My uncle is Zhu Di

Chapter 172 Continuously Questioning Xia Yuanji

After Xu Qin finished his breakfast, he asked someone to invite Xia Yuanji over.

Soon Xia Yuanji and Song Li were brought to the living room of Xu Qin's courtyard by servants.

"Greetings to the Earl of Haozhou!" After seeing Xu Qin, the two men immediately bowed and said.

Xu Qin nodded. Now Xu Qin's status was higher than theirs. Earl was a super-class rank, so it was right for them to salute Xu Qin first.

"Please sit down and serve some tea!" Xu Qin said to Xia Yuanji and the others.

After hearing this, the two of them returned the greeting and sat on Xu Qin's right.

"I know why you two are here. Isn't it a little late? When you threatened me before, I said, don't mess with me. I don't want to get involved in so many things. Now, I can't ignore it anymore." Xu Qin looked at the two of them, smiled and said.

"Marquis Haozhou, we admit that we were wrong in this matter, and we also admit that we underestimated your ability. But is it right to arrest so many officials now?" Xia Yuanji looked at Xu Qin and asked.

After hearing this, Xu Qin smiled and asked, "Should we arrest these officials? They are deceiving the emperor, suppressing workshop owners and asking them not to sell goods to the weaving bureau, disrupting the market. Do you think they should be arrested? If they were not, I think you would not come to me, but go to appeal to His Majesty. His Majesty is also afraid that you will protest."

After Xu Qin finished speaking, he looked at them with a sneer.

After hearing this, the two blushed. Xia Yuanji stroked his beard and said to Xu Qin, "Master Xu, this matter cannot end here. Since you have established a trade bureau and obtained the goods, how about asking Master Xu to show some mercy this time?"

"Please spare me? Yesterday afternoon, I went to the palace. His Majesty asked me to explain the memorials impeaching me. How should I explain it, Minister Xia, please tell me!" Xu Qin said with a smile, staring at Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji was stunned, staring at Xu Qin, and then sighed: "I'll ask them to withdraw the impeachment memorial. If someone impeaches you in the future, we can't do anything about it, but I can guarantee that there won't be such a large number of impeachment memorials against you. How about that?"

After hearing this, Xu Qin smiled and just stared at Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji felt a little embarrassed being stared at. He naturally knew what Xu Qin meant. It was impossible to ask Xu Qin to agree without some compensation. Besides, they were the ones who started the matter, and it was not up to them to stop it now.

Seeing Xu Qin like this, Song Li, who was standing next to him, immediately cupped his hands and said, "Master Xu, the Jingnan Campaign has only been going on for a few years, and a large number of officials have been arrested in the past few years. If it happens again now, I'm afraid it will cause unrest in the court. Master Xu, we have also said that we were wrong about this matter. Master Xu, please spare us, we owe you a favor, okay?"

"Hey, you serve His Majesty every day, how come you don't even know what His Majesty is thinking? If I were a civil official, I would be the first to agree to set up a trade bureau, and I would hope that the trade bureau would make as much money as possible. However, it's a pity that you are not simply considering the people. If you would consider the people even a little bit, you would not stop this matter." Xu Qin said with a sigh.

"Mr. Xu, this is a bit too extreme. Most of the civil officials in the court are still for the people!" Xia Yuanji said to Xu Qin with dissatisfaction.

"Really? Then let me ask you, Your Majesty wants to move the capital, dredge the canal, fight the Tatars, where will the money come from to compile the Yongle Encyclopedia? Don't tell me that you can stop Your Majesty from doing this. You can't. No one can stop Your Majesty from doing what he insists on doing. You know this, right?" Xu Qin stared at the two of them and asked.

The two could only look at each other and nodded helplessly.

"Well, let me ask you, where does the money come from? If there is no Trade Bureau, tell me, where does it come from?" Xu Qin stared at them and continued to ask.

"Of course, it comes from taxes." Xia Yuanji said helplessly.

"You also know that the money comes from taxes. How many things need to be done with taxes? Armaments, disaster relief, repair of river embankments, bridges and roads, salaries of officials, salaries of royal clan members. Compared with the time of Taizu, this money will only increase and not decrease. I ask you, is the money from taxes enough for Your Majesty to do these things? If not, are you planning to increase taxes?" Xu Qin continued to question them.

"Commercial taxes can be increased. We have always hoped to lift the ban on sea trade. If the ban is lifted, taxes will naturally increase." Xia Yuanji stared at Xu Qin and said, "Really? If the ban is lifted, will the merchants pay taxes when they ship goods out to sea? They won't go out to sea privately. You two are civil officials. You should know how the officials below will collude with those merchants. Are you sure that the Ming Dynasty can collect all the taxes? Also, if the ban is lifted, what do you think those merchants dare not buy? They even dare to forge weapons privately and sell them.

Do you want to cultivate enemies for my Ming Dynasty? Why can't the Japanese pirates at sea be eliminated? Don't tell me that the Japanese pirates have no collusion with the officials in our Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, how do they know where the subordinates of my Ming Dynasty are empty and take advantage of them?

Now they dare to do this, what can they do in the future, do you dare to imagine? "Xu Qin said as he looked at them with a sneer.

"This!" Both of them looked at Xu Qin in amazement. They had also heard about the collusion between officials and Japanese pirates along the coast, but they had never been able to find out anything.

"So, you don't care about the people at all. If you care about the people, you will agree that the Trade Bureau going out to sea can help the people have jobs. In this way, they can make money. For example, our Trade Bureau has hired more than 200 people to carry goods. Not to mention the people employed by the workshops.

The money earned by the Trade Bureau will not only make up for what Your Majesty wants to do, but will even have a surplus. With the surplus, you can do something for the people, and even when facing disaster relief, you will have money to treat the people.

What you always think about is your own interests. Unfortunately, these interests are not yours, but those of the merchants. You get the money from the merchants, but you are also worried when His Majesty wants to investigate you. The money will be back in His Majesty's hands, and you will lose your lives again. Tell me, why do you do this?

Even if you have money, you dare not enjoy it openly. Look at me, I enjoy it. I earned my own money. Now I build a mansion like this. Your Majesty will not say anything? I can spend money however I want, but do you corrupt officials dare?

If you want to spend money like this, you can only sideline His Majesty and make Him blind and deaf. Is that possible? Do you think the Jinyiwei is just a decoration? "Xu Qin continued to say to the two of them.

The two of them were also sitting there in a daze.

"You are stupid because you don't agree with His Majesty's overseas trade. Now His Majesty has no money. You know, the imperial palace can't even come up with 200,000 taels. I don't know how much money your Ministry of Revenue has. Anyway, the imperial palace is gone. You say His Majesty will be anxious if he is out of money. Once he is anxious, what do you think His Majesty will do? Confiscate the property of those corrupt and criminal officials of yours. Confiscating the property will bring in money." Xu Qin continued with a smile.

Xia Yuanji and Song Li were stunned and stared at Xu Qin blankly.

"So you said you hope I should stop, but how can I stop? Should I stop just because I say so? Will Your Majesty agree to that? Your Majesty is out of money, and if you are out of money, it will be you wealthy officials who will be in trouble. How did your money come from? Isn't Your Majesty clear about that?" Xu Qin said with a smile, looking at the two of them with a playful look.

Xia Yuanji sat there in a daze for a while before he came to his senses. He stood up and bowed to Xu Qin and said, "Thank you, Lord Haozhou, for clearing up my doubts. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have figured this out for a while."

"It's not that you can't think of it, it's that you want more, but those are just castles in the air, you can't control the emperor. As long as the emperor has no money and hears that the minister is rich, then the minister will be in trouble. There is no way, how much is the salary of the officials of the Ming Dynasty, how can the emperor not know? If those civil officials are very rich, how did the money come from, how can Your Majesty not ask?

Therefore, what you ministers need to do is to make the emperor rich and at the same time let the people live and work in peace and contentment, but who among you can think of this?
By the way, let me show you the salary and bonus of the Trade Bureau, you can continue to impeach me! "Xu Qin said as he took out a piece of red paper that he had posted before and handed it to the two of them.

The two men looked at Xu Qin suspiciously, but still stood up, took it, unfolded the red paper and started to read it. After seeing the salary of the Trade Bureau official, they were both shocked.

"Such a high salary and bonus? This, this? This is too unfair, right?" Song Li looked at Xu Qin in shock.

"Do you want to impeach me? Do you want to oppose me? Do you want to say that I am too good to the military generals, and that the children of those military generals are not qualified to get so much money, and that this is unfair to you civil officials?" Xu Qin said, looking at the two of them with a smile.

The two of them heard it and stared at Xu Qin in amazement. Then Xia Yuanji murmured, "Shouldn't we impeach him? This is so unfair. How can you convince those civil officials?"

"Why do you want them to be convinced? Why do you have to impeach me? Don't you think about it? If all the officials in the Ming Dynasty have such high salaries and bonuses, or in other words, because the Trade Bureau has such high salaries and bonuses, your salaries and bonuses are also increased, isn't it beneficial to you? Before, Taizu gave you very little salary, and now His Majesty has opened a loophole. Is it a good thing for you?
Why do you object? Are you officials very rich? If you are rich, why do you object?

So I find some of your thoughts incomprehensible!" Xu Qin kept questioning Xia Yuanji, and Xia Yuanji opened his mouth, but a light seemed to come into his mind.

(End of this chapter)