A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 345 One year, taxation

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is already the 19th year of Wuxing.

Zhu Changxun is fifty-three years old and is no longer the young man he once was. These chaotic times have made his temper worse and his hair even grayer.

A lot has happened in the past year.

Luoyang fell and the vassals were burned alive. This was a major event that shocked the court. If the leader of the thieves, Erchu, was not executed in the ancestral temple, this stain would be forever engraved in the history of Emperor Wuxing's rule.

"Assist Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng in the military affairs of the three provinces of Jiangxi, Huguang, and Henan, unify the troops of the five provinces, and suppress the second leader of the bandits. The deadline is four months, and I will present my head at the palace!"

Nowadays, the large group of bandits in South Zhili have basically disappeared, and although there is a civil uprising in Shandong, it is not large-scale. Therefore, Zhu Changxun exempted Lu Xiangsheng from the power of Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng's military affairs in Shandong and South Zhili, and only prime ministered the military affairs of the three provinces.

As for the troops from the five provinces, namely Jiangxi, Huguang, Henan, and Beizhili, as well as the troops brought by Lu Xiangsheng from Shanxi, as well as his direct lineage "Tianxiong Army".

In order to destroy Wang Er, Zhu Changxun had already used great strength. He also kept urging Lu Xiangsheng to send troops as soon as possible to destroy the rebels.

The good news is that Wang Er is a bandit, so there is no need to worry about the situation in Shaanxi and Shanxi where the rogue bandits were running around and unable to catch up. The chaos became more and more chaotic, so that it took two years to basically calm down.

However, there is bad news. Wang Er's troops had just achieved a great victory, and their morale was extremely high. When Gao Yingxiang's troops entered Nanjing, they had been well rested and well-rested by watching a theater in Henan. However, Lu Xiangsheng's troops first suppressed bandits in various provinces, and then marched all the way to support Nanjing. Zhili, then chasing the bandits again, was already exhausted.

And Wang Er is indeed difficult to deal with. He also didn't know where he obtained a large amount of equipment, and used it to form a cavalry. It is said that everyone has double armor and is equipped with various fire guns. Like the Li Jialiao cavalry, they are extremely powerful and difficult to deal with, and they appear in various areas. , gave the Ming army a blow. Although Cao Wenzhao and other cavalry units were no less powerful than them, they did not receive the treatment of double armor, and they fell into a disadvantage in several confrontations.

Lu Xiangsheng asked for some grace, but the result was naturally - no.

If the emperor wants to express his attitude, it is necessary to send troops.

After all, now that the vassal vassal has fallen, and the one who died is the son of King Rong... Everyone understands that, it is inevitable that some people think that this may be the emperor deliberately not rescuing Luoyang in order to avenge the past struggle for the throne.

However, after using troops for such a long time, there is not much money left in the national treasury, so the only way is to end the battle in Henan as soon as possible.

A vassal king simply disappeared! How cruel and ruthless is this? As soon as this rumor reached Zhu Changxun's ears, he felt something was wrong.

Wuxing had suffered from the public opinion in the market. When the news of his murder of a master spread, the entire Ming Dynasty was full of rumors, and some people even wrote poems and articles to satirize him. At that time, his entire reputation was ruined, and even today it has no influence. It has not been cut off yet, causing him to lose a lot of people's hearts, and he doesn't want any more problems to arise because of this.

Lu Xiangsheng did not want the elite of the Ming Dynasty to be ruined in his own hands. He wanted to order the armies to improve their defenses in various places and recuperate before preparing for battle. However, the emperor's urgent order was comparable to the twelve gold medals of the year. Lu Xiangsheng, who had always been loyal, simply could not There is no way to violate it.

So the imperial court issued orders one after another urging the dispatch of troops.

In desperation, the Ming army could only forcefully march out with exhausted troops. Although under the command of Lu Xiangsheng, the Ming army was still able to suppress Wang Ertou, but due to the fatigue of the sergeants from long-term battles, they were not able to gain much benefit from the rebels.

Gao Yingxiang, who defected to the army, cooperated with him, so that by May of the 19th year of Wuxing, more than half a year had passed. Although the Ming army had greatly reduced the living space of the rebels and regained Luoyang. Waiting for the important town, but still failed to completely wipe out Wang Er.

Fortunately, the emperor also knew Lu Xiangsheng's abilities and did not put him in jail. However, he was inevitably dissatisfied with him.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the rogue bandits that had been suppressed in other provinces rose up again, and due to the protracted natural disasters, the number of refugees increased. In many places, even if the rogue bandits were not coerced, they could still get a large number of people to defect to them, and they appeared in all provinces. Killed a large-scale bandit with a scale of more than 100,000. Seeing that the world was becoming more and more chaotic, and the small treasury's silver was almost exhausted, Zhu Changxun had no choice but to order a temporary suspension of the use of troops in Henan.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, including Wang Er, who was actually on the verge of death.

However, although the army in Henan was stopped, the extermination of bandits from all over the country still required money, and due to natural disasters, many provinces not only failed to collect any tax money, but also requested relief money from the treasury, causing the emperor a headache.

With no other solution, Ni Wenhuan proposed to the emperor to increase commercial taxes and levy mining taxes.

……

"The imperial court decided to increase commercial tax and introduce mining tax?"

The news spread to Zhejiang and attracted Yan Ling's attention.

"Yes, Zu."

Yan Hongliang stood at the bottom, respectfully reported, and handed a Di newspaper in his hand:

"The commercial tax is similar to that of Wanli. Wuxing plans to levy an additional tax on top of the original commercial tax... The mining tax is quite different from the previous mining tax. This time it is mainly aimed at private mines in various places. For These private mines, which had been left unchecked, imposed heavy taxes, but gave them legitimacy."

Listening to Yan Hongliang's report, Yan Ling's eyes flashed with interest.

The people in the court are not completely incompetent. They also know that in today's situation, if more agricultural taxes are imposed, it will simply force the people to rebel and will only accelerate the fall of the dynasty.

So their choice was to add these to the merchants and landowning gentry.

The emperor is not afraid of losing the hearts of the landlords, gentry and businessmen because of this - because every one of the current bandits in the Ming Dynasty has two words for his attitude towards them:

Kill and rob.

That's not ordinary cruelty, it's just treating them as a storage warehouse for food, gold and silver.

Even Wang Er has this attitude.

The Ming Dynasty only wants a small part of their money, and at most they earn less. They can live as comfortably as they want, but the rogue rebels want their lives and all their money. It is self-evident which side to support. .

But do you still have to pay money to the court?

A sneer flashed across Yan Ling's lips, and he turned to ask:

"How many people choose politics and law in universities today?"

He got an affirmative answer:

"The number is quite large. I am still worried about how there are so many political and legal students to find employment after graduation. There are not so many vacancies in each town."

Then it's time.

(End of this chapter)