Chapter 9: Stargazing (Part II)

These black-clothed men were the same as the men they met in front of the Grand Governor's Mansion, all of them disabled. But the combat effectiveness exerted after cooperating with each other is far from being comparable to the roles of Zhao Da and Liu Er. In the blink of an eye, the two sides of the conflict were completely isolated, and then they were arrested separately, squatted in a pile under the stands, and counted down with their heads covered and said: "Fight, continue to fight." Hurry up, you haven't had enough fun! ”

Then how could Zhao Da and Liu Er be willing to suffer this immediate loss? Hurriedly clenched his fists on the top of his head, and kept begging for mercy: "Brother, brothers, the villain knows that he is wrong, he knows that he is wrong." Please raise your noble hands, raise your noble hands? ”

"Whew! That's it, it's a little bit of urine, and it's still a martial arts! The leader of the men in black opened his mouth and spat a large mouthful of spit on the ground. With a cloth hammer that struck the gong, he poked at the door of the two people's heads, "There is a kind of going to kill the Tartars before the battle." What kind of thing is it to be in the nest with your own people? I haven't let you say it yet, I really let you say it, if you don't disagree, you have to quit and behead the public?! ”

"How can it, how can it, look at what you said, brother. The two of us, the two of us are just sparring, sparring! Zhao Da and Liu Er were scolded so red that they continued to make trouble.

The leader of the man in black saw that they were willing to give in, and he did not bother to continue scolding. He cleared his throat and announced loudly: "Now that I know it's wrong, what did I do earlier." On the big sign at the entrance of our Yizheng Garden, don't pretend that you two don't know what is written!

Zhao Neng, Liu Bei, the two of you, each will be fined five times, and you will not be allowed to come to power again for three months. If you don't pay it off at the Yamen within half a month, you will bear the consequences!! ”

When Zhao Da and Liu Er heard this, they regretted it so much that they even wanted to vomit their intestines, so they hurriedly continued to beg each other loudly to raise their noble hands. But the leader of the man in black struck the gong and announced loudly: "It's late! If you break the rules, you will be punished! If you two are not satisfied, you can appeal to the Yangzhou government later. But before the appeal is decided, the money that should be paid must not be less! ”

Immediately, he struck the gong vigorously and turned his face to the others in the room. "Who's turn next, hurry up, don't delay your efforts! Pay attention, if anyone dares to use force again, Lao Tzu will fight him one-on-one! If you look at the beautiful words, you can't talk about you, if you reason with your fists and feet, in the future, in this political garden, it must be Lao Tzu who has the final say, and you all have to listen to the shouting! ”

"Boom ——!" In the crowd watching the excitement around him, a burst of knowing laughter immediately erupted. Everyone knows that this group of killers in black clothes are all veterans who crawled out of the pile of dead people. When you move, you can use one as ten. If it was really a matter of fists and feet to decide who had the final say, everyone would have to obediently lie down and listen to the shouting, and no one could hope to stand on the platform alive.

"Next, hurry!" The leader of the men in black pursed his lips, led his minions to separate the crowd, and continued to walk to the periphery to maintain order. Leave the podium to the surrounding spectators. The latter instinctively watched for a while, seeing that there was no trouble around him, and then slowly regained his activity.

I saw a middle-aged man with a long scar on his face, dressed as a Confucian student, following the ladder and climbing the podium near the water's edge step by step. first arched his hand and made a circle, and then raised the copper horn to introduce himself: "In Xia Wang Shouyi, he is a native of Yangzhou. After reading for a few days, he was appreciated by the general manager and promoted to the instructor of the county school. December of the year before last in Jiangwan New Town"

Halfway through the words, there was a ** voice coaxing: "Okay, Wang Xiucai, don't talk about your little credit all day long." Didn't you just help General Wu defend the city and get an arrow in the face? The chief manager has directly promoted you to the county school teacher, what do you want? ”

"It's a poisoned arrow, it's a poisoned arrow!" Wang Shouren was immediately sweaty with shame, and the scars on his face surged up and down like centipedes. "Poison arrow, Lao Tzu lay in the infirmary for half a month before he picked up his life! Lao Tzu's teaching position was exchanged for his life. If you don't accept it, if you don't accept it, you will also go and have a fight with the Tartars and talk again! ”

When the person who was heckling in the audience heard this, his arrogance suddenly became three points shorter. Waving his hand, he pouted and responded, "Yes, yes, you say you're fat, and you're still panting." What we want to hear is that you have any good ideas to offer to the chief manager, not to listen to your work! ”

"Which one is coming? Wang just said, Wang just said, Wang is not for, not just for himself! Wang Shouren trembled with anger, but refused to put down the tin horn. He explained a few words angrily, and then continued: "Fellow villagers, Wang's family lives in Liushufang in the north of the city, but every time I want to go to the south of the city to visit relatives, I have to take a detour of three or four miles and cross the bridge from Kanglefang. A few days ago, I heard from the prefect that the yamen of the Governor's Mansion would set aside a special amount of money to take it from the people and use it for the people. Wang pondered, although this money is said to be spent on our Yangzhou people, it can't be divided according to the head, right? ”

"Haha——!" There were many well-informed people in the audience, all shaking their heads and laughing. The fact that the Governor's Office wants to return part of last year's surplus to the local governments has been printed in black and white in the newspapers. But how to use it is really a question. At present, in the two cities of Yangzhou City and Jiangwan, the number of people has recovered to more than one million. No matter how much money is divided equally according to the number of heads, I am afraid that the amount that falls into the hands of each person will not be enough to buy a baked cake.

"So, Wang has a mention today. Please ask the prefect Yamen to allocate funds to the people in the northwest of our city to build a stone bridge. Let us go to the south of the city in the future, and we can cross the river directly from Willow Square. No more going around three or four miles under the sun, sticking out your tongue like a dog! ”

"Boom!" The crowd in the audience suddenly burst into laughter again. They all feel that Wang Shouyi is worthy of being a talented person who has read books, and he thinks about it thoroughly.

When the scholars and celebrities from other places saw this scene, they couldn't help but widen their eyes one by one. "Is that okay? How does the government spend money, and how can it be decided by the grass people? ”

However, right under their noses, Wang Shouyi took out two thirteen or fourteen-year-old schoolchildren and took out a piece of paper and began to solicit signatures. The spectators stepped forward one after another, or borrowed the ink pen handed over by Wang Shouyi to sign their names. Or press a handprint and have two schoolchildren sign on their behalf. In the blink of an eye, I signed seven or eight full pages, even if it was less than a thousand, it was more than nine hundred and seventy or eighty!

While Wang Shouyi continued to solicit signatures, another fat man surnamed Su climbed onto the podium. Raising a brass trumpet, he began to speak his own proposal. That is, please ask the governor's office to send more black-clothed city managers to crack down on pickpockets and swindlers in the city. Anyone who is caught will be sent to the coal mine, and such people will never be allowed to see the light of day again.

This proposal has received more support than the previous one. Anyone who lives in the city has hands and feet, and no one wants their hard-earned salary for a month to be touched away by thieves in the blink of an eye, or deceived by scammers. So soon, the fat man surnamed Su got the signatures of more than a dozen large pieces of paper, happily held them in his hands, and found the relevant yamen to file for the record.

Immediately after, a third, fourth, and fifth person came to the stage to publicly announce their proposals. Either get satisfactory support, or go home. The scholars and celebrities who watched from the sidelines made a rough calculation, and basically related to the vital interests of the people in the market, it was easy to get a signature. Relatively vague or long-term, it is difficult for everyone to respond.

"Let me try it too, I don't believe that the people of the world are willing to follow Zhu Butcher all the way to the dark!" Wang Peng, a famous Confucian from Enzhou, found an opportunity to climb a podium. picked up the copper horn, opened his throat and shouted: "Husband, the scriptures of heaven, the righteousness of the earth, and the deeds of the people!" In ancient times, people drank blood, bullying the weak to be strong, and behaved like beasts. There are saints who come into the world to educate all the people with rituals. Therefore, people first knew the upper and lower, the young and the young, and the obedient, and then knew loyalty, filial piety, and humility. Different from the beasts, the implementation of the "equality" policy by the Governor's Office today is the beginning of chaos. If no one knows how to go up and down, and does not observe etiquette" (Note 1)'" What did he say? The surrounding people were startled by the sudden appearance of "Zhihuye", their eyes widened, and they asked each other. Immediately, someone who had entered the academy casually translated: "He said that etiquette is a natural thing, and with this thing, there is a difference between talents and beasts." And the meaning of etiquette is to know the difference between up and down, elder and younger, and respect and inferiority. If you don't understand this, you're not as good as a beast! ”

"Fuck it, it's that set again, let Lao Tzu continue to be bullied for a lifetime and don't dare to complain!" When the people heard this, they immediately boiled the pot like boiling water, and talked loudly.

Although Zhu Chongjiu's "Declaration of Equality" was only officially put into writing in the first month of this year, over the past three years, with the expulsion of the local gentry and Confucian scholars, the incorporation of co-optation has sprung up like mushrooms after a rain along with all kinds of workshops and shops. In the cities along the rivers and canals in the Huaiyang area, the people's dogma of the noble and the inferior has been very weak. I just feel that it is most comfortable to eat with strength and skill like now, and to seek justice in everything, and no one wants to go back to the days when I had to rely on others to continue to suffer and suffer.

Therefore, everyone refused to give Wang Peng a chance to finish speaking, and soon, some loud people took the lead in shouting: "Wu Na nerd, what are you calling nonsense from an outsider." You are willing to be a donkey for the Mongols, although you should be your own. Don't pull Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu doesn't have the addiction to being a donkey! ”

"That is, I don't count if I want to be a slave, I still want to pull us! Our Huaiyang people's affairs, which is your turn to be outside nerds?! ”

"Get down, get down. If you want to be a dog, do it yourself! Give your wife and sister-in-law to the Mongolian warm bed. Maybe I'll reward you with an official! ”

"You can't grow long if you have an official! By the time our chief is in charge of the Northern Expedition, they will have to get out! ”

"Get down, get down! When Zhang Mingjian burned Yangzhou, why didn't he see you standing up and talking? When the Tartars dug the embankment and released the water, why didn't you say a word? Now that the old and young masters have just lived a few days of stable life, you have jumped out again? What the hell are you thinking?! ”

"That is, what is different from beasts? Tartars kill people and slaughter cities, do you dare to step forward and fart?? Do you have the guts? ”

"How is it possible, they dare to come to our Yangzhou, just to find out the good temper of our chief manager who does not kill people indiscriminately. On the side of the Tartars, they don't dare to fart indiscriminately! ”

Every sentence, although vulgar and unwritten, is all scolded on the point. scolded the old Confucian Wang Peng to the point of smoke, but he couldn't find the government and family members to support him and deter the gangsters. The body swayed and staggered on the table, and suddenly spurted out a mouthful of old blood, and fell on its back on the wooden table.

Note 1: Wang Peng, Han Chinese. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, he was famous for his noble ambitions, and he never forgot Dayuan's great imperial kindness to him.