places, as His Majesty's palace, the student has already handed over the note to the Imperial Horse Supervisor, His Majesty also agreed, and at that time, it is estimated that tens of thousands of craftsmen will be needed for quarrying, cement, and brick quarrying! ”

Liu Jin's nephew Liu Xuan also expressed his attitude to Cong Lan.

The heads of other major families also expressed their positions.

Cong Lan was naturally very happy when she saw this: "This is great, when the time comes, let those powerful officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River see how powerful our rich businessmen in the north are!" ”

Most of the industries of these imperial merchants were in the north and overseas, so Cong Lan, as a northerner, should regard them as his northern chaebols.

Xu Jing did not deny it, but smiled: "In the words of His Majesty, this will be an event where the country advances and the people retreat!" In any case, by doing so, we can ensure the long-term peace and stability of our Ming Dynasty! It can also make my imperial power permanent with His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty! ”

。 m.