Chapter 692: Alone

On the Imperial Palace, a letter from the prefect of Zhangde Mansion in Henan ignited the emotions of the civil officials. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Li Zhi's Huben army transported cheap rice and noodles harvested in eastern Liaodong to the south of Beizhili and the north of Henan on a large scale, greatly alleviating the plight of local food shortages and receiving a warm welcome from the local people.

It is said that Li Zhi's grain transportation team was not deceived and priced the rice and noodles transported across thousands of miles at two or five yuan. This price is almost the same as the price of food before the disaster. It is conceivable that after removing the expensive transportation costs and the cost of guarding the soldiers of the Tiger Ben Army, Li Zhi would hardly make money from this large-scale grain sales.

Of course, what really annoyed the gentry in the disaster area was that Li Zhi not only did not make money himself, but also did not let the gentry make money. Li Zhi sells grain per capita in the disaster area, and each person can only buy 30 catties of rice and noodles every half month.

In order to prevent the gentry from sending their families to buy a large amount of grain, the tiger army in some places killed the gentry and soldiers who queued up many times, killing many people. In some places, the Tiger Ben army forced the magistrates to hand over the Yellow Book of Servitude, and the people who bought grain were registered according to the Yellow Book.

According to the prefect of Zhangde Prefecture, the Tiger Ben Army is unscrupulously contemptuous of the royal law -- what right does the Tiger Ben Army have to kill people in other provinces? What qualifications do you have to snatch the government's servitude and use the Yellow Book?

In the end, the prefect of Zhangde Mansion said that since the Hu Benjun escorted the grain truck to Zhangde Mansion, everyone in Zhangde Mansion only knew that Li Zhi did not know the imperial court, and people's hearts were fluctuating.

After the official secretary read out this letter, a whisper suddenly sounded in the court. The civil officials are all from Jinshi, and they all hate Li Zhi, who is endowed by Junping Tianfu. At this time, when he heard that Li Zhi did good deeds for the people in the disaster area without asking for anything in return, he immediately thought about the problem from the most dirty angle and pondered what Li Zhi's intentions were.

After a while, Gong Dingyu stood up and said loudly: "Holy Lord, Li Zhi's act of deceiving the world and stealing his name can be punished!" ”

Hearing Gong Dingyu's words, the whispering civil officials stopped talking and looked at Gong Dingyu.

Li Zhi was born as a businessman, and his desire for profit was engraved into his bone marrow. This person pays attention to returns in everything and never buys and sells without profits. At the beginning of the great drought in Shandong, Li Zhi said that he wanted to relieve the disaster, so he put forward all kinds of conditions, including land taxes and commercial taxes, the right to appoint governors, and the rank of governor. ”

"Now that there is a disaster in Henan, the imperial court did not let Li Zhi provide disaster relief, but he took the initiative to transport affordable grain to the past, what is his intention?"

Gong Dingyu glanced at the civil ministers and military generals in the court, and said loudly: "This is buying people's hearts!" ”

"Li Zhi has made a good calculation this time, and he wants to buy the hearts of the people in Beizhili and Henan provinces with millions of stone grain."

The minister heard that Li Zhi bought rice and noodles in Tianjin for 128 yuan, and sold them to the disaster area for 225 yuan, just to recover the cost. This transaction did not cost Li Zhi a penny, but it bought the hearts of the people of the two provinces. Those people in the disaster area eat Li Zhi's cheap rice noodles, how will they be grateful to Li Zhi? When the victims saw Li Zhi's soldiers and horses bullying the gentry and coercing the court officials, would they still have awe of the gentry court in the future? ”

"Its sinister intentions are clearly revealed!"

"If the imperial court allows Li Zhi to continue to deceive the world and steal his reputation, then everyone in the disaster area will contempt the rules and regulations of the imperial court in Tianjin, regard the officials and gentry as enemies, and rely on the tiger army. If this continues, will the people still know the Son of Heaven? On the other day, Li Zhi ascended to the heights and shouted, and the two provinces of Beizhili and Henan may have unspeakable disasters. ”

Gong Dingyu held up his tooth card and said loudly: "The minister intends to ask the Son of Heaven to quickly issue an order to ban Li Zhi's behavior in transporting grain to the disaster area!" ”

Gong Dingyu's words were loud, and a chorus immediately sounded in the court.

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

"The ministers seconded it!"

The Son of Heaven, Zhu Youzhen, sat on the throne and frowned.

Zhu Youzhen could not have imagined that Li Zhi's behavior of transporting grain to the disaster area also attracted negative interpretations from civil officials.

Except for Li Zhi, no one has the ability to transport cheap grain to the disaster area. Banning Li Zhi from transporting grain, will all the victims there starve to death?

Zhu Youzhen was thinking about how to beat down Gong Dingyu, who was provoking trouble, but saw Zhang Guanghang stand up.

"Zhang Guanghang, the servant of the Ministry of Punishment, has something to say."

"Say!"

What Gong Dingyu said was extremely absurd. You must know that after Li Zhi's tiger army transported grain into the disaster area at the junction of the two provinces, it not only sold cheap grain, but also took the initiative to crack down on local thieves. As far as I know, in Zhangde Mansion alone, the Tiger Ben Army killed more than 20,000 thieves. The order of Zhangde Mansion is vibrating! ”

"A small Zhangde Mansion has killed more than 20,000 thieves, and that's not counting the thieves who escaped! It can be seen how large the total number of thieves in Zhangde Mansion is! If there is no Bodhisattva heart and thunder method of Jin Guogong, I am afraid that the thieves in the south of Zhili and the north of Henan will become more and more intense. ”

"If no one cleans up the erosion, I'm afraid that the south of Zhili will become the second Henan. When the time comes, the thieves will send an old battalion to raise the flag in the south of Zhili, and the capital will be surrounded by thieves. ”

"Let me ask, is it to let the victims feel the danger of the loyal Jinguo Gong, or let all the victims become thieves and attack the capital?"

Zhang Guanghang and Li Zhi were good friends, and Li Zhi asked Li Xing to write letters to Zhang Guanghang from time to time to communicate, so Zhang Guanghang knew a lot of data that civil officials did not say. He said a fact that the prefect of Zhangde Prefecture deliberately concealed - Li Zhi's tiger army not only transported grain, but also defeated many thieves in the local area.

But civil servants are not ashamed of concealing and not reporting it. Someone immediately jumped out to attack Zhang Guanghang.

"Zhang Guanghang, how do you know such a clear number? You must be colluding with Li Zhi, this number was given to you by Li Zhi! ”

"Zhang Guanghang! How much silver did Lee Sik give you? ”

Zhang Guanghang was not afraid of the provocation of the civil officials at all, and glared angrily at the civil officials who challenged him.

"Zhang Guanghang is not afraid of shadows, not afraid of your attacks!"

Zhu Youzhen saw that the civil officials were all scolded for "Li Thief", frowned, and was about to speak, but saw the old Fan Jingwen arched his hand and said: "Fan Jingwen, a scholar of Chendong Pavilion, has something to say. ”

"Say!"

"The minister thinks that the people are grateful to Li Zhi, and it is more dangerous than the people to become thieves."

When Zhu Youzhen heard Fan Jingwen's words, his brows furrowed even tighter.

Gong Dingyu jumped out again and said loudly: "Yes, although the thief is powerful, he can still be peaceful." The Li thief is powerful, and the court is helpless. I'd rather let the thief gain power than let the thief go further! ”

In Zhu Youzhen's eyes, Li Zhi was a loyal minister who fought in the south and the north to defend the Ming Dynasty. But in the eyes of civil officials, Li Zhi is the devil of the bloodied gentry like the thief. The civil officials considered the problem from the perspective of the interests of the gentry group, and would rather let the thieves go unchecked than see Li Zhi do things.

Zhu Youzhen naturally knew the thoughts of the civil official, and he finally couldn't bear it anymore, and shouted: "Presumptuous! ”

Wang Chengen looked at Zhu Youzhen's face, and scolded Gong Dingyu loudly: "Gong Dingyu, who asked you to call the Duke of Jinguo as a thief?" ”

Gong Dingxiao looked at Zhu Youzhen's face, and when he saw Zhu Youzhen's face full of anger, he was stunned and cringed a little.

The matter of transporting grain to the disaster area is not related to the fundamental interests of the civilian clique, and the most that the civilian-official clique is doing is to make things difficult for Li Zhi, but it is impossible for them to fight for this and support Li Zhi's son of heaven. Gong Dingyu glanced left and right in a panic, and saw that the other civil officials were frowning and silent under Zhu Youzhen's anger.

Gong Dingyu knew that he was alone this time, and he rushed too fiercely.

Do you have to hit the court staff?

Zhu Youzhen took a breath and said loudly: "Gong Dingyu attacked and humiliated the nobles and disrupted the system..."

However, he was about to beat Gong Dingyu's staff, but before Zhu Youzhen's voice fell, he saw at least a dozen Donglin generals standing up with tooth cards in their hands, wanting to speak for Gong Dingyu.

Gong Dingyu is not lightly spoken, and now he is the boss of the Donglin Party. If Zhu Youzhen beats Gong Ding's cane, I am afraid that he will stab the hornet's nest of the Donglin Party.

It is true that Gong Dingyu is alone in the army, but after all, he is speaking for the civilian collective, and the Donglin Party will still save him.

Zhu Youzhen came to his lips, suddenly changed again, and finally changed his words: "... No punishment can be carried out, and the fine will be half a year! ”

For these corrupt civil officials, they are dispensable, and a fine of half a year is like tickling.

Seeing that the Son of Heaven punished so lightly, the civil officials who were about to attack looked at each other for a while, and they also closed their mouths and stopped talking.

Gong Dingyu looked up at Zhu Youzhen and returned to the train without saying a word.

Sighing, Zhu Youzhen said: "The grain disaster area of the Tianjin State Public Transport Disaster, attacking the thieves, benefiting the country and the people, no more obstruction matters in the future!" Those who refuse to change will be severely punished! ”