Chapter 256 Shock

The Kong family was slaughtered by the rebels.

Once the news came out, it caused an uproar in the world!

After all, they are the descendants of the saints!

Since the canonization of the Western Han Dynasty, the Kong family has always been passed down, and has enjoyed the preferential treatment of the court in all dynasties. It has been passed down for thousands of years. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the first family in the world.

However, such a noble and respected thousand-year-old family of saints was slaughtered by a group of ridiculous rebels.

For a time, the gentry and gentry in the world were shocked and uneasy, and they all pointed their spearheads at the people who suppressed the rebellion this time.

Ma Zhongxi, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, deserves to die!

As a military supervisor, he did not supervise me well, causing the rebels to roam around and slaughter the gentry, and finally slaughtered the Kong family!

No matter what, this damn Ma Zhongxi really deserves to die!

Especially since he himself is a member of the gentry, but he watched Zhongshan Hou slaughter the gentry with the hands of the rebels, he deserves to die even more.

The eunuch in the inner court, Qiu Ju, also deserves to die!

Eunuchs deserve to die, and he, as a military supervisor, did not fulfill his responsibilities as a military supervisor, so he deserves to die even more.

Maybe this damned eunuch had already defected to Zhongshan Hou and conspired to plan this good show together!

As for the last person, Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao, the gentry in the court wanted to cut this beast into pieces, and the gentry in the world wanted to drink blood and eat meat of this thief!

How dare you?

That's the blood of the saint!

You can still kill him without hesitation?

The blood of the saint, the thousand-year-old family, is it nothing in your eyes?

For a while, the gentry, who were sad for the death of the rabbit, began to impeach and accuse frantically.

No matter what, they can't let these three people go, especially the Zhongshan Hou!

The impeachment memorials submitted by officials from all over the world flew into the cabinet like snowflakes, and then presented to the desk of His Majesty the Emperor.

Without exception, all these memorials impeached Qiu Ju, Ma Zhongxi and Tang Hao, especially the latter accounted for the majority.

Yang Tinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, was at a loss at this moment. He was not only the teacher of Emperor Zhengde, but also the chief minister of the cabinet, so he had to consider the attitudes and ideas of the gentry.

In the end, all these impeachment memorials were sent to the imperial case. As for whether the emperor would approve them or not, or how to approve them, he was too lazy to care.

However, Yang Tinghe knew in his heart that this impeachment was meaningless.

Because the first people who disregarded their face were the Kong family.

Once the news of the Kong family opening the city to surrender to the rebels came out, the face of the gentry was completely lost.

Unfortunately, there were too few people who knew this secret, so that the gentry officials in the world were still frantically impeaching Zhongshan Hou.

In this regard, the emperor's attitude was very intriguing. He neither reviewed these memorials and kept them all in the palace, nor ordered the Ministry of Rites to prepare the reward for Zhongshan Hou and other soldiers who suppressed the rebellion.

It seems that the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty was also dissatisfied with what Zhongshan Marquis Tang Hao did, which made the gentry officials even more excited and continued to intensify their efforts to impeach Zhongshan Marquis Tang Hao!

It was not until a month later that these impeachment memorials gradually decreased.

Because Zhongshan Marquis returned to Beijing!

Tang Hao first went home to see his young wife. The couple was in love after a long separation. After a lot of trouble, they finally calmed down.

The beauty still had a blush on her face, and she lay weakly on Tang Hao's solid chest.

"My husband, I heard that you have made great contributions to the rebellion this time, but you have been impeached by a large number of officials and gentry. I am afraid that you have become the target of public criticism."

"Well, as expected." Tang Hao chuckled, "These gentry and gentry are just driven to anger, so they impeached me crazily."

"But apart from impeachment, apart from putting some shit pots on this marquis, what else can they do?"

To be honest, Tang Hao is not really afraid of these gentry and gentry now.

Thanks to the efforts of Tang Hao and Zhu Houzhao, the Zhengde court has already changed.

In the past, the civil officials and gentry controlled the government and intervened in various powers, even the Beijing army was under the control of the civil officials and gentry.

But now, the military power of the Beijing army is in the hands of Tang Hao. Even if there is a Yang Yiqing above him, the Minister of War can't stop him at all. Instead, he was disgusted by Tang Hao. Now he is still investigating the horse politics in Shaanxi Province. He won't be back for a year or two.

Zhu Houzhao took advantage of this rebellion to successfully take back the Ministry of Revenue and selected Jiao Fang, a corrupt but obedient yes-man, as the Minister of Revenue. This also means that the treasury money and grain are no longer controlled by civil officials and gentry!

Tang Hao still has some impression of Jiao Fang.

A notorious treacherous villain, he would do anything to advance his career. In his early years, he sent his first wife to serve the powerful official Li Xian in exchange for his career advancement. It can be seen that this guy is really unscrupulous and has no bottom line.

Later, during the Hongzhi period, he flattered the Hongzhi Emperor and made him happy, so he was promoted to the Minister of Personnel. However, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Ma Wensheng and other giants had long seen that this person was not upright, so they tacitly joined forces to suppress him, causing Jiao Fang to never be promoted, let alone really enter the power center of the Ming Dynasty.

Later, it was the Zhengde Dynasty. Originally, Liu Jin was powerful in history, and Jiao Fang immediately flattered him without caring about his face, and became a well-known eunuch party. Not only was he promoted to the Minister of Personnel, but he also entered the cabinet later, and seemed to have become the chief minister of the cabinet. He was a ruthless person.

Of course, because Tang Hao's arrival destroyed all this, Liu Jin was thrown into prison before Jiao Fang started to make a fortune. Fortunately, his unscrupulous operation successfully attracted the attention of Zhu Houzhao, which allowed him to continue to rise.

The position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue is very important to Zhu Houzhao.

This position does not require loyalty and virtue, but only obedient people.

And Jiao Fang is the best candidate at the moment.

Because he is obedient enough.

If Zhu Houzhao was not unwilling, he would deliberately want to send his daughter to climb onto the dragon bed.

The next thing will be much easier.

The Ministry of Revenue is controlled by "their own people", and the money, food and supplies of the Beijing Army soldiers are guaranteed. There is no need for Tang Hao and Zhu Houzhao to frantically raise money and food as before, and the reform of the Shandong Wei military system can also speed up the progress and be implemented.

After thinking about it, Tang Hao still felt that he should go to the palace first and meet Zhu Houzhao.

So he patted the beauty's buttocks, and the latter immediately blushed and turned up.

Tang Hao: "..."

Well, this wave is a misunderstanding.

Amid Zhang Jingshu's frantic voice, Tang Hao patted his butt and left.

Half an hour later, Zhu Houzhao looked at Tang Hao with a face full of ridicule.

"Oh, you are a busy man!"

"I thought you would come to meet me in the middle of the night!"

"Tsk tsk, savage, this is not good enough for you. It's only been half an hour. It can't be..."

Tang Hao looked at Zhu Houzhao with some anger and sneered: "My half an hour is more useful than your two years!"

After this, Zhu Houzhao was dumbfounded, and then he cursed in anger.

Because he got married two years earlier than Tang Hao, but unfortunately, Queen Xia's belly had not moved in more than two years.

Well, of course, we have to exclude one and a half years, when His Majesty the Emperor was busy fencing with Feng'er, so it was even more impossible to give birth to a child.

The facts were like a knife, piercing Zhu Houzhao's young heart fiercely.

The Emperor was furious and cursed at Tang Hao.

"You damned fellow!"

"You were having fun outside, but what about me?"

"Do you know how many gentry have impeached you? I am almost annoyed by them!"

After listening to Zhu Houzhao's rambling, Tang Hao smiled.

"This time the initiative is in our hands."

"Huh?" Zhu Houzhao asked: "Are you talking about the Kong family surrendering to the rebels?"

"It's probably not enough. After all, the Kong family was slaughtered by the rebels. This is untenable."

The reason is simple. You said that the Kong family opened the city to surrender to the rebels, so why did the rebels slaughter the Kong family?

This is clearly a false accusation. They are dead, and you, the damned Marquis of Zhongshan, are still throwing dirty water on them!

This is really unreasonable and extremely stupid!

Tang Hao smiled slightly and shook his head.

"It's not this matter."

"I caught a big fish this time!"

"A big fish that's enough for us to intervene in Jiangnan!"

Hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was immediately excited.

Jiangnan!

A tax-intensive place!

Controlling half of the taxes in the Ming Dynasty!

Zhu Houzhao had long wanted to intervene here, but unfortunately the power of the gentry in Jiangnan was too huge, spreading throughout the court and the country, so he didn't dare to act rashly!

Now, he finally got the chance!

The monarch and his ministers discussed and finalized the details of tomorrow's court meeting, and Tang Hao slowly left the palace.

However, when he walked to the palace gate, he saw an unexpected person.

The chief minister of the cabinet, the teacher of Emperor Zhengde, Yang Tinghe!

Speaking of which, this was the first formal meeting between the two in the true sense.

Although the two had met before, they had never had much contact. Even when Tang Hao got married, Yang Tinghe didn't communicate with Tang Hao too much because of his status.

So at this moment, Zhu Houzhao's two confidants, one civil and one military, finally met successfully.

Yang Tinghe got into Tang Hao's spacious carriage, which was specially customized according to Tang Hao's body shape, otherwise Tang Hao would have to bend his waist and feel very uncomfortable sitting in Yang Tinghe's carriage.

The two of them sat down, and the carriage moved forward slowly, circling around the imperial city.

"Prime Minister Yang, what advice do you have?"

Tang Hao poured a cup of tea and handed it directly to Yang Tinghe.

Yang Tinghe's mouth twitched when he saw this, but he still picked up the teacup and sipped it slowly.

"Marquis Tang, has the mastermind behind the rebellion of the Bazhou rebels been caught this time?"

Tang Hao raised his eyebrows and then smiled.

"What does it mean to be caught?"

"Even if he is not caught, no one can stop me from going to Jiangnan if I want to!"

This sentence is the truth!

The simplest and crudest way is for Marquis Zhongshan to lead his troops to Jiangnan!

As long as the gentry in Jiangnan are bloodbathed and the land is redistributed, the taxes of the court will go straight up!

But the problem is that Yang Tinghe will not let him do so, and Zhu Houzhao will not let him do so either.

The reason why the gentry in Jiangnan dared to challenge the court was naturally because of their confidence and strength!

Half of the country's tax revenue was never just talk.

"Lord Tang, don't act rashly!"

Yang Tinghe sighed.

"You slaughtered the gentry in Zhili and the Kong family before, which has caused the gentry to be terrified and uneasy. If you continue to pursue and attack the gentry in Jiangnan, I'm afraid..."

"There will be no chaos!" Tang Hao waved his hand impatiently, "It took ten years for scholars to rebel. Do they dare to rebel again?"

"If you really have the guts, it would save me a lot of effort."

Anyone who plots rebellion will have their property confiscated and their clan exterminated, without hesitation!

If the gentry in Jiangnan really dare to do this, Tang Hao would wake up laughing in his dreams.

In fact, they have indeed been considered as treason this time. The Jinyiwei has rushed to Bazhou to track down Fan Wencheng's route, including the source of the armor and crossbows he provided to the rebels in Bazhou. If they follow this line and catch those guys, Tang Hao will dare to confiscate their homes and exterminate their clans!

Yang Tinghe frowned and gave a reason.

"We can't eat it."

"The Ministry of Revenue is already too busy with Zhili alone."

"And the difficulty of measuring the land, Tang Hao must know in his heart, even if you pursue and reach into Jiangnan, I really can't keep up, Han Wen encountered trouble in Zhili and can't advance in a short time!"

As soon as these words came out, Tang Hao's face suddenly sank.

"The gentry and the local gentry were all killed!"

"What resistance can Han Wen encounter?"

Yang Tinghe sighed and put down the teacup in his hand.

"The local people are unwilling to cooperate."

"They would rather wait for new gentry to appear than trust the court again!"

Tang Hao was stunned at first, and then suddenly laughed, his laughter full of contempt and ridicule.

"Really well done!"

"They would rather trust the gentry and the local gentry who enslaved them than trust the court officials. This is the result of the efforts of the sage monarchs and wise ministers in the Hongzhi Dynasty!"

"Lord Tang!" Yang Tinghe was angry, "Be careful with your words!"

If you want to scold the civil officials and the local gentry, just scold the civil officials and the local gentry, don't bring up the late emperor.

Yang Tinghe didn't want to slander his monarch and father in private, and he didn't want to do so.

After all, although the late emperor had some faults, he was indeed the ideal model of the sage monarch in the Confucian civil officials.

Tang Hao was too lazy to talk nonsense with Yang Tinghe, so he asked directly: "What are you going to do? Are you just going to give up like this?"

"I'm going to say this. Apart from distributing the unowned land in Zhili to the refugees, I'll kill anyone who dares to raise his hand and his whole family!"

Of course he has the right to say this!

Because these lands were taken out of the stomachs of the gentry and gentry by Tang Hao with the help of the traitor's sharp blade!

And now you tell me that the land survey is not feasible and the local people are unwilling to cooperate?

Tang Hao hated it so much that he wanted to kill people!

Why are the local people unwilling to cooperate?

Because they are fed up with the heavy taxes of the court!

Because they have long lost confidence in the Ming Dynasty court that is rotten to the core!

Being a self-cultivating farmer for the court, the heavy taxes forced them to sell their land, their children and their daughters, which is simply worse than death!

But being a tenant for the gentry and gentry, although life is a little harder, they can at least survive, at least the family can be preserved, and they will not be forced to sell their children and daughters.

After all, the gentry are not stupid. If the rent is too high, these tenants will be forced to death, and no one will farm for them.

In a sense, being a tenant for the gentry is indeed much better than being a self-cultivating farmer for the court!

This concept is not formed in a short time, but has been formed on the blood, tears and corpses of countless self-cultivating farmers for dozens or hundreds of years!

If you want to blame, you can only blame the court itself for being rotten, not the people!

The people just want to survive!

What's wrong with them?

"The court has lost the support of the people!"

"Yang Tinghe, if you, the chief minister of the cabinet, don't think of a way, then this marquis will intervene!"

Hearing this, Yang Tinghe's face became even uglier.

He and Tang Hao have now formed a tacit understanding. Tang Hao is responsible for the main battle and specializes in cleaning up the gentry, while Yang Tinghe is responsible for the internal affairs, trying to appease the gentry as much as possible and digest the land that Tang Hao forcibly seized.

To put it bluntly, the two of them have a common goal, to extend the life of the Ming Dynasty, and then... revive the Ming Dynasty!

"I will find a way."

"But please hold off on Jiangnan!"

"At least before the Zhili farmland is resolved, you must not attack the Jiangnan gentry!"

Tang Hao pinched his eyebrows and thought for a long time, and finally nodded.

"This time, you owe me a favor."

"Get out of here, I am upset when I see you!"

Yang Tinghe finally smiled when he heard this, and then got off the carriage.

"Yang Tinghe, you are a bit like Liu Jian now."

Hearing this, Yang Tinghe froze, and then strode away.

Tang Hao looked at his back, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

Slowing down the pace to go south to Jiangnan is actually a good thing for Tang Hao.

Because the Shandong fleet is about to go out to sea, he has no time to fight with the Jiangnan gentry at this juncture.

But why not take advantage of this opportunity to seek more benefits?

It's better to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys, and scare the monkeys with one stick, so that they will be obedient and dare not make trouble!

Back to the Marquis's Mansion, Zhang Jingshu had already prepared dinner.

After dinner, the couple started to have in-depth discussions again.

There was no other way. Zhang Jingshu wanted to get pregnant as soon as possible in her dreams, and she tried her best to please Tang Hao. The Marquis of Zhongshan could only cooperate with her and tossed all night.

When Tang Hao went to court the next day, he still had two panda eyes.

Then, the clerk who was in charge of the hearing drum almost cried.

He looked at Tang Hao aggrievedly, and knelt on the ground with a "thump".

"Marquis!"

"It's a small thing, please!"

"If you have something to say, just say it directly, can you please stop knocking?"

This damn place is Dengwengu!

Why are you still addicted to knocking?

If you have anything to do, come over and knock on me?

Can you take care of everyone's feelings?

Tang Hao helped the clerk up with a smile, and then spoke energetically.

"Old rules, go directly to the communication, you have nothing to do here!"

When the clerk heard this, he could only sigh and go to pass the news.

The next moment, the sound of thundering drums resounded through the sky, and the entire capital was shaken by it again!

"What's this?"

"Dengwen drum sounds again?"

"Who is not afraid of death and beats the Dengwen drum?"

At this moment, in Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Houzhao had already put on his clothes and listened to the drums calmly.

Chen Kuan walked in slowly and reminded in a low voice: "Your Majesty, Marquis Tang has already beaten the Dengwen drum!"

Zhu Houzhao said "hmm", then stood up and looked at the rising sun.

"Convene the civil and military officials of the court to discuss matters!"

This time!

He wants...Jiangnan!