Chapter 146 Jiangnan gentry give in
Now there are police agencies throughout Southern Zhili from towns to prefectures and counties. These police agencies use military control. If they disturb public order and violate the law, they will be killed first. This makes the minions of the gentry, the green-skinned rogues, no longer able to disturb the people. normal social life order.
And some lawless people who wanted to follow these green-skinned rogues to rob and steal people and cause trouble behind them saw that the court organized people to maintain public order and directly take people's lives, so they all honestly went home to farm.
Even those farmers who were beguiled by the gentry and suddenly became bandits began to return to their hometowns to farm, especially after several bandit leaders were killed. After all, the cost of breaking the law was too high, and they were not able to practice farming yet.
Generally speaking, most people hope that society will be peaceful and the imperial court has the legitimacy to rule. It is in line with the people's wishes to organize police soldiers based on the Jin Yiwei to maintain local security and replace the public service function of the gentry at the grassroots level.
Therefore, the people still welcomed it. Even the large number of tenants who farmed the land for the gentry, they also hoped that they could farm in peace and harmony and avoid social chaos.
But for the gentry, they are obviously beginning to lose the power to rule the people at the grassroots level. Unless they can justifiably argue that the court's method of sending police soldiers to maintain public order is wrong, and they have to convince the people, otherwise they will not be able to Stop the court from doing this.
At this time, these gentry discovered that they were different from the aristocratic families in the Han and Tang Dynasties. They had no army, no tribes, only tenants and domestic slaves. They could not mobilize the tenants and domestic slaves to directly rebel. Tell them , it is wrong for the court to do this.
After all, the emperor at this time did not make it difficult for the people to live, nor did he order people to shave their hair, change clothes, stop worshiping their ancestors, or increase taxes.
However, the imperial court could take advantage of this social unrest to directly establish the Police Department, because the imperial court had the legitimacy to rule and recruit local people to organize police soldiers to maintain public order. This was justified and in line with the people's psychology of seeking peace and stability.
Naturally, the common people did not feel as strongly as the gentry about the so-called treacherous ministers in power and the cruelty of the emperor. They had to farm, do business, and work. You can't let them stop working. You gentry can make trouble, but we people can't afford it.
Wei Du, the squire of Yingtian Mansion, watched the policemen take his son back to the village from the mountain, and cut off his head with a sharp knife. He almost ran out of breath and fainted, but there was nothing he could do, because he was now He didn't dare to admit that the man was his son. After all, the people were applauding and saying that these bandits were killed well.
The power of the gentry to rule at the grassroots level was actually given to them by the court. It was the court that gave these clans the power to rule at the grassroots level. Naturally, the court wanted to save administrative costs for this, but now the court is willing to take on the courage and organize the manpower. To maintain local law and order, the gentry could not raise objections.
The gentry gradually realized that they had made a mistake. They gave the court an opportunity to legally intervene in local grassroots administration. Just like in the past, the government would intervene only when criminal cases such as death occurred. Now because of the poor local public security, the government intervened again and even more. Be involved for the long term.
In this way, the gentry can only manage the internal affairs of the clan, but cannot control the entire countryside.
Even the power of these gentry within the clan began to be deprived by the police. In a village in Jurong County, several members of the Liu family of the squire were arrested for disrupting public order, and the Liu clan leader wanted to handle the matter within his own clan. , but the police soldiers followed the imperial decree and beheaded this group of tribesmen first.
The people of the Liu clan were extremely angry, but they could not deny that these clan members were not guilty, and they could not deny that the court should not kill these people, so they could only accept it.
Of course, some squires directly mobilized clan forces to kill police soldiers and seize the property of the police station on the pretext of violating the law. A police station in Ren'an Town, Lishui County, was massacred by local squire Lei Juren. Fifty policemen were killed, but this aroused the anger of the peasants and common people landlords in Ren'an Town because among them Most of the police officers are their clansmen, and they are naturally angry when they are killed. Your clan cannot rely on the strength of its numbers to cause chaos, not to mention that these clansmen of yours are organized by the imperial court and are legal and reasonable.
Therefore, the officials of Lishui County reported the matter. Zhu Houzhao finally dispatched a battalion of the Guards to directly kill the entire Lei family on the grounds that the Lei clan had rebelled. The property of the Lei clan was confiscated and the land was divided among local farmers and farmers. Common people and landlords, the common people all applauded.
The court not only replaced these gentry in maintaining law and order, but also replaced them in other public services.
Under Zhu Houzhao's instructions, the governor of Southern Zhili also began to organize the government to repair and manage rivers on behalf of the local gentry. He actively recruited the refugees to provide work-for-relief, persuaded or forced businessmen to open businesses, and established government-run workshops and social schools to provide employment opportunities for the poor people at the bottom. The concept of wages absorbed urban migrant workers who were rejected by the gentry.
The gentry are good at organizing the people to maintain local stability. Local officials such as Wang Yangming are also gentry and are scholars. They are no less good at organizing people to maintain law and order, and they are more legal. However, it is accompanied by rising funds for maintaining stability, but this is not the case. It did make the gentry realize that it seemed that the court could not survive without them.
Now the third year of Zhengde is coming. This year is the year of the imperial examination. The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River began to know that the gentry in their own area could not shake the dominance of the imperial court. If they messed up their hometown, the imperial court would send gentry from other places. To maintain law and order in the name of the government.
That means that in the next imperial examination, the imperial court will give more places to the gentry from other places to be admitted as Jinshi, and the gentry in Nanzhili will have their places reduced because they do not cooperate with the imperial court.
In fact, the gentry class in other places did begin to smell the opportunities in this. During the incident, Tang Renze asked to increase the admission ratio between rural examinations and joint examinations in Sichuan, Henan, Shaanxi, Huguang, Fujian and other places, and in accordance with the The quotas are allocated by region, not solely based on scientific examination results. Moreover, because of the recent riots in Southern Zhili and scholars who are not interested in pursuing careers, the quotas should be reduced.
Because of this, the Jiangnan gentry began to be afraid. Unless they rebelled and fought for independence, they would have to watch the court give benefits to the gentry in other areas, and the Jiangnan gentry would suffer great losses, even those who would serve as officials in the court in the future. No one.
As a result, some gentry from the south of the Yangtze River began to take the initiative to help the police department maintain public order, suppress bandits and arrest thieves, and even took the initiative to open markets. They also imitated the government-run workshops and began to recruit refugees as workers, and even escorted lawbreakers within the clan directly to the government. Rather than processing it internally.
Cheng Jian, a great scholar who had been a doctor in the Ministry of Justice, stood under the sun and asked to see Ma Wensheng, the chief minister of the cabinet, just to ask for peace. After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao personally received and summoned the great scholar Cheng Jian: "Old Master Cheng, regardless of the heat, asked to see the emperor. What’s the matter with Chief Assistant?”
"Reporting to Your Majesty! I would like to request the Chief Assistant to advise Your Majesty, abolish the warning period, return to the legal system, establish tax laws and conventions, punish the gentry who do not pay taxes, and reward those who assist the government and make contributions. In addition, , I have called on all clans of the Cheng family to generalize the Zhengde All the taxes owed before the first year have been paid. I only hope that your majesty will take care of the people of Jiangnan and never abandon them. The people of Jiangnan will still think of your majesty and the Ming Dynasty! Long live my emperor! Dynasty, the grand feast begins!”
As Cheng Jian spoke, he knelt down and bowed three times and kowtowed nine times to Zhu Houzhao.
Many thanks to book friend Ye Yu-Qing Kuang* for the reward of 1800 starting coins. Many thanks to book friend Jin Zhe for the reward of 500 starting coins
(End of chapter)