After hearing about it, Huang Qiong actually recommended himself to the old man to assist the court in handling overseas trade matters. Not only King Yong was stunned, or frightened. Even Princess Jincheng couldn't help but be stunned. Who among the two people did not expect that Huang Qiong would recommend King Yong to preside over this matter. Even if the host is just charging from the front, the real person behind the scenes is the emperor.
But with such a huge power, no one in the past dynasties, let alone the prince, was willing to let go of it. Huang Qiong gave up this right so lightly, let alone the current Princess Jincheng and King Yong. Even the old man was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth when he heard about the person recommended by Huang Qiong a few days ago. This is definitely not a matter of daring to let go.
It is a question of whether the mentality of being a superior and a king is open. You know, the kings of the past dynasties may be willing to let go of their ministers when it comes to the division of power, but no one has ever trusted their brothers, nephews. The closer the blood relationship is, the more defensive one will be. Among them, not only his brothers and nephews, but also his own son are the targets of strict guard against him.
When brothers competed for the throne, the losers were almost all eliminated. Even those people were once their direct nephews. In the struggle for power in the Tian family, there is no crime less severe than that of one’s wife and children. The purpose of this dynasty was to prevent the royal children from competing for power, causing turmoil in the country, and even endangering the safety of the court. The so-called ancestral family law has been specially formulated.
The prince is not allowed to interfere or interfere in any political affairs except for the prince's orders. Anyone who exceeds the limit will be punished as treason. This kind of protection against fire and theft does not matter, the most important thing is to protect against sons, brothers, and almost all blood relatives. This is the only creed followed by emperors of all dynasties. Since Shilong Zhaoji, no emperor has violated or given up as long as he is not a puppet.
Originally, it was only to guard against male relatives. Since the successive emergence of female emperors in the Tang Dynasty and the two princesses Taiping and Changle causing chaos in the government, even female relatives with blood relations have become the targets of wariness. As long as you can hold the power in your hands, you can never let it go. Not to mention his own brothers, even his own son would immediately eliminate even the slightest threat to the imperial power.
Even if there isn't one, as long as the emperor thinks there might be one, he must get rid of it. Even in the Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen generations of the Southern Dynasties, where the princes went out to control the military and political affairs of various places, they never gave up. Even among the clans, the killings were even more brutal. Now that Huang Qiong has taken the initiative to decentralize power, how can he not shock the original emperor, current King Yong and Princess Jincheng?
In fact, the two people in front of them, who were dumbfounded by Huang Qiong's recommendation, didn't know yet. Huang Qiong recommended Yong Wang, but there was no other way. Although the old man is very good at playing with the emperor's mind, when it comes to trade, he has seven skills and six skills, and basically knows nothing about it. The key is that the old man is suspicious by nature, and he has developed an extremely stubborn temper after being the king for more than 20 years.
It seems that the officials he uses are more loyal to him than officials whose talents match their positions. And these years have been almost a mess. It can be said that the ability and level are the worst since the founding of the Qi Dynasty. This can be seen by the Ministry of Revenue in charge of the world's wealth. Although since the founding of the Qi Dynasty, the Hu Department has been the worst managed department among the six departments compared to the other five departments.
But as far as the old man is concerned, he is still the first. Several ministers and most of the ministers did not know how to manage money. The national treasury cannot make ends meet every year, and the old man is responsible for 70% of it. Judging from these points, Huang Qiong knows very well that he is the emperor. That is to say, they don’t understand the principle of letting experts do what they know. And because of his suspicious and stubborn personality, he may not be able to listen to advice.
As for the important ministers in the court, Huang Qiong also took a look at the basics. Influenced by the motto that all people are inferior but those who are good at education, none of these ministers know how to do business. This led to a very embarrassing situation. Not to mention that the Guilin County Prince's Palace could not hand over the matter smoothly, and he had to live alone for more than a hundred years. Even if they were all handed over, the court would not be able to send many experts to take over.
Although as the Municipal Shipping Department, its main role is to manage and collect taxes on foreign ships that come to Daqi for trade, as well as domestic ships that go out to sea for trade. But it happened that these nerds in the court were all busy making articles. But if you ask him to identify a ship of porcelain, how much tax should be charged? Or the difference between a boatload of high-quality silk and a boatload of low-grade silk. I'm afraid he can't figure it out.
The original Shibosi group either went inside every day and only drank tea and spanked after errands. Or every day, you won’t see anyone at all. Either lingering in brothels or brothels, or just sitting at home not knowing what to do. I heard that there were spider webs growing inside the Shibosi Yamen but no one paid any attention to them. It is even more confusing as to whether they have collected all the taxes they should collect every year.
All I know is that at the end of each year, Huang Qiong would never dare to use the money and food that the Guilin County Prince's Mansion handed over to the foolish officials who escorted them to the capital. What's more, Huang Qiong also checked the money turned in by the Guilin County Prince's Office every year. It was found that every year, at low times, 20% to 30% of the total, and at high times, even around 40%, were paid off with some goods. And these things used to deduct tax money are all kinds of weird.
Of course, there are also some valuable ones, such as glassware and gold coins from Persia and even the far western countries, Dongzhu from Japan, precious medicinal materials from Southeast Asian countries, and a large number of expensive ambergris, Something like rosewood. But more things are worthless at all. Pepper and cardamom from Southeast Asian countries were affected by dampness due to improper storage.
There are also folding fans and lacquerware that are almost worthless in Japan in bundles. There are also Korean ginseng and Korean cloth from Korea. There were also some weird things that even Huang Qiong couldn't recognize. Of course, the officials in charge of the warehouse didn’t know him either. But one of them was when Fan Jian saw it, he smiled obscenely for a long time, spent a little money to buy it and presented it to Huang Qiong.
At first, Huang Qiong was confused as to what the hell this thing was. Until Fan Jian told him that this thing was called Burmese Bell. It is a rare addition to the boudoir. There are many wives and concubines around the prince now, so it is the right time to present this thing to the prince. Seeing Fan Jian's expression of indescribable wretchedness when handing him these things, Huang Qiong knew what these boxes of things were.
The most important thing is that the items used by the Guilin County Prince to offset taxes are generally 20% to 30% higher than the market price. Moreover, judging from the history books of this dynasty, the higher the discount ratio is, the more famine the year is. Huang Qiong guessed that these items were almost all the inventory accumulated by the Guilin County Prince's Palace that had not been sold back then. At the end of the year, it will be used directly to offset taxes.
When Huang Qiong saw the account book handed over by Guangzhou Shipping Company, no matter how arrogant Huang Qiong was, he was almost stunned. This ledger directly confirmed his previous suspicion. A tax of 20,000 guan was actually set on those pairs of crappy things called bells. The official responsible for receiving it at the Ministry of Revenue had no idea what the hell this was or what its true value was.
Fan Jianze told Huang Qiong that although Burmese bells are somewhat rare, there are only a few hundred pairs on the market at most, and they must be of good quality and well-made. As for those in stock in the treasury, they are all in average condition. It's all wrapped in copper, not the gold that's wrapped around the top quality ones. The price on the market is only a few dozen dollars at most.
Because this thing is not available to ordinary people who don’t have so many wives. The ones that can be used are the wives and concubines of wealthy families or clans, and because this thing is made of gold and copper, it is relatively strong and durable, and a pair can be used for several years. Although it is a bit rarer, because it is not a consumable product, the market is very small. Used to exchange for 20,000 yuan, it is obvious that the court has been cheated.
In addition to the bell, there were many things that made Huang Qiong even more annoyed. Not to mention anything else, there are Japanese folding fans that are all over the streets. They only have a few coins and some workshops in China have begun to imitate them in large quantities. Even if it is made by a famous Japanese master, it only costs a few dozen guan. But when we arrived at the imperial court, we saw that they were just cheap street goods. One handle must be topped with fifteen strings to make money.
Looking at the mountains of money in the treasury, it can be said that there are piles of money. Many of the Japanese folding fans were poorly kept and have either become moldy or have been chewed into pieces by rats, which can be used to deduct a total of 350,000 yuan of Japanese folding fans. There are also those who don’t know whether they were exposed to moisture while being transported by sea or whether they were exposed to moisture due to poor storage after being stored in the warehouse. Almost all of them have been scrapped and cannot be used at all.
Even quite a few of them are spices that have become hardened due to being stored for too long. Huang Qiong spent a lot of effort to restrain his anger and did not kick the warehouse official to death on the spot. Use these junk goods that you can't sell yourself and use them as shoddy goods to offset the tax. The Guilin County Prince's Mansion was fooling the court as if they were a fool.
If there were a few more knowledgeable officials, the court would not have been robbed of so much money over the years. It is conceivable that in the past hundred years, the Guilin County Prince's Palace used these junk goods to offset the taxes that had never been increased in the first place. Of course, Huang Qiong also guessed that if he really sent knowledgeable officials, the Guilin County Prince's Palace might also do some tricks secretly, either bribery or assassination.
Anyway, we can't let those officials who really know their stuff be the shipping department. Guilin County Prince's Mansion, this behavior of using shoddy goods to avoid turning over money and food to the court is not a behavior in recent years. Judging from the records, they had already begun to act as early as the Lizong Dynasty. However, I was still cautious at the beginning, usually only offset 10% to 20%. And it is not offset every year, but only once every one or two years.
In the Sejong Dynasty, because Emperor Sejong liked luxury, he was tired of the original palace. In order to build the new palace, the Guilin County Prince was forced to pay 1.5 million taels of silver, plus more than a hundred nanmu, a large amount of rosewood, and 300,000 pieces of silk. You must know that it is 1.5 million taels of silver, not the widely circulated money in the market.
Even based on the price comparison between silver and coins at that time, it was almost equal to three million coins. In other words, the splendid new palace was almost built for Emperor Shizong by the prince of Guilin. Although this money is just a drop in the bucket for the Guilin County Prince's Mansion. But no matter what, he is short-tongued and soft-handed, let alone taking so much at once.
Perhaps in order to compensate the Guilin County Prince's Palace, they not only agreed that the Guilin County Prince's Palace at that time abolished the eldest son and established the concubine, but also abolished the original eldest son as the crown prince and replaced him with the current Guilin County Prince. They also turned a blind eye to the Guilin County Prince's behavior of using a large amount of backlog of goods to offset the originally paid taxes, which made the Guilin County Prince's behavior become more and more rampant.
