Li Zhi, don't be a coward

Now that you have confessed your cowardice to the court, you must be more thorough and don't become a wallflower, seemingly trying to please both sides, but actually offending both sides.

As the head of the Lu family, Lu Songxi has lived for a long time and has a thorough understanding of the ways of the world.

The person who kneels the fastest may be spineless, but he must be a smart person.

Smart people don't do stupid things.

After hearing Lu Songxi's statement, the other family heads cursed secretly in their hearts.

You're just kneeling down, why are you dragging us into this?
You have already expressed your stance on growing sweet potatoes, what should we do?No room for change at all.

After Lu Songxi finished speaking, he immediately received angry looks.

However, Li Qinzai said happily: "The head of the Lu family has a deep understanding of justice and knows right from wrong. The emperor will be very pleased when he hears this. I can guarantee you that planting sweet potatoes will not let you down. The yield after autumn will definitely be enough for you." surprise."

Hearing this, the other family heads looked at each other quickly, sighed secretly, and had no choice but to stand up and express their stance. They all expressed their willingness to use [-]% of their land to grow sweet potatoes in response to the imperial decree.

The family heads are not ignorant people. They have already learned about the magic of sweet potatoes from other states and counties. The yield of this thing is indeed extremely high. The imperial court promotes the planting of sweet potatoes and has no intention of harming them.

The reason for rejecting Prince Teng's promotion before was because the heads of the famous families in the south of the Yangtze River planned to use the cultivation of sweet potatoes to influence the court and build momentum for themselves, so as to achieve the purpose of making the emperor jealous and gain more chips to protect their family's fortune. .

It’s not the sweet potato that’s wrong, it’s the human heart.

But now the situation has reversed. With the demise of the Zhu family, Li Qinzai has used the power of thunder to frighten the major families. It is not only meaningless to use sweet potato cultivation to manipulate the court, but also lead to death for the family.

Seeing that all the family heads had expressed their stance, Li Qinzai was even more delighted and nodded repeatedly to express his appreciation for the profound righteousness of the family heads.

Including Lu Songxi, the family heads expressed their opinions while carefully observing their words.

At first, everyone thought that Li Qinzai's purpose in going to Jiangnan was to use strong methods to promote the planting of sweet potatoes.

But with the sudden demise of the Zhu family, the family heads gradually understood that Li Qin's visit to Jiangnan was probably not just for sweet potatoes, but must have other purposes, and this purpose was more important than growing sweet potatoes.

Now that everyone has expressed their stance, it is also a test for Li Qinzai.

We have all agreed to plant sweet potatoes, and your apparent task has been completed. So, are you leaving or not?

If you don't leave, you should tell the truth. What do you want to do in Jiangnan?
Of course, Li Qinzai also saw what everyone was thinking, so after toasting everyone with a glass of wine again, he calmly took out a few pages from his arms and distributed them to everyone.

Everyone took it curiously, looked down, and their expressions suddenly changed. They were shocked, angry, and afraid to speak, which made the expressions on their faces a little distorted at this moment.

Li Qinzai smiled and said: "The matter about Zhu has been revealed, and the matter of planting sweet potatoes has also been settled. Now let's talk about the third thing."

"These pages are the results of Baiqisi's investigation. First of all, I want to express my admiration to you. The heritage of the famous families for hundreds of years is really extraordinary. The land under each family's name ranges from more than 30 acres to as many as More than [-] acres, tsk! Amazing!"

The face of the head of the Yu family in Kuaiji became more and more ugly, but he had to force a smile and said: "This is all the result of the painstaking efforts of our ancestors for more than ten generations. It makes Duke Li laugh."

Li Qinzai nodded with a smile and said: "My ancestors have worked hard, yes, and you deserve it. Don't misunderstand me, the court has no other intentions, let alone touch any land of each family..."

After hearing this, all the family heads quietly breathed a sigh of relief, and then they realized that a layer of cold sweat had formed on their foreheads.

They are just afraid that the imperial court will care about each family's land, which is the lifeblood of the seven prominent families. If the imperial court really wants the land, they will have no choice but to fight with the imperial court. Unless it is a last resort, who wants to openly quarrel with the imperial court?Today's Tang Dynasty is not the period of Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty has become more and more powerful in terms of military strength and has terrifying and sharp new firearms. In recent years, it has swept through neighboring countries without any rivals. It is no longer a period where aristocratic families can overthrow a dynasty with a single shout. .

So now even if the family members unite to rebel, the chances of winning may not be too high.

Just when everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, Li Qinzai still smiled and said: "The court will not care about the land under the names of various families, but..."

After a pause in his tone, Li Qinzai's smile gradually became colder: "However, there is a huge gap between the land actually owned by the families and the land reported to the court."

Everyone's expressions were frozen again.

Li Qinzai said slowly and authentically: "For example, the Gu family in Wu County actually owns 42 acres of land, but the figure reported to the imperial household department is 12 acres."

"The Yu family in Kuaiji actually owns 51 acres of land, but the number reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs is 15 acres..."

Li Qinzai called the names one by one, and everyone's faces were covered in cold sweat again.

At this moment, everyone was feeling shocked and angry.

Finally, we know what Li Qinzai's real purpose is in going to Jiangnan. The so-called planting of sweet potatoes is just a cover. His fundamental purpose is to touch the core interests of the seven prominent families.

land!

Is this something you can touch?
The harmonious atmosphere became cold again, and the air was filled with suffocating dullness.

Li Qinzai was completely unaware. After calling the names one by one, he still said with a smile on his face: "Everyone, are there any mistakes in the numbers I just mentioned? If I made a mistake, feel free to point it out and I will correct it immediately."

No one said anything, no one raised any objection.

The numbers that Baiqisi found out were useless no matter how they tried to quibble. People of the Ming Dynasty did not tell secrets. If they continued to deny it at this time, it would be a loss of dignity for the head of a prominent family.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Qinzai smiled and said: "Since the numbers are correct, I want to ask you something..."

"The land figures you reported to the Ministry of Revenue are seriously inconsistent with the facts. The difference is very different. So...the taxes paid by the seven prominent families to the imperial court in recent years have also been greatly discounted. How should this account be calculated?"

Li Qinzai looked at them and sneered.

The most direct consequence of land annexation must be that large landowners conceal their land acres. When land is concentrated in the hands of a very small group of people, a very magical thing will happen, that is, the number of land acres in the world will become less and less. All were lost naturally.

There are fewer acres of land, and correspondingly, the taxes paid to the court every year from various places will of course also be smaller.

This is one of the bad consequences of land annexation. Why did emperors of all dynasties try their best to prevent or delay land annexation?
Because when land is concentrated in the hands of a small number of people, most of these people are powerful people. They have the strength and connections to conceal the number of acres of land from the government in order to achieve the purpose of paying less taxes.

Therefore, the consequences of land annexation directly affected the revenue of the imperial treasury. In other words, the core interests of the imperial court were violated.

In the middle and late stages of each dynasty, the treasury was very poor and could not afford to fight wars, provide disaster relief, or build river embankments. All kinds of problems were highlighted. The court became increasingly powerless, while the big landowners became increasingly powerless. Wealth, these are the chain consequences of land annexation.

But now, Li Qinzai directly pierced the window paper in front of everyone.