Not everyone was grateful for Chen Qing's influence. Some people were very dissatisfied with Chen Qing's various policies, and some even harbored a deep-seated resentment.
Of course, it was also because Chen Qing possessed absolute military strength and a large amount of grassroots support; otherwise, those people would have been more than just gnashing their teeth in anger.
They were mainly divided into two groups. The first group consisted of the sons of scholars and officials, led by Gu Beiquan. Because they had previously held academic titles, and many of them were even officials themselves, they regarded Chen Qing Chen Qing a traitor after he took away their official positions. This resentment only intensified after they were expelled from the academy by Vice Dean Chen Ying a year ago.
Especially after the academy's rise to prominence over the past year, and the emergence of many talented students who went out to work, they became increasingly panicked.
Then there were the local gentry who originally controlled the land.
These people had previously annexed vast amounts of land and had a large number of tenant farmers under their command. In the local areas, especially in the countryside, because these people possessed knowledge while most ordinary people were illiterate, the laws of the imperial court could hardly reach the countryside. Even in this Demon World, they still controlled the vast majority of the people's power!
But this zombie incident completely severed their roots!
The countryside became the main battlefield for rescue. From Liuzhou to the farthest Yunzhou, all the Fighter Army were implementing a strategy of concentrating rural villagers in the cities. During this process, Chen Qing's forces gave the grassroots villagers the most reliable feeling and the highest prestige. In addition, the strategy that everyone could participate in the Fighter Army, which further shattered the conservative mindset in the countryside and completely overturned the status of the gentry.
Then there's the land policy. In Chen Qing's territory, new land is now being developed around the Mountain God. The reason is that even if you clear out the land in the countryside, there will still be zombies invading. The environment for farmers to farm is not safe. However, if they are near the Mountain God's territory, the Mountain God can at least give them early warnings and provide some protection, allowing a large number of farmers to gather in the location of the Mountain God.
Nowadays, the fertile fields in the countryside are allocated by the Mountain God. All the land is nominally owned by the Mountain God, but it is given to believers who are loyal to the Mountain God. This model has completely severed the root of the land consolidation by the gentry.
Not only because land could not be traded, but also because the Mountain God could largely ward off natural and man-made disasters. With the Mountain God and the students of the agricultural college around, insect plagues and droughts could be almost perfectly resolved, and the gentry completely lost the opportunity to return to being landlords!
This is certainly a good thing for ordinary people, but not for them.
They held onto land that had once been legally owned, but no one cultivated it. The people were all well-fed, and no one wanted to be tenant farmers. Chen Qing hadn't taken away everything they once owned; it's just that what they had was now worthless.
The reality is that the gentry, who possess large amounts of land and property, can only rely on government relief. They are too ashamed to farm or join the army themselves, but their land is not competitive. Even if they hire people at high prices or offer gold and silver to other villagers to work part-time to help with farming, the grain they produce is still not competitive.
The land of the Mountain God is not only abundant, but the grains are also becoming increasingly high-quality. The rice and flour produced are crystal clear and incredibly fragrant. The steamed buns made from them are as filling as five or even more ordinary white flour buns. Currently, the grains mainly supplied to the Battle God Army are those produced by the Mountain God God's land. The things produced by the land of the local gentry are almost unwanted, let alone by the Battle God Army.
Even when offered as relief, it was met with disdain; it couldn't even win people's hearts.
Shouldn't we make them anxious?
The way they relied on for survival was completely disrupted, causing the local gentry to become increasingly anxious each day. The more prosperous the common people became, the more they felt like their hearts were being scratched by a cat.
Every day, all we hoped for was that the imperial court would send troops to quell Chen Qing's rebellion, restore order, and put everything back on track!
Sure enough, just as Shen Yuan was leaving the academy that day, he was stopped again by Gu Beiquan and a group of local gentry.
Shen Yuan was thoroughly annoyed by these people lately. His studies were already very demanding, weren't they? Those guys who were more than ten years younger than him were incredibly smart. If he slacked off for even a couple of days, he might be overtaken. And this time, when he went to Great Azure Mountain with Lord Chen Ying to study the Azure Dragon Array, they only selected the top ten students in terms of academic performance. He still had a ton of things to do!
I don't have time to waste arguing with this bunch of useless trash.
"Brother Shen."
Seeing Shen Yuan's impatient expression, Gu Beiquan and the others also looked displeased. Over the past year, Shen Yuan had already shown his impatience with them, but now they had no one else to gather intelligence from.
If you want to gain favor with the imperial court, you have to offer something, right?
Shen Yuan has been in Chen Qing's fake academy for so long, he must have some valuable intelligence, especially this time, since it's rumored that the imperial court is about to take action!
"Brother Shen," Gu Beiquan said calmly, looking at the other man, "Have you forgotten your place after staying here for so long?"
Shen Yuan: "."
"You are the second-highest scorer in the imperial examination, an official personally appointed by the court. Could it be that Brother Shen really wants to associate with a traitor like Chen Qing?"
Shen Yuan's face immediately turned extremely ugly, and after a long pause, he finally managed to say, "I didn't say that."
"I knew it! Brother Shen still has a sense of righteousness in his heart! Come, come!" Gu Beiquan's expression immediately became ingratiating again, and he pulled Shen Yuan into the house of a local gentry in the south of the city.
Chen Qing did not forcibly seize the properties of these gentry. As long as these gentry could produce property deeds, even if the properties had already been allocated to the Fighter Army, he would have the Fighter Army move out and return the houses to the gentry.
This action guaranteed the legal rights of everyone's property, leaving the local gentry speechless and giving other people who had been allocated properties greater peace of mind. It meant that the prefect was trustworthy and would not arbitrarily deprive private property, neither the gentry nor the ordinary people.
Meanwhile, the students from the Academy of Engineering have already built two 40-story high-rise buildings in Liuzhou. Many soldiers and civilians are not worried about not being able to get housing. Moreover, living in a high-rise building that overlooks Liuzhou is a very popular thing nowadays, which once made these local gentry drool.
Upon entering the inner courtyard, several local gentry warmly poured tea and laid out some pastries, which had been purchased with gold and silver, on the table.
Shen Yuan glanced at it, his heart filled with utter contempt.
The tea used is aged tea, all from a year ago. But most people who have tasted the new tea produced in Great Azure Mountain and South Mountain would not even glance at the tea made from these old teas now. What about Beijing's pre-rain Longjing Cloud Capital's top-grade Yunwu? Which teahouse on the street would dare to serve old tea to customers now? They would lose all their business tomorrow.
Those pastries looked cheap. Pastries made from rice and flour grown in the best fields had a completely different color and aroma. But that makes sense. Nowadays, the entire Southern Capital uses government-issued silver for trade, and ordinary gold and silver are becoming increasingly worthless. These gentry were already doing a great deal of work to be able to buy some pastries.
Shen Yuan didn't even bother to touch the things on the table. As a first-class scholar, he received a special allowance. Although he wasn't rich, he could still afford to drink Great Azure Mountain fruit wine and eat South Mountain tea every day. He had no interest in the things on the table.
"What exactly do you want from me?" Shen Yuan asked directly.
"Isn't this a big move?" Gu Beiquan said with a smile after pouring tea for Shen Yuan. "This Chen Qing is acting against the natural order, trampling on orthodox learning and supporting unorthodox and frivolous schools of thought as the legitimate ones, making the whole of Jiangnan a mess. I know that Brother Shen is currently forced to endure humiliation and feign compliance under that traitor. Now that the opportunity has come, what are you waiting for, Lord Shen?"
Shen Yuan felt annoyed just listening to these old, tired words.
He blamed the academy for not teaching the orthodox methods because he lacked ability. As a student of the academy, Shen Yuan disagreed with Chen Qing in other respects, but he had absolute approval of the students being taught by the academy!
The two towering skyscrapers in Liuzhou today were built by the students of the architecture department of the Yellow Academy of Technology. The fine cotton-padded clothes and exquisite silks that everyone in Liuzhou can wear today are made by the textile machines made by the students of the engineering department of the Yellow Academy Technology.
Liuzhou has experienced three plague outbreaks in the past year, all of which were resolved promptly, thanks to the efforts of the sorcerer students at the Mystic Academy Medical Academy.
Now everyone in Jiangnan has enough to eat, and the people are all radiant with health, thanks to the efforts of the Mountain God and immortal farmers, as well as the new varieties researched by the agricultural scholars of the Black Academy!
Which of these achievements isn't a great benefit to people's livelihood and a meritorious deed that will last for generations?
Compared to them, what have you good-for-nothings who constantly spout off about orthodox Confucianism done?
What is this kind of doctrine if not the science of governing a country? What are these kinds of people if not pillars of the state?
crooked ways?
You bunch of people who collect aid on North Street every day, do you even have the right to say such things?
Not to mention them, even the disciples of their own Heaven Academy and Earth Academy couldn't muster the slightest arrogance when facing the engineering disciples of the Mystic Academy and Yellow Academy.
The achievements of those two academies are constantly emerging, and they all contain things that can change the world. To be honest, the students of the Heaven and Earth Academies, who have the highest academic credits, are not as sought after as the students of the Xuanhuang Academies when they go out into the world.
Holding his breath, too lazy to discuss theoretical issues with these ignorant fools, Shen Yuan went straight to the question he was slightly concerned about, "What opportunity?"
"From what I've observed, the imperial court is about to take action against Chen Qing!"
"Huh?" Shen Yuan's heart skipped a beat, but he still stared at the other person in astonishment. "Where did you get that from?"