I have a cornucopia

Chapter 225: Be a conscientious person!
It is indeed not difficult for the Elders to make this decision.

There are no small or medium-sized landlords here.

In order to become an elder, the first necessary condition is to have hundreds of acres of fertile land.

Ten thousand acres.

This is customary!

international practice.

According to the rules set by the Lord Protector of the United Kingdom, if you want to become an elect, you must first have real estate worth more than two hundred pounds.

This is the pound in the gold coin era.

The one-pound sovereign gold coin minted by Elizabeth I weighed eight grams, which means that in the UK a few years later, if you want to become a voter, your real estate valuation must reach 1.6 kilograms of gold. Putting aside the purchasing power difference at that time, even if you can reach this standard in modern times, you must have real estate worth more than one million to be eligible to vote. So the election of elders in my Ming Dynasty is actually in line with the world, and the elders in my Ming Dynasty must have a certain degree of honor. Even in a major imperial examination town like Jiangxi, 80% of those who can become elders are Jinshi.

They are all local officials.

Even in some counties where the imperial examination system was well developed, the association of local celebrities was presided over by Jinshi.

For example, Linchuan County represented by Zeng Hengying.

The person currently presiding over the Linchuan Hometown Association is Fu Dingquan, the former editor of the Hanlin Academy.

They have been officials and have plenty of wealth. Most of them are even from the upper class, with fields stretching across the land. They also have good industrial and commercial strength. Such people can barely accept a reduction in land rent, and can accept usury in special circumstances...

It’s better than breaking up!
They were all officials, and even experienced wars. Many of them fled back from the north. They knew the consequences of breaking up. Compared with the nobles in the capital who were trapped to death, they were lucky to be able to continue their past glory and wealth. Once Li Zicheng came, the probability of them being trapped would definitely be higher than the probability of not being trapped. This was inevitable. No matter how Li Zicheng was, Dorgon also wanted to be a wise ruler, but the Qing army still slaughtered Yangzhou. Even if Li Zicheng wanted to be a wise ruler, his men had to have another carnival like the one in the capital, and the new troops following Li Zicheng were even more eager for a looting to complete the wealth transfer.

This is inevitable.

Li Zicheng was the leader because he was able to lead his brothers to wealth.

If he blocked his brothers' path to wealth, it was not impossible that King Chuang would be exhausted from fighting and suddenly die in the army.

Putting hope on Li Zicheng to be a wise and benevolent ruler is a very naive act, just like the salt merchants in Yangzhou who opened the city to surrender. Compared with this, giving up part of the interests to bribe the people to resist Li Zicheng is a more realistic option.

After all, ordinary people don’t ask for much.

The common people are satisfied with a full meal and grateful for some meat soup, but the old bandits under Li Zicheng really want to eat meat. For the top gentry who have already eaten a hundred sheep, it is not impossible to give up some meat soup to the common people. Anyway, as long as the order is stable and the power is in their hands, everything will come back. The Suzhou Elders cry poor every day and complain about all kinds of extortion, but why do they actually pay in the end? Because they calculated very clearly that the top gentry will not only not lose, but will make money, because all the gentry will pay together to raise the militia, and part of it will be levied on the common people, but the militia will buy equipment and various military supplies, which will be their opportunities to make money in the end.

Why did they spare no effort to provide the militia with cannons of various tonnages?

purchase.

Casting.

ammunition.

……

It's all business.

All the silver flowed into the pockets of the elders who handled the money.

These top gentry who hold power, all their crying poor performances are just performances. They say no, but they actually want to continue!
but……

Those small and medium-sized landlords can’t do that!
Those families who have hundreds of acres of land and rely on rent to farm and study to pass on their family business cannot accept such a result. Once the Elders' Council makes such a decision, I am afraid that the local associations of the wise will explode immediately, and the small and medium-sized landlords who make up the local associations will refuse without hesitation. But for the Elders' Council, this has nothing to do with them. If Yang Feng wants such a decision, they will make such a decision, and then use Yang Feng's credibility as a guarantor and the legal effect of the regent's decree to make the people believe it.

This was done in exchange for the militiamen actually fighting and blocking Li Zicheng's advance, but the final execution was none of their business.

Yang Feng is the guarantor.

The regent is the guarantor.

Let the people go find them!

Of course, people like Jiang Yueguang can guess that this is what Yang Feng wants.

But it still has nothing to do with them.

They can accept Yang Feng's design, so Yang Feng can do whatever he wants.

The Jiangxi Elders Association then convened a meeting, and after a heated debate that was quite tense and even involved some elders throwing things at each other, the meeting was finally passed with barely more than half of the support. The content was very simple, that is, the situation was difficult, natural disasters continued, and famine was getting worse. In order to overcome the difficulties together, the meeting was written to Her Royal Highness the Princess Regent to reduce rent and interest in Jiangxi. No matter how much the land rent was in the past, it would be halved from the original amount. All loans that had been issued but not recovered would be strictly implemented in accordance with the system of Emperor Taizu Gao, with one interest for one principal. Any amount higher than one interest for one principal could be refused.

At the same time, he requested the regent to recruit the shanty dwellers from all over the country, settle them locally, include them in his nationality, and appoint their leaders as officials.

Then the petition was quickly sent to Nanjing.

Of course, propaganda had already begun during militia training when they were sent to Nanjing.

And it was clearly stated that Prince Yang would be the guarantor.

Of course, it also aroused the anger of local hometown associations.

But their anger was meaningless, because at the same time, Zhu Yiwu, the leader of the Yuanzhou shanty dwellers, surrendered under the banner of Yuanzhou General, led tens of thousands of shanty dwellers to attack Yuanzhou, and quickly captured Pingxiang to threaten Yuanzhou. The Yuanzhou militia that was originally preparing to reinforce the northern battlefield had to withdraw. Moreover, Zhu Yiwu used the excuse that the Pingxiang Village Sages Association rebelled against the emperor's order to massacre the Village Sages Association, hung the heads of all the villagers on the city wall, and then opened the warehouses to release grain with the order of the King of Qin...

Tujiabu.

"Thieves, they are all thieves!"

The elder who had luckily escaped the disaster, the former Imperial Censor Xiong Deyang, roared in anger and grief.

He escaped being hanged by Hao Yaoqi because he was an elder nominated by Jianchang County and lived in Nanchang. At this moment, he was standing on the dam he built in his hometown, looking at the aircraft carrier going downstream...

Giant bamboo raft.

At that time, the county seat of Jianchang was Aicheng, and the modern county seat of Yongxiu was behind it.

This was also the front line to block Hao Yaoqi's troops from moving south.

This now prosperous small town is located in the delta where the Xiu River and the Lao River meet.

Both rivers are used for rafting, so after taking Jianchang, Hao Yaoqi immediately summoned rafting workers upstream to make rafts for him, and they made super-large rafts like rafting, like floating islands. After the completion, a large number of soldiers were immediately loaded onto the rafts, and they went down the Xiuhe River to the target Wucheng. Once Wucheng was captured, the entrance to Poyang Lake was also captured. It doesn't make much sense to go south by land, after all, there is the Ganjiang River in front of Nanchang, but it's different by water. After entering Poyang Lake, you can go directly north and land on the outskirts of Nanchang. So at this moment, Tujiabu has become the last line of defense for the gentry in Jiangxi. Once Tujiabu is lost, the bamboo rafts going downstream will carry the enemy troops straight to Wucheng to open the door to the Ganjiang River, and step onto the east bank of the Ganjiang River to threaten the outskirts of Nanchang.

But the navy could not come back. Once the navy of Hukou went south to rescue, Li Zicheng's navy upstream would take action. During this period, the number of warships in Li Zicheng's hands continued to expand, and he even requisitioned fishing boats on the Han River.

After all, if used as a fire ship attack, fishing boats are enough.

At his current rate of deploying ships, he would be able to use thousands of fireships to drown Zheng Chenggong's fleet in two months, so Zheng Chenggong was writing a letter to his father, asking him to send more warships for reinforcement.

Of course, that depends on which side his father bets on.

But now the Jiangxi gentry must defend Tujiabu.

"Fire, fire, bomb these thieves to death!"

Xiong Deyang, a former veteran of Donglin, was shaking and howling while leaning on a cane.

The cannons in front of him opened fire.

The shell hit the bamboo raft accurately as it was approaching the shore.

Of course, it would be strange if you couldn’t hit the target.

The bamboo rafts stretched for hundreds of meters, covering almost one-third of the river surface. But the problem was that it was useless to hit them. This was a giant floating island made of countless bamboos. The shells could only break a few bamboos, but it was useless even if they penetrated them. They were bamboos, and the entire floating island was just a sponge. During the bombardment of the militia, the floating island easily landed, and then the soldiers on it landed, and then another floating island collided with it, and more soldiers boarded this floating island and then landed.

And on the long river bank behind, more of these floating islands came ashore, loaded with soldiers.

At Xiong Deyang's urging, the blocking militia also moved forward to fight. On the battlefield filled with smoke, they shot at each other in chaos, and the enemy troops that had landed also rushed towards this side in chaos.

Of course, Hao Yaoqi would not let his elite subordinates serve as cannon fodder. These were all mountain people who followed him.

The latter doesn't mind being cannon fodder.

After all, as newly joined troops, they had to prove their worth to Li Zicheng.

The mountain folks, who mainly used cold weapons, especially poison crossbows, bravely rushed towards the muzzles of the militia, and then fell down in the whistling bullets, but they ran very fast, and the firearms of this era did not have the real battlefield blocking ability. Then the mountain folks who rushed into the crossbow range fired poison crossbows, and the militiamen kept falling down. The others were still panicking but still reloading steadily. After all, they had armor, and the mountain folks' stacked bamboo crossbows were still not good at penetrating armor. But then the mountain folks' javelin throwers rushed into the range, and javelins flew towards the militia. This thing was much more powerful, especially for the Jiangxi militia, which mainly used cloth armor. The javelins that fell from the sky instantly penetrated their bodies.

However, the fierce mountain people still continue to move forward.

A melee ensued.

The cavalry transported by the floating island behind the mountain people began to land.

The militia immediately began to flee.

"Go back. If you desert the battlefield, you will be expelled from the clan. If you defeat the enemy, you will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver.

Defeat the thieves and reduce rent and interest!

The King of Donghai will guarantee that the thieves will be driven back and the rent and interest will be reduced!"

Xiong Deyang held up a letter appealing to the people of Jiangxi and howled like a madman.

Anyway, his home was already a battlefield. If he defeated Li Zicheng, he could still take back his property. If he failed to defeat Li Zicheng, he could not take back even an acre of land. In this case, why not just be generous? Therefore, he firmly supported rent and interest reduction in the Elders' Association.

At the same time, the supervision team moved forward. These were all hired by the Elders' Association. Unlike the militia composed of conscripted men, they were actually mainly used to suppress unruly people. The slave and tenant rebellions in Jiangxi have been as serious as ever in the past two years, and the militia composed of conscripted men certainly cannot be used to suppress them, as it would be easy for them to learn bad things. Therefore, the Jiangxi Elders' Association actually also has a mercenary army, which now has to be sent to the battlefield.

These genuine mercenaries rode forward on horseback, holding flintlock pistols in their hands, with flames spurting from the muzzles.

Several militiamen who took the lead in fleeing were immediately knocked down by short guns.

"Reduce the rent and interest. We are all fellow villagers. From now on, my tenants will pay 30% of the rent. I won't ask you for a bushel of rent more. If you owe me money, you only need to pay back the principal and interest. We are all fellow villagers. We should be conscientious! My family has been doing good deeds for generations. This levee was built with the money I raised. We are a place of education by saints and sages, not a place for those brutal, treacherous and unruly people. We should be conscientious! Fellow villagers, we can't let outsiders rob our fields. These outsiders are thieves. They want to rob our fields. We are all fellow villagers for generations. We can't help outsiders!

I kneel down for you!
If I break my promise in the future, you can dig up my ancestral graves."

Xiong Deyang cried out.

Then he really knelt down in front of the chaotic militia in front of him.

The latter is finally a little different.

After all, they actually have a natural hostility towards outsiders. This has been the case since the farming era, because outsiders represent the people who come to share their own interests. It is indeed very attractive that Li Zicheng's King of Rebellion does not pay taxes, but the same is true for the gentry's rent and interest reduction. Of course, the gentry's words about rent and interest reduction cannot be believed, but the guarantee of Prince Yang is worthy of belief. What's more, Li Zicheng brought shed dwellers with him, and the contradiction between natives and Hakkas has always been sharp. The killing between the people of Jiangxi and the shed dwellers has been going on for a long time. In this case, they still have to choose to resist. Several militias that had originally fled suddenly turned around and rushed to the battlefield, and then more militias also turned around...

"Yes, yes, we can hold on. As long as we hold on, as long as we defeat Li Zicheng, the whole province will reduce rent and interest.

The King of the East Sea is the guarantor!
The regent will act as a guarantor!

We are all fellow villagers, we won’t lie to you!”

Xiong Deyang shouted excitedly.

He also raised his hands and looked like he was dancing.

At the same time, reinforcements arrived behind him.

"Hurry up, defeat Li Zicheng, and reduce rent and interest throughout the province!

The King of the East Sea will guarantee it!"

Jie Chongxi, the former governor of Funing, who had just returned from Fujian to observe mourning, shouted.

The Fuzhou militiamen beside him also rushed to the battlefield in chaos. These were also mountain people. After learning that the capital had been captured, Jie Chongxi and a deputy general took the recruited soldiers to the north to defend the king, but because of the chaotic situation, they all ran away halfway. When he arrived in Nanjing, there were only a few hundred people left, and his father happened to be gone, so he simply took these people back to Fuzhou and recruited again with these soldiers as the backbone.

At the same time, a large number of reinforcements arrived from the enemy's flank.

"Kill the thief!"

Song Yingxing's brother Song Yingsheng raised a knife and shouted loudly with great momentum.

The militia he led even pushed a rocket cart.

Then rockets flew towards the enemy with a piercing whistle...

(End of this chapter)