Chapter 966: Songjiang Prefecture is united, and the young man speaks out for justice
When later generations read history and reach the middle and late Ming Dynasty, they will find a strange phenomenon.
That means a hero's son is also a hero.
This trend started with Yang Tinghe.
Yang Tinghe was a prime minister, highly respected and renowned. The emperor relied on him and the empress dowager respected him... this was the pinnacle of being a minister.
Then his son, the great talent Yang Shen, came on the scene. Jiang Qingzhi even speculated that Yang Shen served as Yang Tinghe's think tank in the middle and late stages.
Yang Tinghe and Empress Dowager Zhang joined forces to suppress Emperor Jiajing. Yang Shen offered advice and even went shirtless to encourage all officials to knock on the palace gate.
This is the beginning of father and son joining forces to fight in the officialdom.
Next came Yan Song and his son.
Next came Xu Jie and his son.
Then comes...
The most criticized among them are Yan Song and his son Xu Jie.
Yan Shifan entered the cabinet as a commoner and served as an unknown prime minister, which was a first in the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that this was rare in the past thousand years.
Xu Jie also spared no effort in building momentum for his son, which was fine, as everyone has done such a thing. Everyone has the desire to love their son.
But Xu Jie's son, the eldest son Xu Fan, actually asked someone to write for him in the Yingtian Prefecture's provincial examination.
Niubi not?
The heifer stood upside down, and the pen soared into the sky.
This happened the year before last, and Xu Jie asked to resign, but the Taoist refused. Xu Fan then returned to Huating in disgrace, lying in wait for his chance.
If it was another candidate who wrote for him, he would have been stripped of his title, or even exiled... He would have been imprisoned for at least three to five years, right?
This eldest son had no problems at all. He just patted his butt and returned to Huating, and continued to be the number one son.
But at this moment, the young master found that he seemed to have underestimated Jiang Qingzhi.
But there is no such thing as overestimating yourself.
"Chen Lian!" After all, he was Xu Jie's carefully cultivated son, so Xu Fan immediately reacted and said, "Let Chen Lian snatch him away!"
The only way to turn this situation around is to control those scholars.
"It's too late." Wang Mengqiu sighed.
Who would dare to snatch the person captured by Jiang Qingzhi?
The courtiers around Xu Fan said, "Master, maybe those people were unaware of this and did it on their own initiative?"
Wang Mengqiu nodded, "Let's wait and see."
Xu Fan said: "In this case, let Chen Lian stop Jiang Qingzhi and question those people in public."
"Yes, otherwise Jiang Qingzhi is so cruel and merciless that if he takes people away and tortures them into confessing, who can we turn to for justice?"
Chen Lian also thought of this, so he blocked the city gate and said, "Chang Wei Bo, this matter should be handed over to me, Songjiang Prefecture, to investigate."
As the saying goes, a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. Unless it is the emperor's will, one has to follow the rules of officialdom.
Those who knew about the matter laughed. One said, "Jiang Qingzhi is a powerful leader in the capital, but this is the south. He wants to turn things around here. Sorry, we won't give him the face he deserves."
"Mr. Chen is a mighty official who is unyielding. He is indeed a good official. We underestimated him in the past, and we shouldn't have!"
"A loyal minister is known in times of turmoil!"
When Chen Lian heard these words, he cursed those people who were just watching or had ulterior motives. He wanted to follow the rules of the officialdom, and no matter how furious Jiang Qingzhi was, he couldn't find any excuse to vent his anger.
But these people implicitly treated him as a brave and unyielding man, the second Justice Bao.
Damn it!
The stories about Bao Zheng are all rumors, but his reputation as a judge comes from his improvement of the trial process. Before the Song Dynasty, when officials tried a case, the suspect could not see the chief judge.
You read it right, the suspect and the presiding judge are far away from each other!
What to do with the communication?
The clerks are passing messages back and forth!
But once the conversation is relayed, it often goes awry. Some people even bribe clerks to secretly twist the conversations of both parties, so that the good guys take the blame and the bad guys get away with it.
Bao Zheng thought this was a malpractice, so he abolished this rule and tried the case directly against the suspect. When the news spread, people called him a fair judge.
Chen Lian wanted to make a difference, but he never thought about being a judge. He was not a fool, and he knew the price of being a judge: either being excluded by the officialdom or being regarded as an enemy by the local powerful gentry.
Therefore, he just wanted to be a slick man... shuttling back and forth between several forces to reap the benefits.
But he was stopped by the words of the onlookers.
Mr. Chen, stand up straight, don’t lie down!
Chen Lian cursed in his heart and secretly groaned, but he really couldn't lie down in front of so many people waiting for him.
I had no choice but to stand in front with a solemn look on my face.
Jiang Qingzhi found it a little funny. He pointed at Chen Lian and said, "Three officials from the Ministry of Revenue were burned to death in their garrison. As the prefect, what did you do?"
Chen Lian said: "I personally led a team of experts to search for clues and have been working hard for days without slacking off."
"So, what's the result?" Jiang Qingzhi asked.
Isn't this a slap in the face... Chen Lian said: "The murderer is cunning. Now the people from the Nanjing Ministry of Justice are pursuing him."
——It's not that our army is capable, but that the enemy is too cunning. Look, the people in the Nanjing Ministry of Justice are also helpless. So if you, Chief Wilbur, want to use this to attack me, it's impossible.
"That's a hero!" someone shouted.
"That's the righteous man from Songjiang Prefecture."
"Those cruel officials deserve to die!"
"He deserved to die, and those people were just enforcing justice."
At this time, the atmosphere in the Ming Dynasty was gradually opening up. The first was public opinion, that is, gossip, and people dared to say anything. The second was novels. Those who were poor would write a few novels to exchange for some money and food, at least to fill their stomachs. If there was any extra, they could buy a pot of rice wine and a plate of fennel beans, stealing half a day of leisure!
A literati!
Especially those scholars who have failed in the examinations and are full of complaints are the most dissatisfied with the current situation. They put all their complaints and dissatisfaction with their talents not being recognized into their writings, openly mocking and secretly criticizing the current situation.
For example, when writing about knights and heroes, the antagonists are often officials and dignitaries. The plot is mostly about officials and dignitaries being lawless and doing evil things, and when the heroes learn about it, they are filled with righteous indignation and draw their swords to help...
At the end of the story, the officials and dignitaries were taken down, and the heroes retired after achieving their goals.
Jiang Qingzhi narrowed his eyes; he had seen this trend a long time ago.
As the Ming dynasty's power declined, the people's lives became increasingly difficult. The rulers thought the people could endure, but they forgot one thing...
To endure is to accumulate and build up momentum. When this anger and dissatisfaction accumulate to the extreme, they will suddenly explode.
The best way is transformation!
Resolve these depressions.
After defeating Altan Khan, military expenditure will be greatly reduced and the burden on the people will be much less.
After the opening of the sea, various industries in the southern region flourished. Ordinary people could go to work if they had no means of livelihood, or they could do some work at home. Women could also earn a lot by weaving or sewing.
How to resolve the depression among the people?
Jiang Qing was a commoner in his previous life. He knew that there were two best ways. First, the general trend. The country was strong and there was no need to worry about external threats. Second, increase the income of the people.
The development of the South will drive the North, and once the entire Ming Dynasty enters the fast lane of development... Shit! The so-called hegemony of the seven seas is nothing.
One inside and one outside, if you can achieve this, it will be the Jiajing prosperous era.
He came south for this purpose.
So, he is waiting.
Chen Lian, the scholars and officials, and the common people all flocked to the scene.
The more people, the better.
A thousand cavalrymen were right behind him, maintaining a state of alert from beginning to end.
There were too many people in the city gate, so they rushed out one after another. However, they did not dare to approach the one thousand riders, so they just watched from both sides.
"How many people are there?" Jiang Qingzhi asked.
Xu Wei has been observing, "Master, at least three thousand."
"Almost." Jiang Qingzhi nodded.
At this time, one of the scholars who was restrained by Jiang Qingzhi shouted: "We are only going to die today. We are going to die for the elders of Songjiang Prefecture and for the world. What is there to be afraid of?"
This statement is too inflammatory.
The onlookers on both sides began to surge
"Go and rescue the heroes of Songjiang Prefecture!" someone in the crowd encouraged.
"This is Jiang Qingzhi's big trouble." Zhao Fu and Zhu Yi smiled at each other and saw the joy in each other's eyes.
"It's started." Wang Mengqiu sighed outside the cloth shop, "Two to three thousand people gathered here. Not to mention Jiang Qingzhi, even if His Majesty came in person, he would have to retreat."
Xu Fan said, "That's fine."
Although he never displayed the methods of the first son, as long as he could make Jiang Qingzhi give up, he could mobilize public opinion to build momentum for himself and his father Xu Jie.
Don't pursue perfection in everything... After the incident of ghostwriting for the provincial examination, Xu Fan returned home in a panic. He encountered heavy rain on the way. There happened to be a temple on the side of the road, so he went in to take shelter from the rain.
There is an old monk in the temple.
Xu Fan, who was in a bad mood, donated some money for incense and complained a few words, which was probably the taste of life being unhappy. The old monk said this meaningfully.
That's it!
Xu Fan shook his head.
Outside the city, Jiang Qingzhi just raised his whip.
Chen Ji was just about to ride out on his horse.
"Long Wilbur didn't lie!"
The silent crowd paused for a moment.
The voice is very childish.
Also a little panicked.
But still shouting.
"I saw it. I saw them just whipping the arms and legs with the scabbards. I saw it with my own eyes."
The crowd came to a complete stop.
Someone shouted angrily, "Who is it?"
A voice was heard from the crowd, someone had his mouth covered, but was still trying to shout.
Everyone turned around and slowly made way for a passage.
At the end of the passage, there is a farmer, a young farmer.
They look like father and son.
The farmer covered the boy's mouth and smiled apologetically to everyone, "This kid has been confused by the sun, no, he has been possessed by evil spirits. I will take him back to worship the gods right away. Let's go now, let's go now..."
Even as he spoke, his grip loosened a little, and the boy broke free from his control and ran down the passage.
"Da Lang!" the farmer shouted in panic.
The people on both sides looked at the young farmer with complicated expressions.
Suddenly a hand stretched out from the crowd and grabbed the boy.
Jiang Qingzhi looked at the boy with interest and waved his hand.
The archer Huang Bing always held a bow and arrow in his hand, drawing the bow and releasing it.
The arrow flew past like lightning and hit the middle of the arm just as the hand touched the boy.
The hand retracted with a scream, and two soldiers drew their swords and rushed into the crowd. "Get out of the way!"
The young man didn't know that he had just escaped a disaster. He ran to the front and looked at Jiang Qingzhi breathlessly.
There was a light in his eyes that was familiar to Jiang Qingzhi.
Just like the light that he showed when he stood on the highest mountain in his hometown and shouted towards the small town with high spirits before he went to South America to make a living.
"Uncle, I saw it with my own eyes."
(End of this chapter)
