Zhu Houzhao walked into the Shuangyu Island neighborhood and looked at the stores next to each other. He didn't know how to view it for a moment.

Shuangyu Island is a concentration of smugglers, but it can also be said to be a free port for evading tariffs and commercial taxes.

As the ruling class of the Ming Empire, Zhu Houzhao believed that it was the right choice to conquer here with his army.

But what Zhu Houzhao doesn't know now is whether he would like to see Zhu Wan, who was admiring the military affairs of Fujian and Zhejiang, burning everything here.

Zhu Houzhao already knew from Zhu Wan his idea of ​​dealing with it, which was to burn the smuggling base and all ordinary merchants involved in the smuggling were executed for the crime of communicating with Japanese deeds.

After all, for the imperial court, Shuangyu Port itself exists illegally, and these shops are also doing illegal business.

But if the shops here are burned, it means that thousands of ordinary residents here will lose their survival roots and will be homeless.

Logically, Zhu Houzhao is no longer the emperor of the Ming Empire, so he no longer needs to worry about these things, and how these thousands of residents survive.

But looking at the sadness of ordinary merchants who came here to do business because of "tax-free" and the young and old in his family, Zhu Houzhao could not make up for the hardest blow to them.

But national laws do not allow private affairs.

Under Zhu Houzhao's instructions, Zhu Wan changed the disposal plan.

The real Japanese pirates and pirates naturally ordered them to be slaves according to Zhu Houzhao's imperial edict. However, the ordinary residents who do business or work to avoid taxes will retain their industries and work, but the taxes accumulated over the years must be compensated and can be paid in installments.

Otherwise, the government will forcefully take back these stores.

For ordinary residents of Shuangyu Island, they are naturally willing to accept this result.

Naturally, they did not dare to confront the court head-on.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also ordered Zhu Wan: "You submit a memorial to the court, requesting the addition of Shuangyu Port as a county, and immediately appoint officials to govern. You also request the court to allow Shuangyu Port to be a free trade port, which is exempt from import tariffs."

The reason why Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu Wan to ask the court to set up Shuangyu Port as a free international trade port was because Zhu Houzhao learned through interrogation of these merchants on Shuangyu Island that many of the Ming Dynasty's business activities now evaded the court's taxes and had begun to transfer his processing plants and production bases to overseas areas.

In other words, these businesses sometimes produce and sell directly overseas, thus avoiding paying multiple taxes to the Ming Dynasty.

What's more, the indigenous labor in overseas areas has low costs and is not subject to the Ming Dynasty's laws. They can squeeze labor hard, and even use child labor, which promotes the development of human traffickers. They even use mainlanders secretly tricked overseas into using slaves.

Shuangyu Island is just a smuggling free port near the mainland.

Zhu Houzhao sometimes has to admit that the cunning and treacherous businessmen are, and also admit that the saying "The way is one foot higher than the devil is one foot higher" is right. He can never imagine what methods these businessmen will take to pursue higher profits.

"We cannot transfer too much overseas. This is not only related to our taxes, but also to the employment and income issues of the people at the bottom. The pilot implementation of the free port model in Shuangyu Port is to try to solve this solution. For real economy involving machinery manufacturing, drug development, food processing, etc., corresponding tariffs can be exempted in the free port to drive employment in the entire area around Shuangyu Island, but those involving gambling, wind and other unfavorable social stability will still be subject to heavy taxes!"

Zhu Houzhao said this to Zhu Wan, and Zhu Wan wrote it all into the memorial.

For the current Ming Dynasty, the entire East and West Oceans have almost become the inland sea of ​​the Ming Dynasty. All trades are participated by the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty. Even the administrators of the colonies are officials of the Ming Dynasty or relatives and nobles enfeoffed by the Ming Dynasty.

Except for the western and northern parts of the Eurasian continent, the entire earth became the civilization ruling circle of the Ming Dynasty.

The Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty still maintained its technological advantages in productivity, so the Ming Dynasty still exported more and imported less, and silver was still flowing into the mainland.

However, as the income of the domestic people increases and the self-sufficiency small peasant economy is gradually destroyed, the Ming Dynasty, as the region with the highest population density, will gradually become the largest consumer market, and the import quota will gradually increase.

If the tariffs are too high, many businesses will turn overseas, thus becoming processing plants in overseas colonies, which will make the manufacturing industry in the mainland of Ming Dynasty depressed.

Therefore, it is necessary to reduce tariffs and open free ports, which can also be regarded as providing a more flexible way to regulate trade within the entire empire-ruled area.

Although the country lowered tariffs and opened free ports, Zhu Houzhao believed that his Ming Dynasty court should not only know this method.

"It can be required that the governors of overseas colonies and the vassal states impose more than three times the tariffs, and implement strict human rights protection bills to protect the basic rights of workers and prohibit the use of child labor. Let them tell them that if they do not follow, the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty will launch an army to attack for the crime of betraying the Central Empire!"

Zhu Houzhao said this in a memorial to his emperor's son.

Zhu Houzhao knew that the officials, nobles and royal families who had sent out to colonize had formulated various conditions for preferential treatment for Han people in business, and even zero tariffs for Han people.

But now in order to ensure the dominant position of the Ming Central Empire, he must require the emperor to change the tariff policy when the Ming Central Empire still had absolute advantages and was still alive, and when the Ming Central Empire still issued military and administrative orders to these Ming colonies and vassal states that had not yet been independent, they required these colonies and vassal states to change their tariff policies, from taking care of the interests of merchants to exploiting the interests of merchants.

Because only in this way can the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty reduce tariffs and set up free ports, and the colonies and vassal states set heavy taxes, which can prevent the Ming Dynasty's commercial banks from moving overseas in large quantities and avoid the impact of the employment rate of the Central Empire.

Although Zhu Houzhao believed that the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty should reduce tariffs and open free ports to adapt to the new economic situation, he did not say that smuggling, human trafficking and slavery would be allowed.

Bang!

All the smuggling pirates, Japanese pirates, and Western pirates are now regarded as captives of Japanese pirates serving in Shuangyu Port.

The hired supervisors were Han people who were enslaved by them before, and now they are holding whips to them in the same way that these slave owners imposed on them back then.

With a whip down, you can basically see blood directly.

"Ah! I really can't stand it anymore, kill me!"

Feders sat on the ground in pain, and the stone on his shoulder hit the ground directly. Not long after, four or five supervisors surrounded him and started fighting directly. The so-called governor of Shuangyu Island of Folangji could only be beaten to cry and call him mother.

at the same time.

On a boat dedicated to transporting the bodies of these Japanese pirates, a Ming army officer and soldier was instructing the Ming army soldiers who pressed dozens of Japanese pirates who died of exhaustion due to service on the board: "Feed the fish!"

For a moment, the knife fell down, and the heads and bodies fell into the sea like dumplings, which also attracted carnival among the sharks.

Basically, a group of exhausted Japanese pirates were thrown into the sea to feed fish every day. This was the case by the Ming Dynasty to punish those who smuggled and enslaved the Han people.

besides.

At this time, Chen Yu, the father of the Chen family in Fujian, was also arrested here.

The Censor Chen Jiude was also dismissed from his post and was arrested by the Beizhen Fushi Department for helping human traffickers.

All the property that the Chen family participated in smuggling and trafficking in persons was confiscated and confiscated.

In the end, Chen Jiude died in prison.

Chen Yu naturally could not escape the fate of being exhausted to death.

All these coastal gentry who were connected to the Japanese were dug out as long as they were found on Shuangyu Island.

Min Xian, the right assistant minister of the State Administration of Taxation, also watched the Jinyiwei break into his home in horror: "What are you doing? Min is a third-rank official in the court. Who gave you the courage to break in without authorization."

"Min Shilang, please breathe a sigh of relief. You are already suspected of being connected to the Japanese. From now on, all the property of your Min family will be confiscated as illegal smuggling proceeds, and you and your nephew on Shuangyu Island will also be taken to Shuangyu for serving in service with the Japanese!"

Wu Jie, the chief flag of the Jinyiwei, said that he asked the other two Jinyiwei Xiaoqi to take Min Xian away.

Zhu Houzhao did not sympathize with these officials and gentry involved in the smuggling and human trafficking of Japan, because as a Han Chinese, if even his compatriots dared to sell slavery and even persecuted them with the Japanese pirates, such people were no longer humane, and a slight forgiveness of them was a betrayal of Chinese civilization.

Emperor Zhu Zailei has had a headache recently. He really didn't expect that the clearing of Shuangyu Island would cause so many problems.

Moreover, he did not expect that his father would arrange such a big task for him, and even asked him to immediately come up with a plan for internal and external tariff reform.

First of all, many censors impeached Zhu Wan's indiscriminate killing of the island residents when he cleared Shuangyu Island.

The clearance of Shuangyu Island itself violated the interests of the entire coastal gentry. Now Zhu Wan is still tortured and killed these smugglers on Shuangyu Island according to the will of Zhu Hou, the Supreme Emperor. Even the coastal gentry who supported them behind them have been found and dealt with them seriously, which naturally makes these officials who represent the interests of the coastal gentry extremely angry.

Censor Li Yuyuan submitted a memorial to impeach Zhu Wan's innocent killing on the island, and listed a list of murders. He even impeached the Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao to abuse power and disrupt government and interfere in the government affairs. He should return major policies to the emperor.

It is obvious that these officials who represent the interests of the coastal gentry knew that behind this was their Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

Emperor Zhu Zailei naturally knew the purpose of these officials impeaching Zhu Wan and impeaching his father, so he did not hesitate to execute Li Yuyuan and directly dismissed.

However, what Zhu Zailei did not expect was that his dismissal of Li Yuyuan was fiercely opposed by many civil officials. The Chief Censor Zhang Wei directly told Li Yuyuan about the officials of the country and advised the emperor to listen to the unpleasant and loyal words.

Of course, Zhu Zailii did not retreat, and simply issued an order to change the result of Li Yuyuan's dismissal from being exiled to being exiled for three thousand miles.

As the emperor, he knew that he would rather offend these civil servants than offend his father, because his father also had military power and had lofty prestige. Moreover, he knew that there was nothing wrong with cracking down on smuggling, and he also supported Zhu Wan in his heart to do so.

Zhu Zailii also agreed to Zhu Wan's request to establish Shuangyu as a county and to add Shuangyu as a free port. He knew that behind this was the meaning of his father Zhu Houzhao.

However, these were already resolutions made by Xia Yan, the chief minister of the cabinet. Even the plan to reduce tariffs and require colonies and various vassal states to impose more than three times the tariffs and commercial taxes in their jurisdiction was Xia Yan directly presided over the result, and then handed over to Zhu Zailei for approval.

This made Zhu Zailie discover that his power was seriously eroded. Not only was there a Supreme Emperor leading him to move like a puppet, but there was also a cabinet chief Xia Yan who seemed to be emptying himself.

Zhu Zailei, now the emperor of the Central Empire of the Ming Dynasty, certainly hoped to have greater power to control other vassal states and colonies. Therefore, he convened a political meeting and asked Xu Jie, who had been informed in advance, to propose a proposal.

The content of this proposal was to require these vassal states and colonies to impose tariffs, and also require them to deport half of the taxes to Beijing as a financial and tax supply to the central empire.

Zhu Zailii's purpose of doing this was naturally to control these colonies and vassal states.

But Xu Jie's proposal attracted Xia Yan's opposition.

"Your Majesty, I believe that if the Supreme Emperor is in power, he will not do this, because the court's interference in the tariff formulation power of various colonies and vassal states will have already aroused the disgust of the colonies and vassal states, because this itself violates the interests of these colonies and vassal states. However, if we do not require them to deport part or all of the taxes levied into the capital, they will intimidate the prestige of the central court and themselves and agree to accept the central court's orders. However, if we now interfere with the tariff formulation power, but also require them to deport half of the tariffs levied into the capital, this will undoubtedly defer the greed of the central court and seek independence! Everything should be progressed step by step. Now we can interfere with their tariff rights first, and then step by step strengthen our control over them, and do not make a rash move! Your Majesty!"

Although what Xia Yan said had his own reasons, his habitual saying "If the Supreme Emperor did not abdicate" made Zhu Zaili instinctively feel very disgusted.

In his opinion, it seemed that this old master with outstanding meritoriousness never took his emperor into consideration.

But Zhu Zailie could only hold back his anger and said with a smile: "Since that's the case, other ministers of the government will also express their opinions."

"Your Majesty, I support what Yuan Fu said, the central court can seize its power, but not its profits, because the central court is the country of parents, and the various vassal states are the country of children. Parents can manage their children, but they should not let their wealth be seized. This is kindness!"

As a nobleman, British Duke Zhang Rong would have to go to his fiefdom sooner or later, so he naturally did not want to devote all the wealth of his fiefdom to the court, although he didn't care much about being an independent priest and a non-independent priest.

Yu Dayou said he abstained from the power and had no interest in internal affairs.

Wen Yuan was absent because of illness, so only Yan Song has not yet expressed his opinion.

Yan Song glanced at Xia Yan.

Xia Yan also glanced at Yan Song. He thought that Yan Song was his own person and would naturally support him. Therefore, he couldn't help but look at Emperor Zhu Zailei and sighed in his heart: "Your Majesty! It's not that I want to be a powerful minister, but you really shouldn't declare your power as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty so eagerly!"
Chapter completed!