Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

Chapter 1007

Upon learning that the Duke of Zhenguo was Wei Wu, Bao Guanjiao felt helpless, but he did not want to give up this simplest way of dealing with the matter.

So after a moment's silence, Bao Guanjiao gritted his teeth and said something.

"Even if Wei Wu is powerful, we absolutely cannot sit idly by and wait for death. Otherwise, how can we protect our own interests?"

"Everyone, you're all familiar with the national policy of equalizing land tax. Most of us have made our fortunes from land."

"What the imperial court is doing now is equivalent to digging up our roots. If they really let it carry out this policy, our good life will be over."

Having said that, Bao Guanjiao turned to look at Zhou Li and said in a low voice.

"Boss Zhou, you're known as Zhou Bancheng. You should be the one who suffers the most from the court's new policies!"

Zhou Li looked at Bao Guanjiao silently without saying anything, because he really had nothing to say.

Although he is not the person with the most land in Suzhou, he is definitely one of the people with the largest amount of land in the entire Jiangnan region.

The national policy of equalizing the land tax has the greatest impact on those who own the most land, and they have no way to avoid it.

But Zhou Li was not stupid. He knew that Bao Guanjiao had other purposes for saying this, so he said after a moment of silence:

"Master Bao, just say whatever you want to say. There's no need to provoke me with these words."

"Then I'll tell the truth!"

Bao Guanjiao responded softly, then looked around the room before continuing:

"It is indeed very risky to rashly attack a duke. Our lives are precious, we cannot act recklessly like peasants."

"We are rich and prosperous, and I don't want to take any risky actions until the last step, so my idea is."

"Before we are forced into a desperate situation, we will try our best to deal with it so that we will not be affected by the land tax."

"But if it really comes to that, and there's nothing else we can do, we'll just have to use every possible means to protect our interests."

In fact, everyone present understood that what Bao Guanjiao was saying now was still about getting rid of Wei Wu.

Originally they didn't want to take this risk, but since it concerns their own interests, it is indeed the issue they care about most.

Just when everyone was silent, a cold light flashed in Bao Guanjiao's eyes, and then he said in a low voice:

"I understand what everyone is worried about, but if it's 'them' who's doing it, this matter has nothing to do with us."

"Anyway, it wasn't one of our people who did it. Even if Wei Wu died in Suzhou, the court wouldn't be able to find out the truth no matter how hard they investigate."

Hearing Bao Guanjiao's words, everyone present, including Zhou Li, took a deep breath.

But then all of these people showed an interested look on their faces, and it was obvious that they all agreed with Bao Guanjiao's proposal.

Zhou Li originally wanted to say something, but at this moment, someone in the crowd suddenly spoke.

"I agree with Patriarch Bao. We must protect our own interests."

Seeing someone speak up, the rest of the people also spoke up:

"That's right. The imperial court has gone too far this time. They are basically competing with the people for profit. We can't just sit there and do nothing."

"If we let 'them' take action, then we won't have to worry about being implicated. I agree with Patriarch Bao."

"Add me in. My family has worked so hard to build up our fortune over generations. Why should we just give it away to the imperial court for nothing?"

"That's right, the Zhu family has already taken over the world, yet they're still trying to make money from us ordinary people. How shameful!"

The policy of equalizing the land tax only requires people to pay the taxes they should pay, and is not intended to make money from wealthy merchants and families.

But in the mouths of these people, it became a situation where the court was competing with the people for profit, and the court was robbing and extorting their money.

Just now they were saying that their lives were precious and that they were different from those peasants, but now they call themselves the people.

But in fact, most of these people have people with achievements in their families, and some are even retired officials.