Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"The lineage of Duke Yansheng has been blessed by the emperor for generations, but instead of being loyal to the country, they bully the people in their hometown, seize farmland, and commit many illegal acts.

Now you have committed the crime of surrendering to the enemy, and you must be punished for all crimes. According to the imperial decree, your three clans must be exterminated, your mansion must be sealed, and your property must be confiscated!"

Following Zhang Shikang's order, one thousand soldiers from the Beijing camp were divided into several teams and began to arrest the Kong family.

As there were too many members of the Kong family, Zhang Shikang mobilized another 1,000 cavalry from Yanzhou Prefecture. The magistrate of Qufu, as the son-in-law of the Kong family, often used his position to benefit the Kong family and was also arrested on the spot.

The arrest operation lasted until the evening, and more than 2,680 people from the three clans of the Kong family were all arrested.

Zhang Shikang originally planned to escort Kong Yinzhi to the capital for trial, but he was troubled by facing so many members of the Kong family.

He had come to Shandong in a hurry, and now the situation in the capital was turbulent and gloomy, so he had to rush back as soon as possible to take charge of the situation.

Escorting so many members of the Kong family not only wastes time on the journey, but the Kong family also has a lot of connections. If time is delayed for too long, something bad may happen.

Even if we take the person to the capital at that time, there is no doubt that all the civil servants in the court will strongly oppose it, which will delay things.

If this were known by the literati of the world, it would definitely cause a lot of trouble.

Zhang Shikang thought about it again and again, and finally gritted his teeth and made a decision.

He ordered his subordinates to escort the Kong family to the top of Qufu City, and then with a single order, all the Kong family members were beheaded.

This decision was also extremely risky for Zhang Shikang.

The killing of the Shanxi merchants, a group with no backing and no prestige, caused such a big disturbance in the court.

The Kong family has such a high reputation in the Ming Dynasty, and Kong Yinzhi is the top noble who has inherited the throne. Not to mention that the civil and military officials in the court would not agree, perhaps even Brother Chongzhen would be shocked if he knew about it.

It is conceivable what a big uproar this will cause when the news spreads.

But even so, Zhang Shikang did it.

More than two thousand heads fell under the city.

Before it got dark, the people in the city looked at the piles of corpses of the Kong family with fear on their faces.

For the common people, they only knew that the Kong family had a prominent background, but they didn't know why the court suddenly took action against the Kong family.

Until someone tells them.

No matter who acted as the medium, and no matter whether the truth is true or not.

But no matter what, the fall of the Kong family did not cause the so-called public outrage in Qufu City. Under the long-term ignorance of the people, the people only cared about their two meals a day and tomorrow's livelihood.

Zhang Shikang burned all the bodies of the Kong family members, and then ordered his subordinates to check the property of the Kong Mansion overnight.

He must end this operation as soon as possible and return to the capital before the news spreads.

More than a thousand soldiers from the Beijing camp worked overtime, and accountants who knew math were summoned from the city to do the inventory. By dawn the next day, the inventory was almost completed.

After investigation, it was found that the Kong family had more than 180 shops and more than 600 hectares of land in various prefectures in Shandong, equivalent to more than 60,000 acres.

A total of 120,000 taels of gold were seized, equivalent to more than 8.4 million taels of silver.

There were more than 200 trucks loaded with jewelry, jade, other fine goods, calligraphy and paintings, antiques, etc.

Zhang Shikang slept for less than two hours before he summoned key generals including Tian Jingwen and Sun Dasheng.

He told them that he would rush back to the capital immediately, and ordered Sun Dasheng to lead his 3,000 troops to garrison in Yanzhou to prevent civil unrest. He also ordered Tian Jingwen to continue to investigate and punish merchants who raised prices.

The Prince of Lu was arrested and interrogated, and three clans of the Confucius family were killed. The two largest Buddha statues were lost. I believe that the gentry who had previously resisted stubbornly will have to think twice.

Zhang Shikang was generally satisfied with Tian Jingwen, although he did not play by the rules and always turned the table over, it was all out of helplessness.

He doesn't want everyone to be like him. After all, a stable society still needs rules.

However, he still reminded Tian Jingwen that he should have zero tolerance for tax issues and would rather kill the wrong person than let him go.

He knew that the prefect of Yanzhou and even the governor of Shandong were all pretending to comply with the national policy, and he understood why these people did so.

This group of people are actually the real power behind the gentry and merchants.

In order to remove obstacles, Zhang Shikang immediately ordered Sun Dasheng to arrest all of these people.

The affairs of Shanxi merchants are in chaos, the tax reform is in chaos, and the annihilation of the three clans of the Kong family will cause even more chaos.

Since it's already a mess, let's make it even more chaotic.

Only in this way can more problems be solved at once.

Chaos is hell.

But on another level, chaos is also a ladder.

Overtaking on a curve has always been full of adventures.

"Don't worry, brother. I'm here and will never let those people succeed!" Sun Dasheng promised solemnly.

Although the three thousand soldiers of the Beijing Camp are not many, with Sun Dasheng there, they can fight for hundreds of rounds even when facing three thousand Tatars. With Sun Dasheng guarding Yanzhou, Zhang Shikang feels very relieved.

Tian Jingwen had no objection to most of Zhang Shikang's arrangements. He was not a pedantic person and knew that the situation was critical and the Marshal had no choice but to do so. He said:

"General, the Kong residence occupies a large area. If all the servants in the Kong residence are dismissed, what should be done with the house?"

Whether it was the Beijing Camp or the East Factory, there were not many people allocated to Yanzhou City, and there were still many counties that had not been checked. They simply could not allocate more people to guard the Kong residence.

But if it is not guarded, there is a chance that some bad guys will break into the Kong residence and do evil things.

Although Kong's residence is called a residence, it is actually an oversized building complex, covering an area of hundreds of acres.

At first, the Kong family did not live in Qufu County, but less than ten miles away from Qufu City.

After hundreds of years of cultivation and expansion, it was not until the Jiajing period that it was fully incorporated into Qufu City.

And this part of the land was originally fertile farmland.

Zhang Shikang thought for a moment and said:

"I will leave you some silver coins. You should gather the people in the city to participate in the demolition as soon as possible.

Except for the Confucius Temple, all other buildings were demolished and burned, and the land was returned to the people for farming.

When recruiting people, if the people dare not respond, you can recruit those who have no land and tell them that after the demolition, they can be given land, and they will definitely respond.

In short, be quick.”

Although the Kong family has enjoyed the emperor's favor for generations, they are rich but unkind, have committed many evil things, are short-sighted, have been surrendering for generations, and have sold out their country for personal gain.

But Zhang Shikang still respected Confucius very much. Confucius said to achieve martyrdom, and Mencius said to pursue righteousness. No matter what, Confucius is worthy of respect and commemoration by future generations.

But there is no need for future generations to do so.

After all, the Kong family is well-known. Even if he kills the entire family now, it is still unknown whether the surrounding people will dare to respond to the call because they are intimidated by his previous reputation.

But Zhang Shikang was very sure of one thing: those who had lost their land and had no food to eat would definitely not care about this.

If they have no food to eat, they would even dare to rebel. But if they can have food to eat and share land by working, they will definitely work hard.

Shandong and Henan have been the granaries of the Central Plains since ancient times, and the area near Qufu, Yanzhou, is located on a plain with fertile fields.

A few hundred acres is not a lot, but not a little either. There is no use having a bunch of empty houses on it. It would be better to just demolish them and return the land to the people.

Not only can it solve the livelihood problems of some people, but it can also realize the destruction of the Confucius Mansion and put an end to the thoughts of some people.

Tian Jingwen bowed and accepted the order. After Zhang Shikang gave him a few more instructions, he immediately left Qufu with more than 300 personal guards.

The remaining one thousand or so people followed closely behind, escorting Prince Lu, as well as the stolen goods and silver seized from the Confucius Mansion.

Zhang Shikang had to be anxious, as that group of people had more information channels than the imperial court, and the news of the demise of the Confucius Mansion must have been on the way to the capital.

He had to rush back before those people got the news.

More importantly, the Lantern Festival is approaching, and according to the established plan, the Lantern Festival is the time to close the net.

……