Poor Prefect Li, no one really knows about his grievances. It stands to reason that local officials petition for orders for the people and resist the imperial envoys' misdeeds. In addition, there are local gentry and elders who jointly submit petitions as evidence, and it is easy to become the focus of public opinion.
.
No matter what is right or wrong, a heated discussion is indispensable. And no matter what the consequences are, the local official will definitely have a clear reputation. If he is punished by the court, his reputation will be even better.
But there are always exceptions to everything in the world. For example, this time... many accidents happened in the capital that Magistrate Li didn't know about.
First of all, he is not a famous person. After the impeachment memorial of Fang Yingwu was sent to the Secretary of General Affairs, there was no uproar, and there was no widespread and strong onlookers;
After being sent to the cabinet by the Secretary of General Affairs, he was directly detained by a certain minister and treated coldly for half a month, and other cabinet ministers deliberately allowed a certain minister to conceal the report...The memorial was even more serious.
No one is visiting anymore.
Then, this memorial was sealed in a box and presented directly to the emperor through a secret memorial method. In the process, it was still invisible to people.
In the end, the emperor made the final decision and directly approved it. Therefore, from beginning to end, the memorial was not widely circulated at all. Only a few people knew about it, and it did not give the outside world much opportunity to discuss it.
After the emperor's approval, although there was a lot of discussion, the matter was already a foregone conclusion. The imperial edict was issued, and others were too lazy to pay further attention. After all, attention is in vain, so what's the use?
?Can the imperial edict still be changed?
Therefore, the clarification meeting that Li Taishou had been longing for never came... Thinking back to his experience in sinking into a poor place in the past seven years, he inevitably felt resentful in his heart, feeling that both the court and his superiors had failed him.
After making up his mind, Prefect Li's expression returned to calm. Looking in Wang Qianhu's eyes, he knew that he had made a decision and asked again: "I wonder if Prefect Li can vacate the mansion?"
Taishou Li said calmly: "There are only a small number of people at Envoy Fang's side. The mansion occupies a large area, which is a bit wasteful and not thrifty. Therefore, I decided to find another place of suitable size and arrange for Envoy Fang and his party to stay there again."
.”
Wang Chen praised with joy and said: "Prefect Li is insightful!"
From beginning to end, the two of them never mentioned a single word about the acquisition of eunuch Wang Jing, but everything they said actually revolved around Wang Jing. If Fang Yingwu quit the mansion, who else would be qualified except Wang Jing?
Check in?
Watching Wang Chen leave, Magistrate Li showed a hint of confusion on his face, but his heart was full of mixed feelings. How did things evolve to this point?
At that time, he was also a man full of ideals. He wanted to be a righteous man Qingliu who kept his integrity and became famous all over the world. Otherwise, he would not have disobeyed the eunuch Wang Zhi who was in power.
But when I ask myself, what I am doing now is getting further and further away from my ideal. Especially my decision to purchase eunuchs just now is a complete departure from my ideal.
Thinking of this, a sentence suddenly popped up in Li Taishou's mind: One mistake will lead to eternal hatred, and it will be a hundred years later when you look back...
Let's not talk about it, but let's talk about Gongguan Street. After all the families worked together to fight off the minions of the imperial eunuch, their morale suddenly rose. They became more convinced and grateful to the imperial eunuch who had never shown up, but actually acted as a spiritual support.
On this day, seven or eight members of the family came to the gate of the mansion together. They earnestly asked to see the Imperial Envoy, insisting on expressing their gratitude in person.
Fang Yingwu hesitated a little, but thought it was an opportunity, so he opened the door and let people in. He met all the members in the lobby.
After chatting all over the place, Fang Yingwu started talking and said: "I was ordered by the imperial court to come to Suzhou Prefecture to supervise the grain supply. However, after careful study, I found many shortcomings. No wonder the arrears have been serious in recent years."
Not many rich people dared to talk about this. They could only say: "Master Fang has insight by candlelight, and he can clearly see every detail. Naturally, he can see it clearly."
Fang Yingwu ignored these useless words of flattery and continued: "For example, I have been thinking about an issue these days - the imperial court mainly collects taxes from Suzhou Prefecture in kind, especially grain and rice. After all, the people
Food is the most important thing, and the supply of rations to the capital basically depends on Jiangnan. It is a matter of great importance, and no one dares to change things.
In recent years, the population of Suzhou Prefecture has increased, the number of households has multiplied, and the customs have gradually become extravagant and wasteful. However, the land is still the same. The prefecture has been cultivated for a long time, and the total number has not changed much.
In this way, the amount of grain and rice consumed locally in Suzhou Prefecture is increasing year by year, and the other reason is very simple. If the amount of local consumption is more, the amount that can be transported to the capital will naturally be less. Therefore, under this situation, Suzhou Prefecture's tax and grain have been tight year after year, and many times
It’s not surprising that there are arrears.”
Everyone looked at each other and felt puzzled. Tang Guangde was the first to ask: "Master Fang is really knowledgeable and insightful. We admire him very much, but I can't wait for the rich people in the city. Why does Master Fang say this to us?"
Fang Yingwu laughed and said, "If there are disadvantages, there must be solutions. For example, regarding the problem just now, I have some unformed ideas in my mind. If you are interested, you may want to refer to it for details.
In this place in the south of the Yangtze River, there are more people than land, and land reclamation is coming to an end. But I heard that there is still a lot of fertile land in Huguang, and it has been continuously cultivated over the years. Now the grain and rice production has increased sharply. It turns out that the proverb is Su Songshu
, now there is a saying that it is cooked in Huguang!
Nowadays, Suzhou is in short supply of grain and rice, while Huguang is gradually having a surplus of rice. As for merchants like you, can you send people to Huguang to buy rice, and then send it down the river to Guazhou Shuicicang?"
The so-called Shuici warehouse is a granary built along the canal. Those who need to pay grain from various places only need to transport grain and rice to the designated Shuici warehouse. Then after the spring of the next year, the transport army will be responsible for transporting grain to the northern capital by canal.
When people in Suzhou Prefecture pay tax, they need to transport the grain from their hometown to the Shuici warehouse in Guazhou, north of the Yangtze River. After the grain and rice are put into the warehouse, they receive a receipt from the warehouse official, and then they have paid the tax.
Although transporting grain for hundreds of miles is a very difficult task, it is still much more comfortable than transporting grain from Suzhou to the northern capital before the Xuande Dynasty...
Everyone looked at each other again in confusion. What did Fang Qinqi mean by this? Did he want businessmen like them to go to Huguang to buy grain and rice, and then pay it as tax?
So what is the difference between this behavior and donation, and what benefits can they bring? Businessmen can't afford to do it early without profit, and no one is willing to do this kind of thing that only loses money for a long time.
"Of course it's more than that! If you transport Huguang rice to Shuicicang, get the receipt, and then take it back to Suzhou Prefecture, you can deduct the tax!
In other words, you can sell these warehouse rice receipts in the market. No matter who you are, as long as you hold the warehouse rice receipts, you can offset your own taxes in the yamen!"
Everyone said "Hey" in unison. This method seemed feasible. After thinking about it carefully, there seemed to be new business opportunities.
As we all know, paying taxes in kind such as grain and rice is a very troublesome matter. If a large family serves as the grain chief and is responsible for the taxation of the village, it will be extremely difficult. Not only is it difficult to collect grain and rice, but traveling long distances is even more difficult.
A disaster.
If you buy a special return ticket, you can offset the corresponding tax, which will definitely be welcomed by many people who find it troublesome to pay taxes but are not short of cash.
Compared with the hassle of going to Shuicicang to pay for grain and rice, as long as this special receipt can offset the tax and grain, it is worth adding money to buy it! Paying for one saves the worry, for those who have some spare money, why not
!
In the end, everyone concluded that this business model is indeed very feasible if there are reliable ministers who endorse and promote it.
But it is not without risks. The biggest risk actually lies in the policy aspect. Once an order is changed overnight, it is easy to lose everything. It depends on whether the officials who promote this matter are reliable and strong enough.
Seeing that everyone was silent, Fang Yingwu was not in a hurry, and was enjoying his tea leisurely. He didn't think that he would definitely make it happen today, he just took the opportunity to blow some wind and let the news spread.
If the response is good, we will consider the details further below. Of course, the problem of money and food in Suzhou Prefecture is not limited to this aspect, and there are many other problems that need to be solved or alleviated.
Thinking of this, Fang Yingwu couldn't help but sigh. A huge burden was on his shoulders, and he still had a long way to go.
At this time, a servant at the door suddenly came to report: "Master Fang! A clerk was sent over from the government office, saying that he had something to announce."
Fang Yingwu waved his hand to let him in, but saw that after the young official entered the hall, he first looked around at the few members, and then saluted Fang Yingwu and said: "Master Fang, please come here.
I am following the order from the government office to talk to Mr. Fang about the affairs of the mansion."
"What's there to say?" Fang Yingwu frowned.
The little official replied tremblingly: "The mansion occupies a large area, and Mr. Fang and his party are not large. It would be extravagant and wasteful to use so many places. Therefore, the government decided to find another place to arrange for Mr. Fang.
Move somewhere else.”
Fang Yingwu was furious. How was this statement any different from expelling him from the mansion? Who could bear such humiliation? Especially when there were so many outsiders here in front of him.
When other members of the government heard the government's request, they immediately became frightened. They moved to Gongguan Street just for Fang Yingwu. If Fang Yingwu left, what would be the point of Gongguan Street? They moved and settled here.
I have already gone through a lot of trouble, but I really can’t afford to go through any more trouble!
There are also timid people who have already begun to calculate in their hearts. If this Fang Yingwu can't even live with this, then if you analyze it rationally, this person is probably unstable and unreliable.
Bang! Fang Yingwu slapped the table hard, causing the tea cup to jingle. "Before I moved in, the mansion was idle. Isn't it a waste? Why did it become a waste after I moved in?"
The clerk gritted his teeth and replied reluctantly: "The mansion will not be idle, and others will move in."
Fang Yingwu laughed angrily, heying a few times before saying: "Now in Suzhou Mansion, who else is more qualified to stay in the mansion than this imperial envoy?"
The clerk remained silent. (To be continued..)
ps: The third update, known as ten thousand words, did it again before 12 o'clock! Continue tomorrow!