Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 311: Market Strike and the Northern Financial Tycoons' Journey South
Jingshan Marquis Cui Yuan was also horrified at this time. He simply couldn't believe that the tax collectors from the National Tax Bureau would dare to bombard his mansion because of taxation.

But Cui Yuan still did not forget his status as a marquis, and said to Ma Yinglong and others in a timid tone: "You, you are rebelling!"

"Why do you have to say that, Lord? We are just collecting taxes, collecting taxes according to the order of the court!"

As Ma Yinglong said this, he led his men into the inner courtyard of Jingshan Marquis's mansion and began to interrogate Jingshan Marquis Cui Yuan's financial and grain account books, which he confiscated in full.

After three or four hours, all of Jingshan Hou's properties had been sorted out by Ma Yinglong and others.

Immediately, Ma Yinglong said, "My Lord, your annual income from all your businesses is about 540,000 silver dollars. According to the corresponding tax rate of the court, you need to pay 52,100 silver dollars in taxes this year. We will transport this batch of silver dollars first. You still have more than 400,000 silver dollars worth of property left, and even more than 200,000 silver dollars in cash. You won't go bankrupt! You don't have to worry too much. The court has to maintain peace in the country and has to collect taxes. Goodbye!"

Ma Yinglong said as he waved his hand: "Take the tax silver away, give the tax payment receipt to Jingshan Hou, and let's go!"

Jingshan Hou looked at the tax payment receipt in his hand, and then at the carts of silver dollars that were taken away by the National Taxation Bureau. He was naturally very distressed: "I want to see the emperor, I want to see the emperor! These people from the National Taxation Bureau are too much, too much!"

Like Jingshan Hou, powerful officials and gentry in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang were subjected to compulsory taxation measures, and some were even beaten to death.

Naturally, these powerful officials and gentry reacted very strongly.

But Zhu Houzhao didn't care about these, because no matter what, as long as he wanted to make the Ming Dynasty better, he had to take this step, and the vested interest groups such as the powerful officials and gentry must be offended! There was no other way. It was impossible to expect the vested interest groups to find their conscience and give up some of their own interests!

Is it difficult to accept paying taxes? There are many wealthy people in later generations, but they still have to obey the tax when it is time to be taxed. To put it bluntly, the rich people of this era still have no national consciousness, and no awareness that they also need to contribute to the country's public services.

The scenery of Mochou Lake is nice. Zhu Houzhao is either planting tadpoles on the beauties of Jiangnan in the house, or watching the tadpoles sprouting in spring by the Mochou Lake. The gunshots and shouts outside the garden seem to have nothing to do with him.

"Your Majesty, Jingshan Marquis Cui Yuan, Nanjing Tongzhengsi Right Counselor Li Shu, Supervisory Censor Wang Dao and others are all outside the palace asking to see Your Majesty. They all want to impeach the court for excessive taxation and extortion, which has caused public resentment." After Gu Dayong reported to Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Houzhao just waved his hand and said, "Just say that I am very busy now and that the internal affairs have been handed over to the cabinet. Let the cabinet minister Wang Shouren go to see them."

When Wang Shouren came in front of these powerful officials and gentry, he didn't say much, just said: "Tax collection is the responsibility of the Jiangnan National Taxation Bureau. The specific formula is also formulated by the Jiangnan National Taxation Bureau. If you are dissatisfied with the tax rate or the tax collection method, you can report it to the Jiangnan National Taxation Bureau. I'm sorry that I can't help you. I'm also paying taxes."

When the powerful officials and gentry saw that Wang Shouren did not care, they had no choice but to curse him and even began to impeach him.

However, Zhu Houzhao ignored any memorials impeaching Wang Shouren.

Unless they rebel, it is impossible for the powerful officials and gentry to stop the court's taxation.

The powerful officials and gentry also realized this, and therefore became increasingly dissatisfied with the current situation of the court.

……

Li Shu was one of them. As an official of the Ministry of Public Security, he also found that the Emperor was doing nothing in this regard, which made him even more disappointed.

But Li Shu didn't know how to fight against the powerful officials in the court or how to force the inactive emperor to abandon his tax reform policy.

At this time, a scholar named Ji Xuan came to him, and Ji Xuan only said that he was a wealthy businessman in Huizhou, and that he came to see Li Shu because he had his own opinions on the court's new tax policy.

Seeing that the gifts presented by Ji Xuan were generous and his family had frequent dealings with wealthy merchants in Huizhou, Li Shu decided to meet Ji Xuan.

"Now the imperial court is levying taxes in Jiangnan with a new tax policy, imposing heavy taxes on the rich, which has caused complaints from wealthy families. Merchants living in Jiangnan towns need to register to obtain business certificates and pay taxes before they can do business. I cannot bear to see merchants all over the world become chaotic because of the new taxes, nor can I sit idly by and watch the powerful officials and treacherous thieves of the imperial court impose heavy taxes!"

"So I intend to ask all the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan to unite with us, the wealthy merchants living abroad, to resist the new tax policy of the imperial court, so that the imperial court can understand that such extortion will only force the people of Jiangnan into a desperate situation!"

Ji Xuan's words surprised Li Shu. As a member of the powerful officials in Jiangnan, he was also dissatisfied with the new tax policy of the imperial court. However, he was not a serious businessman after all, and he had never thought of uniting the wealthy merchants living abroad to fight against the imperial court. But now, Ji Xuan's words also made him a little interested, and he asked, "Mr. Ji, why don't you tell me in detail?"

"Strike!"

Ji Xuan dipped some tea and wrote these two words on the table.

Li Shu nodded and said, "I can contact the local wealthy people in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places in the south of the Yangtze River. I just don't know how much capital you Huizhou can come up with."

"Within one month, if a merchant from Jiangnan comes to Jiangnan to purchase, Ji will commit suicide to apologize!"

After Ji Xuan said this, he said goodbye to Li Shu and waited until he arrived at Xiaguan Wharf. After boarding the ship, he said, "Go back and tell the Chief Secretary that I will not let your Highness's three million silver dollars go to waste. If I cannot get the court to give up the tax reform this time, I am willing to thank your Highness with my death!"

……

This taxation not only harmed the powerful officials and gentry, but also ordinary merchants, as well as hired high-level talents such as artisans and professional staff and shopkeepers.

These people also began to feel dissatisfied with the court's current policies.

People like Ji Xuan discovered this opportunity. Since they could not use the common people, they wanted to unite the middle class such as ordinary merchants, craftsmen, professional staff and shopkeepers, and prepare to put economic pressure on the court to force the court to abandon the new tax policy.

"Butcher Shi, close your pork shop! Minister Ji will compensate you! You won't suffer any loss! Also, you have to understand that Minister Ji wants you to do this for your own good. As long as the court has to give up the new tax policy because we are on strike, you won't have to pay so many more silver dollars every year!"

At this time, the people sent by Ji Xuan had already begun asking ordinary merchants in the market to close their shops and cease business.

It is no coincidence.

At this time, salt merchant He Hang also received Li Shu's letter and began to instruct his shopkeeper: "Follow my father-in-law's instructions, transport all the salt to Huguang, and don't sell it in Jiangnan this year!" Here, Jingshan Marquis Cui Yuan's disciple Cheng Rixing also met with Li Shu's servant Zhan He: "This is all the salt permits our marquis has, and we will sell them to you at 80% of the price! As long as we can get the court to give up the tax reform this time, the salt permits will naturally be cheaper for you!"

"Please rest assured, Lord. This strike is a joint effort of all the big families in Jiangnan and the Huizhou merchants. The Shanxi merchants have also joined in. The silver dollars they have reserved this time are no less than 300 million. By then, Jiangnan will be left without salt, tea, oil, or grain. Even men will have no prostitutes to visit, and women will have no fat to sell!"

After saying this, Zhan He said goodbye to Cheng Rixing.

Therefore, when the tax collection work was in progress, major shops in Jiangnan began to close down, merchants took their original goods back to their hometowns, and some staff members and shopkeepers began to resign voluntarily. Even some brothels began to close, and even storytellers and opera singers stopped operating.

Jiangnan is already a commodity economy society with a high urbanization rate. The size of the urban middle class is incomparable to other places, so daily life is highly dependent on commerce.

"Everyone, Ke's cloth shop is no longer open. From now on, all you weavers should go back!"

The owner of the largest cloth shop in Danleng Town, Zhenjiang Prefecture, also began to close his shop, leaving more than a hundred weavers unemployed!
Not only that, workshops and factories in all industries began to close down, and a large number of low-level artisans and workers became unemployed. Without their jobs, they had no source of income, and people began to panic.

This is not the most frightening thing. What is really frightening is that as the implementation period of the new tax policy is extended, more and more people in the south of the Yangtze River find that the prices of daily necessities such as firewood, rice, oil and salt are getting higher and higher, and they are even out of stock. Some stores were open yesterday, but closed today.

"Your Majesty, these merchants are on strike right now, and I am having a hard time buying enough eggs, flour, and other items. In my opinion, they are resisting the new tax policy of the imperial court. The price of a chicken in Jiaxing has risen to fifty silver dollars!"

At this time, Gu Dayong also reported the situation outside to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao nodded and looked at Wang Shouren: "How many unemployed workers and craftsmen are there?"

"Your Majesty, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture has just reported that more than 40,000 people in Nanjing have lost their jobs and are now starving. Fortunately, the Minister of Agriculture Yan Song left more than 100,000 stones of sweet potatoes in Nanjing, so it is difficult to avoid starvation. However, the food supply for so many officials and troops in Nanjing has become a problem!"

Wang Shouren replied.

"It seems that, just as you expected, these powerful officials and wealthy businessmen who come to Jiangnan from all over the country to do business have really begun to use their most ruthless trick. They would rather go on strike and suffer losses in the short term than allow the court's new tax policy to be implemented smoothly," Zhu Houzhao threw the fishing rod in his hand into the lake and stood up angrily.

"That's right. The fact that the entire Jiangnan region went on strike shows that there must be a wealthy Jiangnan tycoon behind this. I'm afraid there are other wealthy businessmen from other places as well. But our court is no pushover. Although this strike has forced the people of Jiangnan to lose their jobs and even go hungry, making them all blame the court's new tax policy, the strike will naturally cause great losses to these powerful officials and wealthy businessmen. Every day they go on strike, they earn less money. Now it all depends on who has stronger financial resources and who can hold out the longest!"

Wang Shouren replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Have Xu Jing and his men arrived in Nanjing?"

"They will all arrive in Nanjing within this month. The heads of the Xu, Liu, Luo, Jiao, Ma, Zhang, and my family, the seven families that received Your Majesty's grace as royal shareholders, will all come in person. Cong Lan has already gone to Yangzhou to meet with them. Now the Lianghuai and Changlu salt fields have been ordered to prohibit the sale of salt to salt merchants. Eunuch Chong from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics will probably be able to bring back salt within four or five days!"

After Wang Shouren's words, Zhu Houzhao said nothing more. He and Wang Shouren had already expected that the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan would do this. After all, these people were no different from the peasants who had nothing. If they were really asked to rebel and risk the extermination of their entire clan, few would have the courage to do so. All they could do was to go on strike and rely on their strong financial resources to fight the court economically.

But what was different between the Ming Dynasty court and the past was that the country also had a group of loyal tycoons. These tycoons were all related to Zhu Houzhao. They were the largest bureaucratic capitalists in the Ming Dynasty and even managed the court's huge state-owned assets on behalf of the court.

Therefore, if the tycoons in Jiangnan really wanted to compete with Zhu Houzhao and the Ming court economically, it would not be so easy. Not to mention the emperor Zhu Houzhao, even Wang Shouren's own family could come up with a huge asset of 10 billion silver yuan. Otherwise, Wang Shouren would not be willing to come to Jiangnan to implement tax policies on behalf of Zhu Houzhao.

After a country enters the stage of industrialization, it is inevitable to enter the era of imperialism and the emergence of trust capitalists. The top political families that hold imperial power will naturally become super-large chaebols. The same is true for the families mentioned by Wang Shouren at this time. They all became large chaebols because of their merits in following the dragon.

Below them are the so-called Shanxi merchants, Huizhou merchants, Jiangnan tycoons, etc.

However, because these people were Zhu Houzhao's lackeys and their families were closely related to national interests, they were relatively low-key. Therefore, the chaebols in Jiangnan ignored the existence of these people, just as they ignored Zhu Houzhao. Of course, perhaps these chaebols in Jiangnan were more confident and had more powerful assistants.

anyway.

Under the secret manipulation of the Jiangnan tycoons and wealthy businessmen, the strike in Jiangnan continued. At this time, imperial merchants such as Xu Jing also went south because of Zhu Houzhao's secret order.

Yangzhou City.

Xu Jing, who controlled the capital of the Ming Dynasty worth hundreds of billions of silver dollars, sat in a large four-wheeled carriage wrapped in silk. He looked at the large number of unemployed workers in Yangzhou who had nothing to do but to survive on sweet potato porridge, and the people in the south of the Yangtze River who walked listlessly due to lack of oil and water. He said to Cong Lan, who was also in the carriage:

"Don't worry, Mr. Cong. I will come to Jiangnan this time on orders, so I will not bring anything with me. I have prepared 100 million silver dollars and have signed a contract with Mr. Ye from the Infrastructure Bureau. I have decided to use this money as the advance payment for the construction of the Nandu Yangtze River Bridge. Even if the bridge is not built successfully, it doesn't matter. At least it can satisfy hundreds of thousands of workers' livelihoods!"

"I also brought 50 million silver dollars this time. My uncle has always been grateful for your majesty's kindness and has always wanted to do something for your majesty. He also told me that everything in the Liu family belongs to your majesty. Although I am now the manager of the Liu family's property, I am still managing it for your majesty. I am not as considerate of the people as Lord Xu. I just want to build a large royal garden for your majesty in Nandu, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Yangzhou as your majesty's temporary palace. I have submitted a petition to the Imperial Horse Administration, and your majesty has agreed. By then, it will probably take tens of thousands of craftsmen just to quarry stone, cement, and bricks!"

Liu Jin's nephew Liu Xuan also expressed his stance to Cong Lan.

The heads of other major families also expressed their opinions.

Cong Lan was naturally very happy to see this: "This is great, when the time comes, we will let those powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan see how powerful our northern merchants are!"

Most of the industries of these imperial merchants were in the north and overseas. Therefore, as a northerner, Cong Lan naturally regarded them as his own northern tycoons.

Xu Jing did not deny it, but smiled and said, "In your majesty's words, this will be an event where the country advances and the people retreat! In any case, doing this can ensure the long-term stability of our Ming Dynasty! It can also ensure the eternal power of our Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"

I have tonsillitis and a bad cold, so I will only write 100 words today, please forgive me. In addition, as the book has been written, several big chaebol families that appeared by accident in the past have to be summoned to the south again because Zhu Houzhao encountered the challenge of the Jiangnan chaebols resisting the new tax policy. This will undoubtedly make these big chaebol families stronger. Of course, Zhu Houzhao's own royal capital will also grow. I don't know if it is a bad thing. If it is a bad thing, I don't know how to improve it in the later stage. Book friends can give suggestions. Thank you book friend zxdao for the reward of 100 starting coins. Thank you book friend Yi Jin Bai Tang for the reward of starting coins.

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(End of this chapter)