On the first floor of Difan Building, the scholars and low-level officials were rarely divided into three factions! Most of the silent ones are centrists. The two relatively small number of people were on opposing sides, and the fact that both sides were blushing, thick-necked, and even foaming at the mouth showed that they had been debating for a long time.
And there was one person who looked out of breath, obviously having just sat down. Sure enough, as soon as this person picked up the tea cup, a person stood up opposite him. This person was the famous Lu Tianhua! This opinion leader in the building has been resting for a while today, and this time he gets up to debate again to determine the winner!
Just listen to him say: "Brother mentioned the issue of salt tax just now, let me say a few words on this issue! It is natural for the imperial court to sell official salt at the current price! It should be noted that the salt tax is a tax of the imperial court. One of the pillars is that the price of salt is low, which is likely to destroy the court's salt tax! Moreover, Wu Ninghou is not a salt merchant licensed by the court. It is hard to say whether his large-scale salt production is private salt! After all, this salt is private salt. As for salt, the court has lost a lot of salt tax, who will fill this hole? So Wu Ninghou must be held accountable!"
As soon as he finished speaking, one of the scholars across from him stood up. This group of people is different from Lu Tianhua's group, and their clothes are relatively simple! People like Lu Tianhua seemed to come from aristocratic families, while the other group of scholars probably came from poor families.
I just need to correct everyone's idea here. It is often said that noble children come from poor families. Will this happen? Yes, but rarely! It is a minority among the minority, and it can basically be regarded as an exception! Because those who can produce scholars are not really poor!
The real poor should refer to the ordinary people at the bottom. At that time, it was difficult for ordinary people to make ends meet, and most of them were always on the verge of bankruptcy. Some people were simply struggling on the verge of starving to death. Why? It may be possible to cultivate scholars!
In terms of productivity at that time, consumables such as pens, inks, paper and inkstones were extremely expensive and ordinary people simply could not afford them! If nothing else, it would be difficult for you to practice calligraphy without pen, ink, paper and inkstone!
Some people may say that you can practice calligraphy with a sandbox! But anyone with a little knowledge knows that this is pure nonsense! Using a sandbox can only let you know how to write this character, but to write a good calligraphy, you must use real pen and paper and practice for many years!
And ordinary families simply cannot sustain the consumption of materials for practicing calligraphy, and the less they practice calligraphy, the worse their calligraphy will be! At the exam level, the first thing the examiner does is to see how the written words are. If the handwriting is distorted or even ugly, the examiner will just throw it aside without even looking at it, and there is no chance of winning!
So to put it bluntly, the so-called poor scholars are not from the lower class at all. The lowest level must be a rich peasant or above to cultivate scholars! Even middle peasants may not be able to support a person's full-time study for more than ten years!
Therefore, the so-called princes from poor families are just from middle-class backgrounds. This means that although there are many scholars, there are no people who are truly from the lower class. In other words, the people at the bottom cannot have their own representatives in the court. No one speaks for them, they are just represented!
Therefore, there is a phenomenon that has appeared in all dynasties, that is, all officials shout to plead for the people, but they are engaged in plundering people's wealth, allowing the powerful to prey on the people, and even doing it themselves, because they and ordinary people are basically in two different classes. , even the people at the bottom are not human beings at all to them!
However, although there is no clear division among scholars, the differences brought by different family backgrounds are quite huge, so they are naturally divided into "descendents from famous families" and "scholars from poor families". Those "queen from famous families" naturally refer to those scholars who came from aristocratic families! And those ordinary scholars naturally called themselves "poor scholars" and hugged together to keep warm!
The most interesting thing is that these people who are not from the bottom class claim to represent the people at the bottom, so this is why there are often confrontations between "descendants from famous families" and "scholars from poor families" in various places. And the scene in the dormitory today is just a microcosm of it.
As soon as Lu Tianhua sat down, a scholar across from him stood up and said loudly: "In the past, there was nothing that could be done about the high price of official salt in the imperial court. But I heard that the reason why Marquis Wu Ning set the price of salt so cheaply is this time."
, it is said that he came up with a new method of making salt in Tianjin, which produced more and cheaper salt, so the price dropped! As for the salt tax issue that Xiongtai mentioned, I guess with Wu Ninghou's reputation, he would not evade the salt tax, right? Moreover, the imperial court can find out this kind of thing clearly in one investigation. At this time, we cannot unjustly accuse Wu Ninghou! And according to the following thinking, if the price of salt is low, more will naturally be sold. If Wu Ninghou pays taxes normally, the salt tax will not be less, but more! I guess you are all people who have read a lot of poetry and books, so you can’t think of these truths clearly, right? "
As soon as he finished speaking, a scholar at the table next to Lu Tianhua stood up and said, "Many of the people here are from the capital, and even those who are not from the capital have been to the capital many times, and you have seen how the Xungui family does it in various places. Business! It's impossible to ask them to pay taxes according to regulations, but they are very good at bullying and dominating the market! Wu Ninghou was born in a noble family, and he has a very close relationship with the nobles! As the saying goes, people flock together, and birds of a feather flock together. Such vulgar warriors are together. What good things can be done! To believe them is better than to believe sows can climb trees!" Kanshu La
This person's words immediately triggered a burst of laughter from everyone present! Indeed, in their view, those warriors who fight and kill all day long do nothing but do bad things in a straightforward manner. How can we scholars do things so delicately that at least no one can detect them!
A scholar among the people opposite said loudly: "This brother's words are a bit biased. Even among warriors, there are many loyal and righteous people! Although they are not good at reading, they are also knowledgeable about righteousness! Like Mr. Qi, who has fought for the country all his life. Who can say that he is wrong?"
This was obviously a bit of a trick, because anyone who knew anything about current affairs in the Ming Dynasty knew that Qi Jiguang was protected by Zhang Juzheng! If we attack Qi Jiguang at this time, wouldn't that be equivalent to attacking Zhang Juzheng? So as soon as he said these words, the momentum of the person opposite him immediately dropped!
Upon seeing this, the scholar immediately took advantage of the victory and said, "And whether Wu Ninghou paid the salt tax will naturally be verified by the court. What we are concerned about is that his low salt price has really allowed the people to eat salt! You all come from aristocratic families. , it is difficult to reach ordinary people, and we come from a poor family and are used to the sufferings of ordinary people! Among those ordinary people, if you can eat salt once every ten and a half months, you are already living a good life! At this time, Thousands of people will benefit from the drop in salt prices, so how can we not do it?"
