Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 164 After the emperor strengthened his army, the Iron Fist of Nandu appeared!

"I'm a step late!"

Zhou Shangwen rode over on horseback and saw this scene, sighing inwardly.

Then, Zhou Shangwen looked at Qi Jingtong with anger in his eyes:
"You kneel down before the scholars. Where is the dignity of the imperial court?!"

Qi Jingtong said: "This is the order from Admiral Cao Jiang, I dare not disobey!"

Zhou Shangwen asked: "Who is the Admiral Caojiang?"

"It is me!" replied Yingcheng Bo Sun Yue.

Zhou Shangwen raised the three-barreled gun and smashed it towards Yingcheng Bosun Yue.

boom!
Sun Yue's head exploded on the spot and blood covered his face.

"what!"

Sun Yue couldn't help but scream, and asked in pain: "Why did you hit me?"

"I am following the king's orders. Anyone who violates the king's orders can be killed first and reported later!"

"Even if you are a noble, you cannot destroy the imperial court's rules and regulations like this!"

After Zhou Shangwen said this, he took out a fire starter, lit the gunpowder, and pointed the gun at Sun Yue.

"Spare your life!"

"I just thought that the civil servants are more important than the military servants, and this has long been the general trend of the world!"

Sun Yue smelled a strong smell of gunpowder and begged again in his desperate desire to survive.

boom!
But the lead bullet still penetrated his heart.

then.

Sun Yue lay straight on the ground.

Blood gushed out of his chest.

Saying.

In fact, many fields in Yingtian Prefecture of Nanzhi had been annexed by the nobles of Nanzhi.

The hidden fields of these Nanjing nobles were also spread all over Nanzhi, and many bold ones even annexed the imperial mausoleums' fields without authorization.

Therefore, they did not want the court to conduct a land survey.

Moreover, they did not want the court to attach importance to military achievements and elevate the status of military children.

They just hope that there will be a few dukes and marquises like them in the world.

Raising the status of military children will actually make it more difficult for them to extort and oppress military households.

In other words, these hereditary dukes and marquises only hope that after they become dukes and marquises, they can weld shut the door to becoming new dukes and marquises through military merit, so that no new top-level military nobles will emerge, and the emperor can suppress them by supporting other military nobles.

In short.

The top-level military honors actually welcome the elevation of the status of civil officials and the decline of the status of military officials.

Because this way they have no competitors and don't have to worry about someone taking their place.

Therefore, in history, the top military heroes were generally not very enthusiastic about cooperating with the emperor in the fight for power with civil officials, and some even helped civil officials control the emperor.

Especially the nobles in Nanjing, they are no longer as corrupt as their ancestors and have become extremely decadent.

Historically, when the Ming Dynasty fell, almost all of them followed the Nanzhi gentry in surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.

Because of this.

Sun Yue chose to secretly encourage the children of the Nanzhi gentry to prevent the second-place scholars from going north.

He was also willing to elevate the status of civil officials and suppress the room for advancement of military officers, and even went so far as to force Qi Jingtong to kneel down to suppress Qi Jingtong's behavior of taking the candidates without authorization, in an effort to completely suppress the military dignity in Qi Jingtong's heart.

Subsequently.

Zhou Shangwen also knew how bad an impact it would have if Sun Yue forced Qi Jingtong to kneel down to the new candidates.

In that case, the military generals will undoubtedly become more corrupt, and they will only indulge in colluding with civil officials to withhold military pay and embezzle public funds.

Civil officials will also become more arrogant and domineering.

even!

Even civil servants who have not entered the official career will become more arrogant and overbearing.

and so……

Now that Sun Yue wanted these new candidates to see a military official kneeling down to apologize to him, he had to let these new candidates see it. If Sun Yue did this, he would be executed on the spot by the king's order!
When they become officials in the future and come into conflict with military officials, they cannot force them to kneel down before them, as this will not be permitted by the king's order.

Sun Yue's tragic death on the spot did have a great impact on Fang Gao and others.

Some candidates even looked pale.

After Zhou Shangwen had Sun Yue's body carried away, he asked Qi Jingtong, "Why are you here?"

"According to the order of the capital hall, send the second place scholars to the north."

Qi Jingtong replied.

Zhou Shangwen looked at Fang Gao and the others and asked, "Then why did you clash with these scholars?"

Qi Jingtong replied: "They want to stop this, so I have no choice but to order them to be arrested first."

"You really want to stop this?"

Zhou Shangwen asked Fang Gao and other new candidates.

Fang Gao gritted his teeth and replied, "No! We are just trying to persuade them to wait until the next provincial examination."

Newly-appointed scholar Pan Hongye also said, "That's right! We have no intention of stopping the government troops from performing their duties."

Zhou Shangwen laughed and said to Qi Jingtong: "Give me a copy of your signed confession, detail what happened, and then go to perform your duties. With me here, no one dares to mess around."

Qi Jingtong did not say much. He really let Chen Yuanheng and other second-place scholars get on the boat, and then took these people away from the Pujiang River estuary in Nanjing.

Fang Gao and other new scholars also left here.

Zhou Shangwen brought Sun Yue's body to meet Zhu Xizhou and prepared to tell him about the matter.

Zhu Xizhou happened to arrive at this time.

Because he also learned that there were rumors in the streets that he was going to send soldiers to transport grain to send the second-placed scholars north.

So he guessed that someone had leaked the secret and rushed over immediately.

When Zhu Xizhou arrived, he saw Zhou Shangwen and his cavalry, as well as the body of Yingcheng Bosun Yue, who was placed on horseback. Zhu Xizhou was naturally shocked to see this.

"Why did you kill him?"

Zhu Xizhou asked.

"He broke the rules and forced the military officials to kneel before the new candidates. I had no choice but to obey the king's order."

"After all, it is the imperial power that allows me to kill first and report later."

"This is the confession of Qi Jingtong, the assistant commander-in-chief."

Zhou Shangwen handed Qi Jingtong's confession to Zhu Xizhou.

Zhu Xizhou was also shocked and angry, "This Yingcheng Earl deserves death! He is deliberately challenging and breaking the rules!"

"I still have to go to the Yingtian Prefecture to select a camp and purchase food and fodder, so I'll take my leave!"

Zhou Shangwen left at this time.

Zhu Xizhou smiled and bowed: "Let's talk about it another day."

Zhu Xizhou stopped smiling after Zhou Shangwen left, and said to Gu Zhongli, who came to Nandu to bring him some gossip:
"See? His Majesty's sword has already slashed towards Nandu. You and I can only follow his will!"

Gu Zhongli also looked solemn at this time: "He is an earl, and he is also Admiral Cao Jiang. He can be killed at will! Will Your Majesty really protect him in the future?"

"I don't know whether I can protect you or not."

"But I know that if he doesn't uphold the rules today, he will die before Yingcheng Bo."

"Because he is here to supervise me, then someone must be supervising him."

Zhu Xizhou said, "You'd better hurry to Beijing and don't stay here. There will be bloody storms here, and I will be the one to start it. So, you can scold and slander me after you go to Beijing, but don't try to persuade me here on behalf of the Gu family and your grandfather!"

Gu Zhongli was horrified after hearing this: "What are you going to do?"

"kill!"

Zhu Xizhou only replied with these two words.

Gu Zhongli stood there for a long time, then left Nandu that night and headed north.

……

Fang Gao, Pan Hongye and other newly-appointed scholars looked at the official ship heading north with a look of resentment on their faces.

Because in the end they failed to stop these second-place scholars from heading north.

"Are we really going to sit back and watch as treacherous officials undermine the system of selecting scholars, allowing those military and ordinary scholars to obtain the title of Xiaolian or even Jinshi without passing the provincial and imperial examinations?!"

Fang Gao couldn't help but ask.

For these newly-appointed juren from Nanzhi, their fundamental reason for opposing the court's preferential treatment of military scholars and scholars on the second-place list was that they did not want the court to rely on these scholars on the second-place list to survey land and obtain a higher silver exchange ratio. However, they also did not want it to be easier for others to become juren after they passed the juren exam.

If they failed the exam or had not yet passed the imperial examination, they might be able to accept it.

But the problem now is that they have already won, so naturally they hope that as few people as possible will win.

It was just because they couldn't say openly that they didn't want the court to survey the land, so they could only say that the ancestral laws could not be changed.

After Fang Gao said this, Pan Hongye resolutely said: "Let's go to the Censorate to file a petition! File a petition to the Censorates of the two capitals! Protest the treacherous officials who have deceived Your Majesty and arbitrarily changed the ancestral law of selecting scholars. In the name of cultivating practical talents, they are actually collecting money and accepting bribes from unsuccessful scholars, and they are not hesitant to bring in villains to enter the officialdom and ruin the administration of the country!"

Fang Gao agreed after hearing this: "It can only be done this way. We are the juren and have the right to submit official documents!"

then.

Fang Gao and about twenty other scholars came to the Nanjing Censorate and submitted their joint petition to the Nanjing Censorate!
then.

They then boarded a boat together to go to the capital to submit an official petition.

Zhu Xizhou was very depressed after learning about this: "It really makes me worry less!"

then.

Zhu Xizhou then instructed his brother Zhu Xizhao, "Send a letter immediately to Hu Boyan, the assistant censor of Caojiang, and ask him to come see me! Also, invite General Zhou, the commander-in-chief, to come!"

"Yes!"

Not long after.

Hu Zan and Zhou Shangwen led their troops to the Governor's Office which Zhu Xizhou had ordered to be set up in the Guide Marquis' Mansion.

After Hu Zan arrived, Zhu Xizhou gave Hu Zan an imperial decree:
"Immediately send the navy on a fast boat to capture Fang Gao, Pan Hongye and other new candidates! Don't let them go to the capital!"

"They criticized the national policy, slandered the emperor, and defamed the ministers. Their crimes are unforgivable!"

"Therefore, this hall has sent a letter to the Ministry of Rites to strip them of their honors!"

"All you need to do now is to arrest them and wait for further questioning and disposal by this court."

Zhu Xizhou said.

Hu Zan did not accept the order, but bowed and said: "Please think twice. Most of these new candidates are outstanding scholars and the inheritors of the literary tradition of this dynasty. If we treat them like this, I am afraid that there will be public criticism. If I do this, I will be infamous for eternity!"

Although Hu Zan said this to himself, he also hinted at Zhu Xizhou's intention.

Zhu Xizhou's face darkened after hearing this: "Why, you refuse to accept the order?"

"I'd rather quit than obey!"

Hu Zan simply took off his black gauze hat, placed it on the table, then turned and left.

"Wait!"

Zhou Shangwen said something at this time.

Hu Zan didn't know about the Earl of Yingcheng yet, and he didn't even know Zhou Shangwen. He just thought Zhou Shangwen was just an ordinary military officer under Zhu Xizhou. After hearing this, he looked at Zhou Shangwen:

"You are a warrior, you have no right to advise me!"

Zhou Shangwen asked, "Are you really unwilling to obey the orders of the governor?"

"presumptuous!"

Hu Zan pointed at Zhou Shangwen and shouted, and then questioned Zhu Xizhou:
"Du Tang, what kind of military officers do you use? How can they be so ignorant of etiquette!"

"What a treacherous minister, I won't listen to his orders. I won't be an official anymore. What can you do to me?!"

Hu Zan was so angry that he simply questioned Zhou Shangwen loudly.

Bang!
At this time, a three-barreled gun smashed down.

I would like to ask for this month’s guaranteed monthly ticket. I hope I can win a prize this month. Thank you!

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(End of this chapter)