Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 77 Zhu Yuanzhang: This kid Wen Zheng has grown up!

Zhu Wenzheng has always been upright in character.

Historically, he suffered a lot because of this character.

Therefore, when Zhu Wenzheng was now responsible for collecting taxes, he did not pay much attention to methods. He only asked seriously: "Are you going to pay or not?"

Li Mengxin saw that Zhu Wenzheng's tone was not kind at all.

Li Mengxin, who was already unhappy, despised the rebels, and was not used to the fact that an official like himself had to pay heavy taxes. He suddenly became furious, and pointed at Zhu Wenzheng and scolded him on the spot:

"You are just a tax collector. What qualifications do you have to be so domineering in front of me! You still dare to collect taxes from my Li family. Do you know that my brother is now a member of the general manager's office!"

"It doesn't matter who your brother is."

"Look after the Zhang family and the Li family."

Zhu Wenzheng sneered, and waved his hand as he spoke: "Implement compulsory taxation, and according to the regulations on penalties for not cooperating with tax payments, all their people and goods will be detained. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy!"

Bang!
  Hua Yunlong, who followed Zhu Wenzheng in charge of collecting taxes, said yes and kicked Li Mengxin over.

Li Mengxin fell to his stomach on the spot and completely lost his mind. He angrily shouted to his servant:
  "What are you doing standing still? Come on!"

A few foolish servants actually rushed forward, but were chopped to the ground by officers from the Department of Taxation on the spot. Their blood flowed into streams. Seeing this, the other servants decisively knelt down and trembled non-stop.

Li Mengxin himself came to his senses at this time, his face suddenly turned as white as snow, he swallowed, and watched helplessly as the carts of expensive rouge spices he ordered were confiscated by the rebels from the Taxation Department, and the kneeling person was also arrested Went back.

Not long after, he himself was also detained by the rebels from the Department of Taxation.

But after Li Mengxin was taken into custody, she couldn't help but shouted at Zhu Wenzheng: "I want to see you Mr. Zhang, I want to see you Mr. Zhang!"

Li Mengxin believed that as long as Zhang Cheng knew that he was Li Menggeng's younger brother, he would show mercy to him.

"Chuzhou City does not allow such arrogant people to exist!"

"Even if he is a son of an official, as long as he doesn't cooperate in paying taxes, he cannot be lenient."

"According to the anti-tax regulations stipulated by the General Manager's Office, the business owner has a sixty stick and will be fettered at the city gate tax office for three days!"

But after Zhang Cheng found out about this, he had no intention of being lenient to Li Mengxin, and directly asked the security room to issue cards to severely punish Li Mengxin.

The so-called shackles are to put the prisoner on the shackles and write down the charges for public display. In ancient times, this was regarded as a kind of canonical punishment, which showed that the government did not enforce the law randomly.

As a result, Li Mengxin was pressed on the spring bench at the city gate customs office and beaten sixty times. His skin was torn apart and he fainted. He was then splashed awake and detained by the jailer. The shackles.

The people all applauded and praised the incident widely.

After Li Menggen knew this, he didn't dare to get angry. He only said that the punishment was right, and even came to the customs office in person to teach Li Mengxin a lesson.

Because of Li Mengxin's incident, Chuzhou City's tax collection went smoothly.

Especially for high levies on luxury goods.

Many wealthy officials, gentry, and businessmen paid the luxury tax honestly.

Therefore, the Chuzhou commercial tax of the rebel army exceeded the scale of the tax worth ten thousand taels of silver in the first ten days after it was levied.

of course.

This is also because Zhu Wenzheng does not show favoritism and strictly enforces the law.

Even many old friends who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to Chuzhou had to sigh because of this. After Zhu Wenzheng became harsh in punishing tax collectors, he became a replica of Zhu Yuanzhang, forcing people to abide by the rules and pay taxes honestly.

Zhu Yuanzhang also praised Zhu Wenzheng after he learned that Zhu Wenzheng enforced the law uprightly and did not take any penalty, and saw a large amount of luxury tax collected in kind:

"As expected of our Zhu family!"

"Just upright and tough enough!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was so happy that he also rewarded Zhu Wenzheng with the Hongpao Mountain Wenjia he had previously surrendered.

Zhu Yuanzhang not only presented Zhu Wenzheng with exquisite armor, but also stroked the back of Zhu Wenzheng's head lovingly and said, "If you have anything else you want, just say it and we will satisfy you!"

Zhu Wenzheng said: "I'd better reward the meritorious soldiers more. I'm your own family, so you don't need to think of me first! Now that I have this armor that can charge into battle for you, I'm very happy."

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more moved after hearing this, and couldn't help but think of his brother who had died many years ago, and said with a gentle smile: "Go and see your mother."

Zhu Wenzheng agreed and went.

Zhu Yuanzhang here looked at the blue sky and white clouds outside the house with a face full of joy and said: "Father, mother, eldest brother, this kid Wenzheng has really grown up!"

And then.

Zhu Yuanzhang continued to look at the business tax account books, and the more he looked at them, the more satisfied he became: "Mr. Zhang is still good at employing people, and he actually thought of letting Wen Zheng collect taxes."

The thought of this. Zhu Yuanzhang recalled what Zhang Cheng had said that the people were mostly self-sufficient and had few opportunities to participate in commodity transactions, especially luxury goods transactions, and couldn't help but said: "If more luxury taxes were levied, wouldn't it be like ours?" In the future, people will be able to pay much less land taxes?"

In fact.

Now the rebels have begun to benefit the common people by imposing heavy taxes on luxury goods transactions.

Because the rebels achieved an increase in commercial tax revenue by reducing the tax burden on ordinary traders and exempting a large number of small traders from tax pressure.

and.

Although the rebels' commercial tax policy imposed heavy taxes on luxury goods, it did not have much impact on people's livelihood, and it did not even affect the sales of luxury goods at all.

The market for rouge gouache and gold and silver jewelry has not shrunk at all.

This is related to the huge gap between the rich and the poor from the Yuan Dynasty to the Zheng Dynasty. Many wealthy people can actually afford luxury goods no matter how the price rises.

It was also because the rebels in Chuzhou pushed up the price of luxury goods, which led to many merchants such as silk merchants, jewelers, and spice merchants flocking to Chuzhou City. They didn't care about the high tax burden, they just wanted to use the tax burden to make money. In the name of high prices, the prices of their luxury goods are greatly increased, and then they take the opportunity to make more profits.

As the news of the substantial increase in the price of luxury goods in Chuzhou spread everywhere, it was naturally accompanied by the news that the luxury tax in Chuzhou City was very heavy, which attracted more scholars and celebrities to Chuzhou. They all wanted to take a look at Chuzhou. Do the rebels really dare to impose heavy taxes on powerful officials?

after all.

In this era, many middle- and lower-class scholars who are full of reform aspirations are very happy to see those in power who dare to attack the interests of powerful bureaucrats and who dare to do more than make up for the shortcomings.

Also.

Zhang Cheng also believed that sexual intercourse was not intended to continue the heirs' relationship, as it was human desire that should be destroyed, and it was also a form of extravagant enjoyment. He also imposed heavy taxes on popular places, which caused the price of prostitution in Chuzhou City to skyrocket.

However, because in this era, those who had spare money to stay with prostitutes were not ordinary people. Therefore, even if the price of prostitution soared, it did not affect the business of the romantic places, nor did it allow more ordinary women to enter this industry.

Since in this era, those who can afford to be romantic and happy are not ordinary people, so naturally they have high standards for promiscuous women.

Therefore, basically the so-called courtesans who can make money in the romantic industry are all excellent in sex and art, and ordinary women cannot enter this circle even if they want to.

of course.

In order to prevent many young girls from flowing into this industry and being trained and screened from an early age, they would not be able to become the wives of scholars and civilians and raise their children.

Therefore, for the sake of the long-term interests of the nation, Zhang Cheng also required that those who engage in such industries in Chuzhou must strictly register, and must have the same ultimatum as the monks before they can operate, otherwise it will be regarded as illegal and severely punished.

As for why the sensual industry has not been directly eliminated, it is mainly because productivity has not yet improved, especially the textile industry, which has not yet developed and cannot absorb the surplus of women caused by the war.

In addition, the romantic industry and the entertainment industry in this era seriously overlap. Once they are directly eliminated, it will create a large number of people with both sex and art who can only meet the needs of the upper-class dignitaries. They have no value. After all, the basic survival needs of the majority of people are It has not been satisfied yet, and the demand for entertainment is not that great yet. It will be necessary for the public to gradually become the main consumer before everything can be smoothly cancelled.

In short.

Fundamentally, it is still about changing the national economy under the rule of the rebels from the abnormal prosperity state of "the rich people are full of wine and meat, and the roads are frozen to death", to a normal prosperity state of "the people's surplus wealth is growing day by day" that is conducive to social progress. Only then can we gradually eliminate a lot of old dross and build a new civilization.

Moreover, because the price of prostitution in Chuzhou City has increased, the worth of famous prostitutes in Chuzhou City has also increased. Therefore, famous prostitutes from other places have also come to Chuzhou City to show off their erotic skills.

Many gentry who pursued romance also came after hearing the news, or simply came to accompany their beauties.

So, for a while, on the way to Chuzhou, there were crowds of people, including refugees, merchants, scholars, gentry, famous prostitutes and musicians.

Chuzhou City has unknowingly become the most popular and bustling city nearby.

Wang Guangyang, who was about to return to Taiping from Anqing, also came to Chuzhou because he heard that many people were going to Chuzhou now, saying that the Chuzhou rebels had lenient sentences and poor taxes, and treated virtuous corporals with midnight snacks so that they could seek wealth and develop their talents.

The Chuzhou Rebel Army has such a reputation. Naturally, Cheng Renmo and other merchants deliberately promoted it in this way under Zhang Cheng's wishes, in order to attract people first.

After all, as long as the flow of people in a city increases, tax revenue will also increase, and its strength will also increase.

Wang Guangyang was a little unconvinced at first, but unfortunately he encountered many people leaving for Chuzhou on the road, so he walked over anyway, and when he was at a resting place outside Chuzhou City, he said, "I want to take a look, this Chuzhou City What is the difference between the rebels?"

As soon as Wang Guangyang finished speaking, he heard the cry of a baby.

Wang Guangyang couldn't help but follow the sound, and then he saw a swaddle in the grass behind the bodies of two people lying on the roadside.

Wang Guangyang lamented when he saw this: "He died of hunger and was left in the wild, an infant without parents!"

With that said, he was about to turn around and leave.

But at this moment, bursts of copper bells came.

Wang Guangyang then saw a caravan under the banner of "Chuzhou Cheng Family" appearing in front of him and stopping beside the official road.

Not long after, Wang Guangyang saw a strong woman from the Cheng family's caravan coming up, holding the swaddling baby in her arms, and went to the car to breastfeed her.

Wang Guangyang was stunned when he saw the baby sucking in the woman's arms.

(End of this chapter)