On Li Hongfei's side, a series of commercial reform policies are being implemented step by step, but in the Jinling City Palace, Zhu Youzhen is meeting with the cabinet ministers headed by Shi Kefa. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"I've heard in the past few days that the treasury is empty, and the imperial court can't even maintain basic military expenses, yes or no?" Zhu Youzhen asked the cabinet members.

"Qi Qi Sheng, in addition to the basic amount of tax and silver collected last year, the rest has been escorted to Jingshi, so the local government does not have much surplus. And this land south of the Yangtze River is not as good as the important towns in the north, there are not many troops to fight, and now in order to resist strong enemies, the imperial court must recruit a large number of troops again, so the military expenses will be relatively tight. Scofa replied.

Can military spending not be tight, the Ming Dynasty has been fighting almost year after year, not only the national treasury, but even the local treasury, there is not much silver.

Most of the north was plagued by Li Zicheng, and in addition to the ten years of drought, the people there basically had no harvest, and the state capital that retreated south basically had no belongings except for a large number of refugees.

After all, there are a large number of refugees in every state capital along the river, but military salaries and food are really a problem.

Half of the country's land feeds the people of most of the country, which is indeed a big burden for today's Nanming.

Although there is still a lot of grain for sale in the market, those merchants are not fools, and they have hoarded goods and raised prices, hoping to make a lot of money by taking advantage of this, and the granaries of the government are almost at the bottom, and they want to buy grain, but they do not have much money, so the military salary has become the biggest problem hindering the expansion of the army.

"Since there is no treasury and no money, then why not collect taxes, the imperial court trains the army, in order to protect the family and defend the country, I don't believe in the people under my rule, I am willing to join Li Zicheng's command, or shave my own hair, and go to the Manchu Qing as a slave!" Chongzhen said.

What Li Zicheng is doing now is well known to everyone, even his generals are looking for a way out, it can be said that everyone has rebelled and left, and now even the surrender faction of Nanming is unwilling to deal with Li Zicheng.

As for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, although they have not done anything to hurt the heavens and reason for the time being, the rule of a bastard who keeps his hair without a head has long made the Han people in the world dissatisfied.

How can parents who have received the hair and skin of the body say that they are shaved?

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen believes that for the common people who are accustomed to the rule of the Ming Dynasty, it should be much better to let them pay taxes than to be plundered by Li Zicheng or enslaved by the Manchus.

"It's ....... But the saint, it is just the beginning of summer, the rice in the fields is not ripe, the people have not harvested, and some time ago, in order to fight against the thieves, the imperial court has increased the tax once, and many people have even spent their savings at home, and there is no money to pay taxes! Shi Kefa explained.

Years of wars and heavy taxes, not to mention the north, even in the rich south, the common people who farm the land may not even be able to eat rice.

"I didn't say that I was looking for those poor people to collect taxes, I meant to increase the business tax." Zhu Youzhen pointed out the object of taxation.

"Your Majesty! The commercial tax of this dynasty was drafted by Taizu himself, and the successive lords have not changed. Hearing that the commercial tax was going to be raised, Gao Hongtu of the Donglin Party was the first to stand up and oppose it.

There are many relatives in his family who are in business, and once the tax is levied, won't it cost a lot of money?

"Your Majesty, what Gao Ge Lao said is right, the ancestral system cannot be violated, and the merchants seek profits, once the tax is levied, the cost of goods will also increase, and the merchants will definitely increase the price of the goods sold in order to make money, so that the suffering is still the ordinary people, and please think twice!" Jiang Yueguang also echoed.

"Now that the war in the north continues, we must not mess up our positions and let the enemy take advantage of it!" Zheng Sanjun also echoed.

For a time, several elders of the Donglin Party spoke out against it, and the content was more terrifying than the other, and it almost equated taxation with rebellion.

These Donglin Party members are usually gentle and elegant, even if they criticize political opponents, they do not lose their grace at all, and they can use a lot of national righteousness to spray their opponents speechless.

Now once it involves its own interests, it will explode in an instant, and they all look like injured tigers, grinning with bared teeth, how can there be a bit of literati demeanor.

"Humph! Is this huge country my or the merchants' own? Are you my courtiers, or are you the courtiers of the merchants? The capital is dying, so what's the use of obeying this ancestral teaching? If this Jiangnan becomes a battlefield, those businessmen can still do business with peace of mind? Could it be that you are also like those businessmen, looking forward to changing the world as soon as possible! Zhu Youzhen was furious.

Seeing that the emperor was angry, the ministers who were still talking eloquently before stopped fighting at this time, and even after hearing that the sky and the earth had changed, all the people's faces turned pale, and they didn't dare to look at Zhu Youzhen.

The news from the north before has now reached Jiangnan, and almost all the ministers who said that they surrendered were killed by Chongzhen, so everyone didn't dare to mention the surrender.

"Speak! All dumb? Shi Kefa: You say. Seeing that a group of people didn't speak, the impatient Zhu Youzhen began to roll call.

"Enlightening the saint, the minister only knows how to lead the troops to fight and business taxes, but the saint is in charge." Shi Kefa was reluctant to get involved.

After all, Shi Kefa is also a big family, if it is only him, even if he sells all his family property to raise military salaries, he will not say anything.

But this time it is for the world's businessmen, the previous emperors have a headache when they encounter commercial tax issues, although Shi Kefa agrees with Chongzhen's idea in his heart, but he doesn't want to implement it now, after all, now that strong enemies are around, he can't be messed up because of commercial tax issues.

"Do you still know how to lead troops into battle? The soldiers and horses have not moved, the grain and grass go first, you can't even get together the food and salary, what kind of war are you fighting? Gao Hongtu, you can talk about it. Zhu Youzhen snorted coldly.

What did Zhu Youzhen spend so much trouble trying to get money for, not to raise military expenses for Shi Kefa, but the other party's sentence made Zhu Youzhen feel even more uncomfortable.

"Since the saint insists on collecting taxes, it is better to collect a counterinsurgency tax on all the people of the Ming Dynasty, and everyone in the world will have to pay taxes, so the merchants naturally dare not say anything. This is the second....... There are not many people in my Ming Dynasty who are engaged in business, and most of them only do some small profit transactions, which can be seen from the annual tax collection, the merchant does not have much silver in his hands, even if he collects taxes, it is not enough silver taels. Only by taxing all the Ming people could they get enough money to sustain military expenditures. Gao Hongtu turned on the "hurt each other" mode.

Since taxation is inevitable, let's pay taxes together!

Gao Hongtu's idea is very simple, the saint deals with the businessmen alone, these businessmen really can't resist, after all, the officials who can stand up against it in the end, the family must all be in business, if it really makes a big fuss at that time, the emperor can use the collusion of officials and businessmen as an excuse to punish those officials who oppose it.

As a result, these officials will be dismissed from their posts at the least, or beheaded at the worst.

Those who can be officials are not stupid, so everyone will not risk their lives to defend a group of businessmen.

But if everyone is taxed, then there is no need for businessmen to be in front, those who are honest and honest and dare to give direct advice to their lives, and those who are born in poor families, will all be at the forefront.

For when the time comes, they will stand under the great righteousness of the people of the world.

Even if taxes are levied in the end, it is estimated that it will not increase much, and there are ordinary people, who share the pressure for the merchants, which is definitely the best of both worlds.

Thinking of this, Gao Hongtu couldn't help but admire his wisdom.

"Gao Aiqing, your method is really good, but ........" Zhu Youzhen said as he threw out the pamphlet next to him, and then said slowly: "But I think that only need to increase the tax of merchants is enough for the current military expenses of the Ming Dynasty, and there is still a surplus!" ”

"This is the account book of several merchants collected by Dongchang today, and the accounts in it are far from the taxes reported to the imperial court by the household department before, and I don't know if Dongchang is deceiving me? Or are those officials of the household department deceiving me! Do you think that this matter should be thoroughly investigated? "Zhu Youzhen made a killer offer.

Zhu Youzhen's approach is similar to what Li Hongfei did in Suzhou, starting from the original accounts, and once it is confirmed that the businessman evades taxes, it is the crime of defrauding the king.

Shi Kefa was the first to look through the booklet, but the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became, and finally took a deep breath, knelt on the ground, and solemnly said to Zhu Youzhen: "The thorough investigation of tax evasion is widely implicated. ”

Shi Kefa has already read the booklet and knows that if what is said in it is true, once it is thoroughly investigated, it will be no less than Hu Weiyong's case, not only the entire Ming business community, but even the entire Ming officialdom, few people can escape.

"Please think twice!"

Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang, Zheng Sanjun, Liu Zongzhou and other Donglin Party members, after reading the pamphlet, also pleaded.

These officials are not clean in their own buttocks, in the past, the emperor was far away, Zhu Youzhen was in Beijing, and he couldn't control the south, even if he wanted to investigate, the minister sent by the Qin Messenger might have been sent before he went to the south of the Yangtze River.

Now that Zhu Youzhen is in Nanjing, Jinyiwei and Dongchang's minions naturally followed, investigating such a case will definitely not be handed over to those ministers, and Jinyiwei and Dongchang are all masters of oil and salt, once Zhu Youzhen really wants to investigate carefully, it is estimated that none of the people present will be able to run away except for Shi Kefa.

"Then I will increase the commercial tax to one-fifth, and change the annual tax to half a year, do you have any objections?" Zhu Youzhen asked.