Chapter 400 The Fat Pig in the Eyes of Monarchs and Ministers
Although in the past few years, Dongfang Bubai has mostly left the academic affairs to Yang Lianting, but he has been hiding on the Blackwood Cliff and not seeing outsiders.
But this does not mean that Dongfang Bubai's control over the Sun Moon God Sect has declined. With Dongfang Bubai's power, even if he handed over the teaching affairs to Yang Lianting, the Sun Moon God Sect still respected him.
After all, Yang Lianting was able to take charge of the Sun and Moon God Sect. In the final analysis, he did not borrow the power of Dongfang Bubai. Otherwise, who would be able to convince a mere Yang Lianting.
Seeing Dongfang Bubai appear, everyone bowed to Dongfang Bubai and said in unison: "I have seen the leader."
After a faint glance at the crowd, Dongfang Bubai's gaze fell on Hu Li and said, "Elder Hu, where do you think that girl Yingying is being held now?"
Under Dongfang Bubai's gaze, Hu Li hurriedly said: "Return to the leader, my subordinates have found out clearly that the holy aunt is now imprisoned in the prison of Jin Yiwei by the imperial eagle dogs."
Dongfang Bubai nodded slightly, his eyes swept over everyone present and said: "Yingying is the holy aunt of our Sun and Moon Divine Sect. It can be said that she is the face of our Divine Sect. If we just sit back and watch her fall into the hands of the imperial hawks, we will be in trouble.
, and how will they view our Sun and Moon God Sect."
Qin Weiye, Hu Li and others hurriedly said: "What the leader said is true."
Even a fool can tell that Dongfang Bubai has made up his mind to save people. If he stands up to oppose him now, he will be looking for trouble for himself.
Although Yang Lianting said that he could not persuade Dongfang Bubai just now, seeing that Dongfang Bubai had made up his mind to save Ren Yingying, he couldn't help but frowned and said: "Think twice, leader."
Looking at the sky outside, a gleam flashed in Dongfang Bubai's eyes and he said to Yang Lianting: "Go and make arrangements. After my leader rescues that girl Yingying, I will return to Heimu Cliff overnight."
After listening to Dongfang Bubai's instructions, Yang Lianting couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, as if he didn't expect Dongfang Bubai to suddenly change his mind.
You must know that Dongfang Bubai had the intention of seeking trouble for Li Huan, the emperor's favorite minister.
This is what Yang Lianting is most worried about. It would be fine if Li Huan was just an ordinary court official. Their Sun and Moon God Sect has killed many officials, but someone as powerful as Li Huan is also deeply trusted by the emperor.
This was the first time I met an official.
The most important thing is that Li Huan is so strong that even Dongfang Invincible cannot defeat him. This is the reason for Yang Lianting's opposition, because Yang Lianting knows that once a powerful person like Li Huan is angered, the Sun and Moon God Sect will never be able to withstand him.
of thunderous fury.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Lianting looked at Dongfang Bubai and couldn't help but said: "The leader means that we only need to save Ren Yingying and then return to Heimu Cliff."
Dongfang Bubai glanced at Yang Lianting lightly.
At a glance, Yang Lianting seemed to understand Dongfang Bubai's meaning. While taking a deep breath, he saluted Dongfang Bubai and said, "Don't worry, Master, I will go and make arrangements for everyone to evacuate from the capital smoothly."
.”
Forbidden City
In the Imperial Garden, the sky gradually darkened, but now the lights in the Imperial Garden were brightly lit.
As the emperor, Zhu Houzhao was sitting in the first place, watching the singing and dancing below. Sitting beside him was none other than Li Huan, who was recruited into the imperial city by the emperor to take care of him.
Li Huan sat there, enjoying the singing and dancing in front of him with great interest.
Zhu Houzhao raised his glass to Li Huan and said, "Li Qing, drink up this fine wine."
Although Li Huan's drinking capacity was not very good, as a cultivator, he naturally had many means, and he could be said to be able to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk. Therefore, under the emperor's persuasion, he drank one cup after another without appearing drunk at all.
.
Seeing Li Huan being so generous, Zhu Houzhao was naturally very happy. Unfortunately, compared to Li Huan, Zhu Houzhao's drinking capacity was obviously not as good. After a while, he was already a bit drunk.
Seeing that Li Huan was still sitting there as steady as a rock, Zhu Houzhao, who had been in a good mood these past two days, waved his hand to signal the palace ladies to leave, and soon the imperial garden became quiet.
The chamberlains serving all around also quietly retreated to a distance at the signal of Gao Feng and Qiu Ju, leaving only Li Huan, Gao Feng and Qiu Ju.
Looking at Li Huan, Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath, lost some of his drunkenness, and slowly said: "Li Qing, do you know how much property you brought back from Yangzhou Mansion this time?"
Li Huan raised his eyebrows and looked at the emperor and said: "I really don't know how much exactly. After all, many of the items are of immeasurable value. Could it be that the inner treasury has already valued the items?"
Since yesterday, I have been carrying property into the inner warehouse continuously. If you calculate it, by today the things should be almost transported.
After all, Jin Yiwei and Dongchang dispatched a large number of carriages and horses to transfer the property. Otherwise, so much property would definitely not be able to be transferred within a day or two.
If everything is put into the inner treasury, then the inner treasury must have a very detailed accounting record. In this way, it is not impossible for the inner treasury to calculate a specific number.
Zhu Houzhao nodded slightly and said with a bit of sigh: "Except for those fixed acres, manors, mines, etc., which cannot be estimated, the value of the gold and silver jewelry, jewelry silks, antique calligraphy and paintings etc. that Aiqing brought back has already been
It is estimated that the total amount is over sixty-eight million taels. If the value of those acres, manors, and mines are added, it is probably as much as nearly one hundred million. I really didn't expect that this is just a place like this.
Officials and powerful people are so greedy."
Having said this, Zhu Houzhao's face turned a bit flushed, and he was obviously very shocked.
However, Li Huan actually had an estimate in mind of the value of these finances. Now that he heard the figures quoted by Zhu Houzhao, they were not much different from his estimate.
Seeing the emperor's excited look, Li Huan bowed to the emperor and said: "The officials of Yangzhou Prefecture are greedy. The local powerful have controlled nearly half of the huge profits of our Ming Dynasty's salt industry. The wealth accumulated over decades and nearly hundreds of years has been swept away by me.
And Kong, it is not surprising that he can obtain this amount of wealth."
Zhu Houzhao took a deep breath, looked at Li Huan's face and said with a bit of seriousness: "I have carefully read the memorial presented by Aiqing. Among these belongings, only those belongings that have been copied by powerful local families are
Accounting for 80% to 90%, we can see how great the benefits of the salt industry are."
As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao suddenly slapped his hand on the table and snorted coldly: "But why can our Ming salt tax only collect a mere one or two million taels of salt tax every year? The rest of the salt industry's profits,
Could it be that they all fell into the hands of these salt merchants?”
Li Huan once settled an account for Zhu Houzhao. According to the current population of the Ming Dynasty, salt is an indispensable thing for everyone. It can be said that as a human being, you can not eat meat or drink alcohol, but you absolutely cannot not eat it.
Salt.
Although the price of salt is not high and it is the daily needs of the people, the benefits of the salt industry are huge. No matter which dynasty it is, the benefits of salt and iron are the largest tax in a dynasty besides the grain tax.
Of course, even in the Ming Dynasty, the salt tax accounted for 20 to 30% of the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue. In the past, Zhu Houzhao did not feel that the salt tax of one to two million a year was less.
But now Zhu Houzhao feels that the Ming Dynasty can only collect so little salt tax in one year, which is too little.
Because it is related to the people's livelihood, the amount of salt tax collected by the Ming Dynasty has not been high in order to prevent the price of salt from soaring due to the salt tax and affecting people's livelihood.
It can be said that the Ming Dynasty gave the benefits of the salt tax to the people, but what Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that the court's good deeds went to the next level. After the hands of court officials and salt merchants around the world, the price of salt was not what the court thought.
No matter how much the tax was actually reduced, the people did not enjoy the benefits of the low salt tax. On the contrary, it only enriched a group of salt merchants and the officials who dealt with it.
At this time, Zhu Hou looked at Li Huan and said: "Ai Qing, do you think it would be good for me to rectify the salt tax and re-determine the salt tax?"
Li Huan heard this and said without even thinking: "Your Majesty, you absolutely must not do this!"
I thought that Li Huan would strongly support him in reforming the salt tax, but he never thought that Li Huan would oppose it. This made Zhu Houzhao a little puzzled.
Li Huan looked at the emperor's puzzled look and couldn't help but smile a little bitterly.
How can the salt tax reform be such a simple matter? It is true that so many officials in the court are blind or that all the emperors of the Ming Dynasty are fools.
Can they really not see the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty Salt Industry? Don’t they want to reform it?
This is obviously impossible, but reforming the salt tax is not that simple. Without mentioning other things, just talk about how to change it. Do you mean to directly increase the salt tax?
Believe it or not, if the imperial court increases the salt tax, private salt prices will rise in response. The direct consequence is that people who are already living in poverty may not even be able to afford salt.
If you want to reform the salt tax without a truly complete charter, it will not benefit the country and the people, but harm the country and the people. Previously, Li Huan was not clear about the stakes and wanted to persuade the emperor to make drastic reforms.
The disadvantages of the salt tax, but after the serious relationship between them, Li Huan temporarily gave up such thoughts.
When Li Huan slowly revealed the serious relationship between them, Zhu Houzhao's expression also changed. After a while, he took a deep breath and looked at Li Huan and said: "Fortunately, my dear, you woke me up, otherwise I would have committed a big crime."
wrong."
After all, Zhu Houzhao was also a promising man. The reason why he came up with the idea of reforming the shortcomings of the salt tax was because he was stimulated by the massive gold and silver wealth that Li Huan confiscated this time.
After all, before this, the emperor could never have imagined that those salt merchants could obtain such terrifying wealth by relying on the salt industry.
When he thought that so many interests in the salt industry were grabbed by a group of businessmen, it would be strange if Zhu Houzhao, the emperor, was not moved.
With a slight cough, Li Huan said hurriedly: "Your Majesty is serious. Your Majesty is dedicated to the people, which is a good thing. I thought that it was impossible to reform the salt industry on a large scale, but your Majesty can send honest officials to inspect the several major salt fields controlled by the imperial court and clean up corruption.
Rotten.”
Hearing what Li Huan said, Zhu Houzhao's eyes lit up and he said as if he was a master of his craft: "Li Qing wants me to track down corrupt officials, confiscate their homes and exterminate their clans, and return the property of these officials to the treasury?"
Li Huan was slightly startled. To be honest, he really thought so, but he didn't expect the emperor to react so quickly.
With a slight smile on his face, Li Huan looked at the emperor who was looking at him expectantly. He nodded slowly and said: "Your Majesty, the matter of salt tax involves a wide range of things. It should not be touched lightly, otherwise it will very likely affect the whole world.
People, but dealing with some corrupt officials is a move that benefits the country and the people. One can punish corruption, and the other can enrich the national treasury. It can be said to be the best thing."
Hearing this, Zhu Houzhao looked at Li Huan and couldn't help laughing and said: "When the Qing family talked about those salt merchants earlier, they said that these people were fat pigs. They were fattened and then killed. Now I finally understand."
Here, Li Huan was chatting and laughing with the emperor, deciding the life and death of those officials who were greedy for money, salt and profit. However, as night fell, figures slowly left the Sifang Building and headed straight for the Jinyiwei prison.
It is not a secret that Jin Yiwei's prison is located in the capital.
Next to the Jinyiwei Yamen is the Jinyiwei Prison. Unless you catch up with Daxing Prison, there really won't be many people detained in the Jinyiwei Prison.
After all, the Jinyiwei Prison generally detains court officials who have committed crimes, and they are not as complicated as the criminals detained in the Criminal Department Prison.
Since Li Huan took charge of Jinyiwei, Jinyiwei's case handling efficiency has been extremely fast. It can be said that as long as you enter Jinyiwei, the case will have a result in a very short period of time. The result is that no criminals are imprisoned in Jinyiwei's prison.
However, just the day before yesterday, Xiang Wentian and Ren Yingying were taken into the Jinyi Guard Prison.
Given their identities, it makes sense for the two of them to be imprisoned in the Jinyiwei Prison. After all, the assassination of the imperial envoy by the two of them was considered a crime of treason. If they were not imprisoned in the Jinyiwei Prison, they could only be sent to the Penal Department Prison.
But where are the identities of the two of them? If they are really sent to the prison of the Ministry of Punishment, to be honest, Li Huan is really worried. With the strength and means of the Sun Moon God Sect, there is probably a way to rescue the two from the prison of the Ministry of Punishment.
In the prison at this time, Ren Yingying and Xiang Wentian were detained in a cell respectively. Because there were no other criminals in the prison, their cells were not far apart and they could even see each other from a distance.
Where the other person is.
At this time, Ren Yingying was sitting there cross-legged. Xiang Wentian, who was not far away, said with a look of self-blame and annoyance on his face: "Yingying, it's all uncle's fault. If it weren't for me, Yingying, you wouldn't be in this situation now."
Tiandi, I have no face to see any leader..."
Ren Yingying looked at Xiang Wentian and took a deep breath and said: "Uncle Xiang, why should you blame yourself? You are also trying to save your father. It is only your fault that we are not good at academics and are not the opponent of that dog... the champion."
If it was Ren Yingying's temperament, she would definitely call Li Huan "dog officer" directly, but she had suffered at the hands of Li Huan not long ago, so when the words came to her lips, she instinctively changed her words.
[It’s the end of the month, and in the last two or three days, the big guys who have monthly passes are spending their money.]