Lulong County, in the city, Xiong Mansion.
The Xiong family is a scholarly family. The previous three generations had been a scholar, a prefect, and a scholar in the back. This generation of Patriarch has been known as a child prodigy since he was a child, but it was a pity that he failed many attempts, and then simply gave up. Reading behind closed doors is quite famous.
Xiong Shiyuan is dressed in regular clothes and is full of elegant bookishness. He looked at the two guards sitting not far away, and said with a smile: "Our Xiong family is a scholar of generations, and we don't care much about copper smelly things. Except for ancestral treasures. Hundred Barren Fields, this is the yard, there is nothing else."
The visitor was an official in the household. They looked at the fields and people's books in their hands. The two looked at each other. One of them said: "Besides Xiong, the inspector is to rectify the government affairs of the entire Yongping Mansion. , Tian Mu must be clear. If you register truthfully, there will be no other problems. If you deliberately conceal it, it will be a felony if things happen in the future."
Xiong Shiyuan smiled elegantly and said: "Don't worry, it's all here, how could I deceive the envoy sent by the court."
The two clerks looked at each other again, got up at the same time, returned the account book, and said, "Except member Xiong, excuse me."
"I'm doing things for the patrol adults, why not interrupt, I will send you." Xiong Shiyuan feels like a spring breeze, and there is no defect in receiving people and things.
The two officials even said that they didn't dare, Xiong Shiyuan still sent it to the door himself.
Xiong Shiyuan watched the two walking away, frowning, his eyes condensed.
Two officials turned the corner, and one of them said in a low voice: "Master, this Xiong Shiyuan really dare to say that it is only 800 acres of land. Who does not know that his Xiong family is the largest household in Yongping Prefecture, with tens of thousands of acres. !"
The older clerk said, "Well, the people he gave have problems. The few hundred households who planted the Xiong family for them had to have a thousand people. This gave more than a hundred people..."
Although tenant households are not selling themselves, most tenant households are equivalent to selling oneself, especially tenant households with more than ten or two decades who have to sell oneself for various reasons, so the population will be counted in Xiong's family.
Whether it is the registrant or the liquidation of the land, the households have encountered huge invisible resistance.
In Zhou Zheng's class room, he was looking at the situation gathered everywhere.
Zhang Heyi stood in front of him and said: "My lord, it was initially discovered that in addition to tax avoidance, there are also disaster victims from various places and refugees from Liaodong. They are afraid of being sent back, so they can’t escape. The villages and towns are also protected. The situation of the acres is more complicated. One is that farmers hand over their land to scholars to evade taxes, which is in accordance with the Ming law; the other is that some large households use various means to invade and come here. The acres of more than 10 million yuan are under the names of large gentry households. After dozens of hundreds of years, it is difficult to solve them in one fell swoop..."
Without raising his head, Zhou Zheng said: "Qilian, you take the five biggest Liwei, don't you need to teach you this officer?"
Qi Lian's expression was shocked, and he said, "It's an adult! These people are mostly involved with Zhang Yonglian, so there is no problem with them. However, the lower officials are worried about whether they will alarm the court."
The gentry’s network is too complicated, especially nowadays that the power of the prefects is unmatched. If a prestige appears to the court, will it attract questions from the court
Zhou Zheng closed the official document in his hand and handed it to Zhang Heyi, saying: "These things are not something you should consider, you have your own official to stand up! The official is still the same sentence, be fast, we are racing against time, don't hesitate, and act simply. neat!"
Qi Lian raised his hand and said in a deep voice, "The lower officials obey orders."
Zhou Zheng looked at the two of them and said, "I have already figured out a way to delay the arrival of the new magistrate. We don't have much time. We must do things real and give the people an explanation when there are no constraints!"
Zhang Heyi raised her hand and said with a solemn expression: "The adults are deeply admired by the officials for the sake of the country and the people. Even if there is a sea of swords and flames in front, the officials will accompany the adults to make a breakthrough!"
Everyone around him understood what Zhou was doing. That is to take the risk of losing your head, to eliminate bad governance, to find stability for the people, and to seek peace for the court. What reason is there for such a person to shrink from such a thing
Zhou Zheng nodded slightly, and then asked Qi Lian, "Cao Bianjiao is killing bandits. Now bandits are running around everywhere. You must be prepared and cooperate with you in the barracks. Whether it is a rogue or a bandit, it is in Yongping. There is no corner of the mansion!"
Qi Lian raised his hand and said solemnly: "It's your lord! The soldiers under Yongping Mansion have all been called by the subordinate officials, and more soldiers have been recruited. The'Stable Operation' has been launched throughout the government. The subordinate officials must implement it. Your lord’s order, return me to Yongping Mansion!"
Zhou Zheng thought for a while, and said: "We have a meeting every three days in the government office. Except Cao Bianjiao, everyone else will be there to report on the progress, summarize the problem, and solve the problem!"
"Yes." Zhang Heyi, Qi Lian raised his hand.
"Nothing else, you continue to act according to the plan." Zhou Zheng took another official document.
"Yes, the next official retire." Zhang Heyi and Qi Lian waited.
Cao Bianjiao’s bandit range has left Lulong County and entered Changli County. He basically adopted the strategy of'recovering war by war'. With the expansion of the sweeping range, I don’t know how many large and small hills have been wiped out and the number of his troops. It quickly broke through two thousand!
With the cooperation of the localities, Cao Bianjiao divided his troops into ten divisions and worked out a detailed route for the suppression of the Qing Dynasty, almost in the form of a horizontal push, from north to south, that is, advancing at a steady speed.
As the bandits kept getting arrested, officials at all levels began to interrogate, and some officials and large households emerged one after another.
In May, the list of officials and gentry that Zhou Zheng had colluded with the bandits had expanded by more than 20. All of them were the "powers and dignitaries" of Yongping Mansion, involving backing support, sharing the spoils, and even direct good people during the day and bandits at night!
What's more, a village is full of bandits!
A pile of filthy and dirty things have been put on Zhou Zheng's desk, and it has opened the eyes of Zhou Zheng's men.
They have been in the capital for a long time, knowing the dimness of the officialdom, but it is hard to imagine the mixture of dragons and snakes in the locality.
Standing in front of Zhou Zheng, Qi Lian said solemnly: "My lord, you are almost ready, you can do something with them."
Shangguan Lie hurriedly followed: "Sir, we have prepared all the evidence very well and promised that we will not give them a chance to reverse the case. Well, can we let us arrest people in the torture room? This is our torture room!
Zhang Heyi said: "My lord, the difficulties we encountered, I already told Master Qi yesterday, let's start with those big households and stubborn villages!"
Zhou Zheng looked at them with enthusiasm and said: "Okay, we will start tomorrow!"
"Yes!" Zhang Heyi and Shangguan Lie raised their hands and said in a deep voice.
The next morning, Qi Lian personally took more than a hundred people and surrounded Xiong's house.
Xiong Shiyuan was still calm and elegant, stood in front of the door, looked at Qi Lian, and said with a smile, "Master Qi, are you?"
Qi Lian was expressionless and said: "Xiong Shiyuan, your Xiong family resisted the court's decree, and did not respect the patrol according to the instructions of the adults, hiding the population, concealing the land, and even tax evasion, infringement of other people's fields, assaults on people's lives, and rape , Collusion with bandits and other crimes, this officer is ordered to arrest you..."
"Why don't this officer know what you are talking about?"
Before Qi Lian spoke, Xiong Shiyuan suddenly walked out of a person behind him with a majestic expression.
Qi Lian looked at the person who appeared, his face changed suddenly, and he knew this person.
Youfu Cheng of Yongping Mansion, that is, a pass sentence, Zheng Qing! (End of this chapter)