Several of Suzhou's largest landlords had initially planned to organize a riot, but were forced to abort their plan as Zhao Jun was cracking down on organized crime.
But after a year, they finally decided to make a huge splash again.
The reason was that their power at that time was not that strong. Relying solely on the landlords in Suzhou, they could not cause any trouble. In addition, the government was arresting people everywhere at that time, so they did not dare to act rashly.
However, after a year of observation, many people discovered that the government was indeed cracking down on gangs and evildoers. Anyone who formed a gang, ran rampant in the city, and oppressed the good people would be arrested.
Although there are bandits and bullies in the countryside, for example, many villages have village tyrants and township tyrants, but they are relatively rare in most southern villages.
The reason is that the clan concept is relatively strong in the south. With the clan leader and other respected people at the top, even if there are tyrannical people below, they often dare not bully people with the same surname, village and hometown.
As for the cases of clan leaders and elders bullying their own villagers, they are indeed rare, because southern clans often emphasize passing on poetry and etiquette from generation to generation, and clan leaders and elders must be fair and just to maintain their prestige, otherwise the clan members below will not obey them.
Therefore, even if there are some actions, they must use relatively fair means to deal with them. At most, they will do some small actions behind the scenes, but openly bullying, robbery, unprovoked beatings, violent coercion and other evil acts will not occur.
Therefore, with this kind of order maintained, there weren't many evil forces in the southern villages. Or perhaps there were, but due to clan values and the protection of fellow clansmen, not many people would report them.
The saying "if the people don't report, the officials won't investigate" applies to all cases. Even if these landlords have thugs at home, they usually disguise themselves as servants. The villagers, due to their wealth and power, naturally keep silent about them.
The landlords who were arrested by the imperial court were generally convicted for harboring fugitives. Most of the landlords were safe and sound and did not suffer any damage in this turmoil.
This also gave courage to the landlords.
As a land of fish and rice, Suzhou was the place with the most abundant grain production in the Song Dynasty, and the local landlords suffered the greatest losses.
The landlords headed by the four major families including Gong Xu felt that since the court was still fair and impartial and did not implicate them, did it mean that they could also reasonably pursue their demands?
And before, their power was too small.
But now, after a year of fermentation, the system of equalizing land tax has swept the entire Song Dynasty, seriously damaging the interests of landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
In this situation, as long as someone raises a call, I believe many landlords will choose to stand with them.
So Gong Xu and other landlords first discussed with other big landlords in Suzhou, then expanded their network, and contacted landlords in many places such as Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Hangzhou, Runzhou, and Jiangning Prefecture.
By March, many landlords responded and agreed to bring their men and horses to the Hangzhou Transport Commissioner's Office to protest.
In early March, the weather is clear and the air is fresh.
After a month of preparation, many landlords took action.
The landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, led by Gong Xu, decided to use diplomacy first and then force. They jointly petitioned the Transport Commissioner's Office, demanding the abolition of the land-based tax system.
There were more than 300 large landlords who owned tens of thousands of acres of land, and the rest of the small and medium-sized landlords who owned thousands to tens of thousands of acres, totaling more than 2,000 people, forming a huge force.
You should know that the total area of Liangzhe Road is only 70 million mu, of which Suzhou, Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Hangzhou, Runzhou, Jiangning Prefecture and other places have a total of more than 40 million mu.
The remaining fourteen prefectures, including Taizhou, Wenzhou, Muzhou, and Quzhou, have more mountainous areas and fewer acres of farmland, so their total area is only more than 20 million acres.
The total land owned by the landlords involved in this riot probably reached more than 10 million mu.
If calculated based on the 28-point ratio for land mergers, the landlords of all sizes in Jiangzhe Road, ranging from a few hundred acres to tens of thousands of acres, own nearly 30 million acres of land. The landlords who responded this time basically represent one-third of the landlords in the entire Jiangzhe Road.
Two or three thousand of their names were densely packed together and signed on it. They were all very influential landlords from all over the place. Small landlords who only had a few hundred acres of land were not even qualified to sign on it.
After receiving this petition, Du Qi, the transport commissioner of Jiangzhe Road, originally wanted to invite the leading landlords to have a good talk.
But when he thought about how he was a transport envoy and a high-ranking official, and how he had tried to negotiate with those people several times in a friendly manner, but they turned a deaf ear to him, he felt really embarrassed. So he ignored them and just sent someone to convey that the land tax distribution was the national policy of the court and could not be shaken, and told them to fend for themselves.
When the news reached the landowners in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, they were furious. They felt the imperial court was being too arrogant, not caring about the damage to their interests and even resorting to various means to seize their tenants.
This is intolerable.
So starting from March 10th, a large number of landlords brought their men and rushed to Hangzhou City.
They shouted and petitioned outside the offices of the Transportation Department, the Pacification Department, the Promotion Department, the Grain and Oil Department, and the Censorate. By March 15th, more and more people had gathered in Hangzhou, and there were actually tens of thousands of people.
Early in the morning of the 16th, the protest team entered the city from the Yuhang Gate in the north, and then people from all the streets poured in like a tide, blocking the entire street.
At the end of the Chen hour, a large number of people ran to Dawazi Street, and the traffic was temporarily blocked. Except for the boats at the water gates, the streets in other places were already packed with people, and it was difficult for people to pass through.
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