Daming, originally wanted to destroy it, but the system came

Chapter 351: Winning over the wealthy gentry and setting up a clever name?

Regarding Gu Wen and Qian Gui's probing words, Zhu Zhen was actually able to understand and understand their intentions.

To put it simply, if Zhu Zhen is willing to turn a blind eye, or even join forces with those two aristocratic families, he will easily and easily get the support of many aristocratic families.

Because in today's Ming Dynasty, there are no longer the four great families of Gu, Lu, Zhu and Zhang, but the four great families of Gu, Zhang, Liu and Pang.

It is said that the Liu and Pang families control the entire land of Hangzhou Prefecture.

This is not simple.

If you can get the support of the Gu family and the Liu and Pang families, plus they have shocked and beaten the Zhang family before.

As long as Zhu Zhen is willing to compromise, how can he have all these troubles?

And don't think that Zhu Ming is not short of money. Even if he becomes emperor in the future, if he has the strong support of the Jiangnan family, the treasury will be full.

It's just a suffering for the people.

But after all, Zhu Min is not that kind of person. It is fast to take shortcuts, but this is a major matter for the country, the country, and the world. You cannot take shortcuts. If you find a problem but do not solve it, turning a blind eye will not make the problem disappear on its own. It will only leave a huge hidden danger. thunder.

Once it breaks out, Li Zicheng will come to kill the old Zhu family again.

Even if there is no Li Zicheng, there are still Zhang Zicheng and Wang Zicheng.

Don't you see how many people named Liu Xiu Wang Mang killed, but one person changed his name to Liu Xiu and still beheaded him? How can this be justified?

So Zhu Ming kept the bottom line and scolded Gu Wen, thinking that Gu Wen was just like Jia Xu, just for the so-called king's dominance, regardless of the life and death of the people, what kind of bad ideas did he come up with? A desperate plan?

Until Qian Gui walked out, he no longer looked like he did when they first met, although he was not condescending, but he was neither humble nor arrogant. Instead, he was sincerely convinced and prostrated himself on the ground.

"Qian Gui is willing to work hard and use the strength of the Qian family to seek justice for the country, the people, and for His Highness," Qian Gui said calmly.

Gu Wen on the side even took the initiative to mention: "Mr. Qian's reputation is beyond the reach of the lower official. The lower official is willing to demote himself and give up the position of chief historian to Mr. Qian."

"No, Mr. Gu first worked for His Highness, and it was you who facilitated this situation, giving Qian Gui the opportunity to serve Mingjun. How dare Qian Gui take Mr. Gu's position? No, no," Qian Gui quickly declined.

Zhu Chu looked at the two people giving in and said leisurely: "There can be two Changshis, Zuo Changshi and Right Changshi. But now is not the time to see you giving in to each other. I thought it was Kong Rong who gave way to Li. ?The most troublesome thing now is that the Liu and Pang families are not just people. They not only seized the people's land, but also made the people willingly hand over the land to them, and even became their slaves without even knowing it. This is The essential."

"Confucius and his sages once advocated teaching without distinction, and Laozi left the Tao Te Ching to educate the world. Unfortunately, later generations of Confucian scholars only read the books of the sages, but did not learn the ways of the sages. Especially the aristocratic families, who controlled the culture and were unwilling to share it, only If you don’t care about yourself, you can’t engage in policies that deceive the people.”

"Ah."

Zhu Zhen sneered.

You should be proud first, and you must take this opportunity to be proud.

But don't worry, don't worry yet.

When Yunnan College begins to rise to prominence, I will civilize the world. I will do what you are unwilling to do.

By then, hundreds of new schools of thought will emerge again, just Confucianism? The mantis' arms are nothing more than a chariot.

Gu Wen and Qian Gui exchanged glances and secretly smiled bitterly.

It seemed that whether it was the Zhang family in Liyang County or the Liu and Pang families in Hangzhou, or the words they had just tested His Highness, they had all aroused His Highness's extreme annoyance.

What's more, many Jiangnan aristocratic families really have high standards, and even Emperor Hongwu dared not look down on them.

It's not for nothing that Zhu Chu is fed up with them.

Now we have to make His Highness change his mind as soon as possible.

"Your Highness, it is actually not difficult to deal with the Liu Pang family. There are only two points. One is to make the world recognize it, and the other is to make the people understand that this matter can only be handled with conspiracy. The trend of the times is to use righteousness. Crush. You must not use conspiracy to take advantage of it on trumped-up charges. Otherwise, the people will only be dissatisfied, and everyone in the world will complain," Qian Gui said eloquently.

Zhu Ming interrupted angrily: "I know."

When I asked Luo Guanzhong before, Lao Luo also suggested the same thing.

Luo Guanzhong gave two options. One was conspiracy. Why bother to incriminate someone? If you accuse two families of treason, you can immediately confiscate their homes.

But the problem is, everyone knows that this is an intentional crime, so naturally it cannot stand up.

However, it is very difficult to win over two families through conspiracy, because the Pang family has helped the Liu family to manage the business for many years, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are famous throughout Hangzhou Prefecture.

The common people gave them the land themselves and took the initiative to farm it for them. What does this have to do with them?

Even if you want people to sue the two families, there is no reason or excuse.

This is the hardest part.

"You can start with the government. As long as you find evidence of collusion between the government and the two families, especially if the government corrects the edict and privately increases the tax assessment, you can open a breakthrough," Qian Gui said.

Zhu Ming sighed. He thought so too. The problem was that the evidence was not so easy to produce.

"It just so happens that my Qian family is also an aristocratic family in Hangzhou. When the government issued a notice to increase taxes and miscellaneous taxes, we also heard about it. But the strange thing is that in the end, nothing was done about it. Because things were a bit weird, so I asked someone to I left some edicts. If Your Highness wants to read them, I will ask someone to get them for you," Qian Gui said with a reserved smile.

Zhu Chu's eyes lit up and he looked at Qian Gui.

Good guy, it turns out you are confident.

As mentioned before, the reason why the common people willingly gave their land to the Liu family, and even served them as tenant farmers, was to avoid the miscellaneous taxes and even corvee arbitrarily imposed by the court.

Corvee labor is a bloody pit, and people can really die.

For example, when the Great Wall was built in the Ming Dynasty, corvee labor was required. It was free labor, and it was very hard and tiring. It is said that many people died.

There is also the village Zheng, which should be called Lijia Zhengfu in the Ming Dynasty. His main responsibility is to assist the court in collecting taxes and grain.

Don't think this is a good thing, because once there is a fugitive household, not only will taxes and grain be levied, but Li Jia will also pay for it.

This means that not only are you working in vain, but you may also be able to make up for the insufficient taxes and grains out of your own pocket.

Not to mention laborers and handymen.

Corvee service was the common people's obligation to provide labor services to the imperial court, which meant that a group of people had to work every year or every other period of time.

What makes people even more speechless is that there is no reward for corvee work. Not only is there no reward, but you may have to prepare everything you need on the road.

You bring your own luggage and dry food, and then you have to work hard all the way to a certain place, and you have to work consciously.

So the blood pit.

As for miscellaneous taxes, they are even more complicated.

The simplest example.

The imperial court asked local officials to collect taxes. Local officials usually found local gentry or Lijia mentioned above, and then the gentry and Lijia went to the people below to collect the tax.

But in the process, something like this may happen.

Officials asked the court that the harvest might not be good this year, could they harvest less?

The court said that the tax would be thirty to one.

But when we got to the place, the officials changed their faces and said, "Twenty-one tax this year, how much did you earn?"

When it comes to the gentry and Lijia, the tax may be increased to fifteen to one.

This is only the regular tax, and miscellaneous taxes are arbitrarily assessed, which makes the people miserable.

The common people were forced to rather be slaves than good citizens, and would rather lose their land.

It seemed that all this was forced by the court.

But actually?

If you look at the information and evidence Qian Gui has, it turns out that the local government colluded with the Liu and Pang families to allocate miscellaneous taxes at will in the name of the court, forcing the people to give away their land to the Liu family.

His crime deserves to be punished.

"Who is this Hangzhou magistrate?" Zhu Zhen asked.

"Xiao Shiyu," Qian Gui said as he went outside in person, called the housekeeper and brought a stack of paper.

Because Niu Sheng was guarding the door, he had to go and get it in person.

Turning around, Qian Gui handed the papers to Zhu Zhen.

Zhu Zhen took it in his hand and looked at it, his face was extremely dark.

Those are the statements posted by the government about various miscellaneous taxes.

There was even a recent notice related to Zhu Zhen, saying that the Dian king needed a large amount of grain and grass for his northern expedition beyond the Great Wall, so taxes were temporarily increased. "Are you actually planning on me?" Zhu Zhen suddenly became furious.

"This is just a coincidence," Qian Gui was not surprised and said slowly: "The government posted notices and then roped in the Liu and Pang families to impose heavy taxes and encourage the people to increase taxes. Only when the Liu and Pang families take the lead will the people pay the taxes. . But afterwards, their money and food were returned in full, and only the interests of the people were harmed. Slowly, the Liu and Pang families became richer and richer, but in the end the people had no choice but to give all their land to the Liu family in vain."

Zhu Xing laughed angrily: "You cleverly set up a name to win over the wealthy gentry, and they paid it, so that the people could follow suit. Afterwards, the wealthy gentry's money was returned in full, and the people's money was divided among them. I thought this was just a plot in the story, I didn’t expect it, I didn’t expect it.”

Even many of the plots are exactly the same.

In the movie, Huang Silang is actually more ruthless than the previous county magistrates in Echeng. As the saying goes, the flowing county magistrate is the iron-clad Mr. Huang.

And in the city of Hangzhou, don’t the Liu and Pang families cover the sky with just one hand? Even the government cooperated with them in posting notices.

But what the people actually didn't know was that the court didn't know about these things at all.

Especially since they dared to use Zhu Xi to create a clever name, they really had a way of getting killed.

"Li Gui, go to the camp to inform Wang Fu that it's time to take action," Zhu Zhen shouted.

Li Gui immediately took the order and left.

"Niu Sheng, you stay and guard the Qian Mansion to prevent anyone from jumping over the wall in a hurry," Zhu Zhen shouted to the door again.

"Li Jinglong," Zhu Xi shouted again.

Li Jinglong immediately rushed in from outside: "Uncle Eighteen, did you call me?"

Zhu Chu threw the notices in his hand at him and said: "Take these evidences and go to the magistrate's office with me."

After getting the irrefutable evidence, Zhu Zhen didn't want to wait for a moment and wanted to interrogate Xiao Shiyu, the prefect of Hangzhou, overnight.

Qian Gui and Gu Wen looked at each other, followed Zhu Zhen to the left and right, and were about to walk out.

Suddenly Zhu Zhen stopped and almost caused the two of them to bump into him.

Zhu Chu turned to look at Qian Gui and asked, "What role does the Qian family play here?"

Looking at Zhu Ming's slightly narrowed eyes, Qian Gui's heart trembled. He didn't dare to hide it, and said quickly: "I don't dare to deceive His Highness. The Qian family will not be reduced to collaborating with them, but the Qian family's reputation is here after all, and they will not How dare you do anything to my Qian family. All our Qian family can do is to do what we can when the people are hungry and cold, so as to prevent them from having to ask for help from others and taking advantage of this opportunity to be loan sharked. "

Usury has been around since ancient times, and it has always been a favorite of those landowners and wealthy people who oppress the people.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang, who lost his father and mother when he was young, had to sell himself to a rich man's family in exchange for two mats and bury his parents hastily.

Zhu Ming looked at Qian Gui deeply.

Qian Gui looked at Zhu Zhen without any guilt.

Zhu Ming nodded in the end, believing Qian Gui's words.

But there is still some resentment in my heart. The Qian family said it was because of their reputation, but in the end they were poor, so they stayed alone and chose to protect themselves?

Qian Gui secretly smiled bitterly, Your Highness, you really don’t know how your father attacked our Jiangnan family.

Not to mention, in the past few years, Zhu Yuanzhang has clearly told the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty that officials from Jiangnan are absolutely not allowed to enter the Ministry of Household Affairs.

It can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang has been guarding against the Jiangnan family.

Even if he wanted to inform the court, where would he find the way?

In modern times, no descendant of the Qian family has served as an official in the court. Even if he did, he would be a military commander and it would be too late to avoid suspicion.

Next, Zhu Chu led a few people and headed straight to the lobby of the Hangzhou government office in a hurry.

It was already nightfall, the government office lobby had long been closed, and the prefect had gone to the backyard to rest.

When Zhu Zhen arrived at the gate, he went straight up and kicked it without any hesitation.

There was a loud bang, and the heavy door collapsed with his kick.

The door bolt was really too strong, and the door shaft connected to the door frame fell off.

As the gate collapsed, someone inside the yamen was frightened and rushed out.

The yamen who normally were on duty in the yamen had already left work, and the few who came out were servants of the housekeeper in the backyard of the prefect's house.

There is no so-called Shaoxing master today. The position of master became popular from the Qing Dynasty.

Some officials always bring their whole family with them when they go to work in other places, and most officials live in the backyard of the government office, so these people are servants brought by the prefect from their hometown.

"Who broke into the lobby of the government office without permission? Is your life at risk?" the housekeeper yelled and rushed out.

It turned out that Li Jinglong was even more powerful than him. He punched the butler until he covered his eyes and fell back.

"You've rebelled. Do you want to rebel?" The housekeeper shouted in pain: "Come on, take down all these unruly people, and let me punish them."

Li Jinglong smiled evilly and started to roll up his sleeves. He was a well-known playboy in the capital. Although he was bullied by Xu Miaojin a lot when he was a child, he also hung out with the three brothers of the Xu family and was Li Wenzhong's son.

So there was no need for Zhu Chu to take action at all. Li Jinglong rushed forward alone, like a tiger rushing into a herd of sheep, and knocked down the servants in the mansion in three strokes.

"Uncle Eighteen, lend me your Shang Fang sword so that I can show off my power." Li Jinglong became interested and wanted to follow Wang Fu's example and take out his Shang Fang sword to scare them.

Zhu Ming then stepped in and snorted: "You also know that it is a show of force, right? Stop talking nonsense and bring me the Hangzhou magistrate. I will interrogate him all night."

With that said, Zhu Chu walked straight to the lobby of the government office, sat down in the seat of the prefect without hesitation, and took out the Shang Fang Sword that Li Jinglong had longed for from his waist and placed it on the table in front of him.

At this time, he was furious as thunder, and his heart was filled with murderous intent.

Li Jinglong shrank his neck, not daring to offend Zhu Chu at this time, and rushed towards the backyard.

The housekeeper and several servants who were knocked to the ground looked at Zhu Zhen with fear on their faces and forgot about it.

This king? Shang Fang's sword?

Just a few sensitive words have already shocked them.

Gu Wen and Qian Gui spontaneously walked to stand behind Zhu Zhen, while looking at the fallen door, the corners of their eyes twitched.

His Highness's strength is so terrifying. If this kick were to hit someone's body, I'm afraid it would at least result in a broken bone.

Not long after, there was a burst of shouting from the backyard, followed immediately by Li Jinglong, holding a person in his hand and walking out quickly.

"What a decent person you are, what a decent person you are, where are these bad guys from? Don't you know that I am an official of the imperial court, and even more so the prefect of Hangzhou? Be careful, I will cut off your head," Xiao Shiyu, the prefect of Hangzhou, shouted, While being forcefully dragged out by Li Jinglong.

"Behead me?" Li Jinglong sneered: "I'm just the prefect of Hangzhou. I'm Cao Guogong. Who do you think you are?"

Xiao Shiyu was shocked and looked at Li Jinglong in disbelief.

The magistrate is not the county magistrate. As the chief executive of a prefecture, he is an official of the fourth rank. If he is an official in the capital, he is qualified to go to court to pay homage to the emperor and even participate in political power.

So Xiao Shiyu suddenly recognized Li Jinglong.

Seeing that he was really Cao Guogong Li Jinglong, Xiao Shiyu didn't dare to yell anymore. At the same time, he was shocked and subconsciously looked at his usual position.

He saw Zhu Zheng looking at him with cold eyes.

Xiao Shiyu suddenly went limp and sat on the ground.

He already guessed who the young man was.

"Your Majesty, please see me. No, please see His Majesty the King of Dian."

Xiao Shiyu was already panicking, breaking out in cold sweat, and even began to talk nonsense, mistakenly calling His Highness His Majesty.

It's not that he didn't see how similar Zhu Yu and Zhu Yuanzhang were, but he was guilty of being a thief.

Zhu Zhen looked at Xiao Shiyu with a sneer, patted the case in front of him with his hand, and shouted: "Prisoner Xiao Shiyu, since I am here, I think you should also know what happened. If you don't report it at this time, I will wait for you." when?"

Xiao Shiyu opened his mouth, then suddenly gritted his teeth and said bravely: "Xiaguan is attending His Highness the King of Dian. I wonder why the King of Dian came to Hangzhou, which is under the jurisdiction of Xiaguan?"

What a tough-tongued fool.

Zhu Ming was very angry and laughed back: "I think you won't shed tears until you see the coffin."

(End of this chapter)