Ren Li, a student of Jiangpu County, believed that he was a gentleman, and he did not have any fear of Yan Song, and only after scolding Yan Song and being romantic enough in the Qinhuai River in Nanjing did he take a batch of spices obtained through smuggling channels to Suzhou to sell.

When Ren Li sat in a four-wheel drive carriage with a large number of goods and beauties bought in the Qinhuai River, he just arrived at the pass, and the police officer of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau came to this Ren Li: "Bring the tooth card!" What cargo is on board! ”

Ren Li, a member of the National Taxation Bureau, was dissatisfied with Yan Song's establishment of a checkpoint on the cement road from Nanzhili to Suzhou to collect money, and saw that the police officer of the National Taxation Bureau was just an ordinary military attaché, and the police word on his chest made him feel no different from the official in the public gate.

But such a lowly military attache dared to be so arrogant in front of one of his own dignified soldiers, Ren Li became angry, immediately jumped out of the carriage, and kicked the police officer directly:

"Bastard thing! Ren is a scholar, a disciple of Confucius and Mencius, and a student of the school! You are just a little military attaché, and your future is just guarding the door, so who is qualified to dare to block my way! ”

This Ren Li shook his head as he spoke, in his opinion, wearing a square scarf on his head means that he is superior, even if these lowly martial artists in front of him want to talk to themselves, they should kneel and talk to themselves, just like when his father was doing the seventh rank of imperial history, the thousands of military attachés who lived in the fifth rank would kneel and reply to his father, so he couldn't help but slander in his heart: "Are you blind, don't you see the scarf on the head of this son?" ”

"Although he is a small military attaché, he is the general banner of the seventh grade, and he is the official of the court of the Ming Dynasty, you are just a showman, you are not as high as eight buckets, and your ambition is just to buy a prostitute, who gave you the courage to dare to beat my public man!

Ordinary people are afraid of officials like tigers and wolves, but you and other students are very peculiar, but when you see officials, you dare to commit crimes! Someone came, according to the rules, beat the court official, and scolded him with a rod for sixty! Escort him down! ”

Yan Song happened to be passing by here at this time, and he happened to see this scene, and he didn't bother to ask who this student was, and only acted according to the decree.

"Wait!"

And Ren Li saw that Yan Song was wearing a scarlet civil official robe, so he shouted first, and then directly arched his hand and said: "Student Ren Li has seen this adult, but the student is a scholar, and the adult is also a civil servant. ”

"This official only knows that you broke the rules, you beat the court official, and he didn't beat you!"

Yan Song didn't expect that this person was scolding Ren Li behind his back, and after saying that, he instructed the people around him: "I will fight to death later!" ”

The police officer beside Yan Song used to be a member of the Jinyi Guard system, so he naturally knew how to fight to the death, so he nodded: "Don't worry, my lord!" ”

At this time, two police officers came over and caught Ren Li.

Ren Li began to be a little scared at this time, and said inwardly: "This adult, the student's father is the imperial history of the imperial court, if you beat the student, aren't you afraid that your father will seek revenge against you?!" ”

"This official has always been upright, not afraid of the powerful, not to mention that Ling Zun is the father, even if Ling Zun is the elder, the official must also act according to the rules, however, you can tell the official who your father is, and the official just participates in Ling Zun's crime of teaching his son no way!"

After Yan Song said, one of Ren Li's housekeepers hurriedly walked over: "This master is offended!" Our young master is not familiar with the world, he has offended you, please forgive me, be accommodating, this is a bill of exchange from the Royal Bank of five hundred taels, do you think you can spare our young master a beating? ”

"In the fifth year of Zhengde, it was proposed by the Three Law Divisions, and the "Anti-Corruption Law" approved by His Majesty clearly stated that those who bribed their superiors more than 500 taels would be imprisoned for five years! Take this old butler down! Confiscate their bribes! ”

So, Yan Song got five hundred taels for nothing, and he also arrested the housekeeper of the Ren family and made him a free laborer.

Ren Li was furious when he saw this, but he couldn't refute it, he only gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, what an upright Qingtian master!" ”

The housekeeper of the Ren family had already knelt down at this time, only kowtowed, and begged for mercy: "The eldest master spares his life!" The little one didn't mean to bribe the master, the little one just compensated our young master for beating the old man just now! ”

"In this case, according to the compensation regulations, you should also be compensated 1,000 taels, Zhengqipin civil and military officials were beaten by the people, according to the law, if the common people want to be exempted, they need to pay 1,000 taels of silver, and then pay 500 taels!"

As soon as Yan Song said this, the housekeeper only paid another five hundred taels.

Ren Li was also released because of this, but Yan Song didn't plan to let Ren Li go, and continued to point to the Ren family's convoy and asked, "What kind of goods are you transporting?" ”

"Returning to the lord, it is a spice", the Nanzhili area does not prohibit the people from doing business, so the housekeeper of this ceremony also replied truthfully.

"Spices belong to luxury goods, when the tax is three times, so many cars of spices, the valuation has already exceeded one hundred taels, can not be exempted from customs clearance, Hu Zongqi, who guards the customs, tells you to close the experience documents to point, to be accurate in accounting, not to levy more, so that the merchants have no profit to make, but also must not be levied, so that the court has no silver money to maintain the road, understand?"

As soon as Yan Song said something, Hu Zongqi, who was guarding the pass, stood up: "Xia Guan understands!" "Xuan even brought a cadre of guards to the accounting, and directly asked the old butler for the account books.

At this time, Ren Li saw this and said angrily: "My lord! These are all the benefits of the people, and they are the livelihood of the scholars, and I hope that the adults will treat us and other scholars preferentially, and they will be exempted from the benefits of taxation! ”

"You will sell spices to the people at a high price, so that the people are bankrupt but only for the style of luxury, you are harmful to the interests of the people, how to match the word people's interests, heavy taxation is to prevent my Ming Shi people from contracting this extravagant wind! I can't afford not to pay! If they resist taxes, they will be escorted away! ”

Yan Song gave such a strong order, and Ren Li had to admit it.

At this time, Yan Song saw a beautiful woman sitting in the carriage, so he asked: "This beauty has a charming face, her clothes are half exposed, she doesn't look like a woman from a good family, who is she?" ”

"The famous prostitute that the student bought in Qinhuaihe, if the adult likes it, the student can give it to the adult, and the adult should allow the student not to pay the luxury tax this time", this Ren Li completely forgot what Yan Song said before about prohibiting bribery, and naively wanted to make a deal with Yan Song.

"This official has already strictly ordered that in order to rectify the style of study, students in the prefectures and counties of Nanzhili are not allowed to prostitute and stay with prostitutes everywhere, in order to insult the literary style of Shilin, so you dare to commit crimes against the wind, redress his reputation, and take the scarf on his head!"

Yan Song suddenly lowered his face and shouted.

Ren Li didn't expect that the official in front of him suddenly wanted to take off his own scarf and make his own name, and he couldn't help but be shocked: "This lord, who are you?" ”

"You should have guessed it, this official is Yan Song, the governor of Nanzhili, and he is also a scholar and politician, you splashed the official dirty water in the newspaper under the pseudonym of "Xishan Gate Guest", and the official couldn't bear to block Shilin's words, and didn't do anything to you, but you can't be fearless, lawless enough to take the prostitutes of the Qinhuai River around the world! You are a student, you should devote yourself to learning, bury your head in the sea of books, or study in the world, but you rely on your own fame, not to mention the business and dare to take prostitutes home! How bold! ”

Yan Song took the scarf from the hands of the people below, and then rode away, and instructed: "Immediately order the officials of the main hall and the scholars of all prefectures and counties to go to the governor's yamen to discuss matters, and the officials have issued orders and five declarations to rectify the style of study, but in Nanjing City, there are still students and people, what are they going to do!" ”

Ren Li was removed from Yan Song's fame, and because of this, the Jiangnan gentry were even more resentful of Yan Song, but they had no way to take Yan Song, because Yan Song is now purging the etiquette system and purging the literary style, which are all advocated by the civil officials and gentry themselves, and Yan Song is just letting them strictly abide by it now, so no one dares to oppose it openly.

The gentry in Jiangnan complained bitterly, but they could not oppose it openly, so they could only secretly contact the civil officials in the capital to transfer Yan Song away, just like the historical Shanghai Rui was promoted to Nanjing as an idle official after supporting the common people and rectifying the Jiangnan gentry during the period of the Yingtian Governor in history.

However, Zhu Houzhao did not plan to transfer Yan Song.

Nanzhili has Yan Song in charge, Zhu Houzhao is relieved, he believes that only a cunning official like Yan Song as the governor of Nanzhili can fight with those gentry in Jiangnan.

No one expected that Yan Song would take the opportunity of the first assistant of the cabinet to carry out the construction of spiritual civilization in the central court, and launched activities to restore the etiquette system in the Nanzhili area, and punished the officials, gentry, and wealthy businessmen so that they no longer dared to be extravagant and wasteful.

Officials in other provinces also began to draw gourds in the same way, and also carried out activities to restore the ritual system in the areas under their jurisdiction.

Wang Hua, the first assistant of the cabinet, did not expect that the construction of spiritual civilization advocated by himself would really be of such practical significance, a movement to restore the etiquette system and rectify the social atmosphere made his Ming court more millions of taels of income, and even the reserves of the Royal Bank increased a lot, so that he, a shareholder of the Royal Bank, had a lot of income.

What made Wang Hua even more pleased, because he first presided over the construction of spiritual civilization, which led Zhu En, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to put forward the theory of advocating thrift and healthy atmosphere, and then Yan Song and other local officials began to rectify the atmosphere, which greatly benefited the imperial court, and at the same time did curb the extravagance of society, and made Zhu Houzhao add him the official title of "Taifu", so that he became a Zhengyi official like Ma Wensheng and Jiao Fang during his lifetime.

Also promoted was Zhu En, who became the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, but he was not happy.

At this time, his student Ren Jianshu was saying to him: "Teacher! This Yan Song wantonly exploited the gentry in the name of purging the atmosphere in the south of the Yangtze River, which made Shilin complain, if you don't think of a way, the Zhu family will also be deeply affected at that time, and your son Ren Li, who was raised in the Ren family, was dismissed by Yan Song on the grounds of illegal prostitution! ”

"What! This, this, the old man is still allowed to wait for him to recognize him after he is admitted to the Jinshi, but this Yan Song actually broke my mind first! Doesn't this make our father and son unable to recognize each other, the old man is sparse! ”

As he spoke, Zhu went to the study angrily and began to write.

"Your Majesty, although the etiquette law is the foundation of the imperial court, and the world should be thrifty, but if there is extravagance, the imperial court can reprimand and admonish, but now the provincial officials frequently disturb the people on the grounds of rectifying the etiquette law.

Nowadays, the world is prosperous, the people are rich and the country is rich, the silk and satin have been cheap as ramie, and the rice millet paste is piled up like a mountain, and the people of the prosperous era should take the splendid as their clothes, and the work of the Holy Emperor of Fang Xian is not close to the people, but at this time, they let the silk and satin rot at home, and the rice millet paste is moldy in the library, and in order to follow the etiquette system of the Taizu time, it can be inappropriate and not close to people, Your Majesty! ”

Now, many royal literati and reformist local civil servants have used June's arguments to carry out a campaign to purge the etiquette system in the local area, so that the gentry complained bitterly, and hated Juen for it, and even began to expose June's various non-conformities and extravagance.

Zhu En, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, regretted his concept of advocating thrift and abiding by the law of etiquette, and the fact that Ren Li's reputation was removed stimulated him even more, so he hurriedly played a note, hoping to remedy his reputation among the Confucian gentry. Naturally, he didn't dare to directly say that Yan Song was not, after all, he also knew that Yan Song was in the emperor's heart.

After Zhu Houzhao saw Zhu En's recital, he summoned Zhu En and asked Zhu En:

"Zhu En, before your recital said that the people in the world are poor, there are still hungry people who are difficult to have daily satiation, in your hometown, every winter there are more people who are frozen to death due to the severe cold, therefore, you suggest that I should open the wind of thrift for the king, stop the procurement of various places, stop the world to guard the eunuchs, and even should not expand the palace, except for the procurement and the eunuchs who have not withdrawn, many of them have relied on you, and even now they are still living in this narrow Qianqing Palace!"

"Since the people's livelihood is so difficult, why are you saying that the world is prosperous, the people are rich and the country is rich, the silk and silk are as cheap as ramie, and the rice millet paste is piled up like a mountain, according to what you say, isn't the world long free of hunger and cold? !

Anyway, I also believe you, so I ask you, since silk and satin have become as cheap as ramie, what is the annual output of cotton cloth, silk and grain production in the Ming Dynasty, and can it meet the food and clothing of the people in the world? ”

Zhu Houzhao asked Zhu En coldly.

Zhu En didn't know how to answer for a while, he didn't expect that His Majesty would contact the two pieces of music before and after him to ask himself, and he didn't expect that he was just based on today's social phenomenon to compare the Ming Dynasty Silk and Silk Silk, and there is a lot of grain, but His Majesty asked about the annual cotton and silk production and grain production of the Ming Dynasty.

"Returning to Your Majesty, the minister's words are inappropriate, please punish Your Majesty, but the minister's words that there are hungry and cold people in the world are heartfelt words, and it is also heartfelt words to say that the dynasty is a very prosperous dynasty! As for the output of cotton, silk, cloth and other grains, this is a matter for the Ministry of Households, and the ministers belong to the Ministry of Rites, so they naturally dare not ask. ”

Zhu En, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, replied.

"The second issue of the March edition of the ninth year of Huangming Bao Zhengde, a line of black characters will be written on the first side of the eight years of grain, cotton, silk and other output data of Daming Zhengde, you don't read or remember, even the people on the street know how much food the Ming household receives every year, but you, the official of the Ministry of Rites, do not know the three products! Since you don't know, who gave you the courage to speak in front of me! Silk and satin are as cheap as ramie, and rice millet paste is piled up like a mountain, are you writing an article before you become a king? Can you talk nonsense casually, today the people are rich, tomorrow the people are poor, how can the court ask about politics like child's play! How did you do this ritual book! ”