The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 38 Paying Taxes
Others would believe that Xue Zhong conspired with the shopkeepers to defraud the Xue family of their money and ran away, but Prince Zhongshun, as Xue Zhong's backer, certainly did not believe it.

Prince Zhongshun is the younger brother of the current emperor. He has set his sights on the position of imperial merchant, but instead of taking the "right path" and sending people through the palace to replace the Xue family, he poaches the Xue family's people. It is obvious that he knows that the Xue family is now a "sinkhole" with too many deficits, so he dares not send anyone to take over.

In other words, everyone who has their eyes on the position of Imperial Merchant now only wants the money earned from this business, but no one is willing to make up for the deficit for Tai Shang.

Even the Supreme's son would not agree!
Therefore, bribing the shopkeeper to become a parasite is a very cost-effective method.

I want the money, but the trouble will still be borne by the Xue family. When they can't hold on any longer, I will get rid of the Xue family and make a profit, and then settle the account.

Just like what Xue Pan is doing now, the Xue family can use the wealth of the various shopkeepers under their names to settle the accounts, then of course the nobles can also use the wealth of the various branches of the Xue family to settle the accounts.

Do you think you can escape by dividing the family?
At worst, I can find a crime suitable for executing the entire clan!
When they don't want to punish you, you are legally avoiding taxes. When they want to punish you, you are maliciously exploiting loopholes in the country's tax laws to illegally evade taxes!

When it comes to the word "official", everything you say makes sense!
Although the Xue family has removed many shopkeepers who had turned against them and replaced them with members of the Zhan family, will Prince Zhongshun stop there?

Certainly not!

It is conceivable that the Zhan family will have many dealings with Prince Zhongshun in the future.

Zhan Ershisi has already started thinking about how to bring Prince Zhongshun, the current emperor's staunch supporter, onto his own chariot.

Although he has no idea now, there is no doubt that everything will ultimately come down to money.

There are great benefits to making friends with Prince Zhongshun. Apart from anything else, as long as you make friends with Prince Zhongshun, your position will immediately be classified into the same line as the current one.

But the embarrassing thing now is that he relies on the power of the old and powerful people from the four kings and eight dukes.

Whether it is the Ning and Rong mansions or the Baolinghou mansion, they are all old and powerful people and belong to the Taishang lineage.

If he just stood on the side of Prince Zhongshun, he didn't know when he would see the benefits, but the counterattack from the old powerful would come immediately.

Political stance is like this, either you are a friend or an enemy.

Or...the Zhan family remains unchanged in its stance and lets the Xue family move over first?
It seems a bit early!

Maybe they would just take refuge there today, and tomorrow the people from the Supreme would come down to check the accounts, and by then the Xue family would suffer the same fate as the families of today's shopkeepers.

It should not be difficult to save Aunt Xue and the other two. After all, everyone wants money, and human life is worthless.

Given the cowardly nature of the people in the Ning and Rong mansions, if something happened to the Xue family, in order to avoid implicating their own family, I am afraid that even if Aunt Xue was Madam Wang's biological sister, they would kick her out without saying a word.

Zhan Ershisi's relationship with the Ning and Rong mansions is not close enough now. Without Aunt Xue as the bond, I am afraid that the subsequent strategy to conquer the two mansions will be affected.

So after careful consideration, Zhan Ershisi gave up the idea and decided to use some gentler means.

For example...pay taxes!

The businesses of the powerful and wealthy often pay very little tax, and the tax officials who collect taxes are not so blind as to go specifically to the shops under the names of the powerful and wealthy to collect taxes.

No one pays it, no one checks it, and no one will lift the lid.

This is almost like an unspoken rule.

But if someone takes the initiative to pay taxes, no one can say that this is wrong. At most, they will laugh at him secretly and think that he is an idiot. Now Zhan Ershisi wants to be this idiot.

He is going to pay taxes on his own initiative!
This tax will eventually go into the national treasury, and the money that goes into the national treasury will ultimately be spent by the court, or in disguised form by the current emperor.

He thought about it carefully. If he sent the silver directly to the current emperor, his intention would be too obvious. The Supreme Emperor would definitely be unhappy, and all kinds of backlash and suppression would be possible.

But if the money is not given directly to the emperor, but to the national treasury, it would be a roundabout way and much milder.

The bigwigs in the court would not be grateful to Zhan Ershisi for this, because it was his duty to pay taxes.

The emperor might know about this matter and understand the attitude of the Zhan family, so he has a certain favorable impression towards the Zhan family, but it is definitely not too much because it is not obvious enough and too obscure.

But perhaps the more likely possibility is that the current emperor would not know about this little thing at all, and the news was cut off at the Ministry of Revenue.

Who would report such a small piece of news?

Even if the people of the Tai Shang faction knew about this, they would just sneer and think that the Zhan family was rather cunning, thinking of betting on both sides but lacking courage.

This is actually similar to what most ordinary nobles do, and everyone is caught in a dilemma.

If loyalty is not absolute, it is absolutely disloyal.

The result of this kind of trying to please both sides is that people are often not taken seriously by either side, but such people are allowed to exist.

For Zhan 24, this is enough for the time being!
So Zhan Ershisi brought his men and the income account book of the past month to the Xuanke Department in a high-profile manner, and voluntarily announced that he would pay taxes.

This outrageous operation shocked the tax collection officials.

They have been working in the tax field for so many years, and have only seen people evading and resisting taxes. This is the first time they have seen someone come to pay taxes on their own initiative.

Because it was so rare, the tax collector from the Xuankesi did not dare to collect the tax. Instead, he quickly reported it to his superior and asked him to make the decision.

The ambassador of the Xuanke Division was named Song Hanwen. He was a minor official of the ninth rank, almost the lowest official, only slightly higher than a clerk.

But the officials of this dynasty cannot be judged only by their ranks, but also by their duties.

Although the tax collector's official position is low, it is a lucrative job and it does not require a pass from the imperial examination. If an ordinary person does not have strong connections, he or she will not be able to get this position.

When they heard the tax collector report that the Zhan and Xue families, who had caused such a big disturbance in the capital before, had come to pay taxes, they were immediately shocked.

“Who will pay the taxes?”

"Is it the Zhan family and Xue family that I know?"

People in Beijing love to gossip, and all kinds of news always spread very quickly.

The Xue family was defrauded of more than 100,000 taels of silver. The Zhan family, the Xue family's in-laws, made honeycomb coal and set up a mobile oven stall. Song Hanwen had heard about these things a long time ago. How could he not know the relationship between the two families?
After receiving a positive response from the tax collector, Ambassador Song hurried out to greet him, and bowed with a smile on his face from a distance.

"You two nobles have come. I am sorry for not coming to greet you. I am rude and disrespectful. Please don't blame me!"

(End of this chapter)