Qian Shisheng's case quickly spread throughout the capital, and people from all sides reacted differently to the case. Ordinary people just think that Qian Shisheng is a hypocrite, not only evading national taxes, but also not letting go of the school fields used to support scholars, which is really too hypocritical, but their anger is only concentrated on Qian Shisheng himself, and does not extend to other gentry.

The scholars who came to the capital to study abroad and the students of various universities in the capital looked farther and believed that the Qian Shisheng case was not only about Qian Shisheng, but was actually an indictment of the entire gentry class of the Ming Dynasty.

Because of the attitude of the people, although no one dared to publicly declare that evading national taxes was not a crime at this time, the former still believed that this kind of thing should not be prosecuted as a crime. After all, this is just a fight between bureaucrats and gentry, and Li Jin should not use this kind of thing to provoke the anger of the masses as a weapon to force the court to punish Qian Shisheng, which is completely against the rules.

However, the students of the universities in the capital were obviously on the side of the people, who believed that the affairs of the state were the affairs of the world, and how could the people not have the right to know how the officials of the imperial court formulated the state policies and how they carried them out. What's more, the scholars kept saying that Li Jin had broken the rules, so what kind of rules were these rules, and who made them.

Naturally, no scholar dared to answer the questions raised by these students, and even the so-called Qingliu, who has always liked to rub the heat, did not say anything about this case at this moment. Before the palace and the court officially expressed their position, these Qingliu people were silent, lest they fall into this trap that may set off a political storm.

As for the officials of the DPRK, ordinary people are much more sensitive. They have already realized that the public prosecution of Qian Shisheng's case is very likely to develop into such big cases as the Yangzhou salt introduction case and the Taihu Lake bandit robbery case. This case will be more broadly oriented, not involving only one gentry as in the previous two cases, but targeting the entire bureaucratic gentry class.

Most of the officials from the southerners tried to suppress the case and avoid the emperor finding an excuse to raise another big prison. The officials from the north, on the other hand, have a rather ambiguous attitude.

Although there are such and such contradictions between the northern and southern gentry, everyone still belongs to the same class after all, and Li Jin's accusation against Qian Shisheng is not only a special case of the southern gentry, but also has such a problem among the northern gentry.

Therefore, after hearing about this case, the officials and gentry in the north were also extremely uncomfortable. However, the external environment of Chongzhen's ten years made it impossible for these northern officials and gentry to stand with the southern officials and gentry.

Since the first year of Chongzhen, the drought in the north has not stopped. The tenth year of Chongzhen was another year of great drought, especially in Hebei. However, with the imperial court's investment in water conservancy and transportation facilities in the north over the past decade, this year's major disaster has become a small disaster.

In recent years, the imperial court has carried out water conservancy and transportation construction in the north, for the resettlement of displaced people, and for the relief of disaster victims, where this large amount of money and grain comes from, naturally from taxes, especially those in the south.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the gentry of Shaanxi had already learned how to deal with those desperate victims. Once the outcasts start to rebel, it is a battle to the death, after all, the mob hates the gentry in these places the most.

In the face of such a large-scale and long-term natural disaster, the northern gentry could not resist it by relying on their own strength. Relying on the imperial court to allocate funds for water conservancy, transportation, and relief to the victims is the only feasible solution at present, and this has been proven over the past few years.

For this reason, the gentry in the north were more trusting and obedient to the imperial court, and also supported the tax policy currently implemented by the imperial court. Although they also have to pay taxes, from the perspective of the country as a whole, the current tax situation of the Ming Dynasty is to be taxed from the south and used for the northern regions, and the gentry and common people in the north are the beneficiaries.

As long as the northern gentry with a little insight know that supporting Qian Shisheng at this time is undoubtedly tantamount to acquiescing in the fact that the southern gentry's behavior of tax evasion is correct. Although they can also benefit from this, the tax they evade is not enough to recruit their families to protect their own safety.

It was precisely because of this concern that the attitude of most of the northern gentry appeared ambiguous. They were disgusted that Li Jin had punctured the privileges that the gentry class had painstakingly maintained, and they also complained that southern gentry like Qian Shisheng could not see the current affairs clearly. The northern gentry of the Ming Dynasty are doing their best to maintain social stability, but these southern gentry still want to maintain their past lives and do not want to give up even a penny of benefits.

Of course, not all of the northern gentry maintained an ambiguous attitude. The gentry who invested in industry and commerce in the capital and Tianjin were extremely disgusted with the southern bureaucratic gentry like Qian Shisheng, and they supported Li Jin's approach in the newspapers in a clear-cut manner, believing that they should teach these southern gentry some lessons for tax evasion.

However, as long as those who really know these gentry know, they are not against tax evasion, but against the entire southern gentry class.

With the development of industry in the Gyeonggi area, there is an urgent need for a larger market for industrial and commercial enterprises. At present, the population and affluence of the Jiangnan region is the best market in the whole of East and Southeast Asia. The cost of transporting industrial goods from the north to the south is much cheaper than that of transporting them overseas.

However, this market, which was coveted by the northern industrialists and merchants, was never fully opened to the northern industrialists because it was controlled by the southern gentry.

Although the imperial court abolished the inland tax customs to facilitate the logistics between the north and the south. However, although the Jiangnan region, which has always been the center of the country's economy, began to lag behind the north in terms of industrialization, its closed commodity circulation market and self-sufficient rural economy limited the industrial products of the north to a few special industries.

However, as long as the handicraft products that the south can produce by itself, it is difficult for the industrial products of the north to be sold in the Jiangnan area. With the emergence of the maritime trade port and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, many southern gentry also began to innovate the former handicraft workshops and began to move towards the direction of factory manufacturing.

Although there were not many southern gentry who invested in industry and commerce, they already worried the northern factory owners. These southerners will do more business, if they let them set up factories, not to mention that the Jiangnan market does not have their share, and even the overseas market now has an additional competitor.

What troubled these factory owners the most was that the Jiangnan gentry were also members of the Ming Dynasty, and they could not use force to open the gates by force in the same way as they dealt with those overseas barbarians. In fact, some factory owners feel that these Jiangnan gentry are better than barbarians.

When Qian Shisheng's case spread in the capital, many factory owners realized that this was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity to strike a blow to the southern gentry. Therefore, at a time when the palace and the cabinet were unable to speak out, some people could not help but spend money in the press to guide public opinion.

Seeing that the focus of public opinion in the capital gradually expanded from Qian Shisheng to the entire southern gentry, Wen Tiren, Hui Shiyang and others finally couldn't help but write to the palace again, hoping that the emperor could give final instructions on this case.

Even Qian Qianyi had to plead for Qian Shisheng in front of the emperor under the pleading of a southern official. Although he was not interested in Qian Shisheng, who was on Wen Tiren's side, he could not turn a blind eye to the requests of his colleagues in the south.

On the fifteenth day after the prosecution day, Zhu Youzhen finally summoned Qian Qianyi, Wen Tiren, and Hui Shiyang to discuss the case against Qian Shisheng with them.

Zhu Youzhen took Zhang Shenyan's judgment and asked the three ministers: "What do you three think of Zhang Shenyan's judgment?" ”

Wen Tiren was the first to reply: "Your Majesty, although tax evasion and tax evasion hinder the law of the country, Qian Shi has hardly stayed at home since he was promoted, and it is obvious that his family and relatives borrowed his name and asked for benefits from the local government. I also ask Your Majesty to remember Qian Shisheng's loyalty and diligence in the king's affairs in the past, and to show his grace once. ”

Hui Shiyang and Qian Qianyi also nodded and agreed, hoping to make this matter a big thing small and a small thing nothing.

Zhu Youzhen put the verdict in his hand on the table in front of him, leaned back, and changed to a more comfortable sitting position, before looking at the three ministers in front of him and said, "Didn't Qian Shisheng plead guilty?" How can I be lenient with a man who confesses that he has no sin?"

Wen Tiren was suddenly stuck, and when he racked his brains to find some reason to come out, Hui Shiyang couldn't help but stand up and say to the emperor: "Although Qian Shisheng said that he did not instruct his family and relatives to evade taxes, nor did he ask them to steal and change school fields, and they were lawless in the countryside.

But after all, these people are Qian Shisheng's family members, and the mistakes they made are equivalent to Qian Shisheng's mistakes. Therefore, the minister thought that Qian Shisheng at least had a sin of governing his family, so how could he claim to be innocent. ”

Qian Qianyi also echoed: "Hui Shangshu is right, whether there is a crime or not should naturally be judged by His Majesty, how can Qian Shisheng be allowed to talk to himself." His Majesty tolerated his sins, and the people of the world naturally understood what he was wrong with. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Qian Qianyi and said: "Mr. Qian said well, whether Qian Shisheng is guilty or not, what he said definitely doesn't count."

But whether the people of the world agree with my decision or not, I'm afraid it's not so simple. In the street teahouses these days, there are many incidents of brawls over the argument over this case.

What worries me even more is that it is not only the Qian Shisheng family that evades taxes and is overbearing in the local area. My current leniency is to save Qian Shisheng's family, but will others become more contemptuous of national law? ”

The three ministers looked at each other and did not know how to answer the emperor's question. Seeing that the three of them fell into silence, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but say: "Punish the former and the latter, treat the disease and save people." After all, this treatment and saving people comes first.

The people of the world know that tax evasion is wrong, but our officials think that it is nothing more than a trivial matter, and that is what makes me feel terrible.

In my opinion, leniency is just a trivial matter, and how many officials and gentry can realize their mistakes is a big deal.

Qian Shisheng's case was sent to all ministries, provinces, prefectures, counties, and central government schools for discussion. I would like to see what they think of this case, and then we will talk about leniency for Qian Shisheng..."

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