Governor Li returned to Yamen, and people from all walks of life came back one after another, getting a total of eleven people and escaping three people.

Fortunately, the first offender did not slip through the net, and he got three Taoist priests from the same party and one Miao Zhu, a total of 15.

Fifteen people are undoubtedly a big gang, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are only a dozen or so leaders, and the spark can start a prairie fire, so Governor Li is overjoyed, and this time he has cracked a shocking case.

I wanted to interrogate him immediately, but unexpectedly, an official was sent from the provincial capital to pay a visit, saying that he had to talk to him face to face after serving official business.

When Li Deng looked at the name post, he wrote the words "Foolish Brother Wei Gaoton's first worship", and knew that he was the same acquaintance from the four products of the Salt Envoy Division, and he was also a celebrity in front of the two political envoys.

After the two of them exchanged pleasantries, Wei Gao said: "This time I came here to serve the official business of your lords. Due to the current shortage of taxes, not only are there some major events in the province, such as the opening of the school, the construction of water conservancy, and so on, there is an urgent shortage of silver, but also the tax and silver grain sent to Beijing next year must not be less than in previous years. I think Hunan is the most bitter province, so the meaning of the above, must do a city gate donation, a bridge donation, this was originally a brother on the article Chen, regardless of the city and county, there is a city gate to set up a donation bureau, where in and out, in this city gate of the person, as long as he brings the goods worth 100 yuan, he will draw 10 yuan. ”

Li Deng gasped, if such arbitrary setting of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes were set up in the Hongwu Year, it would be a big crime for the officials of the whole province to be skinned, and even now it is not a good thing, is it crazy to go crazy? What if this gets out?

Wei Gao explained unhurriedly: "If the matter is urgent, it will be over at the end of the year." Think about the dozens of cities in Hunan, the city gate is the most lively place, in and out, I am afraid that there will be tens of thousands of people a day, this donation is also considerable. As for bridge donations, it is a bridge to set up a donation bureau. Donations are made in the same way as at the city gates.

I don't know how many bridges there are in your mansion and in the cities and villages, and you must instruct the lieutenant governor to investigate them in detail, and they must not hide them, and the city gates do not need to be searched. ”

Since it was an instruction from above, Li Deng felt that he had an unshirkable responsibility, and when the sky fell, there was a tall man on his side, and he was just acting on orders, and he hurriedly asked: "Donating to the bureau?" Oh, when will it open? ”

Wei Gao said: "Brother is here. You can't delay too much, two days at most or one day at the minimum, and you have to go back when you stop things. It has been more than ten days since I came out to inspect various prefectures this time, and there are many things in the yamen, and it is not easy to sneak out by chance. ”

"Then why bother to work?" Li Deng said with a smile: "Send someone casually and open it regularly according to the regulations set by my brother." Wouldn't it be troublesome? ”

Wei Gao said: "Since this matter is a brother on the Chen, I am the first person, and I want to go up in the future, how can I not walk around myself?" ”

"Yes." Li Deng nodded. "So it looks like it's going to open soon."

"As early as the first day of October, and as late as the first day of November, the time is only two or three months." Wei Gao explained.

Li Deng asked: "How many people will be used?" ”

Wei Gao said: "What Tiao Chen said is clear. In each prefecture and county, one person is assigned to the general office, and the prefecture and the city are respected as the council. The county seat and the county order are for the meeting, and the general office and the meeting office do not pay salaries, and the donated money received is allowed to be deducted from 28. For example, if your government can donate 100,000 taels in three months, you can deduct 20,000 taels as additional local expenses. Hehe! Lord Li, after this official took this article, those alternate officials, one by one, praised their brothers, one for each government, one for each county, and immediately added dozens of places, so these alternate officials were ten times more eager than their brothers, and they hoped that this matter would be successful. ”

Li Deng understood that it was no wonder that the political envoys agreed to this bad idea, because a group of people were vigorously promoting it, and now that the Chinese New Year was approaching, everyone wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a big profit.

He couldn't help but say: "Don't say that the alternate princes praise the lord, that is, the lower officials, who doesn't want to have one more good errand?" Drinking water and thinking about the source are all given by adults. ”

Wei Gao smiled and said, "Not only that! The article also explained that no matter where you donate 30,000 yuan, the general office and the general office will both get a credit, and 60,000 yuan is a great achievement. If adults can donate 200,000 yuan, they might as well report 180,000 yuan first, then it is three great achievements, and the 20,000 yuan may as well be kept for the next year. It is clearly written on the article, less than 30,000 is not counted, for example, it is like doing business to erase the odds, even if you don't do it in the next year, you can't send it up, right? Adults and I are confidants, so I know everything, and if it were someone else, even if I worship under my door, I will never tell it. ”

Li Deng asked excitedly: "If there are three great achievements, how can this protect the law?" ”

"Haha!" Wei Gao smiled: "First, guarantee a three-year term; Second, one more referral to the Ministry is enough, right? ”

"Enough! That's enough! Li Deng was greatly surprised in his heart, and this matter has a fortune and an official promotion, which is exactly the most proud thing in the world. Thinking of the rebellion I just got, even if the crime is confirmed, at most there is a guarantee, but it may not be so good, and there is no wealth, where can it compare to such a good thing of fame and fortune, killing two birds with one stone?

At that moment, Li Deng said solemnly: "Your Excellency is here, there is only a delay of a day or two, and the lower officials must accompany your Excellency to discuss this matter properly, and personally go to the city gates to check it out, and understand the place where the bureau is set up, and in the future, your Excellency will have an explanation when he goes back." As soon as you wait for the general office, you can start immediately, although you can rest assured, the lower officials are not unsatisfied, and this is also related to their own future. ”

Wei Gao said with satisfaction: "This is very good. ”

Governor Li also didn't care about anyone who committed it, and ordered the Taoist priest to be locked up in the county office, and the remaining eleven scholars were locked up in the government office, and they were interrogated after a few days.

Wei Gao looked at it coldly and said with a smile: "My lord is really a capable person who works hard, and he is very busy with official business. ”

Governor Li sighed fakely, and said, "It's just a day of being a monk and hitting the clock for a day, and doing my duty." I've always liked to plan ahead, wait until something happens, and learn from others to stand by? I don't have that kind of patience. ”

Wei Gao said: "Nowadays, many officials regard the prefect as idle, and it is really rare to do their best for the court like an adult." The temper of the lower officials is the same as that of adults, and it is good to have to do something every day, otherwise it will be uncomfortable to sit. ”

"Yes, that's exactly the case, how can my generation have a vegetarian meal?" Li Deng slapped his thigh. At the moment, the two of them were speculative, and in less than a day, they worshiped each other and exchanged their life stickers, and they called them confidants when they smelled alike, and they became brothers with different surnames who are hello and me.

Speaking of some reasons, in recent years, the princes and governors have let their family children sell private salt and official salt, plus tax reductions and exemptions everywhere, so that the total tax in some provinces has dropped by as much as 30%, and the inland provinces are not as good as the coastal provinces after all. Relying on maritime trade and burgeoning factories and workshops, taxes were too much but not too little.

Most of the mining and salt, iron and tea in the inland provinces are also concentrated in the hands of the royal magnates, local tycoons and eunuchs sent by the imperial palace.

Hunan is blessed with a unique geographical location, bordering Jiangxi in the east. It is bordered by Chongqing and Guizhou in the west, Liangguang in the south, and Hubei in the north. After Wei Gao's suggestion, the two political envoys felt that they could try, and if it didn't work, they would completely ban it, anyway, it was just an expedient measure.

The problem is that the Cheng Xuan Envoy Department is not only in charge of Hunan. He also manages a small half of Guangdong, and his full name is Hu Guangbu Political Envoy Division, and Zuobu Political Envoy Fu is mainly responsible for governing Guangdong. And the one who is in charge of Yongshun and other four governments, one state and one division is the right political envoy, who is over sixty years old and doesn't care about anything, and people give him the nickname 'tumbler'.

This is often the case with government affairs, where the decrees issued by the central authorities are originally well-intentioned, but the grassroots have deliberately misinterpreted their intentions, and as a result, they have become absurd and unorthodox, which has increased the burden on the people.

Wei Gao only thought about collecting more taxes and making political capital for himself, so he circled Yongshun, who should not implement this policy, and put forward the bad idea of dividing the account with 28 points for this reason, and set up a large number of quotas and reward systems to mobilize the enthusiasm of officials.

At the level of Li Deng, he was even more single-minded, and devoted all his thoughts to drawing donations, and he thought of all the places that Wei Gao could not have imagined, and added many additional provisions to mobilize the enthusiasm of the officials below.

In this way, Li Deng downplayed the matter of punishing the traitors to the party, and just like his predecessor Wang Xian, he was thrown into prison and ignored it. Interestingly, Wei Gao is still their great benefactor, but if the case is not closed, they will not be able to come out for a day, and the family members will not be embarrassed, and those who escaped will not dare to return to the city for a day.

Xu Hao on the road came for this reason, he received letters from miners and merchants, mentioning that Hunan planned to set up checkpoints everywhere, and for the merchants, he hated it the most.

The terrible thing about this matter is that not only did the alternate officials strongly approve of it, forcing the two political envoys to make up their minds to ignore the constraints of the imperial court's recent repeated orders not to arbitrarily raise taxes, and even the inspectors of Huguang Road and the imperial historians collectively lost their voices.

Xu Hao felt powerless about this, thinking that Zhu Yuanzhang was very respectful to officials at first, and he was ruthless when he peeled the skin at the earliest, and he was executed for sixty taels of silver. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Yulu was absolutely high income according to prices, not issuing silver treasure money, but issuing silk and grain, and setting up various welfare systems.

Every year, Zhu Yuanzhang would painstakingly advise officials to be honest and honest, and the taxes in various places were not high, except for a few places in Hangzhou, where the population was encouraged to multiply, and there was no poll tax and city tax, and so on, and it was necessary to help every household plant mulberry trees and guide agriculture.

In the early years, Zhu Yuanzhang rarely killed officials, but was very courteous, but even so, there were many cases of local wanton expropriation and extortion, such as the grain transported to Jinling from the south, every two stones of rice transported, the consumption on the road was as high as eight stones, this is Jinling is not the north, you can imagine how the local people are up and down, layer by layer.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was deeply disappointed, had an extreme personality, and finally couldn't bear it, so he simply started a stubble and stubble head cutting campaign, the more greedy you are, the more I want to kill, in the end, look at your hands fast, or the executioner's knife is fast.

Even when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, it was not possible to prohibit large-scale corruption among officials, and the combination of Zhu Gaochi and Xu Hao can be imagined.

The speed of corruption of officials is far beyond people's imagination, not to mention that this is a time when officials are on top of people and the people are like pigs and dogs.

So how can corruption be controlled? Xu Hao didn't know, he thought it seemed like an impossible task.

The cold wind suo, Xu Hao, who was standing at the bow of the boat, showed a hint of ridicule, killing, it can't solve the fundamental problem, but killing is the most painful way to solve it, get out of your mother's interests, even if the Ming Dynasty is killed, what can it be?

seems to be killing people, Xu Hao and Comrade Lao Zhu, father and son, can be called in the same vein! (To be continued......)