The cabinet ministers were silent for a long time. Some wanted to advise the emperor to be cautious in punishment, but they did not dare to get into trouble at this time.
Fei Chun's matter is actually not that big. His titles and promotions were stripped down to the end. It was more of a warning to the emperor and showed the emperor's attitude towards this matter. If Ding You comes back and works for a few more years, Fei Chun's promotions and promotions will definitely be restored. Only
How much the title and cabinet ranking can be restored depends on how long Fei Chun can live.
If Fei Chun lived to be seventy or eighty, the chief assistant would not have to run away, and his title would be at least as high as an earl. Maybe the new emperor would give the title of duke to him as soon as he is happy.
There is a very small chance that when Zhao Han is in power, Fei Chun will be restored to the dukedom - this was the case with Li Banghua at the beginning.
As for the punishment of the Zheng family, it is more like taking the opportunity to rectify it.
The Zheng family has a duke, a prince-in-law, several marquises and earls. Moreover, they have great influence in Fujian and are quite prestigious in the navy. This time they are just trying to kill the rabbits.
The emperor and his ministers were silent for a long time, and finally Zhu Shunshui said: "To deal with so many officials and merchants at once, all the major ports will be in chaos. There are not enough officials to manage the shipping department, and there are not enough maritime merchants to transport goods to sea. After a year and a half, it will be
There is a backlog of countless goods at the port, and factories and people in the interior will also be affected."
Zhao Han said: "Officials of the Municipal Shipping Department who are not complicit will be promoted from one to three levels, depending on the specific positions and circumstances. Vacant Municipal Shipping Department officials will be transferred by local prefecture and county officials to resume the operation of the Municipal Shipping Department as soon as possible.
As for the maritime traders involved in the case, those who committed the most heinous crimes should be beheaded or exiled. The rest are just merchants who paid bribes and evaded taxes. Don't check how much tax was stolen. Just count each ship according to the number and size of the company's ships.
Fines range from 150,000, 120,000, 80,000, 60,000, and 30,000 taels of silver."
During the Chongzhen period, the average price of goods shipped from Fujian to Manila was 50,000 taels of silver per ship, with a profit margin of about 100%. Small ships were 30,000 to 50,000 taels, and large ships were 1,100,000 to 20,000.
Now that maritime trade is booming, maritime merchants have been rolled up, and smuggling is no longer possible, and the profit margin has shrunk to less than 80%. Moreover, short-distance trade is even less profitable, such as shipping goods from Shandong to North Korea, such as shipping goods from Shanghai to
Guangdong.
Zhao Han's fine regulations, including the round-trip transportation of goods, are probably the total profits of those maritime merchants in one to two years, which must far exceed the evaded tariffs.
If there happens to be a new registered ship by a maritime merchant, consider yourself unlucky, as the new ship will still be fined.
Such a fine does not comply with the provisions of the "Datong Commercial Law" and is entirely a special case. Who allowed so many maritime merchants to participate in tax evasion that the investigators could not investigate them?
In order to save investigation time, as long as there is a bill of goods that does not match, it can be regarded as tax evasion, and there is no need to conduct an in-depth investigation. After the fine, we will continue to investigate the next company. Otherwise, we have to investigate each firm and compare each transaction.
Go to the year of the monkey and the month of the horse.
Zhao Han continued: "It is inevitable that there will be a review error, and the tax amount of less than one thousand taels cannot be paid, so we will not pursue it this time."
Wu Yingji said: "Your Majesty imposes such a heavy penalty. I'm afraid that many maritime trading companies will go bankrupt due to poor turnover. Especially the companies that have opened in the past two or three years and operated with loans are buying ships and purchasing goods. They will definitely not be able to do so."
So much cash."
"You deserve to go bankrupt!"
Zhao Han said angrily: "From now on, we will choose a port every year to carry out detailed inspections of maritime merchants. Just like this investigation, we will compare the accounts of the general department and trading companies, and strictly check each transaction."
.Every time the lot is drawn to select the target of the inventory, the first assistant, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Commerce, and the Yushi Zuodu of the Supervisory Yuan must be present. The first assistant draws the lot, the Minister of Finance announces the results, and the Minister of Commerce fills in the name of the port, and Zuodu
The censor will supervise the whole process! When the lot is drawn, other ministry officials can also come and observe."
No one said anything more.
Zhao Han didn't stop yet: "The merchants who were fined this time will all have their trading licenses marked with a red mark. If they dare to evade customs duties next time, their licenses will be revoked. The merchants who were not fined this time will be given a 'Integrity Certificate' by the shipping companies from various places."
Businesses will be rewarded with plaques, and each company will be exempted from customs duties on one ship next year!"
After thinking for a while, Zhao Han added: "Several officials who were killed and silenced were promoted to five levels in their original positions. The Ministry of Rites prepared a list of commendations, and all of them were given the posthumous title of Wenzhong. Each family of the children of these loyal officials recommended one person to go to college.
If you have no children, you can adopt them from relatives. Those who are recommended will have free study fees, and will be given five taels of silver per month for living expenses until they finish college."
When Qian Qianyi and his son received the news at home, they were both happy and heartbroken.
Qian Ruyi said with tears: "All these years have been in vain."
"As long as you can survive, it doesn't matter if you pay some money." Qian Qianyi was very tolerant.
Qian Ruyi said: "Father, the trading company we partnered with the Xie family and the Xu family only evaded tariffs for four years. The total amount is only more than 20,000 taels. But our trading company is getting bigger and bigger. Last year we had a new
If we add two more ships, one big and one small, the fine for the big ship will be 150,000 taels of silver!"
Qian Ruyi couldn't help but cry. The money he earned had been used to open a textile factory and buy a lot of river merchant ships. Now, the trading company's cash was definitely not enough to fine him, and the three shareholders had to pay for it. He
The family didn't have enough cash, so they had to take out loans to pay fines, or sell off the river fleet and shops.
Whether it was a loan or a sale, he would definitely be ripped off by someone. Repeatedly, it would be like working for the imperial court in vain for the past four or five years.
Of course, the one who suffered the worst loss must be Xie Sanbin, because this guy is the absolute majority shareholder.
"Just be content. Mr. Fei Ge has lost his title of Duke, and you and I are just paying the fine," Qian Qianyi sighed, "Oh, your Majesty today is really... the reincarnation of that person."
Qian Qianyi had four sons in total. The first three were all dead, leaving only the youngest.
As the youngest son, Qian Ruyi is not very old and is only in his early forties this year. Because he did business with Xie Sanbin, he has become more and more prosperous in the past few years. Now he has been knocked back to his original shape a few years ago and has to endure the pain of "hard life" for a few years.
"Yes.
…
The sign "Guogong Mansion" was taken down, and the plaque on the door was replaced with "Fei Zhai".
Mrs. Fei looked at her brand-new door lintel and was speechless for a long time. She wanted the old one but didn't like the new one.
He silently walked through the door, came to the main room and sat down. No one in the family spoke a word.
After a long time, Fei Chun said: "Xiao Qifeng and his son were beheaded in the fall. The rest of the family, as long as they were in the household registration book, and those who were separated within ten years, all had their homes confiscated and were exiled to Tibet. Even if he married,
His daughter will also be exiled to Tibet."
Mrs. Fei trembled when she heard these words, and she did not dare to complain against the emperor anymore. She only asked: "What kind of Tanzhou do you really want your third brother to be exiled to?"
"You cannot disobey your orders," Fei Chun said.
"My poor son!" Mrs. Fei immediately started crying.
Fei Chun consoled him: "I've heard about it, my child. As long as you don't encounter wind and waves on the way and don't suffer from any serious illness, you can live in Tanzhou. The climate there is pretty good. But... I will definitely never come back in this life."
Mrs. Fei wiped away her tears and said, "Since your title is gone, why don't you stop begging the emperor?"
Fei Chun explained with a wry smile: "Mother, my current official status is only the Dongge Grand Bachelor and the temporary Finance Minister. The former Grand Bachelor was the fifth rank, and in the new dynasty was promoted to the Second Grade. The temporary Finance Minister is also
I am a second-grade official, but my mother has not taken back my first-grade imperial edict. Doesn’t my mother still understand what your majesty means?"
"What does your Majesty mean?" Mrs. Fei really didn't understand.
Fei Chun said in detail: "First, your majesty is saving face for your mother; second, your majesty is hinting that the child should not be resentful, and he will definitely be restored to his rank in the future; third, you are not allowed to plead with anyone, otherwise the child will become a bachelor of Dongge University.
, and my mother’s first-grade imperial edict is definitely not guaranteed!”
Mrs. Fei no longer shed tears: "What else is there to say? The emperor is playing riddles with our family."
"This kind of thing can be understood by cabinet officials," Fei Chun exhaled. "So, mother must be careful in the future and don't recognize her adopted son and adopted daughter randomly. Anyone can give any gift as long as it is not expensive.
You can accept it, but you must remember to return the gift, and all gifts must be accounted for."
Mrs. Fei sighed: "You are really tired as a pavilion boss. You even have to keep accounts to receive a gift. You are not even as good as the previous county magistrate."
Fei Chun said: "Who can not be cautious when the founding sage is alive? Your Majesty is already very kind. Emperor Hongwu killed many people. Then Xiao Qifeng also had the courage of a bear and a leopard. The shipping companies in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo
, I have been sending him money over the years, giving him more than 600,000 taels."
"More than six hundred thousand taels?" Mrs. Fei was dumbfounded.
Fei Chun added: "This time His Majesty sent people to investigate the case, and a doctor from the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance was also his confidant. He secretly notified officials in various ports and asked those corrupt officials to quickly destroy the evidence. He even said that those who should be silenced should be silenced immediately.
Not only were they corrupt, they also committed the crime of deceiving the emperor!"
Mrs. Fei didn't care too much about bullying the emperor. Her focus was elsewhere. She gritted her teeth and said with anger: "This Xiao Qifeng has embezzled more than 600,000 taels, and he still pretends to be an upright official in front of me. Damn it!"
Mrs. Liu also says all day long that she is poor and dresses shabbier than a wife of a fifth- or sixth-rank official. The couple are not good people. They teamed up to deceive me. They deserve to be killed, they deserve to be killed!"
Xiao Qifeng embezzled more than 600,000 taels, which included not only commissions from tax evasion by merchants, but also shares in some banks and companies.
Unable to hold back, officials and maritime merchants from the three major ports continued to take the initiative to send money.
After muttering for a while, Mrs. Fei asked again: "Where is Tanzhou?"
Fei Chun had no choice but to get a world map. This was a version from three years ago, and the Hawaiian Islands were not marked.
But he remembered the specific location and proportions from the emperor. It was roughly the latitude between Taiwan and Luzon, all the way east to America, two-thirds of the entire distance.
After measuring it with a ruler, Fei Chun pointed toward the Pacific Ocean: "This is it."
"How can we live like this when we are surrounded by the sea?" Mrs. Fei was dumbfounded.
Fei Chun said: "Every year, caravans carry supplies there. Apart from not being able to enjoy it, there should be no shortage of things. I heard that there are enough bananas and coconut tubes there, so I don't have to worry about my third brother not being able to eat the fruit."
