Chen Zilong was very frightened, from the emperor's words, he clearly felt that it would not be long before there would be a bloody storm in Jiangnan, and then I don't know how many gentry heads fell to the ground, I don't know how many people died, and the whole Jiangnan was afraid that there would be a big chaos. And it was the current emperor who caused everything, the emperor with strong force, which made him feel even more powerless.

Therefore, it is necessary to convince the emperor and persuade the emperor to abandon the idea of violent rebellion in Jiangnan. At this moment, Chen Zilong felt that the entire Jiangnan was pressed on his shoulders, and whether Jiangnan could escape this catastrophe depended on whether he could convince the emperor next.

After the words "Your Majesty, please listen to the minister's words, ......", Chen Zilong was silent for a moment, he was brewing the next Chinese.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Chen Zilong quietly and did not urge. In Zhu Youzhen's eyes, the young scholar in front of him can be described as a world-class talent, and among the talents he has worked so hard to cultivate, except for Zhang Huangyan, who can barely compare with this person, even the best students of the Academy of Sciences Business School cannot be compared with this person.

Most of the heroes in the world come from the families of the gentry, and those who can raise people in the high school entrance examination are all outstanding among the people. Although he was very dissatisfied with the gentry class in his heart, Zhu Youzhen had to admit it.

"Your Majesty, Jiangnan is the most elite place of the Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of the culture of the Jiangnan provinces is crowned in the world, if Your Majesty is in Jiangnan like in Shandong, the gentry are slaughtered, and the ministers are afraid that the essence of Jiangnan is no longer good, and the romance is no longer there, and it is absolutely an irreparable loss to the court and the Ming Dynasty!" Chen Zilong said.

The corners of Zhu Youzhen's mouth showed a contemptuous smile, what kind of romance is no longer there, romance is also the romance of the gentry and literati, what does it have to do with ordinary people? What does it have to do with me? I may not be able to come to Jiangnan for the second time in my life. As long as ordinary people can live a good life, don't want this kind of romance!

Looking at the expression on the emperor's face, Chen Zilong panicked in his heart, and his speed of speech became faster:

"The prosperity of Jiangnan is the best in the world, but the reason for the prosperity is not only the fertility of the land. Of course, the land of Jiangdong, the land of fish and rice, the yield per mu of the fields is higher than that of other places. But Your Majesty may not know that in recent decades, the provinces of Jiangdong have cultivated little rice and more mulberry cotton. The grain handed over to the imperial court by the prefectures in Jiangdong was more purchased from Jiangxi and Huguang. Because the benefits of growing mulberry cotton are much higher than growing rice.

The silk of Suzhou and the cotton cloth of Songjiang are marketed throughout the Ming Dynasty. Silk weaving, printing, papermaking, building materials, shipbuilding, brewing, tea making, oil extraction, there are too many workshops and businesses in the land of Susong, and these are the real reasons for the prosperity of Jiangnan. And countless Jiangnan people also participated, working in various workshops to support their families. And the vast majority of these workshop businesses had a large number of gentry involved.

If His Majesty takes action against the gentry, the entire Jiangnan workshop business will suffer a serious blow, and hundreds of people will be unemployed, unable to support their families. At that time, there will be chaos in the south of the Yangtze River, Your Majesty..., and the imperial court may lose the hearts of the people.

Your Majesty should know that the land south of the river is different from the land in the north. The north mainly relied on agriculture, and the gentry and common people all relied on farming to make a living. In the provinces south of the Yangtze River, countless gentry and ordinary people pay more attention to industry and commerce. I also hope that Your Majesty will listen to the words of his ministers and act prudently. ”

Chen Zilong lowered his head, he had already said everything that should be said, and it was no longer up to him to decide how to decide.

Zhu Youzhen was stunned for a moment, he didn't expect Chen Zilong to say anything about the righteousness, nor did he say anything about the words of a saint, but he actually persuaded himself from the perspective of industry and commerce! But Zhu Youzhen had to admit that what Chen Zilong said still had some truth. Jiangnan and the north are really different, the northern provinces are completely agrarian societies, and there are very few workshops of all kinds. The land south of the Yangtze River, represented by Suzhou, is the real economic center, industrial center, and commercial center of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youzhen, who has traveled to later generations, knows that if a country wants to be strong, it cannot rely on agriculture alone. Now different from before, the Xiyi people are rising, and they are frantically colonizing the world, grabbing land everywhere. In the competition with the Xiyi people, Daming has already lagged behind. In the future era, the so-called industrial revolution will occur, and the Xiyi people will completely surpass the Ming Dynasty.

If the industry and commerce in Jiangnan are destroyed, I don't know how many years it will take to recover. It is likely that you will miss the opportunity to compete with the Xiyi people.

As the emperor of the Ming Empire, Zhu Youzhen knew that he could not only focus on the present, but also on the future.

"Yan Yingyuan, what do you think of the Jiangnan gentry?" Zhu Youzhen couldn't make a decision for a while, saw Yan Yingyuan standing quietly on the side, and subconsciously asked.

"Your Majesty, the minister was born in a family of officials, has little knowledge, and can't say many things well." Yan Yingyuan said.

"If you say anything, I won't blame you for saying something wrong." Zhu Youzhen said.

Yan Yingyuan was born in a family of officials, he was not a gentry, and he didn't have much to do with the gentry, so what he said should be relatively neutral.

Chen Zilong also looked at Yan Yingyuan, not knowing how Yan Yingyuan would evaluate the gentry.

Yan Yingyuan was silent for a moment, he didn't expect the emperor to ask him this question. From the conversation between the emperor and Chen Zilong just now, he heard that the emperor was very dissatisfied with the gentry and had plans to take action against the gentry in the entire Jiangnan. While waiting for the exam in the camp, he also learned a lot from the rest of the population, and also heard that the emperor's actions in northern Shaanxi a few years ago and in Shandong a few months ago were really cruel to the gentry and officials! Thinking of the emperor's large-scale recruitment of officials through examinations, this is the intention to replace the local government offices with these officials and rebuild the local government offices, which is already a sign of the gentry. The 5,000 elite Praetorian Guards, more than 10,000 Fujian sailors, a powerful army, plus these 3,000 recruited and trained officials, are enough to turn Jiangnan upside down!

Thinking of what was going to happen in the future, Yan Yingyuan only felt excited, being able to participate in such a thing, if he could behave well and be appreciated by the emperor, his future future would be limitless. Whoever said that only the imperial examination can be an official, and he may not be able to be from a family of officials. Of course, the premise is to overthrow the gentry class and change the current imperial examination system of the Ming Dynasty.

If it was in the past, Yan Yingyuan would not have such an idea at all, he didn't dare to think about it, it was really the power of the gentry class that was too strong, and the influence of the gentry class in Jiangnan was simply overshadowing! And now, with the emperor leading, what else can't be done? For the Jiangnan gentry class, Yan Yingyuan, who was born as a official, doesn't have much good feelings!

"Your Majesty, the minister was born in an ordinary family, his knowledge is low, he doesn't know about national affairs, and he doesn't dare to speak up, so he can only talk about the minister's superficial understanding."

"If the minister's understanding of the Jiangnan gentry can be described in one sentence, that is, 'the land where the Jiangnan crown covers the radiation, nothing is controlled by the gentry, there is no gentry at a time, and there is only the power of the company'!"

Chen Zilong's face suddenly became gloomy as water, Yan Yingyuan's words were too ruthless!

"The minister is not exaggerating. The minister's father is a member of the yamen, although the minister is a native of Beizhili, but he grew up in Jiangnan when he was a child, and he thinks he knows a lot about the situation in Jiangnan. Yan Yingyuan continued.

"The behavior of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River living in the countryside, summed up, is about the following ends:

The first is to intervene in the administration and control the township. The gentry of the south of the Yangtze River, with the influence of their protégés and former officials all over the world, asked for advice and intervened in local administration, and all current affairs reflected their will and protected their interests. Because Gai was too powerful in the government and the opposition, the prefectural and county officials had to consult the gentry in case of trouble, otherwise it would be difficult for the government decree to pass.

The second is to encroach on the land of small people. The Jiangnan gentry bullied others, instructed and connived at the slaves of their families to seize the land, and used all kinds of tricky and brutal methods. Sergeant Wu, Tian Lianqianmo, was invited to send it, avoided requisition, and was tired of Luli. The gentry relied on the strong, regarded the people as weak meat, protected each other, and the people had no control to dismantle! Relying on clever grabbing and forcing the people to surrender, many gentry occupy tens of thousands of acres or hundreds of thousands of acres of ointment land at every turn! The common people, on the other hand, had no place to stand and could only sell themselves into slavery, or as tenants, or work in the gentry's workshops, earning a meager salary to support their families. Brother Chen just said that the prosperity of Jiangnan is not in the gentry, but on the flesh and blood of countless small people!

The third is the wanton enslavement of the villagers. The gentry despise the small people in the countryside, commanding and arbitrarily serving. However, when the gentry had anything to build, they drove the villagers to do things for them, without any regard for the interests of the villagers, and commanded the villagers to serve them, just like the government.

Fourth, slavery has become a common practice. There are many human slaves, Wu Zhong is even greater, and his tyranny is even more tyrannical, but Wu Zhong is even worse. Once a scholar passed the imperial examination and was admitted as a gentry, countless villagers took refuge in slavery in order to avoid taxes from the imperial court. This situation seems to be voluntary of the people, but in fact, it is a helpless choice. Because the gentry occupied and annexed too heavily, the heavy taxes fell on the heads of the small people, and the small people were overwhelmed, and had to take refuge in the gentry as slaves in order to relax for a while. However, once he became a slave, he lost his freedom completely. For the gentry, the small people who took refuge in slavery were taken and taken, whipped and punished, maimed to death, and no one could endure all kinds of abuse, and at the first opportunity, they rebelled against the master's family, which was a slave.

In the land south of the Yangtze River, slave mutinies have occurred many times. Brother Chen is a native of Songjiang Huating, so he should know about the Songjiang slave change. Songjiang Dong Chuance, with a strong temperament, was harsh and was killed by a house slave. Huating Dong Qichang, the house was burned down by the villagers. Taicang, Shanghai, Jiading, Kunshan, Shimen, Jintan, Liyang and other places have also had slave mutinies, slaves could not bear the humiliation of the gentry, rioted, and killed the master in Sochi! ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen looked at Chen Zilong on the side, and saw Chen Zilong nodding silently. What Yan Yingyuan said was what had really happened, and he couldn't deny it.

"The fifth is extravagance and debauchery, drunkenness and dreaming of death. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, the eunuch bag is abundant, and the city is profitable, the whale swallows the small people's fat, and all kinds of servants make the small households weak, accumulating huge wealth, being in a prosperous area, and seeing the world, so they talk about pomp, arrogance, accumulation of excellent children, support Liji, fine gambling, has been ordinary, and even desolate, the pursuit of a deformed lifestyle, without the smell of scholars.

In the land south of the Yangtze River, there is no place for the poor to stand, and in disaster years, hundreds of people leave their hometowns to beg on the streets, starve to death countless times, and the roadside is full of white bones. And in the city of Suzhou, on the shore of Taihu Lake, pavilions and pavilions, among the painted boats, the sound of silk and bamboo, the gentry filial piety and honesty embraced Ji and drank heavily, drunk and dreamed of death.

In this way, Jiangnan is the Jiangnan of the gentry, and the prosperity of Jiangnan has nothing to do with the small people? ”

After saying it in one breath, Yan Yingyuan closed his mouth, only feeling refreshed, and his heart suddenly disappeared. He was a man of conscience, and he was very merciful to the small people who lived a difficult life, and he had long been tired of those gentry who were powerful and powerful!

Chen Zilong looked at Yan Yingyuan in shock, he interacted with Yan Yingyuan on weekdays, and felt that Yan Yingyuan was gentle, but he didn't expect him to be so hostile to the gentry! Yan Yingyuan is like this, what about the others? What about the countless enslaved and oppressed people? And what attitude did they have towards the gentry? Chen Zilong can imagine.

If the emperor announced that he would deal with the gentry, no one in the whole of Jiangnan would stand up for the gentry at all, and hundreds of people would probably applaud, and countless slaves would rise up and wave their swords at their former masters. At that time, I am afraid that the emperor will not need to do it himself, and tens of thousands of slaves will tear the entire gentry class to pieces! Thinking of that kind of consequence, Chen Zilong suddenly shuddered.

"Your Majesty......" Chen Zilong opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to persuade the emperor.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Yan Yingyuan with great satisfaction, he didn't expect that this hero of the later generations of anti-Qing Dynasty would have such insight and clearly understand the situation in Jiangnan. This person can be of great use!

"You heard Yan Yingyuan's words, but if there is any mistake or omission, you can refute it." Zhu Youzhen said to Chen Zilong. This Chen Zilong is also a talent, as long as the concept can be changed and he can abandon his gentry position, he can also use it.

Chen Zilong was silent, he knew that what Yan Yingyuan said was true, and forcibly refuting it could only be sophistry, and he disdained it.

"What Yan Yingyuan said is true, but what the minister wants to say is that the gentry are also good and bad, and there are many people who cherish the country in their hearts, and there are also people who build bridges and repair roads and cherish the good people of the people, so they cannot be generalized." Chen Zilong could only say so.

Because he knew that there were too few such gentry, and perhaps some gentry were kinder, but they could not stand their families and their servants from doing evil in their name. As far as accepting the surrender of land is concerned, there is not a single gentry in the whole Jiangnan who has not annexed land. The same is true for his own family, the Chen family's thousands of acres of land are all merged.

"Actually, I really want to know, in the hearts of your and other scholars, which is heavier than the country or the people, or your family's land?" Zhu Youzhen looked at Chen Zilong and asked with interest.

"Of course it's the people of the country!" Chen Zilong said without thinking. He is a real scholar, and reading the words of the sages since he was a child, in his heart he is naturally more important to the people of the country. If the country encounters a dilemma and asks him to sacrifice his family for the country, he will not hesitate to frown at all! And in the history of another time and space, Chen Zilong also did this, he spent the rest of his life fighting against the Qing Dynasty, fighting for the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, and paid for his life!

"In that case, what else do you have to hesitate about?" Zhu Youzhen smiled.

Chen Zilong suddenly brightened.

ps: 4,000 words, first send and then change.