The "Zhu Yihai" mentioned by King Lu was the younger brother of Zhu Yipai. Twenty years later in real history, the Qing army went south and ravaged Yanzhou, Shandong. Zhu Yipai hanged himself in the palace. Zhu Yihai escaped by hiding among the dead. After inheriting the title of King Lu, he was packaged by the scholar-bureaucrats and military generals in the south. He became a supervisor of the Ming Dynasty and continued to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He died of illness on Kinmen Island in Fujian Province.
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu stared at Zhu Yipai in front of him. This Zhu family clan member was later recorded as a miser in the records of the Qing Dynasty and refused to use the royal family's property to reward the defenders for defending Yanzhou. After three years of contact with him, he clearly felt that he was not that good. Unbearable.
Lu Fan, an old man and a young man, has a good foundation in ideological work. He needs to be clearer in his words.
Zheng Haizhu did not intend to cater to Lu Wang Zhu Shouhong's joke. He decisively brushed away the relaxed atmosphere that finally appeared in the hall, and his tone became more and more serious.
"The descendants of the Lu vassal are prosperous and handsome, which is a good thing. But the sages of the past have said: Be prepared for danger in times of peace. Thinking back to the eve of the disgrace of Jingkang, wasn't Bianjing City also flooded with wealth and prosperity? As a result, the golden soldiers and cavalry Since then, thousands of people from the Zhao and Song royal families have been captured, and even the married women of the clan have not been spared. Now, the slave chief Nurhachi claims to be a descendant of the Jin Kingdom, and his ambition to destroy the Ming Dynasty was announced three years ago. Even if Fushun was defeated, the Tatars could still link up with the Mongolian tribes and plunder Xuanda in a detour. This shows that they are definitely not like the barbarians in the southwest or the pirates in the Jiajing period. If the border troops are short of pay, Xifeng If the capital is captured by the Tatars, they can reach the capital overnight and follow the canal to the south. Your Majesty, Your Highness, it is said that if the capital falls, the more prosperous Yanzhou becomes, the easier it will become the second Bianjing City!"
Zhu Shouhong squinted his eyes, focusing on the blossoming roses blown down by the spring breeze outside the hall.
Only when he heard the last sentence "the second Bianjing City", his gray eyebrows moved.
"Mrs. Zheng, if the imperial court is really short of pay to this extent, I, the Lu Mansion, will go north to dig out coal from the Western Mountains and go east to sell goods across the sea. After they are turned into silver, I am afraid that the faster they come, the faster they go." ?”
"Your Majesty is half right. Yes, Long Live Lord has already understood that the Ministry of Household Affairs in the Ming Dynasty wants to collect more land taxes, but just increasing land taxes is no longer enough. A large commercial tax must be levied. Moreover, this commercial tax is not just about canals The taxes paid at Chaoguan and several customs should also be the residence taxes of local merchants, which was the case during the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. But this time Ruoxiangzhu Long Live of the Lu Mansion took this initiative. There are mines in the west of Beijing and Denglai. Hong Kong, the mining tax and commercial tax paid are nothing compared to the rich gains? What's more, the king is so wise and the young highness is so wise, he must have seen why Long live the Lord wants to touch the Confucius Mansion. "
"They must be attacking the wealthy Jin gentry family in Shandong Province." Zhu Yipai, who was next to Zhu Shouhong, said bluntly.
Zheng Haizhu relaxed his lips and replied simply: "Not only Shandong, but also Jiangnan. Not only beating, but also asking them to clear out the fields that have been occupied or donated. There are also Susong Liufu in South Zhili, Hangzhou Ningbo in Zhejiang, etc. The land is the most prosperous place for businesses. If we don’t collect commercial taxes, wouldn’t we be enriching our employees and depleting the treasury? So, why would Long Live Lord only focus on Shandong?”
She pushed the skylight open to this point, Zhu Shouhong's uncle and nephew already knew it.
After Zheng Haizhu left, Zhu Shouhong said to Zhu Yipai: "Sanlang, tell me, when this woman threw herself into the bowl of our Lu Mansion, is it good or bad now?"
Zhu Yipai said: "I heard that Long Live just sent a eunuch to King Fu of Luoyang to ask for money directly."
"Haha, what do you mean, our Lu family made the right friends by making friends with the Zheng family."
"Uncle Wang, Zheng herself has the shares she mentioned in our Yanzhou Meishan. In the past few years, Kong Youde from Liaodong has hired people to come over, and nothing has gone wrong. Besides, she just mentioned business tax. She Zheng's silk, cloth, tea and porcelain trade in Nanzhili has already reached the capital, and she has to pay the commercial tax. So, my nephew thought, she was not inciting Long Live Lord to clean up the vassal, but really Because she fought against the Tatars several times in the North and did not dare to underestimate those Dongyi, so she wanted to help Long Live Lord get more military pay."
Zhu Shouhong was silent for a long time, and finally chuckled: "Sanlang, there is no Yangtze River to the north of Yanzhou. Whether Zheng is our friend or enemy, she just said something, and it is quite right."
"Is that the phrase 'the second Bianjing City'?"
Zhu Shouhong nodded: "The conditions Zheng offered for Long Live Lord sound benevolent and righteous, so our Lu Mansion must also behave like a vassal. Sanlang, you go talk to that girl tomorrow. Our Lu vassal will inform Yanzhou The magistrate, donated 200 yuan of land to relieve Taicang's shortage of silver. Secondly, in our vassal territory, silk, earthenware, cotton cloth, and wine can all be sold to the sea. If the imperial court allows our Lu vassal to set up a palace in Dengzhou, Okay, except for the boat guide, Lu Fan is willing to pay taxes."
Two hundred qing of land, compared to the 20,000 qing that Fu Wang Zhu Changxun got, may seem like a small amount, but if it is separated from the scope of the clan's tax exemption and returns to the rules of paying land tax, it can be reduced to the true nature of paying taxes to the court in one year. It is equivalent to five or six thousand taels of silver. If the bulk goods of sea traders are not tax-free, the money will not be short.
If Lu Fan relaxed a little, ten thousand taels of silver would be able to enter the household department. Even when Zhang Juzheng was making the most money for the court, the actual amount of silver stored in the Ming Dynasty Warehouse every year, including all inputs, was only four million taels.
The key is that once Zhu Shouhong made this gesture, it would be much easier for Zheng Haizhu to go to the Confucius Mansion to do his bidding.
Zhu Yipai leaned over and said to Zhu Shouhong: "My nephew understands. Uncle Wang, please don't worry. My nephew will also calculate the accounts more carefully with the Zheng family. Don't teach me that Lu Fan will really suffer."
…
On the third day after Zheng Haizhu completed her lobbying mission, another person in her planning also arrived at Prince Lu's Mansion.
"Are you...Sister He?"
In the palace's foreign affairs palace, Zhang Dai's father, Zhang Yaofang, the chief minister of the Lu family, saw the middle-aged nun brought in by Zheng Haizhu and recognized her with some hesitation.
"Sir, it's me." Sister He felt grateful that the Zhang family had treated her well. Later, when she encountered an unjust case in Songjiang, Zhang Dai asked Zheng Haizhu to help her clear her name. Therefore, when she saw her old advocate Yaofang , then you have to kneel down and worship.
Zhang Yaofang hurriedly stopped him and said, "No, no, the eldest son said in a letter that you are already the master of Songjiang Temple, and we are no longer masters and servants in the world."
Zhang Yaofang asked the servant to watch the tea and looked at Zheng Haizhu inquiringly.
Zheng Haizhu clarified his doubts: "Mount Tai is revered as a fairy mountain by Taoism and a Buddhist country by Buddhism. When I met Master Jingchen in Songjiang, I heard her mention that she wanted to visit Mount Tai."
Sister He also said: "Sir, Taishan Lingyan Temple, together with Nanjing Qixia Temple, Dangyang Yuquan Temple, and Tiantai Guoqing Temple, are known as the 'Four Famous Temples in the World'. After being ordained as a poor nun, I have been to the other three temples. Zheng Madam is so thoughtful, she only listened to my words a few years ago, but now she actually asked her servant to bring me here."
This time, intelligence agents Hua Er and Chen Sanni, who were sent to Songjiang by Zheng Haizhu in advance, told Sister He about their true purpose. The master, who had been saved by Zheng Haizhu and was willing to contribute to the eradication of Buddhism, agreed. , as the intelligence agent came to Yanzhou, he met Zheng Haizhu and listened to her instructions.
The rhetoric on the surface was what she and Zhang Yaofang said.
The officials of the Ministry of Rites, after receiving instructions from Dong Lin, were watching to see if Zheng Haizhu was visiting Qi Dang in Shandong. As for the old nun sent by her servant, they just regarded the old nun sent by her servant as a companion to Mount Tai. He didn't take it to heart.
