Xu Ping went into the house and accompanied his father for a while. He saw that it was not dark and rode his horse to the sugar shop near Zhouqiao.

Liu Xiaoyi was helping in the shop. When he saw Xu Ping, he hurried over to lead the horse.

When he entered the shop, Zhang Tianrui saw Xu Ping and hurriedly came up and asked, "Why is the little official free today?"

Xu Ping said calmly: "My father has been lying in bed for a few days, how could I not come?"

When Zhang Tianrui saw Xu Ping's face was wrong, he didn't dare to say much. He called Zheng Tianlin, the supervisor on duty, from outside, and said to Xu Ping: "I guess the little official is here to ask about Chen Cha. This was done by Manager Zheng. If you have any questions, you can ask him."

Zheng Tianlin came up to see the etiquette, but Xu Ping did not let him sit, but just asked him to explain the passage clearly.

In fact, Zheng Tianlin was also impatient, but the matter was on his head, so he had no choice but to explain in detail what happened to collect money in the past two days.

Because sugar is used in the palace, in principle, it is necessary to pay the bills from the inner warehouse. The inner warehouse comes from the sealed pile warehouse during the Taizu period, and it is mainly based on the annual fiscal surplus and the seizure of Sichuan and Sichuan in Jiangnan. The purpose is to be used as military expenses when wars occur without having to collect levies from the people, and as funds for the later regaining Youyan.

However, as the emperor's private treasury, it gradually changed its flavor and began to have some fixed collection subjects, and gradually escaped from the control of the Sansi Department. It was not until a few years ago that Ding Wei was appointed as the Sansi Department envoy, that such a large amount of financial resources was completely separated from the central government's finances and the management was inconvenient, so he found a way to collect the power of the inner treasury. Although Ding Wei was the prime minister of power, his ability was unquestionable. He forced the former dynasty Emperor Zhenzong to agree that the Sansi Department envoy and the Sansi Deputy Envoy had the right to know the storage of the inner treasury. It should be noted that Taizu and Taizong advocated frugality and stored a lot of wealth. They were squandered by Emperor Zhenzong, who was very fond of merit, and had to fill it out from the normal taxes of the court. He did not want to be known by the foreign ministers about the details of his small treasury.

At this time, the warehouse in the warehouse at this time was not only the regular income of previous dynasties, such as the gold and silver mined were Shanze income, which was considered the private collection of the emperor. For example, the local tribute from various places was also included in the private collection of the emperor. For example, the income from market ships, the emperor had to withdraw the big head. Another large income was the annual share of newly minted coins, which could barely be considered Shanze income, and a large part of the intestines were also taken away. At this time, these common income could no longer satisfy the emperor's appetite, and the taxes of some state troops and silk income from most of the silk and silk income from developed places in the silk industry were included in the collection. Roughly speaking, the income at this time accounted for about one-sixth of the fiscal revenue of the Sansi. The emperor had such a large amount of wealth, so that he could form a condescending momentum on the Sansi and make strong checks and balances.

The expenditures in the warehouse are about the following: consumption of royal personnel, rewards from civil and military officials, a large part of military expenditure, disaster relief, and daily funding for the three departments. To be honest, royal consumption does not account for the majority, and most of the expenditures are still rewards, military expenditures and support for the three departments.

The root cause of the sugar shop's loss this time is the last item.

The in-house warehouse took away such a huge amount of wealth, which led to the in-house warehouse income and expenditure that the three corpses were unable to balance for many years, and borrowing from the in-house warehouse became almost an annual routine. This kind of loan is often borrowed but not paid, and the emperor would be exempted in a few years. The emperor was also very upset. In the third year of Tianxi, Emperor Zhenzong of the previous dynasty, he decided to allocate 600,000 guan to the in-house warehouse every year and not to borrow any more. However, the reality is that the emperor cannot be willful. The 600,000 guan a year will be allocated as usual, and the three corps will still borrow from the in-house warehouse. When there are natural disasters and man-made disasters, the amount will be frighteningly large.

That day, Zheng Tianlin went to the inner warehouse to collect money with the eunuch in the palace, but he said he had no money to give it to him, so he just approved the notes to fold it into other things. After two days, he ran to no less than ten yamen, and finally all of them were folded into tea, and asked him to collect money under the Sansi's subordinates, saying that it was to offset the loan from Sansi.

Where can I repay the money from Sansi borrowed? After traveling to a few places, I got a bunch of old tea back. There were also a few nests of mice inside, and I went to the sugar shop together.

Xu Ping had already roughly understood the system at this time. At that time, the Sansi was a monster, finance, audit, and even the assessment of officials, which was much more powerful than the Development and Reform Commission in his previous life. The Sansi envoy was called Jianxiang, and together with the Secretariat and the Privy Council, it can be imagined that his power was so strong.

Such a giant, if something bad happened to such a bad thing, to be honest, if you want to protest, you don’t know who you are going to look for, and the normal channels will not work at all.

After listening to Zheng Tianlin's speech, Xu Ping asked Zhang Tianrui: "It's all in charge, what does Taiwei Li say?"

Zhang Tianrui was not very interested in saying this, but when he saw Xu Ping's face getting darker and darker, he reluctantly said: "I told him not to be angry, and the Taiwei also had his last resort."

Xu Ping said coldly: "Who has no difficulties? Such a large number will almost ruin our family! My father was so angry that he was in bed. Who would I go to if something unexpected happened?!"

Zhang Tianrui sighed: "What Taiwei means, swallow this for the time being, keep the tea and Sansi proprietors, and then go and get the money back after the limelight."

"What's the show?"

At this time, the government was stable and I didn’t hear any major events. Could it be that there was any special news for the Li family?

Zhang Tianrui said: "The little officials don't know that since the three officials instructed Li Zhongxun to reform the tea method two years ago, many tea merchants and merchants have lost their profits and have stumbled and abolished the shooting method. At this time, Master Sun Zonggu didn't know why, and he was particularly hard at attacking the shooting method. He is the chief lecturer of the emperor today, and his identity is beyond the comparison of others. The shooting method is already in danger. When we get up at this time, we don't know which faction will be used as an excuse. They are all of them with high positions and power. Why should we offend them?"

Li Zhongxun was Li Zi, whose courtesy name was Zhongxun, and at that time he served as the envoy of the Three Sessions of Quan. Sun Xueshi, who was Sun Shi, whose courtesy name was Zonggu, served as the Hanlin Seminar, and was sentenced to the State and Supervisor. These people were famous and powerful, and none of them could offend casually. Especially Sun Shi, although he was not very good at official positions, was highly respected and his fame was particularly scary. In the second year of Duangong, he was the first person in the Nine Classics and was valued by the emperors of Taizong and Zhenzong. The new emperor ascended the throne and was elected as the chief preacher. Even the emperor was honest in front of him, and his words were particularly important.

Although Xu Ping was not very concerned about the government affairs, these big names had heard of them. After hearing Zhang Tianrui's serious speech, his face calmed down a little, and he said to him: "Everyone cares about sitting down and telling me slowly."

The monopoly income of tea is the bulk income of the court and the daily materials related to people's livelihood. It involves all aspects and has been changed repeatedly over the decades.

In the second year of Emperor Zhenzong's Jingde, Lin Te and Li Pu presided over the original method of communicating. The specific content does not need to be explained in detail. The key one is that the court issued tea indices as a kind of coupon in exchange for the large merchants to transport money and grain to the capital and along the border. This directly led to a sharp decline in the income of the dynasty on tea, and the people were also harmed. All the profits were divided by large merchants and communicating shops, which was unsustainable.

In the first year of Tiansheng, the tea law was reformed again, with Li Zi, the envoy of Quanshu and Liu Yun, the chief censor of the Censor Liu Yun, and Zhang Shixun, deputy envoy of the Privy Councillor, Lu Yijian and Lu Zongdao participated. The exchange method was changed to the archery method, which was later called the trade law. The core was that tea merchants directly traded with the tea garden, and the government reaped net profit, which was considered to be a benefit for both the court and the people. But in this way, the large Beijing merchants who made great profits and the exchange shops that specialized in selling tea were not profitable, and most of these merchants were supported by wealthy families and nobles. Since the second year of Tiansheng, these people have united and constantly attacked the new law.

The two factions involved in this are either wealthy families or powerful officials, and Xu Ping also muttered in his heart when he heard this. However, Sun Shi, a master of Confucianism, was confused by him. This person was focused on Confucianism and established himself extremely well, and it was impossible for him to have any interests to be involved.

In fact, not everyone's position is determined by interests. Such people who focus on the scriptures often do not understand specific matters and are easily deceived and incited by others. They also claim to be noble and often look down on those who are really busy doing things. Once they are involved in specific matters, they are prone to make jokes.

In the Song Dynasty, the scholars and officials fought with reform and conservatism, and finally exhausted the vitality of the entire country and flew south in a hurry. It would not make sense to explain their position by using interests. Although later generations always vulgarize this issue and say that the two factions represent the interests of their respective people. In fact, the scholars and officials are both rulers, and they represent the ruling class. The core of their party struggles is actually the contradiction of the identity of scholars and officials. On the one hand, as rulers, as national interests, the Confucian scholars and officials, must adhere to Confucian ideals and ethics. These two are sometimes sharp and opposites. Expressed outside, the dispute between "distinguishing righteousness and profit" and "gentlemen and villains" that run through the beginning of the struggle, and they will be eager to make a strong desire in the future, but just now they have just revealed clues. As descendants, they often cannot understand what they are fighting for, but for people at this time, some people will fight for their lives.

Although Xu Ping could not understand the conservatives who claimed to be gentlemen at this time, he still had a roughly neutral view of the debate itself. In his previous life, the country had also experienced such a reform that was related to the overall situation. It was the most successful in all dynasties, but it also lost all the country. How could he be too demanding on the ancients at this time?

But those major national affairs are too far away from Xu Ping at this time. The reality is that he was cheated of 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, which is enough for many people to live a prosperous life. My father was so angry that he fell ill in bed. How could he understand that those big guys just let it go? Big guys think about it, he just cares about asking for the money back now.

After a while of silence, Xu Ping said to Zhang Tianrui: "Everything is in charge. I don't care what you think. My family must get back the money, and the sooner the better. My father is sick in bed, and something may happen, and it will not be delayed for a day. In this way, if Grandmaster Li doesn't think of a way, I will come by myself!"

Zhang Tianrui was stunned and asked, "What do you want to do if the little official wants to do? I will first agree that the tea method involves many rulers in the court, so it is useless for you to report to the official."

Xu Ping sneered: "Then I won't report it to the official! From tomorrow on, I will pull the tea I received to the door and write the sign according to the note given by Sansi. The price will be based on the price given to us by Sansi. If they give us tea, they will have to let us exchange tea for money! Is it right?"

Zhang Tianrui nodded impatiently: "The little official is right. The court allows us to sell the items that are broken into pieces by ourselves. However, the little official must also know that even if you can't sell a pound of tea like this, why bother?"

Xu Ping said coldly: "The toad is lying on his feet. If I don't bite him, I will disgust him to death! Zhouqiao is the most prosperous place in the world. How many people come and go every day? I want to see if the lords in the court still want the face of the court? Is the face of the Song Dynasty worth tens of thousands of yuan?"

Zhang Tianrui sighed and said nothing.

In fact, there was a saying that Xu Ping did not say. Ma Jiliang, who mentioned the treasurer, was not only the handler of this matter, but also a big tea merchant at home, and was the most involved. He went out to see how he ended.
Chapter completed!