Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"The Master said: Learning should never cease."

"If you don't know etiquette, you can't stand."

"Today I will explain the etiquette to you and let you know what the rights of citizens are."

In an open space not far from the Wu family, Zhang Pu held a copper trumpet and spoke loudly to the gathered crowd.

After so many days of demonstrations, the Wu family became the center of the storm in Suzhou and even in Jiangnan. Every day, people came and left.

The wealthy families in Suzhou who keep slaves have been using threats and inducements these days to restrain their slaves from causing trouble.

Zhang Pu used newspapers to attract slaves and righteous people from all over the country, and he also gave lectures in person, explaining various principles.

Today he talked about etiquette and said loudly to everyone:
"What are etiquette and law? They are etiquette and laws."

“It is a kind of order that can be used to rectify the ruler and his subjects, to strengthen the relationship between father and son, to bring brothers together, and to bring husband and wife together.”

"Each of us can find our own place in the order of etiquette and law."

"The current emperor re-established rituals and music so that all people can find their own position, do their best, get what they deserve, and live and work in peace and contentment."

Recounting the words in the Book of Rites as straightforwardly as possible, Zhang Pu pointed to a person and gave an example:

"Some people may not understand if I speak in a vague way, so let's just talk about something real."

"For example, you, Zhang San, rented and cultivated ten acres of official land occupied by the Wu family."

"Then what is your status, and that of your descendants? Good citizens or slaves? It all needs to be determined by etiquette."

Everyone laughed, but Zhang San scratched his head and shouted:

"Sir, am I a good citizen or a slave?"

"I've never sold myself, but since my grandfather, they have said that my family are tenants."

"Now they say the fields I cultivate and the house I live in belong to the Lord."

"When will this day end?"

These words touched everyone's heart, and many people started talking at once.

Some of these people sold themselves and did not want to continue being slaves, while others had their identities passed down from their ancestors.

Some people have even left their masters and become wealthy, but their status is still that of slaves, and their property may be taken away by their masters.

These people who are extremely rich or have nothing are the main force of this protest.

They are eager to change the current situation and their own status.

Zhang Pu listened to the crowd and shouted a few words to quiet them down. He continued:

"Whether you are a good citizen or a slave is determined by etiquette and law."

"But I can be sure that you, Zhang San, are definitely not a slave."

"Because his Wu family has no title at all, and no one has ever been a minister above the third rank."

"They have no right to employ slaves and servants, and have been violating the Ming Dynasty Law all along."

These words were so decisive that Zhang San shouted loudly in excitement.

Many people thought about the situation of their own masters and shouted that their masters were not officials either.

Wu Shirui, who heard this from a distance, turned pale, and many gentry also turned pale. Because there were no nobles in Suzhou, and there were very few ministers above the third rank.

According to Zhang Pu, their slavery violated the Ming Dynasty Law and constituted the crime of privately enslaving slaves.

Wang Shimin also had a bad look on his face, because his grandfather was the Prime Minister, but he was only the Minister of the Ministry of Imperial Treasures, an official position of only the fifth rank, and was also not qualified to employ slaves.

This made him stare at Huang Daozhou, the Suzhou Prefecture magistrate next to him, and asked:
"Huang Tuiguan, Zhang Pu is making such a big fuss, and you don't care about it?"

"If this gets out, the whole of Suzhou will be in chaos!"

Huang Daozhou ignored him and thought about the imperial edict sent from the capital.

Judging from the latest draft of etiquette and laws, the court’s attitude has basically been determined.

The only thing that has not been confirmed is the details. The court asked Suzhou Prefecture to conduct a pilot project and discuss the details.

Zhang Pu obviously knew all this, so he talked about etiquette today to make it clear to those tenants and servants that they were not slaves.

Soon, he would set up a workers' association in accordance with the emperor's order, organize these slaves, or hired workers, and consult with these gentry.

Huang Daozhou appreciated this, because he was poor when he was young and couldn't even afford a teacher, so he naturally wouldn't favor the rich. He despised some rich families who had to use slaves for food and clothing.

In addition, he admired Zhang Pu very much, so he naturally turned a deaf ear to Wang Shimin's words.

If it weren't for the fact that he was an official and couldn't speak nonsense, and if the prefect Kou Shen had asked him to accompany these people, I'm afraid Huang Daozhou would have walked to Zhang Pu's side and faced the slaves with him.

From a distance, Huang Daozhou heard Zhang Pu's hoarse voice again:
"The Great Ming Convention of Rites and Laws is the rites and laws agreed upon by the emperor and the people."

"Not only must the people obey, but the emperor must also follow, not to mention the officials and gentry."

"As long as we follow the rules, no one can touch us."

The crowd cheered loudly, while the gentry's faces changed several times.

Previously, they supported the re-creation of rituals and music, and even looked forward to the imperial court coming to Suzhou for a proposal meeting.

Who would have thought that now that the parliament has not been built yet, the etiquette and laws drafted by the Congressional Preparatory Office would fall on them.

This made some people angry:
"What kind of international convention is this? It was clearly made by a few ministers in the court!"

"And these peasants are actually qualified to talk about etiquette?"

They agree that punishment should not be imposed on officials and courtesy should not be extended to common people.

It was a joke to them that these slaves wanted to be protected by etiquette and laws.

Huang Daozhou was unhappy to hear this and didn't want to stay with these people.

After leaving with a wave of his sleeves, he walked to the pavilion where the prefect was resting and reported:

"Mr. Kou, a wealthy man in Suzhou Prefecture, seems unwilling to release this slave on his own initiative."

"Should we invite them here to give them a lecture and announce the imperial will?"

The prefect Kou Shen shook his head and said:
"Don't worry for now, let them fight first."

"The court only decided on the outline, but not the details."

"Regarding matters concerning the slaves, we have to wait until they reach a conclusion after discussing it with Zhang Pu, and then the government can mediate."

"What this government is worried about now is not this matter, but the fact that the court wants to take back the official land and distribute it to the tenant farmers."

"These fields are in the hands of various wealthy families. How can we take them back?"

Huang Daozhou didn't know what to do when he heard this, because the official fields in Suzhou had long been circulated like private fields. Many people thought that the court's forced recovery was like taking away the fields of the gentry.

However, these fields originally belonged to the court, and it seemed natural to take them back now. This made him sigh at the complexity of the matter. Thinking of the City God Temple where he had worshipped when he took office, and the portrait of Hai Rui hanging in the Three Judicial Departments, he said:
"Mr. Hai once said that if there are difficult industrial cases, it is better to punish the local officials rather than the common people to solve the problems."

"Even if this wealthy family only has 100 acres of land, they can still pass on farming and education to their family."

"But if ordinary people rent ten acres of land from the government, they can support their family."

"I think that we should follow the court's regulations and take back the government land that exceeds 100 mu that we rent and redistribute it."

Kou Shen nodded slightly, and thinking about his experience in governing, he sighed:
"One hundred acres is still too little. It would be better if the limit was increased to three hundred acres."

"Most families in Suzhou don't have 300 acres of land."

"The limit is set at 300 acres, which should be acceptable to most people."

In the past, when Suzhou was hit by a flood, it was impossible to obtain grain. It was he who stipulated that "landowners over 300 mu should be paid in silver, and landowners under 300 mu should be paid in silver", which helped the people of Suzhou survive the disaster.

Therefore, he was very clear about how many families in Suzhou had more than 300 acres of land, and believed that he could force these people to hand over the land.

Huang Daozhou also agreed with this and said:
"A man with five people can manage a hundred acres of land. That is suitable for a family of five."

"Nowadays, large families generally have more than a dozen or even dozens of people, and it is not convenient to separate a particular descendant. I also think that 300 acres of farming and studying to pass on the family tradition is more appropriate."

"Why not have Lord Kou convene a meeting of the people and make recommendations to the court in the name of Suzhou officials?"

Kou Shen's eyes lit up and he said:

"So good!"

"Our Suzhou Prefecture officials jointly signed and made suggestions to the court."

On the same day, the members of the Suzhou Prefecture Assembly were called to a meeting. Then, in the name of all Suzhou officials, they requested the court to slightly relax the restrictions and increase the limit on renting official land to 300 mu of land.

In order to get the memorial to the court as soon as possible, Kou Shen, as the chief officer, took the memorial signed by everyone to visit the eunuchs in charge of Susong, intending to use the pigeons in the inner court to send the memorial to the court.

However, just as he handed the memorial to the eunuch Zhang Yixian, the supervisor of Susong, he heard someone hurriedly reporting a piece of news, which frightened him so much that he almost fell to the ground:
"When did Zhang Pu get attacked?"

"Who did it? How is Zhang Pu now?"

The young eunuch who came to report the news said:
"It's what happened just now. I heard that it was done by people from Suzhou thieves. They also smashed the Ming Pao newspaper office."

"Fortunately, Mr. Zhang brought a musket with him, so he was not hurt."

"The newspaper office was smashed and people were frightened, but now people are outraged."

Kou Shen heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that the person was fine. But he heard Zhang Yixian, the eunuch who supervised Susong, said sinisterly:

"Suzhou Fighting Group? Were they the ones who killed the Tiqi back then?"

"Five people were later picked out to take the blame, and Mr. Zhang even wrote a 'Gravestone of Five People' for them."

"Why are these people going to beat up Mr. Zhang now? How ungrateful!"

Kou Shen's forehead was sweating when he heard this, and he hurriedly explained:
"Yan Peiwei and the other five were arrested and interrogated by Kou himself. They were indeed involved in the incident and were not hired thugs."

"I will conduct a thorough investigation into the attack on Zhang Pu and give you an explanation."

Zhang Yixian thought about the situation in Suzhou where the Jinyiwei were afraid to go out, and slammed the table and scolded him:

"It's not an explanation to our family, it's an explanation to Mr. Zhang."

"You should know that Mr. Zhang is a favorite of His Majesty."

"If he gets hurt, you'll all be in trouble!"

Kou Shen nodded in agreement, saying that he would definitely arrest the people from Suzhou and find out the truth of the matter.

Zhang Yixian heard this and sneered:
"Who are you going to arrest? Are you going to arrest a few more scapegoats?"

"Even the Emperor knows about the rampant gangs in the Suzhou and Songjiang areas. Mr. Dong, who taught the Pope calligraphy, had his home robbed by a gang of rogue gangsters."

"I think the reason why Susong is in such a mess is because there is no Weiwei Office."

"Why don't we jointly submit a petition with Prefect Kou and our family to establish the Suzhou Prefecture Weiwei Office and set up public security offices in each county."

Kou Shen was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect Zhang Yixian to be so disrespectful and suddenly attack him at this time.

As a civil servant, it was certainly impossible for him to submit a joint memorial with the eunuch, let alone invite the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Suzhou.

However, when the emperor heard about the Suzhou robbery, he was very surprised. He felt that he had to give an explanation and could not just let a few people take the blame.

As the eunuch supervising Suzhou and Songjiang, Zhang Yixian was responsible for supervising Suzhou officials and even attending the assemblies at all levels. But other than that, he had no power at all and could not touch anyone.

Kou Shen thought he was upright and was not afraid of Zhang Yixian's slander. After declining Zhang Yixian's invitation to jointly submit a memorial, he left soon.

He needed to get to the bottom of the attack on Zhang Pu and the smashing of the newspaper office as soon as possible to prevent the intensification of conflicts in Suzhou and a greater chaos.

After Kou Shen left, Zhang Yixian was so angry that he kicked the chair to the ground.

Compared with the previous eunuchs in charge of textile production in Suzhou and Hangzhou, he, the eunuch in charge of the Susong region, was extremely frustrated. He was not allowed to interfere in local affairs and only had supervisory power.

In Suzhou, where even the imperial guards were not allowed to leave, he had to be very careful even when going out.

So when Zhang Pu came to him, he chose to give his strong support, hoping to break the current situation.

Now it seems that Zhang Pu is indeed useful. He can't let anyone harm Zhang Pu and let Suzhou become an iron plate again.

Thinking about Zhang Pu's attack, Zhang Yixian said:

"Take out the muskets and ammunition that the emperor has bestowed upon you, and send them to Mr. Zhang."

"Choose a few more strong Jinyiwei in plain clothes to protect Mr. Zhang."

"If anything happens to Mr. Zhang, our family will not forgive you."

He gave the order in a domineering manner, and immediately a young eunuch went out with the Jinyiwei and firearms.

Zhang Yixian himself wrote a secret memorial with exaggerated content, severely impeaching Kou Shen. However, he did not dare to delay the main business, and also passed on the memorials of Kou Shen and other Suzhou officials.

Kou Shen, who was unaware of the incident, called Huang Daozhou and other officials who had already left work after leaving the supervisory office, and went to Zhang Pu's home to express his condolences and find out the truth of the matter.

At this time, many people who heard the news had gathered at Zhang Pu's house. There were even some military officers who were originally slaves who took the initiative to come and guard.

Zhang Pu was furious and deeply moved, and said in a hoarse voice:
"Everyone, Zhang was attacked today because some people were afraid. They were afraid of the power of our unity."

"Zhang will sing a song that he learned in the army to encourage you all."

He raised his megaphone and sang loudly to the crowd:

"Unity is strength. Unity is strength."

"This power is iron, this power is steel. It is harder than iron, stronger than steel..."

The simple and powerful singing quickly made everyone sing along. It seemed as if there was a kind of power surging in my heart along with the singing.

When Kou Shen, Huang Daozhou and other government officials arrived, they heard everyone singing:
Fire at the invasion and slavery, and let all undemocratic systems die...

For a moment, he was so shocked that he dared not to step forward. (End of this chapter)