Inside Chengqian Palace.

Chongzhen was sitting by the brazier holding Shen Peiqing to keep warm.

Shen Peiqing is a beautiful girl of the petite and pretty type.

She has a light figure and walks like a dancer.

Although the clear and bright eyes seem to be able to see into people's hearts, they are still lively and smart.

Especially her smile, which is like a spring breeze on your face, making people intoxicated.

The cold wind is howling outside the door, but it is warm like spring inside.

Looking at the beauty in his arms, Chongzhen finally understood why the beauty trap always worked.

"Your Majesty, official documents from Nanjing." Wang Chengen's voice sounded outside the palace gate.

Shen Peiqing's pretty little face suddenly turned red. She broke free from Chongzhen's arms and quickly walked to the table next to her to start making tea.

"Come in and talk!" Chongzhen ordered in a lazy accent.

"Yes!" Wang Chengen walked in.

He flipped open the document and said, "Your Majesty, the merchant caravan that sailed to Japan is back! Although the journey was a bit tortuous, it is back at least. The document says that the merchants made money and the court collected taxes, so it's a win-win situation!"

"How much tax was collected exactly?" Chongzhen became excited when talking about money.

His ultimate goal of opening up the sea was to collect taxes, not to benefit the merchants.

If the amount of taxes collected is not what he expected, he will have to change his measures.

"In reply to Your Majesty, there were a total of thirty merchant ships that went out to sea this time. One sank on the way there, and another sank on the way back after hitting a reef! The twenty-eight ships brought back more than 1.2 million taels of silver in cash, and the goods were worth about 900,000 taels of silver."

"According to the standard of 30% tax, the total commercial tax collected is more than 70,000 taels!"

"In addition, the Maritime Customs Office exchanged all the cash for Ming Yuanbao for merchants, making a profit of 6 cents per tael of silver, of which 3 cents was handed over to the court."

"The commercial taxes and profits handed over to the court add up to 106,000 taels of silver!"

Before Chongzhen could express his opinion, Shen Peiqing, who was pouring tea, suddenly cried out, "Ah!"

Then the teacup fell to the ground and broke into pieces.

Shen Peiqing quickly knelt down before Chongzhen and said, "I am sorry for disturbing your majesty. Please forgive me."

"Get up, I'll deal with you at night!" Chongzhen smiled and waved his hand.

Shen Peiqing's face turned red and purple, and she wanted to hide her face under the table.

No wonder Shen Peiqing was surprised.

Too much money!

You should know that the total amount of commercial taxes collected in the Ming Dynasty each year was only four or five hundred thousand taels.

The tax collected from a single voyage was as high as 100,000 taels, accounting for 20% to 30% of the total commercial tax!

Is 70,000 taels of commercial tax plus 36,000 taels of hidden tax a lot?

Chongzhen thought it was not much, but compared with the taxes collected from Yuegang in Fujian, it was an astronomical figure.

How much tax does Yuegang pay every year?

Twenty thousand taels!

That’s right, it’s twenty thousand taels of silver!

It’s not twenty thousand taels a month, but twenty thousand taels a year!

According to records.

In the late Ming Dynasty, a tax supervision office was set up in Yuegang for the purpose of collecting taxes. The Tongzhi and Tongpan of Zhangzhou Prefecture took turns to supervise the taxes, with an annual income of 20,000 taels.

These 20,000 taels of silver were not handed over to the imperial court, but were retained as military pay for Zhangzhou!

There was a time when Macau also had a port.

The Guangzhou Maritime Customs and Xiangshan County jointly collected taxes, and the annual revenue was about 20,000 taels.

The silver was also left in the local area as military pay!

It's so funny!

Logically speaking, most of these local officials were officials sent by the imperial court, not local officials.

They should find ways to help the court collect taxes instead of reducing taxes for merchants and gentry.

But the local voice is in the hands of the gentry.

In order to prevent local chaos, officials had no choice but to compromise with the gentry.

This shows how difficult it is to collect taxes!

At this time, Shen Peiqing had already brewed tea. She held the teacup in both hands and walked to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, please have some tea."

Chongzhen did not take the tea, but stared at Wang Chengen.

Wang Chengen didn't understand what was going on, and knelt down hastily: "I am a stupid servant, please explain it to me, Your Majesty."

"You just said a ship sank when you were there?"

"yes."

"How did it sink?"

"I didn't know that the official document was written by the Maritime Customs of Songjiang Prefecture in Nanzhili. After receiving the news, Nanjing forwarded it to the Cabinet in Beijing. After receiving it, the Cabinet presented it to the Imperial Household Department, and the Chief Seal of the Imperial Household Department, Gao Shiming, ordered me to present it to your Majesty!" Wang Chengen knelt on the ground and explained.

"Let Gao Shiming come over!" Chongzhen ordered expressionlessly.

Soon, Gao Shiming, looking sick, trotted up to Chongzhen.

Ever since he went to Sichuan in the 17th year of Chongzhen, his health had been in trouble, and his condition had been fluctuating.

Chongzhen wanted to replace him, but couldn't find a suitable candidate.

In addition, Wang Chengen was the one who basically ran errands, and Gao Shiming just stayed in the Silijian to handle official business. Since the illness did not affect official duties, Chongzhen did not replace him.

In addition to these, there is another reason: to stabilize the harem.

One can imagine the power of the eunuch who holds the seal of Silijian in the harem. If he is replaced, those who previously relied on Gao Shiming will have to look for new backers in order to protect themselves.

The harem will also be in chaos for a while because of this.

Chongzhen would not allow this to happen.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you!" Gao Shiming knelt down and saluted Chongzhen.

"Get up. Are you feeling better recently?" Chongzhen asked with concern.

Gao Shiming did not stand up, but kowtowed and said, "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I am fine now."

"It's good, get up."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Gao Shiming kowtowed again before standing up.

Chongzhen asked directly: "A merchant ship sank on the way to Nagasaki Port. Do you know how it sank?"

"To reply to Your Majesty, it is not written in the official document, and I in Nanzhili don't know either." Gao Shiming answered honestly.

Chongzhen squinted his eyes and thought for a while, then asked, "Has the Imperial Household Department received any reports about Zheng Chenggong?"

"Yes, the Ministry of War just sent a letter! The letter said that Zheng Chenggong encountered the Jiannu during his escort mission, and the two sides engaged in a battle, with casualties on both sides. The Ministry of War applied for pensions for the soldiers who died in Zheng Chenggong's army, and the Imperial Household Department is verifying it."

"In other words...the merchant ship was sunk by the Jiannu?" Chongzhen asked again.

Gao Shiming shook his head slightly, "I'm not sure if it was sunk by the Jiannu, because it's not written in the Tang newspaper!"

This statement is said very cautiously.

Just like what Xu Jie said, reading it does not mean verifying it. What is written in official documents is not necessarily the truth, and we should not make random guesses about things that are not written.

"What about the people on that ship? They can't be all dead, right? Send someone to investigate. As long as there are still people alive, we can find out the truth." Chongzhen decided to hold on to this matter.

A fortress is often first breached from the inside, and to disintegrate the enemy it is also necessary to start from within.

This was true for the Ming Dynasty and also for Zheng Zhilong.

He wanted to take the opportunity to divide and weaken Zheng Zhilong's power.