Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

Chapter 575 Ouyang Lun is too cruel (Please subscribe!!)

Zhu Yuanzhang thought that Ouyang Lun's method would be radical and cruel, but he did not expect it to be so radical and cruel.

If this is really to be implemented, I'm afraid all the coffin books of these Huaixi children will have to be taken out.

"Ahem, Ouyang Lun, can this fundraising plan be a little shorter?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Li Shanchang's expression as if his mother had died, and could not help but plead for the Huaixi Party.

"Brother-in-law Ouyang, I also think this is a bit harsh. How about reducing it appropriately? After all, civil and military officials also need to eat!"

Zhu Biao also spoke.

"To answer the Emperor, Your Majesty, I have actually asked the Ministry of Revenue and the Taxation Department to carefully calculate this plan." Ouyang Lun immediately said, "First of all, we collect... ahem, we collect funds from a portion of the officials' assets, not all of them. The civil and military officials of the court have monthly salaries, and the Ministry of Revenue has never defaulted on them, so there is no such thing as not being able to afford food. Moreover, the assets of each official have been checked by the Ministry of Revenue and the Taxation Inspection Department, and are accurate, of course, with the exception of money from unknown sources!"

"This plan is the minimum plan to raise enough funds. If the funds raised are less, it will not be enough, and then this plan will be meaningless."

"I was originally worried that the implementation of this plan would cause dissatisfaction among the civil and military officials, which is why I have not proposed it yet. However, after listening to Lord Li's impassioned speech, I have completely changed my mind!"

"The Huaixi disciples are the most loyal team of the Emperor, Your Majesty. They followed the Emperor to build the Ming Dynasty. How could they not support the Emperor? Lord Li just said that if possible, the Huaixi disciples would donate all their wealth. This really touched me!"

"So now that we are only donating at most half of our assets, the Huaixi disciples will definitely not have any complaints."

"With the Huaixi children taking the lead, other officials will naturally give their full support. This will further demonstrate the unity of the ruler and his subjects in the Ming Dynasty!"

"I am more confident that the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway can be repaired!"

Ouyang Lun paused, then continued: "Besides, this money is not taken away for nothing, but is counted as shares for the civil and military officials! In the future, when the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway is completed, we can charge fees for transporting materials and personnel, and make money continuously!"

"And the money earned is the profit, and then we can distribute it to everyone according to the proportion of dry shares!"

"So in my opinion, this is not a burden at all, on the contrary it is a benefit!"

Damn Ouyang Lun!
According to what you said, I, Li Shanchang, and the officials of the Huaixi Party should thank you! !

Li Shanchang was so angry that he trembled all over after listening to what Ouyang Lun said.

Li Shanchang could no longer bear it, and immediately stood up and said: "For the sake of your majesty and the emperor, as an old minister, I and the Huaixi people naturally have no complaints!"

"Prince Consort Ouyang, don't forget that you are also a minister of the Ming Dynasty. We have all surrendered, so do you have to surrender as well?"

Li Shanchang knew very well that he could not veto the fundraising, so he planned to drag Ouyang Lun into it. You, Ouyang Lun, have the most money in the Ming Dynasty, and there are also officials from the Prince Consort’s Party, no one can escape!
After hearing what Li Shanchang said, Ouyang Lun behaved exceptionally calmly, as if he had expected this to happen.

"Lord Li is absolutely right! As a minister of the Ming Dynasty, I must pay my dues. If I don't obey myself, how can I convince other officials?!"

"My family assets exceed one million, so I should pay the highest level. Currently, there are 53 people in the clan government, and each person pays 5,000, which means we need to raise 265,000 taels! In order to support the construction of the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway, I will directly raise one million taels!!"

"Is this ok, Lord Li?"

Ouyang Lun smiled and looked at Li Shanchang with mockery in his eyes, and the latter's expression became even uglier.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao also smiled.

Ouyang Lun is so insidious!
Using one million to shut up Li Shanchang and other officials was nothing to Ouyang Lun.

But Li Shanchang was in great pain.

Great!
Ouyang Lun was a guy with too much money, so he took out one million directly, but the Huaixi Party had no choice but to accept it obediently.

Li Shanchang could now imagine how other Huaixi Party officials would react when he told them the news. They must want to eat him!

Routines are just routines.

Li Shanchang knew very well that this time he was tricked by Ouyang Lun and Zhu Yuanzhang. Things had developed to this point and Li Shanchang did not dare to mention withdrawing from the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway project. He kept asking, "Do you take the emperor and the retired emperor seriously?"

Ouyang Lun took the lead and contributed one million, which left Li Shanchang with no reason to refute.

"Since Prince Consort Ouyang can do it, I, Li Shanchang, and the young men from Huaixi can naturally do it as well!" Li Shanchang said in a deep voice.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang also spoke up, "Great! Other courts are always quarreling and hindering each other, but in my Ming Dynasty, the emperor and his subjects are of one mind, so what can't be accomplished?!"

"From now on, the emperor and I will see how you perform!"

"Li Shanchang, Ouyang Lun! The two of you must not let us and the Emperor down!"

Ouyang Lun naturally smiled and bowed, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. Once the funding problem is solved, it will be soon before the construction of the Beijing-Pingyuan Railway officially begins. At that time, please invite Your Majesty, the Emperor Emeritus, and Lord Li to cut the ribbon for the groundbreaking ceremony!"

"Okay! The emperor and I will definitely go there when the time comes!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

"Brother-in-law Ouyang, you can go ahead and do it boldly. I and my father..." Zhu Biao turned his head and glanced at Li Shanchang, and continued: ". And Lord Li will support you! The civil and military officials and the people of the Ming Dynasty will also be your strongest backing!"

As Zhu Biao finished speaking.

Swish--

Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Ouyang Lun and even several other ministers of the Huaixi Party all set their sights on Li Shanchang.

Cough cough--

Being stared at like this, Li Shanchang felt quite uncomfortable and helpless.

At this point, he had no choice but to bow and say, "Your Majesty, the Emperor Emeritus, and Prince Consort Ouyang, please rest assured that I and the Huaixi disciples will do our best!"

This time I can say that I swallowed it with all my might.

But after going down, how should I tell the other members of the Huaixi Party about this? This is a troublesome matter, especially the Huaixi generals headed by Lan Yu, who have hot tempers and can't stand the slightest grievance. This time, they have to hand over almost half of their worth, which is no different from killing them. Seeing Li Shanchang's sad face, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao looked at each other, and the former smiled.

Because of the rise of Ouyang Lun and the Prince Consort Party, the Huaixi Party is no longer as unscrupulous as before. However, as the first political force since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Huaixi Party's strength should not be underestimated, and the Huaixi Party is extremely united. Even though several major cases involved the Huaixi Party before, they ultimately did not affect the core figures of the Huaixi Party. Even the Hu Weiyong case only implicated a large number of people, and the Huaixi Party quickly recovered.

This is enough to show the willfulness of the Huaixi Party.

Now, building the Beijing-Pingkou Railway is the top priority of the Ming Dynasty. By raising funds, different voices will appear within the Huaixi Party, so that the Huaixi Party will not have the energy to stir up any waves. This is in the interests of Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao and Ouyang Lun.

As for the effect, we will have to wait and see how things develop further to find out.

Of course, the Huaixi Party cannot be allowed to disintegrate directly. If the Huaixi Party is gone, Ouyang Lun and the Prince Consort Party will be the only ones in power, which is something Zhu Yuanzhang cannot accept.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Yuanzhang continued, "Emperor."

"Your Majesty, I'm here." Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly called him, which surprised Zhu Biao.

"You will issue an edict later, asking all officials to raise funds according to the method set by Ouyang Lun! We can't make it too difficult for the officials." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

"Yes, Father!" Zhu Biao nodded and then asked, "Father, I heard that some officials are incorruptible and have no assets of more than 100,000 yuan, not to mention 100,000 yuan. How should we deal with such officials?"

Hearing Zhu Biao's question, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said to Ouyang Lun: "The emperor's words remind me that most of the officials in my Ming Dynasty are diligent and honest officials. Many officials simply can't come up with so much money. We can't force them to raise funds!"

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Ouyang Lun was stunned for a moment, and then asked in confusion: "Your Majesty, are you serious? According to statistics from the Ministry of Revenue and the Taxation Inspection Department, among these officials in our Ming Dynasty, about 30% of them have a net worth of more than one million!"

"There are even more people who have exceeded 100,000 but are less than 1 million, reaching 60%!"

"As for the officials who are less than 100,000 mentioned by the Emperor, they don't even account for 10%. I don't know whether these officials are incorruptible, but I doubt whether they are really poor!"

"Are all Ming Dynasty officials so wealthy?!" Zhu Yuanzhang was also confused.

"Brother-in-law, where did you get this data?" Zhu Biao asked hurriedly.

"Your Majesty, I was in charge of tax reform some time ago, so I investigated and calculated the taxes paid by all people in the Ming Dynasty over the years, and of course the officials were included. That's how I got these data." Ouyang Lun explained, "There is no more real data in the world than this."

"Forehead"

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao were dumbfounded again after hearing this.

Only less than 10% of officials have assets below 100,000 yuan, and it is possible that their assets are hidden too deeply to be discovered!

"Ouyang Lun, are there any corrupt officials here?!" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.

"Your Majesty, you are putting me in a difficult position. I am only counting taxes. It doesn't matter whether he has embezzled money or not. But even if he has embezzled money, he still has to pay taxes!" Ouyang Lun said calmly.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened when he heard this.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang really wanted to loudly question Ouyang Lun, "Are you really just counting taxes?"
Not only Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Shanchang also wanted to ask at this moment.

But neither Zhu Yuanzhang nor Li Shanchang asked, because Ouyang Lun had already expressed his opinion, and even if they asked, Ouyang Lun probably would not say anything.

"Well, since fundraising can solve the money problem, then let's pass it!"

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at Ouyang Lun and warned him, "Ouyang Lun, you better hold on tight!"

You have to know that from the time Zhu Yuanzhang made up his mind to build the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway, half a year has passed, and soon a whole year will have passed. How many more years can he afford to wait?

This inevitably made Zhu Yuanzhang a little anxious. As for the issue of officials' assets, Zhu Yuanzhang planned to turn a blind eye for the time being. After leaving, he would let the Jinyiwei investigate secretly. He couldn't just believe whatever Ouyang Lun said!
"Yes."

Ouyang Lun nodded.

Li Shanchang nodded rather dully. He originally wanted to intervene in the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway project, but he did not expect the price to be so high.

After that, everyone discussed for a few more sentences, and then Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao asked everyone to leave.

Ouyang Lun naturally left happily. After all, he no longer had to worry about the funding problem of the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway.

Li Shanchang left with a bitter face. He ignored the other Huaixi Party officials named Li Shanchang and thought silently about how to reach a consensus within the Huaixi Party.

After everyone left.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Biao and asked, "Biao'er, what did you see from what happened today?"

Facing Zhu Yuanzhang's question, Zhu Biao was a little confused, "What does father mean?"

"It is very important to make good use of every official in the court. Ouyang Lun is capable but too lazy. If we want the Beijing-Ping Railway to be completed quickly, we have to find a way to force him, but we can't go too far. After all, Ouyang Lun's character is the kind that will not move if you pull him aside and will even make him retreat." Zhu Yuanzhang explained very patiently.

"Father, what you mean is that you deliberately let Li Shanchang provoke brother-in-law Ouyang today?" Zhu Biao asked hurriedly.

"That's right. We deliberately called Li Shanchang and several Huaixi officials here early today." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded. "You just saw it. If Li Shanchang hadn't questioned him, Ouyang Lun would have quit!"

"How can this be possible! There must be no problems with the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway. Currently, only Ouyang Lun has the ability to do this, so we must not give Ouyang Lun the opportunity to give up!"

"Your Majesty, this method is indeed effective. However, I am worried that if brother-in-law Ouyang knew the truth, he would be dissatisfied with you, Your Majesty." Zhu Biao nodded and continued worriedly.

"Haha!" Zhu Yuanzhang laughed out loud at Zhu Biao's worry. "Biao'er, you are wrong. With Ouyang Lun's intelligence, he probably knew what we were going to do the moment he saw Li Shanchang!"

"Brother-in-law Ouyang knew about this a long time ago?!" Zhu Biao was a little shocked.

"Well! Ouyang Lun not only knew about it a long time ago, but also cooperated with us to put on a wonderful show. Without Ouyang Lun's cooperation, the funding problem of the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway would not have been solved so easily!" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "However, what surprised me a little is that Ouyang Lun clearly told us not to let others interfere in the Beijing-Pingcheng Railway project, but I didn't expect him to agree so quickly this time!"

(End of this chapter)