This eradication of the White Lotus Sect's noble group can be described as a great success, and even the Jingying, which has always pulled its hips, has actually achieved great results.

Although Zhu Chunchen's Shenji Battalion suffered a fiasco, under the polish of Li Xianzhong, it became the righteousness of Chengguo Gong, and he used himself as bait to attract the main force of thieves.

It was even the head of the core disciples of the White Lotus Sect who was captured and killed as Zhu Chunchen's capture.

The British public Zhang Weixian recovered a large number of states and counties in Yanzhou in one fell swoop, which is a real record.

The two were also rewarded by the imperial court.

This battle also gave the imperial court an illusion that Jingying could fight.

Zhu Chunchen also understood that his Shenji battalion lacked training, and after returning to Beijing, he hurriedly recruited some soldiers and began to train quickly.

Now Li Xianzhong, who is the Duke of Liao, is on an equal footing with Zhang Weixian in the title.

In addition, he is the largest real power faction among the nobles, and now he sits in Liaodong and Korea.

The nobles all followed Li Xianzhong to make a fortune in North Korea, and he naturally became the leader of the noble circle in the capital.

Xiong Tingbi, the secretary of the Ministry of War, has now become Li Xianzhong's public spokesperson in the court, although the Xungui group has a limited right to speak in the court, but it is also an indisputable fact that their influence is gradually increasing.

At present, among the six ministries, Xiong Tingbi's military department belongs to Li Xianzhong's noble forces, Feng Quan, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, and Wu Chunfu, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, are Wei Zhongxian's people, Li Ruhua, the secretary of the household department, belongs to neutral people, and the Ministry of Rites and the Criminal Department are in the hands of the Donglin Party.

But since the murder of Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, the Inspectorate has been controlled by the eunuch forces.

Cui Chengxiu, the imperial history of the left capital, and Li Kuilong, the imperial history of the left deputy capital, are all Wei Zhongxian's people.

At the same time, Wei Zhongxian, who controlled the Ministry of Officials and the Inspectorate, only had to wait until next year, and he could use the "Jingcha" once every six years to completely drive the Donglin Party out of the court.

Since Wei Zhongxian controlled Dongchang and Jinyiwei, he could directly send people to the Imperial Prison, so the role of the Criminal Department was greatly weakened.

The number of members of the Cabinet has now increased to nine.

They are Han Yi, Feng Quan, Xiong Tingbi, He Zongyan, Zhu Guozuo, Gu Bingqian, Zhu Yanxi, Wei Guangwei, and Sun Chengzong.

The five newly replaced cabinet ministers are Feng Quan, Gu Bingqian, Zhu Yanxi, Wei Guangwei, and Sun Chengzong.

Among them, Zhu Yanxi and Sun Chengzong are members of the Donglin Party, while Feng Quan, Gu Bingqian, and Wei Guangwei have already taken refuge in the Eunuch Party.

Because He Zongyan and Zhu Guozuo, who are neutral, are still politically biased towards the Donglin Party, Han Yi, as the first assistant, still holds the right to speak in the cabinet.

In fact, Li Xianzhong did not participate in the court meeting, but this time he was crowned the Duke of Liao, and he happened to be in Beijing, so he couldn't find a reason not to go to the court.

The court meetings of the Ming Dynasty were generally outside the palace, and they were called "Imperial Gate Listening to Politics".

In the early dynasties, ministers had to get up at midnight and travel halfway through the capital to the noon gate. At 3 a.m., the minister arrived at noon and waited.

When the drums on the tower of the gate are beating, the ministers will line up; By the time the bell rang around 5 a.m., the palace gates opened.

Hundreds of officials entered in turn, crossed the Jinshui Bridge and formed a team in the square.

At about 6 o'clock, the emperor came to Taihemen to listen to the recital of the hundred officials.

This is the early morning time in spring and summer, and in autumn and winter, due to the late dawn, it will be delayed by half an hour.

Of course, not all cats and dogs are qualified to report to the emperor. Only officials above the fourth rank have the opportunity to talk to the emperor.

The ministers reported to the emperor, who asked questions or gave answers.

To be honest, after this set of processes, you can't withstand it at all without a good body.

We have to gather at 3 o'clock, and we have to get up at least an hour early.

If it's okay in the summer, it starts to go out and suffer from the cold at this point in the winter of the Jingshi, and you can't bear it without a good body, so it is very common for ministers to ask for leave and be absent from the early dynasty.

Of course, those petty officials must honestly arrive in advance to line up, and those elderly cabinet ministers will generally arrive a little late, but they must not let the emperor wait for him, usually at least two or three quarters of an hour earlier than the emperor.

It has been three and a half years since Li Xianzhong first entered Beijing in the 47th year of Wanli.

Although there are many times to enter the palace, this is the first time in the early court.

Emperor Wanli did not go to the early dynasty at all, and Emperor Taichang spent all of his time in prison.

Although the Tianqi Dynasty also encountered the early dynasty several times when he was in Beijing, Li Xianzhong disliked the trouble of the early dynasty and took all of them leave.

This time, he was just promoted to the title of Duke of the Kingdom by His Majesty, and if he didn't even go to the early dynasty, he would inevitably be said to be arrogant and domineering.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong also had to get up early in the morning.

Even if you get up early, you won't be allowed to eat.

The officials tried to drain the feces and urine in their abdomen as much as possible, and then they were forbidden to eat and drink, and they were not even allowed to drink water.

At most, it is to take a few pieces of ginseng in your mouth to replenish your essence.

Li Xianzhong also had to sigh: "No wonder Emperor Wanli refuses to go to court early, who the fuck sets the rules, it's completely inefficient, it's just a toss!" ”

The ministers who waited before the start of the early dynasty were also clearly divided into three waves, one wave of the eunuch party, one wave of the Donglin party, and one wave of neutral parties and nobles.

As the sky gradually brightened, so did the ministers.

At this time, a large number of lights suddenly appeared in the darkness, and I saw that the eight eunuchs in the front were in charge of the red gauze lantern guidance, followed by a long line of honor guards, and at the back of the team were two rows of Dutch crystal lanterns shining brightly.

Finally, there is the lantern crystal color feather, a phoenix chariot with a high hub embroidered curtain with tassel jade pendant, and the Hakka family sits on the top of the chariot.

At this time, a large number of eunuch officials knelt on the ground from afar to greet them, shouting: "Welcome to the Holy Lady!" ”

The Donglin Party on the side had a disdainful expression.

There were hundreds of people in this pomp, and Li Xianzhong only thought that the Emperor of the Apocalypse was coming.

Fortunately, Zhu Chunchen on the side reminded him that this was the Hakka family, otherwise he would have really knelt down with those people in a daze.

Ke Yinyue was in a lofty posture, and she didn't even need to look at the group of kneeling eunuch officials below.

However, when Feng Yin passed in front of Li Xianzhong, Ke Yinyue signaled these palanquin drivers to stop.

She said with a slight smile: "The Duke of Liao actually came to the early court today, this is the first time I have seen it, it is rare!" ”

At this time, Li Xianzhong could only arch his hand and say: "Xianzhong has seen Mrs. Fengsheng!" ”

Then Ke Yinyue's casualty sedan car continued to move forward.

Li Xianzhong suddenly felt that this woman was very powerful, and with a simple sentence, Li Xianzhong was pulled onto the chariot of the eunuch party.

Although Li Xianzhong's collusion with Wei Zhongxian is not a secret, it was still done secretly in private after all.

With such a sentence, it was obvious that she had pulled a wave of hatred for Li Xianzhong in front of the Donglin Party.

Before, there were several Donglin Party members from the military department who greeted Li Xianzhong, but now they looked at Li Xianzhong with fire in their eyes.

It seems that Li Xianzhong is even more shameless than those officials who kneel on the ground and kowtow to Ke Yinyue!

But to be honest, the appearance of the Hakka family is really good, the skin is fair, and the contours of the facial features are very exquisite, especially the size of the pair of jade rabbits on the chest, which definitely exceeds the women of Li Xianzhong.

It's not like a subordinate at all, but a kind of royal sister's temperament.

With the arrival of Zhu Youxiao, this court meeting finally began.

First, the officials reported on the disaster situation in various places, and then they either demanded tax reductions or silver to repair the embankments, which was two words of silver anyway.

Then Xiong Tingbi reported to the Ministry of War to draw up the list of rewards and soldiers for the suppression of the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect in Shandong, and needed another 500,000 taels of silver.

Li Ruhua, the head of the household, is very calm, just two words "no money"!

Li Xianzhong listened to it for a long time, and these people were pulling each other's skins, and in the end, they couldn't come up with any useful solutions to the problem.

But he knew it was just an appetizer.

Sure enough, Feng Quan said not long after: "Now that the rebellion in Jianzhou in Liaodong has been pacified, it is really not advisable to collect 'Liao salary' from the people. ”

"If there is a great drought today, and the people's hearts are unstable, in order to appease the people and stabilize the people's hearts, I ask Your Majesty to cancel the 'Liao Salary'."

No matter what Feng Quan's purpose is, in fact, what he said is not wrong.

With the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, the continued collection of 'Liao salary' will only lead to more peasant rebels.

However, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is insufficient, which is a contradiction that is difficult to solve.

Sure enough, this proposal was quickly opposed by Li Ruhua, the head of the household department, and a group of Donglin party members.

It is normal for Li Ruhua to oppose it, because the household department cannot take out the money at all.

The money for this reward to quell the rebellion of the White Lotus Sect in Shandong was all taken from Zhu Youxiao's internal funds.

However, the Donglin Party objected, more to prevent Wei Zhongxian from releving the commercial tax in Jiangnan.

For a while, the two sides were in dispute.

In fact, the nobles are also against increasing the commercial tax, after all, this is directly from their mouths.

However, at this time, Li Xianzhong did not make a stand, and they did not dare to express their position at will.

Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Apocalypse also had nothing to do about it, and every time he talked about silver, he ended up arguing endlessly, and then withdrew it from his internal money.

Although he really doesn't care much about silver, he is not a fool, although the property under his name can increase a little income for the internal money, but where can he afford to spend like this?

In the final analysis, it is still necessary to increase fiscal revenue, which is why he acquiesced in Wei Zhongxian's use of various means to suppress the Donglin Party.

But today's situation is different, after all, Li Xianzhong is here.

So Zhu Youxiao said: "The situation in Liaodong must be the clearest in Liao Guogong, I don't know what Liao Guogong's attitude is towards the cancellation of 'Liao salary'?" ”

Li Xianzhong said: "The minister agreed with Feng Shangshu's suggestion to cancel the 'Liao Salary'. First of all, the establishment of the state has been pacified, and there will be no large-scale conquest for the time being. ”

"As for Daiseon, who is entrenched in Korea, as the governor of Korea, he naturally mobilizes the Ming army stationed in Korea to fight, and the general's salary is handed over to the king of Korea to solve!"

At this time, Li Ruhua said to Li Xianzhong: "The household department is grateful to the Liao State for fairly determining the establishment of the state, so that the imperial court can save a lot of military salaries. However, Liaodong Town still has an army of 100,000 today, and the annual salary of soldiers is as high as 1.8 million taels of silver, plus the cost of grain and grass is still a huge number. In the past, it was relied on 'Liao's salary' to pay, but now that it is hastily canceled, it will be difficult for the household department to ensure that the salary of the Liaodong soldiers will be paid on time! ”

Li Xianzhong said: "Since my father served as the commander of Liaodong, the garrison of Liaozhen has become less and less. Now Liaodong Town has more territories of the former Haixi Jurchen Hada Department, as well as a large territory of the Jianzhou Jurchens. However, the number of troops has been reduced from 130,000 to 100,000. ”

"Moreover, the copper ore handed over by the Hongtoushan Copper Mine to the imperial court every year is worth 600,000 taels of silver, plus the taxes of Liaodong, the burden caused by Liaodong to the Ming Dynasty is getting less and less!"

Zhu Youxiao said: "I have heard of the reputation of Liaoguo Gong being good at financial management, and I don't know if there is a way to reduce the expenses of Liaodong. ”

Li Xianzhong thought to himself: This Zhu Youxiao is ready to pit himself again, it seems that it is better to take a leave of absence in the early future.

Forget it, I just made some concessions for the sake of his ascension to the country, so that he can feel at ease!

Li Xianzhong said: "The way to save expenses is nothing more than to open up sources and reduce expenditure!" ”

"Previously, in order to prevent the Mongolian ministries from secretly establishing a state, the horse market was canceled, but now that the state has been established, the horse market can be restored. The ministers asked for the restoration of the horse markets in Quang Ninh and Kaiyuan. In this way, the imperial court can increase its income by more than 100,000 taels per year. ”

"Now that the threat of Jianzhou has been basically resolved, Ningyuan Road in western Liaoning can be revoked. The minister suggested that the Xiaoling River should be used as the boundary to divide the territory of the original Ningyuan Road into Shanhaiguan and Guangning respectively. In this way, Liaodong can reduce the garrison of 5,000 troops. ”

Although the recovery of the horse market had a certain impact on Li Xianzhong, it was not great. Now that he has 200,000 mu of land in Yanzhou, as well as a large number of immigrants from Liaodong and the development of Taiwan, the little grain provided by the "Kaizhongfa" can be given up.

As for the dismissal, after all, there are still a few generals and men in Liaodong who do not listen to their orders, and just take this opportunity to drive them out of Liaodong.

After Li Xianzhong expressed his position, Zhu Youxiao was very satisfied, and said on the spot: "It is still the public method of Liaoguo, and the substantive problem will be solved immediately." You Aiqing argued for a long time, can you reduce the expenditure of one tael of silver or increase the income of one tael of silver for my Ming Dynasty? ”

Then he said: "I have decided to completely ban the 'Liao Salary' and reduce the burden of the people of the world. But the imperial court also needs to open up sources and reduce expenditures, don't talk so much useless nonsense, and then only discuss the two topics of 'open source' and 'throttling'. ”

Zhu Youxiao's words made the Donglin Party and nobles unable to speak. After all, what they have been saying is "you can't compete with the people for profit", and Your Majesty has made it clear that this is nonsense.

In particular, the nobles and nobles naturally want to reduce their expenditures by investigating "empty salaries", and there are 170,000 people in the Beijing camp, and the number of people who "eat empty salaries" is as high as more than 110,000.

They definitely don't support "throttling", so they can only retreat to the next best thing and support "open source", isn't it just to pay a little commercial tax, anyway, the commercial tax rate of Daming is not high.

Soon Wei Zhongxian took over Zhu Youxiao's words and said: "The total financial revenue of Daming last year was 7.55 million taels of silver, and various expenditures were as high as 11.3 million taels. ”

"Among them, His Majesty's internal funds support 2 million taels, and the remaining 1.75 million taels are still in arrears."

"The increase in the imperial court's income last year was mainly due to Cui Chengxiu's tenure as governor of Huaiyang, and his vigorous implementation of Yuan Shizhen's reform of the salt law and the implementation of the Gang Salt Law. The salt tax revenue of the imperial court reached 2.5 million taels, the highest record in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Previously, when the big corrupt official Li Sancai was in office, the highest salt tax in Lianghuai did not exceed 600,000 taels, and even only 200,000 taels when it was young. ”

"But this year, the natural disasters are more serious, and the taxes in various places must be sharply reduced, and the salt tax will definitely be affected! If the commercial tax is not increased, then the income of the imperial court will definitely drop significantly this year. ”

The reason why Gonggong Wei said that it would be levied was because the Ming Dynasty originally also had commercial taxes.

The taxes of the Ming Dynasty are mainly agricultural tax and salt tax, but there are still commercial taxes.

The first is the banknote customs, which are mainly set up in the Yangtze River and the canal, and the load of the passing ships is taxed, and this tax revenue is more.

There are also many types of labor duties, gate taxes, dam taxes, and ship taxes (different from ship money, which are taxed on goods), and the tax rates are not equal, such as the labor tariff can be as high as three or two because of the need to repair the palace.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, under Wei Zhongxian's collection, the tax amount was as high as 439,000 taels.

There is also the customs tariff, the Ming Dynasty to the customs management agency is the city shipping department, the main object is the tributary trade tribute and private goods, the tribute docking royal family is not taxed, but for the tribute ship piggyback on the "private goods".

In the early stage, the "price purchase" was implemented, and in the middle and late periods, the "points" were all drawn in kind, and the tax rate was two out of ten. There are also names such as the Law on Attracting Trade, Salary Extraction, and Salary Increase that involve customs tariffs.

However, due to the ban on the sea in the Ming Dynasty, the revenue from customs duties was not high, only about 60,000 taels in previous years.

In the first year of the Apocalypse, under the high-intensity surveillance of the eunuch party, it only increased to 79,000 taels.

The above two types are actually commercial taxes in a broad sense.

The commercial tax in the narrow sense of the Ming Dynasty involves general merchandise such as food, fruit and vegetables, and livestock, which is 30 taxes and 1, which is levied by the tax department established in the local area.

Ming Taizu was more resistant to commercial taxes (in fact, this thing didn't charge much money, but it was easier to harm the people), so the tax department with a smaller tax amount was reduced, and the tax department that failed to meet the target was not sanctioned. In addition, everything for personal use is exempt from tax.

In addition to the levy on department stores, there are four more.

One is the wine and vinegar tax, the Ming Dynasty originally implemented the ban on wine, but the ban did not stop, and then the wine and vinegar tax was introduced, and the wine koji and wine were levied twice.

The second is the market tax, which was levied in the Hongxi Dynasty, which is similar to the later business tax, which is also levied by the tax department.

The three deed taxes, mainly for the contract, are divided into two parts: the cost of the former is 40 Wen, and the latter is 3 cents for every two silver.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 320 river berths, and some provinces had too many offices, resulting in the tax collected not being able to cover the expenses.

Among them, the fishing tax is simply beyond the means, so this tax has been abandoned.

Due to the collusion between officials and businessmen, the other three basically do not collect much tax, and the whole country adds up to tens of thousands of taels.

Therefore, this time, Wei Zhongxian proposed that there are three main aspects of commercial tax:

The first is the banknote pass, which is mainly aimed at the merchant ships on the Yangtze River Canal, such as Hushu Pass near Suzhou, where there are more than 100,000 taels per year.

Obviously, it was mainly aimed at the Jiangnan gentry.

The second is the market tax, which was almost a virtual reality before.

In the previous tax, it was stipulated that shops in various places should pay rent according to the size of the shop and the industry, and the annual tax ranged from 5 taels to 200 taels.

Individual profiteering industries, such as Qinglou pawnshops, have a maximum annual levy of 1,000 taels.

As long as this tax is implemented in various localities, it will not be a problem for the imperial court to increase its income by millions of taels of silver.

It is mainly in Beijing and the big cities of Yangzhou, Nanjing and Suzhou.

The third is deed tax.

The deed tax reform increased the cost of production to 50 yuan, and the tax rate remained at 3%, that is, three cents for every two pieces of silver.

Obviously, Gonggong Wei must be guided by a master behind this.

Even Li Ruhua, the secretary of the household department, was taken aback, and after the shock, he expressed his full support for Wei Gonggong's commercial tax policy.

The eunuchs under Wei Zhongxian's command naturally echoed one after another.

This actually affected Li Xianzhong's commercial tax in Liaodong, because it duplicated the commercial tax he collected privately.

However, it is not a big problem, when the time comes, he will come forward to deal with the tax supervisor who goes to Liaodong to collect taxes, and directly collect taxes according to the minimum of 5-10 taels per year.

In the end, Li Xianzhong had to grit his teeth and agree, after all, compared with the silk profits in Japan, he really couldn't look down on these small money.

The right to support the reform of Wei Gonggong!

Although the nobles in the capital are unwilling to pay more taxes, these are just small heads compared to checking empty salaries.

Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, said: "The minister fully supports this tax policy, and said that Jubao Zhai under his name directly pays taxes of 200 taels per year according to the highest tax in the industry!" ”

Then some Qingliu among the Donglin Party also began to support the increase in commercial taxes by the imperial court this time.

In desperation, the Donglin bigwigs could only agree with the crowd.

Anyway, it is one thing for the imperial court to collect it, but it is another thing to actually collect it.

Jingshi is at the foot of the Son of Heaven, and these commercial taxes will definitely not be able to run, and at most the tax officials will be paid less.

But Jiangnan has always been armed to resist taxes, and this time the eunuchs have imposed multiple tariffs, and they will definitely rise up to resist!

In the end, this plan to increase the commercial tax was passed, and for the time being, let's call it the "Apocalypse Commercial Tax".

Zhu Youxiao was very happy, this solved the big trouble of the imperial court.

I just wanted to announce my retirement from the DPRK.

However, at this time, Li Xianzhong said: "Li Xianzhong, the minister of Liaoguo, please reinstate the Nuer Gandu to command the envoy!" ”

Nurgandus was established in the seventh year of Yongle (1409).

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, the capital division was generally held by Han Chinese, and there were also local officials.

Although the Ming Dynasty did not officially abolish the Nuer Gandu Division, due to the establishment of liuguan, the cost of transporting grain was huge. Therefore, it was almost abandoned during the Xuande period.

Emperor Tianqi said: "The Duke of Liao intends to open up territory for my Ming Dynasty, and I am very relieved. However, the re-establishment of the Nurgan Dusi, where there is almost no output, requires a lot of additional money and food, and the current imperial court is probably not enough! ”

Li Xianzhong said: "At present, the threat of Jianzhou Jurchen has been eliminated, and the imperial court naturally takes the opportunity to expand its influence to the Heilongjiang River Valley. ”

"As for money and grain, Your Majesty doesn't need to worry, you can put Nuergandu Division under the jurisdiction of Liaodong Economic Strategy, and the ministers will gradually develop their strongholds in the form of a guard to ensure that they can be self-sufficient, and there is no need for the imperial court to spend extra money and food."

Expanding the territory is definitely what every emperor wants to see, and since there is no need to spend money, Zhu Youxiao has no worries.

After all, Li Xianzhong opened a horse market and reduced troops, so this face still has to be given to him.

So he said: "From now on, the Ming Dynasty Funuer Gandu will command the envoy, which belongs to the command of Li Xianzhong, the Liaodong Economic Strategy!" ”

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(End of chapter)