The matter of life and death was treated lightly by the tax collector, as if he was telling Zhu Zhen that what he ate in the morning was rice.
Zhu Zhen was breathing heavily, as if his lungs were about to explode, and stared at the tax collector. He asked sternly: "Who do you think you are? You dare to negotiate terms with me."
The taxman was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to reply.
At this time, Ye Fu suddenly stood up. He said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this bastard is just a rough man. Your Majesty, please don't be as knowledgeable as him."
"I have ordinary knowledge? Your people killed my guards at the gate of my palace, and you still say that I have ordinary knowledge?" Zhu Zhen turned his head and stared at Ye Fu and said angrily.
When Ye Fu saw Zhu Zhen clinging to it, he also started to break the jar and throw it. He spread his hands and said: "Then what does the prince want to do? If the prince thinks that one of his is not enough, then you can also include me. I used to be a staff general, and I also use thirty bullets. Prince There are also thirty generals, how about our life and death?"
Zhu Zhen originally thought that Ye Fu wanted to be subdued. After all, he was responsible for this matter. But he never expected that Ye Fu would choose such a fierce way to confront him head-on. Did Zhu Zhen have thirty generals? The Prince of Chu's Mansion has three guards and horses, so of course there are so many generals.
But if he really made a bet with Ye Fu, then once Ye Fu really killed thirty of his generals, then his three guards would be useless.
Therefore, Zhu Zhen would never bet with Ye Fu under any circumstances.
Zhu Zhen knew the power of the revolver, although it was almost impossible for even Ye Fu to kill thirty people in a row with the revolver. But even if he had to exchange the life of a general for Ye Fu's life, he wouldn't want to!
What's more, this is obviously an act of sending his general to death, but it will greatly damage his prestige in the military. Zhu Zhen was a man who had led troops. He knew what would happen if he led troops without prestige.
Although he wanted to cut the corpses of Ye Fu and others into pieces, Zhu Zhen had to endure it.
He sneered and said: "Okay, you are worthy of being the soldier brought out by Han Du. You are indeed arrogant. I hope you can continue to be arrogant!"
Seeing that Zhu Zhen had no intention of falling out, Ye Fu felt relieved. He had to push forward forcefully just now, otherwise the tax collector would definitely be dead today. Although the tax Ding was a bit reckless in killing people, he could not just sit back and watch the tax Ding be killed by the Chu Palace.
It turns out that the Chu Palace refused to pay taxes and has been delaying it until now. If the tax collector is killed by the Chu Palace, the tax collector will be disgraced, and the Chu Palace will not pay taxes.
Once the Chu Palace does not pay taxes, then the Taxation Department will probably become ineffective sooner or later. The Taxation Department cannot collect taxes, and when the Ministry of Household Affairs investigates him, Ye Fu will also die.
Since they are all dead, then he doesn't want to give it a try and then die. Maybe after a try, he doesn't have to die anymore, just like now.
Seeing King Chu taking the initiative to take a step back, Ye Fu said with a gentle smile: "Your Majesty, Xiaguan was born with mud legs. When he was a child, he followed the old cow's butt to pick up earthworms. Xiaguan's life is not worth anything. Your Majesty, Why should the emperor, a noble man with a body of thousands of gold, have the same experience as a person like Xia Guan?"
Zhu Zhen's body suddenly trembled, and his eyes looking at Ye Fu had changed. Gritting his teeth, he said: "Okay, well done. He is indeed a man who came back alive from the Mongolian barbarians. If I have the opportunity, I will ask Han Du for advice." Seeing that Zhu Zhen no longer pursues the case, Ye Fu bowed his hands and said, "I will serve as the official." I can’t thank the prince for his praise, but my ability to come back alive from the grassland is all due to the prince’s wisdom.”
After saying that, he no longer cared about the palace guard lying dead on the ground and waved his hand towards the tax collector.
"Let's go!"
Just as he turned around, Ye Fu stopped again, looked back at Zhu Zhen, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, you'd better send someone to pay the tax tomorrow, otherwise I won't be able to explain it to the court."
Zhu Zhen gritted his teeth and said carefully, "The king will send someone to the Taxation Department tomorrow!"
Ye Fu smiled and cupped his hands and replied: "Then I would like to thank you, Your Majesty."
After saying that, Ye Fu took the tax collector and boarded the carriage. He didn't even say goodbye to Zhu Zhen and left directly.
Zhu Zhen watched the carriage leave with eyes full of anger.
How has Eunuch Liu ever been so angry since he became the general manager of the Chu Palace? Subconsciously, he used his usual method of complaining in front of Zhu Zhen and said: "Your Majesty, this is too lawless. You dare to kill people at the gate of the palace, and also kill the prince's people. You must not do it. Let them go and let them die!"
The reason why Eunuch Liu hates Ye Fu and others so much is because he was frightened just now. He had seen this lunatic who killed people just because he didn't agree with him. He was so scared that he almost peed his pants just now. After he recovered, he suddenly felt that the taxman had embarrassed him.
Zhu Zhenzheng was still angry and had not vented his anger, but now he heard what Eunuch Liu said. He suddenly turned around and slapped him with a big ear-scratcher.
"Snapped!"
The sound was so loud that the guards standing nearby couldn't help but tremble.
Eunuch Liu was beaten and spun around three times before he fell to the ground and spit out a bloody tooth. Covering his face, he looked at Zhu Zhen pitifully, "Your Majesty, slave..."
Zhu Zhen immediately pointed at him and cursed: "I ask you to do something if you don't have anything. See what you can do for me."
After scolding, Zhu Zhen suddenly waved his sleeves and robe and returned home angrily.
Eunuch Liu could no longer think about how to take revenge on Ye Fu and the tax collector. Now that he was disliked by the prince, he had to quickly eliminate the prince's prejudice against him. Otherwise, once he is disliked by the prince, he will lose his position as the general manager. Then let alone how to retaliate against the people in the tax collection department, even he himself is a clay Buddha and cannot protect himself when crossing the river. Those who he had offended and oppressed in daily life wanted to rush up and tear him alive.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." Eunuch Liu ignored the severe pain on his face and quickly rolled and crawled after Zhu Zhen.
...
Fengtian Temple.
Han Du stood in the middle, holding a memorial in his hand. He lowered his head and reported to Zhu Biao respectfully: "...the Taxation Department collected more than 13.67 million guan in taxes, which has more than doubled compared to last year's tax collection of less than 6 million guan. Please take a look at it, Your Majesty!"
Zhu Biao had a smile on his face. The tax had increased by almost 8 million yuan, although most of it was due to the land released by Qingzhang. Even if calculated based on the number of acres of land produced by Qingzhang, the taxes collected by the Taxation Department were a little lower than last year, but this made Zhu Biao even more satisfied.
Zhu Biao is not a foolish king. He thinks that the more taxes, the better. The more taxes are collected, unless the land is increased, it will be depriving the people of their wealth. Zhu Biao didn't bother to do such a thing, nor would he agree with others to do it.
"Okay, present it!"
Zhu Biao raised his hand happily.
Wang Yue stepped down from Danbi and placed Han Du's memorial in front of the emperor.
Zhu Biao opened it and flipped through it, and saw that there was not much nonsense in the memorial. Instead, there were groups of data. First, starting with the chief envoys, and then the various prefectures and even counties. Each chief minister, each prefecture, and each county has a tax figure, which is collected from bottom to top to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The ins and outs of taxation are clear, and you can even check which county paid how much tax.
It was the first time Zhu Biao saw such a memorial, and his eyes could not help but shine. He glanced at Han Du in surprise, with a look of satisfaction on his face. Zhu Biao really likes this clear way of presenting data. It is not difficult to see from his experience that such detailed data can prevent superior officials from withholding, deducting, and committing fraud.
If the number between prefectures and counties does not match, then the problem must occur in the government. If the number between the prefecture and the chief envoy does not match, then the problem must lie with the chief envoy. If the numbers between the Chief Envoy and the Ministry of Household Affairs do not match, then the problem must lie with the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Such a level-by-level tracing is not only clear, but also convenient and fast!
Officials are not fools. When they saw the Ministry of Household Affairs adopting such a data recording method, they knew not to do anything, as they would definitely be caught!
Zhu Biao quickly calculated the numbers and found no discrepancies. If you think about it, you can tell that if the numbers didn't match, Han Du would have started checking people long ago.
, will not be presented to me.
Zhu Biao folded the memorial with satisfaction and put it on the imperial desk. He smiled and said to all the ministers: "My dear friends, taxation is the foundation of the country. Although the more taxation, the more beneficial it is to the court, but I don't want to do it because of it. Excessive taxation will cause the people of the world to be in dire straits.”
"My Holy Emperor!"
All the ministers shouted in unison.
Zhu Biao looked at Han Du and asked, "Han Du, are there any people who are dissatisfied with this tax?"
Han Du's face straightened, his body stood erect, he cupped his hands towards Zhu Biao, and respectfully replied: "Your Majesty, this time the tax collection was transferred from the county government office to the taxation department; and the original tax collection in kind was changed to Collection of treasure banknotes. Judging from the responses from various taxation departments, there are many people who are not accustomed to changes, but there are not many people who are satisfied with the collection. This is a letter from all the people submitted from each taxation department, please ask the emperor to review it. View!"
Ever since Han Du was educated with the Book of Ten Thousand People last time, he suddenly discovered that the Book of Thousand People was really a good thing. As long as you have it, no matter what you say or do, you can be regarded as asking for help from the people!
Asking for orders for the people is the highest moral standard for officials. With this thing, they can do whatever they want. But other officials, such as Qi Tai and others, could only stare and watch, unable to do anything about themselves.
Han Du took out a thick stack of Wanmin books from his arms and handed it to Wang Yue.
While Zhu Biao was checking, Han Du explained: "In the Book of Wanmin, people generally reported that after the physical objects were changed into treasure notes, there would be no more money and various car taxes, ship taxes, foot and tooth taxes, etc. The actual taxes they pay are much less than in the past. Moreover, because the treasure banknotes are easy to carry, there is no need to collect labor from the people to transport food, and the people are very supportive of the current tax system of the Ministry of Household Affairs."
