"That's very good." Chen Hongmian nodded and said, "Your Highness will return in two hours." ”

"Half an hour." Zheng Guangying stupidly withdrew the hand that touched the dice.

Gu Yanwu thought for a while and said, "Then the lower official will guess an hour." After he finished speaking, he looked at Wang Laixian, "What about Brother Zhengnan?" ”

Wang Laixian was about to say the number casually, but suddenly his eyelids lifted, he held his breath slightly, and then the corner of his mouth hooked up a smile, "I think that His Highness will be here soon." ”

Sure enough, after only a cup of tea, the people who introduced the gift came to spread the word that His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King had returned home.

Wang Laixian took a thin middle-aged man to the main hall of the palace with his subordinates under the attention of everyone.

When the two saw the auxiliary king in person, they hurriedly knelt down and saluted, and after Zhu Linmiao helped them up, Wang Laixian said: "Your Royal Highness has ordered your subordinates to recruit Mr. Lizhou into the court, and your subordinates are fortunate not to be dishonored. He motioned to the man beside him, "This is." ”

Mr. Lizhou? Zhu Linmiao was surprised, the thin middle-aged man had already bowed deeply, "Student Huang Zongxi has heard of His Royal Highness's prestige for a long time, driven the Tartars to the north, removed the Tang rebellion inside, and restored the southwest. Now that His Royal Highness has been summoned, how dare the students not come. ”

It turned out to be Huang Zongxi! Zhu Linmiao was overjoyed, she didn't expect Wang Laixian to recruit Huang Zongxi, who was ranked among the top three families in the Ming Dynasty, so soon, these two people are really good "friends".

Huang Zongxi, who is familiar with tax law and economics, is a master of Western studies, so he is the best candidate to preside over the Fujing Customs Department. When the Ministry of Commerce is established in the future, he will be put in charge of the Ministry of Commerce and will have an overview of maritime trade.

He hurriedly ordered the two to be seated and served tea, and he didn't go around in circles, so he directly said that Huang Zongxi should be appointed as the head of the Fujing Customs Department.

Huang Zongxi was not very familiar with the "Customs Department", and after questioning, he learned that this was a department responsible for supervising ships and goods entering and leaving the Ming Dynasty, collecting taxes and fees on them in accordance with the law, and also responsible for arresting smuggling.

At first, he thought that this was just a city director with slightly greater power and responsibility, and secretly thought that it would be a waste to use his talents to hold such a small position. But when he listened to Zhu Linmiao continue to talk about his plans for maritime trade, his eyes brightened even more.

According to His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King, the Ming Dynasty will gradually open all coastal ports to trade with the Yi people, and will also organize hundreds of merchant ships to carry a large amount of goods to sell to various countries, and then transport all kinds of products back to the Ming Dynasty.

He knows a lot about Western countries, and knows that they build their countries by the sea, and they all make a lot of money. In fact, in his early years, he also suggested to the imperial court to open up the sea route widely, and learn from Xiyi to enrich the country, but he always sank into the sea and did not see the imperial court pay attention to it.

He had thought many times that if the Chongzhen Dynasty could organize a fleet to trade, there was no need to go to Europa, only a few trips to Nanyang, and in the past, it would not be possible to pay Liaodong military salaries for several years, and the current Jianyu might still be blocked out of the customs.

Huang Zongxi immediately cheered up and said some of his suggestions to the Customs Department, "...... This is the most cautious smuggling entrainment, or opening a secret compartment in the ship, or loading and unloading goods outside the port. As far as the students know, only one Yuegang has no less than 10 million taels of mutual markets with Hongyi every year, and the ship tax earned by the city is only a few thousand taels per month. The reason for this is that the vast majority of them are smugglers and entrainees, and the city department does not get half a cent of the tax silver......

"As for the solution, we can widely deploy patrol ships and coastal surveillance...... Supplemented by weighing the weight of the ship, heavier than the weighing of the cargo, there must be entrainment if it does not match...... Then the tax certificate will be issued, and the inventory will be carried out in various post roads, and those who do not have a tax certificate will be severely fined......"

He said a lot of details in a hurry, Zhu Linmiao couldn't help nodding in his heart, it seems that this Huang Zongxi is really not in vain, and he can rest assured that the Ministry of Commerce will hand it over to him in the future.

In the end, Huang Zongxi was a little worried: "It's just that the student has not made an inch of merit in my Taizheng Dynasty, and he may not be convinced by the public if he is suddenly promoted to the position of five grades, or he may receive the secretary of the Customs Department first, and then ...... after the evaluation is successful."

Zhu Linmiao raised her hand to interrupt him and said, "There is an important matter right now, originally I planned to let Zheng Guangying do it, but it is more appropriate to hand it over to Mr. Lizhou." If you do it well, you will be a great achievement. ”

"Please also ask Your Highness to make it clear."

"Rectify the salt tax." Zhu Linmiao said, "Previously, the government decree of our dynasty did not go out of Jiangxi and Fujian, and even the illegal salt in various places became a disaster. Especially in Liangguang and Yunnan, there are still salt merchants who sell salt distributed by Ding Kuichu and Shadingzhou. It is Jiangxi, due to the influx of illegal salt from all over the country, it is difficult to sustain the serious salt traders.

"During the Chongzhen period, the annual income of salt tax in these southern places was nearly 700,000 taels, but now it is only two or three thousand taels per month.

"Even 700,000 taels a year is far from that. The southern provinces have a registered population of more than 10 million, and each person eats 10 catties of salt every year, and the salt tax is 6 taels and 66 yuan for each salt tax introduced, and if the tax is fully taxed every year, it should be at least 2.2 million taels or more. And that's not even counting the displaced people. ”

A few days ago, he promised Yang Tinglin in the court, increasing the household income by 130,000 taels per month. Of this, more than 30,000 taels were allocated by the Propaganda Department, about 20,000 taels came from the new "luxury" trade, and the rest fell on the salt tax.

"I'm going to ask you to be the salt patrol and charge the salt tax in each province."

Huang Zongxi immediately got up and said solemnly: "The lower officials will do their best to live up to His Highness's expectations!" ”

"By the way, taking advantage of this rectification of the salt tax is a new policy to try." Zhu Linmiao asked people to take paper and pencils, and continued, "This thing is called 'invoice', which is uniformly made by the household department, and you will issue it for the time being."

"This item has a continuous number, which is issued to the salt merchant together with the salt guide, and the name of the merchant, the type of goods sold, the weight, the unit price, the total price, the person in charge, the date, the signature, etc., are marked on it.

"When the merchant sells salt, he takes an invoice and gives it to the buyer along with the goods. When it is time to be taxed, only the invoice is the basis. Those who sell salt without invoices are all regarded as private salt. ”

He looked at Huang Zongxi's confused look, so he had to patiently explain how the merchant bought the ticket book, why the ticket book was serialized, how to issue invoices when selling goods, how to write off the account with tickets when collecting taxes, and so on.

The more Huang Zongxi listened, the more surprised he became, and he called "good way", and when Zhu Linmiao finished speaking, he couldn't help but be impressed: "Which master came up with a clever plan?" If it is widely implemented, the imperial court tax can at least double! ”

Zhu Linmiao smiled awkwardly: "This is ...... The method I saw from a lone ancient book. He didn't wait for Huang Zongxi to ask where the book went, and said busily, "This book went south with the first emperor and was destroyed on the way." ”

Huang Zongxi showed regret on his face, and confronted the details of the rectification of the salt tax with the auxiliary king, remembering that there were still many people waiting in the side hall, so he got up and retired.

Zhu Linmiao thought for a while, and then instructed: "The matter of taxation will not be simple, I will go back and ask Zheng Guangying to draw some Jinyiwei's manpower to listen to your call." However, it is also important to remember that evidence should be used in everything, and lynching should not be arbitrarily used.

"But you must not spare a profiteer!"