Zhu Youzhen took the opportunity to make a difficulty, and raised the tax rate by six times at once, if there was no foundation for these account books, let alone a six-fold increase, even if it was only doubled and one-fifteenth was charged, these ministers would probably jump up and oppose it. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

But now it's different, Zhu Youzhen has taken their lifeline, plus Shi Kefa has the power to fight the army, if he doesn't want to anger Zhu Youzhen, then he can only agree to the other party's tax request.

A group of officials could only scold those businessmen for being stupid in their hearts, and even such an important thing as the original account book could be found by the people of Dongchang in a short time.

In the past, the East Factory was responsible for supervising hundreds of officials, but everything that was related to these officials was within the scope of the East Factory's supervision, and almost every original account seized this time was related to the officials of the DPRK and China, so it was not difficult to find these accounts in just half a day.

Fortunately, Zhu Youzhen also knew that the Ming officials' income was extremely low, and if these officials wanted to feed a large family, it was really unrealistic to rely on them alone, so they would not investigate it after the other party agreed to increase the business tax.

As for the so-called tax evasion, this is just a small trick by Li Hongfei in order to get more silver taels before the formal decision is made.

The holy decree has been issued, but it will take some time to pass it to the state capital, and Li Hongfei, who is serving in Suzhou, can only wait slowly, and while earning money, he will begin to recruit talents on a large scale by the way.

Since the appearance of official positions and high-paying recruitment notices, the entire city of Suzhou has been boiling.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are collectively known as craftsmen, and as long as one person is a craftsman, the children and grandchildren are all craftsmen, it is difficult for ordinary people to get rid of this lowly status, and now the Suzhou prefect has issued new regulations, craftsmen can be officials, which makes many craftsmen see hope.

It's just that the common people at that time were all suffering from the capriciousness of the government, and they didn't really believe that a local yamen could really get them out of their lowly status.

Therefore, many local craftsmen with craftsmanship are in the wait-and-see sidelines, after all, they still have a job now, and they can barely support their families.

The local craftsmen did not dare to make up their minds easily, but among the refugees who fled from the north to the south, there were many craftsmen, and these people could not even eat.

Li Hongfei set up a special place to recruit talents at the gate of Suzhou, and many refugees who fled from the north and south were queuing up here to register.

There is no way, because there are too many refugees and there is a fear of trouble, the prefects in various places have regulations that do not allow a large number of refugees to enter the city, and set up camp tents outside the city, funded by the government and wealthy businessmen in the city, set up porridge sheds, and provide two meals of gruel a day for free.

In this way, it is convenient to centralize the management of refugees, and the other is to maintain law and order in the city and prevent refugees from taking advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble.

Even Li Hongfei has no objection to such a setting, he is just an ordinary person and has no ability to change the unfair treatment now.

The only thing he can do now is to select some available people from this group of refugees, which can be regarded as finding a way out for them.

"Name, age, place of origin, what kind of work do you do?" Officials in charge of recruiting talent, as is customary, ask the person in front of them.

Due to the busyness of things, there is too much information that needs to be registered, so these officials don't even bother to raise their heads.

"The old and decrepit Bi Maokang, the word Menghou, the people, now there are three out of sixty." The visitor replied.

Hearing that this person was sixty-three, the official in charge of writing was suddenly stunned, then stopped writing and looked up, and began to look at the person in front of him.

Although this person is quite old and dressed very plainly, not much different from the average old farmer, he is full of energy and has a Confucian style, and he should be an old man who has read poetry and books.

If it is an ordinary recruitment, no one will pay attention to people who are over half a hundred years old like this, but the prefect said that the older the craftsman industry, the older the qualifications, and the more skilled the craft, so he should register the officials, and he does not dare to make a mistake.

"And what kind of technology do you always know?" The official asked.

Such an old man, who maintains himself very well, does not look like a farmer who works in the field, as for manual work such as blacksmith and carpentry, it should not be what this old man is good at, is it possible that he is a langzhong?

"The old man is a Jinshi in the twenty-sixth year of Wanli, who once gave the imperial history to the Chinese scholars, and then because he offended the minister of the dynasty, he was dismissed and demoted to the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, responsible for supervising the manufacture of ordnance things." Bi Maokang replied.

Zhongshu Sheren Yushi, was set up in the Ming Dynasty, saying that the cabinet is not appropriate to use the minister, this kind of official position is purely thankless, although he has the right to admonish, and even the emperor does not dare to punish because of his improper speech, which is equivalent to a gold medal for avoiding death.

However, capital crimes can be avoided, but living crimes cannot be escaped, and once these officials' remarks are too unpleasant, they will still be dismissed from their official positions by the powerful ministers of the current court for various reasons.

Bi Maokang is like this, he is a nineteen-year-old Zhongjinshi, and at the age of twenty-three, he worships the imperial history of the Zhongshu scholars, which can be said to have a great future.

However, because of his youth and frivolity, he offended a cabinet minister in less than two years after being an official, and was finally assigned to the Ordnance Bureau, becoming an ambassador of Zhengjipin without any future.

Anyway, in addition to craftsmen, the biggest official of the Ordnance Bureau is the ambassador, so it is impossible to demote a speech official to a craftsman.

Bi Maokang is an official of the Northern Beijing Division, when Li Zicheng broke through the Beijing Division, he fled south with a group of officials, but a small Jiupin Sesame Official, even if he came to Nanming, there was no future for development, and even many officials wanted to be reinstated, and they had to take care of a lot of money.

Besides, at his age, even if he stuffs money, it is estimated that no official will want him.

Without an official position, he can't pick up a literati on his shoulders, and it's really not easy to live, so he can't really enter the lowly status and become a craftsman.

Bi Maokang's ancestral home is Anhui, and since he has no way to become an official, it is better to say goodbye to the old man and return to his hometown to retire.

However, when he passed through Suzhou, it happened that Li Hongfei was recruiting talents, and he heard that the craftsmen who were interested in it still had the opportunity to become officials, so he wanted to come over and give it a try.

"It turned out to be the ambassador of the Ordnance Bureau, but the prefect said that only craftsmen who know craftsmanship are recruited, not adults who can be officials." The official in charge of recruitment sneered.

Now there are hundreds of officials of all sizes in Suzhou, and most of them are idle posts with empty salaries, and the prefect has already intended to dismiss some officials, and the status of local officials is in jeopardy.

"Adults may have misunderstood, although Lao Yu is an official, he also understands the craftsmanship of this craftsman, especially specializing in firearms, and the flintlock pistol used by the Shenji Battalion today is still invented and manufactured by Lao Yu Chongzhen in the eighth year." Bi Maokang explained.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Bi Maokang devoted himself to research in the Ordnance Bureau, and finally developed a flintlock pistol for Daming firearms.

This flintlock pistol is different from the arquebus used by the Qi family's army, it relies on flint ignition to fire, and can still be used even in rainy and snowy days, which can be regarded as a huge revolution in the history of Chinese weapons.

Bi Maokang made great contributions to the Daming firearms industry, but the Ming Dynasty at that time, most of them despised craftsmen, so Bi Maokang's name was not remembered by many people.

However, in later generations, in order to comfort themselves and show the power of their ancestors, the Chinese people continued to read a large number of classics to prove that the country's scientific and technological level surpassed that of other countries in the world for hundreds of years.

However, while the people of the country rejoiced, those who really contributed were mostly rated as outliers and were not valued in the slightest during the dynasty........