Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 271 Guiding Public Opinion
If it comes to making people hate him, Jia Lian is definitely an expert. If it comes to liking to make people hate him, Jia Lian is not that stupid.

The reality is that the emperor needs someone to come out and attract hatred and become the focus.

Jia Lian, who had already boarded the pirate ship, had no way to retreat. He had to get on board despite his difficulties and stand up to share the firepower with the emperor.

Of course, Jia Lian did not simply let himself attract fire, that would be too stupid. His suggestions were very targeted, one was the quota for the imperial examinations in Liangjiang, and the other was the officials of the prefectures and provinces along the river. The key is that Jia Lian's logic is self-consistent, and no one can find fault with his narrative logic.

Anyone who is interested can quickly find the key points that can be used in Jia Lian's memorials - the number of imperial examinations + officials along the river. You see, when someone is at the forefront, as long as they can see enough benefits, someone will take the initiative to join in the output.

Jia Lian said: I’m fucked, you guys can do whatever you want.

After reading it, Kong Zhao's hair stood up on his body. He couldn't hide or suppress this memorial. There was no need for the cabinet to leak it. After the memorial left the Ministry of War, it immediately spread to various government offices in the capital.

Fujian and Zhejiang, two provinces with strong imperial examinations, said, "What does it have to do with me if the young master targets Liangjiang? Who made you Liangjiang the first to speak out?"

Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiangxi provinces are all major provinces for the imperial examination system. I won’t say anything, I’ll just watch.

When the other provinces saw this scene, they thought, "I have to help out."

The above is an anthropomorphic statement, and that’s pretty much what it means.

Someone took the lead in targeting the quota of the imperial examinations in Liangjiang Province. The last time there was a fight over the quota of the imperial examinations was when Zhu Yuanzhang launched the North-South List. The Great Zhou did not have the so-called North-South List, but there were clear laws at the stage of Juren, and the quota of Juren was allocated according to the tax amount of each province.

In other words, the preferential policy originally set by Taizu has now become a weapon for Jia Lian to attack Liangjiang.

The court treated Liangjiang preferentially because they contributed the most to the tax revenue. However, the gentry in Liangjiang did not think of repaying the court, but resisted the court's tax policies in various ways. If that's the case, then don't treat them preferentially, you don't deserve it.

Because this matter was so big, the issue of officials along the river that was raised at the same time did not receive much attention.

Almost all the voices focused on the number of vacancies for the Liangjiang Juren.

The provincial examination was held every three years. The province with the most candidates was Jiangnan with 80, followed by Zhili with 60, and Jiangbei, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Shandong with 40 candidates each. The provinces that followed had 20 to 10 candidates each. The worst was Guizhou, which simply combined the 20 candidates for the provincial examination with Yunnan, with people from two provinces competing for the 20 candidates. In practice, the number of candidates in Guizhou in each session was less than five.

The number of candidates for the provincial examinations held every three years is strictly controlled to less than 800. Even so, including those who donated money to become officials, there are now thousands of officials waiting in line at the Ministry of Personnel. The reason for this phenomenon is not the increase in officials, but the cost issue.

Jia Lian wanted to cut the number of candidates for the imperial examinations in Liangjiang, which was really a move against the roots. Since the Great Zhou Dynasty, the number of candidates for the imperial examinations in Liangjiang has been far ahead. When no one mentioned it, it was not a big deal, but when someone made a big fuss about it, it became hated.

The situation is like this now. Even if we cannot share the benefits of Liangjiang, it is still a pleasant thing to see Liangjiang suffer.

So, after Jia Lian dropped the bomb, he just ignored it and let the ten thousand words letter ferment across the country. Who is in the mood to pay attention to Sun Huazhen's affairs now? Everyone is discussing Jia Lian's ten thousand words letter.

When Emperor Chenghui saw Jia Lian's memorial, he felt complicated and chose to keep it without sending it out.

This guy has two meanings. He won’t express his opinion now, but I reserve the right to express my opinion, which means that this matter has not passed.

Things in the past can be dug up and settled whenever necessary, let alone things that have not yet passed?
Any official who was born in Liangjiang had to bite the bullet and submit a memorial. If they didn't speak out about this matter, they would never be able to rest in peace in their ancestral graves. From the perspective of officials across the country, an official who was born in Liangjiang was wielding a hoe to dig the graves of the Liangjiang imperial examination. Other officials who were born in Liangjiang also had to speak out.

Probably, Jia Lian threw out his argument and then left it alone, but other officials from Liangjiang showed many different expressions. For example, some people cursed loudly, while others patiently analyzed the historical causes and the need to preserve it. Some people went directly to the door of the ancestral house of the Jia family in Jinling to throw shit. Some people analyzed Jia Lian's motives for doing so, and objectively pointed out that the Liangjiang gentry's tax arrears and tax resistance were the root cause of the uproar. A very small number of people found something different after carefully reading Jia Lian's ten thousand word letter.

Jia Lian analyzed the causes of the economic prosperity of Liangjiang from a geographical and historical perspective. From a historical perspective, the economic development of Liangjiang started relatively late, and it was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that they really began to leave the rest of the country behind.

However, this phenomenon was accompanied by a large influx of precious metals from Europe and Japan. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the amount of precious metal inflow decreased due to the robbery of British pirates and the isolation of the Japanese shogunate. The reduction of foreign precious metals has led to famine in Huzhou, and many people have starved to death. This situation has only improved in recent decades because the British began to actively maintain the safety of maritime transportation after becoming the new maritime hegemon. The essence is still the strong market demand for Da Zhou's goods in Europe. After the British completed their maritime hegemony, the trade routes were restored driven by huge interests. With the reduction of maritime trade in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Chinese in Southeast Asia were massacred and looted by the colonists.

There are various interpretations, which are reflected in the struggle in the court. The most intense one was the impeachment against Jia Lian.

This kind of impeachment, focusing on the fact that Liangjiang is the main provider of national fiscal revenue, emphasizes the legitimacy of Liangjiang's imperial examination quotas. It also emphasizes the rules set by Taizu, and that Jia Lian, as a latecomer, is destroying the ancestral system and shaking the foundation of the court. This move is more hateful than the White Lotus Sect.

This wave of impeachment was fierce, but it did not trigger a wave of concentrated attacks on Jia Lian. Instead, it led to a group of officials from inland areas to support Jia Lian, believing that Jia Lian's point of view was correct. The Liangjiang gentry wanted preferential treatment for the number of people who passed the imperial examinations, but were unwilling to pay more taxes. This was really a double standard.

The two gangs started arguing, and Jia Lian, the person involved, was ignored.

The focus of the conflict became whether to reduce the number of imperial examination quotas in Liangjiang.

The two sides quarreled fiercely, throwing all kinds of dirty laundry at each other, and the other coastal provinces that were originally watching the show were gradually dragged down.

A nationwide melee has begun! Everyone is arguing about the rationality of the imperial examination quota system.

There was no news about Sun Huazhen, Jia Lian, and the problems of officials along the river. No one cared about these things, as if they had never happened. Emperor Chenghui sat on the throne, watching the people below fighting, and his emotions were stable! Jia Lian, who was far away in Jining, read the family letter and secretly despised it in his heart. Isn't it just using a new hot spot to cover up the previous hot spot? In an era when information dissemination is slow, this trick is actually a little less effective. The heat of an event will not pass for more than a month.

Everyone is speaking without any hesitation, and as long as their own interests are not involved, they are all reasonable people.

Public opinion can be guided! People's energy is limited, but people still like to express their personal opinions. They think they are a hexagonal warrior who knows everything. Little do they know that when you are anxious to express your opinions and think you have seen everything clearly, you are actually being led by the nose.

The biggest benefit of Shenjiying being stationed in Jining for local people is that it has boosted consumption, followed by public security.

A large amount of grain that was originally trapped in Xuzhou was stopped by Jia Lian when it arrived in Jining. Because the grain was needed to aid the enemy, Jia Lian stopped all of it completely unreasonably. At the same time, another batch of grain arrived in Tianjin by sea without encountering any storms. The grain price in the capital did not fluctuate too much, and the capital successfully passed the period of grain transportation interruption.

The cost advantage of sea transportation was once again demonstrated. When an official wrote a letter suggesting that sea transportation should be maintained as a supplement to grain transport in the future, the governor of grain transport, Zhang Ru, could not sit still and jumped out to refute it. However, compared with the recent heated discussion about the number of imperial examinations, this matter did not cause much waves. Of course, it was not small, after all, several cabinet ministers had many disputes over it.

The campaign to eliminate the rebellious religious elements was still progressing slowly, but Yue Qi came to Jining from Tai'an.

After meeting Jia Lian, Yue Qi took out a memorial and handed it to Jia Lian, saying, "Please help me take a look! If there is no problem, I will submit it."

Yue Qi certainly knew about the recent hot spots in the capital, so he admired Jia Lian very much. A storm against Sun Huazhen was diverted by Jia Lian before it had even started. No matter how much they quarreled, the officials of each province had only one goal: the number of candidates for the imperial examination could only be increased, not reduced. If anyone wants me to reduce it, don't blame me for fighting hard.

Looking at Jia Lian who was drinking tea and daydreaming in the Jining government office, Yue Qi really didn't know what to say. At such a young age, he manipulated people's hearts and after starting a fire, he pretended that this person didn't exist. He was really a ruthless person who could not be provoked.

Jia Lian took the war report and read it carefully. Actually, there was nothing to see. The big battles had already been fought. Yue Qi had been idle in Tai'an recently. Therefore, he suggested to restore the local armed forces in Shandong as soon as possible and cooperate with the Dongping Iron Cavalry to wipe out the religious rebels who had fled into the mountains. The Beijing camp could return to Beijing and there was no need to waste time here.

Jia Lian also knew that Yue Qi had taken over a large number of the Beijing camps during the Jining Rebellion and had completed the reorganization. He basically had 60% of the elite troops in the Beijing camps under his control. If there was any part that he didn't have control of, it would probably be the Shenji Camp controlled by Jia Lian. There was no way, these bastards only listened to Jia Lian now. Qi Guoyuan had gone to Xi'an to serve as a general.

The key point is that with the permission of Emperor Chenghui, the Shenjiying expanded its army. The reason for this is that the new fire guns are limited in capacity, which makes it impossible to quickly replace them on a large scale. In addition, the cost issue caused Emperor Chenghui to have no subjective intention to replace them comprehensively. Objectively, only two places are pursuing comprehensive replacement.

One is the Shenjiying controlled by Jia Lian, and the other is Wang Ziteng's side. Almost every month, one of them is mentioned in the memorials.

Did Yue Qi want to change his equipment? Of course he did, but he didn't mention it. Because it was useless to mention it, he couldn't win the argument, and the Ministry of Revenue didn't have that much money to change the equipment. After all, the new muskets not only involved the muskets themselves, but also the construction of other supporting industries such as fixed charge, conical bullets, etc. Military equipment is mostly just for makeshift use. Compared with equipment, people are worthless.

There were too many bird guns that had been equipped since the time of Emperor Taizu. There were nearly 100,000 of them nationwide, and it would cost too much to replace them all. Without a strong foreign enemy, the court naturally had no sense of urgency.

After reading it, Jia Lian found nothing new and said in a daze: "General Yue, does the Prince of Dongping have any military orders?"

"Haha, the prince asked me to defend the Tai'an and Mengyin line. I don't have to worry about anything else." Yue Qi's sarcasm was so obvious that anyone could feel it.

"General Yue, what do you think the Prince of Dongping wants most now? Military merit?" Jia Lian asked with a smile. Yue Qi shook his head and said, "In my opinion, the prince is more concerned about the reorganization of the local military in Shandong. If the navy was not under his control, he would have stayed in Dengzhou for half a month."

Jia Lian put down the war report and said, "At this point, we still have to explain it to His Majesty in person. We already have Liaodong, so don't add another Shandong." These words were undoubtedly hurtful. Yue Qi smiled and said, "A few days ago, people kept writing letters to ask the second prince to be the governor of Zhili. The noise about the quota for the imperial examinations in Liangjiang was not suppressed."

Jia Lian became more interested after hearing this: "Oh, who opened the voice first?"

"The eldest uncle of the Zhou family started to shout, and then a bunch of people followed. From what I heard, they were all the so-called former subordinates of Prime Minister Fang."

Jia Lian expressed his understanding of this phenomenon: "It's not surprising. After Fang Baiyi retired, his old subordinates lost their banner and naturally had to change to a new one. Now that some people are moving closer to the second prince, it's not a bad thing."

Yue Qi obviously didn't believe what Jia Lian said. He nodded with a smile and didn't continue the topic.

Yue Qi stayed for two days and then returned to Tai'an. He was very smart and basically stayed in Jinan. In Yue Qi's view, it was really a foolish thing to intervene in the reconstruction of the Shandong army.

Under Jia Lian's command, the Shenji Camp gradually moved out of the city and settled near the dock. After the destroyed military camp was rebuilt, the city's territory was completely ceded to the new governor.

After moving out of the city, Jia Lian found that the people's livelihood near the dock had basically recovered, and a small business district soon emerged around the military camp. The system of the Shenjiying ensured the interests of the grassroots soldiers. After a large amount of captured goods were processed, 70% of the money was distributed to the grassroots officers and soldiers.

Now that you have money in hand, you naturally have to spend it. The first thing you spend is a new shed on the ruins opposite the military camp.

At the door of each shed, there were women standing, flirting and calling out to the passing Shenjiying soldiers. These women had sharp eyes and could tell at a glance whether a soldier was from the Shenjiying.

Next, restaurants and restaurants appeared, and gradually, people from all walks of life appeared, such as opera singers and jugglers.

Jia Lian had no complaints about this, the only thing he did was to enforce strict military discipline. They were allowed to go out, but they had to be strictly managed and were forbidden to stay out overnight.

The weather gradually became colder, and it was November when Jia Lian received another letter from home.

(End of this chapter)