The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

While Wang Wenlong's new book is selling like hotcakes, the situation in Fujian is also quietly changing.

Quanzhou streets.

A group of tax inspectors carried the newly issued papers, like eagle dogs searching for hares. When they saw the North and South stores open, they immediately rushed in to search.

"Where's the shopkeeper?" The tax inspector who entered the store spoke with a strong Guanzhong accent.

The shopkeeper had already gone to the back room when they entered. A young boy walked out timidly and replied with a smile: "My shopkeeper has gone to stock the goods."

"Do you have any foreign goods in your store?"

The waiter quickly laughed and said: "Eunuch Liang has already placed a notice on the list. How dare we buy any foreign goods in our store? These are all porcelain for export business."

The tall tax inspector glanced around the store, pointed at a gold plate on the shelf and asked, "Isn't this just foreign goods? Where did it come from? Which foreign country did you deal with?"

The clerk took one look at it and hurriedly wanted to hide the big plate, but was held down by the tax inspector's minions.

Hearing the noise outside, the shopkeeper who was hiding inside quickly ran out, took out two pieces of silver from his sleeves and stuffed them into the hands of the tax supervisor, and said with a smile on his face:

"Sir, my guy can't explain clearly. In fact, this is not a foreign product, but a porcelain made in Dehua. It is specially made for export. Therefore, it looks like foreign porcelain, but it is actually a local product. It is a local product. of."

In the middle of the 32nd year of Wanli, Liang Yong, the imperial eunuch and former Shaanxi tax inspector, was transferred to the Yuegang Metropolitan Tax Eunuch. One month after he arrived in Fujian, Wei Malang of the Dutch East India Company, with the help of Li Jin, Invasion of Penghu.

As in history, the Dutch also tried to bribe the Fujian eunuchs before invading.

In the original history, the person they bribed was Gao Yin from the Guangdong-Hong Kong Taxation Department. At this time, Eunuch Gao had long been dead, but the method was no different.

Li Jin sent the two thousand taels of silver used as bribes directly to Liang Yong's case.

Although Liang Yong has been a tax supervisor in Shaanxi for many years, Shaanxi is poor these days. Liang Yong can collect some local specialties there, and when he comes to Fujian, he can earn 2,000 taels of silver from his first transaction. Yong was taken down instantly.

The Dutch hoped that Liang Yong could help them lobby the court to allow the Dutch East India Company to occupy Penghu. Liang Yong was also ready to act as a lobbyist for traitors. Unfortunately, Xu Xueju and Shen Yourong were too well prepared, and Liang Yong's post had not yet been posted. After sending it out, Wei Malang was beaten away by Shen Yourong.

Liang Yong did nothing and received two thousand taels of silver in vain, so he was naturally happy.

As soon as the Dutch left, Liang Yong immediately distanced himself from the Dutch and pretended to support Fujian's coastal defense.

When he expelled Wei Malang, Xu Xueju temporarily imposed a sea ban. After the Dutch were driven away, the sea ban was reopened. However, the investigation was very strict during this period. Only Fujian people were allowed to sell goods to the east and west, and foreigners were not allowed to sell anything except silver. Products purchased and sold in Fujian.

Liang Yong also fully cooperated. His minions seized foreign goods everywhere in the Fujian market and were completely merciless to the requests of the cargo owners.

At this moment, I saw the tax supervisor put two taels of money into his arms, and then his face changed and he said sternly: "Stop trying to quibble with me. Come to the official office with me and explain clearly the source of this goods?"

The shopkeeper looked stunned, "Master, haven't you already accepted the villain..."

"Oh, now is the critical time of the sea ban. We followed Eunuch Liang's order, how could we let the people who went to the ocean go for a little bribe?"

"Master, I'm wronged!" The shopkeeper begged loudly for mercy, but was dragged away by the tax supervisors without saying a word.

After watching this scene on the sliding pole, Wang Wenlong could only sigh and shake his head. Gao Yin left and Liang Yong came, and the people of Fujian only had half a year to breathe.

Wang Wenlong knew Liang Yong's reputation. If Gao Yin was vicious, Liang Yong was quite fierce. He was used to threatening and robbing, so he was not a good bird.

In fact, Liang Yong's behavior when he entered Fujian let the people of Fujian know that this person was difficult to deal with.

Liang Yong had been a tax supervisor in Shaanxi for five years before being transferred to Fujian. When he came to Fujian to take office this time, he brought his own troops.

When Liang Yong was in charge of taxing Shaanxi, he obtained 500 fine horses from outside the Great Wall, and used them to form a cavalry team of 500 people. Shaanxi is a frontier land with abundant troops. When Liang Yong formed the Tiqi, he did not hire the gangster Lin Zongwen as the captain like Gao Yin. Liang Yong's Tiqi captain was the serious Jin Yiwei Qianhu Legang.

With military training and a background as a guard guard, Liang Yong's cavalry team of 500 people is quite capable of fighting. Lin Zongwen was able to escape early when Gao Yin was besieged by Zhu Sheng, and Liang Yong's cavalry was even able to protect Liang Always going in and out of frontier fortresses to collect taxes.

Liang Yong was able to gain the attention of Emperor Wanli because he was indeed very "effective" in taxation. Shaanxi is not as wealthy as Fujian, and it is not convenient to convert the taxes collected into silver, but this cannot stop Liang Yong from rejecting anyone who comes.

Liang Yong's taxation in Shaanxi was mainly based on local conditions. He would levy taxes based on the local specialties of each place. He levied horses in Huamachi, white salt in Qingyang Salt Pond, and went to various production areas to collect Xianyang borneol, wool, musk and other specialties.

For places without native products, Liang Yong chose to carry out large-scale excavation of ancient tombs. Ancient tombs were dug over 800 miles in Qinchuan from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Even in places that were so poor that there were no tombs, Liang Yong could still scrape out money.

From an anecdote recorded in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", we can learn about Liang Yong's situation when he was in charge of taxing Shaanxi: "The humanitarian business in Xianning was robbed, and the traces were used as tax envoys."

In really poor places, this guy would simply recruit a group of bandits to serve as tax collectors, and then take a cut of the bandits' robbery results.

Historically, Liang Yong worked as a tax collector in Shaanxi until he was impeached and returned to Beijing in the 34th year of Wanli. Now he has come to Fujian. At this time, Liang Yong was also trying to find out the details of Fujian, and he had not yet come up with too much information. It's too rough a method, but I don't know how the situation will develop.

The only thing Wang Wenlong knew was that Liang Yong was different from Gao Yin. Many of the tax collectors under him were from the military, and some were even murderous bandits. During the Rebellion of All Lives, a group of scholars could besiege Gao Yin, but they could be replaced by Liang Yong. , those scholars are really not enough for his tax collectors to beat.

Wang Wenlong's slider continued forward and entered the Li family mansion in Quanzhou Nancheng.

When Wang Wenlong returned to Fujian, he naturally had to go back to his parents' home with Li Guoxian. In the past few days, he and Li Guoxian lived in Li Dan's house in Quanzhou, while Shen Yixiu stayed in Fuzhou.

Slider entered his father-in-law's house. Along the way, the maids and servants nodded and saluted Wang Wenlong. Wang Wenlong entered the side courtyard, but Yao Lu's face was not very good-looking when he was standing in the courtyard.

Wang Wenlong asked: "What's the situation at the Trinity Church on Dayuan Island?"

Yao Lu said with a gloomy face: "My friends from the same religion visited three immigrant villages, and found that two of them were colluding with the Dutch. You don't know how bold they are in Jianyang."

Wang Wenlong said: "Please tell me, guest of the garden."

Yao Lu: "They colluded with the Japanese pirates and the Dutch, allowed the Japanese and the Dutch to stay at the small port in the village, and provided them with supplies. It didn't matter. There were still important figures in the Trinity Church when the Dutch invaded Penghu. Help the Dutch get the message out.”

Wang Wenlong asked: "Brother Yuanke, how do you think this should be handled?"

Yao Lu said: "These immigrant villages of the Trinity Church colluded with foreign countries to undermine our Han people's control over the reclamation of Taiyuan Island, especially when they passed on information when the Dutch invaded. Such behavior is already a traitor. It first allowed those within the Trinity Church to All the relevant persons must be traced, and every trace must be cleared. The second step is to reveal the news to Xu Futai and punish him accordingly. Otherwise, we cannot avoid future troubles forever!"

Wang Wenlong asked again: "What level are the people from the three religions involved?"

Yao Lu: "It has reached the level of dean. There are more than a dozen immigrant villages following this hospital."

Wang Wenlong frowned when he heard this. The organization of Trinity Church is relatively loose. Each disciple below the four elders is in charge of the campus. Within the campus, the actual organizational halls are the ancestral hall and the academy. At this time, there are only five academies in Taiwan. , each ancestral temple academy can correspond to at least a few to more than a dozen immigrant villages on the island of Taiwan. If all the teaching positions in a certain academy of the Trinity Church were taken away, the Trinity Church would have a large number of immigrants. The stalls set up on Yuan Island will definitely be hit hard, not to mention that the Dutch invasion is now in the spotlight. If the stalls of Trinity Church are scattered, they may not be able to recover within a few years.

"Let me go and communicate with the Trinity Sect," Wang Wenlong sighed. "If the Trinity Sect is willing to repent, show a sufficient attitude, and arrest the principals back to Fujian, Xu Futai should be able to explain it, and there will be no peace. The Trinity Church has become so troubled that it is hard to lose face.”

"If we don't punish the traitors severely, big things will happen in the future!" Yao Lu couldn't tolerate this kind of thing, and said angrily: "If we don't catch the thieves who are liaising with foreign countries, there will be another rebellion on Dajuan Island in the future. How should the imperial government control the development efforts of today’s officials? Will they all be handed over to foreigners in the future?”

"They will not hand over Damuan Island to foreigners. They have finally developed the land, and they are not that stupid." Wang Wenlong asked him: "Do you believe me, Mr. Yuanke?"

Yao Lu looked at him for a long time and nodded.

Wang Wenlong said: "Then give me some time to communicate with everyone first."

Yao Lu highly respected the theory of nationalism and even had some colonial thoughts.

It's just that in this era, colonialism is really not a backward idea. It is a necessary step in history, and Wang Wenlong has no objection to it.

The only problem is that Yao Lu is too stubborn. Those who are developing Daguan Island now are maritime merchants, speculators, and the Trinity Church. These are not multi-standard forces in the first place. It is impossible for the court to absolutely control it with the power of the current court. Compared with the court Unable to control the big officials, Wang Wenlong was even more afraid that Yao Lv would suddenly bring this matter to light, sparking heated discussions and causing the court to issue an injunction to prevent the development of Da Yuan Island. After all, the Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese were all eyeing this island. .

(End of this chapter)