Yingmin Temple.

The cabinet ministers were silent for a long time, and some people wanted to persuade the emperor to punish carefully, but they did not dare to touch the mold at this time.

Fei Chun's matter is actually not big, the title and the addition of officials were pushed to the end, and it was more of an example to show the emperor's attitude towards this matter. Ding Wei will come back and work for a few more years, and Fei Chun's official and loose rank will definitely recover. Only the title and cabinet ranking, how much can be restored depends on how long Fei Chun can live.

If Fei Chun lived seventy or eighty, Shoufu should not have to run, and the title would at least reach the earl. Maybe as soon as the new emperor is happy, he will give him the dukeship.

There is also a very small chance that when Zhao Han is in power, he will restore Fei Chun to the duke - this was the case with Li Banghua at the beginning.

As for the punishment of the Zheng family, it is more like taking the opportunity to rectify it.

The Zheng family has a family, a duke, a colt, several marquis and earls. Moreover, it has too much influence in Fujian, and it is also quite prestigious in the navy, so this time it is just time to pick up the grass and beat the rabbit to clean up.

The monarch and the minister were silent for a long time, and finally Zhu Shunshui said: "Deal with so many officials and merchants at once, and the major ports will be chaotic." If there are not enough officials to manage the city shipping department, and there are not enough maritime merchants to transport goods to the sea, there will be a backlog of countless goods in the port in a year and a half, and the factories and people in the interior will also be affected. ”

Zhao Han said: "The officials of the city who are not in the same stream will be promoted by one to three levels on the spot, depending on the specific position and situation. The vacant posts of the city and county departments will be transferred by the local government and county officials, and the operation of the city and city departments will be resumed as soon as possible. As for the maritime merchants involved in the case, those who commit the most heinous crimes should be killed and those who should be exiled should be exiled. The rest of the merchants who only bribed and evaded taxes did not go to check how much tax they had stolen, but were fined 150,000, 120,000, 80,000, 60,000, and 30,000 taels of silver for each ship, depending on the number and size of the ships of the firm. ”

During the Chongzhen period, the average price of goods transported from Fujian to Manila was 50,000 taels of silver, and the profit margin was about 100%. 350,000 small boats, 1120,000 large ships.

Now that the maritime trade is booming, the maritime merchants have been rolled up, and they can no longer smuggle, and the profit margin has shrunk to below 80%. Moreover, short-distance trade is less profitable, such as shipping goods from Shandong to North Korea, such as shipping goods from Shanghai to Guangdong.

Zhao Han's fine regulations, including the round-trip shipment of goods, are probably the total profits of those maritime merchants for one to two years, which must far exceed the tariffs they evaded.

If there happens to be a newly registered ship by a maritime merchant, then consider yourself unlucky, and the new ship will still be fined.

Such a fine does not comply with the provisions of the "Datong Commercial Law" and is completely a special matter. Who let the maritime businessmen involved in tax evasion have too many to make it impossible for the investigators to find out?

In order to save investigation time, as long as there is a mismatch in the list of goods, it can be identified as tax evasion, and there is no need to conduct an in-depth investigation, and continue to investigate the next one after the fine. Otherwise, if you investigate one business name after another, and compare a single transaction, you have to find out the Year of the Monkey.

Zhao Han continued: "There will inevitably be a review error, and the tax within 1,000 taels will not be matched, so it will not be pursued this time." ”

Wu Yingji said: "Your Majesty has imposed such a heavy fine, I am afraid that many maritime trade firms will go out of business due to poor turnover. Especially in the last two or three years, the businesses that have opened and operated on loans have bought ships and purchased goods, and they certainly do not have so much cash. ”

"You deserve it!"

Zhao Han said angrily: "From now on, select a port every year to conduct a detailed inventory of maritime merchants. Just like this investigation, I compared the accounts of the General Education Division with the trading company, and strictly investigated and checked one transaction after another. Every time you choose the target of the check, the first assistant, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Inspectorate Zuodu Yushi must be present, and the first assistant will catch the lot, and the Ministry of Finance will publicize the results, and the Ministry of Commerce will fill in the port name, and the Zuodu Yushi will supervise the whole process! When the lot is drawn, officials from other ministries can also come to observe. ”

No one said anything more.

Zhao Han didn't stop: "The merchants who were fined this time will have all their trading company licenses marked with red marks, and the next time they dare to evade tariffs, they will directly revoke their licenses." The merchants who have not been fined this time will be rewarded by the local municipal shipping department with a plaque of "integrity management", and each company can be exempted from tariffs on one ship next year! ”

After thinking about it, Zhao Han said again: "Several officials who were killed and killed were posthumously promoted to five levels in their original positions, and the Ministry of Rites planned to reward them, and all of them were given the title of Wen Zhong. Each of the children of these loyal ministers sent one of them to college. If you have no children, you can adopt them from your relatives. The escort is free of charge, and is given five taels of silver a month for living expenses until they finish college. ”

Qian Qianyi's father and son, when they got the news at home, they were both happy and heartbroken.

Qian Ruyi said with tears in her eyes: "The past few years have been in vain. ”

"It's good to survive, and it's okay to lose some silver." Qian Qianyi is very open-minded.

Qian Ruyi said: "Father, the trading company we partnered with the Xie family and the Xu family has only evaded tariffs for four years, and the total is more than 20,000 taels. But our trading company is getting bigger and bigger, and last year we added two new boats, one large and one small, and only that big ship will be fined 150,000 taels of silver! ”

Qian Ruyi wanted to cry without tears, and the money he earned had been used to open textile factories and buy a lot of inland merchant ships. Nowadays, the cash of the trading company is certainly not enough to pay the fine, and the three shareholders have to pay the money together. His family also did not have enough cash, so he either took out a loan to pay the fine or sold off his river fleet and shops.

Whether it is a loan or a sale, it must be ripped off, and it comes and goes, which means that he has been working for the court for the past four or five years.

Of course, the worst loss must be Xie Sanbin, because this product is the majority shareholder of absolute control.

"You can be content, Fei Ge Lao doesn't even have the title of Duke of the Kingdom, you and my father and son are just paying the fine," Qian Qianyi sighed, "Alas, Your Majesty today, it's really ...... The one who is reincarnated. ”

Qian Qianyi has a total of four sons, the first three are dead, and only the eldest in front of him remains.

As the youngest son, Qian Ruyi is not very old, only in his early forties this year. Because of doing business with Xie Sanbin, it has become more and more prosperous in recent years, and now it has been beaten back to the prototype of a few years ago, and it has to endure the pain of a few years of "hard life".

……

The sign of "Guogong Mansion" was removed, and the gate plaque was replaced with "Fei Zhai".

Mrs. Fei looked at her brand-new lintel and was speechless for a long time. She wanted the old piece and didn't like the new one.

Silently stepped through the door, came to the hall and sat down, and the family did not speak.

After a long time, Fei Chun said: "Xiao Qifeng's father and son, beheaded after the autumn." The rest of the family members, all of whom were in the household registration book, and those who had gone out of their households within 10 years, were all exiled to Tibet. Even the daughter he married out had to be exiled to Tibet. ”

Hearing this, Mrs. Fei was trembling, and she didn't dare to complain about the emperor anymore, so she only asked, "What kind of Danzhou does your third brother really want to exile?" ”

"The king's order cannot be violated." Fei Chun said.

"My miserable son!" Mrs. Fei immediately began to cry.

Fei Chun comforted: "The child has inquired, as long as he doesn't encounter wind and waves on the way, and he doesn't suffer any serious illness, he can live in Danzhou, where the climate is not bad." It is...... I won't be able to come back in this life. ”

Mrs. Fei wiped her tears and said, "Anyway, your title is gone, so you won't ask the emperor anymore?" ”

Fei Chun explained with a wry smile: "Mother, the child's current official body is only a scholar of Dongge University and a temporary secretary of the Ministry of Finance. The bachelor of the previous dynasty was the fifth grade, and the new dynasty was promoted to the second grade. The Ministry of Finance's Shangshu is also a second product. I am a second-grade official, but my mother's first-grade edict was confiscated. What does Your Majesty mean, doesn't Mother still understand? ”

"What does Your Majesty mean?" Mrs. Fei really didn't figure it out.

Fei Chun said in detail: "First, Your Majesty saves face for your mother; Second, His Majesty is hinting that the child should not be resentful, and that he will definitely be able to restore his official title in the future; Third, you are not allowed to intercede with anyone, otherwise the child's Dongge University Scholar and the mother's life will definitely not be guaranteed! ”

Mrs. Fei didn't shed tears anymore: "And so on? The emperor is playing dumb riddles with our family. ”

"This kind of thing, the cabinet officials can understand," Fei Chun let out a breath of turbidity, "Therefore, mother must be cautious in the future and stop indiscriminately identifying her righteous son and daughter." Whoever gives any gift, as long as it is not valuable, can also accept it, but you must remember to return the gift, and the gifts must be recorded. ”

Mrs. Fei sighed: "You are so tired that you have to keep an account even when you receive a gift, and you are not even as good as the former county master." ”

Fei Chun said: "The Founding Saint is alive, who can not be careful? His Majesty is already very kind, but Emperor Hongwu is killing people with a lot of heads. That Xiao Qifeng also ate the bear's heart and leopard gall, and the city bosses in Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Ningbo have been sending him money all these years, and they have sent more than 600,000 taels. ”

"More than 600,000 taels?" Mrs. Fei was dumbfounded.

Fei Chun said again: "This time, His Majesty sent someone to investigate the case, and Lang Zhong, the customs director of the Ministry of Finance, was also his confidant, and he quietly went to inform the officials of various ports, asking those corrupt officials to destroy the evidence quickly, and even said that those who should be killed should be killed immediately." Not only are they corrupt, but they are also guilty of deception! ”

Bullying the monarch or something, Mrs. Fei didn't care too much, her focus was elsewhere, and she gritted her teeth and was angry: "This Xiao Qifeng is greedy for more than 600,000 taels, and he is still pretending to be a clean official in front of me." This Liu also said that he was poor all the time, and he dressed more shabby than the wives of the fifth or sixth grade officials. It's not a good thing for two people to work together to deceive me. Kill, kill! ”

Xiao Qifeng embezzled more than 600,000 taels, not only the commission of the merchant for tax evasion, but also the dry shares of some money banks and firms.

It was really impossible to hold back, and the officials and maritime merchants of the three major ports continued to take the initiative to send silver.

After muttering for a while, Mrs. Fei asked again, "Where is Danzhou?" ”

Fei Chun had to fetch a map of the world, which was a three-year-old version that did not indicate the Hawaiian Islands.

But he was with the emperor and remembered the specific location and proportions. It is about the latitude between Taiwan and Luzon, and it goes east to the Americas, two-thirds of the way to the distance.

After measuring it with a ruler, Fei Chun pointed to the Pacific Ocean: "This is it." ”

"It's all the sea on all sides, how can you live here?" Mrs. Fei looked stupid.

Fei Chun said: "Every year, there are caravans to transport supplies to the past, except that they can't enjoy it, there should be no shortage of things. I heard that there are enough bananas and coconuts there, and my mother doesn't have to worry about the third brother not being able to eat fruit. ”

(End of chapter)