The rise of the prince

Chapter 821 It's time to stand in line
In Tongzhou, as the sea trade has become more and more prosperous in the past few years, the people are far richer than a few years ago. As a local parent official, Zhizhou has naturally benefited a lot.

Wu Huisheng, as the magistrate of Tongzhou, had contacts with many rich families in the local area, and the largest rich family was still his wife's mother family.

In fact, he also has to give three points of face to these big families. In the simplest terms, if you want to do things in Tongzhou, without the support of these three families, many things can't be implemented at all, and like his wife's mother family, the light family has tens of thousands of acres of land Good land is not the largest wealthy family in the coastal area.

The fertile land owned by these big clans alone is enough to make Wu Huisheng, the magistrate of the state, dare not touch them in the slightest.

However, these lands have title deeds and are legally bought and sold. This leaves him, the prefect, with only one way to go, either to rely on these big clans, or the government orders are not clear, and everything is not going well. In some places where the situation is even worse, he may die Not guaranteed.

Although people always say that there is no king's land in the world, land can be bought and sold legally.

At first, when Taizu founded the country, at least [-]% of the people had good land, and Jingguo abolished slavery. The situation was very good, and the people all over the world applauded.

However, human nature is always depraved. When some wealthy families initially offered high prices to buy fields, not everyone could withstand the temptation.

How hard it is to work in the world every day. After selling the land, you can idle around and live a leisurely and easy life for half your life. What will happen in the future?Think about it later.

There are no shortage of people with this kind of thinking anywhere, and there is a high probability that there will be such people within three generations of a family.

As a result, those people who had some family background and some money at the beginning will grow bigger and bigger after several generations of business acquisitions. When they grow bigger, more and more people will have no land to cultivate, and they can only work for big families. Long-term workers.

However, more than [-]% of the land of these big clans is voluntarily bought and sold. The land deeds are reasonable and legal, and the government has no way to control them.

And after a few more generations, the big clans will own more and more land, and after hundreds of thousands of people live by working for them, these big clans will start to engage in some small tricks, or take advantage of it, or seize the time, and the government will not Dare to control.

They have innumerable fertile fields, and hundreds of thousands of landless people live by working for these big clans. If they offend these big clans, they can gather countless people with a single call.

The simplest example is that the imperial court planned to build some concrete roads in the Hanzhong Shu area to strengthen the central government's control over the local areas. It was proposed by the current emperor's grandson Li Xingzhou, but obviously this harmed the interests of the local clans who monopolized the local land.

Those big clans did not confront the government directly, but they mobilized and instigated the common people, used bad feng shui, and other strange powers to block the gods, so that hundreds of thousands of people blocked the main roads, but they did not allow them to repair.

In the end, the imperial court could only let it go, this is the power of the wealthy clan.

As for the common people, some of them may have been really cheated, while some were living under the hands of the big clan, so they had to do it.

So the more corrupt they get, the more corrupt they get. When local officials arrive, they will either establish good relations with these big clans and join forces with them, or they will be squeezed out and suppressed. In the end, they will leave in desperation, or even die for no reason.

Wu Huisheng is very knowledgeable about current affairs, so he contacted the rich family in Tongzhou when he took office a few years ago. His wife was from a rich family in Tongzhou.

However, there has been a change. Last year, the emperor's grandson Li Xingzhou proposed a new taxation reform, requiring that the tax be no longer paid on the basis of the head, but be calculated according to the number of acres of land in hand.

This moment made many, many big families jump up!

In the past, taxes were collected according to the head, and a large family with tens of thousands of acres of land only needed to pay taxes for a family of dozens or hundreds of people, which was easy for them.

And those civilians whose land had been sold by themselves or their ancestors, or whose land had been taken away by various means by the wealthy family, still had to pay the family tax, so they had to do cheap long-term labor in the rich family's home.

Now that such a change has been made, the richer clans with more land will pay more taxes, and many "substandard" ordinary people don't even have to pay taxes, which completely shakes the foundation of the powerful clans.

That's why the news came out at that time, and the entire southeast region was in an uproar, and then piles of memorials flew to the capital.

When Qifang, the confidant sent by the emperor's grandson, came to work, all kinds of stumbling blocks continued one after another, and some people even wanted to use some "extraordinary" means to deal with the legendary mistress of the emperor's grandson.

Of course, there were stumbling blocks and various difficulties were constantly being created, but no one dared to tear up their skin to deal with her. It was just that the officials and wealthy families along the coast wanted her to recognize the facts and retreat in spite of difficulties.

After all, it is a foregone conclusion that the emperor's grandson will inherit the throne, and he doesn't want to offend him to death.

In the end, that woman was not a flower vase, she was tough and familiar with various political methods, which actually made them a little passive, and then they found out that the woman named Fang not only had a father who was a magistrate, but later entered the court and became a member of Zhongshushe, And he fought with the grandson of the emperor!It's not easy.

In the end, it was the emperor's grandson who conquered the Kingdom of Jin, and Qifang was also recalled.

This made many people breathe a sigh of relief. This large-scale northern expedition diverted attention, and then there were some failures or unsatisfactory conditions. Adding more oil and vinegar, as a political means, can put some pressure on the court and force it to abandon the previous plan. .

At that time, everyone planned this way, and they also felt that things would develop like this.

After all, in today's world, if you talk about which country has the most abundant martial arts, it is undoubtedly the Jin country that conquered most of the Liao Kingdom in just a few years, beat Goryeo to the east, and made the Tatar tribes surrender to the north.

The Iron Buddha of Jin State became famous all over the world. It defeated tens of thousands of people with thousands of people, and defeated hundreds of thousands of Liao troops with tens of thousands of people!

This kind of combat power has only been seen in historical records throughout Jingguo, or it is thought about in dreams at night.

Therefore, even if the emperor's grandson is undefeated, there is no way to please him. This was the common view of the wealthy families and upper-level officials along the coast at that time.

As a result, several months after the army went out, news came from the north that the emperor's grandson's army broke through Shanhaiguan, defeated the Jin army, and surrounded Ningyuan!

Once the news was confirmed, the common people rejoiced, and the ruling and opposition parties praised it. Only the upper-level officials and wealthy families along the coast panicked.

This... this is too much nonsense!
What they thought was that this dispatch of troops would weaken the prestige of the emperor's grandson, but they didn't expect it to be counterproductive!

With such a great achievement, if the emperor's grandson returns to the court, no matter whether it is among the people or the court, his prestige will definitely rise to a higher level, and he will be supported by the people and officials. How can he resist them if he takes action against them?
Since getting the news that day, in the coastal states, there have been more movements among high-ranking families than ever before, and each family hastily moved to deal with the upcoming changes.

There are only two ways to deal with it. To put it bluntly, it is to stand in line.

Some people think that they can't compete with the emperor's grandson. On the one hand, they use their connections to go to Beijing to show their favor to the royal family as much as possible. It is unrealistic to collect taxes and hold too much land. Just paying taxes can kill yourself.

The other faction decided to die hard to the end. On the one hand, they united with related officials to write to the court, contacted officials in the capital who were also dissatisfied with the emperor's grandson, and wanted to recall the army for various reasons, so that the emperor's grandson would not continue to make meritorious service.On the other hand, they are actively trying to unite with the big families who have the same idea, and quietly build weapons in private, in case of emergency.

The actions of both sides are in full swing. Now the situation in the upper echelons of the coastal states is very delicate. The weather is about to change, and it is time to stand in line.

Wu Huisheng also thought about it for a long time and was still hesitating. His wife's natal family wrote several times to ask him to write to the court and take back the army, just to stand on the opposite side of the emperor.Even his father-in-law had visited several times to convey this intention, but he was perfunctory.

His wife also quarreled with him several times over this matter.

Wu Huisheng always felt that something was wrong, this juncture was too important, if he made a wrong stand, his career might be over for the rest of his life.

In the officialdom, he knew the history of the emperor's grandson better than the landowner's father-in-law. This person became famous for suppressing the rebels, and then he defeated the remnants of the Northern Han Dynasty, defeated the Liao Kingdom, and captured the Liao Kingdom leader alive.

All kinds of deeds reveal a kind of legendary color that can't be done. What if the army didn't just break through Shanhaiguan?

If Ningyuan, or Jinzhou in the north, is defeated again, and the emperor's grandson returns to the dynasty, it will really be like the sky.
If he wrote the memorial at this time and was found out by then, his official career in this life might be ruined!There is no room for turning around.

On the contrary, it will be better. If the emperor's grandson returns to the court, he will not be able to fight against the big families in the coastal states, and the decree will be left behind after repeated delays. He will be squeezed out and suppressed by the local wealthy families. There is no way to continue to make money.

But this doesn't affect his official career!The big deal is to leave Tongzhou and start again. He can still be an official, but he has to work hard for a few more years, and he may even be appreciated by the emperor's grandson.

Therefore, whichever is the lesser of two evils, Wu Huisheng felt that he must stand firmly on the side of the emperor and grandson this time, and he would not be shaken no matter what his father-in-law said.

(End of this chapter)