My father is Chongzhen? Then I have no choice but to rebel.

Chapter 142 Duke of England: The Crown Prince probably has more than eight hundred tricks up his sleeve!

But to be honest, even the Duke of England himself did not expect that the court's reform of commercial taxes would be so drastic.

The commodity tax plus the business tax is as high as 10.4%!

Although most merchants do not engage in both selling goods and opening stores at the same time, they do not have to pay commodity tax and business tax at the same time.

But these nobles will!
In the past two hundred years, this group of nobles have already established their own complete business chain.

For example, he, the Duke of England, owned more than 100,000 acres of excellent paddy fields in the south and could hire people to grow crops.

From farming, transportation to sales, his family basically does everything by themselves.

But because of this, he also has to pay two kinds of commercial taxes, namely commodity tax and business tax. The combined tax rate is as high as 10%!
His current situation is not much different from that of the nobles present. He used to make one tael and five cents from selling one stone of grain, but now he can only make one tael at most, and almost all of the five cents is used to pay taxes.

Who would be happy about this kind of thing?
After all, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty had not paid taxes for almost two hundred years, and no one dared to collect taxes from them.

But it’s different now!
Although Chongzhen is still the one in charge on the surface, only he and a few others know that the one who can truly call the shots in the Ming Dynasty is actually the crown prince in the East Palace.

This prince may look young, but he is full of tricks.

The kind that even has holes in the soles of its feet!
Maybe what these old guys talked about today will be handed over to the East Palace later.

What's more, this prince has completely controlled the Jinyiwei, the East Factory, the West Factory, the Beijing Camp, the Five Military Commission, the Five Tengxiang Guards, the ten thousand Guanning Iron Cavalry, and the White Spear Soldiers.

He has hundreds of millions of taels of silver in his hands.

If you were to face a prince who was full of cunning schemes, controlled three intelligence organizations, hundreds of thousands of troops, and hundreds of millions of taels of silver, would you be able to fight him?
You should know that this prince was not Chongzhen, but a combination of Emperor Hongwu and Emperor Jiajing.

If you want to work under him, you have to obey all his orders.

If they disobey, the fate of the nobles before them will become their future.
Moreover, he had just received news that early in the morning, the Ming Dynasty tax collection army chopped off a profiteer who resisted taxes and misled the people on a street in the east of the city.

Not only did this man die, but the 1.6 million shi of grain were also confiscated.

A total loss of 4.8 million taels of silver!
Of course, they were all nobles of the Ming Dynasty, and even if they resisted taxes, it was unlikely that they would be beheaded in the street.

But I guess he won’t be able to keep the title.

Which is more important, a little profit or the hereditary title of nobility?
The people in front of him were still making noise. The Duke of England came to his senses and finally stretched out his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.

This trick was quite effective. Everyone immediately shut up and looked at him eagerly.

The Duke of England looked around, cleared his throat, and then said:

"Everyone, this duke knows everything you've said, and he understands your difficulties."

"But then again, this is an order from His Majesty himself. As nobles of the Ming Dynasty, how could we disobey His Majesty's order?"

"Besides, it's just a little more tax. It's not like we won't make any money. It's just a little less profit. Can't you all afford this little bit of money?"

"Did all the money earned in the past few hundred years go to waste?"

"Besides, the court has increased our salaries, so in my opinion, we should pay the tax as it should be paid, and don't make things difficult for His Majesty and the Crown Prince."

"We are the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, nobles who share the same destiny with the country. If even we don't support His Majesty and the Crown Prince, how will others view us?"

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but feel puzzled.

That’s true, but only when you actually cut yourself with a knife will you know how painful it is!

Besides, salary increase is a good thing for civil servants, but for these nobles, it is just a drop in the bucket.

Which noble family lives on salary?
That all depends on the inheritance left by our ancestors.

In the past, we could earn 20,000 to 30,000 taels a year, but after the commercial tax reform, it suddenly dropped by one third. Who can swallow this?
Seeing that everyone was still unwilling, the Duke of England could not help but emphasize his tone:
"Everyone, let me make this clear today: whether you pay the tax or not, I will definitely pay it!"

"Not only that, this duke also firmly supports every national policy of His Majesty and the Crown Prince."

"If any of you are thinking of doing something shady or having evil intentions, I urge you to be cautious."

"The Ming Dynasty is currently thriving under your Majesty's governance, and we will not allow anyone to hold us back."

"If any of you dare to do this, don't blame me for being ruthless."

"Those nobles who were punished before are your lessons. If you insist on following their example and want to end up with your property confiscated and your clan exterminated, then it's up to you."

"When you die, I will definitely ask His Majesty to collect your bodies so that you won't end up without a burial place!"

I have to say that what the Duke of England said was extremely serious.

When the nobles present heard this, their faces turned extremely ugly.

Think about the nobles who were executed before. Which one of them didn’t have his entire family suffer?
Not only were hundreds of years of wealth and glory lost, but even the lives of the entire family were lost.

What's worse, all nine clans were wiped out completely!

Although His Majesty still doesn't like them very much now, their titles, salaries and properties are still there, and they can still live a life of wealth and glory.

In comparison, isn’t it just a matter of paying more taxes this time?

Compared with life and title, what does it matter?

After figuring this out, everyone suddenly felt enlightened.

Soon, someone in the crowd bowed and said:

"The Duke of England is right. I will go back and tell my servants to pay all the taxes."

Then someone else echoed:
"Me too. I'll go back and pay the taxes I owe right away. Goodbye!"

"I'm leaving too, everyone. Goodbye!"

After a while, a large group of nobles left one after another.

Looking at the nobles leaving, the Duke of England finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, these guys were willing to listen to advice. If they hadn't, they might have been in trouble.

Maybe it will implicate him by then.

I just don’t know if what happened just now will be reported to the East Palace?
But even if it gets to the East Palace, it should be fine, right?
After all, I have been persuading those nobles to pay taxes.
I have to say that the British prince is still very smart.

Because just half an hour later, a piece of information about the Duke of Ying's Mansion was sent to the East Palace.

No doubt, it's what you think!
There are also Jinyiwei in the Duke of England’s mansion!

They could be the doorman, the guards in the mansion, or even the cooks in the mansion.

In short, as long as they are given enough money and some power, the Jinyiwei can always bring some unexpected surprises to Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang took a look at the information and then put it down.

He had fully expected that the nobles would go to the Duke of England.

It's like a group of thugs being bullied go to their leader for help, it's no big deal.

Moreover, the Duke of England has done a good job. If nothing unexpected happens, those nobles will pay taxes obediently next time.

This is of course the best outcome, because Zhu Cilang would feel embarrassed to take action against this group of nobles again!

After all, the previous killing was a bit cruel
In addition, all kinds of events that happened in the capital today were also sent to Zhu Cilang by the Jinyiwei.

For example, the owner of Yangji Rice Shop resisted taxes and incited the people, and was eventually beheaded in the street.

However, he was not surprised.

After all, there are always some people who are bold and reckless enough to risk their lives to test the bottom line of the imperial court, wanting to see whether their own heads are harder or the knives of the Ming Dynasty's tax collection army are harder.

The result is already obvious, the Ming Dynasty tax army is still more powerful!
Anyway, this trick of killing the chicken to scare the monkey is quite effective. At least this kind of thing has not happened again.

In addition, the 1.6 million dan of grain stored by Yangji Rice Shop were all handed over to the court, which was enough to last for a while.

Besides, there are other things waiting for him to deal with right now...

While thinking, Zhu Cilang looked at the ministers kneeling in front of him.

There were several cabinet ministers, six ministers and many other officials gathered here, about a dozen of them. They all had their heads hung low, their faces showing either fear or regret.

Several of them were holding a box in their hands, and inside the box were letters of apology from them and their subordinates.

It turned out that since the news of the tax resistance and murder spread this morning, the entire officialdom has been in a panic.

This is because most officials have shops at home or have received bribes to help businessmen evade taxes.

Now, when I hear that there will be a major reform of the business tax, people are even killing people in the streets.

These officials were afraid of being implicated, and they knew they could not hide the truth, so they decided to confess.

But they were afraid of taking responsibility and did not dare to come alone, so they hurried to see their immediate superiors, hoping that they would help them plead for mercy.

In fact, their superiors are also involved. Their families all have businesses to a greater or lesser extent. Even if they themselves are not involved, there are inevitably relatives and friends who are engaged in business. Relying on their official status, their relatives and friends' businesses often evade taxes.

As a result, more and more officials were involved, which led to the current situation where a large number of officials apologized for their crimes.

At this moment, the sound of footsteps suddenly broke the silence in the hall.

Then, Zheng Chenggong, dressed in a Feiyu suit, hurried in, approached Zhu Cilang and reported in a low voice:

"My Lord, the rough count is complete. There are approximately six million taels of silver outside."

All this silver came with the officials who came to apologize.

After all, if you want to apologize, in addition to submitting a letter of apology, you should at least return some of the bribes you received and the commercial taxes you evaded over the years, right?

Otherwise, why are you coming here to apologize with nothing in your hands? Are you sure you are not here to make a fool of yourself?
Zhu Cilang nodded slightly, indicating that he understood, and Zheng Chenggong immediately stood up and left.

Then, Zhu Cilang's eyes swept over the court officials in front of him and he spoke calmly:
"Everyone, I am not unreasonable. My Ming Dynasty has been around for over two hundred years. A three-foot-thick ice doesn't form overnight. I cannot blame you entirely for these things."

"Given your sincere repentance and your willingness to hand over the stolen money, this matter will be closed."

"As for the apology letter submitted, I will not read it. I will take it back and distribute it, and inform those officials not to make such mistakes again in the future."

"If you do it again, I will punish you severely."

When the people in the audience heard this, they felt as if they had been pardoned. Their tense nerves relaxed instantly, and they quickly knelt down and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

He banged his forehead heavily on the cold ground, shouting, "I, your humble servant, thank you, Your Highness, for your great grace!"

Zhu Cilang didn't want to say anything more, just waved his hand gently.

"Go down!"

Then, all the ministers felt relieved and stood up and left one by one.

Perhaps in the eyes of outsiders, Zhu Cilang was a little too lenient this time. After all, these officials and nobles should be punished because they involved tax evasion.

But Zhu Cilang didn't think so, because there were too many officials and nobles involved in this incident.

If we really want to punish them, I am afraid that the Imperial Prison, the Factory Prison, the Five Cities Military Prison, and the Dali Temple Prison will not be able to accommodate them.

Moreover, before the tax reform, the phenomenon of collusion between officials and businessmen to evade taxes had occurred throughout the Ming Dynasty and was already common.

If we really take action against these people, half of the officials in the entire Ming Dynasty will be implicated.

Furthermore, the ultimate goal of this time is to reform commercial taxes. As long as the commercial taxes can be implemented smoothly, Zhu Cilang will not care about what happened in the past.

After all, he still understood the principle that clear water has no fish.

He did not have such a lofty ideal that he had to make every official of the Ming Dynasty as honest and upright as Hai Rui.

As long as the officials can conscientiously implement the court's orders and do not make any mistakes on major issues, Zhu Cilang can forgive any minor problems or mistakes.

After all, no one is perfect, and he cannot use the standards of a saint to measure these officials.

After sending away the civil and military officials who came to apologize, Zhu Cilang rubbed his aching temples. Just as he was thinking about what to do next, Ma Bao hurried in to report:
"My Lord, Eunuch Fang is here. He seems to have something urgent to do."

Eunuch Fang is Fang Zhenghua!

When Zhu Cilang heard this, his brows immediately frowned.

You must know that after returning from Shandong, Zhu Cilang gave the important task of protecting Chongzhen to Fang Zhenghua in order to prevent any officials or nobles from being dissatisfied with the commercial tax reform and taking action against Chongzhen in desperation.

Could it be that something is wrong with Chongzhen now?
Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang quickly said:

"Let him in."

After a while, Fang Zhenghua arrived at the East Palace and bowed, saying:

"This servant pays homage to the Crown Prince."

Zhu Cilang gestured for him to stand up, then asked:
"Is there something wrong with the Emperor?"

Fang Zhenghua nodded slightly awkwardly:
"Your Highness is right. Something is indeed happening with the Emperor, but I don't know whether it's good or bad."

What answer is this?
Zhu Cilang was speechless, and then asked:
"Don't beat around the bush. Tell the truth."

Fang Zhenghua quickly replied:
"This morning, the Emperor suddenly sent someone to summon me, saying that he wanted to go to the Imperial Stables for horseback riding and archery."

"I didn't dare to make the decision on my own, so I thought of asking His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for permission first. But the Emperor got angry and said, 'It's just horseback archery, not leaving the palace, so why should I ask for your permission?'"

"He also scolded the servants for not taking him, the emperor, seriously."

"I have no choice but to have someone take the Emperor to the Imperial Stables first, and then come back to report this to the Crown Prince."

When Zhu Cilang heard this, he was speechless for a moment.

Because he didn't know what Chongzhen meant?
Horseback archery?

Does this have anything to do with Chongzhen?

Wouldn't it be better to rest peacefully in the harem, read the newspaper, drink some tea, and study the plan of having a baby in your spare time?

At this moment, Zhu Cilang seemed to suddenly remember something, looked at Fang Zhenghua and asked:
"By the way, did Father ever know how to ride a horse and shoot arrows?"

Fang Zhenghua nodded and said:
"Before His Majesty ascended the throne, he was quite skilled in archery and horseback riding. However, after he ascended the throne, he became busy with state affairs, and these skills fell behind. I haven't seen His Majesty riding a horse or shooting arrows in over a decade."

Zhu Cilang was speechless again. He had never thought that he had always underestimated Chongzhen.

After all, who would have thought that Chongzhen, a king who lost his country, would be associated with the four words "skilled in archery and horsemanship"?
After thinking for a moment, he finally spoke:

"Well, whatever the emperor wants to do is up to him, as long as he doesn't leave the palace."

"Also, you have to take good care of him and don't let him get hurt."

Fang Zhenghua heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this and quickly agreed:
"As you command, I will return to serve the Emperor."

Zhu Cilang nodded, and Fang Zhenghua retreated.

Time passed quickly and it was night in the blink of an eye.

During this period, Zhu Cilang continued to receive secret reports from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Ming Dynasty Tax Army, all of which were about business tax.

After another hour, he finally summarized the work results of the Ming Dynasty tax army that day.

The 2,000-man Ming Dynasty tax army was divided into 200 teams of ten people each. Like a fine comb, they searched every street and alley in the capital, leaving no corner untouched.

After a busy day, we finally counted the number of merchants in the capital.

All the rooms, big and small, add up to a total of 11,235.

This does not include small vendors who set up stalls anywhere, but only those who own shops.

To be honest, this number really surprised Zhu Cilang.

He originally thought that there were no more than seven or eight thousand merchants with shops in the capital, but he never expected that there would be so many.

Let’s look at the business tax collected today:

The total amount of cash, silver notes and copper coins was about five million taels. The white silver was simply piled up like a mountain!
It took from day to night to transport everything back to the East Palace!
The tax in kind amounted to 13 million taels, including rice, wheat, cloth, salt and all kinds of strange and exotic items.

In terms of rice alone, they received more than 3 million shi, which is equivalent to more than 9 million taels of silver!

In addition, some merchants are experiencing cash flow constraints and are having difficulty paying taxes, so they request a one or two day grace period.

This part is about one million taels of silver.

By this calculation, nearly 20 million in business tax was collected in one day!

Of course, this is a special case, after all, the business tax levied this time is on goods hoarded in shops.

However, according to this situation, it should not be difficult to collect 500,000 to 600,000 taels of silver every month in the capital alone.

After all, the capital city has a dense population and frequent commercial activities. As long as there are buying and selling transactions, the court will have a stable source of tax revenue.

And that's not even counting other places.

Look!

The Ming Dynasty was not short of money, it was just that Chongzhen didn’t know where to get the money!
As long as you have a knife in your hand and a quick mind, you can make money anywhere!

Overall, Zhu Cilang was quite satisfied with the results and felt more confident about the future development of the Ming Dynasty.

The next morning, Zhu Cilang, who had been absent from work for a day, finally came to court again.

After all, I had already been absent from work for a month when I went to Shandong, and I was absent from work for another day yesterday.

If he doesn't come to court again, it will be unacceptable both morally and logically.

Even if it's just for show, just going through the motions.

"When there is something going on, we will start, and when there is nothing going on, we will retreat."

With Wang Chengen's loud call, the morning court officially began.

Zhu Cilang originally did not take this morning court seriously. After all, all the arrangements had been made and he just had to follow the procedure.

However, unexpectedly, when Wang Chengen had just finished shouting, the Minister of Revenue, Ni Yuanlu, suddenly came out and said loudly:

"Your Highness, I have something to report."

Zhu Cilang was slightly taken aback, wondering if he was mistaken. Hadn't they been seeing each other every day these past few days? Why did he have something else to report now?

Although he was full of doubts, he still nodded.

"Send it up!"

Immediately, Wang Chengen quickly stepped forward, took the memorial from Ni Yuanlu, and then handed it to Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang opened the memorial, took a few glances at it, and immediately looked helpless.

There was something different in the look in his eyes when he looked up at Ni Yuanlu.

The reason is very simple, that is, the matter reported in this memorial is actually about the ownership of commercial taxes.

As we all know, national taxation has always been managed by the Ministry of Revenue, which is a rule passed down since ancient times.

But this time it was a little unusual, because the Ministry of Revenue did not receive a single penny of the business tax collected yesterday, and all of it went into the Eastern Palace's treasury.

This caused the Minister of Revenue Ni Yuanlu to be extremely anxious.

He originally wanted to ask Zhu Cilang for details in private, but he was afraid that he would not be able to argue with this extremely intelligent prince and would be easily put off.

After all, this matter concerns the financial foundation of the country and cannot be ambiguous at all, so he simply made the matter clear in the court.

On the imperial platform, Zhu Cilang was still reading Ni Yuanlu's memorial.

Simply put, the core content of this memorial is only one:
That is to let Zhu Cilang hand over all the business taxes collected yesterday to the Ministry of Revenue, and in the future all commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty will be managed by the Ministry of Revenue.

Zhu Cilang calmly put down the memorial in his hand, then glanced at Ni Yuanlu, thinking that this old guy really caught him off guard.

In fact, he has always been worried about the issue of tax distribution.

Because in his plan, core troops such as the Beijing Camp, the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Five Tengxiang Guards, the Guanning Iron Cavalry, and the Ming Dynasty Tax Army will all need to be directly supported by the imperial treasury!
To ensure their loyalty.

Although both are military pay, getting military pay from the Ministry of Revenue and getting military pay from the emperor's treasury are two completely different concepts.

The former proves that you are a soldier of the country and you are receiving money from the country!

The latter proves that you are the emperor's personal soldier and you are taking the emperor's money!
In this way, military power suddenly returned to the emperor's hands!
(End of this chapter)