The magistrate of Shanhua County suddenly said viciously: "This Li Zhi wants to kill the gentry in Jiangnan! If we civil servants in Jiangnan are afraid to retreat, I am afraid that the emperor's next step will be to equalize land taxes and set up courts in Jiangnan."
Wu Zhigan, the magistrate of Liling County, said angrily: "This Jiangnan is not Li Zhi's territory. Did Li Zhi stretch his hand too long?"
Tang Tonglin, the magistrate of Yiyang County, said helplessly: "Now the emperor has appointed Cui Changwu, Li Zhi's brother-in-law, as the second assistant in the cabinet to take charge of the government affairs. It can be said that half of the government affairs have been handed over to Li Zhi."
Wu Zhigan said: "Even so, he Li Zhi should not fight to the death with us gentry everywhere. He equalizes the land tax in his own territory for tax revenue. There is another reason. He fights with us gentry on the land under the jurisdiction of the emperor.
Why are you fighting to the death? Do you have any grudge against the gentry in the world?"
The officials were silent for a while, hating Li Zhi's behavior deeply in their hearts.
Wu Zhigan said loudly: "The Huben army only has 20,000 people, and the hundreds of thousands of local camp and garrison troops in the south of the Yangtze River are listening to us. We cannot sit back and wait for death. We contact important officials from various places and mobilize troops to attack the Huben army."
In the late Ming Dynasty, local military towns and garrison generals were not only promoted by civilian officials, but also relied on civilian officials to allocate military pay and food. Over the years, it can be said that local soldiers and horses were completely at the disposal of civilian officials.
Therefore, when Jiangbei's army goes north, it can gather all the local armies in Shanxi and Beizhili.
Because of this reason, the civil servants in Jiangnan dared to confront the emperor. If the emperor sent Dongchang fanzi to Jiangnan to get people, the civil servants in Jiangnan were sure to mobilize the troops of local generals to kill Dongchang fanzi.
But when the Tiger and Ben troops arrived, it was completely different.
The civil servants in the three halls looked at each other at this time, and no one supported Wu Zhigan's words.
The local generals are all soldiers and ruffians. Although they are attached to the civilian officials, they have no faith. The Jiangbei Army was able to hijack the local army and march north to attack the capital. That was when the gentry had the upper hand. Now the Huben Army has sent troops.
, but the local generals are not stupid. Which one will fight against the Tiger Ben Army, the strongest army in the world?
Although there are only 20,000 Huben troops in Nanjing, there are still more than hundreds of thousands in one town and nine provinces. Even if all the battalions in Jiangnan and the garrison troops are sent together, they will not be a match for the Huben troops.
At this time, if the civil servants wanted to mobilize the local army to fight against the Huben army, they might be afraid that the soldiers and horses they mobilized would disperse in a hurry.
Tang Tonglin looked at Wu Zhigan who was gritting his teeth and sighed.
As soon as Li Zhi intervened in this matter, the civil servants in Jiangnan would definitely be defeated.
Tang Tonglin cupped his hands and said: "The official document with Cui Changwu's seal arrived at my official office a few days ago. I dare not neglect it. I will go to Beijing to be a capital official tomorrow. Everyone, I take my leave."
After leaving these words, Tang Tonglin left the third hall and went out of the Yamen.
As soon as Tang Tonglin left, other local officials stood up one after another. They all bowed their hands to Ding Yougui, the magistrate of Chaling Prefecture, and said goodbye.
In the end, Ding Yougui also left Santang on the pretext of family matters.
Wu Zhigan opened his mouth wide and watched as his colleagues left one by one. In the end, only the magistrate of Shanhua County and himself were left.
The magistrate of Shanhua County gritted his teeth and said: "The traitor Li is very powerful at this time. Let's avoid him and enlist in the capital for the time being. If the green mountains remain unchanged and the green water flows, Li Zhi will capsize one day."
After saying this, he waved his sleeves and left.
Wu Zhigan stood dumbly in the third hall for a minute, sighed, and walked out of Zhizhou Yamen with eyes wide open.
####
On the third day of June in the twenty-fifth year of Chongzhen Emperor's reign, during the early morning court in the Huangji Palace, civil servants recruited from various places filled the court hall.
After Li Xing settled 20,000 people in Nanjing, all the civil servants in Jiangnan understood the current affairs and went north to Beijing.
When they arrived in the capital, under the control of 20,000 new troops from the Beijing camp and several thousand Dongchang fanzi, each of these local officials had to obey the emperor.
As for the local officials in Jiangnan, Zhu Youjian replaced them with civil servants who had implemented reforms in Beizhili and Shanxi. Although the absolute loyalty of these officials cannot be guaranteed, at least they have obeyed, which is better than the civil servants in Jiangnan.
There are too many dispatches.
At this time, in the court, the officials from Dongchang were standing on both sides holding embroidered spring knives, staring at the officials from the capital holding dental plaques. Even if the civil servants from the south of the Yangtze River were full of bad intentions, none of them dared to splash it in the court.
come out.
After a long time, Emperor Zhu Youjian walked out from behind the Huangji Hall.
Beside Zhu Youjian, Cui Changwu, the bachelor of Huagaidian and the second minister of the cabinet, was wearing a first-grade red official robe, holding a tooth tag, and walked to the court with a serious face.
Apparently, Cui Changwu and the emperor discussed some matters privately before going to court.
Seeing the behavior of Li Zhi's brother-in-law Cui Changwu, the civil servants in the court were filled with hatred. However, despite Li Zhi's military power, no one dared to speak rudely to Li Zhi's brother-in-law.
In fact, because Cui Changwu stood beside the emperor on behalf of Li Zhi, the emperor became more important in the eyes of the officials.
Zhu Youjian looked at the civil servants who had their own thoughts and sneered. He flicked the front of his official robe, turned around and sat on the throne.
The officials of Honglu Temple waited for the emperor to sit down, whipped his whip and sang: "If you have something to do, go to court, if nothing happens, leave the court!"
Cui Changwu stepped forward and sang loudly: "The newly appointed head of the Ministry of Rites, Wu Zhigan, and the doctor of the Ministry of Households, Feng Liushan, and other twelve people are discussing the government affairs at home and making friends with the court officials to slander the new laws of the court. Their intentions are to be punished. I ask the emperor to take down these ten
The two of them will be handed over to Dongchang for interrogation and investigation! If there are no mistakes, Chengyi will kill them!"
After saying this, Cui Changwu handed a list of names to the eunuch in front of the throne.
Hearing Cui Changwu's words, the officials in the court stared.
Wu Zhigan really has a bad mouth these days. After he arrived in the capital, he was assigned to the Ministry of Etiquette, which is the least popular, and he was the least powerful person in charge. He complained every day. He did find a dozen old friends of the same age to send messages.
I complained and said a few words about the new law.
These dozen people indeed spoke more radically, saying that they wanted to prevent the emperor from carrying out political reforms in Jiangnan.
But that’s not a case of execution, right? Killing a dozen people at once?
Isn’t Cui Changwu too ruthless? Did he learn from Li Zhi?
Is he using the twelve people Wu Zhigan to establish his authority?
All the officials looked at each other and wanted to come out to rescue these people, but they were frightened by Cui Changwu and Zhu Youjian's momentum and hesitated for a moment.
Zhu Youjian looked at Cui Changwu's list, his face darkened, and he said: "The ignorant old man dares to talk about the New Deal. Where is Wang Dehua?"
"The slave is here!"
Zhu Youjian threw the list in his hand towards Wang Dehua: "Go to Qianbu Corridor and capture Wu Zhigan and the other twelve people. If there are no mistakes, I will kill these people in sequence!"
"My slave obeys the order!"
Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, the civil servants in the court were silent for a while.
The emperor abolished the centuries-old tradition of the Ming Dynasty and began to sin against people because of his words. What was he going to do?
Do you want to equalize land distribution in the south of the Yangtze River?
Sure enough, after Cui Changwu threw out the list, he went on to say: "The important reform event is related to the food and clothing of billions of people in the world. Now that the time has come, I would like to implement the new law in Jiangnan, equalize land taxes, and open courts."
