"Master, Lianghuai Salt Field suddenly stopped distributing salt. According to the inquiry, some people in the palace were ordered to transport all the salt in Lianghuai!"

Li Shu was surprised when he heard his servant's reply: "How could this happen! Why did the court move so quickly!"

"Master, Huguang Governor Qin Jin sent troops to block the waterway and prohibit private grain from leaving the country!"

Cui Yuan, the Marquis of Jingshan, also received bad news at this time, and couldn't help but become furious: "Qin Jin, what are you going to do? Don't you even give me the face of this Marquis?"

Cui Yuan’s servant hurriedly replied: “I heard that it was the order issued by the superiors, only the imperial merchants such as Xu, Ma, and Jiao were allowed to leave the country!”

Cui Yuan understood this and sat down on the chair in a daze.

...

In any case, the strike started by the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan this time was a complete failure.

And at this time.

Mochou Lake.

It's Mid-Autumn Festival again.

The entire lake is decorated with lights and pavilions, and the pavilions are filled with fire trees and silver flowers. The Emperor of Ming Dynasty has been in a good mood recently, so he decided to hold a banquet at Mochou Lake to entertain celebrities from all walks of life in Nanjing.

The powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan and Hui merchants, and the Shanxi merchants lost their wives and soldiers because of the failure of the market. As a result, the entire Jiangnan was not only politically controlled by the central court, but also by the central court.

This naturally made Zhu Houzhao feel extremely comfortable. Seeing the economic life of the scholars and people in Jiangnan gradually returned to normal, the prosperous Jiangnan seemed to be back, which made him feel like he was having fun with the people. He set up a banquet to see the ugly smiles of the powerful officials and gentry in Nanjing, which were sometimes more pleasant than crying than laughing at the beautiful.

Li Shu was in a bad mood at the Tongzheng Department of the Communist Party of China. Ji Xuan, who encouraged him to strike, disappeared without a trace. He lost hundreds of thousands of silver dollars because of the strike, and even offended the superiors. Therefore, Li Shu is now very irritable, so he angrily scolds his subordinates and family members and vents his anger.

But what Li Shu didn't expect was that when he was depressed, His Majesty the Emperor suddenly wanted to hold a banquet, and even let all officials above the fifth rank in Nanjing need to attend the banquet.

It was good to meet the emperor, but Li Shu was really not in the mood to meet the emperor now.

"Senator Li is a feast in front of the imperial court. It is a great emperor's grace. Why are you sad and smile more and be happy!"

Xiong Jia walked over and saw that Li Shu was depressed, so he advised him.

Li Shu could only forcefully squeeze out some smiles.

Like Li Shu, many officials and gentry who came to the banquet were not in good mood, but they all had to force themselves to smile.

Zhu Houguan looked at the appearance of these officials and gentry, and even said some auspicious words in person: "My dear friends, today is Mid-Autumn Festival night, don't be too restrictive. Between the king and the minister, you should also be happy."

Wang Shouren also took over the conversation: "That's right, after the implementation of the new tax administration, although there are merchants who are not considering the painstaking efforts of the court and disregarding the people's sentiment, there is no danger. As of last month, the new tax silver of Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau has reached more than 74 million silver dollars. The two provinces of Nanzhili and Zhejiang can not only save the court more than 9 million yuan a year, but also make tens of millions of silver dollars remaining, which is enough to fill the government treasury of the court and the two provinces."

Wu Wending also said with great enthusiasm: "According to the tax sharing ratio, the taxable income of southern Zhili localities can be more than 10 million silver dollars. I can also have sufficient funds to benefit the people of southern Zhili. The sea ponds in the Qingpu area of ​​Songjiang can also be built in advance. In addition, I decided to pay 5 million silver dollars a year to reduce the six-year tuition fees of students from social science and junior colleges to achieve taxation and benefit the people!"

Zhu Houzhao was very happy after hearing this: "It seems that the new tax administration is still very beneficial, but it will be true that my dear friends will say that is not right?"

"Your Majesty is wise!"

The officials could only quickly say yes, each of them was mixed with feelings, but no matter what, they still had to smile and say, "Your Majesty is wise!"

"This is not my wise thing. Cong Aiqing, Xiong Aiqing, Zhang Aiqing, and Wang Ge Lao from the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau all made great contributions. You business representatives who are willing to stand on the same side of the court and the people of the world have also made a lot of efforts. What are the ministers saying, right?"

Zhu Houzhao said and looked at the powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan who were present to attend the banquet.

Li Shu and other powerful officials and gentry in Jiangnan hated these people at this time, and they were so angry that they could not admit that they had made great contributions. But now the emperor is praising them, so they have to pinch their noses to admit.

Wu Wending even gave a tribute first: "Only the dynasty can the prosperity of today be achieved in the country's prosperity even if there are wise kings and wise ministers!"

Officials such as Li Shu could only salute and praise him.

"The imperial edict was drawn up to build a temple of Xianliang in five places in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, Ningbo and Hangzhou. Officials from various prefectures sent special officials to manage it to commend the achievements of Wang Shouren, Cong Lan, Zhang Jin and Xiong Jia!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, except for Zhang Jin, Wang Shouren and other officials who stood up for Zhu Houzhao to reform the tax affairs were all very excited. After all, as civil servants, who would not want to be famous for their lifetime?

Zhang Jin was helpless. From the bottom of his heart, he was unwilling to let the court reform the tax affairs. However, at that time, the court discussion on the tax affairs reform in Jiangnan made him unable to prevent the court from reforming the tax affairs. He could only take advantage of the opportunity that he was the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing and was arranged by His Majesty to join the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau to try his best to protect the interests of the gentry in Jiangnan in reforming the tax affairs.

So, now, Zhang Jin was not happy because the emperor wanted to issue an order for local governments to build a temple for him. He was really not happy. His Zhang family was a large family in the south of the Yangtze River and paid a tax of less than 50,000 silver dollars a year, which was enough for him to build countless temples for him.

But no matter how sad it is, Zhang Jin had to follow Wang Shouren and wait on the surface to express his gratitude to Zhu Houzhao, and he also had to swear that he would continue to be a pioneer in reform in the future.

What made Zhang Jin even more uncomfortable was that he was obviously trying to protect the interests of the Jiangnan chaebols, but most of the Jiangnan gentry still looked at him with resentment. He knew that it was obvious that the Jiangnan gentry would not regard him as his own person, which made Zhang Jin feel very wronged and even more uncomfortable.

Zhu Houzhao now wants to ask Nanzhili and Zhejiang local governments to build a virtuous temple for Wang Shouren and others, on the surface, Zhu Houzhao wants to reward the officials who work for him, but in fact he also disgusted the officials and gentry of Jiangnan who appeared to be upright and selfless against the court.

The officials and gentry in Jiangnan were indeed disgusted at this time. They now hated Wang Shouren and others very much, and they were not in the mood to see their temple appear in Jiangnan, especially those northern officials like Cong Lan who were eager to scrape his Jiangnan gentry in Jiangnan.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the feelings of the officials and gentry in Jiangnan must be bad, but if they are not good, they will feel bad. Sometimes, the emperor cannot do whatever he wants, let alone these people are not emperors.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, Zhu Houzhao was about to leave Jiangnan. Before leaving Jiangnan, he couldn't help but remember the tax reform mentioned inheritance tax, and couldn't help but ask Wang Shouren: "What income can there be in this aspect of inheritance tax."

"When you go back to your Majesty, Cong Lan and the others are already sending people to the public for undercover investigation. As long as there are scholars and people who have inheritance disputes, they will send people to do their work and tell them that as long as they are willing to pay inheritance tax, the court will preside over justice for them and interfere with the internal affairs of the clan!"

Wang Shouren replied.

Zhu Houzhao nodded after hearing this, and at this time, Wang Shouren pondered for a moment, suddenly said: "Your Majesty, according to the statistics of the shops, workshops and factories during the tax collection period, I found that Li Shu, Zhang Jin, Ji Xuan and others have very large industries, especially Ji Xuan. This Huizhou giant merchant with a student status actually has 124 businesses, with an annual profit of about 200 million silver dollars, which is not inferior to my family!"

The Wang Shouren family was a family that he invested in in the early days of the emperor. Only a few families in the Ming Dynasty could compare with the strong capital. Now Wang Shouren said that Ji Xuan is not inferior to his own family, which also surprised Zhu Houzhao at Ji Xuan's wealth.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty is now richer, and it is normal to have families richer than Wang Shouren's family. What really makes Zhu Houzhao feel abnormal is that Ji Xuan's identity is just a student, so how can a student have so much wealth?

"I will ask the Jinyiwei to check Ji Xuan well. For Li Shu, Zhang Jin and other officials, the Dongchang Inspectorate will investigate. Zhang Jin is fine. After all, although he was reluctant, he also worked hard for the implementation of the new tax. However, other officials and gentry who were secretly doing evil will not be forgiven as long as they are guilty!"

Zhu Houzhao said afterwards: "I don't know when the Ming Dynasty will start to collect the first inheritance tax. As long as the first inheritance tax is levied as the beginning, the court can directly intervene in the internal affairs of the clans of these officials, gentry, wealthy businessmen!"

Wang Shouren also nodded, and he also knew why His Majesty valued inheritance tax.

...

After the banquet, Li Shu returned home depressedly. The implementation of the new tax administration and the failure of the market strike caused him to lose a lot of money.

However, at this time, Li Shu's wife Lian came: "Master, you are back. Li Qing from the fifth house suddenly died yesterday, but he only has one daughter. His wife Zhao is a concubine who is a regular concubine. The elders in the clan intend to let Zhang die for the family to earn a reputation as a pride of a wife for the Li family, so that outsiders can know that our Li family has good education, and that women and children are loyal to keep their integrity! It is also for the future of the clan to earn a good reputation for becoming an official in the clan! As for the daughter of the fifth house, the housekeeper of the Dingguo Duke fell in love with her and was willing to spend 5,000 silver dollars to buy her to give to the Dingguo Duke, but because you are the head of our Li family, you should make the decision on this matter."

"The fifth brother is gone?"

Li Shu didn't know whether it was joy or sorrow on his face, so after asking, he hurriedly signaled the maid to put on plain clothes for him.

Lian nodded: "The person who reported the death has not left yet, lord, you can ask yourself."

Li Shu then told the person who reported the death to the death and asked the man: "When did you master die?"

"When the master said, it was not last night!" After the death row reported, Li Shu nodded and said while his maid dressed himself:

"Come here, I will tell you that the family is big and small. Now I will go to the Wufang Family in Xihe immediately to mourn. Tell the people under the Wufang that their master is gone now. Don't think that if the five-fang family is gone, you can steal property and steal money. If we know, we will not let them stay well and not be allowed to mourn!"

As he said that, Li Shu changed into simple clothes and hurried to Li Qing, a member of the fifth house clan of the Li family. Then he cried when he saw Li Qing's coffin: "Fifth brother, why are you suddenly gone? Tell me, you have been doing business for so many years and earned a huge foundation, and suddenly I let go of my hands. You made us brothers exhausted!

Li Shu cried for a while. After seeing that all his family members were here, he stood up and quickly stopped his tears. He looked at Zhao, who had been kneeling in the mourning hall and cried coldly, and ordered his confidant Li Jiu, "Bring the adulterer up!"

After a while, Li Jiu brought a weak and powerless person to him.

When the people of the Li clan saw this, they all smiled secretly, knowing what the patriarch of their own who was an official in the court was going to do. This kind of thing that was so popular among the people in the clan was beneficial, so naturally no one thought it was wrong.

Only, Zhao was not aware of it, but when he heard Li Shu, who was crying sadly, called the eldest master at the family of his man's cousin, said that he brought the adulterer with him, and he couldn't help but feel suspicious: "Adulter, what adulterer?"

Here, Li Shu ordered again: "Bring ** Zhao Family here too!"

Only then did Zhao realize that he seemed to be treated as a slaughter. For a moment, he instinctively suppressed his heart because of the pain of losing his husband. He asked, "Master, when did I become a slaughter? I have never left this yard since I was born. I have also served the fifth master since I was a child. Why did I become a slaughter?"

Li Shu ignored Zhao and just asked the weak man: "Yuan Yi, is the person you secretly stole? "

"It's her, she is her. Her name is Zhao Cuilian. She said she was the fifth grandmother of the Li family. When I saw that I was born fairly, she did that with me. She also said that when her man died, she would raise me and stay with me forever!"

After Yuan Yi said this, Zhao realized something was wrong, and became very uneasy. He pointed at Yuan Yi excitedly: "You are talking nonsense! I don't know you at all! Why do you frame me!"

"My Li family is a noble family. How can we tolerate such misfortunes as you? But the family scandals should not be made public. In the interest of you giving birth to a daughter for our Li family, Li Zhao family, this clan leader can convince the clan members to let you go. If you hang yourself in the name of dying for the sake of treason, our Li family will not clean up you out of the genealogy. We will also treat your daughter kindly and adopt her to the third wife! Besides, you can't let your daughter know that her mother is a lewd wife!"

As Li Shu said that, he couldn't help but look at Zhao's daughter Li Dai. He found that the twelve-year-old Li Dai was like a beautiful woman, which made people feel very moved.

At first, Zhao called for injustice, but later because the entire Li clan members blamed her for being ungrateful, she knew that she was irreversible, and in order to protect her daughter, she had to agree to hang herself.

then.

Zhao was rushed to the wing room by the Li clan and asked her to hang herself to sacrifice her life.

Here, Zhao's daughter was adopted by the third bedroom, but at night, Li Shu asked someone to bring Zhao's daughter Li Dai to his home.

Here, Li Shu asked his brother Li Feng to preside over the funeral for the deceased head of the five-bedroom family, Li Qing, and ordered: "Use the wealth of the five-bedroom family, place a water table, and give instructions. All the neighbors of the village can come to the five-bedroom family for dinner in the next half month. The elders of the clan follow me to check the accounts of the five-bedroom family. In recent years, the five-bedroom family has made a lot of money in Nanyang. Now that there is no one in the five-bedroom family, it is better to take advantage of this to divide it! Take out a small part as the clan property, and our relatives in the closest couple will naturally have more."
Chapter completed!