In March of the eleventh year of the Jingkang era, a large-scale riot broke out in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou is located in the heart of Lingnan and is the political, cultural and economic center of Guangnan East Road.

It was also one of the starting points of the Maritime Silk Road and an important trading port on the southeastern coast of the Song Dynasty.

There are three versions of the memorial currently on Zhao Huan's desk.

First, the riot was caused by the abuse of power and tyrannical behavior of He Yongfu, the prefect of Guangzhou, which aroused public anger. Furthermore, the riot rapidly escalated due to the failure to suppress it in time.

Second, due to irreconcilable conflicts between merchants from overseas countries such as Choryan and Arabia and local merchants, a private fight broke out between the two sides. The scale of the private fight expanded, and He Yongfu's mismanagement led to a riot.

Third, due to He Yongfu's incompetent governance, a huge loophole appeared in the commercial tax of the Guangzhou Commercial Society in the tenth year of Jingkang, which led to conflict between the two sides and evolved into a large-scale riot.

These three viewpoints all share a common point: the current situation is a result of the incompetence of Guangzhou Prefect He Yongfu.

Who is He Yongfu working for?

He was one of Yu Yunwen's men, who had only been in power for less than a year.

Yu Yunwen is the current Prime Minister and also the Minister of the Navy.

One of the duties of the Minister of the Navy was to open up new routes to foreign lands. For example, one of the "Four Strategies for the South China Sea" he proposed was to capture Lingyamen, which would give the Song Dynasty control of the maritime choke point.

For merchants from Zhulian, Arabia, and Kunlun who wanted to travel to the Song Dynasty, Lingyamen was an essential stop.

Some speculate that Yu Yunwen's rise to power after Xu Churen may indicate that the emperor will soon be opening up large-scale routes to Yi areas.

Thanks to the improvement in shipbuilding technology and commodity efficiency during the Song Dynasty, as well as favorable policies from the imperial court, more and more people saw this opportunity.

However, power centers have never been united; for every supporter, there is bound to be an opponent, regardless of whether such opposition is heartfelt or merely an attack on political enemies.

The Guangzhou riots were undoubtedly a great opportunity, and Yu Yunwen's new policies on overseas trade were basically implemented in Guangzhou.

I'm currently using Yu Yunwen's book, and the results are simply amazing.

Many people in the court strongly opposed Yu Yunwen's new maritime trade policies.

Especially the reformists who implemented the new policies in the first ten years of the Jingkang era.

Xu Churen was demoted, while Tang Keyuan was in the capital.

The most senior official was Zhou Chao, the Minister of the Three Departments.

He scoffed at Yu Yunwen's tax policies in Guangzhou.

What tax policies does Yu Yunwen apply to in Guangzhou?

In order to stimulate foreign trade in Guangnan East Road and expand China's economic penetration into Southeast Asia and more distant regions, the paper money was promoted in a wider area.

After Yu Yunwen took office, he designated Guangnan New Prefecture in Xin'an County (Shenzhen) in the southern part of Guangzhou Prefecture. All merchants who settled in Guangnan New Prefecture were subject to a tax reduction of 5%.

What does this mean?

Before the Jingkang Reforms, the Song Dynasty levied a tax of 20% on merchants.

After Zhao Huan came to power, his prestige soared to unprecedented heights thanks to a victorious battle. He also gained control of the army and forcibly increased taxation to 15% of the total tax, with a maximum of 25% of the total tax.

Among them, high-end industries such as porcelain, silk and jade are highly profitable, with a 25% cut.

Now that it's been reduced to 50%, it frees up a full 20% of the space.

This policy undoubtedly gave the Song Dynasty a strong boost to its foreign trade.

But Yu Yunwen's intentions were also obvious.

While Guangzhou received strong support, the original positions of Hangzhou Port and Mizhou Port faced enormous challenges.

The power struggle between Hangzhou and Mizhou was complex. Hangzhou was a port that rose to prominence at the beginning of the Song Dynasty. During the ten years of the Jingkang era, it became one of the three major ports of the Song Dynasty, along with Mizhou and Quanzhou.

It was the main front line for the Song Dynasty's external exports.

The actual governing power was in the hands of Prince Kang, Zhao Gou, and all foreign policies required the approval and decision of the Council of State Affairs.

Therefore, these three ports were the places where Xu Churen and Prince Kang's power reconciled.

During the ten years of the Jingkang Reforms, these three major ports opened up long-distance sea routes to Southeast Asia, Chinla, and the Arab world.

Its greatest contribution was establishing the Song Dynasty Jiaozi Exchange Bank in these places through trade connections.

He can be considered the pioneer of Zhao Huan's financial empire.

However, with the recovery of people's livelihoods in the north and the unprecedented expansion of the northern frontier region, Mizhou and Hangzhou can no longer be used entirely as places for export.

In addition, with the changes in the political situation at court, the new rulers needed new achievements, and the Guangnan New Prefecture of Guangzhou came into being.

The newly appointed prefect of Guangzhou, He Yongfu, was personally selected by Yu Yunwen and took office.

In just six months, ten large-scale maritime trade companies had settled in Guangnan New Prefecture. The imperial court established the Western Barbarian Maritime Trade Company, which was directly managed by the court and was equivalent to a royal trade company.

Nominally under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Commerce, it was actually directly under the command of the Prime Minister and the Emperor.

This move has unsettled many people, keeping many awake at night.

Especially during the Zhou Dynasty, such a drastic tax reduction would result in a significant loss of revenue for the imperial court, which was something he absolutely could not tolerate.

Given the factional differences, he naturally wanted to take advantage of the moment to suppress the new government's policies in Guangzhou.

Therefore, he was the first to stand up and loudly proclaimed: "I dare to speak frankly, there are two reasons for the chaos in Guangzhou Prefecture: First, the new prefecture was newly established and the laws and regulations were incomplete. The new tax reduction policy was implemented rashly, and in order to obtain quotas, the local merchants in Guangzhou Prefecture resorted to any means and engaged in vicious competition, which led to disputes; second, the new prefect of Guangnan Prefecture, He Yongfu, did not know how to assess the situation, which led to the escalation of disputes and triggered riots."

After Zhou Chao finished speaking, Chen Yang, the Vice Minister of Rites and concurrently the Minister of Commerce, also stepped forward.

After Tang Ke accompanied the emperor north, he obediently relinquished his position as Minister of Commerce, which was then filled by Chen Yang, the Vice Minister of Rites.

Before this, Chen Yang was not only the Vice Minister of Rites, but also served as the Assistant Director of the Ministry of Commerce and Resources for eight years, and was one of Tang Ke's capable assistants.

He disagreed with many of Yu Yunwen's practices, and the Yidao New Policy in Guangzhou was just one of them.

"Your Majesty, I second that opinion," Chen Yang said. "A country cannot have two laws. I believe that if the new policies of the Guangnan Prefecture cannot reassure the people, then they are not good policies. Those in power must not disregard the people's hearts and act recklessly in order to achieve their goals."

"Furthermore, He Yongfu, the prefect of Guangnan New Prefecture, has failed to exercise proper control and should be dismissed from his post and escorted to the capital."

Upon seeing that these two powerful figures had spoken up, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Works, and the Nine Ministries also stood up to second their proposals.

The conversation, which started with the Guangzhou riots, quickly veered into the Yidao New Policy, and the next step was to directly impeach Yu Yunwen.

Zhao Huan's expression remained unchanged, and the ministers could not discern what the emperor was thinking.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Huan asked, "What about the Censorate?"

Liu Yanzong stepped forward and immediately prostrated himself on the ground. His exaggerated action startled everyone else.

Liu Yusi, what kind of trouble are you up to now?

Everyone, sit down properly. The emperor asked you to step forward and speak. You should stand and speak slowly. Why did you crawl on the ground as soon as you came up?

What the hell are you trying to do?

"Liu Qing, what are you doing?"

It's just acting, what else can it be?

Liu Yanzong said, "Your Majesty, please order the extermination of the entire Chen clan of Guangzhou!"