Five hundred and sixteen chapters Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Li You approved Dai Han's complaint and began to think about how to deal with it. There were only two ways, to invite in or to go out.
After much thought, he felt that it would be better to go out and have greater influence. Besides, the Chongwenmen Propaganda Branch is located to the east of Chongwenmenwai Street, which is the boundary of Nancheng. Handling cases on-site is conducive to hunting down rabbits, and it is not compliant with rectification.
The Nancheng Procuratorate and the Military and Horse Division.
As mentioned before, Chongwenmen Customs is one of the eight major customs in the world, and it is also the most special customs. Although the ambassador of the Chongwenmen Propaganda Branch is only a ninth-grade sesame official, it can be said to be the "cost-effective" of the country.
The highest official, even the most honest one, can easily earn ten thousand taels of silver a year.
The capital has a population of one million, and its supplies depend on all directions. It goes without saying that the goods are concentrated. Of the five cities in the capital, the middle, east, west, and north are all inner cities. Only the southern city is an outer city. Chongwenmen is the two main gates open to traffic between the inner and outer cities.
One of the city gates.
If the flow of people and goods from the direction of the canal wants to enter the inner city of the capital, Chongwenmen must pass through. In the beginning, all gates in the capital had customs, but Chongwenmen was the most prosperous one. Goods from the southeast came through Chongwenmen.
The door enters the inner city and accounts for the majority of all goods.
I don’t know when the imperial court unified the tax customs of the nine gates of the capital under the management of the Chongwenmen Propaganda Branch. Anyway, the other gates are just a small head compared to Chongwenmen. Therefore, in a broad sense, the tax customs of Chongwenmen refers to the capital.
There are all checkpoints and customs at Jiumen. In the narrow sense, Chongwenmen customs naturally also refers to the checkpoint outside Chongwenmen.
This ambassador of the Propaganda Department of Chongwen Sect has both the face of a Beijing official and a super rich salary. He is a fat vacancy among fat vacancies, and the best among low-level officials. All low-level officials below the seventh rank who cannot make it to the stage are all right to this
A dream job.
Of course, even though a ninth-grade miscellaneous official is very fat and is still a key and powerful figure in the eyes of the merchants in the capital, in the heart of Mr. Li today, he is just an ant a little taller than a commoner, and he really can't get into him.
With his discernment, he only considers his own purpose.
Besides, as an official who monitors the integrity of the country, it would be mediocre and derelict of duty if we do not investigate and deal with corrupt officials. This ambassador is also a suitable candidate.
After making up his mind, Li You summoned his attendants and headed towards Nancheng. After leaving Chongwenmen, not far away, turning eastward, there was the Propaganda Branch.
The alley was bustling with people, and the merchants coming and going were like crucian carp crossing the river, just like in a busy city. When Mr. Li arrived, he naturally cleared an open space outside the gate of the Propaganda Branch.
I heard that Mr. Li, the Admiral and Censor of the Five Cities, who was responsible for patrolling the ground in the capital, suddenly arrived. He did not know why he came, and the entire Propaganda Department was in a state of commotion.
The most worrying thing for any well-oiled yamen is for a Shangguan with supervisory power to suddenly attack without warning, just like Mr. Li did today.
After the sedan stopped, Li You got off the sedan and saw more than ten people waiting outside the gate of the Propaganda Branch. Only one of them was wearing a ninth-grade green robe, which must be the ambassador of the branch. The rest were probably clerks.
Officials and the like.
There was a difference between the superior and the inferior. Both parties respected Mr. Li, so he naturally stood proudly with his eyes raised to the sky, while the ambassador from the Propaganda Department stepped forward to greet him.
When the two were still several feet away from each other, the figure of the Ambassador of the Propaganda Branch swayed in the wind and suddenly disappeared from the corner of Mr. Li's eyes. Li You was slightly startled, but then he heard a popping sound again.
Looking closer, I saw that the Ambassador of the Propaganda Branch was already kneeling on the ground. He was kneeling very solidly, kneeling very happily, and kneeling very gracefully, without any falsehood. He bowed to the ground and bowed: "I am humbled to be the Ambassador of the Chongwenmen Propaganda Branch, Lu Yuanguang."
!Meet Mr. Qian Xian!"
This situation moved Mr. Li, who was originally very cold, very moved. The etiquette of kneeling in official circles of the state and dynasty naturally has its own customs. In theory, if the difference is more than two grades, you should kneel down, but the specific situation is different.
It is more strict in other places, and sometimes people have to kneel down even if they are one rank behind. However, in the officialdom of the capital, the ritual of kneeling and worshiping is not popular between superiors and subordinates, and most of them meet each other with hands. Generally speaking, only the prime ministers and officials in the officialdom of the capital can do this.
Enjoy the privilege of being worshiped on your knees.
Mr. Li is a fifth-rank official with real power, and Lu Yuanguang is a ninth-rank miscellaneous official. The difference in status is as great as the difference between heaven and earth. Outside the country, one should kneel down. But in the capital, it is still within the category of kneeling or not. Most of the time, there is no need to kneel. However,
Ambassador Lu transformed into a floor streamer without hesitation.
I bowed before bowing my head, it's such a big gift." Li You was shocked in his heart and took a step back involuntarily, his domineering aura quietly disappeared.
Mr. Li immediately realized that this guy was probably a ruthless person. He could lower his attitude to such a low level and was definitely not an ordinary person. In other words, he must have a few tricks up his sleeve to be able to sit safely on the throne at the feet of the emperor.
He still put on airs and ordered: "Ambassador Lu, there is no need to be polite, please get up quickly."
When the other party stood up, Li You could clearly see Ambassador Lu's appearance. He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, a square face, and slightly dark skin. In terms of appearance alone, he did not look like a cunning person.
Lu Yuanguang asked respectfully: "My lord, I'm here to see you. I'm humble enough to welcome you from afar. I didn't know that I'm here this time."
Li You casually scanned the surrounding crowd and said loudly: "A merchant is suing your company, so I will use the government office to ask about the case!"
This sounds very domineering. When interrogating someone, you have to borrow his official office, which seems to humiliate him. In fact, it is normal. In the country's dynasty system, the patrol censor has the right to borrow the nearest official office when asking questions. Li You is the chief leader of the patrol censor.
, of course it has this power.
Ambassador Lu Yan asked: "My superiors have orders, why dare you disobey them? Please come in!"
Li You led his entourage into the office of the Propaganda Branch. The nearby merchants looked at his back and whispered, probably expecting something.
Mr. Li occupied the magpie's nest and sat at the top. Envoy Lu Yuanguang was in his office and could only stand at the bottom to wait for questions.
Li You coughed, first explained the case, and then asked: "Is there such a thing?"
"It is true." Ambassador Lu replied.
Mr. Li slapped the case and said: "You use the method of sitting together to torture merchants and punish property indiscriminately. What's the rationale for this? There is an official who is ignorant and ignorant, and he actually neglects to observe. I will not give you mercy!"
Li You focused on the last sentence. This Yousi refers to the censor of Nancheng City Patrol. Originally, he had the intention of pulling out the radish and bringing out the mud.
Phew! Ambassador Lu knelt down again, kowtowed and said, "Master, please listen to me!"
Mr. Li, who has tried countless cases, has seen such an expression of begging for mercy so often that he is numb and has no sympathy at all. What this person is going to say next will probably either be taken out of the background or bribed.
He shouted righteously: "Now that you have admitted it, what else can you say to defend yourself! Under such a bright and clear world, how can you be allowed to do whatever you want to do for money? Don't even think that I will protect you!"
Ambassador Lu raised his head and said: "I would like to ask, as a propaganda ambassador, your first priority is to complete the quota for the imperial court. Do you think so? The method of continuous sitting is designed for this purpose. Please do not ignore it!"
Li You laughed instead of getting angry when he heard this, "It's extremely ridiculous! It's just using the imperial court as an excuse to extort money to satisfy your greed. Don't do this kind of trick in front of me!"
Lu Yuanguang said angrily: "I don't know something, sir. According to the regulations of the Ministry of Household Affairs, there are five major items and more than 70 categories that should be taxed, and they can be subdivided into hundreds of categories. The tax on all goods is about 1% to 100%.
Three of them vary.
The imperial court has set a tax rate of 250,000 taels for our Chongwenmen every year, but the amount has been insufficient year after year. The reason is that businessmen are driven by profit-seeking nature, and cunning and cunning are everywhere, and tax evasion is often concealed. Our customs office has limited manpower.
, and I am not very familiar with the goods, if I can check them all!
In desperation, I decided on a method to pass the test in one sitting. Without this method, it will be difficult to pay the national tax!
First, each batch of merchants prepares tax bills together. If there is any omission, they will be fined and confiscated. This is to encourage merchants in the same batch to supervise and report each other. Merchants are always more familiar with the goods than subordinates.
Secondly, the reality is that there are many tax evaders and few are detected. If there are no consecutive cases, the amount detected is far less than the amount of tax evaded. Therefore, the method of continuous fines and confiscations is used, so that the excess fines and forfeitures can be used to offset the amount of tax evasion.
In the past three consecutive years, I have not completed the quota of the imperial court, and only this year is expected to meet the quota. In the eyes of the boss, Xianguan's hard work for the public is just for my own selfish gain! Xianguan will not accept it even if he dies!"
Li You was speechless. These were all crooked methods. He was really specialized in his profession. He had never done any tax work before, so he had never thought of this.
But I have to admit that from the perspective of collecting taxes and money, as Lu Yuanguang has explained, sitting together is probably a very effective method.
Well, this man surnamed Lu has taken over the business affairs, and it seems that it is difficult to criticize him logically. He cannot accuse Ambassador Lu of being too aggressive in collecting taxes. Li You can only continue to ask: "I intend to implicate those innocent people.
Is this what a gentleman does?"
Lu Yuanguang said in a sad and indignant tone: "Master, do you think the royal tax money is more important, or the business of merchants? What's more, all the tax money from Chongwenmen goes into the inner treasury. It is needed for the palace expenses, how can it be short of it!
A heavy responsibility rests on one's shoulders, and the official never dares to sacrifice his life when serving the imperial court, nor does he dare to complain when he is burdened with infamy. As long as there is no shortage of taxes and money, the official will have a clear conscience in this position and will eventually live up to the great trust of the imperial court! As for who is unlucky?
, I can only resign myself to fate, but it is definitely not a low-ranking official seeking his own selfish interests, please be aware of it!"
Mr. Li was speechless again for a long time... This face looked so damn familiar. When others saw it suddenly, they might be a little moved by Ambassador Lu. He is such a capable person who doesn't care about gains and losses.
But as a senior fellow, how could Li You not feel the truth? He said sarcastically: "That's very well said! Do you dare to say with a clear conscience that there are no shortcomings in your company?"
Ambassador Lu said categorically: "There are nine customs checkpoints all over the place, and the personnel are good and bad. It is inevitable that there will be illegal activities. But as long as one is discovered, we will investigate and deal with them. The subordinates will never tolerate it! If the boss finds out anything, the subordinates will be on the spot.
deal with!"
Li You found that he could no longer ask. In this officialdom, there were indeed crouching tigers and hidden dragons. Before this, he had thought that he was responsible for the other party's crimes and that his power and position were far superior to him. However, he never expected that he was actually in a small nine-year-old.
Pin was speechless.
Up to now, this little ninth-grade sesame official has not moved out of his backstage, and he has almost cleared himself up. He is capable and capable. Mr. Li, who is in a high position, seems to see his own shadow, and he can't help but feel a little love for talent.
Heart.(To be continued)
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