He looked at the portrait in his hand, back and forth, his mind filled with nothing but anxiety and frustration.
The authenticity of the small inscription at the end was not particularly important, because with the Qianlong Emperor playing his turtle-shrinking tactics, there were no less than eighty descendants of Emperor Hongwu and fifth-generation descendants of Emperor Chongzhen in this world, if not a hundred. The number of big bosses was neither more nor less.
To put it bluntly, the key to the problem lay in the image of Confucius on this portrait and the inscriptions.
Zeng Cheng never expected that Zhu Jinsong, the big boss, would present such a portrait, nor that the big boss would write those inscriptions.
More crucially, since the big boss presented such a portrait, what were his intentions?
Was it simply to step on the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion?
Don't even talk about Zeng Cheng, an old fox who had served as the prefect of Tai'an Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty, not believing such nonsense. Even if all the fools in Jinan Prefecture were gathered together, they probably wouldn't believe it.
After a period of agonizing deliberation, Zeng Cheng, while pondering Zhu Jinsong's intentions, passed the portrait to the next person.
The subsequent situation was essentially a reenactment of what Zhu Erdan and Zeng Cheng saw upon seeing the portrait—even though many people in the room couldn't read many characters, the image of Confucius on the portrait was there for all to see.
After the portrait had been passed around to everyone, it returned to Zhu Jinsong's hands.
Zhu Jinsong cast another reluctant glance at it, then, with a heavy heart and gritted teeth, handed the portrait to Ke Zhiming and instructed, "Send someone to deliver it to the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion at top speed."
Seeing Ke Zhiming about to leave with the portrait, Zeng Cheng quickly stood up, intending to stop him: "Hold on, Leader Ke! Big Boss, please reconsider. It's fine if this portrait gets out, but what if this painting only stays within the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion and is buried with Kong Xianpei? Then this, this..."
But Zeng Cheng couldn't stop Ke Zhiming.
Since becoming the overt intelligence chief of the Liangshan Uprising Group, Ke Zhiming, the former leader of the Tiandihui, had learned a lot from the remnants of the Jinyiwei. The most important lesson was that an intelligence chief did not need to have his own thoughts.
For Ke Zhiming, he only needed to carry out Zhu Jinsong's instructions flawlessly. The rest was completely outside his scope of consideration.
Therefore, Ke Zhiming paid no attention to Zeng Cheng's obstruction and instead directly took the portrait and turned out of the room.
After Ke Zhiming left and returned, Zhu Jinsong looked at Zeng Cheng and smiled, "Prefect Zeng, don't worry. It's just a portrait, nothing major."
Zeng Cheng thought, you're clearly planning to force the Yan Sheng Gong Kong Xianpei to his death, and you call this nothing major? Don't you know how all the scholars in the world will view our Liangshan Uprising Group after Kong Xianpei, the Yan Sheng Gong, dies?
Moreover, if even this is considered nothing major, then what would be considered major? Would it only be considered major if the entire Yan Sheng Gong Mansion was wiped out?
While Zeng Cheng was silently complaining, Zhu Jinsong continued, "We have another piece of intelligence from the Tiandihui here, everyone can take a look."
After speaking, Zhu Jinsong motioned for Ke Zhiming to give the intelligence to the others.
The content of this intelligence was not much. When Zeng Cheng took it and glanced at it briefly, he finished reading the information and understood why Zhu Jinsong was so determined to force Kong Xianpei, the Yan Sheng Gong, to his death.
Because the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion controlled as much as nine-tenths of the land in Qufu County!
How many people were there in Qufu County? How much land was there in Qufu County? If the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion held nine-tenths of the land, how many people were in the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion? How much land could the remaining people get? What would those who couldn't get land do?
Even Zeng Cheng, an old fox who had served as the prefect of Tai'an Prefecture in the Qing Dynasty, did not expect the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion to be so adept at exploitation in Qufu County, even more so than many prefects and governors in our Qing Dynasty!
For a moment, Zeng Cheng didn't know what to say.
Looking at the silent leaders, Zhu Jinsong tapped the table with his fingers and said, "Jin Lai surrendered to Jin, Yuan Lai surrendered to Yuan, Qing Lai surrendered to Qing. Such a Yan Sheng Gong Mansion is a disgrace to Confucius."
"Don't look at Kong Xianpei now eagerly presenting us with this congratulatory memorial. To put it bluntly, what if our Liangshan loses the hearts of the people one day? What if another ethnic group like the Qing Dynasty invades from the south? Will the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion eagerly present a congratulatory memorial to the newcomer?"
"From Confucius's perspective, the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion not upholding the distinction between Hua and Yi is unfilial."
"From the perspective of Neo-Confucianism, the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion not upholding the principle of ruler and subject is disloyal."
"Occupying a large amount of land in Yanzhou Prefecture and disregarding the lives of the common people is inhumane."
"Previously, Chen Tailai treated the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion with great favor, yet the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion stood by and watched Chen Tailai's defeat, and then eagerly presented us with a congratulatory memorial. This is unjust."
"How can such a disloyal, unfilial, inhumane, and unjust person be a role model for scholars?"
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's words, Zeng Cheng and the others fell silent, while Zhu Erdan and the others felt that Zhu Jinsong's scolding was truly satisfying and exhilarating!
Zhu Erdan exclaimed, "Big Brother is right! The reason those Qing officials are so brazen in oppressing the people is that the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion, which claims to be a role model for scholars, is fundamentally corrupt!"
Liu Heming also grunted, "At the time of the Ming Dynasty's fall, many officials and scholars died for the country. Only the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion, which claims to be a role model for scholars, first presented a congratulatory memorial to the Qing, and then presented a 'Queue-Shaving Memorial' to the Tartars. Not only did it disgrace Confucius, but it also disgraced the scholars of the Great Ming Dynasty."
Regarding the "Queue-Shaving Memorial" mentioned by Liu Heming, Zeng Cheng and others who had served as officials or had studied understood what it was about.
At that time, the sixty-fourth-generation Yan Sheng Gong, Kong Yanzhi, after presenting the "Congratulatory Memorial," thought that everything was auspicious and the Kong family would continue to enjoy prosperity. However, the Sun Zhihuang Emperor of the Qing Dynasty was not satisfied and demanded that the Kong family take the lead in shaving their heads, acting as a vanguard and model. Thus, Kong Yanzhi presented the "Memorial on Queue Shaving."
"Upon receiving the imperial decree, I immediately summoned all my female relatives and concubines of the Kong family, as well as my various mistresses, and had their heads shaved. I also took photographs as evidence. Thank you, Your Majesty, for giving our Kong family a new hairstyle. It's great, it's much more convenient to wash my hair, and I should have shaved it long ago."
Seeing that Zeng Cheng and the others had fallen silent, Zhu Jinsong smiled and said, "There's no need to worry too much about the issue of the portrait."
Zhu Jinsong understood that Zeng Cheng and the others did not care much about the fate of the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion. Whether they had tried to persuade him to accept the congratulatory memorial or to dissuade him from taking action against the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion before, it was all because they were worried that the reputation of forcing the Yan Sheng Gong would spread and affect the image of the Liangshan Uprising Group in the hearts of the people.
Their intentions were good, but unfortunately, these people had confused the concepts of scholars and the common people.
Even among scholars, not everyone looked favorably upon the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion, let alone the common people.
Zhu Jinsong chuckled and looked at Zeng Cheng, asking, "Prefect Zeng, you were a prefect. Let me ask you a question: when you were the prefect, were there more illiterate common people in Tai'an Prefecture, or more literate scholars?"
Upon being asked this by Zhu Jinsong, Zeng Cheng immediately understood.
Let alone Tai'an Prefecture, even across the entire country, if one counted anyone who had read the Four Books and Five Classics as a scholar, there were only a few million, even less than ten million.
Even if one included those who recognized their names and could read some storybooks, there were only about ten to twenty million among the entire population of three hundred million.
The vast majority were ordinary people who couldn't even recognize a single character, let alone worry about having enough to eat.
For the common people who struggled to get enough to eat, would they care about the fate of the Yan Sheng Gong Mansion?
After understanding the problem, Zeng Cheng no longer tried to persuade him and instead shifted the topic to the refugees from Zhili who had fled to Shandong.
"More and more people are coming from Zhili. A few days ago, it was only hundreds or thousands a day, but now, tens of thousands of people are pouring in from Zhili every day."
"The Tatar court is truly inhumane. Nearly ten million people were not only driven out, but their grain was also largely plundered. The meager remaining rations were only enough to sustain them until Jinan Prefecture."
"The Tartars are really resorting to any means necessary to deal with us Liangshan."
Zhu Jinsong thought, this is nothing yet!
This is because the Eight Banners and Green Standard Army soldiers are not effective. If it were the early years of my Qing Dynasty's entry into the pass, you would see!
If it were the early years of my Qing Dynasty's entry into the pass, my Qing court might not have chosen to drive the common people to Shandong to deplete the Liangshan Uprising Group, but would have chosen the simplest and most direct method: to slaughter the entire Shandong to deter the world.
But then again, the Qianlong Emperor's current shrinking turtle tactic is indeed a troublesome problem for the entire Liangshan Uprising Group.
Setting aside everything else, the problems of food and accommodation alone are enough to give Zhu Jinsong and the leaders of the Liangshan Uprising Group a headache.
Let's do a simple math problem:
In the Qianlong era, the Qing Dynasty had eighteen provinces. At that time, the total population was three hundred million, so the population per province was about sixteen million. If half of the refugees from Zhili were sent to Shandong, that would be eight million. If Shandong, which already had a population of sixteen million, had another eight million added, what problems would arise?
The Shandong of my Qing Dynasty was not the Shandong of today's China. The productivity at this time was limited. Industrial and light industry were basically bullshit. The people of Shandong were already having a hard time, and now with nearly ten million more people...
What would they eat? Sweet potatoes? Even if they ate sweet potatoes, they would first need to have enough sweet potatoes to eat.
Where would they live? Huts? According to the Qing calendar, it was only the spring of the fiftieth year of Qianlong. The daytime temperature was acceptable, but at night, it could freeze dogs to death. How would they live?