That afternoon, Xia Song boarded a boat bound for Liangzhe Road.
Although he was a military officer, he was already sixty years old and could not withstand such bumps, so he had to go there by boat.
In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the looting and vandalism reached its peak on March 20th, but the various government offices responded quickly, arresting and expelling people. The riots lasted for two days before finally subsiding.
Seeing that the situation had become a serious matter, some landlords began to back down, while others felt relieved when they saw that the court only arrested those who smashed, looted and burned, and did not arrest people indiscriminately on a large scale.
On March 23, the third day after the riots, the four largest families in Suzhou, including Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei, and Zhang Ruohai, gathered in a restaurant on the Qiantang River east of Fuyang County, southwest of Hangzhou.
In addition to them, there are more than 40 landlords and gentry from Huzhou, Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Hangzhou, Runzhou, Jiangning Prefecture and other places, and they are all big landlords. It can be said that anyone who can sit here must have at least 30,000 acres of land under his name.
The three-story restaurant offers a breathtaking view of the Qiantang River from its rooftop. The riverbank is a riot of wild grass, weeds, and willow trees, swaying in the spring breeze. Listening to the murmur of the waves creates a sense of leisure and comfort.
But at this time, the patriarchs of the major families were not moved at all by the beautiful scenery outside the building. Everyone's face showed sadness, fear, hesitation or fearlessness. Everyone had their own thoughts and naturally could not appreciate the scenery.
They booked the entire third floor. The room was noisy and filled with whispers. Several familiar friends sat at their own tables, and their attention was mainly focused on the Suzhou landlords headed by Gong Xu and Pan Shi.
After all, they were the ones who started this matter. Now that things have gotten out of hand, once the imperial court investigates, they may have to be pushed to the forefront and become scapegoats.
The expressions of Gong Xu, Pan Shi, Wang Wei and Zhang Ruohai were actually very bad.
This is in the Song Dynasty.
Rebellion and uprising would not cause any trouble in the Song Dynasty.
So they had no intention of rebelling, they just wanted to accumulate strength, protest in the city, and put pressure on the court.
As a result, no one expected that it would be impossible to maintain order when there were so many people. In particular, some impulsive people, seeing that the government had been indifferent, became angry and started to smash, loot, burn, and even cause casualties.
This was something they could not have anticipated.
Just like during the reign of Emperor Qinzong of Song, at the beginning there were only more than 300 students protesting, but in the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of people in Bianliang took to the streets and beat to death more than 200 eunuchs.
Once the crowd gets large enough and the anger spreads, it will naturally lead to irreversible consequences.
"Cough cough cough"
Seeing the anxiety among the people in the building, Gong Xu had to step forward to calm the troops and said, "Everyone, I believe you all understand why you are sitting here. As long as the court does not abolish the land tax and the conscription of landowners, we will never have peace."
"If we lose all our efforts here, what will we do next? The taxes we have to pay are increasing, but the number of landowners helping us farm is decreasing. If this continues, the destruction of our family and clan will not be far away."
He looked around at everyone and continued, "So we can't give up just yet. We must continue to hold out against the government and absolutely cannot leave."
Many people present today have already begun to think about quitting.
Gong Xu and others had to keep them, because in addition to the fact that Gong Xu's demands were not responded to, more importantly, if everyone retreated, when the tide receded, the court would find that these people were swimming naked, and it would be a disaster if they were not arrested as examples.
Therefore, in order to retain the glimmer of hope that "the law does not punish the masses", he must unite people, otherwise they will suffer real consequences when the court comes to settle accounts with them after a while.
However, it is difficult to lead a team if morale is low.
Someone immediately said, "That's nice to say, but now something serious has happened. People have been beaten to death and a number of shops have been burned. Tell me, will the government be lenient in this matter?"
Gong Xu immediately said in a deep voice, "If someone is killed, the perpetrator must be handed over to atone for his crime. Compensation is also essential. We must not let the imperial court find us vulnerable. This matter is for all of us. If you do nothing, how can we remain safe?"
"this"
Everyone looked at each other in confusion, as he had hit the nail on the head.
It has to be said that these Suzhou landlords are quite capable, quickly turning public concerns into bargaining chips. After all, they are already on board, and whether they leave now or stay, they will find it difficult to escape if their demands are not met.
Because from the explicit point of view of the land tax, the taxes they bear will only become heavier and heavier, and they will feel suffocated. Not to mention the implicit point of view, if the tenants are taken away, who will help them farm the land?
If this continues, tens of thousands of acres of their land will become wasteland, and the imperial court can use the tenants to open up new fields and renovate the farmland without having to worry about farming problems at all.
Ultimately, what agricultural society lacks is not land, but people.
There are many farmlands in these millions of square kilometers. As long as someone has money, the imperial court can build canals to irrigate the fields again. They don't have any way to deal with these landlords.
But if the landlords had not worried in the past, because the imperial court had no money and most of the financial resources had to be put into the three redundancies, where would the money come from to repair water conservancy facilities?
It's different now.
The three redundancies problem has been solved, foreign trade revenue has increased significantly, business is booming, and national fiscal revenue is increasing day by day. There is plenty of money, and no matter what these landlords do, they can't compete with the entire country.
"So, according to Brother Gong, should we continue the protest?"
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