The next day, after listening to Li Jierong's agitation, the Chinese businessman Jia continued to watch from the wall, in their opinion, the shop is mine, the goods are also mine, whether to sell or not is my freedom, the government can't control it.

Therefore, the streets that were said to be prosperous were still deserted, and most of the shops were still closed, and even the occasional passers-by were in a hurry, until noon, when Wen Renjun had set the deadline, there was still no movement on the streets, and only the occasional autumn breeze carried away a few dead leaves on the street.

In the palace of King Zhou, Pang Gang at this time has finished lunch, and the family is sitting on the side chatting, Pang Gang from later generations has never had any women who are not allowed to serve on the table, and the rules of eating and sleeping silently, even after Pang Gang established himself as the king, has not changed, so the atmosphere of their family is still very relaxed compared to today's official eunuchs, at least the wives and concubines in the family are not as intrigued as the big families of others.

Wei Manyao, who has finished confinement, is holding the newborn child next to Pang Gang, and on the other side is Kong Ruolan, she is holding her eldest son who has just been weaned at ten months old, but her eldest son is not at all restless, dancing and screaming, waving her little hands constantly, Ling'er and Qiao'er, the two concubines from personal maids, are around the former young lady to help take care of them, Chen Yuanyuan and Li Xuezhu are teasing the two little guys on the side, and the whole scene is happy.

At this time, Manyao was nursing the child, there were no outsiders at this time, Manyao also had so many scruples, so he sat beside Pang Gang generously, and looked at it from Pang Gang's point of view, but he could see it clearly, the woman who had given birth was different, the pair of twin peaks of Manyao was obviously a little bigger, and the tips of the two peaks also changed from pink to dark red, and the hand was not as strong as before, but it was much softer.

Sensing that her husband was looking at her, Manyao straightened up with a little pride. The midday sun fell on her jade-like body through the screen window, forming a gorgeous picture.

I don't know if it's the midday sun or the girlish shyness that dyed her snow-white skin, and the green bandeau across her chest and abdomen added a bit of pink.

After giving birth, she had not recovered, and her slightly bulging lower abdomen did not destroy her figure, but formed a beautiful curve with the pair of swollen twin peaks.

The vine in front of him was like a strange mixture of a girl and a mother, both young and mature, and that strange beauty made Pang Gang's gaze extremely hot.

However, after all, Manyao is from everyone's beautiful background, and she can't do this kind of thing in broad daylight in front of all the sisters, a group of maids and her husband, Pang Gang's hot gaze made Manyao a little embarrassed, she glanced at her husband coquettishly, and deliberately diverted her husband's attention and said: "Lord Wang, now that the children of the concubine are full moon, and Sister Ruolan's children are also weaned, shouldn't you also name the two children?" ”

Speaking of which, Pang Gang's eldest son is almost a year old, but considering his limited cultural level, Pang Gang originally wanted to wait until the first year of age to invite everyone to drink a glass of wine before naming the child, but he really couldn't bear the soft grinding and hard bubbles of the two daughters-in-law, and now Wei Manyao mentioned it again, but Pang Gang was not easy to refuse.

Pang Gang pondered for a long time before he nodded and said, "Okay, then let's name the child today, so that you don't always blame your husband for being lazy, in this way, our eldest son is called Su Peng, and the second son is called Su Ming, what do you think?" ”

"Su Peng? Su Ming? ”

Kong Ruolan on the side is also a person who has read poetry books, and after hearing the name that her husband was going to give her son, she sighed for a while, and agreed with a smile: ""Shuowen" said: Feng Fei, the birds are tens of thousands, so friends are the word for friends. "Zhuangzi - Wandering Away" also says: There is a fish in the North Underworld, and its name is Kun. The Kun is so big that I don't know how many thousands of miles it is. turned into a bird, its name is Peng, it can be seen that this Peng character is excellent, the concubine body looks at the name of the princess and likes it very much, after speaking, Kong Ruolan smiled at Pang Gangyan, as moving as a hundred flowers blooming. ”

And Wei Manyao, who was sitting on the side, also thought about it and asked, "Fu Ding Youming." The inscription, self-name, self-name to praise the beauty of his ancestors, is this what the prince means by giving this name to the child? ”

"Khan!"

Pang Gang wiped his forehead, feeling some cold sweat flowing from it, these two names were just his casual words, but let his two daughters-in-law say so many sources, our Chinese characters are really broad and profound, any word is exquisite, now, Pang Gang finally understands why there are so many female doctors and professors in the future, and it is not all a good thing that emotional women are too highly educated and too knowledgeable, at least this lifelong event is difficult to solve, which is too stressful for men......

"Cheng, you are satisfied."

Seeing that the two daughters-in-law expressed their satisfaction with the names of their children, Pang Gang also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then turned his eyes to Chen Yuanyuan and Li Xuezhu. Looking at Li Xuezhu's delicate face and plump body, as well as Chen Yuanyuan's picturesque fairy posture, Pang Gang's heart was about to move again, his eyes rolled, and he was thinking about whether to take advantage of the weather that was not too hot to go back to the room with the two daughters-in-law to rest and rest, but before he could take action, the maid outside came in and reported that Gu Chen was waiting outside.

"Let him wait, and the king will go out immediately."

Pang Gang didn't let Gu Chen in, after all, this is an inner house, and all his wives and concubines live in this big house, but not everyone can come in, even his own intelligence director, but Pang Gang still quickly stood up and walked out.

"Lord Wan'an!"

Seeing Pang Gang come out, Gu Chen hurriedly saluted.

Pang Gang waved his hand: "Excuse me, is there any movement over there?" ”

"Lord Wang, those merchants still haven't opened for business, as early as yesterday, these merchants discussed it, but those merchants have also learned to be obedient, and now they don't come out to make trouble, they just close the door silently, waiting for us to take the initiative to find them." Gu Chen suppressed the atmosphere in his heart and reported.

"Hey, it seems that they have also grown a little, but this king has long expected this, if they don't bounce a few times on such a big thing, it won't be them." Pang Gang said lightly, his face slowly straightened and continued: "Since someone toasts and doesn't eat and drink, then don't blame us for being tough." Gu Chen, is Wang Zhi ready? ”

Gu Chen raised his head and said: "Lord Wang, General Wang's men and horses have all entered the city late last night, and now they are all lurking in the hidden pits near the various city gates, just waiting for your order, Lord Wang, you give an order!" ”

Although he had been doing intelligence work for several months, Gu Chen, who had been born at night, still had the blood of taking risks at night still flowing in his bones, so as soon as he heard Pang Gang's words, he began to get excited.

"Okay, order Wang Zhi to immediately send a battalion of soldiers and horses to arrest Li Jierong and several gentry and merchants led by him! The rest of the people surrounded Qingzhou City, and no one was allowed to run away! ”

"Yes, obedience!" Gu Chen straightened up, and then asked, "Lord Wang, what kind of crime is used?" ”

"Fornication with Tartars!" Pang Gang said lightly, but there was a hint of murder on his face.

Gu Chen's body trembled, it seems that those people really provoked the prince, although the prince has turned his face with Da Ming and set up his own door, but he is still the same on the issue of treating the Tartars, that is, if there is an adultery with the Tartars, there is only one result, that is, there is no forgiveness!

"President Li, President Li, today is the second day and it's already unitary time, if we don't open the shop again, King Zhou will blame us in the future, it will be difficult to do it."

"What are you afraid of, since we have decided to do it with King Zhou, let's do it to the end, I don't believe it, does King Zhou dare to move us, is he not afraid of the mouth of the world? We're going to spend it with him until they agree to our request. ”

In the backyard of Li Jierong's house, many businessmen who have no bottom of their psychology are asking Li Jierong, wanting Li Jierong a guarantee, but there are also some who don't care, in their opinion, the Ming Dynasty is strong enough, isn't it the same to take us, even if Shandong has changed its owner now, but it has to rely on them to support it, so they are all rampant.

Just as the people in the courtyard were talking wildly, they heard a chaotic sound outside.

Immediately afterwards, Li Jierong's housekeeper ran over panting, and said with a crying voice: "Master, it's not good, there are a lot of officers and soldiers outside, and they have come in." ”

Li Jierong only felt a tingling in his scalp, and stood up violently and shouted, "What? Officers and soldiers have come in? How many of them are there? ”

"Master, the villain doesn't know, it is estimated that there should be thousands of people!" The housekeeper was so anxious at this time that even tears fell, "Master, you better take the young master and the lady and them to run quickly, otherwise it will be too late." ”

"Can we still run?"

Li Jierong laughed miserably, he knew that everything was over, and the lives of his whole family were probably difficult to protect. He is a small vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, and he wants to break his wrist with King Zhou, but he can calculate in every way, and people can crush themselves to death as long as they raise their fingers slightly, is this the difference in strength?

"Bang"

A dull sound sounded in front of him, and then a burst of neat footsteps came from the outer courtyard, a burly and dark-skinned Qian General with a full body of leather armor and a dark complexion led a team of sergeants to stride over, and after seeing Li Jierong and others, he held his hands for a while, and shouted: "Li Jierong, someone reported that you had fornicated with the Tartars, and this official came to arrest you on the orders of the prince, and you should not be arrested quickly!" ”

The voice of this Qian general manager came like thunder, and the businessmen turned pale with fright.

A fat-headed and big-eared gentry was so frightened that his legs trembled, and he said in a trembling voice: "My lord, wronged, wronged, the grass people don't know anything, this is none of the grass people's business." ”

Mr. Qian sneered: "Hmph, whether you go to the prefect's prison with this official will know, come here, take all these people away!" ”

"Yes!"

With the order of the commander, a group of sergeants rushed up and surrounded the merchants and gentry, and the bayonets on Minnie's rifles were aimed at them, and the bright bayonets flashed with a terrifying cold light, which was terrifying.

These businessmen who were usually unseen in their eyes were frightened one by one at this time, and they all trembled, not daring to move, and suddenly a faint voice came out, and everyone looked down and saw that it was a forty-year-old gentleman who was frightened and incontinent, and a pool of yellow liquid appeared under his feet.

"Rubbish!"

When the Qian general saw the urine on the ground, he couldn't help but glance at the gentleman with contempt, and as soon as he waved his hand, two sergeants came over, grabbed the gentleman's neck, and dragged him down like a dead dog.

"Stop, do you know what you're doing?" At the moment of life and death, Li Jierong also let go, he jumped out and pointed at this thousand households and shouted: "Do you know that if you take us away, all the merchants in Qingzhou and even Shandong will be withdrawn, and I will see how you explain to King Zhou at that time!" ”

"Confession?" Qianhu sneered, pointed at Li Jierong and said disdainfully: "It's you businessmen, driving up prices and hoarding, and the people don't even have a place to buy a needle and thread now, is this what you rely on?" ”

After that, Qianhu pointed to a group of businessmen and said: "Some of you are our local gentry in Qingzhou, and some are merchants from other places, what are you here for, isn't it just to make money, but you see, what have you done, now the grain on the market has risen to five taels, you are embarrassed to say that you have wronged others and say that I am old Lu Hei, but I see, you are a hundred times blacker than me, come here, take them all away!" ”

"Bang la la"

The sergeants were not polite to these people, they swarmed up, flipped the guns in their hands, and smashed the butts of the guns down, smashing the pampered merchants and gentry to the point of crying.

Wang Zhi's actions were very efficient, and after leading his troops into the city, it took less than three hours to arrest all the merchants who participated in the strike before dark, and he was almost overcrowded in the prefect's prison.

Pang Gang's order to arrest the merchants who boycotted the city in Qingzhou was like a thunderbolt from the sky, shocking everyone, and the news also spread like the wind to the surrounding state capitals.

After more than 100 businessmen were arrested, Li Jierong's entire family was beheaded by Pang Gang on the charge of fornicating with Tartars, and all his family property was confiscated.

Other shops were released only after paying a large fine, and then ordered to open immediately.

The bloody head and the cruel truth told these merchants that in the face of the king of Zhou with a knife in his hand, any conspiracy and trickery were futile, and they had to accept the fact that they either accepted the tax rate set by the king of Zhou, or from Shandong, from Qingzhou, and dared to evade taxes, and the tax collectors in Shandong would let them know what it meant to punish you to bankruptcy, so Pang Gang also allowed them to set up a tax department to deprive the collection of taxes from the functions of the government. Dedicated to the collection of all taxes.

Although Pang Gang's order to raise taxes on the merchants under his rule did not end with the fall of Li Jierong and a group of other merchants, but there was a trend of intensification, although the merchants under Pang Gang's rule did not dare to resist because of Pang Gang's force, but in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, and even Hebei and other places.

"Shameless, shameless, such a kingless and fatherless person would do such a ridiculous thing, and the tax collection should reach 20%, which is something that I have never done in the past three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty!"

In a restaurant in Yangzhou, today Sun Xiyi and a group of literati and friends invited the famous Ji Liu of Jiangnan to accompany him, and a group of Qinglou women were beating and criticizing the taxes that occurred in Shandong and other places.

A pale scholar also nodded and said: "Yes, my Emperor Taizu once said that the tax of merchants should not be too much, and it is enough to draw one out of thirty or even one out of sixty, and now this Pang Gang has received two percent, which is comparable to the ancient king." ”

Sun Xiyi snorted coldly: "Hmph, doesn't he call himself King Zhou, what's the difference between him and King Zhou?" ”

"Hahaha yes, there is no difference between him, the king of Zhou and the king of Zhou, such rebellious ministers and thieves will be annihilated by the imperial army sooner or later!"

Everyone laughed, a look of contempt jumped on their faces, Sun Xiyi turned to Liu Ru and said: "Liu, Sun is not talented, but he is also deeply disgusted with what Pang Gang did, what do you think?" ”

Liu Ru pondered for a moment before sighing lightly: "Perhaps, how undeserved it should be that Zhou Nan Gang to be so tyrannical, this is to compete with the people for profit." ”

In Liu Ruyi's opinion, Pang Gang did this too much, and he even had to collect 20% of the tax, which was to cut off the businessman's way of living.

Sun Xiyi felt that it was not enough to belittle Pang Gang like this, he looked around, and suddenly saw a person, and he said to everyone: "Everyone, isn't that Yan shopkeeper who went to Shandong to sell cloth last month?" Let's invite him to ask how Shandong is doing? ”

"Great goodness!"

Everyone was overjoyed, and hurriedly sent a small servant to call people down.

Soon, the little guy called someone up, this is a businessman of fifty years this year, and many years of running around make him look like a sixty-year-old man, and after he came up, he said to everyone: "Little old man has seen all of you. ”

Sun Xiyi waved the folding fan in his hand in a dashing way, opened it with a bang, and a picture of the landscape splashing ink jumped out, and he pretended to be chic and asked: "Shopkeeper Yan, you just came back from Shandong, you can tell us, what is the situation in Shandong today?" ”

The shopkeeper Yan glanced at the surrounding scholars, sighed lightly and said: "The little old man can't say it well, these people in Shandong, especially Qingzhou, are in turmoil, many businessmen have been fined, and the customs are very chaotic, and the king of Zhou has issued a strict order repeatedly, and it is not okay to pay taxes!" ”

(To be continued)