The first prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1688 Thorough investigation of the tax and bank case

The Song Dynasty set up transshipment envoys. Apart from keeping enough for local development, most of the taxes and taxes in various places were transported back to the center of the imperial court, just to prevent the local area from becoming bigger.

The fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River has abundant grain, a developed silk industry, and prosperous commerce, supporting half of the fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty. Although it has not surpassed the north, it has already surpassed the north.

Since the Song Dynasty set up the transshipment envoy, there has never been an accident, and since Jiangnan was pacified, there has never been an accident. It has always been safe and sound.

Moreover, at the critical moment of the battle between the Song Dynasty and the Khitan, except for this incident, this is definitely not common. All officials who have reached the capital level know the news. For a while, Bianjing was in an uproar, and the court was shocked.

In the Golden Palace of Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin's expression was very bad.

"Crack!" Zhao Kuangyin slapped the handle of his dragon chair fiercely. The ministers reckoned that the handle of the dragon chair was smashed by their emperor again. It was quite hard. It can be seen that His Majesty the Emperor mood.

The two groups of ministers were afraid to show their airs. Anyone who dared to speak at this time would definitely bear the emperor's anger. This anger could burn people's bones to nothing.

Zhao Kuangyin's heavy slap on the table was like a thunderbolt in the clear sky. The ministers were submissive, even Zhao Xu, who dared to contradict his father on the spot, didn't say anything at this time. Zhao Xu knew that it was one-sixth of the previous year's tax revenue in the Southern Han Dynasty, and that was the future military expenditure of the Song Dynasty. It is not clear why it is so gone now.

"Your Majesty, please take care of the dragon body if you are incompetent!" Zhao Pu finally recovered after recuperating from illness for so long. There are another [-] horses behind.

"Your Majesty, please take care of yourself!" The ministers finally seized the opportunity to speak, expressing their loyalty one after another.

This time the tax bank is gone, Zhao Kuangyin is also a little helpless, after all, the loss is huge, now the Song Dynasty does not have to go, the treasury is sufficient, but the court has just decided to fight against Khitan for a long time, it is a bottomless pit, I don’t know how much tax will be spent , Now you actually tell me that the tax money is gone, Zhao Kuangyin is very annoyed.

In fact, these are not the most irritating. The most irritating thing is the counterattack of those conservative forces. Although the Song Dynasty has been established for more than ten years, the conservative forces still exist. For example, the collection of taxes and silver is an example.

In the past, the imperial court collected taxes and taxes, except for a small amount of silver, mainly in kind, any kind of cloth and silk, and some paid for the minerals of the year, so that those people can get some money from it. After all, it is understandable that there will be a little loss on the way. !

But Da Song has done this for a long time, and everything is converted into money, so there is no way for you to be greedy for ink, which makes some old-fashioned people dissatisfied.

Zhao Kuangyin vaguely heard someone say that if the money was collected in kind, it wouldn't be so easy to be stolen. Speaking of it, there is still a problem with the imperial court's policy.

This is not nonsense, these people can actually say such things, Zhao Kuangyin really wants to kill them all directly, this is all nonsense, what kind of heart do you have to say such things.

"Okay, don't talk about it anymore. I haven't reached that point yet. No matter what the reason is, I will go and get back the lost tax money as soon as possible this time."

The departments of the transshipment envoy, the household department, and the criminal department all took action. They did not dare not to be conscientious. All the people on board were controlled, and they could not come out until the truth of the matter was found out.

The bosses of these three departments are all here in person. They have to pay attention to this matter. His Majesty the Emperor personally ordered the investigation. If this is a major event and cannot be found out, what awaits them will be severe punishment. Three days later, they came to Zhao Kuangyin anxiously.

"Your Majesty, we, we..." None of them found out, because they didn't get any useful information. These people all said one clue, that is, the tax money was missing on the ship, and no one was seen. I went to get close to those tax banks, but they just disappeared. They didn’t know what happened. If it sank into the bottom of the river, some related personnel went to salvage the bottom of the river, but nothing was found. No, Hedi Chen Shuiyin's speculation has been proven to be impossible.

"Hmph, the tax bank of our Great Song Dynasty just disappeared like this. Should we consider ourselves unlucky? You don't have any clues about what you're doing. Well, since you don't have any clues, I'll send someone to investigate again. At that time, whoever is found must be strictly investigated to the end.”

Zhao Kuangyin's voice was very loud, and the eunuch outside immediately ran in. What he saw were three ministers kneeling on the ground tremblingly, saying that the minister was guilty.

"Decree, let the prince supervise this matter, take full responsibility, and investigate it to the end." Zhao Kuangyin did not find other people this time, but asked his son to be directly responsible. This standard has been improved, and let the prince investigate such a matter. Which of the officials from all over the world dare not be careful about things.

In fact, Zhao Kuangyin also saw that Zhao Xu had nothing to do recently, and he would definitely cause trouble if he was idle like this. If such a big incident happened, it would be appropriate to let him go. This is just one of them. Zhao Kuangyin still has his own plans. As for Zhao Xu will know what it is.

"Go quickly, let him come to see me, the three of you back off, this is your job, go."

The three ministers received amnesty. Although this matter would not put them in prison, they couldn't bear the emperor's temper. Of course they were happy to see that Zhao Kuangyin was not held accountable.

After Zhao Xu arrived, no one knew what the father and son said. In short, Zhao Xu looked serious after he came out, and the matter quickly spread among the ministers.

"Your Majesty asked the prince to investigate this time. This is to set off a storm. This was originally a trivial matter, but since then the nature has changed."

"Who says it's not. But this also shows the determination of the imperial court. If you say that those people are too courageous, daring to use the imperial court's tax money is a serious crime against the nine clans."

These officials are neither big nor small. They are middle-level officials. They represent the weathervane of the imperial court. They are very puzzled.The emperor asked Zhao Xu to investigate the matter himself.

But it's right to think about it, this is the first case in Song Dynasty, and it is probably to scare the chickens to scare the monkeys, so that people in the future will not dare to take this idea, so the specifications have been raised.

(End of this chapter)