"Response? May I ask how to respond? Why don't Yuan Gong, Wang Gong and other great men like me, the great men of virtue, remonstrate with the court to stop the matter of belittling the gentry? The officials and gentry all pay for the food and serve as errands. It's a shame that the court can think of it. How can this make the countryside better? The people actively support our aristocratic families and gentry class!"
Hou Ke replied directly.
Yang Donglai sighed and persuaded: "What can you do if you don't respond? Are you resisting the edict? That is a crime of beheading. From now on, we gentry can only pay more money and grain in lieu of taxes and labor. In this world, what can we do?" I am a scholar who loves me!”
"The Yuan family is ashamed of all our neighbors. Even though Quan Zi is a great Sima, he did not stop the bad governance that brought disaster to the village! However, since this is the case, when the time comes when we, the gentry and the people, need to be on duty, please send someone from the county. I came here to tell you, I don’t have money to do the work, so I have to go and serve in person! There is also this autumn tax, and I can’t afford the fuel consumption, so I might as well transport the food to Beijing myself, anyway, it won’t be my shame!”
Yuan Huai, the father of Yuan Keli, also said to other Guide gentry at this time.
"You are all local celebrities, so please don't do this. Otherwise, wouldn't it leave a reputation in the world that the court was not polite to scholars? Especially you, Mrs. Yuan, the father of the Great Sima is serving in the army. How can this be done? , Your Yuan family is a big family in the local area, with tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. If you can’t afford the corvee money, why do you need to trap the chief minister in injustice?"
The prefect Zhu Zhongpeng tried to persuade him.
"Hmph! Not only Old Mrs. Yuan will go to serve in person, but all the Jin gentry in Guide Mansion will go to serve at that time! At that time, we will also ask all the scholars in Guide Mansion to do some hard work like Bai Ding, and see what is lost. Whose face!"
Hou Ke said therefore.
"That's right, that's what we do. We call on the children of the clan to stop taking exams and reading books, and go to inns, dams, and rivers to do corvee work, or to send taxes and grains! Let the court be embarrassed by this. , Looking at the history, there is no one who makes scholars work hard!"
Yang Donglai also echoed.
So, the gentry of Guide Mansion actually did this.
They knew that the current emperor was tough and did not dare to confront him directly, so they adopted this method to confront him.
Some gentry, including big country officials like Yuan Huai, Hou Ke, and Yang Donglai, really began to carry dry food, wear coarse cloth shorts, carry poles and other things, and go to the official roads that were being built in full swing to serve as corvees.
According to the new corvee system in the Ming Dynasty, you can pay corvee silver to offset the corvee. However, if you don’t want to pay and want to sell your labor to serve, you only need to report to the yamen, and the government will arrange the corvee payment according to the monthly salary standards of some projects. The period of construction that needs to be mortgaged is.
For this reason, the prefect Zhu Zhongpeng arranged for these gentry to build official roads according to the corvee silver they needed to pay.
"Come and take a look! Grand Sima Yuan, the former left minister of the Nanjing Criminal Department, Mr. Yang, and the former Imperial College Jiu Hou Gong are here to serve!"
And when Yuan Huai and others came to do corvee work, some scholars who had good intentions started shouting because of this, deliberately letting everyone know.
"I am over seventy years old, and now I am here to serve. I ask all my neighbors to take care of me."
Yuan Huai even said a few words with a smile.
Zhu Zhongpeng, who was following, looked at this and had a headache. He didn't know whether he was doing the right thing or not. Should he disobey the court order and not collect taxes from these gentry, not make them perform corvee service, and make Yuan Keli, the Minister of War, look good? , I don’t hate myself, but he really doesn’t have the courage to disobey the imperial decree. Moreover, as an official, he actually hopes in his heart to limit the power of the gentry.
This was not only a headache for Zhu Zhongpeng, but also the fact that the scholars stopped taking exams because the officials and gentry were paying for their duties together.
"The great master calmed down his anger. It was not because the lower officials had embezzled the money for promoting education. In fact, the gentry in Guide Prefecture were dissatisfied because the officials and gentry were paid for the food and served as errands. Therefore, the scholars did not come to take the exam in the name of having to do corvee service, so that they were The prefecture examination and the prefecture subject examination have not been successfully held yet.”
When the academic envoy Ni Yuanlu came to Guide to hold the college examination, he saw that no students were taking the examination, so he questioned Zhu Zhongpeng and asked if there was any bad governance and ordered the students to cancel the examination. Therefore, Zhu Zhongpeng told the truth Explain it.
After hearing this, Ni Yuanlu also felt embarrassed and said: "Report the truth to the court, but make it clear that the scholars did not stop taking the exams because they were dissatisfied with the New Deal. Instead, they had no time to take the exams because they actively implemented the unified payment of food and duties between officials and gentlemen, so as not to cause trouble. Delongyan was furious!"
"The lower official has reported the matter to Futai Li Zhongcheng. Li Zhongcheng must have reported the matter."
Zhu Zhongpeng replied.
…
When Emperor Zhu Youxiao learned that many of the gentry and scholars who had returned to Germany were doing corvee labor, he was not furious and even laughed.
Zhu Youxiao immediately told the ministers of the political hall: "It's great! It's rare that the gentry and gentry in Guide Mansion are so active in implementing the policy of integrating officials and gentry into paying grain and serving as errands. The style of the scholars in Guide Mansion is good. In addition, , I don’t think it will bring disgrace to the court if a scholar does corvee work! Labor is a very honorable thing, especially for scholars who are not diligent. It requires more physical labor, and through doing corvée work, etc., it is necessary to more clearly understand the hardships of the people. If I, the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, can actively implement the New Deal and actively participate in labor like the scholars of Guidefu, I will be happy to open another Enke, because this shows that the scholars of the Ming Dynasty are very enlightened and are worthy of use!"
Some ministers were surprised by this, and they did not expect that His Majesty the Emperor would be very willing to see the gentry from Guide Mansion serve in the army without worrying about the bad reputation of being a mean scholar.
Fang Congzhe, the chief assistant of the cabinet, was not surprised by this. He knew that his Majesty the Emperor did not care about his impression on scholars, so he followed up and said: "Not only that, many gentry in Guide Mansion also lost their jobs because the imperial court canceled the exemptions. They are willing to take the initiative to transport grain to Tianjin in order to save some losses in transporting grain. Among them is the old lady Yuan, the father of Grand Sima Yuan Gong, who said he would transport grain to Beijing."
"Your Majesty, I will write a letter to advise my father."
Yuan Keli glanced at Fang Congzhe, and then said something to Zhu Youxiao with a blush.
Zhu Youxiao waved his hand: "No need to persuade! Taking the initiative to do corvee service and actively paying taxes is something worth advocating. Especially for a local squire like Mrs. Yuan to take the initiative to transport grain and pay taxes, it is even more praiseworthy! Where can I persuade him? , do you want to persuade your father to resist the new policies of the imperial court? Therefore, in my opinion, your father's behavior should be rewarded. I will pass on the decree and promote him to the rank of Guanglu Dafu, and grant him the title of "Honorable Taxpayer Household" and "Model Household" to the Yuan family, and order Henan A company used public funds to build a corresponding archway in front of his residence to show his glory. In addition, he informed Henan officials that scholars can participate in corvee service and take the exam after the exam. There will be no problem."
"Yes! On behalf of my father, I would like to thank Your Majesty for your kindness."
Yuan Keli replied.
Fang Congzhe's smile gradually faded, and his complexion gradually increased: "Your Majesty, you are wise! If the gentry in the world can take the initiative to pay for food and serve as errands like the gentry in Guide Mansion, why bother to spend so much money? This is worthy of praise."
…
"What? Your Majesty said that we took the initiative to serve as corvees and did a good job, so we were promoted to the rank of official?! No, Your Majesty doesn't think this... It's very shameful for scholars and high-ranking officials to serve as corvees, just like the common people, pounding earth and cutting stones every day. The court’s face?!”
Yuan Huai asked puzzledly.
"Your Majesty said that this was a very honorable thing. He gave your Yuan family two plaques, one for 'Honorable Taxpayer Household' and one for 'Model Household'. He also ordered these two memorial arches to be erected in front of your house! To show your honor! "
Zhu Zhongpeng replied.
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