In the Jiangnan area, the end of September to early October every year is the busiest time for autumn harvest.
After the autumn harvest is over, it’s time to pay grain taxes, which is commonly known as autumn grain.
It can be said that 90% of the tax revenue of local governments comes from autumn grain, and other taxes, such as summer tax and commercial tax, are not worth mentioning compared with the importance of autumn grain.
But when the autumn harvest came this year, the slogan "Support Lin Jieyuan and stop handing Nanjing grain" had become popular in all states and counties in Suzhou Prefecture within ten days.
With the communication efficiency of today's media, this speed of communication can be called a miracle, and it also reflects the "popular sentiment" from the side.
Although many people in prefectures and counties outside the capital such as Kunshan, Jiading, Changshu and other places do not know who Lin Jieyuan is, and they are even less familiar with Lin Tailai.
But they didn't mind shouting slogans along with them, and regarded Lin Jieyuan, who they had never met before, as a hero.
If Lin Jieyuan is not a hero, then how can everyone have an excuse to resist the tax? So Lin Jieyuan must be a hero.
The total tax revenue of Suzhou Prefecture accounts for one-tenth of the world's total, and it supplies one-sixth of the grain for the capital. There has always been an old tradition of resisting tax arrears.
This time, Wuxian Wanminshu took the lead. If other places dare not follow suit, then they would be calling themselves Suzhou people in vain.
Therefore, although the autumn grain harvest has not yet officially started, officials in various states and counties in Suzhou Prefecture have fallen into a collective panic due to the wave of public opinion.
Only then did the Zhang brothers understand what they meant when they said, "My goal has never been to defeat the Xi family, but to use it to make myself stronger."
In storytelling novels, when someone is described as having great power, it is often said, "If you stomp your feet, the whole city will tremble."
Now it seems that this trend will also follow in Suzhou City, if everything goes well this time.
Deng Zhixian of Wu County is probably one of the people under the greatest pressure, if not the most.
He hadn't slept well for several days in a row, and his whole face looked gloomy.
Magistrate Yuan of Changzhou County in the same city sent his aide Li Jixuan to the Wuxian County Government Office to visit Magistrate Deng.
Li Jixuan said bluntly: "Nowadays, public opinion is raging everywhere, and the source of it is Wu County.
Mr. Deng County cannot just sit here and solve the problem quickly, otherwise our other counties will be dragged down!"
But Li Jixuan kept talking until his mouth went dry, and Magistrate Deng still said nothing.
Li Jixuan said dissatisfiedly: "Now that we have said this, how can Zun County Deng remain indifferent?"
Magistrate Deng suddenly lost control of his emotions. He raised his hand and threw a stack of documents at Li Jixuan's feet.
"You're late! All the prefectures and counties have issued documents to scold this county!" Magistrate Deng yelled with a ferocious expression.
Li Jixuan: "."
It turns out that Deng Zhixian has become the target of the wrath of all the prefecture and county officials in Suzhou Prefecture.
Although the responsibility does not entirely lie with Deng Zhixian, Deng Zhixian is also a victim.
But other magistrates and prefectures did not dare to scold the magistrate and governor, so they could only vent their anger on Magistrate Deng.
All I can say is that having someone like Lin Tailai under your rule is a crime committed in three lifetimes.
Seeing Magistrate Deng who was under so much pressure that he almost had a mental breakdown, Li Jixuan could not say anything more, so he shook his head and left.
All the government officials did not dare to approach Magistrate Deng at this time. In this state, they would be beaten to death without any reason.
Only Master Zheng, who was in charge of the punishment, stepped forward and said softly: "I have an idea. Although it cannot solve the problem, it can relieve the pressure on the proprietor."
Deng Zhixian, who was at a loss what to do and felt that he had no other choice, quickly asked: "Speak quickly!"
Master Zheng said cryptically: "You can muddy the water, and if the sky falls, let tall people carry it!"
Magistrate Deng frowned and said, "Please elaborate further."
Master Zheng said: "As we all know, the Dongting merchant gang has a very good relationship with Governor Wei. When Governor Wei took office, he was surrounded by Xi Siwei of the Xi family.
And I also heard that on the day Lin Tailai was taken away, the governor also sent a thousand troops from the Biao Battalion to participate in the containment, and they were watching near the scene."
After hearing this, Magistrate Deng took a picture of the case. Everything was done without saying anything!
Indeed, as Mr. Zheng said, although it cannot solve the problem, it can relieve your stress!
He didn't cause the trouble himself, so why should he bear the maximum pressure?
If you can't protect yourself, why should you care about superiority and inferiority? If you want to die, then die together!
As a result, more details about Lin Jieyuan's arrest began to emerge in Wuxian County.
Detail 1: On the day Lin Jieyuan returned to the city, Dongting merchant thieves organized manpower to besiege him. The governor, government office, and county government all knew about it, but they all did nothing and allowed the merchant thieves to do whatever they wanted.
Detail 2: The governor even sent a thousand pacesetters to assist the merchant thieves and participate in the siege of Lin Jieyuan, and then these thousand pacesetters sat back and watched Lin Jieyuan being captured by the Nanjing people.
Detail 3: The Dongting Business Gang cooperated with the Nanjing Wu family in order to open up the huge consumer market in Nanjing City, and betrayed Lin Jieyuan at the expense of profit.
When these details became widely circulated, the person under greatest pressure became Governor Wei.
As a fifty-nine-year-old governor who has no room for advancement and just wants to make a fortune, he is not afraid of scandals.
But he was afraid that something would go completely out of control and he would have to take the blame, which would lead to him being traced and then withdrawing the stolen goods.
The governor of Jiangnan is the first person in charge of money and food in Jiangnan. If there is a big problem with money and food, who can share the responsibility for him?
But the biggest problem now is that we can't find any solution to the problem, and we can't even find the person who caused the problem.
In these days, Lin Jieyuan, who has been passed down by word of mouth among the people, seems to have disappeared from the world and has never appeared in front of people.
In fact, at this moment, Lin Jieyuan could already see the walls of Stone City.
That's right, after more than half a month's absence, he returned to Nanjing.
This time we walked very slowly on the road, and we still lingered at Xushuguan for several days before leaving.
After all, it takes time for things to ferment, and it also takes time for the public opinion storm to be fed back to Nanjing.
As for why Mr. Lin wanted to return to Nanjing, it was because he, as the center of the public opinion storm, was not suitable to stay in Suzhou.
There were about a dozen sergeants beside Mr. Lin. After all, they were nominally captured by the Jingwei army.
These ten or so sergeants are actually members of the Duke of Wei, but their identities will never be recognized to the outside world. They are only generally said to be officers and soldiers of the Beijing Guard.
When Mr. Wei Guogong's guest Mr. Sheng came to visit, he and Lin Tailai finalized a detailed cooperation plan based on their needs.
Then, outside Fengqiao, Lin Tailai pretended to be captured by the "Jingwei" officers and soldiers.
The ship arrived at Longjiang Pass outside Nanjing City, and after landing ashore, these sergeants escorted Lin Tailai to General Zhang at Longjiang Pass.
Then the soldiers dispersed in a rush, and their whereabouts have never been known since.
Only Mr. Zhang was left with a confused look on his face, not understanding what was going on.
As a military attache guarding the checkpoint, he is very well-informed in terms of information. He has heard about the public opinion storm in Suzhou Prefecture.
But he didn't expect that the person at the center of the public opinion storm would suddenly appear directly in front of him today.
Lin Tailai explained: "I am now a prisoner. I was captured here by the imperial guards and handed over to you, Mr. Zhang."
Mr. Zhang was still confused and said subconsciously: "Then what should I do?"
Lin Tailai said matter-of-factly: "Of course I will be escorted into the city and handed over to Yousi for interrogation."
Mr. Zhang asked again: "To be clear, which yamen is Yousi?"
Lin Tailai responded: "How did I know this? I just knew, hey, I was caught here by you guys from Jingwei!
But I don’t know which family is arresting me, and I don’t know who is going to punish me!”
Mr. Zhang: "."
What kind of gourd thing is this? Why can’t I understand it at all?
He didn't want to get involved, but he didn't dare to release people directly, because releasing people without authorization might lead to liability.
Lin Tailai actively helped with ideas and said: "The yamen who want to arrest me are none other than Mr. Li from the garrison office, Wang Shangshu from the military department, and the criminal department.
You can't go wrong escorting me to those three places!"
After Mr. Zhang thought twice, he felt that it made sense. He personally escorted Lin Tailai into the city and headed to the nearest garrison.
Not long after the report was made at the gate, the garrison minister Linhuai Marquis Li Yangong sent someone to reply:
"After Lin Tailai escaped from the Luming Banquet, King Shangshu of the Ministry of War ordered the search for Lin Tailai.
Besides, martial arts examinations are under the control of the Ministry of War, so just send Lin Tailai to the Ministry of War."
Mr. Zhang had no choice but to ask Lin Tailai: "What should we do?"
To be continued...