In an inconspicuous room at Xishan Cishan Temple, the new top scholar Xu Yuanwen and Tanhuaye Fangai each sat around the fire with their hands warmed their hands. Both of them were from Kunshan, and Wu Yin, who was talking about his hometown, sounded quite pleasant.

Ye Fangai came to the West Mountain with Xu Yuanwen yesterday evening. At this time, the emperor was listening to the Buddha's explanation of scriptures by the Great Monk Tongxiu in Yulin, and the two of them were summoned here. They were free and the new top scholar Gong and Tanhualang, and they were also fellow villagers. This naturally came to their hometown.

"The imperial court used troops in the southwest to spend a lot of money and food. Guangdong and the two lakes were hit by military disasters. The court proposed to collect more debts in the south of the Yangtze River to resolve the insufficient use of the treasury. I wonder what the Zhuang Yuan Duke thinks about this?"

Ye Fang'ai suddenly mentioned the imperial edict issued the day before yesterday, which was intended to impose taxes on gentry and wealthy households that were more important than the previous Ming Dynasty to support the war in the southwest and the use of the Eight Banners of the capital, which was called urging the gui. Ye Fang'ai and Xu Yuanwen were both children of wealthy households in Kunshan. Once the urging the guild arrived, they thought that their families would definitely be urging the guild for money and grain, which was related to their own interests, so they were naturally concerned.

Xu Yuanwen smiled and shook his head: "Just call me my name, what is the top scholar? Do you want me to call you one by one?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Fang'ai also laughed, and his title changed, "Why did Brother Xu think about the imperial court urging Jiangnan?"

"If you want to say something, there are indeed some opinions." Xu Yuanwen said.

"I wish to hear it carefully." Ye Fang'ai bowed his head and listened with sincerity.

Xu Yuanwen signaled that the other party didn't have to do this, and thought for a moment: "Does Brother Ye know "The Tombstone of Five People"?"

"The Tombstone of Five People"? Which article was written by Mr. Ximing?"

Ye Fangai was stunned for a moment, not understanding why Xu Yuanwen suddenly mentioned that Zhang Pu, the founder of Fushe, made an article. As a scholar in Jiangnan, Ye Fangai naturally knew the famous "The Story of the Five-person Tombstone" by Xi Minggong, and the things described in the article were also roughly clear.

In the sixth year of Tianqi, the capital sent the Jinyiwei to read out the edict to arrest Zhou Shunchang, a member of the Donglin Party, at the Suzhou Governor's Yamen. The Governor Mao Yilu, the Inspector Censor Xu Ji, and the Tiqi Qi Zhang Yinglong, Wen Zhibing and others from Beijing. Suddenly, a large number of people gathered at the Yamen. Then, the students Wen Zhenheng, Yang Tingshu, Wang Jie, Liu Yuhan and others demanded to visit Mao Yilu, the Jiangsu Governor and the Inspector Censor Xu Ji, saying that they wanted to petition for the people to request the release of Zhou Shunchang.

The arrest of Zhou Shunchang was carried out by the Jinyiwei from the capital under the emperor's edict. It was a saint's order. No Suzhou officials dared to disobey the imperial edict and release Zhou Shunchang. Therefore, Zhusheng's request was rejected. During the debate, the Jinyiwei who was responsible for handling the matter accused the Jinyiwei of gathering the people to obstruct the case. Zhusheng and the people scolded the Jinyiwei for falsely circulating the imperial edict to arrest people. As a result, the two sides clashed and then fought. The scene suddenly lost control and the civil rebellion broke out. Two Jinyiwei from the capital were beaten to death and many were injured.

Governor Mao Yilu and inspector Xu Ji stood on the court and were also affected by the incident. Mao Yilu hid in the toilet before he was spared. The prefect Kou Shen and county magistrate Chen Wenrui stood on the side of all the students without being affected. After the incident, the emperor was furious and five nobles in Suzhou were arrested and questioned by the government. Zhang Pu, the Duke of Ximing of Loudong and Zhang, who later founded the Fushe, personally wrote an inscription for the five people, which was widely circulated for a while.

Of course, this matter can also be understood as the eunuch Wei Zhongxian during the Tianqi period, who was tyrannical and scattered all over the world and used brutal means to suppress the Donglin Party members. In the sixth year of Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian sent people to Suzhou to arrest Zhou Shunchang, who was once the head of the Ministry of Personnel and the Wenxuan Yuanwailang, which aroused the righteous indignation of the citizens of Suzhou and broke out a struggle against the rule of eunuchs. During this struggle, five righteous men were killed by the eunuch party, and later the leader of the society, Zhang Pu, a Donglin Party member, personally made tombstones for the five.

The matter was very clear, but Ye Fang'ai didn't understand what this matter had to do with Jiangnan's tutoring.

Xu Yuanwen asked him, "Why did those five die?"

Ye Fangai said: "The people are inciting righteous indignation to resist the eunuch party's persecution of loyal and kindness."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yuanwen shook his head and said, "I thought so at the beginning, but later my uncle told me that there was another article in this matter. I didn't understand, so I asked my uncle what article he had. After he said it, he woke up like a dream. It turned out that this matter was really inhumane."

Ye Fang'ai became more and more confused as he listened. The people were angry at the eunuch party's persecution of loyal and kindness. This matter was spread by everyone in Jiangnan. Why did Xu Yuanwen's uncle Gu Yanwu say that this matter is not humane?

"First of all, why did Wei Zhongxian arrest Zhou Shunchang?"

"Which reason should Wei Yan do things? Those who follow me will prosper and rebel against me will perish."

"It's right to say that. The problem is that Wei Zhongxian arrested Zhou Shunchang, not the people of Suzhou, nor the five righteous men. Why did these people resist with the students? Moreover, the arrest was an imperial edict issued by Emperor Tianqi, and the Tiqi Jinyiwei came. What has this to do with the people? Are the people really infuriated and gathered in the yamen to fight against the government?"

"What does Brother Xu mean?"

"This is not what I mean, but my uncle. My uncle told me that the people were not indignant, because this matter had nothing to do with the interests of the people. They could not confront an unfamiliar official and the government. Behind this is someone who could gather so many people and stir up such a big civil unrest, is it because someone organized and instructed, otherwise, the people would be full and risked to fight against the government at the risk of beheading?"

After hearing this, Ye Fang'ai stood there, thinking carefully about what Xu Yuanwen said, and gradually he felt something was wrong. Yes, if someone had not instructed and incited, how could the people gather so many people? How could they know that the Tiqi came to the government to capture Zhou Shunchang?

"I felt incredible after listening to it before. I read Xi Minggong's article repeatedly, and then I found that Xi Minggong had already explained the facts in the article. Brother Ye remembers that the people in my society were the first to make a sound and make money to send him off. The crying sounded the world?"

"There is such a sentence."

"What is my society? It is Yingshe, the predecessor of Fushe! "The first person in charge of the behavior" means that the backbone of Yingshe, Yang Tingshu and Wen Zhenheng and others acted as the backbone of this operation. Yang Tingshu was the elder of Yingshe, second only to Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai. Wen Zhenheng and his brother Wen Zhenmeng were both heroes and the backbone of Fushe. The great-grandfather of the Wen brothers was Wen Zhengming, one of the four great talents in Jiangnan. The Wen family was extremely powerful in Suzhou. In addition, they wrote a letter to ask for the burial of five people, and the people who were honored for their dedication were Donglin Party members; Yu Dingdao asked for the burial of five people, Wu Yinzhi, the minister of Taipu Temple, and Hanlin revised Wen Zhenmeng and Yao Ximeng. Wen Zhenmeng and Yao Ximeng were both Donglin Party members and members of Fushe, and they were also senior officials of the court. The two also served as the Japanese lecturers of Emperor Chongzhen. Yao Ximeng was Wen Zhenmeng's nephew. You probably don't know these."

"I really don't know the relationship between these people."

Ye Fang'ai smiled bitterly. Although they are from Kunshan and their family backgrounds are also wealthy, he really can't match Xu Yuanwen's relationship with those big figures in the former Ming Dynasty. He sighed in his heart. After all, it was the extravagant of the great scholar Gu Yanwu, and he really had a profound knowledge.

Xu Yuanwen didn't expect Ye Fang'ai to feel ashamed of being as good as his own knowledge, and said only: "Who paid for the five-person tombstones on Shanyong Street? The tombstones were all clearly engraved. Most of them were Donglin Party members or pro-Donglin people. The other person who wrote articles for the five was Zhang Pu, the founder of Yingshe and Fushe. So from beginning to end, this incident was just the Donglin Party members who used the people to fight against them.

Wei Zhongxian was so powerful. So Brother Ye should be able to guess the whole story of this matter. To put it bluntly, Zhou Shunchang, who was arrested, was a backbone of the Donglin Party, and those who planned and rescued and instructed the people to attack the government were all the Donglin Party members. Their purpose was to create unrest and deter the court from arresting the Donglin Party members. As Zhang Pu said in the article: "The soldiers who were angry with our county and dared not have any more governance; the eunuchs also had a ruling and fearful act, and it was difficult to make a sudden plan."

Speaking of this, Xu Yuanwen suddenly sneered, "Among the five so-called righteous men who took the initiative to die, Zhou Wenyuan was actually Zhou Shunchang's sedan chairman. The other four were either sluts, friends, or peddlers. They were all people with humble status. The lives of such people were not worth the money. The court asked the crime, and the Donglin Party members were afraid of death, so they spent money to buy these five people to be punished. It was a good plan to promote them later."

Ye Fangai sighed and said, "Maybe, the matter is really as Brother Xu said, but in the final analysis, what does Brother Xu have to do with what I said and what he has to do with raising the literacy? One thing in the previous dynasty and the other in the current dynasty seems to be incompatible, right?"

"Why did the Donglin Party members desperately oppose Wei Zhongxian? Wei Zhongxian is so full that he wants to arrest and kill people randomly?"

Xu Yuanwen said as he put down the hot pot in his hand, and the pot was no longer warm.

This question made Ye Fang'ai unable to answer for a while. He wanted to say that because Wei Zhongxian was an eunuch and an eunuch was a traitor and an evil person, the Donglin Party members opposed him because they had justice. But this statement seemed to be untenable. The saint never taught his disciples to discriminate against those who had defects. If he said this, he would be afraid that it would violate the saint's way. Some things that he could think of in his heart, but it would be inappropriate to say.

Seeing that he was silent, Xu Yuanwen said directly: "The reason is very simple. The court has no money and Jiangnan has money. Wei Zhongxian wanted to get money from Jiangnan, but the Donglin Party members stopped him, so he wanted to kill someone."

"I'm going to kill someone for money?"

"This is not a small number, nor is it a matter of one household, but a country. Can the court still be called the court without money? If the big-headed soldiers have no salary and no food to eat, they are willing to work for the court? Those who serve in the army will no longer work and are disloyal to the court. Isn't they going to change the world? Not to mention the court, even small families, with poor families and no copper coins in their families. Then don't the heads think of ways to earn copper coins to support their families? Who doesn't let him earn money to support his family? Do you think he will fight with that person?"

"That's right, but the party members can't blame them. Wei Zhongxian can do it by himself if he wants to get money, so why bother killing the party members?"

After Ye Fang'ai finished speaking, he found that Xu Yuanwen did not respond and just stared at him. He was stunned for a moment, and then blushed. Party members, the root of this party member is not the most gentry members in the world. Where in the world there are the most gentry members? Jiangnan is!

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents. Wei Zhongxian wanted to get money from Jiangnan, which naturally affected the interests of the gentry in Jiangnan. In this way, the party members naturally wanted to rebel against him. If the party members opposed him, Wei Zhongxian would kill people. If they did not kill or shock them, how could he make money for the court?

Perhaps the party members dare not raise the flag to rebel the court, but there are too many solutions to do in private. Isn’t it a disguised method to gather the people in Suzhou to attack the government?

This principle is really too simple and I couldn't see it clearly before. I really applauded the five righteous men. Now I think about it, it's really ridiculous and ridiculous.

Ye Fang'ai was silent. He thought of himself and his family for him to study and take the imperial examination. Isn't it that one day he can become a court official and take care of the family and protect the family? Now the court is going to urge Jiangnan to conduct statutory responsibilities, how should he choose? Should he persuade the tribe members to take out the money and grain to the court or let them continue to fight taxes in different ways as before?

If you talk about something, everyone is positive about what others do. But if you really want to move things in your own bag, who is willing to do it?

"Don't you think it's so similar to that in the past? The court also has no money, and the court also needs money and food from Jiangnan."

What Xu Yuanwen said and what Ye Fang'ai thought was actually together.

"You and I know how effective the imperial decree of the imperial court has. The gentry in Jiangnan and local governments have been in contact since the previous dynasty, and their interests are like big trees. I am sure that after the decree of the imperial decree, most of the local gentry will be transported to the government, bribes to buy books, and obscures money and grain, and will never hand over the things in their own pockets."

"This... I am the new dynasty now. Do they still want to be the same as before?"

Ye Fang'ai said something a little disagreeable because he was thinking as before.

"In the face of interests, there is no old dynasty and new dynasty, only my family's words or yours."

"What are you going to do with Brother Xu? Your family and my family are both targets of raising responsibilities."

"It depends on whether you and I stand on their side or on the court."

"How can I explain this?"

"If you and I stand on the side of the court and know the hidden information, we will definitely report the inside story truthfully to the emperor, let the court formulate a more severe urge to entrusted than the Ming Dynasty, and send more effective people to do this. Even if Jiangnan has stirred up countless so-called civil wars, it should be carried out drasticly and never be selfish. But if you and I stand on the side of our own and report to the court how to move the money in their bags, don't you think it's funny."

"Oh..." Ye Fang'ai really didn't know what to say.

"Actually, I am not worried about my family, but about those people. If the court urges me to be anxious and ruthless, they will think about the good of the Ming Dynasty." Xu Yuanwen was moved, with a little worried expression.

who are they?

Ye Fang'ai knew who else could be there besides those gentry in Jiangnan.

"I am worried that as soon as the urgency is reached, the people of Jiangnan will become clear again. If it were the past, it would have been fine. Now if there were troubles in Jiangnan, it would be very difficult for the world to be."

"The people's hearts are still towards the Qing Dynasty, and they are not confused."

"What is the human heart? Is there anyone in the face of interests? If they understand the human heart, the Ming Dynasty would not have perished."

...........

Ahem, Botou is more interested in the history of the Tianqi period, so I wrote some by the way. Don’t think Botou is just a word count. In fact, this matter has a lot to do with the three major cases in Jiangnan. The three major cases in Jiangnan have a lot to do with the anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty, and has a lot to do with the surname of the country. Indirectly, it has a lot to do with the scholar who is determined to pick the fruits in the southeast. This chapter is a foreshadowing.

Writing novels is not about fighting and killing all day long. A story requires many plots, many scenes, and many scenes to switch.
Chapter completed!