hsntnovel Chapter 1977: Corruption and Tax Evasion
Chapter 1977: Corruption and Tax Evasion
There are more than 30 teams and several hundred people in the team, and Li Shen spends less than 20,000 strings of cash a year, which is extremely cheap.
Twenty thousand strings of cash were not enough for Li Shen to squander in a month.
"But...but what if the court sends someone to investigate?"
Wang Hongfu reminded carefully.
"Come to investigate? Do they dare? If they send someone to investigate, just tell them that I don't allow them to investigate.
There is a clause in the signed contract that football betting must be fully managed by our Ji Wangfu, and the other two parties are not allowed to interfere under any pretext.
If violated, it will be deemed as a deliberate breach of the contract, the contract will be void and all its shares will be cancelled. "
Li Shen had a look of disdain on his face. He had thought of this a long time ago in order to avoid interference from the imperial court.
He was afraid that someone from the imperial court would set up trouble and frame him.
"Your Highness is wise, I am inferior to you." Wang Hongfu saluted.
“Remember, we don’t allow people from the imperial court to interfere in our industry. No matter what the reason is, you are not allowed to get our formula or enter our workshop.
If anyone breaks in by force, arrest him immediately. I want to see who has the guts to fight me."
Li Shen gave Wang Hongfu a serious warning.
"Yes, I will never take it lightly." Wang Hongfu felt that Prince Ji was carrying a murderous aura. He could fight him and make trouble, but he shouldn't joke about money.
"Okay, if there's nothing else, I'll leave first and go check out the bank and the Chamber of Commerce.
By the way, I asked you to check yourself after the Yuanzheng period. What is your progress now?"
Li Shen was about to stand up when he suddenly thought of this question.
After the Wang Wencheng incident broke out, Li Shen no longer trusted the internal staff, so he asked Wang Hongfu to conduct a self-inspection first. After the self-inspection was completed, Li Shen sent an investigation team to conduct random checks.
There is no other way around it. Li Shen has trained only a few accountants who are good at doing calculations.
The shops of Prince Ji's Mansion are spread across more than 2,000 counties in the Tang Dynasty. It would take a long time to check them one by one, and it would take more than a year to finish.
"Your Majesty, I have already sent out the notice.
We have begun to receive reports from shopkeepers from all over the country. So far, more than a hundred shopkeepers have voluntarily admitted to embezzling varying amounts.
They will hand over all the embezzled money to Chang'an through our post station, and ask the prince to show mercy and reduce the punishment."
Wang Hongfu originally wanted to report everything before reporting to Prince Ji, but now that Prince Ji asked, Wang Hongfu told him the truth.
"More than a hundred shopkeepers are corrupt?" Li Shen felt angry and sad when he heard this number.
It's only been ten years, and yet so many shopkeepers have started to make mistakes. As a prince, don't I have any domineering spirit at all?
Is this how they are loyal to themselves?
"How much did they embezzle?" Li Shen asked with some disappointment.
"Your Highness, based on their reports so far, the most they have embezzled is over 500 strings of cash, and the least is just over 10 strings of cash."
Wang Hongfu replied.
"Ten strings of cash? You bastards, you embezzled just for ten strings of cash. Every year, I give them more than ten strings of cash as rewards.
Are these people all fools?"
When Li Shen heard about the ten strings of cash, he was so angry that he almost died. He paid so much salary to these shopkeepers every year, and also gave them a lot of rewards every year.
These people actually sold their souls just for a few dozen strings of cash.
Wang Hongfu saw King Ji rising and quickly comforted him:
"Your Majesty, please calm down. Your Majesty, please calm down. These people have also gone astray and have not controlled their desires.
Now the question is what to do with them.
Should we hand it over to the government, or should we handle it ourselves? "
"What do you think?" Li Shen thought for a while and asked.
"Your Highness, in my opinion, we should just hand the case over to the government and let them make the decision. After all, if we handle it on our own, it would be like setting up a private court, which is a serious crime."
Wang Hongfu reminded.
"I think it would be safer for us to handle it ourselves rather than the imperial court." Li Shen shook his head in denial.
"Your Highness, this is against the rules." Wang Hongfu reminded again that setting up a court privately is a serious crime.
"Humph, rules? I am the rule. Have you not understood after following me for so many years?
I am not a rule-abiding person, I am a rule-maker, do you understand?"
Li Shen snorted coldly, looking unconcerned.
The rules are made for the people below. As a top aristocrat, how could I be bound by rules and regulations?
"Yes, yes, I understand. Then how should we deal with them?" Wang Hongfu nodded quickly.
Li Shen fell into deep thought, and raised his head after a moment:
"For those who have embezzled less than 100 guan, I will not punish them. I can give them one chance. For those who have embezzled more than 100 guan but less than 500 guan, I will punish them with a year's salary and keep them in their posts for observation. I will also give them one chance.
But tell them that this is their only chance. If it happens again, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
It's only five hundred strings of cash at most, and they are all petty thieves. Li Shen can forgive them once. Now it's time to recruit people for government affairs, and these people have followed him for so many years, so he should remember the old friendship.
"Your Majesty is merciful. I would like to thank you for your kindness on their behalf. I will tell them what you said."
Wang Hongfu bowed quickly.
"Is there anyone with more than 500 strings of cash?" Li Shen continued to ask.
"Your Highness, the prefectures and counties below have not yet reported everything, but...but..." Wang Hongfu stopped talking here.
"But what? Stop hesitating." Li Shen scolded when he saw this.
"Your Majesty, there is indeed nothing down there, but I personally led a team to investigate the First Chamber of Commerce headquarters and found a lot of problems."
"Is there a problem at the headquarters? Can there be a problem right under our noses?" Li Shen frowned after hearing this.
"Yes, when I lead people to investigate, I always find that some people are embezzling money, accepting bribes, and using their power to cover up the transaction amounts for others, thereby reducing taxes."
Wang Hongfu finally told the truth.
"Oh? Haha, there are still people who dare to evade taxes? Tell me what's going on?"
Li Shen was so angry that he laughed after hearing this. From ancient times to the present, there are really all kinds of people. In this era where human life is worthless, there are still people who are not afraid of death and dare to steal their own taxes. They are really tired of living.
To a prince like me, the law is just a decoration. Why should he use virtue to restrain these playboys of his?
To put it bluntly, the law has little effect on nobles like me and those nobles. As long as they don't rebel or do anything outrageous, killing a few people and paying a few dollars will be enough.
This is the evil root of the feudal imperial system.
"Your Highness, a total of seven people were found, including the Chamber of Commerce's owner, the assessor who went to do the guarantee contract assessment, and the general manager.
There are more than 70 merchants who have been investigated, and the preliminary estimate is that they have underpaid taxes by about 1 million guan."