Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 277 Shocking the Ministry of Revenue
In the Ming Dynasty, it was not impossible for a juren to become an official. For example, some county magistrates in some poor places were juren.

However, a Juren's official career basically ends at the position of county magistrate, and generally speaking, it takes a long time for a Juren to fill a vacancy, or he or she has to spend money to buy an official position, or use connections to make things work, etc.

But this process took too long, and there was no precedent for people like Tang Yin and Zhu Zhishan, who had just participated in the imperial examination, to become officials the following year.

Therefore, Li Mengyang was very confident that they would not be recommended as officials, otherwise he would not have said those words so confidently in front of his colleagues and friends.

Several colleagues from the Ministry of Revenue were silent for a moment before they said to Li Mengyang, "Sir Li, Tang Yin and Zhu Zhishan, two successful candidates, have been appointed as officials."

Li Mengyang was stunned for a moment, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"Not only is he an official, he is also appointed by the emperor."

Li Mengyang took a breath of cold air.

"Not only was he appointed, but he was also a sixth-rank envoy of the Xuanwei Division."

Li Mengyang just felt dizzy, this is impossible!
Outrageous!

The two candidates were actually recommended as officials? Or were they personally selected by the emperor, and they started as sixth-rank officials? You know, Li Mengyang was only a seventh-rank official!
Li Mengyang was silent for a moment, then smiled and said, "Well, the emperor appointed him... Don't you think it's against etiquette? Is it against the rules for the Censorate not to impeach him?"

Seeing Li Mengyang so calm, several colleagues felt relieved, and then said: "The Censorate dare not impeach him, who is willing to be an official in the southwest?"

"The censors of various departments did not say anything. They all tacitly agreed to let Tang Yin and his two candidates become officials... Well, that's not important. What's important is that they actually became officials."

Li Mengyang asked in confusion: "So what if he really becomes an official? What does it have to do with me?"

Several colleagues asked Li Mengyang, "Master Li, you said you wanted to become my disciple in public."

Li Mengyang's eyes suddenly widened, and at this moment he suddenly reacted!
Does he have to call Chen Ce "Master Chen" in public...wait!
Li Mengyang suddenly remembered something very scary - a memorial!
His impeachment memorial has now been sent to the Ministry of Public Security. It not only impeached Zhang Jia's uncle for committing crimes and violating laws and disciplines, but also impeached Chen Ce for being Zhang Jia's uncle's lackey.

Isn't this disrespecting the teacher and destroying the ancestors? !

If the behavior of scholars and literati who betray their teachers and ancestors gets out, their lives will be ruined!

Li Mengyang stood up suddenly, staggered out, and shouted, "Come here, come here quickly, go and get back the memorial I sent to the Ministry of Public Administration!"

"Hurry, hurry up!"

That impeachment memorial must not be made public, otherwise his life will be ruined!

Li Mengyang was trembling all over. He really couldn't understand. He didn't know what power Chen Ce had and why he recommended Tang Yin and two other candidates to be officials.

This is impossible. Didn’t He Jingming say that he was just a businessman?

How could he possibly do so many things?
……

In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi, it was the beginning of March.

In the residence of the Minister of Revenue Qin Hong, two assistant ministers and two doctors were discussing financial data.

Shangshu Qin first raised the commercial tax in Weinan County for the entire month of February last year.

Weinan County is a small county in Guanzhong with weak commercial capabilities. The total commercial tax for the entire month of February last year was converted into just over 10,000 taels of silver.

The two assistant ministers and the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue all knew that Minister Qin and the emperor were piloting the reform of commercial taxes in Weinan County.

Starting from the first month of the lunar year, they began to make adjustments to the business in Weinan County. The Taxation Bureau carried out a pilot reform, using profits as the basis for collecting commercial taxes.

Two months have passed since the pilot program was launched, but the actual rectification and reform of various businesses is still not perfect. For example, the issuance of many bills and the review of businesses are still being slowly reformed in practice.

The two assistant ministers and the doctor thought that this was a futile effort. They thought that it was meaningless to spend so much effort on these things. In the traditional concept, business is rootless and floating. Compared with agricultural taxes, business can never make much money.

For some reason, Minister Qin and the Emperor suddenly began to pay attention to business. Moreover, these pilot reforms are very troublesome and require a lot of energy and manpower. What is the purpose?

According to the time calculation, the Weinan Taxation Bureau should also submit the business account books for the entire month of February in Weinan County.

As expected, a clerk hurriedly came to the duty room of Minister Qin with the account book of Weinan County in his hand, and said respectfully, "Sir, the Weinan Taxation Department has submitted the account book."

Minister Qin nodded lightly, took the account book, opened it and looked at it carefully.

After seeing the last page and the account in the tax column, Minister Qin thought he was dazzled, and then he opened the Weinan County commercial tax account book for February last year.

Comparing the two, his eyes suddenly widened, thinking that he was dazzled. He compared them carefully again. This was not the end. He lowered his head, moved closer to the account book, and looked at each word carefully.

then.

He leaned weakly towards the armchair, muttering, "Impossible!"

The two assistant ministers and the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue asked Qin Hong curiously, "Master Qin, what's wrong?"

Qin Hong glanced at the four people and said in a shocking tone, "Fifty thousand taels."

What fifty thousand taels?

Everyone was a little confused.

Qin Hong took a deep breath and said, "In the spring and February of this year, the commercial tax in Weinan County was less than 50,000 taels of silver, more than 49,000 taels."

The four of them widened their eyes and said in unison: "Huh?"

If they remembered correctly, they had just discussed that the commercial tax in Weinan County in February last year was only 10,000 taels of silver.

This year's year-on-year increase is close to 40,000 taels?

Who would dare to believe this? It's too exaggerated!

Just because of a small adjustment?

Qin Hong's eyes were complicated, with green light in them, and he murmured, "There is great potential!"

Initially, no one cared about business, and they always thought that they couldn’t collect much tax from business. It’s not that they couldn’t collect taxes, but their collection model in business was wrong! That’s why they couldn’t collect taxes!

The potential of commercial tax is so huge? Chen Ce just mentioned it casually, and they just did a symbolic pilot, but it brought such unexpected benefits?

This is just the commercial tax revenue of a poor county for one month. What about a year? What about the two capitals and thirteen provinces, especially the rich areas in the south of the Yangtze River?
Thinking of this, Qin Hong couldn't help but tremble with excitement.

"I want to enter the palace!"

Qin Hong immediately stood up and hurried towards the palace holding two account books.

He walked very fast and quickly, and soon arrived at the Qianqing Palace. He shouted, "Go and tell the emperor that I have something urgent to discuss with you."

Huai En did not dare to neglect it, and hurried to the main hall to find Emperor Hongzhi who was reviewing memorials, and said carefully: "Your Majesty, Minister Qin said he has something urgent to see you."

Emperor Hongzhi said casually: "Well, summon him to the throne."

"According to the order."

(End of this chapter)