Looking at the people kneeling all over the river bank, Zhang Fengxiang sneered: "What kind of people are they? They are all the most despicable mud legs!"

"The cheap mud legs?" Li Guodong sneered, "The thieves are also a bunch of mud legs! Look at how many cities have been broken, how many gentry have died at the hands of those mud legs? The imperial officers and soldiers helped you suppress mud legs, but you refused to pay even taxes, which made the imperial officers and soldiers hungry? The officers and soldiers who were about to starve to death had to join Mud legs! The thief army has already broken through the capital, and you gentry are still not willing to repent, and are still fighting taxes and orders, and are unwilling to contribute to the court! I, Li, is loyal to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so I have to suppress your gentry!"

"Wuwei Bo, Zhang Yuanpeng (Fengxiang) is a veteran of the four dynasties. What should I do?" Wang Chengen stepped forward and asked.

"Cast dog!" Zhang Fengxiang glared at Wang Chengen fiercely. If he had the vision of killing people, Wang Chengen would have died hundreds of times long ago.

Li Guodong smiled and said, "Eunuch Wang also said, "Eunuch Wang is the elders of the four dynasties! I heard that Li Sancai's family was rich back then. It is said that he had more than 5 million taels of silver in his family. This Mr. Zhang is a veteran of the four dynasties. He has three million in his family, right? Eunuch Wang, let the Jinyiwei search at his house and I guess His Majesty's treasury can be much more abundant! All the Qingzhe and the gentry captured today will be interrogated."

"Okay, everything will be done as Wu Weibo said. The emperor is indeed short of money! He can earn a lot of money again this time." Wang Chengen smiled so much that he couldn't close his mouth.

Li Guodong came up with another bad idea of ​​being so ill-flated from the ancestral grave: "Hold all the arrested gentry onto the ship, lock them in the bottom cabin, and let the Jinyiwei deliver letters to their homes, so that their families can pay the bail. After paying the bail, they can release them."

"Bat? What does it mean?" Wang Chengen asked.

Li Guodong smiled and said, "That's the case: We asked the Jinyiwei to arrest people. Regardless of whether they were guilty or not, we could use the excuse that the case had not been investigated clearly and could not be tried, and detain the suspect indefinitely. Then we sent someone to their homes and told them that according to the family situation and the size of the crime, we could take out 5,000 to 30,000 taels of silver as bail. We would release the person first, and after the trial, we would be confirmed to be innocent and then refund the bail; if we did not come to the trial on the day of trial, of course, we would not refund the bail."

Wang Chengen asked, "That silver is not ours. If they come during the trial, wouldn't we have to return the silver?"

"Eunuch Wang, for some cases, we can let the Jinyiwei drag the case down and not close it. As long as the case is not closed for a day, it will naturally not be tried for a day. As long as the case has not been tried, isn't the bail always kept in His Majesty's inner warehouse?"

"Hahaha!" Wang Chengen smiled so hard that his mouth couldn't close. "Good idea! Wu Weibo's mind is just to make money! He caught more than 300 green insects, and the bail alone can earn millions. Our family grew up with the emperor since he was a child. Since the emperor ascended the throne, he has been frowning about money every day. Now it's great."

"You are waiting for the eunuch! You won't die well!" Just now, Li Guodong and Wang Chengen talked about Zhang Fengxiang, who was tied aside, as air. As a result, after hearing this vicious idea of ​​being so immoral that black smoke came from the ancestral grave, Zhang Fengxiang was so angry that he cursed.

A Jinyiwei walked up and stuffed a pair of footwear that had not been washed for several months into Zhang Fengxiang's mouth.

"Eunuch Wang, Your Majesty's ship has stopped, let's go and have a look." Li Guodong said.

Emperor Chongzhen pretended to return to the capital. Seeing the people blocking the road, he walked out of the cabin, stood on the platform, and shouted to the people kneeling all over the river, "My people! I am sorry to you. Everyone, I will not return to the capital. I will give it to the thieves and Jiannu to compete with the thieves. I will take you to Jiangnan with you!"

"Long live my emperor!"

"Long live!"

"Long live!"

There was a sound of mountains shouting long live on the river bank, and the people shouted excitedly. No need to go back to the north, their future lives are settled.

"Let's run away to Chen Mingxia!" Zhang Shuheng, who was depressed, came back to report without catching Chen Mingxia.

"Why did you run away for him?" Wang Chengen shook his head repeatedly.

Li Guodong sneered: "If you can run away, the monk can't run away! Chen Mingxia is from the Donglin Party of Jiangnan. His family has a lot of money, so he must have gone to surrender to the thieves! Don't worry, he will surrender to Jiannu again in a few days! When he arrives in Jiangnan, let the Jinyiwei search all the families of the gentry who surrendered to the enemy! In this way, His Majesty can earn another silver."

Chongzhen's big dragon ship turned around again and prepared to go south, but was only prepared to go south. The river channel ahead was blocked by a shipwreck, and the fleet could not get through at all.

"Li Aiqing, how long does it take to clear the wreck?" Chongzhen asked.

"Please rest assured, and leave it to me, just one day! We can set off again tomorrow morning." Li Guodong promised with confidence. The reason he was so confident was because he knew how to quickly clear the channel, just use mines to explode it. Although the black gunpowder and earth mines at this time were not very powerful, these inland river wooden boats were not strong. As long as the mine was dropped, the shipwreck could blow it into pieces of wood to float to the water surface, and the channel would be cleared.

Chongzhen asked again: "Parent Wang, Li Aiqing, you have killed many innocent people today. If this matter is spread, it may not be good, right? I am afraid that I will go to the south and the memorial to impeach you will drown me."

Wang Chengen knelt down and said, "Emperor! No matter who wants to stop you from going south, I will want his head!"

"Your Majesty!" Li Guodong also knelt down, "Most of these people are ship workers on the canal. They are sought to cause trouble. If they don't kill a few, the canal will be blocked. Your Majesty, you are not going to fall into the hands of the bandits, but you will fall into the hands of Jiannu! The gentry behind them actually blocked His Majesty's south hunting for their own selfish interests. In their eyes, there is no such thing as the Ming Dynasty and the Emperor of Ming Dynasty. When the bandits come, they surrender to the bandits; when the Jiannu comes, they surrender to Jiannu! Your Majesty, whether you are alive or dead, has nothing to do with them!"

"Civil officials and gentry are hateful, but the people are innocent." Chongzhen sighed.

"It is true that they were innocent people, but when they were exploited, they should pay the price for what they did. Moreover, the empress did not kill too much, but just made people target the gentry as much as possible. Scholars and merchants fought, killed a few, and scared away the others."

Then, Li Guodong told Chongzhen about the civil wars during the Wanli period. There were gentry behind it, especially Li Sancai. Li Sancai was rich enough to rival the country, but he protected those profiteers and made them evade taxes. There was also the matter of Lianghuai Salt Tax. During the Tianqi period, Lianghuai Salt Trading actually spent more than 20 million taels of silver every year in terms of taxation and handling official expenses, but the tax received by the court was only more than 2 million taels, and 90% of the silver fell into the pockets of corrupt officials. There was also the matter of Liao salary, which invested four or five million taels of silver every year. How much was actually in the hands of the soldiers? Most of the silver was greedy.

Is Guanning's Iron Cavalry powerful? In fact, it's just too bad. The Liaodong family colluded with civil servants, greedy for money, reselling supplies to the gold medal, and making a living...

"The tax loss in the Ming Dynasty has been severe, which has caused His Majesty and the people, but has made the officials and gentry rich." Li Guodong sighed.

Wang Chengen said angrily: "The emperor saves money, saves money from his teeth, those heartless things, even the money he saves from his teeth! When we arrive in Jiangnan and rebuild the East Factory, I will definitely let the corrupt officials know that my factory supervisor is not a vegetarian!"
Chapter completed!