New Shun 1730

Lin Min had a good idea, but things soon went beyond his control.

Or, he really underestimated the degree of hooliganism and struggle experience of the students in the prefectures and counties of Suzhou, Songjiang, and other places south of the Yangtze River.

Just three days before the public trial of this matter, hundreds of students from Songjiang Prefecture came to the county town and directly fought with the students from Yangzhou Prefecture.

This time there were no professional thugs involved, because the identity hierarchy was there. But both sides were professional scholars who were engaged in fighting, and they made a living from this.

The two sides were evenly matched, but in the end Yangzhou Prefecture still lost.

The reason was also related to the cancellation of the military examination system for selecting "soldier kings" by Dashun. Dashun had long since cancelled the military examination system.

In history, because the military examination system was not cancelled. Yangzhou Prefecture had to compete with several prefectures in Jiangnan for a limited number of juren and jinshi, so it was difficult to win.

Therefore, Yangzhou Prefecture took a different approach, except for many military candidates.

However, because the Dashun abolished the military examination system, compared with the original history, Yangzhou had no chance to take the military examination, so the "martial virtue" of the students declined greatly.

On the contrary, in Jiangnan, the rogueization of scholars originated from the issue of the disbandment of conscripted soldiers after the Suzhou Prefecture's anti-Japanese war. The scholars became hooligans for a living.

Secondly, the Yanli School went south and was inherited by Yun Hesheng, Cheng Tingzuo and others. The beating methods inherited by the Yanli School from Baoding, Cangzhou and other places were also passed on. Although not much serious knowledge was passed down, a lot of street fighting methods were passed down.

This advance and retreat, coupled with the experience of the students' struggle in Yangzhou Prefecture in recent years, because the salt merchants did not like fighting and killing, and more people were thinking about how to paint, write plays, and write lyrics to please salt merchants and retired officials, there were fewer internal struggles, so they really couldn't win.

The students from Songjiang Prefecture, together with the invited rogue students from Suzhou Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture and other places, knew what was going on.

If this happened in Yangzhou City, they would not dare to go even if they had ten more courage. If they went, they would be beaten half to death and thrown out.

However, since it was not in Yangzhou City, but in the county town where the two sides were intertwined, what was there to be afraid of?

As for why the students from Songjiang Prefecture came to fight, this matter really had nothing to do with Liu Yu.

It had nothing to do with ideas.

It had nothing to do with beliefs.

It had nothing to do with whether to support scattered small salt households or intensive cotton plantations.

It was just about personal interests.

Salt monopoly.

Salt was something that everyone had to eat, even the emperor, it was impossible not to eat salt.

This thing was more profitable than opening a casino.

The salt industry under the monopoly, as well as the salt industry's transportation, sales, and logistics centers, could be regarded as "opening a casino."

If so.

Casinos are not allowed to be opened in the whole country.

But only one county and one prefecture are allowed to open casinos.

Then, it is a place that has always been dissatisfied with the central government and local autonomy and often beats county officials and prefects.

Because of this "exclusive license" qualification, there is a strict hierarchy under the feudal dynasty, and only students are qualified to make trouble.

If there is no such hierarchy, I am afraid that the people of the two counties and two prefectures will have to fight to the death.

The reason is the same.

What does it mean to abolish salt and change it to reclamation in Huainan?

It means that Yangzhou has directly lost its status as a salt logistics center and a salt financial center.

Haizhou is far away.

If you really want to make salt in Lianyungang, then the vast sales range of the original Lianghuai salt area such as southern Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan, and Hubei will still have to eat salt.

Then, salt must be shipped by sea, through Lianyungang, to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, it will be packaged, distributed, and transported.

Then, Shanghai will replace Yangzhou and become the financial center and logistics center of the salt industry.

What benefits does this bring to students?

Not to mention the students, even for the lower-class people, the benefits are too great.

What kind of life do the students in Yangzhou live?

A little bit of money from the big salt merchants is enough for many students to live a happy life.

It doesn't matter if you can't pass the imperial examination. As long as you have a skill, such as singing, writing poetry, painting, whoring, and playing, you may be able to please the big merchants and have no worries about food and clothing.

Even if you invest in a college, if the college is well built, the salt merchants will provide more subsidies. It is definitely not the turn of ordinary students to be the president of the college, which is one or two thousand taels, but the subsidy for tuition is better than elsewhere.

Just think about it. In history, after the decline of salt merchants, some salt merchants did not know how to make a living and had to rely on their wives to sell to make money. It can be seen how rich this is. If one is not rich, how can one be so extravagant that he can't do anything? This is a real Sufeng family, an orthodox Sufeng aristocratic style, because the aesthetic foundation of the aristocracy is to get something for nothing. One must not work at all to be considered as entering the threshold of the aristocracy.

These students in Songjiang Prefecture naturally hope that they can live such a good life. The more big merchants and wealthy merchants there are, the easier it is to eat leftovers.

The key is that the atmosphere in Songjiang Prefecture is not good now. Many of the merchants who have developed with Liu Yu's trade policy in recent years are either smugglers who risked their lives on the sea before, or those who made their first pot of gold by doing no-cost business before, or a group of people who think that making friends with scholars is useless and it is better to buy stocks.

They are stingy and not willing to spend money. Moreover, Liu Yu has been carrying out a bourgeois cultural revolution in Songjiang Prefecture, advocating frugal investment, advocating skills, and advocating starting from scratch.

This is completely different from the style of those big salt merchants.

Now, this is similar to "the only prefecture and county that allows casinos to open", wavering between Yangzhou and Songjiang. If the students of Songjiang Prefecture don't know the huge benefits, then it would be a ghost.

Haizhou is definitely impossible to be a logistics distribution center and financial center for the salt industry. After all, it is more convenient to go to Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui via the Yangtze River. And packing salt and shipping it to Songjiang Prefecture for repackaging is obviously also conducive to anti-smuggling. This is all obvious.

Songjiang Prefecture has gained too many benefits over the years, and the students know where the local interests are.

Fuzhou Prefecture has been dissatisfied more than once. Why must it be exported in Songjiang Prefecture? Why can't tea go directly to Fuzhou and be exported directly?

Guangzhou Prefecture has long been dissatisfied. Why should all the Western trading houses be moved to Songjiang Prefecture? Macau is certainly declining, but is Guangzhou Prefecture not declining? Now the Guangdong embroidery industry in Guangzhou has been rapidly declining because it cannot get Hu silk.

In recent years, Songjiang Prefecture has gained too many benefits with the policies given by the state and its status as the only exporter.

Even in the eyes of the students, the atmosphere is not good and they are reluctant to make friends with them. But even so, the leftovers are also very filling for them, and naturally they hope to get the profitable salt industry here.

Not to mention anything else, just a while ago, Liu Yu followed the idea of ​​the great Confucian scholars in the late Ming Dynasty and carried out urban expansion, which made many students make a fortune by relying on their own land and houses.

So, this matter...

To put it in a positive way, it can be blown up as "the awakening of the people and the land planting policy of the bourgeoisie supporting intensive development".

In fact, it is actually two groups that expect to eat the excess profits of the salt industry and compete for the position of the salt industry center.

This is essentially no different from the fight between the farmers in two villages for water sources.

It's just that the slogans shouted by both sides are a little disgusting.

The slogans of both sides are all in the name of the people.

On the Yangzhou side, they said that the reclamation company competed with the people for profits, and that the people should be allowed to have permanent property. For the real interests of the salt households, a strict feudal status inheritance system should be adopted. There should be a spirit of craftsmen, and the sons should inherit the father's business and make good salt for the craftsmen.

On the Songjiang side, it is said that the Yangzhou students shouted benevolence and righteousness, but in fact they were just selfish. For the real interests of the salt households, they should be allowed to get rid of the miserable salt household status and embrace freedom. Embrace the freedom to starve to death, embrace the freedom to work in the salt field, embrace the freedom to work as a coolie in the Nanyang plantation, and embrace the freedom to be sold to the indentured workers to make cotton strips and comb wool in Songjiang Prefecture.

As for the "people" they mentioned.

Some of them were beaten up by hooligans a while ago. Many elderly people who were wearing funeral clothes at that time are now recovering at home.

The other part was busy mowing the grass, as they could not decide what the future would be like. If they really could not reclaim the land, they had to cook salt quickly to exchange for rice for the next month.

Without the students, these "people" could not even fart, let alone speak.

Liu Yu, who held the army in his hands, did not allow the army to enter the city.

The county town had a few yamen runners, and on weekdays, the county students did not dare to intervene in the trouble. Now that the two sides were mixed together, more than a thousand students, scholars, and even Juren, who dared to intervene?

Fortunately, these students came to fight. Before the fight, they set up a broken boot formation and fought on both sides. They did not bump into the Jiedushi, nor did they force the Jiedushi to ask for an explanation.

Fortunately, after the two sides started fighting, Liu Yu led the soldiers into the city.

The students in Songjiang Prefecture had suffered losses from Liu Yu because of the previous land tax reform and other things.

They knew that Liu Yu really dared to do something dirty, and he really dared to let the army hit the scholars with the butts of the guns.

In the previous per-acre tax reform, land acreage inspection, and equal land tax events, students from Songjiang, Changzhou, and Suzhou formed a broken boot formation, which was broken by Liu Yu's cavalry, and he used advanced weapons - rubber sticks made of rubber introduced from Hainan and Nanyang.

In each county and prefecture, they defeated 150 people in total and defeated 13,000 people, achieving a record far exceeding the victory of Orgreave in later generations.

And because technology is the primary productive force, the saplings brought back by the expedition ship that year, now made into rubber sticks, can beat those students to tears, but without breaking bones, so no one died. Afterwards, the matter was done, and they were given sweet dates and tax refund subsidies, so it was fine.

It was useless to complain.

Therefore, when the students in Songjiang Prefecture saw Liu Yu bringing cavalry into the city again, they immediately dispersed after gaining the upper hand. Now that order has been restored, the students can't fight for the time being.