Cha Dengbei cursed "Qiu Ba", raised his head and said loudly: "Don't panic, everyone, Li Zhi is resisting the decree and has no regard for the emperor! I will report it to the court and see how the emperor treats him!"
The magistrate of Jinghai County said in panic: "Sir, the emperor does not seem to object to Li Zhi's tax collection. He issued the decree under the pressure of the ministers in the court. I am afraid that even if we impeach Li Zhi for violating the decree, the emperor will not do anything.
Punish him!"
The magistrate of Yanshan County pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Li Zhi's troops are strong, and the emperor now relies on Li Zhi to thief and kill slaves. Even if Li Zhi resists, I'm afraid the emperor will turn a big matter into a trivial matter."
After listening to the words of the two county magistrates, Chadenbei was at a loss for what to do.
Liang Yishou, the magistrate of Jingzhou, jumped out and said, "Don't panic, everyone. We now have the emperor's imperial edict. Li Zhi acted against the edict, and we are justified. On the one hand, we will report to the court to convict Li Zhi, and on the other hand, we will make the matter bigger!"
Everyone looked at Liang Yishou, wanting to hear his explanation of how to make the matter bigger.
Liang Yishou said: "We organized businessmen to go on strike, organized students to sit in for a hunger strike, and then organized scoundrels to disguise themselves as small traders and cause trouble in the General Military Mansion. I'll see how Li Zhi ends up!"
"Li Zhi has disobeyed the imperial edict and has been criticized by thousands of people. I don't believe that Li Zhi still dares to attack the common people and scholars!"
When all the officials heard Liang Yishou's words, their eyes lit up.
Zha Dengbei finally found a reliable way, stroked his beard and said: "What Liang Zhizhou said makes sense, just do what Liang Zhizhou said!"
Liang Yishou looked at Zha Dengbei and said: "Sir, Li Zhi has troops, and we also have troops! Li Zhi is now disobeying the imperial edict to mobilize troops and force taxes, which is tantamount to rebellion. The governor can mobilize troops from all over Tianjin to Fanjiazhuang
Go and tell Li Zhi not to be too arrogant!"
"Now that Li Zhi dares to attack our troops, he is undoubtedly rebelling! The imperial court will have soldiers to suppress him! If Li Zhi does not dare to attack us, we will lead troops into Fanjiazhuang! Force Li Zhi to give up business taxes."
Cha Denbei thought for a while with a solemn expression, and finally said: "Okay! Send troops to Fanjiazhuang!"
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On September 16, overnight, all shops in Tianjin Town, one prefecture, two prefectures and twenty counties were closed. This strike was presided over by local officials and had been brewing for several days, so it naturally had unusual intensity.
In the early morning, some shops were still open sporadically, but the shops that were open were quickly warned and made things difficult by the street patrol officers, and the shop doors were quickly closed.
It is not a trivial matter for merchants to go on strike. Common people usually only have a few days' worth of rice in their homes. If the strike lasts for a long time, some people will go hungry without money and nowhere to buy rice, let alone supplies such as vegetables, oil, and salt.
Li Zhi didn't expect that Tianjin's civil servants would play this trick again. He got up in the morning and rode around Tianjin with his guards. He found that not a single shop in the large Tianjin Acropolis was open, and it was already the same as the dead city.
generally.
Li Zhi snorted coldly, returned to the General Military Mansion, and sent someone to recruit Li Xing and others to devise countermeasures.
But before Li Xing and others arrived, a group of uninvited guests came to the door.
Two to three thousand Tianjin scoundrels were organized by Tianjin Qing Military Office officials. They gathered at the South Gate and shouted slogans all the way to the General Military Mansion. These scoundrels were all idlers, and they heard that they could earn a fortune by causing trouble.
All the money came. They cleaned up their faces and pretended to be ordinary people in the city. They all pretended to be filled with righteous indignation.
More than two thousand people attracted tens of thousands of people to watch, and some government officials pretended to be ordinary people among them. These government officials also ran out of the team from time to time to post flyers on the doors of shops along the street. Naturally, the content written on the flyers was the crusade against Li Zhi.
, some literate people stood beside the leaflets and read out:
"The strike is not what we want, but Li Zhi's exorbitant levies and extortion have made people angry. We are promoted to ordinary people, working day and night to earn a bowl of chaff, but we still have to be exploited by the general soldiers. How can we not be angry? The emperor has already
There is a clear order prohibiting the general soldiers from collecting commercial taxes, but the general soldiers go against the order and go private! How can we not fight if you are so arrogant and fishy for the common people?"
This leaflet was extremely inflammatory. How could the common people know that the Ming Dynasty's finances could not make ends meet, so they subconsciously felt that it was wrong for the government to impose taxes, let alone taxes that were prohibited by the emperor's decree? The general was too greedy to impose taxes like this.
The people were talking a lot for a while, and they all suspected that Li Zhi was really bad.
The gangsters in the downtown area marched up to the General Military Mansion, surrounded it, and shouted slogans toward the main gate of the General Military Mansion:
"Commander Li Zhi, privately collect business taxes!"
"Disobeying the imperial edict is disrespectful to the king!"
"It's obviously a tax, but it's actually robbery!"
More than two thousand scoundrels and tens of thousands of civilians watching the excitement surrounded the entrance of the General Military Mansion. The guards standing guard at the gate of the General Military Mansion were pushed by these scoundrels and pushed into the gate of the General Military Mansion.
In the afternoon, more than two hundred students from Tianjin Acropolis and nearby prefectures and counties, also known as scholars, appeared on the stage.
These students stopped studying today and all went on strike to make trouble at the General Military Mansion.
Most of these students come from Jin gentry families, and most of them have businesses in their families, so they share the same sentiments as businessmen. Even those from humble backgrounds have been exposed to the scholar community and regard themselves as members of the Jin gentry.
It also stood up for the businessmen.
More than two hundred students, wearing square scarves on their heads and long swords on their waists, came from the west of the city. When the onlookers saw the scholars arriving, they quickly moved out of the way to allow the scholars to walk to the gate of the General Military Mansion. Even though they were
Those scoundrels who pretended to be ordinary people quickly gave up their seats at the gate of the General Military Mansion to the scholars when they saw the official and honorable master coming.
The scholars stood at the main entrance of the General Military Mansion. The first middle-aged scholar clasped his fists and saluted the onlookers, and said loudly: "Master General Soldier has disobeyed the emperor's imperial edict and imposed commercial taxes, which has aroused the anger of heaven and man. I and other students
Recite saints' articles day and night, and receive favors from the court day and night. At this critical moment, I have to stand up and fight against tyranny, and restore a bright future to Tianjin."
"We, the 216 students, will go on a hunger strike at the gate of the General Military Mansion from today on. If the General Soldier does not revoke the commercial tax, we will not enter the rice field. If we starve to death in the General Military Mansion,
Before, we died for resisting commercial taxes!”
Hearing the talk of this middle-aged scholar, more than two thousand scoundrels who were paid to do things cheered in unison. The scene was so lively that if someone who didn't know what was going on saw it, they would really think that the people in Tianjin Town had all shared the same hatred with the president.
The soldiers are facing each other.
However, although the middle-aged scholar spoke excitedly, the people watching the excitement in the distance stood too far away and could not hear what he was saying. The scholar talked a lot, and saw that the people who applauded him were all the scoundrels around him, which was a bit boring.
.He said no more, and took more than 200 students to sit cross-legged on the road in front of the General Military Mansion and began a hunger strike.
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In the second hall of the General Military Mansion, Han Jinxin walked quickly to Li Zhi, knelt down and said: "Sir, not only are there hunger strikers and troublemakers outside the door, but the soldiers and horses of all the Tianjin battalions have been mobilized by the governor to press on Fanjiazhuang.
