Rich families would keep some literati as retainers, also known as Qingke.
Shu Jianyu, a guest of Funinghou Mansion, after hearing the complaints from Funinghou Zhu Guobi, he pretended to be well aware of the current situation and smiled slightly and said:
"Why is the Marquis so angry? It is no longer an occasional thing for the imperial court to take advantage of the gentry, nobles, and vassal kings. And there is nothing the world can do about it. It can only be allowed to be slaughtered by them."
boom!
Zhu Guobi punched the stone table.
Then, Zhu Guobi cursed in a low voice: "Huh! You are mean and ungrateful! The ones who contributed to Daming are us, the nobles who have laid the foundation for his Zhu family for generations. It is us who deserve to be treated favorably, not those humble traders." !”
Shu Jianyu laughed because of this and said: "Perhaps in Na Dufu's view, those common people and traders are the foundation of the country."
"What kind of foundation are the ants? Even if they gather to cause trouble, they are just a swarm of ants that can be destroyed overnight! Even if they are killed directly, it is just like cutting wild vegetables, which will come back year after year. What's the big deal? But But now the court not only wants to control the life and death of these untouchables, but also gives the wealth they have amassed to these untouchables almost free of charge. Now the people in the court are simply green forest bandits who rob the rich and give to the poor!"
Funing Marquis Zhu Guobi continued talking, and then took a sip of tea.
Shu Jianyu just smiled.
At this time, a steward from the Funing Hou Mansion suddenly ran to Zhu Guobi and shouted loudly: "Master Hou! It's not good. People from the patrol camp came to the door and took the palace steward into custody."
"Patrol camp, it's not enough for them to arrest me, why are they coming to arrest me?!"
After hearing this, Zhu Guobi quickly stood up, quite shocked, and hurriedly walked towards the outer hall.
As soon as he arrived at the outer hall, Zhu Guobi saw Zhou Yuji from the patrol camp sitting on a grand master's chair with a golden sword, and beside him knelt the palace steward who was wearing prison uniform and was beaten black and blue.
As soon as the palace steward saw Zhu Guobi, he couldn't help crying: "Master Hou, please save the little one!"
Zhu Guobi looked at Zhou Yuji with an angry look: "Admiral Zhou, what are you going to do?"
Zhou Yuji stood up and said, "Your Majesty has issued an edict that whenever slaves of feudal princes, princes, lords, Jinshen and other wealthy families commit crimes, the slaves must be taken to the mansion for execution, and all the masters and servants in the mansion must be summoned to watch the execution. To serve as a warning to others, the master knows how to restrain his slaves, so that the slaves do not dare to take advantage of his power and violate the law. In addition, he also needs to ask his master to know what he has done illegally."
With that said, Zhou Yuji asked Zhu Guobi: "So, Marquis Funing, I am here to ask you, do you know that the steward of the House Slave Palace in your house is forcibly buying a store, disrupting the market, and offering illegal loan sharking?"
At this time, the palace steward looked at Zhu Guobi eagerly.
Zhu Guobi clenched his fists, avoided the gaze of the palace steward, and said: "I, I don't know!"
"He actually did such a thing! I really don't know anything about it."
Zhu Guobi was afraid that Zhou Yuji wouldn't believe it, so he hurriedly said another sentence.
"Master Hou! You can't care about my life or death. I never dare to do anything behind your back. I beg you, for the sake of the fact that I have done so many things for you, please speak up for me! They I want to kill the little one, I want to behead the little one, the little one doesn’t want to die, Lord Marquis! Woo hoo!”
The palace steward began to cry and crawled up to Zhu Guobi, grabbing Zhu Guobi's robe.
Zhu Guobi directly kicked the palace steward away and shouted: "Get out! You bitch, you did bad things outside, and you dare to rely on me. I wish I could beat you to death myself! Come here, tell me what I say, and kill the palace steward and his family." Drive everyone out of the Hou Mansion!"
The palace steward was kicked aside.
Zhou Yuji did not let the palace steward continue to speak, and still asked Zhu Guobi: "However, the palace steward of your mansion confessed that what he did was instigated by you, the Marquis of Funing, behind his back. In this regard, I don't know what the Marquis of Funing should do." What’s the explanation?”
"Slander!"
"It's pure slander!"
"This piece of shit is just making it up!"
Zhu Guobi immediately denied it.
Zhou Yuji smiled faintly, and then said: "In that case, please ask the Marquis of Funing to call all the masters and servants of your mansion to the front hall to watch the execution!"
Zhu Guobi did not speak and stood silently, because he did not want people in his palace to see the palace steward being executed by official officials of the court. This would undoubtedly affect his prestige as a marquis in the palace, and would also lead to discord in the government. People will no longer take his palace seriously.
"Why, Marquis Funing wants to resist the decree?"
Zhou Yuji asked coldly.
"Pass my message! Call everyone in the house to the front hall!"
When Zhu Guobi heard Zhou Yuji's question, he had no choice but to give orders loudly because he was afraid that he would be executed by everyone in his family.
So, not long after, all the masters and servants of Funinghou's house gathered in the front hall, and the palace steward was also ordered by Zhou Yuji to escort him to the center of the front hall square and make him kneel on the spot.
Zhou Yuji first announced the crime of the palace steward, and then announced his execution.
Click!
With a flash of knife light, the palace steward's head fell to the ground on the spot.
"ah!"
Many of the female relatives of Funinghou Mansion screamed immediately, and some even fainted from fright.
Funing Hou himself and the other male relatives could not help but look pale.
The pampered people in the Hou family are naturally not very accustomed to this kind of beheading behavior.
And Zhu Youxiao asked the officers and soldiers of the patrol camp to kill the offending slaves of these wealthy families in front of the masters and servants of the wealthy families. This was also because he thought that these wealthy masters and servants had not felt the power of the imperial government, and deliberately used this method. Let these wealthy masters and servants remember the power of the imperial court.
…
"This is too much! They actually killed my slaves in front of everyone in my house! I didn't even dare to say a word of dissatisfaction! I have never suffered such injustice! This is what I am doing I’ve lost all face!”
Zhu Guobi came to the Duke of Wei's house in a sad and angry mood and told Xu Hongji about being bullied by the patrol camp.
"Be more open-minded. At least I didn't kill you directly. Just be satisfied!
I have warned you long ago to keep a low profile and restrain your servants. Today’s court is not as good as before. What happened to the previous Dukes of Donglin? It’s not like you don’t know, as well as Linhuai Marquis Li Zushu. Xungui, his family was confiscated and his family was exterminated just because he had an affair with Dongchang. All this shows that the mean and ungrateful person in charge of Tai'a today has the legacy of the Taizu! You just didn’t listen, now you’ve tasted the power, right? "
Xu Hongji pointed at Zhu Guobi, who was younger than himself.
Zhu Guobi said unwillingly: "It's a shame that our ancestors worked hard and died for his Zhu family to lay this foundation, but that single husband treated us so unkindly!"
"What's the use of talking about this? People don't care about this. They only talk about the king's law and not about feelings. It is said that this time, even the feudal king will not let go of the land."
The Marquis of Zhenyuan, Gu Mingjiao, who was also here, also followed suit.
"Then don't we have any other options? We can't lend money at high interest rates, we can't buy stores, and we won't grant land. The profit I'm making this year is less than half of what it was in previous years! It makes me sad just thinking about it!"
Zhu Guobi said.
"Why is there no way? Don't you have more than 30,000 hectares of irrigated land in Funinghou Mansion? How much food can be produced from such good fields? Now the price of food is rising, especially after tens of millions of silver coins have flowed into the market, it will only make the food supply worse." Prices will continue to rise, and the higher the price of food, the more advantageous it will be for us, and what you have to do now is to hoard the food you produce and not sell it, and just wait for the price to continue to rise."
Xu Hongji took over.
Zhu Guobi and others nodded: "Absolutely!"
…
"The price has increased again? Didn't it just increase yesterday?"
Du Shouchang, who came to a rice shop to buy rice, asked the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper said: "I'm sorry, it's hard to get rice now. The big grain merchants above who cooperate with wealthy families are unwilling to sell a lot of rice to us. They have raised the price first, so we can only follow the increase."
"This is almost ten yuan of silver coins per bucket! The money I borrowed together can only be used to buy rice, and I can't do business, right?"
At this time, another rice buyer started talking behind Du Shouchang.
At this time, the owner of the rice shop came over and said to the shopkeeper in his shop: "Change the price to fifteen yuan of silver coins per dou!"
Then, the owner of the rice shop shouted to Du Shouchang and other customers: "I'm sorry, everyone, the big grain merchants have raised their prices, and we have no choice but to follow suit! However, I say, you should hurry up and buy while it's still possible." Fifteen silver dollars, and next, it might be twenty. No one knows how long the big grain households behind the scenes will raise their prices. Several princely mansions in Yingtian that occupy the largest area do not provide much grain. Got it!"
"Ah! Then quickly bring me five dou. The silver coins I borrowed from Daming Bank can only be used to buy rice. I'd better not do business now!"
"And me, I want six buckets too!"
"I, I, I want to buy seven buckets!"
For a while, the rice shop was crowded with people, and more and more people came to buy rice. They did not refuse to buy because the price of food was ridiculously high, but rushed to buy it. They even used the money borrowed from Daming Bank to resume production. The loan was also used to buy grain and rice.
Before long, the rice shop ran out of rice.
The owner of this rice shop has to apologize for closing.
"Run out of rice again? What on earth are you going to do? If you don't tell me how much rice you sell, you'll tell me you're out of rice not long after selling it. Believe it or not, I'll smash your rice shop!"
Because of this, Du Shouchang and other rice-buying customers became even more angry, and some customers started shouting and swearing.
"Everyone, it's useless even if you smash my rice shop. My shop is really out of rice. The big rice supplier above only gave me so much. Don't worry, I'll go in overnight to get the rice and keep it for tomorrow morning." Just start selling!”
The owner also had to explain.
"You fart! You will definitely raise the price tomorrow morning, and it will double the price directly. I think you are deliberately not selling it, covering it in your hands, waiting to sell it at a higher price tomorrow!"
yelled a grumpy customer.
"The conscience of heaven and earth is governed by the government. Besides, we are all fellow villagers. I have no courage and no need to do this! I really have no rice!"
The owner continued to argue that he, an ordinary grain merchant, did not have the guts to stock up on grain.
"My fellow villagers, this profiteer is definitely lying. He smashed his shop and took out his rice. I don't believe he doesn't have rice. Rice is so expensive now. There's no way he doesn't know how to buy more rice!"
But some irrational customers were no longer willing to believe what he said. When anxiety reappeared due to the sharp rise in food prices, these customers actually rushed into the rice shop and smashed it.
It wasn't until these customers smashed the rice shop to pieces and didn't realize how much rice there was that they left the place.
The owner looked at this scene with tears in his eyes, and said sadly: "What's the point of opening this grain store? The big merchants who have grain refuse to lower prices, and the folks who don't have grain don't believe me. I can't make much money in total." Even if you make a profit, you still have to be beaten and scolded, and now even the store has been smashed!"
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