Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 363

Zhu Houzhao walked into the Shuangyu Island street area. Looking at the shops lined up next to each other, he didn't know what to think of this place.

Shuangyu Island is a gathering place for smugglers, but it can also be said to be a free port that evades customs duties and commercial taxes.

As the ruling class of the Ming Empire, Zhu Houzhao believed that it was the right choice to use the army to conquer here.

But what Zhu Houzhao didn't know now was whether he was willing to see Zhu Wan, the commander-in-chief of the military affairs of Fujian and Zhejiang, burn down everything here.

Zhu Houzhao had already learned from Zhu Wan what he intended to do, which was to burn down the smuggling base and execute all ordinary merchants involved in smuggling for the crime of collaborating with the Japanese.

After all, for the imperial court, Shuangyu Port itself was an illegal existence, and these shops were also engaged in illegal transactions.

But if the shops here are burned down, it means that thousands of ordinary residents here will lose their means of survival and will become homeless.

Logically, Zhu Houzhao is no longer the emperor of the Ming Empire, so he no longer needs to worry about these things, or how these thousands of residents survive.

But looking at the sad expressions of these ordinary merchants who came here just for the "tax exemption" and the old and young in his family, Zhu Houzhao couldn't bear to see the state machinery inflict the most severe crackdown on them.

But the law of the country does not allow for personal feelings.

Under Zhu Houzhao's instructions, Zhu Wan changed the disposal plan.

As for the real Japanese pirates and corsairs, they were naturally enslaved according to Zhu Houzhao's decree. As for those ordinary residents who came to do business or work to avoid taxes, all their properties and jobs were retained, but the taxes owed over the years had to be paid in full, which could be paid in installments.

Otherwise, the government will forcibly take back these shops.

For ordinary residents of Shuangyu Island, they are naturally willing to accept this result.

Naturally, they did not dare to confront the imperial court head-on.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also instructed Zhu Wan: "You should submit a memorial to the court, requesting that Shuangyu Port be established as a county, and that officials be appointed immediately to govern it, and request that the court allow Shuangyu Port to be established as a free trade port, exempting it from import tariffs."

The reason why Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Wan to petition the court to simply establish Shuangyu Port as an international trade free port was because Zhu Houzhao learned through interrogating these merchants on Shuangyu Island that many businesses in the Ming Dynasty had begun to transfer their processing plants and production bases to overseas areas in order to evade taxes from the court.

In other words, these businesses sometimes directly produced and sold in overseas areas, thus avoiding paying multiple taxes to the Ming Dynasty.

What's more, the labor cost of the indigenous people in overseas areas is low and they are not bound by the laws of the Ming Dynasty. They can exploit the workers and even use child labor. This has also promoted the development of human traffickers, who have secretly deceived people from the mainland and used them as slaves overseas.

Shuangyu Island is just a smuggling free port near the mainland.

Zhu Houzhao sometimes had to admit the cunning and treachery of businessmen, and also had to admit that the saying "The higher the virtue, the higher the devil" was true. He could never imagine what means these businessmen would take in pursuit of higher profits.

"We can't let too many businesses move overseas. This is not only related to our tax revenue, but also to the employment and income issues of the lower-class people. The pilot free port model in Shuangyu Port is an attempt to solve this problem. For the real economy involving machinery manufacturing, drug research and development, food processing, etc., the corresponding tariffs can be exempted in the free port to boost employment in the surrounding areas of Shuangyu Island. However, gambling, prostitution and other things that are not conducive to social stability will still be heavily taxed!"

Zhu Houzhao said this to Zhu Wan, and Zhu Wan wrote it all down in the memorial.

For the current Ming Dynasty, the entire East and West Oceans have almost become the Ming Dynasty's inland seas. All trade is participated by Ming Dynasty's merchant ships. Even the managers of the colonies are Ming Dynasty officials or Ming Dynasty's clan nobles.

The entire earth, except for the western and northern parts of the Eurasian continent, became the Ming Dynasty's civilizational ruling sphere.

The Ming Central Empire still maintained its technological advantage in productivity, so it still exported more and imported less, and silver continued to flow into the interior.

However, as the income of domestic people increases and the self-sufficient peasant economy is gradually destroyed, Ming Dynasty, as the most densely populated region, will gradually become the largest consumer market, and the amount of imports will gradually increase.

If the tariffs are too high, many businesses will turn to overseas, and overseas colonies will become processing factories, which will in turn cause the manufacturing industry in the Ming Dynasty to become depressed.

Therefore, it is necessary to lower tariffs and open free ports, which can also provide a more flexible way to regulate trade within the entire imperial area.

Although tariffs were lowered and free ports were opened within the country, Zhu Houzhao believed that his Ming court should not only be able to use this method.

"We can ask the governors of overseas colonies and vassal states to raise tariffs by more than three times, and implement strict human rights protection laws to protect the basic rights of workers and prohibit the use of child labor. And tell them that if they don't comply, the Ming Central Empire will send troops to attack them for the crime of betraying the Central Empire!"

Zhu Houzhao said this in a memorial to his emperor son.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the officials, nobles and royal family members he had sent out to colonize had formulated various preferential conditions for Han people to do business in order to attract Han people to immigrate there, even giving them zero tariffs.

But now, in order to ensure the dominant position of the Ming Central Empire, he must require the emperor to change his tariff policy from taking care of the interests of merchants to exploiting the interests of merchants while the Ming Central Empire still has absolute advantage and he is still able to issue military and administrative orders to these Ming colonies and vassal states that have not yet become independent.

Because only in this way, the Ming Central Empire can reduce tariffs and set up free ports, and impose heavy taxes on colonies and vassal states, so as to prevent Ming Dynasty businesses from moving overseas in large numbers and avoid affecting the employment rate of the Central Empire.

Although Zhu Houzhao believed that the Ming Empire should lower tariffs and open free ports to adapt to the new economic situation, he did not say that he would allow smuggling, human trafficking and slavery.

Snapped!
All the smuggling pirates, Japanese pirates, and Western foreigners were now regarded as Japanese pirate captives and served in Shuangyu Port.

The hired overseers were the Han commoners who had been enslaved by them in the past. Now they were wielding whips on the slave owners in the same way that the slave owners had whipped them in the past.

One whip will basically draw blood immediately.

"Ah! I really can't stand it anymore, kill me!"

Feddes sat on the ground in pain, and the stone on his shoulder hit the ground directly. Not long after, four or five supervisors surrounded him and started fighting. The so-called Portuguese governor of Shuangyu Island could only be beaten to tears.

at the same time.

On a ship that was specifically responsible for transporting the bodies of the Japanese pirates, a Ming army officer was ordering the Ming soldiers who were pressing dozens of Japanese pirates who had died of exhaustion from serving on the deck: "Feed the fish!" All of a sudden, the knives fell, and human heads and bodies fell into the sea like dumplings, which also attracted the sharks' carnival.

Basically every day a group of exhausted Japanese pirates were thrown into the sea to feed the fish. This was the Ming Dynasty's punishment for those who smuggled and enslaved the Han people.

Besides.

At this time, Chen Yu, the father of the censor Chen Jiude, was also arrested in Chenjia, Fujian.

As a result, the censor Chen Jiude was also dismissed from his post and was imprisoned by the Northern Pacification Office for colluding with human traffickers.

All the Chen family’s property involved in smuggling and human trafficking was confiscated.

In the end, Chen Jiude died in the imperial prison.

Naturally, Chen Yu could not escape the fate of being exhausted to death.

All the coastal nobles who had ties with the Japanese were dug out as long as they were found on Shuangyu Island.

Min Xian, the right assistant minister of the National Taxation Bureau, was also horrified at the Jinyiwei breaking into his home. "What are you doing? I am a third-rank official of the imperial court. Who gave you the courage to break in without permission?"

"Minister Min, take a break. You are suspected of collaborating with the Japanese. From now on, all the property of your Min family will be regarded as illegal smuggling proceeds and confiscated. You and your nephew on Shuangyu Island will also be taken to Shuangyu for collaborating with the Japanese!"

Wu Jie, the chief flag-fighter of the Imperial Guard, asked two other flag-fighters of the Imperial Guard to take Min Xian away.

Zhu Houzhao did not sympathize with these officials and gentry who participated in smuggling and human trafficking with the Japanese pirates, because as a Han Chinese, if they dared to sell their own compatriots into slavery and even persecuted them together with the Japanese pirates, such people had no humanity and any forgiveness of them would be a betrayal of Chinese civilization.

Emperor Zhu Zailei has been having a headache recently. He really didn't expect that the clearing of Shuangyu Island would lead to so many problems.

Moreover, he did not expect that his father would assign him such a big task, and even asked him to immediately come up with a plan for domestic and foreign tariff reform.

First, many imperial censors impeached Zhu Wan for indiscriminately killing the residents of Shuangyu Island during the crackdown.

The cleanup of Shuangyu Island itself violated the interests of the entire coastal gentry. Now Zhu Wan was following the order of Zhu Houzhao, the retired emperor, to massacre these smugglers on Shuangyu Island. Even the coastal gentry who supported them behind the scenes were picked out and severely punished. Naturally, these officials representing the interests of the coastal gentry were extremely angry.

The censor Li Yuyuan then impeached Zhu Wan for killing 96 innocent people on the island. He also listed the names of those killed. He even impeached the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao for abusing his power and interfering in state affairs, and demanded that the power be returned to the emperor.

It is obvious that these officials representing the interests of the coastal gentry knew that their emperor Zhu Houzhao was behind all this.

Emperor Zhu Zailei naturally knew the purpose of these officials impeaching Zhu Wan and impeaching his father, so he executed Li Yuyuan without hesitation and dismissed him from his post.

However, what Zhu Zailei did not expect was that his act of dismissing Li Yuyuan was fiercely opposed by many civil servants. The Chief Censor Zhang Wei directly said that Li Yuyuan was a responsible minister of the country and advised the emperor to listen to honest advice that might be unpleasant to the ears.

Of course, Zhu Zailei did not back down. He simply issued an order to change Li Yuyuan's punishment from dismissal to exile three thousand miles away.

As an emperor, he understood that he would rather offend these civil servants than offend his father, because his father still held military power and had high prestige. Moreover, he also knew that there was nothing wrong in cracking down on smuggling, and he supported Zhu Wan in doing so in his heart.

Zhu Zaile also agreed to Zhu Wan's request to establish Shuangyu as a county and add Shuangyu as a free port. He knew that his father, Emperor Zhu Houzhao, was the one behind this.

However, these were decisions made by the cabinet's chief minister, Xia Yan. Even the plan involving lowering tariffs and requiring colonies and vassal states to impose more than three times the tariffs and commercial taxes in their respective areas was directly presided over by Xia Yan, who then handed it over to Zhu Zailei for approval.

This made Zhu Zailei realize that his power was seriously eroded. Not only was there an emperor emeritus who was pulling his strings like a puppet, but there was also a cabinet chief, Xia Yan, who seemed to be undermining him.

As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zailei certainly wanted to have greater power so that he could control other vassal states and colonies. So he convened a council and asked Xu Jie, who had informed him in advance, to put forward a proposal.

The content of this proposal was to require these vassal states and colonies to impose additional tariffs, and also require them to remit half of the taxes to Beijing as financial and tax supply to the central empire.

Zhu Zailei's purpose in doing this was naturally to control these colonies and vassal states.

But Xu Jie's proposal was opposed by Xia Yan.

"Your Majesty, I think if the emperor is in power, he will not do this, because the court's interference in the tariff-setting power of the colonies and vassal states will already cause resentment among the colonies and vassal states, because this is against the interests of these colonies and vassal states. But if we do not require them to remit part or all of the extra taxes to Beijing, they will be intimidated by the prestige of the central court and agree to accept the central court's orders because it is profitable for them. But if we not only interfere with their tariff-setting power, but also require them to remit half of the extra taxes to Beijing, this will undoubtedly make these colonies and vassal states resent the greed of the central court and seek independence! Everything should be done step by step. Now we can interfere with their tariff rights first, and then step by step strengthen our control over them, but we must not act rashly! Your Majesty!"

Although what Xia Yan said made sense, his habitual phrase "If the emperor had not abdicated" made Zhu Zaile instinctively feel disgusted.

In his opinion, it seemed that this old prime minister with outstanding achievements had never taken him, the emperor, seriously.

But Zhu Zailei could only hold back his anger and said with a smile: "In that case, other ministers of the council should also express their opinions."

"Your Majesty, I support what Yuan Fu said. The central government can take away their power, but not their profits. Because the central government is the country of parents, and the vassal states are the countries of children. Parents can control their children, but they should not allow their children's wealth to be taken away. This is love!"

As a nobleman, Duke of Yingguo Zhang Rong would have to go to his own fiefdom sooner or later, so he was naturally unwilling to donate all the wealth of his fiefdom to the court, although he did not care much about being the lord of an independent duchy or a non-independent duchy.

Yu Dayou expressed his intention to abstain from voting, as he had no interest in domestic affairs.

Wen Yuan was absent due to illness, so Yan Song was the only one who had not yet expressed his opinion.

Yan Song glanced at Xia Yan.

Xia Yan also glanced at Yan Song. He thought that Yan Song was his man and would naturally support him. Therefore, he could not help but glance at Emperor Zhu Zailei and sighed in his heart: "Your Majesty! It's not that I want to be a powerful minister, but you really shouldn't be so eager to declare your power as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Zailei also looked at Yan Song. He naturally knew that Yan Song had always been in the same party as Xia Yan. This also made him realize that Xia Yan seemed to be a big stumbling block for him, the emperor, to grasp the highest power of the empire.

(End of this chapter)