amaotonovel Chapter 601 Even I, this official, have no choice!
Chapter 601 Even I, this official, have no choice!
As it turns out, those who completely disregard the nine generations of their family are ultimately a minority.
When faced with the threat of Nine Clans Elimination, most people would rather shift all the blame onto their teammates.
But once these people started to confess, things gradually became more complicated.
The sheer number of people involved was astonishing, even to Yang Shaofeng, who dreamed of working as a laborer.
More than 30,000 people.
The entire tax official case implicated nearly fifty officials, including three prefects, two sub-prefects, and fourteen county magistrates who were directly involved. There were also about forty unfortunate individuals who, although not directly implicated, were drawn into the case because they submitted memorials to plead for others or impeached Yang Shaofeng for "competing with the people for profit."
As for the local gentry and gentry who were also implicated, there were even more.
More than three hundred people were directly involved, and six or seven hundred were indirectly involved.
Including these people and their relatives, the total number of people implicated in the tax collector case reached 31,277.
Faced with such staggering numbers, even Yang Shaofeng couldn't bring himself to laugh.
"Where exactly did things go wrong?"
Zhu Biao leaned back in his recliner, his face etched with an expression of utter existential skepticism.
"Logically speaking, these officials and local gentry should at least be educated, right?"
"I do not expect them to be upright gentlemen, nor do I expect them to be benevolent towards the people."
"But shouldn't they at least have some basic moral sense and shame?"
"But they..."
Zhu Biao couldn't figure out what went wrong.
Are the classics that I read and the classics that they read two different versions?
That's not right. The Four Books and Five Classics on the market are all the same. Apart from the varying printing and binding quality, the content is exactly the same.
Even the Hu Yuan dynasty, which never really cared much about the common people, taught the Four Books and Five Classics.
Could there be a problem with the Four Books and Five Classics?
"Moreover, one of the county magistrates was an old comrade who fought alongside my father to establish the empire."
Zhu Biao said with a bitter expression, "Back then, his family members all died because of the oppression of the Tartars and local gentry. When fighting against the Tartars, he dared to fight and was brave enough to kill more than ten enemies despite being a mere scholar. Later, because there were not enough officials, and he was educated, he was transferred to be the county magistrate."
"I never imagined he would get involved in this case."
"Can becoming an official really change a person, making him forget his origins and the deep-seated hatred between his parents, wife, and children?"
Seeing Zhu Biao's completely bewildered expression, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but smile.
"A valve during the Han Dynasty."
"A prominent family during the Tang Dynasty."
"The scholar-official class after the Song and Yuan dynasties."
"These people have passed down their traditions from generation to generation, and everyone's dream is to restore the glory of the aristocratic families of the Han and Tang dynasties."
"Or rather, they would prefer to restore the era when family learning led to officialdom."
"Control the path to advancement so that their descendants will always be superior to others."
"This is not only the dream of the local gentry, but also the dream of the officials."
Yang Shaofeng said sarcastically, "No matter what kind of background these officials came from, it doesn't prevent them from automatically joining this group and becoming one of them."
"Take Huangchuan, for example, as Your Highness mentioned."
"He felt that he had already avenged the deep hatred he had for his parents, wife, and children, since all the enemies from back then were dead."
“These local gentry nowadays, some have married their daughters to him as his second wife, and some have given their daughters to him as concubines. These are all his in-laws, all family.”
"Isn't our son's future more important than living in the past?"
Zhu Biao shook his head slightly.
"too fast."
“Even if he changed his appearance a few years later, I could barely accept it, but this…”
"How long has it been?"
"Moreover, he originally hated those gentry and officials, but now he's associating with them..."
Before Zhu Biao could finish speaking, Yang Shaofeng shook his head.
"He used to be an unfortunate man who lost his parents, wife and children."
"He's an official now."
"It's hard to learn good things, but it's hard to learn bad things?"
"People get so nervous the first time they go to a pleasure boat to drink and have fun that they don't know where to put their hands."
"When they go for the second time, the girls will all urge them to drink more and listen to more music."
After a slight pause, Yang Shaofeng looked around again and said in a low voice, "If Your Highness doesn't believe me, you can go and take a stroll on the pleasure boats on the Qinhuai River and see how many scholars go to listen to music on the pleasure boats and how many officials linger there."
Zhu Biao paused for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Shall we go check it out tonight?"
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and said, "Your Highness can go by yourself, or you can bring the Second Prince and the Third Prince. I am afraid of my wife, so I will not go."
Zhu Biao hummed in agreement, and while pondering to himself, said, "Alright, I'll arrange it myself."
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement, then asked casually, "What are your plans, Father-in-law, regarding the officials and local gentry involved in this tax collector case?"
Zhu Biao glanced at Yang Shaofeng and replied, "My father's idea is to allocate 20,000 to Dengzhou Prefecture, and the rest to Beiping and Yongping."
After a slight pause, Zhu Biao continued, "By the way, first there was the Plowshare Case, then the Sun Gupu Rebellion Case, and then the Blank Seal Case and the Black Coal Mine Case."
"Now there's another case involving a tax collector."
"This can't go on forever."
"Doesn't your brother-in-law have any thoughts on this?"
Yang Shaofeng was slightly taken aback and asked curiously, "Thoughts? What thoughts?"
Zhu Biao tentatively asked, "It's about how to resolve this kind of mess, or rather, how to prevent it from happening again?"
After Zhu Biao said that, Yang Shaofeng didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The laughter stemmed from Zhu Biao's naiveté.
The reason for the tears was that Zhu Biao overestimated himself.
Is this the kind of problem that I can solve simply by saying so?
Not to mention during the Ming Dynasty, even hundreds of years later, such ridiculous things would still happen one after another.
For example, saying the moon is very round and beautiful, and how social classes play out their roles so clearly.
At the grassroots level, most people rely on calculators even for everyday calculations, leading to a lack of joyful education.
The elite education at the top, with its various chaotic courses, is even more chaotic than that of a rabbit's home.
As for the rabbit's family?
The rabbit's family's situation can only be described as relatively better.
After all, there is also the Taishan Club, which is not very well-known.
These people create this thing ostensibly for business, but what's the real reason?
In particular, the Rabbit family's mindset leans towards "accumulating more family wealth for their children and grandchildren, even if they squander it, they can squander it for a couple more years."
It's fortunate that his ideas are still intact, the foundation he left behind is still there, and there are various regulatory measures in place, so things didn't completely spiral out of control like they did with Da Piao Liang.
After a long silence, Yang Shaofeng sighed softly and said, "I have no way to solve this problem, nor do I have any way to prevent it."
"The only way right now is to try to get rid of the imperial examination system, or in other words, to deprive the four words 'family learning for officialdom' of the soil on which they depend for survival."