Zhou Yanru handed over the fold in his hand to Wang Chengen, and after Wang Chengen handed it over, he slowly spoke: "The minister has received the folds from the following states and counties in the past few days, among which there are many impeachments of tax supervisors and yamen in various places. ”

"After verification, the ministers confirmed that the contents of these memoranda are basically correct, and there is corruption in the tax supervisors and yamen in various places, and even some tax supervisors and eunuchs have raised taxes without permission and set up cards on the road, causing the people to complain and the people are very resentful."

"Therefore, I would like to ask Your Majesty to abolish the Tax Supervision Bureau, abolish the duties of tax supervisors and eunuchs, and hope that Your Majesty will grant permission."

Zhou Yanru's words were like a thunderbolt, instantly suppressing all the ministers in the palace.

The ministers who were originally ready to speak up against Dongchang's trial of Li Guozhen couldn't bother to oppose it at this time, and they all cast surprised glances at Zhou Yanru.

The tax supervision originally began in the Wanli period, but was abolished after not many years because of too much public resentment.

After Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, after fighting the eunuchs, he suddenly found that none of the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military forces could be relied on, so he began to reuse eunuchs again.

This reuse not only refers to Dongchang, but also refers to the fact that he sent eunuchs to the army of various feudal towns, and has reactivated the tax supervisor and let the tax supervisor and eunuch collect taxes for him.

It's just a pity that these eunuchs entrusted by him with important tasks are basically not very reliable.

The overseers sent to the army, because they were not familiar with military affairs and had to command indiscriminately, killed many generals over the years, so under the strong advice of the ministers of the DPRK and China, these superintendents were basically withdrawn.

But tax supervision is different, as the saying goes, the more you lack something, the more you want something.

Since ascending the throne, there has not been a day when Chongzhen has not been short of money, and his thirst for money is simply extremely longing.

So when he felt that the officials were unreliable, the only thing he could trust was the tax supervisors he sent out.

Although these tax inspectors didn't collect too much tax for him, no matter how little it was, it would be extra.

After all, he didn't experience the scene of being charged harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes like Lao Zhu, and he didn't know that the people below would directly force hundreds of people to death in order to collect a little more tax.

In Chongzhen's opinion, those eunuchs who are low-eyed and pleasing to their eyes in front of them on weekdays, no matter how evil they are.

Therefore, even though he knew that the tax supervisors below were a little out of line, he still didn't pay attention to them, and still trusted those tax supervisors.

Over the years, many officials in the court have wanted to abolish the tax supervision system, but Chongzhen has always pretended not to hear it, and even he thinks that those who want to abolish the tax supervision are trying to evade taxes and evade taxes, and they are traitors to the country, and they can even suppress the promotion of those officials.

Over time, although some people dare to mention the abolition of tax supervision, it is basically mentioned in passing, and there is no real intention to discuss it at all.

But now, when the emperor was angry, Zhou Yanru actually raised this question in the court, what did he want to do? Shousuke doesn't want to do it?

The ministers in the court looked at Zhou Yanru's eyes, and they all had a hint of admiration at this time.

After being an official in the same dynasty for so many years, this is the first time they have discovered that Zhou Yanru is so brave!

And Wu Sheng and several of his ministers, although they had heard Zhou Yanru talk about this yesterday, they were all skeptical about it.

At this time, seeing Zhou Yanru directly talking about this, they immediately set their eyes on Lao Zhu, wanting to see how Lao Zhu reacted.

The scene of Lao Zhu's anger in the imagination of the ministers did not appear, and after Lao Zhu took Zhou Yanru's recital and flipped through a few pages, he knew that what was written on the recital was true.

The Ming Dynasty stipulates that the gentry from all over the country can also play and fold, but whether it can be handed over to the emperor depends on whether the relationship behind you is hard or not.

The twists and turns that Zhou Yanru found were all impeached by the gentry from all over the country, but if it weren't for Lao Zhu's desire to abolish the tax supervisors, even if these twists and turns were rotten, they would not have appeared in front of Lao Zhu.

"In the fish and meat town, his crime should be punished."

Lao Zhu casually asked Wang Chengen to take these folds to Fan Jingwen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and then asked: "Fan Jingwen, you are the secretary of the Criminal Department, how do you say you should deal with this kind of thing?" ”

Fan Jingwen is honest and honest, not favoritism, after Chongzhen's death, he also threw himself into the well and martyred the country, in the eyes of Lao Zhu, this is a usable talent.

Fan Jingwen never thought that Lao Zhu would let his criminal department deal with these tax supervisors, you must know that these officials of the inner court, even if they make any mistakes, they will be dealt with by the inner court, and they will never let the criminal department interfere.

Especially now that Lao Zhu is obviously going to reuse the East Factory, how can he let the Criminal Department deal with these tax supervisors?

"Is this a temptation on the part of Your Majesty? Or does His Majesty not actually plan to reuse eunuchs? ”

A trace of doubt flashed in Fan Jingwen's heart, but it didn't matter to him.

As the secretary of the criminal department, he is in charge of the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and whoever violates the law will be arrested by the criminal department, and nothing else is under his control.

So he didn't care if this was Lao Zhu's temptation, and said directly: "Back to Your Majesty, if the things recorded on the fold are true, they should be cut according to the law!" ”

Fan Jingwen spoke without any consideration for human feelings, let alone whether he would anger Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun, who was in charge of the East Factory, and left no room for speech.

"In that case, then these people will be handed over to your criminal department for investigation."

After Lao Zhu finished speaking, he then spoke: "As for the tax supervisor being so erosive, let's withdraw it." ”

"Elder Zhou Ge, wait for your cabinet to make a vote, let the celebrant approve this matter, and then call back those tax supervisors."

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

The ministers couldn't believe that this matter went smoothly, and they could not have imagined that the matter of the tax supervisor would be solved so simply.

As for the matter of wanting to oppose Dongchang being in charge of Li Guozhen just now, no one mentioned it anymore at this time.

After all, the essence of politics is compromise, the emperor has already taken a step back, and you are still shameless and aggressive, you really have no temper when the emperor is angry.

It's really forcing the emperor to be anxious, and it's a trivial matter to turn around and kill a few people, in case the tax supervisor doesn't withdraw, who will be counted.

What's more, the reason why the vast majority of ministers want to oppose it is completely because they are worried about the emergence of another eunuch party.

Now that His Majesty has made it clear that he has no intention of cultivating eunuchs, and even the tax supervisors have been abolished, who still has the kung fu to control Li Guozhen's life and death.

Oh, no, some people want to take care of them, compared to Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, but there are only a small number of them, and the weight is not enough, even if they want to oppose it, they are powerless, so they can only acquiesce in this matter.

Since the Battle of Songjin and Li Zicheng's siege of Kaifeng, it has been a long time since such a big thing has happened in the court.

Just when the ministers silently digested today's events, thinking that nothing big would happen, Zhou Yanru silently took out a fold from his sleeve.

"Your Majesty, the minister still has something to play."

Hearing Zhou Yanru's words, all the ministers' hearts jumped, and they subconsciously looked at Zhou Yanru.

What does this person want to do?

Even the people of Zhou Yanru's party couldn't figure out what Zhou Yanru wanted to do at this time, and they always felt that Zhou Yanru was a little wrong today.

Especially Li Banghua, who knows Zhou Yanru very well, he looked at the cabinet chief assistant and always felt that Zhou Yanru's state was a little wrong.

It's like ...... An old fox who only looked at the natural predator put away all his minions in fear, trying to show his harmless side.

It's just that Li Banghua just shook his head in an instant and threw this thought out of his mind.

After all, this is the head of the cabinet, the absolute power center of the Ming Dynasty, who can make him so afraid, even Chongzhen.

Zhou Yanru didn't care what these ministers were thinking, and said directly: "I have been plagued by disasters in the Ming Dynasty, and the people have long been overwhelmed. ”

"Therefore, I hope that Your Majesty will grant you the permission to reduce taxes, cancel the salaries and salaries, and reduce taxes in the affected areas."

As soon as Zhou Yanru's words came out, it was like a depth charge, and the repercussions caused were even more intense than Zhou Yanru's statement just now that he would abolish the tax superintendent.

The ministers instantly began to talk in a low voice, and they all felt that Zhou Yanru was crazy today.

Just now I proposed to abolish the tax supervision, but now I still want to cancel the Liao salary and the training salary, what kind of wind is this!

What kind of virtue has the Ming Dynasty become poor, the military salary can't be paid, the disaster relief can't be done, and the hatred can't be regarded as two cents, you dare to say that the Liao salary and training salary are canceled, I really want the Ming Dynasty to die immediately!

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

Ni Yuanlu, the head of the household who was personally pulled up by Lao Zhu, couldn't help frowning after hearing Zhou Yanru's advice.

To be honest, he also feels that the current taxes are too heavy, and the people are a little overwhelmed, but he, the head of the household, has no way to solve it.

It seems that it is a move to benefit the people, but now that the war is tightening, money is needed everywhere, and if the tax is reduced and the money cannot be collected, then this battle will not be fought at all.

Therefore, Ni Yuanlu stood up very helplessly and said softly: "Your Majesty, the Liao salary and training salary cannot be canceled. ”

"I have no money in the Ming treasury, and a few days ago, the Ministry of War transferred 500,000 military salaries on the grounds that Inspector Sun had formed a new army."

"And a few days ago, at the behest of Your Majesty, the Ministry of Industry advanced a million taels of silver, saying that it would build ordnance."

"There are also military salaries in the provinces, which have been in arrears for a long time, and if they are in arrears for a long time, the provinces may have trouble, so this money must also be paid."

"In addition, there are famines in various places, and we are also waiting for the Ministry of Household Funding."

When Ni Yuanlu said this, he said in a somewhat bitter tone: "Your Majesty, I can't hide it, the next tax has not yet entered the treasury, and it is gone." ”

"Even, these taxes are still far from enough, if the Liao salary and training salary are cancelled, the minister really doesn't know where to get money."

When Ni Yuanlu said these words, his tone was full of powerlessness.

Can he not know that the people are suffering? Could he not know that the taxes are heavy? But what could he do?

Now in this situation, either the people are suffering, the Ming Dynasty is still breathing, or the Ming Dynasty is dead, and after the Ming Dynasty falls, the people can only be more bitter.

Therefore, Ni Yuanlu knew that the burden on the people was already very heavy, but he still had to speak up to prevent the cancellation of the Liao salary and the training salary.

"The difficulties of the court should be solved by the court, if everything is pushed on the heads of the people and the people are burdened, then what use do we officials have."

Zhou Yanru directly changed what Lao Zhu told him that day, and then retold it, and for a while it looked quite a bit of a glorious and majestic feeling.

And he didn't just raise the problem and not solve it, when he said these words, he didn't wait for Ni Yuanlu to open his mouth to refute, and said directly: "This official doesn't know how to collect taxes, and there is no good way to fill the treasury." ”

But the old man's family is quite well-off, and he has accumulated a lot of money over the years, so the old man is willing to donate all his net worth...... One...... One million and three thousand taels of silver to help me get through this difficult time. ”

No one knows that Zhou Yanru, who seems to be selfless, was bleeding in his heart when he said these words.

Originally, when Lao Zhu said that he should donate the money he had been greedy for all these years, although he was afraid, he did not donate all the money.

What he thought in his heart was that no one knew how much he was greedy, and how could he get through this difficult time if he donated one-tenth or twelve out of the time, or if he was really bleeding once and donating half of his family property.

But he never expected that after he returned from the palace, he found that his guest Dong Tingxian and his family had been taken away by Jinyiwei.

Over the years, most of the things he has done to recruit power and accept bribes have not come forward by himself, but by letting the curtain guest Dong Tingxian come forward to do it, so Dong Tingxian knows better than anyone about the dirty things he has done.

Now that Dong Tingxian has been arrested and put in prison, even his family has been taken away, even if Dong Tingxian can withstand the torture of the prison, he will not keep it a secret for his family.

Therefore, Zhou Yanru could only break his wrist and donate all the money he had collected over the years, hoping that Lao Zhu could keep his promise and spare his life.

At this time, the ministers were shocked, and they were more and more sure that Zhou Yanru's brain was broken.

The brain is not bad, you can donate more than one million taels out, and if you donate this money, it may not be good, because after the emperor gets this money, he may be grateful to you at first, but after gratitude, he will think, how did you get this money.

You are an important minister of the court, even if you have some industries, you will never be able to earn so much money, so you must be embezzled.

It's okay to use you now, but if I can't use you, then I can't settle accounts with you.

So if you don't have a sick brain, you would do such a thankless job?

And Ni Yuanlu, the head of the household, heard more than one million taels of silver, and the whole person was stupid.

He is also one of the six Shangshu, and Yu Lu is already the handful of people with the most officials, but with his Yu Lu, even if he is from Hongwu...... No, even if you start counting from his mother's Song Dynasty, he can't save more than a million taels!

Ni Yuanlu knew that this money must have been embezzled by Zhou Yanru.

But the problem is that Zhou Yanru took out all the money at the moment to solve the urgent needs of the imperial court, even if the money was embezzled, he couldn't say anything.

Therefore, Ni Yuanlu glanced at Zhou Yanru with a rather complicated expression, and then said, "Old Zhou Ge...... Gao Feng Liang Festival, the official admires. ”

"But although a million taels is much, it is only a drop in the bucket for the entire Ming Dynasty, so ......"

Before Ni Yuanlu finished speaking, he was suddenly interrupted by Lao Zhu.

Lao Zhu, who was sitting on the dragon chair, said domineeringly: "It's okay, a million taels is not enough, and we will take care of the rest." ”

"If there is not enough money in the treasury, we will find another way."

"With us here, Daming can't lack money!"