my grandmother

Chapter 187 Just Started (1 still owed)

He Chengze followed Wang Gui, went up the steps, bowed his hands to see the ceremony, glanced at Gu Yan, cupped his hands and said: "There are some old sayings, you have to tell the son face to face."

Gu Yan looked at He Chengze, and He Chengze met Gu Yan's gaze, smiled and said, "Master, you have to listen."

"Okay, since it's an old story..."

"It'll take a while, why don't you come to He Ji to have a rest and have a cup of tea?" He Chengze pointed to the old He Ji account next to him.

"En." Gu Yan signaled Wang Gui and the others to watch, then turned and went to He Ji's old account.

Gu Yan stood under the gate of He Ji and didn't go in.

He Chengze personally moved a chair, a small chair, and a small square table from the porter's room. He Ruiming had already received the letter, and hurriedly delivered teapots, teacups, and a small red clay stove.

Gu Yan sat on the chair, watched He Chengze calmly boil water, iron the pot and cups, made another pot of tea, and poured two cups.

"My son, if you do something today, you must have checked it out, and you've got all the account books that you should get." He Chengze looked at Gu Yan, and got straight to the point.

Gu Yan looked at He Chengze with a half-smile, but didn't speak.

"In addition to checking and finding out, the son of the world is also making preparations for cleaning up, such as the porters on the dock." He Chengze continued.

Gu Yan leaned back on the back of the chair and looked at He Chengze without saying a word.

"The silk shop evaded the sea tax. At first, it diverted the silk that should have been sold in the empire to Linhai Town. Later, the old prince smoothed out the difference between the inside and the outside, and changed all the taxes payable by the weaving workshop to [-]%. The hands and feet were all transferred to Linhai Town."

He Chengze lowered his eyelids, chatting casually.

"Before the old prince changed the system, he also manipulated the number of loading and unloading, but it was all small troubles, and the Customs Department and the Silk Company also checked frequently, but it has not been successful.

"After the reorganization of the old prince, the handling of the number of loading and unloading is no longer a trivial matter. At the beginning, it was the Silk Company and the Wharf Gang who concealed [-]% of the amount. Later, more and more, until now, dozens At the end of the year, at least [-]% of the amount must be concealed.

"The porters on the wharf initially counted as two out of three trips, and the other trip was subsidized by the silk shop to the gang, and then distributed to the porters by the gang. Later."

He Chengze sighed.

"Things are like this, layers of hands and feet, and the last one is the bearers."

Gu Yan squinted at He Chengze sideways, with a half-smile.

He called him over just to say this?
"My son's rectification of sea tax is to plug the loopholes and enrich the national treasury, but has my son found out where the half of the sea tax intercepted by the silk industry has gone?"

He Chengze looked at Gu Yan.

Gu Yan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"My son, wait a moment." He Chengze stood up, bowed to Gu Yan, turned around and went inside, after a while, he came out with an old indigo cloth bag, untied it, and put it in front of Gu Yan.

There are four or five slightly outdated account books in the baggage.

He Chengze pointed to the ledger and said, "This is a younger cousin who, under the orders of his younger father, has worked as the general accountant in Jiangnan Silk Co. for ten years. This is the ledger he copied back. Inside is his During the ten years when I worked as the general account, all the unexplained expenditures of the Jiangnan Silk Company, the amount recorded in these account books accounted for at least [-]% of the underpaid half of the sea tax."

Gu Yan straightened his back slightly, and looked at He Chengze from those few old ledgers.

"More than ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the south of the Yangtze River was prosperous, Linhai Town was built, and the sea tax department was first raised. There was a shortage of manpower everywhere, and there was a shortage of labor. Prices rose several times, especially silk lint, and even mulberry saplings. Both have risen to dozens of times the current level, and then fell down.

"In the past, farmers did not grow rice, but planted mulberry in large fields, raised silkworms and planted cotton, and the price of food soared. After a few rounds, the price of silk and labor doubled compared with the beginning of the founding of the country."

He Chengze picked up his cup, took a sip of tea, and sighed.

"The weaving workshop transfers the silk sold in the empire to Linhai Town, which is against the law, and it has to be managed up and down.

"Later, the Silk Industry took a long-term view and began to subsidize students, go to various yamen offices, recommend small officials, and in order to be able to speak up, bear the expenses of Yicang Yixue in prefectures and counties. Later, it gave the six departments from Liangzhe Road Officials send soil tributes and festival respects, and give pens, inks and silver to Jiangnan students who are preparing for exams in the capital.

"Half of the silver that was transferred out through the bank was retained by the Jiangnan Silk Head Office."

He Chengze looked at Gu Yan.

"Half of the tax money was evaded on the silk, but only [-]% was underpaid by the weaving workshop, and the other [-]% was handed over by the weaving workshop and retained at Jiangnan Silk Head Office.

"The other half of the silk head office's expenditure is handed over by each weaving workshop to the local silk bank, and then coordinated by the local silk bank and the Jiangnan Silk Head Office.

"The profit of today's weaving workshops is less than half of what it was in the early days of the founding of the country, and it is not as good as before the old prince changed the tax system. The small ones did the accounting for several medium-sized weaving workshops in Pingjiang City. At that time, after a year, the net profit was only one or two thousand taels. .”

He Chengze's voice fell, and Gu Yan's face paled.

In the past, when he took drastic measures to rectify the Sea Taxation Department, He Chengze told him that he was making an enemy of the entire Jiangnan, and even the gentry and officials of the entire empire, and he scoffed at that time.

"My son, from the pier to the Customs Department, completely cut off the hands and feet of the silk industry in terms of quantity, and collected them in full. I am afraid that [-]% of the weaving workshops in the south of the Yangtze River will not be able to support them.

"My lord's plagiarism and rectification today is not to close the net, but to start, these," He Chengze pointed to the old account books, "what to do after the cracks are uncovered, is the real problem of my lord."

Gu Yan was silent for a moment, then stretched out his hands to tie the bag and picked it up, "I see. I want to take a good look at these accounts. If there is anything unclear, please ask Uncle He to point it out."

"Your Majesty, you are being polite. This old servant knows everything to say, and he can talk endlessly." He Chengze hurriedly stood up, bowed his body and said.

"Yeah." Gu Yan hummed, grabbed the bag and went out of He Ji's old account, standing under the sun, only felt that the sun was too bright, dazzling and uncomfortable.

"You stay here to assist Huang Xianzhou in the trial, and let Huang Xian report it every week." Gu Yan ordered Wang Gui, handed the burden to Shi Gun, got on the horse, and went straight to Pingjiang City.

There was still a mile or two away from the farewell, Gu Yan suddenly reined in the horse, sat on the horse for a while, and told Shi Gun: "Give me the burden, and you go and invite Miss Li to come over."

Shi Gun hastily handed the bundle in his arms to Gu Yan, and asked carefully, "Would Miss Li come here?"

This is a post road, with people coming and going, it would be too abrupt for his family's grandson to wait here.

"The pier over there." Gu Yan pointed not far away.

The wharf over there is already within the scope of Wangfu Bieye.

Shi Gun heaved a sigh of relief, answered yes, beckoned his two servants, and went straight to Pingjiang Mansion.

Li Xiaonan was discussing with Sister Mei about making a pot of rice cakes, and Wang Yuting followed behind and said that since A Wu was not here, she could help Sister Mei make rice cakes.

Shi Gun knocked on the door and called out Li Xiaonan, Li Xiaonan first looked at Shi Gun's forehead.

Sweat on the forehead.

"What happened?" Li Xiaonan asked, looking at Shi Gun's forehead.

"That's not true, our Shizi asked the girl to come over." Shi Gun hurriedly said with a smile.

Li Xiaonan was a little hesitant, Bieye had a big banquet today, why did he invite her?
"Miss, let's go, the little one came in a hurry, I didn't have time to prepare the car, so I came on horseback." Shi Gun said with a smile.

After the elder son of his family talked with old shopkeeper He, although he couldn't tell anything from his face, he felt that his elder son was not very good based on his intuition.

"Isn't your house just having a big banquet for guests, why did your elder son ask me to do it?" Li Xiaonan asked in a low voice.

"Our eldest son is not in another industry, but outside." Shi Gun replied with lowered voice and lowered his eyes.

Li Xiaonan slowly groaned, looked back at Sister Mei and Wang Yuting who were looking at her head to head, waved and said, "I'll go out for a while, come back for dinner."

(End of this chapter)