On March 20th, Lin Xuwen and Liu Shidu submitted a discount on the increase in price of salt and a discount on the service tax of one ding. According to the regulations, they had to be submitted to the Empress Dowager who was in charge of the government for approval through the political affairs hall.
The price increase of salt has been reduced by 90%, and the levy tax has been reduced by 10%. Together, the annual income of the Ministry of Household Affairs will probably drop by more than 2 million taels. This move is no small matter.
Although some people wanted to watch the good show in Huaidong and intended to condone it, some officials strongly opposed it. While Cheng Yuqian, Yu Xinyuan, Shen Rong, Yuan Guizheng and others remained silent, Zuo Chengmu tried his best to oppose these two changes.
Zuo Chengmu was the second prime minister, just below Cheng Yuqian. He strongly opposed it, and the Queen Mother could only convene ministers of fourth rank and above in Chongwen Hall to discuss the matter.
"The annual income is used to support the officers and soldiers, and the officers and soldiers defend the territory; the reduction of salt profits and small taxes allows the people to gain temporary benefits. However, the officers and soldiers are not supported and the territory is not defended, resulting in chaos and enemy invasion, and the people are displaced. In fact, it is because of small profits. And it will suffer great harm." Zuo Chengmu did not sit on the throne, but stood in front of the hall and spoke impassionedly, "If the two political affairs come out, it will really harm the country..."
Lin Xuwen nodded desperately in his heart, but at this time he had to stand up and refute Zuo Chengmu, saying: "Ordinary people say that the prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River have been rich since ancient times and are a land of plenty. However, since the East China Sea bandits became powerful, they have been repeatedly invaded , before the previous disaster was over, Zhejiang County fell again, and troubles spread all over the land; since Jiangning Dingding, the people's livelihood has not been able to recover, and more and more taxes have been imposed, the people have been overwhelmed, and from last year to this spring, there have been many riots - this spring the various prefectures There are as many letters as snow flakes from the county deporting tax reductions to the Ministry of Household Affairs. If there is civil unrest, it will be like that in Huaisi. Before foreign enemies invade, the current barely maintained situation will collapse..."
Not only are the people unbearable, but the pressure to pay taxes lies with local governments and counties. Increases in taxes have always been resisted by local governments, while tax cuts have always been welcomed by local governments.
Most of the officials of the current generation gained fame and entered official careers by reading Confucianism. Officials who were truly familiar with finances were very rare. In the civil and military affairs of the Manchu Dynasty, there were really not many people who could give an overview of the central income and annual branches.
The Ministry of Household Affairs wants to reduce the burden on the people, which is naturally a good thing for ordinary people. Not to mention people like Zhang Yan who are interested in seeing the good show in Huaidong, those officials who are not well-known have also written in support of reducing the burden and "ask for orders for the people."
Although this time only officials of the fourth rank and above were summoned for a court meeting, there were many supporters and few opponents, so Zuo Chengmu's voice became extremely weak - Lin Fu held the ceremonial knife in his hand and was given a seat to sit with the chief assistant Cheng Yuqian. Behind the emperor and the queen mother, they quietly watched the discussions among the ministers in the court.
Although Emperor Yongxing was still sitting on the dragon throne, his face was pale and he felt uncomfortable having his power taken away from him. After returning to Jiangning, he fell ill frequently, indulged in wine and sex, and made others doubt his health. It won't last many years. Officials are already discussing the establishment of a heirloom below.
Lin Fu saw all this kind of thing but remained calm.
Zuo Chengmu's voice was naturally weak, and it was difficult to change the outcome of the court discussion. At that time, we agreed to choose a day to draft the decree and issue it to the world.
After the court meeting, Lin Fu planned to go back directly by car, but Zuo Chengmu chased him out of Chongwen Palace: "Chong Guo Gong, Chong Guo Gong..."
Lin Fu raised the curtain of the carriage and saw Zuo Chengmu and Zhang Yubo chasing each other out of the palace. He asked with a smile: "Mr. Zuo is chasing after me in a hurry. What can I teach you?"
"Dong Chongguo, this is a temporary solution that the people will not expect for a long time. I hope that Duke Chongguo will take the overall situation into consideration and remove these two tricks!" Zuo Chengmu said. He was also direct and knew the two tricks of the Ministry of Revenue. The idea behind this was Lin Fu's direct decision. If he wanted to save it, he could only persuade Lin Fu.
Zhang Yubo hesitated to speak. He had no intention of chasing Zuo Chengmu. Lin Fu asked him, "What do you think Uncle Yu did?"
"Jiangning, Chizhou, and Huizhou need to recuperate, and it will be difficult to lose taxes to the Ministry of Revenue within three years," Zhang Yubo said. "Reducing the burden on the people is also a top priority, but the annual income of the Ministry of Revenue will be reduced so much all at once, and it will be difficult to maintain; if there is
A natural and man-made disaster, there are loopholes everywhere..."
Lin Fu raised his head and looked at the eaves of Chongwen Hall inside the palace wall, then turned to Zuo Chengmu and said, "Others are eager to see this court messing up things. If Zuo Prime Minister blocks it, aren't you afraid of causing hatred?
"
Zuo Chengmu was stunned there. He couldn't figure out Lin Fu's city for a while. He forced a smile and said: "How can you dare to sacrifice your life for the sake of the country?"
"The matter has come to this, and it is inevitable for us to return. If you really have any regrets, let's find a way to make up for it!" Lin Fu watched other officials leaving the palace one after another, and had no intention of talking too much to Zuo Chengmu in front of the palace.
He said goodbye and left.
Zuo Chengmu's face was full of disappointment. He stood in front of the palace and watched Lin Fu leave in the car.
Lin Fu got into the car, and Zhou Pu, wearing armor and riding a horse, protected the car and said to Lin Fu through the car window: "This old man Zuo is not bad at all."
Lin Fu smiled and said: "Zuo Chengmu can be fair to the point of view. He has never tried to please anyone in the court, but at this time he will not follow the same path as us..."
At the end of March, an official edict was issued to the world regarding the price increase and discount for salt and the reduction of one-tenth of the service tax.
Not only were the five current salt merchants arrested for smuggling salt and imprisoned, but their salt shops and salt warehouses in various prefectures and counties were also directly dispatched by the Salt and Iron Bureau to take over the operations and turn them into official operations.
The price increase for a pound of salt is reduced to twenty cents, and the price of salt collected from salt households remains unchanged at ten cents. The price of salt in each prefecture and county is limited from fifty cents to seventy cents, depending on the distance.
The salt affairs were handled by both the government and the private sector. The price increase on salt from the Salt and Iron Department was the salt tax and the annual revenue of the Ministry of Household Affairs; local government-run salt warehouses and salt shops, and the income was attributed to the prefectures and counties.
The income from the government-run salt shops is returned to the prefectures and counties. On the one hand, it is to further reduce the local tax burden and make local prefectures and counties take the matter of detecting smuggled salt seriously. On the other hand, it is to transfer the more than 100 salts sent to the prefectures and counties this time.
The functions are integrated into the local area through this - these more than a hundred salt officials are all officials selected from Huai'an and Hailing.
At the moment, we can't directly make any big moves against the Seven Jiangnan Prefectures. Taking advantage of matters that have no conflict with local interests and arranging people first is also a way to save the country in a roundabout way.
The salt dispute had been going on for nearly two months. When the price of salt was reduced to less than 70 yuan, the public grievances were quickly and completely subsided. Together with the tax reduction and exemption, feedback from local governments and counties was full of praise.
With that said, the biggest obstacle to investigating the salt incident will be eliminated.
In early April, preliminary results were obtained from the interrogation of Mao Wenjing, the captain of the Zuohu Salt School, and the search of his home.
Mao Wenjing inherited his father's duties, and his father and son stayed on the left to protect the salt school for twenty-two years. They protected private salt and salt merchants and shared huge profits, and the family accumulated tens of millions. Tang Enshu, the censor who supervised the case, accumulated a total of 100 visits to Weiyang Mansion.
More than 100,000 hectares of Mao's residence were searched, with more than 320,000 taels of silver hidden. More than 1,200 hectares of grain fields were confiscated in Xinghua, Hailing, Weiyang and other places. In the area under the jurisdiction of the Huainan salt farm, privately cultivated grain was also confiscated.
There are more than 800 hectares of fields.
The Mao Wenjing case is a hard case to overturn. The officials in Weiyang were more or less grievances from the salt merchants, but the officials and gentry in Jiangning were completely different.
Before Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne, except for a few of the six tribes in Jiangning who held real power, most of them were tomb-keepers sitting on the bench. They had no money to make and lived an extremely miserable life. After Emperor Yongxing ascended the throne in Jiangning, Jiangning
Only the six monasteries and eunuchs had real power, but wars were still frequent, financial resources were tight, and it was impossible to make money even if they wanted to. As a result, many officials returned to Jiangning from Juchao and fell into the dilemma of starvation because the Ministry of Revenue delayed the payment of salaries.
The gentry in Jiangning City were also the most concentrated, but due to the destruction of Jiangning City, the gentry suffered the heaviest losses - the Imperial Camp Army. When the government army was in chaos, the first people to plunder were the wealthy gentry households in the city. Then the Zhejiang and Fujian armies advanced.
Although they controlled Jiangning for a short time, they also focused on looting the urban areas where the gentry lived.
As a result of the war, a strange phenomenon occurred in Jiangning, that is, the price of food soared while the price of land plummeted. Many wealthy gentry knew that there was more chaos outside the city, but in order to maintain their family's livelihood in the city after being looted, they could only sell the land deeds at a low price.
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Speaking of corrupt officials, the people hate them, but there is nothing that hates corrupt officials the most than a large group of gentry officials who want to be corrupt but have not yet become corrupt and are in trouble. After the case of Mao Wenjing was generally revealed, Jiangning City
There was a cry of murder inside.
Zhang Yan could not blame the oversight, so he wrote a letter pleading guilty and resigning as eunuch.
Of course the Empress Dowager Liang, Emperor Yongxing, Cheng Yuqian, Yu Xinyuan and others did not want Zhang Yan to leave, so they finally fined him a year's salary and paid it into the national treasury. This also made them realize that as long as Huaidong has military power in his hands, Huaidong will
Whatever they want to accomplish, it's hard to stop them either overtly or covertly.
Since there are so many salt households and salt practitioners involved in illegal salt production, in order to stabilize the production, transportation, and punishment of crimes in the Lianghuai salt fields, we can only deliberately relax instead of getting to the bottom of the matter, which delays the production of salt.
Mao Wenjing was eventually sentenced to death, and eleven of his children were sentenced to exile, and their family property was confiscated. The punishment was the most severe.
Two of the five salt merchants involved in the case led fierce resistance with private force when illegal salt was banned. However, only the principal culprit and the accomplice with a murder case in hand were sentenced to death. The other three principal culprits were only sentenced to exile, and the accomplices were not held accountable.
In addition, these five companies were fined from 100,000 taels of silver to 300,000 taels of silver respectively, and the most severe inspections were not carried out.
As for merchants, soldiers and salt households who were not involved in the case during the smuggling period, regardless of whether they had been involved in smuggling before, they would be pardoned for their previous crimes.
Mao Wenjing and other criminals were eventually taken to the execution ground together with Wang Xueshan, his son and Xie Chaozhong. Wang Xueshan was the former Minister of Household Affairs, and Xie Chaozhong had a higher rank before. The sentencing process was more complicated than that of Mao Wenjing, so it was delayed until now.
Wang Xueshan used punishment, and Xingbu, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate all sent officials to supervise the punishment. Lin Ting came back from prison and went to Chen Yuan to talk to Lin Fu: "Before Wang Xueshan is executed, I would like to say thank you..."
"Thank you for what, thank me for not destroying his three clans?" Lin Fu smiled, turned to look at Sun Jingxuan next to him, and asked with a smile, "Isn't there a saying among those who run around in rivers and lakes that 'the trouble does not harm the wife and children'?"
Sun Jingxuan was startled and didn't understand what Lin Fu's words meant for a long time.
Emperor Yongxing hated Wang Xueshan so much that he wanted to take all nine of his clans to the execution ground and die in Ling Chi. Cheng Yuqian and others put the responsibility for the defeat on Wang Xueshan and Xie Chaozhong, so they would not be soft on them.
——The initial conviction of Wang Xueshan, Xie Chaozhong and others was that they were three generations of barbarian relatives, their property was confiscated, and their wives and daughters were used as prostitutes.
Still at Lin Fu's insistence, Wang Xueshan and his son were finally sentenced to beheading for treason and confiscation of their property. Among Wang Xueshan's relatives, except for three adult concubines who were sentenced to exile and moved to Yizhou, the other minors under the age of 16 were
None of them were punished, they were adopted by relatives, and their wives and concubines were not involved. The punishment was much lighter than the original crime.
Wang Xueshan only thought that Lin Fu was merciful to his Wang family, but he didn't know that Lin Fu could not behave like the Yi people and his wife and daughter were used as prostitutes.
In addition, Han Bin confessed to the hidden stumps hidden in Jiangning by the She family and dozens of people in the secret room. The crime was reduced and the sentence was exiled; Chen Ruyi had the backbone and did not confess to anyone. Seeing her beauty, the torturers also
He was not too harsh in extorting a confession and was eventually hanged.