Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 190
Chongming County, the mansion in the east of the city.

Zhou Hezhi was drinking tea, Huzhou Anji white tea gifted by Jian Guo, the tea was full of fragrance.There are several trusted brothers in the room, but they are not in the mood to drink tea.

"Brother, the intention of supervising the country is clearly revealed. This is to annex our troops." Zhou Rui couldn't help shouting seeing that his elder brother was still so leisurely.

"Who is the supervisor? The regent of the supervisor is the king. Can that be called annexation of our troops? When he was in Fujian, Zheng Zhilong said he wanted to annex our troops. In Zhoushan, Huang Binqing also always wanted to annex our troops. Only this time ,no."

He took a sip of his tea and pointed at Zhou Rui, Zhao Xin, Deng Xian, Huang Rong, and Li Yu, "You were all pirates like me, but now you have been conferred by the Jian Kingdom as the Chief of the Navy Isn't it enough?"

The five commanders of the five towns who were newly assigned to the Yangtze River Navy were all pirates. Among them, Zhou Rui was Zhou Hezhi's brother, and the other four were from Fujian and Cantonese. Among them, Huang Rong and Li Yu were even Dan. Dan people, Dan people are a very miserable ethnic group. They are discriminated against and are called untouchables. They are only allowed to live on the water and are not allowed to settle on land. They are not even allowed to read, read, take exams, and be officials. intermarriage etc.

They live on boats, floating with the waves.

The two joined the pirates, then became the leader step by step, and now they are awarded the title of the chief soldier of a town by Lu Jianguo. There is really nothing to say.I think that when the Chongzhen court recruited Zhou Hezhi to surrender, he only gave him a general.Zheng Zhilong has always wanted to recruit and annex this team, but he is only willing to give it to Qian Zong.

Later they joined forces and went to Zhoushan to partner with Huang Binqing, Zhou Hezhi was the governor, and the others were just guerrillas.

Now he is directly awarded the title of chief soldier, but he has been promoted several levels in a row.

"Everyone, why did we go to Zhoushan when we were free and easy at sea? Isn't it all to fight against the Tartars and protect the culture and etiquette of our ancestors?"

Zhou Rui was a little worried, "I don't believe in the imperial court. If we reorganize it now, and come back to do it again, wouldn't we have no power to resist, just like Huang Binqing today?"

"Everyone, we are no longer pirates. We are officials and generals. If we are generals, we must obey military orders and dispatch. From now on, we will all be naval generals. If the court really wants to transfer, that is normal. Don't pay the general Let’s look at the current situation in the same way as we used to do at sea.”

Pirates have the rules of pirates, and the court has the system of the court.

Generally speaking, the sea is more dangerous, and the pirates are all cunning and selfish.

Zhou Hezhi is also a person who started to go to sea in his teens, and he is also a veteran of the world. He even has seven names in the world, Zhou Hezhi, Zhou Cuizhi, Cui Zhi, Zhou Zhi, etc., known as the seven-headed dragon.

He had already thought about what kind of storms and waves he had never seen before this time. Outside the city, he was very decisive and decided not to hesitate to wait and see.

"Everyone, the prison country treats us with national scholars, and we will definitely return them with national scholars. Although we come from humble backgrounds, there is a way to steal. Don't be suspicious anymore, go back separately, and cooperate with the imperial court to reorganize the navy. In the future, we will It is the officers and soldiers of the Yangtze River Navy. Everyone bring your own soldiers well, and you must be worthy of this reward, let alone forget our original intention of being recruited. We not only seek fame and wealth, but also seek to be worthy of our ancestors The identity of the Chinese Han people!"

"Brothers can't spend their whole lives on the sea as robbers. Now that we have the opportunity to go ashore, it's a rare opportunity. We cherish it." Zhou Hezhi waved his hands, telling the brothers to go back to camp.

·····
Suzhou.

Boluo and Duoduo joined forces, and Prince Yu was very dissatisfied with Li Shitai's death in battle, and even had his head cut off, and ordered the execution of Li Shitai's team of soldiers.

"Su Song made such a big mess this time, you are responsible for Tu Guobao."

Tu Guobao immediately knelt down and pleaded guilty, "It's all slaves negligent, damn it."

"It's because you can quickly put down Su Song's rebellion and defeat the rebels, which is considered an atonement." Duoduo frowned and said, after this chaos, although Su Song regained the whole territory, he also killed a large number of rebels , but also badly hurt.

The three prefectures of Changsu, Songtai, and one prefecture were all looted, and all the counties below were also looted.

This loss is very huge. The summer tax came up, and it was gone before it was escorted and turned over. Now the government offices and green camps in various places have no money and food.

Not to mention that a large number of gentry who belonged to them were also purged in this great rebellion.

And the hair-shaving order made the originally obedient people feel uneasy.

Not to mention that a servant died, and he was not a servant of ordinary background.

The regent Dorgon was very angry in Beijing, and he reprimanded Duoduo, Boluo, and Hong Chengchou. He had made great contributions to calming Jiangnan, but now there was such a disturbance in the class, and Duoduo was also very angry.

Dorgon is his own brother, but this time he also scolded him bloody.

Fortunately, Su Song's rebellion was quickly quelled, and Tu Guobao, a slave, is still capable, not to mention that Yan Wogong's performance was particularly eye-catching this time.

Compared with the incompetence of Su Song's green camp, the performance of the green camp in West Zhejiang is outstanding.

"Now the rebels are fleeing everywhere, and one of them has fled to Chongming Island. The humble ranks lack ships, so they have to build ships to prepare for war."

Before Duoduo arrived, he also received a lot of detailed reports, knowing that Jiangnan has returned to peace, and some false rebels have fled, which is no longer harmful.

He is not in the mood to study these broken soldiers now, and waved his hand, "I will leave these things to you in the Tufuyuan. Wu Shengzhao, Li Chengdong, Yang Chengzu and others have committed crimes and meritorious deeds. Li Zongbing guards Songjiang and works hard. We must wipe out these fake thieves as soon as possible. .”

Duoduo and Boluo will still return to Beijing as originally planned, and will not delay any further in Jiangnan.

After he left, Hong Chengchou, a senior recruiter, will be the governor of the military and political affairs of the southern provinces.

The main force of the Eight Banners will return the troops to the north, leaving only a small part to garrison major cities such as Jiangning, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. The rest of the places will be in charge of the green battalion. , continue to eliminate the puppet Ming rebels, and then implement shaving and easy clothing, and collect taxes.

Anyway, the south of the Yangtze River has been calmed down, so Beijing is eager to call Duoduo back.

Duoduo looked at Tu Guobao, "Although you have neglected your duties this time, you have also made contributions. I will report them one by one after returning to Beijing. You should guard Su Song well and don't go on business trips again."

"Su Song encountered this rebellion and looting, the treasury was empty, and the summer tax was lost. Beijing has issued an order to immediately levy three more payments in Jiangnan, and three cents of silver per mu."

"This money will be collected after autumn, and there must be no less."

Tu Guobao nodded after hearing this, adding three cents of silver per mu is a big burden for the common people, but for him, it is another good way to make money, and he doesn't care about the lives of the common people.

He even repeatedly echoed, "The land in the south of the Yangtze River is fertile, and the additional three-cent silver per mu is probably only about [-]% of the outlay. Adding the original tax, it only accounts for [-]% of the land outlay. , still very well off.”

He didn't say at all that the official tax of the imperial court often only accounts for a fraction of the actual burden of the people. Those additional levies, fire consumption, and officials' exploitation are sometimes several times the official tax, especially the heavy dispatch of labor. And Zheyin, this is the real laborer.

But Tu Guobao is not ignorant of this, but he doesn't care at all.

Just like the Liao rate among the three rates, the levy was increased from the Wanli period. At first, it was 660 cents per mu. 7408 million taels, plus other miscellaneous items such as tariffs and salts, you can get more than [-] million taels of silver.

Later, 280 million taels of salaries were newly established, and 730 million taels of training salaries were newly established.

But it didn't take long for the three rates of the Chongzhen Dynasty to be collected together.

Facing opposition, Yang Sichang, Minister of the Ministry of War, also opened his eyes and told nonsense, saying that the addition of taxes came from Tutian, and that Tutian would all go to the powerful family, and that the money would be increased by three or four dollars, and the annexation was slightly suppressed.

But in fact, the truly powerful families often have ways to not pay this money or pay less, and pass the burden on to ordinary people.

Now Tu Guobao is talking nonsense like opening his eyes, saying that the three rates of one acre plus three cents of silver only account for [-]% of the land output, and the addition of the regular tax only accounts for [-]%. People still have [-]% of an acre of land. It was very relaxing and comfortable.But in his heart, he had already calculated that the court would ask for an additional three cents per mu, and he planned to set a fire consumption of one cent per mu.

He directly collected four points per mu, three points were handed over to the court, and one point was the income for him and the officials.

The arable land of the five prefectures of Su Songchang Township and Ningxia is more than 800 million mu in the official account books, of which the Suzhou prefecture has more than 1000 million mu. One mu is levied for one point of fire consumption interception, which is more than 48 taels of silver.

After this little account was settled, Tu Guobao almost laughed out loud on the spot, the money owed to the false admiral Zhu Wu who killed a thousand swords was settled, and he didn't have to worry about it all day long and couldn't sleep.

"Tu Fuyuan, the three rates will be increased, can it be collected?" Seeing him in a daze, Duoduo thought it would be difficult.

As a result, Tu Guobao responded immediately, very decisively, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, you will definitely complete the task on time, if the unruly people dare to resist the levy and refuse to pay, they will directly ransack their homes and behead them, and kill them as an example."

"Very good. The Tufuyuan is decisive and straightforward." Duo Duo was very satisfied. Duo Ergun told him that Beijing's financial problems are serious now, so they can only re-levy the three rates of the Ming Dynasty, and they have to be collected together, even the total amount. After adding some, 2000 million taels will be levied for the three salaries, so as to make up for the huge military and financial expenditures.

The Beijing imperial court now has only about two million taels of silver left in the treasury, but the military expenditures are huge, and it has begun to default on military salaries, especially the military salaries of the green battalion, which have generally been delayed for several months.

Tartars are good at robbery, and Dorgon has no other way to get money, so he asked all places to urge taxes, not only to urge the correct tax, but also to re-levy the three rates, or even collect the three rates together.

He didn't even bother to change his name, it was extremely shameless to practice and suppress wages.

With half the world, an additional tax of 2000 million taels is levied, which is equivalent to double the three salaries of Chongzhen for the people of Ming Dynasty in the occupied area.

"Jiangnan will leave it to you."

Sitting at the side, Yan Wogong looked at the arrogant Duduo and Boluo, as well as the greedy and cruel Tu Guobao, etc., with mixed emotions in his heart.

Once the three rates are collected, the people in the south of the Yangtze River will have no peace.

(End of this chapter)