save the bachelors

Chapter 1583 1585 [Centured worm, dead but not stiff]

"Be safe and don't be impatient." Seeing this, Xiang Nan held his hand that was about to move.

It is useless to beat the tax collector violently. Even if he is beaten to death, someone will still come to collect taxes.It is useless even to raise the banner of rebellion and overthrow the entire imperial court.

Because the essence of the feudal system is cannibalism.The contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class is irreconcilable, and when the old landlord class is overthrown, there will be a new landlord class. , the contradiction always exists.

After stopping Jun Bao, Xiang Nan quietly stepped forward, reached into the tax collector's arms, and took out his money bag.

Then Xiang Nan took out a broken piece of silver and smiled at the tax collector, "My lord, please calm down, it's not worth it to be so angry early in the morning. I'll pay the tax money for him, so don't dispose of it like him." If you get angry, it won’t be good if you get angry.”

"Oh, you're sensible." The tax collector took the broken silver and smiled with satisfaction, "Forget it, let him go."

The soldiers had just let the hawker go.

"My lord is really admonishing like a streamer, loving the people like a son, I wish you every step of the way, and you will be promoted to three levels in a row." Xiang Nan said with a smile.

The tax collector listened to the flattery, laughed, and took the soldiers away triumphantly.

Xiang Nan helped the peddler up, and gave him another piece of silver, "Take it for medical treatment."

"Thank you, thank you." The hawker thanked repeatedly, grateful.

Xiang Nan waved his hand, and then left with Jun Bao.

"Senior brother, you are really good at it." Jun Bao said in admiration.

"It's nothing." Xiang Nan smiled, "Go, let's eat."

There were five taels of silver in the tax collector's purse, which was enough for the two brothers to eat and drink for a long time.

……

After eating a hearty breakfast, the two brothers continued shopping.

It took one day to basically finish shopping in Luoyang City.

After shopping around, Xiang Nan has a certain understanding of the current society.

It can be said that now is the troubled times.

After Emperor Zhengde came to the throne, he indulged in pleasure and neglected the government.He didn't even go to court for four consecutive years.

He built shops in the palace imitating the street market, and used eunuchs and court ladies as common people and shopkeepers, while he pretended to be a wealthy businessman to have fun here.However, most of the goods in the shop were stolen by eunuchs, guards, and court ladies, and Emperor Zhengde didn't care.

He also built a leopard house in Xiyuan, where he indulged in playing with prostitutes and male pets every day, completely disregarding the government, so that the power fell and the eunuchs monopolized power.

Liu Jin, Zhang Yong, Gu Dayong, Ma Yongcheng and others are known as the Eight Tigers. They take advantage of the emperor's favor to run rampant, control the government, demote the loyal officials who oppose them, and promote the treacherous officials who cling to them, making the government even more chaotic.

Among them, Liu Jin acted unscrupulously because he was the most powerful, and forcibly blackmailed all officials. All officials who came to Beijing had to send money, which was called a meeting gift.

Otherwise, it would be trivial to dismiss him from office, or even to be directly arrested and imprisoned, tortured, charged with crimes, and implicated relatives.Some officials were even forced to commit suicide because they had no money to bribe.Because of this, Liu Jin was once called the Li Emperor.

It is precisely because of the darkness of the court and the corruption of officials that the people are in dire straits, so there are rebellions everywhere in the world.

In the early years of Zhengde, Wang Yuwu of Fuzhou revolted; in the second year of Zhengde, Wang Chenger of Raozhou revolted;

In addition, in Tianfu, Yungui, Guangxi and other places, many indigenous rebellions broke out successively.Therefore, the entire Ming Dynasty can be said to be precarious at this time.

……

However, Xiang Nan knew that centipedes are dead but not stiff.

Although the Ming Dynasty was in troubled times, it was not easy to overthrow it.

On the one hand, Emperor Zhengde's father, Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youtang, was a rare Ming emperor.Generous and kind, practice frugality, not close to women, diligent in political affairs.

He is the only emperor in ancient China who does not accept concubines and has only one queen.During his reign, he built water conservancy, developed agriculture, prospered the economy, made the society stable, and the people prosperous.

Therefore, during the Hongzhi period, there were almost no large-scale peasant uprisings in the Ming Dynasty, the population increased by more than 1000 million, and the taxation amount also increased significantly, reaching a new peak.

Therefore, although Emperor Zhengde was more nonsense, but with the solid foundation laid by his father, it will not be clean for a while.

On the one hand, although Emperor Zhengde was playful, he was not confused about major affairs. He used Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang, Wang Shouren (Wang Yangming), Jiao Fang, Wang Jia, Yang Tinghe and other famous officials to assist the government.

Therefore, even though he has abandoned the government and has not been in the early court for many years, with these ministers taking care of the official affairs, the government can still maintain the government with all his strength, and it is not yet the time when the building will collapse.

In fact, it took another 100 years for the Ming Dynasty to collapse after six emperors including Jiajing, Longqing, Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi, and Chongzhen.

Moreover, if it were not for the Little Ice Age, which is rare in 500 years, the Ming Dynasty might not even be over.

Therefore, Xiang Nan did not plan to rebel and overthrow the Ming Dynasty and become emperor himself.

On the one hand, Guozuo of the Ming Dynasty is still a hundred years old, and his luck is not exhausted, and it is not yet time to perish; on the other hand, it is not as easy as imagined to rebel.

To raise troops and rebel, you must first have soldiers, and then you must have food and grass.In ancient times, only the poor and desperate would choose to rebel.Most of the poor are malnourished and weak, unable to meet the needs of the war.

Coupled with the fact that most of the poor are illiterate, it is impossible to obey orders and strictly observe discipline.Don't talk about forming a queue, walking in unison, you may not even be able to tell the left and right.

Therefore, those peasant uprisings seemed to be mighty and powerful, with tens of thousands of people at every turn, but in fact, the elite who could go to the battlefield were no more than a thousand people at most.The rest are mostly vassals, and it may be possible to fight with the wind.Once at a disadvantage, the army will be defeated immediately, so it is called the mob.

Food and grass is also a major difficulty.If you rely on robbing the rich to help the poor, you can rob the landlord's granary to keep it running.Then it will definitely be resisted desperately by the landlord class.

Most of them are rich and powerful, and they can form a group to practice resistance.Li Zicheng in the late Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty were all defeated by the landlords.

Besides, being emperor doesn't do much good.

Even if he became the emperor, with a vast land and three thousand beauties, he would not be able to take anything with him when he left.

Therefore, Xiang Nan doesn't expect to be the emperor himself, he just wants to learn a few more martial arts.

……

After shopping around, at night, Xiang Nan and Jun Bao returned to the Buddha Laughing Tower.

"How is it? Have you found something to do?" Little Winter Melon asked with concern.

"Not yet." Xiang Nan waved his hand and smiled.

He walked around today and was very impressed.

First of all, legitimate business is not easy to do.Local hooligans, officials and tax collectors often come to exploit, and they have to pay taxes and protection fees. After a hard day, the money they earn is not enough to give them.

Secondly, the unemployment rate in society is extremely high now, and there are no redundant jobs at all.Moreover, even if they want to see a job, no one dares to use them.Because looking for a job in ancient times required a guarantor.They are two strangers, no name, no surname, no background, which shop would dare to invite them.

So after careful consideration, it is easier to go the wrong way and rob the rich and help the poor.

(End of this chapter)