hsntnovel Chapter 1978 Must be severely punished
Chapter 1978 Must be severely punished
"A million strings?"
After hearing what Wang Hongfu said, Li Shen became a little uneasy. This group of people was a little too powerful to dare to evade taxes of one million strings of cash.
"Are you sure it's one million strings of cash?" Li Shen asked again in disbelief.
“Your Highness, I have already checked, and the seven people have confessed their crimes.
The preliminary estimate is at least over one million guan, but the specific amount is being verified.
I wanted to wait until the calculation was completed before presenting the list to His Highness." Wang Hongfu said with certainty.
"How audacious! How audacious! They actually embezzled more than one million strings of my money. Don't they know how to write the word death?
Or do they think that I dare not kill them?
It seems like this time my sword will draw blood." Li Shen was extremely angry.
Shi Tou, who was beside him, quickly brought the teacup to Li Shen and asked Li Shen to drink some tea to calm down.
Seeing this, Wang Hongfu hurried forward to persuade:
"Your Majesty, please calm down. Don't get yourself hurt by being angry."
He knew that his prince loved money very much and regarded money as his life, and he would easily become sick from anger after hearing the news.
Li Shen took a sip of tea and tried to calm himself down.
"Wang Hongfu, this matter must be taken seriously. No matter what means those seven people used, they must be made to confess the truth.
It doesn't matter even if they are all killed.
Did they disclose how much they embezzled?"
"Your Highness, according to their confession, they embezzled more than 300,000 strings of cash in total. The shopkeeper alone embezzled nearly 100,000 strings of cash, and among the six people, at least one embezzled more than 10,000 strings of cash, and the most embezzled more than 70,000 strings of cash.
I have already sent people to search their homes, but in order not to alert the enemy, I have not made a big fuss or announced it to the public."
Wang Hongfu once again mentioned a number that made Li Shen's blood pressure soar, more than 300,000 strings of cash. These people are really crazy. They are willing to risk their lives for money.
"Investigate, investigate thoroughly for me, and get to the bottom of it.
And this matter must be made public within the Chamber of Commerce, especially those merchants who evade taxes, they must be severely punished. "
It's been less than ten years and people have already started making mistakes. Is this the case at all times?
“Your Majesty, if it is made public, we can’t punish them privately. We need to hand it over to the government to handle it. And most of the more than 70 merchants have backers behind them.
In addition to some nobles, these backers also include royal family members, royal relatives, and even local governors and governors.
Should we give them some face?"
Wang Hongfu was a little worried, afraid that Prince Ji would offend all these people.
But Li Shen became even angrier after hearing this:
"Bullshit, they have backers, and I have people above me. I don't believe their backers can have stronger connections than the people above me.
This matter must be severely punished and will not be tolerated.”
Backer? In this day and age, there are still people who dare to compete with me for backer. If there is really someone with a stronger backer than me, Li Shen will immediately let the carriage hit him to death and travel through time again.
"Then I wonder how Your Majesty will deal with this matter." Wang Hongfu asked.
“First of all, this matter must be handled publicly, and the truth of the matter must be spread through the chamber of commerce’s internal newspaper.
Let everyone know their crimes, and let the merchants know why we are punishing them.
The second thing is how to deal with it. As for the seven people inside, all of them must be killed by me, and the execution must be public and their heads must be beheaded for public display.
All the properties of the seven of them were confiscated, their lands were taken back, their families’ fiefdoms were revoked, and they were kicked out of the village.
Inform all shop owners and clerks.
As for the more than 70 merchants...” Thinking of this, Li Shen pondered again. The Chamber of Commerce is not an official organization, but a non-governmental organization.
There is no way to seize the property of more than 70 companies. I do not have the power to enforce the law. It would be fine if it were just a few companies, but more than 70 companies are too many.
Li Shen pondered and finally decided:
“As for these more than 70 merchants, they will be fined three times as much as in the contract, their Chamber of Commerce points will be reset to zero, and they will be given the title of dishonest merchant.
And collect the evidence of their bribery of Chamber of Commerce personnel and hand it over to the government."
"Your Highness, what if they are not convinced?" Wang Hongfu asked.
"Not convinced? Then we will revoke their membership, take back their membership license, stop guaranteeing them from now on, and report them to the Chamber of Commerce as a dishonest business.
Humph, I will see how long they can hold out."
Li Shen snorted coldly and said disdainfully. Now almost all the Chamber of Commerce in Datang is under his jurisdiction. As long as the Chamber of Commerce says someone is dishonest,
Then almost no one will do business with them because the Chamber of Commerce will not provide guarantees, so there is a huge risk.
No one wants to do business with dishonest merchants. No one wants to take this risk, no matter how good your reputation is.
Li Shen used this method and it worked every time against the aristocratic families and Li Zhi's business.
"But what if they go to the court to sue us? There are too many officials here, many nobles, and even a few princes.
The prince is about to go to Xizhou Prefecture, and I am afraid I can’t handle it.”
This is what Wang Hongfu is most worried about. If Prince Ji is around, he can do whatever he wants because he has Prince Ji's backing.
But Prince Ji was going to the Anxi Protectorate. If these people took the opportunity to impeach him, saying that Prince Ji's palace was bullying others, then he, a small shopkeeper, would not be able to handle it.
"What are you afraid of?" Li Shen said calmly, "If these people go to file a complaint, let them file it.
You can ask Pei Mingli to deliver the evidence to the Ministry of Civil Affairs and to the three provinces. If that doesn't work, ask the princess to find the crown princess and hand the evidence to the crown prince.
By then, I am afraid that they will die even more miserably.
Don't forget that almost all the money in the Chamber of Commerce was given to the imperial court. When they evaded taxes, they were actually stealing money from the imperial treasury.
Over the years, they have stolen more than one million strings of cash from the national treasury. Do you think the court will let this go?
If the shopkeepers of these merchants are not lingchied to death, their ancestors' graves will be filled with smoke."
What Li Shen was least afraid of was that they would sue the authorities. If they did not, they would only lose some money and their business would be affected, but it would take a year or two to recover.
But if we report it to the Chamber of Commerce and Prince Ji’s Palace, the imperial court will definitely know about it.
Most of the money of Li Shen Chamber of Commerce went into the national treasury. These people's actions were stealing money from the national treasury. How could the court still forgive them?
No matter how many officials you have or how high your title is, you cannot speak a word of reason in the court.
If things go wrong, quite a few officials may lose their jobs because of this incident.
Therefore, anyone with a little bit of common sense would know that this matter should not be spread outside and must not be known to the court, especially the crown prince.
Now the Chamber of Commerce’s money is more important to the Prince than to His Majesty.
Hearing Prince Ji's confidence, Wang Hongfu felt relieved:
"Yes, I will follow your orders in everything."
(I am writing this today because I saw a video of corruption and abuse of power. The details are too sensitive to be disclosed.
But I felt a little angry.
Must be beheaded in public)