Yang Feng, who had left the gate, had his originally calm face twitched twice, lowered his voice and said to Song Ye behind him: "You bring people with you and interrogate them with Wu Bantou. I want to see how such a scum got into the Royal Trading Company of the Ming Dynasty, who is behind him, and how many things these borers have stolen from our trading company over the years. After you figure it out, report it to your wife as soon as possible, she will deal with it."

"The villain understands!"

Song Ye, who had been following Yang Feng for many years, certainly knew that Yang Feng was like a powder barrel at this time, and he would explode at any time. He was so scared that he didn't dare to delay, so he quickly got on the horse and followed him.

Su Tong brought the remaining three servants to Wei Zhongxian's mansion outside the palace. Wei Zhongxian, who had already received the news, had already brought Cui Chengxiu and others to greet him at the door.

"Hahaha... the Duke of the State is late today, so let our family have a meal and wait."

Wei Zhongxian came up with a smile, Yang Feng also walked over and bowed: "I'm really sorry, something happened just now, and I delayed something. Yang will punish him three times later."

"Okay, our family has prepared fine wine and is waiting for the Duke to come and enjoy it."

"Of course it's okay, but Eunuch Wei won't introduce these colleagues next to him first?"

"Oh, this is a shameful family. Come on... Let's introduce to the Duke of the State. This Duke of Cui Chengxiu is known. This is Wu Chunfu, the Minister of Works, this is Li Kuilong, the left deputy censor, Tian Ji, the young minister of Taichang Temple, and Li Fan from the Censorate, and Li Lu, the chief of the Censorate."

Yang Feng gave Wei Zhongxian a great face. Whenever he introduced someone, he would nod to the other party. Whenever he met someone familiar, he would even bow to him. After some introduction, although Yang Feng could not remember all his memory, he also remembered them.

Due to the large number of people, the banquet was placed in the lobby of the back hall, and the crowd sat three tables full of them.

Yang Feng glanced and found that almost all the generals under Wei Zhongxian's command had arrived. This shows that Wei Zhongxian's treat was definitely not just as simple as chatting.

After the group sat down one after another, after drinking for three tours of dishes and five flavors, Wei Zhongxian looked at Yang Feng and smiled and said, "Duke, our family invites you here this time. In addition to introducing these colleagues to you, there are some things I want to discuss with you. I wonder if the Duke will give us this face."

Yang Feng smiled: "Eunuch Wei was joking. I was the Duke of the State, but I asked myself that except for war, I was not very good at anything else. Could it be that the matter that Eunuch Wei wanted to discuss with Yang was also related to war?"

Wei Zhongxian's expression changed, his fair face became a little pale, and he smiled bitterly: "The Duke is joking. Our family is just a slave to His Majesty, how dare you interfere in military affairs?"

"Hahaha……"

Yang Feng laughed, "Okay, I won't be kidding. Eunuch Wei, let's get back to the point. You know me. You don't like to go around the circle, so just say something."

"good."

Wei Zhongxian also nodded: "Duke, a few days ago, His Majesty ordered Lu Xiangsheng to lead the new army back to Beijing. In addition to leaving 20,000 new army into the Beijing camp, he asked him to lead the remaining 10,000 troops to Jiangnan to take office. I wonder what the Duke's opinion on this, can Lu Xiangsheng open up the situation in Jiangnan?"

"I don't know this." Yang Feng shook his head: "You are all my time heroes in the Ming Dynasty. You should know that the situation in Jiangnan is very complicated. Since the founding of Taizu, Jiangnan's role in this dynasty has been rising again and again. Until now, Jiangnan's annual trade flows exceed 300 million taels, but these silvers have no relationship with the court, which is extremely abnormal."

When Yang Feng and Wei Zhongxian were talking, all the officials present stopped their chopsticks and looked at them.

Speaking of this, Yang Feng's face became serious, "Today, in front of you, the low salary of our Ming officials is simply the best, which makes almost everyone say with confidence that I want to be greedy.

Because if he is not greedy, he may not even be able to afford meat. Isn’t this a big deal of the world?”

After Yang Feng said that, all the officials present were silent. Many people looked at Yang Feng with a more friendly look. These words simply reached their hearts. If they had been studying hard for ten years and became a high-ranking official after ten years of hard work, but in the end they couldn't afford to eat such an official, there might not be many people willing to do it.

"But then again, it is understandable that you are greedy for an official, but you cannot turn the black and white into a place of personal family interests above the court, and even ignore the comfort of the country."

Yang Feng increased his voice, "Taizu originally asked scholars to exempt them from taxes because at the beginning of the country, there were too few scholars because of the turbulent situation. Emperor Taizu set this rule in order to encourage the people to study.

But to this day, this rule is outdated. Now, eight or nine out of ten of the lands in the Ming Dynasty have fallen into the hands of gentry. These people do not have to pay taxes. The consequence of this is that the taxes collected by the Ming Dynasty are getting less and less year by year.

Everyone is an official. Tell me, what would happen if the court had no money?"

Everyone was silent. Everyone was smart, so some words need not be said too bluntly. If a family member had no money, they would starve and freeze and would starve to death. If a country had no money, they would go bankrupt and even lose their country.

"So this situation cannot continue. Originally, I planned to recommend myself to go to Jiangnan to be the governor of Zhejiang, but was stopped by His Majesty. Later, I recommended Lu Xiangsheng to His Majesty. Although this guy is more straightforward, some things might be more suitable for him to do than me.

I know that many of the people I am doing are from Jiangnan. The reason why I invited me to the banquet today is simply to ask me to ask me for love or let you go, but I can only tell you that this is impossible.

There are thousands of ways to make money in the world, so why do you just focus on the little things dug out from the ground? I am not afraid of vilifying the first step. The new method of taking part in one's job and paying food together is beneficial to the court and the Ming Dynasty. Whoever dares to stop it is the Ming Dynasty, and it is Your Majesty and your enemy. For this goal, no matter Your Majesty, I will fight for it to the end.

Didn’t Eunuch Wei ask me whether Lu Xiangsheng can open up the situation in Jiangnan? Let me tell you the truth, if Lu Xiangsheng cannot open up the situation in Jiangnan this time, next time I will personally take 100,000 Jiangning soldiers to Jiangnan. Even if I kill a river of blood, I must implement the new law!”
Chapter completed!