Chapter 343: Someone's Boycotting the Examination!

At this moment, Zhu Cilang was with Qian Qianyi, along with the two chief examiners of the special examination, Gong Dingzi and Wu Meicun, waiting atop the Mingyuan Tower to look over the examination papers.

That "Essay on Tax Collection Policy" was a topic set by the Crown Prince himself!

As for the Four Books, Five Classics, and eight-legged essays — anyone who could make it into the Jiangnan Examination Hall to sit the special examination wouldn't be too shabby. Of course, the truly outstanding were few. Eight-legged essays were easy enough to write, but how many men in over two hundred years of the Ming dynasty could truly be called great Confucian scholars? Only Wang Yangming, Chen Baisha, Zhan Ruoshui, and then Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, Wang Fuzhi, Sun Qifeng, and Li Yong. Among them, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and Wang Fuzhi were right now writing furiously in some corner of the Jiangnan Examination Hall! Who knew whether they would fiercely denounce Zhu Cilang, who was preparing to strictly levy commercial taxes?

But being cursed at on the examination papers wasn't what worried Zhu Cilang most. What worried him most was actually a collective boycott of the examination by the candidates — historically, in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, an "anti-tax weeping at the temple" treason case had erupted in the Suzhou area!

And the power of the southeastern scholar-officials today was nothing like what it had been in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi! Now that Zhu Cilang was openly and brazenly going to strictly levy commercial taxes, wasn't that poking a hornet's nest? Although he had already made many preparations beforehand, smearing the northern Tartar caitiffs again and again until they seemed no different from demons and monsters.

But could he rule out that some individual scholars of unyielding integrity simply refused to believe in evil? If people were still weeping at the temple as late as the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, would they really behave themselves now, in only the eighteenth year of Chongzhen?

"Master Qian," Zhu Cilang suddenly asked with a smile, "do you think anyone will boycott the examination and make trouble today?"

Boycott the examination?

Qian Qianyi's heart gave a jolt. He thought to himself: With the topic you set, it would be perfectly normal for someone to boycott and make trouble!

"Thousand Years," he said, his brow furrowing, "it's only the rashness of scholars. The scholars of Jiangnan are indeed a bit lacking in discipline, but their intentions are all good."

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang smiled. "Master Gong, Master Wu, what do you think?"

What did they think? Gong Dingzi and Wu Meicun exchanged glances, both drenched in cold sweat from head to face — Qian Qianyi had known that Zhu Cilang was going to introduce the topic of "strictly levying commercial taxes" at the special examination, but Gong Dingzi and Wu Meicun had only just found out, and were now in a state of extreme agitation!

The two of them were the chief examiners of this special examination! With such a topic appearing in the special examination, even if they hadn't set it themselves, the blame was inescapable. Wouldn't this make them public enemies of the scholarly world? Wouldn't it make them remnants of the eunuch faction?

Quite a few southeastern scholar-officials were already dissatisfied because of Zhu Cilang's investigation of military farmlands and official fields, and the five-year tax exemption. It was just that the tide of resisting the Qing and defending the faith was too strong right now, so their voices of discontent couldn't be raised very loudly.

But the move to strictly levy commercial taxes was simply too ruthless. Among the southeastern jinshi and juren, and even some xiucai with promising futures — whose family didn't have merchants registered under their names?

If commercial taxes were to be strictly levied, everyone's income would immediately shrink drastically. Cutting off a man's livelihood is like killing his parents! The scholars of the southeast were all filial sons — could they endure a hatred equivalent to killing their parents?

"Thousand Years, if there is a boycott and trouble-making, how should this subject respond?" Gong Dingzi knew all too well how ferocious Zhu Cilang was — he was also a hero of the hard times! He had bought a "road-passing decree" in Beijing, followed all the way from Dagukou, and had even helped the Crown Prince win over Qian Qianyi and abduct Zheng Damu. His merits were great, and although he hadn't been ennobled, he had received several hundred mu of merit farmland. But along the way he had also witnessed Zhu Cilang's cunning and ferocity.

Right now, his first fear was that the Crown Prince would unleash a massacre inside the Jiangnan Examination Hall! His second fear was that he himself would become the Crown Prince's scapegoat — not that he feared the Crown Prince would, like Chongzhen, take his head to placate public anger, but that he feared becoming the target upon which the southeastern scholars vented their resentment!

Zhu Cilang smiled without speaking, then looked at Wu Weiye, Wu Meicun.

Wu Meicun had been one of Zhu Cilang's teachers in earlier years, but in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen he had been transferred to the post of Provost of the Imperial Academy in Nanjing. By the seventeenth year, when he saw the cunning and ferocious Crown Prince again, he could hardly recognize him.

Now he was just as frantic as Gong Dingzi, and his background was even weaker than Gong Dingzi's — the man was at least a hero of the hard times!

"Your Highness," Wu Meicun said through gritted teeth, lowering his voice, "although the practice of registering property under others' names causes tax revenue to be lost, it also supports scholarly families and keeps the southeast peaceful and stable. If it is suddenly changed, I fear it will disturb the localities, and it will also be detrimental to resisting the caitiffs and defending the faith."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "No matter. The Tartar caitiffs won't be coming south for a while. Our hundred thousand new troops are just sitting idle with no battlefield to prove themselves on!"

What? Was this about to become a massacre? Wu Meicun drew in cold breath after cold breath, thinking: Could there already be musketeers lying in ambush outside the Jiangnan Examination Hall?

Zhu Cilang smiled. "Perhaps the scholars will be willing to pay commercial taxes. Master Wu, you are a scholar — would you be willing to pay commercial taxes?"

"This subject..." Wu Meicun stammered, "this subject's family does not engage in business."

Legitimate business, they did not do. But in Taicang Prefecture, many merchants and landowners had registered their properties and lands under Wu Weiye's name, and paid him quite a lot of protection money every year!

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang nodded, smiling. "Then We are relieved! We had originally thought to send word to the Suzhou Prefecture Supervising Censors Ji Kun and Pu Guanshui, but now it seems there's no need."

Don't! The word that needed to be sent still needed to be sent!

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Wu Meicun began trembling all over. Ji Kun — what kind of man was he! A notoriously cruel official. When investigating fields and clearing military farmlands in the two prefectures of Huai'an and Yangzhou, who knew how many military-registered scholar-official families he had driven to ruin!

And Pu Guanshui was no good person either. He came from a hereditary guard family of the Prince of Heng's household, holding a hereditary rank of Assistant Guard Commander. Later he had followed the Prince of Heng south, and in Yangzhou had been recruited by Zhang Shize into the Censorate as a Right-Ban Supervising Censor. He too was a cruel official. His investigations had left the guards of Huai'an and Yangzhou weeping for their fathers and mothers.

Now both of them had gone to Suzhou. What were they going to do? Were they going to investigate Suzhou's official fields, military farmlands, and commercial tax issues?

Just as Wu Meicun was at a loss as to how to beg Zhu Cilang for mercy, chaos had already broken out in the examination sheds below the Mingyuan Tower.

Sure enough, some candidates who couldn't write good essays were starting to make trouble! The topic Zhu Cilang had set was not easy to answer, and not everyone had the certainty of passing that Huang Zongxi and Luo Dagong possessed.

Since they couldn't pass, why not make a scene in the examination hall? They might even earn some prestige in the scholarly world!

The first to make trouble was Su Jin, a juren from Suzhou. His family ran a large weaving workshop in Suzhou with several hundred looms. His father had taken part in the Ge Xian uprising during the Wanli era! And from childhood he had known all about that tax-resistance struggle!

Back then it had still been an age of peace and prosperity. The tax eunuchs sent by the old Wanli Emperor hadn't even dared to strip scholars of their tax-exempt privileges, and had been left utterly humiliated. How much more so now?

It was true that the Crown Prince had troops, but would he really dare to unleash a massacre in the Jiangnan Examination Hall? Did he really not want the southeastern scholars anymore?

(End of Chapter)