Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 569: Changes in the Confucius Mansion (3)

Wu Jinkun's secret memorial was secretly submitted to Meng Jun through the channel of Qingluan Guard. However, when Meng Jun saw Wu Jinkun's secret memorial, he was not as worried as Wu Jinkun.

Meng Jun was the founding emperor, so he had nothing to fear from some petty intrigues. Zhu Yuanzhang had killed even more ruthlessly, but he didn't cause any major chaos.

Meng Jun had long wanted to discipline the Kong family, but the country had just been stabilized a few years ago, and Meng Jun did not want to cause any more trouble, so he held his nose and conferred the title of Yanshenggong on the Kong family again.

The letter of surrender that Kong Yinzhi submitted to the Qing court is still in the inner court's library. When the Qing court withdrew from the interior, perhaps in order to make things difficult for Meng Jun, the "Initial Submission" was not destroyed.

This petition was extremely disgusting. After Meng Jun read it once, his disgust for Kong Yinzhi reached its peak. However, Kong Yinzhi was dead now, leaving behind only a little kid of a few years old. Meng Jun was angry but had no way to vent it.

I randomly excerpted a few paragraphs from the text, which said something like, "All nations admire the reform of the country, and the people are returning to the city, and the whole world is celebrating. We respectfully wish that His Majesty the Emperor will inherit the throne from heaven and pacify the people with virtue."

What is the first to appear in Xieruitu? The six universes worship the god. He rises to prominence in the world. He is the holy emperor that all the people in the world sing about. The mountains and rivers shine with the sun and the moon, and the country's prosperity is eternal as the universe.

He also said that we, the ministers, were Confucian scholars from the imperial court, of humble origins, but had received special favors from successive generations. Now we are celebrating the prosperity of the new dynasty and looking at the rise of sage learning, we are afraid to be left behind. In short, Kong Yinzhi praised the Qing court's entry into the pass as being in accordance with the will of heaven, and even praised Fulin as the only sage and wise ruler of the time.

If the Ming Dynasty had fallen at this time and the Kong family was the only one left in the world, then Kong Yinzhi's surrender would have been somewhat helpless. But what time was it? It was the first year of Shunzhi, when the Qing court had just entered the pass. The Ming Dynasty still had half of the country and nearly a million troops. Under such circumstances, Kong Yinzhi could not wait and actually wrote such shameless words as "Qihuangfuhou". It can be seen that this person is a shameless person.

Now, he happened to meet Wu Jinkun, a straight-forward person. If he dared to do it, Meng Jun would dare to support him. So, Meng Jun wrote in his own handwriting, saying: "The master of Confucianism, the sage Confucius, established virtue and words, but the descendants of the Confucius family may not follow the way of their ancestors. They hold high positions but do not care about the people, violating the teachings of the sages. The purpose of the court reform is to promote benefits and eliminate disadvantages. What is the difference between the noble and the humble? Go ahead and do it. In the court, I am your courage!"

Meng Jun already had a plan in mind on how to deal with the current Duke of Yansheng Kong Xingxie. The world today is still dominated by Confucianism. Even though Meng Jun had made some changes to the imperial examination questions and added some subjects such as mathematics and physics, overall, Confucian classics still accounted for the largest proportion.

Therefore, even though Meng Jun was unwilling, he also knew that the title of Yanshenggong could not be revoked. However, the various violations of the Confucius Mansion and the vast amount of land could not be left unchecked.

From now on, Duke Yansheng can only be a mascot in name only. This deformed family that occupies a vast piece of land and sets up its own court has no place in the Qian Dynasty!

Meng Jun was worried that Wu Jinkun would lose control of the situation, so he ordered Bai Yongfu to lead the Guwu Town Army south and station in Jining just in case.

Meng Jun's reply was sent to Wu Jinkun by express horse in less than ten days. After reading the letter, Wu Jinkun felt relieved.

Afterwards, Wu Jinkun summoned a group of officials in Jining Prefecture and said bluntly: "The court will reform the system, no matter who it is, there will be no exception, even the Kong family will have to change!"

Wu Jinkun knew that these words would soon reach the ears of the Kong family, but now the emperor said that Wu Jinkun did not need to worry about the court, and he only needed to do whatever he wanted in the local area.

........................

In the Confucius Mansion.

Just as Wu Jinkun expected, the people in Kong Mansion soon got Wu Jinkun's original words, and these original words were obviously directed at their Kong Mansion.

This made everyone feel terrified.

Tao was a little panicked at this time. The Kong family could have what they have today thanks to the preferential treatment from successive generations in power. But if the court no longer preferentially treated the Kong family and no longer took into account the influence of the Kong family, then the Kong family would not be able to resist the court no matter what.

Tao's son-in-law, Song Zuyi, looked gloomy and said calmly: "What Wu Jinkun said must be nonsense. The court cannot issue such an order. In my opinion, Wu Jinkun is a disaster!"

After saying this, Song Zuyi made a gesture of wiping his neck.

When Mrs. Tao heard this, she was horrified and quickly objected, "No, if this gets out, the consequences will be disastrous!"

At this time, Tao Chongping also said: "Wu Jinkun was assassinated in Xuzhou. After that incident, he is now well protected. It is unlikely to succeed if we take action now. I think we should report this to the court and let the wise men deal with Wu Jinkun!"

While everyone in the Confucius Mansion was discussing, Wu Jinkun had already taken action in Jining City.

The Kong family owned more than 17,000 acres of land in Jining Prefecture. When the land surveying team arrived at the Kong family's land, they looked around and saw the vast fields and golden ears of wheat swaying in the wind.

As soon as they saw the land survey team, the tenants in the fields quickly informed Xiaojia, who was in charge of the land, of the news.

Not long after, the garrison officer of the Confucius Mansion, the chief guard, and several deputy guards came towards them. They looked arrogant and were quite disdainful of the people in the land surveying team.

A few small officers were cursing, saying that this was the saint's land and that people like you were disrespecting the saint by stepping here.

At this time, the garrison officer motioned his men to stop talking and said with a smile: "Alas, these people are not well-read, I hope you will not blame them. You have come from afar, if you do not want to discuss this land survey, then I will naturally entertain you with all my heart. But if you insist, haha, the land of saints will not tolerate villains!"

"Oh, this is the land of saints, and you don't even allow people to step on it. You are too domineering. Looking at you, you are more saintly than saints!" Lu Ping gently pushed away the subordinates who were blocking him and said sarcastically.

This was the first time to survey the Kong family's land. Lu Ping was worried that something might go wrong, so he came in person. However, when he arrived, he saw that this man was so arrogant, so he couldn't help but fight back.

Upon hearing this, the garrison officer glanced at Lu Ping and sneered, "Of course I dare not compare myself with a saint, but compared with a villain like you, I am like a firefly compared to the bright moon.

Let's stop talking nonsense. I'm telling you, the Kong family's land has always been used for the worship of saints. They have enjoyed privileges throughout the ages and do not pay taxes to the court. You come here and have nothing to lose. Hurry up and get out of here, otherwise the master above will make a report and you will be in big trouble."

The chief guard at the side continued, "That's right. The fields of our Confucius Mansion are not comparable to ordinary fields. According to the old system, there is no need to survey them."