The Dongjiang River has been basically completed, and after the Liao people entered the Guards, the number of the Guards has risen sharply, and after Lu Xiangsheng has seen the training of the Liao soldiers, he feels that if the Liao soldiers train for another two or three months, they can go to southern Liaoning with the veterans. Because the basic training has been completed, and the quality of the Liao soldiers is very good, in two months, all the people have received the first-class assassination medal, and half of the Liao soldiers have received the second-class assassination medal. This is much better than the original soldiers of the Beijing battalion.

Zhu Youxiao prepared to wait for the Southwest Guards to return to Beijing, and then sent the Guards to southern Liaoning, and cooperated with Liaoxi and Dongjiang to first recover the four prefectures of Jinfu and Haihai, and hammer a hard nail in Liaodong.

On the one hand, he can meet the Liao people who fled south, and on the other hand, he still has a lot to do to use Liaonan as a battlefield to conduct military training, but before he can build a strong army in a hundred battles.

At this time, Bi Ziyan reported that this year's commercial tax payment situation is not optimistic. From October of the first year of the Apocalypse to June of the second year, the total amount of taxes collected in eight months was 2.2 million yuan, or 1.1 million taels of silver. This situation seems to be very good, because even in the thirty-first year of Wanli, which collects the most taxes, the total income of the mine supervisors and tax supervisors who have been released into the capital is only one million and ninety thousand taels of silver.

But the account is not calculated like this, Wanli Shi is indeed only so many silver taels into the warehouse, but it is absolutely impossible for the eunuchs to only receive such silver taels, according to Bi Ziyan and Xu Guangqi's estimates, the eunuchs will only pay one to two percent at most, so the amount of commercial tax collected now is far from enough. According to Bi Ziyan, the most important problem is two aspects, one is the issue of mining tax, and the other is the issue of tax exemption and tax evasion by high-ranking officials and dignitaries.

Mining tax is the most criticized policy in the Wanli period, Guangzong has been abolished when he ascended the throne, so there is no special mining tax now, it is collected in accordance with the rules of the merchants, but after the mine owner mines, it is generally not transported to other places, but refined on the spot, and then the refined products are transported to other places, so that in fact, only the merchant tax is received, and the mining tax is not collected at all.

In the Ming Dynasty, high-ranking officials and dignitaries did not collect taxes when they crossed the customs by car and boat, and later developed to the point that as long as there were cars and ships with their flags hung, they could not collect taxes, so that a large number of merchants would attach their cars and ships to their names and pay some money in exchange for a flag, so that they could be tax-free.

In fact, the last time Wei Zhongxian went to investigate the source of Li Sancai's wealth, he had already reported to Zhu Youxiao, and one of the ways for Li Sancai to make money was the affiliation of other merchants. When he was the governor of river transportation, he collected a large number of merchants, his boat walked in front, and the merchant's boat walked behind, all saying that it was the Li family's boat, so that a large amount of tax was lost in this way, and Li Sancai collected protection fees according to 40% to 50% of the tax payable at the banknote, so he could earn a lot of money and accumulate a huge fortune.

Zhu Youxiao made a lot of money by raiding the Jin merchants, and made a small amount of money by selling mirrors, although the construction of the university town cost some money, but it could soon be earned back by selling the house, so the internal funds were still very sufficient. However, the household department can collect more than 2 million yuan in eight months, which is more than 3 million yuan a year, which is already a great increase compared with the original, and if these two problems are solved, then the commercial tax should increase by a large margin, and Zhu Youxiao's idea of reducing the agricultural tax and fundamentally solving the problem of the peasant uprising will be realized.

Therefore, at the small court meeting the next day, Zhu Youxiao decided to put the problems encountered by the household department in collecting commercial taxes in front of the ministers, so that everyone could discuss how to solve them.

However, after the court meeting began to greet everyone, Zhu Youxiao did not let Bi Ziyan come out of the ranks, but Sun Shenxing first issued a letter demanding that Li Kezhuo and Fang Congzhe, the first evildoers of the "Red Pill Case", be severely punished, thinking that Li Kezhuo should be beheaded, and Fang Congzhe should be dismissed, and Wang Ji, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and Yang Dongming, the waiter, also suggested arresting Li Kezhuo and Cui Wensheng, and cutting Fang Congzhe's official and ordering him to return home.

Zhu Youxiao was furious, Sun Shenxing obstructed the last time he ran the school, and Wang Ji's obvious partiality during the interrogation of Xiong Tingbi also made him very unhappy, and he had already said that there was no need to mention the previous cases, these people were about to touch their heads, so they said angrily: "The Red Pill case has already been decided, and Li Kezhuo and Cui Wensheng have already been punished, why do you always have to care about these?" ”

Sun Shenxing was not afraid: "Your Majesty, Li Cui and the others have indeed been punished, but they are too tolerant. And Fang Congzhe is the culprit, but he has always stood in the court and continues to be the first assistant, which is not convinced by the world. ”

Zhu Youxiao laughed angrily: "Are you from the world?" You say that people in the world are not convinced, then I want to see which people are not convinced. Fellow ministers, do you still think that Fang Congzhe should be dismissed? ”

Han Yi, Zuo Guangdou, Zhao Nanxing, Wei Dazhong, Yuan Huazhong, Zhou Chaorui, and Gu Dazhang all stood up and said in unison: "The minister thinks that Fang Congzhe should be dismissed." "Those who stood up were all Donglin Party members, but the strange thing is that Xiang Gao, who was the second assistant, and Yang Lian, who had always been the vanguard of Donglin, did not say anything.

This is embarrassing, the cabinet members, the ministers of the Ministry of Shangshu, the Zuo Du Yushi, and the Like all stood up in the matter and thought that Fang Congzhe should resign, Zhu Youxiao panicked for a while, and was speechless.

Xu Guangqi stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the minister believes that Fang Shoufu is not guilty in the Red Pill case and should not be dismissed. ”

Only then did Zhu Youxiao react and said: "Since you ministers have different views on this matter, it is better for everyone to discuss this matter together at the court meeting tomorrow." ”

So the matter was no longer discussed for the time being, and Zhu Youxiao lost interest and hastily ended the court meeting. He was in a very unhappy mood, so he called the ministers and scholars to Yuntai for questioning.

He spoke first: "Last time, I said that Fang Shoufu has a deep body and is a member of my heart, so I don't know why I want to drive Shoufu today?" ”

At this time, there were four people in Yuntai who attacked Fang Congzhe who thought that his official should be dismissed: Han Yi, the cabinet minister, Zhao Nanxing, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Wang Ji, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and Sun Shenxing, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the remaining Ye Xianggao and Sun Chengzong were all members of the Donglin Party, and Yao Siren, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, was biased towards the Donglin Party.

After the emperor asked, Fang, Xu, and Huang naturally didn't make a sound, while Ye Xianggao said: "Your Majesty, the minister didn't dare to say anything to drive Shoufu, the minister thought that Shoufu was properly handled in the Red Pill case, but Li Cui and the others were indeed punished too lightly, please ask Your Majesty to make a holy ruling." ”

It can be seen from these words that Ye Xianggao actually disagrees with Wang Jisun and their opinions. Sun Chengzong also expressed the same meaning, which made Wang Ji and the others angry, and their eyes glared at Sun Chengzong and the others, as if they were about to breathe fire. And Xu Guangqi and Huang Kezhang also agreed with Ye Xianggao's words.

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