Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 109 Taxation of 1400 million taels!

Outside the Xingyuan Gate, officials from Yangzhou are waiting.

Standing at the front were Huang Jiarui, the governor of Nanzhi, and Ma Mingpao, the prefect of Yangzhou.

Ma Mingpao looked back to make sure that no one could hear the conversation between the two.

Then he asked in a low voice: "Master Futai, is the matter of grain storage reported to Chen Shengshang truthfully?"

"Ma Mingpao, don't ask for trouble." Huang Jiarui warned in a low voice, "You and I finally got out of this matter, why bother to get involved?"

"Besides, this matter involves the palace."

"Can you and I intervene?"

After a pause, Huang Jiarui said again: "If you still want to stay in the prefect of Yangzhou and don't want to be dispatched to Yunnan or Guizhou by those people, you'd better be honest."

Ma Mingpao sighed, looking lonely.

"Master Ma, don't be discouraged." Huang Jiarui said, "There is still hope for the Ming Dynasty. Not long ago, the Holy Majesty led the frontier army of the Ten Towns to fight a big victory in Xia Town? The Holy Monarch is in power, and there is hope, hope!"

"Even if there is a sage king in court, it's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice." Ma Mingpao sighed.

"The rectification of the bureaucracy will not be effective overnight, it needs continuous efforts, and it will take a long time." Huang Jiarui said, "The Holy One must have a holy decision in his heart, I just need to do my job well."

"But the problem is that I can't do my job well."

Ma Mingpao spread his hands and said, "Master Futai, you can also see it. In the early years of Chongzhen, Yangzhou was prosperous in all industries, but what happened in recent years? It is no exaggeration to say that all industries are in depression."

"It's coming again, it's coming again, why doesn't it make sense to you." Huang Jiarui felt dizzy.

"I don't care, I'm going to fight anyway this time." Ma Minglu gritted his teeth, "If you don't want this black gauze hat on your head, you will squeeze out the abscess in Yangzhou! If you don't send these plague gods away, Yangzhou will be completely destroyed. It's over!"

While talking, a eunuch came out of Xingyuan to answer.

"Long live God said, after walking all night, I was tired and disappeared."

Huang Jiarui breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the words, and asked Ma Mingpao, "Master Ma, are you still waiting?"

"Wait!" Ma Mingpao gritted his teeth, "If the Holy Majesty doesn't summon me, the lower officials will just wait."

Huang Jiarui frowned, but he didn't dare to leave on his own, so he had to wait with Ma Mingpao.

After waiting until noon, people from Qingyu Hall delivered tables of high-class rice noodles to Xingyuan, and even two incense carts came, and two famous prostitutes got off from the carts.

They are really famous prostitutes, one is Li Shiniang and the other is Zheng Tuoniang.

They are all famous prostitutes in Yangzhou, and they start at a hundred taels for entertainment.

Overnight?Staying overnight depends on their mood, and if they are in a bad mood, they will cost thousands of taels.

When the two famous prostitutes saw Huang Jiarui and Ma Mingpao, they all bowed their hands in bows.

Huang Jiarui smiled back and bowed. The atmosphere in the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River is still very open. Neither the officials nor the scholars are ashamed to sing poetry and wine with famous prostitutes, but proud of it.

Ma Mingpao ignored him, and his face was already blackened.

Seeing two famous prostitutes with oiled paper umbrellas swaying Tingting into the hall, the eunuch guarding the gate and Yi Dingwen didn't ask a single word, but they wanted to enter the inner sanctuary but couldn't get in, Ma Mingtao's anger finally broke out.

"Ah bah!" Ma Minghao said angrily, "I take back what I said just now, what kind of sage is a fool! A fool!"

"Shut up!" Huang Jiarui's face turned pale with fright, and he growled in a low voice, "Ma Mingpao, you can seek death yourself, but please don't implicate this official and colleagues in Yangzhou official circles!"

"I want to talk, I want to scold!" Ma Mingjue really went all out, and said loudly, "You are a fool! Chongzhen, you are a fool! What time is it, and you want to be lustful!"

"There is no hope, Daming is hopeless!"

"The subjugation of the country and the extermination of the species is the present day, and the subjugation of the country and the extermination of the species is the present day!"

At the end of Ma Mingpao's speech, he burst into tears, exchanging tears.

Huang Jiarui's soul was almost frightened, and he wanted to cover Ma Mingtao's mouth regardless of his image.

As a result, he was bitten by Ma Mingpao, and Huang Jiarui immediately screamed in pain.

However, Ma Minglu took off the black gauze hat on his head, took off his official robes and folded them carefully, and put them carefully in front of the gate of Xingyuan, and then turned around to leave.

It's nothing more than being caught in the middle of the Donglin Party and the eunuchs and being splinted, and the emperor is like this.

At this moment, Ma Mingpao was really ashamed, and really felt that Daming was hopeless.

"Stop!" A young general in mountain armor chased out from the gate of Xingyuan.

Hu Guozhu glanced back and forth at Huang Jiarui, Ma Minglu and the officials with a murderous expression.

"Who was insulting the Holy One just now? And who was talking nonsense?" Hu Guozhu said, "Stand up yourself!"

"It's me." Ma Mingpao took a step forward and said proudly, "I scolded Chongzhen just now, he is a fool, a fool! I still want to scold him like that when I'm in front of him!"

"Looking for death!" Hu Guozhu drew his knife loudly.

"The head is here, just take it."

Ma Mingpao lowered his head slightly and stretched his neck.

Hu Guozhu was furious, but he didn't dare to kill anyone.

Immediately shouted: "Catch him and hand him over to the Holy One!"

When even two Yi Ding rushed forward to tie up Ma Mingpao.

Ma Mingpao was soon brought to Chongzhen by two barbarians.

I saw Chongzhen taking the crown prince and King Ding to dinner. What surprised Ma Mingpao was that the meal on the table was not the high-quality noodles sent by Qingyutang before, but three bowls of simple plain noodles. A head of garlic.

The father and son dipped the garlic in the tempeh, and the garlic and the plain noodles were delicious.

As for the two famous prostitutes who came in just now, they were nowhere to be seen. What's going on?

The picture in front of him is completely different from what Ma Mingpao imagined in his mind.

Shouldn't Chongzhen be drinking and eating noodles with Li Shiniang and Zheng Tuoniang at this time, doing shameless things?How come you and the crown prince and Ding Wangwei are here to eat plain noodles with no trace of oil?
"Ma Minghao, I heard that you insulted me in public outside Xingyuan, is there such a thing?"

As Chongzhen spoke, he lifted up the big bowl in front of him, and the bowl of noodle soup quickly bottomed out.

Putting down the big bowl, Chongzhen pierced Ma Mingpao's eyes like a sharp sword again, and said solemnly: "You dare to insult Junfu in public, do you know what crime you should have?"

"Capital crime." Ma Mingpao prostrated himself on the ground.

"Capital crime?" Chongzhen snorted coldly, "If I really killed you, it would have fulfilled your reputation as a straight minister and minister, and I would really be a foolish emperor, even if I jumped into the Yangtze River, I won't be able to cleanse myself."

"The guilty minister is stupid." Ma Mingpao grabbed the ground with his head.

"Come with me, you will get all the answers you want."

After Chongzhen finished speaking, he got up and left, while Zhu Cihong stepped forward to support Ma Mingpao: "Prefect Ma please get up quickly."

"The guilty minister thanked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Ma Mingpao got up and followed Chongzhen without being pretentious.

A group of people came to the backyard after seven or eight turns on guard, and heard the sound of silk and bamboo through the courtyard wall.

After passing through the hanging flower gate, and following the winding corridor to a water pavilion, Ma Mingpao finally saw the extravagant picture he had expected.

I saw that the entire water pavilion was made into a ring shape, surrounding a stage in the middle.

The stage is fully open, and I saw Li Shiniang and Zheng Tuoniang sitting on it, one holding a pipa in their arms, and the other sitting in front of a guzheng, playing and singing, and the two classes were accompanied by musicians, which was extravagant.

It's just that merchants from all walks of life in Yangzhou are sitting in the surrounding water pavilions.

This is a bit different from what Ma Minglu thought. The Holy Majesty ordered more than a dozen tables from Qingyu Hall to wait for the table, and then invited Li Shiniang and Zheng Tuoniang. It turned out that it was for the banquet of Yangzhou merchants?Not for your own pleasure?

Seeing Chongzhen bring people over, the Yangzhou merchants who were sitting upright hurriedly knelt down.

Li Shiniang, Zheng Tuoniang and the musicians on the middle stage also knelt on the ground.

"Pingshen." Chongzhen walked to the main seat and sat down, then said, "Everyone sit down."

The Yangzhou merchants who were present sat down tremblingly, and the sound of silk and bamboo on the stage sounded again.

"Prefect Ma, you sit too." Chongzhen said to Ma Mingpao again, "The answer to the mystery will be revealed soon."

Ma Mingpao had no choice but to endure the doubts in his stomach, and sat on Chongzhen's lower head with half of his buttocks hanging.

"Everyone, don't just sit, drink, and eat." Chongzhen Yisu said with a smile, "This is a high-end table in Qingyutang. It costs five taels of silver for a table, which is very expensive."

A group of Yangzhou merchants began to eat and drink cautiously.

But to be honest, no one can taste the taste of the food, and the wine tastes like water in the mouth. In front of the emperor, I really don't have the mood to drink. I don't know what will happen later, so worrying.

After staying like this for more than half an hour, four scholars in shirtsleeves rushed in.

"My Majesty, the accounts have been clarified." Fu Shan bowed to the ground and said to Chongzhen.

"Oh really?" Chongzhen said happily, "Then let's talk about it in front of everyone."

"Yes." Fu Shan immediately opened the account and read in public, "The Yangzhou Garrison Eunuch Office was re-established in the [-]th year of Chongzhen until July of the [-]th year of Chongzhen. More than a million taels."

"Ah?" Ma Mingpao and a group of Yangzhou merchants froze on their seats.

Qu Shangzhong was paralyzed on the ground in fright, and Han Zanzhou was dragged away quickly.

Chongzhen's face turned black into the bottom of the pot, exploiting more than 1400 million taels in seven years?
In other words, an average of more than 200 million taels of tax is collected a year, which is only one prefecture in Yangzhou!
Although Yangzhou Mansion is the gathering place of salt merchants and the wealthiest, it is a bit too ruthless to expropriate more than 200 million taels a year.

However, the more surprising thing is yet to come.

Fu Shan went on to read: "About nine million taels were corrupted by the minions of the garrison Xingyuan, more than five million taels were entered into the account books of the garrison Xingyuan, and only about one million taels were sent to the key vault of the inner court secretary."

"This?" Ma Mingpao and a group of Yangzhou merchants were completely dumbfounded.

During the seven years of co-authorship, of the more than [-] million taels of commercial tax contributed by the Yangzhou region, only five million taels were entered into the accounts of the garrison eunuch's office, and only one million taels were sent to the inner court secretary's key vault?
"Boom!" Zhu Cijiong couldn't hold back his anger any longer, and took the case again.

All the merchants were silent, the thirteen-year-old prince is also a prince.

(End of this chapter)