The Li family of Zhenjiang Mansion is one of the top landlords in Zhenjiang, because Zhenjiang is close to the Yangtze River waterway, and the Grand Canal of the Ming Dynasty joins the Yangtze River in Zhenjiang, so the Li family occupies a large share of the Yangtze River shipping.

This time, in order to ensure the security of the north of Nanjing, Zhu Hongsan sent a large army to attack Yangzhou, but the Li family took advantage of it, so the Li family had a very ambiguous attitude towards these new Huguang nouveau riche.

However, although the Li family can say good things for the new upstarts in Huguang, it does not mean that they will sit on Huguang's side and betray their own class.

Li Kui saw Master Zhou of Ying Tianfu scolding him, and quickly sat down and stopped making a sound.

Seeing Li Kui sitting down and not speaking, Master Zhou said viciously: "I know that you may have dealings with those Huguang guys, and you must have made some money!" But you know what? What are our roots? It's land! As soon as these Huguangfu people came, they embezzled the land around Yingtianfu, and now more than 30,000 acres of land around Yingtianfu have fallen into the hands of Huguangfu! ”

Hearing Master Zhou mention the land, the big landlords here all nodded their heads, the land is the foundation, whoever wants to touch their roots, they can play with whom!

"Everyone! The old man's friends in the court sent a message that the emperor intends to buy the land in our hands with silver dollars, and then hand it over to those mud-legged seeds! ”

Hearing this, the originally quiet room immediately became noisy.

"What? Acquire our land? Why is that? Even the emperor has no right to forcibly take the land in our hands! ”

Xu Bengao, who was sitting on the side silently, spoke at this time: "I heard that it was Ma Ge Lao's proposal!" Aren't there a lot of homeless people coming to the north? The imperial court is afraid that there will be many people, so it is ready to give them some land to plant! ”

The land of these big landlords has been saved over several generations, and now they are very anxious to hear that they will be taken away in their own hands.

Li Kui from Zhenjiang Mansion asked: "Master Xu, you Xu family officials and gentry for generations, you still have the hereditary official position of Jinyi Wei Zuo Dudu, can't you think of a way?" Do we see the court taking the land from us? ”

Xu Bengao sneered: "Hereditary official position? Now it's not the previous dynasty, although the court didn't say what to do with the old man's official position, but the annual Lu rice has stopped! Although the Xu family has a big business and doesn't care about the grain of a few hundred stones, the feeling of suffering from gains and losses is very uncomfortable, so Xu Bengao said such sour words.

Li Kui was the only one of these big landlords who did not have a meritorious name to protect his body, and now he couldn't help but feel a little scared when he heard that the Xu family had been robbed of his fame.

"Master Xu, have all the fame of the previous dynasty been taken away? Didn't Emperor Shenwu worship Taizu in Xiaoling? Can you still talk and not count? ”

"Hey! What do you know, my family's fame was sealed by the Jiajing Dynasty, and Emperor Shenwu was born in the Chu Domain, how can he recognize the title of the Yan Dynasty! Don't talk about our Xu family, I heard that most of those martyrdom heroes in Jingshi City went to prison, and many of them were cut off and took their titles, which is good for me! ”

When everyone in the house heard that the Xu family was so prominent and now they were like this, they couldn't help but feel sad.

How do you know that Master Zhou of Ying Tianfu has more exciting news: "Don't be sad, have you forgotten?" Next year is the two-year period set by Emperor Shenwu, which means that the circulation of silver will be stopped on the first day of January next year, and everyone will use silver dollars! ”

If the land is the root of these people, silver is the blood of these people. These big landlords are all half-farmers and half-businessmen, and there are very few who really take farming as their profession. Thanks to the great economic development at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the cultivation of cash crops was much faster than that of traditional grain, so most of the land of these big landlords was planted with cash crops. And the economy developed, but the economic means did not keep up, and a large amount of silver was put into jars and buried in the ground.

These big landlords in the house have millions of taels of silver, and now they hear that the silver is going to be invalidated, and they are all like mourners, like dead mothers and sons.

"Damn, this Shenwu Dum Jun, the right to exchange silver dollars is firmly in the hands of those big money banks of the Huguang faction, they can exchange one or two silver dollars for a silver dollar, and we will exchange one or two or five dollars for a silver dollar, isn't this a Ming robbery? If we had known this, we might as well have taken refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty back then! A big landowner stood up angrily and scolded.

As soon as the big landlord said this, there was silence in the house, everyone was not stupid, and they could scold those Huguang factions as much as they wanted, but when it came to the emperor, it was not an internal contradiction, but a matter of whether politics was correct or not. Everyone knows that the Jinyiwei of the Shenwu Imperial Court is far superior to the previous dynasty, maybe there are Jinyiwei's eyes and ears in the Xu family's mansion, and for a while, everyone in the house looked around, and a few timid people were ready to stand up and say goodbye.

Xu Bengao saw that this was not good, they were all gone, and today they are still discussing what counterattack plan, it is better to go home and wait for death.

Xu Bengao stood up and shouted, "What nonsense!" Emperor Shenwu inherited the unification of Taizu and was the best candidate for the revival of the Ming Dynasty! Now that the Huguang faction is so arrogant, it is also the traitorous party in the court who has deceived the emperor, and when the Zhengchen in the court gets rid of the traitorous party, he can naturally return me and wait for a bright future! ”

Xu Bengao's righteous and awe-inspiring words set the tone for today's matter, that is, the emperor is good, and there are traitors in the mother's court. Is this traitor naturally the first assistant Ma Mingyuan!

Xu Bengao glanced at Master Zhou of Yingtianfu, who was sitting next to him, and Master Zhou stood up and said, "Master Xu is right, this Ma Mingyuan is a big traitor. I heard in Ying Tianfu that Ma Mingyuan intends to play the emperor's practice of apportioning the land into the mu, the officials and gentry are integrated into the grain and the errand is integrated, isn't this asking for the lives of me and others? ”

Zhu Hongsan handed over the book to Ma Mingyuan back then, but he didn't expect it to be known by the subordinates in Ma's mansion for some reason, and now it has been spread in the officialdom of Nanzhili, and Ma Mingyuan's mansion has a different number of scholars going to scold the street every day, and the door is similar to the vegetable market.

However, this kind of news is only circulating on a small scale in Yingtianfu, and the prefectures and counties in other places do not know about it. What did these people rely on to save such a large family fortune? Isn't it just that the official body pays taxes differently? Now the emperor wants to make them pay taxes for these scholars, which is a great disaster!

"Master Zhou, is what you said true?" At this time, even Li Kui, who had a good impression of the Shenwu Imperial Court Newspaper, couldn't sit still, he originally thought that if he paid some money, he would pay some money, as if he was buying peace. But if the paving into the mu and the official gentry are integrated to pay grain and errands, he Zhou Kui will hang himself and wipe his neck!

"Master Xu, I don't think it can be implemented! The official gentry are exempt from taxes, but the rules set by Taizu back then, can Emperor Shenwu still regret it? "It's law-abiding!

"I don't think it's possible, now the imperial court and the Manchu Qing are confronting, if Emperor Shenwu implements these two regulations, won't it push the scholars to the Manchu side?" It's clear-headed!

"Not necessarily, when Emperor Shenwu first occupied Jingshi, didn't he also woo those nobles of the previous dynasty, but look at it now, what happened to them?" This is pessimistic about the future!

After hearing the news released by Master Zhou, the people in the house talked about it one after another, saying everything.

Xu Bengao waved his hand to interrupt the discussion of everyone in the room and said: "Okay, now it's just a rumor, which shows that the emperor has no intention of implementing these two articles, but we can't sit still, we have to look for our spokesperson in the court!" ”

Originally, the spokesperson of these big landlords in Nanzhili was the Donglin Party, but after the war, some of the Donglin Party in the court either hanged themselves and martyred, or went to Guangxi to submit to Zhu Youlang, the king of Gui, and now the only one in the Shenwu court who can still speak is Qian Qianyi.

"Originally, Qian Shouzhi was a good candidate, but in the case of the displaced people a year ago, their Qian family sided with the Huguang faction, and his son, as an official concerned, was not punished, and was finally promoted!"

When Xu Bengao heard someone questioning Qian Qianyi, he said: "Old man, I don't think Qian Qianyi can betray us, Qian Qianyi is also a big landlord in Suzhou, can he really not want his tens of thousands of acres of land?" ”

"But why did the emperor reward his son alone, and the other officials from Nanzhili were all moldy!"

"I think this should be a trick by those Huguang officials, so that Qian Shou has something to say!"

Xu Bengao is not a loss because he has been mixed up in the officialdom, and this conjecture is not far from ten, but it is not a trick of the Huguang faction, but the emperor himself does not want Qian Qianyi to participate in it, after all, Zhu Hongsan is still very optimistic about Qian Qianyi's love, and he doesn't want him to be implicated in this matter.

"Master Xu, Qian Shouzhi can't speak for us, so what should we do?"

"Now there are a total of seven cabinet elders in the court, the first assistant Ma Mingyuan, the second assistant Tong Yangjia, and Fu Wenlong, Qian Qianyi, Jiang Yueguang, Zhu Dadian, and Wang Yunchang! Among these seven people, Ma, Tong, and Wang are all from the Huguang faction, although Fu Wenlong is not from Huguang, but he has a personal relationship with Ma Jiyuan, and he should not speak for us. The rest of Qian Qianyi is his own person, Jiang Yueguang was born in the Donglin Party, and Zhu Dadian was born in the Zhejiang Party, so he should not be nosy. So only two of the seven people can speak, one Zhu Dadian doesn't help each other, and we will suffer a loss in terms of numbers! ”

At this time, Master Gu of Hangzhou Mansion said: "Zhu Dadian, don't worry, I have some personal relations with him, I can persuade him to help us!" ”

"There are only three of them, or a minority!"

Master Zhou of Ying Tianfu said: "But use your skills on Tong Yangjia's side!" I reckon he can help us! ”

Xu Bengao was stunned, Tong Yangjia was one of the first four strategists to follow the emperor, can he help us?

"Master Xu, you don't know, although Tong Yangjia was born in Huguang, he is not a native of Huguang, he is from Liaodong, and I heard that there is a relative who is a big official in the Manchu Dynasty!"

"Do you want to use this to force him?"

"Master Xu, since the emperor dares to use Tong Yangjia, he must trust him! It is not good to use this matter to force him! ”

Xu Bengao hated this kind of the most, frowned and asked, "Master Zhou, we are all our own family, can you finish the words in one breath!" ”