Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 313: Exhausted

Chapter 313: Exhausted

"Master, the Lianghuai Salt Field suddenly stopped distributing salt. According to what I have heard, someone from the palace has been ordered to transport all the salt from Lianghuai!"

Li Shu was greatly surprised when he heard the reply from his servant: "How could this happen! How could the court act so quickly!"

"Master, the governor of Huguang, Qin Jin, has sent troops to block the waterway and prohibit private grain from leaving the country!"

Jingshan Marquis Cui Yuan also received bad news at this time, and he could not help but get furious: "Qin Jin, what are you doing? Don't you even give me face?"

Cui Yuan's servant hurriedly replied: "I heard that it was an order from above that only the imperial merchants Xu, Ma, Jiao and others are allowed to leave the country!"

Cui Yuan understood what was going on when he heard this, and sat down on the chair in a daze.

……

In any case, the strike launched by the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan was a complete failure.

And at this time.

Mochou Lake.

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival again.

The entire lake was decorated with lights and colorful lanterns, and the pavilions and towers were all full of fireworks. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had been in a good mood recently, so he decided to hold a banquet at Mochou Lake to entertain celebrities from all walks of life in Nanjing.

The powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan and the merchants from Huizhou and Shanxi lost both their wives and their troops because of the failure of the strike, which resulted in the entire Jiangnan region not only being controlled politically but also having its economic lifeline controlled by the central court.

This naturally made Zhu Houzhao feel extremely happy. Seeing the economic life of the people in Jiangnan gradually returning to normal, the prosperous Jiangnan seemed to have returned again. This made him feel like having fun with the people. He wanted to hold a banquet and look at the smiles of the powerful officials and gentry in Nanjing, which were uglier than crying. Sometimes it was more refreshing than looking at a beautiful woman smile.

Li Shu, the councillor of the Ministry of Public Administration, was in a very bad mood. Ji Xuan, who had instigated him to strike, disappeared without a trace. He also lost hundreds of thousands of silver dollars because of the strike and even offended his superiors. As a result, Li Shu was very angry and took out his anger on his subordinates and family members.

But what Li Shu didn't expect was that when he was depressed, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly wanted to hold a banquet and required all officials of Nanjing rank and above to attend the banquet.

It would have been nice to meet the emperor, but Li Shu was really not in the mood to see him now.

"Councilor Li, this is a banquet in front of the emperor after all. It can be said that the emperor is very kind. Why are you frowning? Smile more and be happier!"

Xiong Jia came over and saw that Li Shu was depressed, so he offered some advice.

Li Shu could only force a smile.

Like Li Shu, many officials and gentry who came to the banquet were not in a good mood, but they had to force a smile.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the officials and gentry and felt even better. He even said some auspicious words: "My dear ministers, today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Don't be too restrained. The monarch and his subjects should also enjoy themselves."

Wang Shouren also took over the conversation: "That's right. Now that the new tax policy has been implemented, although some merchants who don't understand the court's efforts and ignore the people's feelings have closed down, it's safe in the end. As of last month, the Jiangnan National Tax Bureau has added more than 74 million silver dollars in tax silver. Not only can the two provinces of Nanzhili and Zhejiang save the court more than 9 million yuan in subsidies a year, but they can also have a surplus of tens of millions of silver dollars, which is enough to fill the treasuries of the court and the two provincial governments."

Wu Wendi also said excitedly: "According to the tax sharing ratio, Nanzhili can get more than 10 million silver dollars in tax silver, and I can also have sufficient funds to benefit the people of Nanzhili. The seawall in Songjiang and Qingpu can also be built ahead of time. In addition, I have decided to set aside 5 million silver dollars every year to reduce the six-year tuition fees of community schools and primary schools in order to realize the purpose of collecting taxes to benefit the people!"

Zhu Houzhao was very happy after hearing this: "That's great. It seems that the new tax policy is still very beneficial. It can prolong the prosperity of our Ming Dynasty. Do you agree or not, my dear ministers?"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

All the officials could only hasten to say yes, with mixed feelings in their hearts, but no matter what, they still had to smile and say, "Your Majesty is wise!"

"This matter is not due to my wisdom. Cong Aiqing, Xiong Aiqing, Zhang Aiqing, and Wang Gelao of the Jiangnan National Taxation Bureau have all made great contributions. And you business representatives who are willing to stand on the side of the court and the people of the world have also made a lot of efforts. Do you agree or not?"

As Zhu Houzhao spoke, he looked at the powerful officials and gentry from Jiangnan who were attending the banquet.

Li Shu and other powerful officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River hated these people so much at this moment that they had no mood to admit that they had made great contributions. But now that the emperor was praising them, they had no choice but to admit it.

Wu Wendi even bowed first: "The country has both wise rulers and wise ministers, which is why it can be so prosperous today!"

Officials such as Li Shu could only follow suit and salute and praise.

"Draft an imperial decree to build ancestral temples for virtuous people in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo, and Hangzhou. Officials from each prefecture should appoint special officials to manage them to commemorate the contributions of Wang Shouren, Cong Lan, Zhang Jin, and Xiong Jia!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, except for Zhang Jin, Wang Shouren and other officials who stood up for Zhu Houzhao to reform the tax policy were all very excited. After all, as civil servants, who doesn't want to be remembered forever?

Zhang Jin was helpless. Deep down, he was unwilling to let the court reform its tax policy. However, the court debate on Jiangnan tax reform at that time made it impossible for him to stop the court's goal of reforming Jiangnan tax policy. He could only take advantage of the opportunity of being arranged by His Majesty to work in the Jiangnan National Taxation Bureau as the Left Vice Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue to try his best to safeguard the interests of the Jiangnan gentry in the tax reform.

So, now, Zhang Jin was not happy just because the emperor was going to order local officials to build a shrine for him to honor the virtuous and wise. He really couldn't be happy in his heart. His Zhang family was a wealthy family in Jiangnan, and the taxes they paid were no less than 50,000 silver yuan a year, which was enough for him to build countless shrines for the virtuous and wise.

But no matter how sad he was inside, Zhang Jin still had to follow Wang Shouren and express his gratitude to Zhu Houzhao on the surface, and he also had to vow to continue to be a pioneer of reform in the future.

What made Zhang Jin even more uncomfortable was that he was clearly trying his best to safeguard the interests of the Jiangnan chaebols, but most of the Jiangnan gentry still looked at him with resentment. He knew that the Jiangnan gentry obviously did not regard him as one of their own, which made Zhang Jin feel very wronged and even more uncomfortable.

Zhu Houzhao now wants the local government of Nanzhili and Zhejiang to build a shrine for Wang Shouren and others. On the surface, it seems that Zhu Houzhao wants to reward officials who work for him, but in fact, it is also disgusting these officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who appear to be upright and selfless but secretly oppose the court. Li Shu and other officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River really feel disgusted at this time. They now hate Wang Shouren and others so much that they have no mood to see their shrines appear in the south of the Yangtze River, especially northern officials like Cong Lan who are eager to rip off the skin of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the officials and gentry in Jiangnan must be feeling unhappy, but it was unpleasant. Even as an emperor he could not sometimes do as he pleased, let alone these people who were not emperors.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Zhu Houzhao prepared to leave Jiangnan. Before leaving Jiangnan, he couldn't help but think of the inheritance tax mentioned in the tax reform, and couldn't help but ask Wang Shouren: "Is there any income from the inheritance tax?"

"Your Majesty, Cong Lan and the others have already begun to send people to conduct secret investigations among the people. As long as there are disputes over inheritance among the people, they will send people to do the work and tell them that as long as they are willing to pay the inheritance tax, the court will definitely uphold justice for them and intervene in the internal affairs of the clan!"

Wang Shouren replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded after hearing this. At this time, Wang Shouren hesitated for a moment and suddenly said, "Your Majesty, I have recently found out from the statistics of shops, workshops and factories during taxation that Li Shu, Zhang Jin, Ji Xuan and others all have very large businesses. Especially Ji Xuan, a Huizhou tycoon with the status of a student, actually controls 124 business houses with an annual profit of about 200 million silver dollars, which is not inferior to my family!"

Wang Shouren's family was the one that followed the emperor in his early investments. Only a few families in the Ming Dynasty could match their capital. Now that Wang Shouren said that Ji Xuan was not inferior to his own family, Zhu Houzhao was also surprised at Ji Xuan's wealth.

Of course, the people of Ming Dynasty were now very wealthy, so it was normal for there to be families richer than Wang Shouren's family. What really made Zhu Houzhao feel abnormal was that Ji Xuan was just a student. How could a student have so much wealth?

"I will ask the Imperial Guard to investigate Ji Xuan. As for officials like Li Shu and Zhang Jin, I will ask the East Factory Inspectorate to investigate. Zhang Jin is fine. After all, although he was unwilling, he also worked hard for the implementation of the new tax. However, other officials and gentry who did evil in secret will not be forgiven as long as they are guilty!"

Zhu Houzhao added: "I don't know when the Ming Dynasty will start to collect the first inheritance tax. As long as the first inheritance tax is collected, the court can directly intervene in the internal affairs of the clans of these officials, gentry and wealthy businessmen in the future!"

Wang Shouren also nodded. He also knew why His Majesty attached importance to inheritance tax.

……

After the banquet, Li Shu returned home depressed. The implementation of the new tax policy and the failure of the strike caused him to lose a lot of money.

However, at this time, Li Shu's wife Lian came over and said, "Master, you are finally back. Li Qing from the fifth house died suddenly yesterday, but he only left behind a daughter. His wife Zhao was a concubine who was promoted to the first wife. The elders of the clan intend to let Zhang die for her husband to earn a reputation for chaste women for the Li family. It will also let outsiders know that our Li family has good family education and all women and children are chaste! It will also help to earn a good reputation for the young people in the clan to become officials in the future! As for the daughter of the fifth house, the housekeeper of Duke Dingguo's family has taken a fancy to her and is willing to spend 5,000 silver dollars to buy her and give her to Duke Dingguo. But since you are the head of our Li family, you should make the decision on this matter."

"Fifth brother is gone?!"

It was unclear whether Li Shu's face showed joy or sadness. After asking the question, he hurriedly signaled the maid to change him into plain clothes.

Lian nodded: "The person who brought the news of the death hasn't left yet, Master, you can ask for yourself."

Li Shu therefore summoned the messenger who brought the news of the death and asked him, "When did your master die?"

"To answer the master, he died at midnight last night!" After the messenger said this, Li Shu nodded and said as his maid dressed him:
"Come here, tell everyone in the family to go to the Fifth House in Xihe to attend the funeral immediately. Tell the people under the Fifth House that their master is gone now. Don't think that you can seize the property and steal the money just because someone is missing from the Fifth House. If we find out, we will not let them off easily. Let them stay well and don't hold a funeral!"

As he said that, Li Shu changed into plain clothes and hurried over to Li Qing, the fifth member of the Li family. Then, when he saw Li Qing's coffin, he started crying: "Fifth brother, how come you are gone so suddenly? Look at you, you have been doing business for so many years and have built up a huge business, but you suddenly gave up everything. Are you going to make us brothers die of exhaustion?"

Li Shu cried for a while, and only stood up when he saw that all his family members were present. He quickly stopped crying, looked at Zhao who had been kneeling and crying in the mourning hall, smiled coldly, and ordered his confidant Li Jiu, "Bring the adulterer up here!"

After a while, Li Jiu brought a weak man.

When the Li clan members saw this, they all smiled secretly, for they all knew what their clan leader, who was an official in the court, was going to do. This kind of thing of wipeing out the entire family would benefit everyone in the clan, so naturally no one thought it was wrong.

However, Zhao Shi still didn't know. When she heard Li Shu, the clan leader and her husband's cousin who was crying so hard just now and was called the eldest master in the family, said to bring the adulterer up, she couldn't help but feel suspicious: "Adulterer, what adulterer?"

Here, Li Shu ordered again: "Bring the whore Zhao here as well!"

Zhao Shi then realized that she seemed to be treated as a whore. She instinctively suppressed the pain of losing her husband and asked, "Master, when did I become a whore? I have never left this courtyard since I was born. I grew up serving Master Wu. How did I become a whore?"

Li Shu ignored Zhao and just asked the weak man: "Yuan Yi, is she the one you secretly stole?"

"It's her, that's her. Her name is Zhao Cuilian. She said she was the fifth grandmother of the Li family. She did that with me because I was fair-skinned. She also said that after her husband died, she would raise me and stay with me forever!"

After Yuan Yi finished speaking, Zhao realized that something was wrong and became very uneasy. She pointed at Yuan Yi excitedly and said, "You are talking nonsense! I don't even know you! Why are you framing me?"

"My Li family is a noble family. How can we tolerate a whore like you? However, family disgrace should not be made public. Considering that you have given birth to a daughter for our Li family, Li Zhaoshi, this clan leader can persuade the clan members to let you go. If you hang yourself in the name of martyrdom, our Li family will not remove you from the family tree. We will also treat your daughter well and adopt her to the third house! Besides, you can't let your daughter know that her mother is a whore!"

As Li Shu spoke, he couldn't help but look at Zhao's daughter Li Dai. He immediately discovered that the twelve-year-old Li Dai had grown into a beauty, which made people's heart beat faster.

Zhao cried out that she was innocent at first, but later, because the entire Li clan blamed her for being ungrateful, and she knew that her situation was irreversible, and in order to save her daughter, she had no choice but to agree to hang herself.

then.

Zhao was driven to the side room by the Li clan members and forced to hang herself to death.

Here, Zhao's daughter was also adopted into the third room, but at night, Li Shu asked someone to bring Zhao's daughter Li Dai to his home.

Here, Li Shu asked his younger brother Li Feng to preside over the funeral of the deceased Fifth Branch Patriarch Li Qing, and instructed: "Use the Fifth Branch's wealth to set up a buffet. Tell everyone in the family, including the entire village, to come to the Fifth Branch for dinner in the next half month. Clan elders, follow me to check the Fifth Branch's accounts. The Fifth Branch has made a lot of money in Southeast Asia over the years. Now that there is no one in the Fifth Branch, we can divide it up! Take out a small portion as the clan property, and our close relatives will naturally get more."

(End of this chapter)

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