People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 343 City-wide manhunt
That afternoon Xia Xue got on the boat heading to Liangzhe Road.

Although he was a military attache, he was already sixty years old and could not withstand such turbulence, so he could only go by boat.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, the vandalism reached its peak on March 20th. However, various government offices responded quickly, arresting people and expelling them. The riot lasted for two days and finally subsided.

Landowners from all walks of life saw that the matter was getting serious, and some began to retreat. Some were relieved when they saw that the court only arrested those who beat, smashed, looted and burned people, and did not arrest people wantonly on a large scale.

On March 23, the third day after the riots continued, in a restaurant east of the Qiantang River in Fuyang County, southwest of Hangzhou, the four largest families in Suzhou, including Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei, and Zhang Ruohai, were sitting Gather together.

In addition to them, there are also more than 40 landlords and gentry from Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Hangzhou, Runzhou, Jiangning Prefecture and other places gathered together, and they are also big landowners. It can be said that the people who can sit here must at least be named There are more than 30,000 acres of farmland.

The restaurant is three stories high, and the rooftop overlooks the entire Qiantang River. The scenery is extremely beautiful. The riverside is overgrown with wild grass, basil and willows, drifting in the wind in March. Listening to the sound of waves by the riverside is full of leisure and comfort.

But at this time, the heads of the major families were not at all touched by the beautiful scenery outside the building. Everyone's face was either sad, frightened, hesitant or fearless. Everyone had their own thoughts and naturally could not appreciate the scenery.

They occupied the entire third floor, and there was noisy whispering in the room. Several familiar friends sat at their own tables, and their eyes were mainly on the big landowners in Suzhou headed by Gong Xu and Pan Shi.

After all, they were the ones who initiated this matter. Now that the matter has become serious, once the court investigates it, they may have to be pushed to the front desk and become such scapegoats.

"."

In the final analysis, what agricultural society lacks is not land, but people.

It's different now.

"If all our efforts are wasted here, what should we do next? We have to pay more and more taxes, but there are fewer and fewer landowners to help us farm. If things go on for a long time, we will not be far away from destroying our families and annihilating our families."

Because from the explicit income sharing, the taxes they bear will only become heavier and heavier, making them breathless. Not to mention the hidden side, the tenants have been robbed, who will help them cultivate the land.

There are already many people present today who are thinking of quitting.

Just like during the Qinzong period of the Song Dynasty, there were only more than 300 eunuchs protesting at the beginning, but in a blink of an eye, tens of thousands of people in Bianliang took to the streets and killed more than 200 eunuchs.

"So according to what Brother Gong means, we should continue to protest?"

However, it is difficult to lead a team if people's hearts are scattered.

Once there are many people and the anger is contagious, it will naturally easily lead to irreparable consequences.

Therefore, in order to retain the glimmer of hope that "the law does not punish everyone", he must unite people, otherwise they will really suffer when the court settles accounts after a while.

Seeing that everyone in the building was uneasy at this time, Gong Xu had to stand up and stabilize his morale: "Everyone, why are you sitting here? I believe you all understand that the imperial court will not abolish the system of renting land and recruiting land guests. , we will never have peace for a day.”

"Oh, that's all we can think about. Now we are riding a tiger in a dilemma. If we don't fight, our family fortune will slowly be lost. If we fight, we will be frightened."

The three-redundancy problem has been solved, foreign trade revenue has soared, business is booming, and the national fiscal revenue is increasing day by day. There is plenty of money. No matter what, they, the landlords, cannot compete with the entire country.

Rebellion and uprising could not cause any disturbance in the Song Dynasty.

Someone asked tentatively.

Someone immediately said: "That's nice to say. Now something big has happened. People have been killed and many shops have been burned down. Can you tell me whether the government will be kind to this matter?"

Gong Xu immediately said in a deep voice: "If someone is beaten to death, it is natural that the person who beat him to death should be handed over to pay the penalty. There must also be compensation, and the court must not catch the sore feet. This matter itself is for all of us, isn't it? If you don’t do anything, can we still be safe?”

"Haha, the fleet went to sea and narrowly escaped death. No matter how much gold and silver the ocean-going fleet brought back, people always can't see how many people they went to and how many people came back."

This was in the Song Dynasty.

"Didn't I just say that? Hand over people and pay compensation!"

This was something they couldn't have predicted.

But if the landlords were not worried in the past, because the court had no money and most of the finances had to be placed in Sanrong, where would the money come from to repair water conservancy facilities?

Gong Xu and others must keep them, because in addition to the lack of response to Gong Xu's demands, more importantly, if everyone retreats and the tide recedes and the court finds them swimming naked, then they will not be arrested. The typical ghost comes.

Everyone immediately looked at each other, and he touched on the painful point.

He looked around at the crowd and continued: "So we can't give up here. We still have to continue to stalemate with the government and we must not leave here."

"This"

"So what can we do? I heard that many people have been forced to take the path given by the court. Some people have even sold their fields to the government at a low price and are now organizing fleets to go to sea."

Most of these millions of square kilometers are farmland. As long as someone has money, the court can build canals and re-irrigate the fields. They just don't let landlords like them play. They have no choice at all.

Gong Xu was silent.

"good."

The faces of Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei, and Zhang Ruohai were actually very ugly.

"But what if the court blames it?"

"cough cough"

As a result, I never expected that when there were more people, order could not be maintained. Especially some impulsive people, seeing that the government had been indifferent, became angry and squeezed, and actually started to smash, smash, loot and burn, and even killed people.

That's what worries him the most.

So they didn't want to rebel at all, they just wanted to accumulate strength, protest in the city, and put pressure on the court.

But after a moment Pan Shi said: "Don't worry, everyone. The so-called law does not punish everyone. There are so many of us, but it doesn't happen. Is it true that the imperial court will kill us all?"

It has to be said that these big landowners in Suzhou still have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and they quickly use everyone's concerns as bargaining chips. After all, they have already boarded the pirate ship, and whether they leave now or stay, it will be difficult to escape if their demands are not met.

If this continues, their tens of thousands of acres of land will turn into wasteland. The imperial court can use tenants to cultivate new fields and overhaul the fields without worrying about farming issues at all.

"But I always feel that what the court wants is an excuse, and now we have this excuse."

"I'm a coward, so I won't get involved in this matter. Sigh, who would have thought that after working hard for generations, this family fortune that I have managed to save would be destroyed in my hands?"

Some people sighed, some acquiesced, and a very small number of people finally decided to quit, leaving Hangzhou with their own people and returning to their hometown.

Once this matter got too big, they were afraid something would go wrong.

Secondly, they felt deeply powerless. Even though the matter was so big, the court still did not relent, which also made people feel how determined the court was.

So in the end, a few people left.

There are only two endings for them. Either the tenants in their names will be slowly expropriated by the court, and then they will be burdened with high taxes, and finally they will go bankrupt. Or make an early decision to sell the land and enter business.

This obviously requires a lot of courage.

After all, with their accumulated family wealth, a camel is bigger than a horse. Even if they sell their land and live in vain, as long as the head of the family does not engage in gambling, basically generations of people will have nothing to worry about. But doing business is too risky, especially going overseas.

Don't look at the fact that Chen Haizhong, an official of the ocean-going fleet, has been promoted from the eighth grade to the third grade of Tongzhi City Shipping Director in just seven or eight years.

But the price paid is unimaginable.

Others don't know it, but they people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang all know it. After all, Chen Haizhong is here every time he goes to sea and returns.

In his two voyages alone, thousands of men were lost due to disease, waves, wind, rain, disappearances, etc., not counting the number of shipwrecks and casualties.

In addition, many people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang went to Japan and Korea to do business, and these people also suffered heavy casualties.

Therefore, compared to farming in peace and security, with this stable iron rice bowl income, who would want to sell out all the land, go out to live in the wild, or even risk the shipwreck and death of people to run the business?
But now...

Those who left shook their heads and left with sighs, and could only hope that the remaining people would eventually win and the court would give up on allotment and conscription of their tenant farmers.

After these people left, there were still more than 30 big landowners left in the venue. They finally decided to burn everything and try again with Gong Xu and the others.

So in the next few days, they began to organize protest teams again, marching around inside and outside the city, but without the momentum of the previous days, they were relatively low-key.

But by early April, everything changed.

On April 6, Xia Wei, who had sailed more than a thousand kilometers and sailed day and night on a passenger ship, dragged his slightly tired body into Hangzhou without changing boats.

After entering the city, he quickly patrolled around the city. He only brought a few servants with him, and saw that order in the city had barely been restored.

But there were still thousands of people scattered around the city in demonstrations, which made him frown.

The most important thing was that he saw some smashed shops that had not yet been repaired, and the ruins of burned houses were still swaying in the wind, which showed how chaotic the market was at that time.

At noon, Xia Chu finally walked into the transfer office.

When Du Qi, Ren Maocheng and others in the government office heard that Xia Xu was coming, they quickly went out to greet him and invited him into the back hall.

"I've seen Ji Xiang."

In the back hall of the Liangzhe Road Transfer Envoy, officials such as the transfer envoy, deputy transfer envoy, general magistrate, and magistrate Duzhi saluted him.

Although the Ministry of Finance is no longer the third department, it is still nominally the first department under the Constitutional Yuan, so everyone still follows the previous habit of calling the Minister of Finance the Prime Minister.

"Humph."

Xia Wei snorted coldly, put his hands behind his back, sat down on the main seat, and then said in a deep voice: "Don't you have any thoughts about the current situation outside?"

Du Qi was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said: "Xiang Ji, this matter is not caused by the inaction of the officials and others, but by the magistrate."

"Forehead"

Xia Wei slapped his head and felt confused. Zhao Jun had told him this before he came.

The reason why the landlords on Liangzhe Road caused so much trouble was basically because he allowed it to happen.

But because I was tired from the journey, and seeing the state of the city, and being sixty years old, I forgot about it for a while.

So he turned around and said: "The instructions of the Zhiyuan are naturally correct, but we still can't let them get too rampant, so as not to affect the people in Hangzhou."

"Mr. Ji is right, it was the lower official's negligence."

Du Qi said quickly.

This matter can be big or small, it all depends on whether Shangguan will expose it gently.

Obviously with the endorsement of the Supreme Court, there is no big problem.

"Well, tell me about the current situation."

"Yes."

Everyone talked about the situation a little bit.

Finally, Ren Maocheng said: "Prime Minister, after they made a big fuss in Hangzhou City on the 20th, they stopped a lot during this period. Some people have gone back. Now there should be only a few thousand people in and outside the city."

"Stubborn!"

Xia Wei sneered and said: "The imperial court aims to benefit the people, and it's not that they don't want to give them a way to live, but they still cling to the land. I really don't think the imperial court dares to kill them."

"Please give me your instructions."

Du Qi immediately said that he had been fed up with his anger during this period and wanted to vent his anger for a long time.

"Go and call the other four chief officers to discuss the matter."

Xia Wei said: "I understand what the Zhiyuan means. Some should be killed, but not all of them should be killed. Otherwise, it will be difficult to convince the public, and the two people will be panicked and the country will be in turmoil. Therefore, the charges must be found out, and you will give me the order later. Immediately recruit the imperial troops from various states to come to Hangzhou."

As he spoke, he took out the emperor's edict and the Privy Council order in his hand. Only with these two orders could he mobilize the army.

"Yes!"

Seeing that Xia Song had brought military orders, everyone immediately became excited.

Now that there are so many landowners, there is really nothing they can do with the men and horses in their hands. When the Forbidden Army comes, everything will be easy to say.

The immediate change put the Yamen in operation immediately.

Someone notified people from other yamen to come for a meeting, someone rushed to various military camps to mobilize troops, and some blocked the news. Except for a few of their chief officials, no subordinate officials below could know the inside story.

A few days later, the imperial troops from surrounding states quickly moved to Hangzhou.

Xia Wei held a meeting with the chief of the Sixth Division and decided who to arrest, how to arrest them, how to interrogate them, and how to go to their homes to investigate the situation.

Catch the big ones and let go the small ones, how to judge the case, etc. were pretty much discussed. By April 9th, it was basically clear.

This is also thanks to Gong Xu and others' petition for courtesy first and then fighting. The list has been compiled for them, and now is the time to arrest people according to the list.

At midnight on the 9th, in the transfer envoy's office, Xia Ju was sitting in the main seat in the hall, overlooking the bottom, and said in a cold voice: "Give me an order, all the government officials, plus the imperial army, will search and arrest anyone in the city." Let it go!”

"Yes!"

Below, many chief officials including the Transport Envoy, the Appeasement Envoy, the Changping Envoy, the Tiju Envoy, the Yushi Division, and the Imperial City Division responded loudly.

Then in an instant, more than 10,000 government officials and soldiers filled the city and started arresting people everywhere!
(End of this chapter)