Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 99 Taking office
More than ten days have passed in a blink of an eye, and the New Year has come to an end, and the city of Beijing has become lively again.

And it was time for Jia Rui to take up his post at the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Holding the imperial decree, Jia Rui led a few servants and a few subordinates of Captain Long to the front of the household department on horseback.

As soon as he arrived at the door, a servant came over immediately.

"Several nobles, this is the main hall of the Ministry of Household Affairs. No idlers can gather here."

This yamen servant was also trained. As soon as he saw Jia Rui hugging him and wearing gorgeous clothes, he knew that he was someone who could not afford to offend, so his tone was very polite.

If this is an ordinary person, he won't talk to him at all, and if he goes over with a Fenghuo stick, he will be beaten up.

Jia Rui was very satisfied with this yamen servant's attitude, thinking that he usually treats other people like this, so he had a good impression of this yamen servant.

"Go and tell the subordinate officials inside that Jia Rui, the Minister of Household Affairs, has come to take office."

Hearing this, the yamen servant trembled in his heart. At the same time, he was also a little thankful. Fortunately, he was cautious just now and did not offend his immediate boss. Otherwise, his family would have no way out.

The yamen servant quickly knelt down on the ground, kowtowed to Jia Rui, and said: "Sir, please wait a moment, I will go in and call for someone."

After speaking, he got up rolling and crawling, and ran into the door like the wind.

Before even half a stick of incense, Jia Rui heard the sound of chaotic footsteps at the gate of the yamen, and then walked out quickly, twenty or thirty officials.

When these people came to the gate of the yamen and saw Jia Rui, they immediately stood in two rows respectfully, and bowed their hands to Jia Rui together.

"The lower officials and others have met Lord Shangshu."

Jia Rui nodded in satisfaction, glanced at them, and found Sun Xun's flattering smile.

After Jia Rui nodded to him, he got off his horse and entered the household department surrounded by officials, and then came to the main hall of the household department.

Then Jia Rui took the lead, and all the officials saluted again, and then lined up on both sides.

Jia Rui coughed slightly, and then said: "I have just taken charge of the household department, and I am not familiar with the officials up and down the household department. You can report your family status."

Jia Rui said so, but he actually did his homework down there.

He went through the roster of the resumes of the top and bottom officials of the household department.

This time they were asked to report to each other's family, it was to match the real person with the name on the resume.

The subordinate officials below naturally reported their names honestly, and Jia Rui corresponded one by one in his mind.

This time Jia Rui almost understood it.

"Our Ministry of Revenue is the money bag of the world, and everyone in the court is keeping an eye on it. I hope that all officials will be strict with their own interests and not stretch their hands too far. When the time comes, I will be chopped into pieces, and I will have nothing to say to you to plead for mercy."

After lecturing these people a few words, Jia Rui ordered the servant to stay, and the others could go back to work.

In the end, only Sun Xun was left alone.

Jia Rui is still a little unhappy in his heart. Why do you dare not give me face when I, the minister, let you stay?

After asking Sun Xun for the last time, he found out that the other minister was a confidant of Li Jianming, the former Minister of the Household Department. Because he was involved in Jia Rui's case, he was taken down, and now he is the only minister in the Household Department.

"Then the emperor didn't send anyone again?"

Jia Rui was a little strange, with the emperor's character of controlling power, the household department had such a big circle, how could the emperor not work up and down to occupy this hole?
"My lord, you didn't know that you just returned to Beijing. Now the emperor is watching closely. The emperor has no room to intervene in personnel affairs."

When he said this, Sun Xun secretly took a look at Jia Rui.

It was the one in front of him who made the emperor imprisoned for a month, and the household department even reshuffled the cards once.

As for the Supreme Emperor's favor for the man in front of him, everyone in the court knew about it, and there were now many bad rumors circulating inside and outside the court.

Most of them suspect that Jia Rui is the illegitimate son of the Supreme Emperor, which is why the Supreme Emperor can favor Jia Rui so much.

This meant that Jia Rui's appearance was only average. If Jia Rui was more handsome, there might be even worse rumors spreading.

Jia Rui nodded. It seemed that the Supreme Emperor had reserved a place for himself to place someone he trusted.

After thinking of this, Jia Rui felt even more grateful to the Supreme Emperor.

Although he knew that the Taishanghuang was affected by the soul-destroying talisman, but people's hearts are full of flesh. How could Jia Rui not be moved by the Taishanghuang's trust and reuse of him.

"How much silver do we have in the treasury?" Sun Xun immediately cupped his hands and replied, "My lord, there are still more than 300 million taels of silver and more than 1000 million dans of grain in the account of the Ministry of Finance."

After hearing this, Jia Rui's face changed a little.

For such a big country, there are still several months until the summer harvest. How can we keep running with so little money left in our account?

No wonder the drought in Shandong was so severe last time. The imperial court only took out 30 dans of grain and 20 taels of silver. It seems that the emperor was not targeting himself specifically, but that he really had no money.

Jia Rui frowned and thought for a moment, then said: "Salt and iron are the exclusive specialty of the imperial court. These two items alone should cost more than 1000 million taels of silver every year. Plus business tax, head tax and other taxes, why now?" Only more than 300 million taels are left?"

"My lord, you don't know that the food supply in Jiubian and other places cannot be delayed at all. These military expenditures alone will consume one-third of the court's tax burden. In addition, the new water conservancy projects in various places, and other Emergency money, and the preparations for disasters, plus the salaries of officials at all levels, isn’t that what’s left?”

"Bring the account book, I want to see it." Jia Rui said with a gloomy face.

After Sun Xun finished listening, he hurried out to get the ledger.

However, at this moment, Jia Rui's eyes were wandering.

He didn't believe that the imperial court's tax money was not intercepted. There must be something fishy in it?

After a while, Sun Xing came in with two bookends holding Sanluo's ledger.

"My lord, here comes the account you asked for."

Jia Rui looked at the fifty ledgers on the table and glanced at Sun Xun thoughtfully.

Then I pretended to be fine and picked up one of the books to read.

After turning a few pages, Jia Rui frowned. It turned out that these accounts were all running accounts, which seemed to be a real headache.

Sun Xun, who was standing below, saw Jia Rui frowning, and felt a tinge of joy in his heart.

This is what he wants.

As long as the young adult above dislikes these miscellaneous things and leaves it to himself to deal with, then in the future, the household department will have the final say on his own?

Since there is no chief official in the household department during this period, the biggest one is Sun Xun, the servant of the household department, so he handles all the affairs of the household department, big and small.

This period of time gave Sun Xun a taste of power.

Although he didn't have the courage to ignore Jia Rui, he still thought that he could secretly control the household department with Jia Rui's acquiescence.

But what happened next caught Sun Xun a little off guard.

Sitting above, the young Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue, frowned but was looking through the account books bit by bit, and soon he finished reading one book.

After reading this one, he put the account book aside, then carefully rummaged through the pile of account books, and quickly took out one of them.

Sun Xun looked a little sad when he saw the account book Jia Rui turned over.

This account is the general ledger of the Ministry of Accounts.

Sun Xun was afraid that Jia Rui would find this account book all at once, so he specially placed it in the middle of these account books, just to make Jia Rui impatient and act as the shopkeeper.

Jia Rui took the ledger and looked through it carefully. About half an hour later, he put the ledger on the table, then looked up at the sequence below and asked:
"The prosperous south of the Yangtze River is a place where the world's wealth gathers. How did you pay so much tax last year?"

It turns out that Jia Rui discovered from the ledger that last year's taxes in Jiangnan were only equal to those in the north.

"My lord, you don't know that although Jiangnan is prosperous, it is the place where the dynasty started. There are rich and powerful people there, and these people don't pay taxes, so the tax money in Jiangnan is less than expected."

Jia Rui lowered his head and thought about it, then sighed.

This dynasty treats its distinguished officials preferentially, and the land owned by these meritorious officials does not need to pay taxes.

This caused land annexation to become more and more serious, and the land tax collected by the court became less and less.

No wonder the emperor wants to divide the family into two households. If this continues for a long time, the court will not be able to hold on.

But thinking about it the other way around, as a member of the nobles, I am also a vested interest. If it is really implemented, the preferential treatment of nobles and gentry will be cancelled, and my loss will not be small.

But now, as a complementary minister, I have to find some money to keep the court going, otherwise, those people in the court staring at me, wouldn't they join me like crazy?
"Let's not talk about the land tax. This is the ancestral system of the Taizu, but why is the tax merchant tax only collected so little?"

Hearing Jia Rui ask this question, Sun Xun also changed a little.

(End of this chapter)