When Li Zhi saw Bing Beidao calling him by his first name, he frowned and said, "I have a pseudonym, and my pseudonym is Damu. You can call me by my pseudonym."
That Yu Tao snorted coldly and said nothing.
Li Zhi said: "I said in March that I would not levy commercial taxes because the Qing army came out to pacify the world at that time. I really had no intention of levying commercial taxes. But now Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai surrendered and rebelled again, and Li Zicheng raised his troops.
In response, the country is on the verge of war, its finances are insufficient, and the situation is different. So it makes sense to say no levy at that time and say levy now."
Everyone was speechless after hearing this. Yu Tao seemed to be brave and shouted loudly: "Li Zhi, you are lying. You said you would not tax before you took office and had a stable foothold. Now you are familiar with Tianjin."
If the situation arises, they will say that taxes will be levied.”
Li Zhi smiled and said: "Now I am really familiar with the situation in Tianjin!"
He looked at Han Jinxin, who came over and whispered in Li Zhi's ear for a while.
Li Zhi smiled and said: "Yu Tao, in order to monopolize the cotton cloth business in Cangzhou, you merged and squeezed out 23 small cloth merchants, bankrupted more than 20 families, and sold your sons and daughters. You think my Ming Dynasty is unjust?
No one dares to punish you?"
Hearing Li Zhi's words, all the officials in the lobby had a chill on their faces. Since Li Zhi had checked Yu Tao's details, he naturally also checked others. The buttocks of all the officials present were dirty, and Li Zhi was quite capable.
I'm afraid the details of all the officials have been investigated in the past few months.
Yu Tao didn't expect that Li Zhi had already investigated his details. After hearing this, he trembled in his heart and shrank a little. But at this time, he had already made his mark, but he was unwilling to just shrink back, so he stiffened his neck and started again.
He shouted: "As a general, you can only control a battalion of regular soldiers. At most, you can control other soldiers and horses in Tianjin. Do you dare to punish me? Do you still have the law in your eyes?"
Li Zhi became a little angry and said coldly: "When you forced a small cloth merchant and caused people to go bankrupt, how could you have any regard for the king's law? However, I will not exceed my authority and will not deal with you without authorization. I will report to the emperor to impeach you. I believe the emperor will definitely
Someone will be sent to check you!"
As soon as these words came out, all the civil servants in the lobby were a little nervous. Everyone knew that Li Zhi had repeatedly made military exploits, and his importance in the eyes of the emperor was probably more than that of ordinary cabinet ministers. If Li Zhi's words were conclusively reported to the emperor to criticize the civil servants,
, I'm afraid the emperor will not ignore it, and will get to the bottom of it if he can't.
These days, nine out of ten officials in the Ming Dynasty are bastards. Either they don't investigate, or nothing will happen once they are investigated. What's more, Li Zhi has already investigated the details of the officials in Tianjin in advance, so that when the time comes, he will be able to target the officials under investigation.
You absolutely can't run away.
Yu Tao was really scared now. He didn't dare to say anything anymore and sat back on the chair angrily.
Seeing that he had suppressed Yu Tao, Li Zhi sneered and looked at the officials in the hall to see who else dared to step forward.
For a long time, no one spoke. Li Zhi thought that these civil servants were cowardly. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Liang Yishou, the magistrate of Jingzhou, stand up and say, "Master General, are you going to make enemies of the world?"
Han Jinxin looked at Liang Yishou and then talked to Li Zhi about the bad things Liang Yishou had done. After hearing this, Li Zhi said loudly to Liang Yishou: "Liang Yishou, you accepted 20,000 taels of silver from the thirteen gentry families in Jingzhou to help them annex it."
30,000 acres of private land, turning thousands of land-owning people into tenant farmers, what crime should be committed?"
Liang Yishou didn't know whether he felt that he had a strong background or that his personality was so irritating, but he was not afraid of Li Zhi at all. He snorted coldly and said: "Master General, what you said is completely wrong to what I said.
Mouth, what I am talking about now is a major commercial tax issue that concerns the people of the world. If you insist on collecting tariffs and competing for profits with the people, no one in the world will let you go!"
Li Zhi said coldly: "Do the people in the world listen to your command?"
Liang Yishou waved his sleeves and said loudly: "If you collect business taxes, you are the enemy of the world. The world's scholars will not let you go!"
Li Zhi saw that Liang Yishou finally identified the people of the world as scholars in the world, so he smiled and said: "Is the scholar in the world great? How can you not let me go?"
Liang Yishou was stunned. He didn't expect that Li Zhi was not even afraid of offending the scholars in the world. He was speechless. After thinking for a long time, he said fiercely: "You are really ignorant and fearless! Even the emperor would not dare to offend the scholars in the world. You
How dare a commander in chief dare to provoke?"
Li Zhi cupped his hands and said: "Now the world is full of wars and wars, and our Ming Dynasty is full of holes. The people have been displaced by war and have no food and clothing. Those who hear it are sad and those who see it cry. The country is willing to kill thieves and kill slaves but suffers from insufficient finances. It is the merchants who
When I contribute money and effort to serve the country, most people in Shilin are innocent people. Naturally they know the importance and necessity of commercial taxes, and they will all agree with me collecting commercial taxes."
Li Zhi paused and then said coldly: "If there is any petty person who incites scholars to embarrass me and hinders my tax collection, I will never let him go. I will report it to the emperor, and the emperor will certainly do it.
Get to the bottom of it!”
Seeing Li Zhi's harsh words, Liang Yishou was a little scared, so he said no more and sat down. No one in the lobby dared to stand up, and fell into silence for a while.
Seeing that the situation was under control by Li Zhi, Tianjin Governor Zha Dengbei snorted coldly and said: "The emperor will not help you with this important business and tax matter! You can't fight against the world's gentry just by wearing a python suit!"
Li Zhi was stunned and asked, "What did you say?"
Chadenbei flicked his sleeves and said to the civil servants in the room: "It doesn't make sense! Let's go!"
All the civil servants left without saying goodbye, got up one after another, and followed Cha Denbei out of the lobby of the General Military Mansion.
The officers walked out of the gate of the General Military Mansion, but did not disperse. Instead, they stood together to discuss countermeasures.
"Sir Governor, this Li Zhi is now deeply favored by the Emperor, and he always tries to scare us with the Emperor. What should we do?"
Some timid civil servants had already retreated and said nonchalantly: "This Li Zhi has soldiers and power. We can't fight him. How about we stop fighting him? He collects business taxes because he is an enemy of the world's scholars.
When the time comes, he will naturally have his retribution if he is hated by the people of the world!"
Cha Dengbei touched the two beards above his lips and said: "We have to fight! Collecting commercial taxes is a major matter to compete with the people. If we just let Li Zhi collect the taxes quietly, I'm afraid the people in the world will say
My civil servants in Tianjin are working as a coward!"
"Sir Governor, this Li Zhi has strong soldiers outside and the emperor's support inside. He is the crown prince's guardian. How can we fight him?"
Zha Dengbei thought for a while and said: "We reported to the emperor that Li Zhi wanted to collect commercial taxes to compete with the people. Make it clear to the emperor that the civil servants in Tianjin were impeached by Li Zhi because they obstructed Li Zhi from collecting commercial taxes. The world
All the scholars are staring at the emperor. Under the public gaze, I wonder if the emperor still dares to protect Li Zhi and make things difficult for the civil servants like us who stepped forward?"
