East Factory Governor

Chapter 274 Let's Check Tianjin Road First?

The leader of the team was the patrol officer Wang Dong who had just dealt with the case of Mr. Zhou being beaten.Just now he received news from Zhou's family that the person who beat Mr. Zhou was in Zuihualou, so he immediately brought more than 100 people over. He expected that it would be difficult for them to fly this time.Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered Zuihualou, he heard that another son was beaten, and he was the son of his immediate superior, Tianjin Dao Chen, is that okay?
These two lifeless things dare to commit two crimes in a row on Lao Tzu's territory. Let's see if I don't beat them to death!
Wang Dong rushed into the Hundred Flowers Hall with more than 100 men like wolves and tigers. Seeing Chen Tianbao being pinned down and beaten violently, he immediately yelled, "Take it down for me. If you resist, you will be shot!"

When everyone in the hall saw that things were getting serious, they all ran away from another door.

At this time, six or seven vigorous men quickly rushed in from outside the hall, and surrounded Chongzhen. These people were Meng Wei, Lao Dao, Hua Chen and four big insiders.Originally, Chongzhen and Qin Shuhuai had no choice but to pretend they hadn't seen Chongzhen and Qin Shuhuai visiting the brothel, but after seeing so many officers and soldiers entering, they couldn't calm down anymore, so they rushed in.

Wang Dong was eager to make contributions, so he ordered his subordinates to kill him without saying a word, and the two sides fought in the small hall.

Although there were more than 100 of these officers and soldiers, they were not enough to look at in front of so many masters. Let alone wanting to win Chongzhen and Qin Shuhuai, it was impossible to even meet them.

At this moment, a manic laughter came from outside, "Young Master Qin, Lao Zhao is here to help you fight!"

As soon as the words were finished, a fat man rushed in from the door.With two kitchen knives pinned to his waist, the fat man rushed to Wang Dong like a gust of wind, raised his arms a few times and knocked seven or eight guards around Wang Dong away, and then unhurriedly pulled out the big kitchen knife It reached Wang Dong's neck.

Wang Dong trembled all of a sudden, and before the fat man could speak, he said to his subordinates very consciously, "Stop!"

The two sides stopped fighting immediately. At this time, nearly half of the officers and soldiers had fallen down, and they were all groaning on the ground in pain.On Qin Shuhuai's side, none of them were even slightly injured.

Qin Shuhuai saw that it was Zhao Quyou, the crazy cook from before.

He chuckled and said, "Thank you, Mr. Zhao, for your rescue."

Zhao Quyou chuckled, "Mr. Qin has brought a lot of good players, and you can win without Lao Zhao. But Lao Zhao, I haven't fought for a long time, and my hands are itchy, hehehe!"

These officers and soldiers were resolved, but Miss Liu Yan also disappeared, which made Chongzhen very annoyed.

The incident is so big, Zuihualou must not be able to stay any longer, otherwise some high-level officials will probably recognize Chongzhen, and the gang of Donglin Party members will not know how to arrange Chongzhen by then, so he will give it a try. I'm afraid I won't be able to take off the label of "lewdness" for the rest of my life.

Chongzhen was unwilling to return, so he had no choice but to let it go, keeping that beautiful image in his heart, thinking that he would definitely find a chance to come out next time, and meet this girl Liu Yan.

Qin Shuhuai also looked regretfully at the empty boudoir, and instinctively thought that there was a story behind this girl Liu Yan, but it was a pity that he didn't have the chance to meet her today.

Several people quickly left Zuihualou, and then returned to the inn in the dark.It's safe in the inn, because even if officers and soldiers track him down, Qin Shuhuai has the token of Jin Yiwei, and he just needs to repel them.

Chongzhen sat by the window sill, opened the window, faced the biting cool wind, and looked out the window ecstatically.He didn't say a word for a long time, his face was as cold as frost.

Qin Shuhuai closed the window and said to Chongzhen, "It's cold, Brother Huang, be careful of the cold."

Chongzhen sighed heavily, "I am not afraid of the wind and cold, but this Daming, I am afraid that the wind and cold are already deep!"

Qin Shuhuai nodded, "Brother Huang is clear."

"At the end of last year, dozens of censors, servants, and ministers in the court jointly wrote a memorial, saying that there was a severe drought in the summer and an early winter, and there was a strange phenomenon in the sky. .I agree. The mine tax was abolished, and more than ten taxes such as the tea tax were reduced or exempted. The result? Isn’t the winter this year still early? Isn’t the summer still dry?”

Qin Shuhuai wanted to tell Chongzhen that it was the Little Ice Age at this time, and you would be like this even if you didn't collect any tax.But he swallowed the words again, and it was a bit embarrassing for Chongzhen to understand these common senses.

So he said, "Brother Huang, even if what those people said is true, doing these things will not make the world go smoothly, and will only cause more anger and resentment."

"how do I say this?"

"The taxes you cut are all commercial taxes, which are precisely to reduce the burden on the richest businessmen. And the agricultural tax of Ming Dynasty, as the foundation of the country, not only has not been reduced, but has also been greatly increased by the clever name of the subordinates. The subordinates On the one hand, they can’t collect business taxes, and on the other hand, they can only pay the peasants if they want to complete the collection tasks from above. The peasants have no way to survive, so they have to rebel.

Chongzhen pondered thoughtfully for a while, and then asked, "Brother Qin, how do you think Ming should pay taxes?"

Qin Shuhuai replied without hesitation, "Emphasis on commercial tax and light on agricultural tax is the way to cultivate life and rest."

"How are commercial taxes collected?"

"At least double the current level. In addition, the mining tax, tea tax, silk tax, and salt tax will be doubled on this basis."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax was extremely light, generally between two and three per hundred, which is nothing compared to the 17% value-added tax of later generations.

Chongzhen thought about it again, and said, "Mine, tea, silk, and salt are all related to people's livelihood. If the imperial court increases taxes, wouldn't their prices go up, and the people will probably say that I am plundering the people's fat and anointing."

Qin Shuhuai smiled lightly and said, "Brother Huang is too worried. Does Brother Huang know how much the salt tax is now?"

This Chongzhen was still very clear, and said, "A salt (about 116.5 catties) draws three qian, and the annual income is about 100 million taels."

"Does the emperor know the current price of salt?"

"This... I really don't know."

Qin Shuhuai raised his voice and said, "300 Wen a catty! That is to say, once the salt is brought into the hands of a salt merchant, it can be sold for 35 taels! The imperial court draws three coins from the 35 taels, which is not even a fraction, so how can it affect the market price? ? It can be seen that it is not the salt tax that really raises the market price!"

Chongzhen was surprised and said, "The price of salt is 300 yuan a catty? The courtiers kept telling me that the salt merchants were overwhelmed and asked me to reduce the tax. Now I have reduced it to three yuan per quotation. They can obviously sell it for 35 yuan per quotation, and they also said that the profit is not much. , is it possible that the cost of making salt is so high?"

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court did not care about salt affairs, but only collected taxes, so Chongzhen did not know the cost of salt production, so he asked this question.

Qin Shuhuai said, "In the Song Dynasty, the cost of making salt was already less than [-] wen per quotation. In this dynasty, the technology has been improved, and the cost has been even lower. Brother Huang, do you need me to explain the reason for the high salt price?"

When Chongzhen heard what Qin Shuhuai said, he immediately understood, and said bitterly, "I will find out these corrupt officials one by one and behead them for public display!"

"Brother Huang is a lesson! This is true for salt tax, tea tax, silk tax, etc. Now you know why so many civil servants in the court are clamoring to reduce taxes for those wealthy businessmen? Because reducing taxes for wealthy businessmen is To cut taxes for themselves is to generate income for them! Otherwise, where did these Donglin party members get so many dudes?"

Chongzhen patted the table heavily, and said with a sneer, "Donglin Party? Well said, a group of cronies who call themselves Donglin gentlemen! I thought they were just a group of pedantic and incompetent scholars, but I didn't expect that each of them secretly Very flexible! I just wanted to prune down this big Donglin tree, but I didn’t want them to be rotten! If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears, I wouldn’t have known that this big tree had grown so big. , the rot is already so deep, if we don't uproot it, I'm afraid it will fall down and crush my Forbidden City in the future!"

Qin Shuhuai stood aside, quietly listening to Chongzhen venting, without saying a word.

"Brother Qin, I know that you are not dealing with the Donglin Party. You just go to investigate, and I will support you. No matter who it is, no matter how big an official is, as long as there is evidence to investigate, I will never forgive you lightly!"

Hearing this, Qin Shuhuai chuckled lightly and said, "Brother Huang, why don't we check this Tianjin Road first before you go back?"

(End of this chapter)