Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 8 Ascension Today (This chapter is free)

Another Confucian scholar dressed up next to him snorted and said, "No wonder Enxiang attaches great importance to meeting him. This strategy of killing two birds with one stone is really clever. However, today I love long scrolls of fine brushwork. It is also difficult to get into the eyes of the Holy One. If this picture is presented to the Holy One, I am afraid that the old thief will not be able to deceive the Holy One." The painter Zhang Zeduan was found by him, so Luo Ruji is also quite complacent.

The two of them are confidantes of Deputy Prime Minister Zhao Zhifu.Although Zhao Zhifu was recommended by Cai Jing as prime minister, he secretly cultivated his party members in an attempt to fight against Cai Jing.Because Qin Hui has a city in his chest, his demeanor is calm, and he is decisive in handling things, he has won the trust of Zhao Zhifu, and he is specially assigned to be a noble doctor of the country to accumulate students and popularity.And Luo Ruji is also a member of the Criminal Department, Wailang, a man who eats people without spit out his bones, and has eyes above his head.

Hearing that Luo Ruji's words were not secretive, Qin Hui's eyes flashed with dissatisfaction. He glanced at the painter and saw that he was concentrating on sketching landscape figures and didn't seem to pay attention to the conversation between the two adults, so he snorted, shook his head, and sighed. Said: "The position of the old thief in the heart of the Holy One is as stable as Mount Tai. Can a picture be shaken? It's just that if you do many unrighteous actions, you will kill yourself. When the time is right in the future, it may be of some use." After a moment of sinking, he changed the subject and said, "Brother Yanji, the gangsters of the old thief have mobilized the yamen servants and the forbidden army, but are you sure?"

"That's right." Luo Ruji's face was 'colored', Qin Hui nodded slightly, 'groan' oh no words.

Luo Ruji next to him continued ignorantly: "Speaking of which, the theory written by Huang Zhoushan is not only to the left of Yuanyou's academics, but also different from the "treacherous" party's pseudo-academics. After careful scrutiny, it is similar to the Xixia Liangsu's theories. , specifically inciting unreasonable people, slandering the ruler, making false remarks that "the rise and fall of the world is our responsibility", "taking the benefits of the world for selfish desires, and calling them national thieves." , only allowed him to give him a head, but who knew that he became more and more powerful, and he actually opposed the two ways of managing money through bidding and intermediary. He has a lot of knowledge and wealth, but he doesn't know that this dynasty adheres to the will of Prime Minister Wang and regards the country's financial management as the most important thing. He only looks at the ministers of the court Scholars, except for a few scholars who don't know the heights of the sky and the depths of the earth, there are only these traffickers and pawns who come to see you off, so you know that this person is ignorant of current affairs, lost his way and has no help, hum!"

He babbled endlessly, but Qin Hui only frowned slightly, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.The sea of ​​people who saw them off suddenly became agitated, and the slight ripples quickly spread into boiling waves.

"Master Huang, Master Huang is here." The people crowded on the Hongqiao leaned over the guardrails on both sides to look around. Climbing up a few more steps, he stretched his neck desperately.Even scholars such as Zhao Xingde and Li Rui, who were submerged in the crowd, were infected with inexplicable excitement, and involuntarily rushed to the official road at Dongjiaozimen with the flow of people.

The bustling crowd has blocked the way from the east corner gate to the Bianhe wharf.I saw a large group of disciples, surrounded by two middle-aged men in Confucian robes, slowly stepping out from the East Jiaozi Gate. Behind the group of Confucian scholars, there were several ox carts carrying their family members and soft goods. The escort officer of Kaifeng Mansion led more than a dozen government servants with their chests and belly protruding, and they drove away the crowd blocking the way with beards and glaring eyes.

The people of Bianliang usually see the officials like sheep seeing wolves, but now they just rush forward, three layers inside and three layers outside, enclosing Huangzhoushan and his party with water.People in the front row tiptoed to look around, while those in the back row could only see the heads of the front row, "Master Huang!" I heard an idle man chattering and saying: "This 'treacherous' Prime Minister Cai Jing's party is transformed by demons and goblins, who specially descend to the mortal world to trouble the government and poison the living. Cai Jing is a bear monster, Mrs. Gao Wei is a horse demon, Liang Shicheng Tongguan is the reincarnation of two castrated pig demons in the previous life, Li Bangyan is a sheep demon, fortunately I have Master Huang..."

Since I ascended the throne today, taxes and taxes have become more and more serious day by day, and officials have used their hands to 'force' the people to become tighter every day. Prime Minister Cai Jing and others have tried their best to collect money to please Shangyi. Officials are also filling their pockets. In the countryside, when the grain is not yet ripe, the government collects taxes in advance for summer and autumn.Even worse than pre-collecting the two taxes is pre-borrowing. Some Jiangnan prefectures have pre-borrowed the two taxes ten years later. What makes the people cry is that after the former magistrate was promoted, most of the subsequent magistrates The two taxes on advance borrowing are not recognized.

Cai Jing used "financial management for the country" as his flamboyance, playing with his brains, cleverly setting up names, and extorting violent taxes. In the early years of Taizu, the silk and hemp used by the government was still bought with money, and now it is as free as the two taxes. Grain and grass, large buckets in, small buckets out, saving consumption, mouse consumption, warehouse consumption, all folk money and goods transactions are collected from the system, and the monthly pile money specially collected to increase military expenditure is the most complicated. The names of cleverly established monthly piles of money include attracting money, accepting money for jealousy, selling paper money, and even paying happy money after winning a lawsuit, and so on.

After Cai Jing came to power, he simply converted land tax and cloth into coins for the common people to pay, which was called "Zhebo money".Ordinary peasants don’t have much money to save, and the common people have to borrow money from merchants at high interest rates. In a famine year, they cannot make ends meet, and there is a risk of starvation and selling their children. The price is low, and the money people get after selling grain is often not enough to pay taxes, so they have to sell the rations.When paying taxes, people are often blackmailed by corrupt officials.Huang Jian denounced it in his letter: "The imperial court is violent, greedy from top to bottom, deboning and sucking marrow, doing everything, so that all businesses in the market are withered, people's blood is not preserved, and the local area is exhausted."

Among the scholars of the Manchu Dynasty, only Master Huang in front of him spoke uprightly and wrote a letter to ask for the abolition of exorbitant taxes, but he was demoted to Qiongzhou. On the ground, many people staggered and fell to their knees, crying for Huang Jian loudly while crying.

Huang Jian bowed his hands to the four sides several times to thank them, but the crowd persisted and did not move out of the way.Huang Jiansuo stopped in his tracks, looked at the Bianliang people surrounded by him with emotion, and sighed: "When I was an envoy to the Liao Kingdom, I discussed the general situation of the world with the ministers of the Liao Kingdom. Weak and courageous, as a country of servants and maidservants, we are more than successful, but not aggressive. But today, I see that the people of our Central Plains, although suppressed, have not lost their vitality. We only need one or two British lords to rectify. Northern Wei Khitan, strong summer suits, it's not a bad idea." Turning back to Shao Wu, the censor who saw him off, he said: "The traitors are in power, the corrupt officials are rampant, and the fools have been chased away. To help the community, we must stop brother Ge. Don't worry about it."

Shao Wu nodded, and replied: "Brother Zhoushan's words are reasonable, but the imperial court has its own rules and regulations. If people's spirits are flourishing, there will be 'chaos'. This is exactly what you mean by recruiting the strongest of the refugees in every disaster year." He and Huang Zhoushan have different views on both academic and political opinions. Cai Jing's strong character of confrontation made him not hesitate to violate the taboo of the "treacherous" party, and gathered disciples from all disciples to send him off, but in terms of morality and political views, they must never be compromised.

Zhao Xingde, Li Rui, Chen Dong, Zhang Bing, Deng Su, He Fang and other imperial students, relying on their status as imperial scholars, had already squeezed into the front row at this time, and Zhao Xingde also saw Huang Jian's appearance as a great Confucian in the world for the first time.I saw that he was not tall, a little thin, with narrow and long cheeks, three long beards under his chin, thick eyebrows, dark skin that did not look like a scholar, but his eyes were very sharp.