Chapter 343 City-Wide Manhunt

That afternoon, Xia Song boarded a boat to Liangzhe Road.

Although he was born as a military officer, he was already sixty years old and could not withstand such bumps, so he had to go by boat.

On March 20, the smashing and looting in Jiangsu and Zhejiang reached its peak, but the various government offices responded quickly, arresting people and expelling people. The riots lasted for two days and finally subsided.

Seeing that the situation had become serious, some landlords began to back off, while others were relieved when they saw that the court only arrested those who smashed, looted and burned, and did not arrest people on a large scale.

On March 23, the third day after the riots, in a restaurant on the Qiantang River east of Fuyang County, southwest of Hangzhou City, Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei, Zhang Ruohai and other four families with the most land in Suzhou gathered.

In addition to them, there were more than 40 landlords and gentry from Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Hangzhou, Runzhou, Jiangning Prefecture and other places, and they were big landlords. It can be said that those who can sit here must have at least more than 30,000 acres of land under their names.

The restaurant is three stories high, and the roof overlooks the entire Qiantang River, with extremely beautiful scenery. The riverside is overgrown with wild grass, willows and willows, swaying in the wind in March. Listening to the sound of the waves by the river, it is full of leisure and comfort.

But at this time, the patriarchs of the major families were not touched by the beautiful scenery outside the building. Everyone's face was either sad, frightened, hesitant or fearless. Everyone had their own thoughts and naturally could not appreciate the scenery.

They booked the entire third floor. There was noisy whispering in the room. Several familiar friends sat at their own tables, and their eyes were mainly on the Suzhou landlords headed by Gong Xu and Pan Shi.

After all, they were the ones who started this matter. Now that the matter has become a big deal, once the court investigates it, they may have to be pushed to the front and be a scapegoat.

The faces of Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei and Zhang Ruohai were actually very bad.

This is in the Song Dynasty.

Rebellion and uprising will not cause any waves in the Song Dynasty.

So they didn't want to rebel at all, they just wanted to accumulate strength, protest in the city, and put pressure on the court.

As a result, they never expected that when there were too many people, they couldn't maintain order, especially some impulsive people, who saw that the government had been indifferent, and they were angry and started to smash, loot, and burn, and even killed people.

This was something they couldn't have expected.

Just like during the reign of Emperor Qinzong of Song Dynasty, at the beginning, there were only more than 300 students protesting, and in a blink of an eye, tens of thousands of people in Bianliang took to the streets and beat more than 200 eunuchs to death.

Once the crowd is large, the anger will spread, and it will naturally lead to irreversible consequences.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem"

Seeing that everyone in the building was uneasy at this time, Gong Xu had to stand up and stabilize the army's morale and said: "Everyone, why are you sitting here? I believe you all understand that as long as the court does not abolish the land tax and the conscription of landowners, we will not have peace."

"If all our previous efforts are wasted here, what should we do next? The taxes to be paid are increasing, but the landowners who help us farm are decreasing. If this continues for a long time, the destruction of the family and the extinction of the clan will not be far away."

He looked around at everyone and continued: "Therefore, we can't give up here. We still have to continue to hold out with the government and we must not leave."

There are already many people present today who have the intention to withdraw.

Gong Xu and others must keep them, because in addition to the fact that Gong Xu's demands have not been responded to, more importantly, if everyone withdraws, the court will find that they are swimming naked when the tide recedes, and then it will be a ghost if they don't catch them as examples.

So in order to keep the glimmer of hope that "the law does not punish the masses", he must unite people, otherwise they will be in real trouble when the court settles accounts after a while.

However, it is difficult to lead a team when people are scattered.

Someone immediately said: "It sounds good, but now something big has happened, people have been beaten to death, and many shops have been burned. Do you think the government will be kind to this matter?"

Gong Xu immediately said in a deep voice: "If someone is beaten to death, the person who beat the person to death must be handed over to pay for the crime. There must be compensation, and the court must not be caught. This matter itself is for all of us. If you do nothing, can we still be safe and sound?"

"This"

Everyone looked at each other in surprise, and he hit the pain point.

It must be said that these big landlords in Suzhou are still very capable, and they quickly used the things that everyone cares about as bargaining chips. After all, they have already boarded the pirate ship, and whether they leave now or continue to stay, it will be difficult to get out if their demands are not met.

Because from the explicit distribution of taxes, the taxes they bear will only become heavier and heavier, which will make them breathless. Needless to say, the implicit ones, the tenants have been robbed, who will help them farm?

If this continues, their tens of thousands of acres of land will become wasteland, and the court can use tenants to open up new fields and repair the fields, without worrying about farming problems.

In the final analysis, what agricultural society lacks is not land, but people.

There are many fields in these millions of square kilometers. As long as someone has money, the court can build canals to irrigate the fields again, and they will not be able to deal with these landlords.

If the landlords were not worried in the past, because the court had no money, most of the finances had to be put into the three redundancies, where would the money come from to repair water conservancy facilities?

It is different now.

The three redundancies have been solved, foreign trade income has soared, business has prospered, and national fiscal revenue has increased day by day. There is plenty of money, and these landlords can't compete with the whole country no matter what.

"So according to Brother Gong, should we continue to protest?"

Someone asked tentatively.

"Yes."

"But what if the court blames us?"

"Didn't we just say that? Hand over the people and pay compensation!"

"But I always feel that the court wants an excuse, and now we have this excuse."

"."

Gong Xu was silent.

This is what he is most worried about.

But after a moment, Pan Shi said: "Don't worry, everyone. As the saying goes, the law does not punish the masses. There are so many of us, and there is no one. Will the court really slaughter us all?"

"Alas, I can only think so. Now we are in a dilemma. If we don't fight, our wealth will slowly go down. If we fight, we will be terrified."

"So what? I heard that many people have been forced to follow the path given by the court. Some people even sold their land to the government at a low price. Now they are organizing fleets to go out to sea."

"Haha, the fleet goes out to sea and is in danger of death. Don't look at how much gold and silver the ocean-going fleet brings back, but people always don't see how many people they go and how many people come back."

"This matter. I am timid, so I won't get involved. Alas, who would have thought that after working hard for several generations, this family business that has been accumulated with great difficulty would be destroyed by my hands?"

Some people sighed, some acquiesced, and a very small number of people finally decided to withdraw, leaving Hangzhou with their own people and returning to their hometowns.

First of all, this matter was too big, and they were afraid that something would go wrong.

Secondly, they felt powerless. Even though the matter was so serious, the court still did not give in, which also made people feel how determined the court was.

So in the end, there were still a few people who left.

There were only two outcomes for them. Either the court would slowly take away their tenants, and then they would be burdened with high taxes, and finally go bankrupt. Or they would make a decision early, sell the land, and enter the business.

This obviously requires great courage.

After all, with their accumulated wealth, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Even if they sell the land and eat up all the land, as long as the owner does not gamble, basically several generations will not worry about food and drink.

And doing business is too risky, especially going to sea.

Don’t look at the fact that Chen Haizhong, an official of the ocean-going fleet, has risen from the eighth rank to the third rank co-director of the city in just seven or eight years.

But the price paid in the middle is unimaginable.

Others don’t know, but these people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang know it. After all, Chen Haizhong is here every time he goes to sea and returns.

In his two voyages alone, thousands of people were lost due to illness, waves, wind and rain, disappearance, etc., not to mention the number of ships destroyed and people killed.

In addition, there were also many people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who went to Japan and Goryeo to do business, and these people also suffered heavy casualties.

Therefore, compared to farming safely and steadily, with this stable iron rice bowl income, who would want to sell all their land and go out to live in the open, or even risk the risk of shipwreck and death to operate?

But now..

Those who left shook their heads and sighed and left, hoping that the remaining people would win in the end and let the court give up the land tax and conscript their tenants.

After these people left, more than 30 big landlords stayed in the field, and finally decided to fight Gong Xu and others again.

So in the next few days, they began to organize protest teams again, marching around in and outside the city, but without the momentum of the previous few days, they were relatively low-key.

However, in early April, everything changed.

On April 6, Xia Song, who had sailed more than a thousand kilometers on a passenger ship, dragged his slightly tired body into Hangzhou.

After entering the city, he quickly patrolled around the city. He only brought a few servants with him and saw that the order in the city had barely been restored.

But there were still thousands of people in various places in the city who were constantly marching and demonstrating, which made him frown.

The most important thing was that he saw that some shops that had been smashed and destroyed had not been repaired, and the ruins of the burned houses were still swaying in the wind, which showed how chaotic the market was at that time.

At noon, Xia Song finally walked into the Transport Commissioner's Office.

Du Qi, Ren Maocheng and others in the government office heard that Xia Song was coming, and hurried out to greet him and invited him into the back hall.

"Meet the Prime Minister."

In the back hall of the Liangzhe Road Transport Commissioner, the Transport Commissioner, the Deputy Transport Commissioner, the Tongpan, the Duzhi Judge and other officials saluted him.

Although the Ministry of Finance is no longer one of the three departments, it is still the first department under the Political System Institute in name, so everyone still follows the old habit and calls the Minister of Finance the Minister of Planning.

"Humph."

Xia Song snorted coldly, put his hands behind his back, sat on the main seat, and then said in a deep voice: "Don't you have any feelings about the situation outside now?"

Du Qi was stunned, then smiled bitterly: "Minister of Planning, this matter is not because of the inaction of the subordinates and others, but the Zhiyuan"

"Uh"

Xia Song slapped his head and thought he was confused. Zhao Jun had told him about this before he came.

The reason why the landlords in Liangzhe Road made such a big fuss was basically because he let it go.

But because he was tired all the way, and saw the situation in the city, and he was sixty years old, he forgot it for a while.

So he turned around and said: "The instructions of the Zhiyuan are naturally correct, but we still can't let them be too rampant, so as not to affect the people in Hangzhou."

"Minister of Planning is right, it was my negligence."

Du Qi said hurriedly.

This matter can be big or small, it depends on whether the superior will lightly expose it.

Obviously, it has the endorsement of the Institute, so there won't be any big problems.

"Well, tell me about the current situation."

"Yes."

Everyone briefly explained the situation.

Finally, Ren Maocheng said: "Prime Minister Ji, after they made a big fuss in Hangzhou on the 20th, they have been quiet for a while. Some people have gone back. Now there should be only a few thousand people in and outside the city."

"Stubborn!"

Xia Song sneered: "The court aims to seek welfare for the people, and it is not that they will not give them a way out, but they still cling to the land. Do they really think the court dare not kill them?"

"Please give me your orders, Prime Minister Ji."

Du Qi said immediately. He had been angry enough during this period and wanted to vent.

"Go and call the other four heads of the department to discuss the matter."

Xia Song said: "I understand what the court means. Some should be killed, but not all of them can be killed. Otherwise, it will be difficult to convince the public, and the people will panic and cause turmoil in the country. Therefore, the crime must be found out. You can pass on my order to immediately recruit the imperial guards from all states to Hangzhou."

As he said, he took out the imperial edict and the Privy Council's transfer order in his hand. Only with these two transfer orders can he mobilize the army.

"Yes!"

Seeing Xia Song bring the military order, everyone immediately became excited.

Now that the landlords are numerous, they really can't do anything with just the troops in their hands. Everything will be easy when the imperial guards come.

Then the transfer envoy's office immediately started to operate.

Some people notified the people in other yamen to come to the meeting, some people rushed to the military camps in various places to mobilize troops, and some blocked the news. Except for the chief officers, the subordinates and clerks below were not allowed to know the inside story.

A few days later, the imperial guards of the surrounding states quickly went to Hangzhou.

Xia Song held a meeting with the chief officers of the six departments and decided which people to arrest, how to arrest, how to interrogate, and how to go to their homes to investigate the situation.

The arrest of the big and the release of the small, how to sentence, etc. were almost discussed. By April 9th, it was basically clear.

This is also thanks to Gong Xu and others' petitions that used courtesy before force. Not only did they prepare the list for them, but now it is time to arrest people according to the list.

At noon on the 9th morning, in the office of the Transport Commissioner, Xia Song sat in the main seat in the hall, overlooking the area below, and said in a cold voice: "Pass my order, all the officials, together with the imperial guards, search the whole city to arrest people, and don't let anyone go!"

"Yes!"

The Transport Commissioner, the Pacification Commissioner, the Changping Commissioner, the Supervisor, the Censorate, the Imperial City Commissioner and many other chief officials responded loudly.

Then, in an instant, more than 10,000 officials and soldiers in the city began to arrest people everywhere!