Daming Military Empire

Chapter 58 Tax Controversy
There was a severe drought in the north, and rebels were everywhere. Naturally, the Ming court could not ignore it. Not only Zhu Cijiong was thinking of a way, but the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty were also thinking of a way.This method has not been thought out yet, but the Donglin Party jumped out to impeach Xu Guangqi again.

What is going on here?
The reason is still for money. Both disaster relief and thieves need money. The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty did not have the idea of ​​using the treasury, and that little money would not last for two years. They all thought that taxes should be increased.The so-called "Shi Party" headed by Xu Guangqi advocated the collection of a transaction tax on salt, tea, cloth, etc., at [-] yuan per tax, which could increase the collection of tens of millions of taels a year; However, the Lin party advocated increasing the tax on farmland, with an increase of three cents per mu of land, which would result in an increase of tens of millions of taels a year.

Just as the two parties were arguing, the officials of the Donglin Party began to impeach Xu Guangqi again.

This time, of course, it was Qian Qianyi who fanned the flames and set off a party struggle, hoping to pull Xu Guangqi down and join the cabinet himself as Prime Minister. He also put forward the term "teacher party", which probably means that Xu Guangqi relied on himself as the emperor's teacher, formed a party for privacy, and excluded dissidents.

When Zhu Cijiong saw the impeachment memorial, he couldn't help being furious. He finally realized that some of the Donglin party's speech officials were not tools for supervising officials, but tools for party struggle.

He doesn't know whether Xu Guangqi has formed a party or not. State affairs are so difficult and they still jump out to make trouble.

At this time, Zhu Cijiong had already firmly controlled the Beijing camp through Qin Liangyu, and had drawn Luo Yangxing through Rixinglong's shares. Jin Yiwei was already firmly in his hands, not to mention Dongchang, Cao Huachun had long been his confidant.This capital is now his Chongzheng Emperor Zhu Cijiong's final say, so naturally he won't let these jumping clowns jump around.

After Zhu Cijiong saw the impeachment memorial, he immediately called Cao Huachun to him, put the memorial into his hand, and asked without doubt: "Who is behind the scenes this time, have you found out?"

Cao Huachun opened the memorial, glanced at it slightly, and replied with certainty: "It's Qian Qianyi, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites."

Hearing this, Zhu Cijiong gritted his teeth and said, "It turned out to be Qian Qianyi, but I forgot about this traitor. Did he do the last two impeachments?"

Cao Huachun replied hesitantly after hearing the words: "He hasn't found out yet, but the first time he took the lead in the impeachment of Lord Xu Guangqi, Qu Shixu was his cronies, and the second time he took the lead in making troubles, the scholar Huang Zongzhou He is his best friend, and must have something to do with him."

Zhu Cijiong is so angry, Qian Qianyi, a traitor, thought that he surrendered to the Qing army because of the situation and had to surrender, but he never thought that this guy was a bad villain with pus on his feet from the beginning, he couldn't help but sneer Said: "Hmph, 'The water is too cold to go down', this time I will make you unable to even see the water."

After hearing what the little emperor said, Cao Huachun was immediately confused. The word "traitor" in the previous sentence hadn't been coined in the Ming Dynasty. He didn't know what it meant, but he added the word "dog" in front of it. Not a good thing to say.The latter "the water is too cold to drink" is even more inexplicable. Does whether the water is cold or not has anything to do with character?
"The water is too cold to go down." Naturally, Cao Huachun didn't know what it meant. It was a classic sentence that Qian Qianyi said more than ten years later when the Nanming Dynasty fell.

At that time, the Qing army was approaching the city of Nanjing, and Liu Rushi, one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai, Qian Qianyi's wife, persuaded Qian Qianyi to throw himself into the water with him.Qian Qianyi was speechless after deep thought, and finally went down to the pool to try the water, and said: "The water is too cold to go down"!Liu Rushi was still loyal and fierce, "struggling to sink in the pond", but Qian Qianyi held him back.

Later, Qian Qianyi led a group of ministers of Nanming to open the city in the torrential rain to surrender to the Qing army commander Duoduo, and became a shameless dog traitor.In other words, the current high-sounding, self-proclaimed leader of the Donglin Party was not even as loyal to Daming when the country was subjugated!

Zhu Cijiong knew that he couldn't show it to such shameless villains, he could only play dirty with them.There is no excuse not to say it clearly, and it is easy to do bad things, a villain, a villain, this kind of villain who even surrendered to the Qing army in order to survive, you deal with him clearly, he still doesn't want to do everything possible to save his life. At that time, I don't know how many people will be dragged into the water by him.

It's different for those who play dirty, I'm going to bully you, what's the matter, you dare to scold me?

In fact, as early as when the Donglin Party and Xu Guangqi were arguing about where the tax should be increased, Zhu Cijiong knew that the reason why the Donglin Party did not agree to levy a transaction tax was because behind them was the bureaucratic group of scholars and bureaucrats in Jiangnan. They are all local tyrants, and they have many businesses under their names. With the transaction tax, they have to pay at least several million taels a year, so they naturally quit.

Zhu Cijiong always thought that Shanxi merchants were the richest in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In fact, he was mistaken. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Shanxi merchants were just rising, and the real wealth was in the industries controlled by the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrat group.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, droughts and military disasters were always raging in the north, and Jiangnan was not affected at all. In addition, Jiangnan was rich in products, handicrafts were developed, and foreign trade was popular, so the local tycoons in Jiangnan were all rich. Oil.Otherwise, the capital has fallen, where did they get the money to support King Fu to establish the Nanming regime, and where did they get the money to organize hundreds of thousands of troops to fight against the Qing army, and they lingered for nearly 20 years.

It's a pity that they are a bunch of literati who are harming the country with empty talk. They are vulnerable to the brutal Qing army. They only know how to fight for power. When the Qing army came, they scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing and surrendering. There were hundreds of thousands of troops in the sky. But he didn't make any decent resistance.

Of course, those things are all about the Chongzhen Dynasty. Now it is the Chongzheng Emperor. They want to harm the country, want to prodigal, and want to hand over the rich Jiangnan to the Qing army. There is no chance. Our little emperor Zhu Cijiong is now Prepare to teach them how to be human.

The first thing to teach is of course Qian Qianyi who has been hiding behind his back and fanning the flames, Cheng Jiming, the left servant of the official department who only knows to protect the interests of the Jiangnan scholar-bureaucrat group in spite of the national crisis, and Qian Longxi, the right servant of the official department, and those As a traitor, he only knows how to attack dissidents.

How to clean up?Zhu Cijiong had thought about it a long time ago, didn't you disregard the national crisis?Don't you want to increase the rent and tax regardless of whether the peasants live or die?Well, I will let you go wherever the national crisis is the most serious. If you want to increase taxes and force farmers to rebel, then let you collect taxes yourself.

So, the next day, Zhu Cijiong issued a decree, agreeing to increase the farmland tax by three cents per mu. At the same time, Qian Qianyi, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, was appointed as the right capital imperial envoy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the governor of Shaanxi's trilateral military affairs, and was responsible for the suppression of the peasant army in Shaanxi and Shanxi. matter.Cheng Ji, the left servant of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, was ordered to be the Zuobu Political Envoy of Shaanxi Chengxuan Political Envoy, and Qian Longxi, the Right Minister of the Ministry of Officials, was the Right Buzheng of Shaanxi Chengxuan Political Envoy, responsible for local affairs in Shaanxi.Qu Shisi and other eloquent officials were the prefects, prefects, and co-prefects of various prefectures in Shaanxi.Yang He, the former governor of Shaanxi, was demoted to the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, and other officials were appointed otherwise.

Now Qian Qianyi was dumbfounded, he was finally promoted to the second grade as he wished, but he was not a minister of the Ministry of Rites, let alone ascended to the court to pay homage to the prime minister, but was sent to Shaanxi to be the governor, and even Cheng Jiming and Qian Longxi were under him. Involved, and thrown into the den of rebels!
This is no longer a matter of stealing chickens and losing rice, or even losing one's life.But they had nothing to say. Who told them to be impassioned during the court meeting, as if they were devoting themselves to the country and the people.

Now that they are given the opportunity to devote themselves to the country and the people, and they have been promoted, do they dare to refuse?Wouldn't it be that if you slap yourself in the mouth, your official career will be ruined, your reputation will be stinky, and this will be the end of your life.

Qian Qianyi is a person with ideals, ambitions, and ambitions, so he naturally doesn't want to end his official career just like that.He can only comfort himself, Shaanxi is not necessarily very dangerous, then Yang He has been the governor for three years, nothing happened, he should go there for a few years, as long as the Donglin Party does not fall, he will always There is a chance to return to the capital and join the cabinet to take power!

(End of this chapter)