Red Mansion Royal Cat

Chapter 581: Warning to the Monkey
If it wasn't for the purpose of killing a chicken to scare the monkey, Jia Cong would not have bothered to go through so much trouble and even set up a sting operation for these three guys.

Whether it was the Liao family, Ma Daoyuan, or even that dead eunuch, Jia Cong could easily take out the golden order, use his identity as an imperial envoy, and directly send out a large army to kill them all.

He wanted to use the heads of these three men to give a warning to the new wealthy families in the south.

At the same time, it is also a special way to alert the enemy and see how many snakes, insects, rats and ants can be scared out.

No matter what, he would never allow capital to control the court in Daxia.

Commercial development can be encouraged and private legal property can be protected.

But as long as the businessmen want to seize the power of the dynasty and monopolize it for personal gain, I'm sorry, Jia Cong doesn't mind learning from his ancestors and hanging these illegal businessmen on the city walls to dry.

When the dead eunuch and Ma Daoyuan revealed their true identities, Jia Cong's anger was suppressed to the extreme.

"presumptuous!"

"In my opinion, it is you, Ma Daoyuan, who is being presumptuous!"

The person behind the screen finally came out with a cold face. Ma Daoyuan had never seen Jia Cong's true face. In addition, Jia Cong did not wear an official robe today, but only a Confucian robe when he entered Huai'an City.

Therefore, Ma Daoyuan was so angry that he didn't hear the word "Ben Hou" clearly. When he saw that a young boy dared to scold him, he immediately spoke again in anger.

"Whose child is so ignorant of etiquette and rules that he dares to act so unruly in front of me? Li Xu, this is the Huai'an government office, not a place to raise a child. This is where the imperial court's instruments are, you can only let a yellow-mouthed child act so unruly here..."

puff~
Before Li Xu could even open his mouth, Hui E at the side had already widened his eyes in fear, cold sweat broke out all over his body, and he knelt down with weak legs.

“Hou… Hou… Hou…”

"What monkey? Where did the monkey come from? Eh? Eunuch Hui, what's wrong with you?"

"This servant pays homage to the Marquis of Yongfeng, please spare my life!"

Hui E came from the palace. The eunuchs in the Forbidden City might not know the royal family’s side branches, but they must know the nobles of the Ning, Rong and Jia families.

Among them, Master She and Master Cong are the most critical. If you offend a certain prince, you may still be able to keep your life, but if you offend these two masters, the mass grave outside the city will be your destination.

Even if the gentleman in front of him didn't care, the emperor or the prince would throw him into the Ministry of Punishment...

Hui E knew Jia Cong's temper too well. When Marquis Yongfeng had a cold face, it was definitely because the anger in his heart could no longer be suppressed.

Therefore, he did not even think about making excuses. He simply knelt on the ground, kowtowed, confessed his guilt, and begged for mercy.

"Please spare my life, my Lord. I admit my guilt!"

Ma Daoyuan on the side was dumbfounded. The faster Hui E knelt, the more frightened he was.

Who was the person he just scolded?
Jia Cong, Marquis of Yongfeng?
It turned out to be that man!
The eunuch's knees were weak, and he was a third-rank official...

"Master Hou, spare your life!"

Ma Daoyuan's knees were also weak, after all, the person in front of him was that man.

How terrible is the military record of Yongfeng Hou? Who among the civil and military officials in the court doesn't know about it?
Of the four kings of different surnames, four were deposed by Jia Cong.

Even the entire Nan'an Palace was sunk in the canal by this guy's artillery fire...

Third grade?

The death of a third-rank official at the hands of Marquis Yongfeng was enough to allow for a different kind of palace examination.

Perhaps given what he had done, if he kneeled down quickly and confessed his guilt quickly, he could still be saved...

"My Lord, please spare my life. I am just... I am just..."

"Just what?"

Jia Cong sat in the main seat and deliberately took the golden dragon-shaped order from his waist in his hand. The golden light on it was particularly eye-catching, and in the eyes of Ma Daoyuan and Hui E, it was like a deadly knife light.

Ma Daoyuan couldn't find any excuse for a moment, but Hui E rolled and crawled to Jia Cong, hugged Jia Cong's calf and started crying.

"Please spare my life, my Lord. I just took some money and never did anything that would harm the interests of the country..."

Hui E was also someone who had served the prince. He knew that Jia Cong cared about two things most. One was the interests of the people of the world, and the other was the interests of the country.

Unlike those censors, for Jia Cong, being greedy for some money is not a serious crime as long as he gets things done well and does not harm the interests of the people and the court.

Hui E thought to himself that he had sent taxes and silver to the capital on time and in full amount every quarter, and just received some kickbacks. He thought that the Marquis would not use him as a test... right?

"My Lord, I didn't want to come, but Liao Wanyi said that if I didn't come, he would stop paying the tax silver to the Maritime Customs this year..."

"Wait, hand over the tax silver to the Maritime Customs? Since when did they need to hand over the tax silver to the Maritime Customs themselves?"

The customs duties of the Maritime Customs are compulsorily levied based on the total volume and variety of imported and exported goods. Why should merchants pay them themselves?

Jia Cong seemed to have discovered the trick. A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and Hui E was so scared that he swallowed his tears.

Did he say something wrong?
No, I'm not wrong! I'd rather die than have my friend die. Marquis Yongfeng doesn't tolerate any sand in his eyes. How many people can escape the crime in the eyes of Marquis Yongfeng?
Hui E recklessly told everything he knew, and neither Ma Daoyuan nor Liao Wanyi could stop him.

Only then did Jia Cong understand the handwritten note the emperor gave him before leaving the capital, asking him to pay attention to the situation of the major maritime customs offices along the coast.

It turned out that there was a problem with the tax silver that the Maritime Customs paid to the capital in the past two years. According to calculations in the eighth year of Yuanyou, the Maritime Customs paid a total of 27 million taels of silver in taxes in four quarters. After soaring to 58 million taels of silver in the tenth year of Yuanyou, the tax silver has fluctuated around 60 million taels of silver for three consecutive years.

Is this normal? It seems normal, but it is actually very abnormal.

Because in the 11th year of Yuanyou, Daxia officially established diplomatic relations with Western countries, and the throughput of cargo almost doubled.

According to the calculations of the Ministry of Revenue, not to mention the tax silver exceeding 100 million, it can at least be pushed to the level of around 80 million taels.

But the cargo throughput has increased, but the tariffs and taxes have remained as stable as ever...

The supervisory eunuchs and officials in charge of the major maritime customs offices all said there was no problem, and the officials sent to investigate also said there was no problem.

It would be strange if there was no problem. Just as Jia Cong was about to leave the capital to avoid the limelight, the emperor threw him a handwritten order.

Jia Cong hadn't noticed it before, and didn't want to be a blind cat catching a dead mouse, so he would be in Huai'an Prefecture to catch rabbits while hunting grass. He learned from Hui E the reason why the tariffs were as stable as an old dog.

The first group of people who became rich by opening up sea trade were very bold!
They actually thought of sharing the tariff amount, with each person paying a portion of the total tax silver from the previous year every quarter, so that the total amount of tax silver would always remain at a stable but slightly rising level.

In this way, the imperial court could receive good tariffs, and they could share part of the increase in cargo throughput, thus "legally" avoiding taxes!
In the eleventh year of Yuanyou alone, this group of people embezzled at least 20 million taels of customs duties from the imperial court.

This is all the money that the imperial court originally intended to use to exempt the national agricultural tax and increase investment in education.

Jia Cong was angry, the kind of anger that was burning with rage.

He kicked Hui E to the ground, then snatched the goose-feather knife from his personal soldier's hand, pulled it out, and beat him hard with the back of the knife.

"Are you a fucking idiot? Twenty or thirty million tax silvers were divided up by others, and you still happily think you are very smart and that the country has not suffered any loss..."

Yes, Hui E is that stupid.

He actually thought that by paying tariffs according to his share, he could not only report to the imperial court, but also gain the "friendship" of these maritime merchant families.

He himself received more than 100,000 taels of bribes, and when he retired in old age, he bought a garden in Jiangnan and adopted a godson...

Hui E was beaten silly by Jia Cong, but he was glad in his heart that the fact that Marquis Yongfeng could beat him proved that he would not die.

If Marquis Yongfeng did not fight, he would worry about his life. This is the wisdom unique to eunuchs.

The back of the knife in Jia Cong's hand hit Hui'e again and again, and Hui'e fell to the ground with his head in his hands, not daring to dodge.

Only when Jia Cong was tired of fighting did he let his personal soldiers drag Hui E away...

"Ma Daoyuan, you have done a good thing..."

Maritime merchants evaded taxes, and the officials of the Maritime Customs Office made a fortune. Local officials like Ma Daoyuan were very important in this.

The smartest thing about this group of maritime merchants is that they make their accounts almost flawless, and it is difficult for people who don’t understand economic data to see the problems.

Take Nanzhili for example. Both the left and right governors were ignorant of economics. Ma Daoyuan, an assistant official in the governor's office, took the opportunity to conceal the situation from the local authorities and became a bridge between several major maritime merchants in Nanzhili and the Maritime Customs.

Like Ma Daoyuan, there are many assistant officials in various government offices, and even the current prefect of Jinling, Zhu Laisheng, is one of their people.

In just two or three years, this group of maritime merchants replaced the original Xilin Party and controlled a large number of officials in the south of the Yangtze River.

These people may not be of high rank, or even be formal officials of the court, but they are all local tyrants and are familiar with every corner of Jiangnan.

Relying on this power, illegal sea merchants monopolized most of the channels for goods to go out to sea, forcing those handicraftsmen and small merchants to sell their products to large shops at low prices, and then the sea merchants took them out to sea and sold them to the barbarians at extremely high prices...

Then these sea merchants once again started buying land and property, quickly filling the power vacuum after the fall of the Xilin Party.

Ma Daoyuan was promoted from a fifth-rank Tongzhi to a third-rank You Canzheng of Nanzhili in just three years, relying on the power of these maritime merchants.

Jia Cong was too lazy to listen to Ma Daoyuan's excuses. Jiangnan has been a disaster area in the officialdom since ancient times. Corrupt officials have been executed one after another. This is nothing new.

He simply waved his hand, and four personal soldiers walked in from outside the hall.

"Drag him out and kill him!"

"Please spare my life, my Lord. I admit my guilt..."

“Hang the heads of the two men on flagpoles and send them across the prefectures and cities all the way to Jinling City. Send a message to the Nanzhili Provincial Administration Commissioner’s Office and the Criminal Investigation Commissioner’s Office that when I arrive in Jinling City, if there is another official like Ma Daoyuan, another illegal businessman like Liao Wanyi, and all officials in Jinling City, prepare to apologize to Taizu, Taizong, and the Saint!”

……

Jia Cong's method was very direct. He had a golden order granted by the emperor in his hand, and seeing the order was like seeing the emperor.

To execute a third-rank councilor, there is no need to go through the Three Departments.

With one cut of the knife, Ma Daoyuan's head rolled to the ground.

Liao Wanyi suffered the same fate. A team of personal soldiers hung the heads of the two men on flagpoles and set out from Huai'an Prefecture, traveling through states and prefectures, and even making a big circle around the city of Jinling, spreading Jia Cong's order to various places in Nanzhili.

For a time, there was a roar of wind.

The officials of Nanzhili were confused, and the maritime merchants were in an uproar.

That money-making model of "I am good for you, everyone is good" seems to have caused a big trouble. What should I do if Yongfeng Hou doesn't recognize it?
Not only were the people in Songjiang Maritime Customs panicking, the news quickly spread throughout the southeast. Maritime Customs offices in places like Ningbo and Quanzhou were all frantically trying to think of ways to get the news from Jia Cong.

Unfortunately, no news came out from Jia Cong's side. The order he passed to the Southern Zhili Provincial Administration and the Censorate reflected his attitude.

Hui E was beaten half to death. He lay on the bed with wounds all over his body and wrote to Jia Cong about his experiences over the past two years.

Including the officials and businessmen he befriended after taking office, how those sea merchants bewitched him, and which officials passed on messages to him...

In Jia Cong's words, as a eunuch, you are on friendly terms with local officials and collude with those sea merchants to settle accounts with the emperor's money. Isn't that courting death?
Back then in the Fengtian Hall, the emperor argued with court ministers for a whole day before setting the rule that eunuchs would supervise the Maritime Customs.

Hui-E is in a bad situation. It is being manipulated by the interest groups that are colluding with officials and businessmen...

"Read more books in the future. If I hadn't come by chance, and you hadn't committed the unforgivable crime, your head would have been hung on a flagpole and paraded through the streets for public display!"

After all, this idiot came from the Eastern Palace and had the merit of reporting crimes. He had not done anything to bully men or women or oppress the people in the past two years, so Jia Cong spared his life.

But the death penalty can be avoided, but the living punishment cannot be escaped...

"Once this matter is over, you will go out to sea and expand the territory for the country!"

Jia Cong has already made up his mind. Since Hui E likes money, he might as well go overseas and rob the Western barbarians.

Especially for the Western barbarians' colonies in Africa and America, it was not easy for the imperial court to rob them openly, so it let this guy lead a team of naturalized pirates, Japanese, etc., and pretend to be pirates to act for the imperial court.

The pen in Hui'e's hand trembled, and he wanted to beg for mercy, but he was frightened by Jia Cong's cold eyes and his whole body froze.

Jia Cong continued, "You must understand that you have brought shame upon His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. The reason you are still alive is that I am sentimental and partial to you. By the time you finish writing this, there will be no Hui E in this world. When the time comes, you can change your name and go out to sea to save your life. Otherwise, according to the powerful orders in the court, your head will be hung on the city gate tower sooner or later to dry in the wind!"

This is not really a scare tactic. The censors in the court dared to criticize even the emperor. If a eunuch embezzled hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, even the emperor could not save his life.

Hui E finally realized the seriousness of the crime he had committed. He nodded like a chick pecking at rice and began to write his "memoirs" with all his heart.

When the ship reached the shore and Jia Cong and his party arrived at the Yangzhou wharf, Hui E had finally finished writing down his experiences of the past two years.

Jia Cong took it and flipped through it. It seemed that his method of giving a good reward after a bad start was quite effective.

Hui E sold out almost all of his "allies". Based on this "memoir", he could have cleaned up most of the parasites in at least Nanzhili.

He put away the "Memoirs" with satisfaction and nodded to Hui E.

"Alright, you have been beaten to death by me now. Change your clothes and follow my people north. Dengzhou will prepare a boat for you."

Monthly ticket recommendation ticket

　Thanks to Yixiaojuanmao and Panggezhengzhuo for their tips.

　　I’ll stop here tonight and continue tomorrow. Good night!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)