Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 87 Go to Beijing to complain

In Qianjia Town, Zhenjiang, several men gathered in a room, surrounded by official documents and imperial edicts. They were indignant and discouraged: "According to the emperor's grace and the princely system, the people will really live a good life. It's a pity. , all the land here belongs to his wealthy family, and we can’t enjoy the emperor’s kindness at all. No matter how good the prince’s policies are, we still have to pay 80% of the rent to that money-hungry person.”

At this time, one of the literate men suddenly lit up his eyes and pointed to an article in the official document about the new policy: "Landowners who were killed in the war will be given a hundred acres to the survivors. The rest will be counted as ownerless and distributed to the landless people. The new land law will be implemented." .”

Then he quietly glanced at the two men from the north who were lying on the bed, sleeping soundly. The two men turned over and put their faces on the pillow.

No one knew why, so the man used his finger to poke hard and then poke this strip.

Everyone seemed thoughtful.

They both turned to look at the two men, who were snoring loudly.

A few people quietly treasured this notice and edict, bowed deeply to the two men, and then quietly left. He also closed the courtyard gate.

They left, and the two men sat up. One of them was worried: "Boss, let's do this, okay?"

The leader replied: "You and I are both Jinyiwei selected from the innocent families of the people. We have seen enough of the gentry and landlords being domineering and the common people selling their children and daughters. We want medals for a fee, and we cannot do it ourselves. We just pretend that we don't know. , it’s already worthy of one’s own conscience.”

Then he went to the ground and said, "Okay, let's wait and see what happens, and prepare to go to the Yamen to prove it to the people here."

That night, a group of bandits from nowhere rushed into Qianjia Town, whose gate was ajar, and entered Qian Heixin's home. They just killed the head of the family, Qian, and left without killing innocent people or robbing money.

For a time, anti-donation and anti-tax trends spread all over the country, and murders occurred one after another in various places. Those who were killed were all wealthy landowners and heads of families.

Immediately afterwards, the local people who had killed the wealthy landlords began to "spontaneously" organize the common people to divide their fields, and then went to the government offices collectively to ask for their recognition.

This sudden situation shocked the entire Jiangnan.

This is good, because the north is in chaos and the south is left alone. In the south, except for Jiangxi, Guangxi, and Huguang, which are being brutalized by Zhang Xianzhong's bandits, everything is peaceful and peaceful. Why did you think that this suddenly exploded?

The left-behind officials in Nanjing immediately exploded, including Wang Yiren, the eunuch of the Nanjing garrison, Zhao Zhilong, the Bo of Xincheng who stayed in Nanjing, Gao Hongtu, the assistant garrison of Nanjing, and Shi Kefa, the counselor of the Nanjing Machinery Department and the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing. An emergency meeting was held immediately to discuss the situation.

During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing was officially established as the capital.

Originally, a country could not have two capitals. Even multiple dynasties had accompanying capitals, but the accompanying capitals were not official. Usually, only those at the same level as the governor of Jingzhao were responsible for managing them. That's considered a palace.

But Shenzong also knew that the emperor guarded the country, which sounds nice, but it is really unreliable for you to always put an emperor under the enemy's nose. If there is another Tumubao Incident and the barbarians kill the emperor and his ministers, it will still be a big deal.

Therefore, Nanjing was officially established as the companion capital, and a complete team was established there for future generations. The purpose was to prevent the Tumu Fortress incident or the situation like Chongzhen. The north is in ruins. Even if the emperor runs away alone with a bucket, as soon as he reaches Nanjing, he will immediately start to restore the Ming Dynasty.

To this end, Nanjing has a whole set of teams that are the same as those regulated by the imperial court. But there is no cabinet.

However, there is no cabinet that he is not afraid of. He established four official positions, namely, the left-behind eunuch, the left-behind eunuch, the assistant guard, and the counselor. When something happened, the four of them would discuss it and handle it, which was equivalent to a small cabinet.

The real power figure here is the garrison eunuch. He is the representative of the emperor in Beijing, an absolute confidant, and the real emperor of Nanjing. "All decisions come from the ministers." The real second-in-command is the military counselor and minister of the Ministry of War. Nanjing's real chief minister. Now there is a fatal situation in the south. Wang Yiren knows what is going on. It is actually Beijing Jinyiwei who takes the lead in causing trouble everywhere.

Your Majesty, I know you are in trouble. You are eager to win over people's hearts, so that you can move south or stick to the north in order to gain the support of the people in the south. But it’s difficult for you. You can’t put your hand into my bowl.

I am loyal to you, but I care about my money even more.

He was right, the eunuch who stayed behind was the real emperor of the south, and all purchases by the northern court had to go through his hands. Even if officials in the south are corrupt, they must be compensated. He was already the de facto controller of the South.

But this time, the news from the north and the south was cut off by the bandits, and the original policy was continued to be implemented. Not to mention the huge taxes, just one three-month salary, which was an income of one to two million a year.

As a result, when you made such a fuss, you cut a big hole in my money bag and lost all my money. Can I not feel bad?

If the emperor doesn't dare to blame, then let's blame this King Ding.

"This is a private change of the ancestral system, this is a disaster for the court, this is a disaster for Jiangnan, this is a shaken country." This is the characterization of the king given by the left-behind eunuchs.

The eunuch is not afraid of offending the prince, because the prince will eventually run away and become a pig. The eunuch is the emperor's dog. Why should dogs be afraid of pigs?

In the Ming Dynasty, there was a precedent of a prince being tortured to death by eunuchs, which is not surprising. Isn't the current King of Tang still imprisoned in Fengyang and being tortured by the eunuchs who stayed behind?

Since I have offended my own money bag, then I will offend you, offend you to death, offend you to death.

"Master Shi, do you agree with our views?"

The good old man Shi Kefa knows the root cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty. However, he believes that such a radical approach is too fussy and is indeed shaking the country and the foundation of governance. This is really inappropriate.

"My father-in-law is right. If you do this, you will destroy the south of the Yangtze River. If the north cannot be controlled, and the emperor hunts south, he still needs a stable south as a foundation. If you continue like this, you will destroy your foundation."

"So, this kind of thing must stop. Our family immediately issued an order to the commander of the Jinyi Guards in Nanjing, asking him to order the arrest of all the northern Jinyi Guards and expel them from the south. Please help the Ministry of History and War, go to Beijing, and tell the truth about the New Deal in the south To avoid the disaster, impeach King Xin to disrupt the government and restore the ancestral system."

For such an important matter, it is necessary to send a heavyweight person to it to be effective.

Shi Kefa bowed: "I respect your father-in-law's order."

"In order to have a helper, please ask Mr. Chen to cooperate."

Master Chen here is Chen Que, the censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate, who studied under Huang Daozhou. But he was also an ideological outlier. He publicly stood up to deny the Great Learning, doubted the Doctrine of the Mean, and opposed the official Neo-Confucianism of the Song and Ming Dynasties. We also proceed from reality and oppose superstition of ghosts and gods, as well as sacrifices to sacrifices and generous burials. These actions attracted criticism and attacks, but he never gave in. In the end, he suffered a stroke from anger and did not change his mind.

In this way, Shi Kefa and Chen Que took the risk and came to Beijing to tell the emperor and ministers in Beijing about the turmoil caused by the New Deal in Jiangnan, demanding that the New Deal be abolished and that the king should not interfere in politics.

The country is about to be destroyed and the family is about to be destroyed. If you don't just act like a pig, why would you jump out and become a monster?

(End of this chapter)