Most of the wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan here are grain merchants and silk merchants, and there are many who are engaged in salt industry, tea industry, medicinal materials, fur, raw silk, etc., and some family industries involve overseas, all of them are worth millions.

Seeing that everyone was saluting, Wu Buju smiled, made a circle to everyone, and said with a smile: "Shopkeepers, please take a seat." ”

Although he seems to be kind on the surface, he is still arrogant in his bones, after all, the Wu family is considered a "scholar" class among the four people, and it is a typical integration of officials and businessmen, officials are businessmen, and the clansmen of merchants are officials, which are more high-end than other pure business families.

Wu Buju sat down unceremoniously on top of the top, his eyes slowly swept over everyone, and when he saw everyone sitting down, he spoke: "Presumably everyone has received the news, Wu will not go around the bend, Donglin and Fushe have united, and they also want us to cooperate with the boycott of commercial taxes, I don't know what you think?" ”

The circle of wealthy businessmen below talked with each other for a while, and they were naturally unwilling to pay taxes, even if they made money every day and went to the banks of the Qinhuai River to spend a lot of money, they were not willing to take out one or two pieces of silver to pay taxes, not to mention the current one-ten.

Wu Buju drank tea, did not raise his head to urge, and let everyone discuss.

"The prince's apportionment into the mu has made me and others suffer heavy losses, and now I have to levy commercial taxes, which is getting more and more excessive!"

"Yes, this kind of vicious government that competes with the people for profit is also due to him, is his Zhu family poor and crazy?"

A wealthy merchant reclining on the Taishi's chair seemed to have drunk too much, and his mouth was scolding, which immediately caused a burst of sideways glances from the surrounding businessmen.

The person next to him hurriedly said: "Shopkeeper Zheng, be cautious!" ”

The person surnamed Zheng took another sip of the price, and sneered: "Be cautious, once the imperial court re-imposes commercial taxes, I am afraid that I will harvest one percent today and another one percent tomorrow, this yamen will collect it once, and that yamen will also collect it once, and it will not be easy for me to do some business, do you want to hand over all the money earned to the Zhu family?" ”

The surrounding merchants nodded in agreement, and a few people said that collecting taxes was the biggest mistake of the imperial court, and so on.

Seeing that everyone's emotions were ignited, Wu Buju pressed his hand and signaled everyone to stop talking, and said: "The crown prince is young and vigorous, and his political consciousness is low, or he is instigated by traitorous ministers, so he has done such a boiling thing of public resentment, I propose that you can unite and strike the market collectively to show our indignation and condemnation!" ”

"Mass strike?"

Everyone applauded, and they all said that Old Man Wu was worthy of being a scholar, and sure enough, he became a strategist, and the businessmen jointly boycotted the market, which was a big killer.

Nearly half of the tradable grain in Nanzhili is in the hands of everyone present, and once everyone collectively strikes the market, the price of grain alone will increase several times in just a few days, as well as a variety of other industries, which will cause extremely great turmoil to Nanzhili.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the rapid development of industry and commerce in Jiangnan led to the fact that the industrial and commercial class became extremely arrogant, and a large number of court officials became their spokesmen, so it can be said that the local economy was completely out of the control of the imperial court.

As long as the interests of the merchants are damaged, they will unite and play as they want, and the government has nothing to do.

For example, during the Jiajing period, private money was rampant, and the imperial court banned the minting of private money in various places, which led to a joint strike by merchants from all over the country, and prices soared, and the imperial court had no choice but to abolish the ban.

Not to mention the Suzhou tax resistance incident during the Wanli period, even the eunuchs were killed a few, and the big eunuchs who came from the ceremonial eunuch were chased and found a place to hide for two days before running away at night, and if they were caught, they would definitely be cold.

Wu Buju swept towards everyone and said, "In that case, the shopkeeper who agrees to strike the market, please raise your hand." ”

As soon as the words fell, more than half of them immediately raised their approval, and some timid people did not dare to make up their minds and hesitated.

Wu Buju made a gesture of regret and said: "This can't be done, some people boycott the market, some people operate as usual, this is not called a boycott, but to make money." ”

The half-drunk businessman immediately slammed the table, pointed to the few businessmen in front of him who had not raised their hands to agree to the strike, and said fiercely: "If you want to do business in Nanzhili in the future, Lao Tzu has the surname!" ”

His remarks were widely appreciated by the surrounding businessmen, who accused and insulted those merchants who did not raise their hands, and some people righteously said: "Yes, ban them!" Let them not be able to do business in Jiangnan! ”

A few businessmen with considerable backbone could not bear the humiliation and walked away on the spot, but they firmly supported the crown prince and would never do such a profiteer act that disrupted the market.

More businessmen, fed up with the pressure of their peers gathering fires, raised their hands with difficulty and agreed to participate in the strike.

Wu Buju smiled and said: "Rest assured, with their scholars coming forward, coupled with our momentum, the momentum of this boycott of commercial taxes will be even better than that of the Wanli Dynasty!" ”

A wealthy businessman surnamed Zhou hurriedly echoed and said: "When the public sentiment is surging, the crown prince will definitely wake up, and maybe he will be driven out of Nanjing City like Ruan Dacheng, and in the future, you can operate with peace of mind and chic!" ”

Wu Buju nodded with satisfaction, stood up, and said: "In this case, I will pick a time to strike collectively, and no shops will be allowed to open during the strike. Wu hopes that everyone can work together to protect the rights and interests of our businessmen! ”

......

In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Emperor of the Apocalypse issued an edict to demolish the Donglin Academy, and the Donglin Party was severely hit, and many ministers serving in the court were killed.

In the second year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen ordered the reputation of the Donglin Party to be restored, and issued an edict to restore the Donglin Academy.

At this time, in the Yiyong Hall of Donglin Academy, there is a pair of famous couplets written by Gu Xiancheng, the leader of the Donglin Party: the sound of wind and rain, the sound of reading, the sound of family affairs, national affairs, and everything in the world are concerned.

Outside the Yiyong Hall, a large number of Jiangnan scholars gathered, numbering thousands of people, who gathered in the academy and prepared to go to the Jinling Conference on the New Year's Day.

Since they want to make trouble and resist, they will naturally have a great momentum, and thousands of people will go to Qixia Mountain in Nanjing, and the counties they pass through along the way will inevitably have a great impact, which is the effect that all the opponents of the new policy need.

A young man dressed as a scholar wearing a Confucian robe and a square scarf on his head ascended and shouted: "The harm of commercial taxes is really to exploit the people's interests, and when the business is sparsely populated, the people's livelihood is withering, and the disaster of Wanli is just around the corner!" ”

When Donglin Academy was neutral, there was a burst of indignation, everyone condemned Zhu Cihong's evil government with righteous words, and some people scolded him for not being worthy of being the prince of the Ming Dynasty, even if he was the emperor in the future, he was a faint monarch and a tyrant, so that the Ming Dynasty would fall into darkness forever.

"If the businessmen want to boycott the market, we will also boycott the classes, and we must unite all the Confucian academies to jointly resist commercial taxes, resist the so-called new education, and restore the status of Confucianism!"

"That's right! Smash those so-called universities! ”

The new style of education has just been introduced, and before it has been officially implemented, it has caused a boycott of traditional education, and because of the Jiangnan Gongyuan incident, the scholars did not dare to show large-scale opposition, fearing that they would be liquidated.

At this time, Zhu Dadian was assassinated, and some people took the lead in opposing the new policy and took action, which immediately caused a series of chain reactions, and the powder keg that all strata had been holding back for a long time was finally about to explode collectively.

Businessmen went on strike, students went on strike, and all walks of life responded, all of them worked together to put pressure on the crown prince Zhu Cihong, which was destined to be a huge popular uprising and a tragic event that will go down in history.

(End of chapter)