What does fire consumption mean?

When local officials collected taxes, they would collect an extra portion on the grounds of "loss". This portion was called fire loss. For example, if rice was eaten by rats, it was called rat loss, which was a type of fire loss.

In fact, it is equivalent to tacitly approving local officials to collect more silver, which is an established source of extra income.

For example, the national treasury had a certain amount of "exemption" in the past, which was actually a kind of fire consumption. Because the purity of silver in the private sector varied, there would be some loss after it was stored in the treasury and smelted into ingots.

What does it mean that the fire consumption will be returned to the public? It means that according to local conditions, the fire consumption will be added to the normal tax, levied uniformly, and retained in the provincial treasury. It can be used to maintain the integrity of local officials and make up for the financial deficits in various places. If there is any surplus, it can also be used for public purposes, such as repairing cities and building embankments.

How should I put it? By making it public, transparent and legal, and changing hidden collection to open collection, the burden on the people will be much lighter.

This can at least prevent some truly honest people from being forced into corruption, and give some people who are wavering in their hearts or have the same name an additional "right path" to take. As for those who are greedy by nature, no matter what the policy is, they will find ways to be corrupt, and there is nothing that can be done about it.

Yan Shiyue told them the matter in detail.

Emperor Ming Yan suddenly fell into deep thought.

In his opinion, this is indeed feasible. In this way, the financial power will be concentrated in the hands of the court, and the local governments will have less autonomy. This is undoubtedly a good thing for controlling officials who have been sent to other places.

...

...

Prince Chun and Xu Wenqu were also thinking carefully.

At this time, outside, the shadow guard had already captured the man.

The tin painting shop had already been searched once, and now it was searched thoroughly several times, but nothing was found.

When Shopkeeper Wei came in and saw Jiang Henbie, his expression changed immediately. He then readily admitted that he had made the fake silver, but he refused to tell where he had hidden it.

The shadow guard tried every trick he could, but he didn't expect that these two people were so stubborn and refused to say anything.

Huo Qijing went over to take a look. When Jiang Henbie saw him, he smiled at him and said, "Are you the husband of Lady Fu?"

Huo Qijing did not answer, Jiang Henbie said with a sigh: "In the midst of thousands of troops, you cut down the flag and captured the general... If you had not married Empress Fu, you would have been so glorious. Now... you are like the princess's follower."

There was a lot of malice in these words, but Huo Qijing didn't care at all and just looked him up and down.

Then he asked, "You don't feel any pain?"

Jiang Henbie narrowed his eyes.

Although there is a legend about Guan Gong scraping bones to treat poison, playing chess and eating and drinking, that was just enough to endure. However, Jiang Henbie did not even have the skin on his face twitching, as if he could not feel it at all.

Huo Qijing said calmly, "You worked for Cui Hang thirty years ago... He trusted you, so you were at least a young man. So you are probably sixty years old now? But you look like you are less than thirty years old. Do you have any secret to keep your youth? Are you not feeling pain because of this?"

He looked at the shopkeeper Wei, whose name was said to be Wei Qing: "You don't have any either?"

Jiang Henbie smiled and said, "Not bad, you have some skills."

He paused and said, "Since you know it, there is no point in torturing us. You might as well just kill us. After we die, no one will be able to find that place. If someone finds it after a thousand or eight hundred years, what does it have to do with you?"

Huo Qijing said, "You are not even afraid of death, but you are unwilling to tell me where you hid the silver. How can I feel at ease?"

Jiang Henbie smiled and said, "What's the point of wasting time with us?"

Huo Qijing was not good at forcing a confession, so seeing that he refused to say anything, he retreated.

From the moment he suddenly closed his eyes and remained silent, Yan Shiyue had a feeling that he would definitely not speak anymore.

But at that time I thought I could resist the torture. I always felt that under the means of the shadow guards, there might still be hope. I didn't expect that I didn't feel any pain?

She wrote to Su Ji, asking him what medicine could make people feel no pain and what medicine could keep people young and beautiful. Su Ji replied that he didn't know and asked her to send the person over so that he could study it.

People really need to stay for now, maybe it will be of some use?

Since he felt no pain, the shadow guard didn't bother trying anymore and just gave up for the time being, and continued searching around the tin painting workshop.

The prince wrote another letter, crying and begging his father to go back quickly, saying that everyone already knew.

Yan Shiyue asked: "Then shall we go back?"

Emperor Mingyan smiled and said, "How about Yue'er go back first?"

"No!" She refused without hesitation: "I'm worried about you running around outside by yourself!"

Emperor Mingyan said: "Then, we will set off in two days."

When Yan Shiyue came out and asked, Weixin told her what had happened in the palace in the past few days.

The impeachment by the Prince's Junior Tutor Liu Songcheng really caught the Prince off guard.

The hardest thing to guard against in this world is being stabbed in the back by your own people.

The key point is that Liu Songcheng was nominally his "teacher", but he was impeached for being unfilial... This matter is really tricky and disgusting, and no matter how it is handled, it is wrong.

So the prince simply did not deal with it, and kept the memorial without sending it out, waiting for Emperor Ming Yan to come back and deal with it.

But of course he couldn't just sit there and do nothing.

Coincidentally, the prince had just finished a tour before coming to the palace.

The prince received strict education since he was young. He was taught by the most learned officials in the world. In terms of teachers, it can be said that no one in the world can compare to him. He himself was studious, humble, and good at poetry. Therefore, during his tour, he wrote many articles and poems to exchange with talented people from all over the country.

This is actually a good story.

So the prince ordered people to speed up the printing of all these articles and poems, many of which involved the "late mother's taboo".

What the prince meant was that honoring his deceased mother was ingrained in him, and he had never forgotten it even when he was doing it impromptu. How could he forget it in his daily life?

Answer without answering.

Pretty nice counterattack.

But this was just a coincidence. If the prince had not happened to be on tour and so many talented people could testify, how would the prince have fought back against such a disgusting accusation?

Yan Shiyue sighed, "Fortunately, all my memorials were written by Mr. Xu. Otherwise, I would not be able to remember all the taboos of my father, mother, and master. What if I make a mistake and get caught?"

Wei Xin also became nervous after hearing what she said: "Then from now on, we should deal with the paper written by the master quickly and don't keep it."

Yan Shiyue nodded and asked, "But why did this person suddenly want to impeach the Crown Prince? Was this...was this instigated by the Fourth Prince?"

Hello!

Wei Xin quickly gestured to her and whispered, "Master, don't say that!" She paused and said even more quietly, "I don't know either. Who knows this?"

Yan Shiyue was a little unhappy.

Although she understood psychologically that even the Fourth Master in history, who was a vegetarian and chanted Buddhist scriptures but was able to fight his way through the nine princes' fight for the throne, must not be as harmless as he seemed.

But when I saw it with my own eyes, I still felt uncomfortable.

In her heart, the most precious thing about the Fourth Master was his seriousness and integrity. She even found his inquiring nature endearing. But what if this was just a superficial appearance? What if he was secretly making intrigues and using any means necessary to fight for the throne?