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Since the Qin Dynasty, all dynasties of the Chinese nation have had a strategy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, especially when a new dynasty was just established, the imperial court would subconsciously suppress the merchant class that was not engaged in production, and encourage farmers to cultivate the ownerless wasteland, so that the country's grain could be filled in a short time.

It was only over time, when there was a surplus of capacity in society that this strategy would change imperceptibly, and the status of merchants began to rise, sometimes even on an equal footing with local officials. But correspondingly, the price they have to pay will also become extremely high, and the commercial tax is dozens of times higher than the land tax and grain tax, which also makes the merchants exhausted.

But all this has changed a lot after coming to the Ming Dynasty. Because he was born in extreme poverty and was bullied by businessmen, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang has never had a good impression of businessmen, thinking that these people are all treacherous people, not to mention that they have never made any contribution to the country, and they continue to raise prices, which is really damning.

Therefore, after he became emperor, he set an unchangeable rule, and the status of merchants was tied to the end of the four people, and at the same time, there were all kinds of strict constraints on the heads of merchants and their descendants, such as not wearing silk clothes, such as merchants were not allowed to participate in the imperial examination as officials after that...... But correspondingly, this class, which is regarded as the lowest class of the people, has the fewest obligations, and the commercial tax is only a symbolic point.

In the first few decades of the Ming Dynasty, everything was fine, and the businessmen could only support themselves and their families. But after the Hongzhi Dynasty, everything was completely different, and the growing country's demand for commerce increased, which also enabled merchants to obtain more benefits from it.

In the Wanli period now, countless big businessmen have emerged in various places, because they have huge resources in their hands that can affect the economy of a place, so that these businessmen are enough to sit on an equal footing with the governors and other officials of the feudal territory, and the rules that were set before to restrict them have long been forgotten.

Today's Ming merchants will only wear more luxurious clothes than high-ranking officials, and their children and grandchildren can rely on the gold and silver in the hands of their fathers and ancestors to be invincible in the scientific field, and even those who have entered the court as officials are also located. The only thing that hasn't changed is only one thing, that is, the tax money that these merchants need to pay to the imperial court still maintains the same limit as when Taizu was!

You know, in the past two hundred years, even the price of rice has increased many times, but the annual tax and silver paid by these merchants have not changed in the slightest. This is not even the cost of sometimes inviting local officials to a feast.

So there was a scene unimaginable to later people in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, obviously the big businessmen of the people were all rich and rivaled the country, but the imperial court was so tight that it was about to be unable to open the pot. But at the same time, the life of the local officials was just as good, because they could get enough filial piety from the big local merchants, and this money was even dozens of times the amount he received.

When there was a deficit in the treasury, the Son of Heaven asked the courtiers for advice, and then led to the trend of reducing the amount of the clan, Yang Zhen had already begun to pay attention to these situations. And when someone proposed to increase the commercial tax, but was strongly resisted by many high-ranking officials in the DPRK and China, Yang Zhen felt that there must be a lot of trouble. With the fact that Jinyiwei is well-informed now, it is naturally not difficult for Yang Zhen, the governor, to find out the secret of a thing. In just a few days, some of the things hidden beneath the surface of the water were revealed.

The courtiers were so opposed to this because they had a lot to gain from it. You must know that now the Ming Dynasty has the most developed commerce and the largest number of big merchants, including those provinces in the southeast and Shanxi. However, there are more talents in these provinces, occupying half of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a very normal thing, when a businessman has a lot of money, in order to ensure his own interests, he is bound to think of colluding with the power, and there is no safer way in the world to let his children and nephews become part of the power class. And they have the money, they can hire the best teachers, and teach the children below who have the talent to read from an early age, and these people are naturally the most outstanding figures in the imperial examination.

Although there are a few geniuses in the families of the poor, in terms of the number alone, it is obvious that the sons and nephews of these wealthy merchant families are more likely to be officials. This point, even after a few hundred years, has not changed much......

When these people are really above the court, how can they not speak for their relatives?

In addition, some officials, who may not have come from merchant families themselves, began to use their power to let their families do business in their hometowns because of the needs of life, in order to obtain a large number of benefits. After all, there are so many officials in the world, but only Hai Rui is truly selfless......

These officials and their families rely on this rule of the imperial court to constantly grab benefits, and when someone wants to change all this, which is equivalent to digging their corners, how can these people not rise up and fight back?

Even if there is a big problem in the treasury of the imperial court now, as long as the commercial tax is increased, it can be solved, they still turn a blind eye, as the so-called plucking a hair and benefiting the world, I don't do anything! As for the financial problems of the imperial court, can't they be solved by other means?

However, these selfish thoughts of harming the public are not on the table after all, especially for those high-ranking officials of the court who are sanctimonious, once the matter is exposed, they will face great trouble.

Yang Zhen originally planned to find an opportunity to report these things he had obtained to the Son of Heaven, and then let Wanli make the final decision. But since these officials provoked him with nothing to do, of course he couldn't swallow his anger, so he simply borrowed the hands of those red-eyed nobles in the court to deal with them.

The thing he handed over to Wang Wei was very simple, it was just a connection between important businessmen in several provinces and officials in the DPRK and China, as for the deeper things, Wang Wei could naturally see it at a glance, so he felt a burst of anger - okay, you are famous, advantageous and have meat to eat, but we can't even drink a mouthful of soup, and you always rely on the name of righteousness to belittle the target, is it really tolerable?

After casually flipping through the contents of the Chinese book in his hand, Wang Wei did not ask Yang Zhen about the authenticity of these things, he still trusted Jinyi Wei's ability to investigate things, and at the same time he already had a plan, so he handed over to Yang Zhen: "Yang Hou Ye can help so much in this matter, we have received it." ”

"The prince is polite, am I not like you? In this bullet, there is also my Yang Zhen's name. Yang Zhen patted the manuscript with a smile and said: "But you have to do this carefully, don't leave a mouth for others, otherwise it will become a mess again." ”

Wang Wei immediately understood, obviously Yang Zhen did not intend to get involved in this dispute, this was already his greatest help to himself and others. Although he was a little dissatisfied in his heart, he was helpless, after all, Yang Zhen's identity was here, he was different from ordinary clans, and he had a means of self-preservation, so there was really no need to panic like them. And this time he can be regarded as a great help to everyone, and they can't ask for too much.

So after being stunned for a while, Wang Wei had to smile bitterly: "In this way, we will act carefully!" ”

Yang Zhen smiled, and after a few more gossips with the other party, he sent off the guests with tea......

A few days later, disputes between the DPRK and China broke out again, and some officials suddenly turned their guns on several high-ranking officials in the DPRK and China, and counted their various crimes, including using their status in the DPRK to let their family members buy and sell by force in the local area......

And this was just the beginning, and soon after, more officials began to impeach these officials, and some even began to combine this matter with the low commercial tax of the imperial court.

Yang Zhen couldn't help but smile after learning of this change. He knew that this was the fact that those clans had begun to fight back, and what they did was indeed very correct, using the power of the officials to deal with them, even if the other party knew that this was the clan making trouble, but they couldn't come up with substantial evidence at all.

You must know that among the officials, there are also three, six, nine and so on, among them, although those imperial historians have a very good reputation, they are really having a hard time. They have almost no real power, they only have a mouth, a pen, and it is really difficult to live in the capital, and even support their wives and children.

Originally, they didn't care if they didn't know what was going on behind the scenes of those officials in the DPRK and China, but once they knew that these upright and selfless guys had made so much money behind their backs, these officials would naturally be psychologically unbalanced. Not to mention that the clans' wishes will benefit them, even if they don't, driven by jealousy, they won't let go of these problematic officials.

And as the impeachment of officials continued to be heard, the collusion between these officials and businessmen, and even the fact that their family members were local businessmen were constantly exposed, and then they pretended to be public and private, and the arguments that they obstructed the increase in commercial taxes everywhere began to be very loud, which made many officials discredited, and they did not even dare to speak.

In this regard, not only many people in the officialdom expressed their disdain and dissatisfaction, but also the people, but also public opinion, shouting and shouting to kill these officials who had already found out the problem, and the court was suddenly in turmoil, and everyone was in danger.

At this time, as the initiator of this turmoil, Yang Zhen and Yang Hou Ye only watched from the wall, no matter what, it was impossible for him to get involved in this dispute. But there was one thing he needed to do in person, and one morning, a few days later, he rushed to the palace in full clothes and asked to see Wanli, the Son of Heaven!

Because he wants to change the course of history again......