On a dull day, news came out from the imperial court that a grand ceremony was being held to celebrate the victory of Shandong's counterinsurgency. The people of the capital cheered, and in this era of lack of entertainment, everyone finally had a celebration to watch.

The rebellion of the White Lotus Sect in Shandong has been completely quelled, and the bandit leader Xu Hongru has also been captured alive and is on his way to the capital.

The Shandong Rebellion was completely victorious, and the civilian officials finally raised a sum of money to cover the cost of the prisoner sacrifice ceremony.

As for the reward for the counterinsurgency officers and soldiers, the civil officials, led by the Donglin Party, still insisted that it should be paid by the emperor's internal funds. The reasons they came up with were so powerful that the Emperor of the Apocalypse was speechless. Their reason was that the treasury was very, very short of money and could no longer afford that much money.

The Donglin Party didn't know that this time they were tantamount to pushing a tough opponent to power with their own hands.

In the palace, the Emperor of the Apocalypse, who was already extremely tired of civil officials, finally ran out of patience with them.

Although the Emperor of the Apocalypse reluctantly accepted the powerful reason of "lack of money" this time, he had already begun to prepare to reuse Wei Zhongxian.

Since the Donglin Party came to power in the first year of Taichang, the civil officials abolished the tax policy in the Wanli period, clamoring that it should be based on agriculture and hide the wealth from the people. What they did led to a sharp drop in the imperial court's taxes, and the little foundation left by Emperor Wanli had been almost consumed in the past two years.

This year, in order to rebuild the Ningyuan defense line, Sun Chengzong took away most of the inventory before and after. Shandong counterinsurgency has consumed a lot of military resources. The treasury in charge of the household department really can't come up with money now. If you just count on the tax revenue at the end of the year, it will not be enough next year.

There are more things to spend money on next year.

The treasury can't come up with money, and this year's reward for the Shandong official army, the Emperor of the Apocalypse can pay from within.

Shandong has been fighting a war for nearly a year this year, and the victims are everywhere. Although Shandong's taxes have been exempted, far from quenching their thirst, the victims still need relief. Where will the money come from?

Next year, Sun Shi's Ningyuan defense line has clearly asked for 2 million taels of silver, where will this money come from?

On the issue of money, the only way that the Donglin Party came up with was to levy additional land endowments, which made the Emperor of the Apocalypse very disappointed. In his eyes, Xiao Wu can easily make a lot of money by opening a store, which shows that there is a lot of profit in business. Why can't you think of a way out of business.

Wei Zhongxian, who was secretly supported, was also speeding up the pace of pulling people, and an undercurrent was surging in the capital.

Next year, that is, the third year of the Apocalypse, is the year of Jingcha.

Jingcha is a kind of assessment of the officials of the capital in the Ming Dynasty, once every 6 years. The assessment of foreign officials is called external inspection, and it is held once every three years. It is generally difficult for officials who have been eliminated from Beijing to return to the court. The third year of the Apocalypse is such a crucial year.

A piece of news is circulating everywhere in the capital.

The Donglin Party was ready to take the opportunity of Jingcha to drive all non-Donglin officials out of the capital and unify the court in one fell swoop. In the news, the Donglin Party set the candidate to preside over Jingcha is Zhao Nanxing, Zhao Nanxing, who is currently the imperial history of the left capital.

Zhao Nanxing is now recognized as one of the leaders of the Donglin Party and is also recognized as a radical wing of the Donglin Party. He is notoriously fierce, black-and-white.

In Zhao Nanxing's eyes, the characters of all parties are either white or black. Of course, in his heart, I'm afraid that except for the Donglin Party, everyone else is black.

Zhao Nanxing also announced more than once that His Majesty must let the virtuous ministers and far villains completely eradicate the evil ministers in the court. This evil minister of his is obviously referring to the remnants of the Zhejiang, Qi, and Chu parties and Wei Zhongxian's group.

In the past two years, the Donglin Party has become stronger and stronger, and its methods have become more and more intense. The Zhejiang, Qi, and Chu parties, which had been forced to have no way out, finally made a decision, and all the remnants of the parties defected to Wei Zhongxian.

Zhejiang, Qi, and Chu parties, they have already received definite news, and next year it will indeed be Zhao Nanxing who will be in charge of the Beijing inspection plan. In order to protect themselves, the remnants of several parties finally let go of their reserve and went directly to Wei Zhongxian's disciples. With their joining, the legendary eunuch party of Gonggong Wei finally took shape.

After receiving the support of some civil officials in the DPRK and China, Wei Zhongxian was finally able to make his voice heard in the government.

Wei Zhongxian keenly discovered that the Emperor of the Apocalypse was most worried about money now. In this regard, the Emperor of the Apocalypse has been extremely disappointed in the Donglin Party.

Wei Zhongxian felt that what he had to do was to help the Emperor of the Apocalypse find money and replace the role of the Donglin Party in this aspect. But how can I help His Majesty raise taxes and find money?

Thinking about it, Wei Zhongxian's head hurt a little.

Dongchang once helped King Xin do, and the business survey of various industries in the capital reminded Wei Zhongxian. The prosperity of commerce in the capital made him see a road full of gold and silver.

Wei Zhongxian remembered what King Xin had said, "Hongwu Holy Ancestor set a commercial tax of 30 taxes. "Our store is not directly in the name of the palace, how can it be tax-free." "Paying some taxes is just to earn a little less, and you can rest assured after paying." These words kept ringing in his ears, giving birth to all kinds of thoughts in his mind.

"Well, there are too many powerful people involved in business in the capital, and there are also a lot of their own relationships, so it's not easy to be ruthless." Wei Zhongxian thought silently.

However, in the direction of Jiangnan, there are "unsold Songjiang cloth and inexhaustible Weitang yarn"; There is "a waist wrapped around 100,000 yuan, riding a crane to Yangzhou"; There are well-known Yangzhou thin horses, West Lake Fengyue, and the first business in the world. It is also a large number of maritime and salt merchants. As long as you can collect a little business tax from there, it is estimated that next year's money will not be a problem. Wei Zhongxian's mind turned very fast.

As soon as Wei Zhongxian said this idea to his henchmen, it was immediately unanimously approved.

The eunuchs in the inner court are looking forward to going out to supervise taxes as they did during the Wanli period. That position is a big fat shortage, and you can get a lot of money if you just take a little bit.

The eunuchs in the outer court believed that the Jiangnan area was the stronghold of the Donglin Party, and this plan could deal a severe blow to the Donglin Party from the root.

Soon, a new tax law referring to the tax collection method during the Wanli period was completed in the eunuch party.

The new tax law is based on the Wanli tax law, but the collection of commercial tax has been adjusted, and it is no longer levied on a fixed amount, but on the sales volume.

Wei Zhongxian firmly remembered the words of King Xin's "Hongwu Holy Ancestor set a commercial tax of 30 taxes and one tax". He also felt that the fixed amount was not very reasonable, too heavy on the bad benefits, and too light on the super high benefits. It is still the most reasonable to determine according to sales.

Wei Zhongxian did not dare to directly set 30 taxes and one, he adopted Wanli's 60 taxes and one tax. In his opinion, this amount of money for merchants "is just a little less money." ”

Wei Zhongxian reported the new tax law to the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse readily approved it, asking Wei Zhongxian to prepare immediately and prepare to implement it as soon as possible.

The eunuch party is quietly preparing for the implementation of the new tax law, and the Donglin party is busy preparing for next year's Jingcha, both sides are accumulating strength, waiting for next year's collision, and the court is strangely calm. Even the ceremony of sacrificing the prisoners passed without any disturbance. Only Xu Hongru, the leader of the White Lotus Sect, was chopped in the capital, which made the people of the capital watch a big scene.