"What's going on? Have all the family heads thought about it? When are you going to take out the 480,000 shi of food?" Xu Zongwen sat firmly in the atrium, Xiao Hei had a smile on his face, and seemed to be in a very happy mood.
The three-day period has passed, and the date agreed by the twenty-four noble families has also arrived. Everyone came to the Qiantang Yamen Office as promised and gave Xu Zongwen a personal answer. At the same time, Xu Zongwen was also waiting for them.
It was the head of the Shen family, Shen Xu, who spoke first, and he replied lightly: "I'm really sorry, Sir!"
Hearing this apology, Xu Zongwen's smile immediately froze! He touched his chin and scratched the back of his head. This was his habit. Whenever something bothered him or he had murderous intentions, he would subconsciously touch his chin and scratch the back of his head!
These old guys, it looks like they are being punished by drinking wine instead of eating!
"The money of our noble clan is not brought by the strong wind. As soon as Shijun opened his mouth, it was 480,000 shi of food. This, we really can't come up with this!"
"That's right! Forty-eight shi of grain is such a huge amount, where will we go to raise it for a while?"
"Your Majesty has made things too difficult for us low-level citizens like Sheng Dou."
…
During the banquet, the twenty-four heads of the family began to pour out their bitter words to each other. Everything about the old sesame seeds and rotten millet came out. Last year, there was a locust plague that reduced food production. In order to raise military expenditures, the imperial government carried out land wars before the Battle of Feishui. Break...
After the Yongjia Rebellion, the people in the Central Plains were displaced, resulting in a large number of refugees.
In order to distinguish between local residents and immigrants, the Jin court registered household registrations with yellow and white registrations respectively.
Therefore, the household registration of ordinary households is divided into two types: the household registration of local residents made of yellow paper and the household registration of refugees made of white paper. In order to distinguish these two household registrations, they are named according to the color of the paper: the former is called yellow registration, and the latter is called white registration.
In order to conduct household registration checks and increase national tax revenue, the Jin Dynasty compiled household registrations based on states, counties, and counties, and residents based on their actual place of residence. Northern white people from Qiaozhou, Qiaojun, and Qiaoxian were included in household registrations and allocated land for farming. The increase in land taxation from the treasury actually had a certain impact on the gentry and controlled land annexation in a short period of time.
"Who said it was 480,000? The 20,000 shi from this governor will also be shared among you!" When Xu Zongwen heard that the nobles did not want to pay, he patted the table and stood up.
"Not only these 500,000 stones of grain, but also wood. Hand over all the wood in your hands and transport it to the construction site on the south bank to build houses for the people. Otherwise, Zhu's today will be your tomorrow!"
"Do you think these three days of thinking about the assassination were all given to you in vain?"
"This is Ding Tai's confession and the account books handed over from him!"
Xu Zongwen threw all of Ding Tai's confession to the nearest Shen Xu, which immediately attracted the attention of the other family heads. Several parents who were close to him tried their best to squeeze their heads in to take a look.
"All the heads of the house, please think it through and give me a clear reply. Then don't blame me for being ruthless and raising the price!" Xu Zongwen returned to the main seat, picked up a cup of tea, and chatted with these house heads for a long time until his words were worn out. It's almost smoke coming out of my throat. If I don't take a sip of tea, my whole body will be almost exhausted.
"This, this! How could this happen?"
"Why are there still account books?"
"Who knew? This Dingtai actually had a hand and sold us all!"
…
The heads of the twenty-four noble families began to complain one by one that Ding Tai had sold them out to save their lives. In the end, the heads of the houses turned into a unanimous crusade against Ding Tai!
Shen Xu became anxious, and he knelt down with his hands folded, "Your Majesty, it must be Ding Tai who is afraid of crime, so he arbitrarily climbed up and destroyed the embankment and flooded the fields. The case has nothing to do with us! Please investigate clearly!"
"Is it because Ding Tai is just messing around or is it because you guys really tampered with it? You will find out if you just say it with red lips and white teeth." Xu Zongwen turned a blind eye and still held the teacup tightly, looking calm and calm. The pearl of wisdom is in hand.
"Once a Zhu family has fallen, I believe there will be many others who will fall next. Maybe today it will be the Li family and the Chen family, tomorrow it will be the Guo family and the Qian family, and the next day it will be the turn of the Shen family, the Quan family, and the Gu family. Maybe, you say yes or no?" Xu Zongwen's eyes looked at the twenty-four noble family heads without any concealment, threatening them openly.
A pin drop could be heard in the hall, everyone just looked at each other and didn't know what to say!
Just as there was silence, Zhang San strode forward and loudly reported: "Back to the general, Ding Tai was rewarded by the general with a thousand knives. At this moment, he can no longer bear the torture and has fainted three times!"
"It's okay. Just splash water to wake him up and continue. If it doesn't work, the remaining knives will be distributed evenly among his family members, including his wives, concubines, and children. All in all, I have to cut them all out of a thousand knives." Xu Zongwen gestured with his fingers. Wait, he ordered.
Zhang San laughed in his heart, but still held it in his face. He made a promise and stepped back.
When Shen Xu saw Zhang San leaving, he hurriedly asked, "May I ask the envoy, what is Lingchi?"
Xu Zongwen shook his head and thought for a while, then said casually: "It's nothing, it's just a new criminal law created by this governor in his free time recently, specially used to punish those corrupt officials who cheat, cheat, take bribes and commit corruption."
"Please enlighten me without hesitation!"
"The so-called Ling Chi is to use a knife to cut out people's flesh. It is a knife that is smaller than an ordinary dagger. It must be sharp! A dull knife cuts the flesh, and the more it cuts, the more painful it becomes. A sharp knife cuts the flesh, and the flesh will hurt before it hurts. It’s cut!”
"One Thousand Cuts means someone uses a sharp knife to cut off a thousand pieces of flesh from a person's body. The pieces must be as thin as cicada wings, no more or less..."
Xu Zongwen was full of family treasures, and he talked about it with gusto, as if he had tasted human flesh. The heads of the twenty-four noble families in the hall were all sweating, and they did not dare to look at him!
The man in front of me is an iron-blooded general who crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, and waded through mountains of swords and seas of fire, a victorious general!
The blood of countless people was stained on those hands. Killing people was just for fun. How could you mess with such a murderous god!
Isn’t it just 20,000 shi of grain?
Isn’t it just a few kilograms of wood?
Give it, I can’t give it! No one would want to be dragged away to Lingchi by Xu Zongwen!
"Your Majesty, we are willing to provide food and wood. I just ask you to stop embarrassing our family. We can't thank you enough!" Shen Xu finally compromised. The twenty-three families behind his uncompromising The nobles would also force him to accept Xu Zongwen's overlord terms.
To all readers:
Recently, due to Lao Mao's personal health reasons, the update of "Da Jin: I'm Really Not the Son of Destiny" has been suspended. I apologize to everyone who has chosen to support Lao Mao! This is not Lao Mao’s original intention, please be considerate!
