Chapter 667 Inflation in Da Zhou!

After listening to his subordinates' report, Zhang Xiu took a deep breath and instructed his subordinates:

“Call that shopkeeper Wang over here…”

A moment later, Shopkeeper Wang was brought to the door of the basement. Seeing that the basement had been discovered by Zhang Xiu, Shopkeeper Wang's face suddenly became uncertain. After hesitating for a moment, without waiting for Zhang Xiu to speak, he took the initiative to say to Zhang Xiu:

"Master Zhang, can I have a word with you?"

Zhang Xiu thought for a moment after hearing this, then waved to the officers beside him. Seeing Zhang Xiu's actions, the officers tactfully went elsewhere.

Seeing this, Shopkeeper Wang's complexion also improved slightly, and at this time Zhang Xiu also said in a deep voice:
"what do you want to say?"

Upon hearing this, Shopkeeper Wang also spoke in a low voice and got straight to the point:

"Sir, since you are a government official, you should know that we, Dingshenghe, are not independent merchants. If you show us mercy today, we, Dingshenghe, will surely reward you handsomely!"

After he finished speaking, Shopkeeper Wang took out a silver note from his sleeve and stuffed it into Zhang Xiu's hand very covertly. Feeling the silver note in his hand, Zhang Xiu felt a little struggle in his heart.

He had just taken a quick look at the treasures in the basement. If they were put on the market, they would be worth more than one thousand taels of silver, which was not a small amount of money. According to the laws currently implemented by the Fengwu Army, it was enough to send Manager Wang and his boss behind him to prison for more than ten years for labor reform.

Therefore, if Manager Wang had any sense now, the silver note in his hand should not be less than fifty taels of silver!
And this is equivalent to more than one year's salary for him as a Yuanwailang...
And what Manager Wang said was not wrong. Dingshenghe was not a small business. It had been rooted in Youyan for decades and had more than a dozen branches in various places in Youyan. It was rumored that Dingshenghe's background was very strong!
I have offended them this time. Will my future be affected?

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiu couldn't help but feel even more conflicted. Seeing him like this, Shopkeeper Wang felt somewhat proud. In the past ten years or so, his basement had been discovered by government officials before, but in the face of his coercion and inducement, they had all chosen to compromise. He believed that Zhang Xiu today would be the same as the others!
Just when Shopkeeper Wang was feeling somewhat complacent, Zhang Xiu suddenly sighed, and returned the banknote in his hand to Shopkeeper Wang, then called his subordinates and said,

"Take them all down!"

Hearing Zhang Xiu's words, Shopkeeper Wang was stunned at first, as if he couldn't believe his ears. It was not until the officer beside him put handcuffs on him that he realized that Zhang Xiu was really playing a joke on him. He immediately continued anxiously:

"Master Zhang, if you have any requests, you can tell me! I will do my best to satisfy you!"

Zhang Xiu shook his head upon hearing this and said righteously:

"I have nothing to say to you. As an official appointed by the imperial court, my duty is to bring you to justice!"

Seeing that bribery was useless, Manager Wang showed his true colors and threatened Zhang Xiu with a ferocious look:
"Zhang Xiu, you bastard, our boss won't let you go!"

Hearing the insults from Shopkeeper Wang, Zhang Xiu waved his hand, and the officer who received the signal immediately stuffed a dirty rag into Shopkeeper Wang's mouth...

After sealing Dingsheng and Buzhuang and arranging guards, Zhang Xiu prepared to report to the tax department.
Faced with the bribe from Manager Wang, the reason why he chose to refuse it was not because of his ideological awareness or high moral bottom line. In fact, just over a year ago, when the Fengwu Army had not yet entered Hebei and Henan, Zhang Xiu accepted all bribes and dared to take as much as you gave him. Unfortunately, not many people gave him money at that time!
Zhang Xiu, now 31 years old, is from Yijing, Hebei Province. His father, Zhang Chenggong, was a juren in the early years of Anhe, and once served as a yuanwailang in the Hebei-Henan Provincial Administration. Although Zhang Xiu also studied hard since childhood, he was never able to make further progress in the imperial examinations. Now he is in his thirties and is still a tongsheng!
Although Zhang Xiu was not very ambitious, his father Zhang Chenggong could not ignore him. When Zhang Xiu retired from the post of governor, Zhang Chenggong gritted his teeth and took out more than 300 taels of silver, his life savings, and his lifelong reputation to smooth things over for Zhang Xiu. Finally, he forced Zhang Xiu to fill a vacancy in the governor's office.

Zhang Xiu, who successfully entered the government with the help of his father, also felt very painful for the silver his father took out, so his biggest wish after entering the government was to get back the more than 300 taels of silver.

Unfortunately, although he filled a vacancy and entered the Governor's office, he was just a small fry, driven around by others all day long, without any power. Not only did he not get any benefits, but his pitiful salary was not enough to spend because of the high expenses of entertaining guests in the government, and he often needed support from his family...

Just when Zhang Xiu felt that his life was a complete failure, something unexpected happened. The Fengwu Army brazenly invaded Hebei and Henan and seized power in Hebei and Henan!

Honestly speaking, Zhang Xiu didn't have much interest in this matter at first. After all, he was just a small fry. Whether it was the former Marshal Zhao or the current Marshal Ye of the Fengwu Army, they were too far away for him. In his opinion, no matter who was in power, he was just a salted fish waiting to die!
Just when Zhang Xiu was about to lie down with this thought in mind, something he had never expected happened. The Fengwu Army, which had just taken charge of Hebei and Henan, announced a piece of news that made all officials, big and small, rejoice - the salaries of all officials would be tripled!
The Great Zhou Dynasty has lasted for three hundred years. During these three hundred years, there have been more than twenty emperors and countless things have happened, but the salaries of officials have not changed from beginning to end. They are still those set when the Great Zhou Dynasty was founded. To be honest, this salary was indeed not a small amount under the background of the times, enough for an official to live a decent and prosperous life!

However, with the passage of time, especially in recent decades, the trade between Jiangnan and overseas has become more and more frequent. Silk, tea and porcelain have brought a lot of silver from overseas to the Great Zhou. After the circulation of these silver in the Great Zhou, it also pushed up the prices and caused inflation. In such a background, the salaries of officials were no longer enough to support them to live a decent and affluent life. They could only barely feed their families...

The court's senior ministers were not unaware of this situation, but they did not care. Among these people, eight or nine out of ten were from noble families, and the remaining ones who came from humble backgrounds most likely had a very powerful father-in-law. Therefore, these people did not care about the amount of their salary at all. Their ancestral land and properties were enough to allow them to live a luxurious life!

Seeing that they could no longer count on the court to increase their salaries, the middle and lower-level officials tried to find their own ways to make money in order to continue to live the decent and affluent life they had before. As a result, corruption emerged on a large scale in the administration of the Zhou Dynasty!

There were people in the imperial court who were clear-headed about the situation and they had tried to make changes. However, when the people learned that the imperial court was going to increase the salaries of those fat and bloated officials, they immediately became outraged. For the sake of a good reputation for being honest, the powerful officials who did not care about their salaries all opposed it. As a result, the administration of the Great Zhou became increasingly deteriorating!
In such a background, when the officials of Hebei and Henan learned that Ye Mingsheng had tripled their salaries, they naturally supported Ye Mingsheng very much. They wished that Ye Mingsheng had not taken over Hebei and Henan earlier. However, just when they were very happy and excited to receive the tripled salaries, Ye Mingsheng, after a period of understanding the situation and sorting out the veins of the Hebei and Henan officialdom, brazenly launched an anti-corruption campaign that affected the entire Hebei and Henan officialdom...
Although he was fighting corruption, Ye Mingsheng did not take a one-size-fits-all approach and arrest all those who were corrupt and took bribes. After all, in today's world, if Ye Mingsheng did so, the government would inevitably be completely paralyzed and the Hebei and Henan regions would be plunged into endless turmoil.

Although not all of them were arrested, Ye Mingsheng arrested dozens of notorious corrupt officials and their cronies and sentenced them to death. As for those officials whose crimes were not serious and who took the initiative to confess, Ye Mingsheng did not make things too difficult for them after admonishing and warning them.

After this incident, officials in Hebei and Henan all knew Ye Mingsheng's methods, and a clean and honest political environment was gradually established!
As the saying goes, "A blessing in disguise", in the past, Zhang Xiu could not gain any benefits as the governor-general because he had no power. However, it was precisely because of this that Zhang Xiu, who had no crime of corruption or bribery, was valued under the rule of the Fengwu Army. In addition, many people were arrested in the governor-general at that time and many official positions were vacant. Therefore, by chance, Zhang Xiu was promoted to the Yuwailang of the newly established Taxation Bureau!
This so-called taxation office was a new department established in the provincial government after the Fengwu Army took control of Hebei and Henan. In past anti-corruption campaigns, the taxation department under the provincial government of Hebei and Henan could be said to be the hardest hit area by corruption. Everyone was scrambling to make money. They bullied the weak and feared the strong. They dared not touch those with backers and backgrounds, but they struck hard at the ordinary people, forcing many of them to sell their children and their families to be broken up.

Therefore, Ye Mingsheng also listened to the voice of the people, dealt with the original tax department seriously, and established a new taxation office to be responsible for implementing his will of encouraging business development, reducing agricultural taxes and emphasizing commercial taxes!

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Three days later, in the Governor's Mansion, study
Huo San bowed and introduced Ye Mingsheng who was sitting on the chair in front of him:

"Sir, we have already captured all of Xiao Ruolan's accomplices. They are all assassins trained by the Supervisory Department. According to their confessions, they sneaked into Yijing in three batches. The Supervisory Department gave them the task of lying in wait and waiting for Xiao Ruolan to activate them!"

"Five of the eleven were killed when they ambushed Madam An. Of the remaining six, three were killed and three were captured during yesterday's roundup!"

Ye Mingsheng frowned slightly when he heard this and then asked:
"After the city gates were unsealed yesterday, didn't any of them take the opportunity to escape?"

Seeing Ye Mingsheng asking this, Huo San immediately continued:
"Your Excellency, Xiao Ruolan is very cunning. She instructed those assassins from the Supervisory Department to play a trick. She wanted to mislead us into thinking that these assassins have escaped, but in fact they will continue to stay in Yijing and continue to carry out assassination operations!"

"Who are they trying to kill?" Ye Mingsheng asked after a moment's hesitation:
Hearing this question, Huo San raised his head and said to Ye Mingsheng somewhat awkwardly:
"According to the confessions of the three assassins from the Inspectorate, their target was you, my lord. According to the confessions of the three assassins from the Inspectorate, Xiao Ruolan might have a mission that they didn't know about. Xiao Ruolan once told them that she had a chance to kill you, my lord, in the Governor's Mansion, but she didn't do it because she was worried that she would not be able to walk out of the Governor's Mansion alive..."

"As for the reason why Xiao Ruolan took action this time, it was because she found out that she had been poisoned and would die, and our people were secretly watching her. So when they saw that their conspiracy was exposed, they acted in a panic!"

After receiving this answer, Ye Mingsheng narrowed his eyes. Huo San waited for a while and saw that Ye Mingsheng did not give any instructions. He hesitated for a moment and asked Ye Mingsheng tentatively:

"Sir, it will take some time for our coordination office to find out Xiao Ruolan's true identity and other tasks she is carrying out!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded and said:

"Keep it a secret, I don't want anyone else to know about this!"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Huo San's expression tightened and he continued:
"I understand! I promise there won't be any rumors outside!"

After getting this answer, Ye Mingsheng nodded and pondered for a while before slowly speaking:
"Your Coordination Office bears a great responsibility for Xiao Ruolan's incident this time. However, considering that the incident was a safe one, Madam An also escaped unscathed, and your follow-up investigation was also very prompt, I will fine you, Huo San, and Wang Xuecheng one year's salary. However, this incident will not happen again. I don't want to see such a thing happen again. Huo San, do you understand what I mean?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng say this, Huo San's originally uneasy heart suddenly relaxed, and he immediately knelt on the ground and bowed to Ye Mingsheng and said:

"Thank you for your magnanimity, my lord. Huo San is deeply grateful. If this happens again, you don't need to tell me. Huo San will not be able to see you again. I will commit suicide to thank you for your kindness..."

(Zhang Xiu is a minor character I created at your request to reflect the social changes brought about by Ye Mingsheng's reforms. What do you think of my writing? If you think it's okay, I will continue writing along this path. If you think it's not good, you can leave your thoughts and suggestions, and I will consider them carefully!)
(End of this chapter)