The brothers and sisters joked for a while, and Yunlan said seriously: "Brother Huang, my sister really has something serious to talk to Brother Huang."
"What's the matter?" Yunxi still smiled and said, "But something related to Yang Feng?" What did he think Yunlan wanted to ask for her husband.
"That's not the case. This matter originally had nothing to do with my sister, but because Yunzhi was in the palace, I was afraid that she wouldn't be able to ask for her, so I had no choice but to come to my sister."
Yunlan said: "This morning, not long after my sister got up and had breakfast, she suddenly heard a message from the boy at the door: There was a woman at the door asking to see her, saying that she had an old relationship with her, and she even took out a jade pendant as a gift.
It's a token. The doorkeeper is also a person who knows the goods. He can see that the jade pendant is very valuable and is of a style commonly used in palace jewelry a few years ago. He doesn't dare to hide it, so he hurries to report it to my sister."
"My younger sister picked up the jade pendant and looked at it for a moment, and recognized that it was the jade pendant that my fourth sister wore back then. She still had it with her before going to Suzhou, but it was gone after she came back. My younger sister asked her at that time, and she said that she gave it to a local woman, and that woman also
Guessing her identity, my sister summoned this woman."
"As soon as the woman saw her sister, she kowtowed and apologized, saying: 'The daughter of the people is asking for forgiveness from the eldest princess. Because of the great changes in the family, the daughter of the people had to ask for help from the eldest princess of Huainan; but the eldest princess of Huainan lives in the deep palace of the people.
I can't ask for an audience, so I can only pretend to have an old relationship with Your Highness and ask to see Your Highness. Please forgive me.'"
"Of course my sister will not punish her for this. She asked her to get up and ask her who she was and what she wanted to ask for help from the fourth sister. She said: 'Your Highness, the girl is from Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture. Her real name is Li Yonglin. She is 19 years old.
Years old. The reason why the civilian girl asked to see His Highness is to ask His Highness to save the civilian girl's family and give the civilian girl's relatives a way out.'"
"My sister asked her more carefully and found out that she is the daughter of the Li family, a very famous business family in Suzhou Prefecture. The royal brother of this family should know that, so my sister will not introduce me much. Their family's business is getting bigger and bigger, not only in
The business in Suzhou was carried out to the Shanghai Maritime Bureau and the capital."
"But because the Li family's business grew bigger and bigger, it finally aroused the greed of some officials. These officials first found excuses to deprive the officials of the Li family from their official positions, and then used the excuse of the Li family to evade taxes to punish the family.
Ordinarily, there is indeed something wrong with what the Li family did, and it is natural for the officials to inspect the taxes, so the Li family did not dare to resist at this time, paid back the taxes, and gave several officials a large bribe."
"But these officials did not stop there. Instead, they kept an even closer eye on the Li family's property and made trouble for their family again and again. The Li family had been cautious after the last tax inspection and did not dare to make the slightest mistake again, but the place
The officials have many ways to punish businessmen, which not only makes it difficult for their family to continue their business, but also causes several members of their family to be involved in human life lawsuits."
"Li Taiyuan, the head of the Li family, knew why these things happened and went to see him again, but this time the officials asked their family to dedicate their property to them. Li Taiyuan has been in business for a long time and has experienced a lot since childhood.
Many times, I have also heard from the elders in the clan that after the donation, the property no longer belongs to them. Regardless of what they say now, the property will still be run by the Li family after the donation, and they only need to pay a certain amount of money every year, but
After the property is really donated, the owner changes. It’s hard to say whether the Li family can continue to operate. As soon as the new owner turns against them, they will have to pack up everything and leave!”
"Because of these concerns, the Li family thought about it for a long time but still refused to contribute. Seeing that their goals could not be achieved, these officials worked harder to find fault with the Li family, and even colluded with local people who did unfair business to frame the Li family. Fortunately,
The Li family is also a relatively influential family in Suzhou. There is also a Juren and several scholars. These officials did not dare to push their family into a hurry, otherwise the Li family would have been ruined; but the Li family managed to survive for several more months.
Still unable to hold on any longer, they sent people to the capital to ask for help from an official who had an old relationship with their family, but the official refused to help. "
"The Li family was desperate and planned to agree to donate, but then the woman named Li Yonglin remembered that she had met her fourth sister and was rewarded with a jade pendant by her fourth sister, so she wanted to ask her for help. Because her fourth sister lived in the palace
When I couldn't find help, I begged my sister to tell my fourth sister about the matter and save their family."
"The officials who forced their family to donate their property were Zhao Yan, the prefect of Suzhou, and Mingliang, the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The woman said that there should be other officials involved, but it was not herself but her family who came forward, and her family did not know who they were.
who."
After explaining the matter in general, Yunlan continued: "Although this woman asked the fourth sister for help, this matter concerns the court, not to mention that even if the fourth sister wanted to be rescued, she had to ask the imperial brother for help, so the younger sister told the imperial brother,
Please make your decision, Brother Huang."
"Also, the above words my sister said were all told by this girl named Li Yonglin. I don't know whether they are true or not. The emperor should be cautious in handling them." She finally said.
"Your last statement is good." Yunxi opened his mouth by praising Yunlan's last words: "The Li family is a businessman. Businessmen pay attention to being friendly and making money. They will not frame officials against you for no reason, so it is difficult for their family to continue their business. Some officials are greedy.
Their family’s inheritance should be truth.”
"However, the Li family's behavior may not be as lawful as she said. There are many things in this kind of place where local tyrants are tyrannical, but most of the victims will not go to the yamen, and the officials in the yamen are not willing to take care of it unless their lives are spared.
That's it; if someone really wants to punish them, they can catch a lot of their mistakes, and it may not be a trap."
"In the future, if your subordinates come to complain to you, they must not listen to one side of the story. They must analyze the matter based on common sense. Of course, the more important thing is to investigate clearly."
"Sister knows." Yunlan agreed.
After giving her a lesson, Yunxi asked again: "Is this Li Yonglin already married? She is already nineteen years old, so she should be married, right? Also, why can she come to the capital to ask for help?"
"Brother Imperial, according to her own words, she is not married yet and was sent to the capital to run her family's property. She has been in the capital for the past two years, so she can ask for help."
"She's not married yet? She's not married yet at the age of nineteen?" Yunxi was confused. If this is true, could her father also come here? Otherwise, it would be impossible not to let his daughter get married at this age. No, even if his father
It's useless to wear clothes. There should be objections among the people in the human race that their daughter has not married, unless he can overpower all the other heads of the house. As the emperor, Yunxi has supreme power, so he can keep suppressing his sister until she is eighteen years old.
However, Yunxi was only slightly confused and then let it go. He and Yunlan walked towards Kunning Palace while thinking about how to deal with the matter. After thinking for a while, he asked Yunlan a few more questions, and finally decided: "
Lu Yi, you go to Qin Song and ask him to send people to Suzhou Prefecture to investigate this matter. Don't alarm the local Jinyi guards first, and don't choose people from Zhili. Find people from other provinces to investigate this matter."
"Then you will dig out all the memorials submitted by Suzhou this year and single out the memorials that mention 'Li' or 'Merchant'."
"On your way back from the Jinyiwei Yamen, the Ministry of Life and Punishment sent up all the case files for this year and said that I wanted to check them. That's all. Tell Chen Ying, no, you don't need to do this errand yet." What Yunxi thought at first was
He looked through the files of the Ministry of Justice to find out the cases submitted by the Suzhou Prefecture to find out what criminal cases the Li family was involved in; but this work must be very cumbersome, not to mention that the people in the palace were so talkative that it was difficult to guarantee that it would not be leaked; he also wanted Chen
Ying went to investigate. Anyway, the Metropolitan Procuratorate supervises officials in various yamen. As long as they find a reason, such as a case in the Ministry of Punishment that was not handled properly, they can investigate.
But he was worried that Chen Ying was also involved in embezzling the Li family's property. Although the possibility of this matter was extremely small, it could not be ruled out, so he planned to let Jin Yiwei and the Zhen Si investigate first to make sure that Chen Ying was not involved. As for what if the Zhen Si and Zhen Si were involved
The Jinyiwei were involved, which meant that the entire court was ruined. He still wanted to investigate a few things, but he should first worry about whether he could survive in the emperor's position safely.
"Yes, official." Lu Yi agreed, turned around and left.
"Second sister, did Li Yonglin tell me the name of the person in their family who was an official? When was he dismissed?" Yunxi asked Yunlan again.
"She said her name was Li Qianshan, who was dismissed from office at the beginning of this year."
"Huang Cheng, find out all the memorials related to the appointment and dismissal of officials reported by the palace staff." Yunxi called another young eunuch over. Because Yunlan told him such a thing, Yunxi was also dissatisfied.
I was sure that the eunuchs in the palace were not involved, or had received bribes from the officials involved in this matter, so I asked them to follow them from a distance and not hear the words of their brothers and sisters.
Huang Cheng agreed.
Yunxi then issued several more orders, asking different eunuchs to do them. He didn't stop giving orders until they reached the Kunning Palace.
"Brother Imperial, you seem to take this matter very seriously." After he finished his instructions, Yunlan said.
"Oh, why shouldn't I take this matter seriously?"
"My sister doesn't mean this, but in the final analysis, the Li family is just a businessman. My sister understands the emperor's purpose of promoting business development and supports the emperor's encouragement of business development. However, if these industries fall into the hands of officials, they will continue to operate.
, the development of Suzhou's commerce may not be affected, and it does not hinder the emperor's purpose. Officials embezzling merchants' property cannot be ignored, but with so many things happening every day in the Ming Dynasty, this matter does not deserve the emperor's attention.
." Yunlan said.
What Yunlan means is that business development is necessary, but specialized businessmen may not be necessary. Those who do business are officials and their families, and business may not be able to develop. Taxation may not be affected, so there is no need to worry about it.
"Second sister, what you said is wrong." Yunxi said to her with some seriousness: "Businessmen must not be subordinate to officials. They only manage business for officials instead of running their own business."
"Who are the people who assist my brother in governing the world? They are these officials. If I want to do something, I have to go through them. It cannot be communicated directly to every common person. Taxes are also collected through them. If the officials are also at the same time
When running a business, why don’t you try to find ways to pay less taxes? Doing so is beneficial to all officials, and they will collude, and slowly, Ming Dynasty’s tax revenue will become less and less.”
"Secondly, when you quoted Li Yonglin's words just now, you also said that it is too easy for officials to punish businessmen. If they also run a business and see someone doing business competing with them, they will definitely punish those who dare to compete with them.
So that we can maintain our monopoly and earn the most money. Do you think the business will still develop under this situation?"
"That's why officials must not run businesses. That's why Brother Wei takes this matter so seriously."
Capital is divided into three categories. One is the system implemented in modern European and American countries, which minimizes the government's influence on business, which can be called individual capitalism (there is no such professional term, the author made it); the other is state capitalism implemented in some countries
, the third is bureaucratic capitalism. Among them, bureaucratic capitalism is the worst kind of system. Businessmen are dependent on officials, and officials use their power to protect the businessmen who are attached to them, use unfair means to attack opponents, and seek maximum benefits.
.
Under this system, whether a businessman's business can grow bigger has basically nothing to do with entrepreneurial talent. It all depends on whether the backend is strong or not. Businessmen will not seriously manage business and improve products, but will constantly look for bigger backers.
How can such a business develop substantially?
"But brother, why do you care about allowing a few noble families and your sister to enter the steel industry? Isn't this also a business?" Yunlan asked.
"This is indeed a business, but are you the same as ordinary officials? You all have to retire with the country. You are the most loyal people to the Ming Dynasty. How can I neglect you as a brother? What's more, I have also drawn a line for you.
Industry, you are only allowed to operate the steel business, and you are not allowed to interfere in other matters. Try your best to avoid the impact on private businessmen." Yunxi explained. Although Yunxi hates this system, under the current power system of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to completely eliminate it.
, we can only make a slight compromise. (To be continued)