People live in the Ming Dynasty, evil spirits are soaring into the sky

Chapter 139 Officials from the Ministry of Revenue threaten the emperor with collective resignation! Chen Han and Cao Zhengchun are about to return to the court!
The Li family in Liaodong was originally supposed to coordinate the actions of Shanxi and Shanxi merchants.

At that time, the Shanxi Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to the Li family in Liaodong.

It was said that Shanxi and Shanxi merchants were under great threat this time and needed some efforts from the Li family in Liaodong.

The Li family in Liaodong had always been flirting with Shanxi merchants in Shanxi, which was nothing more than smuggling business.

First of all, the Li family in Liaodong has a large amount of ginseng, deer antlers, and mink skins. If they sell it in person, it will not only violate the court's laws that do not allow officials to do business, but it will also be difficult for them to sell such a large amount of ginseng, deer antlers, and mink skins. The skins were sold all over the world, so they could only rely on the manpower of Shanxi merchants.

Of course, there will be many exchanges of interests in the back and forth, and mutual help often happens.

For example, once the Shanxi merchants encountered problems, the Li family in Liaodong used the Jurchen invasion as an excuse to ask for military pay from the court.

In this case, the Ministry of Revenue, which colluded with Shanxi and Shanxi merchants, would definitely say that the Ministry of Revenue's treasury was empty and there was not that much money. If they wanted to raise money, they would need to borrow it from merchants all over the world.

So who is the richest?

Two places - merchants in Shanxi and merchants in the southeast.

The businessmen on both sides actually have interrelated interests.

This forced the court to compromise with the businessmen on both sides.

What's the compromise?
For example, releasing officials who committed crimes on the Shanxi merchant side;
Or give Shanxi merchants certain preferential conditions for selling goods north.

Not only is it tax exemption, but it also allows them to bring in some things that are expressly prohibited from being sold northward.

Or let Shanxi merchants get more shares in the salt industry.

In order to resist the invasion of Liaodong Jurchens, the imperial court could only retreat.

It is also the same reason for colluding with Wala and Tatars to come in from Zhangjiakou.

The difference may be that Governor Xuanda asked the court for military pay.

This method of interlocking has succeeded them many times and can be said to be invincible.

And this time, the reason why Li Chengliang of Liaodong opened his mouth and asked for 1.2 million taels of military pay was to support the Shanxi merchants.

Because he knew that the court would not be able to come up with so much money at once.

It would be good if the imperial court could have a balance of 1.8 million taels of silver every year.

A large part of it will go into the emperor's personal account.

It will be even more difficult to take it out, and you can only reach out to the rich people in the world.

Once he reaches out to the rich, the condition is that Chen Han, the governor of Zhejiang Province in the southeast, must be recalled, otherwise the businessmen in the southeast will not pay.

Cao Zhengchun from Shanxi must be recalled, otherwise the businessmen from Shanxi will not pay.

In this way their purpose will be achieved.

It's just that Li Chengliang never dreamed that before he could coordinate the Shanxi merchants in Shanxi, the Shanxi merchants had already been silenced by Cao Zhengchun.

In the southeast, after three months of Chen Han, the silver collected from several provinces was not as much as the Shanxi merchants, but it still amounted to four to five billion.

It can be seen from this that even if the Southeast is smuggling by sea, it is not as rich as the Shanxi merchants in Shanxi.

Because it takes longer for Shanxi merchants to make a fortune than traders in the southeast.

Moreover, businessmen in the southeast mainly rely on smuggling to make large profits.

However, Shanxi merchants relied on the Kaizhong method developed by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang to provide food and grass for the imperial court's important towns on the nine sides and conduct royal business.

That’s why later generations hate Shanxi merchants more than the smugglers in the southeast.

It was because of the smugglers in the southeast that although they smuggled, their fault was that the Ming court was stuck in its own ways and missed the business opportunities of the sea, which made them successful.

But the Shanxi merchants in Shanxi got their start entirely by relying on the policies of the imperial court.

That was a policy inclination given by the Ming court, which was equivalent to putting money into their pockets and making them rich.

But in turn, they betrayed Ming Ting the worst.

Therefore he is called a traitor.

The merchants in the southeast are abominable, but not as bad as the merchants in Shanxi and Shanxi.

Chen Han also began to close the net. He killed more officials and more families, basically wiping out all the families that had emerged in the southeast. Moreover, the southeast occupies a larger and wider area, and its influence is even greater.

Through Chen Han's actions in several southeastern provinces and Cao Zhengchun's actions in Shanxi, the biggest obstacle to the reform was basically cleared.

So when Li Chengliang in Liaodong realized it later and dared to ask the court for military pay, and when he heard the news that the Southeast and Shanxi sides had ended, he regretted it so much that he was scared to death.

What caught him off guard the most was that after the imperial court received a memorial from Liaodong urging military pay, officials from the Ministry of Revenue immediately activated the plan.

These officials were very smart, and they all resigned on the grounds that they could not raise military pay.

It means: Your Majesty, Your Majesty, it’s up to you. Without us, you can just eat pork with hair on it.

They have also tried this method repeatedly.

Blackmail, this is blackmail.

He blackmailed the court on the grounds of collective resignation and paralysis of a department.

What they didn't know was that Chen Han had already finished.

The military order he issued in front of the court officials was to put an end to the Japanese pirate attacks within half a year, but it only took him three and a half months to complete it.

Those businessmen who were not killed cried for their fathers and wrote a letter to the court in person, saying that Mr. Chen Han, the governor of Zhejiang Province, had served the country loyally and had wiped out the Japanese pirates.

Because they knew that if Chen Han didn't leave, after killing those big tigers, the next little flies, namely them, would also be swatted to death by Chen Han.

Chen Han did not eliminate the roots of Southeast merchants because these merchants were smuggling, but they would still be needed in the future.

After all, they were the first people to venture into the sea and knew the ocean well.

So his order to Cao Zhengchun was to wipe out the Shanxi merchants and collect all the money.

In the southeast, he only destroyed the evil gentry group, but he did not kill the rest.

When Chen Han escorted 5.6 billion silver and returned to the court in a mighty manner, Cao Zhengchun was also on his way back to the court.

In the process, officials from the Ministry of Revenue resigned en masse and threatened Emperor Wanli.

Emperor Wanli was Chen Han's puppet, and the two of them had the same thinking.

So Chen Han sneered at them.

It's just that these people's ability to learn information is still weak.

The reason is that today’s communication conditions are really limited.

Imperial officials were still thinking about how to respond to Southeast and Shanxi, but they did not know that the operations in Shanxi and Southeast had ended.

The time difference of five or six days is enough to kill these self-righteous officials.

The Minister of Hubu is also from Puzhou, Shanxi, and is a fellow villager of Zhang Siweina.

After he heard that all Shanxi merchants in Datong Prefecture had been wiped out, he was very anxious and thought about how to stop it.

So after the urgent report came from Liaodong, he directly spoke to Emperor Wanli in front of all the courtiers during the court meeting in the main square of Qianqing Palace.

The general content is as follows:

The old ministers are old and unable to bear the heavy responsibilities of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Now that the Treasury of the Ministry of Household Affairs is empty, it is really difficult to raise the 1.2 million taels of military pay required by Liaodong.

I feel deeply derelict in my duty, so I request your Majesty to release me and return to my hometown for seclusion.

Then all the officials from the Ministry of Revenue jointly submitted the memorial.

It was said that the Ministry of Household Affairs was unable to raise such a large amount of military pay and that they would resign en masse.

Hundreds of people from the entire household knelt down in the square. The scene was huge.

Many officials present sneered after seeing this.

That means: If your Majesty the Emperor is capable, just rely on Chen Han and Cao Zhengchun, and don't rely on us.

Zhang Juzheng felt helpless when he saw this.

In my heart, I feel somewhat blamed for being too hasty by the emperor and Chen Han...

PS: Five chapters break out again! ! Well done to you readers! !
(End of this chapter)