According to my feedback from my minions, some readers think that some of the process of civil rebellion is unreasonable. What I need to state here is that all civil rebellions in this volume are based on historical facts as prototypes.
In this volume, I will share with you a few civil wars used in this article in the form of an Easter Egg Chapter.
1. Suzhou Civil Rebellion
In mid-May 29th year of Wanli, Sun Long moved into the Suzhou Weaving Bureau again to discuss with local officials how to complete the additional payment of commercial taxes.
Local officials decided to hand over some of the silver in stock and the other part was taken from the public.
News from the people spread like wildfire, and for a moment, people were in a hurry and false rumors spread everywhere.
In early June, the machine owner (boss) began to stop weaving in full swing.
This immediately cut off the road of thousands of machinists and dyers hired by the weaver households, and gathered at the door of the Suzhou Manufacturing Bureau to ask for an explanation.
On June 6, more than 2,000 servants gathered near Loumen in the northeast of Suzhou City and elected Kunshan machinist Ge as the leader. Everyone came to the city to attend the guild of silk weaving craftsmen (the actual controller of the guild is usually a collection of the holders of the means of production). He held a swearing ceremony for the Xuanmiaoguan Taoist Temple, where the location of the Silk Weaving Craftsmen, was located.
When Ge Cheng swears to God, he asked everyone to only oppose the tax supervisor and his minions and not to retaliate against the machine households, that is, the employer, dyer, and maids who immediately swore.
Then Ge Cheng divided the people into six teams, each team led by one, holding a banana fan as a number, while the others followed him with a pendant in their hands.
Then he started to massacre tax officials outside the city - the binding road, throw stones, and smash them to death.
After killing someone, Ge Chengding Gao shouted that today's affairs will be eliminated by the court. If you think it is profitable, then who in the world can tell you? If you follow my constraints, then you will go!
Everyone once again vowed to the sky that this action was only aimed at the tax envoy and the tax officers appointed by them, and would not infringe on the locals in Suzhou.
Afterwards, Ge Cheng led a large group of troops back to Suzhou City, but was not blocked by the officials guarding the city.
The organizers of the civil rebellion have "hand-rolled" inserted at their waists, with the name and address of each tax officer who needs punishment written on it. Based on time, hundreds of detailed files of information should have been prepared in advance.
Immediately afterwards, the civilians organized the residences of these tax officials and set fire to the fire.
Because there is a pre-planned punishment list, this reduces the possibility of taking advantage of the situation in the civil unrest.
Ge Cheng even personally killed a dye worker who took advantage of the chaos to rob a middle-class family. The demonstrators became famous because of this, and local people greeted each other.
During this period, the eunuch Sun Long begged the prefect Zhu Xieyuan to send troops to suppress the repression, but was rejected.
The reason is that the army is used to resist foreign invaders, and it is his negligence as a parent official when he did not arrest the organizers before the civil unrest occurred; but since the civil unrest has begun, sending garrisons to suppress the civil unrest will cause large-scale civilian casualties and aggravate the disaster of the civil unrest.
In short, the eight words "The public is angry and cannot be violated, and I hold firewood to put out the fire", and Sun Long had to escape to the homes of local wealthy households. (According to Duan Benluo and Zhang Qifu's thesis in 1984, he should be an expert in Shenshi.)
By June 9, almost all tax officials were eliminated and some fled to the government office for refuge.
Ge Cheng and others began to post a list on various city gates in Suzhou, indicating that the purpose of this operation was to punish the tax and its minions, rather than a rebellion against the court.
At the same time, the people of Suzhou were warned to pay attention to maintaining order and not to use this action to launch a rebellion.
On June 10, the local government in Suzhou arrived late. The prefect and his subordinates rode into the street market together and held a peace talk with Ge Cheng and others.
As a result, the prefect Zhu Xieyuan announced that several tax officials who fled to the government for asylum, that is, fish that missed the net, and hinted that these tax officials would be executed later.
The leader of the civil rebellion, Ge Cheng, stepped forward and voluntarily went to prison.
The civil war was extinguished.
In his subsequent report to the center, Governor Cao Shipin (the one who was demoted for private use of a public car in the previous article, and then vaguely promoted to the governor) made a statement about this matter.
He said: "...but they (referring to the civilians) did not carry weapons (this is inconsistent with the county chronicles, the government chronicles, the tombstone of General Wu Ge, and the Dingling Notes). They did not rob property, notify neighbors in advance to prevent the spread of the fire, and gave up some money that was bribed without penalty.
When officials came to advise, they knelt down and apologized, saying that they took action only because the tax officer was too harsh and would not harm the innocent. After Tang Xin (the tax officer of the fugitive government office) and others were arrested, the crowd quickly dispersed.
Ge took the initiative to surrender himself at the government office and was willing to accept punishment to avoid placing others. His anger was understandable.
The people in Suzhou are prone to impulsiveness and believe rumors. Many people who live on a daily basis can survive only by having a job, and they will face death if they lose their jobs.
According to my observation, the closure of dyeing workshops has caused thousands of dyeing workers to be unemployed, and the closure of weavers has caused thousands of weavers to be unemployed. These are kind people who rely on their own labor to support their lives, but are now forced to go to a desperate situation. I am deeply saddened by this.
The annual taxes of the four governments are no less than a few million taels of silver. What does it matter if the taxes are not cancelled as soon as possible? How can we appease this important financial region?"
This is the second half of the memorial.
It is obviously different from Sun Long's report.
In the dilemma of Emperor Wanli, he finally chose to compromise.
So an edict was issued, requiring the investigation of the responsibility of the organizers of the civil rebellion such as Ge Cheng, and requiring the Suzhou government to severely investigate the corruption and abuse of the tax officials who were imprisoned.
Local officials made a tendency interpretation of this imperial edict - yes, the imperial edict can be interpreted in a tendency, which is a major feature of classical Chinese.
Finally, Ge Cheng and others were treated with courtesy in prison and were released from prison ten years later, while those tax officials were sentenced to death, becoming victims of the imperial court's quelling public anger.
As for commercial tax.
In the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax was not closed in the end.
Chapter completed!