I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 517 The Gentry's Counterattack

Liang Chu knew that Zhu Houxuan's move affected the core interests of the gentry and royal family, and the gentry would certainly not give up their own interests easily, and it would definitely be a mess.
But Liang Chu also knew that he could not persuade Zhu Houxuan, so he could only leave with a heavy heart.
Zhu Houxuan's order to clear the land of the garrisons was soon sent to all parts of the country. At the same time, more than a dozen inspection teams were sent to various parts of the country. They would check the land of each garrison based on the archives of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households, and nationalize the land of each garrison.

Each inspection team has more than half of the Royal Group employees, who will assist and monitor the officials in the inspection team so that they can handle problems impartially.

For the garrison officers and gentry who have occupied the garrison land, if they can voluntarily return the land, they will not be held accountable. If they are stubborn and want to continue to resist the inspection team, they will be greeted by the iron fist of the Guards.

There were only two options for the garrison officers and gentry: one was to lose money, consider themselves unlucky, and return the land; the other was to resist.

At the very beginning, the inspection team encountered fierce opposition from many garrison officials and gentry. Although some garrisons had been moved to new locations, many garrison officials still held on to the land where the garrisons were originally located.

They could either recruit tenant farmers to cultivate the land themselves, or directly sell the land to nearby gentry and make a fortune.
But their opposition was of no avail, because the archives of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue were very clear, and it was only 150 years since the founding of the country, and the topography of each garrison had not changed much, so the inspection teams simply made a one-size-fits-all decision based on the records.

Those who objected had to either surrender their land or be thrown into prison.
Such a one-size-fits-all policy made the gentry miserable, but they had no choice. After all, occupying the land of the garrison was a shameful thing from any perspective, especially under the vigorous propaganda of the Royal Group.
So after punishing a few typical cases and realizing that the court was serious about taking action, the voices of the gentry finally became quiet, because they were really not in the right in this matter.
This is also the reason why Zhu Houxuan chose to clean up the land of the garrison as the starting point. The land ownership of the garrison was clear and the records were detailed, making it the easiest choice for clearing the land.

The land cleared from the cleaning of the garrison land will be nationalized. These lands were eventually assigned to the Ministry of Revenue, but the Ministry of Revenue only had the ownership, while the management rights were given to the Royal Group.
The clearing of the garrison land went smoothly, but the gentry still did not give up resistance, and Zhu Houxuan soon felt their counterattack.

First of all, many members of the Ming royal family opposed the clearing of the garrison lands and begged Zhu Houzhao to reward them with the garrison lands they had occupied.

Zhu Houxun rejected this rude request. After failing to deal with Zhu Houzhao, they turned their attention to other places and even began to exert influence on the government.
After all, at this time, the voices from the people that Zhu Houxun wanted to clear the fields were getting louder and louder.
Liang Chuzheng listened to other officials' impeachment against him with a gloomy face.
The censors impeached Liang Chu for an old story, in which Liang Chu's son Liang Ci's son was the protagonist. This story had been circulating in the capital for several days, causing a sensation in the city.
Tan Guanfu, a resident of Nanhai County, had over 100 hectares of land. He was killed for rebellion, and his family's land was occupied by the wealthy Yang Duan and others. Tan Zhen, the son of Tan Guanfu, then donated the land to Liang Ciwei, Dai Zhongming, the son of the late Minister of Works Dai Jin, and the wealthy people Ouyang Yuan and Li Runcheng, and mixed Yang Duan's land with it and donated it together, and recruited people to farm it. Yang Duan led people to attack the Tan family, killed Tan Zhen and four others, and then the two families fought each other. The other people who accepted the land donation and the tenants hoped to use Liang Ciwei's power to kill the Yang family and eliminate future troubles, so they recruited Lin Run and others to attack Yang Duan, massacred more than 30 families of residents, killed more than 200 people of all surnames, burned their houses, and looted their property and livestock. A woman in Yang Duan's family hid in a pond and escaped death, and then sued the local government. After investigation, it was found that the mastermind of all these things was Liang Ciwei.

In November of the eighth year of the Zhengde reign, the final result of the handling of this matter was announced. Dai Zhongming was sent to Nanning Prefecture for supervision, while Liang Cifu was sent to the border guards for five years of meritorious service, with salary and service. A major case of extermination of an entire family with the death of more than 200 people was passed over in such a light manner. In this process, Liang Chu, as a cabinet minister, naturally used his influence a lot.

The reason why the old matter was brought up again this time was that a garrison officer testified that Liang Chu had bribed him with 5000 taels of silver to cover up the murder of his son and his entire family.

After listening to the censors' impeachment, Liang Chu's eyes dimmed. He pinched the resignation letter in his sleeve, and finally made up his mind. He slowly straightened his robe and walked out.
He walked to the center of the hall, knelt down tremblingly and kowtowed.
When he looked up, his eyes were filled with tears, his face was filled with shame, and he held the resignation letter high in his hands.

"I doted on my son too much. Although Yang Duan beat Liang's head worker to death first, my son's crime is unforgivable. I loved my son so much that he made a big mistake. I disregarded the law of the country and feel ashamed. I am guilty of all kinds of crimes. Your Majesty and Your Highness please understand." Liang Chu said in a sad voice.

The ministers present looked at the white-haired Liang Chu with different expressions. None of them expected that Liang Chu would leave the court in this way.
In fact, even Liang Chu himself did not expect such a way of exit. He entered the cabinet in the fifth year of Zhengde and became the chief minister of the cabinet in the eleventh year of Zhengde. The eleven years he served as the chief minister of the cabinet were the process of the Ming Dynasty's rise to glory.

It should have been a grand exit, but in the end it ended up being such a disgraceful exit.
Zhu Houxuan looked at the aging Liang Chu and sighed deeply in his heart. He knew that Liang Chu was being manipulated by someone. Some people opposed the reform, but they couldn't do anything about him, so they had to get rid of Liang Chu, the leader of the reformists in the court.

Zhu Houxuan knew that he could not say anything for Liang Chu at this time, because Liang Chu himself was indeed wrong. Not only was there irrefutable evidence, but Liang Chu himself had admitted it.
Now is the time of deepening reform, and he must act impartially to avoid being exploited by villains if he behaves improperly.

Moreover, he also knew that Liang Chu himself was not a reformist leader. Liang Chu was forced to become a reformist leader in order to gain his support to fight against Yang Tinghe.
Therefore, he was not particularly sad about Liang Chu's departure. One of the reasons was that Liang Chu was too old. He was already 75 years old this year and it was time for him to go home and enjoy his retirement.
Zhu Houxuan and Zhu Houzhao exchanged glances, and finally Zhu Houzhao approved Liang Chu's resignation
Just a few days after Liang Chu left the stage
Cabinet Grand Secretaries Jiang Mian and Mao Ji also submitted a petition to resign and to retire.
(End of this chapter)