Chapter three hundred and seventy first jade broken tiles
Li Zhi looked at the civil servants lying on the ground and snorted coldly.
He sat on the chair and said slowly:
"You are afraid that the gentry will lose their tax-free privileges and go bankrupt, but you don't know that because the gentry evades taxes, all taxes will fall on the poor. As a result, the poor in the world have no food and clothing, and even their families have been destroyed!"
"Zhang Xianzhong was plundering Sichuan, and the mountain people and farmers rushed to act as eyes and ears! They even opened the city gates in response to the inside and outside. Li Zicheng rode into Henan in hundreds. When he climbed up and shouted, how many poor people rushed over to take refuge without risking their lives? If it weren't for the imperial tax that made these poor people
We are so overwhelmed that we can’t breathe? How could the country’s affairs be so corrupted?”
"You only see the gentry in your eyes, but you don't know that where there is water, there are fish. If all the poor people in the world live in dire straits and the water turns into boiling water, where in the world will there be room for fish like the gentry?"
Hearing Li Zhi's words, the civil servants on the ground looked at each other with helplessness in their eyes. They didn't know if Li Zhi could defeat the world's scholars, but they knew that Li Zhi could definitely defeat them, civil servants in Tianjin.
Li Zhi insisted on going to war with the gentry all over the world.
If the civil servants in Tianjin side with the gentry, they will be killed by Li Zhi in a few seconds. If the civil servants in Tianjin side with Li Zhi, not only will these civil servants not be willing to do so, but they will also be criticized verbally and written by people all over the world, and their reputation will be ruined.
.
These civil servants in Tianjin have been forced into a very embarrassing situation by Li Zhi.
Li Jizhen shook her head, stopped kneeling, stood up and raised her hands, saying: "Uncle Xing Guo is challenging the world's gentry, please think twice!"
More than fifty civil servants in Tianjin all got up, raised their hands and said:
"The power of the people in the world cannot be violated, Uncle Xing Guo, think twice!"
"This Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty of Shilin. Does Xing Guobo know it?"
At the last moment, the civil servants in Tianjin still hoped to use the world's gentry to scare Li Zhi.
But they are not lying. The power of the gentry in the world is indeed huge.
In the Ming Dynasty, even the emperor did not dare to go to war with the gentry all over the world. In the fourteen years since the emperor Zhu Youjian came to power, has he ever succeeded in doing anything to offend the gentry? Not to mention that now there is no commercial tax or mining tax.
The Jinyiwei and Dongchang who supervised Shilin were also handed over to people close to Shilin and existed in name only.
On the surface, this country belongs to the emperor, but in fact it belongs to the gentry. At that time, Emperor Zhengde held military power and was very high-spirited, challenging the scholars of the world. How did he die in the end? Even the emperor couldn't defeat the scholars, so wasn't Li Zhi afraid?
He grew up eating the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard?
After listening to Li Jizhen's soft and yet tough words, Li Zhi glanced coldly at the civil servants who threatened him and said: "I, Li Zhi, are not afraid of the gentry! Even if I start a war with the scholars of the world, I, Li Zhi, will not take even one step back!"
"
"You can stop making these threatening remarks!"
"I, Li Zhi, fought in the south and the north, turned the tide from falling, and helped the building before it collapsed. It was to save the poor people in the world, not to let parasites absorb more flesh and blood."
All the civil servants looked at each other and knew that talking more would be useless.
Li Zhi has already called the gentry parasites, how can he continue to say this?
Li Jizhen finally gained some temper, flicked the sleeves of her official uniform, and left Li Zhi's military headquarters with a group of civil servants.
A group of civil servants walked out of the General Military Mansion with livid faces and entered the governor's Yamen.
Sitting in the second hall, Li Jizhen sighed and sat on the main seat without speaking.
A colleague of the Qing Military Department in Tianjin also sighed, raised his hands and asked, "Sir Governor, now that Li Zhi insists on flying a moth into the flame and provoking the world's gentry, how should we respond?"
Lu Hualin, the new magistrate of Hejian Prefecture, said coldly: "Li Zhi challenged the scholars of the world, and there is no way out. The plan now is to make the matter bigger and attract the attention of the people of the world, so that Li Zhi becomes a street rat, and everyone shouts
beat."
Before Lu Hualin was promoted to the prefect of Hejian Prefecture, he served as a magistrate of the Qing Military Department in Tianjin for several years and was in charge of the civil affairs of Tianjin Acropolis. In the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, his younger brother Lu Huarong once sent green-skinned scoundrels to attack Li Zhi's textile workshop in an attempt to seize Li Zhi.
But at that time, Li Zhi took refuge with the governor He Shishou, and He Shishou stepped in to suppress Lu Huarong, so the matter ended up being nothing. More than five years later, Li Zhi rose to prominence and became the uncle of Xingguo, and Lu Hualin also became the prefect.
Lu Hualin could not have imagined that he would encounter Li Zhi just after he took office as the governor of Hejian Prefecture. He had offended Li Zhi because of his younger brother Lu Huarong, and before he took office in Hejian Prefecture, he was worried that Li Zhi would retaliate against him, and wished that Li Zhi would fall now. At this moment
When the officials were cowering and hesitating, he jumped out to offer suggestions, thinking about how to punish Li Zhi to death.
The eyes of all the officials lit up and they all looked at Lu Hualin. Lu Hualin said: "We will organize students to parade, organize businessmen to go on strike, and then spread rumors that Li Zhi will not only collect land taxes from the gentry, but also significantly increase the land taxes from poor farmers. Those stupid people
They are illiterate and have no knowledge. They only listen to the educated people on weekdays. If we provoke them a little bit, we might be able to stir up a popular uprising."
After hearing Lu Hualin's words, the officials pondered whether his suggestion was feasible, and remained silent for a while.
Li Jizhen thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Means such as parades and strikes cannot help Li Zhi. I heard that when Li Zhi was collecting commercial taxes in Tianjin, the late governor Cha Dengbei organized students to go on a hunger strike and merchants to go on strike. Finally,
They were all defeated by Li Zhi with brute force. In the end, Cha Dengbei was captured by Li Zhi in the squad room of the General Military Mansion and tortured."
Hearing about the tragedy of Cha Deng Bei, all the civil servants felt the same. They shook their heads and sighed with great regret.
Li Jizhen also sympathized with Cha Dengbei and sighed and said: "It is a good idea to provoke the farmers. But now Li Zhi is the only one in Tianjin. It is difficult for those who organize people to provoke the farmers to stay away. If they are unlucky, Li Zhi will find out.
, I’m afraid I will make the same mistake as Cha Deng Bei.”
Hearing Li Jizhen's words, Lu Hualin laughed and said: "I would rather have the jade in pieces than destroy it. Although I am not a talented official, I still want to fight with Li Zhi for the sake of the world's gentry. Don't worry, the governor, Lu Hualin is willing to organize people to spread rumors in the countryside.
, ensuring that Li Zhi is attacked from both sides."
When all the officials heard Lu Hualin's words, they all took a breath. These days, there are really not many people in Tianjin who dare to stand up and fight with Li Zhi. Lu Hualin is considered a courageous one.
All the officials bowed to Lu Hualin and were filled with admiration. Li Jizhen said excitedly: "Gong Lu's righteousness will be remembered in the history of the future. Today's righteous act of resisting taxation should be remembered by Mr. Lu!"
Lu Hualin smiled and said, "Not worth mentioning!"
Li Jizhen pondered for a moment and said: "At this juncture, we civil servants in Tianjin cannot fight against Li Zhi alone. We should go to the court to declare to the princes that Li Zhi's crime of deceiving the emperor and betraying the master is extremely heinous. Let the princes in the court use all kinds of forces to fight together.
Li Zhi. All the princes in the court collectively launched an attack, and even though the emperor favored Li Zhi, they would not dare to protect him!"
"We also need to write letters to the famous and powerful Jin gentry in the world, stating that although Li Zhi is only exploiting the gentry in Tianjin today, he will inflict this poison on the whole country in the future! We must gather the power of the world to encircle and suppress this Li Zhi who does not know the heights of heaven and earth."
"Our civil servants in Tianjin are facing the front, so we can take a step back. Let the rest of the matter be left to the world's celebrities!"
After hearing Li Jizhen's analysis and arrangement, the officials suddenly became enlightened. At this moment, the gentry in Tianjin could not forcefully attack, but should indeed mobilize the country's scholarly forces to deal with Li Zhi. The officials secretly thought that Li Jizhen was worthy of being a governor, and he was an experienced and vicious man.
