Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 171: Crying in the temple? This is against the imperial court. Don’t blame the king’s ruthlessness!
When Zhu Xizhou asked this, Ni Shouzun didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"Take it!"

Zhu Xizhou just waved his hand.

The soldiers under his command took Ni Shouzun under control.

Zhu Xizhou then sent someone to notify the magistrate Lin Tingxian to come.

When Lin Tingxian heard that Zhu Xizhou had arrived, he hurried over from the backyard and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Du Tang!"

"Humph!"

Zhu Xizhou shook his sleeves and walked to the chair behind the desk in the main hall. He said, "Tell me the truth, did your people fill in the yellow book randomly?"

Lin Tingxian said: "Maybe, maybe not."

"What are you talking about!"

Zhu Xizhou suddenly scolded Lin Tingxian harshly.

Lin Tingxian cupped his hands and said, "Du Tang, can you please lend me a hand for a chat?"

Zhu Xizhou thought about it and came to the backyard of Lin Tingxian's county government office and said, "Can you tell me now?"

"Ni Dianli, who is in charge of filling out the county's yellow book, is Zhao Taishou's man, so I have no say in this matter!"

Lin Tingxian replied.

Zhu Xizhou asked: "So, you would rather kill the rich man unjustly?"

Lin Tingxian said: "I didn't intend to beat him to death."

"I am willing to resign from my post, please grant my permission!"

Lin Tingxian immediately bowed to Zhu Xizhou.

Zhu Xizhou sneered, "It's too early to talk about this. Is it true that you stole and sold government grain?"

"Du Tangrong, it was the prefect who ordered that the moldy grains be given to a few merchants he designated. Those merchants are of course his fellow townsmen, so I dare not disobey!"

Lin Tingxian replied.

"He asked you to rebel, do you want to rebel too?"

Zhu Xizhou suddenly asked.

"I dare not obey this!"

Lin Tingxian replied.

Zhu Xizhou snorted again and said, "Write down your confession and hand it over to me! Release those wealthy people and give a generous compensation to the one who was beaten to death!"

Lin Tingxian nodded in agreement.

Zhu Xizhou instructed his subordinates Xu Shen and Huang Cong, "Go check the fields of those rich families first and find out who owns the fields!"

Xu Shen and Huang Cong nodded in agreement.

When the land was first surveyed, Zhu Xizhou asked the clerks of the Governor's Office to register the surveyed land in the yellow book without leaving it to the prefecture or county government.

However, as the land survey work progressed, the clerks of the Governor's Office were only responsible for collecting statistics and checking, while the specific filling was still left to the local chief clerks.

As for how to verify, Zhu Xizhou also took advantage of his being a native of Nanzhi and placed spies in places like Yingtian Prefecture that needed to be surveyed, so basically he would arrange people to verify wherever there was a problem.

Since he had decided to implement the emperor's new policy seriously, he naturally would not treat it carelessly.

This time, he came here because he learned that there were cases of stealing and selling official grain and filling out the yellow book randomly in Jiangning County.

But what he didn't expect was that someone actually died here.

It is possible to say that Lin Tingxian was trying to curry favor with his superiors, or that he was colluding with his superiors to embezzle and abuse power to deliberately undermine the original intention of the new policy.

In short, it did create trouble for the implementation of the new policy.

Zhu Xizhou had no choice but to make amends for this matter. After obtaining Lin Tingxian's confession and making Lin Tingxian serve his sentence, he went to the Yingtian Prefecture Yamen.

He also had to ask Zhao Wenkui, the governor of Yingtian Prefecture, first.

Let’s talk.

The news that the rich peasant Dai Ji was beaten to death by the Jiangning County Government spread quickly.

Dai Ji’s wife, Luo Shi, burst into tears when she saw her husband’s body being carried back: “Isn’t this going to wipe out my family?! Woohoo!”

"What do you mean by extinction? Your husband's crime was caused by the corrupt official Ni Yingzun. He has been arrested by the capital."

"Your family's land will also be re-registered. Here is the pension silver given to you by the county government, fifty silver dollars and a document that classifies your family as an odd household. You can get the fifty silver dollars and the document by signing a pledge, and you won't have to serve in the military in the future."

"Don't listen to others' instigation to cause trouble. Do you understand?"

At this time, Xie Mian, the legal advisor who was ordered by Lin Tingxian to see Luo, also came to Dai's house. He held a bag of silver dollars and started talking to Luo.

Luo cried for a while, and the neighbors tried to persuade her for a while, then she signed the contract and took the silver.

But in the evening, Fang Ning, the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, sent his servant Fang Xing to see Luo and said to her:
"Your Dai family is a small family here, without any big clans to rely on, so the county has transferred the land of the former Li Ge Lao family in the capital to your Dai family, leaving your Dai family speechless and unable to speak out their grievances!"

"If no one had died this time, the government wouldn't have arrested Ni Dianli. In fact, the government is just pretending. Sooner or later, they will release Ni Dianli, who killed you."

"Because Ni Dianli is the brother-in-law of the prefect Zhao, and the prefect Zhao is the nephew of the Grand Chancellor of the imperial court, so how could they punish him?"

"I'm telling you this so that you know the key to this, and know who exactly killed your husband. I can say that Governor Zhu Xizhou is one of them, as well as County Magistrate Lin, and Governor Zhao. Ni Dianli, who was the most direct murderer of your husband, is the murderer of your husband!"

After Fang Xing told Luo, Luo became even more miserable and said, "I am a woman, how can I fight back! Since they gave me money and said they would give me land again and classify me as an odd household, and not let me serve in the army, I had no choice but to accept it. How dare you not know what is good for you?"

"You still think too simply."

"They are a bunch of ruthless people, they will never let you go so easily!"

"You are now a widow with only one daughter, and you have no relatives to rely on. The wealthy families around you will not let your family go easily. The land that should be taken away will be taken away, and the labor service that should be taken will still be your turn. Your daughter will also be forced to be sold to a peasant, and you yourself will probably be accused of being a whore."

"These wealthy families and government officials are just waiting for the storm to pass before they eat up your entire family!"

"You have lived for decades, so you should know the truth behind this."

Fang Xing said.

Luo had already had such worries, and after hearing Fang Xing's words, she felt that it was even more possible. She couldn't help but look at her daughter in her arms with tears in her eyes: "Poor my daughter, she was born less than a year ago!"

Luo held her daughter in her arms and knelt down in front of Fang Xing. "Uncle Fang, the villagers say you are a living Bodhisattva. I only ask you to save my daughter. As long as you can save her, I will do anything for you."

"You get up first."

"If I hadn't wanted to do this, I wouldn't have come to you."

Fang Xing helped her up and said, "The root cause of this matter is the treacherous officials in the court who implemented harsh policies. Otherwise, it wouldn't be like this! Zhu Xizhou, that bastard official, was sent by them!"

Luo didn't know Zhu Xizhou at first. After all, a high-ranking official like the Governor was someone that her class couldn't approach.

But now, after hearing Fang Xing mention it several times, she couldn't help but hate Zhu Xizhou to the core, so she just continued to listen to Fang Xing carefully.

"So, now many upright people in the world want to stop this, so that more families like yours won't be destroyed."

"It's just that I'm lacking an opportunity to shake up the imperial court and let the emperor know that the new policies that those treacherous ministers have bewitched him into implementing are policies that harm the people!"

"And now, you can use this opportunity to shock the imperial court!"

When Fang Xing said this, Luo asked, "How can a woman like me shake the imperial court?"

"die!"

"Go to the county government office and die in front of them!"

"Let the world know that it was the government that killed your husband and forced you to death, and let the world know that it was the harsh government that killed your husband and forced you to death!"

Fang Xing said solemnly.

Luo couldn't help but be stunned.

Fang Xing said: "Dai Luoshi, you have to understand that you have no way to survive, but only if you do this can your daughter survive!"

"As long as you can shock the imperial court, your daughter will be the daughter of a gentleman in the world, and no one will dare to bully her. And you will also be recognized by all gentlemen in the world as a chaste and heroic woman, and no one will dare to slander you again!"

"When your daughter grows up, there will be good men like the sons of nobles who will be proud to marry her!"

Although death was something that scared Mrs. Luo, Fang Xing's reasons moved her.

So, she couldn't help but look at her daughter in her arms with love again.

Seeing her like this, Fang Xing knew that she was moved and felt quite pleased.

He continued to add fuel to the fire and took out the genealogy of the eldest son's family that his master, Fang Ning, the former Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, had given him:
"Our master also said that as long as you dare to do such a good deed for the people of the world who are suffering like your Dai family, your daughter will be the eldest daughter of the Fang family from now on!"

"For this reason, our master asked me to bring the family tree here. As long as you agree, I will add your daughter's name to it and bring her back to the Fang family to hold a birthday ceremony. In this way, you can rest assured that your daughter will be left unattended after you leave. After all, our Fang family has been a family of officials for generations, and we have to be proud. We will not let down our daughter who is listed in the family tree."

"Okay, I'll die!"

"I want to let those corrupt officials know that we ordinary people are not that easy to bully!"

Luo made up his mind.

The next day.

The sky was slightly bright.

As soon as a vendor who was about to open his shop opened the door, he saw a shadowy figure hanging inside the Jiangning County Government Office.

The vendor couldn't help but put down the door and walked over.

"Someone's been hanged!"

The vendor was so frightened that he immediately ran back into the store.

His shouting also alarmed other people.

then.

More and more people discovered this scene.

Many brave people gathered around and began to point and discuss the corpse.

Li Yi, a county student who happened to pass by, even took the initiative to walk inside and asked his servant to put the hanged man down, and picked up a petition that had fallen on the ground.

And the person who was hanged was Dai Luoshi.

She also accused County Magistrate Lin Tingxian and Zhu Xizhou. In her complaint, Zhu Xizhou became the backer behind Lin Tingxian.

Neither Li Yi nor the scholars and civilians present had any doubt about this, because they instinctively felt that County Magistrate Lin dared to act so recklessly because he must have the support of a high-ranking official like Zhu Xizhou.

"How can we be inferior to a woman?"

"And we have to watch helplessly as these treacherous officials and corrupt officials in Wu oppress the people and pervert the law, and carry out tyrannical policies?"

Ouyang Yu, a county student who was also here, couldn't help but shout out at this time, with a look of indignation on his face.

The other soldiers and civilians also looked indignant.

“Cry in the temple!”

"Evil officials are in power, deceiving the emperor. We should cry in the temple and appeal to the late emperor for his grievances!"

Xu Cheng, a student from another county who came after hearing the news, made a suggestion at this time.

Li Yi and Ouyang Yu both nodded.

Young students are always easily motivated.

Plus……

The reform did affect the interests of everyone in Yingtian Prefecture.

What's more, there are many powerful and wealthy families who fan the flames.

In addition, many corrupt officials in the government were indeed not clean themselves, which made the entire Yingtian Prefecture a powder keg, just waiting for a spark to explode completely.

Therefore, after the three of them came to the county school and made this suggestion, almost all the students came to the Confucian Temple.

Crying in the temple was a common method used by local scholars to resist the government.

Crying in the temple is to show that one is doing it for the sake of the ancestors and the country and is not being disloyal. It is also a way to see how many scholars and people will respond and decide whether to make a bigger fuss.

"In the first year of the Jiajing reign, in the middle of winter, Jiangning County student Ouyang Yu and the local people respectfully report to the Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty: The subjects of the world are unworthy and have not upheld the correct etiquette, which has led to treacherous officials disrupting politics and harming the people. Previously, there was Zhang Cong who violated the etiquette, and now there are cruel officials like Zhu Xizhou who are harming the people and forcing brave women to hang themselves!"

Ouyang Yu and other scholars cried for Emperor Xiaozong in the Confucian Temple.

Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty is still the emperor they miss the most and have the most affection for, so naturally they still cry for him.

After all, Emperor Xiaozong was closest to them, and the favors he bestowed on them left the greatest impression on them. For example, the law set during Emperor Xiaozong's reign that hired laborers were guilty of treason made these wealthy gentry in the south of the Yangtze River particularly grateful, and at the same time they felt like they had returned to the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, after Ouyang Yu read the sacrificial text, many scholars from prominent families and even the wealthy people who followed him burst into tears, shouting "Emperor Xiaozong" and kowtowed to his tablet.

By this time Zhou Shangwen had already learned about this through the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

He is responsible for maintaining order.

So, when he heard the news, he immediately ordered his troops camped outside the city to gather and told Li Bing:

"Take a few people into the city first! Warn the people and let them know that if they have any grievances, they can report them to the higher authorities. Even if they go to the Censorate, they cannot cry in the temple!"

"Crying in the temple is a way of expressing dissatisfaction with the current emperor, just like calling the current emperor a tyrant. Considering that they are ignorant and naive, and have been instigated by others, and do not understand the seriousness of the situation, we only send people to warn them temporarily. If they insist on not leaving, don't blame the king's ruthlessness!"

(End of this chapter)