After Hu Zongxian handled the case of the theft of salt tax, he went straight back to the Governor's Mansion. He was thinking about this problem all the way. A small chief minister dared to tamper with the court's salt tax! Those high-ranking officials will probably act more unscrupulously, not to mention the salt merchants behind them who are making huge profits.
Those salt merchants have made more than tens of millions of dollars by selling illegal salt! However, only a mere eight to nine million taels of salt tax was handed over to the court every year, and most of these salt taxes were embezzled by officials at all levels. In the end, only a mere one million taels reached the hands of the court.
The development of these salt merchants was inseparable from the Kaizhong Law set up by the imperial court at that time, which allowed some merchants to transport a series of materials such as military grain and horses to more remote areas to ensure the supply of materials, and the imperial court provided salt imports based on the amount of grain delivered. , the merchant took the salt and went to provide food.
In the third year of Hongwu's reign, Shanxi was particularly short of food. In order to solve this problem, the imperial court recruited merchants and promised that after delivering the grain, these merchants would receive a certain amount of salt. Merchants who obtained the salt could Take the salt guide to a designated place and sell it, so you can make a considerable fortune.
But later, as the imperial administration gradually became corrupt and the Kaizhong Law could no longer be implemented, the officials in charge joined forces with the salt merchants to jointly sell private salt and make huge profits from it.
"Should I write a memorial to His Majesty and take advantage of this opportunity to collect the salt tax to resolve this matter?" Hu Zongxian thought as he sat beside the desk.
After a long time, Hu Zongxian seemed to have made some kind of determination. He spread out his pen and paper and said word by word: "Your Majesty, the current salt tax system is corrupt and the court cannot collect enough money, causing the court's financial constraints!"
"In addition, as far as Wei Chen knows, the salt merchants and officials behind it colluded to traffic in illegal salt. They made more than tens of millions of dollars every year, but only paid eight or nine million in salt tax to the court. Therefore, Wei Chen Please take action to remove these moths from our Ming Dynasty..."
After Hu Zongxian finished writing the memorial and put it in an envelope, he immediately called his confidants and said solemnly: "You must hand this memorial into the hands of His Majesty personally, and it must not pass through anyone else's hands! Do you understand?"
Looking at the solemn expression on Hu Zongxian's face, the confidants also understood that the content must be extremely important and absolutely no mistakes were allowed.
He took the envelope, knelt on the ground on one knee, and said solemnly: "Yes, Lord Governor, my subordinates will definitely bring the letter!"
"Well, okay, you can set off as soon as daybreak." Hu Zongxian looked at the sky outside and ordered.
"Yes!" After the confidant said, he put the envelope into his arms with great solemnity, bowed and left.
…
The night passed quickly, and in the early morning of the next day, Hu Zongxian's cronies mounted their fast horses and rushed towards the capital.
"My Lord Governor, the reply from the Ministry of War has arrived."
As soon as Hu Zongxian got up, a guard came to report.
"Well, you go down."
Hu Zongxian took the reply letter from the guard and said.
"yes!"
After the guards left, Hu Zongxian opened the envelope. After seeing the content above, he couldn't help but look happy. The content above was that the Ministry of War would send thirty-six warships with ocean-going combat capabilities to cooperate with Hu Zongxian's operation. , and currently, the Ming Navy only has about fifty warships in total!
"This must be His Majesty's instruction. Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to mobilize so many warships from the Ministry of War. This is equivalent to most of the current Ming Navy's wealth."
"Your Majesty attaches so much importance to this matter, I will definitely go all out to catch all the Japanese pirates entrenched on the sea!"
Hu Zongxian thought so in his heart, and used a little more force on his hand to hold the reply letter from the Ministry of War into a shapeless shape.
"Inform Qi Jiguang and tell him that I have something to do with him." Hu Zongxian ordered the subordinates beside him.
"Yes!" The subordinate quickly left and went to the place where the army was stationed outside the city to inform Qi Jiguang.
Soon, after Qi Jiguang received the news, he hurried to the Zhejiang Governor's Mansion.
"Mr. Governor!" Qi Jiguang saluted Hu Zongxian as soon as he entered the hall.
"Get up and sit down!" Hu Zongxian said, pointing to the seat in front of him, then picked up the teapot and poured himself and Qi Jiguang a cup of tea each.
"Thank you, Lord Governor." Qi Jiguang said, sitting next to Hu Zongxian with a reserved expression.
"The Governor suddenly called the general to come. Has the matter of suppressing the Japanese been settled?" Qi Jiguang asked after hesitating for a moment.
"Well, that's right. With your Majesty's support, the Ministry of War will send thirty-six warships to assist us in our battle!"
"What? So many!" Qi Jiguang couldn't help but be shocked after hearing the news brought by Hu Zongxian.
"Well, Your Majesty has worked very hard on this. At present, our Ming Dynasty Navy only has more than fifty warships! We must fight this battle beautifully." Hu Zongxian picked up the teacup and took a sip.
"I obey, Lord Governor! I will do my best." After listening to Hu Zongxian's instructions, Qi Jiguang immediately knelt on the ground and said in a deep voice.
"How did you go about the things that were assigned to you earlier?" Hu Zongxian turned his attention to Qi Jiguang and then asked aloud.
"Reporting to the Governor, the general has already completed the matters you previously assigned to the general! The general has selected more than 3,000 water-savvy soldiers from the army and trained them. I believe they will be able to compete in this battle."
"Well, the three thousand here, plus the two thousand on board, add up to an army of five thousand. Plus the more than thirty warships from the Ministry of War, I think we will be able to completely wipe out Wang Zhi and his group of Japanese pirates by then!"
"After wiping out this group of Japanese pirates, I will personally ask your Majesty for your reward!"
Hu Zongxian was very satisfied with Qi Jiguang's performance, nodded and encouraged.
"Yes, thank you Governor for your support!" After hearing Hu Zongxian's words, Qi Jiguang's face was full of excitement.
Then Hu Zongxian waved his hand and asked his subordinates to bring a map, pointing to an island above and saying: "Look, this is the Zhoushan Islands, and there is an island in the Zhoushan Islands called Jintang Island. This is the Japanese pirate leader Wang Zhi’s lair!”
"My idea then is to use the artillery on the ship first..."
Time passed unknowingly. When Qi Jiguang came out of the Governor's Mansion, his face was full of confidence. After detailed planning, if he was only 50% sure before, now he is 90% sure that he can defeat Wang Zhi. This group of Japanese pirates was completely wiped out!
At the same time, the food, ammunition, wages, etc. needed by the army are also being allocated secretly.
…
In a dark cell, the smell of blood persisted for a long time. Under the arrangement of Zheng Michang, everyone who had participated in stealing salt taxes tried all kinds of harsh punishments in the prison. The weak ones were Died on the spot! Those who survived were tortured to the point of losing their human appearance. From a distance, they looked like pieces of rotten flesh dripping with blood.
Zheng Michang covered his mouth and nose, walked in, and asked the jailer on the side: "How is it?"
"Sir, five of them died, and these two are the only ones left!" the jailer said, pointing to the two men hanging upside down on the beam by iron hooks, and said flatteringly.
"Well, hurry up and deal with it all." Zheng Michang frowned and ordered.
"Yes, sir! I will definitely do my best."
After Zheng Michang finished giving his instructions, he walked out of the cell. The moment he stepped out of the cell door, a burst of wailing sounded from behind...
(End of chapter)
