People live in the Ming Dynasty, evil spirits are soaring into the sky

Chapter 384 Civilian sabotage! Caught in the act!

This is what is called the real evildoer filing the complaint first.

These so-called civil servants feel that they are being treated unfairly by others.

At one point they even thought that the only way to do things right was for everyone to give in to them.

As high-ranking civil servants of the imperial court, Zuodu Yushi and Shuntian Prefecture Governor should have served as role models and provided a warning to all officials.

But for the sake of their so-called dignity they have now completely given up this.

In fact, Chen Han discovered something when he looked at the history of the Ming Dynasty.

The eight-legged essay system for selecting scholars, which was introduced in the Ming Dynasty, not only completely deprived scholars of the ability to innovate in their writing, but also completely corrupted the scholars' character in terms of atmosphere.

Although the imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty selected far more scholars than in previous dynasties, it also set a very bad precedent by giving scholars too many privileges.

As a result, in the end, these scholars did not study for the purpose of helping the world, but only for the purpose of enjoying better treatment.

Most of the scholars who have succeeded in their studies in such an environment have lost the determination to benefit the world.

Instead, they study in order to ensure that their privileges continue.

Even because of their nepotism, more people are caught up in blind competition, competing not for performance but for winning people's hearts.

Because the privileges given to scholars in the world are so great, countless scholars flock to them, but countless people have to form cliques and pursue personal interests because of their own property.

Now is the first year of the Wanli reign. In a few decades when the Manchu Tartars arrive, the court will find that the privileged class that was cultivated through the imperial examination has become too powerful to be eliminated.

It was obvious that the privileged classes all over the country were extremely wealthy, but the imperial court couldn't even collect any taxes.

Because later on, these privileged classes no longer cared about the world, but about their own families.

These people are deeply influenced by Confucian culture, have a strict family-state mentality, and value earning money solely for the purpose of maintaining clan relationships.

Under the influence of this kind of thought, these people have long put the court and the world aside.

Later, the reason why the Manchus were able to enter the country and unify the world was entirely because of the exchange of vested interests with these wealthy people.

That's the sadness.

And now Chen Han came here because he knew that these scholars in front of him were not good people. Few of them cared about the world, but many of them only cared about their own little calculations. That was why he was so harsh to the scholars.

He would never allow scholars to monopolize even the slightest benefit.

Because most of the readers are not good people.

After they get the benefits, they don't care about the people at all.

Just like the Zuodu Yushi and Shuntian Prefecture Governor in front of him.

The Left Censor-in-Chief's so-called good reputation among the people is clearly just a compliment.

In fact, this old man implemented Fan Zhongyan's charity field system in the local area.

The so-called charity land system is actually the earliest family trust system.

Whenever Fan Zhongyan served as an official in a place, he would buy property in the local area.

He also stipulated that these properties would not belong to any individual in the family, but whoever did the best in the family would continue to expand the charity fields.

In this way, the phenomenon of bankruptcies will rarely occur.

So even after Fan Zhongyan passed away, his family still lived a good life.

The Left Censor-in-Chief did the same.

He used this method to accumulate a large amount of real estate for his family. The reason why he is so impulsive to find trouble with Chen Han now is because his family really has a lot of land to pay taxes.

Can he agree to this?

I definitely can't agree to that.

If I agree to this, won’t my family suffer heavy losses?

This was something their family had accumulated from generation to generation, obtained through plundering and seizing the land of the common people.

Now, because Chen Han has implemented the new policy, many people are laughing at themselves, as if saying, "Look, you guys occupied so much land in the first place, now you know the pain, and you have to pay the highest taxes."

Of course, Zuodu Yushi couldn't stand this, so she started to find fault with Chen Han all the time.

But later he found that the energy of himself and others was too little to compete with Chen Han.

So he turned to other avenues, preparing to reconcile with Chen Han and the others, and preparing to pray that Chen Han would show leniency to his family on the grounds that he had already surrendered.

But he chose completely the wrong path.

Guo Feixue and Sophia in Chen Han's mansion saw through his purpose.

Not only did he show no mercy, he even humiliated him.

You have to know that they are extremely arrogant people, and they always think that they are superior to most people.

They had always looked down on women, and now they were humiliated by Guo Feixue and Sophia.

This is as painful to them as killing them.

So now when the officials said this, the Left Censor-in-Chief slammed the table and stood up: "What I hate most in my life is people who climb up by stepping on the corpses of their colleagues.

It’s fine that the villain Chen Han humiliated our scholar-official class.

I didn't expect that two mere girls would dare to be so presumptuous?
What on earth do they rely on?"

An official immediately took over the conversation and said, "It's that Chen Han!"

"Yes! Ever since Chen Han became more and more presumptuous, the dogs around him have also started barking wildly. Not only the two young ladies, Guo Feixue and Sophia, but even Li Rubai from the Imperial Guard has started to show off his power."

When they talked about the people around Chen Han, they became very angry.

They were especially angry when they saw that others could enforce the law fairly because they had Chen Han's support behind them.

Nowadays, everyone knows that the Jinyiwei has been slowly transforming into the Tax Inspection Bureau.

It became a tax inspection agency.

They are afraid that their affairs will be exposed, so they are now even more wary of the Jinyiwei.

The Jinyiwei had been weakening since the rise of the eunuchs, but unexpectedly, things changed immediately after the arrival of Chen Han.

It even became more powerful than before.

This makes these officials, who have very dirty hands, extremely scared.

So the Left Censor-in-Chief slammed the table and said, "My fellow officers, for the sake of our Ming Dynasty not being disturbed by that villain Chen Han, and for the sake of our Ming Dynasty's eternal foundation, please join me in getting rid of that villain Chen Han.

It's disgusting to hear such shameless words coming out of their mouths.

But these civil servants seemed to have a brain orgasm all of a sudden and were very excited.

It seemed that he immediately saw signs of Chen Han's downfall.

They are not taking any action now.

When the Left Censor-in-Chief said this, the Shuntian Prefecture Governor immediately said, "Since the Censor-in-Chief has already expressed his opinion, let's not hesitate. To overthrow Chen Han and his party, we must start by knocking down the stone bridge."

……

Chen Han's mansion.

Sophia and Guo Feixue gathered all the female relatives for a celebration banquet at the mansion.

He was drinking happily when the servant came to report.

"Girls, Mr. Xu is here!" Mr. Xu is the great talent Xu Wei.

Guo Feixue and Sophia did not dare to neglect Xu Wei at all.

Now that Chen Han is fighting outside, Xu Wei has become Zhang Juzheng's chief of staff.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng originally wanted him to become an official, but Xu Wei had a criminal record.

He is naturally free and easy and doesn't want to be bound by the rules of officialdom, so he still prefers this kind of free and easy life.

This time he came to say something to Guo Feixue and Sophia.

Guo Feixue and Sophia received Xu Wei in the reception room.

Xu Wei also lived in Chen Han's mansion at first, but as Chen Han went out to work, it became a bit inconvenient for Xu Wei to live in the mansion.

Chen Han found a mansion outside for him to live in.

Xu Wei was also very patient in enduring loneliness and lived happily alone in his house.

I suddenly came to Chen Han’s residence today because of recent events.

He has been in the officialdom for a long time and always feels that these civil servants will definitely cause trouble.

He was even certain that the civil servants must be plotting something.

"Mr. Xu, you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to come here. You must have some advice for me. Please feel free to tell me." Guo Feixue is very good at dealing with people.

Xu Wei did not come here to be polite with them this time. He said directly: "It is a good thing that we are making great progress now. The unity of the students of Zuodu Yushi in building the Zhaozhou Bridge in Xiawei is admirable, but there is one thing that we must guard against."

When it comes to this, Guo Feixue and Sophia suddenly become nervous.

Xu Wei definitely wouldn't come here to joke with the two of them.

After all, Xu Wei has always been a rigorous person.

"Sir, please tell us what you want. We will do as you say."

Before Chen Han left, they were instructed to consult Xu Wei more.

So Guo Feixue and Sophia are both very obedient.

Xu Wei said without further ado, "The war between us and the civil officials has become intense. They will definitely try to sabotage the stone bridge. We have to be on guard."

After hearing this, Guo Feixue and Sophia became alert.

"Do they really dare to do this?" Guo Feixue was suspicious.

Malicious destruction of a stone bridge is no small matter.

After all, this matter was decided personally in front of all the officials and even the emperor.

Now, the Left Censor-in-Chief took only four months to complete this stone bridge. Logically, it should have been witnessed by the whole world. With so many people watching, did they really dare to do such a thing that would anger heaven and man?

Do they have the guts to do this?
Seeing the doubts of Guo Feixue and Sanhao, Xu Wei said directly: "Don't underestimate the determination of the civil officials to maintain their power."

After hearing what Xu Wei said, Guo Feixue and Sophia finally stopped talking.

Guo Feixue pondered for a long time and finally said, "Okay, I will immediately ask the brothers of the White Lotus Sect to wait by the stone bridge and report to me immediately if they find anything suspicious."

……

On the night of the third day.

It was just as Xu Wei said, the people who were sent by the civil servants and were familiar with engineering started to cause sabotage.

In the middle of the night, these people were fully armed and took a lot of tools to start looking for weak points.

"Yes, yes, yes. Chisel at the base of the wall first, chisel open the surrounding area, and then pour our special paste inside."

An old man said.

It seems that he really knows a lot about this business.

He did not destroy the stone bridge directly, but poured a special paste with extremely strong corrosiveness on the foundation of the stone bridge.

In this way, there will be no visible damage on the surface, but over time, or even in a short period of time, the foundation may be corroded, and then the river water will rush in and cause it to collapse directly.

The White Lotus members hiding nearby gnashed their teeth in anger when they saw this scene.

One of the church members said, "These bastards are trying to pour rotten water under the bridge foundation."

Someone asked: "Master, what is rotten water?"

The incense master replied, "I have only heard that there are some people in the martial arts world who specialize in this kind of thing. It is said that some government officials corrode the stone bridges built by previous officials in order to defraud money from the higher-ups, so that they can rebuild the bridge. However, this craft is quite demanding, and it looks like he is an old hand."

The believer asked, "Master, what should we do now? Should we go out and catch them in the act?"

The incense master asked, "No hurry, they still have to dig the hole, that is important evidence, only the real veterans know how to dig the hole, let's wait for them to finish it."

"Yes!" The believers hid in the ditch and watched quietly the people busying themselves under the bridge.

About half an hour later, they finally dug a hole and were ready to pour out the rotten water.

The smell of the rotten water was quite pungent, and even his White Lotus followers could smell it from more than ten meters away.

The people nearby smelled the odor and their eyes were irritated and they all started to retch.

"Uncle Lin, this smell is a bit too bad."

"Yeah, it smells worse than shit!"

"It stinks!"

The old man said, "You young men know nothing. This is a rare good thing. If it weren't for the Left Censor-in-Chief asking me to come out, would you have the honor of seeing this good thing?"

The young men didn't know what to say and could only hold their noses and lift the big wooden barrel to pour it.

At this moment, a loud voice came: "If you dare to fall, I will chop off your heads!"

Yeah! !!
Everyone was startled when they heard the sound. They never thought that there was someone out there in such a remote place.

This is too scary.

Old man Lin was so frightened that his hands began to tremble.

As they were talking, the people from the White Lotus Sect immediately surrounded the five people.

Everyone held a knife in their hands and said, "Don't move! We are from the government and are here to protect the stone bridge. You bastards dared to destroy the stone bridge. You are done for!"

"Don't move, or I'll chop off your hands!"

The five people were not tough guys and they immediately became scared when they heard this.

The main thing was that there were more than twenty people on the other side, and they had knives in their hands. If he resisted, he would be hacked to death.

The incense master stepped forward and held the big wooden barrel, then held the knife to Old Man Lin's neck, "Others may not know what this is, but I know that you are quite courageous, old man. If you pour all this rotten water on the stone bridge, the bridge will collapse within half a month. You are really cruel.

Do you know how much effort went into building this?"

The old man sighed and said, "I am also loyal to the person who paid me. There is nothing I can do. Even if I don't come, someone else will come!"

The incense master pushed him and said, "Stand aside!"

Then he carefully closed the lid.

If this thing leaks out, it will cause great harm to the surrounding waters...

(End of this chapter)