Longtai handed the folder aside, looked at Sima Changshen, and asked: "Marquis Zhongyi, do you know what Feng Ruohai said?"
Sima Changshen came out and knelt down and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I am not in the Ministry of Household Affairs. I don't know what the taxes of the imperial court are like."
Longtai said: "Feng Ruohai, since Marquis Zhongyi doesn't know, please tell everyone. Why has the tax in Ngee An been reduced by half in two years?"
"Your Majesty, I noticed that there was an error in the taxation. At first, I thought there was some natural disaster there, so the tax payment was delayed. I also sent people to inquire, but I didn't get a reply." Feng Ruohai said: "The officials from the Ministry of Revenue went to Ngee An After checking the accounts, I found that all the taxes due in Ngee Ann had been paid, and there was no arrears. I was curious, and later I learned that the original land delivered by Ngee Ann had been reduced by half in just two years."
"Why is this?" Longtai frowned and said, "How can a good land be reduced?"
Feng Ruohai said: "It's just because some land has been occupied by others, and these lands have become private lands that do not require payment of taxes." He took out the account book from his sleeve again, "Your Majesty, here is the detailed land accounting. Within two years , more than 1,400 hectares of land have been occupied by people."
The important ministers in the court were slightly surprised when they saw this, thinking to themselves that something big was going to happen today. Feng Ruohai was obviously well prepared and had sufficient evidence. It seemed that he was going to impeach Sima Chang today. Shen, Feng Ruohai has also done enough work.
Qi Ning watched the battle between the King of Huainan and the Duke of Zhen with a cold eye, but when he saw Feng Ruohai taking out evidence one by one, he felt that this was a real tough battle. Just now, Zhao Bangyao had red lips and white teeth, and he couldn't produce enough evidence. With the evidence coming, and the matter involving Jianghu, Qining didn't take this kind of person seriously from the beginning.
Sima Lan and Huainan Wang Xiaozhang seemed calm and calm from beginning to end. Golden Sword Hou Tantaihuang seemed to be just here to feel the atmosphere of Fengtian Palace. He squinted his eyes. If he didn't look carefully, he would have thought he had fallen asleep. With.
Longtai looked at it carefully and asked with a solemn expression: "Feng Ruohai, who occupies these lands and doesn't have to pay taxes?"
"Your Majesty, among the more than 1,300 hectares of land, 800 are official fields, and another 500 are civilian fields. They are all fertile fields with abundant water and soil." Feng Ruohai said loudly: "The official fields The harvest has always been directly put into the official treasury, and the 500 hectares of civilian land have always been paid in full. Although Ngee An is not a big place, it has good weather and a good harvest. Now 800 hectares of official land have been paid It was a blatant occupation, and the five hundred people's land was also plundered by others, bit by bit, and the taxes that originally belonged to the imperial court could not be collected because they were occupied by others and exempted from taxes, so the taxes in the past two years were suddenly halved."
The ministers knew very well that there were only three types of land that did not need to pay taxes. One was the land that was granted a title, and the other was private land that did not need to pay taxes after gaining fame, but there was a strict limit on the number of acres. When the important officials of the imperial court are old and become officials, they will naturally have more fields that do not have to pay taxes. The lower their fame, the smaller the amount will naturally be. As for the last category, it is a meritorious service to the court, and the court specifically exempts them from taxes.
In addition, when they suffered natural disasters, the emperor showed mercy and issued an order to exempt them from paying taxes.
As for the six hundred acres of land that Feng Ruohai said without paying taxes, looking at the entire Ngee Ann, only the Sima family has such ability.
Many people were secretly surprised, thinking that when Sima Lan was granted the title of Marquis of Loyalty and Righteousness, the land he occupied was only 500 qing. Among the four major marquises, he was already second to none. With these 1,300 qing of land, It was more than double the amount of food that Sima Lan received. If this was indeed the case, then the 1,300 hectares of fertile land was occupied by the Sima family. This matter would be obvious today.
Qi Ning also knew in his heart that Feng Ruohai was not like Zhao Bangyao. Since he said that someone had devoured 1,300 hectares of fertile land, this must be true, and the person who devoured the fertile land was of course the Sima family.
Since the King of Huainan sent a minister of household affairs out into battle and was well prepared, he was obviously prepared to tear off a piece of flesh from Sima's family. It was naturally impossible to overthrow the Duke of Zhen with this, but it was not impossible to overthrow Sima Changshen. possible.
There was a sudden silence above the court hall.
Everyone knew that the Huainan King and Zhen Guo Gong had been brewing for a long time and were preparing to find opportunities to take action against each other. However, no one expected that this attack would come so quickly. Feng Ruohai Cun impeached Sima Changshen, and of course there was no plan in advance. No one would know about it, so it would be extremely out of the ordinary.
In this tense atmosphere, no one dared to speak lightly.
"Today you are impeaching Marquis Zhongyi, the man who occupies fertile farmland. Of course you are referring to him." After a period of silence, the little emperor finally said slowly.
Feng Ruohai said seriously: "Back to the emperor, the people who occupied 1,300 hectares of fertile land are the Sima family." He took out a stack of papers again, "Your Majesty, this is the confession I sent to Yi'an to investigate carefully. Among them were local officials and people whose farmland had been invaded. There were a large number of people. I recorded twenty-three confessions, all of which were signed and stamped. These people were also brought to the capital and can testify at any time." After submitting, , then continued: "I sent people to investigate and found out that as early as a few years ago, the Sima family had begun to occupy land in Nghe An in various names, and even forced local people to work for free and cultivate the fields. In the past two years, more It's You Sheng, these taxes that should belong to the imperial court have now gone into the hands of the Sima family."
The little emperor looked through the confessions repeatedly, then rolled them up into a ball and threw them in front of Sima Changshen, saying: "Sima Changshen, see for yourself, are these confessions true?"
"Your Majesty, Duke Zhen Guo is loyal to the country and conscientious in his work. He is an important minister of the country." A man walked out from among the ministers. He was slightly fat and said loudly: "What Feng Ruohai said is pure slander. I beg the emperor to understand clearly!"
The officials looked over and immediately recognized that it was Chen Lanting, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. They were not surprised. The Duke of Zhen also held the position of Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Chen Lanting was regarded as the top confidant of the Duke of Zhen. At this time, he stood up and spoke. It's really a reasonable thing.
"Chen Lanting, you don't have to rush to argue." The little emperor said calmly: "Feng Ruohai did not impeach the Duke of Zhen, but the Marquis of Zhongyi. Although the Duke of Zhen and the Marquis of Zhongyi are father and son in private, they are colleagues in the government. , no need to involve yourself randomly."
Chen Lanting was startled and said hurriedly: "I am reckless. It's just that there is a Sima family on the left and a Sima family on the right in Feng Ruohai's mouth. That is deliberately slandering the Sima family. I am in the official department and see the old man working hard for the country every day. Now that we have to be slandered by villains, our family is really unhappy, and we ask the emperor to punish us."
The little emperor waved his hand and ignored it. Sima Changshen took the confessions and quickly looked through them with an ugly expression on his face.
"Marquis Zhongyi, these confessions make it very clear that the enclosure and occupation of land were all under your orders, Marquis Zhongyi." Feng Ruohai sneered, "But I don't know if it's true?"
Sima Changshen looked at Feng Ruohai with a fierce look in his eyes, and was about to speak when he heard an old voice saying: "Master Feng, these confessions are not false. As far as I know, Sima Changshen did order people to do this. "As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked. They followed the sound and were even more horrified when they saw the speaker. However, it turned out that the person who suddenly spoke was Ma Lan from the Zhenguo Company.
The ministers looked at each other, thinking that the Sima family would try their best to argue. Who knew that Sima Lan would admit it as soon as he opened his mouth? Some people couldn't help but think, this Sima Lan is an old fool. Feng Ruohai has tried his best to deal with you. Sima family, it's good now. You didn't say a word to argue, but you admitted the matter. Wouldn't this push Sima Changshen into a pit of fire
Feng Ruohai's eyes flashed with joy, and King Huainan's body trembled, but his expression became stern.
Sima Changshen opened his eyes wide and felt a little strange, but he saw the Duke of Zhen take two steps forward and bowed: "Your Majesty, I kindly request that Sima Changshen be imprisoned immediately and be dealt with according to the court's laws."
"Dad...!" Sima Changshen was shocked and couldn't help but exclaimed.
Sima Lan turned around and said coldly: "There are no fathers and sons above the court, only monarchs, ministers and colleagues."
All the ministers were astonished, thinking that the old prince seemed really crazy and wanted to send his son to prison.
Some people also thought that Sima Lan might have wanted to abandon his car to protect his commander after seeing the Dongchuang incident.
Many people know in their hearts that Sima Lan has the supreme authority in the Sima family. Although Sima Changshen is over forty years old, he is very afraid of Sima Lan. Many officials' children are quite arrogant in the capital, but the children of the Sima family are He has always been very low-key. This is obviously because Sima Lan has a very strict family education and good discipline, so that the children of the Sima family will not cause trouble outside.
Although Feng Ruohai was suing Sima Changshen for land encirclement and occupation in Ngee'an and there was conclusive evidence, Sima Changshen would not have been so bold without Sima Lan's instruction.
Now that the Dongchuang Incident happened, Sima Lan felt that things were about to go bad, so he asked Sima Changshen to convict him first. As long as the fire did not burn him for the time being and he made time, he would naturally be able to find a countermeasure.
Many people know that the Ministry of Punishment is close to the King of Huainan. If Sima Changshen is really imprisoned as a boss of the Ministry of Punishment, he will be offended.
Longtai obviously did not expect Sima Lan to come out like this. He frowned and said: "Old Duke, are you saying that everything stated in Feng Ruohai's memorial is true?"
"Yes!" Sima Lan said: "Over there in Yi'an, some land has been enclosed, and the taxes in recent years have indeed not been paid into the national treasury." He looked back at Sima Changshen and said, "This is Sima Changshen was indeed involved, and I would like to ask the emperor to punish him."
Seeing this scene, Dou Kui, the Minister of Household Affairs, came out and said, "I would like to report to your Majesty that I have a few words to ask the old Duke, and I would like your Majesty's permission."
Longtai looked at Sima Lan, who turned around and asked, "What do you want to ask, Mr. Dou?"
"Old Duke, I am in charge of the household department. It is my responsibility. Although there are some words that are quite offensive, I still do my best in my position. Please forgive me." Dou Kui looked coldly and asked: "Loyalty and justice." Hou Zaiyuan ordered people to enclose and occupy land. I wonder when the old Duke knew about it? The old Duke admitted that Hou Zhongyi did this without even looking at these confessions. It can be seen that he already knew about this before today's court meeting. "
Sima Lan nodded slightly and said, "I have known this for a long time."
The ministers were slightly in an uproar. Dou Kui stepped forward with great momentum and asked aggressively: "Do you dare to ask the old Duke this question? This is obviously a violation of the national law. The old Duke is an old minister of the country and is devoted to the public good. Why did you not report it to the court for so long, but instead helped Sima Changshen conceal the matter?"