Suzhou Fengmen, Zhou Mansion.

The housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion is very busy these days, and he is also very proud, those scholars who have never come to the door before, this time they are coming, although they are all for the official gentry to pay for the matter, but at this time I think of relying on the Zhou family, no matter what, it is also the glory of my own master, the newly appointed Suzhou prefect Li Yan has sent several groups of officials to collect taxes, and the housekeeper did not come forward at all, and the subordinates blocked these officials.

The housekeeper is still a little worried, after all, the prestige of Zheng Xunrui is not ordinary in the entire Nanzhili, but the officials of the Suzhou Mansion left several times, without taking any coercive measures, and did not even say a hard word, which gave the housekeeper an unusual confidence, no matter what, his own lord's identity is not ordinary, and his own young lady is the queen's mother, just with such a prestige, the powerful Zheng Xunrui does not dare to mess around.

The attitude of his own master, the housekeeper is very clear, that is, he will resolutely not bear any taxes, although the Zhou family has thousands of hectares of arable land in Suzhou, with the attitude of his own master, the housekeeper is not worried, and there are a lot of nursing homes at home, even if the government dares to do it, the nursing home is not vegetarian, since there is his own master, there is no need to be afraid of anything, is Zheng Xunrui still dare to rebel.

However, the conversation with those scholars is not particularly comfortable, the housekeeper adheres to the meaning of his master, since these scholars want to be protected, it is very simple, take the silver, the Zhou family can provide protection, and can also say a few kind words in front of the emperor, but unfortunately these scholars say very well, that is, there is no actual action, no one really takes out the silver, but what they say is very good. almost lifted his own master to the sky.

There is no good way for the housekeeper to take these scholars, after all, everyone is a scholar, after all, these scholars are either once officials in the court, or their family members are officials in the court or other places, and it is very unfavorable for their own lord to really turn their faces for silver.

But these days pass. The housekeeper also has a very bad opinion of those scholars in Suzhou, and it is said that they are all mouths, although they hold their own masters to the sky, but they still seem to look down on their own masters in their bones, so in the face of many scholars who come to visit, the housekeeper also has an idea, unless it is those with a very unusual background, let their sons come forward to entertain and receive them. The rest of the housekeepers stepped in to deal with it, and it didn't matter if the doctors were unhappy.

The butler is not stupid, although he is not a scholar, and he does not have much knowledge, but he has seen a lot of scenes, and he can also analyze people's hearts, and in the process of contact with these scholars, he gradually felt it. Many scholars and doctors are afraid of Zheng Xunrui, and they also envy Zheng Xunrui's power in their hearts. After all, Zheng Xunrui is the champion of the palace examination, and his background in the two rankings of scholars has been widely recognized by scholars, and his tough style and extraordinary wisdom are also a real example for scholars and scholars.

The housekeeper couldn't think of so much, no matter how Zheng Xunrui was going to do things. No matter what Zheng Xunrui's attitude towards businessmen and scholars, anyway, he just does things according to his master's requirements, as for whether he supports Zheng Xunrui, whether he will encounter Zheng Xunrui's calculations and suppression, etc., then everything must be considered by his own master.

"Newspaper. Lord Li, the prefect of Suzhou, brought people to the mansion. ”

Hearing the doorman's report, the housekeeper's face turned a little pale, I don't know why, his body trembled slightly, there have been too many scholars who have come to visit recently, and the young master is not very troubled, so he left the mansion and went to Nanjing, in fact, he went to Qinhuai River to have fun, and now the prefect has come to the mansion, and the young master cannot rush back from Nanjing, so he had to come forward to greet him.

The prefect came to visit, and the housekeeper could not hold it up, not to mention that the prefect was still the right attendant of the Nanjing Military Department, and it is said that the deep trust of Zheng Xunrui was specially sent to Suzhou to serve as the prefect.

The butler quickly went to the front yard to greet the prefect.

Li Yan had a smile on his face, looking at the housekeeper who came in a hurry, he had already received Xu Wanghua's instructions, and the requirements of the instructions were within his expectations, in fact, according to his Li Yan's temper and temperament, he had long thought about doing something to the Zhou Mansion, especially recently, many scholars and doctors in Suzhou have gone to the Zhou Mansion to visit and discuss secretly, in fact, it is to discuss how to deal with the affairs of the officials and gentry to pay the grain in one piece, so that the officials of the government and the county government are gray, and they don't want to collect taxes from the scholars at all.

The taxes of the Ming Dynasty are divided into summer and autumn two seasons, the focus is on the collection after the autumn harvest, Zheng Xunrui's implementation of the official gentry to pay the grain, that is, when the autumn tax is levied, the one-time collection of the tax should be paid by the scholars, considering that many places in Nanzhili have just suffered from floods, so this year's tax has been reduced to a certain extent.

If the government does not have a clear attitude and does not come up with really strong measures, the matter of the officials of the official gentry receiving food in one piece cannot be promoted at all.

The reason why Li Yan did not act rashly was to take into account Zhou Kui's special situation and avoid affecting Zheng Xunrui's overall layout because of his own recklessness, so he reported the situation of Zhou's mansion to the military department in Nanjing.

Li Yan has long wanted to do the thing of killing a hundred people, in a place like Suzhou, if you don't move seriously, those scholars don't care at all.

In fact, what Li Yan is most worried about is not the Zhou Mansion, but the Wen Mansion, fortunately, Wen Qiankang paid the taxes that should be paid at one time, including the Wen family, all of them paid the taxes in accordance with the rules, and there was no arrears of a penny of silver, and the governor of Shaanxi, Wen Zhenheng, also wrote a letter to his family, asking for support for all the matters of Zheng Xunrui, which made Li Yan breathe a sigh of relief, to be honest, if Wen Qiankang was unwilling to pay the taxes, Li Yan really had no way, he didn't dare to be rude to the Wen Mansion.

Seeing Li Yan with a smile on his face, the housekeeper secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"The little housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion, please meet the prefect, the young master of the family went to Nanjing because of something, and he can't greet the adult, please understand."

Li Yan nodded and spoke directly.

"You are the steward of the Zhou Mansion, the official came to the house, just to collect taxes, the notice of the Nanjing Sixth Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, presumably the housekeeper also saw it, the official sent officials to the house to collect, because of many reasons, failed to do so, the Zhou Mansion has a total of 1,104 hectares of cultivated land, according to the requirements should pay a tax of 55,200 taels of silver, considering that Suzhou has suffered a flood this year, so each mu of cultivated land is exempted from the tax of two coins of silver, and the Zhou government needs to pay a total of 33,120 taels of silver."

The butler's face turned pale, his body trembled slightly, and he didn't know how to answer, he had already seen it at the door, there were many people who came with the prefect, these people were not ordinary, and they didn't seem to be idle.

"This, Lord Prefect, it's not that the small ones are unwilling to pay taxes, it's just that the small ones are just the housekeepers in the house, such a big thing, the small ones can't call the shots, and they can only be decided after reporting to the master and the young master."

The smile on Li Yan's face quickly disappeared.

"The housekeeper said this, can the official understand that the housekeeper has to make a special trip to the capital to report before he can make a decision."

"What the adults said is that the little ones are going to the capital to make a special trip to report to the master."

"Oh, I see, it seems that half a month ago, the official sent officials to the Zhou Mansion to collect taxes, don't you know if the housekeeper dares to love."

"This, the things in the house are complicated, and the small ones can't leave for a while, so the time is delayed, since the adults are coming to the house, the small ones will deal with the things in the house, and they will set off to the capital tomorrow and make a special trip to report to the master."

Li Yan looked at the housekeeper and spoke with a gloomy face.

"So fooling the official, your housekeeper is so angry, the Nanjing Sixth Department and the Metropolitan Procuratorate decided that the officials and gentry should pay for the grain in one piece, which is the biggest matter in Nanzhili, not to mention the Zhou Mansion, even ordinary people know about it, such a big thing, as the housekeeper of the Zhou Mansion, you don't really care, what is the use of the Zhou Mansion wanting a housekeeper like you, isn't it intended to smear Jiadingbo's face, the official sees that you don't have to do it, come to someone, bring the housekeeper to the mansion, and the official has to ask carefully."

The butler's face also changed.

"The small respects the prefect, I can't imagine that the prefect speaks like this, since this is the case, the small one is not welcome, this is the Zhou Mansion, the emperor's Qinmen, anyone who dares to do it here is equivalent to rebellion......"

Before the housekeeper finished speaking, Li Yan showed a sneering look on his face.

"Hehe, it's amazing, a little housekeeper dares to slander the emperor, no wonder your Zhou Mansion dares to resist the decision of the officials and gentry to pay for food, it turns out that there is a reliance behind it, or rely on the emperor, the official wants to see, whether it is a rebellion here, who dares to rebel, you violate the edict of the Nanjing Six Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, openly resist, and are ready to do it, it is a real rebellion."

After Li Yan finished speaking, he waved his hand.

The soldiers of the Zheng family, who had been waiting outside for a long time, quickly rushed into the mansion.

The nursing home led by the housekeeper was also waiting in the front yard, and when he saw that the situation was not right, he immediately rushed to the front.

It's a pity that these nursing homes are the opponents of the Zheng family soldiers, in just a few minutes, more than a dozen nursing homes were all knocked to the ground, and two of them resisted particularly fiercely, and were mercilessly killed by the Zheng family soldiers.

When the housekeeper saw this, he almost fainted.

"Butler, this official gives you two choices, one is to pay the tax immediately, this official has not happened today, these hands-on guards are all escorted to the government office, and the responsibility for confronting the government is on them, and the other is that this official has been authorized by the Nanjing Military Department Shangshu and the Right Capital Imperial History Zheng Daren, and ordered the Zheng family army officers and soldiers to raid the Zhou Mansion on the charge of rebellion......"

Before Li Yan finished speaking, the housekeeper spoke with a disgraced face.

"Pay your taxes right away, pay your taxes right away......" (To be continued......