The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 394 The gentry in Jiangnan will never bow their heads!

"Xu Mengchun!"

Yang Yiqing shouted angrily and grabbed Xu Mengchun's collar.

"What's going on?"

"Is this a good deed done by you bastards?"

Faced with the questioning gazes of the ministers, Xu Mengchun couldn't help but shudder.

"No... no... it has nothing to do with this old man!"

"If it wasn't you, then who else could it be?" Yang Yiqing was extremely furious.

He had never imagined that these civil officials would be so bold!

After hearing what the Emperor said just now, Yang Yiqing and Wang Ao quickly realized that this was clearly the work of the gentry!
They first deliberately stole grain from the four major granaries, and then took advantage of the disaster in the three northern provinces to raise the price of grain, forcing His Majesty the Emperor to mobilize the treasury to buy high-priced grain for disaster relief and the people. In this way, they emptied His Majesty the Emperor's small treasury and forced His Majesty the Emperor to bow down to them!
However, they are using the lives and deaths of millions of disaster victims in the three northern Xinjiang provinces as bargaining chips!

Wang Ao also had a gloomy expression and glared at Xu Mengchun.

"Xu Mengchun!"

"How dare you?"

"Your Majesty is furious now, so why stop the war? The victims in the three provinces are starving and eating each other, but the court does nothing. When the war breaks out, the Ming Dynasty will be in turmoil or even overthrown. Then you, Xu Mengchun and others will be the eternal sinners of the Ming Dynasty!"

Everyone present is smart, and none of them who can sit in the court is a fool.

So after Yang Yiqing and Wang Ao said this, most people reacted.

Considering that Xu Mengchun had previously firmly opposed the war and opposed the court's recovery of Hetao, the mastermind behind this would naturally be revealed!
Jiangnan gentry!

Only they have the courage and capital to use grain to challenge the emperor and the court!
"Minister Xu, what a great trick!"

"Xu Mengchun, just wait for your entire clan to be exterminated!"

"Send the food back within one month, or your Xu family will be exterminated!"

The Minister of Personnel Wang Ao, the Minister of Revenue Jiao Fang, the Minister of War Yang Yiqing, and the Minister of Punishment Wang Jianzhi, except for the Minister of Works Li Shanzai who was in charge of the construction of Kaiping City and the Minister of Rites Prince Xing Zhu Youju who was tracking down grain in Shandong, the other four ministers who held real power all made harsh words to Xu Mengchun and the Jiangnan gentry behind him.

There was no choice, they had to do it.

His Majesty the Emperor has made his attitude clear; he will never bow to the Jiangnan gentry!
His Majesty the Emperor would rather let the dynasty come to a halt, rather than risk the overthrow of his country, he would never bow his head!

Faced with such a tough attitude, the ministers realized that it was useless to persuade them, so they had no choice but to look for food.

Who secretly transported the food?
The Jiangnan gentry headed by Xu Mengchun!
The civil officials and gentry were not a monolithic group. Thanks to the fact that in the first year of Hongxi, the imperial court began to select scholars based on the southern and northern volumes, with southern scholars taking 60% and northern scholars taking 40%. In addition to winning over northerners, another reason for selecting scholars based on the southern and northern volumes was to take into account the strengths of both northern and southern scholars.

Therefore, the imperial court broke the monopoly of the imperial examinations by southern officials and gentry, and the number of northern officials continued to increase, especially after Yongle moved the capital, the number of northern officials gradually increased and was even enough to compete with southern officials.

Now that it has been confirmed that the mastermind behind the incident is Xu Mengchun and other Jiangnan gentry, most of the court officials, except for the officials and gentry from Jiangnan, have turned their attention to them.

There is no way. The civil officials and gentry do not want to see the Ming Emperor being overbearing and powerful. They do not want to see the Ming Emperor deliberately suppressing the civil officials and gentry and supporting military generals and nobles. However, the prerequisite is that there must at least be a stable system for the operation of the government!
Now, in order to force Emperor Zhengde to bow down to them, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River used the lives of millions of disaster-stricken people in the three northern provinces as bargaining chips, which completely angered Emperor Zhengde. As a result, the emperor's true nature took over and he directly resigned and shut down the court!
The consequence of doing so would not only reduce the prestige of the Ming Dynasty court, but would also cause the victims to be dissatisfied with the court!

The three provinces in the northern border are the core areas of the Ming Dynasty. If the people in these three provinces start to rebel, the Ming Dynasty will probably really perish!

Who among these officials will acknowledge it by then?
By then, the world will be ruled by warriors!
They will lose all their vested interests as a result!
A stable court is the basic foundation for civil officials and gentry!

Therefore, we must find the food!

Xu Mengchun walked out of the hall in a trance, and even missed a step and fell to the ground, with a bleeding head.

The ministers ignored him when they saw it. In their eyes, this veteran who had been renowned for his virtue for three dynasties was now a dead man!

When Xu Mengchun returned home, Hu Wenchang had already been waiting in his mansion with most of the gentry from Jiangnan.

"Mr. Xu, what should we do now?" Hu Wenchang was also a little panicked now.

There's no way not to panic!

The emperor actually shut down the court!
If we can’t find the food, there will be no disaster relief!

This is simply a plan to cut off the source of the problem, so vicious and unreasonable!
Now it is these Jiangnan gentry who are in a dilemma!

Will you give in and return the food?
That undoubtedly confirmed that it was the Jiangnan gentry who emptied the four major granaries!
If the grain is not returned, the emperor will continue to suspend his work. If the three northern provinces really get into chaos, the Ming Dynasty will really be over!
"Mr. Xu, the cabinet chief Yang Tinghe is investigating the Guangyun Warehouse in Xuzhou and the Fengji Warehouse in Huai'an, while Prince Xing Zhu Youluo has gone to Shandong to investigate the Dezhou Warehouse in Dezhou and the Linqing Warehouse in Linqing!"

"If they find out anything, we will really be dead without a burial place!"

There is no way not to be afraid. This has already risen to the level of shaking the country and the people, that means the extermination of all nine generations of the clan!
Hu Wenchang also sighed.

"We didn't expect the emperor to be so cruel and decisive!"

"If we don't return the food now, then..."

"No!" Xu Mengchun, who had been silent all this time, suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked at him in disbelief, not understanding why this old man was still hesitating.

"The emperor has always loved his people like his own children. How could he watch the disaster victims in the three provinces starve to death?"

"He is just using the court to put pressure on us today. If we return the grain now, it will undoubtedly prove our guilt!"

"The emperor is bluffing. He looks powerful but is actually weak. Have someone keep an eye on the treasury and report any movement immediately!"

"As long as we hold on for a while, the emperor will be unable to hold on and will be the first to surrender to us!"

After hearing this, Hu Wenchang was still a little hesitant.

"But Mr. Xu, what if..."

"Nothing will happen!" Xu Mengchun shouted, "The gentry of Jiangnan will not bow to any emperor!"

"If we give in this time, the emperor will only become more aggressive. We must let him see the power of the Jiangnan gentry!"

This is also an indisputable fact!

After Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang massacred the south of the Yangtze River, the south of the Yangtze River allowed him to do whatever he wanted. This was something that all the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River could not tolerate!
Once you bow your head, the emperor will give you whatever you want!

After hearing this, everyone nodded in silence.

However, at this moment, a person came hurriedly.

"Oh no!"

"Mr. Xu, Xianning Marquis Qiu Yue has led his troops south of the Yangtze River!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole place was in an uproar.

Xu Mengchun was so shocked that he stood up suddenly, his face pale.

"This is impossible!"

"All 50,000 Beijing troops were taken away by Marquis Zhongshan. Where did Qiu Yue get the troops?"

"It's... it's the Shandong Anti-Japanese Army!" The visitor explained in horror, "Zhongshan Marquis has been training troops there for a long time, and all the methods are the same as those of the Beijing Army. The emperor has secretly transferred 30,000 anti-Japanese troops to the western suburbs military camp!"

Finished!

It's all over!
Xu Mengchun’s face turned pale and he collapsed on the chair!
(End of this chapter)