I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 242 Gao Gong said, I have no objection

Gao Gong was slapped in the face in public and was furious. He clenched his fists and wished he could die together with Zhu Yijun.

But when I saw his young face without a trace of childishness, and met his clear and determined eyes, I saw the familiar yet frightening ruthlessness.

A sound of bronze chimes suddenly rang in Gao Gong's mind, and cold sweat broke out on his back.

This person is not his student, he is the student of the previous Emperor Jiajing.

Gao Gong immediately came to his senses.

"I am sorry for my impoliteness, Your Highness, please forgive me!"

Xu Jie, who was watching the fun nearby, almost laughed out loud.

You tall and bearded guy, do you know how powerful His Highness is?
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince agreed to call you back to Beijing to balance the political situation. You were given a position as the Minister of Finance, but you stayed in the tiankeng for so long and suffered so much, and you still don't understand?

Even if you want to fight for power, come to me!

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wants you to use you because he wants you to share power with me, the Jiangnan families, and the literati.

You, on the other hand, think that my family is not easy to bully, and you bully the weak and fear the strong, so you go to bully Chen Yiqin, who is almost a lone minister. Now you haven't done anything, and you still want to steal my food!

Then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will spoil you!
I have fought with them for so many years and know them inside out.

The previous emperor, Emperor Jiajing, would still fight with the civil officials within the rules. This prince directly created new rules and then fought with us.

How to fight?
Who dares to fight against someone who can make the rules and act as the judge?

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince understands the nature of political intrigue better than the late Emperor.

Normally, the Crown Prince, like the late Emperor, would only order us ministers to fight against each other, and would rarely take part in the battle himself.

Gao Da Hu Zi, today is the first time that you have been confronted by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself. You are so awesome!

Everyone was silent. Zhu Yijun watched Gao Gong surrender. After thinking about it for a few times, he decided not to pursue the matter anymore and signaled others to continue with the previous topic.

Zhang Juzheng coughed, breaking the awkward atmosphere, and said, "Your Highness, everyone, the Lianghuai Salt Administration has been rectified by Lord Gangfeng, Prince Jian, and Xu Mengquan, and the situation is getting better.

According to documents from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ming Dynasty's Changlu, Lianghuai, Sichuan, Jiechi, East Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong produced about 600 million jin of salt a year, with a total of 2 million salt permits, half of which were issued by Lianghuai.

The new salt policy in Lianghuai was to, firstly, stabilize the price of salt so that the people in Lianghuai, Huguang, Jiangxi, Central Plains and other places could eat cheap salt; secondly, to collect salt tax to enrich the national treasury.

If the Lianghuai New Salt Law is improved, the Ming Dynasty's salt administration will be completely transformed. Six hundred million catties of salt, two million salt permits, that's tens of millions of taels of silver in salt tax, it's a huge deal."

Zhao Zhenji immediately continued, "Pang Shaonan originally wanted to compile the salt permits of the whole country into a list, divided into ten lists, one list for accumulated permits and nine lists for new permits each year.

It was set up as a salt certificate and passed down from generation to generation to prevent powerful officials from occupying salt permits and snatching the genuine salt. After discussion, it was changed to unified production, unified purchase, unified transportation and unified distribution.

That is, the Lianghuai salt was transported from production to purchase and then to transportation, and was transported within the salt fields and salt societies. It was not open to the public, and no one else was allowed to interfere. When the salt was transported to the various provincial governments, the salt merchants would go to the salt societies of the various provincial governments to purchase the Huai salt and transport it to various prefectures and counties for sale.

In this way, we can prevent the problems in the salt collection and transportation links, which were previously the easiest to commit fraud and evade salt taxes. Salt merchants also need licenses to sell salt, but they no longer need to go to the Huaidong Salt Field to buy salt. They can directly go to the Salt Administration Society to buy it at the branches of the provincial governments.

Gao Yi glanced at Gao Gong.

Lao Gao, listen to this. People have discussed the new Lianghuai Salt Administration law repeatedly and have already reached a plan after careful consideration. We just need to listen and learn more about what is going on. Why bother to force it?

"Unified production, unified purchase, and unified transportation. I heard from Pang Shaonan's new law that everything from salt production to purchase and transportation will be the responsibility of the Lianghuai Salt Administration. With one company doing all the work, will there be room for fraud?"

When Grohe's question came out, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

Zhu Yijun suddenly said to Wang Guoguang, "Minister Wang, you once participated in the discussion of the new salt law with Envoy Pang Du, and raised similar doubts. Please help Shangshu Gao to solve some of them."

Imperial Household Minister Wang Guoguang immediately bowed and replied, "Yes!

At that time, Pang Shaonan explained that the Lianghuai Salt Administration was a state-owned business, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince called it a company. Gong means public wealth, and Si means transportation and operation.

That is, the property rights are publicly owned, and the business is run by private individuals and businesses." Gao Gong immediately noticed a loophole and asked directly: "If the property rights are publicly owned, then who is in charge of it?"

Everyone was silent. Wang Guoguang didn't know how to answer for a moment and looked at Zhu Yijun involuntarily.

Zhu Yijun replied slowly: "Companies and trading companies are not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue, but they manage the finances and taxes. It's like the army and naval forces are not under the command of the Ministry of War, but the military registration, selection, and merit are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War."

Gao Gong understood.

State-owned commercial "companies" such as the Salt Administration will have their own government office to manage them. The Ministry of Revenue and the Censorate will only be responsible for supervising whether they are corrupt or engaged in private gain, and ensuring that they pay taxes according to regulations.

Presumably, shipping companies, as well as the mining companies and steel mills that have emerged in recent years, will all be “companies” in the future, using the same routine.

Gao Gong really wanted to ask, which government agency was in charge of this company?

But Gao Gong's face was still hurting from the slap he had just received, so he endured it and didn't say anything.

The Salt Administration discussed for more than three quarters of an hour, and then came to an end. After receiving a look from Zhu Yijun, Xu Jie asked, "Do you have any other opinions?"

Everyone was silent, Gao Gong replied in a deep voice: "The Ministry of Revenue is gone."

If the Ministry of Revenue has no objection, then the world will be at peace.

Xu Jie laughed in his heart and said seriously: "In this case, the cabinet will approve Pang Shangpeng's new salt policy in Lianghuai."

Zhu Yijun continued, "Okay, now that we have finished discussing the new salt policy in Lianghuai, we will discuss the second item on the agenda. Zhao Zhongcheng, please."

When everyone heard this, they were somewhat confused.

Why did the Censorate speak out on this issue?
What is the Duchayuan? It is a place in charge of supervision and impeachment.

Ministers who are treacherous and evil, villains who form cliques, abuse their power and disrupt government; all officials who are corrupt, corrupt and undermine official discipline; all those who have improper academic knowledge, write letters to the emperor to change the constitution, and seek promotion, can all be impeached.

If Zhao Zhongcheng speaks out, it must be nothing good!

Some astute people might have guessed that it might be the Bao'en Temple attack on the third prince that had caused a lot of controversy in recent days.

But on second thought, this case involves Empress Chen's family, the emperor's father-in-law and his uncle's family; Concubine Xian and the third prince; Chen Yiqin and Gao Gong. It is very complicated. If it is discussed in public at the court meeting, it will be less likely to leave any loose ends.

Zhao Zhenji said calmly, "In compliance with the imperial edict, the Censorate has immediately ordered the Left Vice-Chief Censor Wu Chang to form a special case team to work with the Imperial Guards, the Imperial Horse Administration, and the East Factory to investigate the murder case against the prince at Bao'en Temple."

Since the investigation of the Lianghuai Salt Administration, the Censorate took the lead and led the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple to form a special task force, which greatly increased its reputation.

The most favorite thing for the Censorate to do now is to form special task forces to investigate cases. That feels so good.

However, the special task force of the Censorate cannot be established without an imperial edict, and this clause limits its status.

The Bao'en Temple murder case involved too many people, most of whom were either rich or noble, so the Imperial Household Department issued an edict, ordering the Censorate to form a special investigation team.

Zhao Zhenji continued, "The criminal Zhang Erxiong first insisted that he was ordered by Chen Shanyan, the second son of Gu'an Bo and the commander of the Jinyiwei, and his words were very convincing. However, when asked about Zhang Erxiong's appearance, clothing, and height, he hesitated and could not explain clearly.

Then Zhang Erxiong changed the subject and said that the person who bribed and instructed him claimed to be the steward of Chen Shanyan's house, and his appearance, clothes and height were all nonsense.

Coincidentally, the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard checked the people Zhang Erxiong was familiar with and found a person who was very similar to the manager of Chen Mansion mentioned by Zhang Erxiong, but he was the accountant of Jingou Casino. It can be seen that Zhang Erxiong was purely making random accusations.

When the Jinyiwei turned Zhang Daxiong over, they sent the 100 taels of gold-flowered silver, claiming that it was the silver that Chen Shanyan bribed Zhang Erxiong with, to the Baoquan Bureau, the Huijin Wells Fargo Bank's silver mint, and old gold and silversmiths in the capital. They all concluded that this silver was privately minted imitation gold-flowered silver, and was definitely not silver minted by the government or a bank.

Later, several old silversmiths identified that this silver must have come from Lianghuai, and that the salt merchants in Yangzhou and Huai'an liked to use this method to cast silver. The task force acted separately, first selecting the confiscated silver from the Yangzhou and Huai'an salt merchants from the national treasury, and asked the old silversmiths to compare them one by one.

At the same time, Jinyiwei sent agents to Huai'an and Yangzhou to find the relevant silversmiths and investigate the source of the silver paid by Zhang Daxiong."

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Is the Censorate so aggressive in handling cases now?
Could it be that Wu Chang, the head of the special task force and the Left Vice-Censor-in-Chief, is the reincarnation of Di Renjie or Bao Zheng from the previous dynasty?
(End of this chapter)