I

Page 599

Xu Ying did not criticize this, but said: "The blue hair and purple temples are novel and interesting, and they look more graceful and noble."

The two kept chatting for half an hour, Xu Ying only talked about trivial matters, and Wang Mingran became more and more restless.He once helped Xu Ying develop a secret agent, and he knew that Xu Ying seemed harmless to humans and animals, but when she actually did it, her relatives did not recognize her.

However, Wang Mingran couldn't guess what Xu Ying was thinking.

He wanted to be completely subdued and tell all kinds of dirty things, but he was afraid that it would be self-defeating. What if Xu Ying didn't know how to investigate the salt affairs?

Finally, Xu Ying picked up a teacup to see off the guests: "Brother Mingran, it's getting late. I still have official business, so let's toast and chat some other day, and we must be drunk by then."

Wang Mingran stood up and bowed to say goodbye, but when he reached the door, he couldn't step over the threshold.His right foot was raised and lowered several times, as if he had some foot disease.

Xu Ying didn't speak, just sat there quietly holding a teacup.

Suddenly, Wang Mingran gritted his teeth and turned around, knelt down and said, "Master, please help!"

Xu Ying then put down the teacup: "Let's talk."

Wang Mingran said: "The villain will take the initiative to pay back the salt tax that the Wang family evaded all these years... No, double the pay!"

"That's it?" Xu Ying remained expressionless.

Wang Mingran finally confirmed in his heart that Xu Ying was sent by the emperor to clean up Jiangsu.He didn't dare to hide any more, and said: "Officials in the Jiangsu Salt Affairs Department more or less accept bribes. The higher the rank of officials, the less they dare to openly accept money. The salt merchant has a calligraphy and painting shop in Yangzhou. They secretly bought official calligraphy at high prices, and the most expensive one was sold for 3000 taels."

Xu Ying still had a wooden face: "Continue."

Wang Mingran said: "Hui... Hui merchants and Jiangxi merchants joined the government to annex all the business of Western merchants (Shanxi merchants) in Jiangsu."

Commercial mergers are normal, and it is obviously messy for the government to intervene.

Xu Ying asked, "How did you merge?"

Wang Mingran replied: "Although Western merchants are declining day by day, there are also many Western merchants who have obtained franchise licenses for salt merchants. Some Western merchants have opened salt farms in Jianghuai; some Western merchants have been allowed to transport salt to other provinces. Every time the government thoroughly The investigation of the salt affairs only focused on the Western merchants, and those Western merchants did not dare to violate the law. But if they did not violate the law, they would violate the law. According to the law of the court, the first few times were only warnings and fines, and then the franchise license can be revoked.”

The Gan merchants came from the land of Longxing in this dynasty.

And Huizhou merchants supported Zhao Han very early on, and even helped Zhao Han take Yangzhou without bloodshed.

These two forces are united, and the government is still pulling sideways. How can the Shanshan businessmen stand it?Even if they were forced to sell their shops and salt fields, the Shanshan merchants did not dare to appeal for injustice, for fear that they might lose their lives in the end.

Over the past few years, the industries of Western merchants in Jiangsu have been swallowed up like this.

Xu Ying was still not satisfied: "Are you avoiding the important ones and taking the light ones? What's the matter with the rising salt price in recent years? The Ministry of Commerce has issued repeated orders and repeated requests, announcing the guide price of table salt every year. Why is the price of Huai salt getting more and more expensive?"

Wang Mingran swallowed his saliva and explained: "The weather is getting colder and colder, and it is not easy to dry salt. The wages of workers in the saltworks are getting higher and higher."

"So that's it, you can go." Xu Ying didn't refute this nonsense either.

Wang Mingran was even more afraid to leave after being told, he became more determined at this time, Xu Ying had already grasped the truth, after all this was the "Head of Jinyiwei" in the past.

Wang Mingran bit the bullet, gritted his teeth and said: "After the Western merchants' industries were annexed, Jiangxi merchants and Anhui merchants joined forces to raise prices. The merchants (salt transporters) are also ours, and they went up together. The imperial court sent people to investigate, and they all agreed. , saying that the cost of making and transporting salt has increased.”

With the cooperation of the Jiangsu Salt Affairs Department, Jiangxi merchants and Huizhou merchants jointly monopolized Huai salt, not only monopolizing the manufacture of Huai salt, but even monopolizing the export of Huai salt.

Xu Ying was still dissatisfied: "If you want to keep your business, don't hide it. Your Majesty is most concerned about the land administration. Manipulating the price of salt, a light sentence will only result in a fine, and a heavy sentence will at most revoke the license. That's all. , His Majesty will send me to Jiangsu to govern?"

"Tian...Tian Zheng?" Wang Mingran's mouth was parched.

Xu Ying said, "Did the officials of the household office in Jiangsu participate in this?"

Wang Mingran shook his head: "No. The household officials in the county can handle such trivial matters without disturbing the government, let alone the province."

"boom!"

Xu Ying, who had always been indifferent, finally became angry when she heard this, and threw her teacup out of anger, "A trivial matter? You call it a trivial matter to plunder people's fields!"

In order to achieve political achievements, officials in Jiangsu allowed merchants to expand the salt farms, robbed the people's land property, and changed many grain-growing lands into salt farms.Farmers who lost their land could only be forced to work in the saltworks, so that there would be enough workers in the saltworks, and they took the opportunity to lower their wages.

The government, on the other hand, increased taxes on the salt industry, so the entire Jiangsu officialdom turned a blind eye.

Wang Mingran knelt anxiously, anxiously waiting for his disposal.

Xu Ying patted the table and said, "Here is a pen and paper. Write down everything you know. Which officials and which merchants, the clearer the better. Try to atone for your crimes, and I can keep your salt merchant license. But, We have to make up for the tax evasion, and prepare a large sum of money as a fine.”

"Yes!"

Wang Mingran scrambled and scrambled, and ran to pick up a pen to write the confession, his forehead and vest were covered with sweat.

Xu Ying really didn't dare to get rid of all these salt merchants, otherwise the market would be chaotic in the short term, which would affect the livelihood of the people in several provinces.But it must be severely punished, otherwise the court will lose its majesty.

The general solution is to revoke one-third of the salt merchant licenses.Then, redistribute these franchise licenses, recruit merchants from Shanxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and break the monopoly of Jiangxi merchants and Huizhou merchants on Huaiyan in one fell swoop.

Salt merchants whose licenses have not been revoked will also pay taxes and impose heavy fines.

Xu Ying represented the emperor and the imperial court. As long as he dared to do something, no matter how good the salt merchant was, he would be obedient.This is not Europe, and businessmen don't even have the right to jump around.

Take the Qing Dynasty in history as an example. The rich Yangzhou salt merchants actually made "Yangzhou merchants impoverished" during the Daoguang period.

At that time, there were hundreds of merchants operating Huaiyan salt, but they quickly went bankrupt and only a few dozen remained. The bankruptcy rate of Jianghuai salt merchants was close to [-]%.Jiang Chun, the commoner friend of Emperor Qianlong and the chief general merchant of Jianghuai, died in poverty.The children of some big salt merchants, the males were the accountants of the masters, and the females were even reduced to Huajie and Liuxiang.

What happened to the salt merchants?Of course it was slaughtered by the court!

Emperor Qianlong was good at making money, but money cannot be changed out of thin air.Every time Qianlong went to the south of the Yangtze River, local merchants paid for his reception.Merchants not only had to bear the extravagance of the emperor, but also donated silver to the court, and then quietly sent silver to the emperor's accompanying officials.

Donate to officials secretly, only donate to the court in the open.In the early years of Qianlong, there were less than 1000 million taels.In the later period of Qianlong and the early years of Jiaqing, it quickly increased to 2700 million taels.

In addition, uprisings continued throughout the country, and floods and droughts in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River occurred frequently, and salt merchants were asked to donate money whenever something happened.

It is impossible for the Jianghuai salt merchants to be foolish enough to make cash machines. Since they have given money, they will naturally have to get it back from other places.

As a result, the salt tax of the imperial court plummeted, and the price of salt among the people skyrocketed.

In the second year of Daoguang, the imperial court felt that it was time to clean up the salt administration, so as to block the loopholes for salt merchants to make money.For a while, Jianghuai salt merchants were unable to make ends meet, and [-] to [-]% of them went bankrupt in more than ten years.

This is the ancient Chinese society. Facing the imperial court, businessmen had to stretch their necks to be slaughtered.

Xu Ying received the confession written by Wang Mingran, and for the next month, she continued to deal with official duties as usual, without any intention of doing anything.

However, the salt merchants took action and surrendered to the government one after another, making up the full amount of the salt tax they evaded.At the same time, they lowered the salt price collectively, earning performance frantically, for fear that they would become the chicken that was killed.

Xu Ying secretly wrote a letter to the emperor, roughly as follows:

"According to the secret investigations by the National Security Council and the Inspectorate, there are not a few farmlands that have been encroached on the Yangtze River and Huaihe coastal areas. Even in some villages a few miles away from the sea, because they are next to the river, there are merchants who set up saltworks and use seawater to cook salt. There are also many illegal small salt farms, most of which are related to local officials."

"The occupied farmland has been salinized. It is very difficult to restore it to farmland, and the operation is not worth the loss. These farmlands can only maintain the status quo. However, the salt merchants must pay a large amount of compensation for the farmers whose land is occupied. For the salt merchants in the farmland, half of the businesses canceled their franchise licenses and recruited merchants from other provinces to take over. The remaining half of the businesses retained their licenses, but all the license holders were exiled, and the licenses were replaced by their family members to continue to hold them. Only in this way can the salt business be guaranteed No mess."

"Jiangsu's Household Department, Finance Department and Salt Affairs Department, the chief officials suggested to deal with them more severely. Especially the Salt Affairs Department, the situation of disguised bribery is extremely serious, and a group of them must be killed in order to establish the prestige of the court."

Zhao Han received Xu Ying's secret report, and when he saw the list of officials who suggested execution, he sighed in pain for a moment.

They are all young doers with outstanding political achievements!

It is estimated that there will be trouble in the court, and Li Rixuan will probably not be able to bear it, and take the opportunity to impeach the faction headed by Yu Shiqin.

As for the clean-up of Jiangsu's officialdom, there will be no surprises.The authority of the founding emperor is right there, as long as Xu Ying, who bears the emperor's order, dares to act, the local officials don't even have room to jump around.

Even relying on Xu Ying alone, the magistrate had to submit without hesitation. Didn't Wang Mingran, a big salt merchant, come to confess on his own initiative?

It is impossible for imperial envoys to fight against local officials, at least it was absolutely impossible in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.If you really dare to act like that, you are forcing the emperor to confiscate the house, turning one person's sin into a disaster for the whole family.

Chapter 777 [Husband only does not fight]

In the Ming Dynasty, if political opponents were to be impeached, there were usually officials from the Ministry of Education, and the real bosses were only responsible for the mopping up work.

Hidden so deeply that he didn't even come out to clean up the ending, as if he didn't participate in the whole process.

The new dynasty of Datong is a bit embarrassing. The Daoist (Inspectorate) is in the hands of the emperor. He is usually only responsible for investigating corrupt officials and does not get involved in factional disputes in the court at all.The officers of the department have also become overwhelmed. Although the sixth department has been expanded to twelve teachers, they have been deprived of the right to play rumors.

Therefore, the impeachment of political opponents requires personal action, at least someone from one's own faction to be the vanguard.

"Uncle Hui, if you don't make a move at this time, when will you wait? As soon as Gan Tangshu was transferred back to the center, the officialdom in Jiangsu was immediately investigated. It is obvious that His Majesty is already extremely dissatisfied with those people. Yu Shiqin is really clean, and he can't be found at all." There is a loophole. But Gan Tangshu is different, this person was born as a talented scholar in Fengcheng, and he came from a branch of the already ruined Gan family."

"According to an old friend who passed by Fengcheng, Gan Tangshu built a big house in his hometown and bought many servants from Nanyang. His eldest son even raised two Persian girls, and even raised a troupe in Nanchang for fun. Even His family's ancestral grave has also been repaired in a very luxurious way, and he hired a great scholar to write the epitaph for his deceased mother. By the way, Gan Tangshu also paid for the reconstruction of the Gan's ancestral hall. His family has no business, so where did he get so much money? silver?"

The person who pushed for impeachment was Yang Zhong, the left servant of the Ministry of War.

Li Rixuan shook his head and said, "It's not time to close the net yet, we must kill Yu Shiqin with one blow."

Yang Zhong said: "Getting Gan Tangshu down is equivalent to beheading Yu Shiqin's left and right arms."

Li Rixuan said: "There are too many capable officials under Yu Shiqin's command. Without a Gan Tangshu, it is not considered to be cutting off his left and right arm. Your Majesty will definitely be disappointed with Yu Shiqin in this incident in Jiangsu. Don't be in a hurry at this time, because Your Majesty also needs face. , Many officials in Yu Shiqin's line were promoted by His Majesty. His Majesty's face has been disgraced by the handling of Jiangsu officialdom, how can we get into trouble at this time?"

"Then miss the opportunity?" Yang Zhong said angrily.

Li Rixuan said: "When Your Majesty is completely disappointed with them, it's time for us to make a real move."

Li Rixuan consciously thinks comprehensively, but he overestimates his control power, and he can't suppress his party members at all.

A few days later, officials went up for impeachment.

Zhao Han flipped through the impeachment memorial, and laughed angrily: "They are very capable. Since the investigation is so clear, why didn't they report it to the Procuratorate earlier, and have to wait until this time to go directly to the prison?"

Gan Tangshu, who was transferred to the center, was indeed a corrupt official.

Moreover, the greed is extremely hidden. When he was in charge of Jiangsu, he never received a penny of bribes.However, his sons and daughters' in-laws have registered trading companies in Shanghai, and they can often receive orders from the government and get a Huai salt distribution license.For all the operations, Gan Tangshu didn't show up in person, and she could pick herself up at any time.

It's just that his son is really too good at showing off.

That kid has settled in Nanchang for a long time, and when he goes out to the streets, he must sit in a luxurious sedan chair.There are 30 people in front and back, half of them are Han Chinese hired with money, and half are slaves bought from Nanyang.Those slaves were raised very strong, all armed with sticks, showing off their power and often beating others.He also has an opera troupe, which is not open to the public, and only invites friends to watch operas at home for free.

The government stipulates that land cannot be traded, so the money must be useful.So he started construction, expanded the ancestral house, rebuilt the ancestral hall, and repaired the ancestral grave, for fear that others would not know that his father was a corrupt official.

"Order the Procuratorate to suspend and investigate." Zhao Han gave instructions.

The dignified Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Commerce was invited to drink tea by the Inspectorate.

Gan Tangshu was a decent person, even though she was invited to the Inspectorate, she still seemed calm and unhurried.

"Mr. Gan, please sit down," Dai Wenmeng said, cupping his hands. "Since the establishment of the Inspectorate, Mr. Gan has the highest official rank. I am honored to be able to receive him in person in my next life. If the investigation is all right, Mr. Gan will definitely return to his post. If... I won't say anything."

Gan Tangshu sat down straightly: "If you have something to say, feel free to ask."

After his partner set up the pen and paper, Dai Wenmeng asked, "Mr. Gan, in his hometown, has he expanded the ancestral house, rebuilt the ancestral hall, and renovated the tombs of several ancestors?"

Gan Tangshu asked back, "Is this not breaking the law?"

Dai Wenmeng asked: "Where did the money come from? I heard that when Lingtang passed away, it cost 300 taels of silver to ask the Confucian to write the inscription."

Gan Tangshu said: "My Gan family has been a prominent family in Fengcheng for a long time. A few years ago, I renovated my ancestral house and dug out several large boxes of silver from the ground."

Good guy, there is no "crime of unidentified origin of huge property" at this time, and a sentence of money buried by the ancestors can fool the past.

Dai Wenmeng asked, "Who were there when the silver was dug out?"

Gan Tangshu replied: "Only my eldest son and second son were present, and the wealth was not disclosed, so there was no publicity at that time."

"Mr. Gan's two young masters dug the foundation themselves when renovating the ancestral house?" Dai Wenmeng asked.

Gan Tangshu said: "I have tried to teach the dogs to do everything by themselves, and not to be a person with four limbs and not working hard."

Dai Wenmeng felt that his IQ was being insulted, so he finally put away his smile, tapped his fingers on the table, and said with a cold expression: "Gan Tangshu, I advise you to be honest. If you confess now, you can be punished lightly. If we find out, we will definitely He will be severely punished!"

Gan Tangshu looked wronged: "It's really the money dug out when renovating the ancestral house. This is the blessing of the ancestors, and I deserve it."

Dai Wenmeng continued to put pressure: "Your hometown, we have already sent people to investigate. Your in-laws are called Zhang Wendu, and someone from his business company is also investigating. Do you understand what it means?"

Gan Tangshu said: "The Qing is self-clearing, everyone just go to investigate. My in-laws are businessmen who do their best. I was given the 'Yi Shang' badge, and the board of Yi Shang hangs in his home. I am really wronged, and I ask the Procuratorate to find out the truth, and I must be cleared."

"A dead duck with a stubborn mouth, there are times when you cry!" Dai Wenmeng was irritated by the other party's arrogance.

……

When Gan Tangshu was suspended for review, Li Rixuan made a fuss in his own home.

"Liu Zhenfu, bastard... bastard!"

Li Rixuan's arm swept out, and the pen container, inkstone, and pen stand on the table flew to the ground one after another.

Yang Zhong persuaded: "Don't get angry, Uncle Hui. It's a good thing to get a left servant. Gan Tangshu will definitely fall this time."

But Li Rixuan became more and more angry, and cursed: "Idiot, he Liu Zhenfu is an idiot! A corrupt official with such high authority as Gan Tangshu must be exposed at a critical moment in order to wipe out Yu Shiqin's party. What's the point of bringing him down now?" Use? Not only will Yu Shiqin not be implicated, but he will also be vigilant because of this, and he will become more cautious in the future! That bastard Liu Zhenfu said that impeachment is not allowed, so what is he going to do with that memorial? He is buying fame for himself, and he wants to take this opportunity to climb up the ladder!"

Yang Zhong didn't say anything more, because Li Rixuan had hit the mark.

Liu Zhenfu, as the right servant of the Ministry of Finance, has a chance to go up and upright if he overthrows Gan Tangshu, the left servant.Anyway, Gan Tangshu had just been transferred back to the center, and he didn't have a solid foundation in the Ministry of Finance, so he wasn't afraid of offending his colleagues in the Ministry of Finance.In terms of reputation, by bringing down a heavyweight political opponent, Liu Zhenfu can still gain prestige in his own camp.

As for Li Rixuan's long-term plan, is it none of Liu Zhenfu's business?

Li Rixuan's party was originally a loose alliance.In the past, with Li Banghua sitting in charge, it was natural that he was united as one, but who cares about whom now?

I'm so tired!

Li Rixuan sat down slumped, he felt like a fool, what is the purpose of such intrigue?

He set his sights on his political opponents, and was suddenly stabbed in the back by his teammates.This teammate is challenging his authority, and his words will carry less weight in the future.

……