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

Chapter 754 Hurt each other
Yang Menglong's disaster relief methods were extremely brutal, and there were so many tricks. The grain merchants, human traffickers, gentry, and underground money houses in Henan and Shandong provinces, I don't know how many people scolded the warriors for overthrowing the soldiers, and the disaster of the feudal towns is not far away.Yang Menglong ruined his decent reputation in the court at an astonishing speed. Countless scholar-bureaucrats gritted their teeth at him, wishing to gnaw his flesh and drink his blood!It's no wonder, since the Song Dynasty, there have always been only civil servants and generals. When did you try to be ridden on their heads by a lowly warrior?What a shame!

However, they soon discovered that, in terms of disaster relief, literati seem to have a darker hand...

Lu Xiangsheng was busy managing outside the customs and couldn't spare a hand to deal with the disaster, so he had to delegate power.Fortunately, in Hebei, there will be no big troubles under the support of Da Ming Dao. In Shanxi, he handed it over to Li Chongshi. He has full authority to deal with disaster relief matters in Shaanxi, and anyone who dares to make money in the country's calamity will be killed without mercy!

The man surnamed Sun is exactly Sun Chuanting.

Now things are big.

Sun Chuanting is both civil and military. He was able to kill thieves with a knife when he was on a horse, and he was able to govern the country when he was off his horse. He was a rare talent. He originally trained the Qin army. Since then, it has been prosperous.However, history is already in chaos now. Gao Yingxiang became the ghost under the knife of the Tianxiong Army as early as the year before last. , Sun Chuanting has no chance of becoming famous, which is really unlucky.Fortunately, gold shines everywhere. After Lu Xiangsheng took over the military and political power of the Nine Frontiers, he was also under Lu Xiangsheng's command. He quickly showed his talent, and then he was promoted all the way, gradually reaching a high position.Now Lu Xiangsheng not only has to manage the Hetao area, but also has to deal with the swarming Mongolian cavalry. Now Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places have encountered rare hailstorms, and he is even more devastated. There can be no more chaos, once there is chaos, the world will be in chaos!

It was a rare opportunity to be alone, so Sun Chuanting was naturally excited, and started disaster relief with hundreds of elite soldiers.His method of disaster relief is simpler and cruder than Yang Menglong's: Is there a bandit making trouble?Kill him!Someone lend usury?I think you are tired of living!Grain merchants raise grain prices?Grandma, my big knife is already hungry and thirsty!In less than a month after he took office, this man took over 60 underground money houses for usury, shut down more than 80 grain shops that raised grain prices, and killed more than [-] human traffickers. As for how many bandits were killed, he was too lazy to count. Well, anyway, in his eyes, those bandits are not considered human beings.After the situation in Shaanxi stabilized a bit, he started two big moves.

The first big move was to mobilize farmers to rebuild the Qin Zhidao and provide relief with work.This is undoubtedly a visionary decision. Qin Zhidao directly leads from Xianyang to the Hetao Plain. It is only a matter of time before the Tianxiong Army takes the Hetao Plain. The Hetao area is about to usher in a large-scale development. A large part will be transported to the customs. If the Qinzhi Road can be rebuilt and turned into a highway from the Hetao Plain directly to the customs, Shaanxi will seize the opportunity and get huge benefits.Besides, Qin Zhidao has been using it intermittently for 2000 years. It is said that it is a reconstruction. In fact, the amount of work is not very large. It can be completed in one year. The investment is small and the efficiency is high. It is an idiot not to do it!This proposal has been unanimously approved by Lu Xiangsheng and the common people in Shaanxi. What else is there to say?Do it!
The second big move is to re-measure the acres of land and check the accounts. The gentry from all over Shaanxi must spit out all the fertile land with unknown history, and pay back the tax money owed for so many years-if you don’t pay me, where can I find money to build Qin Zhidao!As soon as this article came out, the whole of Shaanxi exploded, and the gentry were so furious that they almost pointed at Sun Chuanting's nose and shouted: "Go and ask others to see when I have paid taxes, sir!"

Sun Chuanting said that you are neither willing to pay taxes nor die, I am really embarrassed!

Tian Xiongjun, who has rich experience in confiscating homes, said that he was dissatisfied with the rule and immediately dispatched as soon as the deadline was up. He went straight to the homes of major tax evaders, broke down the doors, arrested people, and ransacked the homes... This time it was not as simple as paying the tax arrears. You have to go bankrupt to save this old life.For a time, the prisons in various prefectures in Shaanxi were overcrowded, and the cries were loud. Sun Chuanting's popularity skyrocketed, to the point where he could stop a child from crying at night!
The gentry were surprisingly angry: Your uncle, we have nothing to do with Yang Menglong and endured it. After all, this bastard is the champion of the Ming Dynasty. If you want a gun, you have a gun, and you want money. It’s very difficult, but you, Sun Chuanting Which temple is full of green onions, and dare to ride on top of Lao Tzu's head to play wild?I can't stand it anymore!The complaints flew to the capital like a blizzard. There were so many that it was more than enough to cremate Sun Chuanting's family. Famous cruel officials like Du Zhou and Du Zhou are all invited here, and they have to kneel when they meet the Great Devil Sun!
Then that was it, the zhezi sent to the capital were thrown into the trash can. Sun Chuanting continued to arrest people when he disagreed, killed people when he didn't like it, and gave him all the people who refused to pay taxes and return illegally occupied farmland. die!His friend advised him: "It's better not to do too much in your work. The gentry are quite well-connected in the court. If you offend them all, I'm afraid you will die without a burial place!" He just smiled, but he didn't say anything at all. Listen in.In fact, he knew very well that the quelling of the rogue rebellion was just an illusion. If the gang of bastards who were desperately trying to mass-produce rogues could not be uprooted, Shaanxi would still be in chaos sooner or later, and once chaos broke out, the world would be in chaos!He looked at his face and saw that Lu Xiangsheng had actually wanted to move to Shaanxi for a long time, but he just couldn't spare his time. Well, you are not free, I am free, and I will do all the dirty work for you!He didn't care at all what the Jin gentry thought of him, because he knew that once Chongzhen was blamed, Lu Xiangsheng would stand up for him. Besides, Chongzhen had been unhappy with those vampires in Shaanxi for a long time. This kind of person could be famous without taking too many risks. If you don't do it, you'd be a fool!

Fortunately, there is Yang Menglong in Henan and Shandong, Li Chongshi in Shanxi, and Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi. These three presented a song "Three Auspicious Treasures" to the Ming gentry... Of course, it is full of horror.The civil servants were collectively angry, and one after another went to Chongzhen to demand that these three be taken down and held accountable. Many emissaries cried with tears and snot: "Your Majesty, the country has always treated scholars and gentry favorably. This is the foundation of the founding of the Ming Dynasty." Now, those three traitors are using the name of disaster relief to oppress scholars and gentry, blackmailing and killing them wantonly. This is to destroy the foundation of Daming! If they are not taken down as soon as possible, and Daming will be restored, Daming will not be able to survive. Country!"

Chongzhen looked displeased: "Just let those gentry pay up the tax money they owed before, and the country will lose the country? Is the Ming Dynasty so vulnerable?"

"Of course the gentry don't care about these little things, but these traitors wantonly apportioned blackmail under the pretext of collecting tax money, causing countless gentry families to be ruined and killed. It can be described as a heinous crime!"

"How did I hear that those gentry were arrested because they refused to pay taxes?"

"Of course there are gentry who refuse to pay taxes, but it's enough to blame a few words. It's too much to arrest them! Daming is not short of that little money. It's a trivial matter to force their family to be ruined for such a small amount." Great job!"

……

All in all, all in all, the logic of these civil servants is: Ming Dynasty has always treated scholars and gentry favorably. They invaded good land and evaded taxes. It’s fine if they are willing to pay or not, but arresting them or even beheading them for this little land tax money is too much, absolutely unbearable!Not only the officials of the DPRK and China are making trouble, but scholars from all provinces are also jumping up and making trouble. Among them, the scholars in Jiangnan are the most violent. Jiangnan is a paradise for tax evasion. A magical place with 200 taels of silver!Although Yang Menglong and others can't control them at all, it does not prevent these scholars from Jiangnan from jumping up, reciting poems, composing Fu, and writing articles, criticizing the behavior of Yang Menglong and others with sharp words, vicious curses, and turning right from wrong. The high strength of the ability is all eye-opening.Among them, Yang Menglong bears most of the firepower. Scholars continue to come to Nanyang and Wuhan to scold him, and those vicious articles that can scold him to death are also flying in like snowflakes. He will not receive one or two hundred articles a day. Excuse me to go out and say hello to people.

Of course, he couldn't read any of these articles.Liu Ziyan tried to translate for him, but after reading half of the article, her pretty face turned pale with anger, her body trembled slightly, and she was speechless.

Yang Menglong said with a smile: "Don't be angry, it's too cheap to be angry with those bastards... They write articles to scold me, I just write articles to scold me back. A lawsuit is nothing more than hurting each other. Let's see who can't bear it first. I’ve never been afraid of anyone in this regard!”

Liu Ziyan said angrily: "With your literary talents, you can't even understand people scolding you, and you want to scold you back? Save yourself!" After thinking about it, she gritted her teeth and picked up the pen, "You read, I will write for you, You must scold them until they vomit blood!"

Yang Menglong shook his head repeatedly: "It's pointless to scold them. The best way is to let the whole world know what kind of bastards they are, and let the whole world scold them. This will be more interesting!"

Then it was easy to handle, and soon, "Nanyang Daily" published an article by an anonymous author. This article did not explain any major principles, but only listed the various preferential treatment enjoyed by a scholar with the most straightforward words and data. And the exorbitant taxes that a farmer has to pay every year, as well as the annual income and the amount of taxes paid by the Ming merchants.This man must be a data freak, the data is extremely detailed and clear at a glance (it is Cheng Qi's good deed at a glance).The author didn't comment much on this. Most of the thousands of words of the article listed numbers and gave examples. However, once it was published, this article immediately set off a terrible storm.Needless to say, all kinds of preferential treatment received by Ming scholars, 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. It will be even more serious after winning the exam. Three aunts, six wives, and two uncles will come to donate fields, and put their own lands in his name to evade taxes confidently—of course, the benefits will not be missing him.If you become an official...not to mention being an official, even if you are temporarily dismissed from office and stay at home, there will still be a steady stream of support money into your pocket, especially the kind that is driven back by the emperor—— In the Ming Dynasty, being dismissed by the emperor because he contradicted the emperor was a matter of great dignity. In a few years, he could go back and continue to be an official, and he would be promoted several levels!

In contrast, the life of ordinary people can only be described as "terrible"...

Articles are still written in vernacular, as long as a literate person reads it, even an illiterate person can understand it.Because of this, the article quickly whipped up a terrible storm.The common people surround the newspaper readers, the more they listen, the redder their eyes become. His grandma, we have worked so hard all year round, and we can’t even eat enough. You don't have to do it, and the government will support it, why!When they heard that the commercial tax paid by Jiangnan was only two hundred taels a year, 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 taxes, but ordinary people like them who are dying of poverty have to sell their sons and daughters to make up the tax. Is it fair? ?
There is no harm without comparison, and this article has successfully caused tons of harm to hundreds of millions of ordinary people.When those scholars and scholars once again criticize Yang Menglong and others for killing the gentry in front of everyone, a lot of tiles will fly over immediately: "What the hell do you mean? The lives of you scholars are valuable Isn't it? The life of our poor people is also our life!" The hot-tempered one even rolled up his sleeves and started working, beating these white-faced scholars until their noses and faces were bruised.

At the same time, the sales of stainless steel produced in Wuyang suddenly became extremely hot. Many honest people bought stainless steel, and then asked a blacksmith to beat it into a rooster shape, and gave it to Jiangnan merchants when they found the opportunity.The Jiangnan businessman saw that he was an iron rooster, and he was in a bad mood, so he asked, "Brother, what do you mean?"

Gift giver: "It's nothing interesting, I just chose for a long time, and I still think this stainless steel iron rooster is the most suitable for you... Although the iron rooster is not plucking at all, it will still shed some rust. You are more ruthless than iron roosters, and you can't even scrape off a little rust! "

(End of this chapter)