Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"What a disaster! What a disaster!"

"There are students gathering outside, and they are going to cause trouble at the Shen family!"

At the Shen family mansion in Suzhou, a servant shouted.

When the Shen family heard this, everyone became nervous.

The Dong family was raided by the people instigated by the students, which served as a warning to all the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Naturally, they did not dare to underestimate the gathering of students.

The head of the Shen family was Shen Yongmao, the eldest son of Shen Shixing. He became a Jinshi in the 11th year of Wanli, and served as Langzhong of the Military Affairs Department and Governor of Shuntian.

It can be said that he is quite talented in military affairs and did not panic when faced with such things.

While arranging the servants to guard the door, Shen Yongmao asked:
“Why are the students gathering together?”

"What are they doing here at the Shen family?"

I have no idea what caused this sudden incident.

The servant who brought the news took out a notice and said:

"It's all written on it, please take a look, sir!"

When Shen Yongmao saw the anonymous post, he felt that the situation was serious.

It turned out that the notice attributed the reason why the emperor did not pass the provincial examination at the court meeting on the 26th to the abuse of preferential treatment by wealthy and powerful families.

As the typical case pointed out by the emperor, the Shen family was naturally the first to be attacked. Some angry students hated them and gathered together to seek justice.

"What happened at the court meeting five days ago has reached Suzhou today."

"Who is pushing this? Someone wants to harm my Shen family!"

Shen Yongmao, who once served as a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel, was well aware of the speed at which information was transmitted. His first feeling was that someone was trying to harm his family, otherwise the news in the court would not have been transmitted so quickly.

After hearing these words, his son Shen Chuanfang said angrily:
"It must be Li Yu!"

"It was that slave Yangzi who slandered the emperor and made him mention my Shen family!"

As a descendant of a slave of the Shen family, Li Yu was appreciated by the emperor, and was canonized as a master and awarded the rank of Great Shuchang, which caused a sensation in the Shen family.

But the Shen family members felt deeply ashamed of this.

It was because they suppressed Li Yu that he could not take the imperial examination.

After Li Yu became the head of the royal orchestra and a close minister to the emperor, this name became a taboo in the Shen family and no one dared to mention it.

Now that the Shen family is in trouble, the first person that Shen Chuanfang and others think of is Li Yu. They believe that it was Li Yu who slandered the Shen family in front of the emperor and made the emperor pay attention to the Shen family.

As soon as Shen Chuanfang said this, Shen Tingfang, Shen Jifang and others all echoed him.

They were quite jealous of Li Yu. It was because of Li Yu's talent that they suppressed him and prevented him from taking the imperial examination.

Now that Li Yu is valued by the emperor, they naturally become even more jealous.

For a time, everyone in the Shen family wanted to kill Li Yu, thinking that he was a traitor.

Shen Yongmao also had his doubts about this. He knew that some slaves would try to deal with their masters after they became successful.

Li Yu's situation in the Shen family was not very good at that time, so he naturally seemed more motivated.

So when Li Yu became the head of the Royal Orchestra, the Shen family did not provide support. When the orchestra was recruiting at the beginning of the year, the Shen class, which was known as the "first of Jiangnan opera" at the time, did not send anyone.

Instigated by his sons, Shen Yongmao began to wonder if Li Yu was behind this. Otherwise, how could the emperor in the deep palace pay attention to the Shen family?

But now was not the time to discuss this matter. Seeing that more and more students were gathering, some even knocked on the door and asked the Shen family to come out. Shen Yongmao became more and more nervous about this and ordered his servants to hold the door and take out sticks and other weapons for self-defense.

He also ordered people to fill the fireproof water tanks with water to prevent anyone from setting fire to the Shen family mansion.

Shen Yongmao had heard too many stories about the lawless behavior of students from Jiangnan, so he had to be on guard. When the students outside saw that the Shen family did not come out, they thought that they were up to something, and for a while they were furious and wanted to storm the Shen house.

Shen Yongmao shouted at them several times, but failed to suppress their emotions.

Just as a conflict was about to occur, Jiangnan Governor Cao Wenheng arrived with his troops.

Although he had not been in office for long, he had already established prestige in Jiangnan. As soon as he took office, he presided over the establishment of customs in Suzhou and Songjiang, and calmed the conflicts between the two places regarding customs.

Later, he wiped out pirates and bandits, cleared the Jiangnan area, and made the sea and land routes in Jiangnan unobstructed, which was highly praised by scholars and people.

The gathered students dared not make any more noise when they saw him coming. After Cao Wenheng shouted, one of the students shouted:
"We are here just to ask for an explanation. Please ask the Shen family to abide by the preferential treatment and exemption rules stipulated by the court."

"Since the governor is here, please collect taxes from the Shen family!"

This statement attracted responses from other students, who shouted "Collect taxes".

Cao Wenheng was also quite troubled for a moment because he had no reason to refuse this matter.

The emperor made it clear in the court that if the Shen family's taxes were not collected properly, he would hold the governor of Jiangnan and the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue accountable.

Now the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue has not sent anyone over, and he, as the governor of Jiangnan, has to bear the brunt of it and has no way to escape.

This left him with no choice but to say to all the other people:

"This is why I came here."

"Please trust Cao, I will definitely get this done."

He urged the students:

"If there is nothing else, then let's disperse as soon as possible!"

"Be careful not to be remembered by the teacher and not be able to take part in the provincial examination."

As soon as these words were spoken, the students who had originally wanted to back down suddenly became tough.

They were all worried about being noted in someone's notebook, so they all said angrily:
“We come for justice!”

"If this matter is not resolved, we will not leave."

Led by several students, they all sat down on the ground and sat quietly in front of the Shen family's door.

This gave Cao Wenheng even more headaches, because due to the sit-in by the scholars last year, sit-in demonstrations were now quite popular throughout the Ming Dynasty.

It was difficult for local officials to deal with this matter because the emperor did not punish those scholars.

This made Cao Wenheng realize that there must be an explanation today, otherwise these students would not disperse.

Shaking his head and sighing, Cao Wenheng asked the soldiers to keep an eye on the students and ordered someone to find a doctor to look after them, lest anyone suddenly fall ill and he would not be able to explain himself.

Then he stepped into the Shen family and saw Shen Yongmao with a livid face.

Shen Yongmao is indeed very angry now because the Shen family almost suffered the disaster of being ruined.

When he saw the governor of Jiangnan, he was not polite and directly rebuked him:

"What is the purpose of Cao Futai's troops? Why haven't they arrested the troublemakers yet?"

"Does the governor have to wait until they raid the Shen family before he mobilizes his troops?"

Cao Wenheng was upset by the students, and when he saw Shen Yongmao scolding him like a subordinate, he also got angry and said stiffly:
"If Master Li hadn't sent the message, Cao wouldn't have been able to arrive today!"

"Since you are here today, please ask the Shen family to pay taxes first."

"If there is a penny missing, the students outside the gate will not be able to leave."

Directly ask the Shen family to hand over the land register and pay taxes according to the court's regulations. (End of this chapter)