"What about that?" Lao Zhu was quite impatient.
"In my opinion, since this failed, we need to have a comprehensive strategy to customize this matter so that future generations can have a precedent to follow..." Zhu Sudao. "This can be regarded as the first tax evasion case since the Ming Dynasty. How to deal with it cannot be ignored."
He thought about it and felt that he had no good plan for the time being, so he suggested: "...How about asking Uncle Cheng to come and discuss it?"
Liu Bowen had previously proposed a plan to establish a tax department. At that time, he and Lao Zhu agreed that it would be difficult to prepare the tax department at the moment and it would be better to wait until after this tax collection. But he didn’t want the Ministry of Household Affairs to collect taxes, so he levied an extremely insulting one hundred thousand taels...
It can be seen that Liu Bowen had long expected that tax collection by the Ministry of Household Affairs would not work. Maybe he already has a way to deal with it in his mind.
"It makes sense. I just don't know if that old man is willing to come." Lao Zhu's eyes lit up. He turned around and saw Yan Xizhe still kneeling there stupidly. He couldn't help but cursed: "What are you doing here? Get out!"
"Go and ask Mr. Bowen to come over. You can also check for us whether there are any errors or omissions in the taxation accounts of the Ministry of Revenue."
"If there is indeed a problem with the accounts, you are the only one we can ask!"
"Yes, yes..." Yan Xizhe said. Even he knew that he must be involved in the battle between the courtiers and the emperor. I couldn't help but feel a burst of resentment in my heart: Those old guys, I usually treat you with great respect and obey you in every way, but you actually want to push me out to be the scapegoat.
If there were no Five Highnesses today, I'm afraid that someone in my Yan family would have been peeled off from Hemerocallis...
Holding back my energy, I went back to the accounts department to settle the accounts.
After a while, Liu Bowen came at the invitation of the palace people. Seeing that he came so quickly, Lao Zhu couldn't help but groaned and said: "We had invitations earlier this day, and sir, they all refused. How come he came so fast this time?"
"Your Majesty, the old minister didn't know how to do business, he only knew how to be lazy and idle." Faced with the sarcasm, Liu Bowen looked as usual and actually knelt down in front of Lao Zhu. "I hope your majesty will forgive you for being rude! I am willing to devote myself to the safety and security of our Ming Dynasty in the future, and my heart and mind will be ruined!"
Lao Zhu was startled, but he didn't expect that Liu Bowen would actually go out of his way and accept the almost heart-wrenching rebuke so openly. He and Zhu Su looked at each other, and in the end they did not dwell on the matter any more. They asked his left and right officials to give Liu Bowen a seat as before, and then asked for advice on collecting business taxes.
"Your Majesty, someone must have tampered with this." Liu Bowen made a firm conclusion just after hearing the figure of one hundred thousand taels. "The Ministry of Revenue must no longer let the Ministry of Revenue take charge of tax collection."
"The top priority is to immediately find out what was concealed and prosecute the Ministry of Household Affairs."
"Then we can take advantage of this opportunity to split the account department and use the newly established tax department to calculate the amount of incoming and outgoing accounts."
"What we want is for Jin Yiwei to investigate. Lao Wu thinks it's inappropriate." Lao Zhu said.
"The concerns of His Highness the Fifth are very reasonable." Liu Bowen nodded to Zhu Su who was standing beside him. Then he turned back to Lao Zhu and said, "However, this matter involves officials. Apart from Jin Yiwei, I'm afraid no one can take action."
"Do you think we should send Jin Yiwei?" Lao Zhu was a little surprised. Liu Bowen's advice was always fair and peaceful, so why would he come up with such a plan that would offend the officials of the imperial court?
Do you really want to be a lonely minister to help us achieve the great cause of the Ming Dynasty?
"Yes. Jinyiwei can assist in supervision. On the surface, the Yushitai will take charge of the case." Liu Bowen said.
"The Yushitai's duty is to report on the news and inspect all officials. It is under its control. It is justified."
"And the Jin Yiwei's great reputation can be used as a deterrent. It can also make the censors know that they are always under the eyes and ears of His Majesty and dare not show favoritism." Liu Bowen smiled when he said this. "Furthermore, His Highness the Second and His Highness the Fourth, don't they happen to hold the official positions in the Yushitai and the Jinyiwei..."
"Let the second child host it?" Lao Zhu frowned, remembering Zhu Ping's usual nonchalant appearance. "If you ask him to investigate, how can he be able to find out?"
"It doesn't matter whether it is found out or not." Liu Bowen said.
"Court officials have many ways to make money. Even if you can find out a little, it's just the tip of the iceberg."
"In this case, it is better to shock the enemy and let them leak the truth. I infer that it has only been more than a month since His Majesty issued the new tax law. Even if the family wealth is directly dissipated, there must be some traces left behind."
"I think they originally wanted to spend some money to buy some time so that they could take care of the rest."
"Let His Highness the Second and His Highness the Fourth go down, just in time to increase their prestige. Once their prestige is great, they will panic and deal with the flaws in their hands as soon as possible."
"Hurry leads to mistakes. Only in this way can we follow the clues and defeat all the monsters."
"It makes sense!" This plan took care of all aspects. After thinking about it for a while, Lao Zhu was overjoyed.
"Somebody come!"
"Pass our message! There is a discrepancy in the amount of commercial tax in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Let the second person be in charge of checking the commercial tax case in the Ministry of Household Affairs!"
"The fourth leader, the Jin Yiwei Town Fusi Assistant, will make sure that this business tax matter comes to light within half a month!"
…
"Prime Minister Li, what should we do now? Please help Prime Minister Li to save us!" In the secret room of Li Shanchang's mansion, several court officials who were the masterminds gathered here in civilian clothes. When they saw Li Shanchang appeared, they rushed to greet him, all of them anxious. He grabbed Li Shanchang's sleeve.
"You... you!" Li Shan's long beard and hair were all white, and there was anger in his eyebrows. Seeing that these high-ranking officials were still pulling and tugging shamelessly and crying like women, I couldn't help but shake my robe sleeves fiercely and shouted: "That's enough!"
"Didn't I say that I want you to come up with a few hundred thousand taels first? Your Majesty is not familiar with economics. When he saw this small number, even if he was suspicious, he would think it was because he only collected taxes this time. The reason is that the property of the children of bureaucrats in the capital was collected and not fully confiscated."
"In this case, you can take advantage of this time to transfer the property to your servants as soon as possible. You don't need to be named. This is called 'having a real name but not having a name'. This is enough to make His Majesty think that the tax policy has failed and focus on treasure money. Things."
"But I didn't expect that you were so obsessed with money that you only collected one hundred thousand taels for His Majesty... Do you think His Majesty is a fool? Or are you all fools? Even if His Majesty is ignorant of economics, how can you not see it? Such a big gap?"
"A rat's eyesight is short-sighted. It can't eat because of choking. It's hard to carve rotten wood. It's not enough for planning!"
Lao Li blurted out a bunch of insulting idioms in one breath, and then, as if he had exhausted all his strength, he leaned on a cane and began to breathe heavily. Behind him, the filial son Li Qi, although he was very happy that this group of people's plan went bankrupt, but seeing his father like this, he had to come up to him and stroke Li Shanchang's back to comfort his father.
Li Shanchang really understands Lao Zhu very well. If this taxation can only raise hundreds of thousands, I think Lao Zhu will not doubt it. He will only think that the commercial tax is really not profitable. After all, Lao Zhu's family has been digging food from the land for three generations, so how have they ever done any business? Even after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they were bent on getting more acres of land and grain. They were completely unaware that business could produce huge profits, and they always neglected to regulate business.
Because of this, in the Ming Dynasty, the merchants in Jiangnan could not lose their tail, but the prosperous trade always sucked blood from the foundation of the country. Shanxi merchants even dared to betray the country and helped the Qing Tatars to stab the Ming Dynasty with a fatal blow.
However, Li Shanchang also missed one point, and that is human greed. He fully thought that these officials were all human sperm, so they would naturally know what was important and what was important, so he offered taxes that were enough to confuse Lao Zhu's eyes... But unexpectedly, asking these people to pay was simply harder than cutting off flesh.
Among a group of people with big families and big businesses, who has made a lot of money since the Yuan Dynasty to this day, who doesn’t have a family worth nearly one million? After piecing everything together, he was only willing to come up with one hundred thousand taels!
It can be said that Emperor Chongzhen's helplessness and indignation when he collected money from the courtiers have now been experienced by Li Shanchang more than three hundred years in advance.
Thanks to layman Qingyu and book friend 20221005015754879 for the reward! Thank you!
(End of chapter)
