The early morning mist shrouded Nanjing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, although the New Year was approaching, but the bustling riverside wharf in the past seemed bleak and silent at the moment. With the introduction of taxes on the three new banknote customs, the smooth shipping along the river in the past has also come to a standstill. The merchants, who have been accustomed to not paying taxes for many years, are all complaining, and together with the scholars who have taken their benefits, they are also impassionedly accusing the court of competing with the people for profit, and accusing the "evil officials" of exploiting the bones and marrow.

If it was in the past, perhaps the scholars waved their arms, I am afraid that the people would have responded, and then the people would have stormed the banknotes, but now the situation is different from the past, although the scholars impassionedly called on the people to rise up and fight for their own well-being, but the people are mostly deaf.

The reason why this is so is not only because two months ago, the "Morning Post," which was originally only distributed in Beijing, opened branches in Nanjing, and distributed the "Morning Post" in Nanjing, Suzhou, Songjiang, and other places, so that this cheap newsprint could enter thousands of households, and then they knew that the reason for the establishment of banknotes and taxation -- it was natural for the people to farm and pay for grain, and whether it was "the axiom of the world" for businessmen to donate no taxes and no taxes. The profiteers wept bitterly".

The money-payers were all "deeply affected" by the fact that the money was being taxed in various places, and seeing that the incitement of public opinion had no effect, they approached their families and asked them to speak for themselves in the court, but now, almost all of them have become more and more cautious.

The "assassination case of the minister of the Qin Mission", a major case that has been entangled for a whole month, has now stirred up the entire Ming Dynasty, so that the situation in the Ming Dynasty is in a kind of unprecedented and future turmoil, when Lu Tiaoyang and Fu Zuozhou continue to send Jinyi guards to continue to take prisoners, the Jiangnan gentry have all become anxious, and even together with the petition of the Department of Taxation of the Banknote Customs to set up a new 16 banknote customs, everyone is waiting. Before the situation is clear, no one is willing to bet on their net worth easily.

Although the arrival of winter will freeze the canals in the north and freeze them down, the Yangtze River has not frozen, but most of the ships that used to travel to and from the rivers will stay at the wharf, and the merchants are waiting there. Seeing a large amount of goods hoarding at the docks, the coolies on the docks could only watch the empty river pass away with nothing to do. Of course, there are also some coolies who are anxious to make ends meet, still getting up early and waiting at the dock in the dark, hoping that a merchant ship will dock and get a few literary wages in exchange for food.

But for these small people, no one cares about their livelihood at all. Now the whole of Jiangnan is stumbling...... The streets of the city make people's hearts twitch from time to time, and anxiety pervades everyone's hearts, and people are not even interested in the upcoming New Year. All kinds of gossip spread throughout Jiangnan, and it has spread to every corner of Jiangnan. All kinds of gossip make people can't help but speculate about the fortune of the next year with trepidation.

In fact, not only the gentry involved in it, but even the ordinary people also felt the strangeness of the atmosphere, as for the parties in the depths of the whirlpool, they watched all this with trepidation, once upon a time, the gentry in Nanzhili, Zhejiang and other places, with the prosperity of culture and education, with the imperial examination system to occupy half of the world's elected officials, so as to control the government, so that no one dared to touch this group easily. But now, in just a few dozen days, the situation has taken a turn for the worse and everyone is shocked.

What does Lu Tiaoyang want to find out?

What does Zhang Juzheng want to do?

Does he want to exterminate the entire Jiangnan Shilin?

When will they stop?

And the layers of questions made them toss and turn and couldn't settle down.

Zhang Juzheng, who has always been a rat bogeyman, why is he so bold?

Was there any omen before?

Is he really going to kill Jiangnan Shilin?

Who gave him the guts?

There is definitely no one else but the emperor!

The same question naturally came to everyone's mind.

But I saw that in the secret room at this moment, whether it was the village sage and gentry living in the countryside or the Qingliu eunuch in the court, they all had a sad face and a restless look at this time. Of course, there were those who sat in the corners and were silent, and once upon a time they had discussed secrecy here, and how to take advantage of the opportunity of the Chin Cha to go south to make his reputation worse and seize the opportunity to abolish the banknotes, but all of this was now in vain.

"Assassination of the Chin Cha...... He Li Zhen is so bold! ”

Again, in the chamber, a voice rang out, and anyone could hear the displeasure in the man's tone.

"But no, I said a long time ago, the surname Li is not from Jiangnan, he can't be trusted, maybe he is Zhang Jiangling's spy, he did it on purpose, now it's okay, he Zhang Jiangling has an excuse!"

"But no, otherwise, how would he dare to act without permission!"

"Do your own thing, assassinate Qincha! Who made him do it? ”

"Hmph, who let him do it I don't know, anyway, now he has pushed this charge to Dong Yichen, and he, Dong Yichen, actually climbed and bitten,"

"As soon as Jinyiwei's means are used, who can not bite, you don't know!"

"Today, the one surnamed Lu took two more people!"

"Hey, if it goes on like this, I guess we Jiangnan will have to let Zhang Lu and the others be ruined!"

Seeing that the atmosphere at the scene was getting more and more weird, someone couldn't bear the indignation in his heart and stood up and said, "This, what the hell is going on!" How could His Majesty just let Zhang Jiangling come like this? Ladies and gentlemen, tell me, what is Your Majesty thinking? Doesn't he know that now Zhang Jiangling is so bold and reckless, he first used the Qincha case to kill Jiangnan Shilin, and in the end, he just wanted to usurp the throne and seize power! ”

As soon as he said this, he immediately jumped up and cried.

"Your Majesty, don't you see the traitor clearly, you actually let a traitor like Zhang Jiangling control the government and let him kill the loyalty."

At this, the man wiped away another handful of tears, and then beat his chest again and began to cry out loud.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty. Why don't you distinguish between loyalists and traitors like this......"

Seeing that some people were crying in this way, others began to wipe their tears in their eyes. For a moment, the room was filled with the sound of ghosts crying and howling......