Although the eunuchs' framing and liquidation of the Donglin Dongren caused an uproar in the DPRK and China, the examination in the second year of the Apocalypse was still held as scheduled.

Ho Jong-yan and Zhu Guo-zuo, the only two non-partisan cabinet scholars in the DPRK and China, served as the chief examiners of this time.

A total of 409 jinshi were admitted.

Among them, the first and third people are Wen Zhenmeng, Fu Guan, and Chen Renxi.

The second class was born with 77 people, and the third class with 329 people.

Mao Yuanyi thought that Li Xian would always select many elites among them for the Intelligence Department to try to recruit, but unexpectedly, in this long list, Ning Yuanbo only ticked one person.

Lu Xiangsheng, the 25th in the second class.

However, he immediately understood Li Xianzhong's thoughts, after all, these people who have been admitted to the Jinshi can be regarded as having entered the official circle of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty is now noble and martial, and I am afraid that not many of these people are willing to take the road of military generals.

Even if they are willing to obey orders, it is only to obey the orders of the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong Jinglu, Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong.

How many people are obedient to Li Xianzhong himself, and even do not hesitate to oppose the Ming Dynasty in the future?

Although the uncle has always regarded himself as a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, he has never expressed the intention of being self-reliant.

However, Mao Yuanyi knew very well that it was only a matter of time before Ning Yuanbo and Li Xianzhong turned against Daming, unless the uncle was willing to give up everything now.

Now Liaodong is almost an independent feudal town, even if the imperial court cuts off the supply of Liaodong, with Ning Yuanbo's existing financial resources, it is easy to feed Liaodong Town.

Even he felt that if there was no restraint from the imperial court, Liaodong would develop faster and better than it is now.

It's no wonder that his uncle is targeting those young people who can't pass the Jinshi Juren exam.

He also let himself borrow the hand of Jinyiwei to desperately hunt down the Hanmen children in the Donglin Party and force them to Liaodong.

Presumably, this Lu Xiangsheng must have something extraordinary, otherwise his uncle would not have taken a fancy to him among the 400 people.

Soon this batch of new science and technology scholars entered the distribution link.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was not that you could be awarded an official position immediately after you were admitted to the Jinshi.

Only the top three of the first class were immediately awarded official positions, among which the champion was awarded the Hanlin Academy Revision (from the sixth grade), and the Bangyan and Tanhua were awarded the Hanlin Academy Editing (Zheng Seventh Grade).

Don't look at the low grade of the Hanlin Academy, this is the reserve of the cabinet, and almost more than ninety percent of the ministers of the Ming Dynasty are from Hanlin.

The Ming Dynasty has always had the saying that "non-Jinshi will not enter the Hanlin, and non-Hanlin will not enter the cabinet".

Of course, it is not absolute, Xiong Tingbi is not from Hanlin.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, only the Shangshu of the North and South Rites, the Shilang and the Right Shilang of the Ministry of Officials were the mandatory rules of non-Hanlin.

Therefore, the new science and technology can enter the Hanlin Academy, which can be called "the right way on the right way".

Relatively speaking, the Jinshi who was selected to enter the Hanlin Academy was still lucky.

But after all, there are only a few Jinshi who can be elected to the Hanlin Academy, and most of them still need to wait for the officials to assign them.

At this time, the secretary of the ministry was Feng Quan, who had already taken refuge in Wei Zhongxian.

In the 41st year of Wanli, Feng Quan, who was only 19 years old, was selected as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy after entering high school, which can be described as infinitely beautiful.

But who would have thought that this was the beginning of his nightmare.

Due to his handsome appearance, he was constantly harassed by his colleagues in the Hanlin Academy.

Faced with the threat of the Donglin boss, Feng Quan had to be aggrieved!

His father Feng Shengming was a military garrison in Liaoyang, and at the beginning of the year, Wang Huazhen reported the embezzlement of armaments by the Donglin Party, and accidentally implicated Feng Shengming.

The helpless Feng Quan had no choice but to ask the gentlemen of Donglin for help, but these sanctimonious hypocrites did not come to the rescue after satisfying their shameless selfish desires!

In the end, Feng Shengming was dismissed because of this matter.

When Wei Zhongxian passed through Zhuozhou a few months ago, Feng Quan knelt beside the road, crying about his father's impeachment and dismissal, and what happened to him.

At that time, Wei Zhongxian was searching for henchmen, and immediately recognized him as his righteous son, promoted Feng Quan to reuse, and promoted him to the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites.

In order to curry favor with his father-in-law, Feng Quan also privately called Wei Zhongxian "nine thousand nine hundred years old", so that Wei Zhongxian's henchmen called him "nine thousand years old" in private.

Wei Zhongxian now just needed officials to enter the cabinet, so he promoted Feng Quan to the secretary of the ministry and the scholar of the East Pavilion University in one fell swoop, and directly entered the cabinet.

Of course, in exchange, Wei Zhongxian agreed to the succession of Han Yi, a bachelor of the Donglin Party, as the first assistant of the cabinet.

Now these new scholars who did not enter the Hanlin Academy have fallen into the hands of Feng Quan.

After the Ming Dynasty's new science and technology jinshi was released, he was first assigned to various central departments for internship and became a political jinshi.

These jinshi also only have two directions, and the main door stays in the central departments, and most of them are petty officials such as the heads of the six departments; The main door is to go to the local state capital, and most of them are granted a seven-pinzhi county.

So for them, they all want to squeeze their heads and stay in Jingshi.

After all, the starting point of Jingguan is much higher than that of Zhixian, and the chance of promotion is much greater.

But at this time, Feng Quan asked them to evaluate Wei Zhongxian first, and then decide where to go for the assignment.

Who is Feng Quan? These new science and technology scholars are naturally clear.

Obviously, if you want to stay in Jingshi, you must first become a eunuch and worship under Wei Zhongxian.

Although many people were influenced by the Donglin Party, they scolded the eunuch party for messing with the government on weekdays.

But after all, it is a ten-year cold window, and it is about their own future, and many people are in torment.

Although there are also people like Huang Daozhou who directly scolded Wei Zhongxian for causing trouble in the country, most people chose to flatter Wei Zhongxian, or gave a neutral evaluation.

Under the operation of the Intelligence Department, Lu Xiangsheng was directly assigned to the Ministry of War, and it didn't take long for him to be directly sent to Liaodong by Xiong Tingbi, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

At this time, Sun Chuanting, who also went to Liaodong, also went to Shangqiu Zhixian County.

Although Sun Chuanting has a good impression of the Donglin Party, he is not a Donglin Party member.

However, under the propaganda of the Intelligence Department and the Donglin Party, Wei Zhongxian's killing of the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin" and forcing the new branch to defect to the Eunuch Party were rumored to be all over the city.

After Sun Chuanting heard about it, he complained a few words, saying that the eunuch party had gone too far!

This gave the Intelligence Department a good opportunity, and soon Jinyiwei of the Nanzhen Fu Division appeared in Shangqiu County, claiming that he would escort Sun Chuanting back to the Imperial Prison for questioning.

So Sun Chuanting resigned angrily!

Sun Chuanting's ancestors have been promoted in the last three generations, but they have not been able to go further after all, and in their own generation, they finally won the Jinshi, but they resigned from the official position so inexplicably, which is really depressing.

So when the people from the Intelligence Department approached him and asked him to go to Liaodong, he did not refuse.

In addition to Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, Song Yingxing, who had been reluctant to come to Liaodong, finally embarked on a journey to Liaodong.

Because this year, Song Yingxing once again failed to make the list and did not pass the Jinshi examination.

To make matters worse, his uncle Song Heqing was a member of the Donglin Party and was arrested by the Eunuchs.

This made Song Yingxing quite dissatisfied with the imperial court, and finally decided to abandon the path of the imperial examination.

At this time, the people from the Intelligence Department invited him to Liaodong again.

Song Yingxing was attracted by Pingyu Fort after arriving here, and the neat roads, huge waterwheels and workshops made him yearn for it.

Although the people from the Intelligence Department began to invite him to Liaodong two years ago, he really didn't expect that this border town would have such a prosperous town and such a large scale of various workshops.

In particular, he was dumbfounded by the advanced degree of these artillery guns and firearms.

It's not that he hasn't seen a Lumi gun before, but it's the first time he's seen a Lu Mi gun with such a terrifying range.

And the powerful flowering bomb opened his eyes.

Especially when the sugar was mixed with gunpowder, the huge power made him feel incredible.

With the blessing of white sugar, the shooting distance of Lu Mi Gong directly exceeded 150 steps, and the power was even greater.

Soon Song Yingxing accepted the official position of Pingyu Wei Wupin Qianhu, and stayed in Liaodong to manage the various workshops of Pingyu Fort with peace of mind.

Under the impetus of Li Xianzhong, the "nine-thousand-year-old" Wei Zhongxian really launched a liquidation of the Donglin Party in advance.

Now the "Five Tigers", "Five Biao", "Ten Children" and the like under his command have almost gathered.

It is estimated that within a year, the Donglin Party will be completely driven out of the court by Gonggong Wei.

Then Gonggong Wei must collect commercial taxes from the gentry in Jiangnan, which is the life of the Donglin Party.

To tell the truth, even though Wei Zhongxian is not in a thousand ways, at least his tenure did not increase the burden on the people.

There is nothing wrong with him collecting mining taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, and customs duties.

It is actually unreasonable for the common people to follow and scold the eunuch party for disorderly government, once there is no eunuch Wei Zhongxian, I am afraid that it will be time for the common people to live their lives and rise up.

Since Wei Zhongxian is willing to be this "reform pioneer", why wouldn't Li Xianzhong do it?

If possible, he even hoped that Wei Zhongxian would also get the gentry to pay for food, so that the problem of Daming could be truly solved.

As for the world, then let him mess around.

At present, he only needs to ensure that Liaodong is not chaotic.

It was just by taking advantage of this eunuch party's attack on the Donglin Party that a group of literati who could not pass the Jinshi examination and the children of the Donglin Party came to Liaodong.

To tell the truth, Liaodong currently has the conditions to implement this "gentry pay grain in one", after all, the biggest landlord in Liaodong is Li Xianzhong himself.

There are really no big landlords in Liaodong who dare to come out and obstruct their own land tax.

However, compared with maritime trade, the land tax is almost negligible.

Zheng Zhilong told himself that he could earn at least 100,000 taels by selling a boatload of fine Jiangnan silk to Japan.

made Li Xianzhong instantly feel that selling other things was not fragrant at all.

It's a pity that Liaodong just doesn't produce silk!

In order to support Wei Gonggong's reform and let him completely work with the Donglin Party, Li Xianzhong decided to give Wei Zhongxian a big gift.

Mao Yuanyi soon invited Wei Zhongxian to heaven and earth.

He said with a smile: "Now that the 'nine thousand years old' is in power, and he can enjoy the light in heaven and earth, this place is really full of brilliance!" ”

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly said: "This is all the people below shouting nonsense, how can Mao Yishi laugh at our family?" ”

"There are also our family's dry stocks in this heaven and earth, and our family should take care of our own business."

Mao Yuanyi said: "The celebrant is as important as the cabinet, so I will call my father-in-law 'Wei Xiang'!" ”

Wei Zhongxian said with a smile: "I am afraid that there are not many people who call our family 'Wei Xiang' in the court, but there are many people who scold our family 'Wei Xiang'?" ”

Mao Yuanyi said: "Now that the imperial court relies on Wei Xiang to support the overall situation, why bother with those Donglin Party members with broken mouths." ”

"Ning Yuanbo asked me to tell Wei Xiang that as soon as the food and salary of the imperial court arrived, he would launch a general attack, and Hetuara could break it with a snap of his fingers. Ning Yuanbo heard that his nephew Wei Liangqing had not yet been knighted, and this skill of supervising the army must be able to block the mouths of the Donglin Party! ”

After hearing Mao Yuanyi's words, Wei Zhongxian immediately smiled.

Then he said: "Ning Yuanbo is his own family in the end, and he always thinks about our family when there are good things!" ”

"Our family has been in the palace all the time, and we don't have time to discipline Liangqing's child on weekdays, so let's ask Uncle Ning Yuan to discipline our family well!"

"I don't know how much grain and grass Uncle Ning Yuan still needs?"

Mao Yuanyi said: "The capture of Hetuala this time is a great achievement, and the soldiers of Liaodong Town also want to share a little more military merit, so Ning Yuanbo will definitely mobilize more people and horses, and ask Wei Xiang to allocate 500,000 stone grain and grass at a time." ”

After hearing this number, Wei Zhongxian frowned deeply, looking very embarrassed.

Mao Yuanyi said: "Can this bit of food still stump Wei Xiang? ”

Wei Zhongxian smiled bitterly: "Mao is naturally ignorant of the difficulties of the imperial court when he guards the heavens and the earth, and those Donglin Party members don't do their business all day long, making a mess of the imperial court's taxes." ”

"Every time the prime minister said that he would send mine supervisors to collect taxes and increase the income of the imperial court, it was like killing their father and mother, crying one by one: 'The imperial court must not compete with the people for profit', which is simply unreasonable!"

Mao Yuanyi said: "Last year, the world was in a big drought, which affected the harvest, how many crops can the people produce in the fields? ”

"If the imperial court wants to increase taxes, it is natural to collect commercial taxes, and if Wei Xiangruo starts to levy commercial taxes, I will be the first in heaven and earth to support it!"

After listening to Mao Yuanyi's words, Wei Zhongxian's face sank, and then said: "It's our family who is too polite to them, and if you are polite to these profiteers, the people will suffer one more crime." ”

"Please rest assured that Ning Yuanbo will definitely escort 500,000 stone grains and grass to the front line in Liaodong within a month!"

At the court meeting, Xiong Tingbi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "Your Majesty, Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong has now besieged the elite of the Tartar Banners in Hetuala. Now that the grain and grass are insufficient, the imperial court has not distributed grain and grass for two months, and Ning Yuanbo asked for an additional 500,000 stone of grain and grass. He said that as long as the food and grass arrived, he would be able to conquer Hetuara once and for all! ”

Li Ruhua, the secretary of the household department, hurriedly said: "Now that the autumn grain has not been harvested, it is in a state of green and yellow, and the household department can no longer distribute so much grain and grass!" ”

"Why don't you raise this year's 'Liao salary' a little more?"

After he finished speaking, Feng Quan hurriedly said: "The minister objected, there was a great drought in the world last year, and many people had no output at all, so why should they pay taxes?" ”

"Originally, the 'Liao salary' was temporarily levied, but it was collected for 4 years as soon as it was collected, and now it is not only canceled, but it will rise again, how can the people bear it?"

Zhu Youxiao said: "If you don't increase the 'Liao salary', do you Aiqing have a solution?" ”

After the Emperor of the Apocalypse asked, the entire court was silent.

Zhu Youxiao was obviously a little unhappy, so he raised his voice and said: "Could it be that no one in the Manchu Dynasty can share my worries?" ”

At this time, Wei Zhongxian stood up and said: "Your Majesty, now that the state affairs are difficult, the people have nothing to add to the taxes, and there is only one way to collect commercial taxes!" ”

As soon as Wei Zhongxian's words came out, the court, which was still silent just now, immediately exploded.

Shoufu Han Yi and the others hurriedly said: "Don't compete with the people for profit, so as not to affect Your Majesty's benevolence!" ”

Even the nobles, who were usually not very vocal in their voices, began to speak out against the collection of commercial taxes.

Wei Zhongxian snorted coldly and said: "What a 'competing with the people', businessmen are the people, and those people who farm the land are not considered people in your eyes?" ”

Then he said: "If you don't levy commercial taxes, then our family will copy all the ministers' mansions that were suspected of embezzling military salaries before, and see if they are really honest or false?" ”

As soon as Wei Zhongxian said "raiding the house", many ministers panicked.

Wei Zhongxian's style of handling cases can be said to be planted if it is planted.

Although there are some clear streams among them, most of them are big corrupt officials with a lot of money, and they will not be able to argue about where this money comes from!

In the end, the decision to increase the commercial tax was passed.

Shops in the capital and elsewhere pay rent according to the size of the shop and the industry.

The annual tax ranges from 5 taels to 200 taels.

For pawnshops, restaurants, and green houses, the rents are even higher.

Moreover, the land deed and land deed purchase and sale in the country are subject to an additional 3% deed tax.

In addition, the city of Yuegang in Fujian and Macao, Guangdong Province will be thoroughly investigated, and tax evasion and tax evasion are strictly prohibited!

Good guy, Father-in-law Wei targeted merchants, landlords and smugglers.

Almost offended the entire gentry group in Jiangnan!

Soon armed anti-tax riots broke out in many places, especially the stronghold of the Donglin Party, the line from Nanjing to Suzhou.

In the Suzhou area, there were even cases of businessmen striking the market and killing tax supervisors.

The local government did nothing at all, and repeatedly connived at the maintenance of the troublemakers.

This makes it difficult to implement tax policies thoroughly.

Tian Ergeng said: "This kind of thing happened during the Wanli period, the local officials colluded with the gentry to agitate the people, and in the face of thousands of people, the tax inspectors we sent out were not used at all. ”

"They even bribed death row prisoners and slandered tax supervisors for corruption, and these people can do anything in order not to pay taxes?"

Wei Zhongxian said angrily: "Could it be that Dongchang and Jinyiwei can't find out the truth, and there is no way to take these illegal profiteers?" ”

Tian Ergeng shook his head helplessly and said, "It's difficult, is there a way that the law does not blame the public?" ”

Feng Quan on the side said with a smile: "It turns out that Dongchang and Jinyiwei, who are too afraid to talk about the tiger, also have times when they are helpless? ”

Tian Ergeng said with a bitter face: "My scholar Feng, at this time, you are still talking cool things, why don't you give my brother a support!" ”

Feng Quan said: "Governor Tiandu, when do you Jinyiwei need to talk about evidence in handling the case?" ”

"There is a way to capture the thief and capture the king first, as long as you know who the mastermind behind it is, you can just raid the house. As long as a huge amount of silver taels is copied, are you afraid that you will not be able to find evidence of his corruption? ”

Tian Ergeng suddenly came to his senses and said: "Master Feng's idea is really seconds, and if you can't find any evidence that he instigated trouble, you will arrest him for evidence of corruption." ”

"These bigwigs of the Donglin Party have been officials for decades, and they are afraid that they will not be able to find evidence of corruption, and even if they can't find it, are they still afraid that they will not be able to make evidence?"

Wei Zhongxian said: "Just do it, can you find out who is behind this trouble?" ”

Tian Ergeng said: "This time, we have killed and injured a lot of people in Suzhou, and we can't find out the mastermind behind it for the time being. But during the Wanli period, the most fierce tax resistance was Li Sancai, a corrupt official in Donglin. ”

"When he was the governor of Fengyang, he often launched Diao people to beat and frame the mine supervisor, and now Suzhou's methods are the same as they were back then!"

Then Feng Quan added: "This Li Sancai is now the head of the household department in Nanjing, and Suzhou is also under his control, I heard that he is a huge greed." As long as he is taken, I estimate that Ning Yuanbo's military expenses next year will be able to make up for it! ”

As soon as a few people discussed, it was this Li Sancai!

Soon, Li Sancai's old house in Tongzhou and his mansion in Nanjing were seized by Jinyiwei at the same time.

I don't know if I don't check the results, and I'm shocked when I check it.

A total of 24,000 taels of gold and 1,780,000 taels of silver were found in Li Sancai's two mansions; 100,000 stone of grain. All kinds of treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings are worth about 600,000 taels of silver, as well as various land deeds, shops, and fertile land alone have 150,000 acres, with a total value of about 1.9 million taels of silver.

Li Sancai's family property is worth almost 4.6 million taels of silver.

This is almost catching up with the income of the Ming Dynasty for a year.

After Li Sancai himself learned that the mansion was raided, he didn't know whether he was angry or frightened, anyway, he was killed!

So Jinyiwei couldn't get his confession.

This incident caused an uproar in the court, and the Donglin Party members wrote to accuse Jinyiwei of taking people indiscriminately, and raided the mansion of Li Sancai, the "Qing official", without evidence.

Tian Ergeng insisted that his evidence was conclusive, and that Li Sancai had been corrupt during his tenure as governor of Fengyang and Caoyun.

This time, almost all the centrists were on the side of the Donglin Party, and it was really Wei Zhongxian who scared them. After all, no one can guarantee that the next eunuch will not be their own.

Except for Wei Zhongxian's henchmen, all the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty threatened to resign!

In the end, the Emperor of the Apocalypse also had to make concessions.

Based on the fact that Li Sancai is dead, he will no longer be prosecuted for corruption.

As for his family property, he handed over all the gold, silver, grain, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings to the state treasury.

Other properties are returned to their families.

In view of the fact that military spending is already available, the collection of commercial taxes will be suspended.

Wei Gonggong's first commercial tax collection ended in failure.

Donglin boss Li Sancai redeemed everyone with self-sacrifice.

Li Xianzhong couldn't laugh or cry when he learned the news.

sighed: "Father-in-law Wei has a long way to go!" ”

Tan Malay reported that Wei Liangqing, the Liaodong Supervisor, escorted 500,000 stones of grain and grass to Fushun Pass, and will soon arrive at the front line!

Li Xianzhong knew that this time he should make a break with Huang Taiji!

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(End of chapter)