In the winter of December, Taiyuan, has been circulated in the folk circulation of Fengzhou "Citizen Daily" published an article "Ming Emperor Founding Atrocity Examination", the article denounced the history of the Ming Taizu's beginnings - pretending to be anti-Mongolian, secretly conforming to the Yuan court, taking advantage of the opportunity of the bloody battle of the Yuan army in the north, killing friends and neighbors to expand their forces, and its methods are bloody and cruel, such as the massacre of Hezhou, the massacre of Suzhou, the massacre of Hunan, etc., are innumerable; After gaining power, he raised troops to the Northern Expedition, and vainly said that he would "expel the Tartars and restore China", and set up a clever name to steal national weapons, and poison the people for his own selfishness, such as the slaughter of Huaiqing, the slaughter of Hexi, the slaughter of Shandong, etc., and everyone at the time called him "the thief of Huaiyou"; And where is the Hulu? Outside the border of herding horses, the Yuan Emperor called the same clan to save each other should not stand by and go, the fighters Wang Baobao, Li Siqi, Zhang Liangbi and others are all Chinese people, what is the Tartar? Cannibalism also; Zhu bandits are rampant, plotting the world, the desert outside the border has been repeatedly defeated, and the emperor retreats south to build a border wall, trying to be poor and dagger is hideous, slaughtering the same party and turning the country into a home, such as the "Hu Weiyong case", "Lanyu case", "Guo Huan case", "empty seal case", more than 100,000 people killed; Zhu bandit founded the country, lying lightly to restore the people's livelihood, the tax in the Yuan period or the tax in the Ming Dynasty was heavy? The princes can check it, and their indiscriminate issuance of treasure money is even more shameless, rolling money flows into the pocket with just a piece of paper, and looting the people's wealth is far better than taxes; The so-called Zhu bandits' "winning the country is the most upright", "traitors and stealing the country" are real, "expelling the Tartars" are false, "slaughtering compatriots" are false, "restoring China" is false, "turning the country into home" is real, "Han heroes" are false, and "one-man national thieves" are real.

At the end of the article, he wrote: "Thinking back to the days of Shanxi, raising 8 million people, prosperous industry and commerce, rich people's livelihood, commerce and trade as far as the world, the time was called 'well-off land', and the Zhu bandits were tyrannical, separated from the flesh and blood migrants in all directions, the fields and family wealth fell into their hands, the migrants only got a few pages of treasure money, and the wealthy families also went bankrupt. ”

This article obviously instigated rebellion, and it is not an exaggeration to exterminate the nine tribes, and it was widely circulated on the streets of Taiyuan, and even posted on the wall of the governor's mansion. The prefect of Taiyuan said that there was no need to investigate, it was the Civic Party that did it, and the person who wrote the article must have been abolished Gao He, and the person was still in Taiyuan, but why should he arrest it? Now the basis for the government to handle the case is first, good folk customs, and second, the Fengzhou Grand Law Division has made a precedent, and it is not a precedent to take the crime of speech, and whoever dares to arrest people with the "Da Ming Law" is to sue the "Citizen Daily" and Gao He for defaming the imperial court, but to arrest the citizens of Fengzhou, they must first apply to the Fengzhou Grand Law Division for an arrest warrant.

Fan Zhiwan was still thinking about countermeasures, and a new newspaper called "Jin Bao" appeared, and the front-page article "Emperor Chengzu's Meritorious Examination" was also shocking - the article first verified the birth of Chengzu, asserting that it was not born to Queen Ma, but to Emperor Taizu's concubine, this concubine has a humble status, may be Mongolian, or Korean, but the spiritual position is secretly enshrined in Jingshi Baoguo Temple and Nanjing Taichang Temple, courtesy is like the queen mother, Chengzu usurped the throne, and even his mother is not wanted; The lie of Chengzu's five expeditions to Mobei was also exposed, and the article reminded people to think that four or five hundred thousand people were wrapped together and crawled in the desert grassland, can this kind of fighting deal with cavalry? I'm afraid it's a live target, the so-called record is just to deceive the world and steal fame, and the sneak attack on the Uliangha people is successful, but the Uliangha people have originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, and Chengzu treacherously struck, Duoyan Sanwei broke away from the Ming Dynasty, and the eastern border wall of Liaodong was completely exposed to the iron hooves of the Mongols; The so-called "Son of Heaven guarding the country" is actually a thief with a weak heart, taking the opportunity to seize the military power of the northern vassal king, but the north is barren and has little grain, and the capital Beijing must be transported and supplied, and its huge cost has become a burden, and it has caused endless harm so far; The eunuchs who sent power to the West repeatedly went to the West, and their names were "Weide Quilt, Quartet Guest Suit", "Wide Territory, Far Away Han and Tang Dynasties", shameless! Received a bunch of tattered tributes, and gave them back several times or dozens of times, who was stupid and didn't come to flatter? Now that the Ming court is in trouble, what is the so-called "Quartet Guest Service" and "Vast Territory"? I think that I can deceive the world by tampering with the history books, but unfortunately the people in the world are not only the subjects of the Ming Kingdom, but also the Mongols, Koreans, Annam people and the South China Sea Zhuyi.

Fan Zhiwan was so frightened that his hands and feet were cold, of course he knew that what was said in the article was true when he was an official at his level, but could he say such words? He couldn't stand by anymore, otherwise the court wouldn't be able to spare him, so he brought a large group of messengers to arrest people, and he would definitely not dare to go to the Pingyang Hall, but there were rebellious people under the Statue of Liberty by the Fen River, and it would be good to have an explanation after catching a few of them.

Sure enough, a large number of people gathered by the Fen River as usual, and a middle-aged scholar was giving a loud speech under the statue.

"Before August this year, the first assistant Xue Guoguan was given death by the emperor, everyone think about it, even the first assistant is not a good thing, isn't such a court a traitorous court? In the next thought, now the outside of the court is invincible to the east captive in Songjin, the inside is invincible to the thieves in Henan, north of the Yellow River, the south of the river is full of famines, epidemics, this is a sign of the death of the country, fortunately, God has mercy on the people, descended saints in the world, naturalized Bo benevolence and generosity, courage and excellence, needless to say, people-oriented, the world is public, let the people straighten their waists and be people, who can do it through the ages? It is not an exaggeration to say that the naturalized Bo Nai Yao Shun is alive, and he is the only one who is the unification of the world, is everyone right? ”

The crowd cheered, and an old man squeezed forward and said angrily: "It is true that Uncle Guihua has done many good things, but everything he does is from the vulgar, and it must be no different from the people, and the sage said, 'Yidi's monarch is not as good as the death of Huaxia', how can the unification of China give him!" ”

"Nonsense, Naturalized Uncle is from Shanxi, and the people of Quwo Li said that on the day Naturalized Uncle was born, the room was full of red light, and the rainbow reflected the sun, isn't this a celestial phenomenon?" Someone immediately retorted.

"Lie, if you don't follow etiquette and shave your hair, how can you be my Han Chinese, he is a minister of the Ming Dynasty, if you dare to rebel, you will be a chaotic minister and thief." The old man raised his fists and roared.

Everyone was immediately enraged, and they all stepped forward to angrily reprimand the old man.

"I think you want to give the Emperor of the Zhu family stinky feet, do such a dirty thing, do you still want to be ashamed?"

"Even if the naturalized uncle is a Yi person, we also recognize it, if you want to be a slave of the Zhu family, go to the capital to find your emperor."

……

The old man was so angry that he couldn't speak, and at this time, Fan Zhiwan got out of the sedan chair and pointed at the group of people and shouted: "Boldly Diao the people, dare to bewitch the people in broad daylight, quickly take it down for this official." ”

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and the middle-aged scholar who gave the speech squeezed in front of Fan Zhiwan, and said very respectfully: "The adult must be a big official, listening to the accent is from Henan, the grass people just want to change the day, it's not a big deal, the thieves are raging in Henan, why should the adults be bored in Shanxi, it's better to go back to their hometown early to suppress the thieves." ”

Fan Zhiwan was so angry that he jumped like thunder, and the man's face suddenly changed and shouted: "This is a lackey of the imperial court, drive him out of Shanxi!" ”

Everyone rushed up to arrest people, and the servants immediately slipped into the distance with a smile, Fan Zhiwan saw that the situation was not good, and he was so frightened that he didn't even want a sedan chair, so he ran towards the city gate with his legs, and there were bursts of laughter behind him.

Fan Zhiwan didn't dare to go out of the governor's mansion again, there are too many people in Shanxi, a ghost place, and there is a black backstage behind it, it's not easy to mess with! At this time, Jingshi happened to receive a letter - his mentor Zhou Yanru had a good relationship and asked him to go to Jingshi immediately to have another appointment.

Fan Zhiwan sighed, finally got out of the sea of suffering, and immediately slapped his ass and left, fortunately he walked fast, Fan Erxi took people to Taiyuan the next day to arrest the suspected thief, and did not catch Fan Zhiwan, but he found two letters with a pig's head in the governor's mansion, and Fan Erxi didn't bother to find Fan Zhiwan when he was done - these two documentary evidence are enough to sue the governor of Shanxi for the thief, and the court will lose face this time.

Shanxi public opinion is boiling, Governor Fan Zhi is done, Pingyang Hall is full of joy, in fact, this matter has little to do with Fengzhou, Li Huai has already gone to the local area to inspect the new policy, and rushed to Datong to participate in the meeting, from beginning to end is a group of Shanxi people who wrote and performed themselves, and it was Gao He who danced and wrote, this guy used the identity of the Civic Party to divide Shanxi's party affairs, and carefully concocted the "Ming Emperor's Atrocity Examination", and the backstage boss of "Jin Bao" is a group of Shanxi Liberals, and the actual material in his hand is more than enough, fortunately, the government did not sue them for defamation, Otherwise, the court will have to be embarrassed.

In Datong, Li Yu raised a large sum of money without much effort, and the merchants almost chased after his ass to lend him money, with only one condition - to sell the salt pond in Jiezhou to them. Liu Tianren, known as the first expert in contracts, believed that this transaction was illegal, Fengzhou had a "Private Property Protection Order", and the salt pond in Jiezhou was owned by the imperial court, and its rights should also be protected. The businessman is very practical, who can beat who has the final say in these years, the ghost knows that the Ming court can last a few days, eat it in his mouth first, and then talk about it, pull Li Yu to sign the contract, and ask Liu Tianren to be a middleman. Li Yu also did not admit to violating the law, the official army belonged to the imperial court, why let him pay money to wipe the ass of the imperial court, and it was natural for him to repay the debt, and the imperial court would use state-owned assets to pay off the debts without paying for it, and with a large wave of money, this more than 200-year-old Daming central enterprise was privately swallowed.

If you have money, the three towns in the Guannai will immediately disperse, Shanxi Town is the best to do, Wang Guoliang and Sun Xianzu and a group of people lead the soldiers to do business all the year round, make money to support themselves, the court never cares about them, there is no problem of arrears, they did not go to the Songjin War, and there is no pension. Director Huang of the Naturalization Exchange also suggested to Wang Guoliang that he set up a Shanxi Military Merchant Co., Ltd. to put the shares on the market, and maybe he could make a lot of money.

The lives of the officers and men in the two towns of Datong and Xuanfu were very hard, but the soldiers were reasonable and reasonable, and they only demanded the payment of three months' arrears and the compensation for three months' military salaries, and the families of the soldiers who died in the war only asked for one year's military salary as a bereavement pension. Everyone knelt on the ground and kowtowed to thank him when he got the money, Li Yu felt sad and almost cried with the men, women and children all over the ground.

In December, the leaders of the Shanxi Joint Defense Bureau, parliaments at all levels, and well-known gentry of the Xuanfu arrived in Datong one after another, and in view of Fengzhou's mercenary nature and unrighteous nature, they also brought Mr. Bookkeeper - the meeting in Fengzhou is actually a bargaining of all forces, and if you go early, you can listen to the rumors and form gangs, and you will definitely suffer if you don't fight or grab. Fengzhou is also making careful preparations, the main officials arrived in Datong ahead of schedule, and lived in the General Military Mansion to discuss countermeasures day and night, and the councillors of the House of Representatives also quietly unified the caliber, and the knives on both sides became brighter and brighter, just waiting to cut a piece of meat from each other.

Shanxi people taste the benefits of the new deal, there is no oppression of the imperial court, their own affairs are in charge, and they can not pay taxes, this kind of lawless good life is rare for hundreds of years, but the new threat is coming, the thieves who once plagued Shanxi suddenly soared in strength, claiming to have 500,000 soldiers, rampant in Henan to see who killed whom, the army of thieves in the imperial court is like a meat bun beating a dog and there is no return, Henan is almost a foregone conclusion, thinking that the thieves have eaten up Henan, like locusts to Shanxi, the gentry feel frightened, the court can not count on it, It is safest to tie Fengzhou to the boat in Shanxi, but everyone doesn't want to pay for it, and even plans to get some more benefits from Fengzhou. Xuanfu is a military town, so poor that it can't stand on its own at all, and it has not been reformed, the attitude of the gentry is the clearest, follow Shanxi, and they will do whatever the people of Shanxi do.

Under the internal and external troubles, the towns of Xuanda can only coexist as one, but the specific problems are very complicated, first of all, how to distribute the rights of the four families into one? The local autonomy advocated by Fengzhou is suitable for small countries and widows, and may not be able to be used in the vast and populous Guannai, and if you get rid of the bureaucratic system of the Ming Kingdom, you must come up with a policy to govern the local government; Secondly, how will the huge military spending be apportioned? The local government is definitely not willing to pay money, but the Fengzhou army can't bring its own money and food to others to take care of their homes; Also, what about the border customs tax? The businessmen are certainly unwilling to pay, but this tax accounts for 30% of the revenue of the Prime Minister's Office, and there is no new tax source to make up ......for it, and the biggest problem is the population disparity, I thought that after more than ten years of war and famine, there are only 4 million people left in Shanxi and Xuanfu, but after the implementation of the new policy, a large number of people have emerged, and the actual population of the two is close to 5 million, compared with the population of Fengzhou is only 1 million, and there are still a number of ethnic groups inside, how to adjust the checks and balances that have always been adhered to?

The competition actually started in advance, there are scheming scholars and businessmen in both camps, and they invite each other to eat constantly, and they quietly touch each other's hole cards while bidding all over the sky, and the Shanxi people who have been naturalized in Fengzhou are the most embarrassed, on the one hand, they try their best to encourage the four towns to merge, and on the other hand, they are not willing to take advantage of the people in the Guannei in vain, and they are not pleasing on both sides of the middle.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the news of the hairy pig's head was spread to Datong, and the gentry from all over the country raised wine carnival, praised the naturalized Bo for the people to eliminate harm, and the people of Fengzhou were happy for a while. At this time, Li Huai, Zhang Daojun and others arrived, and the bigwigs from all parties in Datong City gathered, and the conference was about to be held. This opportunity soon appeared, Datong Governor Liu Menggui died of illness, Fengzhou high-ranking officials and local celebrities naturally went to the mourning hall to mourn, the leaders of both sides had a heart, and after the incident, they entered the backyard of the governor's mansion together.

Fengzhou came prepared, Ortai, Li Fugui, Batu, Li Huai, Zhou Yi, Yun Rong, Li Jianji, Sun Tingyao were prominent in power and scheming, Shanxi and Xuanfu were not weak, there were Zhang Pengyun, the former governor of Shuntian, who had been honorably selected into the "Donglin Point Generals", Chen Qiyu, the former prime minister of the five provinces to suppress thieves, Zhang Daojun, the former Jinyi guard, and several other people were also local celebrities.

It is not the first time that the two sides have dealt with each other, but at this time it is somewhat embarrassing, Chen Qiyu was dismissed and sent to Guangxi because of the failure of the carriage gorge, and he has worked hard in the poor countryside for several years, but he has learned to be sophisticated, and he took the lead in breaking the silence and greeted the elder Ortai of the other party: "Brother Du Xing is in good health?" Can you be doing studies lately? ”

Ortai replied with a smile: "Sixty people, Mencius said, 'old and not dead is a thief', it's time to give way to young people, the Mongols have no interest, they like to live freely, Emperor Shizu has the intention of sinicization, the Mongols would rather go back to the grassland to live like their ancestors, and never be nostalgic for the Guannei, Emperor Huizong felt that the Guannai was not easy to manage, so he simply abandoned Dadu and returned to the grassland, I am the same, I am tired of being an official, and I plan to go home while herding horses while doing learning, and recompile a "Yuan History" before the old man dies. ”

The old guy had something to say, Zhang Pengyun said with a straight face: "How can you walk away, this dynasty has compiled the "Yuan History" and has been included in the official history, why waste your efforts." ”

"Otherwise, the history of the Central Plains dynasties emphasizes righteousness and etiquette and ignores empirical evidence, and the Zhu family does not hesitate to frame the previous dynasty in order to show that it is 'the most righteous in winning the country', so there are many fallacies, especially in the Ming Dynasty's "Yuan History", and let it be circulated to future generations," Ortai waved his hand and said to everyone with a serious face, "I look at Mengyuan, which is different from the Central Plains dynasties, one attaches importance to commerce, trades the world, focuses on the end and light the capital and uses the wealth sufficiently, and the people's livelihood is fortunate because of the light endowment; The two did not promote the imperial examination to elect officials, and there were very few Mongols who entered the customs, and the control of the local area was powerless, and the power of the imperial court was only to the provinces, but the local market was prosperous and full of vitality; The rule of law of the three is lenient, there are laws that are not followed, the people are indulged at will, and it is difficult to find literary prisons, but this style has been maintained for a hundred years; The four are in the people, guarding the outside and the inside, the thieves in the Guannai rise, the Mongolian tribes refuse to go south, and Emperor Huizong has to leave, but a few Sinicized Mongols lead the Han people to suppress the thieves. Such a spectacle that must not be overlooked! Foolishly thought that the loss of Yuan did not care about politics, but because of overconfidence and did not seek flexibility, and failed to integrate with the people of Guannai into a unified nation, but regarded himself as a passerby, and regarded governing the country as a grazing and living in water and grass. ”

"Taizu once said, 'Yuan lord China, will be a hundred years old, its early monarchs and ministers are simple, political affairs are brief, rest with the people, and the time is well-off', Shanxi in the Yuan Dynasty at most once raised eight million people without scarcity, we naturally understand the truth, Brother Du Xing does not have to care about what fools and fools see, some words will be spread out." Chen Qiyu laughed.