Chapter 2481: Chapter 2478: Sending People Against Chu Jin

A sea-going ship contributes two-tenths of tax silver, which amounts to over one hundred thousand taels, and this is just a medium-sized ship; some large ships can bring in up to two hundred thousand taels.

One must know that in the past, the entire land tax collected from the people of Great Chu in a year was only three to four million taels.

And just by these over twenty sea ships, the tax silver handed in surprisingly amounts to two million taels. If more ships return in the future, the benefits brought back will only increase.

This is just the tax collected from the returning ships. It doesn’t even include the merchants’ annual commercial tax.

With the economic flow of the entire Great Chu, even the commercial tax alone could be more than five million taels a year.

Just these two items can directly surpass Great Chu’s current annual fiscal revenue.

Emperor Xuanming was overjoyed and declared directly in court that he would reward the successful return of the merchant ships from overseas. He decreed that these people come to the capital to receive titles and explain the situation overseas.

Upon hearing this, many officials were astonished. They did not expect Emperor Xuanming to be so generous, offering direct titles. One must know that these were accomplished by some noble families in Jiangnan and some ordinary merchants.

For these people, receiving titles is a tremendous event, akin to a pie falling from the sky, an unbelievably good fortune, as it’s not everyone who can receive an emperor’s reward; this is a major family honor.

Moreover, seeing Emperor Xuanming’s cheerful demeanor, it is evident he will not treat these people poorly.

Right after the morning court, officials arranged for people to approach those households with ordinary wealth and no backing, who, riding the tide, now held a decent sum of silver in their hands – whether through suggesting or threatening, the objective was to pull them in first.

Minister Qi returned to the residence and also arranged for someone to handle this.

Shortly after arranging, he felt quite pleased, as among those who went to sea this time were his people. Jiangnan was the Prince’s power base, and now that such a great event had happened, the Qi family would definitely benefit.

However, soon, a subordinate informed him: “My lord, I heard the Chu family’s eldest son also went to sea and returned successfully. The harvest must be considerable. Even though the Chu family’s eldest son is only thirteen this year (in Chinese age), if he catches the emperor’s eye, he could have a bright future.”

“Do we need to do something?”

“The Chu family’s son.” Minister Qi squinted his eyes. He was already wary of Chu Heng. If the younger generation of the Chu family is also outstanding, it certainly won’t be good news for the Qi family in the future.

“Send some people to see if there’s a way to quietly make the other party have an accident.” Minister Qi squinted his eyes, immediately making a decision: “Isn’t it said that many people who went to sea died on the ocean? Who knows, maybe those remote small countries have some disease; it’s quite possible to get inadvertently infected.”

This was implying poisoning Chu Jin.

The subordinate nodded and left immediately.

Soon, a guard hurried over.

“My lord, Mr. Liu has returned.”

Minister Qi sharply looked over, “Bring him in quickly.”

Mr. Liu was a strategist by Minister Qi’s side. This time he was sent to Jiangnan to deal with the family of the Third Madam Qi and Wang Qianmao, the dean of Jiangnan Academy.

After so much handling, Minister Qi had always been concerned, as it was imperative that nothing goes wrong.

Soon, the middle-aged man known as Mr. Liu came over.

He entered and saluted Minister Qi, then quickly said: “My lord, concerning Wang Qianmao, it’s quite tricky. The other party has substantial leverage against many great scholars and even some already serving officials; your subordinate dares not push too hard.”

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