Some squires will use the red deed and white deed to take advantage of loopholes.
For example, there is a piece of land. The name registered in the government office is Zhang San, but it is Li Si who actually owns the land.
Li Si has a white deed with Zhang San in his hand. When someone in his family becomes a scholar, or there are other ways to get tax exemption, he will immediately go to the government office to replace the white deed with a red deed. In other words, at this point, The land and the title deed were both in his name, Li Si.
But if Li Si only has money, no power, and no fame, he will always occupy Zhang San's land.
If they have some conscience, they will pay the taxes and grains they should pay. After all, the law of Dazhi: merchants are not allowed to hoard land.
But if there are those who have no conscience or are accustomed to oppressing others, they will not even pay the taxes and grains. Not only will Zhang San not have a field, but he will also have to bear the taxes and grains on this field!
This is so miserable!
The law of Dazhi has clear regulations on the land properties of large and small merchants.
The maximum amount of land that a merchant can own is determined. Once the limit is exceeded, it is not a matter of paying taxes. It is a violation of the law and will lead to imprisonment!
However, there is a saying that goes well: The Tao is as high as the devil!
Some merchants only guard their own properties on the surface, but in fact, they will put these properties in the names of other people.
Some will be in the name of a distant relative, some in the name of the in-laws, and still others in the name of a domestic servant.
In short, they are trying their best to save a family business.
The merchant has money, so he often takes advantage of this to force some farmers to bring their land to him.
"Master Cheng, the most cunning ones are businessmen. There are endless ways to do it."
Cheng Jingzhou smiled: "Uncle, there is no need to be so polite. There are no outsiders here, so you don't need to match your official position. My nephew-in-law has never been crowned, so he has no words yet. You can just call me Jingzhou."
Xie Xiuqi Congshan Ruliu said: "Okay, then I'll be polite."
The two continued to talk about the merchant's occupation of the farmer's land.
"I once witnessed a case when I was studying abroad. I can't remember the other party's name. I guess I'll call him Zhang San and Li Si."
"Uncle, please speak."
"Zhang San is a businessman. He was originally from a poor background. Later, he followed the caravan and made a fortune, so he started his own business and changed his business registration. According to the registered population of his family at that time and the scale of his business, his family was Yun can have ten acres of land. The whole family can have ten acres of land in total."
Cheng Jingzhou added another sentence: "How many people were there at that time?"
"There were eight people in his family at that time, including the elders and the younger ones. As you know, the fields are of different grades, so the number of acres allocated will be somewhat different."
Cheng Jingzhou nodded, of course he understood this.
"Afterwards, Zhang San's business became bigger and bigger, and he always felt a little uneasy when he had money in his hands. In his later words, if there is a profit in this business, there will be a loss. If one day they lose a lot, then they will What to eat? So I thought about hoarding more fields.
However, the government had regulations, so after Zhang San thought hard, he purchased the land in the name of a servant at home. The servant signed a living contract, but it said sixty years. The contract would not be completed until the servant died. Even so, Zhang San still felt uneasy and worried that the servant would flee with the land deed, so he later imitated those powerful people, hoping that someone would come and contribute. "
Cheng Jingzhou raised his eyebrows, Zhang San's ambitions are quite big!
Offerings are divided into other-donation and self-donation. There are many tricks among them, especially those offered by others. It is often the local tyrants who forcibly donate other people's land to the clan in order to curry favor with the powerful, and the farmers who have their land donated are They were forced to go bankrupt and became tenant farmers or servants.
As for self-sacrifice, Cheng Jingzhou is very familiar with this.
When he passed the Xie Yuan exam last year, many squires from Gaoyang County took the initiative to bring their land to invest, but they were all rejected by Cheng's father at that time.
If it were just this, it wouldn't be considered a crime.
And Zhang San is just a merchant, so where does he have the confidence to get farmers to donate to him?
Xie Xiuqi continued: "Zhang San has set his sights on Li Si's family. Li Si's family has twenty-eight acres of fertile land, all of which is of high quality. They make a lot of money a year. In addition to paying taxes and grain, the whole family can also have food and clothing. Not only In this way, the family members were hard-working and had enough money when they were still young, so they thought of sending their children to study.
Zhang San then set up a trap for Li Si, causing Li Si's children to either be charged with a crime and unable to obtain honorary titles for the rest of their lives, or Li Si took the initiative to dedicate the twenty-eight acres of land to his name.
The two parties made a white contract, and from then on, Li Si became a tenant farmer. His good land became someone else's inexplicably. After that, his life plummeted. Although he had saved his son's reputation, but the family no longer had any money, and How can we afford to educate our children and grandchildren?
The case was later discovered to be fishy by Li Si's son, and he heard that the governor came to inspect the case at that time, so he had the courage to complain to the officials. Afterwards, the case was ordered to be thoroughly investigated by the governor, and the local county magistrate acted quickly, and he was arrested in less than three days. Everything was found out. Not only was the white deed removed from the house, but Zhang San was asked to compensate Li Si for all his losses. Zhang San was also sentenced to a cane for breaking the law and was sentenced to three months of hard labor. Case closed. "
This was the first time Cheng Jingzhou had heard of being forced to sacrifice something like this.
"Thank you uncle, you have this experience, which can be regarded as helping your nephew-in-law. So we can't just worry about the matter of clearing the father-in-law, but also have to check everything. We can't let the farmers suffer losses, and we can't let those people suffer. These country gentlemen are acting recklessly."
"Haha! Jing Zhou really does have a kind heart. My cousin often praises you, saying that his two sons, plus several nephews, are not as good as you in reading and doing. Now it seems that is indeed the case."
"Don't dare to take it, don't take it!"
These words made Cheng Jingzhou feel a little ashamed.
He couldn't afford such praise.
"Such despicable acts are certainly not uncommon. I just don't know if there will be such evil acts in Feng County."
"It's really hard to say."
Cheng Jingzhou thought about it all night. Before breakfast the next morning, he told Xie Rongzhao about the matter and wanted to see how she would use this to warn the people if she were in the position of county magistrate.
"Good boy, if it were you, how could you ensure the interests of farmers to the greatest extent?"
Xie Rongzhao did not understand government affairs and only spoke based on his own feelings.
"If it were me, I would announce it first. Because of the Qingzhang, if there is a white deed in his hand, the government will not recognize it, only the red deed. Set a time limit. Once a certain date passes, all the white deeds will be invalid and the government will not recognize them. Admit it. In this case, if those powerful people want to keep their land, they must find a way to change the white deed to a red deed. After all, even if they pay more taxes, they will still have a surplus."
