When the melodious bell rang over the capital, the originally quiet streets and alleys suddenly became a sea of joy, firecrackers rang out, fireworks filled the sky, and the people ushered in the sixth year of the apocalypse in the sound of firecrackers. Bayi?? Chinese??.

Young Mansion.

Li Hongyu, Qin Yue and others enjoyed the beautiful fireworks on the top floor of the attic, and only on Chinese New Year's Eve could they witness such a gorgeous scenery in a year.

However, compared to the gorgeous scenery in front of him, Li Hongyu's mood was a little depressed, and there were too many things in the past year.

If you summarize Li Hongyu's current mood in one sentence, then there is undoubtedly a few joys and a few sorrows, and there have always been unsuccessful people in the vanity fair in Beijing, and of course there will be losers.

Compared with the elated people, the officials in the officialdom are undoubtedly sad and joyful, and the officials of the original Qi, Chuzhe, Zhejiang and other factions bought a large number of fireworks and firecrackers to set off, a festive scene.

The officials of the Donglin Party were silent, looking dead silent, not to mention setting off fireworks, but there was no personal voice, as if there was no one at home, which was in stark contrast to the lively scene around them.

In the past year, the officials of the Donglin Party can be said to have experienced great joys and sorrows, first of all, they took charge of the government with high spirits, and it can be said that they are in power.

But who would have thought that just when they were full of ambition to defeat Wei Zhongxian and get rid of this constraint, they encountered the biggest setback since the birth of the Donglin Party.

Through the Xinjiang closure case and other cases involved therefrom, more than 300 people were seized of official positions by the Donglin Party, and dozens of people were imprisoned and exiled to the border areas.

What makes people feel suffocating is that who would have thought that the Donglin Party, which was once "prosperous in Donglin and prosperous in the middle of the dynasty", would be so vulnerable and would be purged by Wei Zhongxian in just a few months.

On the surface, it seems to be Wei Zhongxian's victory, but it is clear that the Emperor of the Apocalypse is the biggest winner, if there is no support from the Emperor of the Apocalypse, how can Wei Zhongxian mobilize Dongchang and Jinyiwei to launch a thunderous offensive against the Donglin Party?

As for the claim that the Emperor of the Apocalypse was bewitched and deceived by Wei Zhongxian, it is simply nonsense, judging from historical data, although the Donglin Party was hit hard after the Xinjiang Closure Case, it was not eliminated, and fought with the "Eunuch Party" until the death of the Ming Dynasty.

If the Emperor of the Apocalypse was deceived by Wei Zhongxian, then Wei Zhongxian would definitely uproot the Donglin Party in the same way that the Donglin Party swept up the Qi, Chu, Zhejiang and other factions, but he did not do that, obviously under some kind of constraint, and this constraint could only come from the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

Therefore, this year's New Year palace is also particularly lively and festive, the Emperor of the Apocalypse rewarded the concubines and chamberlains in the palace, and the palace maids to celebrate the New Year.

Perhaps this is why the Son of Heaven of the Ming Dynasty has been treating the Xungui group well, the so-called Xiucai rebellion has not been successful for three years, as long as the civilian group cannot grasp the military power, then no matter how they make trouble, it is not to be afraid.

With the Donglin Party as the force, don't look at the Donglin Party occupying the position of the chief official of the major ministries in the capital, but after Wei Zhongxian mobilized Dongchang and Jinyiwei, it can be said that it fell apart overnight, and there was no power to fight back.

In other words, due to the complete separation of the civil and military systems of the Ming Dynasty, the abolition of the prime minister who monopolized power, and the establishment of a cabinet to suppress the six ministries, the civil official group of the Ming Dynasty actually had a very large sense of dependence on the imperial power.

Perhaps, this is the most fundamental reason why the Ming emperors treated the civil official group well, because it is difficult for the civilian official group to form a real challenge to the imperial power, and even if it does, it is only a flash in the pan.

Since coming to the capital, Li Hongyu has been busy appeasing the frightened Donglin Party officials and meeting with Han Yi and other Donglin Party bigwigs.

Originally, the Donglin Party thought that they had taken control of the situation, but they were helpless under Wei Zhongxian's wave after wave of offensives, and the contrast made the Donglin Party officials feel inexplicably frightened in their hearts, and also made them realize the importance of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and they were nothing without the protection of the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

After the Lantern Festival, at the first great court in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Emperor of the Apocalypse issued an edict appointing Han Yi, a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, as a cabinet assistant, which made the panicked Donglin Party officials suddenly breathe a sigh of relief.

Han Yi is the boss of the Donglin Party, not a member of the radical faction of the Donglin Party, in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, because of the merit of pacifying the Shandong demon thief Xu Hongru, he was crowned as a young master, the prince and the prince, and in one fell swoop, Li Hongyu became the second highest status in the civil official group after Ye Xianggao.

Originally, Ye Xianggao should have been assisted by Han Yi as the cabinet after his resignation, but the Donglin Party was in turmoil, so it became unknown whether Han Yi could take over.

Now, the Emperor of the Apocalypse issued an edict ordering Han Yi to serve as a cabinet assistant, which is undoubtedly a great appeasement to the remaining Donglin Party members in the court, which means that the emperor did not abandon the Donglin Party.

Of course, the Emperor of the Apocalypse had no intention of eradicating the Donglin Party, so although the Donglin Party was greatly damaged this time, it survived this catastrophe without danger.

With this edict of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, the dust will settle on the Xinjiang closure case and the various cases implicated in it, and the officials of the Donglin Party can finally sleep peacefully.

At the same time, the Emperor of the Apocalypse issued an edict to carry out a series of reforms, which he had wanted to implement since he ascended the throne, but unfortunately it had not been possible to implement them due to the opposition of the civilian bureaucracy, and now he finally had the opportunity to realize his dream.

Overall, this reform of the Emperor of the Apocalypse is divided into four main parts:

First of all, it is to reduce the burden of the people's land endowment, because in recent years, the war has been frequent, so the cost is quite heavy and the small people are extremely poor, so the world is exempted from sleeping for one year, in order to make up for the current suffering of the old and the new, and the small people who are in arrears are exempted.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the horse households of the Ming Dynasty needed to raise military horses at home, and once the horses were sick, dead or considered to have become emaciated, they would be required to pay compensation, and many people would go bankrupt.

According to the edict of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, if a similar situation occurs in the future, if after investigation, the horse breeder will be exempted from accompaniment.

The reason why we want to mention Mahu is naturally related to the recent wars in the Ming Dynasty, there are attacks by the Houjin army on the frontier, and there is a rebellion of the White Lotus Sect inside, so the imperial court now urgently needs horses to fight.

It is worth mentioning that Xu Hongru, who enabled Han Yi to be crowned a young master, belongs to the White Lotus Sect and is a branch of the White Lotus Sect.

Third, the Emperor of the Apocalypse finally opened a knife to the commercial tax, and since the field tax was reduced, it was natural to increase the commercial tax to enrich the military spending.

All the way to the passes, the goods through the premises, once Wanli 27 years and other years to set up a levy, recently due to the old and new military pay to the extreme, tentatively reopened.

The decision of the Emperor of the Apocalypse was actually not excessive, but it only restored a part of the commercial tax that was added during the Wanli period but was abolished by the Donglin Party.

Last but not least, the Emperor of the Apocalypse forbade local yamen from privately taking points from commercial activities.

The so-called "unauthorized establishment of teeth and private tax money" is the favorite thing of the Ming magistrates, and it is really ridiculous to say, on the one hand, the civil official group of the Ming Dynasty opposes the imperial court's levy of commercial taxes, and on the other hand, it monopolizes local commercial activities for profit.

The main activities include brokering transactions, buying and selling goods on behalf of merchants, setting up warehouses for storage of goods, collecting commercial taxes on behalf of the government, and so on.

According to the law, those who operated dental walkers in the Ming Dynasty had to be approved by the government and given practice vouchers and account books.

This made the local officials control the dental shops by holding the power to approve the business qualifications of the dental shops, and then monopolized the commercial trade through the dental shops, and the private dental stickers and private dental shops were divided, without paying commercial taxes to the imperial court.

As for the private taxation customs, it is a matter that local officials like to do, and the commercial taxes collected go directly to the small local coffers.

This is also why the Wanli Emperor sent the tax supervisor to collect taxes so hatefully, which is completely to rob the profits of the tooth shop and the tax source of the local bureaucracy's own tax customs, so it was fiercely resisted by the local tyrants, and riots broke out, not only killing the tax collectors, but also burning the tax yamen.

Of course, the local officials will not admit to "arbitrarily collecting tax money", but will pour all the sewage on the tax collectors, saying how they disturb the local area and oppress the people, and so on.

However, the root cause of this is that the interests of the local officials and the officials who are close to them in the capital have been touched, so they have launched a counterattack.

"Alas!"

Although Li Hongyu had long known that the Emperor of the Apocalypse would use the tooth shop and tax money to open the knife, he couldn't help but sigh secretly after hearing the holy decree issued by the Emperor of the Apocalypse.

It is conceivable that local officials and Haoqiang will definitely not watch their interests suffer, and will definitely find a way to resist, and it is not uncommon for local governments to resist taxes during the Wanli period.

But the current situation is different, the local officials and the civil officials in the capital who rely on Haoqiang have been cleaned up by the Emperor of the Apocalypse after experiencing the Jingcha and the Fengjiang case, and they can no longer help them like in the Wanli Dynasty.

What is particularly important is that the brain who came to implement the edict of the Emperor of the Apocalypse this time is no longer a civil official, but the eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who is loyal to the Emperor of the Apocalypse, so he will naturally not be polite to those who resist taxes.

In other words, Li Hongyu has now smelled the smell of blood, and when the imperial court's decrees cannot be implemented locally, if the imperial court does not back down, then it will definitely follow to sweep away the local opposition.

In the face of this situation, Li Hongyu has no good way, it is not easy to move the interests of local heroes, and those local heroes will definitely not be arrested, even if he is allowed to carry out this matter, it will inevitably be red.

What's more, the Emperor of the Apocalypse will not let Li Hongyu get involved in such a thankless matter, and the personal relationships in all aspects alone are enough for Li Hongyu to have a headache, but Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs have no scruples in this regard.

Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, it was inevitable for the Ming Emperor to send tax supervisors to the local government, in order to cope with the country's increasing consumption of money, only the mining tax was undoubtedly a drop in the bucket, and the field tax was the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, so the only way to open the commercial tax.

The officials of the Daming civil official group were closely related to them even if they were not the beneficiaries of commercial taxes, which also made the eunuchs unexpectedly pushed onto the stage of tax supervision, and the merits of them can be described as indescribable and difficult to comment.

(End of chapter)