Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 161 Jiangnan will pay for the outstanding debt!
On August 29, the day when Niu Yingyuan and Wang Dewan also rushed to Nanjing to receive the imperial edict, the Yangtze River Navy's ship arrived at the port outside Zhenjiang City.

The Yongwei Camp, which had stayed here for so long, finally broke camp and boarded the ship, heading north.

The good news is: the incident of Japanese pirates robbing food has finally come to an end. After extensive questioning of the gentry, nothing has happened in Jiangnan. Your Majesty at least believes in the loyalty of Jiangnan.

The bad news is: private letters sent by Beijing officials to the south and rumors that spread quietly showed that the emperor did give in to the shocking money problem in Jiangnan, but he was also prepared to find a way to change the status quo amidst his "disappointment" and "heartbreak."

Is Xiao Daheng's "advance to retreat" a good or bad thing? The general sent by the leader of the Zhejiang Party is now burdened with the heavy responsibility of Jiangnan. Is there also a factor of the struggle between the Zhejiang Party and the Su Party?

It is said that at the court meeting, Shen Yiquan tactfully defended Jiangnan, while Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue bluntly dissuaded the emperor from further interrogation.

The three cabinet ministers did prevent this major case from escalating at the critical moment, but they paid a heavy price by having the true situation in Jiangnan exposed to the emperor.

It seems that everything is just paused, and changes will happen again.

Cheng Jing represented the emperor to pacify various places, but Xiao Daheng would only speak a few words of truth at banquets that Cheng Jing usually did not attend.

"In the final analysis, it is greed that has blinded the heart! If Jiangnan could be more understanding of the court's financial difficulties, there would not be this disaster. I don't care what you think in your heart, but you must always remember: things will turn around when they reach the extreme, and there is gain only when there is loss! Your Majesty is really worried about the court's financial affairs, and the difficulties faced by court officials are beyond your imagination."

Xiao Daheng now has an image of being both brutal, deep-minded, and honest: "If you ask me, Jiangnan did force the court! The court saved money and increased revenue, and did not involve land taxes and labor service. Don't you understand? An additional 200,000 taels of gold and silver, don't you understand how much effort the elders have put in? Aren't Zhang Yi and others afraid that if they don't stand up, they will be embarrassed by you?"

"...I dare not..."

"Whether you dare or not, you have already done it. There are cases where inferior grain is passed off as good grain, and private warehouses are set up for the transport troops to collect and redeem. This happens every year. There are also cases where fields and men are hidden, and local people are turned a blind eye to taxes and labor service. I am not unaware of these things along the way."

Xiao Daheng stared at them and said, "I don't care what happened in the past. If you don't want more than just the Yongwei Battalion to go south in the future, then you should help the court overcome this financial crisis first!"

……

When Nanjing had a new Minister of Revenue who "made amends for his mistakes", the emperor finally stopped unleashing his thundering power on Jiangnan, but issued an imperial decree of grace.

In addition to the wedding, not only Nanzhili, Huguang, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, but many prefectures and counties in many provinces also welcomed large-scale exemptions.

It was as if this grace of forgiveness was supposed to be announced at the wedding.

But smart people all know that all past debts will be paid by the senior officials in Jiangnan and the families under investigation!
This also draws a new line: there are not many good solutions to the previous problems, so forget it and start from now on. But if this situation happens again in the future, I am afraid it will be like Jiangnan, and see which officials and gentry will pay the bill.

The Yongwei Camp only spent some bank money on the journey from Bozhou, but it is unknown how much it earned.

I didn’t take a boat before. I traveled all the way from Wuchang Prefecture by land through Huguang and Jiangxi to the Yongweiying in Nanzhili. Now I’m used to taking a boat.

In the long fleet, there were criminals and many boxes, which filled several ships.

The report had been sent to Beijing in advance.

September is the best season in Beijing with clear and cool weather.

The court officials still didn't know what the emperor's attitude was towards the memorials they submitted.

And on such a day, September 6th was the day when Zhayang General was restructured into a merchant and competed for the transportation rights.

Li Sancai and Wang Chengxun had stayed until this time, knowing that they would just listen in and go through the motions before returning to Huai'an.

Jiangnan Merchants were caught up in the previous turmoil, so how could they have the energy to get involved in this matter?
The Changming, which finally participated in the competition, showed its terrifying strength. There was actually an emperor behind the nobles. Who else could compete?

The Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing was replaced. Although the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue was still responsible for the distribution of the additional gold and silver, the additional gold and silver were transported by the Changming Ship planned by the emperor, and were ultimately held in the hands of the emperor.

At the court meeting the next day, Wang Xun, the apparent owner of Changming Hao, entered the court and was granted permission to attend the meeting and was awarded the seventh-rank official uniform.

Because they spent a full 680,000 taels, and only received a total of 427 registered Zhayang seagoing ships and a garrison in Zhigu, including government offices and transport army houses, harbors, and three old shipyards in Tianjin under the Linqing Weihe Shipyard that had been abolished. In addition, they had to bear the cost of receiving the transport officers and soldiers who now belonged to the Zhayang General. According to the current statistics, the actual number is 1,693. If it is based on the list, it is over 10,000.

Of the so-called 427 ocean-going ships on the register, probably only just over half are still in existence.

Since he solved such a huge burden for the court at one time and contributed so much silver, is it too much to grant him a seventh-rank official robe?
But it was of great significance to Wang Xun. He formally knelt down in the court to express his gratitude and pledge his loyalty.

"I hope you can do these three things well: transport the additional gold and silver from Nanjie, transport 200,000 shi of grain from Tongzhou to Liaodong, and sell the imperial relief grain to Korea. These are all annual matters, and you are responsible for your own profits and losses. As long as you don't lose money frequently, it will be a steady profit."

Zhu Changluo encouraged him and sent another son-in-law, Wang Bing, to supervise Changminghao. Then Wang Xun thanked him and left.

According to the old rules, the transportation of one tael of gold and silver would cost one qian, six fen and six cents of silver and other miscellaneous expenses. Although the gross profit rate was only 10%, given Changming's strength, it was just a turnover balance. The gross profit of 200,000 taels of gold and silver was 20,000 taels, which could obviously be used to purchase other goods in Jiangnan for sale.

Liaodong still needed to send some grain. The annual grain of 200,000 dan required 44,000 dan of rice, which was the gross profit of transporting grain to Liaodong. Based on the grain price in Liaodong, this batch of grain was worth a lot.

As for the relief grain that was originally intended as aid to North Korea, the new ruler is now "stingy" and is selling it all to North Korea.

For Changming, it was nothing more than buying the grain at the "relief price" agreed upon by the court, and then selling it after it was shipped to Korea. As for how much it was sold for in Korea, whether it was silver, copper coins or other goods, the court did not care.

For Zhu Changluo, in the past, many ships were sunk because they were part of the official army and there were disputes between river and sea transportation.

Whether it is real or fake, it is difficult to supervise and trace the ship while it is on the sea.

Apart from transporting grain, the grain transport troops were in a resting state the rest of the time.

Now the Changming is responsible for its own profits and losses. If it sinks, it will be its own loss, so it is natural that it will feel the pain. The rest of the time, it will be worthwhile to improve the efficiency of the ship and the original officers and soldiers who have been incorporated into it.

After Wang Xun left, Zhu Changluo ordered people to bring out two more screens.

The court officials were no longer surprised by this kind of situation.

"You have all submitted your memorials on the problems in Jiangnan, and I have read them one by one." Zhu Changluo pointed to two screens. "Only regarding the taxes and labor service in Jiangnan, and the administration of officials in Jiangnan, I have ordered the inner study to sort out all the measures you have proposed. Tian Yi, read them first."

Ever since the emperor initiated this method of "raising topics and offering secret suggestions", every time the suggestions were summarized and refined by the Inner Study, the court officials had a very strange feeling.

Because everyone may only mention one, two, three or four points from their own standpoints and considerations, avoiding the important issues, but the countermeasures presented in the end are always rich.

We don’t know whether anyone really came up with those “cruel” measures, and we don’t dare to ask the emperor.

What if someone suspected the emperor of having ulterior motives, and then they actually came up with a memorial?

In fact, there was no need to ask further questions. The emperor had already expressed his own ideas in a tactful way enough.

Tian Yi read out the points one by one, and the court officials became increasingly frightened.

There are many tough measures this time: including asking local inspectors to focus on supervising whether local officials have strictly implemented the preferential exemption policy for officials and gentry when inspecting local areas, whether there are too many exemptions or even full exemptions? Should the tax regulations of different prefectures and counties be reported to the Ministry of Revenue in the two capitals for approval before implementation? Should the corvée be assigned according to the number of males or the number of fields? Should it also be implemented for officials and gentry who have been exempted?

All signs indicate that this seems to be preparation for a large-scale new policy.

Xiao Daheng found hundreds of "Gao" families in Jiangnan who were exempted from taxes and evaded labor service, shifting the burden to ordinary people. Through various tricks in the local showdown and tax collection process, the actual amount of taxes collected from the people was increased. In addition, after the operation of the original grain converted into gold and silver and the partial arrears caused by disaster reports, each place theoretically completed its tax task every year.

But after the population grew, the land was reclaimed, and water conservancy projects were built, the local output was far from what it was at the beginning of the country.

The imperial court levied taxes at a fixed rate. After more than two hundred years of accumulation, the court was troubled by financial difficulties. Jiangnan only questioned three senior officials and hundreds of gentry families where no one was serving as an official to pay off the debts owed in the past period.

The extremely difficult task of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure seems like a joke in the face of this fact.

(End of this chapter)