The people whom Mr. Sun invited to complain to Prefect Zhang were all tenants on the Sun family's farm.
Whenever there is a great turmoil in the country, nine out of ten houses will be empty, the people will be displaced, and the fields will become barren.
Therefore, when the dynasty first began, the people basically owned land.
But as time goes by, land annexation will become more and more serious, and more and more people will be landless.
In Chongcheng County, as long as the people have land, most of them can live a good life, but if they don’t have land... life will definitely be very difficult.
Some people would do hard labor at the docks to make a living, some would work as slaves in wealthy families, and of course the most common way was to become tenant farmers and rent fields from wealthy families.
There are many tenant farmers living in the villages near Chongcheng County. Some of them don’t even have household registration and have been living on the villages all their lives.
Some families treated their tenants well, so the tenants' lives were okay. But some families treated their tenants badly, and those tenants often died at a young age from overwork and hunger.
But don’t worry, as long as the wealthy families have land, they can always find people willing to help them farm.
Mr. Sun himself did not have the intention of mistreating the tenants, but the managers under him always wanted to make money, so the tenants of the Sun family lived a very difficult life and were all skinny.
Allowing this group of people to cause trouble would indeed allow "Zhang Zhifu" to see the misery of the people building the dock, but... these people really have no fighting power.
The laborers who were digging mud were stronger than each other, and they captured the tenant farmers in no time.
Doctor Zhang, who had just got off the boat, and Magistrate Zhang, who had sprained his waist, came to Old Zeng, who had fallen to the ground.
Old Zeng was actually a tenant farmer on Mr. Sun’s farm who was seriously ill and on the verge of death. Mr. Sun asked others to bring him here in order to kill him.
Old Zeng was already terminally ill, and he had been kicked a few times in the chaos just now. He could not be saved now. However, after Prefect Zhang and Doctor Zhang examined his condition, they confirmed one thing - he was not beaten to death, but died of internal abscess.
This man's belly was bulging like a woman about to give birth. He must have been ill for a long time.
"This man was not beaten to death." Magistrate Zhang gave his judgment while holding his waist.
Doctor Zhang nodded.
"I said I didn't hit him!" The young yamen runner who was framed breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, Jin Liushu said, "No matter what, someone has died, and these people want to frame the county magistrate... Let's send them to the county government quickly."
As he spoke, Golden Willow looked towards the big ship in the river.
The yamen runner also saw the boat that Qu Yunqing rented, and immediately said to Qu Yunqing who was standing at the bow watching the fun: "We want to use your boat, quickly put down the gangplank!"
Qu Yunqing, who was about to leave after watching the fun: "..."
Qu Yunqing was anxious to get home and show off, so he naturally didn't want his boat to be requisitioned, but it was the yamen runner who was shouting at him.
Ordinary people did not dare to offend the yamen runners, and Qu Yunqing was the same.
He laughed dryly and asked the owner to lower the gangway. Soon the boat was packed with people.
No one takes a bath in the middle of winter, so you can imagine the smell on these people. Although Qu Yunqing is rough on weekdays, he spent a penny to go to the Weng Hall in the city to take a bath last night and washed himself clean!