Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 175: Farmers and workers also set up a society! Suppress the opposition!
Wang Jun bitterly denounced the decree that abolished the old regulations of the Hongzhi period.

for a while.

He couldn't help but shed tears.

After all, the decree is too destructive!
Liao Tang also smiled wryly and said, "We all want to go to the temple and cry."

"The late emperor!"

"We are guilty of something, and we shouldn't let you become extinct, wuwu!"

After hearing what Liao Tang said, Wang Jun was completely defeated. He just knelt on the ground and actually sobbed.

……

"My late emperor, please look at me from your heavenly spirit. The treacherous officials in the court have abolished your good governance that brought peace and stability to the country! Woo woo!"

"Shouldn't you let them be punished by God?!"

Mingdao Academy north of Huaiqiao in Yingtian Town.

The scholars headed by Huizong Wen also cried after seeing the latest edict and continued to set up the spirit tablet of Emperor Xiaozong in the Confucian temple here.

but.

Just as they were crying, a large number of soldiers from the Yongwei Camp, led by the shepherd boy Ge Zheng, rushed in. Led by Zhang Bin, they directly captured these scholars.

Hui Zongwen was shocked and could not help but ask the young man loudly: "Where are you from, you stubborn shepherd boy? How dare you betray us, don't you want to live?!"

"You bullied me and I went to the farm cooperative and didn't come back, so you arrested my mother and forced her to cook for you, and you also let the servants beat my father!"

"You all deserve to die!"

The shepherd boy suddenly burst into tears and scolded the students with gritted teeth.

Saying.

The scholars of the Ming Dynasty have always had the habit of forcing local people to serve them.

Many scholars would call the people who refused to serve them "troublemakers", and would write about their actions in suppressing these "troublemakers" in their notes, and they would be proud of it, such as Xu Xiake in history.

Even many scholars in the Ming Dynasty did not change their reactionary habits until the early Qing Dynasty. As a result, there was a major case in the early Qing Dynasty where more than a dozen scholars were executed for gang-raping a beautiful common woman.

In short, strictly speaking, many literati in history were also landlords after all, so their values, outlook on life and values ​​are different from those of modern people.

Naturally, the truly lower-class people are not viewed as human beings in their eyes.

Back to the topic.

It was only after Hui Zongwen heard what the shepherd boy said that he began to pay attention to the concept of "agricultural community".

"Agricultural commune?"

He couldn't help but feel puzzled, wondering when such an organization emerged. After all, he had only heard of literary societies and poetry societies, and he himself had joined a literary society.

"Good boy! It's worth it that I spent the whole night helping you find cattle and introducing you to the Farmers' Cooperative! You have made a great contribution to the Farmers' Cooperative!"

Zhang Bin began to praise the shepherd boy and waved his hand as he spoke.

then.

Scholars such as Huizong Wen were forced to kneel on the ground.

"Blasphemy against the late emperor! Deception against the emperor! Plotting evil!"

"kill!"

And Zhang Bin then said another sentence.

then.

After the fuses of a row of matchlock guns were lit, they were pointed at the foreheads of scholars such as Huizongwen.

At this time, Hui Zongwen was still immersed in his curiosity about the new organization "Agricultural Society" and forgot the fear of death.

Hui Zongwen even struggled to turn his head and cursed the shepherd boy: "You common people are the ones who are governed, how can you have a community? You are rebelling! You are doing the things of bandits!"

boom!
But just as Hui Zongwen finished cursing, he fell to the ground without saying a word because of a bullet in his head.

boom!
boom!
Other scholars were also shot in the head and their brains exploded.

Although some scholars began to beg for mercy, they could not escape death.

It is worth mentioning that because the Yongwei Battalion was ordered to maintain discipline during special periods, they could execute first and report later, so there was no need to go through the interrogation process.

of course.

The Yongwei Battalion is a government army and will not kill people indiscriminately.

The reasons for dealing with these people were naturally what Zhang Bin said, "blasphemy against the former emperor", "deceiving the emperor and deceiving superiors" and "plotting something evil".

The evidence is also ready, namely the tablets and sacrificial texts of Emperor Xiaozong that they privately worshipped, as well as the testimonies of the corresponding witnesses from the agricultural community. In the future, they can still be brought to the attention of the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, so it cannot be considered a wrongful killing.

At this time, Zhang Bin had already copied all the evidence in his hands, and after asking the people in the academy to report the names of these people, he asked the people in the academy to collect the bodies of these people.

The servants of these men were also executed as accomplices.

The shepherd boy Ge Zheng was naturally very relieved by this, and hurried to rescue his mother who was beaten and bruised all over, and said: "Mom, the farm cooperative invited the Yongwei Battalion, and the Yongwei Battalion rescued you!"

“Is this agricultural cooperative so powerful?”

Ge Zheng's mother was surprised and happy.

Ge Zhengze nodded and said proudly: "Of course!"

Saying.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang set the tax base for the Ming Dynasty as very low.

Therefore, even in the Jiajing period, many people could not pay taxes worth one or two taels of silver, including the regular taxes, fire consumption taxes, and labor service taxes.

Because according to the historical implementation of the "One Whip" policy, in some places with heavy miscellaneous taxes, the total annual tax and labor service money for one acre of land was only one qian and five fen of silver.

Therefore, most of the lower-class people paid in kind, and rarely in silver. After all, their total tax was only a few taels of silver, and the cost of exchanging silver often accounted for a large part of the tax, so naturally they paid more in silver.

Only families of middle class and above were willing to pay silver, because these families usually had other industries besides agriculture and could exchange them for a lot of silver.

This means that the adjustment of the silver exchange rate will not harm the interests of the lower-class people.

Especially those poor farmers who own less than five acres of land, because their total tax is less than one or two taels of silver.

In fact, these poor peasants make up the majority in the south of the Yangtze River where there are many people and little land.

Moreover, the land survey is also very beneficial to them.

Because the land tax that was forcibly imposed on them by the clerks could be eliminated, these common people could truly experience the benefits of the low tax rate defined by Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, even if they paid taxes in silver each year, they would not have to pay more than one or two taels.

This is also the reason why, after Zhang Juzheng surveyed the land all over the country, the economy of Jiangnan was able to take off further, the wealth of a large number of poor farmers increased, and even when land annexation was the most serious in the late Ming Dynasty, there were still many poor children in each imperial examination.

After all, after the land survey, in a commercially developed place like Jiangnan, a woman from a small family could use a month's weaving to earn silver to pay her family's taxes, making pure agricultural income the surplus wealth of most ordinary people and allowing them to send their children to school.

Because of this.

In Nanzhi, the people who followed the people in crying at the temple were all sons of the gentry and wealthy families, as well as their dependent slaves and ruffians.

However, ordinary poor peasants in the countryside and ordinary hired workers in the city had no enthusiasm to participate in crying in the temple, nor did they have the enthusiasm to participate in protesting against tax payment.

even……

Many of them didn't even know who Emperor Xiaozong was, and even Governor Zhu Xizhou didn't know them.

and so……

They also didn't know that Emperor Xiaozong was a "sage and benevolent ruler" who was worthy of remembrance in the eyes of the scholars, and Zhu Xizhou was also a "traitor" who the scholars wanted the court to get rid of by resisting taxes.

After hearing the imperial edict that Hongzhi's employees would be dismissed and punished for treason against their employers, they even felt that Xiaozong was not a benevolent monarch and might even be a very bad monarch.

They even thought that Zhu Xizhou might be a good official who cared about the future of their children from poor families because of his pioneering move of allowing their own children to take the civil service examination after he became governor.

It's just that their opinions are often ignored.

of course.

They often disregard their own opinions as well.

This means that more people will only pay attention to them when they are forced into rebellion and are called thieves.

Good thing...

After the Yongwei Battalion returned to the camp, Zhou Shangwen, in accordance with Zhu Houcong's instructions, took advantage of the long-accumulated resentment of the officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion and began to let the officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion develop these ignored grassroots people. He also learned from the literati and scholars to set up cooperatives, creating agricultural cooperatives, industrial cooperatives, and even united ordinary vendors to establish trading cooperatives.

Because the Yongwei Camp had swords and guns, as well as funds allocated by the emperor, and the officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Camp now realized that they could not come to Jiangnan without lowering their status and uniting with the people, these agricultural, industrial and even commercial cooperatives developed rapidly and became very effective in a very short period of time.

The main manifestation is that the violent Brave Guard Battalion is responsible for physically eliminating opponents.

The personnel of these agricultural, industrial and commercial cooperatives were responsible for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance, and even for covering the Yongwei Battalion, in order to make up for the problem that the Yongwei Battalion was unfamiliar with the Jiangnan area and had difficulty in completely eliminating the foreign accents.

The Yongwei Camp achieved the goal of maintaining discipline and order for the imperial court, and also vented their anger at being bullied and slandered by the scholars of Southern Zhili.

What ordinary farmers, businessmen and industrialists got was that their class hatred was avenged and their exploitation was reduced.

This made it easy for scholars like Huizong Wen who were crying in temples elsewhere to be discovered.

"It's them!"

“They are crying in the temple here!”

Jurong County.

In a Confucian temple in the city, when the scholar Tu Dong and others were crying in the temple, Dong Yuan, a weaver from the Gongshe community, came here with a group of officers and soldiers from the Yongwei Camp.

Tu Dong and others were naturally arrested.

Tu Dong, like Hui Zongwen, was quite shocked and angry when he found out that it was the Gongshe organization that was ruining the situation of the scholars crying in the temple. He could not help but scold and ask: "Who told you to set up the Gongshe? You are just lowly servants, do you deserve to be in a society?!"

Snapped!
Mou Peng directly kicked Tu Dong: "If His Majesty says it can be done, then he can have it!"

boom!
After Mou Peng finished speaking, he shot Tu Dong.

Next.

It was common for scholars like Huizong Wen and Tu Dong to be executed for crying in the temple.

Since the Yongwei Camp organized farmers' cooperatives, workers' cooperatives, and commercial cooperatives, with the help of the lower-class people in the south of the Yangtze River, it seemed as if it had its own satellite detection system and could basically carry out targeted strikes.

and.

Not only did they cry in the temple and post denunciations, many of the scholars in Zhang's manifesto called on the people of Jiangnan not to pay taxes, open markets, or start work, and together they forced the court to execute Zhu Xizhou. However, because of the emergence of agricultural, industrial, and commercial cooperatives, they were quickly discovered and arrested by the officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Camp, and then executed.

This had a significant impact on the momentum of tax strikes, labor strikes, and business closures in many towns and cities in the south of the Yangtze River.

of course.

There are not many agricultural cooperatives, industrial cooperatives, and commercial cooperatives now, because the Yongwei Battalion started to develop such organizations not long ago.

Therefore, in Jiangnan, where there were many literary societies, it was difficult in a short period of time to completely stop the actions of the wealthy and noble families in Jiangnan from crying in temples in protest, refusing to pay taxes, and demanding that the court kill Zhu Xizhou.

However, as the number of agricultural, industrial and commercial cooperatives increases, it will definitely be possible to prevent it completely.

However, the capital city is still unaware that the farmers', workers' and merchants' cooperatives have begun to suppress the wealthy families of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who are crying in the temple in protest and demanding that the court kill Zhu Xizhou.

Only people in the capital city basically knew that the wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River cried in the temple in protest, refused to pay taxes, and demanded that the court execute Zhu Xizhou because the common people were beaten to death by corrupt officials when they were collecting taxes.

"Your Majesty, I, the Right Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, Yan Hong, have heard that now everyone in Jiangnan is crying in the temple to protest against taxes, all because the Southeast Governor Zhu Xizhou protected the Jiangning County Magistrate Lin Tingxian, condoned him to steal and sell official grain and severely demand taxes, which aroused public anger. Now, in order to calm the public anger, win the hearts of the people, and make the government clean and the people harmonious, I request that Zhu Xizhou be executed!"

"Your Majesty, I, the Yunnan Provincial Censor Yang En, present a copy of the confession of a Jiangnan woman named Dai Luo, impeaching the Southeast Governor Zhu Xizhou for over-implementing the policy of adjusting the silver exchange ratio and clearing the land survey, which caused his subordinates to collect taxes too strictly, resulting in human disasters. It is obvious that he intended to undermine the new policy and turn it into a harsh policy. He has ill intentions and should be executed to appease the anger of the people and protect the new policy!"

"I second the motion! Please execute Zhu Xizhou!"

……

So, one day in the middle of the twelfth lunar month in the first year of the Jiajing reign, not long after the news of events in Jiangnan reached the capital, when Zhu Houcong was attending court, the crows of the censors began to attack Zhu Xizhou.

(End of this chapter)