Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 143 The Paradise on Earth is Wuzhong

Cheng Leixiang felt that he had grasped the essence of Pei Yuan's operation at once, and felt a sense of "OMG" in his heart.

With so many people trying to take advantage of the situation, the weavers that the nobles had gathered together with great difficulty would probably explode!

As it turned out, Cheng Leixiang's premonition was correct.

The person who came out this time to replace Zhai De'an was the Tongpan of Suzhou Prefecture, who was in charge of weaving affairs, named Jiang Yan.

He had informed the workshop owners early in the morning and asked some people in charge to gather some weavers together to block the road from the Suzhou city gate to the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Factory.

According to the information Jiang Yan had obtained, Pei Yuan was rash and brainless, and particularly rude.

He would tear down someone's door panel if they disagreed with him, and he would rush forward like a pig.

I heard that he got so carried away in fights a few times that he nearly killed his own men and friendly forces.

Jiang Yan organized the weavers to block the way here and prevent the silver transport convoy from moving forward, just to deliberately provoke the soldier.

When that fellow becomes ferocious and starts killing people in Suzhou City, the scholars from the county and prefectural schools, as well as retired officials who have been prepared in advance will be able to come out and witness it.

The assistant minister and officers sent by the Nanjing Ministry of Justice were already waiting at the Suzhou Confucian Temple.

As long as the scholars of the county and prefectural schools, as well as the retired officials, come forward and expose the crimes, we can immediately issue an order to arrest the perpetrators.

Dare to resist?
That's even better!

If something like this happened in public, even if it was exposed to the world, Jiang Yan would not be afraid.

As long as Pei Yuan is sentenced to death, if there is any problem in the future, these weavers can be mobilized to attack and there will be no solution.

Even if the imperial court wanted to intervene, no one would dare to cause trouble.

Jiang Yan was happily thinking about it when he suddenly heard something strange happening in front of him.

He asked nervously to the head of the Yamen runners who was also in plain clothes, "Are they here?"

The head of the yamen runners went to take a look and came back with a surprised look on his face, "Reporting to the judge, all the people who came are from Suzhou City. They are so numerous that they are overwhelming and the momentum is so huge that there must be thousands of people."

The head of the yamen runners didn't know how to describe it.

The nearby streets were like rivers, with a torrent of people gushing out of them.

Moreover, this flow of people seemed to have a contagious magic. Many people asked around for a while and then started running.

Jiang Yan was shocked at first, then he was delighted and guessed, "These must be the Suzhou righteous people who came to support us."

Suzhou Prefecture had a prosperous business and a dense population. It was the most developed region in the entire Ming Dynasty, with a total population of over two million.

There was a poem in 9527:
"The paradise on earth is Wuzhong, and among them is the most majestic place, Changmen. Three thousand green sleeves go up and down the building, and millions of golds flow east and west. The market has never stopped at five o'clock in the morning, and the dialects in different places are always different. If you ask a painter to describe it, the painter should say that it is difficult to paint well."

The city and two counties of Suzhou are the essence of the entire Suzhou Prefecture, and they account for a large proportion of the population of Suzhou Prefecture.

Seeing the Suzhou righteous people running closer and closer, Jiang Yan, who was in plain clothes, quickly stepped forward to stop a slow runner and asked, "Fellow villager, what happened?"

The man was running out of breath and was stopped by someone. He suddenly felt exhausted.

Seeing that the people running with him were getting ahead, he pushed Jiang Yan with a panting breath, "Hurry, hurry! Silver!"

Jiang Yan was delighted.

He just thought he was talking about the tax silver from Suzhou and Hangzhou, so he quickly held the man's hand and said emotionally, "The silver is fine, and the hard-earned money of the people cannot be a problem either."

The man was stunned when he heard it.

What is he barking at?
But before the two of them had time to communicate further, they were separated by the crowd.

The weavers were waiting to surround the Jinyiwei's silver transport cart when they saw countless people rushing over.

Before they could react in amazement, the internet trolls started to explain the facts loudly.

"The Jinyiwei killed more than a hundred White Lotus remnants, and their bodies will be left exposed in Xuanmiao Temple for three days. Their captain said that anyone who can identify the identities of these White Lotus remnants will be rewarded with fifty taels of silver!"

"Someone just got the money!"

"Several fifty-liang silver ingots!"

When the weavers heard this, they were all shocked. "What? A reward for identifying the body?"

Then their feet moved involuntarily.

They didn't even doubt the authenticity of the matter.

So many people went there, how could it be fake?
What does fifty taels of silver mean?
It can buy seventeen or eighteen big fat cows!

It doesn't matter if I'm missing from the mission of besieging the Jinyiwei.

It would be a great pleasure for me to be rewarded with money for identifying the body.

The people hated incitement the most and some of them immediately followed suit.

Some of the weaving households who were in charge of organizing the movement shouted, "Don't run around! We are here to ask the court for an explanation. Don't run around!"

Unexpectedly, at this time, someone shouted again.

"It was the Suzhou and Hangzhou Textile Factory that levied corvée labor on us!"

"It is the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Factory that collects taxes from the weaving mills!"

"Suhang Manufacturing Office can't be moved again!"

"Go get the money first!"

Most of these originally wavering Weavers simply ran away.

Jiang Yan also found that something was wrong.

He quickly stopped the crowd and shouted loudly, trying to control the situation.

At this moment, someone suddenly hit him on the back of the head with something. Jiang Yan's eyes went dark and he fell to the ground.

How could the running crowd stop? Soon someone stepped on Jiang Yan.

The man panicked and looked back, and saw a person on the ground.

I thought to myself, damn, why am I so unlucky, is this guy going to blackmail me?
So I ran faster.

By the time Pei Yuan arrived with his convoy, only a hundred or so people were left here.

Many people gathered in a circle, looking at something, and some yamen runners were questioning the people present.

Many scholars from prefectures and counties were whispering nearby, and from time to time someone would run into the crowd to take a look and then go back to report.

Pei Yuan was puzzled and asked someone to check it out. "What's going on?"

After a while, Chen Toutie came over to report, "Captain, the deceased is a judge in Suzhou Prefecture named Jiang Yan. He was wearing civilian clothes and was shouting in the crowd. He somehow fell to the ground and was then trampled to death by the swarming people."

The four words "somehow" were obviously stressed.

"Ha." Pei Yuan sneered and said to Chen Toutie, "Write a secret report for me, saying that Suzhou weavers gathered together to make trouble to resist corvee labor and trampled to death Suzhou Tongpan Jiang Yan."

He added, "No need to send it to the Jinyiwei in Nanjing. Try to find the old way and send it to the people of the East Factory. The East Factory has not yet settled the old grudge of the murder of the tax supervisor, so they will not give up easily. It is also good to cause some trouble for them."

As they were talking, someone noticed the convoy and stepped forward to ask, "Who are you?" Pei Yuan asked Chen Toutie to step forward and answer.

Chen Toutie stepped forward and said sternly, "The Jinyiwei is escorting the corpse of the White Lotus traitor here. Who are you?"

The man had already seen the silver transport cart made of thick wood with a big lock behind him and knew that it was the real owner.

He hesitated, "I, I'm a student of the county school. Someone's dead here, everyone should take a detour."

Chen Toutie asked in a deep voice, "Have you found the murderer?"

The scholar replied, "Not yet?"

Chen Toutie sneered, "I see. Then all of you are suspects. Although I am not in charge of investigating cases, since I have met you, I cannot just ignore you. Come on, go and register their names."

When the scholar heard that he had to register his name, his heart tightened and he quickly scolded, "What? Are you Jinyiwei going to interfere in the local area?"

Chen Toutie smiled and said, "You are overthinking. I heard that the person who died was a judge, an official appointed by the court, how could there be no explanation? I just asked someone to record the situation at this moment, maybe it will come in handy someday."

When the Jinyiwei behind him saw Chen Toutie speaking, they immediately stepped forward and questioned them one by one.

They have legitimate reasons to act recklessly.

When the uninvolved people saw this, they were afraid of getting into trouble, so they quietly slipped away when no one was asking about it.

Most of the few people left dispersed.

When people gather together to cause trouble, they rely on their collective courage and the idea that the law does not punish the masses.

The other reason is that someone is instigating from behind, thinking that since it won’t be him who sticks out, there will be taller people to hold up the sky if it falls.

Now the crowd was scattered, even those who were deceived were no longer making a fuss. The people behind the scenes were not stupid either, and they all kept silent.

Some retired officials in the distance, seeing that the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, immediately began to leave.

Chen Toutie left some people to do the random registration and intimidate those who were irrelevant, while he surrounded Pei Yuan and continued to go towards Xuanmiao Temple.

Now the arrow is on the string and has to be shot.

Now there are nearly a thousand people just following the cars to watch the fun. If this problem is not properly resolved, the backlash will lead to more troublesome consequences.

Pei Yuan and his group arrived in front of Xuanmiao Temple in a mighty manner.

Tan Tai Fang Tu and Si Kong Sui immediately organized people to clean up the area, drove away the people on the large open space in front of Xuan Miao Temple, and then dragged the bodies from the cars one by one and placed them on the ground.

Hundreds of corpses were scattered around, which scared some onlookers and made them subconsciously hide back.

There were also some bold people who were looking for wealth. They looked at him carefully, racking their brains to recall whether they had seen similar people before.

Pei Yuan saw the people surrounding him rushing up, and he shouted, "Don't worry, I have always loved the people, so I naturally put people first. Let the monks and Taoists I brought with me chant some scriptures to get rid of the evil spirits, so as not to scare you, which would not be good."

Upon hearing this, Monk Daigo and Taoist Zhiwei each led a team of monks and Taoists to chant sutras around the dead officers and soldiers of the Northern Pacification Division.

The monk Daigo's attitude was very serious, completely different from his usual materialistic look.

Zhiwei Daoist was quite happy and participated meticulously.

Pei Yuan had the silver cart with the silver opened, and said loudly in front of everyone, "The soldiers under my command made great contributions in the last suppression of the White Lotus Sect, and they are also rewarded. I will fulfill my promise to you today!"

After saying this, he ordered his Jinyiwei to come forward one by one.

Pei Yuan took the silver from the silver transport cart and paid the Jinyiwei the reward of one hundred taels he had mentioned last time.

The Jinyiwei didn't have much hope at first, but they didn't expect Pei Yuan to give it seriously.

They came forward happily and took two large silver ingots and put them in their arms.

Pei Yuan knew that some Jinyiwei were lurking around as navy troops, so he shouted to Chen Toutie, "You and General Cheng's men will be in charge. Just report the number to me."

The Jinyiwei who were hiding among the people were relieved to see that their share was not reduced, and they smiled happily.

At this time, Cheng Leixiang, who had already received the instructions, took the opportunity to ask loudly in the crowd, "The silver has been distributed, what reward will the adults take?"

The people all thought it made sense.

They followed along, of course, for the sake of watching the fun, but getting the reward was also very attractive.

That’s fifty taels of silver!
If I happen to recognize two or three of them, I won’t have to worry for the rest of my life.

Many civilians, led by the Jinyiwei navy, followed suit and made noises, "Yes, how will we reward people after the silver is distributed?"

"We agreed on this before!"

"Where's the silver?! Hurry up and give it to me!"

The common people had no time to identify them at this moment. They were very excited and felt that these bastards were dividing their money.

Damn it!

My money! Damn it!
Now, hearing someone take the lead, everyone started shouting, "Silver! Silver! Silver!!"

Pei Yuan pressed his hands down, signaling everyone to be quiet.

Then he said loudly, "This is the court's business, so of course the court will pay for it! I don't have to pay for it myself, so how can I treat you unfairly?"

Then he shouted, "Where is the latest silver from the court? Wait for me to get it!"

The Suzhou residents who were attracted by Pei Yuan's gimmick of "identifying the body and getting money" to watch the fun have not yet reacted.

However, the oribatis who had gathered at Tianxin Bridge, ready to block the road, suddenly closed their loop.

Everyone suddenly thought of the answer.

Then, the weavers scattered in the crowd shouted almost in unison, "The governor of Suzhou and Hangzhou has money!"

After hearing this, Pei Yuan couldn't hide the smile on his face anymore.

He said happily, "Okay. Let these monks and Taoists exorcise the evil spirits of the white lotus monsters first. How about you all lead the way and go together to get the silver?"

The weavers were excited. "Tianxin Bridge isn't far away! I'll take you there. Let me recognize it first!"

Pei Yuan did not choose and shouted, "Let's go together. It's not my money, how can I lose you money?"

So the weavers led the way and went to the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Factory in a mighty procession.

Pei Yuan, who was surrounded by the crowd, finally felt relieved.

——The development of things so far is exactly in line with his prediction!

The essential demands of Suzhou weavers and Jiangnan gentry are different, which means that this action is most likely the result of deceptive rhetoric used by the Jiangnan gentry to mislead the craftsmen.

There is no way they could tell the people what their original purpose was.

I will just tell them that I am doing this for their own good.

This kind of deception is undoubtedly effective when the weavers are organized and can only voice the organizers.

But when Pei Yuan used more people to attack the scattered crowd, to destroy the weak organizational structure and make the organizers unable to speak, things would immediately get out of control.

Because Pei Yuan had already used the "identify the body and get money" strategy to separate the interests of both parties.

(End of this chapter)