Wei Zheng received a personal letter, signed "Lord Wei Zheng's personal opening", Wei Zheng asked, "Who sent this letter?" ”

A clerk said: "My lord, this letter was sent by a servant at the door, and the official asked about it, and he said that it was sent by a person dressed as a countryman. The man gave the letter to the official at the door, and hurried away. ”

Wei Zheng opened the letter, looked at it and frowned.

The letter reads: "The problem of land annexation in Qinghe County is serious, and seventy percent of the county's fertile land is owned by the Cui family. Cui's cunning and reckless means are extremely vicious.

On the twelfth of this month, Cui Yunhe, the third brother of the Cui family in Qinghe, in order to expand the back garden of his house, wanted to forcibly occupy the seven-cent homestead of the villager Wang Debao, Wang Debao was unwilling, Cui Yunhe sent evil slaves to set fire to Wang Debao's ancestral house, forcing Wang Debao's family to live on the streets.

Wang Debao went to the county government to file a complaint, but the government did not accept it. Wang Debao's family was about to go to the capital to file a complaint, and all five members of the family were killed.

I implore Lord Wei to send someone to investigate, and I will provide relevant evidence. ”

The byline is an insider.

Wei Zheng was very angry after reading the letter, but he didn't say anything and took the letter into his arms.

Since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the system of equalizing land has been implemented, and land has been distributed to the vast number of peasants, so it has been supported by Tian Min, but the powerful people in various places led by the gate lord clan have used usury and other means to force the peasants to give up their land, and a large amount of land has been occupied by them, and those landless peasants can only become their tenants.

The report is just one of many cases of land annexation.

At this time, an imperial historian asked, "Lord Wei, where did you get the letter, is there any problem?" ”

Wei Zheng said: "It's nothing, it's a letter from one of my distant nephews, saying that his father is sick and wants to borrow some money from me to see a doctor." He can't tell the truth, two of the 12 imperial historians of the Imperial Historical Observatory have a deep relationship with the Qinghe Cui clan, and they are usually proud of it, and they often show it off.

It's no wonder they show off that the Qinghe Cui clan has a glorious history.

Qinghe Cui was one of the ministers of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period, lived in Qinghe County in the Western Han Dynasty, and became a Shandong Wang clan after the Eastern Han Dynasty, among which Cui Yan had been under Cao Cao. During the Western Jin Dynasty, the scholars paid attention to the family lineage, and the Cui family was listed as the first class surname "Cui Lu Wang Xie".

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was once known as the "Four Families" together with Fanyang Lu's, Xingyang Zheng's, and Taiyuan Wang's, and the Cui family in the Tang Dynasty was still prominent, with 23 people serving as prime ministers. Du Fu's mother is Qinghe Cui.

The Qinghe Cui clan controlled a large amount of land, controlled a large number of peasants who depended on the land, and a huge commercial network, and before Li You's arrival, they monopolized traditional commerce such as grain and cloth in Shandong, Hebei and other places.

The power of the Qinghe Cui clan is very huge, they are prosperous, have a huge in-law relationship, and there are protégés and former officials, the power has penetrated into all aspects of the imperial court, in Beizhou, where Qinghe County is located, the officials of the Qinghe Cui clan system can account for more than thirty percent, and other officials also look at Cui's face, and the officials who do not join them will not be able to stay here at all. Qinghe County and even the entire Beizhou are basically their independent kingdoms.

The decrees of the imperial court are useless here.

If the Gate Valve Clan is a cancer on the body of the Tang Dynasty, the Qinghe Cui Clan is one of the biggest tumors. If this cancer is not removed, Datang will perish sooner or later.

The report letter Wei Zheng received involved the Qinghe Cui family, and Wei Zheng had to be very careful. He felt very uncomfortable, but he continued to work as if nothing had happened, and he didn't open the Yushi Observatory all morning.

At noon, Wei Zheng said that he had something to go home, and said that he would come later in the afternoon, so he went out and went straight to the Qi Palace. He can't go directly to Li Shimin, there are people from the Cui family in Qinghe everywhere in the court, and in Zhongshu Province around Li Shimin, there is a son and a son-in-law of the Cui family. He wanted to transfer the letter to Li Shimin through Li You.

Qi Wangfu.

Wei Zheng said: "Your Highness, could you please take a look at this letter?" ”

Li You finished reading the letter and asked, "Lord Wei, what do you think?" ”

Wei Zheng said: "Such a serious matter must be strictly investigated to the end." ”

Li You said: "How do you check? ”

Wei Zheng said: "Send a minister from the imperial court to Qinghe County to investigate. ”

Li You said: "From officials to officials, there are people from the Cui family everywhere, what results can you find?" ”

Wei Zheng said: "The minister has already thought of a way, the people who visit are divided into one bright and one dark, openly send a minister to investigate with great fanfare, and secretly send a competent person to secretly investigate. "He has presided over the Imperial History Observatory for many years and has a lot of experience in investigating cases.

Li You thought for a while and said, "I don't think it's useful, first of all, it's difficult for you to find out the results." When you send a secret visit, who do you send? If it weren't for the locals, a stranger would soon be targeted and unable to move an inch. Not only can the ward rounds not get the truth of the matter, but it is difficult to say whether he can save his life.

Secondly, even if you find out the results of the matter, what can you do? What effect can it do to kill the person who killed people and set fire to them and embezzled other people's land, and then dismiss the relevant officials? Can it stop the land annexation and shake the foundation of Cui Shi? ”

Wei Zheng was speechless, he understood that what Li You said made sense, and to deal with this matter, the price would definitely be very huge, but the effect was very weak.

Wei Zheng was silent for a while, and said firmly: "Your Highness, no matter how difficult it is, the minister will also investigate." "This is Wei Zheng, upright, jealous and hateful, and facing difficulties.

Li You asked, "Lord Wei, your wife is from the Taiyuan Wang clan, what do you think of the Taiyuan Wang clan?" "There are many branches of the Taiyuan Wang family, and Wei Zheng's wife is a child of the side branch of the Wang family.

Wei Zheng said solemnly: "Regardless of the background, the minister only recognizes the law of the country. If the family of the minister's wife is involved in violating the law of the country, the minister will not tolerate it. ”

Li You said: "Master Wei, I believe in your character. However, your solution is only a headache and a pain in the foot, and cannot solve the problem fundamentally. ”

Wei Zheng asked, "Your Highness, what can you do?" ”

There are two main signs of the demise of the gate lord clan, one is the loss of their economic status and the loss of economic privileges. One is the loss of cultural superiority.

The development of the imperial examination system and the development of the school education system is the fundamental way to eliminate the cultural advantages of the gate lord clan, and Li You and Li Shimin have always spared no effort to make efforts to this point.

However, it is a long process, and it is a process that can only be completed completely based on the first logo.

In history, there is one person who played a key role in the demise of the gate lord clan, and he is Huang Chao, the leader of the Tang peasant rebel army.

"When autumn comes, September 8, I will kill a hundred flowers after the flowers bloom. The heavenly incense array penetrates Chang'an, and the city is full of golden armor. In the poem Huang Chao, "I kill a hundred flowers after they bloom." "This is the direct reason for the accelerated demise of the Gate Valve Clan.

Huang Chao wantonly slaughtered the children of the Gate Valve Clan, directly wiped them out physically, and seized their property. Since then, the remaining manpower and material resources of the gate valve are not enough to support the influence of the gate valve clan, and it has since gone into decline.

Li You and Li Shimin also want to follow the path of Huangchao and directly knock out their economic foundation and talents. After several years of hard work, the imperial court has occupied a dominant position economically, and there is a relatively stable environment in the international community, and they have been waiting for an opportunity.

This opportunity has already come.