Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 311

Yan Yingyuan stabbed Ge Zongbao, the former member of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, in the chest. After pulling out the knife, he led a group of people into the backyard of the big family Ge's house.

In the early morning of the second day, all the adult males of the Ge family in the entire Ge family compound were killed, not only the Ge family, but also the Pan family, Xu family, etc., and almost met Li Tianjing, the new prefect of Songjiang Prefecture. The gentry and their families were wiped out within a few days at this moment.

The outside world thought it was pirates, and Li Tianjing, the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture, also posted an Anmin notice, saying that there was only a small group of pirates harassing, and the guards were called in to suppress the bandits.

In addition, the main place where Yan Yingyuan of the Guards took revenge on some restless gentry under the order of Zhu Youjian was not in the intersection of Huangpu and Wusongkou, so the ordinary people and merchants here were not affected much. See The Yamen of the prefect of Songjiang put up a notice of safety for the people, and when it was heard that the guards were about to suppress the bandits, the trade of the entire commercial port was not greatly affected.

On this day, several large ships transported men, women and children under the age of 15 from various big families who were opposed to the imperial court to Wusongkou, and then Liu Kongzhao sent naval ships to transport them to the Zheng Group-controlled area of ​​Dongfan Island.

For a while, the rich and powerful families in Suzhou and Songjiang were shocked when they heard that countless big and powerful families who opposed the imperial court were eradicated, and even exiled overseas. I didn't dare to say anything anymore.

The local officials and gentry in the entire Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures also fell silent at this time, and they did not dare to do anything more clearly. They did not expect that they killed a magistrate and provoked such strong revenge from His Majesty!

Although the officials and gentry of Su Song at this time did not dare to know what to do, they are now even more resentful of His Majesty's revenge. In their view, half of Daming's current taxes and food are provided by them, while Songjiang Mansion opened a port, but they didn't take advantage of it, and they were cleared of their fields, so they ended up with nothing.

In addition, now the central government is dominated by officials from Jiangxi and Zhejiang. Whether it is Daji or Jingcha, these officials in Southern Zhili are all at a disadvantage. Therefore, Zhu Youjian directly uses the army to pretend to be pirates to violently suppress the unrest. Although the act of distributing the squires frightened the squires in Susong, their hatred for Zhu Youjian deepened.

Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian also knew that what he did was tantamount to using the most brutal means to deter these Su Song and even many officials and gentry in Jiangnan who were dissatisfied with the current government and the distribution of benefits would deepen their hatred of him.

But Zhu Youjian had to do this. He knew that there was no absolutely perfect New Deal in this world. Since the benefits were to be redistributed, a class would definitely be harmed. , should also bleed, and whenever the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River and even the officials in the south of the Yangtze River are hit, it is the time when the court is the most stable.

As for whether these Jiangnan officials and gentry will cause chaos, Zhu Youjian is naturally not worried. Now in the entire empire, the only ones who can contend with his imperial power are the traditional squires and pirate groups in Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. Firms and commercial squires in the south of the Yangtze River.

The traditional squires mainly focus on farming, studying and inheriting their families. Like the commercial squires in the south of the Yangtze River, they control the local grassroots. The repeated land tax cuts have caused more of the country's agricultural income to flow into the hands of these traditional gentry and small and medium-sized landlords of the common clan. They are the majority of the official and gentry class in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, no matter how much Zhu Youjian rioted in the south of the Yangtze River, the Ming regime would not fall into chaos.

The pirate group Zheng's firm is logically speaking, and the commercial gentry in Jiangnan belongs to a new class, that is, the capitalist class, but Zheng's firm has its own armed forces, which is different from Jiangnan gentry, but Zhu Youjian passed The tax-free privilege tied Zheng's Group and himself to the same carriage. It can be said that both prosperity and loss are the same. Therefore, it is now impossible for Zheng's Group to fight against its own Ming court.

Now only the commercial gentry in the south of the Yangtze River are left. What they don't realize is that they have been completely isolated by Chongzhen Zhu Youjian.

Although the officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River controlled the grassroots organizations, agricultural income, and even commercial income in the most affluent area of ​​Ming Dynasty, they did not have their own armed forces. As the emperor, Zhu Youjian now had his own military power. With the support of most of the traditional gentry and Zheng's group, Zhu Youjian is currently in a state of comprehensive suppression of the officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhu Youjian's guards are rewarded by his own royal capital, and the imperial court's income provides military pay, but now the main income of the imperial court and the royal capital comes from the competition for the commercial interests of the officials and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. The guards with strong land armed forces will not oppose Chongzhen Zhu Youjian's comprehensive suppression of Jiangnan officials and gentry.

Even, Zhu Youjian is still using the control of the theater and the transferred personnel of the guards to enrich the grassroots officials and infiltrate the local grassroots in Jiangnan, so as to gradually erode the ruling power of Jiangnan officials and gentry at the grassroots.

Zhu Youjian is not worried that Jiangnan officials and gentry will openly rebel, and he also believes that he will not be able to rebel. During the joint expansion of the two trust armed capital groups (Zhu Youjian and Zheng Zhilong), the Jiangnan officials and gentry who are like a loose sand naturally do not want to rebel. possible to protect their own interests.

But Zhu Youjian is now worried that these Jiangnan officials and gentry, who are destined to lose political power and economic interests, will jump the wall in a hurry and use other means such as assassination and supporting agents to protect their own interests.

Zhu Youjian didn't know when someone would suddenly kill him. From getting up in the morning to eating at night to going to bed at night, he began to get a little nervous, afraid that he would die suddenly like Zhu Houzhao and Zhu Youxiao. For this reason, he has already postponed the sacrificial offering at the Xiannong Altar next month and sent King Yong to replace him.

That's right, Zhu Youjian sent King Yong, not an important minister in the court or the prince Zhu Cihong. The report of Dongchang Ma Jixiang made him realize that the prince is also his potential enemy, even though he is now his own son.

Fortunately, Zhu Youjian is a time traveler, and he didn't have a deep relationship with Zhu Cihong, nor did he feel so uncomfortable.

Zhu Youjian deliberately used this to send a signal to the officials of the imperial court that he had a potential plan to abolish the prince.

Of course, Zhu Youjian was also worried that some officials who supported the prince would overreact, so he had to be more concerned about his personal safety.

Now Zhu Youjian doesn't dare to go out of the palace easily, and he doesn't dare to go out to play casually anymore. Today, he almost only stays in the entire Qianqing Palace, and even started the system of flopping cards.

(End of this chapter)