The current situation of the Henan Political Division is very complicated, and it is not only as simple as the rebellion of the red turban thieves.

According to intelligence, successive years of drought and colder weather have caused crops to fail year after year, and Henan has been displaced in all directions, and the people's grievances are boiling.

At the end of the battle of Liaodong, in order to reduce the burden of the people, Zhu Youzhen issued an edict to stop the levy of Liaoyu, in his opinion, without Liaoyu, the burden of the people will be weakened a lot, and life will be better. However, according to the information sent back by the Jinyi guards, the lives of the people in various provinces, including Henan, are not much better. The levy has stopped, but the local government's exorbitant taxes are still there, even heavier than before.

The officials changed their methods to make money, the officials were even more like wolves and tigers, the gentry colluded with the government, and took advantage of the disaster year to lend money and maliciously annex the land, and the people were really miserable.

That's why there were red turban thieves, and tens of thousands of people gathered in a short period of time.

In short, the current Henan is like a powder keg, and a spark will explode when it falls in!

Such a complicated situation is beyond Zhang Shize's ability, and he must send another big man to Henan. Quelling civil unrest is only one aspect, and what is more important is to put down civil unrest and carry out reforms at the same time.

"Your Majesty, the minister is willing to go to Henan!" Just when Hong Chengchou and Yuan Keli were still thinking, Wen Tiren stood up and took the initiative to ask Ying.

The reason why Wen Tiren took the initiative to stand up was because he understood that he had been staying in the imperial court, but he really lacked local experience, and he had never supervised one side. The Ming Dynasty will set up a prime minister in the future, and the emperor was still saying yesterday that the prime minister must start in the prefecture and county. In other words, if you haven't held a local position, you will not be competitive! Therefore, Wen Tiren is determined to make up for this shortcoming, so that he can add one point when he competes with Hong Chengchou for prime minister in the future.

"Your Majesty, in my opinion, it is still time for Your Majesty to take charge of the expedition in person, and deal with the affairs of Henan first." Yuan Keli said, "Elder Wen Ge, I'm not targeting you, but I think the Central Plains is too important. If the civil unrest in Henan cannot be quelled for a long time, or if the red scarf thief is allowed to wander to other places, there will inevitably be endless disasters. For the sake of today's plan, we should suppress the rebellion of the red turban thieves by thunderous means, and then take advantage of the situation to implement a new system in Henan. Wait until things are done in Henan, and then go south to worship your ancestors. ”

Wen Tiren shook his hand, indicating that he didn't care. Hong Chengchou nodded, but somewhat agreed with Yuan Keli's suggestion. It is no longer appropriate to continue to the south after such a big civil unrest has occurred in Henan, and we should follow the example of Shandong, first put down the civil unrest in Henan, and then talk about it after the rear is stabilized.

Zhu Youzhen pondered for a while, and said slowly: "The matter of the southern tour cannot be changed, and Henan does not need me to go in person, so Wen Ge Lao will be the governor of Henan, and he will have full authority to handle the military and political affairs of Henan." ”

Zhu Youzhen was unwilling to delay too much time for some of the rebellious peasants. Yuan Keli was concerned about it, and Zhu Youzhen was very clear, the red scarf thief seemed to be powerful, but in fact, he didn't have much combat effectiveness. Don't look at the tens of thousands, tens of thousands, tens of thousands of rebels, if you want to defeat them, it won't be too difficult!

It is easy to quell civil unrest, but it is more troublesome to deal with the aftermath. There are too many cumbersome things to do to help the displaced people, to let the defeated rebels return to their homes, to confiscate the illegal gentry in all the fields, and to carry out the reform of the clan and feudal system.

In terms of doing these things, Zhu Youzhen thinks that he is not as good as civil officials like Wen Tiren and Hong Chengchou, so it makes no big difference whether he goes to Henan or not.

The reform of the clan and the feudal system, the pacification of the people, the transformation of the government, and the establishment of villages and towns have already had certain rules for various matters, and only a strong minister is needed to promote them, and there is no need for Zhu Youzhen to do it himself.

Wen Tiren served as the governor of Henan, responsible for the reform of the clan and the land system, Juntian and many other matters, and Zhang Shize could be freed up to lead troops to quell the civil unrest. Of course, Wen Tiren can't bring many troops, the army has to stay by his side, Zhang Shize has 5,000 men and horses in his hands, and it will take some time to quell the civil unrest, which is also what Hong Chengchou and Yuan Keli are worried about. After all, the scale of the red turban thieves has reached hundreds of thousands.

But Zhu Youzhen has his own considerations, and he doesn't want to delay too much.

In Shandong, it was delayed for half a year, and if you go to Henan, you won't have more than half a year. went south to worship his ancestors, and he didn't cross the Yangtze River for a year, and it was a joke to say it.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen is not afraid of what others think, after all, he is just worshipping his ancestors in the name.

What Zhu Youzhen was really worried about was the reaction of the Jiangnan gentry.

If you kill the gentry and officials in Shandong, and take advantage of the chaos in Henan, then all the gentry in the world will know their true intentions. How can they remain indifferent when their lives are under serious threat?

Zhu Youzhen can imagine how much chaos will happen in Jiangnan if he stays in Henan for more than half a year. The rebellious peasant army in Jiangxi may really be able to reach the city of Nanjing, and maybe the southeastern gentry will really support the clan to ascend the throne and try to rule the river with themselves, and everything is really possible.

"The Praetorian Guards drawn from Liaodong on the three sides will only need two or three months to move south, and then there will be enough troops to quell the chaos, and there will be the old governor of Wenge Henan, I can rest assured." Zhu Youzhen said, "As for me, I want to continue my southern tour, and I will go to Yangzhou first!" ”

Seeing that Zhu Youzhen had made up his mind, Yuan Keli sighed and stopped persuading.

"Will Yuan Qing return to his hometown in Henan with Wen Ge, or will he stay by my side?" Zhu Youzhen asked.

Yuan Keli hesitated, the purpose of his coming was to persuade Zhu Youzhen not to kill the gentry, and now Zhu Youzhen has promised to only move the gentry without floating wealth, and the gentry can still be officials in the future. After achieving the goal, he can already return to his hometown, not to mention that his hometown in Suizhou is still threatened by red turban thieves.

However, Yuan Keli was a little hesitant, through the conversation with Zhu Youzhen, he felt that Zhu Youzhen's personality was really a little impatient, and things were too urgent, if he stayed by Zhu Youzhen's side, he could also advise. Although various system reform methods are proposed, but they are very crude, if they want to be implemented, they must be improved, and now Wen Tiren is going to Henan to be the governor, and Hong Chengchou is shouldering the task of managing the southern tour, and there is really a shortage of people around the emperor. But I've already made a ......

"I look at Aiqing's body and spirit, so it's better to stay by my side. Isn't I going to set up a tax department outside the six ministries, Aiqing can be the secretary of the tax department, and I will first clarify the tax reform for me. Zhu Youzhen said.

"The old minister's order!" Yuan Keli no longer hesitated, and directly agreed. The tax reform is very important, it is related to the country, the current tax system of the Ming Dynasty is very bad, it has reached the time when it is not changed, and it is still possible to take on this important task when he is old, Yuan Keli is very excited.

"I'm afraid that the old minister is only shallow in his studies and has missed His Majesty's major affairs."

"Aiqing just do it, first formulate the rules of the system, if there is anything wrong, let's discuss it." Zhu Youzhen said.

......

Huai'an Mansion is where the Yamen of the Governor of Caoyun is located, but the current Governor of Caoyun is Zhao Shujiao, of course, Zhao Shujiao's main position is the director of the Taxation Department. Now that the Ministry of Taxation is to be established, there is no need for the Department of Taxation to stay, and it is natural that it will be subsumed into the Ministry of Taxation. So Zhu Youzhen called Zhao Shujiao and asked him to step down from the post of director of the tax department, and in the future, he would be his governor of Caoyun and be in charge of canal transportation.

Zhao Shujiao is very happy, he is just a martial artist, he is good at fighting and killing, and it is really reluctant to manage the tax department, in fact, the affairs of the tax department are also done by Tan Xingxian and others.

"Pingliaohou prepare, take the army with me to go south to Yangzhou." Zhu Youzhen commanded.

After all, Wen Tiren couldn't go to office empty-handed, Zhu Youzhen gave him a battalion of 3,000 Praetorian Guards and horses, and now the remaining army around him is only 7,000 people, but fortunately, there are still four or five thousand Cao soldiers in the hands of Zhao Shujiao, of which more than 1,000 are veterans of Liaodong brought by Zhao Shujiao before, and their combat effectiveness is not bad.

"Okay." Zhao Shujiao happily agreed.

"Your Majesty, the taxes collected by the Taxation Department are all collected into the Inner Treasury, and if they go to the Ministry of Taxation, what should be done with the taxes collected by the various tax divisions of the Canal in the future?" Yuan Keli quickly entered the role and asked about the situation of the tax department.

At present, the tax department has branches in Beijing, Tongzhou, Linqing, Huai'an, Yangzhou and Suzhou, and other first-line canal cities, in addition to collecting commercial taxes on various shops in Beijing, they also set up customs on the canals to levy commercial taxes on ships, and last year the tax silver collected has exceeded one million, and all the tax silver collected has gone into the emperor's inner treasury.

After the establishment of the Ministry of Taxation, it was to manage all commercial taxes in the country. As for the land tax, it is still managed by the Ministry of Households. But even if it is a commercial tax, it is collected nationwide, and the annual tax and silver collected is a huge amount. For example, salt tax, such as customs tax, these taxes are managed by the Ministry of Taxation. The provinces in the south of the Yangtze River are prosperous in commerce and trade, and they could not collect commercial tax in the past, and if all commercial taxes are levied, the commercial tax income will definitely exceed the field tax!

The purpose of Yuan Keli's question was not to determine the whereabouts of the tax money from the several customs on the canal, but to confirm whether the tax money of the Ministry of Taxation was returned to the state treasury or paid into the royal treasury. If it goes into the treasury, it will be used for the expenses of the imperial court, and if it enters the inner treasury, it will become the private money of the royal family. The two are still not the same. Of course, many times, there is not much difference between silver entering the inner treasury and the treasury, such as the Wanli Emperor, who always likes to move the silver from the treasury to his inner treasury. For example, Zhu Youzhen has to take out a lot of silver from the inner treasury every year for court expenses.

Zhu Youzhen naturally understood what Yuan Keli meant, pondered for a while, and said slowly: "In the future, all taxes and silver received by the Ministry of Taxation will be included in the national treasury, including salt tax, mining tax, mountain tax, and customs tax. ”

"But what about the court expenses? Where does the money come from? Yuan Keli asked.

In the entire palace, the emperor's concubines, princesses, and princesses, plus the eunuchs and palace maids, there are thousands of people and tens of thousands of people, and the annual expenses are very large, at least one million taels of silver.

"I opened a royal trading house in Zhangjiakou and engaged in trade with the Mongols. It has built a textile workshop in Tianjin, purchased cotton from Shandong, used water conservancy textile equipment to spin into cloth, and opened a royal maritime trading firm in Fujian to engage in ocean trade. Originally, I wanted to nationalize these workshops and firms in the future, but now that I think about it, these are still subordinate to the royal family, and the silver earned will be used for court expenses. Zhu Youzhen said.

"How can these be, or a certain percentage of silver taels will be allocated from the commercial tax for royal expenses." Yuan Keli suggested.

Before Zhu Youzhen could speak, Hong Chengchou smiled on the side.

Zhu Youzhen also smiled: "Enough, enough." ”

Last year, the Royal Maritime Trade Bank handed over 3 million taels to the Inner Treasury, and the Royal Merchant Bank in Zhangjiakou also handed over more than 300,000 taels of silver, while the textile workshops in Tianjin made relatively small profits, less than 100,000 yuan. Oh, and there was also a royal newspaper that also handed over a profit of five thousand taels of silver.

Among these businesses, the Royal Maritime Trading House was the most profitable, and the silver earned by the Maritime Trading House alone was enough to supply the expenses of the Imperial Palace. In fact, in the past few years, Zhu Youzhen has not taken a single tael of silver from the treasury at all, on the contrary, he has to take out a lot of silver from the inner treasury every year to make up for the deficit in the treasury. And most of the Praetorian Guard's money also came from the inner treasury.

After the tax reform and the implementation of the whole country, the income of commercial taxes will be greatly increased, and the army's salary will naturally not be paid by Zhu Youzhen in the future, and the income of the Royal Maritime Trade Company will be enough for the palace to spend at that time.

Yuan Keli didn't know how profitable the Royal Maritime Trade Company was, and he couldn't help but take a breath after knowing it.

"I didn't expect Haimao to be so profitable, and the minister finally understood why the Jiangnan gentry were so rich!" Yuan Keli sighed.

"What's this, my maritime trade firm only takes one route from the Wa Kingdom, and the Nanyang route has not been opened up much, mainly because the relationship with the red-haired ghost is not very good. Even the Japanese route only accounted for half of the trade volume from Fujian to the Japanese country, so there was such a big benefit.

But fortunately, now most of the coastal maritime merchants are attached, and if Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong maritime merchants go to sea in the future, they must be allowed by the Royal Maritime Trade Firm, and must pay silver to purchase a license, and the income of the Royal Maritime Trade Firm will be doubled in the future. Zhu Youzhen said proudly.

"In this case, wouldn't the Royal Maritime Trading Company be similar to the Municipal Shipping Division, which is equivalent to levying a commercial tax on all maritime merchants. But in that case, the tax system will be chaotic, and Your Majesty, the minister suggested that the right to tax the maritime merchants be handed over to the Ministry of Taxation. Yuan Keli suggested.

Zhu Youzhen's eyes widened, what did he think? The right to collect taxes from the Royal Maritime Trade Company was given to the Ministry of Commerce, what do I eat and drink?

"It's over, it's over, Lord Yuan. His Majesty has to allocate a lot of silver from the Inner Treasury to the imperial court every year, and the Royal Maritime Trade Company was also established by His Majesty, and has nothing to do with the imperial court. Hong Chengchou said.

Yuan Keli astringent,

"In this case, wouldn't the Royal Maritime Trading Company be similar to the Municipal Shipping Division, which is equivalent to levying a commercial tax on all maritime merchants. But in that case, the tax system will be chaotic, and Your Majesty, the minister suggested that the right to tax the maritime merchants be handed over to the Ministry of Taxation. Yuan Keli suggested.

Zhu Youzhen's eyes widened, what did he think? The right to collect taxes from the Royal Maritime Trade Company was given to the Ministry of Commerce, what do I eat and drink?

"It's over, it's over, Lord Yuan. His Majesty has to allocate a lot of silver from the Inner Treasury to the imperial court every year, and the Royal Maritime Trade Company was also established by His Majesty, and has nothing to do with the imperial court. Hong Chengchou said.