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Wang Tigan agreed and withdrew. A short time later, he returned and bowed to the emperor, reporting, "Your Majesty, the money confiscated by the East Factory has been counted and transported to the inner treasury for safekeeping."
Zhu Youxiao nodded, a smile on his face, and said to Wang Tigan, "Wang Ban, you have done a great job. I will reward you handsomely."
In the capital, the nobles were the wealthiest, followed by the eunuchs, and the officials the least. This was the impression Zhu Youxiao formed after occasionally reading about Li Zicheng's torture and extortion.
This was indirectly proved by the property confiscated by Wang Tigan when he cleared out Wang Chaofu, the head of the Inner Palace Supervisor, and Li Chaoqing, the head of the Imperial Household Supervisor.
A new emperor appoints new ministers. These two eunuchs were both veterans during the reign of Emperor Wanli, and it was unknown how many years they had been corrupt. Zhu Youxiao felt it was right to eliminate them.
Besides, Zhu Youxiao was so short of money that he was jealous. Giving Wang Tigan the power to fight corruption was the same as releasing Uncle Wei.
Including money and real estate, the income is another two or three hundred thousand taels of silver, enough to buy many thousand-pound cannons!
The eunuchs in the palace were not the richest. Those eunuchs serving as officials outside the palace, such as Li Shi, the eunuch in charge of the Suzhou and Hangzhou weaving, and Gao He, the eunuch in charge of the Nanjing Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, had been targeted by the emperor who was shameless and wanted money.
The Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Bureau, the Nanjing Internal Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, as well as the Shenbo Hall and the Liujing Supply Machine Room, were all imperial merchants who weaved or supplied silk fabrics needed by the court.
The local government bureaus were state-owned enterprises, with 22 weaving and dyeing bureaus located in prefectures and counties in eight provinces, including Zhejiang and Nanzhili. They adopted the bureau-weaving form and centralized production.
Zhu Youxiao has asked the Ministry of Revenue to start working on re-establishing rules and regulations to revitalize these state-owned enterprises for the purpose of profit, and also to provide more resettlement for the landless and idle people.
State-owned enterprises are supposed to play a leading role. With advanced machinery, equipment, and skilled labor, coupled with scientific and intensive management, how can they not produce excellent products? How can they not make money?
Hearing that the emperor had a reward, Wang Tigan knelt down and kowtowed humbly, saying, "This servant is doing errands for the emperor. As long as the emperor is pleased, I dare not ask for a reward."
Zhu Youxiao chuckled, his tone even more gentle, "Please stand up, my lord. I know your loyalty. However, it is also my principle to distinguish between rewards and punishments. You don't have to be modest."
"I thank the emperor for his grace." Wang Tigan kowtowed and stood up.
Staying by the emperor's side all day long, how could Wang Tigan not understand the emperor's temperament and character?
If you do your job well, you will be rewarded; if you fail, you will only be punished, the severity of the punishment will depend on the degree, and beatings and killings are rare.
But the emperor hates corruption the most. No matter whether it is an official or a eunuch, this taboo must not be violated. It is not worth losing your life for a little money.
The nursing home on the outskirts of the city has been built and put into use. A group of elderly eunuchs from the palace have been sent there and are living well.
There were also many released palace maids living in Huang'enyuan. Documents were sent to the government according to their home addresses, allowing their families to claim them.
If time was too long and they could no longer find their families, the Beijing-based Foreign Weaving and Dyeing Bureau would send people to teach them skills. After they learned a skill, they could then look for opportunities to settle down among the common people or get married.
This is all the emperor's grace, and it also tells other palace people that the problem of retirement has been solved for you. If you continue to seek favors and engage in corruption, don't blame the emperor for being ruthless.
Uncle Wei did his job well, so the emperor rewarded him with a house and promoted him to the third rank. Wang Ti Gan was trying to compete with him, as he stayed by the emperor's side all day long, so how could he not be better than you?
Zhu Youxiao could probably guess some of Wang Tigan's thoughts, and he was happy about it. Competition is motivation, and seeing Uncle Wei and Wang Tigan competing to get the job done was a relief for him.
After taking the memorial from the Minister of Revenue Li Qiyuan, Zhu Youxiao read it and thought for a while. He couldn't help but shake his head slightly, thinking that he couldn't be so hasty and careless.
In the late Ming Dynasty, local arrears and non-payment of taxes and grain were quite common, especially in Jiangnan.
People at that time said, "A young man who registers as a clerk there will never have a penny to pay to the county government in his entire life. Even if he is a top-ranking official, the amount of money he gets from it is incalculable. High-ranking officials and students all register there, and the amount of money they owe to the government is hundreds of thousands."
Generally speaking, ordinary people rarely resist paying taxes. Some people really have no money to pay, mainly in the northern region where natural disasters are frequent.
In the wealthy Jiangnan region, with government officials demanding payment, ordinary people would not have the courage to default on paying taxes to the imperial court.
Those who engaged in this behavior were all wealthy, landowning, and prestigious gentry and landlords. Not all of them refused to pay taxes, but most of them would make up excuses and evade taxes by half paying and half owing.
Because the gentry controlled public opinion and the right to speak in the local area, and many of the gentry had current officials in the court in their families, local officials and tax collectors generally did not dare to use violence and could only let it go.
However, the imperial court also had regulations that local officials had to use other methods to supplement the funds.
For example, they would make up various excuses to exploit ordinary people and some businessmen without any background, or they would say that there was a disaster and the harvest was bad and ask the court to reduce or exempt taxes, etc.
The result of everyone following suit was that from the gentry to the local officials, a tacit agreement was formed to conceal the facts, so that most of the taxes payable became numbers on paper.
But delaying payments isn't a solution, after all. IOUs must be repaid sooner or later. So aren't these gentry and officials afraid, thinking they can keep delaying payments for so long?
Of course not. They have their own way, which is to wait for amnesty or exemption from the court.
For example, when an emperor ascended the throne, got married, had a child born, won a great victory in battle, or suffered a natural disaster, the imperial court would usually grant amnesty or reduce local taxes.
In this way, even if the payment has been overdue for a few years or even more than ten years, we can always catch up, right?
Whether it is a tax reduction for one year or several years, the gentry's arrears can be legally exempted from part, or even by colluding with the government to clear it all at once.
In order to achieve this goal, the gentry groups would even take the initiative to create reasons for amnesty, such as making auspicious signs appear, falsely reporting local disasters, colluding with bandits to create unrest, etc.
That’s right, the gentry in Jiangnan have become a profit group that disregards national interests and only cares about enriching themselves.
What is owed must be repaid. The tricks of these Jiangnan gentry were punished in history, which was the case of memorial cancellation that was launched in the early Qing Dynasty.
In front of the knife handle, the Jiangnan gentry lost their elegance and finally realized that the new master spoke with fists. There were also sarcastic jokes that "Tanhua is not worth a penny".
Zhu Youxiao could do the same now, but a riot would be unavoidable. It was not uncommon for gentry to incite the people to go on strike or boycott business.
Of course, the current Ming Dynasty can definitely suppress the unrest, but this does not conform to Zhu Youxiao's plan to achieve many goals this year.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao thought about it again and again and decided to put it aside for the time being. If the local officials were untrustworthy, he would replace them with capable ones and use the factory guards to conduct reconnaissance, gather sufficient evidence, and determine the precise target of the attack.
Alternatively, you can change your approach and achieve the greatest victory at the lowest cost.
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