At the beginning, the gentry still had certain illusions about the emperor, thinking that the emperor should not mess around in Jiangdong. After all, everyone knows that the Jiangdong places such as Su, Song, and Chang are the important places for money and grain taxation in the Ming Dynasty, and the annual taxes paid by Suzhou alone are equivalent to the entire Zhejiang Province! If you add that Nanzhili belongs to Jiangnan Yingtian, Taiping and other prefectures, the annual taxes paid account for almost one-third of the country!

In the case of drought in the north for many years, the imperial court relied more on money and grain from the south of the Yangtze River!

The emperor can come to northern Shaanxi in a year of drought, after all, although the area of northern Shaanxi is large, it can't receive much grain at all, and he can come in chaos in Shandong, where there are many droughts, after all, the taxes paid in the whole of Shandong are not enough to cover a prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River. But if it is chaotic in Jiangnan, once it causes chaos, it will affect the collection of taxes in Jiangnan, and even cut off the transportation of Cao, then the finances of the imperial court will have to collapse!

Relying only on the money and grain of the northern provinces, it is simply not able to support the huge population of Beijing City, and the hundreds of thousands of troops on the nine sides!

Without the grain wealth of Jiangnan, the Beijing Imperial Court would not be able to hold on for even half a year!

And this is also where the confidence of the Jiangnan gentry lies. Your emperor can be unscrupulous in other places, but here in Jiangnan, it just can't!

However, the gentry never expected that the emperor would be serious! I really dared to release slaves in Zhenjiang Mansion!

Now it's just Zhenjiang, and he will inevitably do this in the four provinces of Jiangdong and the entire Jiangnan, which is to pout the foundation of the entire gentry class!

Although Junda only moves the field and does not do business, what is the field? For the gentry, the land they own is absolutely lifeline!

What? Many gentry in Jiangnan mainly make money by doing business?

How can it be!

Where does the business come from? Suzhou silk manufacturing is developed, the production of silk is sold throughout the country, and even exported to the East and South Seas, Songjiang cotton textile industry is developed, Songjiang cotton cloth occupies half of the Ming Dynasty. However, whether it is silk or cotton cloth, it is necessary to grow mulberry and cotton, a large number of fields to provide raw materials, and a large number of people are required to produce.

If there is no large amount of land under control, the raw materials used in the workshop will not be guaranteed, and the cost will increase rapidly, which will inevitably affect production!

Take the Dong family in Yanling Town as an example, without the control of Zhushan, the paper mill has to spend a lot of silver to buy bamboo, and without a large number of slaves, it has to spend a high price to hire workers, after all, the price of hiring workers and using their own slaves cannot be the same. All this will increase the cost and reduce the profit!

And for those gentry who have no business, Juntian wants their lives even more, and will directly knock them out of the dust from the high gentry. The fields are gone, there is no business, and in the future they can only cultivate by themselves, thinking that in the future they will have to bend over and work in the fields like those untouchables, many gentry want to die!

No way! The emperor must not be allowed to mess around, and Juntian must be resolutely stopped!

For a time, the whole Jiangnan was in turmoil, and the gentry connected with each other to discuss solutions.

In Songjiang Mansion, Dong Qichang, the former secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, rushed to Zhenjiang regardless of his old body, and wanted to personally dissuade the emperor from stopping Juntian, and hundreds of Songjiang scholars followed him and wanted to collectively petition the emperor.

Officials from all over Jiangnan also wrote to the emperor one after another, begging the emperor to stop, otherwise it would cause a big change!

Of course, the officials and gentry were more likely to write letters to the Beijing court, hoping that the ministers of the court would stop the emperor from coming in chaos. Of course, they also knew that the imperial court was too far away from Zhenjiang, and the ministers of the imperial court had nothing to do with the emperor.

......

"Ignoring the imperial court system, imposing the will of one person on everyone, ignoring the rule of law in the country, and plundering the gentry! Xia Wei is no more than that. ”

In Suzhou, Huang Zongxi, a scholar of the Restoration Society, sighed to Gu Yanwu, and at this time, he was even more determined in his mind to limit the monarch's power. The rights of the emperor must be restricted, otherwise it will cause disaster to the people of the world!

"Today's son preaches equality for all, but he is just a good dragon of Ye Gong. Aren't the gentry ordinary people, and they can't even keep their family property, so how can they talk about equality? If it is wantonly robbed in the name of equality, such equality should not be desired. Gu Yanwu sneered, "I thought Chen Zilong was a real celebrity, but I didn't expect that such a person would be attached to a tyrant!" ”

"In the end, we have been friends for many years, although we have different ideas, but I believe that Chen Zilong is not a sycophant, and he will not flatter the king for the sake of flying Huang Tengda." Huang Zongxi shook his head and said.

Gu Yanwu is not very old and does not have much contact with Chen Zilong, but Huang Zongxi has been friends with Chen Zilong for many years and has no doubts about Chen Zilong's character.

"In order to be an official, Chen Zilong went to take the exam regardless of his identity, and now he has returned to Suzhou to openly show his eyes to the tyrant, what is it if he is not a traitor? Zhang Tianru won't spare him! Gu Yanwu sneered.

Huang Zongxi was silent, thinking about Zhang Pu's angry expression when he met Zhang Pu yesterday, he couldn't help but start worrying about Chen Zilong in his heart.

"Brother Taichong, Zhang Tianru called on the scholars of the Restoration Society to go to Zhenjiang to petition, shall we go?" Gu Yanwu asked.

Huang Zongxi resolutely said: "Of course you want to go, you must stop the emperor's atrocities!" ”

At this moment, a subordinate ran in: "Childe, it's messy, it's messy on the street!" ”

"What's going on?" Huang Zongxi asked in a deep voice.

"A large crowd of people gathered in the street and killed the royal newspaper, saying that they would fight for the country!" The servant said.

Huang Zongxi and Gu Yanwu glanced at each other, both of them in shock. It seems that some people really can't bear it!

Shantang Street in the north of Suzhou City, connecting the door in the east, connecting Tiger Hill in the west, the street is seven miles long, and the streets are full of shops on both sides, which is the most lively place in Suzhou. There was originally a grocery store on the west side of Shantang Street, with a two-storey and three-room façade, but business was not very good. Some time ago, the grocery store changed hands and became the Jiangdong branch of the royal people's newspaper, but it was Chen Zilong who came to Suzhou to open it, in order to promote the idea of equality for all and the idea of the emperor Juntian freeing slaves.

When Chen Zilong first returned to Suzhou, Zhang Pu and other celebrities of the Restoration Society were very happy, thinking that he had lost his way back. When they heard that he had become an official and came to represent the emperor, everyone's face changed. For this reason, Chen Zilong tried his best to publicize the benefits of Juntian Xunu's release to the Ming Dynasty. However, except for a few old friends such as Xia Yunyi and He Gang, everyone else disagreed. Xu Fuyuan, one of the six sons of several societies, also parted ways with Chen Zilong.

Xu Fuyuan is the descendant of Xu Jie, the first assistant of Jiajing, the Xu family is a big family in Songjiang, and it is also the largest landlord in Jiangdong, with more than 200,000 acres of land and more than 10,000 slaves! How can you agree with Junda's liberation? Not only Xu Fuyuan, but also other scholars of the Restoration Society, behind each scholar there is a gentry family, and they all have a large amount of fields, who would want their fields to be taken away for nothing? Without the land slaves, what can they rely on to maintain their present prosperity? What conditions do they have for continuing to enjoy the mountains and rivers and form associations and talk?

The reason why the Fushe Society is so powerful is that it has the support of the gentry of Wuzhong, among which the Dongting merchant gang is the representative, so it is natural to represent the interests of the gentry of Wuzhong, and it is impossible to agree with the release of slaves from Juntian.

Therefore, after Chen Zilong arrived in Suzhou, it can be said that he was struggling, and he couldn't find many like-minded people. When participating in the reunion of the Restoration Society, he was mostly attacked by the masses, but at this time, the theory of equality of all people was not perfect, and Zhang Pu and others could not be argued at all.

However, Chen Zilong was not discouraged, he knew that it was difficult to convince the princes of the Fushe Society, after all, Zhang Pu and the others were familiar with the scriptures, knowledgeable, and good at sophistry. Moreover, Zhang Pu and others have big families behind them and have their own interests, so it is simply unrealistic for them to give up their own interests. But in addition to these people from big families, there are more scholars from ordinary families in Suzhou, as well as those low-level scholars who have studied for a few years and have no hope of taking the imperial examination, these people are the majority!

As long as you can mobilize countless low-level readers to support you, what can you do without the support of the resumption of society?

Therefore, in the following time, Chen Zilong did not attend any more meetings, but devoted all his energy to the newspaper, hiring plate-making workers, purchasing various items, and writing articles himself. Chen Zilong believes that as long as the newspaper is printed, it will be sold all over Suzhou!

Suzhou has a population of one million, most of them are weavers in weaving mills, laborers in warehouses, workers who make money by selling their physical strength, and men of gentry and merchants, while the most people in the countryside outside the city are hired farmers and tenants, and are cultivators of gentry and landlords!

There is no slave who does not want to turn over and become a master, there is no hired farmer who does not want to own his own land, and there is no poor man who does not want to get the opportunity to be an official!

In the past, most of these people had no chance to change their fate, and the hardships of life also wiped out any illusions in them! They can only survive, work hard every day, just to earn a meager salary to feed their stomachs. After a lifetime of hard work, I can't put on any industry, so I can only helplessly watch my children and grandchildren repeat the same life. The meaning of their life is to be cattle and horses for the gentry and old men! The wealth they worked hard to produce made them rich and luxurious, and they spent all their days drinking and drinking, so that the scholars of the Restoration Society could enjoy the mountains and rivers with their concubines, and they could form associations and talk about empty ......

No one wants to be slaves for generations, no one wants to be a cow and a horse for the gentry all their lives, no one wants to change the fate of poverty, Chen Zilong can imagine how much of a sensation it will cause in Suzhou once the idea of equality and equal land for all appears in the newspapers, and this idea is supported by the emperor!

Suzhou is the center of Jiangdong, and this idea will quickly spread to the whole Jiangdong and even the whole Jiangnan through Suzhou.

If all the people in Jiangnan know this proposition and yearn for it, if they get the support of the broadest masses of the people, Juntian's resistance will be greatly reduced, or even unstoppable!

"Therefore, the key to whether it can be implemented lies in the general public, not in the recognition of the gentry or not, I was wrong to go to Zhang Pu and others. As long as the idea of equality for all people is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, what can we do without the support of the Restoration Society? Chen Zilong said to Xia Yunyi and the others.

"We should print out the newspaper as soon as possible and distribute it to the people for free, so that it can be widely disseminated. Xia Yunyi also said excitedly.

"Oh no, no...... someone suddenly rushed into the newspaper office and shouted in panic, "Countless people are coming to the newspaper office, saying that they want to eradicate the traitors!" ”

"Traitor, who is the traitor?" Chen Zilong was stunned.

"It's not good, it's Zhang Tianru who is going to do something to us!" Xia Yunyi exclaimed.

The news of Zhenjiang Juntian has reached Suzhou, and countless Suzhou people are discussing it, and the gentry are frightened, for fear that the emperor will also send people to Suzhou to Juntian.

At this time, Chen Zilong, who came to Suzhou with a mission, became the target of public criticism and became the target of the gentry's anger.

"Zhang Tianru? How can it be? Zhang Tianru, how could he be so unwise, we are just a battle of ideas, is it necessary to use knives and guns? Even if he kills us, will he still be able to make His Majesty change his opinion? Chen Zilong was puzzled.

"They can incite civil revolt and create panic, so as to force His Majesty to give up Juntian. You forget, in the sixth year of the Apocalypse, Zhang Tianru participated in inciting the people to violently resist taxes, and this kind of thing is familiar to him! For you and me, this is a battle of ideas, but for Zhang Tianru and the people behind it, it is a matter of life and death for them, so you can imagine what kind of means you take! Xia Yunyi sighed.

Chen Zilong was silent, he knew that Xia Yunyi was right, Zhang Pu was a person who would do whatever it took to achieve his goals.

The cacophony of shouts drew closer, and a large crowd pressed towards the newspaper office. The guys in the newspaper office hurriedly closed the door of the shop and latched the door of death.

"Two adults, let's go quickly and leave through the back door!" Yan Mingda said in a deep voice, he is a small banner of Jinyi Wei, who was ordered to protect the safety of Chen Zilong and others, and also carried out the responsibility of surveillance.

"But what about the newspaper?" The woodblock engraving of the printed newspaper is about to be made, the newspaper will be printed soon, and it will be sold tomorrow.

"Take the engraving with you, and find another place!" Yan Mingda said.

"Chen Zilong come out!"

"Chen Zilong, the scum of the scholars!"

"Chen Zilong, the traitor who bewitched the emperor and poisoned Jiangnan!"

"Kill Chen Zilong and avenge the looted people in Zhenjiang!"

There was a lot of scolding outside the newspaper office, someone was banging on the door of the shop, and the faces of the guys in the store changed greatly. Chen Zilong's face was pale, he never thought that he would be slandered as a traitor for the sake of the country and the people of the world, how could he bear it?

Seeing that Chen Zilong was about to burst out, Xia Yunyi hurriedly hugged Chen Zilong's waist: "They are deliberately provoking you, don't fall for their tricks!" ”

"Hurry up and open the door, or a fire will burn down the shop!" Someone shouted outside.

"Oh no, they're going to set fire, get out of here!" Yan Mingda hurriedly urged.

"Let's go!" Glancing out of the door angrily, Chen Zilong finally regained his composure and took the lead towards the back door, followed by Xia Yunyi and others.

There was a loud bang, and the mob had already smashed through the shop door with a log, rushed into the newspaper office, and then began to set fires everywhere.

The fire grew bigger and bigger, and the entire newspaper office was in flames, and the flames were rolling, spreading towards the shops on both sides, and the entire Shantang Street was in a panic.