Inside the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
After Zhu Houzhao ran out.
The Minister of Revenue, Wang Yan, came to the hall.
He had already known in advance what the emperor wanted to ask.
When he entered the palace, he had already brought the details of the business taxes collected in the capital.
The Minister of Revenue, Wang Yan, entered the main hall and bowed before presenting a booklet filled with details of the capital's commercial taxes.
Emperor Hongzhi took the book and looked through it. His expression instantly turned cold.
Things were indeed as Zhu Houzhao had said.
Other than the few shops under his control, the rest of the shops were all sold in taels of silver.
It was rare to see more than five taels.
Seeing this scene, Emperor Hongzhi immediately flew into a rage. He slammed the book in his hand on the dragon table and shouted angrily at Wang Yan, who was kneeling on the ground.
"Wang Yan, zhen asks you! What did the imperial court use to determine the amount of business tax that should be paid?”
Wang Yan knelt on the ground, trembling. He quickly replied,
"Reporting to Your Majesty, according to the previously agreed system, the first thing to collect business tax is to confirm the other party's method of doing business.
According to the different ways of doing business, merchants were divided into traveling merchants and sitting merchants.
The nature of the two was different, and the way they collected taxes was also different.
The imperial court targeted merchants mainly through customs duties and city taxes. The tax points were relatively low.
As for those merchants with fixed shops, it was too easy to fake their accounts.
Therefore, taxes were generally determined according to the business and the size of the shop.”
When Emperor Hongzhi heard Wang Yan's words, he frowned. With a cold expression, he asked directly,
"If the Imperial Court really follows this system, there is nothing wrong with it.
But why was the difference in the amount of money on the account book so obvious?
Other than the Crown Prince, who had more than ten thousand taels of silver.
All the other shops did not cost more than five taels.
In terms of profits, the Crown Prince's shops were indeed the best.
But the capital is such a big place, I don't want to ask for peace with him.
However, it was still more than enough to find a few shops that had half of its revenue.
But what about these shops?
Why didn't he find any clues on the details of the tax collection?”
At this point, Emperor Hongzhi looked coldly at the kneeling Wang Yan and continued in a cold voice,
"Or could it be that someone in the Ministry of Revenue is slacking off and committing malpractices?”
When Wang Yan heard this, his expression became more and more terrified. He knew that it was useless to continue evading and crying out for injustice. Wang Yan simply shouted,
"This humble subject is guilty. This humble subject failed to supervise properly. Your Majesty, please give this humble subject another chance!
After I return, I will immediately arrange for someone to collect the business tax again.”
When Emperor Hongzhi heard Wang Yan's words, his face turned cold.
After staring at it for a moment, he shouted coldly,
"I'll give you one last chance. Get lost!”
Wang Yan heard Emperor Hongzhi's angry rebuke, but at this moment, it was as if he was listening to the sound of nature.
He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the hall.
……
Liu Jian stood at the side, not daring to say anything.
Seeing Wang Yan escape, he heaved a sigh of relief.
To be honest, this Wang Yan could be considered a vigilant person. In the end, he didn't point out the stakes.
He directly took responsibility for his mistake and fought for a chance to correct it.
He had accidentally found out Emperor Hongzhi's character and allowed him to escape temporarily.
The business tax seemed easy to collect.
However, the things involved in this were not inferior to the strategy of cutting the vassals.
Back then, the three Pavilion Elders had repeatedly advised him to find a place to test out a whip technique.
However, Emperor Hongzhi ignored everyone's objections and directly used the capital as an example to try out the business tax collection.
When the business tax collection began, Liu Jian had already foreseen today's situation.
However, because of Zhu Houzhao's interference, Liu Jian saw the huge tax money.
He thought that the court officials and the royal family would all respond.
Who would have thought that after meeting the Crown Prince, he would find out the inside story, but it was already too late.
The social classes of the Ming Dynasty were divided into scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants.
The merchants at the end of the line were the lowest existences.
However, this group of lowly existences had now begun to attach themselves to the officials and the royal family.
As a result, all the courtiers and relatives of the imperial family more or less had a few shops in their hands and were doing all kinds of businesses.
For example, Spring Manlou was one of the best in the capital.
Other than the Education Department, Spring Manlou was the most popular. It was the property of Zhang Yanling, the Marquis of Jianchang.
There was also the Immortal Gathering Hall, whose name was Immortal Floating.
There was also a sea of customers. This was Marquis Qing Yun's property.
Yuelai Restaurant was known as the number one restaurant in the capital.
However, behind him stood the Minister of Rites, Fu Han.
This was only what Liu Jian knew. He could say it directly.
What about the others?
There were countless other shops that had the figures of courtiers or royal relatives standing behind them.
Although Wang Yan had escaped this calamity, Liu Jian was not optimistic.
With a worried expression, he looked at Wang Yan, who had left in a panic.
In his heart, he was thinking about how to tell the emperor about these things.
……
In the capital.
In the outer city.
on four corridors.
This was one of the busiest streets in the capital.
In the future, he had a resounding name, Dazhalan.
All of Zhu Houzhao's businesses in the capital were located on this street.
Daming Bank, United Department Store, glass mirror monopoly, cosmetics monopoly, and so on.
After Zhu Houzhao came out of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, he was afraid that Emperor Hongzhi would summon him again, so he directly left the palace.
At this moment, he was strolling along the four corridors, inspecting a few of his properties.
Zhang Lun, Yu Huatian, and the others followed closely behind.
Suddenly, an angry voice attracted Zhu Houzhao's attention.
Looking in the direction of the voice, Zhu Houzhao saw a young master pointing at a group of petty officials and cursing them in the street.
The officials who were in charge of running errands for the imperial court were like grandsons under this young master. They bowed their heads and spoke softly.
Seeing this scene, Zhu Houzhao's expression instantly turned cold.
Even if the status of a minor official in the Imperial Court was low, he was still a member of the Imperial Court.
Apart from being under the Emperor's control, he was also under the control of his superiors.
But you, this young man who popped out of nowhere, who are you!
He actually dared to scold a small official on the street!
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