Rise From the Humble

This is a game of political wisdom.

Yan Song was the first assistant when he was more than sixty years old, and it has been more than ten years now. Although he looks senile, he becomes more and more powerful as he gets older. In the past six months since Xu Jie was beaten, Xu Jie has become more and more submissive, especially since he joined the cabinet. Xu Jie has never argued with him. Jie was rude to test, and Xu Jie was not angry. He also married his niece to Donglou as his concubine. This made Yan Song more and more relieved. All the beatings and movements directed at Xu Jie stopped. .

But despite this, Yan Song was still wary of Xu Jie.

the reason is simple.

Xia Yan was Xu Jie's teacher. They were both teachers and friends and had a close relationship. Xia Yan even recommended Xu Jie.

And Xia Yan was killed by himself and Lu Bing in a joint fight.

Therefore, Yan Song took the opportunity of Emperor Jiajing's court meeting and tested Xu Jie again to see Xu Jie's reaction.

Xu Jie was as submissive as ever, and his answers were consistent with his own. This made Yan Song very satisfied, and he let go of his guard against Xu Jie.

What Xu Jie said made sense. The treasury was empty. Why and how it was empty? No one had more say than the Ministry of Hubu, so everyone turned their attention to Sun Yingkui, the Minister of the Ministry of Hubu.

Even Emperor Jiajing, who was sitting on the dragon throne with his eyes closed to rest, also opened his dragon eyes and his eyes fell on Sun Yingkui.

Facing Xu Jie's question, Sun Yingkui, who was in the center of the line of sight, was not surprised at all. He was calm and calm as he stepped forward and offered his hands to Emperor Jiajing and the three elders sitting on the dragon throne. Then he took it out of his sleeve and listed it. The good Taicang revenue and expenditure items were narrated in a reasonable and well-founded way: "I would like to report to Your Majesty, as well as all the ministers and ministers, from the time I entered Kyoto to the present, the total annual income of Taicang is more than five million taels after excluding regular taxes, additional taxes, and surplus salt. In addition to silver, more than 4 million taels of miscellaneous taxes were levied in other places, of which more than 2 million taels were collected in Taicang this year. In terms of expenditure, in addition to the 2.8 million taels of various annual regulations, a new increase of 245 If there are more than 10,000 taels, it will take more than 8 million taels to repair the border and revitalize the economy. Because the situation on the border is particularly bad, and the expenses on all frontiers need to be increased to more than 6 million taels, it is true that Taicang is empty."

After Sun Yingkui finished speaking, there was a burst of discussion in the hall. Obviously, the actual situation in Taicang was worse than everyone expected.

“It costs so much”

"The balance of payments deficit is so huge."

"Taicang's income this year is just over two million taels, and we can't make ends meet."

Zhu Ping'an knew about the tax situation of the Ming Dynasty in modern times, but he was even more shocked when he heard the more accurate situation from Sun Yingkui.

Of course, Sun Yingkui was talking about the Taicang Bank, which was used to store silver. As for the collected grain, there were also granaries.

Emperor Jiajing, who was sitting on the dragon throne, couldn't help but frowned after hearing Sun Yingkui's reply. Taicang had spent so much money, which made the already suspicious Emperor Jiajing even more suspicious. He suspected of infringement and counterfeiting, but Emperor Jiajing did not He didn't speak. He was good at maneuvering and just narrowed his eyes slightly and scanned the crowd.

"Taicang is my Ming Dynasty money bag, and the Ministry of Revenue is the steward of the money bag. Now that the money bag is deflated, does Sun Shangshu have any good ideas?" Yan Song glanced at everyone and then landed on Sun Yingkui, and asked slowly.

"The official suggested that additional tax collection should be carried out. According to the tax situation in various places in the past, forget about the northern prefectures, Guangxi and Guizhou. The land in these places does not produce much grain. Other places can add more tax collection according to the land's richness and poverty, especially in the Jiangnan area. As the proverb goes, "If Taihu Lake is ripe, the world will have enough." These important grain-producing areas can be allocated more. According to the preliminary estimate of Xianguan, this will add more than 1.5 million taels of silver each year." Sun Yingkui cupped his hands and replied.

Increase taxes?

Zhu Ping'an frowned when he heard this, and the influence on Sun Yingkui suddenly became bad.

Jiangnan is being ravaged by Japanese pirates, and you have to pay more taxes!

Originally, there were many Ming people among the Japanese pirates. If we impose additional taxes on Jiangnan, wouldn't it force some farmers who can't survive to take the risk and join the ranks of the Japanese pirates?

Isn’t this the government forcing the people to rebel?

Do you still think that the Japanese pirates in Jiangnan are not chaotic enough? If you increase taxes and taxes in Jiangnan, won't you add fuel to the Japanese feud in Jiangnan?

Penny wise and pound-foolish!

This is Zhu Ping'an's view on Sun Yingkui's suggestion. It seems that everyone is very discerning. Although Sun Yingkui is still as talented as before, his original high-spirited and upright character has long since disappeared, and all that is left is to seek peace and go with the flow.

"I'm sorry that I don't agree with this statement of Sun Shangshu." At this time, a censor stood up and said impassionedly.

Zhu Pingan could see the shortcomings of Sun Yingkui's suggestions and had the courage to stand up. Zhu Ping'an gave him a thumbs up in his heart.

However, the next second, Zhu Ping'an became confused, and the corners of his mouth were trembling.

"As the saying goes, you don't worry about scarcity but inequality. The northern prefectures, Guangxi, and Guizhou do not impose additional taxes, while the south of the Yangtze River allocates as much tax as Taihu. How is this fair? The world will not criticize our actions. In this way, If we don't share it equally, all the governments in the world will impose additional taxes equally." The censor who stood up continued.

"Haha, if I remember correctly, Guo Yushi's family is from Taihu, Wudi in the south of the Yangtze River. Guo Yushi said I was unfair. I think Guo Yushi's statement about equal sharing is false, and the tax reduction for his hometown is true. "

Sun Yingkui smiled slightly, and while defending himself, he mocked Guo Yushi.

"You are such a mouthful." Guo Yushi's face turned red.

Then the officials who were friends with both parties also stood up and spoke for them. For a while, everyone at the court meeting held their own opinions and started arguing.

Why.

After Zhu Ping'an listened for a while, he felt speechless at the imperial court's quarrels. The officials quarreled more than modern Internet celebrities, and then they became too distracted and distracted.

Zhu Ping'an is a non-staff observer of the court meeting. He is located very close to the side. If he is distracted, he will not be noticed at all if he is not paying special attention.

About two minutes later, Zhu Pingan's distracted eyes fell on a pillar of the main hall not far away, and found a line of inscriptions on it. It had been a long time, and if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't have noticed it.

Zhu Ping'an's eyesight was much better than that of ordinary people. He squinted his eyes slightly and saw the words clearly written on the pillar: "Xu Jie, a villain, will never use it."

Zhu Pingan suddenly became energetic.

The font of this line is very similar to the font on the note that Emperor Jiajing passed to him. It is a little greener, but basically the same. Obviously, the lettering on this pillar was written by Emperor Jiajing when he was young.

The fonts are connected and fluctuate violently.

From the font, you can seem to see the scene when Emperor Jiajing was furious, writing furiously, and carving these eight characters.