I have a cornucopia

Chapter 60 Very stupid and naive

the next day.

Yang Feng was riding a horse on the streets of the capital.

As for the explanation he gave to Zhang and Xin after Lao Wang left yesterday, he just casually made up the story that Chongzhen wanted to seek immortality, so he asked Lao Wang to ask him how he met the immortal.

His Majesty the Emperor was too proud to ask questions in the palace.

Zhang Xin and Zhang Xin didn't doubt it either.

Very reasonable.

The Ming Dynasty has reached this point, and it is normal to start turning to the fantasy system. Generally, those who are at the end of their rope like to fantasize about being rescued by gods. With the current situation in Chongzhen, it is considered very restrained without asking gods to do it. Speaking of the current situation of my Ming Dynasty, let alone him, Zhang Xin and others want to find a master to predict the future for them...

"Famine, plague, war, and death, His Majesty the Emperor has gathered together the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!"

Yang Feng looked at the dead bodies on the roadside and sighed.

The body collector, on the other hand, numbly picked up the withered and severely shrunk corpse and threw it into the carriage just like in an old photo.

And there are already layers of people in the carriage.

Those who froze to death, those who starved to death, those who died of illness, were actually still suffering from the plague at this time.

All across the North.

It's just that the sanitary conditions here in the Ming Dynasty are slightly better, and the doctors are more reliable, especially as a country with severe cat slaves is full of cats, so there is no devastating death like the Black Death in Europe. In fact, the key reason why the plague broke out in the late Ming Dynasty was that the collapse of order led to the collapse of the original medical system. The Ming Dynasty did have a medical system. Zhu Yuanzhang established a classical version of the universal free medical system. Each county had medicine, and the medical households were hereditary. The Huimin Pharmacy in each county played a role similar to a public hospital. Doctors receive a salary, and medicinal materials are collected from medicinal material dealers in the form of tax points. If the salary is not enough, the local government pays to purchase it.

Of course, this was the time of Zhu Yuanzhang, and it had long existed in name only.

But the system exists.

There are many records in history that when plague occurred in a local area, local officials restarted this system to deal with the plague.

After all, under the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty, local medical households could not escape.

But at the end of the Ming Dynasty, all order collapsed, and local officials were unable to restart it even if they wanted to.

After all, you need money.

When local officials are in danger, who will be responsible for this? It is better to take the money of the Yamen and abandon the official and run away. In the end, all that is left depends on the consciousness and organization of the local gentry, but local gentry usually They only care about their own clan, and those outside the clan are none of their business.

It would be better if they all died!

It happened to take the opportunity to invade the dead person's land and other properties.

It was like this in the late Ming Dynasty.

Behind all deaths is also a process of annexation among gentry.

Just like when he ate Zhang Hongde's family in Laiyang and became destitute.

Zhucheng is already in chaos now, because the massacre by the Qing army resulted in the death of a large number of landowners and peasants, and the disappearance of land deeds. Even the fleeing gentry who returned have faced this problem. Du Li has been ordered to lead the Knights of Confucius and Mencius. In the past, suppression...

By order of Shandong Tongshan Association.

This Tongshan Association was headed by Fan Fucui, together with Fang Kezhuang, Yan Shenggong and others, and was established in Changyi to resettle the rescued people. They sat in Changyi, and then under the guise of charity, raised the Confucius and Mencius knights. Tuan acted as a pawn and forced Shandong Governor Wang Yongji to issue various orders that were beneficial to them. At the same time, they also organized people to return to their hometowns, maintained local order, and adjudicated disputes between gentry due to war. They even dared to misappropriate local tax revenue...

This was originally the responsibility of the local officials, but now we old guys are doing it for us, so the local officials have to pay for it, right?

Oppose?

We have a bunch of former chief ministers, censors, and even the Duke here. What right do you, a seventh-grade sesame official, have to say?

Do you think the sword of Confucius and Mencius knights is disadvantageous?

The old guys are very excited. They have been ministers who have followed the rules all their lives and watched the wealthy gentry in the south play more and more. It is said that Guangdong has already done this, and Foshan Jiahui Hall has already exercised local management rights in Foshan. Those in the north still follow the old ideas, but now they are also playing, and they are playing bigger. There is an extra town on the top of Foshan Mountain, and they dare to make a province. The dream that the Confucian scholars pursued tirelessly, with the monarch at the top, the scholar-bureaucrats at the bottom, and the local sages at the grassroots level, actually started like this?

Faint king?

Eunuch?

Corrupt officials?

Damn you!

The rural sages have the final say.

We are all very excited!

Such joy as I have never experienced before!

The old guys can be regarded as having a second spring.

As for Wang Yongji, who was scared by Yang Feng and was already trembling, he dared to take no more care. He was a little dissatisfied with the Tongshan Association for misappropriating part of Qingzhou's tax revenue without authorization. Within five days, a large number of Confucian scholars blocked his governor with a memorial tablet of Confucius. yamen.

It is said that Wang Yongji did not expect to face such a grand event outside of Jiangnan.

but……

Behind these Confucian scholars are several knights from the Knights of Confucius and Mencius with their retinues!

In the end, he could only smile and appease.

The struggle on Chongzhen's side is really meaningless. He has long been unable to control the place. In the past, a large number of people have formed strongholds to protect themselves, but they are still stuck in inertia and have not opened this last layer of paper. , but now Yang Feng is equivalent to lighting a prairie fire, and even the gentry of Beizhili have quickly begun to learn.

Fan Jingwen’s volunteers have not been disbanded yet!

They are still in the east of Hebei. More than 50,000 so-called volunteers armed by the gentry in various prefectures in the Northern Zhili are in the east of Hebei to prevent the Qing army from returning.

"Your Majesty, times have changed!"

Yang Feng sighed.

"Uncle, give me something to stutter!"

A voice sounded next to him.

He turned to look at a ragged man next to him.

The latter bowed his waist, stretched out his hand to him, and looked at him with flattering eyes.

Yang Feng smiled.

Then he threw a piece of candy to him, and the White Rabbit toffee fell at the guy's feet. The latter was confused for a moment and then bent down to pick it up. He peeled off the candy wrapper without any instruction and looked at Yang Feng with questioning eyes. Yang Feng He smiled and nodded. He immediately picked up the toffee and carefully put it in his mouth, but then his eyes lit up and he was chewing it happily. But at this moment, someone walked out of the alley next to him and coughed speechlessly. It dawned on him, and then he screamed, clutching his stomach and falling down. He didn't know what he stuffed into his mouth, and he immediately foamed at the mouth and rolled over.

"Killing, killing!"

He shouted and screamed.

A dozen people instantly poured out of the alley.

"Third brother, third brother, what's wrong with you? Come on, brothers, catch him. This guy has poisoned the third brother."

The coughing one immediately jumped on him and howled in a very theatrical way.

Those people immediately flocked to Yang Feng.

But at the same time, Yang Feng stepped forward and stepped on the third child...

"Poisoned, right? I'll treat you."

He said.

Then press hard on your feet. The third child's eyes widened for a moment, and then his whole body trembled. The crying one didn't understand yet, and wanted to question Yang Feng. The next moment, a bunch of messy things came out of the third child's mouth, which completely covered his face. He lowered his head in shock, and then saw that the third child's face was blue. He looked up again and looked at Yang Feng in shock, and then the third child spurted out a second mouthful of something.

This time it's blood.

Those strong men were all confused and didn't even know how to continue acting.

"What happened?"

Fortunately, another voice woke them up.

"It's killing, it's killing, what's the command, this guy killed Wu Laosan!"

The man screamed in horror, with blood and White Rabbit toffee on his face, and threw himself at a green-robed officer who came with an archer from behind. However, as soon as he ran two steps, he flew backwards and then smashed into the ground. Wu Laosan's head was twisted and tilted to the side. Yang Feng calmly clapped his hands, looked at Commander He who was also stunned, and then hooked him. Commander He suddenly woke up and retreated without hesitation, but the archers reacted faster than him and turned around. Just run. So as soon as Commander He took two steps back, he found that he was already the closest to Yang Feng. The next moment, the devil's hand appeared on his neck, and then he rose up. He kicked his legs and struggled hard...

"Do you like playing?

There should be a censor patrolling the city later, right?

What gives you the confidence to think that with just your tricks, you can bring a man who is said to have killed thousands of captives into submission? Although I admit that killing a few thousand people is indeed just a legend, but it is true that there are more than 500 people, including tearing alive people with hands. At this time, you people still believe that rules can make a person who has the ability to ignore them submit. ?

It's really silly and naive. "

Yang Feng said calmly.

Then he looked behind Commander He, where another green-robed officer was hurriedly walking out.

"Censor of the city?

You can summon the soldiers. I have given you enough evidence, so you don’t need to bother to create it. I have already killed two people, and I am going to kill a third one, and he is a military commander. "

Yang Feng looked at the green-robed officer and said with a sneer.

The next moment, his hand suddenly tightened, Commander He kicked his legs suddenly in mid-air, and then became unresponsive.

Yang Feng casually threw his dead body towards the green-robed official.

The latter looked at him in horror.

The people around him looked at him in horror.

"Are you shocked? I kill a seventh-rank official like a dog. What makes you think that in this era, killing a seventh-rank official is not like killing a dog? Jianlu even killed Fengzi, dragon and grandson like killing a dog, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong also Killing a phoenix, dragon and grandson is like killing a dog. If you go out to any mansion outside the capital, killing a seventh-grade official is like killing a dog. Is it because the city wall outside blocks your eyes and prevents you from seeing the real world outside? You don’t have eyes to begin with?”

Yang Feng said.

So everyone was silent.

He seems to be right. In this Ming Dynasty, killing a seventh-grade official is like killing a dog.

The vassal kings killed a lot of them!

The green-robed official turned around and left with a pale face.

Yang Feng ignored him, but looked at the young man next to him...

"Go bring me a chair!"

He said.

The latter originally followed those two.

Yang Feng had known about their plan for a long time, and Lao Wang had sent someone to tell him this morning.

First, find a few people to pretend to beg. If they give them food, they will frame them for poisoning. If they give them money, they will hit them and immediately frame them for hitting someone. Then Commander He will lead people from the Wucheng Army and Horses Division to take them back to the Yamen. The censor who patrolled the city was responsible for enforcing the law impartially and threw him in jail first. However, because of his special status, he would not be killed in prison, but Wu Laosan would die. Then the censor of the city patrol would accuse him of poisoning or running someone over. Then Zhou Yanru will propose an exile for Chongzhen. After all, he is also a meritorious official, but after all, he can't ignore the national law if he hurts a person's life. Even if he accidentally hurts a person's life, he must be sentenced. He will be exiled for three thousand miles, and then he will be taken to a exile place along the coast. The boat will naturally sink on the way.

If he resists...

That's even more perfect.

Those who resist arrest will be shot without mercy.

If it were bigger, it would be considered as rebellion.

In short, the result is that whether he submits or not, he is a criminal.

Of course a criminal can no longer lead the Knights of Confucius and Mencius.

It’s the same if he ran away!

Zhou Yanru only wanted him to be a criminal, and nothing else really mattered. He used this to force him to not appear in public, and then disbanded the Knights of Confucius and Mencius. As long as Yang Feng was gone, those Confucian scholars would still dare to do such a simple thing. What's the point of resistance? Resistance is rebellion. It just so happened that the Qing army had just been defeated, and all the general troops were still there. Moreover, the governor of water transportation, Shi Kefa, was also heading north with his troops. We just needed to suppress them together.

Of course, we can't get to this point.

It’s not like Zhou Yanru didn’t understand the level of Confucian scholars.

Besides, those old guys behind didn't dare to burn the boat. It was nothing more than an exchange of interests. They were just confused by Yang Feng and asked Chongzhen to summon Fan Fukui. It was enough for Fang Kezhuang and others to go to Beijing to take up their posts again. In fact, after Tongshan Association began to misappropriate local tax money, both Chongzhen and Zhou Yanru knew that they could not let it go anymore. If they all did this, what would they eat here in the capital? Now that there are wars everywhere, the amount of grain transported by water from the south has been greatly reduced, and the places that were captured by the Qing army cannot collect taxes this year. In fact, Chongzhen has issued an order to exempt them, but only exempted those areas that were captured by the Qing army, not those areas that were captured by the Qing army. Those who are captured must pay...

There is no tax to collect from those who were captured!

Now the court is in an increasingly difficult situation, and at times like this it is even more important to work together.

How can we work together when we are all trying to protect ourselves?

To die together.

If you can protect yourself, won't others become soft persimmons to be pinched?

This unhealthy trend must be suppressed.

and so……

Just as they wished.

The young man carefully moved a chair to Yang Feng and brought tea. Yang Feng sat down on the street and drank tea calmly among more and more people watching around him. Soon a large number of soldiers arrived, each holding a three-eyed blunderbuss and a bow and arrow in front, but they were obviously just looking at him.

There is not much that can be fought in the capital at present. Chongzhen's Yongwei battalion has been detached. Zhou Yuji went to Shanxi with the Shanxi General Soldier. This is the garrison general and is not the same as the reinforcement and suppression general with the Shanxi soldiers. As for Huang Degong's presence Huaixi, but this time Shi Kefa should have taken him with him when he went north. Those on the capital side were those who were severely defeated by the Qing army when they retreated. They are all in Jizhou now. The other general troops are also on the Great Wall line. However, Yang Daxun's troops have withdrawn.

After all, Yuan Shizhong has already arrived in Haizhou, and he will be in trouble if he enters Shandong.

Soon Yang Feng was surrounded.

Of course, he ignored it and just drank tea.

And pet the cat.

Shoot without mercy?

It depends on whether Chongzhen dares to issue this order.

Zhou Yanru had a good idea, but he did not have the final say in this court.

Among the crowd not far away, Yang Guanguang's figure appeared. He nodded to Yang Feng and told him that everything was going on normally.

(End of this chapter)