Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1065 Who Sues This Official ([-])

"Our Yanhu is not wronged, but the land reclamation company. Please master the decision! Master Qingtian!"

When it came time for the trial, the mild hooligan brawl was over.Facing the huge "grievance" written on the white cloth with the blood of a severed finger, the county magistrate asked the classic "what's your grievance", and got such an answer.

The brawl has passed, and the whole process has been almost uneventful.A group of professional political hooligans beat a group of unprofessional political hooligans.In an instant, birds and beasts scattered on the opposite side.

After Jiugong Mountain, Dashun chose to compromise, retaining many "vigorous" features of Jiangnan.

And here, the county magistrate used to try cases in the county government office. The powerful plaintiffs and defendants each hired fighters to fight at the gate of the county government office. Despising officials and law is like Bian Kun], officials and law are just a place to hang hair.

It is the place where the orthodox "Governor Yingtian" specially appointed by the imperial court can be slapped in the street, and the beaters drift away.

Professional fights, party fights and market fights, local councilors like scholars have become hooligans, think about a place where the Jiaofang Secretary system was abolished in 92, and women prisoners could have their sentences reduced when serving in the military paradise, and you can roughly understand the real hooligan scholars at this time Play with the line, in the end what kind of.

The county magistrate doesn't care about this kind of thing at all.

Let's talk about killing people, but he knows that the thugs here have a sense of proportion, and generally they can't kill people.

The county magistrate has seen this kind of thing a lot and has rich experience.

There were many similar things in the previous dynasty, such as the story of "The Tombstone of Five People", which was also a professional scholar, and the students came forward first, asking what happened to the school captain who came to take the man, and the school captain asked that this matter is related to your scholars. ?The two sides quickly started to work, so that "the governor trembled and dared not move."

The county magistrate is used to this, as long as no one is killed, it will be no big deal.Normally, before a case is tried, the plaintiff and the defendant have to fight in front of the county government. Today, there are just a little more people fighting.

In such a large county, the imperial court will only give that little money, not the establishment staff, and rely on grassroots talents.Many grassroots talents are hooligan leaders. It would be nice to keep the county running and collect taxes. How can they control everything?
Just now, the county magistrate's cronies watched the whole process of the fight.

The group of salt households who supported the land reclamation, carrying the tablets of Tianguan and Diguan, first attracted a large number of citizens.

Then the rogue scholar used the skill of a storyteller to describe the suffering of life in Yanhu.

Later, when compassion was flooding, the similarity of the feudal obligation system of textile artisan households transferred from salt households to the previous dynasty aroused the empathy of citizens mainly in small industries and businesses.

Then, he made a direct speech, saying that those salt households who complained before sold the grass by themselves, and now they heard that there was compensation for the land enclosure, and they just wanted to get back the contract because of the trouble.They are just a bunch of troublemakers, don't sympathize with them.Then we salt households eat maggot shrimp paste, why don't you sympathize with us?

After quickly turning the public opinion around, the professional hooligan chopped off one of his fingers, cut off a large piece of flesh from his chest, and threw it into the incense burner.

Burning sizzling and oily, the meat is fragrant.

Then he wrote a big grievance on the white cloth with his severed finger.

With this shock of self-mutilation, he shouted that he would not share the sky with those who opposed the reclamation.

I didn't know that he was a professional hooligan, but I thought it was just a rage.

The citizens who were still there a few days ago all turned around at this time.

Then this group of professional political hooligans rushed to the street, stopped those Yanhus who opposed land reclamation, and directly dispersed the opposite side, beating up those thugs and scholars who were not Yanhus at first glance.

The real anti-enclave Yanhu had no organization, retreated and dispersed in an instant, fled from the city, and fled in all directions.

The Yando side, which supported the land reclamation, won a big victory, and then paraded around the city twice.

The crying incident of Emperor Chongzhen of the former dynasty made people in this industry understand a truth: debate is stupid, and the opponent who directly beats with a thug dare not show his face, so he can say whatever he wants.

Because everyone is talking about abstract benevolence and righteousness. Abstract things, such as eternal fairness and justice, all depend on one mouth.

Since we don’t talk about the interests of classes, we don’t talk about specific interests, we only talk about abstract and eternal justice, benevolence and morality, then whoever wins has the right to say, even if the Manchus win, they can talk about these abstract nonsense .

However, this is old experience.

What is different this time is that these political hooligans put forward specific interests, rather than abstract benevolence and justice; specific interests of a certain class, rather than abstract general benevolent governance; problems, rather than abstract benevolent governance.

Now these people have won a big victory, controlled the public opinion in the market, and driven away those who should be beaten, and now they come here to complain.

But it was not for himself, but for the land reclamation company.

The county magistrate is still very satisfied with the actions of these hooligans.

The goal of this grievance is the reclamation company, rather than directly confronting those salt households who oppose the enclosure, which saves the county magistrate a lot of trouble.

He was not in a hurry to try the case, and after asking someone to submit the pleading paper written by a professional litigator, he slowly and methodically procrastinated, waiting for some people.

After a while of delay, I heard the sound of trumpets and drums in the distance, and then a small official preached: "Master Jiedushi has arrived!"

The people who watched the excitement moved away one after another, and the county magistrate hurriedly arranged his clothes and hats, and went out to greet him together with the county officials and servants.

After saluting, Lin Min said: "You judge yourself, as long as you handle it impartially. This official is not here to preside over the trial, nor is he acting as a substitute."

"How to judge, how to judge."

The county magistrate responded and invited Lin Min to supervise the inspection.

After the surroundings quieted down, several people from the land reclamation company, as well as those merchants who had a large number of grassland deeds, were also brought over.

According to the previous accusation, the people from these land reclamation companies were the defendants.

Now after the gangsters here have won the fight, they turned back and the people from the land reclamation company became the plaintiffs.

And these dealers with grassy deeds in their hands have become an embarrassing existence.

The county magistrate first read the pleadings that the common people who watched the fun already knew the content, and then asked the merchants: "During the enclosure, the wasteland reclamation company approached you, saying that you had a grassland deed. , everything is available. You voluntarily accept the land enclosure compensation, is this really true?"

When these dealers hear the word "voluntary", they just want to scold their mothers.

What is voluntary?

If we are not voluntary, Xing Guogong will investigate our illegal salt business. We are not voluntary, but can we do it if we are not voluntary?

If someone else came to investigate, it would be easy to say, and they could always fool them.

But the things in this world can only be checked if you want to, not if you can.As long as you want to investigate, no one like yourself can't find out about private salt and frying.

But the matter has come to this point, at this time, if you say that you are not voluntary, or directly call for grievances, that is the act of a fool.

Because...they buy grass itself, which is an illegal transaction.

"My lord, we all voluntarily accept the land enclosure compensation."

"The Land Reclamation Company negotiated with us, and we did so voluntarily."

"First of all, frying salt is a hard job in the world, and we have long thought of changing jobs."

"Secondly, the compensation given is quite reasonable."

"Yes, they all voluntarily accepted land enclosure compensation."

"These sloppy pledges and the certificate of tax completion within five years are all here. Please look over them, sir."

The little official hurriedly took all these contracts to the county magistrate, and the county magistrate randomly picked out a few, nodded and said: "This is all true, especially the evidence of paying taxes after class. These cannot be faked. The Yanzheng side also With a stub."

"There is evidence, and all the contracts are complete. According to what you said, those salt households who came here to oppose the land reclamation a few days ago are all troublemakers?"

"The nature of the incident a few days ago was supposed to be a trickster's pawn, and he couldn't get compensation for enclosing the land, so he gathered a crowd to slander, and how many people caused trouble?"

"If this is the case, he must be punished severely."

Now that these businessmen have come to this point, they can only do everything they can.

Otherwise, we really need to investigate. Who organized those salt households to oppose the land enclosure in the first place?
But they were the ones who fanned the wind and lit the will-o'-the-wisps behind their backs, and they were the ones who took the lead in organizing it.Trying to coerce confrontation, so as to ensure that he will continue to have the benefit of frying private salt.

This is not to say that marketers want to sell grass and get compensation for land enclosure.

The little compensation given by the enclosure can only be given to the public.For those legally "ownerless" grasslands, the enclosure companies contracted directly from the imperial court, and it was impossible to give them a penny.And this lawsuit, even if it hits the city of Beijing, these dealers will not take it seriously.

But now that things have developed to this point, what else can dealers do?
Taking a step back, he repented in court, saying that he really didn't want to be encroached upon, and that it was Xingguogong who forced him to do so.Because if he does not agree to enclose the land, Duke Xingguo will investigate his private affair.

Decoction of private salt, if it is really found out, there will be a lot of money to be paid.

This kind of thing can basically be understood as the anti-corruption in the early Ming Dynasty.The emperor knew whether the local money was enough or not. He set a very high standard for a saint, and then the emperor had the name of law enforcement of absolute justice in his hands. He could do whoever he wanted, and it was in the name of anti-corruption. .

Private salt is similar, what will happen after the merchant enters the market, is the court a fool?But the law is here, and there is really a reason to do these illegal salt frying.

Many laws are not clearly stated, especially in the Jiangnan area, it is impossible to act according to the law.If it is really necessary to act according to the law, then it is a serious matter, not only the salt industry, but also land, fields, etc. There are many problems of illegality.

For example, from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the tax rate policy of the counties in the south of the Yangtze River was not uniform, the division of official land and private land at the beginning, and the various strange policies that the tax rate was borne according to the place of household registration, resulting in the classic Jiaxing and Jiashan counties from Longqing to Chongzhen. years of land disputes.

To put it simply, in the early Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan borne a large amount of national taxes.However, the basis of this part of the grain tax was achieved by the official land in the hands of the imperial court after the end of the war in the early Ming Dynasty.

Guantian can collect high taxes, because there are no middlemen to make the difference.Later, the number of official land became less and less, but the tax quota for the entire county was not adjusted.Messy seeking refuge, transferring household registration to counties with low tax rates to pay taxes, etc., has developed into two counties in the later stage.

Bulk to the county.

In fact, they are all similar to the issue of "grass ownership" in the enclosure this time:

Things that have been illegally passed on for a long time will cause great social turmoil, but because of the different economic bases of the country, it is impossible for all laws to apply.Therefore, the imperial court chose the method of acquiescing to the local government to follow the illegal tradition.

The society was out of control and the local grassroots collapsed in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. When the early superstructure designed according to the national plan to become serfs and large rural areas could not hold back, unless there was a major reshuffle, it could only be done in accordance with the "obviously illegal, but acquiescing not to To recognize local policies with an attitude of "studying deeply".

Take the matter of enclosing land as an example. If it is really done according to the law, it really shouldn't be too simple.But the reality is that it really cannot be done in accordance with the law.

Now these dealers are also helpless.

The law is flexibly in the hands of court officials like Liu Yu.

You can switch between strict legal affairs and loose local special conditions at any time.

Many problems left over from history were not all smashed to build new ones at the beginning, and this is the only way to go.

This switch makes there always be a "crime" suitable for these dealers.

If they don't say they are voluntary, what else can they do?Definitely "voluntary".

(End of this chapter)