Among the disciples, Wu Dui had opposed the conspiracy from the start and had remained silent during this period.
At this moment,
Sun Ying'ao's article had spread throughout the land, and Prince Yu was kneeling long before the Jade Purity Palace. This indicated that the Emperor might be willing to compromise. Judging by the teacher's tone, he seemed to have more in mind. If things continued like this, these people would not end well. Even for self-preservation, he should say something. Thus, he coughed and said,
"Esteemed Teacher, since the Emperor has already expressed his stance, we should still be cautious. The case handled by Minister Yin is unlikely to have any flaws. As for the rest, we have not stepped forward, so others naturally have nothing to say. The current situation is that we can rely entirely on the Emperor's decree and not concern ourselves with anything else..."
His intention was that the Emperor was very reluctant to compromise at this time, but was forced to do so. The person who played a key role in this was his teacher, Gao Gong. If they were to provoke further trouble, there would be no good outcome. Moreover, this time his teacher had joined forces with the Yan family. Although neither side could find any leverage, it would be very passive if the court officials started to gossip. Therefore, these words were a form of persuasion, reminding his teacher, Gao Gong, not to be too aggressive.
Gao Gong had long expected him to say this and did not want to pay attention to it, but calmly said,
"That is natural. I said earlier that I wanted to make both families suffer. Now Zhu Mo is finished, but we cannot let the Yan family win either! You, the ones I assigned to monitor the Yan family, have you found anything?"
Lu Huang, his most trusted confidant, had already asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate. At this moment, he said joyfully,
"Esteemed Teacher, we have found that Yan Shifan gave Sun Ying'ao a residence in the west city, as well as one thousand taels of silver deposited in the Xiantong Bank..."
Gao Gong was overjoyed and clapped his hands, saying,
"Good! Daohan is a man of action! What about the rest of you, do you have anything else?"
Yang Zongqi, his peer, also said with a smile,
"Prime Minister, I have also found something... uh, that petition by a hundred scholars was arranged by the Yan family's accountant, Yan Nian. We have also obtained evidence from several censors who acted as intermediaries."
Good!
Gao Gong repeatedly exclaimed "Good!", and everyone else also clapped their hands in agreement.
But at the same time,
Everyone was both delighted and fearful. After all, daring to deal with the Yan family like this was extremely dangerous. For example, Zhu Mo was a clear example of this.
Everyone also believed that Yan Song would definitely fulfill his promise and recommend Gao Gong as the next Grand Secretary. However, they were not foolish. The thought that this Grand Secretary was obtained by forcing Zhu Mo made them feel uneasy. After all, it was an open secret that the Emperor supported Zhu Mo's reforms. To put it bluntly, would the Emperor be harboring resentment?
Therefore,
Although things were progressing smoothly, an uneasy atmosphere always permeated Gao Gong's study.
Gao Gong, as a man of his stature, naturally understood this, but since he dared to act, he had the confidence. He immediately said sternly,
"You need not worry... Think about it, compared to Yan Song, is my tenure as Grand Secretary not several times better? You must know that the Emperor's true great hidden danger is still Yan Song... Is it not clear that my emergence to replace Yan Song is beneficial or detrimental to the imperial court? The Emperor, I believe, is still happy..."
He then looked at Wu Dui and Yang Zongqi again, shook his head, and smiled,
"You, all of you, are never as good as Yin Yangshi... Think about it, firstly, compared to Yan Song, I have no ambition to dominate the court; secondly, I would naturally not strip the common people bare like Yan Song... The Emperor is a wise ruler of his generation. He naturally knows what is important and what is not, and what is right and what is wrong!"
Everyone naturally agreed and nodded.
Wu Dui, however, thought: Of course, the words can be spoken like this, but the Emperor is not a fool. Does he not see that you are the one causing trouble? With this rift, how can you be Grand Secretary? How can you govern the country? You say you have no ambition to dominate the court, but forcing the Emperor to accept this, what is the difference between that and dominating the court?
However, he did not know that
Gao Gong already had a fallback plan, and his thoughts at this moment were very clear:
In a few days, I will hand over the evidence of the Yan family instigating the gentry to Lu Bing of the Imperial Guard, and have Lu Bing deliver it to Lü Fang. The Emperor will naturally understand.
At that time, I will write a memorial of grievances and present it to the Emperor personally, explaining my painstaking efforts and loyalty. The Emperor will then have no lingering doubts... In fact, in the end, who has he ever truly trusted? Was Yan Song not used to suppress the officials? At this time, if I express my willingness to be his bludgeon, what else would he not agree to...?
These words,
He naturally would not say them, but Wu Dui was so annoying. Thinking of this, he quietly gave Lu Huang a look.
Lu Huang immediately said to Wu Dui, "Brother Junze, is not everything our esteemed teacher has done for the sake of the world...? Even if he used a temporary measure, is the ultimate goal not righteous? If you are always hesitant, how can you save the common people? Is this not why we study?"
Wu Dui sighed inwardly, truly speechless.
...
On this day,
Zhu Mo chatted with Lü Kun at length about He Xinyin and read some of He Xinyin's letters to Lü Kun, gaining a deeper understanding of the true plight of the common people in the Great Ming.
After the twentieth year of Jiajing, when Yan Song held power, he not only bled the people dry but also sent his wicked servants and retainers all over the land. Even if you were a local gentry, you could be beaten arbitrarily, with no recourse for justice. The only way out for the gentry of the land was to attach themselves to the Yan family. If they dared to resist even slightly, they would be branded as traitors, their families confiscated, and their children enslaved. For twenty years, there was no end to such suffering. Below them, the commoners and lowly people were naturally even more miserable.
In fact, there were not as many contract slaves in Jiangnan originally. Most of them appeared only in the last twenty years. Among these contract slaves, except for the Tanka people, most of them still had land. The reason they sold themselves into slavery later was mostly because they could not repay their debts, meaning they were debt slaves. First, they mortgaged their land, then their houses, and finally, they sold themselves into slavery. And these creditors were often Yan family associates.
Concurrently with the trend of contract slaves, a manorial economy based on household retainers was emerging. For example, in Nanxun, where the incident in Huzhou occurred this time, the family of Dong Fen, the Minister of Rites, occupied nearly seventy to eighty percent of the wealth. When one of his maids got married, Dong Fen actually gave her a hundred houses as dowry!
Not only that, but in recent years, they had gradually begun to establish armed retainers. Zhu Mo knew of the Yan family's four major retainers, Fu, Lu, Shou, and Xi, and their chief accountant, Yan Nian, who often roamed the land with their retainer forces. There were many more that Zhu Mo did not know about, such as Dong Fen's retainers, who numbered over a hundred. Nanxun Town could be said to be entirely Dong Fen's private territory. The reason Dong Fen could achieve all this was not only due to his position as Minister but also because he was on good terms with Yan Song and catered to Yan Shifan's preferences, making him a staunch supporter of the Yan family.
The plight of the commoners and lowly people was different from what those esteemed scholars said. Generally, esteemed scholars say that farmers surrendered their land to the gentry to avoid taxes. In reality, their land was truly gone, and they had no choice but to surrender it. If you didn't, the entire tax burden of a village would fall upon you, and you wouldn't be able to pay it off in several lifetimes. And once you surrendered it, if you wanted to get it back, you had to pay money, and this money would be an amount you could not afford.
The households in Nanxun who surrendered their land also caused trouble this time because they wanted to take this opportunity to withdraw their land from the Dong family. However, Dong family's eldest son demanded a large fee for the surrender. They could not afford the money, so they could not get their land back, and thus missed the opportunity to change to planting mulberry seedlings as per Zhu Mo's reforms, which led to the escalation of the situation.