"Back to the soldiers, the little one only knows that the second owner lives in Jurong County, and it is Huang Xianggong in the county, but the big owner doesn't know, I heard that it is in Nanjing City."

Many gentry landlords in the Ming Dynasty would play tricks of trickery and sprinkling.

Therefore, the nominal landlord of a field may not be the same as the actual landlord, and the real landlord of many fields is a foreign gentry.

Some fields also have two owners and one big owner.

It is precisely because the real landlords of many fields are the gentry from other countries, and not in the agrarian society before the serious land annexation, that is, the situation in which the landlords are mostly local landlords.

Therefore, compared with the local landlords, these foreign gentry will not pay attention to the friendship of the countryside and clan, nor will they be willing to help the tenant farmers in the year of catastrophic changes, or reduce rents and interest to benefit the tenant farmers, but only hope to increase the exploitation as much as possible, and only demand more rent and interest, so the exploitation is more serious.

This is most evident in Jiangnan.

The local landlords were basically middle- and lower-class landlords and yeoman farmers, the so-called kulaks.

Because it is very difficult to become a big landlord just by annexing land locally.

If you want to become a big landowner, it is not enough to annex your hometown.

Therefore, the middle and lower landlords and yeoman farmers were the basis for the stability of a natural economic empire, equivalent to the middle class in later generations.

They have the motivation to take the initiative to maintain the stability of the local grassroots for the imperial court, and they are also the main source of tax for the imperial court.

Generally speaking, however, the number of this group will become smaller and smaller, and they will either become tenant farmers or large landlords who occupy the fertile land and pass through the county.

The abolition of preferential exemptions is to avoid the reduction of the number of this group, to ensure the longevity of the country's fortunes, and to curb the annexation of large landowners.

Therefore, Hai Jui, as an official who is also a small landlord, also supports this, and knows that ensuring that the interests of these small landlords are not infringed upon is conducive to the stability of the country.

After hearing this, Chen Yijiang had no choice but to let this Xia Dongyang say the name of his second owner.

Next, Chen Yijiang continued to take his patrol team to other parts of his area of responsibility to clean up according to intelligence.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

It is precisely because the officers and men of the patrol police team, such as Chen Yijiang and Hu Huaide, are clearing everywhere that for a time, there was a sound of guns everywhere in the Nanzhi area.

Country bullies and thieves were shot one by one.

However, large-scale clean-up operations have only been carried out in the countryside.

Therefore, the big bureaucrats and gentry living in the city did not know much about the situation, and they only just learned that Hai Rui had posted a notice that the National Taxation Department had continued to supervise the tax, and issued a Jun order to release Qi Jin, the pro-army and military attache, to Ying Tianfu.

"This Hai Rui, why did he suddenly change his mind again!"

At this time, the gentry Gu Bingren asked Huo Weida, the child of the bureaucrat who pretended to be a pro-military guard and participated in the gang rape of the Ge family's girl.

Huo Weida said: "I don't know, Lu Yixian and several other officials went to the governor's yamen to ask about the situation." ”

"But thinking about it, it may be related to Hai Rui's learning that Jinyiwei came to Yangzhou to get people, and he also guessed that the attitude of the imperial court was actually very tough, so he decided to continue to be tough and avoid being blamed by Jiangling, or it may be that he knew the attitude above in advance!"

"Forget it, don't guess!"

Gu Bingren waved his hand, said a word, and said: "There is no turning back from the bow, since we have done some things, there is no reason to stop, otherwise we can only be despised by these rogue officials, despised by the imperial court, and feel that we, the local gentry, can really handle it at will!" ”

"Order, let us send out to pretend to be pro-military guards or directly be the house slaves of thieves and bandits, and the ruffians and hooligans who sent them to buy continue to launch a popular rebellion, and continue to abandon farming and strike the market!"

"He, Hai Rui, is just tens of thousands of pro-military guards who can rely on him, and the rest are just foolish people who don't know how to be polite and cowardly and afraid of death, it's okay for him to be the master, do you really expect them to make the decision for him?"

"But as far as the students know, this Hai Rui has been letting the pro-military guards contact and train the villagers from the beginning, and now he has set up a patrol team to catch thieves and bandits everywhere."

Hovida said.

"I can only maintain stability in the countryside!"

"In big cities such as prefectures and counties, and even some big towns and even some big towns, we still control them, which big family does not have hundreds or thousands of domestic slaves, and does not have hundreds or thousands of hired workers? Coupled with the people of their respective clans, it can be said that except for the official offices that are not ours, all the others are ours, and he Hai Rui wants to rely on the pro-army guards and soldiers of tens of thousands of people and a few organized people's strong people to eliminate the people's rebellion, at least it is not so easy! ”

"Either way, the advantage is on our side!"

"He Hai Rui is only one person, and we all need the support of many powerful people openly and secretly, and we can mobilize more money and food than him, and he Hai Rui is not really willing to transfer money and food from the court to those untouchables! Then what kind of system did he change! ”

Gu Bingren said at this time.

After hearing this, Huo Weida nodded and said, "Then let them continue to make trouble?" ”

Gu Bingren nodded.

……

Hai Rui directly refused to see Sun Guangyou, Lu Yi and others here, but stayed in the backyard, eating osmanthus cakes and eating a full stomach, while instructing Lu Kun and Tang Chuanxun and others:

"In the name of this hall, I invite the imperial court to abolish all the lowly registrations, and all the people such as the Tan people are all made up of households, and they are all exempted from Ding silver for one year, if they can actively participate in rent reduction and interest reduction activities, and also take care of food, those who have made meritorious contributions will also have a reward of silver, and even give the inspection department inspection and other officials on the spot!"

"However, don't delay farming and fortifications, and participate in clean-up operations and rent and interest reduction activities while working."

"The Son of Heaven has made up his mind, and we only need to enlist the support of the people now."

After Hai Rui finished speaking, Lu Kun asked: "What is the money and food needed to organize these activities?" ”

Hai Rui had already made a calculation about this, so he said: "Don't worry about money and grain, issue a decree to the local prefectures and counties, let them take out all the grain that is often closed and the money and grain of the feudal treasury first, and advance the newly recruited people, and after collecting all the taxes of the gentry, the church will make up for them, and everything has the evidence in hand, don't worry." ”

"In addition, I will give the imperial court another book, and ask the imperial court to allow the hall to restore order in one place, select the outstanding people in the patrol team to be the patrol officers and soldiers of the patrol department, and add the inspection department in some important towns where there are no imperial court officials!"

"The big towns are directly set up as counties, and even ask the imperial court to allow the church to set up towns in some important towns, the same as the li, but mainly to govern the new towns, and allow the church to directly select local scholars to act as county officials and take charge of these towns, or to station officials at the li level!"

"Jiangnan is rich and has a large population, especially many unemployed vagrants, and there are many new towns and new market shops, but there are also many big officials and gentry and bureaucrats, and many places are even dominated by expatriates!"

"In many places, there are only a few wealthy merchants with a big gentry background, and these rich merchants only blindly seize or monopolize the market, and do not actively maintain local stability, and even cooperate with small people to fight against the tax difference of the imperial court.

"The imperial court can't really let the squires govern themselves in order to save money!"

"The autonomy of the squires has never been comparable to that of the imperial court, and most of the squires will not care whether the entire world is stable or not;"

"Even the virtuous gentry of local origin only know how to protect their own places, and they are not active in paying taxes, and their sense of responsibility for disaster relief is not as good as that of the imperial court, at least they can't make overall planning, at most they are more active in their own local disaster relief."

"Especially most of the gentry in Jiangnan are big officials, and they don't care about the chaos outside the city at all!"

"In short, since we want to clean up the river of blood, we can't just take this opportunity to send more officials to take charge of the livelihood of more people, take on more functions to maintain the national movement, and open up more sources of taxes."

Hai Rui then commanded again, but he didn't say that his plans actually came from the instructions in Zhu Yijun's edict to him.

When Hai Jui made such an arrangement, the local diehards did instruct the slaves, ruffians, and even bandits to start making waves, and they also began to let the major tenant farmers and merchants under their control abandon farming and boycott the market.

Only this time, the slaves and ruffians they instructed did not succeed.

On this day, it was a sunny day in golden autumn, outside Moling Pass, a group of businessmen had just been intercepted by a group of ruffians pretending to be pro-military guards, and a patrol team led by Zhong Changdong who was farming rushed over from the farmland next to them, picked up the firearms and spears, broadswords, wooden shields and other guys hidden in the grass and rushed over, and killed these ruffians to the ground.

After Hai Jui learned that some people in the city were boycotting the market and even coercing small merchants to boycott the market, he also specially ordered some patrol police teams to be dispatched into the city, began to strengthen urban management, maintained commercial order, and forced some grain stores and other stores controlled by large households to open the market, or directly let the eunuchs in the inner court set up grain stores and other imperial stores to open the market, so as to meet the daily needs of urban residents.

Boom!

A large grain store in Shangyuan County was forcibly broken in by a patrol police team led by Li Juexian, who had just come to Shangyuan County.

Wang Qiangui, the second owner of this big grain store, immediately walked out of the backyard of the grain store with more than a dozen thugs, and shouted: "Who are you, dare to break into our grain store, do you know where our big boss came from!" ”

"It doesn't matter where your boss comes from, if you strike now, you are rebelling, you are a thief, and you should be punished!"

After Li Jue finished speaking, he stepped aside, and suddenly a team of firearms men aimed at Wang Qiangui.

Bang bang!

Before Wang Qiangui could beg for mercy, he was beaten to pieces.

Li Jue walked over first and asked, "Who is the shopkeeper and the bookkeeper?" ”

Two half-aged middle-aged men in cloth shirts immediately knelt down: "We are!" ”

"This grain store is already a thief's property, and it is confiscated by the government, and it is about to be auctioned, but before it is auctioned, it belongs to the governor's yamen!"

"Therefore, this official has ordered you to open the market immediately by a letter from the Governor! And the price must not be raised indiscriminately, otherwise, it will also be punished as a thief! ”

Li Jue took out Hai Rui's official letter and ordered as he spoke.

The shopkeeper and the bookkeeper hurriedly agreed, and immediately opened the market.

For a time, many right-wing forces in the southeast were suppressed by the patrol force.

(End of chapter)