There were hundreds of people sitting in the county magistrate's office in Rongjiao County, Ping'an Road, North Korea. The dozen or so people headed by them had wine and food in front of them. The county magistrate Jiang Yousong sat at the top of the hall, but there was no trace of the power of a superior. He looked nervously at the hall.
The powerful heads of the twelve "Liangban" families sitting inside seemed to be looking at the faces of these people.
North Korea does not have provinces. The country is divided into eight "roads". Pyongyang Road is the northwestmost road. Within each road, North Korea imitates China and sets up administrative units such as prefectures, counties, and counties. North Korea is divided into more than 500 counties.
Every county is very small.
In North Korea, the powerful force between the government and farmers is the "yangban" aristocracy.
In North Korean society, there are widespread aristocrats composed of officials left over from the previous dynasty and new aristocrats of the current dynasty. These aristocrats not only control the government and make the government make strict regulations that non-yangban aristocrats cannot become officials, but also control the local order. In the local area
Above, the nobles of North Korea were landlords, powerful men, and leaders of the peasants.
Without the cooperation of the local two squads, the local magistrate's administrative orders were ignored at all.
Like the gentry of the Ming Dynasty, the two classes of nobles in Korea also adhered to the Confucian tradition and spread culture that emphasized benevolence and filial piety. After the Tang Dynasty, China was no longer able to invade Korea. The threat of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty was short-lived. The long-term peaceful environment on the Korean Peninsula for hundreds of years lacked external competition and
pressure, which made Confucianism flourish.
The interest structure of these local Yangban nobles is completely different from that of the Joseon royal family. The Joseon royal family is afraid of being overthrown by Li Zhi, but these Yangbans rooted in the countryside are not.
The yangban in these places are dependent on North Korean farmers. The style of North Korean farmers is much tougher than that of the North Korean royal family.
When Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi regime invaded North Korea, it quickly occupied the entire territory of North Korea with great force in the big cities, but it was sniped in the countryside. North Korean farmers held fences and sickles to guard the countryside, and the hundreds of thousands of Japanese invading troops could not grab food and grass.
, and finally returned to Japan due to logistical problems.
Precisely because the farmers in North Korea were relatively strong, Huang Taiji, who was as powerful as Chongzhen in the ninth year, never had the idea of annexing North Korea. The two conquests of North Korea by the Later Jin Dynasty came and went in a hurry. Once they got an alliance from the North Korean royal family, they hurriedly
Leave the Korean Peninsula.
Compared with the Lee North Korean government, North Korea's grassroots farmers are the real force guarding the country. And the local yangban are the spokespersons of these farmers.
Jiang Yousong raised his wine glass and said with an apologetic smile: "We are all loyalists of Korea. Now Li Zhi, the Duke of Mingjin, has ordered fifteen million taels of silver. The court is in trouble, so everyone has to donate money. There are twelve powerful families in our county.
Raising thirty thousand taels of silver is not difficult at all!"
However, there was an embarrassing silence in response to him. Not one of the heads of the twelve noble families raised their glasses.
The county magistrate put down his wine glass angrily and looked at the two groups of nobles, not knowing what to say.
After a long time, Cui Zhengwu, the head of the Cui family, broke the silence.
"What I saw was not thirty thousand taels of silver, what I saw was the defeat of North Korea. Although North Korea was founded on the principle of majoritarianism, it has not been destroyed for more than a thousand years. Even if it was as strong as the Mongolian Yuan, it was just defeated.
The king never took away so much gold and silver from Korea with a gesture of surrender."
"North Korea has never paid so many fines because of the wrong choice."
"Nowadays, the Duke of Jin in the Ming Dynasty is not only not the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, but he is not even a prince or a county king. If he writes a letter, it will bankrupt the whole country. If he writes a letter, will all the Koreans be bankrupted?
Do you have to give up the only money your family has saved, and hand over all your savings when your family is ruined?"
After hearing what Cui Zhengwu said, the parents of the two classes of nobles nodded frequently, obviously appreciating it very much.
The county magistrate's face became more and more ugly, and he said with an apologetic smile: "There are more than 20,000 people in this county, and handing over 30,000 taels of silver is just more than 100 kilograms of grain per person. I don't think the tenants need to raise these grains.
It will come out a little more evenly in the granary."
Cui Zhengwu snorted coldly and said: "Our food is for cultivating ourselves and for our family, not for supporting the incompetent court!"
When the county magistrate heard this, he felt that the negotiation could not proceed, and his face turned pale.
"Are you just going to watch the court fail to pay the fine and watch the court be overthrown by Li Zhi?"
The heads of the twelve noble families looked at each other for a while, but no one spoke.
The county supervisor standing behind the county magistrate finally couldn't bear it anymore when he saw this scene.
The county supervisor is an official from the sixth rank, and is the adjutant of the county magistrate appointed by the imperial court. The county supervisor has been standing behind to watch the county magistrate begging the two nobles, but seeing the arrogant attitude of the powerful people, the county supervisor suddenly shouted: "The world rises and falls.
, Everyone is responsible! How can you be so indifferent?"
Hearing the scolding of the county supervisor, the county officials behind the county supervisor rushed out to arrest the heads of the twelve aristocratic families who refused to pay.
Seeing the county supervisor's troops rushing out, the troops behind the two squads rushed forward immediately. However, compared to the county supervisor's Zaoli, the troops from the two squads were still a little weaker. A tall Zaoli under the county magistrate looked at one
Buqu of the Cui family rushed in front of him and punched Buqu in the stomach, causing Buqu to fall to the ground on the spot and unable to get up.
After all, the Twelve Families were fighting away from home, and their number was not as large as that of the county magistrate's servants. In the end, the county magistrate's servants surrounded the twelve families and two groups of powerful families.
The county supervisor pointed at the two groups of nobles and shouted: "Do you countrymen know what the imperial court is now? Believe it or not, I will detain you all?"
Some of the nobles of the two classes were a little panicked. They looked nervously at the Zaoli around them, with a compromising look on their faces.
Cui Zhengwu, the head of the Cui family, was not afraid at all. He snorted and said: "Li Zhi's troops are coming to North Korea. If the court cannot stop them, we countrymen will naturally fight to the end. The court has hundreds of thousands of troops.
If it can't deal with Li Zhi's tens of thousands of people, this court is too stupid!"
"Even if we Liangban agree, the farmers in the countryside will not agree!"
Seeing that the Zaoliers had the situation under control, the county supervisor snorted coldly and wanted to arrest Cui Zhengwu. However, before he could give the order, a Zaoli suddenly ran in from outside. The Zaoli looked at the confrontation in the hall and rushed to
The county magistrate said in front of him: "The county magistrate is in trouble. More than a thousand farmers gathered outside, all armed with sickles and hoes, and surrounded the county government office."
When the county supervisor heard this, he panicked. Zaoli could control the heads of twelve families and two classes, but he could not control the angry farmers. If these farmers rushed in and smashed the county government office, maybe the county supervisor and the county magistrate would
Will be beaten to death.
The county magistrate seemed to have known that the situation would develop to this point, and sighed helplessly.
The county supervisor suddenly lost his momentum. He forced himself to calm down, pointed at Cui Zhengwu and shouted: "Cui Zhengwu, are you the farmers you summoned? You have so much grain in your granary and you are unwilling to hand over any of it. You incited the farmers to say
What? Are you going to rebel?"
Cui Zhengwu looked at the county officials who had lost their sense of control around him and snorted coldly.
"It's not that our two shifts don't want to pay, it's that the farmers don't agree!"
He shouted: "Let's go!"
Without leaving any money behind, the twelve wealthy families pushed aside the county government officials around them and strode out of the Rongjiao County government office.