Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 591

The meeting lasted for three full days. The whole meeting process was basically Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi talking, and then the large number of prefects and counties below were recording——thank God, they all brought the quill pens produced in Nanyang Otherwise, if you write tens of thousands of characters with a brush, you must not exhaust them to death!Yang Menglong and Fang Yizhi threw out one proposal after another, and then everyone discussed it, and finally passed it——Wang Rui and the others basically let Wang Rui and the others hang it on the tree.

The meeting ended successfully. Everyone signed, stamped, and filed the meeting minutes. Then everyone went back to their homes and went to their respective mothers to do what they were supposed to do. It was really neat and tidy.

Then, the Huguang Governor-General issued the first decree: new price and tax regulations were introduced, and the price increases and decreases for grain, salt, cloth, oil, vegetables, meat, medicine, ironware and other goods were fixed in black and white. Who dares to hoard and drive up prices again, hanging on treetops without negotiation? Those who are not convinced can rebel!As soon as this decree came out, those profiteers and gentry who had escaped the sweep of the Huguang army and were gearing up to make a big fight to recover their losses with profits were spitting blood like arrows...Aren't you cheating on me? No! How can I make money by hoarding and driving up prices?Needless to say, this decree completely offended them.

Then came the second decree: From now on, gold and silver coins will be issued, and the people of Huguang must go to the bank to exchange their gold and silver for equivalent gold and silver coins within one year, and no more broken silver will be allowed to circulate!Although this is a bit overbearing, the advantage is that you don't have to pay the fire consumption—all you pay are complete gold or silver coins. Why do you ask us for fire consumption?As soon as this decree came out, many officials in Huguang vomited three liters of blood and scolded their father... The fire consumption is no longer allowed, how can we play!
Yang Menglong said that those who are dissatisfied can rebel.

The third decree: abolish the poll tax. From now on, taxes will be collected in proportion to the actual output of the respective fields. At the same time, investigation stations will be set up in each township to investigate the actual grain harvest of each township. Who dares to kill others!
Basically, as soon as these three items came out, the whole Huguang was already in a state of anger and resentment. All the gray income and other things were gone, and the space for those petty officials to deceive others was also compressed. Boss, please give me a way to survive!I don’t know how many officials are unwilling to give up. However, the people of Huguang said that it is clearly written in black and white. If you want to mess up, you’d better seek the advice of the strong crossbows in our hands first!
Li Yan smiled bitterly and said to Yang Menglong: "Sir, by doing this you have offended all the gentry in Huguang!"

Yang Menglong shrugged and said, "If I don't want to offend them, I can only offend the people. The lesser of two evils, it's better for them to cry than tens of thousands of people in Huguang, right?"

Li Yan asked with some worry: "Of course what you are implementing is good governance, but can the court agree?"

Yang Menglong snorted: "How about they try to disagree?"

To put it bluntly, this kid no longer takes the imperial court seriously. He wants to govern the region according to his own ideals, and no one else can interfere!If you insist on intervening... Hehe, believe it or not, I will ask Wang Rui to bring 30 to 10,000 people to go north, and by the way, release the captured [-]+ bandits to play with you?

The core of Huguang's New Deal is the redistribution of tax bearers.In the past during the Ming Dynasty - or going back 1000 years, the gentry class did not have to pay taxes, and businessmen also tried their best to evade taxes. In the end, almost all of the country's taxes fell on the farmers with the lowest incomes, making them breathless. But here, it has been this way for more than 1000 years, and no one thinks there is anything wrong.The core of Huguang's New Deal is to make the rich pay more taxes and the poor to pay less or even no taxes. It's completely the other way around.However, the New Deal did not encounter much resistance in Jingxiang, Wuhan and other places. The reason is very simple: the gentry class in Hunan and Hubei who pride themselves on tax evasion and naturally suck the blood of the common people have been basically wiped out, while the emerging classes... ...Sorry, in the face of the turbulent public sentiment among the people of Huguang, they dare not jump out to boycott the New Deal, otherwise the whole family will be cremated in minutes!
Limin Bank began to issue gold and silver coins in the three towns of Wuhan, Jingzhou, and Xiangyang. Those exquisitely crafted and high-quality gold and silver coins caused a sensation as soon as they were listed. Large ingots of silver ingots or a bag of broken silver are much more convenient, and it didn't take long for people from various stations to exchange their silver to form a long queue.In the mint, minters melted silver melons weighing hundreds of catties one by one, and the machine ran 24 hours a day to mint them into coins.Without much effort, gold and silver coins flowed freely in the market. After all, it is much more convenient to carry a bag of silver coins than a bag of finely broken silver, isn't it?
The Huguang New Deal is like a huge meteorite crashing into the sea, which caused a thousand waves. Poorer provinces like Huguang, Anhui, Fujian, Henan, Sichuan, and Shaanxi are of course applauded, although there are also many people who denounce Yang Menglong hoarsely. It's nonsense and it's shaking the country's foundation, but after all, the poor make up the vast majority, and their little voice of opposition has been completely drowned out.But in Jiangnan, there was a lot of cursing, and the Donglin Party jumped up and down like taking medicine, citing scriptures, and greeted all eighteen generations of Yang Menglong's ancestors. The words were elegant and the curses were vicious. The vixen blushed at the sight.The gentry should pay grain as one body, increase business taxes, cancel fire consumption, poll tax, and servitude... These are all digging into their roots!This is simply unreasonable. What the hell is your new strategy?Why do we feel so much malice?All of a sudden, Jiangnan officials, retired veterans, top figures of the Donglin Party, and even hot-blooded scholars all jumped out of their heads. Buried Chongzhen!

Poor Chongzhen looked at the memorials that had been piled up to the roof beams, and rolled his eyes helplessly. There are so many memorials, let alone reading them one by one, even if they are spread out one by one, it will take several days. ah!

Since you can't look at it, you might as well stop looking at it, throw them all into the stove, and burn them all away.Chongzhen doesn't care about anything now, he just hopes that Yang Menglong will fulfill his promise and pay several times more money and food after taking over Huguang, so that he can live a luxurious life for a few days!
The emperor liked to hear it, but all the officials quit. These nonsense new policies have touched their interests, no, they have touched their souls, uncle can bear it, aunt can't bear it!Probably because the anger was too much, those civil and military officials had health problems, and a large number of them asked for sick leave or returned home. The meaning behind the words was the same: you quickly get rid of that bastard, or we will go on strike!

Chongzhen had a big headache. If he continued like this, all his people would run away, and no one would help him with his work. What should he do?There is nothing I can do, just try to persuade them one by one. If they ask for a high price, they will pay back the money when they get there.

Amidst the wrangling and nonsense, another month has passed by. The Huguang New Deal has been fully rolled out and has quickly won the hearts and minds of the people. As time goes by, its foundation is getting stronger and stronger. It is not so easy to shake it.However, Qin Mai and Wang Rui were still racing all the way towards Guangdong. It seemed that they were not finished until they reached the end of the sea. The force pointed by the soldiers was like a snowball, and no one could stop them.Moreover, what is even more ominous is that similar reforms have also begun in Damingdao, Zhendingfu, Xuanda, and Ningxia. Although they are not as radical as Yang Menglong's, their determination is unshakable. They will issue new currency, standardize prices, cancel Fire consumption, head coins, reforming the tax system...everything is planned and laid out calmly.At this time, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty, which had been noisy at first, suddenly became quiet.

If it was said that Yang Menglong was just messing around, they could have yelled loudly and forced Chongzhen to withdraw Yang Menglong, but since Lu Xiangsheng also followed suit, they had to think twice before acting.You must know that these two men hold the two most powerful forces in the Ming Dynasty and control more than half of the land in the Ming Dynasty. If you want to arm-wrestle with these two men, it is best to weigh your own weight first.

Noisy talk no longer works, practical actions must be taken to stop this reform that is enough to dig out their roots, otherwise they will be swept into the garbage dump of history sooner or later!

Yang Menglong seems careless, careless no matter what he does, but he pays attention to the movement of the capital all the time.Ever since he decided to implement the New Deal, he has been thinking about what tricks the court will use to deal with him, and how he should deal with it.

Like Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty, he issued twelve gold medals to call him to Beijing, and then charged him with an unfounded crime?

What a joke, you can't even do anything to that long-legged flying general Zu Dashou, and you still want to use this trick against me?Go ahead and play with eggs!
Directly send troops to attack?

This is possible, the rabbit bites people when it is in a hurry, not to mention he is digging people's roots!After all means were declared ineffective, sending troops to crusade became the last option.However, what I am most afraid of is your useless army that can only walk more than ten miles a day, and walk hundreds of miles before the enemy comes to attack!
Send an assassin over to kill him?

Buying his cronies to poison him?

Calling on Jiangnan merchants to impose an economic blockade on Huguang?
still is……

Unexpectedly, May has arrived.A Jin Yiwei rushed to Wuhan from the capital at one go, bringing with him the final decision of the imperial court. After reading the dense coverage, Yang Menglong's expression became quite strange, and he asked, "Is the news true?"

The Jin Yiwei who was exhausted and half dead said: "It's absolutely true! The emperor appointed the Zuo Zongbing of the Changping Army as the general to suppress the bandits, and ordered him to lead the [-] Changping Army to the south to help the Lord put down the chaos in Huguang! When the villain left, General Ping Zei has led more than a thousand cavalry to set off first, and [-] infantry have also set off, and Hou Shangshu will supervise the army to go south quickly, and the action is swift, the Lord Hou should have made preparations early!"

Yang Menglong pinched his chin and murmured: "I thought there was some clever trick, so I just sent Zuo Xiaoshou to make trouble for me... Come on, general thief, let me see how capable you are!"

(End of this chapter)