"Confiscate the family property? Haha——"
Kangxi laughed sarcastically as if he had heard a huge joke, then turned his head to look at Prince Yu.
"Second brother, what do you think? How should I deal with them?"
As Kangxi's voice fell, everyone's attention shifted to Prince Yu Fuquan.
Seeing the blazing fire in Kangxi's eyes, Fuquan answered with a stiff upper lip.
"Your Highness and I share the same opinion."
Kangxi's face darkened.
He turned around and took a colorful jade ornament from the nearest shelf. He touched the intricately carved patterns on it and asked a random question.
"Does anyone know how much tax revenue the Qing Dynasty collected last year?"
This question involved the duties of the officials in the Ministry of Revenue. If they did not answer, they would be suspected of dereliction of duty. So someone spoke up.
"Last year's tax revenue was 47.3 million taels."
There is no need to mention the decimals, the emperor doesn't want to ask about the exact value.
"More than 40 million taels, wow, that's quite a lot..."
Kangxi's tone was full of emotion.
Yinreng raised his eyebrows and rarely refuted.
In fact, if there were no customs duties, this figure would be reduced by almost one-fifth.
Yinreng once studied that during the Wanli period, when the Ming Dynasty collected the most tax revenue, it was only more than 30 million taels of silver.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, this number had shrunk sharply to just a few million taels.
During the decades of Kangxi's reign, even when taxes were the lowest, they were still more than 27 million taels a year, and that was during the Three Feudatories Rebellion.
This level of taxation was not caused by Kangxi's excessive collection of levies and taxes. On the contrary, before Yinreng's death in his previous life, Kangxi had already reduced the people's taxes by more than 100 million taels of silver.
"Never increase taxes" and "equalize the land tax" were actually policies formulated by Kangxi, and were later officially promoted by Yongzheng.
In addition, when Kangxi first came to power, the annual budget of the Guanglu Temple for the Forbidden City was 700,000 taels of silver. As of this year, this figure has been reduced by Kangxi to just over 70,000 taels.
It has reached the point where it can no longer be lowered.
In fact, from this perspective, Kangxi was a wise ruler.
The real decline of the Qing Dynasty began in the late Qianlong period.
Yinreng suppressed his thoughts, wanting to hear how Kangxi intended to deal with the imperial guards in the Imperial Household Department. However, before Kangxi could even speak, he saw the young eunuch rushing in from outside.
"Your Majesty, Eunuch Liang has sent a few more carriages into the palace. This time they are from the Guo Luoluo family."
Yinreng was stunned. Liang Jiugong had been searching all night, and he wasn't done yet?
Unlike Yinreng who was stunned, the eyes of the others almost instantly fell on the Fifth Prince and the Ninth Prince.
The Guo Luoluo family is the maternal family of Concubine Yi. The emperor didn't even give Concubine Yi any face. It seems that he is really angry this time.
Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but feel a shock in their hearts. Although they really didn't have a good impression of the Baoyi family, they were seventh-rank officials in front of the prime minister. Not liking them didn't mean they had no dealings with the Baoyi family at all.
In fact, many Baoyi families had in-law relations with the Eight Banners nobles. After all, it was profitable, and the wealth of the Baoyi families was recognized by all the aristocratic families.
In fact, even if they were not rich, those concubines who were favored by Kangxi and had children would not have trouble finding a husband.
Who knows, he might even be able to get close to the most powerful people in Beijing.
For example, Alinga married Defei's younger sister.
Now, there are quite a few families that have in-law relations with the Baoyi families. Seeing that Kangxi is making such a big fuss, they are also afraid that their families will be implicated.
Yinqi's face looked a little more embarrassed, while Yin'er looked normal.
He has been dealing with the Imperial Household Department for the past few years and knows clearly that they are a group of greedy parasites. He has never been kind to those who take advantage of him. Let alone his maternal grandparents, even if it was Kangxi who took his money, he would find a way to get it back.
The Imperial Household Department is greedy and has taken advantage of him many times in recent years.
The Guo Luoluo family is also a strong force among them.
It cannot be said that he has no feelings for the people of Guo Luoluo's family, but that little bit of feelings is insignificant compared to the huge amount of silver.
Kangxi took a deep breath.
"Please bring everything in."
“Hey!”
After receiving the approval, the young eunuch hurried out of the hall.
Following Kangxi's gaze, everyone tactfully made way for him and nervously watched the movements at the door.
After a cup of tea, four guards appeared in everyone's sight carrying the first box.
When Kangxi saw the people, he directly ordered,
“Put it right in the middle!”
Upon hearing this, the guards obediently walked to the center of the hall and gently placed the box on the ground. Under the gaze of everyone, one of the guards considerately opened the box before leaving.
The box contained an oxblood-red coral ornament. Several senior officials who often dealt with measuring tools estimated that the ornament was about five feet tall and was priceless.
But it was not over yet. Guards were carrying boxes, cages and racks in and out. Those who were paying attention were counting silently until there was no more movement at the door. Only then did everyone turn their attention back to Kangxi.
These guards were divided into groups of four.
He entered and exited the Hall of Supreme Harmony seven times in total.
Kangxi walked towards the pile of boxes, and Yinreng followed him without hesitation.
Seeing this, the others followed suit.
After walking up to her, Yinreng took a quick glance and then looked away with a lack of interest.
"Tsk, the treasures of the Guoluo family are all good for looking at but not for eating. They can't compare to the collection of the Maska family!"
He had seen so many treasures in the past two days that his eyes had become picky.
In fact, if these things collected by the Guo Luoluo family were sold, they would not be able to fetch much money.
Sometimes precious objects are not necessarily valuable.
After all, if they want to sell, they have to find a suitable buyer.
Most of the items seized from Guo Luoluo's house this time were unsaleable and were considered "over the limit".
Kangxi ignored Yinreng's thoughts and reached out to touch the coral.
For Kangxi, rarity meant value.
The less others can sell it, the more valuable it is to him.
He glanced at the crowd.
"Can anyone give me an estimate? Look at this coral, how much is it worth?"
Everyone was silent.
Liang Jiugong had been busy all night last night and was still raiding the Baoyi clans. The value of the items they had discovered was already staggering, if that wasn't all.
A chill instantly ran down everyone's back.
How much stuff did these slaves steal?
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