Han Du returned home and sat down in his study. There was only a solitary lamp burning on the table, and the weak firelight could not even illuminate the bookshelf against the wall.
Han Du sat in front of such a dark table, saying nothing.
I don't know how long it took, but Han Du seemed to notice someone standing in front of him. He looked around and asked tentatively, "Anqing?"
The person in front of him moved and slowly took two steps forward. The firelight shone on the other person's face. It turned out to be An Qing.
Han Du suddenly asked in confusion, "Why didn't you call me when you came? How long have you been here? Come and sit down."
An Qing followed Han Du's hand and came to his side. He shook his head slightly and said, "I think you seem to have something on your mind and I can't bear to disturb you."
After being pointed out by An Qing, Han Du smiled awkwardly. Then he said, "Then you shouldn't just stand. Does your leg hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." An Qing shook his head quickly, "Ah, it's a bit hoarse~"
Originally, An Qing didn't want Han Du to worry and wanted to fool her. Unexpectedly, Han Du directly touched her calf gently.
Han Du immediately relaxed his movements and slowly kneaded An Qing. While kneading, he complained, "You know you can't stand for a long time, but you still stand silently for so long. You deserve this."
An Qing didn't care about Han Du's words. Instead, he stared at him and asked, "Does your husband have something on your mind?"
Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Han Du had to smile and said, "It's not really a worry, it's just a villain who is causing trouble with me."
"Little man? Are you talking about Qi Tai, Minister of the Ministry of War?" An Qing smiled slightly.
Han Du nodded.
An Qing is not one of those women who stays at home. Han Du never thought of confining her to the house. Instead, he encouraged her to go out as much as possible when she had free time. Even if she didn't buy anything, she just went shopping.
That's fine. As long as you have a guard by your side, you won't encounter any trouble.
Therefore, although Anqing did not deliberately inquire about matters above the court, she could still hear a thing or two from the market.
An Qing looked at Han Du curiously, and then asked, "My husband has always been resourceful. A Qitai should not trouble my husband so much."
Han Du turned to look at An Qing, laughed immediately, and said, "You still understand me. If it's just Qitai, I won't take it to heart at all."
"Why is that?" An Qing stood up, stood up to Han Du, stretched out his hand, and gently rubbed his temples.
While Han Du was enjoying the warmth and coolness on An Qing's fingers, he suddenly sighed
"The emperor is indeed the emperor, and he deserves to be taught by his father for many years."
When An Qing heard this, his fingers couldn't help but pause, and then he continued to rub it, and asked softly, "Why, does your husband's worry have something to do with the emperor?"
While Han Du was enjoying it, he told An Qing about his conversation with Zhu Biao today and his guesses.
After An Qing heard this, he was immediately dissatisfied and said, "Why is the emperor like this? How much have you helped him over the years, even his life was saved by you. He found such a person to balance you, isn't this suspicion of you?"
?”
Han Du chuckled softly a few times, closed his eyes and enjoyed it and said, "It's not really a suspicion."
Han Du let out a long sigh. To be honest, he was not sure what Zhu Biao was thinking. But it didn't matter what Zhu Biao thought. Anyway, he never thought about doing anything bad to him. Just do your own thing.
, even if one day Zhu Biao doesn't even let him do anything, that's just right, he can spend time with Anqing at home.
Han Du felt his headache disappear and looked back at An Qing.
An Qing didn't stop, looked at Han Du strangely, and asked softly, "What's wrong?"
I saw that her eyes were extremely bright under the candlelight. It was indeed a beauty under the lamp, and the more she looked at it, the more charming she became!
Han Du suddenly laughed, grabbed An Qing's hand and stopped her from continuing to rub it. He smiled and said, "It's okay, come on, let's sleep peacefully."
An Qing punched Han Du in the chest in embarrassment, lowered her head and let Han Du help her into the room.
Everyone in the Ministry of Household Affairs is busy now. Since the emperor has decreed that the Ministry of Household Affairs implement a new tax system, each of the fourteen provinces and counties in the Ming Dynasty must set up a tax collection department. This is a big project, isn't it?
It can be completed in three or two days.
Only Han Du, even when he came to the household department, would sit in the public room and spend his days leisurely.
This household department now belongs to Han Du. No one except Zhu Biao has the right to ask what Han Du is doing here. As Han Du is a member of the household department, even if something happens, there will be plenty of it.
The officials below scrambled to complete it for him, and Han Du was naturally happy and relaxed.
Just as Han Du slowly put a piece of pastry into his mouth, there was a "bang" sound, and his door seemed to have been knocked open by an elephant.
Just about to get angry, Han Du suddenly saw Wang Yuanji walking in followed by Zhao Yu. He looked helplessly at Wang Yuanji
Eyes, said: "Can't you knock on the door when you come in? Or is this door not good, are you afraid of breaking it?"
"Be careful next time, be careful next time." Wang Yuanji smiled playfully and cupped his hands towards Han Du, and the matter seemed to be over.
Zhao Yu followed Wang Yuanji and looked at him with a strange expression behind him. You know, even if Wang Shangshu was a kind-hearted person in the past, there would never be anyone as reckless as Wang Yuanji in the Ministry of Household Affairs.
I dare to open the door at will.
Is this the tacit understanding between the teacher and the student?
Zhao Yu had been with Wang Yuanji for so long, so he naturally knew the relationship between Wang Yuanji and Zhenhai Hou.
But as a student, shouldn't Wang Yuanji respect his teachers more? Zhao Yu couldn't understand.
Han Du took a sip of tea, melted the cake and swallowed it, and a sweet taste spread in his throat.
After clearing his throat, Han Du gestured for the two of them to sit down and asked, "You came to me in such a hurry. Is there something important?"
Wang Yuanji sat down and poured a cup of tea for Zhao Yu first, and then for himself. He drank a cup of tea in a gulp, and after pouring it again, he smiled and said, "Master Marquis, the resident of the Taxation Department is here."
It's easy to handle. Originally, each chief envoy department already had a yamen of the Ministry of Revenue. Now we only need to build taxation departments in each prefecture and county. But now there is a problem, and that is people."
Seeing that Han Du was silent and silent, Wang Yuanji continued, "In the past, the Ministry of Household Affairs only had people in each province, and there were no officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs in the following prefectures and counties. Now it is necessary to supplement the manpower of the Taxation Department of each prefecture and county.
"Second"
Seeing Wang Yuanji's hesitation, Han Du glanced at him and said, "Continue."
Wang Yuanji smiled dryly and said, "The Marquis also knows that originally the taxes were collected by the various prefectures and counties and then sent to the various chief envoys. But now that all taxes are collected by taxation departments, these taxes
The prefecture and county taxation departments need a lot of manpower."
Han Du had thought of this a long time ago, and without any hesitation, he directly said to Wang Yuanji, "The number of manpower must be increased, but it does not need to be increased too much."
"What does this mean? Please make it clear, Lord Marquis." Wang Yuanji was stunned for a moment.
Han Du glanced at him and said, "It is true that we need to add more manpower, but we don't need too many. Five people are enough for one county."
"Only five? Lord Hou, is this impossible?" Zhao Yu was shocked when he heard this.
How many people are there in a county? There are hundreds of thousands of people in a superior county
, even in the lower county, there are ten thousand people. The taxes that so many people need to pay are also a huge amount. How can it be collected by only five people? Fifty people are still too few.
Han Du smiled and said that he changed the tax system to increase the tax revenue of the court, but not to support a large group of tax collectors.
"Five people are enough. These five people don't have to do it themselves to collect taxes and escort. The matters of tax collection and escort should still be left to the various prefectures and counties. Since they were able to collect taxes in the past, there is no reason why they can't do it now. Taxation Department
All you need to do is keep an eye on the people in the yamen and stop them from taking advantage of the people under any pretext."
Isn’t it good to let each prefecture and county collect taxes, with the people from the Taxation Department only responsible for supervision? Good, very good. But the Ministry of Revenue has just taken away the power of tax collection from each prefecture and county, and now I’m afraid
All the prefectures and counties hated the Ministry of Household Affairs. If they asked the prefectures and counties to help collect taxes at this time, they would be surprised if they agreed!
Wang Yuanji and Zhao Yu looked at each other and saw the helplessness in each other's eyes.
Finally, Wang Yuanji spoke up and said, "Master Marquis, are these prefectures and counties willing to help the tax collection department collect taxes?"
Han Du smiled and took a sip of tea and said, "Do they need to be willing? I have asked the emperor to leave 30% of future taxes to the county, 20% to the government, 20% to the province, and the last 30% to the capital. If each government
If the county refuses to assist the tax collector in collecting taxes, then they won’t get a penny.”
Sometimes it is said that one thousand and one thousand are not as important as interests. Han Du believes that the various prefectures and counties may be dissatisfied with the Ministry of Household Affairs and may not want to see the tax department, but they will definitely not be dissatisfied with Baoqian.
Even if it was for Lao Zhu's sake, they would pinch their noses and lower their heads to help the tax department collect taxes.
Wang Yuanji and Zhao Yu were both stunned. They had never seen such a way of allocating taxes. But after thinking about it carefully, they both felt that this method was feasible.
"The Taxation Department is mainly responsible for supervision, and the tax collection, custody and escort matters should be left to the various prefectures and counties. Wonderful, this can save a lot of manpower in the Taxation Department." Zhao Yu couldn't help but high-five and sighed.
In the past, he only heard that Han Du would make money and was a famous boy who was good at making money. But Han Du suddenly became the Minister of Household Affairs. Although he didn't say anything because Han Du treated him well, but in his heart
But he was also a little worried about Han Du, fearing that he didn't know how the Ministry of Revenue worked and would delay the important affairs of the court.
But now his worries disappeared in an instant. Han Du's every move was so interconnected that he couldn't see any flaws at all, which made him admire him greatly.