On September 5, the sixth year of Xianping, Dali Temple in Tianjing New City welcomed a group of special guests. The officials from various places who had left in the anti-tax movement returned to Tianjing New City and paid a collective visit to Hua Jieyu. After the princes in the court stopped attacking Yang Peng, the local officials in Tianjing New City returned to Tianjing New City one by one. But they did not come to visit Hua Jieyu immediately at that time, but were waiting to see the direction of the court. Anyway, they have been hiding from the wind and waves for several months, and they don't care about hiding for a few more days.
Until Hua Jieyu issued an announcement about Dali Temple, these civil servants could not sit still and came to visit Hua Jieyu one after another. In the second hall of Dali Temple, officials from various states and counties in the Tianjing New City area gathered together, but Hua Jieyu arrived late and never showed up. The twenty magistrates and two prefects were a little flustered, whispering to each other in low voices.
"If we hang up our seals and leave, will King Yan bear grudge against us?" "No. We are civil servants after all, and we have our own difficulties as civil servants. Will King Yan be considerate of me?" "I don't think it's good, Hua Jie The words have been delayed..." "The announcement of King Yan swept across Cangzhou and Shandong. If King Yan is dissatisfied with us, please publish an article on the announcement..."
The officials were anxious and uneasy when they saw a personal guard walking into the second hall and shouting loudly: "The ministers of Dali Temple are here!" The civil servants looked at each other, and finally Cangzhou Zhizhou took the lead, and the twenty-two local heads The official knelt on the ground to greet Hua Jieyu.
According to the tradition of the Song Dynasty, civil servants did not bow to military officers. Even if the civil servant is a fifth-grade magistrate of a state or a seventh-grade magistrate of a county, even a low-level official like this has his own civil servant style in front of high-ranking military officers and will not kneel down.
But when it comes to Hua Jieyu, this kind of civil servant style can be dispensed with. Hua Jieyu's Dali Temple killed civil servants just like killing chickens and dogs. He had already killed more than a dozen civil servants directly and indirectly. In this three-quarter acre of land in Hebei, which civil servant would dare to show off in front of Hua Jieyu? Who can't get along with their own head?
What's even more frightening is that Hua Jieyu has taken control of public opinion in Hebei as soon as the Dali Temple announcement was released. Nowadays, teahouses in various prefectures and counties in Yanjing have followed suit and have hired newspaper-reading children to read the Dali Temple announcements of Hua Jieyu. The ordinary people in the city understand world affairs through the announcements every day, and their emotions and thoughts are greatly guided by the announcements of Hua Jieyu. .
Hua Jieyu already had powerful Jinyiwei spies on her hands, who were well aware of the dirty things done by civil servants in Hebei and Shandong. Now that he controls the public opinion in Tianjing New City, if he wants to smear anyone in the future, he only needs to publish the scandal of a civil servant in the newspaper, and the future of this civil servant will be completely over. When the time comes, will you sue Hua Jieyu for slander? What Hua Jieyu writes is true! Where are you going to reason?
These gentlemen with Jinshi background all know how terrible public opinion is. Nowadays, let alone kneeling down to Hua Jieyu, even if they are asked to kowtow to Hua Jieyu and beg for mercy, they can do it. When Hua Jieyu walked into the second hall, she saw people kneeling on the ground and only saw dozens of black gauze hats. Hua Jieyu sneered, sat on the main seat swaggeringly, and said calmly: "Everyone, get up."
The county magistrates and prefecture magistrates got up from the ground, took out gift lists one after another, and gave Hua Jieyu gifts to calm her down. Hua Jieyu looked at the gift lists. There were hundreds of taels of wealth on them. These local officials could not be said to be generous in their dealings. Cangzhou Zhizhou saw that the civil servants had finished delivering the gift lists and took the lead in saying, "I am here to make amends to the ministers of Dali Temple."
"When the ministers were collecting taxes from the gentry in Hebei, we were afraid of the verbal and written criticism from the civil servants all over the world, so we did not dare to assist the ministers in collecting taxes, and left one by one with our seals. Such an approach was really courageous and reckless. Now the King of Yan is collecting taxes We have successfully completed the taxation matter and won a great victory. We have come to confess our sins to the temple officials and ask them to forgive me for staying away from the matter."
After hearing what Cangzhou Zhizhou said, Hua Jieyu said nothing. Cui Changwu, who was sitting on the left side of Hua Jieyu, smiled and said: "What you are saying seems to support King Yan in collecting taxes." Cangzhou Zhizhou said seriously: "Cui Dutou Mingjian, the ministers Mingjian, King Yan is in Hebei Province. We fully support the gentry's efforts to collect taxes, block the channels for tax evasion, revitalize the country's finances, and benefit the country and the people. Now that King Yan's tax collection has been completed, we are all happy and celebrating, and there is no objection at all. Heart?"
Hua Jieyu was speechless after hearing such shameless words from Zhizhou. These civil servants have their heads and tails turned upside down when the wind blows. Now that Hua Jieyu had collected the tax, the officials in the court had also shut up and did not dare to attack King Yan again. These civil servants immediately said that they all supported tax collection. If King Yan fails, they will naturally oppose tax collection.
Hua Jieyu was too lazy to talk nonsense with these civil servants and knocked on the table. Cui Changwu sat on the left side of Hua Jieyu and said loudly: "Since you are all here at the General Military Mansion, please save Hua Jieyu and send people to inform you one by one. King Yan has something important to announce, please listen carefully!"
The civil servants were stunned, not knowing what big event Hua Jieyu was going to announce, and they all became nervous. Cui Changwu said loudly: "From now on, King Yan will set up 'Dali Temple Courts' in various states and counties for the people of each county to use for lawsuits. They will be set up in Hejian Prefecture, Baodi County of Shuntian Prefecture, and Luanzhou of Yongping Prefecture." The Dali Temple Intermediate Tribunal is for people from various states and counties who are still dissatisfied to appeal after the lawsuit has been filed. The Dali Temple High Court is set up in Tianjing New City for people who are still dissatisfied after the Intermediate Court’s verdict to appeal and give the final decision.”
"In the future, if the judgments of lawsuits in various prefecture and county magistrates are different from the rulings of the Dali Temple Court, the Dali Temple Court shall prevail!" After hearing Cui Changwu's words, the faces of the local supervisors paled. Their taxation rights have been deprived by the King of Yan, and the King of Yan is now depriving them of their judicial rights. Although King Yan did not directly say that people were not allowed to go to the Yamen to litigate, but since everything was subject to the Dali Temple Court, who would go to the Yamen to argue? Naturally, they all went directly to the Dali Temple court, which had the final say.
Without taxation and the power to adjudicate lawsuits, what would they have left as a prefecture and county magistrate? King Yan wants to completely ignore them. The so-called magistrate who destroys the family and the county magistrate who destroys the family! The power to decide lawsuits is the greatest power of the local magistrate. Without the power to adjudicate lawsuits, how can they get money out of their hands? Who will honor them? What else will they do in the future? Just focus on construction and water conservancy? Does King Yan want to transform them from parental officials into empty frames with no power?
The faces of the local officials present turned red and white, looking very ugly. This time, King Yan hit these civil servants with another stick. The local officials put up a seal to boycott Li Zhi's taxation. How did Yang Peng retaliate against the local officials? Moreover, the power to adjudicate lawsuits is different from collecting taxes from the gentry. The latter declared war on the scholars of the world. Behind the gentry in Hebei and Shanxi were the scholars of the world. The former is just a struggle for power. Although the world is big, no one will stand up to help the officials in Tianjing New City and challenge the powerful Yang Peng.
Without the power to adjudicate lawsuits, the number of people sending money to local officials will be greatly reduced in the future. If the income of local officials is reduced, the money sent by local officials will also be reduced. This will affect the promotion of local officials. When all the officials heard Hua Jieyu's words, they all looked ugly and remained silent.
The officials wanted to resist, but they were afraid of Hua Jieyu's methods and did not dare to speak. Cui Changwu looked around at the local officials and said with a smile: "You guys seem to be in trouble?" After a long silence, Wu Zhiyuan, the magistrate of Nanpi County, jumped out. He stood up with a flick of his sleeves, and shouted with a thick neck: "Lord Hua Jieyu, destroying a person's wealth is like killing his parents. Even the King of Yan cannot go too far!"
After hearing Wu Zhiyuan's words, several county magistrates who had good relations with him quickly stopped him. They pushed Wu Zhiyuan back to the chair, begged for mercy and said: "Simin, calm down, Sichen, please calm down. Wu Zhiyuan was impulsive and did not really oppose King Yan's court."
"Uncle, Wu Zhiyuan also supports King Yan's court! He made a mistake at the moment!" Wu Zhiyuan pushed away several other magistrates who were holding him down and said loudly: "I can't stand this cowardice! Take it first My taxes are being robbed of my rights, so why should I be the county magistrate?" He shouted loudly to Hua Jieyu: "I don't allow the court to be located in Nanpi County!"
Hua Jieyu looked at Wu Zhiyuan coldly and said calmly: "Wu Zhiyuan, do you know what you are talking about?" Wu Zhiyuan said loudly: "Hua Jieyu, take your life. I am old too. At worst, I will be killed by you." Now! Scholars all over the world will spread my reputation for resisting Hua Jieyu!" After hearing Wu Zhiyuan's words, Hua Jieyu said coldly: "Want a reputation?" With a smile, Hua Jieyu said: "Tomorrow Let’s read the announcement!”
After Hua Jieyu said this, he stopped talking to these local officials and left the second hall with his hands behind his back. Cui Changwu looked at the magistrates and county magistrates who were looking at each other, followed Hua Jieyu's footsteps, and walked out. In the second hall, all the officials looked at Wu Zhiyuan as if they were looking at a prisoner sentenced to death. Wu Zhiyuan's face was red and white, and he was speechless. ####
The next day, in a teahouse in the county town of Nanpi County, newspaper readers read loudly among the crowds of several floors: "The headlines on the front page! Wu Zhiyuan, the magistrate of Nanpi County, accepted more than 20,000 taels from the gentry in three years to help him evade taxes. . The county magistrate of this county accepted bribes? When the Nanpi County tea drinkers who were watching heard such explosive news, they all pricked up their ears and listened carefully. "Wu Zhiyuan, the magistrate of Nanpi County, served as magistrate of Nanpi County for three years and devoted himself to Make money. During his three years in office, he collected more than 20,000 taels of bribes, a huge amount that was shocking. "
"From last May to May this year, the county magistrate Wu Zhiyuan collected 7,200 taels from thirty-eight gentry families, including the Liang family in Gouziwei, the Xue family in Xuejia Village, and the Wang family in Guoheling, in an attempt to exempt all these gentry from paying land tax. However, Yan The king rectified the tax system and after checking for deficiencies, all thirty-eight gentry families paid taxes in full. Wu Zhiyuan had no choice but to return all the 7,200 taels of silver!" When the people listening to the newspaper heard such amazing news, a He was stunned and speechless for a long time.
The announcement from Dali Temple is amazing. Wouldn't it make it impossible for Wu Zhiyuan to be an official if such dirty things were published in Renzhi County? Although there were basically few good officials in the Song Dynasty, nine out of ten were corrupt. But all the officials in the Song Dynasty have a reputation. On the surface, all of them are Jinshi and are sanctimonious. When they stand up and speak, they are full of benevolence, justice and morality, and they are all models of scholars.
If private matters are exposed like this, wouldn't it mean that he will become a scholar scum? Not to mention that King Yan wants to deal with him, under the fierce public opinion, I am afraid that the gentry must first clean up the family and exclude and boycott Wu Zhiyuan for the sake of the scholar's face. The tea patrons in the teahouse were about to listen carefully when they suddenly heard a commotion outside. On the street, it seemed that a group of green men came over and wanted to cause trouble in the teahouse.
The county magistrate colluded with the green-skinned boss to destroy the teahouse in the county? Keep the news that he took bribes from spreading? The tea guests were nervous, but when they saw the green-skinned men approaching the door of the tea house, they all stopped. They seemed to have seen a natural enemy in the teahouse and dispersed with a bang. The tea guests took a closer look and found that at some time, five soldiers from the Huben Division from the Dali Temple in Tianjing New City had been sitting at a table at the entrance of the teahouse. The soldiers wore Tianjing New City military uniforms and sat there leisurely, as if they were enjoying the green tea in the teahouse, as if they didn't even see Qingpi outside.
A soldier in Tianjing New City can fight three green skins each, and if he has a sword in his hand, he can fight five. With five soldiers sitting here, how could one green-skin dare to come up and cause trouble? The green skin dispersed, and the teagoers listening to the newspaper looked at each other, and then looked at the young man reading the newspaper. The young man licked his lips and read again: ""Wu Zhiyuan took a civilian girl as a concubine fourteen years ago, and his behavior was outrageous"
"Fourteen years ago, when Wu Zhiyuan was the county magistrate of Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province, he coveted the beauty of a woman from a private family and used despicable means to bankrupt the woman. Finally, she forced the husband of the woman to sell his wife to pay off his debts. Wu Zhiyuan was no longer confused at that time, but he still had no shame. He bought a 23-year-old folk girl as a concubine at the age of 10." Upon hearing this explosive news, the tea drinkers in Nanpi County all blushed and were very excited. Once the news spreads, Wuzhiyuan will not be able to become the county magistrate! After everyone listened to the newspaper reader's ode, they turned to look at the two scholars in the teahouse.
The two scholars were wearing square turbans and cocoon silk straight skirts. They were obviously sons of the gentry and were sitting in a teahouse drinking tea. The two scholars passed the county examination under the guidance of Wu Zhiyuan, who was considered their teacher. When they heard the news about Wu Zhiyuan, their faces turned red and they felt awkward sitting there.
When everyone looked at them, they were so ashamed that they covered their faces with their sleeves, threw down a few coins and fled from the teahouse. Seeing the two "students" of Wu Zhiyuan in such a mess, the tea guests felt very happy and laughed. The person who read the announcement also shook his head, smiled, and continued reading.
Today's Dali Temple announcement seems to be printed for Wu Zhiyuan, with a large number of articles attacking Wu Zhiyuan. There were also dirty things about Wu Zhiyuan below, and the newspaper readers read them one by one.
""Wu Zhiyuan Zhidao borrowed a lawsuit to extort Xu Rongyi, a silk and satin merchant, from five hundred gold"..." "Wu Zhiyuan Nanpi served as an official for three years and spent 1,193 taels at the Cuiyu Building, a brothel in Cangzhou Aicheng. "..." As the newspaper reader was reading, a shouting and beating suddenly came from outside the teahouse. Everyone turned around and saw a dozen government officials dragging Wu Zhiyuan's flag and carrying Wu Zhiyuan's sedan running quickly to the county government office.
The flag that was supposed to be held high fell to the ground and was dragging it like a burden. The government servant who was supposed to be holding the water and fire sticks arrogantly looked like a bereaved dog, in extremely embarrassed state. Behind the sedan, dozens of scholars and students from the county chased Wu Zhiyuan's sedan with large rocks and threw them, shouting loudly:
"Smash Wu Zhiyuan to death!" "Beat him to death!" "Beat this scumbag to death."
In the Song Dynasty, dirty things could be done, but they could not be spoken out. Wu Zhiyuan was the leader of the Nanpi scholars. His dirty deeds were exposed, and all the Nanpi taxi scholars were ashamed. The young and energetic scholars and students rolled up their sleeves and began to attack Wu Zhiyuan and clean up the family.
Children and teenagers playing on the road saw how interesting this scene was, and they also picked up stones and threw stones at Wu Zhiyuan's sedan. Stones kept flying towards Wu Zhiyuan's sedan. The bearers carrying Wu Zhiyuan ran very fast, like a defeated army, running away towards the county government office.
Zhao Lizing is a farmer from Datian Township, Jinghai County. In the third year of Dao's reign, because he was bullied by the government officials, the amount of land tax he paid increased every year. In the end, he had to pay a dou of nine liters of land tax per mu of land every year. At that time, he was oppressed by the government officials and was very poor. He could not even eat a bite of meat during the New Year, so he took his land and donated it to the home of Mr. Yuan, a fellow villager.
Mr. Yuan was born as a scholar and had friendship with the household officials in the county government, so he did not need to pay land tax. After Zhao Lijing dedicated his land to Mr. Yuan, the land became Mr. Yuan's private property, but it was still cultivated by Zhao Lijing. Zhao Lijing pays one dou and four liters of land per acre of land every year as land rent to Mr. Yuan.
At that time, Master Yuan and Zhao Lizing were very happy. Zhao Lizing signed the land deed and gave the land to Master Yuan.
Although the land no longer belongs to Zhao Lijing, at least five liters of grain per mu of land will be handed over. Zhao Lizing's twenty-three acres of dry land can save one stone and one bucket of food a year. This one stone of food can allow Zhao Lijing's family of three to make a new set of clothes and eat a bite of meat during the Chinese New Year.
The most important thing is that Mr. Yuan is true to his word and will not increase Zhao Lizing's land rent in the future. Compared with those greedy government servants who constantly increase land taxes, this stable land rent is extremely precious. Zhao Lizing was not the only one to donate land to Mr. Yuan. Mr. Yuan collected very low land rents from the farmers who donated their money. One by one, farmers followed suit and invested.
More and more farmers in Datian Township donated their money to Mr. Yuan's family, and there was less farmland to pay land tax. Those small farmers who did not contribute to the gentry had to pay heavier land taxes, so more people contributed and less land was taxed, forming a vicious cycle.
In the past few years, at least two hundred powerless farmers in Datian Township have donated their fields to Master Yuan's home. Mr. Yuan owned more and more fields, and gradually became the richest man in Datian Township.
However, in the first year of Xianping, things changed. In the first year of Xianping, Yang Peng of Tianjing New City reformed the tax system, equalized land tax, and collected taxes from the gentry. Mr. Yuan, who was originally exempt from tax, also had to collect taxes. Although Mr. Yuan assessed the situation, he did not add the increased land tax to the land rent, nor did he collect additional land rent from the farmers who contributed. However, the tax collectors in Tianjing New City were honest and fair, and only collected seven liters per mu of land per year as land tax. Therefore, the land tax of the owner-cultivators is only half of Master Yuan's land rent.
Zhao Lijing couldn't help but start thinking. If you leave the Yuan family with the donated land, you can save one stone and five buckets of land rent every year!
In fact, many farmers who donated to the Yuan family had the idea of leaving the Yuan family when they heard about King Yan's tax system. But when it was originally donated to the Yuan family, the land deed was written and the land was given to the Yuan family. Now that the land deed is in Master Yuan's hands, if he doesn't pay the land rent, he will be punished if he goes to the government.
But who is Zhao Lijing? How flexible is his brain? He asked around and learned that King Yan's policy had always been to protect small farmers. In September, Zhao Lizing heard that Uncle Xing Guo had set up the "Dali Temple Court" in Jinghai County to handle various lawsuits. Moreover, this Dali Temple court is more powerful than the county magistrate - if the outcome of the lawsuit decided by the Dali Temple court is different from that of the county magistrate, the Dali Temple court shall prevail.
Mr. Yuan has connections with the county government, but not with Xing Guobo. When Zhao Lijing heard the news about the "Dali Temple Court", he was almost certain to win the lawsuit and get the land donated to the Yuan family back into his own hands.
On September 15, Zhao Lijing took his wife and son to the court to beat drums and file a lawsuit. Like the county government, there is a big drum outside Hua Jieyu's court. People who want to file lawsuits beat the drum to express their grievances, and the court will open. The judge of the court opened the court, and after hearing Zhao Lijing's statement in the court, he sent a summons to summon the landlord Yuan Xiucai. The judge carefully checked the land deed and found that there was indeed no transaction amount on the land deed for the twenty-three acres of land. The land was presented to Yuan Xiucai by Zhao Lizing in the first year of Zhidao. Although Yuan Xiucai hesitated, he admitted that these fields were given to him free of charge, and were still rented by Zhao Lizing after they were given to him. This shows that these fields were indeed dedicated fields.
Now that King Yan has lowered the land tax for small farmers, Zhao Lizing wants to take back the land he donated to the Yuan family.
This is a tough case. The judge looked at Yuan Xiucai. Yuan Xiucai was sitting on a chair in the middle of the court and said loudly: "Judge, Zhao Lijing did give me this field. I am now the owner of the field. Zhao Lijing now sees The king of Yan evened out the land tax, but then wanted to go back on his word and take the land back. This is a violation of the land contract written in black and white, and it is eating the master's house and eating the west's house. It is like a rat with two ends.
In Hua Jieyu's court, the plaintiff and defendant had chairs to sit on, but it was not Yuan Xiucai's privilege. The judge felt that what Yuan Xiucai said made sense and looked at Zhao Lijing again. Zhao Lijing's family of three sat on chairs and burst into tears. Zhao Lijing said loudly: "Judge, I pay one dou and four liters of land rent to Yuan Xiucai every year, which is not a small amount. It shows how ruthlessly my family was exploited by the government servants. If King Yan knew the misery of my family, he would definitely help me. A commoner like me? Speaking of which, if someone like me, Zhao Lijing, donates his own land to others, isn’t it the last resort of being forced to have no food? Who is willing to give his own land to others? What Zhao Lijing said What he did was to survive under the oppression of the government, and he fell into the trap jointly set by Yuan Xiucai and the government officials!"
"Now that the King of Yan is protecting small farmers who are doing light corvee and paying little tax, then I, Zhao Lizing, should enjoy King Yan's new policies like other common people. How can I still pay high land rent to Yuan Xiucai in vain?" Isn't this Zhao Lizing? Like ordinary poor people, they are quite good at talking. The judge listened to his statement and felt that what he said made sense. In the past, the government led beasts to eat people, so how could they blame the common people for joining wealthy families to evade taxes?
Although Zhao Lijing's case is only a small case involving 23 acres of dry land, it is of great significance. You must know that there may be tens of thousands of small farmers in Jinghai County who donated money to large households. Not to mention the whole of Tianjin. Once the verdict on Zhao Lizing's case is announced, the whole of Hebei may be regarded as a model.
Zhao Lizing's case directly determines the future of the people in Hebei and Shandong who have donated their land. The judges in the court have all received training from Dali Temple and know that such a high-impact lawsuit cannot be pronounced casually. The judge asked Zhao Lizing and Yuan Xiucai to go back and wait for the verdict, while he sorted out the information, wrote down the various situations of Zhao Lizing and Yuan Xiucai, and sent them to Tianjing New City for Hua Jieyu to make a ruling.
On September 17, the case was sent to Hua Jieyu. Hua Jieyu got up in the morning and went to deal with official documents and saw the information sent by the Jinghai County judge. Cui Changwu had already read the materials in advance, shook his head and said, "Second Minister, this case is of great importance and needs to be decided by Mr. Hua himself."
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
