In the Song family in the south of the Yangtze River, the head of the family, Song Chengren, was a close friend of Zhou Shangjing, the chief minister of the cabinet. He was a former high-ranking official in the imperial court and a high official in the border areas. His two sons were Song Qiwen, the minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and Song Qili, the second-rank servant who was left in the post;
The head of the Li family in southern Anhui, Li Ping, is nothing special. His knowledge, ability, and reputation are all ordinary. However, he has a cousin named Li He, who is the elder of the court and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.
The Nanjing Wang family, the head of the family is named Wang Jiahe. The characteristic of this family is that they are "extremely good at raising children." It can be said that they are full of children and grandchildren. Although there are not a few outstanding figures, there are a large number of children spread across all walks of life in the government and the public, and there are also a large number of daughters and granddaughters with major forces.
Marriage is called "Spider King" by the outside world, which means good at weaving webs;
The patriarch of the He family in northern Jiangsu is He Lian, a well-known Confucian at that time who served as the dean of Yingtian Academy for many years. He Ming, the former crown prince and grand master, is also his brother. There have been many great Confucians born in his family throughout the ages.
Disciples spread all over the world;
In addition, there are the Du family in northern Anhui, the Bai family in northern Jiangxi, and the Zhang family in Suzhou... all of them are noble families that cannot be underestimated.
Together, these wealthy gentry families can naturally exert an extremely amazing influence.
In the court, at least 20 to 30% of the officials have a direct relationship with these wealthy gentry families, either as disciples or former officials, or as relatives, or at the worst, they are fellow villagers, fellow students, and classmates;
Among the people, there are thousands of scholars who can be regarded as their disciples and disciples. They have a good grasp of the ideological trends of scholars in the Ming Dynasty. The vast majority of scholars believe in their opinions;
At the same time, the Jiangnan region has always been a tax center for the imperial court, and the amount of taxes in Jiangnan that can be paid each year is also decided by these wealthy gentry families. If these wealthy gentry families forcefully resist, Jiangnan taxes will not be collected, and the entire tax collection will be impossible.
The temple will be in chaos;
At this time, when they saw that the heads of the gentry clans all stood up and expressed their intention to enter the Jinyiwei prison and be interrogated by the Jinyiwei, even Zhu Hejian, who had always been calm-tempered, was immediately caught off guard, and even
Somewhat panicked.
If there was only one member of the Song family, Zhu Hejian would certainly dare to show his courage and hand over all members of the Song family to the Jin Yiwei for interrogation.
Although this approach would completely break up his relationship with the "Zhou Party", since it was the "Zhou Party" who took the initiative to plot against him, Zhu Hejian would not have any scruples or hesitations.
But it just so happens that now the entire eighteen wealthy gentry families have united as one, made a joint statement, and are advancing together and retreating together!
If Zhu Hejian had inherited the throne and ascended the throne as emperor, he would also be willing to show great courage to meet the demands of these eighteen gentry families and send them all to the prison of Jin Yiwei.
The worst case scenario is to just dispatch the imperial army and factory guards to control the situation.
At that time, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang could kill the southern Jin gentry with heads rolling in their heads and blood flowing like rivers, and Zhu Hejian was definitely not bad either.
But unfortunately, Zhu Hejian is not the emperor yet, and has not even successfully taken over the throne. He is just a prince who has a chance to ascend to the throne.
Therefore, in the face of the joint stance and collective petition of these eighteen gentry families, Zhu Hejian was a bit stuck!
Song Chengren's attitude is very straightforward. Since you, Zhu Hejian, secretly ordered the eunuchs of the inner court to criticize the Song family and throw dirty water on the Song family, then I, the Song family, will not resist. We will directly wait for arrest and take the initiative to hand over all the members of the clan to the Jin Yiwei for interrogation.
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However, many wealthy Jin gentry families in Jiangnan are all related to each other, and in terms of interests, they all prosper and lose. Therefore, if you want to rectify my Song family, the other Jin gentry families will definitely not be able to escape the relationship, so I will simply leave them all to you.
Feel free to let it go!
In this way, if you, Zhu Hejian, finally carry out the crimes committed by the Song family, then the power of the Jin gentry in Jiangnan will be wiped out, thousands of court officials and private students will also be implicated, and you will be taxed in Jiangnan in the next few years.
Don't even think about expropriating it. The situation in the imperial court must be completely corrupt. Are you, Zhu Hejian, able to shoulder this kind of responsibility?
On the other hand, if you, Zhu Hejian, are ultimately unable to carry out the crimes committed by the Song family, then you will persecute the Jin gentry and bully the powerful families. You will definitely lose the support of the people and be infamous. The chaos you will cause will be far greater than that of Prince Zhu Heyu's attempt to correct the vassal king.
What qualifications will you have to inherit the reserve then?
All in all, when Song Chengren stood up and took the initiative to send all the members of the Song family to Jin Yiwei for interrogation, and when all the major Jin gentry families united and responded, Zhu Hejian was forced into a corner and completely lost his way out.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Hejian had no choice but to compromise and give in, take the initiative to clear the suspicion of the Song family, publicly stated that the matter of digging the dike and submerging the imperial village had nothing to do with the Song family, and tried his best to appease Song Chengren's anger, otherwise this matter would
It's impossible to give up and give up.
*
Zhu Hejian originally wanted to use the crime of destroying the dam and flooding the imperial village to intimidate Song Chengren, and also took the opportunity to attack the arrogance of the Jiangnan Jin gentry, but he never thought of completely overthrowing the Song family.
But now, Zhu Hejian discovered that he had obviously underestimated the Song family's appeal to the Jin gentry clan, and also obviously underestimated the consistent interests and close ties of the Jiangnan Jin gentry group.
The most important thing is that Zhu Hejian completely underestimated the tyranny and unreasonableness of the wealthy gentry family!
Zhu Hejian himself is also a domineering and unreasonable person, but his unreasonableness is "those who follow me will prosper and those who go against me will perish", which means that he cannot tolerate dissidents.
However, the tyranny and unreasonableness of these wealthy gentry families is another kind of situation, that is, "too big to fail", "a single move can affect the whole body", "defensive", and "what can you do to me"!
Compared with Zhu Hejian's tyranny, the tyranny of these wealthy gentry families is the real tyranny!
Thinking of this, Zhu Hejian's heart was filled with chills, and he secretly swore that when he inherited the throne in the future, he would not spare these Jiangnan gentry lightly!
But now, Zhu Hejian can only choose to give in.
Zhu Hejian's expression was full of sincerity and fear. He stood up and waved his hands and said: "Everyone, sages, why is it like this! Why is it like this! I completely believe that the Song family is innocent. The Song family has been loyal for generations, and the predecessors of the Song Dynasty are also highly respected. How can they destroy the dam?
, the thing about flooding Huangzhuang?
Xi Zhenshou said that he wanted to send Jin Yiwei to investigate the Song family, but he just wanted to completely prove the Song family's innocence to prevent it from affecting the Song family's reputation. It was all out of good intentions... What's more, Xi Zhenshou just wanted to send Jin Yiwei to investigate the truth, but he never said
I want to send members of the Song family to the Jinyi Guard Prison..."
Song Chengren sneered and asked: "So, His Highness the Seventh Prince firmly believes that our Song family is innocent?"
Zhu Hejian nodded repeatedly and said: "Of course I believe it!"
Song Chengren was unreasonable and asked: "I am very grateful for your highness's trust, but the crime of digging the embankment and flooding the palace is too serious. Your highness's trust alone is not enough. Now that it has been
There is indirect evidence pointing suspicion at my Song family. Whether it is to severely punish the real culprit or to prove the reputation of the Song family, we need to do our best to find out the truth!
We, the Song family, have indeed been loyal and loyal for generations, and we can be regarded as an example of the Jin gentry in Jiangnan, so we should set an example and let the royal guards torture and interrogate us. We must not enjoy any privileges, and then we can show the justice of the court to the world!"
Seeing that Song Chengren was still entangled and determined to send all the Jiangnan Jin gentry to the Jin Yiwei for interrogation, and was completely unwilling to leave a step for himself, Zhu Hejian became more and more resentful.
But on the surface, Zhu Hejian became more and more humble, shaking his head and saying: "Master Song, you also said that it is just a little indirect evidence! Our laws have always been fair and strict, how can we arbitrarily accuse someone based on a little indirect evidence?
Your statement may seem like you want to show justice, but in fact it violates the laws of the imperial court. Even if it finally proves the innocence of the Song family, it will lead to even worse consequences. It is absolutely impossible! It is absolutely impossible!"
This answer can be regarded as a hidden secret. On the one hand, it prevented Song Chengren from pressing forward step by step, and on the other hand, he labeled Song Chengren as a destroyer of Ming Dynasty laws, implying that Song Chengren would not hesitate to shake the overall situation just to maintain the reputation of the Song family.
It can be regarded as gaining some truth for oneself.
Then, without waiting for Song Chengren to speak again, Zhu Hejian turned to look at the heads of the Jin gentry family.
For today's dinner, Zhu Hejian invited a total of twenty wealthy noble families to attend the banquet. These twenty wealthy noble families all have a decisive influence in Jiangnan and are also the top forces of the noble class.
At this moment, seventeen Jin gentry families have already stood up to express their support for the Song family, showing their stance of advancing and retreating with the Song family. However, there are still two Jin gentry forces sitting there motionless, seeming to want to wait and see what happens.
It seems that the position is different from that of the Song family.
These two Jin gentry families are the Lu family and the Xu family respectively.
The head of the Lu family was Lu Youjie, who was Lu De's father. He did not stand up with the Jiangnan gentry to put pressure on Zhu Hejian at this time, probably because of the influence of his son Lu De.
As for the Xu family, their origins are even more extraordinary. They are descendants of Zhongshan King Xu Da. Zhu Hejian has been temporarily living in Zhanyuan during this period, and the Xu family is the real owner of Zhanyuan. They moved there after Zhu Hejian arrived in Nanjing.
The other courtyard temporarily lent Zhanyuan to Zhu Hejian for use.
In terms of power and influence, the Xu family is not inferior to the Song family at all, and even the Song family can only be regarded as a rising star in front of the Xu family, so the Xu family does not need to look at the Song family's face at all, and the Xu family has always had a close relationship with the royal family.
Not only was he a member of the Jin gentry class, but he was also at the top of the noble class. His interests were many different from those of the Jiangnan Jin gentry, and he would not embarrass Zhu Hejian just to protect the Song family.
At this time, Zhu Hejian turned his attention to the two family heads Xu and Lu, naturally hoping that these two people could stand up and smooth things over for him.
Seeing Zhu Hejian's eyes turned to his position, the two heads of the family, Xu and Lu, looked at each other and then stood up to express their opinions.
Xu Jingxian, the head of the Xu family, took the lead in advising: "Brother Song, please stop it! What His Highness the Seventh Prince said is reasonable. It seems that you want to prove your innocence by making such a statement, but in fact you are treating the court's laws as nothing, and will make everyone
They are all too embarrassed to step down! Since His Highness the Seventh Prince has stated that he believes in the innocence of the Song family, let’s just forget about this matter!”
As he spoke, Xu Jingxian looked at Song Chengren with a look full of warning.
The head of the Lu family, Lu Youjie, also nodded and said: "That's right, why make things so unmanageable..."
Seeing the Xu and Lu families, they stepped forward one after another to smooth things over. Song Chengren frowned and looked a little dissatisfied, but he had to give these two some face.
In the end, Song Chengren softened his attitude slightly, but it was just three steps forward and one step back. He proposed more conditions to Zhu Hejian on the spot.
"Since the two family heads Xu and Lu have such an attitude, I naturally don't dare to embarrass His Highness anymore, but... we can't just let this matter go!
First of all, just because of some indirect evidence that cannot withstand scrutiny, Jiang Dawei, the eunuch of Guanzhuang, repeatedly spoke rudely to me and slandered Zhou Shoufu. How should this matter be handled? Secondly, is the truth about the dike being dug up and Huangzhuang submerged still possible?
Should we continue to investigate? How should we pursue it? Finally... I still want to bring up the old matter again. Today's incident has once again proved that the eunuchs in Guanzhuang are domineering and difficult to control. Therefore, I once again implore Your Highness to petition the imperial court to reduce the number of eunuchs in South Zhili.