Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 75
Early in the morning on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhu Tianqi sat high on the dragon chair in the Huangji Hall. In the main hall, more than fifty officials stood in two rows, divided into civil and military officials. The leader of the civil officials was Xu Guangqi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue. The line of military attaches is composed of hundreds of uniformed guards.

These people are the provincial tax officials and supervisory officials who were appointed to the newly established tax departments of various chief ministers.

Zhu Tianqi stood up, glanced at the officials in the hall, and said with a serious face: "Dear dears, the Zhengdan Festival has just passed, and the year has not yet passed. I have summoned you to the palace at this time to assign you errands, but the reform of taxes and servitude cannot be delayed, so I can only wrong you!"

These officials and guards were carefully selected by Xu Guangqi and Zhu Youjian, and they also received "business training" years ago. They all already knew what errands they were going to do next, so they were still mentally prepared. , At this time, they all saluted in unison: "I dare not, it is my honor to be able to share the emperor's worries!"

Although these words may sound like mere talk, these officials said it sincerely at this time. Not only were they not dissatisfied with the court's arrangements, but they all regarded this errand as an opportunity and acted very positively.

After all, this newly opened tax department is neither controlled by local officials nor under the control of the six ministries, but directly under the leadership of the emperor. When they heard that this job had both a future and a way to make money, how could they not be active? ?
Zhu Tianqi, who was on the platform, was quite moved and nodded with satisfaction, "All of you, my beloved ministers, are my good ministers, and you will certainly be my loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty in the future. I will definitely remember your kindness to the imperial court today. Pay it forward!”

"I will definitely live up to the emperor's expectations, work hard and die!" All the ministers also expressed their determination to Zhu Tianqi!

After meeting with these newly appointed officials of the Taxation Department, Zhu Tianqi immediately ordered them to lead the taxation officials and supervisory officials at the prefecture and county level under their jurisdiction to leave Beijing and go to their respective territories to take up their posts.

The reason for being so anxious and sending people out on the second day of the Lunar New Year was mainly to catch the ministers who opposed the tax and labor reform off guard.

In order to achieve the goal of winning by surprise, the preparations for the tax reform have been carried out in secret. In addition to the main person in charge of the formulation of the new tax law, Xu Guangqi, only a few trusted officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs were involved, and they were sternly warned. , the matter must be kept confidential.

Even though all the provinces, prefectures and counties across the country had received orders from the court to prepare a new government office in advance, they were not told the specific purpose of this office. Therefore, until now, all ministers have been ordered to prepare a new government office in advance. In the dark.

Although the ministers knew that the emperor was determined to implement the tax and labor reform and they were unable to stop it, they naturally would not accept his fate. They had already made plans to "have policies from above and countermeasures from below."

It's just that they probably didn't expect that Zhu Tianqi would quietly draft the new tax law so quickly and make all the preparations, nor did they expect that thousands of newly appointed tax department officials had been sent to take up posts across the country. The new tax law will be implemented nationwide with the arrival of these officials!
On the fifth day of the first lunar month, fifty large flat-bottomed sand boats transported by water entered the capital along the Tonghui River of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Not only were each of these sand boats loaded with cargo, but each sand boat was guarded by many officers and soldiers and was heavily guarded. On the first ship, there were two guards wearing flying fish suits and carrying embroidered spring knives at their waists. All of this showed the importance of the cargo carried on these ships.

After the ship docked, the two Jinyi guards hurriedly got off the ship and went to the palace. After hearing the news, Zhu Tianqi immediately received them in person.

Two royal guards entered the hall and knelt down to salute.

"Ma Ying, a humble servant, comes to see the emperor!"

"Zhao Kuo, who is of humble rank, comes to see the emperor!"

Zhu Tianqi raised his hand and said, "Sit down."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Ma Ying and Zhao Kuo responded before standing up.

Ma Ying then took out a memorial from her arms, held it up with both hands, and presented it to Zhu Tianqi's Long Shu Desk, "Your Majesty, this is what Mr. Zhang brought back because of his humble duty!"

Wang Yuanbao stepped forward to take the memorial and presented it to Zhu Tianqi.Zhu Tianqi opened the memorial and asked, "Why, didn't the state leader return to the capital with the ship?"

Ma Ying hurriedly replied: "Back to the emperor, Mr. Zhang said that he still has to guard the grain and rice in Annan and handle the water transportation ships. He will wait until all the grain and rice have been transported before returning to the capital!"

After hearing this, Zhu Tianqi couldn't help but be moved, and exclaimed: "The father-in-law is really a model of our loyal ministers in the Ming Dynasty!"

After saying this, Zhu Tianqi looked at Ma Ying and Zhao Kuo, nodded and said with a smile: "You two have worked hard too. Because of the court's errands, I couldn't go home for the reunion dinner during the New Year. I really wronged you!"

After hearing this, Ma Ying and Zhao Kuo hurriedly knelt down and saluted and said: "I don't dare to feel a little wronged in my humble position. It is my duty to share the emperor's worries and contribute to the court. I don't dare to feel any grievance in my humble position!"

Zhu Tianqi laughed after hearing this and said, "Why don't you dare to feel wronged? You are all my good ministers, and I will naturally not treat you badly." At this point, Zhu Tianqi shouted. : "Wang Yuanbao!"

Wang Yuanbao on the side quickly bowed and said: "My slave is here!"

Zhu Tianqi immediately ordered: "Didn't Shangshu Xu and Governor Sun send me a lot of treasures a while ago? You go and choose two suitable ones to reward them!"

"My slave, I obey!" Wang Yuanbao nodded in agreement.

Ma Ying and Zhao Kuo also hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed in gratitude: "Thank you for your humiliation, Your Majesty."

Zhu Tianqi nodded slightly, then waved his finger, "Back off!"

Ma Ying and Zhao Kuo immediately saluted and resigned, exited the main hall, and followed Wang Yuanbao to receive the reward.

Only then did Zhu Tianqi carefully read the memorial from Zhang Guoji in his hand. At the beginning of the memorial, Zhang Guoji first wrote some auspicious words to wish Zhu Tianqi a happy new year, and then got down to business.

According to Zhang Guoji's memorial, more than 20 flat-bottomed sand ships with a carrying capacity of more than [-] stone were mobilized for this water transport. For the first time, [-] ships were sent to Annan to transport grain. Now this batch of grain and rice has arrived After arriving in the capital, a total of [-] shi of grain and rice were transported back.

There are also more than fifty sand ships in the second batch, with a carrying capacity much greater than that of the first batch of ships. They have now arrived in Annan and are being loaded onto ships. They will return soon.

Everything written in Zhang Guoji's memorial is good news. However, Zhu Tianqi calculated that based on the current transportation efficiency, it would take about seven or eight trips to transport the 170 million stone grain Zhang Guoji purchased in Annan. All the rice was transported back to the capital. Even if the two batches of sand ships kept coming and going, it would probably take at least three or four months to transport it. Both the transportation cost and the time cost were still quite high.

But there is no solution. After all, the transportation in this era is too backward and cannot be effectively improved in a short time. However, as long as food can be transported back uninterrupted and enough to provide disaster relief, the problem is not big.

(End of this chapter)