The representatives of the gentry from various provinces who came to the capital to participate in the gentry conference accounted for nearly sixty percent of the land with less than 1,000 acres. Among the remaining personnel, half are gentry with more abundant assets but no deep roots in officialdom; The other half were gentry who were quite famous in the local area.

Before the official convening of the gentry meeting, a total of 79 gentry representatives who arrived in the capital were already in private banquets, and gradually divided into six main groups according to their regions and interests.

The famous scholars faction headed by Wen Zhenheng, Zhu Hao and other famous people in the south of the Yangtze River, the official gentry faction led by Xu Hanwen, Gao Xuanguang, and Gu Yuanhui who retired and lived in the countryside, as well as the Liangguang gentry headed by the Li family of Foshan, the Fujian gentry led by the Feng family of Jinjiang, the Shanxi gentry led by Zhang and Wang Zhuren of Puzhou, and the gentry of Beizhili and Shandong who were attached to the Gyeonggi Gentry Federation.

These groups were either because of their own fame, or because of their former official status, or because their hometown was a famous place in Kejia, or because of the vague connection between some gentry and those in power in the court, which made them the leaders in the eyes of the gentry representatives in Shangjing.

In addition to the above six gentry groups that belong to spontaneous or semi-spontaneous formation, and have greater influence among the gentry representatives, there is also a relatively independent small group, although it has little influence on other provinces, but it is more united internally, which is several representatives of the Henan gentry.

In principle, the number of gentry representatives in each small province is 3, and of course the number of gentry in a large province like Huguang is doubled. But in essence, in order to be able to convene this congress smoothly and ensure that the gentry representatives who were inclined to the imperial court would not be too quiet, Chongzhen did not have very strict requirements for the number of delegates.

As a result, the number of representatives of the gentry from the provinces who arrived in the capital was almost double that of the original plan. The number of representatives of the Henan gentry exceeded the standard, reaching as many as 5.

These five representatives of the Henan gentry were also carefully selected by several officials who carried out the policies of the imperial court in Henan, and were ready to defend their actions at the congress. These representatives were not from the declining local gentry families; It is a member of the gentry family who has failed to fight with other gentry families in his hometown and is about to fall into the gentry class.

Whether they wanted to salvage the family's decay, or pinned their hopes on cooperating with these high-ranking officials of the imperial court to escape the fate of their own family becoming losers, they could only fight hard at this gentry conference to gain a chance for themselves to turn around.

Therefore, these representatives of the Henan gentry, although they do not have the reputation of Wen Zhenheng, Zhu Hao and others; There is no Xu Hanwen, Gao Xuanguang, Gu Yuanhui and others who hang the halo of retired officials; It will not be like some representatives who regard themselves as old fellow villagers and neighbors of a certain scholar at every turn.

However, every time they spoke at the gentry congress, they were full of passion for fighting against the odds, and the voices of the five deputies actually occupied half of the gentry congress and completely overwhelmed the momentum of other groups.

Of course, this also has to do with the fact that the gentry assembly was held in an open venue. Accustomed to a peaceful exchange of views with a few friends in an elegant environment, it was obviously the first time that the doctors had experienced the way of sitting in a noisy meeting room and discussing problems.

This kind of market-like venue and the lively meeting and discussion method that was watched by hundreds of people in Beijing made them feel like they had become an object of amusement. In particular, if a sentence is not right, it will be ridiculed by the people outside the venue, and it will be published in the Daming Times, which makes these representatives hate it even more.

In addition, the representatives of the gentry were completely unaccustomed to arguing with others about the rights and wrongs of an issue rather than a gentle exchange of opinions. In their eyes, this is a matter of discussion, and it is simply a transaction in the market.

For example, Wen Zhenheng, Zhu Hao and other Jiangnan celebrities were very much in favor of it, and Xu Hanwen, Gao Xuanguang, Gu Yuanhui and others advocated abolishing the grain policy implemented by the imperial court in Shanxi and Henan, opposing the liberation of slaves and maids, and giving slaves and maids legal protection.

However, their approval was limited to agreeing with Xu Hanwen, Gao Xuanguang, Gu Yuanhui, and others who insisted on their own ideas at the meeting, but they themselves never openly expressed themselves at the meeting.

On the one hand, they do so because, on the one hand, they feel that it is a loss of their identity to have an argument with other delegates in such an environment.

On the other hand, the daily onlookers are not only the people of the capital, but also many students of Yenching University. These students were different from the people of the capital who came to see the excitement, and they all came to observe the hearing with their own political ideas.

When they hear opinions that do not agree with their claims, they tend to be more agitated than the delegates in the room. On the third day of the conference, Gao Xuanguang's comments about the slave system angered several students outside the venue, and they were tragically attacked by the boots they had taken off.

Gao Xuanguang himself escaped the attack because of his quick movements and the poor accuracy of the students, but several representatives sitting next to him suffered unjustifiable disasters.

Of course, these delegates should be grateful for the road renovation project in Beijing hosted by the Beijing City Hall last year, so that the boots of these students left nothing but dust on them.

However, although Gao Xuanguang escaped the physical attack of the students, he did not escape the verbal and written criticism of these students, and after these students returned, they submitted an article to the Daming Times, claiming that the retired bureaucrat was a bloodless and ruthless person, and that his sage books were all read in the belly of a dog.

What's even more interesting is that the Daming Times actually published the full text word for word, this student's crusade against Gao Xuanguang. This kind of reputational blow suddenly made Gao Xuanguang, who was still arrogant at the beginning of the meeting, become silent in the following meeting agenda.

After seeing how much risk it would be to express opinions at the meeting that were inconsistent with public opinion, Jiangnan celebrities like Wen Zhenheng and Zhu Hao were naturally unwilling to risk their reputation.

And Xu Hanwen, Gu Yuanhui and other personnel representing the official gentry also unconsciously kept a low profile. Before they went to Beijing, they never thought that their opponents would be these students and ignorant people in the capital.

For a long time, these gentry have always been a responsive presence in their hometowns, which makes them overestimate their own power, and some even have the illusion that they can really represent the wishes of the people at will.

But in the capital, far from home, in this strange city, these gentry realized that the inhabitants of the city were obviously not the hometown fathers and elders they could manipulate at will.

And in such a city, without the support of the people and public opinion, what can they use to oppose the opinions of the imperial court? Even, before the imperial court made a move, they had already been defeated by the people and public opinion in the capital.

The city of Beijing is a huge city with a population of more than 800,000 people, and in this era, most of the large cities that the Ming can compare with are in the Jiangnan region. The population of these big cities in the south of the Yangtze River may be comparable with that of Beijing, and some cities may even exceed it, but in terms of land area, there are very few cities that are comparable to Beijing.

After all, the area where Beijing City is located is a plain terrain. Coupled with last year's renovation of the city's streets, this northern city looks even more imposing.

Except for those gentry from the Jiangnan region, most of the gentry representatives from most places saw the capital of their country for the first time. The backward transportation facilities of this era made it extremely painful to travel, so most of the gentry rarely stayed away from their hometowns, except for the examination in Beijing.

If it weren't for this gentry conference held by the imperial court, some people might have been wandering around their hometown county town in this life. The gentry, who had left their familiar hometown and rushed all the way to the capital, were in awe of the same as the peasants in the countryside entering the county seat in front of this huge city.

Because of this awe, these gentry naturally involuntarily moved closer to the representatives who seemed to be strong and knowledgeable. That is why the meeting has not yet taken place, and many small groups have already formed among the delegates. This is entirely because of the pressure of an unfamiliar environment, and people's nature to huddle together for warmth.

However, a few days after the meeting, these deputies who seemed to be smart and well-informed among the gentry in the countryside were easily stripped of their halo by the people and public opinion in the capital, and the minds of these gentry from remote places could not help but be lively.

Some gentry representatives began to tentatively cater to the public opinion of the capital to express their opinions, and these originally unknown gentry representatives suddenly won the praise of the people of the capital and the comments of the Daming Times.

Suddenly, their fame began to spread among the people of the capital. These representatives of the gentry who dared to cater to public opinion did not have many slaves and maids in their own families, and some of them were the beneficiaries of the unified purchase and sale of grain.

However, when the gentry council had just been convened, their origins made them feel that it was better to leave the decisions of the prestigious representatives on matters of state. As for those who are soft-spoken, they only have the right to choose support.

However, when these famous representatives of the gentry were defeated by the people and public opinion in the capital, the ambitions that existed in their hearts began to slowly sprout.

In any case, even the most stupid representative of the gentry in the eyes of the people of the capital, in his own village, is the undisputed emperor of the soil. For these people, as long as they smell the smell of power, it will naturally burn. Not to mention that there is also a Daming Times on the side.

As a result, the gentry congress, which had been somewhat orderly, soon became chaotic and disorderly. New small groups sprang up and disappeared, and the content of the deputies' discussions was often detached from the agenda and began to echo with public opinion in the capital.

Several of the more mature gentry finally couldn't stand this chaos and jointly wrote to the emperor, demanding that the venue be closed and that the people of the capital be forbidden to enter to observe, so as not to make the conference a laughing stock.

Zhu Youzhen's reply was also very surprising, he did not directly answer these gentry representatives, but publicly replied in the Daming Times.

After posting the full contents of the letter written by the representatives of the gentry, but withholding their names, the emperor's handwritten reply was placed after the full text.

The gist of the reply was as follows: The imperial court convened representatives of the gentry from all over the world to discuss state affairs, originally hoping to be able to check and fill in the gaps in the policies issued by the imperial court.

In order to prevent the opinions of the imperial court from swaying the opinions of the gentry, the imperial court did not impose restrictions on what was discussed at the gentry congress. What the court wanted to hear was nothing more than the opinion of the majority of the people.

However, what is surprising is that some gentry actually proposed to the court that when discussing the affairs of the people, the people should be expelled from the meeting hall, and the people should not be allowed to interfere with the gentry's deliberations.

This is really incomprehensible, if the gentry want to discuss private matters, the people naturally can't rush to the mansion to listen to **. But it is surprising that the gentry were clearly discussing a matter that involved the interests of the people, but did not allow the parties to understand the content of the discussion.

If the memory of these gentry had not been wrong, it was only half a year ago that the local gentry were dissatisfied with the policies issued by the imperial court, believing that the rulers of the imperial court were too arbitrary in issuing national policies, and the National Gentry Congress was born.

But in the blink of an eye, have these gentry begun to follow in the footsteps of those in power yesterday and expel the people from the people?

The imperial court will not interfere in this matter. If the gentry felt that the common people had no right to participate in the deliberations, they could have held a meeting to discuss and come up with a decision...