Today's Tianjin Port is heavily guarded inside and out, and tens of thousands of soldiers from the Beijing camp are on standby, which makes the workers at the wharf terrified.

Is there something big going on?

"What's wrong with us, can we use so many soldiers?"

"Who knows, there are soldiers on both sides of the Haihe River, and I heard that the boats of Ma Siye's family have been requisitioned."

"Don't dare to ask."

The dock workers exchanged heads and whispered, and the foreman in charge sternly reprimanded: "Don't inquire about what you shouldn't know, keep your mouth shut, and work when the ship comes." ”

Under the reprimand, the workers did not dare to say more, but they all looked at the sea, thinking about what kind of goods came to make the imperial court pay so much attention.

Where the sea and the sky meet, the masts are revealed, and then the whole picture emerges.

Huge ships are slowly heading towards the port of Tianjin.

As we approached, the red and white striped flags became clear.

Wu Laohan is an old worker in Tianjin Port, and he has worked for most of his life, and this flag is really the first time he has seen it.

What made Wu Laohan feel the most novel was the crew of the ship after the ship entered the port and anchored.

There are white and yellow skin, but the most abundant are dark.

Merchant ships of the Waiyi?

Wu Laohan was even more puzzled, Tianjin Port, as the only big port in the north of the Ming Dynasty, was connected to North Korea and Japan, and there were many foreign merchant ships coming here in the past, and he had never seen such a big battle in the imperial court as today.

If you don't understand, you don't understand, Wu Laohan, as an old man, won't ask much, and honestly takes seven or eight of his workers into the work of moving and unloading.

Bags of goods passed through Wu Laohan's hands, and the familiar feeling suddenly made Wu Laohan guess the items in his pocket.

Grain!

Definitely food!

Wu Laohan hummed and a worker carried his bags onto the pallet truck, and the worker immediately opened his mouth.

"It has to be two hundred pounds."

"Almost." Wu Laohan nodded, turned his head to look at the hundreds of big ships parked in the port, and gasped.

This bag is a small 200 catties of grain, a ship, a large bag of thousands of bags, hundreds of ships, how much is it?

"Mr. Henk, let's meet again."

A temporary house was set up at the port, and Pei Youji, vice president of COFCO, smiled and bowed his hand to Henk: "I didn't expect you to deliver it in person this time." ”

"Mr. Pei." Henk did the same, and also learned to bow his hand, although it was a little nondescript: "The first batch of 50,000 tons of grain has been delivered, you can sign it." ”

Pei Youji frowned slightly: "Is it only 50,000 tons?" ”

Henk shrugged: "No way, the sea is full of Dutch warships, we can't use too many ships and crews, and when your country can guarantee the smooth passage of the Taiwan Strait, I think, this number can at least be increased by dozens of times." ”

"Okay." Pei Youji nodded, and then whispered to the officials beside him, who left in a hurry, and only turned back after two quarters of an hour, and came back to Pei Youji and said: "All the cars have been loaded, and the audit is correct." ”

Pei Youji let out a sigh, and then smiled at Henk: "The old man is here to sign." ”

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50,000 tons of grain is 100 million catties, which is not a large amount, but it is too important for the current Ming Dynasty.

"Don't look at Henan's pseudo-Liang Zhang Xianzhong so capable of tossing, let's send 10 million catties of grain to Hong Chengchou now, and the pseudo-Liang will collapse immediately."

Zhu Youzhen really relaxed, and said to Jiuqing with a smile: "The people don't want much, there is food in the bowl, clothes on the body, tiles on the head, and fields outside the house, that's all, no one will rebel against these four things."

Now that the first batch of firefighting food from the East India Company has been delivered, it is considered to have solved our urgent need, and it is time to consider how to solve the financial difficulties of the imperial court. ”

Bi Ziyan, as the first secretary of the household department, stood up and spoke: "The minister wants to abolish a whip law." ”

Zhu Youzhen raised his eyebrows: "Tell me why carefully." ”

"A whip law from Gui Cao, into Zhang Juzheng, originally in order to improve the imperial court finances, with silver tax instead of grain, at that time with the opening of Longqing sea, from overseas foreign countries massive silver poured into my Ming Dynasty, resulting in the folk silver currency bloated, in the case at that time, Zhang Juzheng implemented a whip law, but also did increase the imperial court's tax revenue, to solve the problem of border military spending has begun to gradually deteriorate.

But at this time and that time, the biggest problem of my Ming Dynasty is the continuous natural disasters for many years, which is the high food prices caused by the reduction of a large amount of grain production, and the minister will give a simple example.

The common people of Suzhou planted two acres of land, and the output was ten stones a year, and according to the current grain price, the silver was twenty taels, so the people had to pay a tax of one tael of silver under a whip law.

But the people of Suzhou can't sell these ten stones of grain for twenty taels at all, why, because he is in Suzhou, not in Henan and Shaanxi, let him pay one tael tax, the tax is too heavy.

In Henan, a family planting two acres of land, because of natural disasters, can only harvest two stones of grain, but still have to pay one or two taxes, why? Because the taxation of a whip law is not according to the actual output, but according to the number of acres.

These two pieces of silver will make this people's output for nothing in a year, and all of it will be given to the imperial court.

This is only the grain tax, and the common people have to bear the conscription and apportionment of the Liao salary, and the miscellaneous taxes levied, which were all added to the combined taxation of a whip law in the Wanli year, so that the harvest of the common people could not afford to sell the amount of silver levied by the imperial court.

As a result, a large number of ordinary people in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong, Jiangxi, and Huguang fled the land one after another, or sold the land at a cheap price to families, gentry, and scholars who did not need to pay taxes.

Therefore, it is not only natural disasters that have led to the emergence of a large number of refugees in the country now, but also the erroneous and untimely policies of the imperial court have also led to the spread of man-made disasters. ”

As mentioned earlier, the Ming Dynasty was not short of grain, so why it is not short is now clearly explained.

The barrenness of many fields is not only because natural disasters do exist, but also because the common people have begun to flee the land in large numbers to avoid paying taxes, which has led to a serious loss of the tax base of the Ming Dynasty.

If it weren't for this, the grain harvested throughout the country would not have been so scarce that the people were rebelling everywhere in the country.

After all, it is only the second year of Chongzhen, and he is not the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, nor is it the year of Shunzhi.

The most difficult and terrifying time node of the Xiaoice River period has not yet reached its peak.

"I think it's okay to repeal a whip law and revert to taxes in kind, but it is not necessary to restore the grain chief system."

Zhu Youzhen saw that Bi Ziyan was about to speak, so he preemptively said: "I know what Bi Qing means, I hope that the local gentry will bear some grain for the court and the common people, but instead of restoring the grain chief system, it is better to directly tax them, which is also easy to come." ”

Bi Ziyan was stunned for a moment: "Your Majesty is saying that you will pay taxes as one." ”

"That's right." Zhu Youzhen smiled: "I remember that Zhang Juzheng also thought about it, but the resistance was too great to implement, and now is the right time, I not only pay taxes in one piece, but also pay taxes and levies and divide the salaries equally."

Whoever wants to oppose it, no matter who opposes it, I don't care about Zhang Xianzhong, let them choose for themselves, whether to pay taxes to the imperial court, or wait for Zhang Xianzhong to raid his family and exterminate the clan, follow them, I don't force it. ”

Bi Ziyan laughed bitterly, isn't the emperor a scoundrel.

But.

It is indeed too easy to implement the integrated tax payment now.

If you want to say where is the most supportive of the imperial court's policy of paying taxes as a whole, then the gentry in the provinces closest to Henan will definitely raise their hands and agree.

Not to mention paying taxes, as long as the imperial court can destroy Zhang Xianzhong, you don't hesitate to let them donate half of their family property to the imperial court.

As long as the court has money, Zhang Xianzhong wants his life!

(Nine days and eighteen chapters owed, make up within a week)