"You are Yan Song?" Zhu Houwei blurted out a question, the man in front of him deserves the words Fengshen and handsome.

A generation of traitors who have been famous for thousands of years and have been infamous for thousands of years, I didn't expect to have such a good skin......

Yan Song was slightly stunned, the Son of Heaven asked a simple question, and the amount of information revealed was too great.

This sentence shows that the Son of Heaven did not know him Yan Song before, and now that he is summoned, it is obvious that someone has mentioned him in front of the Son of Heaven, who will it be?

No matter who it is, it's his benefactor Yan Song!

Yan Song decided that he must inquire carefully, prepare a heavy gift, and thank him well.

"The minister is Yan Song, Jiangxi is pleasant, and the second in the second class of Jinshi in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi."

"Yes, let's be even." Zhu Houwei nodded, the second in the second grade, so even if he ranked fifth in the palace examination, it is not surprising that he can enter Hanlin.

Yan Song got up, stood respectfully, and waited for the Son of Heaven to ask, before that, he couldn't say a word, otherwise it would be a bad gift for the monarch and the minister.

"Do you know why I summoned you?"

Yan Song was speechless......

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister has the courage to guess, Your Majesty has something for the minister to do?"

This reply is not wrong whether there is something or not, if there is something wrong, even if he guesses correctly, if not, it doesn't matter, it can only show that the Son of Heaven is sinking like the sea and unfathomable.

Zhu Houwei smiled and said, "Do you know Xia Yan?"

Yan Song suddenly panicked, why did he mention Xia Yan, how could it be Xia Yan!

His first thought was that Xia Yan had cheated in the imperial examination, and he and Xia Yan were fellow villagers and had contact with him a few times before the exam, but Yan Song didn't care, because he was not qualified to be the same examiner, so why was it strange for him to visit in the name of his fellow villagers?

No, the exam list has been released, Xia Yan is already in high school, it is impossible for a fraud case to break out, otherwise Xia Yan will not be on the list at all.

"Back to Your Majesty, Xia Yan is a native of Guixi, Jiangxi, and his ministers are half of the same countrymen, and he has come to visit his ministers in Beijing this time." Yan Song takes retreat as advance, there are some things that can't be hidden, and can't be hidden, rather than this, it's better to be a little single and figure things out first.

Yan Song is at least certain of one thing, that is, it is impossible for Xia Yan to cheat, if he cheats, it is absolutely impossible for him to be summoned, if he is implicated or suspected, then it should be Jinyiwei who comes to the door!

"I have seen the question of Kegongshi today, and Xia Yan's question is doing well."

Yan Song breathed a sigh of relief, it was impossible for the Son of Heaven to explain to him why Xia Yan summoned him because of Xia Yan, but he also said a little.

I still remember that when I was eating wine on the first floor, he judged that there was a chance that Ke Ce would take the business tax test nine times out of ten, and it turned out that his judgment was not wrong at all.

The main test of this policy is the significance of commercial tax to the Ming Dynasty's finances!

Bet right!

It can't even be regarded as a gamble, it's like the Son of Heaven puts the question in front of the world's lifters, let them take the test, and see if there can be an answer that satisfies the Son of Heaven!

As for the Four Books and Five Classics, the Son of Heaven really didn't care, all he cared about was asking questions.

If you have won the heart of the Son of Heaven, then it is Jane in the heart of the emperor!

At this moment, Yan Song actually began to envy Xia Yan, Jane is in the emperor's heart, but who doesn't want Jane to be in the emperor's heart?

It is conceivable that Xia Yan, who has been noticed by the Son of Heaven, as long as he does not make a mistake during the palace examination, he is famous and nailable!

"The minister congratulates Daming, congratulates His Majesty, and congratulates fellow townsman Xia Yan." Yan Song bowed and saluted.

"Hmm." Zhu Houwei nodded and said, "I summoned you to give the Hanlin officials a chance, and you were lucky, I casually crossed your name."

Yes...... Yan Song was dumbfounded, what is this, hit the luck?

"There are dense mineral deposits in Daming, but Daming is still short of gold, silver, and copper, do you know the crux of the problem?"

Yan Song thought for a moment and responded: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister thinks that it has something to do with the fact that the mineral deposits were indiscriminately mined by local private individuals, and the eunuchs in various places engaged in favoritism and malpractice."

"That's good, but it's not bold enough." Zhu Houwei said solemnly: "Most of the mineral deposits and mines in various places are controlled by the gentry and wealthy families, and the gentry and wealthy families are closely related to the officials of the world, they control the mining of the mines, so that the mineral deposits that nominally belong to the Ming Dynasty can only collect a meager mining tax......"

Yan Song understood, completely understood!

The Son of Heaven wants a mining tax, the same as the salt tax!

However, there is a big difference between the salt tax and the mining tax, and the biggest difference is that the salt industry is almost monopolized by the big salt merchants in collusion with the government.

Therefore, the Son of Heaven used the power of thunder, only needed to arrest local officials on charges of corruption and perverting the law, and then wipe out the big salt merchants who had the wealth but had no power to fight back, then the next reform of the salt tax would not be too constrained at all.

To put it simply, the reform of the salt tax is aimed at the big salt merchants and a small group of officials who have made a lot of profits from salt, but what about the mines?

As the Son of Heaven said, the Ming Dynasty is densely stocked, which shows that there are a lot of mineral deposits, but they are also too distributed, and these mineral deposits distributed in the world, the ore produced and the minerals extracted should have belonged to the imperial court, but how much did the imperial court fall in the end?

Almost negligible!

The salt tax can still bring 3 million taels of salt tax to the household every year, but what about the mine?

All these mineral deposits are in the hands of the big families, some of whom are relatives of courtiers, some are hundred-year-old families, and some are princes.

These wealthy families have controlled the mineral income for generations, how could they be willing to kick the silver in their pockets and hand it over to Daming?

Originally, there were mine supervisors in the mines, but because the opposition was too loud, the imperial court withdrew the faction, and now the mine supervisors in various places have long existed in name only, and only the town guards and eunuchs of the major provinces can ask questions.

However, it is impossible for the eunuchs to inquire about the mineral deposits, they are up and down, and they are more likely to make money in the local area than anyone else, and they are even more complicit with the wealthy family, where will they care about anything else.

What Yan Song didn't know was that until the Wanli period of the later generations, because the finances of the imperial court could not support it, and even the silver for the construction of the imperial tomb could not be taken out, the Wanli Emperor resisted the pressure of the civil official group and sent mine supervisors to mines in various places.

These mine supervisors did harvest a lot of wealth for the royal family, but these mine supervisors relied on local power, expropriated tyranny, and filled their own pockets, which can be described as doing all kinds of evil, so that the people's resentment boiled, and finally made the Wanli Emperor bear the name of a greedy and unscrupulous monarch.

Zhu Houwei knows this period of history very well, and he also knows the disadvantages of setting up a mine supervisor, so he wants to rectify the mining industry and will not reuse eunuchs.

gave Yan Song a chance because he believed in the ethics of Confucian scholars, but if Yan Song was corrupt and corrupted, then he could also use Yan Song's head to deter the officialdom of the world without any burden!

Now it's up to Yan Song to see if he has the courage to take this hot potato.

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