Chapter 85 What qualifications do you have to ask me for mercy? The land of officials and gentry must be clear!

  Tian Qi met with these civil servants and asked, "Does the outage of grain have anything to do with you?"

   Shen Yongmao replied first: "Of course it doesn't matter."

   "It doesn't matter, what are you doing here to cry and remonstrate!"

   "The traitors and thieves who conspired to cooperate with the water transport and the local officials to cut off the grain, and tried to cause chaos in the world, should be dealt with according to the law!"

   "As for what Uncle Zhang Guo and Zhao Yan did, I already know very well that it is not considered to frame Zhongliang and attack dissidents, and you should stop slandering at will! Otherwise, I will not forgive lightly! Everyone retreat!"

   Tianqi said in a bad mood.

   "Your Majesty!"

  Shen Yongmao couldn't help shouting, and then bowed to the ground, weeping and said: "The subjects of the world who don't lose food for the country know that they are wrong, please forgive me!"

   "When I asked you to donate food to save the country, few of you remembered me as a gentleman."

  Tian Qi asked at this point, "What qualifications do you have to beg me for mercy now?!"

   "Two million stones!"

  Shen Yongmao said a number, and then said: "I am willing to be the first to go to the Shu and ask for grain to be increased to two million shi. I only ask your majesty to withdraw the post of governor of Xichang and Zhezhi."

   "Your Majesty! The court's argument is not to bargain, and to increase the grain at will may be to increase the tax on the people. It is better to clear the acres of land first, and then decide how much the grain should be increased. Only in this way can the people not increase the tax and the country can use it."

  Yuan Keli expressed his opposition at this time.

  When he was a magistrate in Suzhou, he was determined to attack the powerful and advocate reform and innovation.

  If he is reused after Qi ascended the throne today, let him preside over the reform now. Even if Tian Qi wants to back down, he doesn't want to back down at this time.

  Some scholar-bureaucrats pursue fame and fortune, while others pursue merit, but what Yuan Keli pursues is merit.

  Seeing Yuan Keli saying this, Shen Yongmao gave him a dissatisfied look.

  Tian Qi wished Yuan Keli would stand up at this time.

  Although he likes carpentry and treats the people around him very well, as an emperor, he still knows some emperor skills, and he is willing to let Yuan Keli stand up to share the pressure for himself, and said:

"What Yuan Qing said is true. I can't give favors to the people at will, and I can't add gifts to the people at will. Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. How can it be like a child's play? I still say that meritorious deeds must be rewarded, and those who commit crimes must be punished. How to deal with it! How to deal with it! Administering the country is like holding a scale, I can't just let you civil servants commit a big treason, and of course, if my servants and close officials commit a big treason, I won't let you go."

   "That's all for today!"

   Apocalypse said and left here.

  Shen Yongmao and others had to resign.

  Yuan Keli also left Xiyuan.

  But as soon as Yuan Keli left Xiyuan, Shen Yongmao and other civil officials who failed to ask the emperor to show mercy stopped him.

   "Please stop!"

Shen Yongmao bowed his hands to Yuan Keli first, and said: "You, Yuan Liqing, want to restore the old government of Jiangling, and clear up the land in the world. We know it. But everyone is the son of a sage, and you, Yuan Liqing, are also from the Guide gentry family. Isn't it true? Do you really want to sit and watch Jiangnan officials and gentry being treated so harshly by Uncle Zhang Guo and Zhao Fushi?!"

  Yuan Keli replied bluntly: "If the officials and gentry took the initiative to cooperate with the New Deal, these things would not happen."

Shen Yongmao sneered: "Although it is so, Zhao Fushi was recommended by you, and he is also your best friend. Naturally, what he does is under your orders from Yuan Liqing. Now he cooperates with Uncle Zhang Guo to kill officials and gentry in Yangzhou to gain power. Could it be that you, Yuan Liqing, didn't have your instruction? You, Yuan Liqing, can't withdraw Zhao Yan, or write a letter to make him restrain Zhao Yan? It's rare that you really want to cut yourself off from the scholar-bureaucrats, just to flatter the powerful and cater to your wishes?!"

Yuan Keli was furious after hearing this, and said: "My lords! He, Zhao Fushi, is the Governor of Zhejiang Province, and went to the south of the Yangtze River to carry out reforms. It is my recommendation. But have you ever thought about it? What are the consequences?"

   "What consequences can there be, nothing more than that he, Zhao Fushi, will be judged incompetent by His Majesty, and he will be dismissed from office!"

  Shen Yong Maodao.

"Don't you understand, Your Majesty has no trust in our civil servants now! If a capable minister like Zhao Fushi doesn't take the initiative to reform, His Majesty will completely abandon our civil servants, and directly let foreign relatives intervene in politics, or let eunuchs participate Political affairs in foreign courts! We must let His Majesty understand that we civil servants are still willing to do things, and the Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the time when we can only rely on eunuchs and military officials to govern everywhere!"

Yuan Keli said loudly and said: "Believe it or not, if I wait for the civil servants to seek the country again, Your Majesty will make Wei Zhongxian ten times more vicious than he is now. I am afraid that the uncle of the country will not only collect taxes on behalf of the emperor, but also on behalf of the emperor. regent!"

  Shen Yongmao knew that what Yuan Keli said was true, but what he cared more about now was that his Shen family's tens of thousands of mu of hidden land in Suzhou would be expelled due to the clearing of the farm.

   It can be said that as long as he does not know Zhang Tianmu, he would rather be **** dictatorship or foreign relatives intervene in politics than see civil servants and foreign relatives and military officials in his hometown to clear Zhang Tianmu.

  But Shen Yongmao can’t directly refute Yuan Keli’s statement that it’s wrong to prevent eunuchs or relatives from becoming bigger. After all, preventing eunuchs or relatives from becoming bigger is politically correct in a civil government.

  So, he was dumb for a moment, thinking carefully but didn't dare to speak out, so he could only stare at Yuan Keli, holding back his anger.

Yuan Keli continued: "Therefore, not only can we not make Zhao Fushi restrain, but we must also make him work harder than Uncle Guo! We must let His Majesty know that our civil servants do not need foreign relatives or other forces to use whips behind us to be successful. Do business! I decided to write another letter to tell Zhao Fushi that he should be more ruthless than Uncle Guo when implementing the New Deal!"

  Yuan Keli flung his sleeves and left after speaking.

  Shen Yongmao: "..."

  …

  Nanzhi, Yingtianfu.

  Zhang Gui, Zhao Yan and others have been in Nanjing for many days, and they are waiting for the officials above the county magistrates in Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces to come to the newly established governor's office to accept relevant arrangements.

  Nanzhi and Zhejiang cover the later generations of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanghai, Zhejiang and other places, and are currently the richest and most densely populated places in Ming Dynasty.

   Officials, gentry and powerful are also the most powerful.

  Because the initial capital of the Ming Dynasty was in Nanjing, there were many dignitaries.

   Therefore, it is not easy to clear Zhang Tianmu in these two places.

   Fortunately, Zhang Gui used the heads of the Governor of Water Transport and the General Soldier of Huai'an, while Zhao Yan used the heads of officials, gentry and rich merchants in Yangzhou Prefecture to establish his prestige first, expressing his attitude of directly throwing the table if he does not cooperate.

   Therefore, Yingtian governor Zhou Qiyuan and other officials from Nanzhi and Zhejiang did not dare to confront each other.

  While waiting for the officials from the two places to arrive in Nanjing, Zhao Yan’s governor’s yamen hastened to recruit many humble scholars as staff members to prepare for the next work on Qingzhang’s fields.

  The literacy rate in Jiangnan is very high, there are many scholars, and there are also many scholars from poor families. In fact, these scholars from poor families have already suffered from land annexation and oppression by tyrants.

   Otherwise, at the end of the Ming Dynasty in history, there was an incident in which poor students organized the people to confiscate the Dong Qichang family. During the Chongzhen period, even the poor students represented by Xu Du directly rebelled.

   It can be said that the social contradictions in the late Ming Dynasty had intensified among scholars.

  Many poor scholars have been monopolized by big bureaucratic families because of their upward channels, and they have begun to accumulate dissatisfaction with society.

   Because of this, there are many humble scholars who come to the Governor's Yamen and are willing to work for Qingzhang's fields.

What's more, since the imperial examinations in Ming Dynasty have been controlled by most of the gentry in various ways, they have not given many low-level scholars the opportunity to pass the imperial examinations. Therefore, by working for the governor's office, they It is not a bad thing for their personal future to have direct contact with the governor-level officials of the imperial court before the election.

  Zhang Gui also asked the West Factory to recruit a lot of humble scholars for training, and intentionally let them undertake some grassroots clerical work when the West Factory collects taxes in the future.

   On this day, because the officials from Zhejiang and Zhizhi had arrived, Zhao Yan, the governor of Zhejiang Zhizhi, met with officials and gentry from Zhejiang and Zhizhi in the Governor's Yamen, and began to arrange the matters of clearing Zhang Zhang's fields.

Ge Laosun Ruyou, who became an official with the position of Wenyuan Pavilion University and Prince Taibao, first said at the meeting: "From my point of view, you can clear the land of Zhang Zhang, but you can't clear the land of officials and gentry! I am an official and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. Who is not? In a good family, who doesn’t only live on the land left by their ancestors, how dare they annex or take away the property of the small people? Only the small people have newly reclaimed fields, or come out as Qingzhang, so it’s not a burden to the people. We The officials and gentry can also persuade the common people for the government, understand the court, and accept the government's integrity."

  Speaking, Sun Ruyou asked Zhao Yan: "What do you think?"

   "The fields of officials and gentry must be clean! The New Deal has no reason to implement half of it and not half of it!"

   At this time, Zhang Gui said something without a doubt.

  (end of this chapter)