Tomorrow is the day when Yan Maoqing officially sets out to collect the salt tax, but tonight, Yan Maoqing lies in bed and cannot sleep.
Not long ago, when Yan Maoqing learned that Yan Song, the chief minister of the current cabinet, personally recommended him to His Majesty as the person in charge of collecting salt tax for the imperial court, he was very excited. His filial piety for so many years has finally been rewarded!
There is no other reason. There are too many hands and feet involved! During the Hongwu period, the court was still able to collect a salt tax of more than 10 million taels. However, since the Hongwu period, the salt tax collected by the court has become less and less, showing a trend of decreasing year by year.
Especially last year, the court only collected a total of 1.2 million taels of salt tax.
As far as Yan Maoqing knows, the actual salt tax collected every year is about 9 million taels! And these nine million taels of silver, after being exploited by officials along the way, and sent to the capital through the Grand Canal, only a mere 1.2 million taels were left.
At the beginning, when Yan Song warned everyone not to interfere with the salt tax this year or even in the future, Yan Maoqing, like those officials, dismissed it.
And soon, under the instruction of Yan Song, an extremely bloody purge campaign began vigorously! During this process, the scandals of those officials who wanted to use their wrong ideas were constantly exposed, which soon led to impeachment. Not only did they not make any money, they also ended up losing their jobs and losing their lives.
The Kaifeng governor is an excellent example. After he was imprisoned, his family was not spared, and his enemies soon came to visit him.
During the whole process, His Majesty turned a blind eye to this, and even meant to encourage him. He only needed to put part of his property into the national treasury after the house was ransacked.
The emperor's acquiescence further encouraged this trend. Those officials who were marginalized by their superiors and were frustrated also joined the impeachment army. In just a short time, Yan Song removed all those disobedient officials from the team. Cleared out.
Yan Song's series of operations also frightened Yan Maoqing. He was often glad that he was not as impulsive as those officials, and at the same time, he became more loyal to the Yan family.
Just now, the Yan family specially sent someone to deliver news to Yan Maoqing, telling him to collect a sufficient amount of salt tax for the court no matter what method he used! And this was not in the tone of discussion, but entirely in the tone of command.
And Yan Maoqing naturally knew that if he could not handle this matter well, he would be abandoned by the entire Yan Party!
Yan Maoqing knew that he had been corrupting a lot in recent years, and it was almost to the point where the whole court would be aware of it! Once there is no one to protect him, he will be a fat sheep to be slaughtered, and his fate may be countless times worse than that of Kaifeng Fu Yin.
"Yan Maoqing, Yan Maoqing, why can't you control these hands?"
Thinking of this, Yan Maoqing completely lost his sleep. He got up from the bed and poured himself a cup of tea, but he kept thinking about ways to break the situation in his mind.
If the salt tax is levied in a strict manner according to Yan Song's requirements, it will inevitably offend a large number of officials. This is absolutely unacceptable to Yan Maoqing, who is smooth and experienced as an official.
But if there is not enough salt tax collected, maybe his head will be hung on the city wall as a warning to others.
It was the lesser of two evils. After thinking for a moment, Yan Maoqing decisively chose to die as a Taoist friend rather than as a poor Taoist. Yan Maoqing drank all the tea in the cup and said quietly: "Colleagues, I'm sorry. Yan Maoqing also wants to live!"
…
Late at night, Yan Mansion.
When Yan Shifan came out of his concubine's room and was about to return to his own room to rest, he accidentally saw that the light in the study was still on, and the light reflected Yan Song's figure.
Seeing this scene, Yan Shifan suddenly remembered the instructions he had given to his father Yan Song during the day. He shook his head and prepared to go to his father Yan Song's study to ask him to rest early and not to get exhausted.
"Dong dong dong!" A knock on the door came.
Yan Song put down the brush in his hand, frowned, with a look of displeasure on his face, and asked, "Who is it?"
"Father, it's me." Yan Shifan's voice came from outside the door.
"Come in." Yan Song sighed helplessly, and then called his son into the house.
"Father, it's already so late, you should go and rest." Yan Shifan bowed and saluted as soon as he entered the door.
"Hmph, how can I sleep? There are so many things happening recently. As the chief minister of the cabinet, if I don't handle them, who will?"
Yan Song glanced at his unfulfilled son with a cold gaze and asked.
"Father is diligent in his official duties, which is great, but he has to pay attention to his own health! None of us can do without you now. If you have any shortcomings, we will..." When Yan Shifan said this, he suddenly Realizing that he had said something wrong, he quickly knelt on the ground and begged his father Yan Song for forgiveness.
"Say, why don't you say anything?" Yan Song looked at his son kneeling on the ground and said.
"My child said something wrong, please punish me father!" Yan Shifan said in a deep voice with a look of guilt on his face.
"Oh, get up. You are right. Neither Your Majesty nor you guys can do without me right now. I, Yan Song, have to hold on for a while." After Yan Song finished speaking, there was an indescribable feeling of loneliness in his tone. feel.
"Father." Upon seeing this, Yan Shifan was ready to comfort him.
"Go back, I want to rest." After Yan Song said that, he returned to his seat and put away the completed official documents.
"Yes, I hope father will take care of himself!" After Yan Shifan said this, he left the study with great reluctance. Not long after Yan Shifan left, the lights in the study were completely turned off.
…
Forbidden City, Hall of Nourishing Heart.
At the same time, Jiajing did not sleep. On his desk, there was a book handed over by Jin Yiwei, which recorded in detail the crimes Yan Maoqing had committed since he became an official, as well as his gains from corruption.
"Hmph, let the heroes investigate the heroes, let the heroes investigate the heroes, and let the corrupt officials investigate the corrupt officials!"
"Yan Maoqing, you have to serve me sincerely, otherwise, I will have your head moved tomorrow."
Jiajing stroked the carved dragon head on the dragon chair with his hand and said silently to himself.
Jiajing's idea was that after Yan Maoqing collected the salt tax, he would also deal with it. After all, Yan Maoqing's family property was quite rich and could greatly enrich the national treasury.
Then Jiajing reached the roof of Yangxin Hall without alerting any of the guards.
“So this is what the scene looks like up here!”
The Yangxin Hall where Jiajing is located is the highest place in the entire Forbidden City, so you can have a panoramic view of the entire Forbidden City from here.
There are stars in the sky, and a full moon hangs in the sky. The bright moonlight falls on the ground, providing light for animals looking for food.
At this moment, a column of armored imperial guards passed by near the Yangxin Hall. They were responsible for patrolling this area.
Someone in the team raised his head out of habit. When he saw the figure standing on the roof of the Yangxin Hall, he couldn't help being shocked. He pointed at the roof of the Yangxin Hall and said, "Look, there is someone on the roof!"
"What!"
Seeing this, the remaining companions quickly looked in the direction he pointed, only to see that there was nothing there.
"You are wrong, at such a high altitude, unless he is an immortal! Otherwise, it is absolutely impossible to climb to the roof of the Yangxin Palace without relying on any external objects."
"Continue patrolling. If you disturb His Majesty, even if you have ten heads, it won't be enough!"
"Oh, maybe I saw it wrong."
(End of chapter)
