Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 103 Mobilizing the Masses ([-])

Tan Guihuang said: "If the world is peaceful, you can live comfortably just by drying the salt." He said that in fact, the salt farm can produce more than 1000 yuan of salt every year. Since it was occupied by Gou Dahu, in order to monopolize the salt trade, he forced the salt merchants on the mainland to drive away from here.

"Why?" Wang Luobin felt strange. For salt merchants, it was not a problem to buy salt from anyone. Why did the big family occupy the salt field but not allow old customers to buy salt.

"His family has a salt store in Qiongshan, and all the salt is shipped to Qiongshan." Tan Guihuang sighed, "He has his own way to sell salt to the mainland, so he doesn't care about merchants from Leizhou."

It seems that there is also an element of collusion between the government and businessmen.But everyone doesn't know what the salt law of the Ming Dynasty was like, and they can't figure out where the key is.

"As long as there is salt, are you afraid of not having enough food and clothing?" Xi Yazhou waved his hand, "All the salt merchants on the mainland are very rich, so it's hard for us to live in the sun with salt?"

Tan Chengqing suddenly turned silent amidst the joy, and sighed softly, "I'm just afraid that the salt will be exposed to the sun and I won't be able to keep it."

"I'm not afraid of it!" Xi Yazhou said confidently, "With us here, do you know this firearm?" He weighed the SKS rifle beside him, the blue gun steel glowed faintly in the kerosene lamp, "The hundreds of Xiangyongs in Huangjiazhai are still dead, so why are you afraid of a few bullying bastards?"

"But you left? It's even worse." Tan Chengqing was obviously worried about the future, "The government says you are pirates, and you say you are a sea merchant. No matter a pirate or a sea merchant, you can't stay in Lingao forever. You have iron boats and fast guns, so you can leave as soon as you say. Gou Dahu is connected to the government—" Then he detailed how the salt field was occupied by Gou Dahu in the past, and his expression was filled with disappointment.He emphatically stated that the book office and yamen servants in the yamen have all benefited from helping Gou Dahu to oppress them, and they couldn't find a place to justify them.

Xi Yazhou nodded and asked, "How many people are there in the Gou family?"

"There are two big families in his family." Tan Guihuang is obviously more familiar with the local situation than his son.This Gou family used to have two brothers.The people in the countryside are the Gou family, and there are more than 100 evil servants in the family. Some of them are desperadoes who fled from the mainland, and they are very fierce.Gou Er moved to the county town because his son was recruited by a student, and specialized in transportation to the government, taking on lawsuits.These two households colluded with each other, just like the local tyrants.

"How many people were there in your village at that time?"

"At that time, there were still many people in the village, more than 300 families."

"Three or four hundred households, there must be three or four hundred people in a young man?" Xi Yazhou said, "You three or four hundred young men, just like this, watching people take over your property?"

The two men present blushed and lowered their heads.At this time, a clear female voice was suddenly heard: "It's not your fault! It's all caused by the government."

Everyone saw that it was the girl disguised as a man. Seeing that everyone was paying attention to her, she realized that she had forgotten her identity as a woman disguised as a man. She was so anxious that she stood up and wanted to escape outside.

Du Wen was busy comforting her by her side, unable to understand her words, she just held her hand with a smile.With the same sex by her side, the girl calmed down, a blush appeared on her face that was not stained black by the pot ash.

"You are Xiaoqin, right? Village Chief Tan's daughter." Xi Yazhou said, and gave her a fruit candy. "Don't be afraid, we already knew you were a girl."

Tan Guihuang accompanied her with a smiling face: "She is indeed my brother's child. Although she is a girl, she is an only seedling. Her father is precious, and the boss would not tell her about her—"

In fact, this girl is only seventeen or eighteen years old, but in the era of early marriage and early childbearing, it is indeed too late.The girl refused to accept the fruit candies, so she ran over to Xi Yaya and knelt down, kowtowing, begging him to help her father and the elders come back.

Du Wen hurried over and pulled her up, regardless of whether people understood or not, she babbled about the equality of men and women, making Zhang Xingjiao so angry that his face turned red, and he didn't say a word at all.

"Xiaoqin, don't worry, we will help you rescue the captured folks." Xi Yazhou was not willing to give up the occasion of showing his heroism in front of girls, and patted his chest with an extremely reliable expression, "You just say Let’s talk about the official affairs.”

It turns out that in the 45th year of Wanli, after the Lingao earthquake, the saltworks in Mayiao suffered a lot.The salt workers specially submitted a petition to the county government at that time, requesting exemption or postponement of the salt tax for a few years-although the salt fields were destroyed a lot, the actual production capacity of the salt fields still had a certain surplus.The main reason is that the damage to people and property caused by the earthquake is huge, and it can be recovered after three or four years of respite.But the Gou family had long coveted the saltworks, so they took advantage of this opportunity to ask Gou Er to discuss with the secretary office of the county government that he was familiar with, and then bribed the master, and forced the paper to be withheld.Gou Da took the opportunity to take over the salt class. He used many servants and thugs to collect the salt class in the salt village every day. The village was forced to ask him to pay it on his behalf.Although the county magistrate found out about this matter later, it is the golden rule of local officials not to offend the local wealthy families.Every year, the salt class can be collected normally, and the Gou family keeps paying respects, so they just ignore it.

"In the final analysis, it was the government that supported him." Xi Yazhou said, "right?"

"Well, with the government backing him up, who can do anything to him?" Xiaoqin looked helpless, "Even if he came alone, we wouldn't dare to do anything. Otherwise, the people under him, Brother Cheng Qing, would beat him up alone." All three will do."

Xi Yazhou knew that the matter had started to get to the core - the Gou family's case was actually not unusual, it was nothing more than "collusion between officials and gangsters".Collusion between officials and businessmen, officials and gangsters, and officials and gangsters are common social phenomena in Chinese history. Even in the 21st century, a successful person, no matter which road he takes to succeed, will always have the shadow of an official behind him: a businessman wants to make money. To obtain excess profits, the boss of the underworld needs a safe backer, all of which rely on official figures.Even the relatively high-minded intellectuals know that the power of official hats is much stronger than academics.The Gou family in Daming Lingao County is nothing more than the same model.

Confronting the government is rebellion.Ordinary people actually don’t like the government of the past dynasties riding on their heads—but the government has severe punishments and an army—in modern terms, it is a "violent machine". Whether you like it or not, you have to listen to it .Even the heroes of the green forest take "not fighting officials" as the golden rule.

Asking the common people to fight against the government, no matter what form it takes, is tantamount to "rebellion"-the common people will never embark on this road unless they are desperate.Of course, Xi Yazhou was not so naive as to think that with a little agitation, the common people would throw their heads and blood to fight the crossing people—his policy is a roundabout way, which may be called a curve revolution.

"In the final analysis, the reason why the Gou family is so rampant is nothing more than two things: raising thugs and colluding with the government." Xi Yazhou smiled slightly, "The first thing is not worth mentioning. As long as everyone can unite, his little man is not enough to get between his teeth. The key It's the second one, since he can collude with the government, so can we."

Several people in Yancun stared at this short-haired "maritime leader" in astonishment, probably feeling a little unbelievable.After a while, Tan Guihuang said cautiously: "The master is also familiar with the official figures?"

"To be honest, I'm not familiar with it."

"Then how do you make friends with the government?"

"Why do you think the government handed over local tyrants and evil gentry like the Gou family?"

"It's not for a few dollars." Tan Chengqing looked disdainful.

"That's right, since the official is greedy for yellow and white things, if he gets something, so can we." Then he shared his thoughts with the salt people.

In fact, the plan is not complicated: the first is to regain the right to monopolize the salt class.With this, the Gou family has obtained an official status. If the sign is not smashed, the salt people will still be terrified.As for how to get it back, the salt people don't need to worry about it, they can handle it.

Once the right to salt lessons was regained, the Gou family would have no legitimate excuse to interfere with the production of the salt farm, and what was left of him was nothing more than a bad debt that had been delayed for more than ten years.Xi Yazhou also understood this kind of high-interest loan shark in later generations: as long as the debtor has a little financial ability, the creditor will never say that you have paid it off.So instead of continuing to pay back this unclear money, I should simply write it off and completely renege on the debt.

Losing the golden signboard of taking over the salt class, the debt problem is purely a civil dispute, and it has nothing to do with the avenue of the imperial grain and national tax.

I got back the right to operate the salt farm, and I will no longer be exploited by him. The income from selling salt is guaranteed, and the "regular money" from the salt class and the county is paid off as usual, and the government has no loss in both public and private aspects. , the use value of the Gou family is gone, and without the use value, will the government still take care of them?

"This matter is not so simple." As soon as Xi Yazhou's voice fell, Tan Chengqing smiled wryly, "Gou's family is very familiar with the secretary office servants of the third class and the sixth room in the county government office, and they have been in contact with each other for generations. We want to take this salt lesson, but we can’t pass it in the household room.”

The county government in ancient times was not so much "government by officials" as "government by officials".Since the Song Dynasty, most prefectural and county officials were selected from the imperial examination.The administrative affairs of prefectures and counties are very cumbersome. In addition to various affairs have a set of cumbersome procedures and basic laws and regulations, there are countless examples that should be cited or can be deduced by analogy.Which decree or regulation should be followed for a certain official matter can’t be found in books such as decrees and conference codes. Wouldn't that be like walking around because you can't eat?At this time, we have to try to find out the common practice that has appeared in the past, so as to be safe.But it is a science to find out what successful examples to look for.This is called "official way".

People who come from the imperial examinations can speak clearly and logically through history and policy theory, and can memorize poems Yunzi Yue fluently, but few of them can grasp the knowledge of these local administrations. It's like ghosts, but those who can see clearly know that there are real estate areas, locations, forms, output, tax amounts, and landowners.Therefore, in order not to make mistakes or find it troublesome, the officials can only entrust these matters to the Yamen Secretary Office of the third class and the sixth room.In ancient society, lowly officials actually controlled the local administrative power.

Because officials are often hereditary, they have deep collusion with local big households, which is far from being cut off by simple economic means, so Xi Yazhou's plan sounds a bit idealistic to them.

(End of this chapter)