"Big rats, big rats, no food for me......"

"You people, you are not greedy enough......"

In a hundred households of Jinyi Wei in Xiangyang County, Xiangyang Prefecture, Huguang, Lu Wenzhao threw the document book in his hand to the bottom of the hall, and lying under the hall were two Jinyi Wei officials who were beaten to an inhuman shape.

It was dim in the ya, Lu Xiu walked into the hall, glanced at the two people who were beaten into human shapes, and then said to Lu Wenzhao in the hall:

"The commander has copied out all the family property, and the mansion, fields, and shops are cash, and the total amount is about 39,500 taels."

"W-"

Lu Wenzhao put down the blood-stained shocking wood in his hand, got up and walked down the high hall with his hands behind his back, and squinted at the two of them:

"One hundred and twenty-seven people, nearly forty thousand taels of silver, you are quite greedy......"

After that, he looked ahead, pulled his legs and left, and reminded when he missed Lu Xiu's side:

"Distribution of Nanzhou ......"

"Commanded by humility." Lu Xiu smiled contemptuously, looked at the two people on the ground, turned around and followed Lu Wenzhao out of the yamen of the hundred households.

When the two of them walked out of the yamen and got into the carriage, not long after, Shen Lian and Lu Xian rushed back.

In this narrow alley, the two got into the carriage one after the other, and then the Jinyi guard, who was in charge of driving, shook the reins of the horse and drove the carriage away.

The two got into the car and said in front of Lu Wenzhao:

"The Xiangyang County Ya, the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the Huangdian have all checked clearly, involving 297 people, these people have been officials for nine years, reselling more than 60,000 stones of rice and wheat in the official warehouse, and overcharging the people more than 30,000 taels in taxes."

"The evidence of the crime will be sent to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department......" Lu Wenzhao said unhurriedly, and at this time, the carriage also left the alley and walked out of the city.

Their next target was other county towns in Xiangyang Prefecture, and when the carriage drove out of Xiangyang County, it revealed a scene of a construction site in full swing.

Stopping in front of the construction site, Lu Wenzhao and the four got out of the carriage, and then a brocade guard led the horse at the base of the city wall.

The four of them rested in place for a while, and then saw more than a dozen brocade guards riding horses from the city.

It seemed that the people had not yet arrived, so Lu Wenzhao looked at the hot construction site next to him, looked at the people who were wearing straw hats and working shirtless in the hot summer and said:

"How many hungry people has Huguang recruited as people's husbands?"

"570,000 people, I just don't know if there are so many." Shen Lian looked at the construction site and shook his head.

Lu Xiu looked at the appearance of the two, and couldn't help but say:

"This disaster relief has lasted for three years, where can we embezzle, where can we eat silver, these corrupt officials and corrupt officials know better than us, and they report 570,000, maybe only 400,000."

"In these years, the victims have become their tools to earn money." Lu Xian also spoke, and the words of the three of them were particularly harsh in Lu Wenzhao's ears.

He knew how much pressure Sun Chuanting had been under over the years.

He, Lu Wenzhao, just supervised Jinyiwei and Huangdian, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and by the way, he checked the embezzlement funds of corrupt officials and corrupt officials in various places, and was reminded by some people over and over again, and impeached again and again.

God knows what Sun Chuanting, who checked and ran the man, endured.

"I have inspected so many provinces, arrested more than 40,000 people, and exiled nearly 400,000 people, and I don't know how long it can last.

"Okay......"

Lu Xian was disgruntled and continued to vent his emotions, for which Lu Wenzhao could only stop him, and then looked at the victims and said:

"The things are handed over, it's their business to check whether they check it or not, if they don't check it, His Highness will check it, we don't have to worry about this."

"Let's go......"

After that, Lu Wenzhao turned around and walked to the horse, and turned over on the horse in one go.

Without waiting for the Jinyi guards to assemble, he took the lead in setting off with more than thirty horsemen.

Under the dust, only the people who worked under the sun complained about the injustice of the world, and the hammer in his hand also smashed the stubborn hard soil......

"Since the beginning of the year, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has investigated and punished a total of 2,700 local officials, including 32 officials at or above the fifth rank at the level of the chief administrative department, 329 officials at the prefectural and county level at the seventh grade or above, and the rest are officials of the eighth or ninth grade."

"The Criminal Department seized more than 4,900 mansions, more than 729,000 acres of land, more than 1,300 shops, more than 725,000 taels of gold, silver and jewelry, and more than 320,000 stone ...... of rice and wheat."

"As soon as the local officials are clear, everyone in the local people applauds, which is really ......"

"That's it!"

In the Changchun Hall of King Qi in Dading Palace, Yanshan County, he returned respectfully in Chengde, but was stopped by Zhu Youzhen before he finished speaking.

Zhu Youzhen was eating, and he rinsed his mouth with tribute tea after he stopped, and Chengde stood straight, but his eyes were looking at his nose and his nose, and he was quietly waiting for Zhu Youzhen's instructions.

"How many officials are involved in the Eucalyptus from the Jinyi Guardian?"

Putting down the tribute tea, spitting out the tea rinsed in his mouth in the copper basin in the hand of the palace maid next to him, Zhu Youzhen wiped his mouth before looking at the food on the table, and spoke to Chengde without looking back.

Just without waiting for Chengde to answer, Zhu Youzhen said again:

"If Lone remembers well, there are only four officials of the third grade, seventeen of the fourth grade, sixty-nine of the fifth grade, and two hundred ...... of the sixth grade."

Zhu Youzhen told Lu Wenzhao the grade and number of officials involved in the eucalyptus reported by Lu Wenzhao one by one, and Chengde listened quietly during the process, and only then did Zhu Youzhen say a sentence:

"These people, the total is six thousand four hundred and thirty-seven, right? How come there are only 2,700 people here in the Metropolitan Procuratorate? ”

"Are you protective? Or are the people below protecting each other? ”

Zhu Youzhen's words came out, but Chengde was not flustered and anxious, but bowed calmly in return, and then replied in a calm tone:

"The students have no favoritism, as for why there are only such a few people, it is because the inspection of the imperial history in some places has not yet checked the eucalyptus, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate cannot let go of any corrupt official, but it cannot slander any official......"

Chengde's words are neither humble nor arrogant, and there seems to be nothing wrong with them on the surface, but there are words in the words that he wants to express.

He replied to Zhu Youzhen as a "student", and said that he did not protect him, but he avoided Zhu Youzhen's question of "protecting officials and officials".

This meaning is obvious, he is telling Zhu Youzhen that he is serious about handling eucalyptus, but it is difficult to say whether the people below admit it seriously or not, and the phenomenon of officials protecting each other also exists.

These are the three points, and the fourth point is that the local inspection imperial history has not yet checked the eucalyptus.

He was wrong about this, because the local governor had already reported the eucalyptus, that is, there was no problem with the local officials, and it was Jinyiwei who made a mistake.

Of the more than 6,400 corrupt officials and corrupt officials, only 2,700 were found, and the remaining 3,700 people are fine.

This situation can only be protected by officials and officials, and Chengde said that the eucalyptus that has been reported has not been investigated, which means that he does not approve of the inspection of these eucalyptus, and he will continue to investigate.

In general, Chengde did not give Zhu Youzhen a little trouble, but took all the responsibility and pressure on his shoulders.

This is very pleasant, even if Zhu You heard it, he couldn't help but put away his temper, and said calmly:

"The Metropolitan Procuratorate is under your control at the moment, and sometimes the Metropolitan Procuratorate not only has to conduct external inspections, but also needs to conduct self-inspections."

"What to do......

"The students know it in their hearts." Chengde hurriedly answered, and Zhu Youzhen was more satisfied when he saw this, so he could only ask:

"How did the Criminal Department sentence the 2,700 people who had already been convicted? Geometry of the house? ”

In the face of the inquiry, Chengde replied respectfully:

"One hundred and twenty-seven people who were convicted of serious crimes were beheaded, and all the remaining officials, as well as more than 36,000 family files involved, were sent to Nanzhou."

"As for the results of the raid, the criminal department played more than 16,400 taels of gold, more than 1,329,000 taels of silver, 300,000 taels of silver for various mansions, shops, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, more than 2.6 million stones of rice and wheat, and more than 970,000 mu of fields."

"The Criminal Department has ordered people to escort gold, silver, antiques, calligraphy and paintings to the north, rice and wheat are stored in the local official warehouse, the fields are temporarily handed over to the former tenants for cultivation, and the mansion shop is handed over to the Ya Xing of the Imperial Horse Supervisor to be responsible for sale."

Chengde made everything that the Criminal Department had done, and Zhu You was very satisfied after listening to it, and asked by the way:

"What do you think of Zhou Yanru's position?"

"Zhou Shangshu behaved in an orderly manner and behaved decently, and the students thought there was nothing wrong with it." Chengde did not resent Zhou Yanru and others for robbing him of his credit, at least not in front of Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen looked at his mature actions, and couldn't help nodding in his heart, but he said with a blow on his lips:

"Xu Guangqi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, finished his governance of the Yellow River six days ago, and asked the imperial court to pay tribute."

"Long live approving his Zhishi, Lone is going to let Wen Tiren serve as the secretary of the Ministry of Works, what do you think?"

Xu Guangqi proposed to Zhishi, which means that another person from the Donglin Party is about to withdraw from the court, but no one blames Xu Guangqi this time.

In the final analysis, although Xu Guangqi was a secretary of the Ministry of Industry before, he was running around on the front line, and his age was already sixty and eight, and he was indeed at the age of high life, so there was nothing wrong with Zhishi.

The problem is that after Xu Guangqi became a scholar, the vacated position of the Ministry of Works.

The position of the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, before Zhu Youzhen asked Bi Ziyan to take care of it, and then he couldn't take care of it, and Zhu Youzhen asked Zhou Yanru to take care of it.

It's just that now there are a lot of things in the Criminal Department, and with Xu Guangqi Zhishi, Daming also needs a Ministry of Industry Shangshu who has been in the court for a long time.

This person, Wen Tiren is undoubtedly very suitable, and Zhu Youzhen asked Chengde, not to sprinkle salt on his wounds, but to see the other party's attitude.

However, Chengde's attitude did not disappoint Zhu Youzhen.

Faced with the news of this opponent's promotion and salary increase, Cheng Deping replied calmly:

"The student is not familiar with Wen Hanlin, but if His Highness thinks Wen Hanlin is good, then Wen Hanlin should be fine."

"Hmm......" Zhu You replied, at this time he probably felt that Chengde could be entrusted, so he said:

"I didn't let you enter the Sixth Department because the time hadn't come, and the other thing is that the Metropolitan Procuratorate really needs someone to take care of it."

"Since the second year of the Apocalypse, the national dynasty has not set up the left and right imperial history and deputy imperial envoys of the Imperial Palace, but only set up the left imperial history."

"At the moment, it seems that you are very suitable for the position of the left capital imperial history, but the Metropolitan Procuratorate also needs to be changed, and from now on, the left and right capital imperial history will be abolished, and the deputy capital imperial envoy will be abolished."

After that, Zhu Youzhen looked at Chengde and said slowly:

"In the future, there will only be one Imperial History of the Metropolitan Inspectorate, and you will be the second product for the time being."

"The left and right are all assistants and promoted to the third grade, the supervision of the imperial history of the two capitals and nineteen provinces is the fifth grade, and the inspection of the imperial history is the sixth grade, and the number of people has been expanded to two thousand and one hundred people, and as for the other yamen officials who are subordinate to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, they will be promoted by half a level."

"Students take orders!" Hearing Zhu Youzhen's words, Chengde did not show joy and anger, but bowed deeply and expressed his return salute.

Zhu Youjian's move streamlined the system of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but at the same time supplemented the number of grassroots inspections, so that the number of grassroots inspectors of the imperial history increased, so that the inspection was much easier.

"You still have a connection with Kim Hyun, right?"

Zhu Youzhen suddenly mentioned Jin Xuan, and Cheng De naturally nodded.

"I want to mention him as the envoy of Yingzhou, what do you think?"

Zhu Youzhen changed his self-title, and when Chengde heard this, he said without concealment: "If Boyu is the envoy of Yingzhou, it will definitely help the imperial court to govern Yingzhou." ”

After Chengde's words were finished, Zhu Youzhen did not speak after a long time.

It wasn't until the palace maids withdrew the food that Zhu Youzhen waved his hand: "You retreat." ”

"Yes......" Cheng De heard this, and took a few steps back before turning to leave.

It was not long after he left that Wang Chengen came out of the side hall, bowed down and saluted and said:

"Your Highness, the stolen money of these 2,700 officials played by Lu Wenzhao is far more than the number reported by the Metropolitan Procuratorate, why do you ...... Your Highness?"

After saying that, Wang Chengen didn't say anything, and Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything to Chengde.

The reason why he didn't say it to Chengde was because he didn't think it was necessary.

Since the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Criminal Department have stolen and stolen it, let them steal it, and sooner or later they will return it with interest.

"Remember what I said to you earlier?" Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Chengen and said slowly:

"The rat fights every year, and it can't be fought every year, corrupt officials kill the dynasty, and the dynasty can't kill the ......"

"That Sun Chuanting has only been inspecting Guangdong for less than a year, and this time Lu Wenzhao and they went, but they arrested more than 100 corrupt officials and corrupt officials."

What does this mean? People's hearts are unpredictable, if people are arrested according to the standards of the imperial court, then nine out of ten officials in the Ming Dynasty will be imprisoned. ”

"If the officials are all arrested, then who will govern the people?"

The words are not rough, Zhu Youzhen told Wang Chengen this truth bluntly, but Wang Chengen said after hearing it:

"Then why don't you relax for a while and let Lu Wenzhao and them come back?"

"This won't work...... Zhu Youzhen got up and walked to the side hall, Wang Chengen followed, and Zhu Youzhen said as he walked:

"Lu Wenzhao led people to check below, which will make some people feel anxious, with this feeling, no matter how much they exploit the people, they will be afraid of Jinyiwei and dare not be like before."

"Inspections still have to be investigated, and arrests have to be arrested, but the intensity must be controlled."

"How many officials were elected by the imperial court last year? How many people are literate? ”

"In just four months this year, Lu Wenzhao has arrested more than 40,000 people in the imperial horse prison and handed over more than 5,000 official charges."

"If it is calculated, won't he have to involve 120,000 employees of the Imperial Horse Supervisor and more than 16,000 officials in a year?"

"Tell Lu Wenzhao that in addition to doing too much, write down the rest for the time being, and settle the accounts after the autumn......"

Zhu Youzhen walked to the back of the desk, sat down and began to deal with the music.

Although the safari is interesting, there must be a degree, he Zhu Youzhen is not a rich child, and the Ming Dynasty is not as prosperous as it seems.

If he is lazy for a day, then the people will have to suffer for a day, and the officials will be unscrupulous for a day.

Day after day, if he is lazy day by day, then the Ming Dynasty will not be far from falling apart.

"Your Highness, this degree ......"

Wang Chengen couldn't grasp the "degree" in Zhu Youzhen's mouth, he was afraid that he would make a mistake, so he could only ask hard.

To this, Zhu Youzhen replied without thinking: "People say that the prefect of the Qing Dynasty for three years, 100,000 snowflakes of silver." ”

"I don't have so many prefects in the Ming Dynasty, but I have a lot of silver, let Lu Wenzhao be directly arrested according to the corruption for more than five years, and if it doesn't exceed it, write it down, and then do it later."

Five years of money, the number of years Zhu You's inspection is very high for the people, but it is very low for the hundred officials.

For example, those servants of the ninth grade in the capital, their annual salary is only nine taels of silver, and the "fees" they secretly steal every day are as much as dozens of yuan.

If you really use five years of income, they will only have two or three years of professional life.

This group of low-level officials can be changed at any time, and it is not easy to find officials who can manage a province, a government, or a county, so they still have to be dealt with at their discretion.

Not to mention the internal affairs of the dynasty, Huanglong, who was leading troops to confront the Mughal general Mirza, is an example.

Huang Long currently has three official positions, one is a loose rank, and the total annual salary is only more than 9,000 taels of silver, and in a big battle, he casually "rewards" his post-war share, which is enough for Jinyi Wei to exile him.

However, will Zhu Youzhen exile Huanglong? Naturally not.

Even if there is someone who can replace Huang Long in the future, Zhu Youzhen will have to keep Huang Long, because he is the spare one.

Unless Da Ming can get out of people like Huanglong in batches, Zhu Youzhen will only turn a blind eye.

Of course, this is in terms of official governance, if Huang Long is involved in something that should not be involved, then even if Zhu Youzhen is reluctant, he will have to punish him ruthlessly.

"Take what you should take, don't take what you shouldn't......"

When Zhu Youzhen said this, he deliberately glanced at Wang Chengen, and Wang Chengen quickly lowered his head.

Although Wang Chengen is wooden, he is also a human after all, and he has tens of millions of taels of officialdom, salt, tea, and wine in his hands, how can he not make profits by himself?

Since the fourth year of the Apocalypse, the voices above the temple have basically been made by Zhu Youzhen.

After nearly seven years in power, Zhu Youzhen has also been erased little by little, and he is no longer so stunned in the face of anti-corruption and anti-corruption.

Anti-corruption and anti-corruption have become a means of restraining officials, as if a sword was hanging over their heads.

When this sword fell, this point is up to Zhu Youzhen.

He no longer pursues the integrity of hundreds of officials, but only hopes that the group of corrupt officials can leave enough for the people when they steal and steal, and stop making some "extra taxes" like the civil uprising in northern Shaanxi.

Even if they don't do anything, but just pay taxes on time, then Zhu Youzhen and the people can praise them.

After the civil uprising in northern Shaanxi, it was generally a matter of governance.

As for the feudal tax problem, no matter how the imperial court imposed taxes on the gentry, the gentry and the powerful could always find a way to pass it on to the people at the bottom.

Zhu Youzhen has long been aware of the problem of feudal taxation, so he has been advocating the exemption of miscellaneous items, the reduction of land taxes, the investigation of officials, and the nationalization of bulk commodities.

He was sure that the policy of the imperial court was beneficial to the people, but the implementation of the policy was very problematic.

Whether the policy can truly benefit the people requires the introspection and implementation of the officials.

The people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty, in the final analysis, are still the peasants who account for less than ninety percent of the country's population, and there is a policy to benefit farmers, that is, to continuously reduce the land tax until the land tax is eliminated.

On this basis, it is also necessary to simplify those complicated taxes.

Although Da Ming has canceled more than a dozen miscellaneous items by Zhu Youzhen at the moment, there are still more than 20 miscellaneous items that exist.

The drought is receding, and the past three years have been a good opportunity for Zhu Youzhen to take action against Jianyu, let the vassal king gain a foothold in South Asia, and at the same time reduce the burden on the people.

This opportunity was missed, and it would have to wait until fourteen years later.

Miscellaneous items are actually commercial taxes, which are collectively referred to as commercial taxes because the items are too miscellaneous.

In the past, the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was divided into residential tax and passing tax, of which the residential tax was more than 20 kinds, such as official store money, collapsed house money, market money, door stall money, landing tax, tooth tax, wine tax, vinegar tax, slaughter tax, oil tax, tea tax and so on.

As for the second item, it is subdivided into more than ten types of taxes, such as banknote tariffs, door taxes, tax points, and Huai'an four taxes.

In the current ten years of the Apocalypse, after Zhu Youzhen improved the status of the five divisions, the current commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty is divided into seven major taxes, such as residential tax, passing tax, wine tax, tea tax, salt tax, mining tax, and municipal shipping tax, and 29 small taxes.

The taxes are complicated, and many officials need to be used to collect them, and the Ming Dynasty is all officials at the moment, and they all need to pay money, so it is naturally impossible to make another two or three million officials to collect taxes.

There are many taxes, and the lakes and flats paid by the people and the lakes collected by the imperial court are only made by the people in charge of collecting taxes at the middle and grassroots levels.

From this point of view, Zhu Youzhen would rather collect less and simplify the commercial tax.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen took out a book of notes and wrote as he spoke:

"The decree is to give Bi Ziyan a list of the residential tax and the tax in the commercial tax, and then list the annual tax silver of the individual tax."

"After the list, immediately send the document to the Dading Palace, and I want to read it with Banzai, and cancel some unnecessary taxes from it."

"The slave and maid receive the order......," Wang Chengen responded, and then walked out of the hall.

At the same time as he walked out, Zhu Youzhen simply wrote down the three items of "market tax, door stall tax, and urban business tax".

He is exempt from taxation, but he also has to be taxed.

The peasants are already suffering and cannot continue to suffer, so they can only suffer the merchants again.

The commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was very small, mainly because in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang deliberately issued many policies to protect small merchants in order to protect commerce.

As for why he did this, it was mainly to learn the lesson of the Yuan Dynasty that taxes were levied on small merchants, and small merchants could not afford it and turned their heads to rely on big merchants, and finally big merchants squeezed small merchants and monopolized the market.

At present, Zhu Youxiao also needs to learn a lesson, but the lesson he needs to learn is a lesson from the Ming Dynasty's overprotection of small merchants.

Zhu Yuanzhang came up with a commercial tax system of no tax under 60 taels and 30 taxes above 60 taels, and changed the 30 taxes to 50 taxes and 1 in the Wanli period.

Originally, the tax revenue was insufficient, and they changed it like this, and in the end, the commercial tax collapsed, and the Ming Dynasty could only continue to eat the old capital of the land endowment, and then suffer the peasants.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen abolished the lower limit of 60 taels of silver, and combined the city tax and the gate tax into the city business tax to collect.

The municipal tax requires a business license issued by the government, and a business license is required to transport goods inside and outside the city, and then the tax collector of the household department calculates the profit according to the quantity of goods and the local price, and takes 10% of the profit as the municipal tax.

As for the stall tax, fixed stalls are planned in each county, and according to the number of stalls, the same number of "stall licenses" can be sold every year, and the price of stall licenses is set by Zhu Youzhen to range from 500 to 2 taels.

According to the tens of thousands of counties and towns in the Ming Dynasty, with a population of 20 or 30 million, even if a stall and a store serve hundreds of people, there can be 200,000 or 300,000 shops and 230,000 stalls.

At present, the city commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty is only collected in the North and South Zhili and a small number of big cities, which has already collected millions of taels of silver.

Now that the scale of the city commercial tax is wider and more reasonable, the tax that can be collected will naturally be more.

However, when the tax is formulated, it still needs to be collected......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen took out a note from the desk, and there were only two simple words on the surface......

Yanshan