Several masters probably already knew that Master Li was very assertive and liked to be assertive when encountering problems, so he pressed the ** that shook the feather fan to come up with an idea, and only asked: "How should the owner deal with it?" ”

If Master Li has no idea, it's not too late to express himself.

Li You recalled what he had done since he took office, and the county government ministry was full of things, and in the past two months, his main focus was on familiarizing himself with the situation, integrating power, and brushing up his sense of existence. In the past two years, we have won the garrison department, and we must concentrate on controlling the garrison department.

This is a necessary process for every magistrate after he takes office, and he can't bear the surname, and he can't do anything if his foundation is unstable.

As for the outside world, this period was a bit thunderous and rainy, including the attitude towards salt merchants. Whether it is to recover the "arrears" of the salt class or to arrest the suspected six salt merchants, they are very fierce, the mouth cannon is loud, and the actual action is very few.

The county has been quiet for too long, so long that some people are used to it... With a plan in his heart, Li Xianzun sent Master Hu to the government to negotiate, asking the government to send the six salt merchants back to the county government for interrogation.

Master Zhuang persuaded with a little worry: "The local salt merchant tree has deep roots, and the host and guest are translocated, and the proprietor must not act like he did in Suzhou Mansion. ”

"For the country and the people, although you die without regret, if you want to benefit the country in life and death, will you avoid it because of misfortune and blessing." Master Li replied abruptly.

In the face of such a great statement, Master Zhuang was speechless. He suspected that the proprietor was a bit of a fan of the unpleasant hatred of the rich mentality of the salt merchants in Yangzhou who relied on their nest capital to earn millions of silver every year.

Master Zhuang is indeed knowledgeable but not high, and he doesn't want to think about it, if he can find a way to help the imperial court, which is forever tight, collect an extra one million silver or two million a year, even if it is hundreds of thousands, without exploiting the common people, how much credit will it be?

It didn't take long for Master Hu to come back angrily, and he knew without asking that he must have been categorically rejected.

"That's it." Lady Li had an ordinary but implicit murderous tone, and handed the document he had just written to Master Hu.

After Hu Zhenru unfolded and looked at it a few times, sweat broke out on the top of his head, but his hands couldn't help but tremble, and he muttered: "Since then, Yangzhou City has no more peace!" ”

On the fourth of July, it was the government that interrogated the six salt merchants who surrendered themselves.

Wang Chun, Liu Chongxuan, Zhou Heng, Wu Yu, Yao Shiquan, and Sun Kaiding, the six salt industry businessmen who had been wanted by Master Li for a month and a half, set off from each other with a relaxed expression, ready to gather outside the gate of the mansion, and then go to the hall together to go through the motions.

They knew that today the government government would definitely acquit them, completely ending the pressure brought to them by the county government's one-and-a-half-month pursuit.

These six people met under the archway outside the gate of the government and exchanged a few words of greetings with each other, and their entourage also gathered together to chat with people they knew, and the atmosphere was happy and peaceful.

When he was about to enter the palace, a column of honor guards suddenly drove from a distance, and a large official sedan chair was parked on the side, and a young official in a black gauze robe came down from the sedan chair.

Although the six salt merchants and Li Xianzun had never met, from the pomp and age of the other party, they all recognized the official in front of them at the first time as Li Xianzun, and there would be no second such thing in Yangzhou City.

Li You said indifferently: "This official came in person to persuade Er and others to go to the county government to close the case." Hugh will make mistakes again and again, and small things can cause big troubles. ”

The six people looked at each other, and the dog official was still stubborn, and he didn't hesitate to pull down his face and run to the door of the government to intercept him?

If it weren't for the summons they had in their hands, they were afraid that the county government would have kidnapped them on the spot, and the six of them would have been emboldened. This dog official just couldn't catch them after two notices, so he felt a big loss of face.

A sharp voice came from the entourage of the six salt merchants, "Li Xianzun really doesn't know what to do, let's go back and learn how to be an official in Yangzhou City first!" Haven't you heard of it, Yangzhou City is the Yangzhou City of our salt merchants, just be an official and obediently follow it, don't make brainless jokes like this one in the future! ”

The six people were very angry when they heard it, as if they had been said something they wanted to say but did not dare to say, but they immediately felt that it was very inappropriate.

There is never a shortage of idlers at the Yamen, and when I saw this scene, I suddenly felt that this morning was worth the trip. Tsk, these salt merchants are really loud, and they regard Yangzhou City as his backyard. Tsk, Li Xianzun doesn't seem to have much to do, after all, this is the door of the government office, not his county office.

But seeing that Master Li was so angry that his face turned red, "Good, good, good, if there is a slave, there must be a master, these words are also what you think, this official has been taught!" ”

With that, he brushed his sleeves and left.

The six salt merchants were also not interested in keeping Li Xianzun, and after seeing him leave, they looked back to look for the entourage who had just spoken, but found that they could no longer find him. It's really strange, the entourage of the six of them is mixed together, and they all thought that the person who humiliated Li Xianzun was from another family, but now he has disappeared, is it a righteous man who has seen injustice?

However, none of the six of them cared about this little episode, as long as the government government was done, the county government couldn't help them.

The next day, a new notice quietly appeared on the eight-character wall outside the gate of the county government. It is not a new thing that the county government notices are emerging in an endless stream here, but this one still attracts attention.

"The people of Huizhou who live in Guangling and live in Jiangdu County, not to mention thousands of families, and those who read do not know how many, are all taking the imperial examination in this county.

Imagine the way of the imperial examination, the province is divided, each has its own amount method, and it is natural for the country of origin to go to school. Sending people to take the exam is originally the grace of the imperial court, or it can take care of people who are in a foreign land.

Unexpectedly, it is said that Xin'an Dajia is all over Jiangdu, only Yangzhou is Huizhou, relying on wealth and no study, and the dove occupies the magpie's nest and occupies the imperial examination, which is the grace of the imperial court! The life of the indigenous scholars is difficult, and justice does not exist.

In addition, the people of Zhonghui in the county can be tested in their own hometown, and they can be tested in Yangzhou, and there is no reason for one government to occupy two imperial examinations in the world! Xin'an Guangling, not far away, is by no means thousands of miles away, you can go back to your hometown to take the exam, you don't have to take the Jiangdu children's test.

Jinghe in August of the eighth year of the county examination, Huizhou residents are forbidden to register, Jinghe nine years of government examination, Huizhou is forbidden to send Jiangdu County children to participate, tell the notice. ”

The inscription is "Jiangdu County Zhengtang Li" and is stamped with a bright red seal.

This notice is sprinkled with hundreds of words, and the core meaning is only one point: there are too many Huizhou people registered in Jiangdu County, and Li Xianzun believes that they have seriously crowded out the quota of the indigenous imperial examinations, and forbade them to participate in the county examination and register for the government examination.

This is an era in which "everything is inferior, only reading is high", this is an era in which only by studying can you become an official, and this is an era in which only the achievements of the imperial examination can truly glorify the lintel. Anything that involves the study of the imperial examination, it is all in the spotlight.

The so-called consignment is the opposite of the home register. If you live in a foreign place for a long time and do not have a household registration, it is not convenient to apply for a registration in the place of residence in the form of dependence.

There are many people in Huizhou who are laymen, and there are Huizhou merchants in many places, but there are not as many as Yangzhou. After Gaozong's revival, there were about 20,000 or 30,000 Huizhou people living in Yangzhou Prefecture, and 90 percent of them were gathered in Jiangdu County, the capital city, and many of them had been registered for decades.

Sufficient food and clothing to know honor and disgrace, warehouse and etiquette, Hui merchants have money, naturally for their children to study and become officials, Yangzhou salt merchants are no exception.

Li County can't manage the township test, the hospital test, or the government test, but he can manage the county test in Jiangdu County, and he can manage the registration work of the county to participate in the government test. The county examination is the first step in the great cause of the imperial examination, although it is only a small step, but the county examination is not successful, and the later prefectural examination institute will only raise people to jinshi.

This simple and ordinary notice immediately blocked the 20,000 or 30,000 Huizhou people in Yangzhou from the imperial examination, and ninety percent of the salt merchants were included in this circle.

This is not an empty letter such as hunting down the Six Salt Merchants, it is a real ban from the government, and it is a ban that the government can definitely do as long as it wants to.

The main hall of a county theoretically has unlimited power within the county, and if it can be translated into practice and maintained, the power is infinite.

This time, it immediately had the effect of stirring up a thousand waves with one stone, causing an uproar, which can be called a whole city shake, and was discussed among the salt merchants.

Li Xianzun's move is too ruthless, and he wants to cut off the way of all their salt merchant's children from studying and advancing from the roots! At least that's when he was in Yangzhou.

Although there is a tradition of dying in the dynasty, there is also a tradition of the successor giving face to the predecessor. In case Master Li is promoted, the followers will not dare to offend people, so it is very possible not to lift the ban, and it is easier to maintain the status quo than to change.

Besides, Lord Li has to stay in Jiangdu County for at least a few years, could it be that in the past few years, the children of the clan who have spent a lot of money to train specifically for the imperial examination can only spend their time at home? Or forever?

Go back to your hometown to take the test? Huizhou was originally a narrow and densely populated place, so it was very popular to go out to do business and live in other places, and studying and becoming an official was also a road with high hopes. One or two are okay, so many elite talents go back to their hometown together to grab the precious imperial examination places, so they can't be poked to death by their ancestors and villagers?

If the passage to the upper level is blocked, after all, it is only the end of the four people, how much point is it to make more money?

There is no hatred of killing his father and no hatred of taking his wife, why did Li Xianzun do this? Why?

However, there was also a considerable amount of resentment transferred to the heads of the six salt merchants, and the seven or eight giants such as Jin He Tianma and others did not hear of humiliating the county in front of them and openly shouting that "Yangzhou City is the Yangzhou City of salt merchants", so they just thought about it in their hearts.

These six stupid birds are worth no more than tens of thousands of taels at most, and they are so unscrupulous and do not know how to restrain themselves, and openly humiliate the county Yazhengtang in broad daylight. Otherwise, how could it have provoked such a violent and unceremonious retaliation?

But after all, the fool is on his side, and the lesson to him in the future is that the top priority now is how to deal with Li Xianzun, who seems to have monstrous anger.

At the same time, among 80 percent of the people in Yangzhou City, Lord Li's ban caused a strong response and cheers from the heart.

Those who cheered for Lord Li and couldn't wait to live long live were the natives of Jiangdu County, especially the gentry and scholars. The Huizhou people living in Yangzhou City are rich and have a high investment in education, and the standard of the children they cultivate to study is naturally rising, and they are very competitive in the imperial examinations, and they can often grab half of the places from the indigenous people.

In the past, everyone could only sigh with admiration, and there was nothing to do with envy, but today I found out that it could still be like this, and I couldn't help but praise with tears in my eyes, "I really understand the people's feelings Li Qingtian"!

The eight big characters of serving as an official and benefiting one party are simply tailor-made for his old man.

According to the three-year term of this Qingtian master, at least in the past three years, there will be no Huizhou figure in the county test. After the county examination, the government examination and the hospital examination naturally do not have the share of Huizhou people, which is equivalent to doubling the number of places out of thin air.

The discussion outside was not mentioned, and it was said that in the county government, only Master Hu, who was familiar with the local situation, saw the inside story. Several other masters had to rely on Master Hu to understand what the proprietor was thinking, and this was by no means a simple revenge.

In the time and space of Li You's previous life, there was a massacre like the Ten Days in Yangzhou, when the natives in Yangzhou City were almost slaughtered. Although Yangzhou later recovered because of the salt industry, it completely became a colony of immigrants and Hui merchants.

In this time and space, the massacre did not happen, although because of the historical surname Huizhou salt merchants continued to rise, after decades of accumulation, with huge wealth to become the master of Yangzhou City, but the local aborigines still maintain an absolute advantage in numbers.

However, the local people are generally more middle and lower class, and in 21st century terms, they are grassroots, which is far from the wealth of Huizhou people, especially salt merchants. The locals watched the outsiders make a fortune one by one, especially the salt merchants, who were able to get rich for two or three generations by virtue of the privilege of the hereditary gang salt nest, that is, the monopoly license.

At this time, the salt merchants only thought about the damage to their vital interests, limited by their limited knowledge, and did not have time to perceive the deeper consequences, and they had no way of knowing what was in the Pandora's box opened by Master Li.

In fact, people like Li You, who have been on the Internet in the 21 st century, know that class contradictions and regional contradictions are very easy to become popular, and it is very easy to cause large-scale disputes. Mapping to Yangzhou Chengjiangdu County, which is uneven in time and space, with clear geographical divisions, and rich and poor guests, Li You feels the same.

Didn't Master Zhuang say that the tree has big roots and deep roots, and the host and guest are translocated? Compared with the salt merchants, he Li You is a guest, and his local roots are shallow, but compared to the absolute majority of the native natives, the salt merchants are the guests!

There are no contradictions, but also to create contradictions, which is one of Master Li's specialties... Just as Li You sent someone to inquire about the effect, a county school official was panting and stumbling into the room by Zhang San, shouting: "The big guy is not good!" In the county school, the native students and the parasitic students are fighting! ”

Li You was taken aback, he didn't expect that he would provoke such a stir, but he didn't expect the reader to fight first. However, it is not surprising that he originally used the most sensitive imperial examination as an introduction, and it is normal for it to spread to the school first.

There are a total of 120 students in the county, including those who are in school, those who are enlarged, and those who are attached to the school, and there are probably several hundred who are not in school. About 40 or 50 of the students in the school are from their hometowns, and 70 or 80 are from their hometowns, and they are fully equipped with the material conditions for group fights. Besides, they have to compete for the opportunity to participate in the township examination once every three years, and Jiangdu County only has 40 places to participate in the township examination every session.

Thinking of this, Master Li didn't ask about right and wrong, and said: "The county school of Jiangdu County is the place where Jiangdu County is a place of cultivation, and the official order is that all the students who are registered will be moved out of the county school. ”

Li You does not have the right to exempt the students from their talents, so he has to trouble mentioning the great master of the imperial history, but he has the power to manage the county school. However, the students who were removed from the county school, although they were still talented, could not participate in the township examination and won the examination, and lost the opportunity to go to the next level.

If it is said that prohibiting Huizhou residents from participating in the county examination is like a boiling pot, then expelling Huizhou residents who already have a reputation in the county school is like frying the pot.

"This is the reading seed that will destroy our salt merchants!" A salt merchant whose son had been expelled from the county school roared.

(To be continued)