In the Jiangnan Tribute Academy, the scholars who took the examination invited the tablet of the ancestor of the Confucius Saint in the Jiangnan Tribute Academy, and Hou Fangyu took the lead to "cry the temple" to the Confucian Saint.

Hou Fangyu raised his arms and said: "The crown prince deceived the world and destroyed his ancestors, openly broke the rules of thousands of years, and ignored the benevolent government of the Holy Dynasty......

"Crying Temple" is a long-standing custom in the south of the Yangtze River, the local economy is developed, the humanities are gathered, the scholars from the solid family, the middle class of scholars have become an important social supervision force, when the government has illegal things and improper behavior, the scholars gather in the Temple of Literature every time, cry to the ancestor Confucius Sage, relying on the large number of people to declare the "Crying Temple" can often make the government dare not underestimate and adopt.

Hou Fangyu is one of the four sons of Jinling, he has outstanding literary talents, and he is very appealing among the scholars in Jiangnan.

Although Zhu Jizhu, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, persuaded him with good words, but it didn't work after all, the scholars invited the tablets of the Confucian saints, Zhu Jizheng, as a scholar, was afraid of being scolded as a lackey of the martial arts, so he didn't dare to deal with it easily, so he had to let hundreds of Jiangnan scholars gather to cry in the temple.

After Hou Fangyu's impassioned speech, a scholar immediately followed and shouted, saying: "The crown prince's new policy of apportioning the land into the mu is actually a robbery of the people's wealth. ”

"Everyone has also seen that the soldiers don't dare to deal with us at all, as long as we unite, let the crown prince retreat and give up the new policy!"

The scholars present said every word to me, and they all looked sad about the country and the people.

However, the relatives of their respective clans all have land, and if they are apportioned into the acre, they will take food from their mouths, which is absolutely unacceptable!

Some of the scholars who waited and saw in the examination number were from poor families, and some were even just poor people, relying on their mothers-in-law to grind tofu to support their studies, so that they could obtain fame and have the qualifications to take the examination, and they intended to enter the court as officials, and they also supported the abolition of the poll tax and the implementation of the new policy of apportioning the land into the mu.

The implementation of apportionment to the mu can reduce the economic burden of the landless and landless peasants, and the simplification of the tax rules has reduced the possibility of the government arbitrarily raising taxes in a sloppy manner, which is of great benefit to the ordinary people.

However, at this time, the public was angry, and some scholars from poor backgrounds did not dare to speak, for fear of being evaluated by this group of scholars in Jiangnan as a Sven scum, and being excluded by Shilin, so they did not dare to be the first bird at the moment, so they could only bury their heads and continue to do the question, and at the same time pricked up their ears and paid attention to the situation outside.

Hou Fangyu and the others have not yet realized the seriousness of the matter, they all agreed that the crown prince's move is angry and unpopular, and as a scholar who has read the books of sages and sages, it is necessary to make a statement to the prince with practical actions!

A huge boycott was in full swing in the Jiangnan Gongyuan, and hundreds of Jiangnan scholars decided to put pressure on the crown prince to wake up, turn back to the shore, and retract their wrong policies!

Suddenly, the ground around the examination shed trembled faintly, like the sound of a large group of people marching neatly, and the neat steps were getting closer and closer, accompanied by the sound of the collision of armor leaves.

Hou Fangyu and the others, who were crying in the temple, looked at each other, and said, "What movement?" ”

The scholars who were promoting and soliciting the boycott around the examination booth rushed back one after another, exclaiming: "The Tianwu Army has entered the Tribute Academy!" They were fully armoured, armed with swords and guns, and numbered in the thousands! ”

The examiners gathered downstairs in Mingyuan looked panicked, they were making a loud noise, all of them were dead, many people had already made up their minds to run away, and Mao Xiang and others from the Fushe had secretly run back to the exam number......

Hou Fangyu's face was pale, he didn't expect the crown prince to dare to send troops into the Tribute Courtyard, he said sharply: "Don't panic, gentlemen, we are scholars with meritorious reputations, how can we be intimidated by a group of martial artists?" Lang Lang Qiankun, under the iron pen of Qingshi, Hou Mou did not believe that the crown prince dared to do such a thing as bullying the scholars by force! ”

A scholar of the Restoration Society also said loudly: "Not bad! In the past, the righteous people of Suzhou were not afraid of rape, resisted the eunuch party power and rape, and finally left a name in history, as a tombstone of five people, we should take the sages as a model, ask for the people's life, and be passionate about righteousness, although they died and disregarded! ”

His words immediately caused a round of cheers, "The Tombstone of the Five" is an inscription created by Zhang Puyu, the founder of the Fushe Society, the article enthusiastically praises the heroic deeds of the five Suzhou citizens to protect the Donglin scholars to the death, to put it bluntly, they are to a certain extent the victims of the southeast gentry to resist taxes.

Hou Fangyu waved his hand and shouted: "I'll wait here to see if the crown prince and this group of martial artists dare to defy the world's condemnation and slaughter our patriots!" ”

A group of Tianwu soldiers rushed in with guns and armor, pouring into Mingyuan's downstairs from all directions like a tide, and besieged the place where the soldiers who took the examination were located.

Hou Fangyu sneered, it was true that the prince had soldiers, but he really dared to kill in the Jiangnan Tribute Courtyard? He doesn't want to be a scholar in Jiangnan anymore?

Li Shaoyou walked with his sword in his hand, and said with a cold face: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince ordered that all those who participated in the boycott of the examination should be taken down and all of them will be decided!" The family is forbidden to participate in the imperial examination for eighteen generations! ”

Among the exam numbers, some candidates who paid attention to the development of the situation were shocked when they heard the words, and the eighteenth generation was ...... This family must not be tabula rasa for hundreds of years?

The soldiers who boycotted the examination were even more shocked, and some of them suddenly had red eyes, holding tiles and stones, and attacked the Tianwu army in groups of three or five.

Li Shaoyou took out his handcuffs, fired a shot at the sky, and shouted: "Take down all the people who made trouble, escort them out of the tribute courtyard, and wait for execution!" ”

A group of Tianwu troops swarmed up, pressed all these boycotted soldiers, and when they encountered resistance, they directly smashed them to the ground with heavy gun butts and tied them up.

The crowd was in chaos, and Zhu Jiqi, the chief examiner, was stunned, his face was shocked, and he muttered: "His Royal Highness the Prince..... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he really did it......"

Hou Fangyu shouted at the tablet of Sage Kong: "Ancestor Sage Kong! You've seen it, that's how they treat readers! ”

Li Shaoyou just kicked it up, kicked it to the ground, and stepped on Hou Fangyu's face with a big sole of more than forty sizes, and twisted it a few times.

Li Shaoyou didn't look at Hou Fangyu under his feet, and swept to the surrounding examination booths and shouted, "The others continue to take the exam!" ”

The sound of the neat footsteps of a large army continued to march between the examination sheds, and one after another voices resounded in the entire Jiangnan Gongyuan: "By the order of His Royal Highness the Prince, the Tianwu Army will enter to arrest those who disturb the examination, and the others do not need to panic, the examination continues!" ”

Listening to the movement outside, the soldiers in the examination booth were terrified, and they knew that those people were going to be finished.

In an examination number, Yan Yingyuan saw that the riot outside was quickly quelled, and couldn't help but sigh: "I heard that the crown prince's methods were thunderbolts, and today I look at it, and sure enough!" ”

After speaking, he buried his head and continued to answer.

After the examination on the second day, when the scholars walked out of the gate of the Gongyuan, they saw that the iron armor outside the gate was solemn, and thousands of soldiers of the Tianwu Army stood in a formation, and in the middle of the military formation knelt hundreds of soldiers who had boycotted the examination and made trouble.

Yan Yingyuan's face was surprised, and he said secretly: "Could it be that the crown prince wants to execute this group of troublemakers in front of the gate of Jiangnan Gongyuan?" ”

A group of scholars also stopped to watch, and there was a lot of discussion, and some young scholars from the Restoration Society contacted each other and wanted to cry out for help.

Li Shaoyou saw that the people were almost out, took out a decree, and shouted: "The crown prince's decree: Those who study, eat the country's temperament, should take the four dimensions and eight virtues as the ritual, but the people of the Jiangnan Shenghou Fangyu are bold, instigating and disrupting the Ming Society, and they will be punished with a decisive decision!" The family is forbidden to participate in the imperial examination for eighteen generations, and it is hereby informed! ”

After speaking, he closed the order and shouted: "Draw your sword and execute!" ”

With a sonorous sound, hundreds of Tianwu soldiers moved in unison, neatly pulled out their waist knives, and pointed diagonally at the sky.

"Slash!"

A flash of sword light, and the bodies of hundreds of Jiangnan scholars who had taken the exam trembled violently, and with an abrupt stop, their heads rolled to the ground.

The thick smell of blood permeated the sun, and looking at the corpses on the ground, many onlookers couldn't help but vomit.

"How can this be ......?" Some members of the Restoration Society trembled all over, and some of them were frightened and cried on the spot, and their morale to denounce and save people had long since disappeared.

Seeing Hou Fangyu, one of the four sons of Jinling, being killed in front of him, the face of Mao Xiang in the crowd turned pale, if he hadn't just seen that the situation was wrong and ran away early, I was afraid that he would also be one of them.

Thinking of this, Mao Xiang's figure shrank back again......