amaotonovel Chapter 706 Kill those who deserve to die, slice those who deserve to be sliced
Chapter 706 Kill those who deserve to die, slice those who deserve to be sliced
Yang Shaofeng cursed and cursed at certain people in his heart.
Emperor Zhu suddenly pulled a small pouch from his pocket, threw it in front of Yang Shaofeng, and said, "Oh right, I almost forgot about this."
Yang Shaofeng glanced at the slightly bulging purse.
What, you old dummy, you think you can have a change of heart and give me some money to spend?
That's not right either.
Even if Old Deng has a conscience, he has no money.
When he was in Dengzhou, he always mooched off this official's allowance!
Yang Shaofeng was internally ranting, but Emperor Zhu said with a solemn expression, "Open it and take a look."
Ok?
Seeing that Emperor Zhu's expression was off, Yang Shaofeng suspiciously took the purse.
But as soon as Yang Shaofeng got his hands on the purse, he realized something was wrong.
First of all, it's incredibly light. It's so damn light that even if Old Deng put a few copper coins inside, it still wouldn't be this light.
Secondly, it's full of things the size of rice grains, and you can clearly feel the texture of kneading wheat or rice grains.
Yang Shaofeng became increasingly curious and simply opened the purse to take a look.
"black pepper?"
Yang Shaofeng looked up at Emperor Zhu and asked, "What's so interesting about this thing?"
Emperor Zhu chuckled and said, "Why don't you guess where this thing came from?"
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback, then pursed his lips.
First of all, pepper was not produced in the Ming Dynasty.
Secondly, it's impossible for Lao Deng to bring pepper, which was a tribute from someone else, to ask this official.
Again, there was something off about Old Deng's smile just now.
Yang Shaofeng smiled and said, "In my opinion, this pepper was probably discovered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard while they were investigating a case with someone. They just happened to find this thing out of nowhere."
Emperor Zhu chuckled and said, "Then you've guessed wrong."
Yang Shaofeng was stunned for a moment, and only after a while did he ask suspiciously, "You guessed wrong?"
Emperor Zhu hummed in agreement. "You are the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. If the Embroidered Uniform Guard found this, do you think they wouldn't tell you?"
After offering a few words in defense of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Emperor Zhu continued, "This item was sent by Yu Tongyuan."
Yang Shaofeng was stunned again.
Yu Tongyuan was the younger brother of Yu Tonghai, the Duke of Guo, who died in the 27th year of the Zhizheng era due to serious injuries from being shot by a stray arrow. He was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Nan'an and can be said to be a staunch supporter of Lao Deng's Huaixi lineage.
But that's not the point.
The key question is, where did Yu Tongyuan get the pepper, and why did he go to the trouble of sending someone to deliver it to Lao Deng?
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering this, Emperor Zhu said with a forced smile, "Last year, we asked Tongyuan to keep an eye on those merchants who traded at sea. This year, thanks to the child case, we finally found a den of thieves for Tongyuan."
"Good heavens, it turns out someone has been building up businesses in Gulifo and hiring many Gulifo people to help them grow pepper."
"Moreover, many beggars who were inexplicably reported missing before, as well as some children this time, have also been found in Gurifo."
"Although not all of them, they were at least partially rescued."
The Emperor Zhu's expression gradually turned ferocious: "Good, damn good."
“These bastards still haven’t forgotten their old ways of colluding with officials and exploiting the people in Gulifo.”
"At first, they only deducted wages from the Gulifo people, but later they simply tried to kidnap people from our Ming Dynasty to do hard labor."
“These scoundrels give a little something to the officials in Gulifo every year, which greatly reduces their taxes.”
"Then, these bastards secretly bypassed the maritime defenses and smuggled pepper into our Great Ming Dynasty to make a profit."
"Great, that's fucking great."
Emperor Zhu didn't care much about these local gentry withholding wages from Gulifo's workers.
After all, the people of Gulifu were not ordinary citizens of the Ming Dynasty. Before the people of the Ming Dynasty were living a good life, who had the time to care about the life and death of the people of Gulifu?
Emperor Zhu was equally unconcerned about their collusion with officials in Gulifo.
Anyway, it's the people who collect less tax who are from Gulifo, what does that have to do with the Ming Dynasty?
The key issue is that these bastards are smuggling pepper like crazy.
That won't do, damn it.
Smuggling pepper means that the Ming Dynasty's maritime customs will collect less tax, which means the national treasury will lose money, and it also means that the imperial treasury will receive less revenue.
This is all real money.
More importantly, these bastards also kidnapped Ming Dynasty people to work as laborers.
That's even worse.
Your abduction of a Ming citizen means that the Ming Dynasty will lose one citizen. Isn't that tantamount to undermining the foundation of the Ming Dynasty?
As the Emperor Zhu's expression grew colder, Yang Shaofeng suddenly felt a bit flustered.
This is difficult to evaluate.
Perhaps starting from the Song Dynasty, these gentry had already become accustomed to letting themselves go.
The phrase "the collapse of rites and music" is insufficient to describe the extent of the madness and depravity of the Ming Dynasty gentry.
Emperor Zhu sneered again, "Do you think this is the end of it?"
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback and asked, "Anything else?"
Emperor Zhu gave another cold laugh and said, "Of course there are more."
“Some audacious scoundrels simply went to Southeast Asia to occupy small islands and forcibly abduct some natives to work as laborers for them in planting spices.”
“Some people even drag their relatives and friends into doing this kind of heinous thing together.”
"Not only are they shameless, but they've also fed their conscience to the dogs."
Yang Shaofeng fell silent again, and after a long while, he looked at Emperor Zhu and asked, "What does Father-in-law mean?"
Emperor Zhu curled his finger and tapped the table in front of him.
"What do you mean?"
"Those who abducted the people of the Ming Dynasty need no further explanation. Those who deserve to be killed should be killed, and those who deserve to be tortured should be tortured. Even if we can't make an example of them, we should at least send them on a mission to deter others."
"As for those who kidnapped natives to do hard labor..."
Emperor Zhu snorted coldly and said, "These people bypassed the sea defenses and smuggled spices into the Ming Dynasty. Their intentions are despicable and their crimes are unforgivable. They should be severely punished."
Upon hearing Emperor Zhu's words, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but curl his lip.
Severe punishment?
Compared to the saying "kill those who deserve to die and dismember those who deserve to be dismembered," isn't the so-called severe punishment just equivalent to recovering tax evasion and then letting things go unchecked?
Yang Shaofeng was internally ranting, while Emperor Zhu continued, "However, this incident has also served as a reminder to us."
"What the hell is this about competing with the people for profit?"
"What the hell is this 'barbaric overseas land'?"
"These bastards are trying every means to gain an advantage, yet they are also going to great lengths to prevent the court from profiting from overseas."
"We'll do the opposite of what they want!"
“We’ve already spoken to Tongyuan about planting our Ming flag on those uninhabited islands overseas first, and then we’ll relocate some people there to grow spices.”
"Let Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen study the rest slowly."