***
"Commander Lin, you didn't see that scene, hey, hey, not to mention how embarrassing it was!"
"Shopkeeper Liu, please tell me, what happened in the end?"
"This was really something that the Suzhou magistrate couldn't stop despite the sun rising in the west. As a result, the Suzhou people punched him so hard that the troublemaking scholar ran away with his head in his arms, even his shoes ran away, and some of them hid in the toilet. , fell down... Stop talking, stop talking, it’s an insult to politeness!”
"If such a big thing happens, the Suzhou prefect doesn't care?"
"The people's will, can the Suzhou magistrate still send troops to suppress the people? Besides, even if he has this heart, he doesn't have the ability to dispatch troops."
“……….”
What happened in Suzhou soon spread throughout Jiangnan. There was a lot of discussion at the Shengde Teahouse on Yamen West Street in Huzhou. Shopkeeper Liu, who had just returned from Suzhou, was surrounded by everyone and became the focus of the discussion.
Huzhou is located on the edge of Taihu Lake, and is the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River. It has had a prosperous literary style since ancient times. Nowadays, scholars in Huzhou are noisy. From the Shengde Teahouse, you can see the noisy scene in front of the state government.
"Except for Lin, it's better to hurry up and persuade your son to go home quickly. Don't look at the fierce riots in various places now, and the Holy King is on the throne, so we won't use troops to suppress them. But now the scholars are so unreasonable and have aroused the anger of the people in many places. ;
I heard that in addition to Suzhou, in Jiading, Changshu, Songjiang and other prefectures and counties for many years, the troubled scholars were dispersed by the people, especially Jiangyin, let alone Jiangyin.
The name of the people of Jiangyin is known all over the world for their loyalty. When the Tartars came to the south of the Yangtze River, the battlefield was filled with corpses and bones, and the lonely city refused to surrender despite the death of thousands of people. The emperor sent three hundred warriors across the river to rescue him. They fought bloody battles all night and killed countless enemies. In the end, all three hundred warriors died in the battle.
General Yuan Biwu's body was full of arrows. There were too many to count. At the moment of his death, he looked up to the sky and shouted, using all his strength to insert the black flag deeply into the earth.
General Yuan Biwu's burly body stood firm against the flagpole. With a heartfelt smile on his sharp-edged face, he half-opened his eyes and looked calmly ahead at Jiangyin City, which could no longer be reached.
Please think about it, although General Yuan Biwu failed to reach Jiangyin City. But the people of Jiangyin will never forget it. The past events are still vivid in their minds. They have finally looked forward to the prosperous age of the Qin Dynasty. It has only been a few years!
This time, there were only ten or eight scholars who came out to make trouble in Jiangyin. As soon as they showed up, they were beaten black and blue by the young and old in Jiangyin, and these people were expelled from the city. Now these people are like rats crossing the street, and everyone is shouting to beat them. . "
"This... This is too extreme. This scholar is also trying to defend the doctrine of saints, but it doesn't stop there?"
"Yeah yeah!"
“……….”
Master Liu shook his head and said: "In my opinion, this matter is really the fault of scholars. This turmoil was actually caused by the emperor's intention to reform the judiciary and make it more fair. The emperor said: The deterrent effect of punishment is not not in its severity, but in its inevitability.
You have no joke, just follow this sentence. It cannot be seen that the emperor really had no intention of returning to the cruel laws of the pre-Qin Dynasty and reforming the judiciary. It is just to make law enforcement officials more fair and honest, and to prevent officials from being corrupt, bending the law, and harming the people as much as possible.
The emperor is devoted to the people, and reforming the judiciary is actually a benevolent government. There is no great good. However, people are now insisting that he values the law and despises Confucianism. Anyone with a discerning eye will know that this reason is far-fetched. "
"Shopkeeper Liu, what you said is wrong. Since anyone with a discerning eye will know that this reason is far-fetched, why do so many scholars in the world oppose it?"
"Don't worry, everyone, think about it first. If the emperor's judicial reform is really implemented, who will benefit? Who will be the victim?"
"Oh, according to what Shopkeeper Liu said, the ones who benefit are undoubtedly the ordinary people, and the ones who suffer are the officials with bad intentions."
"By the way, the emperor's reform is equivalent to cutting off their access to corruption and bending the law. There are so many officials in the world. Now that things are so big, there are inevitably people behind the scenes who are fanning the flames and deliberately instigating them. Many scholars are just being targeted. Just make it happen.”
When the Lin member heard this, he quietly withdrew from the crowd and hurried downstairs...
The south of the Yangtze River was wealthy and prosperous in commerce, and there were many chambers of commerce in every state capital. As for these chambers of commerce, as long as they stay up all night to say hello, there will be countless eloquent shopkeepers and clerks like Shopkeeper Liu, who will launch a powerful publicity campaign.
This time Qin Mu did not use the power of the army and the government to suppress the scholars, but mobilized ordinary people to condemn the scholars' resistance, and the effect was very significant.
Since the beginning of southern Jiangxi, Qin Mu has been vigorously supporting industry and commerce, and encouraged businessmen from all over the country to establish their own chambers of commerce. There is no doubt that Qin Mu wants to support the capital class to fight against the traditional gentry class.
This massive publicity counterattack has such a remarkable effect. The chambers of commerce in various places should take the lead. They have close contact with these chambers of commerce all day long, and a lot of information is collected through the chambers of commerce.
This time, the two cooperated tacitly, allowing the public opinion counterattack to be launched quickly and successfully leading the direction of public opinion among the people.
From a certain perspective, this can be regarded as the first battle between the capitalist class and the traditional gentry class.
In the imperial capital of Nanjing, this public opinion war has become even more intense. In March next year, the Ministry of Rites will hold the Spring Examination. Almost all scholars from all over the world who have qualified to take the exam have gathered in Nanjing.
On the other hand, Nanjing City is also the place where Qin Mu has the strongest control, and it is also the base camp of the capitalist class he supports. Scholars collectively knocked on the que and submitted letters, and countless shopkeepers and clerks in the market were spitting fiercely. They were scattered among the crowd, There is a lot of publicity, and these people are always indispensable in the streets and alleys, wherever there are crowds of people.
In the past, the power of speech in the world was almost entirely in the hands of scholars. What they said would be believed by ordinary people. A scholar could influence the perspective and orientation of ordinary people from all over the country to view everything.
But this time it was very different. Those eloquent shopkeepers and clerks first spoke of protecting the emperor. If Qin Mu was an incompetent monarch, the people would definitely not accept their behavior.
But on the contrary, the emperor Qin Mu's prestige among the people was very high. Many people took the initiative to set up longevity tablets for him at home and burn incense to worship him in the morning and evening.
In the mouths of countless shopkeepers and clerks, scholars are deliberately going against the emperor. In this way, it is easy to win the support of those people who are grateful to the emperor.
Ye Bushou also spread many conspiracy theories, saying that scholars were instigated by corrupt officials, and those corrupt officials were worried that after the emperor reformed the judiciary, he would no longer be able to collect money from the people, so he instigated this trend and wanted the emperor to When faced with difficulties, retreat.
No matter what the time, conspiracy theories are always more popular.
No matter how impassioned the scholars may be, they can only be defeated in the face of this unclear conspiracy theory.
The common people in the world always hate corrupt officials deeply. As long as they are identified as the culprits, the common people would rather believe them.
What's more, there are indeed many officials behind this trend who are fanning the flames for their own interests, and they are really not unfairly accused.
Outside the wide Da Qin Gate, an unprecedented scene appeared. Thousands of scholars were knocking on the gate to write a letter, while tens of thousands of people were surrounding outside. They loudly accused the scholars inside, saying that they did not know right from wrong. , aiding the tyranny, making waves, and the scene almost got out of control.
The imperial court quickly mobilized troops to maintain order and separate the people on the outside from the scholars inside. However, the people did not give up because of this. Thousands of people pointed their fingers at him and criticized him loudly.
Some radical ones even started throwing rotten cabbage and rotten eggs inside, making the scholars running around petitioning look like prisoners parading in the streets.
Now all the scholars are not human inside and out, nor are they kneeling or walking. They come to the gate of Da Qin with the intention of "setting up their lives for the sake of the people".
As a result, the "shengmin" regarded their behavior as ignorance of right and wrong and aiding the evil. Those rotten vegetables and rotten eggs were thrown in one after another, which made the scholars miserable.
What is your destiny for the sake of the people
This is just your own opinion.
Never before had scholars from any dynasty met with such fierce opposition from the lower classes when they petitioned for help collectively. This was truly the strangest and weirdest scene in history. (To be continued...)
...