"Li Hanlin, you tell me, how rich are those businessmen?" Emperor Wanli took Li Hongyu's piece from the chamberlain and read it carefully, and then asked Li Hongyu with an expressionless face.

"Rich to rival the country!" Li Hongyu groaned for a moment and said four words in a deep voice.

"Rich enough to rival the country?" Emperor Wanli's eyes flashed when he heard this, and he crumpled the music in his hand vigorously, and his face showed a trace of anger.

When the Wanli Emperor was still struggling with the military salaries in Liaodong, the local gentry and merchants lived a luxurious life, not only refusing to contribute to the country, but also trying to evade taxes and prevent taxes from being levied, so that the Wanli Emperor had to increase taxes to the people because of the war in Liaodong.

The people are the water, the king is the boat, the water can carry the boat and can also overturn the boat, this is the first lesson of life after every emperor ascends the throne to learn the proverbs, if it is not a last resort, then the Wanli Emperor will not order the levy of Liao, the people live a rich life, the country can be long-term peace and stability, on the contrary, it will inevitably cause turmoil.

The courtiers naturally understood this truth, but they did not pay attention to the hardships of the Wanli Emperor, knowing that the imperial court was in financial difficulties, but they were all vying to reduce taxes for their hometowns in order to gain fame and fortune, and turned a blind eye to the emptiness of the treasury.

As a class with vested interests, it was even more impossible to tax the wealthy merchant and gentry class, so the only way to target the common people, especially the peasants in the countryside, was the first to be affected.

Although Emperor Wanli is the king of a country, he has to make concessions in the face of the huge courtier group and local interest groups above the court, which is related to the stability of the Ming Dynasty, and he does not want to cause any chaos.

Although the merchant gentry class controlled the country's resources and grabbed a lot of benefits, they made a small contribution to the country, but one by one they sold their reputation and reputation, and unashamedly accused the Wanli Emperor of imposing a mining tax to harm the country and the people, as if the mining tax was the root cause of the hardship of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Think about the Wanli Emperor and other emperors at the end of the Ming Dynasty are also really sad, although the economy of the Ming Dynasty is far better than the previous dynasty, but they have to be saddled with the infamy of Wanfu in order to increase a little bit of taxes, if those merchants and gentry can squeeze out a little benefit from the corners of their mouths, why do these emperors do this?

Speaking of which, the root cause of the current situation of the Ming Dynasty lies in the body of Ming Taizu.

Ming Taizu, who was from a humble background, longed for that kind of "self-sufficient" life, and was considerate of the people, so he formulated a very low commercial tax system.

At the same time, he also gave the royal family, officials, military households, lifters, talents and other strata of people exempt from the privilege, coupled with the central and local implementation of a two-level taxation system, in the long run, which eventually led to the dilemma that the resources of the Ming Dynasty were controlled by various interest groups and the treasury was empty.

Now, the merchant gentry class, who most wanted to move and controlled a large amount of national resources, had full wings and a big tail, and even he, the son of heaven, had to be afraid of three points.

However, to the surprise of Emperor Wanli, Li Hongyu could easily make those gentry and merchants who were so rich and at the same time regarded wealth as their lives obediently pay six million taels of silver just by using overseas trade like a mirror, which was really unexpected.

"Li Hanlin, this trip to Yangzhou has worked hard for you."

After putting the crumpled piece in his hand on the table beside him, Emperor Wanli calmed down his somewhat excited mood and said to Li Hongyu with a smile, "You rest for a few days before you go on official business." ”

"Thank you for the emperor's grace." Li Hongyu bowed to Emperor Wanli when he heard this, and then said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, the minister is young and energetic, and there is not much fatigue on this trip to Yangzhou. ”

"Okay, I'm done." Emperor Wanli immediately laughed when he heard this, and he was full of appreciation for Li Hongyu's move, and the Ming Dynasty needed such capable talents who cared about national affairs.

"Li Hanlin, I heard that you were assassinated in Yangzhou, can you be injured?" Seeing that Emperor Wanli's mood was rare to improve, Concubine Zheng knew that he appreciated Li Hongyu very much, and to be honest, she was also very serious and optimistic about Li Hongyu, so she asked after a deep sigh.

"What?"

Emperor Wanli couldn't help but look surprised when he heard this, because his health was not good, the bad news in the court was suppressed, so he didn't know about it, and then frowned slightly, looked at Li Hongyu and asked, "What's going on?" ”

"Back to the emperor, some young people wanted to give the minister a dismount, and let people shoot the pillar of a shop in front of the minister's carriage, and the minister was fine." Li Hongyu bowed down and replied lightly, "The minister has ordered a thorough investigation of this matter, and one day the main messenger behind the scenes will be brought to justice." ”

"Damn!" Emperor Wanli's face sank when he heard this, and he couldn't help but slap the table on the side with a strong face, and said angrily, "They are so bold that they even dare to move, do they want to rebel?" ”

Because he was too excited, Emperor Wanli couldn't help coughing, and Concubine Zheng hurriedly slapped his back with concern.

"The emperor was angry, and the ministers felt that this was their weak heart, and they were just embarrassed after being touched by the ministers."

Seeing this, Li Hongyu hurriedly bowed down and said in a loud voice, "The emperor can rest assured, the ministers will definitely teach them a lesson, so that they will not dare to act recklessly." ”

Regarding the assassination of Yangzhou City, except for Li Hongyu and Zhao Tieshan and a few other people, the outside world does not know what is going on.

Of course, the most popular in the market is that the main messenger is Zhang Tieshan or Yang Xiaotian, but it cannot be ruled out that it is related to overseas smuggling groups, after all, once the overseas trade led by the Customs Department is opened, their interests will be greatly impacted.

Now that Emperor Wanli and Concubine Zheng Guifei both thought that the assassination of Yangzhou City was done by interest groups that profited from overseas smuggling business, Li Hongyu also followed the two people's intentions, which undoubtedly showed that it was difficult to promote overseas trade, and maybe he would get some benefits from Emperor Wanli.

"People die for money, birds die for food, they dare to give you a dismount today, maybe he will really find a way to kill you one day!"

It took a while for Emperor Wanli to stop coughing, his face turned a little red from coughing, and he coldly issued an edict to the attendants on the side, "Go, go to Shang Fangjian and bring my 'Dragon Ming' sword." ”

Li Hongyu's eyes suddenly lit up when he heard this, after stepping down as the governor of Liaodong, he handed over the Longming Sword, and now the Wanli Emperor asked the inner servants to bring him the Longming Sword in front of him, wouldn't it mean to give him the meaning of giving it to him, which means that he will have the power to cut first and then play.

"Li Hanlin, I have decided to give you the Long Ming Sword, if anyone dares to obstruct the actions of the Customs Department, the civil official below the fourth rank and the military attache below the second rank will be cut first and then played!"

Sure enough, after the chamberlain respectfully held the Longming Sword with both hands, Emperor Wanli glanced at it, and then his face turned cold, and he said to Li Hongyu in a deep voice, "I hope you don't live up to my hard work!" ”

"The emperor's grace ministers keep it in mind and never disappoint the emperor's expectations!" Li Hongyu hurriedly knelt down and solemnly thanked Emperor Wanli, secretly rejoicing in his heart, with this dragon sword, then the affairs of overseas trade will be much smoother in the future!

Emperor Wanli heard the words slightly bowed his head and was full of expectations for Li Hongyu, judging from his experience in the nearly 50 years of his accession to the throne, Li Hongyu, who was both civil and military, could be described as brave and strategic, and proficient in commercial affairs, and was undoubtedly an excellent candidate to deal with local interest groups in Jiangnan.

Because the Wanli Emperor was weak and needed to rest, Li Hongyu retired after staying in the Qing Palace for a long time, and went to the Qingning Palace to meet the prince Zhu Changluo at the signal of the Wanli Emperor.

Because Li Hongyu is the teacher of Zhu Youxiao, the grandson of the emperor, he has no intersection with Zhu Changluo, and he has only had a few encounters before.

Walking out of the Qianqing Palace, Li Hongyu stopped and turned his head to look at the heavily guarded palace gate behind him, his brows furrowed slightly, judging from the current health situation of Emperor Wanli, it will not last long, and a violent storm is about to descend on the capital.

Compared with the party struggle in the court, Li Hongyu is now more concerned about the movements of Zheng Guifei, who has already established a huge power after being favored by the Wanli Emperor for many years, and is a more dangerous figure than the party dispute.

The party struggle in the court is to fight the power of the faction in the capital, and Zheng Guifei will bring a bloody killing, if Zhu Changluo has the support of the civil official group, then Zheng Guifei stands behind the Xungui group.

Although the power of the Xungui group in the court has been declining, and the suppression of the civilian clique is far from being comparable to the glory of the past, they hold the military power of the Ming Dynasty in their hands, especially the Beijing army stationed in the capital and responsible for the defense of the outer city and the inner city and the pro-army responsible for the defense of the imperial city and the Forbidden City.

There is a good saying, the scholars have failed to rebel for ten years, and the civil officials are powerless one by one, so they can only move their mouths and play scheming, and once they do not speculate and fight, they will be lambs to the slaughter, and they are not at all the opponents of those noble groups who dance knives and guns.

Judging from the current situation, Emperor Wanli did not want the court to be turbulent after his death, so he did not agree to let King Fu enter Beijing, and he must have found a way to restrain Zheng Guifei.

This is also the reason why Emperor Wanli asked Li Hongyu to visit Zhu Changluo, it stands to reason that Zhu Changluo, as a prince, should not make friends with foreign officials, especially when Emperor Wanli is seriously ill, he will violate the taboo of Emperor Wanli.

But Emperor Wanli did this, obviously wanting Li Hongyu to join Zhu Changluo's disciples, and he would continue to reuse Li Hongyu after Zhu Changluo ascended the throne.

In addition, in addition to the Beijing army and the pro-army, there is also an important military force in the capital, that is, the nearly 20,000 new troops in the camp outside the city who have experienced the tempering of the Liaodong battlefield.

In terms of numbers, the new army is naturally no match for the Beijing army and the pro-army, and if the number of troops of the Beijing army and the pro-army is full, there are 200,000 or 300,000, and even if there is a shortage of personnel, there are more than 100,000.

From the perspective of individual combat effectiveness, the new army threw the usually pampered Beijing army and the pro-army a few streets, and these new army soldiers can be described as the elite of the elite of the Ming army.

Therefore, once the new army goes to war with the Beijing army and the pro-army, then regardless of the numerical disadvantage of the new army, the Beijing army and the pro-army will still be beaten to the ground: those Beijing army and the pro-army army are lax, their training is lax, their morale is low, and they are not ready to go to the battlefield at all, and I am afraid that after the war, they will not want to flee for their lives.

Therefore, Emperor Wanli's meaning is obvious, and he wants to use the new army trained by Li Hongyu to escort Zhu Changluo.

Compared with those nobles in the capital, Li Hongyu, who has little intersection with Concubine Zheng and is a civil official, is more worthy of the trust of Emperor Wanli, and Li Hongyu is still the teacher of Zhu Youxiao, the emperor's grandson, so he will naturally support Zhu Changluo.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. All come to read the mobile version reading website: m.