I was the emperor in the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 374
As the evening approached, Zhu Gaoxu and Huang Yan, who looked tired, came hand in hand.

At this time, Li Tian was having dinner, but seeing the dusty appearance of the two, Li Tian didn't let them sit down and have something to eat, and didn't even ask them to sit down and have a drink of tea.

Both of them still had lingering fears. Seeing that Li Tian didn't speak, they didn't dare to say much, so they could only stand quietly and wait until Li Tian finished eating, or ask questions.

Li Tian has found a way to curb the soaring prices in the capital. As for who is behind the scenes, he no longer cares much.

Even if he knew, under Daming's laws, he had no basis to punish those people, even if he found out a few people who took the lead in making trouble and played a leading role, it would be of little use.

Who knows if there is a backer behind them.

Since there is no way to punish them, the best thing is to let Dongchang or Jinyiwei get behind their backs, or make accusations or frame them up.

But the practical significance of doing so is not great, and it is far less secure than levying commercial taxes and using exchanges to strictly control prices.

The fact that he showed the faces of the two of them in this way was mainly because of their inaction that caused such a thing to happen.

As the eyes and ears of the emperor, the factory guards who grasped the movements of all forces in the world did not play their due role. In the end, Li Tian found out the clues of the matter on the Beijing News.

This is why Li Tiantian annoyed them.

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food, Li Tian is full.

While gargling with green tea, he said to the two of them neither salty nor weak.

"But have you found out who is behind the scenes!"

Zhu Gaoxu led the army to try his best in battle, and was even braver than many generals, but his ability in commanding the factory guards, an organization similar to secret agents, was far inferior to Huang Yan, Liu Gang and others.

Therefore, this investigation was basically conducted by Jin Yiwei, and Huang Yan's people were responsible for leading the investigation.

He didn't have much right to speak, but handed over the right to report to Huang Yan.

Huang Yan arched his hands and bowed his waist, his face was a little embarrassed and said,
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the old slave and the king of Han found out that Changlongji and Taiheji, the two largest grain companies in the capital, played a major role."

Li Tian was not very familiar with these two names, so he frowned and asked,
"Who is behind the two of them, you can find out."

Huang Yan squinted at Zhu Gaoxu, seeing that he didn't respond, he hesitated for a while before whispering,

"I found out, it should be Baoyuan Bank behind them, and behind Baoyuan Bank..."

Hearing the words Baoyuan Bank, Li Tiandeng immediately understood what was going on.

sneered,
"I didn't expect that it was the Langya Wang family who made a hindrance. This Meng Xianying was sent to Fengyang, and he was so uneasy. It seems that my punishment is still too light for him."

Seeing that Li Tian seemed to want to punish Meng Xianying, Huang Yan quickly said,
"Think twice, Your Majesty, the Langya Wang family is a century-old clan, not only has a very wide network of contacts in the court, but also has an inseparable relationship with other wealthy clans through marriages and other means over the years. .

If you rashly attack the Wang family, I am afraid that it will not only affect the Wang family! "

After listening to Huang Yan's words, Li Tian's clenched fist slightly loosened.

After lightly pressing his brows and thinking for a while, he finally restrained the thought in his heart.

What Huang Yan said is correct. Although the aristocratic family was severely suppressed by the court during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, in the Song Dynasty, the concept of literati sharing the world with the emperor was thoroughly implemented.

Even after Meng Yuan's cleansing, under Zhu Yuanzhang's various preferential state policies that the scholars did not pay tribute or perform hard labor, the limelight of the aristocratic family tended to rise again.

The so-called royal power does not come down to the county, and the country gentry ruled the four directions. In the Ming Dynasty, it was not empty talk. Even in the Qing Dynasty, and even in the decades before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the power of the country gentry was very strong.

And these so-called squires are the most powerful families that have been passed down for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Their local rule is not empty talk.

Sometimes, the words of the country gentry are more effective than the local officials.

Like the Wang family, who not only have a huge network of contacts in the imperial court, but also hold a lot of wealth in their hands, and even have absolute ruling power in the local area. Unless they do something rebellious, the imperial court will really use them. There is no way.

In addition, they have huge influence whether they are in the court or in the opposition. If they really want to stumbling the court, it is really easy.

For example, the soaring price of food this time is just a small demonstration by them.

Just the cooperation of a few grain merchants in the area can already cause such turmoil. If they try their best to fight against the imperial court, they may cause some troubles.

The tax change is for the interests of the scholar-bureaucrats all over the world, but the investigation of the world's guards is for the interests of noble generals.

In the matter of the guard, under the coercion of Li Tian and the strong coercion of the new army, no troubles were finally caused.

In this special period when the tax reform is about to be introduced, it is indeed not appropriate to be moved.

But if people come to slap them in the face, if they don't fight back one or two, what will be the face of themselves and the court?
If you can't do it with martial arts, then send me a letter to see if your Wang family is powerful or if I have enough money.

"Huang Yan, have you, Dongchang, ever found out what the Langya Wang family's main business is besides the Baoyuan Bank!"

Although Huang Yan didn't know what Li Tian was planning, he still honestly told the information he had.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the Langya Wang Clan is based in Shandong, and Shandong is the main grain producing area in the Central Plains. In addition, Shandong's cotton production ranks first in the two capitals and thirteen provinces in the country.

The Wang family's grain business is one of the best in both the capital and other regions, and the cotton cloth in the capital is the only one owned by the Wang family.

Others, there are some restaurants and restaurants, but compared to the scale of grain and cotton cloth, others are negligible! "

After listening to Huang Yan's report, Li Tian laughed, and said in a disdainful voice,
"It's really not surprising that a wealthy family was born out of a mere cotton cloth business."

Due to the huge demand for such things as food and the involvement of the imperial court, it is not just the Wang family who do it, but many other big families actually participate in it more or less.

Unless it's a bad year, you can't actually make a lot of money in the grain business.

It's just because the demand is very large, as long as it is food, it can be sold, and the money earned is nothing more than hard-earned money.

(End of this chapter)