I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

When the news about the Nanjing Small Court, as well as articles and poems insulting Sun Chuanting like snowflakes, as well as a large number of articles criticizing Sang, Huai, and alluding to Cheng Shijie, were sent to the cabinet, Sun Zhiman, as the prime minister of the cabinet, turned pale with anger and trembled slightly. , speechless.

Zhou Ning was also very angry. As the saying goes, the main concern is the humiliation of the minister, and the main insult is the death of the minister. It doesn't matter if these bastards dare to scold Sun Chuanting, but it is not okay to dare to scold Cheng Shijie. Although he did not name him by name, his attitude of criticizing Sang and Huai was short of naming him. The surname is Dao.

"Send troops!"

Sun Zhiman gritted his teeth and said: "We must send troops and catch all those bastards, Lingchi!"

"Ling Bu Ling Chi, that is the king's right."

Zhou Ning said angrily: "As ministers, we cannot sit back and watch!"

Since Cheng Shijie became the regent of the Ming Dynasty and oversaw the country, a large-scale cleanup was also carried out on the Jinyi Guards, including the commander Luo Yangxing, the commander Wu Mengming and the following fourteen thousand households, four commanders and two governors, and were almost eliminated. All were wiped out, leaving only Liu Qiao, the governor of Nanzhen, and four thousand households.

Especially after the purge of the Jinyiwei, as the largest guard in the Ming Dynasty, the Jinyiwei was originally a regular army level, but was reduced to a strengthened regiment level.There are currently fourteen thousand guards in the Jinyi Guards. The largest number is only over [-] people, and the smallest number is only over [-] people.

Of course, these Jin Yiwei did not kill directly, but sentenced more than [-] people.In fact, Cheng Shijie did not directly abolish the Jinyiwei. Although the Jinyiwei were mostly bastards, they were still of great use.

Cheng Shijie directly split the Jinyiwei, which was originally responsible for external intelligence collection and spying, into the Secret Bureau under the General Staff and became a division-level unit.The prisons responsible for imperial edicts and torture were also divided into two parts. One part was officially registered in the prison of the Ministry of Justice.It no longer has the power of torture and is just a severe punishment prison.

In addition, professionals responsible for executions were also utilized by Cheng Shijie and became the Sixth Bureau of the Lishu Supervisory Military Road Department.

Historically, the authority of Jinyiwei has been abolished several times. Although it has always existed in the end, unlike Xichang and Dongchang, which have been around for a short time, the team of Nanzhen to supervise civil and military officials has been retained, but they have not directly arrested them. and the power of torture, but as the acting commander of the Jinyiwei, Liu Qiao and the other members of the Jinyiwei wanted to handle major cases, accomplish big things, and revive Jinyiwei.

In fact, the Jinyiwei are also emperors and courtiers. Every emperor who takes office will definitely cleanse the Jinyiwei. For these Jinyiwei, the greatest value of their existence is to maintain the imperial power. Of course, Cheng Shijie is not the emperor in name yet, but he has already The de facto emperor.

Originally, Jin Yiwei didn't know how to carry out their work and regain Cheng Shijie's trust. Now the opportunity has come, and they have the opportunity to show off their talents.

Liu Qiao said: "Chief of General Staff of Zhou, the king has an order not to fight for spring plowing. Now we are sending troops, I'm afraid..."

When Zhou Ning heard this, he also knew that now could not be the time to send troops. After all, Cheng Shijie issued a no-war order for spring plowing. Whoever fights again would be against Cheng Shijie. Where is Cheng Shijie's majesty?

Liu Qiao said: "There is no need to use a machete to kill a chicken. To deal with a bunch of clowns, it is our duty as guards!"

In the Chongzhen Dynasty, the Jinyi Guards were actually out of control. There were many hills inside the Jinyiwei. Even Luo Yangxing could not command all the Jinyiwei. When Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Li Ruolian, a colleague of the Jinyiwei, led his men to resist to the death. At Chongwenmen In a bloody battle with Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses, Li Ruolian's Jin Yiwei were all killed in the end. This was also the most tragic glory of the Jin Yiwei.

Luo Yangxing was trusted by Emperor Chongzhen, but his troops did not serve Chongzhen. Like the eunuchs who opened the city gate for Li Zicheng, they took the initiative to join Li Zicheng. Wu Mengming, the commanding officer, saw that the situation was over and surrendered again, only to be forced to pay by Liu Zongmin. time, tortured to death.There is also a group of Jin Yiwei led by Ma Jixiang. After Chongzhen died, the descendants of the clan established Nanming. Ma Jixiang made his fortune by "patronizing horses" and won the trust of Emperor Yongli.
In this time and space, Luo Yangxing actively cooperated and participated in Wen Tiren's surrender to Huang Taiji. Wu Mengming was also forced to surrender. Ma Jixiang escaped from the capital just like history, but Li Ruolian also died in battle just like history. They died in the Forbidden City, with The Qing army and Guan Ning's army died fighting, but more than a thousand people eventually fled to Liaodong.

For Liu Qiao, Ma Jixiang, the commander of the Nanming Jinyi Guards, was a natural ally. They would have to wait until Cheng Shijie's army arrived at the gates of Nanjing anyway, but they could still take it lightly if they were asked to capture a few inattentive scholars and ministers. It can be done.

Liu Qiao really wanted to gain Cheng Shijie's trust in this way.

It's just a pity that Cheng Shijie doesn't want to play this trick. Liu Qiao's situation is too small. Do you still need to ask for permission on this matter?Just do it if you want to, and you will definitely be rewarded if you do it.

Ming Dynasty has never been punished for words, and Cheng Shijie is also unlikely to kill someone just because he scolded him. Cheng Shijie thought of the lines in "My Commander, My Regiment", a scholar is useless, empty talk harms the country, a scholar is pedantic, But they are indispensable because they bear the inheritance of civilization.

If Cheng Shijie had not founded a newspaper and had no means and channels of public opinion propaganda, he would not have been able to fight back in the face of such black and white abuse. But the problem is that he now has a newspaper, and as Cheng Shijie came to power in the Ming Dynasty, the original " Liaodong Times has been directly renamed "Ming Empire Times", and the original "Liaodong Business News" has also been renamed "Ming Empire Business News". As time goes by, the influence of the newspapers founded by Cheng Shijie has become more and more important.

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said: "It's too cheap to be angry with those bastards... They write articles to scold me, and I just write articles to scold me back. A lawsuit is nothing more than hurting each other to see who can't bear it first. In this regard, I’ve never been afraid of anyone!”

Sun Zhiyi and other civil servants, especially the censors who had been retained by the imperial court, were gearing up and preparing for a big fight, because this was where they could use their skills.

However, Cheng Shijie later read more than 100 articles by Sun Zhiwan and others. He scanned only a dozen articles and frowned: "No, no, you must not be able to write like this?"

"why?"

"Too elegant!"

Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said: "Ordinary people or people with insufficient literary accomplishments can't understand this kind of article. When you criticize someone, you must not only expose the shortcomings, but also be straightforward!"

Although Cheng Shijie did not personally write an article to curse people, under his guidance, the Ming Empire Times soon began to dig graves.

This is an article written by an unknown author. This article does not make any big ideas. It just uses the most straightforward vocabulary and data to list the various benefits enjoyed by a scholar and the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes a farmer has to pay every year, as well as the Ming Dynasty. The annual income of a businessman and the amount of taxes paid.

The data was extremely detailed and clear at a glance. The author did not comment on it. The article of several thousand words mostly listed numbers and gave examples. However, as soon as it was published, this article immediately set off a terrible storm.Needless to say, the various preferential treatment received by the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, let’s put it this way, as long as a person is admitted as a scholar, he will start to have a lot of privileges. He does not have to bow down to the official, does not have to do corvee, and the government will sponsor him every year. silver hair;

What's even worse after winning the election is that his three aunts, six mothers-in-law, and two uncles will come over to donate their fields and put their own property in his name to evade taxes with confidence. Of course, the benefits will not be lost to him.

If you become an official... Needless to say, if you become an official, even if you are temporarily dismissed from office and idle at home, you will still have a steady stream of money to support your family, especially those who are kicked back by the emperor.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was a very honorable thing to be dismissed from office by the emperor for contradicting the emperor. In a few years, he could go back to serve as an official again and be promoted several levels!In comparison, the lives of ordinary people can only be described as "horrible"...

The article is very long, and even directly lists some of Cheng Shijie's properties and some of Cheng Shijie's income. It also directly lists how much tax Cheng Shijie paid.

These taxes basically accounted for [-]% of Yuan Ning's naval military expenditures, more than half of road construction, and more than one-third of school construction.

As the so-called peer support, under the background of Cheng Shijie, the regent, those scholars are really nothing, because everyone has discovered that Cheng Shijie, such a big official, does not have any land or real estate. Cheng Shijie has no land in his name, and he only has more than a dozen houses. …

The entire article is written in vernacular. As long as a literate person reads it, even an illiterate person can understand it.Because of this, this article quickly set off a terrible storm.

The common people gathered around the newspaper readers, and their eyes grew redder as they listened to it. Damn it, we have worked so hard all year round and we don’t even have enough to eat. You scholars are leisurely touring the mountains and rivers all day long. What the hell? You don’t have to do anything and the government supports you, so why do you?

When they heard that Jiangnan's annual business tax was only two hundred taels, they were about to explode. Who doesn't know that Jiangnan is the richest in the world?Such a rich place doesn't want to pay a penny of tax, but these desperately poor people have to sell their children and daughters to collect the tax. Is this fair? ?
Without comparison, there is no harm. This article has successfully caused tons of harm to hundreds of millions of people.When those scholars and scholars once again criticized the atrocities of Sun Chuanting, Cheng Shijie and others for killing the Jin gentry in front of everyone, a lot of tiles would fly over immediately.

Although the Nanjing court reacted immediately and banned the sale and publication of newspapers such as "The Ming Empire Times", "The Ming Empire Business Daily", and "The Ming Empire's First News", the problem is that Nanjing Jinyiwei is now like the original Like Luo Yangxing, he directly betrayed the Nanjing court and asked the Jinyiwei to seize newspapers. They just pretended to do so. In some cases, they didn't even pretend to do so. Instead, they posted and distributed newspapers everywhere.

With this set of practices, the students as a group have become stinky. No matter where they go, they are scolded. Of course, the common people dare not target officials, but Nanjing officials do not dare to walk at night. They are easily beaten and their families will be unhappy. Be careful with water.

There were also officials and juren who had feces thrown into their homes, which made the entire inner city of Nanjing stink, making the officials miserable. They were still suffering later. They wanted to eat meat, but no one would sell it to them, and they wanted to eat vegetables. , and no one sold it to them. Even the famous and capable top names who wanted to drink flower wine were unwilling to receive them...

Cheng Shijie was in a very good mood when he saw the news coming back from Jiangnan: "Did you see it? Just do it like this. Not only will you kill people, but you will also kill people!"

Sun Zhiman said dumbfounded: "Your Majesty, this is so powerful that even minor officials are deeply affected!"

When Sun Zhiyi was on duty in the cabinet, despite being protected by guards, he was still shot in the head with a slingshot. Fortunately, it was only a small stone. If it had been a crossbow or a musket, the danger would have been even greater.

Only now did Cheng Shijie see a big bump on Sun Zhilan's forehead.

Cheng Shijie said: "This is actually very simple. Mr. Sun Ge is good at running a family and teaching his children well. I believe that you are an honest official. You will announce your own and the Sun family's property and fields, as well as the taxes paid. From now on, The people will understand!”

"This one……"

Sun Zhili himself does not have much property. He has been with Cheng Shijie for more than three years, and he does not need any money for food and clothing. His salary alone is 200 taels per year. With various other subsidies, his annual income is equivalent to More than 1 taels of silver.

In fact, this income is only lower than the income of the first-rank officials in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, the officials in the Ming Dynasty were only low on the surface. In terms of local officials, Hai Rui was a famous poor official in the Ming Dynasty. The annual county magistrate's income exceeds 500 taels, which is fifty times the annual salary.

However, the entire Sun family is different. Although Sun Chengzong is not considered a corrupt official, the Sun family owns 25 acres of upper land, 55 acres of middle land and [-] acres of lower land, which adds up to [-] acres, or [-] acres. He is a big landowner. .

Knowing Sun Zhiman's difficulties, Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "Then let's divide the family. Your grandfather, my teacher, has seven sons, seven nephews, and thirteen grandsons. Fifty-five thousand acres of land, divided into Seven shares, each family has seven to eight thousand acres, and then divided among hundreds of nephews and grandchildren, each of whom has an average of dozens of acres of land."

The existence of a big family is simply an insurmountable mountain in the local area. Compared with officials of the same level, Sun Chengzong's family property is still small, let alone the cabinet bachelor level, even Lu Xiangsheng, who is far inferior to Sun Chengzong, is still Not a house of abject poverty.

Jinyiwei obtained Lu Xiangsheng's financial statistics report. Lu Xiangsheng's family was as early as the Jianyan period of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty. Lu Zhan, Lu Xiangsheng's distant ancestor, was a county magistrate in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. He took a fancy to Lingxia Village surrounded by green ridges and settled here after he resigned. The Lu family has thrived for generations.

There are hundreds of members of the Lu family in Yixing. If the distant branches are included, their family has more than 20 acres of land and dozens of shops. Of course, Lu Xiangsheng's own clan also has more than 13 acres of land, which is nearly three times more than Sun Chengzong.

This is the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no way to do it.

After Sun Zhiman and Sun Chengzong discussed it, Sun Chengzong thought about it all night and finally agreed to separate the family.

The seven sons of Sun Chengzong were divided into seven families of the Sun family in Gaoyang, and each of the seven families was divided into several families. Finally, as the eldest son of the third family, Sun Zhiman announced his family's property, including seven lands, three houses, and 62 rooms. Save thirty-nine thousand, three hundred taels.

Since then, Sun Zhiwan has become an honest official in the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty. Although Sun Zhiman is not poor, he is already very honest compared to the bastards in Jiangnan. (End of chapter)