Dashun Yongchang

Li Zicheng does not object to Hou Xun fighting for the interests of the gentry. The establishment of the council is to allow those gentry who are willing to cooperate with the Marshal's Mansion to have a voice, so as to reduce the conflict between the Marshal's Mansion and the gentry class and sit down to exchange interests. , It is better than talking with force, even if the Marshal's Mansion can eliminate these gentry who dare to stand out, it is impossible to uproot this class, because the economic foundation does not allow it.

Dashun is still essentially a dynasty established by peasants, which also means that apart from being angry with the old gentry class, those founding heroes did not object to their families becoming gentry in the new dynasty, otherwise why would everyone continue to support Li Zicheng? ?After all, after the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng's status as the commander-in-chief of the rebel army has actually expired. If he wants to gain the loyalty of others, he must either give them a new target or give them benefits.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang’s preferential treatment of gentry and the clean-up of the Huaixi Xungui Group have essentially pointed out the way for the founding emperor at the bottom like Li Zicheng. If he wants to establish a Li Dynasty, then follow Zhu Yuanzhang’s practice One time is the safest.

It's just that a certain soul from later generations is very clear that if he does that, he will lose control of the Dashun regime. Maybe he can seize the imperial power and execute some people at will, but it can't change the fact that he has become the general representative of the landlord class. The country must be governed in accordance with the moral values ​​followed by the gentry class, which is undoubtedly a puppet in the hands of the entire gentry class.

Once he does this, those in his hands who do not conform to the moral values ​​of the gentry class will be eliminated first, until all his subordinates become obedient citizens and loyal ministers who meet the requirements of the gentry class, then facing the pressure of the entire gentry class, He no longer has the ability to resist the rules made by these people. After all, he does not have the Eight Banners force independent of the rules as his backing.

Therefore, Li Zicheng desperately emphasized the establishment of the council in various places, just to divide and disintegrate the gentry class, and select some gentry who are willing to accept changes in social values ​​to cooperate, so as to stabilize the place.

As Hou Xun is a prominent family of Guide, Li Zicheng naturally does not expect him not to speak out for the interests of the gentry, but only to be obedient to himself. Such words show that the Hou family has lost its influence on the local area and can only rely on the Marshal's Mansion in Tongdu. Cooperation to maintain their own status, such a person is naturally unable to persuade the local gentry to accept the decree issued by the state for the Marshal's Mansion.

Therefore, regarding the doubts raised by Hou Xun, Li Zicheng softened his tone and explained. On the one hand, he said that the councils in various places have the power to supervise the results of Qingzhang Tianmu. Questions can be raised to the Marshal's Mansion, and then the Marshal's Mansion and the Provincial Council will jointly send personnel to investigate, so as to avoid the possibility of subordinate staff making troubles.

On the other hand, he also bought councils in various places, and he said to everyone: "In addition to returning the land from Qingzhang to the original owner, the Marshal's Mansion has arranged for those unowned land or land that should be confiscated. Take out part of the land for military settlements, after all, we are still fighting, if we can’t feed the army, how can we live a stable life?”

Naturally, everyone will not object to this proposition. The army actually refers to the Marshal's Mansion. If the Marshal's Mansion is not allowed to occupy part of the Qingzhang's land, why would Li Zicheng be so disrespectful and offend the gentry everywhere.And they didn't dare to protest at the risk of offending the army. After all, the war-torn years had taught these gentry that without the constraints of the imperial court, soldiers represented power.

Li Zicheng went on to say: "Secondly, a part of the land should be allocated to local landless farmers, or used to resettle immigrants from other places when the local population is seriously lacking. The government is responsible for the resettlement of immigrants from other places. The local council is responsible for it, and the government supervises it.”

This article sparked discussion among the representatives in the venue. For some representatives, the reason why they were willing to stand on the side of the gentry against the clearing of the land in the Marshal’s Mansion was not that they had a large amount of land with unclear origins like these gentry. It was out of consideration of local interests. They were worried that after the Marshal’s Mansion cleared the land, they would completely nationalize those so-called unowned lands. The Ming Dynasty did a lot of things like this. For example, those vassal kings were rewarded Almost all of the land came from this way.

As the head of the new dynasty, Li Zicheng's family is not prosperous, but Li Zicheng and the generals of the peasant army add up to a large group of people. If these people follow the old rules of the Ming Dynasty to enclose land in the local area, who will Can you stop it?Therefore, in order to keep local interests from being damaged, although their interests are not consistent with those of the gentry, they have a common position in opposing Qingzhang Tianmu.

But now that Li Zicheng has clarified the use of these lands, and some representatives have realized that the local council can obtain the right to distribute part of the unowned land, they began to consider whether this action of clearing up the land would be beneficial or harmful to the local area.Because they will obviously not stand with those gentry on this issue, because the land swallowed up by the gentry cannot benefit the local area.

At this time, Li Zicheng threw out a third suggestion, "Finally, we have to use part of the land for local education, urban transportation construction, medical care and elderly care. Does a country and a nation have a future?" , It lies in the importance that this country and nation place on education.

Although the education of Ming Dynasty was stronger than that of Meng Yuan, it still ran schools for the imperial court and the emperor. This kind of educational policy aimed at cultivating bureaucrats, in addition to cultivating a group of selfish and refined egoists, is there any benefit to this country and nation? What's the benefit?

Any scholars who sincerely want to do something for this country, such as Yu Qian, Zhang Juzheng, and Hai Rui, are all hostile, slandered, and persecuted by this group of refined egoists, but a group of shameless people who only care about themselves enjoy the glory Not to mention being rich, but also allowing his disciples and grandchildren to adorn him. I'm not talking about others, but Song Quan, who was born in Guide Mansion.

Song Quan is an official of the Ming Dynasty, but he has no loyalty to Emperor Chongzhen. He eats the food grown by our Chinese people, but he seduces Jiannu to kill our Chinese people. It's too late, after all, you can keep a dog and take care of the house. What's the use of raising such a traitor who eats inside and out?Tell me, is it a failure of education to cultivate a beast like Song Quan? "

Although the Marshal's Mansion ordered the confiscation of all property under Song Quan's name and labeled Song Quan a traitor, under the joint protection of the Guide family, the handling of Song Quan was basically silent, even Even most of Song Quan's property has been hidden. This is the mutual protection between the gentry. After all, can't the well-dressed clan be humiliated? It's relatives, they're all from my own family. The saints say that relatives are hidden from each other. If my family doesn't help my family, is it necessary to kill relatives righteously?

Therefore, although the Marshal's Mansion labeled Song Quan a traitor, the Guide gentry did not take this charge seriously, and even thought that being a traitor was at least better than the remnants of the eunuchs. Looking at it, I naturally feel that traitors are actually no big deal. Isn’t the family members of traitors living better than ordinary people like us?

And according to the principle of no double punishment for one case, the Guide gentry thought that the punishment of Song Quan was over, because everyone had already given the face of Marshal Du's mansion, and Marshal Du's mansion couldn't punish everyone together, right?

However, Li Zicheng mentioned the Song Quan case again at the meeting, which was obviously dissatisfied with Guide's handling of Song Quan's family property. It seems that Li Zicheng does have the intention to delve into the Song Quan case.

Just when the gentry in Guide were hesitating, the people in Luoyang

Li Jiyu first got up to respond to Li Zicheng's doubts and said: "Your Majesty is absolutely right. There is a problem with Daming's education, so that a hypocrite like Song Quan is cultivated. Zhuang Mingong has such a descendant, I am afraid that he will also feel humiliated." Yes, Representative Song, don’t you think so?”

Li Jiyu's sudden utterance caught the Song representatives present by surprise, and they didn't know how to answer at all.Song Xun was a key figure in the rise of the Guide Song clan, but after Song Xun, the talents of the Song clan began to wither. The most outstanding figure of the Song clan in this generation is actually Song Quan, who was born in a partial branch. Qing, but the reason why the Song family still defends this son of the Song family.

After all, a big family like the Song family would never pin their family's fate on a single tree. Dashun and Manqing now have the hope of unifying the world, so betting on both sides is the best way to survive. The Song family did not give up their loyalty to Daming, so no matter which side wins, the Song family will always be able to survive.

This speculative method for the continuation of the family has always been a traditional skill of the rich and powerful. The Zhuge family served as officials in Wei, Shu, and Wu respectively in the past, which is the best example.There is no gentry who can't help but understand the difficulties of the Song family. Of course, in the face of the unmannered peasant army, this kind of difficulty cannot be expressed clearly.

Standing there, Li Jiyu, who was questioning the representatives of the Song family, had no scruples about the disgusting gazes of other Guide gentry representatives. He cast Manchu and had to vote back to Dashun. He knew that he could not jump around again and again. Because no one will trust him anymore, even if he can't make some credit for Li Zicheng, when Li Zicheng remembers his betrayal, then it will be his death.

Give up the military power in his hand, because he knows that with the little force in his hand, it is impossible to fight against the Shun army, and even if he is willing, it is impossible for those tyrants to die with him.So Li Jiyu simply chose to give up his military post and accepted a local post. This time, he was sent by the Luoyang Council to attend the Henan Provincial Council Meeting. He was naturally a staunch supporter of Li Zicheng. After all, he was no different from the Peasant Army in the eyes of the gentry. What's the difference, they are all rebellious officials and thieves, and he has no burden in his heart to beat these gentry with Li Zicheng.

Under Li Zicheng's gaze, the representative of the Song family who was persecuted by Li Jiyu finally couldn't bear the pressure, gave up defending Song Quan, and said falteringly: "Of course the Song family will not defend Song Quan who has betrayed his ancestor Unworthy offspring."

As soon as the representative of the Song family said this, the representatives of the Guide gentry were in an uproar. They did not expect that the Song family could not bear the pressure and gave up Song Quan. In this way, even if they wanted to help, they would not be able to intervene. , because that kind of risk would all fall on their own body, and they would naturally not do such a reckless move.

Chapter 490 Discussion Three

Unlike others, Hou Xun didn't feel that there was anything wrong with the decision made by the representatives of the Song family. These people all hoped that the Song family would stand up against Li Zicheng with the mentality of a dead fellow Taoist. If you do this, you will become a real fool, because it will only be the Song family who angered Li Zicheng, and others will only criticize Li Zicheng's brutality afterwards and publicize the misfortune of the Song family, thereby damaging the reputation of the Marshal's Mansion and Fight against the Marshal's Mansion in public opinion.

In this way, the Song family is equivalent to the sacrifices used to sacrifice to heaven in ancient times, and their sacrifices are exchanged for the safety of others.As long as the representatives of the Song family are not out of their minds, it is impossible to choose this path.Song Quan is indeed important to the future of the Song family, but if the Song family no longer exists, does Song Quan still have meaning to the Song family?

However, Li Zicheng's fierce pursuit of Song Quan also made Hou Xun vigilant. Obviously, the Emperor Dashun's beating of the gentry has not ended, and it is not like they think, he will look at everyone's face and point it out. until.

Hou Xun's guess was not wrong, and Li Zicheng quickly went on to say: "What kind of place is the council? It is a place to speak on behalf of the people, and it is also a place to safeguard the interests of the people. If someone does not speak for the people at such a meeting, instead Speaking for the enemies of the people, are they still worthy of being representatives?

Therefore, I hope that the representatives of the council will accept a proposal, that is, to formulate a principle for the council to drive out those collaborators and treasonous enemies and those who shield these enemies from the council, because they are not worthy to sit down and talk to the representatives of the people. Discuss state affairs.And I intend to issue an order that from now on, the traitors and their family members will not be allowed to hold any public office in Dashun, nor will they be allowed to take the imperial examinations or engage in work related to national security.In short, Dashun has no place for these traitors who betrayed the people. "

After Li Zicheng's words, the representatives of the gentry below became a little flustered, especially the representative of Song's face turned pale. He didn't know whether to keep silent, or follow Li Zicheng's words and leave by himself.But Li Jiyu got up again and loudly responded to Li Zicheng's suggestion, "Your Majesty is right. I think that's the way to deal with those traitors. They have already betrayed the country and the people. Why do you have the nerve to sit here and speak on behalf of the people? Those who defend them also shouldn't be sitting here in this meeting..."

When the gentry were still in chaos, a group of representatives from other places, represented by Li Jiyu, stood up to support Li Zicheng's proposal, and supported the severe punishment of traitors and their family members.

Hou Xun saw that the gentry around him were completely confused, and it was almost impossible to prevent these emotional representatives from passing Li Zicheng's proposition, so he stood up and tried his best to save him: "Your Majesty, I support your decision on how to deal with those traitors. After all, this is what they deserve, but some people didn't know that their relatives or friends had defected to the enemy at first, so their actions to protect relatives and friends were only out of friendship, not to support these people's actions to defect to the enemy, so please forgive me , give these people a chance to reform themselves."

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Zicheng pondered for a few breaths and said: "The situation that Representative Hou said is not impossible. Of course, the Marshal's Mansion is willing to give repentant people a chance to reform, but the premise is that he must first repent. It doesn't make much sense for the Marshal's Mansion to express regret in fear of punishment.

Therefore, I will issue a decree in the newspaper, asking those who intend to repent to go to various government offices to surrender and write a letter of repentance within the specified time. As long as they explain their problems within the specified time, then I am willing to give them a new start. Chance.If the time passes and he refuses to surrender to the Yamen, he is a stubborn person. Come to think of it, Representative Hou wouldn't plead for such a person, would he? "

Hou Xun looked around, and could only bow to Li Zicheng, then sat back silently.Next, Li Jiyu promoted the motion to punish the traitors and their family members, which was quickly passed with the approval of the majority of people. Even the representatives of the Song family did not dare to abstain from the vote, and could only express publicly that Zhan Cheng.

Looking at these representatives of the gentry who were divided, Li Zicheng also heaved a sigh of relief. It seems that he was right to drive Ding Kuichu home as soon as he arrived in Guide.It was precisely because of the downfall of the leader of the gentry, Ding Kuichu, that these already loose gentry groups fell into splits. Some gentry hoped that those prominent families would come forward to stand up to Li Zicheng, but these prominent families wanted the gentry to intercede for themselves first, and everyone exchanged opinions. Counting on the other party to be the leader, in the end, no one will be the leader. After all, the rafters of the leader are rotten first.

After this little episode passed, Li Zicheng finally brought the topic back to education, and he went on to say: "Dashun's education must not learn from Daming. Talents that benefit the nation and the people, rather than educating a group of slaves.

I have said it in the past, and I will say it again today: Dashun is a country of the people, not a country of emperors, generals and ministers.Whether it is you or us, our responsibilities and obligations to this country are equal.Therefore, building and defending the motherland is the fundamental task of the people of Dashun, and no one should evade this responsibility and obligation.

And if you want to build and defend the motherland, you must first cultivate talents, who really know how to build and fight. Therefore, they should learn real useful knowledge in school, not how to be a good slave. This is what I am The development goal of Dashun Education. "

Even though Hou Xun was full of jealousy towards Li Zicheng, he had to admit that his speech on education was really good. At least the scholars among the delegates began to think about it.The imperial examination system in the late Ming Dynasty was actually well developed, and it was much stricter than the imperial examination system in the Song Dynasty. There was almost no back door to go through. Cheating in the exam was another matter.

However, because the imperial examination system in the Ming Dynasty was too perfect, the individual talents of scholars were also suppressed. The result of determining the winner with an examination was that the talents selected in the end must be the talents of the imperial examination rather than real knowledge. Everyone, especially the southern region where there are too many scholars, because the competition is too fierce, the reflection on the imperial examination system has become more and more in-depth.

The rise of the Donglin Party members is also based on the fact that modern learning is too divorced from reality, a political group formed in academic exchanges who advocate the restoration of the ancient prose movement.The development of the southern commodity economy also made the southern literati greatly despise the hypocrisy of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. They believed that the principles of heaven should not be separated from human desires, but formed in human desires.

Neo-Confucianism shouts all day long about "get rid of human desires and preserve the principles of nature", and the result is a bunch of hypocrites. Those Taoist masters are obviously also hanging out in brothels, but they seriously demand that women in the back house should keep chaste and their children should stay away from it. Brothel, but their own behavior has clearly deviated from the right path they advocated.

The biggest reason why Neo-Confucianism was criticized by southern scholars in the late Ming Dynasty was that Neo-Confucianism monopolized the correct answers in the imperial examinations.The Ming Dynasty’s imperial examinations used Zhu Xi’s Annotations of the Four Books as the standard answer. That is to say, even those scholars who did not agree with Neo Confucianism had to learn Zhu Xi’s propositions in order to be admitted to Jinshi. Naturally, Neo Confucianism was disgusted.

It's just that this kind of ideological reflection was disrupted by the war. Japan invaded the Korean peninsula and the Jurchens rebelled in Jianzhou outside the customs. On the surface, it was caused by a disorder of ethics. The crisis of the Ming Dynasty, so the imperial court became conservative in thinking, and the original discussion on the imperial examination system also came to an end.

Especially after Chongzhen came to power, because of a series of wrong decision-making, he needed to maintain the majesty of the imperial power even more, and he did not allow scholars to discuss national affairs without dignity.However, criticism of the imperial examination system and dissatisfaction with Neo Confucianism have not been removed from the minds of scholars.So when Li Zicheng proposed changes in education, some scholars expressed their support. This was exactly the social change they wanted to see, although Li Zicheng's words about Ming's education were a bit harsh.

At this time, Li Zicheng also made a very clear statement on the use of the unowned land after Qingzhang's land, and the local council also obtained the right to control part of the land, which made the voices that were originally overwhelmingly opposed to Qingzhang's fields finally subdued. Then there was a voice willing to accept Qingzhang's land, as long as Li Zicheng could guarantee the use of these lands.

Li Zicheng's response to this was: "I have just said that the council should be a place where representatives from all walks of life sit together to discuss major national affairs. The decisions of the council are the decisions of the people. Since this country belongs to the people, the people's Decisions should naturally be above all laws, or any law should not violate the decisions of the people.

Of course, before that, I need to ensure that the representatives in the council are indeed the representatives of the people and not the enemies of the people, and the council must also formulate a system that can truly generate authority for its own decisions.Simply put, a council meeting the will of the people should tell me and the court what to do instead of the other way around. "

Li Zicheng's response to the representatives shocked the representatives present even more than the Qingzhang Tianmu incident. Compared with Li Zicheng's assumptions about the power of the council, Qingzhang Tianmu is simply a trivial matter, because it has completely overturned the Ming Dynasty. The three cardinal principles and five constant principles that we insist on are gone.

The meeting could hardly continue here, because everyone had to digest the large amount of information Li Zicheng gave at the meeting today, so the meeting was tense from the beginning, but it was a little more peaceful at the end.The Song family should be the most disappointed. At today's meeting, the Song family almost became the target of Li Zicheng's attack, and because of the large amount of information Li Zicheng gave at the meeting, the representatives had no time to sympathize with the Song family. Then they got together and discussed what kind of Dashun Li Zicheng wanted to build.

On the other side, Yuan Zongdi, who accompanied Li Zicheng to the meeting, also asked Li Zicheng full of doubts after the meeting: "Your Majesty, do we give too much power to the council? If this continues, the Marshal's Mansion will become a success." The puppet of the council?"

Chapter 491 Conversation

Li Zicheng, who rode back home with Yuan Zongdi, just smiled when he heard this, and then said to him: "You have fought with me for so many years, and sometimes you have to slap the table with my red face. Hundreds of representatives come from all over the world, and they have no contact on weekdays. Will they unite against us as soon as they sit down? If that happens, it means that the Marshal's Mansion has already engaged in grievances. Is there such a meeting? It's about to collapse, so why worry about manipulating the Marshal's Mansion?"

Yuan Zongdi was immediately awakened by these words. He realized that he was concerned about chaos, and only thought about whether the power of the council posed a threat to the Marshal's Mansion, but he ignored that the council was not a single person, but A place where a group of irrelevant people sat down to discuss affairs, such as at the meeting just now, the tyrants represented by Li Jiyu and some representatives from poor families of scholars clearly expressed their support for the action of the Marshal's Mansion to crack down on the tyrants, and expressed their support. Did not stand firmly on the side of these famous families.

Immediately afterwards, Li Zicheng said to Yuan Zongdi who was thinking: "In the past two days, I talked with Luo Luohun about the origin of the Eight Banners system of the Manchus and the meeting system of the king's ministers. I think their meeting of the king's ministers is very important. Interesting, in a few days I will ask someone to sort it out, and send it to you to learn about it, sometimes our enemy’s effective system may not be able to use it.”

After hearing this, Yuan Zongdi immediately asked for advice sincerely, "How interesting is Your Majesty's meeting with the Manchu kings and ministers? I wonder if you can tell me about it?"

Li Zicheng immediately replied: "Through this meeting of kings and ministers, the Manchus divided their enemies into two levels, internal and external. The first level is the enemies outside the meeting, which is the so-called public enemy, such as the Mongols, the Ming people, the Jurchens, the Koreans, etc. People, for these foreign enemies, the Manchus talked about how to eliminate them at the meeting.

The first level is the enemy within the meeting, the so-called internal enemy.These internal enemies are different from external enemies. They are not the enemies of all the Manchus, but only the enemies of those in power. When facing these internal enemies, the powers-in-charge use meeting resolutions to isolate, suppress and defeat them, but this way of fighting will only Confined within the meeting, it will not expand to the infighting of the entire ethnic group.

This distinction between external enemies and internal enemies allowed the Manchus to minimize internal friction.Therefore, although the Manchus also had internal struggles, they did not become a complete break from the court to the localities like the Ming Dynasty, because people who were not in the meeting could not participate in this kind of struggle at all.On the other hand, the party struggles in Ming Dynasty, obviously a contradiction between several people in power, will always expand into a full-scale struggle between two factions, completely tearing apart the consensus within Ming Dynasty.

From this point of view, the Manchu King's Council of Ministers is actually better at reconciling internal conflicts than the Ming's cabinet.Of course, I am not saying that Ming's cabinet is useless. If Ming's cabinet can truly play a role in governing, it is a necessary administrative center for a huge country to maintain normal operation.

After all, the population of the Manchus is too small, and there are few things to deal with, so there is no need to improve administrative efficiency. Everything depends on the meeting of the king's ministers, so there is no problem.But like Ming Dynasty, a country with a population of one trillion people, if everything is determined by the meeting and there is no one backbone to govern, then the world will be in chaos.

Therefore, I Dashun must take advantage of both advantages and discard disadvantages. It must not only ensure internal consensus, but also not reduce administrative efficiency.The establishment of the Council and the Marshal's Mansion need to complement each other. The former decides the direction, while the latter is responsible for the implementation. This is the new system I hope Dashun will establish.

Disputes within the council are regarded as internal discussions, and all discussions are based on internal consensus. Struggles outside the council are conflicts between the enemy and ourselves, and conflicts between the enemy and ourselves require cruel and ruthless suppression.Therefore, we don't need to worry that the council will become the enemy of the Marshal's Mansion. What we need to do is how to expel the enemies of the Marshal's Mansion from the council and make them become the common enemy of the council and us. is our goal. "

The conversation with Li Zicheng made Yuan Zongdi feel very rewarding. When he was thinking about Li Zicheng's words, Li Zicheng said to him again: "You will preside over the next meeting of the meeting. The current meeting is not There are no proper rules at all, but this situation will not last long. When the battle is over and the national council meeting is held, I will ask for a discussion of the rules of the council.

So your focus now is not on how the Council works, but on how to use the Council to do things for us.For example, for issues such as the management of the Yellow River, we need the endorsement of the council, because without the support of the people in various places, it is difficult for us to complete the management of the Yellow River alone. After all, the management of the Yellow River is not a problem between two places in one place. It is a problem involving the entire area where the Yellow River flows.

Although the floods fell in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the source of the floods was in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River.We must let the people in Henan understand the fact that neither Henan nor Shandong people can deal with the flood of the Yellow River. Only by uniting with the people in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Nanzhi and other regions can we formulate a perfect governance system. Yellow River's plan.

Only when they understand this, they will realize the necessity of the council, and they will maintain the existence of the council, which is beneficial to them and us..."

When Li Zicheng was talking with Yuan Zongdi, Hou Xun on the other side was also on his way back and had an exchange with Ye Tinggui, who was traveling with him, about today's council meeting. Ye Tinggui mainly focused on what Li Zicheng said at the meeting against the gentry. , worrying that Dashun will deal more and more severe blows to the gentry in the future.

However, Hou Xun's attention was obviously not on Li Zicheng's attitude towards the gentry. He listened to Ye Tinggui's rambling for a long time but still failed to grasp the point. It is Li Zicheng's attitude towards us, and what is more important now is the benefits and disadvantages of the existence of the council. Otherwise, we may suffer more losses in the future."

Ye Tinggui asked a little puzzled: "Isn't the meeting the Marshal's Mansion to appease the people of the local people? Since the Marshal's Mansion refused to bow to the local gentry, it created a meeting to replace the original county. The gentry who preside over the people's livelihood affairs in the county, but I don't think this thing has much effect, because the majority of the gentry from the counties participate in the meeting? This is just taking off their pants and farting. It's superfluous. Is there such a meeting , the speeches of local gentlemen don’t count? I don’t think it’s possible. If the local government wants to do something, don’t the gentlemen pay the money and food in the end?”

Hou Xun shook his head and disagreed with Ye Tinggui's opinion. He said: "But the council has the power to levy taxes. If you really want to do something, you only need to collect temporary taxes. In the past, the gentry kept their word in the local area. Because the court needs the gentry to maintain local order and collect money and food, but now the council can completely replace the role of the gentry, so why does the court need to stand on the side of the gentry?"

After Ye Tinggui was silent for a while, he also shook his head and said, "Only Emperor Yongchang can think of such a method. After all, this man still regards us gentry as enemies. If according to what Emperor Yongchang said today, wouldn't he even Is it wrong to hide from relatives? Are those of us who are married to Song Quan also criminals? This is too cruel...absurd."

Hou Xun could understand Ye Tinggui's dissatisfaction. After all, Li Zicheng's words today not only hit the Song family, but actually turned those famous families who tried to split their bets into targets.For these prominent families, this is indeed a big problem that cannot be avoided, because even if they did not place bets in person, they also became family members of traitors because of their mutual family marriage.

For example, the Song family where Song Quan belongs to has been married to the Hou and Ye families and other prominent families in Guide for many years. Now that Song Quan has become a traitor to the enemy and traitor, what about the Song family and other families married to the Song family?Could it be that everyone just puts on the hat of a family member of a traitor, and will always be criticized by Li Zicheng in the future?What reputation do you have in the future?

What is a distinguished family, in addition to the seeds of education in the family, there is also the prestige of a county and a county, that is, when the local people encounter any trouble, the first thing they think of is to invite you to take charge of the overall situation, this is called a distinguished family.If the people only remember that there are traitors in your family, how can they hope?

But although this strategy was vicious, Hou Xun still didn't take it seriously, because once the emperor and the courtiers, since the prototype of the new dynasty has appeared, then this new dynasty will naturally have a new atmosphere, and those who are not willing to be loyal It is only natural that Li Zicheng counterattacked those who tried to place bets in the new dynasty. At least compared with Emperor Yongle who killed Fang Xiaoru's ten clans, Li Zicheng was considered lenient.

What really worried Hou Xun was something else. He interrupted Ye Tinggui and said, "You still haven't grasped the point. Think about it carefully. In today's meeting, Li Jiyu, who dared to accuse the Song family in person, how dare he do so in the past?" Openly attacking a family of gentry? This is the biggest change brought about by the meeting. Those people who were obedient to us can now openly criticize the gentry's actions through the meeting. I can't see this meeting What ethics and dignity are there, this is the most important thing."

Ye Tinggui was stunned for a moment, then said hesitantly: "Li Jiyu dared to say such a thing at the meeting, he must have Li Zicheng's support behind him, otherwise how dare he attack the Song family like this? Is he himself a good thing? Isn't it just wind?" Blowing the grass on both sides of the wall?"

Hou Xun shook his head again and again and said: "Even with Li Zicheng's backing, Li Jiyu only needs to write a letter to Li Zicheng. If there is no such thing as a meeting, where would he go to publicly humiliate the Song family? He closed the door Criticizing the Song family at home and criticizing the Song family in front of us, is this the same thing?"

Ye Tinggui finally realized that this was of course not the same thing. If Li Jiyu had written a letter to attack the Song family, then the power to convict the Song family was still in Li Zicheng's hands.But in the current situation, Li Jiyu convicted the Song family at the meeting and asked the Song family to explain his behavior. Based on the status gap between Li Jiyu and the Song family, this is the following It's a big difference in the act of committing a crime.

notification

Because a certain strange species lost a quarrel in the book review area and reported the book, so the book will be removed from the shelves for rectification from tomorrow.I apologize to the readers of this book, but I can only say that the thoughts of slaves are unpredictable, after all, people can report you to the master.Therefore, no matter whether the book is released or not, I will not speak again in the book review area in the future, not because I am afraid of some strange species, but because the dog bit you and you cannot bite back.That's it, Labor Day is coming soon, let's all give blessings to the working class in the United States, after all, they won the victory and won the eight-hour work system.

Chapter 492 Patience

Ye Tinggui watched Hou Xun hesitating to speak, as if he had already guessed what the in-law wanted to say, Hou Xun said without turning his head: "The number of troops who have come to Guide from various places in the past few days has exceeded [-]. The former garrison in Guide, the Marshal's Mansion has completely controlled the order of Guide. I can't take the risk of angering Emperor Yongchang to confront him, and I believe not many people are willing to fight against the Marshal's Mansion at this juncture. "

Ye Tinggui was immediately discouraged. He knew that what Hou Xun said was right. Emperor Yongchang, who had mastered absolute force, was willing to sit down and have a meeting with them to discuss affairs instead of sending a troop to search the house in the city.But it's not that Emperor Yongchang didn't have the guts. How could Li Zicheng, who was able to torture hundreds of officials who had surrendered when he entered Beijing, care about a few Guide families?Compared with the officials who were tortured to death by the Shun Army in Beijing, the noble families like Guide were not untouchable targets.

The two walked forward for a while, and seeing that the crossroad leading to the Hou's Mansion was approaching, Ye Tinggui couldn't help asking: "Are we going to tolerate those nouveau riche and mud-legged people sitting with us to discuss matters?" ? Isn’t that messed up? There is no distinction between superiors and inferiors, how long can Dashun last?”

Hou Xun looked up at the sky, the weather today was pretty good, the blue sky was only dotted with a few white clouds, but he felt that the day was a bit gray, making people unable to feel the warmth of the sun.

After retracting his gaze, Hou Xun looked back at Ye Tinggui beside him and said, "Perhaps, Emperor Yongchang just hasn't learned how to be an emperor, that's why he said what he said today. After he knows what an emperor is, he will Will give up today's ridiculous idea. We can only wait now, and other things can't be done at all."

Ye Tinggui was still very dissatisfied in his heart, he couldn't help but said: "But what if Emperor Yongchang is determined not to change? It's not like you don't know how he rose to prominence. He was driven to the deep mountains and old forests by the army that day. If the imperial court surrenders, it may be difficult for such a stubborn person to change his views."

After a few breaths of silence, Hou Xun said: "In that case, we can continue to wait. The generation of Emperor Yongchang can't wait, can't we wait for the next generation? No matter how wise Emperor Yongchang is, his descendants, Those descendants of the founding heroes couldn’t like him to sit and discuss state affairs with mud-legged people, could they?”

Looking at the back of Hou Xun riding away on horseback, Ye Tinggui was a little dazed. He really didn't expect that the former Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs of Ming Dynasty could be so tolerant, which was not at all like the Hou family's style.Since the Hou family made a fortune, apart from those who studied and became officials, there are also a thousand uncles and brothers who chose to practice martial arts while watching the troubled times, and they have drawn up a very strong force in Guide Mansion.

Because these Hou family members like to practice martial arts and have power in their families, they can be regarded as heroes that no one dares to provoke in Guide Mansion.The magistrate of Liang County who came to Shangqiu to take office before, went to the place and inquired about the situation on the ground in Guide, and immediately sworn brothers with Hou Xing of the Hou family. This Hou Xing was a very domineering figure.

Hou Xing's overbearing can only say one thing. On that day, Li Zicheng sent troops to attack Guide. After the county magistrate knew about it, he said he would punish him, in order to warn the city sergeant and the people that they need to guard the city carefully, but Song Quan refused to suffer such humiliation, so while staying behind closed doors, he incited the scholars of Guide to besiege the people who went out for inspection. Liangzhi County.

After Hou Xing knew that his sworn brother was under siege, he led his subordinates down from the city wall to disperse these scholars, but because the scholars refused to back down, he insisted on Liang Zhixian coming out to apologize and admit their mistakes. As a result, Hou Xing directly ordered his subordinates to shoot arrows. A scholar surnamed He was shot in the forehead by an arrow and died.This incident aroused a strong confrontation between the gentry and local officials in Guide City, and it was also a major reason why Guide City was eventually lost.

Hou Xing's domineering style also explained the usual family style of the Hou family, so Ye Tinggui was quite surprised when he heard the word patience from Hou Xun.But he soon sighed, if even the Hou family were unwilling to stand out, then there would be no one in Guide City who could make Li Zicheng back down.

He finally looked away from the direction where Hou Xun left, turned his horse's head and walked slowly towards the house.At this time, Ye Tinggui finally accepted the reality that the rules of the new dynasty are not the same as in the past, and now they can only obey these new rules, otherwise they will not be able to keep the continuation of the family.

When the brothers Du Erhu and Du Nuwen arrived at the Shan County camp of the Qing army, the morale here was slightly higher than that of Cao County, because the Qing army had a slight upper hand in Shan County, and Shan County did not have as complete defense facilities as Cao County. , so the Qing army here can still launch several tentative attacks.

Shan County is located in a plain, facing the Yellow River in the south. The terrain is high in the southwest and low in the northeast. There is a swamp and lake in the south along the Yellow River. Among them, there is a large lake in the southwest, which is also a lake washed out of the Yellow River dam breach. It is lush, but it is a landscape of lakes and mountains in spring and summer. It is favored by literati and inkmen in peacetime, but in troubled times, it has become a lair of bandits.

However, since Li Zicheng went south to Xuzhou, the bandits in the big lake in Shan County either surrendered to the Shun Army or were wiped out by the Shun Army.However, the Shun army did not remove all the population from the small island in the lake, but stationed a patrol force in the lake to control the area.

So after the Qing army broke through the Chengwu and Dingtao lines, the Qing army who rushed to Shan County faced two Shun army strongholds, one was the main force of the Shun army stationed in the county seat, and the other was stationed in a small town in the Dahu area southwest of Shan county. troop.The team led by Nikan and Tong Tulai originally wanted to take advantage of the victory of the Qing army in breaking Chengwu City and take down Shan County in one go.

However, because the follow-up troops were unable to respond, and the Shun Army's reinforcements to Shan County were extremely rapid, Nikan and Tong Tulai's troops were still repelled by the Shun Army.However, although the Qing army has an advantage here in Shan County, Nikan and Tong Tulai do not have much determination to attack Shan County.

In the face of Du Erhu's inquiry, Tong Tulai also mentioned the issue of logistics supplies, and he explained to Du Erhu: "If the rear cannot guarantee the food and fodder of our department, then it is impossible for us to fight with the Shun army here, even though the terrain here is flat. It is good for cavalry assault, but people can be hungry, but horses cannot be hungry.