Although the eunuch party's frame-up and liquidation of Donglin Dongren caused an uproar in the court, the examination in the second year of Tianqi was still held as scheduled.
He Zongyan and Zhu Guozuo, the only two non-partisan cabinet scholars in the DPRK, served as the examiners this time.
A total of 409 Jinshi were admitted this time.
Among them, the first and third persons were awarded Jinshi, namely Wen Zhenmeng, Fu Guan and Chen Renxi.
The second A is awarded to 77 people with Jinshi background, and the third A is awarded to 329 people with the same Jinshi background.
Mao Yuanyi originally thought that Li Xian would select many elites among them for the Intelligence Department to try to recruit, but unexpectedly, Ning Yuanbo only picked one person out of this long list.
Lu Xiangsheng ranked 25th in the second-tier A.
But he immediately understood what Li Xianzhong was thinking. After all, these people who had passed the Jinshi examination were considered to have entered the official circle of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty is now rich in wealth but not in military affairs. I am afraid that not many of these people are willing to take the path of military generals.
Even if they were willing to obey orders, they would only obey the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong manager, Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong.
How many people followed the orders of Li Xianzhong himself, and even went against the Ming Dynasty in the future?
Although my uncle had always regarded himself as a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, he had never expressed any intention of becoming independent.
However, Mao Yuanyi knew very well that it was only a matter of time before Ning Yuanbo and Li Xianzhong fell out with Ming Dynasty, unless the uncle was willing to give up everything now.
Now Liaodong is almost an independent vassal town. Even if the imperial court cuts off the supply of Liaodong, it will be easy for Ning Yuanbo to support Liaodong Town with his existing financial resources.
He even felt that without the constraints of the imperial court, Liaodong would develop faster and better than it does now.
No wonder my uncle targeted young people who failed to pass the Jinshi examination.
He also asked himself to use the hands of Jin Yiwei to desperately hunt down the poor people among the Donglin Party members and force them to Liaodong.
There must be something special about this Lu Xiangsheng, otherwise my uncle would not have taken a fancy to him among the 400 people.
Soon this batch of new scholars entered the distribution stage.
In the Ming Dynasty, you were not immediately awarded an official position if you passed the Jinshi examination.
Only the top three in the first class were immediately awarded official positions. Among them, the number one scholar was awarded the editor of the Hanlin Academy (from the sixth grade), and the second and third best were awarded the editor of the Hanlin Academy (the seventh grade).
Regardless of the low level of the Hanlin Academy, it is the reserve of the cabinet. Almost 90% of the cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty were from the Hanlin Academy.
There has always been a saying in the Ming Dynasty that "non-Jinshi people cannot enter the Imperial Academy, and non-Hanlin people cannot enter the cabinet."
Of course, it is not absolute. Xiong Tingbi was not from Hanlin.
In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, only the ministers of the Northern and Southern Rites, ministers, and the right minister of the official department were the only ones who were not appointed by the Imperial Academy.
Therefore, being able to enter the Hanlin Academy as a new scholar can be called "the right path on the right path."
Relatively speaking, those who can be selected into the Imperial Academy are lucky.
But after all, there are only a few Jinshi who can be elected to the Hanlin Academy, and most of them still need to wait for the Ministry of Officials to allocate them.
At this time, the official minister was Feng Quan, who had taken refuge with Wei Zhongxian.
In the 41st year of Wanli, the 19-year-old Feng Quan was selected as a scholar of the Hanlin Academy after becoming a Jinshi in high school. It can be said that he has unlimited glory.
But who would have thought that this was the beginning of his nightmare.
Because of his handsome appearance, he was constantly harassed by his colleagues in the Hanlin Academy.
Faced with the threat from Boss Donglin, Feng Quan had no choice but to compromise!
His father, Feng Shengming, was a soldier in Liaoyang. At the beginning of the year, Wang Huazhen reported that Donglin Party members were embezzling military equipment, accidentally implicating Feng Shengming.
Feng Quan had no choice but to ask for help from the gentlemen of Donglin, but these sanctimonious hypocrites did not come to rescue after satisfying their shameless selfish desires!
In the end, Feng Shengming was dismissed because of this incident.
When Wei Zhongxian passed by Zhuozhou a few months ago, Feng Quan knelt on the side of the road and cried about how his father was impeached and dismissed from office, as well as his own experiences.
At that time, Wei Zhongxian was recruiting party members, and he immediately recognized him as his adopted son, promoted Feng Quan to the right minister of the Ministry of Rites.
In order to please his adoptive father, Feng Quan also privately called Wei Zhongxian "Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Years Old", so that Wei Zhongxian's followers also called him "Nine Thousand Years Old" in private.
Wei Zhongxian just needed officials to enter the cabinet, so he promoted Feng Quan to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Bachelor of Dongge, and directly entered the cabinet.
Of course, in exchange, Wei Zhongxian agreed that Han Xu, a scholar from the Donglin Party, would succeed him as the chief minister of the cabinet.
Now these new scholars who have not entered the Hanlin Academy have fallen into Feng Quan's hands.
After the new Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty was released, they were first assigned to various central departments for internships and became Guanzheng Jinshi.
There are only two directions for these Jinshi. The important ones are to stay in the central ministries, and most of them are small officials such as the heads of the six ministries. The important ones are to go to the local state capitals, and most of them are awarded a seventh-grade county magistrate.
So for them, they all want to squeeze out their heads and stay in the capital.
After all, the starting point of a capital official is much higher than that of a county magistrate, and the chances of promotion are much greater.
But at this time, Feng Quan asked them to evaluate Wei Zhongxian first, and then decide where to go.
Who is Feng Quan? Naturally, these new scholars are aware of this.
Obviously, if you want to stay in the capital, you must first become an eunuch and become a disciple of Wei Zhongxian.
Although many people are influenced by the Donglin Party, they usually criticize the Eunuch Party for disrupting government.
But after all, it is a cold window of ten years, and their own future is at stake, and many people are in suffering.
Although there were some people like Huang Daozhou who directly criticized Wei Zhongxian for causing harm to the country and chaos in government, most people chose to flatter Wei Zhongxian or gave him a neutral evaluation.
Under the operation of the Intelligence Department, Lu Xiangsheng was directly assigned to the Ministry of War. Not long after, he was directly sent to Liaodong by Xiong Tingbi, the Minister of War.
Also going to Liaodong at this time was Sun Chuanting, the magistrate of Shangqiu.
Although Sun Chuanting had a good impression of the Donglin Party members, he was not actually a Donglin Party member.
However, under the propaganda of the Intelligence Department and the Donglin Party members, Wei Zhongxian's killing of the "Six Gentlemen of Donglin" and forcing the new Jinshi to defect to the Eunuch Party spread throughout the city.
After Sun Chuanting heard about it, he complained a few times, saying that the eunuchs had gone too far!
This gave the Intelligence Department a good opportunity. Soon the Jinyi Guards from Nanzhen Fusi appeared in Shangqiu County, claiming to take Sun Chuanting back to prison for questioning.
So Sun Chuanting resigned angrily!
Three generations of Sun Chuanting's ancestors had been admitted to the imperial examination, but in the end they had not been able to go any further. It was really depressing for his own generation to finally be admitted to the imperial examination, but then to resign inexplicably.
So when people from the Intelligence Department found him and asked him to go to Liaodong, he did not refuse.
In addition to Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, Song Yingxing, who had been reluctant to come to Liaodong before, finally embarked on the journey to Liaodong.
Because Song Yingxing failed the exam again this year and failed to pass the Jinshi exam.
What's worse is that his uncle Song Heqing was a member of the Donglin Party and was arrested by the Eunuch Party.
This made Song Yingxing quite dissatisfied with the imperial court and finally decided to give up the imperial examination.
At this time, people from the Intelligence Department invited him to Liaodong again.
Song Yingxing was attracted by the place after arriving at Pinglu Fort. The neat roads, huge waterwheels and workshops all made him yearn for it.
Although people from the Intelligence Department started inviting him to Liaodong two years ago, he really didn't expect that this border town would have such a prosperous town and various workshops of such a large scale.
In particular, the sophistication of these artillery and muskets made him dumbfounded.
It was not that he had never seen a Rumi Gun before, but this was the first time he had seen a Rumi Gun with such a terrifying range.
And the powerful explosive bombs opened his eyes even more.
Especially when sugar was mixed with gunpowder, the tremendous power made him feel incredible.
With the blessing of Sugar, the shooting distance of Lumi gun directly exceeded 150 steps, and its power was also greater.
Soon Song Yingxing accepted the official position of Pinglu Guards' fifth-grade Qianhu, and stayed in Liaodong with peace of mind to manage various workshops in Pinglu Fort.
With the help of Li Xianzhong, the "9,000-year-old" Wei Zhongxian indeed launched a liquidation against the Donglin Party in advance.
Now the "Five Tigers", "Five Biaos", and "Ten Children" under his command have almost gathered.
It is estimated that the Donglin Party will be completely driven out of the court by Eunuch Wei within a year.
Then Eunuch Wei will definitely collect commercial taxes from the gentry in Jiangnan, which will kill the Donglin Party.
To be honest, even though Wei Zhongxian had all kinds of faults, at least his appointment did not increase the burden on the people.
There is actually nothing wrong with him collecting mining taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, and customs taxes.
It is actually unreasonable for the people to follow the eunuchs and criticize them for messing up the government. Once Wei Zhongxian is no longer an eunuch, I am afraid it will be time for the people to make a living and rise up.
Since Wei Zhongxian is willing to be this "reform pioneer", why not Li Xianzhong?
If possible, he even hoped that Wei Zhongxian would arrange for the gentry to receive food as one body, so that the Ming Dynasty's problems could truly be solved.
As for this world, let him go wherever he goes.
At present, he only needs to ensure that there is no chaos in Liaodong.
It happened to take advantage of this eunuch party's attack on the Donglin Party to attract a group of literati who could not pass the Jinshi examination and the poor children of the Donglin Party to come to Liaodong.
To be honest, Liaodong currently has the conditions to implement this "gentlemen and gentry paying grain as one body". After all, the largest landowner in Liaodong is Li Xianzhong himself.
There really aren't many big landowners in Liaodong who dare to stop them from collecting land taxes.
However, compared with sea trade, land tax is almost negligible.
Zheng Zhilong told himself that a boatload of good Jiangnan silk could earn at least 100,000 taels by selling it to Japan.
Li Xianzhong instantly felt that selling other things was not good at all.
It’s a pity that Liaodong does not produce silk!
In order to support Eunuch Wei's reforms and allow him to completely break away from the Donglin Party, Li Xianzhong decided to offer a big gift to Wei Zhongxian.
Mao Yuanyi soon invited Wei Zhongxian to heaven and earth.
He said with a smile: "Nowadays, the 'Nine Thousand Years Old' has all the power in the government and the public. It is really a glorious place to be able to come to heaven and earth to enjoy the glory!"
Wei Zhongxian said quickly: "These are all random comments made by the people below. How come Mao Qianshi is laughing at our family?"
"Our family has a stake in heaven and earth, so it's our duty to take care of our own business."
Mao Yuanyi said: "The Chief of Ceremonies is as important as the cabinet, so I will call my father-in-law 'Wei Xiang'!"
Wei Zhongxian said with a smile: "I'm afraid there are not many people in the court who call us 'Wei Xiang', but there are quite a few who call us 'Wei Yi'?"
Mao Yuanyi said: "Now that the imperial court relies on Prime Minister Wei to support the overall situation, why bother paying attention to those slanderous Donglin Party members."
"Uncle Ning Yuan asked me to tell Prime Minister Wei that as soon as the food and wages from the imperial court arrive, he will launch a general attack, and Hetuala can defeat it with a snap of his fingers. Ning Yuanbo heard that his nephew Wei Liangqing has not yet been knighted, so he thought that his ability to supervise the army would be able to block the east The long speeches of the Lin Party members!"
After hearing what Mao Yuanyi said, Wei Zhongxian immediately smiled.
Then he said: "Uncle Ning Yuan is from his own family after all, and he always thinks of our family when good things happen!"
"Our family has been in the palace all the time, and we don't have time to discipline Liangqing's child on weekdays, so I'll ask Uncle Ning Yuan to discipline him for our family!"
"I wonder how much more food and grass Uncle Ning Yuan needs?"
Mao Yuanyi said: "The capture of Hetuala this time is a great achievement. The soldiers in Liaodong Town also want to share more military merits, so Ning Yuanbo will definitely mobilize more people and horses. I also ask Prime Minister Wei to allocate 500,000 stones of food and grass at a time."
After hearing this number, Wei Zhongxian frowned and looked very embarrassed.
Mao Yuanyi said: "Can this little food still stump Prime Minister Wei?"
Wei Zhongxian smiled bitterly and said: "Mao Qianshi is guarding the heaven and the earth and naturally does not know the difficulties of the court. Those Donglin Party members do nothing all day long and make the court's taxation a mess."
"Every time the Prime Minister talks about sending mine supervisors to collect taxes and increase the court's income, it's like killing their parents. They cry out one by one: 'The court must never compete with the people for profit.' It's simply unreasonable!"
Mao Yuanyi said: "Last year there was a severe drought, which affected the harvest. How many crops can people produce in their fields?"
"If the imperial court wants to increase taxes, it is natural to collect commercial taxes. If Wei Xiangruo introduces commercial taxes, I will be the first in heaven and earth to support him!"
After listening to Mao Yuanyi's words, Wei Zhongxian's face darkened, and then said: "Our family is too polite to them. If we are polite to these profiteers, the people will suffer more."
"Uncle Ning Yuan, please rest assured. Within a month, Liangqing will definitely escort 500,000 stones of food and grass to the Liaodong front line!"
At the court meeting, Xiong Tingbi, Secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "Your Majesty, Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong has currently besieged several elite Tatar banners in Hetuala. Now there is insufficient food and grass. The court has not distributed food and grass for two months. Ning Yuanbo requested to allocate more food and grass. 500,000 stones. He said that as soon as the food and grass arrive, he will be able to conquer Hetuala once and for all!"
Li Ruhua, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, said quickly: "Now that the autumn grain has not been harvested, we are in a state of drought. The Ministry of Revenue can no longer send out so much grain!"
"How about increasing this year's 'Liao pay' a little more?"
After he finished speaking, Feng Quan quickly said: "I object, there was a severe drought last year, and many people had no output at all. How can they pay taxes?"
"Originally, the 'Liao rates' were temporarily collected, but they were collected for four years. Now, instead of canceling them, they will increase them again. How can the people bear this?"
Zhu Youxiao said: "If we don't increase the 'Liao pay', dear friends, is there any solution?"
After Emperor Tianqi finished asking, the entire court was silent.
Zhu Youxiao was obviously unhappy, so he raised his voice and said, "Is there no one in the civil and military circles who can share my worries?"
At this time, Wei Zhongxian stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the current national situation is difficult, and there is no way to increase taxes on the people. The only way is to collect commercial taxes!"
As soon as Wei Zhongxian said this, the court, which had been silent just now, immediately exploded.
Chief Assistant Han Xu and others quickly said: "You must not compete with the people for profit, lest it affect your majesty's benevolence!"
Even nobles who usually don't speak out very much began to speak out against the collection of commercial taxes.
Wei Zhongxian snorted coldly and said: "You are so good at 'competing with the people for profit'. Businessmen are the people. Are the people who farm the land not considered people in your eyes?"
Then he added: "If we don't levy commercial taxes, then our family will raid all the mansions of those ministers who were previously suspected of embezzling military salaries to see if they are really incorruptible or fake?"
When Wei Zhongxian said "property raids", many ministers panicked.
Wei Zhongxian's style of handling cases is to frame him.
Although there are some clean ones among them, most of them are corrupt officials with huge wealth. Where the money came from, they will not be able to explain at all!
In the end, the decision to increase commercial taxes was passed.
Shops in Beijing and various places pay rent according to the size and industry of the shop.
The annual tax levy ranges from 5 taels to 200 taels.
For profit-making industries such as pawnshops, restaurants, and brothels, the rents are even higher.
Moreover, a 3% deed tax is levied on land deeds and land deed sales across the country.
In addition, a thorough investigation will be carried out on the shipping companies of Fujian Yuegang and Guangdong Macau to strictly prohibit tax evasion!
Good guy, Eunuch Wei targeted businessmen, landlords and smugglers with this move.
Almost the entire Jiangnan gentry group was offended!
Soon armed anti-tax riots broke out in many places, especially the stronghold of the Donglin Party, along the line from Nanjing to Suzhou.
In the Suzhou area, there were even cases where businessmen went on strike and beat tax supervisors to death.
The local government did nothing at all and repeatedly condoned and protected the troublemakers.
This makes it difficult to implement tax policies thoroughly.
Tian Ergen said: "Such a thing happened during the Wanli period. Local officials colluded with the gentry to incite the people. Facing thousands of people, the tax supervisors we sent out were not effective at all."
"They even bribed death row prisoners and accused the tax supervisor of corruption. These people are willing to do anything just to avoid paying taxes?"
Wei Zhongxian said angrily: "Can't Dongchang and Jinyiwei find out the truth? Is there nothing we can do against these illegal and profiteers?"
Tian Ergen shook his head helplessly and said: "It's difficult, if you have the right to follow the law and don't blame everyone?"
Feng Quan on the side said with a smile: "So it turns out that Dongchang and Jinyiwei, who are so scary that they are afraid to avoid them, are also at a loss what to do?"
Tian Ergen said with a bitter look on his face: "My great scholar Feng, you are still making sarcastic remarks at this time, why don't you give me some help, brother!"
Feng Quan said: "Captain Tian, when will your Jin Yiwei need to present evidence when handling a case?"
"You have to catch the thief before you catch the king. As long as you know who the mastermind behind it is, you can just confiscate the house. As long as a huge amount of money is confiscated, are you still worried that you can't find evidence of his corruption?"
Tian Ergen suddenly realized it and said: "Scholar Feng's idea is indeed second-guessing. If we can't find evidence that he instigated the trouble, we will arrest him for corruption."
"These Donglin Party bosses have been officials for decades, and they are still afraid that they cannot find evidence of corruption. Even if they can't find it, are they still afraid that they can't create evidence?"
Wei Zhongxian said: "That's it, can you find out who is behind this trouble?"
Tian Ergeng said: "This time we have many casualties in Suzhou, and the mastermind behind it has not yet been found. However, during the Wanli period, the most ferocious tax resister was the corrupt official Li Sancai of Donglin."
"When he was the governor of Fengyang, he often launched unruly people to beat up and frame the mine supervisors. Now Suzhou's methods are the same as before!"
Then Feng Quan added: "This Li Sancai is now the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, and Suzhou is also under his control. I heard that he is a huge corrupt man. As long as he is captured, I estimate that Ning Yuanbo's military expenditure next year will be all." I can make it happen!”
After several people discussed it, it was Li Sancai!
Soon Li Sancai's old house in Tongzhou and his mansion in Nanjing were seized by Jin Yiwei at the same time.
You won’t know the results if you don’t check them, but you will be shocked if you check them.
A total of 24,000 taels of gold, 1.78 million taels of silver, and 100,000 shi of grain were found in Li Sancai's two residences. Various treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings are worth about 600,000 taels of silver, as well as various land deeds, shops, and fertile land alone covering 150,000 acres, with a total value of about 1.9 million taels of silver.
The total value of Li Sancai's family property is almost 4.6 million taels of silver.
This is almost as much as the Ming Dynasty’s annual income.
After Li Sancai learned that his house had been raided, he didn't know whether he was angry or frightened. Anyway, he died!
Therefore, Jin Yiwei could not obtain his confession.
This incident caused an uproar in the court. Members of the Donglin Party wrote letters accusing Jinyiwei of taking people indiscriminately and raiding the residence of the "Great Honesty Official" Li Sancai without evidence.
Tian Ergeng insisted that his evidence was conclusive and that Li Sancai had committed massive corruption when he served as the governor of Fengyang and the governor of water transportation.
This time almost all the centrists sided with the Donglin Party. It was Wei Zhongxian who really frightened them. After all, no one can guarantee that the next person whose house will be confiscated by the eunuchs will not be themselves.
Except for Wei Zhongxian's party members, all civil and military officials in the Manchu Dynasty threatened to resign!
In the end, Emperor Tianqi had to make concessions.
Since Li Sancai is dead, he will no longer be prosecuted for corruption.
As for his family property, all gold, silver, grain, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings were turned over to the state treasury.
Other properties were returned to their families.
Since military expenditures are already available, the collection of commercial taxes will be suspended.
Eunuch Wei's first commercial tax collection ended in failure.
Donglin boss Li Sancai sacrificed himself to save everyone.
Li Xianzhong didn't know whether to laugh or cry after learning the news.
He sighed: "Eunuch Wei has a long way to go!"
Tan Ma came to report that Wei Liangqing, the supervisor of the Liaodong Army, had arrived at Fushun Pass with a shipment of 500,000 shi of grain and grass, and would soon arrive at the front line!
Li Xianzhong knew it was time to end things with Huang Taiji this time!
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(End of chapter)
