Chapter 150: Weakness defeats strength

The Lin family entered Fujian since the Jin Dynasty. Lin Lu, the governor of Jin'an County, died at Ren and moved his clan to Jin'an. From then on, he developed the vast majority and claimed that Chen Lin was everywhere.

The Lin family is also very famous in their careers.

Not to mention other aspects, the number of Jinshi in Fujian was the most important one.

Therefore, both the officialdom and the civilians have a great influence. The Lin family in Fujian have a special status. It seems that Fujian gentry has many conflicts with each other, but in this case, it is difficult for them to have a unified understanding. Then, from Min County, that is, Fuzhou, the old man from the Lin family came to him for him.

This is Lin Shiyuan, who resigned as a Zhejiang Censor in the 17th year of Jiajing.

Zhou Mengchen did not dare to neglect his status. After all, his subject name was above Zhou Mengchen and his predecessor in the officialdom.

Zhou Mengchen helped the trembling old man in and said, "The old man came from afar. What can I teach me?"

Lin Shiyuan coughed twice and said in a mandarin language with a strong local accent; "I know that Lord Zhou has a knot with the gentry of Fujian, so I will sell this old face to explain it."

Zhou Mengchen smiled concealedly and said, "Where is the boss?"

Lin Shiyuan said: "Does Lord Zhou really have no knot in his heart?"

Zhou Mengchen smiled bitterly, but didn't know what to say. He had long put a hat on the Fujian gentry as a thief on his head, so how could he say he had no knot? But in the officialdom, he often saw through it and didn't say it. In this way, it was impossible to say it clearly.

Lin Shiyuan said: "Mr. Zhou, you don't want to be open and honest. What results do you want to talk to the people below?"

Zhou Mengchen nodded and said, "What the old man said is, it's just that I don't say something, but I know it too. Why should I say it too clearly?"

Lin Shiyuan stood up tremblingly and was about to kneel down to Zhou Mengchen. Zhou Mengchen grabbed Lin Shiyuan's dry arm and said, "Why is this the elder brother?"

Lin Shiyuan said: "The matter of Zhu Wan is not our original intention. We did not want to beat Lord Zhu so strong. Now everyone regrets it. Today, I will apologize to the Lord for the younger generation. Please forgive me."

Zhou Mengchen still helped Lin Shiyuan up and said, "What else do you say about old things?"

Zhou Mengchen believed that Zhu Wan's death was also an accident for Fujian. Because in many cases, there were no such cruel means in the officialdom struggle. It was like Hai Rui was rejected by the Yanping Mansion. But these people hated Hai Rui to death and did not intend to kill Hai Rui, but just carried Hai Rui out of Yanping.

With the same problem, these Fujian gentry and some Zhejiang gentry were not intended to kill Zhu Wan, but at most they wanted Zhu Wan to dismiss the office.

Lin Shiyuan trembled and escaped a list from his hand, saying, "This is what the great families in Zhang and Quanzhou families asked me to give to the adults. The ten major surnames in Zhang and Quanzhou, and even the upper and lower levels, only the orders of the adults are followed."

Zhou Mengchen looked at the list and found that there were not many things on it, only 100,000 stones of grain, and there were also 100,000 or 20,000 people available for recruitment by each family.

Zhou Mengchen knew that these things were just the despair of the aristocratic families in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. If you want to know why it was despair of the despair, you had to have a concept of human and material resources in Fujian. Fujian was very strange. During the Hongwu period, Fujian had a household registration of more than 810,000 and a population of more than 3.9 million. During the Hongzhi period, it was much less. There were more than 500,000 households and more than 2.1 million.

There is no way to see this number.

Why did Fujian fight in the early Ming Dynasty that more than half of the population in Fujian were killed or injured? And it would not be able to recover for a hundred years?

As for the population of Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, there are about 100,000 households in the account books. According to the five people in one household, it is less than one million. However, Zhou Mengchen actually estimated that the population of the two governments was roughly equivalent to the population of Fujian in the account books of the Ming Dynasty, which is about two million.

Although this number is an estimate, it is definitely not a blind estimate.

It is based on a basic principle and proposed by everyone in the late Ming Dynasty, that is, the number of registered people in the Ming Dynasty multiplied by three, which is roughly the real number. Of course, this is just an estimate. Wherever it meets the south of the Yangtze River, it may not meet Fujian. After all, Fujian is one of the most densely populated places. Moreover, the accounts are unreliable, which makes people have nothing to say.

In addition, the Fujian clan has a huge influence, which has another problem, that is, the big family.

This big family does not refer to a big family, but to a lot of males under a account. After all, a very important feature of the strong clan power is that it does not separate families. As long as the elderly are not dead, the descendants below will not separate families. So it is normal that there are dozens of strong men under this account.

It is different from many small households in the north.

Therefore, based on the above, Zhou Mengchen estimated that there were about two million people in these Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, which was not fictional.

Moreover, this number does not calculate the population of the coastal garrisons of the two places. If these people are added, it would probably not be an exaggeration to add hundreds of thousands.

For so many people, how much tax does the Ming Dynasty collect from these two prefectures? It is less than 300,000 shi a year, including the Spring and Autumn Period taxes. It is distributed to each prefecture, which is a little more than 100,000. Of course, this is also related to the lack of arable land in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou.

But the problem is that wealth does not necessarily come out of agriculture. Quanzhou’s famous port city.

According to Zhou Mengchen's estimate, if the potential of the two governments is fully mobilized and the army of 100,000 is probably a bit too much. But 30,000 to 40,000 should be no problem.

However, even so, the supplies in Zhou Mengchen's hands were something that the prefects in both places didn't even think about.

Not to mention anything else, this 100,000 stone of grain is enough to support the consumption of the South Australian battlefield for about two months.

Zhou Mengchen estimated that the battle had been resolved in the past two months, which means that Zhou Mengchen had transferred food from the north, or Guangdong.

Zhou Mengchen said: "Then what do you think about the sea ban?"

Lin Shiyuan said: "I agreed on their behalf. No matter what the adults do, they will support each other. Whether it is the lifting of the ban or the restarting of the sea ban, I just hope that the adults can send troops to sweep the coast as soon as possible and give the people a bright world."

After hearing this, Zhou Mengchen smiled coldly in his heart and said to himself: "Old fox."

The situation at this moment seems to be that the Fujian gentry is intimidating by Zhou Mengchen's reputation and obediently handing over the materials to serve as the front pawn of Zhou Mengchen's horse.

But if you only see this, it means it's too naive.

A very old question is why teeth fall off before the tongue, that is, weakness is better than strength.

Since Zhou Mengchen has released the news of the sea ban, how could they not know the level of information about the Fujian gentry? Although they are contradictory about the sea ban, they have a consensus on one thing, that is, Zhou Mengchen is not easy to deal with. Also, this situation cannot continue. For honest and honest gentry, they cannot accept the chaos in Fujian. Because this directly damages their interests, and for the families whose maritime interests are invaded, what they cannot tolerate is that they lose control of the sea surface. As long as the court kills these pirates first, the control of the sea surface will naturally return to their hands.

In this case, you already have the inner world. It doesn’t matter if you have face.

Therefore, it is easy for them to reach a consensus. They will help Zhou Mengchen and give Zhou Mengchen a trip.

Because, no matter what policies Zhou Mengchen formulated, it would always be implemented by Fujian. Zhou Mengchen could not be in Fujian for a long time, and he would be in the south for two or three years at most. At that time, Zhou Mengchen would not be able to keep them if he wanted to. The governors of the six provinces probably would not exist.

At this time, no matter who comes, he will be easier to deal with than Zhou Mengchen.

This is why many gentry families can continue to this day. Being friends of time, they don’t compete with those political strongmen for a while, they let them be strong, and they don’t hit people with smiles. They are stubborn, and as long as I kneel fast, they can’t do anything to me.
Chapter completed!