"Xiong Tingbi?"
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun couldn't help but look up at the muscular man under a maroon horse in front of him.
"His Majesty!"
Xiong Tingbi also hurriedly saluted Zhu Yijun at this time.
"You really want to go to Liaodong?"
Zhu Yijun asked Xiong Tingbi at this time.
Xiong Tingbi hurriedly raised his hands and replied: "How dare I deceive you?!"
"very good!"
Zhu Yijun nodded and then said: "In that case, I will give you one thing. You can try to handle it for me after you go to Liaodong."
"Please give your Majesty's orders."
Xiong Tingbi hurriedly replied.
Zhu Yijun said at this time: "After you go to Liaodong, you need to carefully check for me how many places outside the customs are producing ginseng, deer antlers, and mink skins, how many shipments there are every year, and what the profits are. In addition, you need to do a good job of inventory." The smuggling situation of similar transactions!”
"I intend to make the entire trading of leather goods and ginseng outside the customs a special business of royal internal funds in the future."
After Zhu Yijun said this, the ministers accompanying him were all shocked.
It's just that the civil and military ministers were shocked, while the eunuchs were surprised.
Xiong Tingbi was also a little surprised and couldn't help but glance at Zhu Yijun.
He was moved by Zhu Yijun's personal sacrifice to Zhang Juzheng, saying that Zhu Yijun was the Holy Lord. However, he did not expect that the emperor would announce at this time that he would monopolize local specialties and luxury goods such as Northeastern leather goods and ginseng.
"Once the benefits of leather goods and ginseng can maintain the use of the inner court, I plan to abolish Huangzhuang next. All the fields in Huangzhuang will be distributed to the people of the capital, and all taxes and taxes will be managed by the household department."
Zhu Yijun said something again at this time.
Only then did all the ministers realize that His Majesty wanted to use the profits from these luxury goods from outside the customs to replace the imperial palace to supply the expenses of the inner court.
"If this can be accomplished, the inner court will no longer have to rely on the Imperial Palace to supply palace expenses."
Zhu Yijun then continued and told Xiong Tingbi: "After you go to Liaodong, you must investigate the situation of leather goods and ginseng. If this matter can be done, you must give me an approval!"
"yes!"
"I dare not live up to my sacred mandate!"
Xiong Tingbi also understood what Zhu Yijun meant, and naturally he readily agreed at this time.
After all, if Huangzhuang can be dismantled, it will really be a great thing for the people of Gyeonggi.
Because Huangzhuang is not just a village where some land belongs to the emperor.
In fact, the existence of Huangzhuang in Gyeonggi Province is equivalent to a gold-eating monster that can't get in or out.
The businessmen who passed by Huangzhuang were often accused by the head of Huangzhuang of nuisance to Huangzhuang, and were asked to pay money to avoid guilt, or they were told that since they were passing by Huangzhuang, they should be entrusted with managing the village for the emperor. People presented gifts to the emperor to express their gratitude.
in addition.
Moreover, the eunuchs who were in charge of Huangzhuang often forcibly referred to some people's fields as Huangzhuang, saying that they belonged to the emperor, and asked the people to give them up, or asked some common people to donate their fields to Huangzhuang to show their filial piety to the emperor.
In addition, tenants who rent the Imperial Manor will also be required to bear a heavier rent and are not allowed to escape from the tenant.
Because as a subject of the emperor, how can we argue with the emperor about rent, how can we refuse to serve the emperor?
If you refuse, do you still feel grateful?
Although Zhu Yijun's current imperial village is not as bad as it was in history, it will inevitably cause nuisance to local people at the bottom level.
And the people near Huangzhuang often dare not speak out because the people in charge of Zhuangzi are the emperor or other royal relatives.
Therefore, Huangzhuang is indeed a big burden on the people in the Gyeonggi area, and it is also an important reason for the breeding of refugees or thieves in the Gyeonggi area.
Of course, it is precisely because Huangzhuang is so heavily exploited that it is still impossible to stop those who run away from tenants, so the situation of Huangzhuang being abandoned is very serious.
In addition, the middle and lower class officials in Guanzhuang deducted a large amount of farmland income, so the income from Huangzhuang did not really go to the emperor's hands.
For the emperor, the existence of Huangzhuang was tasteless. It was not only detrimental to his reputation, but also brought less and less benefits.
Because of this.
Zhu Yijun had already intended to abolish the imperial village and return the land to the people.
This can be regarded as the emperor's complete transformation from a landlord to a capitalist, reducing the exploitation method of obtaining profits directly through land management, especially the exploitation method of obtaining profits directly through domestic land management.
Strictly speaking, the current emperor Zhu Yijun's only exploitation of local farmers in the Ming Dynasty was the tenancy of Huangzhuang.
Because the agricultural tax actually goes to the national treasury, gold and silver have also been exempted.
Nowadays, domestic funds mainly rely on official and business dividends, the purchase of national bonds, and investment in various local and private high-quality industries to obtain income.
Therefore, except for Huangzhuang, the emperor no longer directly exploited the local farmers of the Ming Dynasty.
certainly.
Zhu Yijun couldn't just destroy Huangzhuang.
Because he may not care about the income of Huangzhuang, but many middle and lower-level officials in the inner court rely on Huangzhuang to obtain profits.
If Zhu Yijun rashly abolished Huangzhuang, it is impossible to completely guarantee that none of these people would take the risk of regicide because of the loss of profits.
Although these people have a small status, they are still members of the inner court and close to the emperor.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun still needs to consider the feelings of these people. He cannot really imitate Jiajing and one day be almost strangled to death by the little palace maid who least considers him a threat.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun planned to first convert the huge profits from leather goods, ginseng and other goods outside the customs into the patent of the inner court to replace the income of Huangzhuang, and then abolish Huangzhuang.
Anyway, most of the ethnic minorities outside the customs have been moved overseas, and many have gone to the Indian subcontinent, Sumatra and even Guinea. Most of the ethnic minorities who remain outside the customs are just ordinary people, and they have been almost sinicized, and they are all concentrated. When they settled in the Liaodong area, their main livelihood became farming and building city walls and castles.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun now wants to take most of the cold northern land as royal private property, and there is no obstacle to monopolizing the leather goods, ginseng and other sales there.
Perhaps the only obstacle is that some smugglers will not be happy for the emperor to use government power to monopolize these huge profits.
But most of these smugglers are lackeys of powerful bureaucrats, and the powerful bureaucrats behind them are mostly Shanxi merchants who have their own territories in Shanxi and Yangzhou.
As for Shanxi merchants, Zhu Yijun is not worried. After all, Shanxi merchants only want to make profits and do not want to risk their lives. You must know that there have always been only merchants who betray the country, not those who work hard.
Compared with the dissatisfaction caused by Shanxi merchants losing some profits, what actually worries Zhu Yijun is that the long-term decline in Huangzhuang's income will lead to dissatisfaction among some middle- and lower-level stewards in the imperial court or the extent to which some tenants who remain in Huangzhuang will be exploited. If the dissatisfaction is deepened, these people may really dare to risk their lives.
Even if they do not think of directly retaliating against the emperor, they will be bribed by powerful bureaucrats because their interests are damaged or even unable to survive, and then become the informants of these powerful bureaucrats to spy on the secrets of the inner court.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun had the idea of abandoning Huangzhuang and replacing the benefits of Huangzhuang with the benefits of leather goods and ginseng.
Of course, the number of eunuchs in the inner court is getting smaller and smaller, which also promotes Zhu Yijun's idea of abandoning the imperial village.
As people's living standards improve, fewer and fewer innocent people are willing to enter the palace as eunuchs.
In addition, after the implementation of the new rituals, the emperor can no longer forcibly castrate his own people and take away their filial piety. If he really wants to do this, it will undoubtedly be a slap in his face. He actively admits that the new rituals he supports do not need to be strictly observed, so he cannot Then forcefully increase the number of eunuchs in large numbers.
As for the use of foreign barbarians as eunuchs, it is not reassuring. After all, no one can guarantee it. There are few extremists who take the opportunity of entering the palace as eunuchs to retaliate against the emperor or deliberately cause harm.
In any case, people who are not from my race will have different hearts. It is impossible for Zhu Yijun to let the people serving around him be from other races. At most, he will only allow some foreign barbarians to serve as officials in the outer court.
To sum up, Zhu Yijun also thought that the imperial village could be abandoned so that more people could serve the royal family without becoming eunuchs, especially in the external business of leather goods and ginseng, and even using foreign barbarians to make profits for the royal family thousands of miles away. It's nothing, they are all using each other anyway.
For example, Zhu Yijun can also let Cossacks and others become royal mercenaries to go to the vast northern Europe to collect protection fees for his family.
Back to the topic.
After Xiong Tingbi responded in this way, Zhu Yijun nodded, and then called Xuancheng Bowei Yingjue, the young official in charge of the internal funds, to him and said:
"Your Majesty is now responsible for supervising all internal affairs and assisting Yushi Xiong in handling this matter. After all, most of the fur ginseng is used by the palace. Those of you who are in charge of internal affairs should know how much profit the merchants who sell ginseng skins make."
Wei Yingjue raised his hand and said yes.
As a result, Xiong Tingbi and Wei Yingjue really started to get in touch according to Zhu Yijun's wishes.
Xiong Tingbi was also able to learn the current specific income of Huangzhuang from Wei Yingjue, and soon after that, he actually got the order for him to go to Liaodong to serve as the censor.
Xiong Tingbi really took office and went to Liaodong.
However, as soon as Xiong Tingbi arrived in Liaodong, Wei Yingjia, the representative of Shanxi merchants, found him and asked him: "It is said that Mr. Xiong came to Liaodong this time to investigate the smuggling of leather goods and ginseng?"
Xiong Tingbi couldn't help but squinted his eyes and asked, "How did you learn about this?"
Wei Yingjia said: "This matter has been spread on the road, and I have heard about it, so I came to ask."
Xiong Tingbi asked with a smile: "What do you think I have to say?"
"I don't dare to ask for advice. I just want to ask what you mean. No matter what you do, I will cooperate with you. After all, you are doing things for the imperial court!"
Wei Yingjia replied with a smile.
(End of chapter)
