Chapter 240 Anti-Smuggling
Fang Wanghai, who was promoted to Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, had just gone to Nanjing to meet his superior, Fang Rui, who was the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing at the time.
After meeting with his immediate boss, the situation was somewhat unpleasant, and after an unhappy meeting, Fang Wanghai returned directly to Huguan.
I had long heard that this Minister Fang was particularly partial to the Township Party, but Fang Wanghai did not expect that he would go to such an extent.
As soon as they arrived at the Nanjing Household Department, another minister of the Nanjing Household Department, Lu Dayou, the Cangchang Minister, immediately proposed that the banknote customs duties set up by Fang Wanghai on the water transportation should be equally divided among his yamen.
This is really unreasonable!
How is your water transportation in Nanzhili doing? Don’t you, Lu Dayou, have any idea? The Japanese pirates burned down the granary a few days ago, and now they still have the nerve to come and steal money from themselves?
Then his boss, Fang Rui, the Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, actually proposed that Fang Wanghai should hand over the banknote customs duties to the Ministry of Revenue, and the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue would be responsible for the distribution?
Fang Wanghai wanted to ask, are you Yuezhou people still shameless?
Fang Wanghai directly used the money to send the customs duties to the capital and into the emperor's inner treasury, blocking the two hands reaching for his pocket.
But as soon as Fang Wanghai returned to Huguan, he heard people talking about banknote tariffs again.
The content is probably that Fang Wanghai is the emperor's lackey, and like the eunuchs, he collects money for the emperor's personal benefit.
This made Fang Wanghai half angry. He was obsessed with collecting taxes. He was scolded as a strict party, and now he has become a eunuch. Fang Wanghai's reputation has deteriorated to the same as that of a eunuch.
At this moment, Su Ze suddenly rushed to the Chaoguan Hall.
"Rulin?"
Fang Wanghai brought Su Ze into the study in surprise. Nanjing's Minister of Household Affairs was already a third-rank official. However, Fang Wanghai did not despise Su Ze because of his promotion. On the contrary, he couldn't live without Su Ze.
Such talents will be the guarantee of prosperity and wealth for generations of the Fang family in the future, and Fang Wanghai still has a clear understanding.
Fang Wanghai has already written to Mrs. Li in Quanzhou Prefecture, asking her to prepare a dowry and to return to Fujian immediately to get married when the Japanese chaos calms down a little this year.
As soon as Fang Wanghai sat down, he began to complain:
"I thought everyone in the court said that Fang Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue was a loyal and good man, but I didn't expect that he was also such a person. He was colluding with the mainland to take away the credit for our tax payment. ."
"Then Lu Dayou didn't even look at himself. The Japanese pirates set fire to Changpingcang and burned the 20,000 tons of grain. How dare they reach out to our checkpoint?"
Fang Wanghai was indignant. He was a first-level official. Crushing people to death, he implemented the banknote tariff law in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang, so naturally he could not avoid dealing with the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs.
The banknotes in the banknote hall are all set up on the canal, which has to deal with Lu Dayou, the warehouse minister in charge of water transportation.
Fang Wanghai used the emperor's inner treasury to block today's incident, but since he had a falling out with these two people, he would never be beaten in the future.
In particular, Fang Rui has been the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs for many years, and he likes to promote fellow villagers to become officials. As a result, there are many Yuezhou officials in the northern and southern bureaus. If these people retaliate against him together with Fang Rui, I am afraid that they themselves will The position of Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing is not easy either.
When he thought of this, Fang Wanghai had a headache.
Fang Wanghai lost his temper and began to reflect on whether he had spoken too harshly and whether he had offended his boss and colleagues.
Su Ze had long known about Fang Wanghai's weakness. Basically, officials in the Ming Dynasty were like this.
However, my future father-in-law can still maintain some conscience and sincerely want to do something for the Ming Dynasty. It is not easy among many officials.
Fang Wanghai also refused to take sides. Whether it was Qingliu or Yandang's invitation, Fang Wanghai politely refused.
Su Ze understood that Fang Wanghai was afraid that his superiors and colleagues would mislead him in the future.
Fang Wanghai looked at Su Ze and then asked, "Why did Ru Lin come back from Shanghai?"
Su Ze had not returned to Suzhou since he left Xuguan last time. Fang Wanghai only knew about the results of Su Ze's anti-Japanese war in Shanghai. Significantly.
Su Ze took out a report, handed it to Fang Wanghai and said,
"Uncle Shi, please take a look at this report."
Fang Wanghai opened the report, and Su Ze wrote the statistics in words for his convenience.
Fang Wanghai did not look at these reports, but directly looked at the conclusions. When he saw that the amount of grain released by the customs in the past half month was as high as 10,000 yuan, he also took a breath.
"How is that possible?" Fang Wanghai had been the prefect of a prefecture, so he naturally knew what ten thousand grains of grain meant and what a huge amount it was.
"Uncle Shi, these are all new grains from last year."
Fang Wanghai's hands were shaking even more. If they were grains from the past, they could have been hoarded by grain merchants or big families, but ten thousand yuan of new grains is not what a businessman has the ability to do. Received.
The reason is also very simple. The largest output in Jiangsu today is the central Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu areas along the Yangtze River.
These places were invaded by Japanese pirates, and ordinary merchants had no way to enter or exit.
Fang Wanghai only thought of one possibility: "Is this the food in the official warehouse!? They are so brave!"
Su Ze said: "Before coming to Xuguan, I also visited several other bank checkpoints. Those who transport food The merchants all have accents from other provinces and have arrogant attitudes. Some of them are transported directly on official ships."
Fang Wanghai pricked up his ears and listened to Su Ze continue: "I asked a few more smart subordinates, and they identified it. These grain merchants all speak Yueyang dialect."
Fang Wanghai was stunned. He paused and asked, "You mean, Fang Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing is involved in this matter?"
Although Fang Wanghai had objections to Fang Dui , but Fang Rui has always had a good reputation as an official. He really couldn't imagine that Fang Rui would do such a thing at such a critical moment of national crisis.
Fang Wanghai still couldn't believe it. Su Ze said again:
"I asked people to check up the canal and found that most of the grain came from Jurong."
Jurong?
Jurong also belongs to Yingtian Prefecture, which is considered a Gyeonggi County in southern Zhili. However, according to Fang Wanghai's knowledge, there is no official warehouse in Jurong.
Su Ze continued: "My nephew asked people to inquire in Jurong again. Half a month ago, the governor's office of water transportation sealed the dock in Jurong. I heard that they recruited water workers and were busy at the dock for several days, but there was nothing. The goods were unloaded in Jurong, and from this time onwards, ships began to go south to transport grain." "
The day the dock was blocked was the day after the Changpingcang fire in Yangzhou." Su Ze had already analyzed it clearly. It was Fang Wanghai's turn to be shocked.
To be able to analyze such a shocking conspiracy from the past data of banknote tariffs is no longer an ordinary talent. It is an expert who is thousands of miles away.
In Su Ze's analysis, there was no rigorous physical evidence, nor was there any witness to the opponent's core, but the logical chain was so clear that he could automatically draw a conclusion without even needing too much association.
The distance between Jurong and Yangzhou, the time difference between the fire in the official warehouse and the blockade of Jurong's dock, and who could have so much energy to mobilize official ships for water transportation and blockade the court's dock.
This result is about to come out. Except for the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, no one has this ability!
And all this is just because these grain merchants paid the tax and left a lot of vouchers.
Do you want to fight back yourself?
But how to fight back?
Fang Wanghai looked up again. His son-in-law was so considerate!
I had just been wronged in Nanjing Hubu, and my son-in-law came to hand me a knife. It was such a sharp and powerful knife!
If the evidence of this matter is confirmed, I don’t know how many people will have their heads moved, and how many people will be dismissed from their posts.
But Fang Wanghai shrank back a little. Being able to clear Changpingcang before the Japanese pirates came would require so much energy. Even Fang Wanghai didn't think Fang Dun had this ability.
Water transportation vessels are all under the control of the Ministry of Industry. Fang Wanghai thought of a name. Could it be that Fang Rui had hooked up with Mr. Yan Ge?
No way? Isn't it because Fang Pu was transferred from the Household Department in Beijing to the Household Department in Nanjing because he was played by Yan Song?
Fang Wanghai just felt like his head was in a mess. The relationship in this court was that there was me among you, and you among me. Behind every official, there was a huge network of relationships. These people protected and colluded with each other, forming a more dense network. Airtight network.
These huge networks constitute the so-called "civilian group".
The "civilian group" is like Azathoth in the Cthulhu mythology. He has no will or wisdom. He is just a combination of the will of every official.
Greed and desire, every official wants to control glory and wealth for generations, so he will support his children and nephews because of fraud in the examination room.
Every official wanted to control more power, which led to struggles with the imperial power and noble military attachés. This led to the increasing expansion of civil rights after the Tumubao Incident, and the partisan struggles between the Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party in the future.
Every official wants to be promoted and make a fortune, and they do everything they can to find places to please their superiors. They do things like report good news but not bad news for the sake of success in various examinations.
Every selfish desire finally converges into a torrent, and finally turns into a turbulent flow of desire.
No one can control the entire group, not Yan Song now, not Xu Jie, not even Zhang Juzheng.
This is also the cyclical law of the rise and fall of dynasties. When the blind and foolish god of the bureaucracy expands day by day, it will eventually devour everything and ruin the entire dynasty.
Su Ze saw Fang Wanghai's hesitation and understood Fang Wanghai's cowardice as a member of the system.
As for who can fight against all this? Su Ze didn't believe in the fairy tale "Kangxi Private Interview".
The Taoist emperor sitting on the dragon throne does not care about the life and death of the people, but whether he can attain Taoism and become an immortal.
Su Ze put away these thoughts and said to Fang Wanghai:
"Uncle Shi, this case cannot be touched lightly."
Fang Wanghai nodded quickly.
Su Ze said: "Know yourself and the enemy, and you will never be in danger. First, you must find out the person behind this food."
Fang Wanghai nodded quickly and said: "How to find out?"
Su Ze said: "Uncle Shi, have you forgotten? Shanghai Anti-Japanese War Japanese Anti-Smuggling Corps, followed by the word "anti-smuggling." "
The imperial court set up banknote customs, which was the same as the land tax and Dingfu. It was compulsory to pay. In the past, some businessmen were allowed to use banknotes to pay taxes just by relying on services. In fact, we are still far from receiving the full amount of tax."
Fang Wanghai nodded. Of course, he knew that there are still many merchants taking detours to evade tax, but Fang Wanghai also suffered from lack of manpower, so he could only turn a blind eye to these merchants. One eye.
Su Ze smiled and said: "So now we have to crack down on smuggling."
The next day, the notice of the Customs Department was published in the latest issue of "Warning Words".
In theory, all merchant ships passing through the river should be subject to banknote duties. Anyone who circumvents the banknote customs to evade banknote duties will, once caught by the Anti-Smuggling Group of the Banker's Customs Department, have to seize the ship and pay the tax, as well as pay a fine.
"Jingshi Tongyan" is also published every half month, and has been published for two issues. Through Su Ze's "Nanke Meng" serialization, coupled with the management of Xu Shixing and others, "Jingshi Tongyan" has become the entire Nanzhili Best selling newspaper.
After this newspaper was printed, businessmen in South Zhili cursed one after another, saying that Fang Wanghai was a cruel official like Sang Hongyang, who came to South Zhili specifically to plunder people's wealth and wealth.
But these businessmen soon stopped laughing. The Anti-Smuggling Corps led by Su Ze struck decisively, setting up ambushes in several tributary rivers and seizing these merchant ships that were evading taxes.
Naturally, there are also many grain ships belonging to Yuezhou merchants.
After the ship was impounded, these businessmen abandoned the ship and ran to Nanjing city. They surrounded the house of Lu Dayou, the minister of Hubu Cangchang in Nanjing, accusing Fang Wanghai of depleting the fishing industry and Su Ze of extortionate taxes.
Lu Dayou looked at these villagers with a headache. They were all involved in the beheading business, but they were still thinking of evading taxes?
Little did Lu Dayou know that when a crime occurs, everything in the future will be out of his control and lead to even more chaos and confusion.
Just after sending off these township gangsters, another group of Yuezhou grain merchants' ships were impounded by Su Ze. The owners and clerks of the merchant ships were all arrested by Su Ze and sent to the Customs Department for tax resistance.
Oops!
Lu Dayou, who had been in officialdom for many years, instinctively felt the crisis.
(End of chapter)