My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 367 Elite Tax Supervisors Lead to a Wealthier Qianlong Era!

After hearing what Hongli said, Yongzheng stared at him for a long time.

"Send word to the Grand Council!"

Then, Yongzheng immediately gave an order, his face serious.

Yunli, Zhang Tingyu, Ortai, and Fuerdan all came over at this time.

"A decree is drafted to appoint Fu Peng Dingyuan as General-in-Chief and concurrently Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and to award Zhu Shi the hereditary title of Cavalry Captain!"

"Whoo!"

Fu Peng was Hongli's study companion, and Zhu Shi was Hongli's teacher.

Emperor Yongzheng's sudden appointment of Fu Peng to command the military in the Northwest was an indirect demonstration of his high regard and trust in Hongli.

The fact that Zhu Shi, a Han official without military merit, was allowed to inherit the title of Cavalry Commandant was naturally related to Hongli. It was Yongzheng's way of further demonstrating his respect and trust for Hongli by showing favor to his teacher.

Hongli never expected that his words would elicit such a positive political message from Yongzheng.

And there are still two.

But soon he realized that Yongzheng was truly trying to build up an even larger fortune for him.

Therefore, Emperor Yongzheng completely abandoned the practice of distrusting the crown prince!

This is similar to how an emperor, before personally leading a campaign, would appoint the crown prince to oversee the country and have important ministers of the empire concurrently serve as the crown prince's advisors.

He had no selfish motives whatsoever, only a public-spirited perspective.

Indeed, an emperor with ambition and drive is different!
"Your subject, on behalf of Prince Ping and the Master, first thanks the Emperor for his grace!"

Hongli immediately knelt down, his face turning flushed.

Yongzheng waved his hand and said, "Rise."

"Thank you, Father."

Hongli stood up and secretly glanced at the four Grand Councilors.

The four of them stood as still as statues, showing no sign of surprise.

Emperor Yongzheng suddenly spoke up: "I've been thinking about it, and the reason why even the Manchus are eager to leave the banner system is because there aren't enough good jobs available for bannermen right now."

"Aside from the duties of the Imperial Household Department, the Court of Colonial Affairs, and the Military Governor's Office, there are no other government offices that can provide good jobs."

"The Six Ministries, the Censorate, and the various governors and prefects in the provinces can only offer a limited number of good positions. Moreover, these offices are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and only those with outstanding talents can be competent."

"I am thinking of setting up another military camp to oversee tax administration, in order to adapt to the ever-expanding border and maritime trade. The customs duties of the whole country cannot be handled by clerks alone."

After saying this, Yongzheng looked at the four Grand Councilors and asked, "What do you think?"

Jiang Tingxi passed away in September of this year, so there is currently only one Han Chinese minister among the Grand Councilors.

Hanchen was more sensitive about trade tariffs.

According to the Qing Dynasty system, Manchu bannermen were not allowed to engage in commerce.

Thus, neither Manchus nor Mongols could engage in commerce.

Only Han Chinese were allowed to engage in commerce, and the Fan family, who were imperial merchants, even obtained the exclusive privilege of managing trade with various Mongolian tribes during the Kangxi era.

In other words, any Han Chinese merchant who went to trade with the Mongols had to use the Fan family's name and share the profits with the Fan family.

As a southerner, Zhang Tingyu's family was not very involved in border trade, and he himself did not know much about it. However, he did know something about maritime trade, as merchants from Fujian and Zhejiang all needed to purchase goods from these large families.

Strengthening the control of maritime trade would make it more difficult for maritime smuggling to occur, forcing merchants to pay more tariffs to the imperial court, which would inevitably lead to higher prices for goods shipped overseas.

This will not directly affect the income of suppliers like them, but it will affect the market due to the rise in the price of goods exported overseas, thus indirectly affecting their interests.

However, Zhang Tingyu also knew that when presenting memorials to a wise ruler like Yongzheng, one could not do so out of personal motives, as Yongzheng would easily see through it.

Therefore, Zhang Tingyu did not object, but silently waited for Yunli to speak first.

At this moment, Yunli glanced at him and said, "Fourth Brother, I remember that Hengchen has always advocated for light taxes and levies. If the court wants to set up a special tax-managing army, I'm afraid it will require increasing tax revenue to support this army. So I wonder if Hengchen objects?"

Yongzheng also looked at Zhang Tingyu: "Then let Hengchen speak first."

Zhang Tingyu closed his eyes briefly.

"Although I advocate for light taxes and levies, I do not advocate for ignoring tax arrears; however, what Prince Guo said makes sense. If we increase the number of soldiers in charge of taxation, the court will inevitably have to increase its expenditures and increase tax revenue, which is indeed contrary to the principle of light taxes and levies."

"But if we can both reduce taxes and levies and increase tax revenue, then we can certainly do it that way."

Then he began to explain.

Yongzheng smiled and asked, "Is that possible?"

The Grand Councilors remained silent.

Yongzheng suddenly noticed that Hongli was there, so he looked at Hongli and said, "Hongli, you are the crown prince, so tell me, can you do it?"

"Whoo!"

Hongli responded and said, "In my humble opinion, it is still possible to do it."

How did you do that?

Yongzheng immediately asked.

Hongli said, "The imperial court's taxes are still mainly based on land tax. To increase land tax, besides raising taxes, we should continue to encourage land reclamation and increase cultivated land." "As for customs duties, they now account for an increasingly large proportion of the national treasury's annual revenue. To increase customs duties, besides raising taxes, we should further expand trade routes, set up more Maritime Trade Offices, and allow more people to cross the border nearby. Ideally, under the guise of education, we should also set up Maritime Trade Offices directly under the imperial court in the vassal states, so that the vassal states' trade is also controlled by the Celestial Empire, achieving a situation where they can only buy what the Celestial Empire wants to sell them."

"This will allow for more goods to be traded, which will naturally lead to an increase in tariffs."

After Hongli finished speaking, he glanced at Zhang Tingyu.

Zhang Tingyu's eyelids twitched. He had to admit that the Crown Prince was indeed quick-witted and could come up with many methods that others couldn't, and these methods always brought new perspectives and ideas.

By establishing more ports of trade and controlling the trade of vassal states, the volume of maritime trade would indeed increase, and inland suppliers like his family would naturally be able to supply more goods.

Tongcheng is a major tea-producing area, and his family is a large-scale tea grower.

Tea has always been a sought-after commodity for export.

If more places are truly encouraged to drink only tea, the Zhang family will naturally be able to sell more tea.

Yongzheng narrowed his eyes at this moment: "Controlling trade with vassal states?"

“That’s right. If we don’t control them, we won’t know what they’ve brought from the Celestial Empire. What if it’s firearms and armor?”

"Even firearms and armor should ideally be of a lower grade than those of the Qing Dynasty, or even better, they should always be of a lower grade than the Qing Dynasty in terms of weaponry."

"Only in this way can we prevent them from acquiring better weaponry, which would then breed greater ambitions. The fact that the Dzungars dared to despise our Great Qing before is not unrelated to their private trade with foreign barbarians, which allowed them to obtain better cannons!"

After Hongli said this, Yongzheng and others thought of the rise of their own Qing Dynasty.

Ortai immediately said, "In my humble opinion, controlling the trade of vassal states is a very important matter, therefore there should be soldiers in charge of taxation!"

"This servant seconded it. Your Highness's thinking is indeed more comprehensive. Nothing is more important than ensuring the eternal stability of the Qing Dynasty. If it can also lead to greater prosperity and peace for the people, that would be even better!"

Fu Erdan replied.

Yunli smiled and looked at Hongli, saying, "Fuerdan is right. Nothing is more important than ensuring the eternal stability of the Qing Dynasty. Whether or not taxes are reduced is not important. What is important is to use this to control the growing power of the outer vassal states! We cannot follow the example of the Ming Dynasty, which only used appeasement as the main method for dealing with foreign powers!"

Fearing the emergence of another Qing dynasty, Hongli proposed establishing a tax administration army to control trade with foreign vassal states, a proposal that won the approval of Yongzheng and other Grand Councilors such as Yunli.

At this point, Emperor Yongzheng said, "Then let's set up a national tax camp and a national tax administration office."

"Prince Guo was appointed to oversee this office, where he determined the number of soldiers and selected officers."

"Whoo!"

Emperor Qianlong was secretly pleased and strengthened tax administration, cracked down on smuggling, and increased border and maritime trade taxes. This offended not only foreign barbarians and vassal states that obtained large quantities of high-quality and inexpensive Chinese goods through smuggling, but also domestic smuggling forces.

These smuggling groups certainly included powerful figures, imperial merchants, local princes, and wealthy clans.

But Yongzheng clearly didn't care about these things.

Having already fought his way to this point like a tough, resilient man, it was clear from Hongli's words that as long as the true majority was united, he was only willing to accumulate a greater fortune for Hongli and for the future of the Qing Dynasty.

Hongli was certain that if Yongzheng did this, the Qing Dynasty's customs revenue would increase significantly, and the national treasury's reserves would definitely rise to a new level.

When he ascends the throne, he will face a Qing Dynasty that is even wealthier than the Qianlong era in history!
This makes him even less concerned about spending money to buy fame for himself and Yongzheng; to put it more politely, he's mobilizing the people to control public opinion.

"This is never going to end!"

But when Sheng Mingkun brought his whole family to hide in Kaifeng, he saw that posters reflecting the misdeeds of these gentry had also appeared in Kaifeng, and children's rhymes reflecting the misdeeds of these gentry had also appeared in the streets.

In places like temples and shrines where people gather, dramas depicting their misdeeds have begun to be staged.

As a result, the common people on the road began to look at them, who were riding in sedan chairs and wearing silk, with hostility and contempt.

This filled Sheng Mingkun with both fear and anger.

He had no choice but to approach Yu Hongtu again: "When will the Crown Prince stop humiliating scholars?!"

"I don't know either. The only way now is to pay the Crown Prince to calm his anger."

Yu Hongtu gave a wry smile.

After hearing this, Sheng Mingkun sighed and said, "Alright, I'll ask some local officials to discuss it."

But before Sheng Mingkun could even discuss this matter, upon returning to Defu, he discovered that his own home had been sealed off.

As soon as he returned, the officers and soldiers arrested him.

This greatly alarmed Sheng Mingkun.

When Xia Renxi, the prefect of Guide, met him, he said, "The governor has already issued a warrant. Since it has been verified that the allegations in the petition are true, your house will be sealed off, and you will be temporarily detained to await the court's decision!"

Sheng Mingkun said, "I am the Crown Prince's man, and Yin Zhongcheng cannot touch me!"

"Minister Yin is also one of the Crown Prince's men! But Minister Yin also said that the Crown Prince instructed him to be impartial in his official duties and to prioritize the well-being of the nation, so he cannot protect you!"

Xia Renxi said.

Upon hearing this, Sheng Mingkun's face turned pale, and he pursed his lips.

He knew that the Crown Prince was deliberately using a legitimate method to retaliate against him.

He couldn't defend himself at all, and he couldn't even beg for mercy, because if he begged for mercy, it would be tantamount to admitting that he had disloyal intentions towards the Crown Prince.

However, what also frustrated him was that the Crown Prince clearly had no intention of needing the support of the gentry, so he could deal with them in other ways without hesitation.

Yu Hongtu soon learned of Sheng Mingkun's arrest, but soon he also learned that accusations of him accepting bribes to allow the children of powerful families to easily gain admission to schools had appeared in Henan.

This alarmed him, and he hurriedly went to Yin Jishan: "Your Excellency, what exactly does the Crown Prince want to do to get rid of us scholar-officials?"

(End of this chapter)