When Wang Chengen ran into the bank account, Li Yunze was checking the account books.
"It's pure nonsense, it doesn't even add up to the accounts."
Li Yunze, who has received nine years of compulsory education, saw the fishiness inside after reading it for a while.
No matter whether it is incoming or outgoing accounts, all the accounts do not match up. It feels like they were filled in randomly just to deal with errands.
He casually threw the account at Wang Chengen's feet, "Is this how you, the guarding eunuchs, serve the emperor?"
Wang Chengen did not dare to say any more nonsense, and directly kowtowed and declared that he was guilty of death.
Seeing the submissive Wang Chengen, Li Yunze was furious and walked out of the bank waving his whip.
The Ming Dynasty is really rotten to the core. A mere banknote is already rotten to this extent, let alone the entire world.
At this moment, he even regretted replacing Chongzhen. It would be so easy to replace Li Zicheng, just smash everything and start over.
In that case, it would not be saving the Ming Dynasty, but building a new Da Shun.
Li Yunze, who was in a depressed mood, came to the edge of the canal. Just as he was about to sigh, he saw an official ship with a flag flying across the bank pass without any hindrance.
He pinched the riding crop in his hand and pointed it at the official ship, then turned to look at Cao Wenzhao and said, "Stop it!"
It has been a while since I came to Ming Dynasty, and Li Yunze has gradually understood what the main mission is.
Suppressing the rogue bandits or even wiping out the Tartars is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to wipe out the filth of the Ming Dynasty!
The Ming Dynasty, with a population of almost 200 million, had a prosperous economy and technology, but half of it was slaughtered and turned into slaves.
It's not that Da Ming can't fight, it's not that Da Ming doesn't have strength, it's just that there are too many sores and rotten flesh in his body!
Daming itself has no problem, even if there are natural disasters and external disasters, it doesn't matter.
Li Yunze took this aspect very seriously, and his anger happened to be ignited because of the incident at the checkpoint. Now that he saw the official ship full of goods passing through the checkpoint, his anger had already broken through the sky.
Cao Wenzhao was a man of outstanding ability and loyal to the emperor.
After hearing the order, he immediately mounted his horse, led more than a hundred personal guards and chased him along the river bank, readying his bow and arrows.
Arrows rained down, and the official ship was suddenly filled with nails and turned into hedgehogs.
There was chaos on the official ship. When Cao Wenzhao shouted and threatened to use rockets, the official ship lowered its sails and docked.
"Which health station do you belong to?" As soon as the boat docked, a fat man dressed as a member of the Communist Party of China jumped out and yelled angrily, "This is the boat of the Xu family in Songjiang! My master can hand in a picture to the Yamen and you can I'll kill you all!"
Cao Wenzhao and others sneered, holding the handle of the knife.
If Li Yunze hadn't come on horseback, they would have drawn their swords and chopped down the thief who was spitting fire.
The military reputation of the Ming Dynasty has always been very poor.
"Songjiang Xu family?" Li Yunze, who came on horseback, was a little confused, "Which Xu family, the Xu family in Xujiahui, or the Xu family in Huating?"
There are two famous Xu families in Songjiang Mansion.
One is the Xu family in Xujiahui, that is, Xu Guangqi.
There is also the Xu family in Huating, which is the Xujie who moved to Yansong.
"Of course it's the Huating Xu family!"
The member had a look of pride on his face: "Our ancestor Wen Zhengong of the Xu family is the chief minister of the cabinet!"
"He is the chief minister of the Jiajing Dynasty." Li Yunze reminded him, "After so many years, his bones have melted."
"How dare you!" The member pointed at Li Yunze, "How dare you insult Wen Zhen...ah!!"
Cao Wenzhao drew his sword and stepped forward, cutting off his palm.
Li Yunze frowned slightly, "I haven't finished asking yet."
Cao Wenzhao jumped off his horse and stepped forward, tied the wound on the wrist of the screaming officer with a rope, and then called his soldiers to come over and apply medicine to wrap the wound.
"Who in the Xu family is serving as an official now?"
Faced with the inquiry, the pale-faced member of staff asked in confusion, "Who are you?"
"Emperor of Ming Dynasty."
'Σ(°△°|||)︴'
The horrified officers looked at the many elite soldiers in bright armor with a sad look on their faces: "You deserve to collide with the holy cavalry."
"That's not what I'm talking about." Li Yunze waved his hand impatiently, "I ask you, is there anyone from the Xu family in Huating who is serving as an official now?"
"...Nothing."
"Since no one is serving as an official, why can you use official ships?"
"Why don't you stop the boat to pay tax when passing through the bank customs?"
"This is an official ship, why are you transporting goods on it?"
Facing Li Yunze's questions one by one, the member was speechless.
What could he say?
You can't tell the emperor, everyone in Ming Dynasty knows this well, and it's good for you and me!
Looking at the dead-faced member of staff, Li Yunze was silent for a moment, "There are still people on the boat who are on the way. When we get to Songjiang Mansion, I will personally ask the Xu family why this is happening! Just because their family has 400,000 acres of land." ?”
Seeing Li Yunze's back turning around and leaving, the staff shouted anxiously, "Long live, long live! This is all Xiaomin's fault. Xiaomin did it behind the back of the master's family! It has nothing to do with the Xu family~~~"
"Stop shouting, it's useless."
Cao Wenzhao lazily got on his horse and said, "When it is in the hands of Jin Yiwei, you will have to say whatever they ask you to say."
Returning to the military camp, Li Yunze immediately called Wen Tiren, who was about to accompany him.
"We have drawn up a decree to recruit eight-dollar tax collectors from all over the world. All children from good families can apply and can serve as tax collectors after passing the exam."
"All the customs officials and eunuchs who were stationed in various places were dismissed from their posts and investigated."
"Wang Chengen, you select a new group of guard eunuchs. From now on, they will only be responsible for supervision in the Chao Pass. Then order the Jinyi Guards to place concealed equipment at each Chao Pass."
"Whether it is a tax collector, a eunuch or a royal guard, there must be a guarantor. If there is another problem, the guarantor will be included."
"Furthermore, from now on, all civil and military officials in various places will have to pay taxes to me! Anyone who dares not to pay will be punished as deceiving the emperor."
"That's it for now."
Over there, Wen Tiren quickly wrote the imperial edict. Of course, it could not be Li Yunze's original words, but was modified with his literary talent.
After that, Li Yunze took out the big seal and stamped it, and Wen Tiren attached it with the cabinet seal.
An imperial edict that spreads throughout the world has been completed.
"Dongchang, Jinyiwei, and the Department of Accounts. Joint inspections must be organized at least twice a year to audit the accounts of each banknote."
In this era of very primitive communication methods, this is all it can do for the time being.
After arranging the affairs at Chaoguan, Li Yunze did not make any further stops and quickly headed south along the Grand Canal with three battalions of the Longxiang Army, tens of thousands of troops.
Along the way, they passed through the checkpoints in Linqing, Huai'an and other places. They also directly checked the accounts and cleaned up. If they saw any ships that did not pay taxes, they would directly seize them and take them away.
In less than a month, Yujia had arrived outside Yangzhou City.
"In ten days in Yangzhou, there were three massacres in Jiading."
Looking at the bustling Yangzhou City in front of him, the first thought that came to Li Yunze's mind was, 'Even if I break my teeth, I will never allow the Tartars to enter the pass! '
The warriors in the Jin Yiwei set up a large banner, and the tens of thousands of Longxiang Army sergeants were in neat military appearance. Just looking at them gave them a sense of oppression.
Although he only trained for a few months, it turned out that Cao Wenzhao was capable and trained well.
Secondly, the two armies, Tiger, Ben, Dragon and Xiang, practice every day, with two days off in seven days.
Compared with those Ming soldiers who only exercise once every ten days, once every month, or even hold a hoe all day long, they are not at the same level in terms of energy and spirit.
The reason is also very simple, I am willing to spend money.
It was certainly different to be well fed, clothed, warm and well paid, and to be regarded as the Emperor's personal soldier.
There were many people greeting Li Yunze outside the city gate.
In addition to people from the Yangzhou Prefecture and the Yanzheng Yamen, there were also a group of senior officials from the Yingtian Prefecture who came from the other side of the river, the eunuchs left behind in the Yingtian Prefecture, a group of nobles headed by Wei Guogong Xu Hongji, and so on.
It can be said that all the most prestigious and powerful people in Jiangnan are concentrated here.
After everyone greeted him, Xu Hongji took the initiative to say, "Long live, I have already renovated the palace for Long live by the Slender West Lake..."
"No need to bother."
Li Yunze whipped his horse whip loudly, rode his horse straight to the city gate, "Go to Yanzheng Yamen."
As soon as these words came out, many people's expressions immediately changed.
Since ancient times, there has been a word called 'salt and iron franchise'.
Because it is too profitable, it must be in the hands of the court.
During the Tang and Song Dynasties, salt tax revenue could even be close to half of the fiscal revenue.
People can do without ironware, but they cannot do without salt.
Considering the population base of the Ming Dynasty, the amount of salt consumed every year is very staggering.
Correspondingly, the salt tax that should be collected will also be a huge sum of money.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the salt tax in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River reached more than 15 million yuan.
Later, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had a far lower population than the Ming Dynasty at the beginning, and the salt tax was more than 5 million taels. In the later period, it was as high as more than 13 million taels.
How much was the salt tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty?
Lianghuai salt class has 670,000 taels of silver!
Compared with previous dynasties and later generations, the gap in salt tax revenue is dozens of times.
The annual salt output of the Ming Dynasty was as high as 670 million kilograms. At this time, due to the soaring prices due to successive years of disasters, the price of salt in the Jiangnan region had soared to a high of thirty wen per kilogram.
This is not even the highest. By the end of Chongzhen's reign, the price of salt per kilogram was even as high as eighty Wen.
Calculated at thirty taels per catty, the people of the Ming Dynasty spent more than 20 million taels on salt every year.
The Ming Dynasty's income from the salt industry was only a mere 670,000 taels, not even a fraction of it.
A question that cuts straight to the soul arises.
Where has all this money gone?
If you look at the extremely prosperous city of Yangzhou and the salt merchants' houses filled with beauties and filled with pavilions, rockeries and pools, you may be able to get a general idea.
Li Yunze decided to rectify the salt affairs, and rectify it from the source, completely abolishing the extremely chaotic salt introduction system.
This is also an important thing that he must do when he goes to Jiangnan this time.
In order to win this war with the salt merchants, Li Yunze not only brought Long Xiang's army, but also ordered the largest amount of salt in the modern world.
Li Yunze, who is backed by the era of industrialization, is least afraid of fighting a material war.
Next year we will produce 670 million jins of salt, which in the modern world is about 300,000 tons.
In the modern world, China's salt production alone reaches tens of millions of tons.
This is the power of the industrial age!
In the modern world, Li Yunze ordered 300,000 tons of salt through an offshore company, and the total price was just a small target.
He brought hundreds of kilograms of gold from here and was able to get it easily.
Li Yunze came straight to Yanzheng Yamen with one thing in mind.
Check the accounts!
