Start with Baihuguan

The conversation between Li Huan and Xu Yu was heard by the officials and nobles who accompanied the Hongwu treasure ship to watch the cannon test. Many people had doubts on their faces, as if they didn't quite understand why they saw the cannon. Power, Xu Chu's reaction will be so great.

Ordinarily, Xu Yu can be regarded as well-informed, why did he react so much when he saw the shells fired by the artillery now.

Even some nobles have the same reaction, but if these people have a little understanding of the military, I am afraid they will not react like this.

After all, anyone who is not a fool can imagine what kind of changes the emergence of powerful bombs will bring on the battlefield.

However, these civil servants and some nobles did not respond at all.

If it is a civil servant, that's fine. After all, it is a matter of course that Ming civil servants do not know about soldiers, but these nobles are indeed completely abandoned by the wealth of the century and the prosperity and extravagance of the south of the Yangtze River.

Li Huan saw the reaction of the crowd. Except for a few people, the rest of the people looked blank. While sighing softly in their hearts, Li Huan's mind had already shifted to the side of the river. On top of a treasure ship that was firing non-stop.

Such a treasure ship loaded with such ferocious artillery, if he encountered an enemy at sea, Li Huan was quite looking forward to what kind of reaction the enemy would have if they saw the huge size of the treasure ship and its ferocious firepower.

Of course, the more important thing is that Daming can build more than one such powerful large treasure ship.

Other Daming official shipyards that have obtained the shipbuilding technology provided by the Longjiang Shipyard are now building the Daming Treasure Ship, not to mention that just among the dozen or so large shipyards in the Longjiang Shipyard, almost every one of them is under construction. Build a big Ming treasure ship.

Countless craftsmen collected and dispatched by Li Huan from all over the world gathered in these shipyards, especially the Longjiang Shipyard now has thousands of craftsmen just for shipbuilding, not to mention the people around the shipyard. Bringing a large number of people and the formation of upstream and downstream industries.

It can only be said that each of the great Ming treasure ships with a combined cost of tens of thousands of taels can definitely drive a considerable number of people to have a life of food and clothing.

Just the dozens of treasure ships started by Longjiang Shipyard and at least dozens of matching ships of different sizes, such as troop carriers, chasing boats, reconnaissance ships, grain carriers, etc. Supplemented by a group of well-trained elite sailors, then a navy army with amazing combat power has already taken shape.

As for such a large navy fleet, with the current level of wealth of the Ming court, or even without the court provoking money, Li Huan's 2000 million taels of silver alone is enough to build more than a dozen.

When the Ming Dynasty had several powerful naval fleets running across the vast ocean, Li Huan was looking forward to what country in the world could compete with it in this era with the size and heritage of the Ming Dynasty.

When the Qianhu official who personally supervised the treasure ship to test the gun came down from the treasure ship and greeted Li Huan with an excited expression on his face, even Li Huan could feel the excitement of the other party.

Saluting to Li Huan, Pang Wan of thousands of households respectfully said: "I will pay my respects to the Lord, and I will not disgrace my life. I am here to report to the Lord."

Li Huan looked at Pang Wan and said, "Pang Qianhu, in your opinion, what is the name of Hongwu?"

Pang Wan was slightly taken aback, almost reflexively, and said to Li Huan: "My lord, this ship can be called a powerful weapon for the country. It will deal with various ships for more than ten years. I have seen no less than a hundred ships of the Ming Navy. , but none of them can be compared with the Hongwu”

As he spoke, Pang Wan looked at Li Huan, but there was a hesitant expression on his face.

When Li Huan saw it, he said, "Pang Qianhu has something to say?"

Pang Wan took a deep breath, and respectfully said to Li Huan: "The general is bold, I beg you to let the general admiral Hongwu, if... if not, please let the general be able to let the treasure ship increase in the future when the number of treasure ships increases." Admiral a treasure ship like this, if he can fulfill his wish, the general will die in peace!"

It can be seen that what Pang Wan said was very emotional. After all, he and nearly a thousand soldiers under him were also carefully selected elites from the Daming Navy, so it was only natural for them to control the Hongwu.

But Pang Wan knew that he had nothing to do with Li Huan. Such a powerful weapon for the country, especially the newly launched Daming treasure ship that was rebuilt and named Hongwu by the emperor himself, the admiral of such a powerful weapon for the country could only be Li Huan's confidant, he asked himself that he had no qualifications.

So Pang Wan only hoped that Li Huan would not forget him and give him a chance.

Li Huan heard the meaning of Pang Wan's words, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up and he looked at Pang Wan with a smile, "Pang Qianhu, would you like to admiral Hongwu treasure ship for me?"

"What? The lord is not joking with the general!"

Pang Wan was almost a conditioned reflex, his face was full of disbelief, he opened his eyes and looked at Li Huan stupidly.

Li Huan said with a light smile: "Pang Qianhu and your officers and men can be said to be the elite divisions carefully selected by our Daming navy, and a powerful weapon like the Hongwu, naturally must be controlled by the most elite of Daming." The generals will take control."

Speaking of which, Li Huan patted Pang Wan's shoulder with his big hand and said slowly: "I appointed you as the admiral of Hongwu, you are willing!"

Pang Wan stood there stupidly as if in a dream, and it took him a long time to finally come to his senses. Dang Li paid homage to Li Huan and said: "The general will be willing, the general will be willing!"

Zhang Huai, the newly promoted Uncle Changyang who was following Li Huan, couldn't help smiling and said to Pang Wan: "Pang Qianhu knows that you are valued by the Duke, what a blessing it is!"

Pang Wandang said to Li Huan with a respectful face: "The kindness that the father-in-law has valued, will never be forgotten, and he will definitely repay it with his death."

Li Huan stepped forward and helped Pang Wan up one step at a time, and said with a smile: "There is no death, you just need to kill the enemy with your heart and serve His Majesty."

October of the Sixth Year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty
During this year, Li Huan almost traveled around, traveling almost all over the southeast coast.

On the one hand, Li Huan wanted to inspect the southeast coastal areas on behalf of the emperor. On the other hand, Li Huan was very concerned about the status of shipping companies in several major cities, and he personally inspected every place he went.

The Shibo Department is almost equivalent to the modern customs, but it has more and wider functions than the customs. However, the main energy of the Daming City Ship Department is now almost all on tax collection.

With the full opening of the sea in Daming, it has directly created a prosperous maritime trade business along the southeast coast of Daming, and the Shipping Department of Daming City is responsible for collecting commercial taxes on these merchant ships that go to sea.

Compared with the previous commercial tax of one thirty tax in the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax imposed by Li Huanzuo at the request of the emperor has directly reached four tax one, which is equivalent to more than a quarter of the value of the goods.

A merchant ship full of goods worth 500 taels would have to pay at least [-] taels of silver.

It can be said that Li Huan's business tax is simply a heresy for businessmen who have long been accustomed to paying a tax of [-] yuan or not paying tax directly.

That is to say, Li Huan relied on the power of ransacking the family and exterminating the clan, killing people in the south of the Yangtze River. This can be regarded as pushing it forward. This is Li Huan. Anyone who dared to propose such a heavy commercial tax would have been impeached and killed by the civil official group long ago.

Although it is said that this season has entered winter in Quanzhou City, the climate on the southeast coast is mild and humid, but there is no chill.

At this moment, Li Huan was surrounded by a group of officials of the Maritime Department, looking at the large and small merchant ships moored in the port.

In that port, at a glance, there are at least hundreds of ships that are about to leave and enter the port. Although it is a little less than what Li Huan expected, it is relatively good.

At this time, an official from the Maritime Shipping Department explained to Li Huan in a low voice: "Grandpa, last month, more than 520 large and small merchant ships went to sea in Quanzhou Port, and a total of more than [-] taels of tax was collected."

Li Huan raised his eyebrows. The Quanzhou Shipping Department collected nearly 4 taels of tax silver in a month. To be honest, Li Huan was not surprised by this. Among the nine major shipping companies, they can definitely be among the top three.

As a result, the shipping department in Quanzhou City only had tens of thousands of taels of tax silver. Based on this calculation, the tax silver collected by the shipping department of the nine major cities may only be 30 million taels a month, and it can only contribute to the court in a year. Two or three million taels of silver.

This was obviously a little lower than Li Huan expected. After all, in Li Huan's imagination, the shipping departments of the nine major cities would at least provide the court with more than 500 million taels of tax money.

After pondering for a while, Li Huan looked at the tax collectors around him and said slowly: "It has been almost a year for the imperial court to open the sea, and there must be many big and small problems during this nearly one year. Let me tell you what kind of problems Shibo is facing now."

Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, but no one dared to speak without authorization.

Although everyone knew that Shibosi had a lot of questions, they didn't know how to answer Li Huan.If the answer satisfies Li Huan, that's fine. If Li Huan is offended, who knows if Li Huan will ransack his family and exterminate his family.

It has to be said that Li Huan's reputation is quite a deterrent to these people.

Li Huan looked at the reaction of the crowd and said indifferently: "If you have anything to say, just say it, I will never blame you because of the questions you raised. Even if you have something to say, I will not hesitate to reward you!"

Everyone look at me, I look at you, and soon one of them boldly said: "Master Hui, I have a problem, that is, many businessmen say that the imperial court imposes too much tax, so that it is almost impossible for them to go to sea." It is not profitable, I hope the court can reduce the tax rate..."

Hearing this, Li Huan couldn't help but glanced at the official, and said with a sneer, "Then let me ask you, judging from your experience, are these businessmen really not profitable when they go to sea? Or do they not want to pay taxes at all? "

The official's complexion changed slightly and he tremblingly said: "I don't know..."

With a soft snort, Li Huan said with a bit of disdain: "It's not that you don't know, I think you dare not say it, do you really think that I don't know the huge profits of these people's maritime trade? It can be said that as long as the goods of one tael of silver are smooth Trading, they can at least earn several times or even ten times the benefits, I only expropriate a very small part of their profits, they are still so dissatisfied, do you think I am easy to deceive?"

An awe-inspiring power spread out from the center of Li Huan, directly making the crowd feel as if they were in the cold winter. Many people shivered, and their eyes were full of fear when they looked at Li Huan.

Li Huan waved his hand and said, "Come here, let me take it down and investigate who has ordered it, and whether it has provided convenience for others to accept bribes in its position as the secretary of the city ship."

"Grandfather, please forgive me, please forgive me..."

The man was immediately dragged down by two hulking Jinyiwei school captains, leaving only the screams of the other side.

Seeing this scene, many officials were frightened into silence, but at this moment, someone stood up and greeted Li Huan without fear, "I have seen you, I have something to say."

At this time someone dared to stand up, Li Huan couldn't help but glanced at him, nodded slowly and said: "Say"

Du Ming took a deep breath and said, "Since the restoration of the Quanzhou Shipping Department, everything has been going smoothly, but there are some inconsistencies at sea. First, as a large number of sea merchants go to sea, a large number of ships carrying various goods naturally attract many people. The peeping of pirates, especially in recent months, many ships have been looted by pirates at sea, so many merchants have suffered heavy losses and even lost their lives."

Li Huan nodded slightly when he heard Du Ming's words, but at this moment Du Ming seemed to have not noticed the change in Li Huan's expression and continued: "Another point is that there are many unscrupulous businessmen who went to sea privately in order to evade court taxes, and this The momentum is getting stronger and stronger, if this momentum cannot be stopped, I am afraid that in the future, the Shibo Department will be reduced to a decoration, and it will no longer be able to collect much tax for the court."

Du Ming continued: "In addition to this, there are still many problems in the Shipbuilding Department. For example, many officials in the Shipbuilding Department accept bribes from maritime merchants and falsely report the value of goods for them, so as to achieve the purpose of paying less taxes..."

As Du Ming talked about the problems in the Shibo department and the shady shady scenes, many officials turned pale, and some even had fine beads of sweat oozing from their foreheads.

They never thought that Du Ming would dare to say so.

If Li Huan doesn't know anything about the situation in the Shibo Department, it can only be said that he has underestimated the power of Jin Yiwei. It can be said that Li Huan's purpose in coming to Quanzhou City Ship Department this time is to deal with these problems , and even use Shibosi as the chicken to scare chickens and monkeys, otherwise, I am afraid that within a year or two, the nine Shibosi will become places of corruption.

Ask for monthly ticket support