In the eyes of these court officials, Lao Zhu should just give up. After all, these officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs have already paid the price. With them leading the way, officials from other ministries have also restrained themselves a lot, and they have cooperated with the Taxation Department in calculating the amount of business tax they should pay.
There is no previous case where the Ministry of Revenue deliberately concealed files and attempted to evade taxes.
The new tax law has been implemented according to your old ideas, and the tax department has been established. Even if you want to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, the chicken is dead now.
We monkeys are already trembling with fear. It's time for you to calm down and appease the officials, right? A slap in the face, but also a sweet date. Could it be that if all the court officials are really overthrown, who will still work for your old Zhu family?
According to the experience of past dynasties, it is indeed time for Lao Zhu to appease the court officials at this time and say hello to me and everyone. It can be said that this investigation of the Household Department is earth-shattering, compared with the emperor's sudden launch of the Huaixi civil servants a few years ago. In their view, Lao Zhu should come forward to safeguard the stability of the DPRK and China no matter what at this time, and would not continue to toss.
However, Lao Zhu told them with his actions: Check! Keep checking! We can't stand you idiots in our eyes!
Just when the officials of the Manchu Dynasty thought that the commercial tax issue had been settled, as long as the family temporarily shed more blood and fed the tax department's wolf, they could maintain the status quo and continue their romance.
The worst thing is to spend more time and find ways to make up for this shortfall from the people. it's not a big deal.
A trivial incident completely detonated a major case that was ten times more serious than the tax evasion case at the Ministry of Revenue.
The cause was an official who was escorting tax grains from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the Ministry of Household Affairs. He found that the Ministry of Household Affairs was paralyzed and there was no one in charge. He was called into the palace by the emperor at the time when the six gods were without a leader.
When they entered the palace for inspection, they found many blank documents with seals but no words in them from his sleeves.
After interrogation, it was discovered that these blank documents were used to check the tax and grain amounts with the Ministry of Household Affairs. The official who transported grain shouted that he was wronged and said that there would be losses on the way when grain taxes were brought to Beijing from foreign enemies.
If the documents are written and transported to the capital at the beginning of the shipment, there will definitely be discrepancies when the officials in the capital check them. The amount in the document does not match the actual number, resulting in the inability to put it into the warehouse and a wasted trip. of.
Therefore, all officials responsible for transporting taxes, grains and other goods into Beijing will keep a few blank documents with only seals on them. After the Ministry of Household Affairs checks them, they can write the amount on the document. In this way, there will be no problems. The situation where the physical objects and documents do not match the numbers and cannot be stored in the warehouse also avoids the situation of repeated tax increases due to insufficient tax and grain, which is a waste of effort and burdens the people.
In the BC Yuan Dynasty, this approach was an unquestionable tacit understanding in the officialdom, and it was not illegal. The official said it quite plausibly and looked aggrieved.
Lao Zhu was furious, this was a naked act of deceiving the emperor! Immediately ordered Yushitai and Jinyiwei to jointly handle the case. It didn't matter. It turned out that all the ministries in the imperial court had this method of using blank-printed documents. After all, the Ministry of Household Affairs is not the only one that needs to communicate with all parties. As long as it involves China Unicom and outside China, this kind of blank document is more or less used for convenience.
Lao Zhu was furious and issued documents with blank seals and printed them directly on the white paper. This was a naked use of the power of the state and the dynasty to give and receive privately! You know, if a blank document with a seal falls into the hands of someone who is interested, it will be a big disaster!
check! We must get to the bottom of it! No matter how big or small the official position is, if anyone has anything to do with empty-printed documents, they will be dealt with!
As a result, there was another explosion in the Ming Dynasty Hall. However, this time it was not just the household department that suffered. Almost all officials in the court were within the scope of the Yushitai and Jinyiwei's inquiries.
The empty seal case broke out!
The ministers in the court were all confused. They never expected that they were going to hold their noses and cooperate with His Majesty's new tax law, tacitly agreeing that His Majesty would kill them, but His Majesty was still so unreasonable and unforgiving. This was going to overturn all the tables in the Ming Dynasty. !
But there are still some people who believe that the air-seal case must be louder than rain. This case has too many implications. If so many officials inside and outside the capital are questioned, will His Majesty himself become a bare emperor?
Everyone underestimated Lao Zhu's courage. Zheng Shili, a native of Ninghai, Zhejiang Province, organized a group of scholars and literati to jointly write a letter to Lao Zhu after his brother Zheng Shiyuan, the envoy of Huguang Inspectorate, was arrested, lamenting the harm caused by the Kongyin case.
Zheng Shili believes that the matter of empty seals has been a common rule since the Yuan Dynasty, and the national law has not expressly prohibited it. Officials should not be imprisoned for this; moreover, the paper of the empty seal is stamped with a seal, and everything involves the capital. Due to the coordination of external transportation, it is inevitable that the numbers will vary. Officials used blank documents with blank seals in order not to delay the important affairs of the country, and it was reasonable and not appropriate to punish.
This statement actually aroused a chorus of praise among the scholars. Among the scholars, many people praised Zheng Shili for speaking up and believed that the empty seal was actually for the sake of the running of the country and had nothing to do with it.
"Hmph, these rotten scholars will indeed jump out to stir up public opinion and clear the ground for their relatives and masters who are officials in the court." Lao Zhu was not surprised after receiving the letter from Zheng Shili and other scholars. He had long heard Zhu Su tell him about the process of empty printing in history.
Even in history, due to the inability to respond to this letter, and the power of speech was mostly controlled by the literati, some people in later generations believed that the Kongyin case was caused by Lao Zhu's own over-intentions, and he had enough time to support it. A big case. It was all because the emperor Lao Zhu was too cruel, and all those officials were innocent, and some even shed tears of sympathy for those officials.
But now, Lao Zhu is already prepared. He called Zhu Di, who had just been recalled to the capital, and ordered him:
"Fourth Brother, go ahead and put all the thieves you captured back in the capital on the street, and explain their crimes to the common people in detail."
"Remember, we must also drag Zheng Shili and the literati who co-signed with him. We want to see if they can confuse right and wrong in front of the people and insist that I am a foolish tyrant!"
Zhu Di took the order and left, and in the afternoon of that day, he built an extremely wide platform on the most prosperous South Street of Yingtian Mansion. Zheng Shili and others were also escorted to the scene by Jin Yiwei, but they still looked unruly and kept shouting and scolding. Even some people who didn't know the truth gave a thumbs up after seeing it, praising people like Zheng Shili for their literati character.
"His Royal Highness, King Yan, captured me for this purpose. He wanted to kill me here and abandon the market!" Zheng Shili was praised by the people, and he held his head high. "Even if your Highness can kill me, you don't know how to defend the people's mouths better than guarding the river! Heaven and earth have their own righteousness, and even if we die, we can't cover up this clear sky!"
"If you want to scare me into changing my mind, then I advise you, Your Highness, to save some effort. It is unreasonable and ruthless to print a case in vain. Even if it is a long knife and a neck, I will still speak out!"
"Okay! Okay!" Have the people watching below seen such a scholar who is not afraid of the powerful? I just feel that this man is just like those loyal ministers on the stage, he speaks righteously and sternly, and he is upright. Just listening to the lyrics, I know that it must be a good show.
"Humph. The power of words." Seeing the few words of this Wensheng, he pushed his Jin Yiwei side to the position of a treacherous minister. Zhu Di sneered and ignored him.
What this guy said was high-sounding and seemed to be righteous. In the final analysis, wasn't he just trying to pursue his own selfish interests in order to save his upright brother from the abyss?
"Later, you will be shouted at and beaten by others." Looking at Zheng Shili's almost provocative gaze, Zhu Di thought viciously in his heart.
(End of chapter)
