Chapter 529: I believe that the Ming Dynasty’s legal system is flawed!

In the Ming Dynasty, there are countless rules and regulations.

The most important one is to emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce.

In fact, it is not that the imperial court suppressed merchants and did not allow them to operate and make money, but that the status of merchants was relatively low.

The people do not fight with the officials.

And business is extremely low-key most of the time.

After all, fattening up merchants and then killing them is a common practice in every dynasty.

But for foreign merchants like Bai Fugui, the court seemed to be somewhat negligent in following rules and past examples.

In particular, this group of people now brings tens of millions of tax revenues to the court every year.

Even Hai Rui did not dare to act rashly.

In the court of Shuntian Prefecture, Bai Fugui silently watched the court officials present, turning his head to look behind him from time to time.

I have done what Yan Binke said.

Now we don’t know what this man, who has already held a high position of power at a young age in the Ming Dynasty, will do next.

The officials in the government office were trying their best to appease these foreign businessmen.

Hai Rui walked up to the Ministry of Revenue officials present today.

"Everyone."

Several officials from the Ministry of Revenue present did not dare to be arrogant, and they all bowed and saluted when facing the person in front of them.

Hai Rui said, "According to reason, this matter should not be under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture. Today, things have come to this point, and Shuntian Prefecture will just serve as a formality. As for what to do next, it is up to you all to report to your superiors."

After saying this, Hai Rui retreated to a stool in the corner and sat down.

And on the other end.

Yan Shaoting had already leisurely arrived in front of the Shuntian government office.

Looking up at the government office in front of him that manages the entire capital area, Yan Shaoting smiled silently.

The current prefect is Hai Rui, and the previous prefect was Zhang Juzheng.

Counting further back, it would be Xu Fan, the eldest son of the Xu Jie family.

These people are all familiar to me.

When he arrived here, the people guarding in front of the government office recognized him immediately.

"Guest Yan!"

"You are finally here!"

"My master is so worried in there."

Yan Shaoting glanced at the people guarding outside the government office and asked, "Are all the people inside?"

The concierge nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, they are all inside. I will take you in right away."

Soon, Yan Shaoting had walked around the screen wall and saw the crowded court.

The doorman also suddenly spoke up and shouted, "Everyone! I am the guest of the crown prince, guest Yan, who used to be in charge of foreign trade, and here we are!"

After saying this, the doorman immediately dodged and hid far away, slipping into the court right under Yan Shaoting's nose.

Yan Shaoting immediately rolled his eyes.

It goes without saying that this person was arranged by Hai Rui.

The purpose was to vent the firepower of these foreign businessmen who had gathered to cause trouble in Shuntian Prefecture today on himself.

And with a shout from the doorman of Shuntian Mansion.

It was visible to the naked eye that the foreign businessmen who had gathered in the court immediately rushed out in a swarm.

"Guest Yan!"

"Guest Yan, you are finally here!"

These foreign businessmen with yellow, green, and red hair, as well as blue and yellow eyes, flocked in.

Yan Shaoting stood where he was and exchanged glances with Bai Fugui who was hiding behind the crowd.

He came here today just to go through the motions.

The two looked at each other.

Yan Shaoting frowned and looked at the crowd rushing towards him.

"Have you all forgotten the rules of the Ming Dynasty?"

A low shout fell to the ground.

The crowd stopped.

Yan Shaoting stood alone in the open space in front of the court, while the foreign businessmen who had poured out stopped one after another.

Hai Rui also came out at this time with an embarrassed look on his face. He came in front of Yan Shaoting. Beside him were the officials from the Ministry of Revenue.

Hai Rui said first: "You can't blame me for this. You are the most familiar with foreign trade in the court. The Ministry of Revenue sent people to me, and I have no choice but to look for you."

Although Hai Rui scolded them in person, several officials from the Ministry of Revenue were still shameless.

One of them even said with a smile on his face: "Mr. Yan, you also worked in our Ministry of Revenue in the past. So we are all family. Today's incident... Actually, we didn't know what to do for a while, so we gathered people to Shuntian Prefecture."

The man didn't say anything else.

But the meaning is clear.

Today, foreign businessmen caused trouble in Beijing. The Ministry of Revenue was at a loss and thought of Yan Shaoting.

But it was not easy for them to take the person directly to Yan's house.

This is against the rules.

But Hai Rui, the prefect of Shuntian, is familiar with the Yan family!
So this group of foreign businessmen were brought to Shuntian Prefecture. In this way, Hai Rui would definitely take the initiative to send people to find Yan Shaoting.

That's actually the whole thing.

Yan Shaoting also knew it very well.

He nodded, and then looked at the foreign businessmen present.

"Although I am no longer working in the Ministry of Revenue and no longer have jurisdiction over foreign businesses, I still have a say in the court."

"If you can trust me."

"If you have any questions, you can tell me. Once I have figured out the twists and turns here, I will go to the palace on your behalf to ask for an audience with the Crown Prince and the other ministers."

After saying this, Yan Shaoting walked towards the court with a smile on his face.

In fact, everything today is just to allow these foreign businessmen to speak out their problems in such a highly competitive place.

Then I can intervene in this matter openly.

At last.

That is, he would go into the palace himself and negotiate with the prince and the cabinet on behalf of these foreign businessmen.

Entered the court.

Yan Shaoting didn't care what others thought and directly took over the position of Shuntian prefect that belonged to Hai Rui.

"The clerk is waiting."

"Everything that was said by the merchant outside the venue today must be recorded in detail so that I can present it to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince later."

After sitting down, Yan Shaoting treated Shuntian Prefecture as his own home and began to give orders.

Hai Rui, however, felt that what happened had nothing to do with him anymore, so he sat aside calmly and drank tea.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue also breathed a sigh of relief.

With Yan Binke here, this matter will have a pillar, and the Ministry of Revenue will not likely experience a sharp drop in financial and tax revenues.

Subsequently.

It was the person arranged in advance by Bai Fugui who began to explain to the clerk who was recording on the side.

Yan Shaoting sat in the court, drinking tea slowly, thinking about how to explain this matter when he entered the palace.

After all, I now have a point of entry.

Thinking about things silently.

Not long after, several foreign businessmen who were nominated had explained everything.

Yan Shaoting glanced around and, in front of Hai Rui and the officials from the Ministry of Revenue, pretended that he had nothing to do with the matter and tapped his fingers on the table a few times.

"You are all people who come to our country to do business and want to make some money."

"But the laws of our dynasty are strict. If a farce like today happens again, I will definitely submit a petition to the court and order you all to be expelled."

Foreign businessmen all nodded in agreement.

The officials from the Ministry of Revenue secretly gave them a thumbs up.

Look. It has to be Yan Binke again.

Among the foreign businessmen present, many of them were able to pay hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in taxes to the Ministry of Revenue every year. Only Yan Binke dared to directly say that he wanted to expel them.

Yan Shaoting ignored these people's thoughts. He took the content recorded by the clerk and presented it to Hai Rui.

"Logically speaking, these foreign merchants are guests today, and the Chief Censor of Shuntian Prefecture should also perform the duties of a host. After I enter the palace to meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, things here should be almost settled."

As he spoke, he looked down at Hai Rui's wet shoulder.

Hai Rui simply nodded, glanced at the foreign merchants gathered together, and then lowered his voice and said coldly: "If it were merchants from our dynasty who dared to do this, I would put them all in jail today."

Yan Shaoting smiled slightly and did not comment.

This is also the reason why he asked Bai Fugui to arrange people to cause trouble.

After all, the Ming Dynasty's rule of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce is only for internal use.

foreign.

No one in the court dared to offend these foreign businessmen who came to the Ming Dynasty to do business.

No one could afford to offend foreign businessmen and cause a reduction in tax revenue for the imperial court.

After going through the formalities at Shuntian Prefecture Yamen.

Yan Shaoting rushed directly to the imperial city.

After leaving Shuntian Prefecture, walk along Andingmen Street all the way to Dong'anmen.

Enter the southeast gate, pass the Porcelain Storehouse, Guanglu Temple, and Chonghua Palace, and then enter the imperial city from the Donghua Gate.

Yan Shaoting is now very familiar with the imperial city.

After asking the eunuchs in the palace about the location of the prince, he went straight to Wenhua Palace.

When he arrived outside the Wenhua Hall, Yan Shaoting suddenly saw a familiar face.

"Eunuch Feng!"

"But I haven't seen Eunuch Feng for quite some time."

Yan Shaoting looked at Feng Bao outside the disaster-stricken Wenhua Hall with a smile on his face.

In his mind, he was thinking of what Zhu Zaigui had said to him some time ago, that he wanted Feng Bao to be the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Stables and be in charge of the Tengxiang Four Guards.

Feng Bao is much more reserved than he was a few years ago.

Especially when he saw Yan Shaoting, he immediately bowed his head respectfully and said, "Mr. Yan, why are you here?"

Yan Shaoting shook the records he brought from Shuntian Prefecture, and then pretended to be annoyed and said, "It's because those foreign merchants in Beijing are making trouble, and the Ministry of Revenue and Shuntian Prefecture have to find me to deal with this matter."

Feng Bao smiled and said, "Mr. Yan, you are well versed in the relationship between the capital and foreign merchants. They will definitely think of you first."

As they were talking, the two of them were already close.

Yan Shaoting raised his head and looked into the Wenhua Hall: "Is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in there? Is he discussing matters with the cabinet?"

Feng Bao nodded and said, "It is a matter of discussion with the elders. After the foreign merchants caused trouble in the capital, Your Highness and the elders have been discussing this matter."

Yan Shaoting nodded.

When Feng Bao saw him about to go in, he suddenly took a step forward.

Yan Shaoting looked puzzled when he saw Feng Bao standing in front of him.

But Feng Bao hesitated for a moment, took a deep breath and said, "Guest Yan, I was also kind to you in the past. I was born in a humble family, but I have never forgotten your kindness."

After saying this, Feng Bao stepped aside obediently.

Looking at Feng Bao who only said this one sentence, Yan Shaoting smiled knowingly.

The people in this palace are all cunning.

Feng Bao wanted to show goodwill to him, so Yan Shaoting had a way to deal with him both internally and externally. Naturally, Yan Shaoting would not refuse such a thing.

Reorganized my thoughts.

Yan Shaoting finally reached the palace gate.

"Your Highness, Yan Shaoting, is here to see the Crown Prince at the request of the Ministry of Revenue and Shuntian Prefecture regarding the gathering of foreign merchants in the capital."

Inside the palace.

Zhu Zaigui, who was originally muttering about Yan Shaoting, immediately brightened up when he heard the voice.

He immediately looked outside the hall.

"Master Yan, come in quickly!"

Gao Gong silently looked at the Crown Prince who had forgotten the rules, but he could only hold back his thoughts and followed everyone's gaze towards the palace door.

Yan Shaoting walked in respectfully.

He stepped forward and bowed to the Crown Prince and several members of the cabinet.

Zhu Zaigui originally had a sad face, but when he saw Yan Shaoting, he smiled and looked relaxed.

"I know that the Ministry of Revenue will definitely come to find you because of this matter."

"Let's talk about what happened today."

"I have been discussing this with the ministers for quite some time, but we still have no idea. If we are not careful, these foreign merchants will all run away, and the court will soon be depleted of the treasury after working so hard to build it up."

No matter what you offend, you must not offend money.

This has become a truth in the Ming Dynasty today.

Gao Gong and others also looked at Yan Shaoting silently.

Yan Shaoting smiled faintly: "In fact, the gathering of these foreign merchants today is just a small matter, not a big trouble. They still have to do business with our dynasty. Your Highness and the elders don't have to worry."

After hearing what he said, everyone's expressions finally became more relaxed.

Zhu Zaigui nodded even more: "It's good that nothing happened... It's good that nothing happened..."

"but."

Yan Shaoting suddenly said something else.

In an instant, Zhu Zaigui's face changed again.

Gao Gong even narrowed his eyes and looked over.

Yan Shaoting bowed and said, "Your Highness, what happened today was not without cause, and if it doesn't happen today, it will happen tomorrow."

This completely confused everyone.

Li Chunfang looked at Yan Shaoting and asked in a deep voice: "Mr. Yan has dealt with foreign businessmen in the past. Today, he probably went to see the people gathered there first. If there is any problem here, please speak frankly."

Yan Shaoting nodded.

Then he looked at everyone with a serious face.

"I think that our dynasty's laws and regulations are flawed!"

"If this gap is not corrected now, it may lead to greater trouble in the future."

"By then, I'm afraid all foreign merchants will withdraw, and the country's business system will completely collapse!"

"By then, I think the court may no longer be able to collect even a penny of taxation."

Inside the Wenhua Hall.

Except for Yan Shaoting who was arguing confidently, the rest of the people had dull eyes.

then.

It was Gao Gong who laughed first.

Then, Li Chunfang joined in with laughter.

After Gao Gong finished laughing, he immediately frowned and said, "Runwu, this is the Wenhua Palace, where we ministers discuss matters with the emperor. Our dynasty has been in existence for 200 years, how can there be a lack of legal system?"

Zhu Zaigui also frowned.

Legal system.

It's no small matter.

If things go wrong, the foundation of the country will be unstable.

If the legal system was truly flawed, how could the Ming Dynasty have survived these two hundred years?

But Yan Shaoting remained calm.

"What I want to talk about is the lack of legal system."

"Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there has been no perfect system of banknotes, gold and silver!"

"If the lack of legal system here is not repaired, what I said today will definitely happen!"

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(End of this chapter)