Wang Mingquan is a showman, a wealthy gentleman in Qihe County, Jinan Prefecture, Shandong. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

His family has a wide range of industries in Huadian Township, Qihe County, with 220 hectares of land alone. As for rice shops, oil shops, and cloth shops, there are countless of them. In the entire Huadian Township and Huadian Township, seven or eight out of ten are owned by Wang Mingquan. Wang Mingquan is in Huadian Township, that is a character who is the same.

Even in the entire Qihe County, who doesn't know him Wang Mingquan? Even if the county magistrate saw him, he had to give three points of courtesy and call Wang Gong.

Wang Mingquan is in his fifties, has a wife and seven concubines, and has five sons and four daughters under his knees. But over the years, the situation in the world has become more and more worrying for Wang Mingquan.

Tartars and thieves are what Wang Mingquan is worried about. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Tartars once attacked the city of Jinan and almost broke through the county seat of Qihe County. Wang Mingquan hid in his own house in the county seat that time and experienced a feeling of fright. In order to strengthen the city defense, Wang Mingquan donated 100 taels to the county magistrate at that time.

Although one hundred and twenty points is a little less, it is a bit embarrassing to say, but everyone is like this these days. That time to defend the city, the other rich people in Qihe County donated even less. Whoever donates more, everyone looks at him like a fool. Those who have made a fortune this year are the kind of people who don't contribute even if the sky falls.

However, the Tartars came and went, there was no danger, and the most frightening thing for Wang Mingquan on weekdays was Li Zhi in Tianjin.

Li Zhi collected business taxes in Tianjin and exploited the gentry, not to mention. The key is that Li Zhi collected land from the gentry in Tianjin, which was the lifeblood of the gentry. Without exemption from empowerment, what other peasant would have surrendered his land to the gentry?

After Li Zhi collected taxes from the gentry in Tianjin, Wang Mingquan heard that the gentry in Tianjin had reduced their land rents to a level similar to that of the land in order to keep their fields, and their incomes plummeted. I heard that many gentry could not support their families because of this, so they dismissed their servants and maids. What's even more exaggerated, even the concubines can't afford to raise them, so they are all sent out.

Li Thief's decision is the lifeblood of the gentry in the world.

Not only that, Li Zhi also published newspapers and competed with the gentry for control of public opinion.

Let's talk about this matter in Huadian Township, in Huadian Township, only Wang Mingquan has the right to speak. What Wang Mingquan said is the law! Which of those scholars in Huadian Township was not cultivated in Wang Mingquanjian's ethnology? These people either work as bookkeepers in the Wang family's shop, or work as rent collectors in the Wang family, which one doesn't rely on his Wang Mingquan's business to make a living? Which one doesn't serve him Wang Mingquan as the master?

What these people say, what these people say, is the public opinion of Huadian Township. In the final analysis, the public opinion in Huadian Township doesn't look at the changes in his Wang Mingquan's face? If he Wang Ming scolded one person, the whole township would be scolded the next day.

Those peasants, who have never left Huadian Township in their lives, have no knowledge, and don't they follow the public opinion of the readers?

It is this kind of control of public opinion that allows Wang Mingquan to live a life of fine clothes and fine food, while small farmers have to pay heavy taxes to eat bran and drink thin.

Li Zhi's newspaper was published in Tianjin, but it could not be transmitted to Shandong. But if one enters Shandong, there is no doubt that it will be burned by the gentry of Shandong. But what Wang Mingquan didn't expect was that Li Zhi actually begged for a holy decree and went to Shandong to publish "Shandong Daily".

Is the sky about to turn upside down?

When "Shandong Daily" was sent to the tea shop in Huadian Township, Wang Mingquan was taken aback. Are you kidding? Wang Mingquan of Huadian Township has been saying for decades, is it possible that from today onwards, there will be one more voice here that inciting the peasants to bring down themselves? His first instinct was to take someone to burn the newspaper and beat up the newspaper reader at the tea shop.

At that time, the peasants who listened to the newspaper in the tea shop were crowded, surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, and the farmers originally went to the tea shop to listen to the world's major events, but they saw a scene of Master Wang teaching people. Wang Mingquan slapped the old man Zhang, the owner of the tea shop, twice in front of hundreds of farmers. At that time, Wang Mingquan put down his cruel words:

"Old man Zhang, if you hire someone to read the newspaper again, I will tear down your tea shop!"

But what happened next developed in the direction that scared Wang Mingquan the most.

Tianjin's Li thief actually transferred more than 10,000 soldiers into Shandong, saying that he was "on order" to run a newspaper. In each county, Li Zhi stationed a hundred soldiers.

The soldiers of the Li thief, they are like wolves and tigers, and even the Tartars are afraid. A hundred soldiers came to Qihe County, wouldn't that be the life of the gentry in Qihe County?

On 17 December, three soldiers of Li thieves rode to Huadian Township with two copies of Shandong Daily, and personally handed the newspaper to the old man Zhang, the owner of the tea shop, so that the old man Zhang could read the newspaper boldly.

Old man Zhang didn't know what bear-hearted leopard gall he had eaten, so he actually went into battle by himself and read "Shandong Daily" in front of the farmers in Huadian Township.

By the time Wang Mingquan came to the door with a hundred families, the tea shop was already full of people, and Old Man Zhang was reading an editorial article "Why are the people of Tianjin so rich?" When Wang Mingquan heard the sentence "In the final analysis, the reason why the people of Tianjin do not eat bran and drink thin is because they collected taxes from the gentry and reduced the taxes of small farmers", and his hair was about to stand on end.

With a wave of his hand, a hundred families rushed forward, knocked Old Man Zhang to the ground, and surrounded the large corps of three Li thieves.

At that time, a soldier of the Li thief pulled out a steel knife and rushed out of the encirclement, and fled to the county seat on a horse. The remaining two Li thief soldiers were taken down by Wang Mingquan and tied up.

Wang Mingquan tied Old Man Zhang and the two soldiers to the flagpole in the middle of the market, and in front of the peasants of the whole township, he wanted to whip Old Man Zhang and the two soldiers who were thieves to death. He sent his family members to the villages to call people, so that the peasants could come and see what happened to Old Man Zhang who took refuge with outsiders and read the newspaper in Huadian Township.

As the Wang family called from house to house, more and more peasants gathered in the bazaar. The ragged peasants looked at Master Wang in fear, looked at Old Man Zhang tied to the flagpole, and none of them dared to speak loudly.

Wang Mingquan stood in the middle of the crowd and said loudly: "I asked everyone to come to the market today to be a witness." Let's see if there is still a king in Shandong, and see if there is a place for Li thieves in Shandong. ”

"This old man Zhang, together with Li Thief, read the heinous daily newspaper, and he should be beheaded for his crimes. I'm going to have someone whip him to death today! ”

"These two thieves of Li Thief, I will also smoke them to death, so that Li Thief knows that I am not unmanned in Shandong!"

Where do the peasants know why these three people deserve to die? Anyway, Master Wang said that if he wanted to kill these three people, then these three would definitely have no way to live. The peasants looked numbly at the execution ground in the middle of the bazaar, and no one spoke, just waiting to see the execution of Master Wang's family.

Wang Mingquan waved his hand, and a strong family man walked up with a whip and whipped the old man Zhang fiercely.

Old man Zhang let out a miserable scream, screaming very bitterly.

The onlookers looked at the waving leather whip, and their faces showed fear. Everyone secretly said that they must listen to Master Wang's words, and one day they will be arrested and beaten to death by Master Wang like this.

The crowd was there in fear, when they suddenly heard the sound of horses' hooves rolling in the east.

The sound of hooves was not like one or two horses, at least dozens of horses galloped at the same time, so that such a sound of hooves could be made. The sound of horses' hooves seemed to trample on everyone's heart, making people panic. It was like a thunderstorm in spring, as if it was going to break through the dull and dull sky.

I don't know who it is, but I suddenly shouted in the crowd: "Xingguobo's soldiers are here!" ”