"I know that the Dongchang and Jinyiwei are not in sufficient staff, but this matter must be done now."

Zhu Cilang paused and continued, "No matter what method you use, you must find out the property of Nanjing officials within ten days."

Zhu Cilang was not Chongzhen, so of course he knew that these "pillars of the country" were rich and wealthy. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen called on the capital officials to donate silver to help the army, but these important officials began to cry in the palace. Zhu Cilang's cheap grandfather Zhou Kui took the lead in crying in poverty. This guy was originally just a fortune teller on the street. Because his daughter was selected into the Xinwang Mansion, he later became the queen and became a famous title of Jiading Bo. It can be said that everything Zhou Kui had given him was given by the emperor. But this guy not only did not want to repay his kindness, but he was still thinking about his own little personal wealth when the treacherous soldiers were at the city.

Chongzhen sent eunuch Xu Gao to Zhou Kui's mansion, hoping that Zhou Kui could donate more and take the lead. However, Zhou Kui cried as soon as he came up and said that he could only donate 10,000 taels of silver at most.

Later, Queen Zhou couldn't bear it anymore and took out the 5,000 taels of silver she had saved and asked her father to donate it together.

What’s ridiculous is that Zhou Kui took the money and did not donate it in full, but deducted two thousand taels of them and donated three thousand taels of them.

The situation of the father-in-law is like this, and the situation of the other court officials can be imagined. Wei Zaode, the chief assistant of the cabinet, only donated only 500 taels, while the eunuch Wang Xin donated only 10,000 taels.

Zhu Ciyang, who was thinking in his heart, certainly knew. They thought that the world belonged to the Zhu family, so why did we give us money for the throne of your Zhu family?

Unfortunately, these people miscalculated. After the city of Beijing was broken, Li Zicheng began to recover stolen goods in the city. The Ming Dynasty's "strong ministers" including Wei Zaode were all recovering stolen goods. The officials' homes were found to have dozens of thousands of taels of silver. They refused to donate money to the Ming army to pay military salaries, but in the end they broke into a treason and ended up raiding their houses dead. It was ironic.

It was precisely because Zhu Cixuan knew about these inside stories that he planned to call Jinyiwei and Dongchang to investigate the property of these officials.

Legal property is naturally protected, but they must be spit out all the proceeds from embezzlement.

Zhu Cilang is not Chongzhen, and he will not be deceived by these officials.

"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will definitely find out the assets of these officials on time."

Liu Chuanzong and Zhao Xin said together.

"In addition, I want you to do something. I am planning to collect mining taxes in various parts of the Ming Dynasty."

When Zhu Cixuan saw that the two were not surprised, he continued: "During the Shenzong period, he sent an internal supervisor to the gold mine and the copper mine was taxed, but the court officials opposed it. Their reason was that the emperor was not allowed to compete with the people for profit. At first, it sounded very reasonable. But why did Shenzong even disregard the opposition of the ministers to collect the mine tax?"

Zhu Cilang did not wait for the two of them to answer, and said to himself, "Because the court had no money, Emperor Taizu decided on the ancestral system, thirty taxes and one. Whether it was land tax or commercial tax, it would be this number. It would be fine if the land was in the hands of ordinary people, but for nearly three hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the land was annexed by those scholars. Nine out of ten land in the world were concentrated in the hands of these people, and sometimes I doubt who the world belonged to."

When he said this, Zhu Cilang sighed.

As an expert in Ming history in his previous life, he certainly understood what the problem in the Ming Dynasty was. Land problems were definitely the most deadly. In order to exempt taxes, ordinary people devoted their land to the names of scholars with fame. Over time, they all became tenant farmers. If it was a good harvest, they would probably sell their wives and children in the year of disaster.

Of course, the worsening of this problem is due to the whip method. The collection of cash instead of grain collection caused the central court's grain warehouse to be out of grain. In the face of a famine, the unscrupulous merchants hoarded goods and raised the price of grain to a very high level. Even if the court wanted to buy grain and provide relief, it was too willing to do so but not enough. This led to the uprisings of peasant uprisings in the late Ming Dynasty.

"I should die."

Liu Chuanzong and Zhao Xin buried their heads together.

The Lord was humiliated and died. Since the Emperor said such words, all he and the two of them could do now was to crawl on the ground and take the initiative to apologize.

"The sin is not on you." Zhu Cilang shook his head and said, "I can't move the land tax now, so I can only make changes to the commercial tax first. The mining tax is only the first step, and then various miscellaneous taxes must be integrated and collected according to the ladder syndrome. I call it ladder tax."

"Old Master, how do you collect this step tax?"

Liu Chuanzong obviously had no idea about this term and asked embarrassedly.

"It's very simple. The higher the income, the higher the tax you pay. The poor pay less or no taxes, and the rich pay more."

Zhu Cixuan's original idea was to promote step-by-step taxes in various industries across the country, but now it seems that they are not. At least the land tax cannot be collected like this, otherwise the entire gentry group would be able to eat Zhu Cixuan without going south. If you want to do this, you must wait until Zhu Cixuan gains absolute power and firmly control the army.

Now he can only take action against the merchant first.

"The poor pay less taxes, and the rich pay more taxes. The emperor is wise."

Liu Chuanzong's words were not completely flattering, but were expressed with emotion. In the current Ming Dynasty, the rich paid less or no taxes, and the heavy taxes were completely suppressed on the poor people. If the emperor could really change this situation, then the Ming Dynasty would have full hope of reviving.

"I will discuss this with all the ministers, but before that, I hope you can get the assets of the courtiers."

Zhu Cilang said so clearly that Liu Chuanzong and Zhao Xin naturally would not have any doubts anymore.

It seems that Your Majesty wants to use this to threaten the ministers in the court and make a deal with them. At least your ministers will not object to the reform of the commercial tax.

"Your Majesty, don't worry, I will do this job well!"

"Yeah, go back."

Zhu Cilang waved his hand and said tiredly.

......

......

Capital.

Dorgon sat upright on the dragon throne of the Huangji Hall, overlooking the Eight Banners Banners in the hall.

Since Huang Taiji's death, he has thought of replacing it countless times.

But the reaction within the Eight Banners was very strong. Especially the Two Yellow Banners, they firmly demanded that the son of Huang Taiji be respected as emperor. Although the Two Red Banners and Two Blue Banners were not hostile to themselves, it was impossible to support them in order to ascend to the throne.

With the support of the two white flags alone, Dorgon would definitely not be able to convince the public. If he insisted on ascending the throne, it would definitely cause fire within the Eight Banners and cause great damage to the strength of the Eight Banners of Manchuria. This is what Dorgon didn't want to see.

So he finally accepted the compromise and became the Regent, supporting Fulin to ascend the throne of the Qing emperor.

Dorgon continued to follow the policy of Huang Taiji, win over Mongolian tribes and suppress North Korea. In his opinion, the confrontation with the Ming Dynasty would last at least a few decades. Who knew that there was a problem within the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng captured Beijing and Chongzhen hanged himself in Coal Mountain. Later, Wu Sangui surrendered and rebelled again. Li Zicheng rushed to Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui had no choice but to ask for help from the Qing Dynasty. Dorgon took the opportunity to lead the Eight Banners into the Pass and entered Beijing with the flow, taking over the power of the Ming Dynasty's Jifu and Henan.

All this happened so quickly, it was like a dream.

......

......
Chapter completed!