Chapter 345: Only Traitors Oppose Levying Commercial Taxes

What? The eunuch faction opposes strictly levying commercial taxes?

This time it wasn't just Su Jin who was dumbfounded — most of the juren present were stunned too. Had these juren from Jiangxi and Hunan gotten the eunuch faction and the Donglin mixed up?

"Don't talk nonsense. How could the eunuch faction oppose levying commercial taxes?"

"Exactly! The eunuch faction has always used harsh levies and exorbitant taxes to curry favor with those above, while lining their own pockets at every turn and profiting from it."

"Back then, the eunuch faction's mining supervisors and tax supervisors ran rampant across the land — taxing where there was no market, demanding silver where there were no mines, poisoning the southeast and wreaking havoc everywhere!"

There were indeed juren who understood the situation, and they immediately began arguing with those muddle-headed Hunan and Jiangxi juren.

But at once even more men from Hunan, from Jiangxi, and even candidates speaking with Shandong accents joined the dispute.

"Utter nonsense! Back then, opening mining taxes and raising commercial taxes was to amass wealth for private greed. Now strictly levying commercial taxes is to protect the Confucian grove and defend the southeast — how can the two be lumped together?"

"Right! The eunuch faction today is colluding with the Tartars to destroy our Han realm, and to resist the barbarians we need money! Where does money come from? The court exempted taxes for three years to fight the roving bandits, and even exempted the southeastern people from the land tax for five years. If we don't go collect a little from the merchants, what will the court use to feed the troops? How can we defend the Han realm?"

"Right! If the court has no money to feed its troops, the Tartars will invade and seize our Han realm, and then we'll all be booi slaves of the Tartars! So only eunuch-faction traitors who have already gone over to the Tartars would oppose levying commercial taxes!"

Wonderful — now they've become eunuch-faction traitors!

A proper scholar, and just like that he's been smeared as a traitor.

Su Jin was instantly bewildered. Only now did he realize that being a leader of the scholarly world was not so easy, and he could barely speak: "I-I-I, I-I'm not a eunuch-faction traitor! Y-y-you, who are you people?"

"We are the Donglin successors!"

They were Donglin Faction men!

They were genuine Donglin Faction members, every one of them properly registered, having taken renowned Donglin scholars as their masters — imperial clansmen and Dengzhou talents. Not all of the "talents" selected in the Dengzhou special examination had stayed in Dengzhou; some had been assigned to various court offices as petty officials. Before this special examination, Zhu Cilang had selected from the imperial clansmen and Dengzhou talents in the capital a group of young men who were strong and fit and had a bit of literary flair, granted them juren status, and arranged for them to infiltrate the Donglin — all for this very scene!

"What? You are Donglin successors?"

"How could Donglin successors support harsh levies and exorbitant taxes?"

"Who is your teacher? Tell this old man — I am Fan Yiji of the Suzhou Restoration Society!"

Someone still raised doubts! And among them was a big figure of the Suzhou Restoration Society, the venerable Fan Yiji — an old veteran of the examination halls who had sat for the jinshi eight times and failed every time! Though he always failed the jinshi examination, he was still a juren, thank you very much! Moreover, when old juren Fan had fallen on hard times, he had worked as a tutor in the households of many Suzhou silk merchants, and many of his former pupils were now wealthy Suzhou merchants who naturally wanted to support their juren teacher. So the venerable Fan used his students' silver to socialize in scholarly circles, and he had become quite familiar with Jiangnan literary celebrities like Qian Qianyi, Huang Daozhou, and Zhu Shunshui.

So when young men who called themselves Donglin Faction members met him, they all had to address him as Master Fan and refer to themselves as his juniors!

And this Suzhou talent Su Jin was one of his early pupils — when the young talent was still a small child, he had studied the Three Character Classic under Master Fan. Later, after Su passed the juren examination, he still greatly respected his "elementary teacher," and now Master Fan, seeing his good student being bullied, could not help but step forward.

"So you're that heartless old scoundrel Fan!" A "Wugang talent" with a Hunan accent immediately jumped up and pointed at Fan Yiji. "He's the eunuch-faction traitor, old scoundrel Fan!"

"Hit him!"

"Beat him to death!"

"Hit him, hit him, hit him!"

Wonderful — now it's a chorus of shouts to beat him!

No, not just shouts — they actually started hitting! A young, strong Shandong juren struck first, lunging forward and grabbing the venerable Fan's beard, then slapping him hard across the face. The blow made old Fan see stars, tore out a handful of his beard, and left a burning, stinging pain on his right cheek.

The old man had never suffered such a loss in his life. Completely stunned, he clutched his face and stared in terror at the "warrior-type juren" who had struck him, barely able to speak: "Y-y-you — how dare you hit someone?"

"Yes, how dare you hit someone?"

"How could you hit someone?"

"This is the Jiangnan Examination Hall — how dare you hit someone here?"

Immediately people stepped forward to defend the venerable Fan. After all, he was a celebrity of the Suzhou scholarly world — he could not be struck!

"We're hitting a eunuch-faction traitor!"

"Right! Traitors deserve to be beaten!"

"If you're helping him, are you his accomplices?"

The group doing the beating grew even more aggressive, rolling up their sleeves and looking ready to start a full-scale brawl!

A protest on behalf of the people against harsh levies and exorbitant taxes was about to turn into a mass brawl — and juren fighting juren at that, in the Jiangnan Examination Hall where the Ministry of Rites examinations were held. This was truly a disgrace to all scholarship.

The candidates gathered below Mingyuan Tower were all somewhat stunned. They had come to sit the civil jinshi examination, not the military jinshi examination — what was all this fighting about?

Besides, hadn't they all gathered below Mingyuan Tower to protest the court's harsh levies and exorbitant taxes? How was it that before the court's corrupt officials had even appeared, the juren had started fighting among themselves? How did one even reckon a battle of juren against juren? And who would the beaten ones complain to?

"Hit, hit, hit!"

"Beat the eunuch-faction traitors to death!"

"Fight!"

Below Mingyuan Tower, two or three hundred warrior-like juren from Hunan, Jiangxi, and Shandong shouted to fight in unison, badly frightening the other juren who had gathered to raise a ruckus. This batch of rough juren — who knew what had gotten into them — seeing that the troublemakers below Mingyuan Tower had been cowed, grew even more arrogant, howling as they lunged forward looking for someone to fight.

This thoroughly frightened the gentlemen who only used their mouths and never their fists, and they fled in all directions clutching their heads, shouting as they ran: "Stop fighting, stop fighting — I'm not a eunuch-faction traitor!"

The scene unfolding below Mingyuan Tower was witnessed directly by Zhu Cilang, Wu Meicun, Gong Dingzi, and Qian Qianyi, who had just been revived.

"Good, good, good — there are indeed juren who understand reason!" Zhu Cilang glanced back at the pale-faced Qian Qianyi. "Teacher, why don't you go downstairs and take 100 musketeers on an inspection tour? By the way, that juren Su from Suzhou and juren Fan might be eunuch-faction traitors. Do you think we should have the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigate them?"

Qian Qianyi knew Fan Yiji, and they were on very good terms, so he certainly knew Fan could not be of the eunuch faction. But he did not dare shield his old friend too openly, so he could only say weakly: "No need to investigate. Just strip them of their juren degrees."

"And that juren Su?"

"Strip him too — strip his degree as well."

Zhu Cilang was satisfied and nodded: "Good, strip them of their degrees. Teacher, you are the leader of the Donglin — why don't you deliver the news to them yourself?"

(End of Chapter)