Yuci County is close to Taiyuan City. Because of the Chang family and other Shanxi merchants, this county can definitely be regarded as a wealthy county in Taiyuan Prefecture.
In the past, many people rushed to come to Yuci to be the county magistrate, but now, Xi Jingchao feels that the magistrate is a trap. Xi Jingchao and Chang Yinxu have a good personal relationship, and Chang Yinxu always helps with any major or minor affairs in the county, including repairing bridges and roads. Xi Jingchao always helps.
He also thought of Chang Yinxu's good deeds, so after the imperial court issued the official document to impose additional business taxes, he just sent someone to inform the Chang family and did not send anyone to force the tax. But no one expected that Taiyuan Prefecture would directly send someone to force it.
levy business tax.
The Chang family is not a soft persimmon. If there is a fight, no matter what the outcome, he, the county magistrate, will be in trouble. As soon as he heard that the Chang family had organized people to go to the city gate to meet the enemy, Xi Jing broke out in a cold sweat and picked up her black gauze hat.
Just run to the door.
"Come here, prepare the sedan, hurry up and carry me... No, prepare the horse." Xi Jingchao felt that the sedan was too slow, so he asked someone to pull out the good horse from the horse pen. Xi Jingchao was born in a scholarly family.
I haven't ridden a horse much since I was a child. When I got on the horse, I was a little panicked. I almost hugged the horse's neck. I didn't forget to wave and said: "Hurry to the south gate, hurry up."
The south gate of Yuci County was already full of people. Not only the Chang family members, but also the merchants from nearby Yuci County came with their people. Even the people of Yuci rushed to help. Since Chang Minyue
After being influenced by Tie Mo, his style of conduct has also changed a lot. In the past two years, the Chang family has often asked the Chang family to do good deeds in their hometown, which has won the hearts of the people. This time something happened to the Chang family, the people spontaneously organized themselves to seek justice for the Chang family.
.
The people of Yuci County were excited, and more than 2,000 people gathered at the official road of the south city gate. The crowd was loud and powerful, and the momentum was quite amazing. When Xi Jing went to the south gate, she quickly rolled off her horse and stumbled.
and burrowed into the crowd.
"Where is Chang Yuanwai? Where is Chang Yuanwai?"
Soon, under the guidance of the people, Xi Jingchao found Chang Yinxu in the crowd. At this time, Chang Yinxu was holding a red tassel gun and dressed in a powerful outfit. Xi Jingchao's heart skipped a beat and grabbed Chang Yinxu's arm, "Hey, Brother Chang.
, Brother Chang, please calm down. Although the court's approach is inappropriate, you can't be so extreme. If trouble really breaks out, it won't end well."
"Master Xi, you don't need to persuade me any more. I also want to have a good talk, but look at those people, do they have a good talk attitude? They wrote threatening letters, but I didn't want to, so they sent troops to demand it. It's just a tax.
Or is it about suppressing bandits? Mr. Xi, I know that this matter has nothing to do with you, and you are forced to have no choice, so please don’t get involved in this matter, so as not to implicate you."
Chang Yinxu said this, and Xi Jingchao felt a little embarrassed. In fact, when it came to taxation, he also felt that the Six Ministries of the Cabinet had gone too far. They refused to collect taxes from Jiangnan and only added merchants from Shanxi. Such an unreasonable policy was actually passed.
Those people above are just talking and waving their pens. Have you ever thought about the people below? If a county magistrate lacks the support of the local people and gentry, it will be really difficult to move forward.
Xi Jingchao thought for a while, gritted his teeth and said: "Brother Chang, what are you talking about? Since Xi is an official of Yuci's parents and has served as an official for one term, there is no reason to stand by and watch when something goes wrong. However, leading people to make trouble is not a good idea after all.
ah."
Xi Jingchao wanted to persuade him again, but then a middle-aged man nearby said loudly: "Master County Lord, what do you think we should do? All of us stay at home and wait for the officers and soldiers of Taiyuan Prefecture to come and steal money? Humph, the court
It’s unfair, why aren’t we allowed to do anything?”
"That is, in the past years, something happened in the county, and people were short of money and food. The county magistrate asked the government for funding. When there was any news, it was not all funded by the Chang family. Last year, my family's thirteen acres of dry land had no harvest.
Mr. Chang not only waived the rent, but also lent some grain. Mr. County Lord, have the disaster relief grains promised by the government been delivered? Anyway, I, Fan Heishan, will be the first to disagree with anyone who wants to touch Mr. Chang."
"Yes... yes... Mr. County Lord, we know that you are different from those in the government office. You are a good official. But at this time, you are advising us not to do anything. It is difficult for you to obey your order.
"
Chang Yin continued to sigh and said with a wry smile: "Master Xi, as you can see, this is not Chang's own intention. Everyone is not very slow to the court's decision. To be honest, we don't feel sorry for this little money, but feel chilled.
, this is really unfair."
"Yes, the court is unfair, and we have to resist. I heard that during the reign of the late Emperor, there were righteous men in Suzhou and Hangzhou who resisted the eunuchs' tax collection. Today, we follow the example of those righteous men and splatter the court with blood. The court cannot be controlled by those shackles!"
"..." Xi Jingchao's eyes widened and he was speechless. Suhang righteous man? Others don't know what's going on. As a Hangzhou native, can Xi Jingchao know? He knows the things here very well.
.
At that time, there was plenty of money in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and there was no shortage of money in Jiangnan. However, at that time, the Eunuch Party and Qingliu were equally matched, but the Eunuch Party was responsible for collecting taxes and silver from Jiangnan. Jiangnan was the private land of the Donglin gentry, and the interests there were inextricably related to them.
How could these people let the eunuchs take money from themselves smoothly? So, this is how violent tax resistance came about. However, the results of violent tax resistance were not very good. Several people died, but the tax money was still the same.
Many people were stolen away by the eunuchs. However, after this incident, public opinion in the world became one-sided, and the eunuchs became the sycophants criticized by the people verbally and writtenly. Everyone took advantage of them and punished them quickly.
The Shanxi merchants now have to learn from the methods that the Qingliu used to deal with the eunuchs before, and the Shanxi merchants are fighting against the Donglin Qingliu party. It's really ironic.
It was definitely not possible to go back to the Yamen. Xi Jingchao thought for a long time and gritted his teeth to stay. As the magistrate of Yuci County, he had no right to wait and see and could only choose to stand on one side. Either side with the gentry and people of Yuci, or with Taiyuan
After careful consideration, Xi Jingchao decided to side with the Yuci gentry. He had no choice but to make this decision. He, Xi Jingchao, was the magistrate of Yuci County, and he could not do without the support of the gentry in all matters big and small.
If people like Chang Yinxu win, he, Xi Jingchao, can continue to be the county magistrate. The most important thing is that the Shanxi merchants will also appreciate his kindness to someone. But if he is on the side of Taiyuan Prefecture, no matter what the outcome, he, the county magistrate
All will be demoted.
Yuci violently resisted taxes and the imperial court, so someone was always going to take the blame, and he, Xi Jingchao, the magistrate of Yuci, was the best candidate to take the blame.
Xi Jingchao also tried his best. If Chang Yinxu and others were defeated, he would directly resign and go back to his hometown without waiting for the court to take the blame.