In fact, Liu Jin is not without its merits. He has the capital that Zhu Houzhao needs to rely on, and that is money.
During Zheng De's period, the national treasury was empty, and Zhu Houzhao ignored political affairs. He only knew how to play with women, engage in music, do magic tricks, play around and build a big house, which was extravagant and wasteful. Therefore, although he became emperor, he was extremely short of money. At first, he asked the cabinet ministers for help. As a result, ministers told him with a straight face to be frugal and have less fun. Only Liu Jin wouldn't let him be frugal, but also advised him to spend more money and get him all kinds of fun and interesting things. Besides, in Zhu Xiao's eyes, Liu Jin has many ways to make money, just like the God of Wealth. Therefore, Zhu Houzhao could not restrain Liu Jin's daily behavior.
As for Liu Jin's way of making money, it is very simple. There are three main ways: first, increase new taxes and additional taxes, raise taxes and exploit the people; Second, ask for bribes from officials and local rich; Third, impose fines on officials.
In order to make money, Liu Jin reformed the country's financial system. He established the State Taxation Bureau and the Royal Taxation Bureau through eunuchs all over the country, and collected taxes from the people in various names. Part of the money went into his own pocket, part went to Zhu Houzhao, and the rest went to the state treasury. Obviously, in this way, although tens of millions of people around the world have paid enough money, it is still not enough for a few beneficiaries to share. Liu Jin turned her head and thought, there must be too many people who eat imperial food, and their income can't come up.
And I often tell Liu that money is still not enough, so it is better to get more. Therefore, Liu Jin began to impose fines on officials. His official statement is that the emptiness of the national treasury is caused by mismanagement and official corruption and bribery. It is really unacceptable that these people who eat state grain only know pleasure and don't know dedication. In order to cultivate the sense of responsibility of officials, they should be fined.
Liu Jin looked at the gold and silver treasures piled on the table and was very satisfied. During his five years in charge of the national finance, all officials, big and small, were fined, and some even lost everything.
In order not to be punished, many officials finally realized and began to take the initiative to pay bribes to Liu Jin. This kind of behavior makes Liu Jin feel very good, and the fine needs to be fabricated. This kind of bribery is done in secret and does not need any reason. So he began to take the initiative to ask for bribes, and at least 70% of the officials were blackmailed by him within five years. Later, this matter was no longer called asking for bribes, but called paying tribute to Liu Gonggong.
Under such a tragic background, such a tragic story happened.
There is a section chief of the Ministry of War named Zhou Key, who has a good relationship with Zhao Jun, the magistrate of Huai 'an. Once he was ordered to go to Huai 'an on business, and Zhao Jun warmly received him, not only arranging a five-star inn, but also setting a luxurious banquet. But Zhou Keyi was unhappy. Zhao Jun asked why. Zhou Jian shook his head and said, this is not just about Liu Gonggong asking for bribes. ? Zhao Jun quickly corrected:? That's called going to work. ? Zhou Jian was not in the mood to tangle with him about his name. Suddenly he looked up at Zhao Jun and said, Can you lend me 1200? ?
Zhao Jun was silent for a long time. Seeing Zhou's sincere eyes and tears, he nodded in agreement. Before returning to Beijing, Zhao Jun sent someone to give Zhou a heavy bag key. Zhou is very grateful for the key at the moment and boarded the spaceship. Unexpectedly, when he was approaching the capital, Zhou opened the parcel and found that there was no money at all, but all heavy stones. At the thought of Liu Jin's many methods of torturing people, and at the thought of being cheated by his good friend, Zhou Jian was overwhelmed and committed suicide by jumping into the river with this bag of stones.
Leng Yue is silent, the splashing water has already fallen, and the water surface with countless ripples has long been calm. The world is cold and everything is bleak. Only the boat parked on the river looks lonely and unwilling. There are five bloody words on the deck of the ship? Zhao Zhifu misses me.
Because Zhou understands that he won't get a tribute, waiting for him will be the end of his life, so he might as well take his own life, at least he is in control of his own destiny. What we can see from this tragic story is that at that time, Liu Jin's power and black heart had reached the point where people were frightened and lifted themselves to the pool. The more important lesson is never to borrow huge sums of money from friends. On the one hand, the relationship between friends is likely to be cut off, on the other hand, like Zhou Key, it is easy to be deceived by friends.
Whoever controls the finances of the empire indirectly controls the affairs of state. In a word, Liu Jin got a lot of money through power at that time, and with money, his power became more stable.