Han Du returned home and sat down in his study. There was only a solitary lamp burning on the table, and the weak light couldn't even illuminate the bookshelf against the wall.
Han Du sat in front of such a dark table, saying nothing.
I don't know how long it took, but Han Du seemed to notice someone standing in front of him. He looked around and asked tentatively, "Anqing?"
The person in front of him moved and slowly took two steps forward. The firelight shone on the other person's face. It turned out to be An Qing.
Han Du suddenly asked in confusion: "Why didn't you call me when you came? How long have you been here? Come and sit down."
An Qing followed Han Du's hand and came to his side. He shook his head slightly and said, "I see that you seem to have something on your mind, and I can't bear to disturb you."
After being pointed out by An Qing, Han Du immediately smiled awkwardly. Then he said: "Then you shouldn't just stand. Does your leg hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt." An Qing shook his head quickly, "Ah, hiss...a little bit~"
Originally, An Qing didn't want Han Du to worry and wanted to fool her. Unexpectedly, Han Du directly touched her calf gently.
Han Du immediately relaxed his movements and slowly kneaded An Qing. While kneading, he complained: "You know you can't stand for a long time, but you still stand silently for so long. You deserve this."
An Qing didn't care about Han Du's words. Instead, he stared at him and asked, "Does your husband have something on your mind?"
Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Han Du had no choice but to smile and said: "It's not really a worry, it's just a villain who is causing trouble with me."
"Villain? Are you talking about Qitai, the Minister of War?" An Qing smiled slightly.
Han Du nodded.
An Qing was not one of those women who stayed at home. Han Du never thought of confining her to the house. Instead, he encouraged her to go out as much as possible when she had free time. Even if you don't buy anything, just go shopping. As long as you have a guard by your side, you won't encounter any trouble.
Therefore, although Anqing did not deliberately inquire about matters above the court, she could still hear a thing or two from the market.
An Qing looked at Han Du curiously, and then asked: "My husband has always been resourceful. A Qitai should not trouble my husband so much."
Han Du turned to look at An Qing, laughed immediately, and said, "You still understand me. If it's just Qitai, I won't take it to heart at all."
"Why is that?" An Qing stood up, stood up until Han Du stretched out his hand, and gently rubbed his temples.
While enjoying the warmth of An Qing's fingers, Han Du suddenly sighed: "The emperor is indeed the emperor, and he deserves to be taught by his father for many years."
Hearing this, An Qing couldn't help but pause with his fingers, and then continued to rub it, asking in a low voice: "Why, does your husband's worry have something to do with the emperor?"
While Han Du was enjoying it, he told An Qing about his conversation with Zhu Biao today and his guesses.
After hearing this, An Qing became dissatisfied and said, "Why is the emperor like this? How much have you helped him over the years, even his life was saved by you. He found such a person to balance you, this is not because he is jealous of you." ?"
Han Du chuckled softly a few times, closed his eyes and enjoyed it and said: "It's not really a suspicion..."
Han Du let out a long sigh. To be honest, he was not sure what Zhu Biao was thinking. But it didn't matter what Zhu Biao thought. Anyway, he never thought about doing anything bad to him. Just do your own thing well. Even if one day Zhu Biao doesn't even let you do anything, that's just fine. You can spend time with Anqing at home.
Han Du felt his headache disappear and looked back at An Qing.
An Qing didn't stop, looked at Han Du strangely, and asked softly: "What's wrong?"
Her eyes were extremely bright under the candlelight. Sure enough, looking at beauties under the lamp, the more you look at them, the more charming they become!
Han Du suddenly laughed and grabbed An Qing's hand to stop her from continuing to massage it. He said with a smile: "Nothing, come on, let's sleep peacefully..."
An Qing punched Han Du on the chest in shame, lowered her head and let Han Du help her into the room.
...
Everyone in the Ministry of Household Affairs is busy working continuously. Since the emperor has decreed that the Ministry of Household Affairs implement a new tax system, each of the fourteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty, one in Beijing, and each county will have to set up a tax collection department. This is a big project and cannot be completed in three or two days.
Only Han Du, even when he came to the household department, would sit in the public room and spend his days leisurely.
This household now belongs to Han Du. No one except Zhu Biao has the right to ask what Han Du is doing here. As Han Du was a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, even if something happened, there would be many officials below vying to complete it for him, so Han Du was naturally happy and relaxed.
Just as Han Du slowly put a piece of pastry into his mouth, there was a "bang" sound, and his door seemed to have been knocked open by an elephant.
Just when he was about to get angry, Han Du suddenly saw Wang Yuanji walking in with Zhao Yu behind him. He gave Wang Yuanji a helpless look and said, "Can't you just knock on the door when you come in? Or is this door not good and you're afraid of breaking it?"
"Be careful next time, be careful next time..." Wang Yuanji smiled playfully and cupped his hands to Han Du Gong, and the matter seemed to be over.
Zhao Yu followed Wang Yuanji and looked at him with a strange expression on his face. You know, even if Wang Shangshu was a kind-hearted person in the past, there would never be anyone in the Hubu who was as reckless as Wang Yuanji, who would even dare to open the door of Lord Shangshu's room at will.
Is this the tacit understanding between the teacher and the student?
Zhao Yu and Wang Yuanji had been together for so long, so he naturally knew the relationship between Wang Yuanji and Zhenhai Hou.
But as a student, shouldn't Wang Yuanji respect his teachers more? Zhao Yu couldn't understand.
Han Du took a sip of tea, melted the cake and swallowed it, a sweet taste spread in his throat.
After clearing his throat, Han Du gestured for the two of them to sit down and asked, "You came to me in such a hurry. Is there anything important?"
Wang Yuanji sat down and poured a cup of tea for Zhao Yu first, and then for himself. After drinking down a glass of wine and pouring it on again, he said with a smile: "Master Marquis, the taxation department is easy to handle. Originally, each chief envoy department had a yamen from the Ministry of Revenue. Now we only need to move it The tax collection bureaus in various prefectures and counties have been improved. But now there is a problem, and that is people."
Seeing that Han Du was silent and silent, Wang Yuanji continued: "In the past, the Ministry of Household Affairs only had people in each province, and there were no officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs in the following prefectures and counties. Now it is necessary to supplement the manpower of the Taxation Department of each prefecture and county. , secondly..."
Seeing Wang Yuanji's hesitation, Han Du glanced at him and said, "Continue."
Wang Yuanji smiled dryly and said: "The Marquis also knows that the original taxes were collected by the various prefectures and counties and then sent to the chief envoys. But now that all taxes are collected by the taxation department, this The tax collection departments of various prefectures and counties need a lot of manpower."
Han Du had thought of this a long time ago, and without any hesitation, he said directly to Wang Yuanji: "The number of manpower must be increased, but it does not need to be increased too much."
"What does this mean? Please make it clear, Lord Marquis." Wang Yuanji was stunned for a moment.
Han Du glanced at him and said: "It is true that we need to add more manpower, but we don't need too many people. Five people are enough for one county."
"Only five? Master Hou, is this impossible?" Zhao Yu was shocked after hearing this.
How many people are there in a county? There are more than 100,000 people in upper-level counties, and there are still 30,000 to 50,000 people in lower counties. The taxes that so many people need to pay are also a huge amount. How can only five people collect them? Fifty people are still too few.
Han Du smiled. He changed the tax system to increase the court's tax revenue, but not to support a large group of tax collectors.
"Five people are enough. These five people don't have to do it themselves to collect taxes and escort. The matters of tax collection and escort should still be left to the prefectures and counties. Since they were able to collect taxes in the past, there is no reason why they can't do it now. Taxation Department The people only need to keep an eye on the people in the yamen and stop them from taking advantage of the people under any pretext."
Isn't it a good idea to let each prefecture and county collect taxes, and the people in the tax collection department are only responsible for supervision? Good, very good. But the Ministry of Household Affairs has just taken away the power of tax collection from the prefectures and counties. Now I am afraid that all the prefectures and counties hate the Ministry of Household Affairs. At this time, if they ask the prefectures and counties to help collect taxes, it will be damned if they agree!
Wang Yuanji and Zhao Yu looked at each other and saw the helplessness in each other's eyes.
Finally, it was Wang Yuanji who spoke: "Master Marquis, are these prefectures and counties willing to help the tax collection department collect taxes?"
Han Du smiled and took a sip of tea and said, "Do they need to be willing? I have already asked the emperor to leave 30% of future taxes to the county, 20% to the government, 20% to the province, and the last 30% to the capital. If each If the prefectures and counties refuse to assist the tax collectors in collecting taxes, then they will have no money at all.”
Sometimes it is not as important as interests to say a thousand words and ten thousand things. Han Du believed that the prefectures and counties might be dissatisfied with the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Taxation Department, but they would definitely not be dissatisfied with Baoqian.
Even for Lao Zhu's sake, they would pinch their noses and lower their heads to help the tax collection department collect taxes.
Wang Yuanji and Zhao Yu were stunned. They had never seen such a way of allocating taxes. But after thinking about it carefully, the two of them also felt that this method was feasible.
"The Taxation Department is mainly responsible for supervision. The tax collection, custody and escort matters are left to the various prefectures and counties. Wonderful, this can save a lot of manpower in the Taxation Department." Zhao Yu couldn't help but high-five.
In the past, he had only heard that Hou Handu would make money and was a well-known philanthropist. But Han Du suddenly became the Minister of Household Affairs. Although he saw that Han Du was treating him well, he didn't say anything. But I was also worried about Han Du in my heart, fearing that he didn't know how the Ministry of Households worked and would delay the important affairs of the court.
But now his worries disappeared in an instant. Han Du's every move was so intertwined that he couldn't see any flaws at all, which made him admire him extremely.
