As soon as these words were heard, Chen Wenteng stood up and turned around, looking at the little woman who was obviously stunned by his actions at this moment.

"A historical writing is full of fame, but it can be ruled even if it is not successful; a great kindness cannot avenge the country."

For the scholar-officials in the Southern Ming Dynasty, what more people in later generations saw were the heroism and incompetence of Shi Kefa, Zhang Huangyan's tenacity and indomitableness, Du Yinxi's lack of ability to turn things around, Hong Chengchou's work as a tiger, Qian Qianyi's "water is too cold" and "scalp itch". What he saw more was the unyielding death after being captured, rather than the stupidity and selfishness during his administration in Huguang, and the consequences of all this.

Through history, Chen Wen was mentally prepared, but he was excluded by Feng Jingdi as the name of remnants of the eunuch party and betrayed by Cao Conglong on the grounds of being disloyal to the king of Lu. He was even more prosecuted to recruit talents again and again. Most of the people who were willing to serve the Ming army were just childish students and scholars without fame. However, those "local virtuous" who enjoy preferential policies often ignore them and would rather hold them at home than come out to serve the Ming army. Even Lu Liuliang's articles have begun to be widely circulated within the area controlled by the Ming army in Zhejiang. The indifferent people felt disgusted and even felt difficult to breathe.

In contrast, Qian Qianyi, who was scolded in later generations, and Lu Yuding, who was rarely known to others, would carry tickets ranging from 100,000 taels and as little as more than 10,000 taels every time they came. Even Huang Zongxi, who had been wanted by the Qing Dynasty for many years, was trying his best to collect information in order to enable this Ming army in Zhejiang to develop as soon as possible to save the collapse of this world!

Of course, they are the minority after all. More gentry who came to Praise the military supplies were rich in their hometowns, but once they came here, they might even be less than ten taels of silver or even less than the travel expenses. They could also take advantage of their family background and say that they were poor. But even so, Chen Wen never discriminated against him, and never stingy with thanks. He was even more recorded and remembered with this "poor" support. Because whether he was willing to contribute his strength is a matter of attitude and some of it is a matter of ability. It is always much better than those who did nothing.

Everyone has their own ambitions, and this is understandable, but some people are unwilling to do their part in this critical moment and enjoy preferential treatment regulations. They also have to dig out the corners of the Ming army in Zhejiang in terms of taxation. They pick up chopsticks to eat, put down their chopsticks to curse. This is really unkind.

People exist as individuals, and it is very normal for different people from the same class to appear. However, Zhou Yueying's family is also a scholar-class, a lady and talented woman raised by a gentleman's family, but she thinks that her husband is too ruthless to those peers in the same class as her family. Such remarks that transcend the class position really scared Chen Wen.

"I have made a mistake, and I hope my husband will forgive me."

Reacting from the shock caused by Chen Wen's actions, Zhou Yueying hurriedly fell to the ground, and her whole body trembled slightly like a flower in the cold wind.

After helping the woman in front of him, Chen Wen carefully considered the words, and then asked with a tentative attitude: "Madam, aren't the Yue family also gentry?"

"My father and uncle are old and in poor health, but I feel sorry for not being able to serve the court. My brother and two cousins ​​have already taken office and have drawn a clear line with the remaining people. What's more..." Speaking of this, Zhou Yueying, who was already a little trembling, raised her neck and looked straight at Chen Wen's gaze and replied: "What's more, my surname is Chen, so I naturally have to consider the Chen family!"

"...Three books and six rituals, I have been a member of the Chen family for the rest of my life..."

The ancients said that when a woman married her husband, she would naturally consider her husband's family when she got married. Moreover, Zhou Yueying's words were originally targeted at the remnants who refused to become an official and used by Chen Wen. She could not be tied to the Zhou family. Even Chen Wen and Zhou Yueying's marriage can be regarded as a marriage between the Zhejiang military merit landlord group and the gentry who were willing to become an official to resist the oppression of the Qing Dynasty. However, the concept of the ancient class he learned in the past was too deeply rooted, and instead ignored this, it should be a normal reaction.

"You are right. Maybe the power in the past was not great enough, so I can only tolerate one or two. Now is different from the past, but..."

The literati class in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was extremely strong, which was the case in the next ten years in history. The Qing Dynasty used the "Tonghai Case", "Crying Temple Case", and "Reporting to Removal Case" three major cases in Jiangnan in the early Qing Dynasty, such as the "Ming History Case", "Nanshan Ji", and other literary inquisitions, as well as the "Taizhou Two-Corporate School Exit Case", which had a slightly less influence as a case such as the "Taizhou Two-Corporate School Exit Case", which had a severe blow to the scholar class in Jiangnan. However, in the literary inquisition that lasted for several dynasties, the huge influence of its power was still unable to suppress. It was just a cooperating with the publicity of the righteousness of the monarch and ministers that had been killed in the Qing Dynasty for more than 200 years.

This class is almost impossible to eradicate, and there is no need to eradicate it. They themselves are the most indispensable part of the inheritance of civilization. Even if they are simply governing the country, their existence is indispensable. Without the Confucian scholar class, would it be necessary to govern the country by military personnel? The martial artists of the Han and Tang Dynasties are not far away from their knowledge, and they are just after the Xia Dynasty!

The literati government was a major trend, but the Confucian scholar-official class in the late Ming Dynasty had already embarked on a wrong path, and the Qing Dynasty used literary inquisition and slave education to turn them into slaves, and through them, they rooted the braids of slaves into the hearts of ordinary people.

Chen Wen did not have such a great blood hatred with this class. He wanted to uproot him and quickly. He was far from overestimating himself to that point, nor did he plan to do so. However, over the years, he has been subject to many constraints. It can even be said that if there were no such obstacles, even if the intensity of the constraints was only smaller, he might have recovered Nanjing and blocked the Yangtze River to watch the Qing Dynasty defeat himself.

Chen Wen's voice was not loud, but it sounded like thunder in Zhou Yueying's ears. It's been a while since she got married, and she was observing Chen Wen, the Ming army in Zhejiang, and her brother Zhou Jingting, who could see many things clearly. But she didn't expect that Chen Wen was really thinking about trouble for the Confucian scholar class, and was willing to speak to her without hesitation.

After taking two steps at once, Zhou Yueying walked to the door of the study, opened the door, and saw that only her dowry maid was sitting in the corridor waiting for instructions, so she winked at him. Then she closed the door, returned to Chen Wen, moved the round stool next to her and sat next to Chen Wen. Her eyes were filled with emotion and affection that could not be melted.

"My husband trusts me, I am inscribed with you. In my foolish opinion, the Emperor Mingzu system is the Emperor Mingzu system, but if those survivors do not have husbands, they are afraid that they will still live under the Ma Jinbao's **, and the Tartar court will not treat them preferentially. Even if they go to Ma Jinbao, there will be Zhang Jinbao and Li Jinbao. How can they protect their clothes and enjoy preferential exemptions now? But these people enjoy the benefits brought to them by their husbands, and it would be fine if they don't come out to help them, but they will also take advantage of our Chen family. It's really hateful."

Chen Wen remembered that as far as he knew, Zhou Jingting was originally a living person who planned to be a survivor. Later, because he almost died of Ma Jinbao, Zhang Guoxun set fire to the city when he evacuated Jinhua, so he entrusted Sun Yu's relationship to take over his subordinates and was placed next to him as a horse bone.

However, at this moment, the little woman in front of him who was holding a delicate fist and angry face obviously forgot about this matter. Whether to become an official or not, especially whether to help her men, has become one of the criteria for gentry's evaluation of good and evil, especially the words, "Eat the Chen family and not work for the Chen family, it can be said that everyone has their own ambitions, but if they still make trouble, they are not good things and must be severely punished." Chen Wen almost laughed.

Perhaps in this era, the higher the status of the family and country, the more vague it is. Shaking his head, Chen Wen smiled and said, "That's what he said, it seems that these six palaces are my fiefdoms."

"I'm wronged."

She said something wrong, but she still didn't care about it on the surface. It seemed that in her opinion, if the Qing Dynasty could be expelled from China, it would be better to give Zhejiang to her husband. Now she would just focus on managing her own fiefdom a little in advance.

However, in a flash, Zhou Yueying browsed deeply and then said to Chen Wen: "Husband, these ungrateful people have poor character, but they all have a lot of energy in the local area. It is better not to break up with them unless it is absolutely necessary."

“That’s true.”

Taking a deep breath, even though his breath was filled with the faint fragrance emitted by the woman, Chen Wen did not have even a trace of thought in his mind.

With the development and expansion of the military merit system, the local military forces represented by the Ming army in Zhejiang will inevitably have conflicts with the Confucian scholar-official class, because they are also a large number of holders of the most important means of production in agricultural society. Without the excessive taxation of the Qing Dynasty, the two largest forces and classes holding the land will inevitably have conflicts in the ownership of land and tenants.

Nowadays, Chen Wen has only six prefectures in his hands, and the upper eight prefectures in Zhejiang have not yet occupied it. However, the people, especially the most widely divided and huge prefectures in Jinhua Prefecture, have already heard the dissatisfaction of scholars and officials.

From Chen Wen's view, teaching military merits can increase morale, enhance the courage and desire of soldiers to fight, improve the army's ability to endure casualties, and also reduce the constraints of gentry. However, for those gentry, granting land, and tax-free land, not only granting the benefits that only they have, to military households, such as untouchables, is a humiliation for them. More importantly, this will reduce the ways and quantity of land, water sources, land, and especially the competition for tenants, which infringes on their interests.

During the Wanli Dynasty, Emperor Wanli increased their preferential and exemption policies, while increasing the collection of industrial and commercial taxes. Therefore, the Southeast gentry represented by the Donglin Party did not mention the preferential and exemption, and kept using Wanli's harsh policies and various filthy words to insult the emperor who had just given them benefits. Even in the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties, they tried to exempt industrial and commercial taxes by seizing the dominance of the government, and distributed financial pressure to ordinary farmers, resulting in a greater deterioration of the situation, and was just to pay less taxes to the court every year.

Every man is responsible for the rise and fall of a country!

This is what Chen Wen had read more than once in books, media, the Internet, film and television literary works, and what he heard came from the cry of the great scholar named Gu Yanwu in the late Ming Dynasty with his soul.

It has really come to this era. I have seen many such people. Wang Yi, Feng Jingdi, and those heroes who have never faced faces, and Chen Wen will feel that even though they are no longer there, their souls are still by his side, cheering for every victory he wins. Even if he is prejudice against him, he will surely feel comforted by the great victory achieved by the Ming army in Zhejiang.

The dead are gone, and perhaps those are just Chen Wen's imagination, but every time I see scholars like Huang Zongxi, Qian Qianyi, Lu Liuliang, and Sun Yu running around for the King of Zhejiang, Chen Wen also firmly believes that he is no longer alone fighting to save the fate of China!

However, such scholars were in the minority, or even very few in this era. More gentry either chose to serve in the Qing Dynasty or stay at home as survivors. They often rose up and resisted when the Qing Dynasty truly infringed on their interests, and it was mostly useless in the overall situation.

To make it clear, just like Gu Yanwu, Wen Ruilin and others criticized the Confucian scholar-official class at that time, the vast majority of people in this class had no family and country, no monarch and ministers, but only their own interests. Therefore, if you have advantages, you must take advantage of it. If you lose, you will never eat even a little bit. As long as anyone dares to infringe on their interests, they will definitely slander morally or even instigate the people to come out and fight violently with them.

Now, the conflict between the two sides has just appeared, and Chen Wen's Zhejiang Ming army is still protecting them from being bullied and murdered by the Qing Dynasty. But even so, these gentry who were used to being arrogant in the late Ming Dynasty were still as impatient as they were back then. There is no need to guess that the rare overreach of authority of the officials of the Dongyang County Criminal Department in the Zhang Yida murder case can be fully understood as these gentry were testing him or even demonstrating!

"That lady thinks, what should I do?"

Her brows frowned slightly and her eyelashes drooped. After a long time, Zhou Yueying raised her head again, and her face was full of determination to express her thoughts.

"I think that now the Tartars are on the side, and the husband takes it as his responsibility to expel the Tartars as his mission, so he should not blindly act. It is better to try to divide and disintegrate them, win over those who are willing to use for their husbands, and to attack those who serve for them. Of course, it is more important to try to strengthen the military strength and soil in the hands of the husbands. As one goes up and down, one day these guys can only be used by their husbands and can no longer be obstacles to their husbands' path."

Zhou Yueying's thoughts have been a common routine since ancient times. It was not surprising that Chen Wen could think of these things, who was well-read in poetry and books. Chen Wen had never regarded her as a vase for the woman in front of her, but what he never expected was that the charm and intellectual inner self that was wrapped in her usual days was far more exciting than what he saw, well, wonderful.

"I didn't expect that I would marry a girl named Zhuge home."

Chen Wen smiled with his palm, but the woman in front of him looked panicked.

"I, I..."

"Okay, I have nothing to be upset. Don't forget, your husband, I am a great hero. Will the great hero be so angry that even his wife is thinking about him?"

"Yes, I'm overly worried."

This is what he said, but Chen Wen still saw a little uneasy in Zhou Yueying's eyebrows. The world is as beautiful as this. Even though he was influenced by the liberation of the late Ming Dynasty, under such an environment and atmosphere for a long time, the woman in front of him could not escape the influence of that weak identity.

Since he stood up on the chair of the Grand Master, Chen Wen helped the woman in front of him up with both hands. "You are my wife, willing to share my worries for our Chen family, and I am not too happy, so why would you blame you? Don't think too much, don't forget that you are the wife of Anyuan Marquis' Mansion, and my Chen Wen's wife is not an ordinary woman."

Looking at each other, Zhou Yueying's eyes were quickly covered by hazy mist. "What my husband said is that I will no longer complain like this."

"You know you shouldn't do this." Soothe the beauty in front of you, Chen Wen's depression in his chest also dissipated a little. "How to enhance his own strength, can you have a good idea?"

Recovered to the original atmosphere, and even in Zhou Yueying's heart, the faint fear of fear of being rejected by Chen Wen quietly disappeared under comfort, leaving only a sudden enlightenment.

"I think that the husband uses land to support strong men and teaches fields with military merits is the only way to cure the land. If you need to withstand the pressure and persevere, you will surely achieve something in the future. In addition, the pattern of the different paths of civil and military affairs of Taizu and Chengzu can now be reproduced here. However, the influence of the gentry is still too huge and needs to be suppressed."

"Suppression? No, simple suppression will only intensify contradictions. We must surpass them in influence and influence them, so that they can follow our rhythm."

When Zhou Yueying heard Chen Wen's words, he couldn't help but wrinkle. In her opinion, the gentry had a strong voice, especially in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty. The power of local officials was repeatedly provoked by gentry. Now it is a chaotic time, and they may have restrained it, but if they want to compete, it is still impossible to rely on these tens of thousands of troops.

Until a long time later, she seemed to have thought of something, her eyes lit up suddenly, and she asked Chen Wen: "What my husband is talking about is the Chinese Revival Society?"

It is no longer easy to think of this, it is just not that simple.

"The Chinese Revival Society is considered, but it is only a part of it. The army, military merits and the system of specializing in collecting and selling are all used to enhance hard power. The impact of defeating the Tartars is soft power, but relying solely on gentry to influence the people will also be subject to others. The process of transcending is very long, but now we can start to do it."
Chapter completed!