bookrebus Chapter 228 Wu Sheng's Angry
Chapter 228 Wu Sheng's Angry
"Greetings, everyone. I'm sure many of you here recognize me. Yes, it's me, Shen Pei Shen Zhengnan, who's back again. I know that during my absence, many people thought I had betrayed the country and defected to the enemy."
"But what I want to say to you all today is that I feel very fortunate about my change of course. Although I was captured on the battlefield, the King of Wei treated me no differently than an ordinary person. He had many long talks with me, and I was deeply moved. At the same time, I was also impressed by the King of Wei's way of governing the country."
As soon as Shen Pei took the stage, he started rambling on and on. The main point of his speech was that coming to Yanzhou was at Chen Er's behest, and the subsequent actions were also at Chen Er's behest. He said that if anyone had any complaints, they could go and find Chen Er. He added that he was forced into this situation and that he could ask Chen Er if he didn't believe him.
"The main purpose of this banquet I have gathered here today is for the future of Yanzhou. The King of Wei sent me to Yanzhou to take up my post for the same reason. After all, I am also half a Yanzhou native, so it is easy for me to talk to everyone."
"My lord, do you mean that Yanzhou should also undergo the same policy reforms as other prefectures and counties in the northern autonomous region?"
The head of a small family asked loudly. His family did not own much land, and the land was divided equally among the family members in accordance with the laws of the self-governing area. Therefore, he was not afraid of the upcoming reforms.
On the contrary, some people are looking forward to the arrival of reforms, which would lead to a significant reduction in both agricultural and commercial taxes, which would actually be a good thing for them.
"Sir, regarding your question, I can assure you that as part of the self-governed region, Yanzhou will naturally align itself with other areas within the region and undertake reforms," Shen Pei said.
As soon as Shen Pei finished speaking, a loud shout suddenly came from below.
"Why!"
A young man stepped forward and asked Shen Pei on the platform, "Why? Why does Chen Er take away our land with just a word? This land has been managed by our family for generations. Why can he just take it away like that?"
"Young man, didn't your parents teach you to be polite?"
Shen Pei said in a deep voice, his tone unfriendly.
The young man was Wu Sheng. He felt a little scared and involuntarily took two steps back, but he quickly straightened his chest and took a few steps forward.
Wu Sheng arrogantly said to Shen Pei, "Shen Zhengnan, others may fear you, but my Wu family does not. Do you think you can just take away the foundation that my Wu family has built in Yanzhou for hundreds of years?"
Shen Zhengnan was appointed to a title.
Although Shen Pei didn't know where this young man from the Wu family got the courage to be so confident, he had already given this guy and his Wu family a death sentence in his heart.
Such a family no longer has any reason to exist, and the monkey for tonight has been found.
"Young man, do you know what it means to be ignorant and fearless?" Shen Pei looked at Wu Sheng with a smile. Seeing Shen Pei's smile, Wu Sheng suddenly felt a little uneasy. Tonight's banquet was originally for his father to attend.
However, his father had caught a cold a couple of days ago, so he asked his old steward to accompany Wu Sheng to the event. Although the Wu family, a prominent family in Yanzhou, dared not claim to be the number one family.
But ranking in the top three shouldn't be a problem. It is precisely because of this that Wu Sheng, as the only legitimate son of the current head of the Wu family, has been spoiled since childhood and thinks that the Wu family is the sky of Yanzhou.
Even when Yuan Shao was around, he often had to give way to the Wu family. Tonight, Wu Sheng's bad habit resurfaced, and the Wu family's old steward couldn't stop him no matter what he did. Instead, he was dragged to the ground by Wu Sheng and kept sighing inwardly.
The Wu family is finished! The Wu family is finished! Young Wu Sheng, don't you know that Yuan Shao, who has been somewhat tolerant of your Wu family, has been repeatedly defeated by Chen Er?
"Shen Zhengnan, you were nothing more than a dog under Yuan Shao back then. Now that you have a new master, do you want to be an enemy of the entire Yanzhou?"
Wu Sheng wasn't completely stupid; he knew to involve the entire Yanzhou. However, he didn't know how many people were willing to join him. While he was talking to Shen Pei, he didn't notice that the people around him were slowly retreating, trying to stay away from him to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
“Young man, didn’t your elders tell you to be responsible for your words?” Shen Pei said.
At this moment, Shen Pei's anger seemed to have reached a breaking point, but unfortunately Wu Sheng did not see it and was even inciting the people around him to oppose Shen Pei.
He seemed oblivious to the fact that the people around him were getting further and further away from him. Of course, there were still some people who believed that the law would not punish the masses and stepped forward. Most of these people were small families who made their living mainly by annexing land.
Although their families were not large, they owned a lot of land and were also invited to participate in the land reform. These landlords, who relied solely on the land for their livelihood, naturally strongly opposed the land reform policy in their self-governing areas.
Although the reduction in agricultural taxes was somewhat beneficial to them, the restrictions on land sales and the limits on the amount of land that individuals could own were a huge blow to these families.
Watching the crowd below gradually split into two groups, Shen Pei had already made up his mind. Today, he was only here to kill the monkey. The Wu family's intervention at this time was exactly what Shen Pei wanted. This monkey was big enough.
However, with enough influence, plus the smaller monkeys around, this banquet should be a complete success.
Bah! Shen Pei, you're shameless! You declared the banquet a complete success before we even had a chance to drink or eat. You're truly shameless.
Seeing Wu Sheng and his group below constantly encouraging more people to join them, Shen Pei did not stop them. Instead, he signaled Xiong Shan to delay the action so that those people would have more time to consider. He wanted to see how many people would dare to join Wu Sheng's team today.
"Is tens of thousands of troops a lot?"
Shen Pei sneered, “Although it is a bit embarrassing to say, I don’t care about such face. When I was still serving under Yuan Shao, I led a large army of nearly 100,000 men to fight against the Wei King’s troops and almost wiped them out in one battle.”
"Do you think your force of over ten thousand men is a lot? And weapons? Don't you know that cannons were invented under the guidance of the King of Wei?!"
Shen Pei's words pierced the hearts of everyone in the hall like needles. After hearing Wu Sheng's words, some people thought that Shen Pei might make some compromises. They subconsciously ignored the large organization under Chen Er's command.
"You! You!" Upon hearing Shen Pei's words, Wu Sheng panicked. He had been so caught up in his boasting that he hadn't even remembered that Chen Er had risen to power through warfare.