Yang Chao's report suddenly made Shi Kefa, who was embarrassed by the imperial court and in arrears and evaded taxes in Jiangnan for many years, restless.

The Jiangnan area has always been the wealth of the Ming Dynasty, but it is also the hardest hit area of tax evasion, Jiangnan is rich, Jiangnan has the most scholars, and the gentry in Jiangnan are also the most.

There are legal evasions, such as ordinary landlords or landed homesteaders who put their own land into the name of meritorious scholars, and obtain the right to avoid taxes permitted by law, but more illegal evasion, many wealthy families hide the population, falsely report the acres of land, and good land becomes wasteland, and these big families and powerful people get the protection of the government or collude, as a result, they should pay ten taels, and it would be good to pay one or two taels.

Even so, these wealthy families still think of the law to resist paying taxes, and if they drag on, they will not pay, and the more powerful the powerful officials and eunuchs, the more they will escape, and the government will not be afraid of chasing them at all, and they will blatantly resist, under the guise of some floods, droughts, etc., they just don't pay!

These families generally have officials in their families, and there are many famous scholars among their children, who are well-known in the local area, and the government is not easy to push too much, but requires them to complete the tax amount.

The result is that Jiangnan can't complete the tax amount year after year, and the imperial court will become more and more embarrassed, if Zhang Juzheng is in the time, strictly implement the examination law, these officials in Jiangnan, nine out of ten have to be dismissed, but unfortunately Zhang Juzheng died, and died very miserably, was scolded very miserably by the scholar class, and there is no longer a chief assistant Zhang Juzheng who dares to offend the officials and scholars of the whole world The courage of the class, and there is no such ability, so the world is getting worse day by day.

Shi Kefa, who has been a big official for half his life, sees it in his eyes, but he is anxious but helpless in his heart. He repeatedly told himself that the Ming Dynasty had accumulated deep evils, and it could not be reversed overnight. Patience is required.

But at present, the world is in chaos, and military spending cannot be arrears. Therefore, Shi Kefa, who always regards the fate of the country as his mission, is really sleepless at night, sighing day and night.

But at this time, someone told him that there was no need to levy more, and he only needed the imperial court to relax the ban, and he could receive three million taels of tax silver, how could this make Shi Kefa not moved.

Even if he believes that the ban on the sea is not a long-term solution, he also believes that the ban on the sea will attract the covetousness of the pirates. I also believe that the ban on opening the sea is to drink the donkey to quench your thirst, but now you are really going to die of thirst, maybe after drinking the donkey, it will be a temporary emergency, and you can save the Ming Dynasty by relieving your breath.

So Shi Kefa immediately summoned Yang Chao and asked carefully in person, Yang Chao told him that in the area of Songjiang Mansion, countless wealthy families were doing business of smuggling through the sea, making huge profits every year, but the court did not get a penny.

Yang Chao also told Shi Kefa. There is no need to ban these people from trade, only to open the sea and let them have legitimate access to the sea. Not only will it be easier and safer for the country to make money, but the state will also be able to extract a lot of taxes from the open sea trade.

Shi Kefa asked again, can he really get three million taxes.

Yang Chao said that it may not be possible in the first year, but one million should be available, two million in the second year, and three million in the third year and beyond.

Yang Chao also said that if Shi Kefa trusted. He was willing to make a military writ and entrust the matter of shipping to him. He pledged to pay three million a year to the imperial court.

Shi Kefa was indeed excited for a day, but after thinking about it for another night. He flinched suddenly.

It was not that no one had ever been on this kind of opening the sea to the emperor in the past, but these people were all despised by the civil and official clique, scolded as short-sighted, and were often squeezed out by the orthodox stream, and their reputation was ruined from then on.

And in the past, Shi Kefa, if he heard someone say that the sea ban was opened, he would be the first to stand up and oppose it, but Yang Chao said that there were three million taels of silver, which made him change his mind, but his own change, thinking about it afterwards, made Shi Kefa feel ashamed, this is simply a copper smell, he is a dignified military secretary, how can he give up his principles for such a small amount of money.

So he fell silent and never spoke of it again.

Yang Chao waited for Shi Kefa very strangely for several days, but found that there was no movement, knowing that this Lord Shi was also full of doubts about the ocean like other civil officials, and was unwilling to open the door to the sea.

In fact, Shi Kefa thought much more than Yang Chao, but Yang Chao would not have understood this kind of conservative culture that was born in the agrarian civilization and ruled China for thousands of years.

But Yang Chao has never given up easily, Shi Kefa can't do it, he will find someone else.

Obviously, Yang Wencong is much better than Shi Kefa.

Let Yang Wencong, the military department, give a secret letter to the emperor directly in the matter, first impeaching many high-ranking officials in Jiangnan for colluding with local wealthy families to trade with the sea, and finally suggesting that the emperor let the imperial court open the sea and send capable officials to manage the city's shipping department, which can make a profit every year, well, five million taels!

Anyway, Yang Wencong, the official, didn't need to be responsible for his words, so he blew it big, but Yang Wencong was timid and didn't dare to blow it up to 10 million taels as Yang Chao said, and only dared to write 5 million taels.

But this was enough to make the emperor tempted.

Emperor Chongzhen was really poor, one of the reasons why Tian Guifei was favored by him in the past was that Tian Guifei could understand him, knowing that the emperor was poor, Tian Guifei did not use gold and silver utensils, but used all kinds of porcelain, Chongzhen wore old clothes, and Tian Guifei personally washed his clothes.

The gold and silver utensils in Emperor Chongzhen's palace are often secretly sold out of the palace, and they dare not let people know, it is really embarrassing, in fact, if they are under the banner of royal supplies, the value of these gold and silver objects can at least increase hundreds of times, but for the sake of face, Chongzhen only dares to send ordinary gold and silver to the pawnshop.

Now that he has a fortune of three million taels for nothing, he doesn't have to burden the people, and he doesn't have to worry about provoking a popular uprising, how can Emperor Chongzhen not be tempted by this kind of good thing, but there is another point, like Shi Kefa, he is worried about his face damage.

But Chongzhen's sense of urgency was much stronger than Shi Kefake's, so after he received this secret letter, he immediately discussed it with his confidant eunuch.

"Cheng'en, what do you think?"

After Cao Huachun went home to mourn and guard his filial piety, Wang Chengen became a eunuch with a pen.

In history, this Wang Chengen finally committed suicide with Chongzhen, and from Chongzhen's point of view, this is a good minion.

"Your Majesty, slaves and maids often hear that those giants who reach the sea are rich and rival the country. But according to the slave maid, I am afraid that it is a boast to say that she can receive five million taels of silver a year. ”

After listening to Wang Chengen's words, Chongzhen's face, which had just been slightly ruddy because of excitement, turned pale again.

sighed secretly: "Hey, Yang Wencong, a courtier, is loyal, but it is understandable that he doesn't know about the sea." ”

Seeing the emperor's loss, Wang Chengen couldn't bear it, and regretted that he had swept the emperor's interest, the emperor easily saw a little way to dig up silver, and was denied by himself.

Wang Chengen thought of this, and hurriedly overturned what he had just said: "Slaves and maids are actually not familiar with sea trade, but they are also guessing out of thin air, and they can't be masters." Why didn't Your Majesty order Jiangnan Shi Benbing to report it secretly after a detailed investigation. ”

Emperor Chongzhen also felt that it was a bit fantastical to be able to collect five million taels of silver just by opening the sea, if the silver was really so easy to collect, what kind of three salaries did he prescribe, how did he not know how many honest officials had objected, how many people he had killed for this, why did he snatch money from the mouths of the people, and it was not for this country.

If he can really open a sea ban, he can get five million taels of silver every year, and Chongzhen dares to stop the three salaries.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen nodded: "The words of your slave are the words of Lao Cheng." ”

Chongzhen couldn't help but admire, after ascending the throne, it became more and more difficult to shoot, and Chongzhen became more and more distrustful of those civil officials who could only talk about it, and reused and trusted the eunuchs, and now he felt that he really dared to rest assured, there were really only these minions.

"Just send a secret edict to Shi Kefa according to what you say, and remember not to be known by outsiders, so as not to cause extraneous branches."

Chen Xinjia was ordered to negotiate peace with Huang Taiji, but was learned by the officials and wrote to impeach, and in the end the emperor could only kill Chen Xinjia to calm the anger of the public.

Wang Chengen immediately received the order, looking at the emperor who was getting thinner and thinner, he also hoped that Shi Kefa could bring back good news.

Just when Yang Chao failed to seduce Shi Kefa, he directly seduced the emperor through Yang Wencong's secret performance, and the emperor was also moved.

Outside the walls of the Ming Dynasty, in the Manchu Imperial Palace, which can be described as a miniature model compared to the Forbidden City, Huang Taiji is also talking to his henchmen with a sick description.

"Hilgen, it's not that I'm ruthless, it's really a last resort."

Huang Taiji's tone was also full of helplessness.

A middle-aged military general wearing armor but without weapons sighed: "But Turg has always been loyal, and this time the servant saw with his own eyes that he committed suicide before he was defeated, which is not an insult to the prestige of my Eight Banners." ”

At that time, after arranging for his relatives to rush to the camp outside Haizhou, Hilgen immediately entered the camp of the chief officer and wanted Laturg to go with him, but he saw Turg wipe his neck with a knife before the flood washed down the camp.

In Hilgen's opinion, Turg had washed away his shame with his blood.

Huang Taiji sighed: "I don't know. However, Turg's defeat this time really can't be hidden. After that, the oxen and deer in his hand were divided into three for Duoduo, and the others were given to each of the white flags, and Belle was divided into some. ”

After Abatai returned to the gate with his troops, he learned the news of Turg's defeat, and sure enough, one by one, the banner owners jumped out, because Turg's men lost more than one banner person, and the other flags were okay to say, just crying to the emperor, hoping to give them more coated minions, but Duoduo, who was inlaid with white flags, began to jump up and down, and in the name of Turg's defeat, he joined several high-ranking Beizi in the inlaid white flag to play together, demanding that Turg's family property be confiscated, and his cattle should be punished to compensate others and be slaved by his family. (To be continued...... ）。