Zhu Hou looked at Mei Zhixian: "Since we are in the court, and I and this farmer are the sue and litigant, please ask Zhixian to judge the case impartially, didn't you just say that you still want to punish me with a cane, and now you still want to punish me with a cane?" ”

This Mei Zhixian smiled awkwardly: "Naturally not, I didn't know the identity of the noble person just now, I was offended, please forgive me!" Haihan, a lot of Haihan! ”

"Why?"

Zhu Houzhao asked coldly.

What is the reason?

Mei Zhixian looked dazed.

"Give me a reason not to be reprimanded, you just said that I was in contempt of the court and reprimanded me with a cane, and now why don't you rebuke me with a cane and answer me!"

Zhu Houzhao continued to ask.

Mei Zhixian didn't expect this noble man to ask like this, and he was speechless for a while, and only after a moment did he mutter: "Reason, reason, reason is because you are a nobleman." ”

Zhu Houzhao snorted, and did not continue to force Meizhi County, who was already sweating profusely, but continued: "In this case, it is better to ask Meizhi County to continue to try the case now, and the truth must be revealed!" I can't drag it out, I can't stay in your land for a long time. ”

"Trial, trial".

This Mei Zhixian nodded and straightened his black gauze hat, sat back, and then slapped the shocked wood: "Diao Min, you can confess!" ”

The farmer, who is kowtowing vigorously and confessing his sins, still dares to talk nonsense, and immediately kowtows like garlic: "Confess, confess, grass people admit guilt!" ”

"You dare to slander a nobleman, you can see where your conscience is, take this person down and beat him to death!"

After Mei Zhixian finished speaking, several officials walked up, and the whole trial process was simple and fast.

And the farmer did not resist, but begged for mercy.

But Zhu Houzhao was very dissatisfied, dissatisfied with the fact that Daming was still so backward in administrative justice, thinking that this was a trial and conviction, and the facts of the case were not clear, just because he was a nobleman, he directly asked this villager, and this farmer also seemed to know that he had offended someone he couldn't afford to provoke, and he only obediently confessed his guilt and spared his life without questioning the legitimacy of the magistrate's law enforcement, and this magistrate was very arbitrary even if it was a law enforcement conviction, and he didn't say that the farmer had violated any law, and even asked to be beaten to death with a stick.

Zhu Houzhao admitted that this Zhuang household is also very hateful, but it is not a crime to death, even if it is a capital crime, there must be a process, and only himself, the emperor, can deprive the people of the Ming Dynasty of their right to life, and no one else has power.

"Wait!"

Zhu Houzhao hurriedly said at this time.

"What else does the noble man command?" Mei Zhixian hurriedly asked Zhu Houzhao cautiously.

The farmer who was crying and begging for mercy also looked at Zhu Houzhao, with a look of expectation on his face.

"Don't worry, I'm not begging for mercy for you, you have taken advantage of my conscience, and I will not spare you again because of my good heart", Zhu Houzhao said to the dealer first.

The farmer first cried and mourned: "This lord, you have a lot of adults, don't be familiar with the grass people, the grass people are really forced to do it!" ”

"You can beg me to donate to you to help you reduce your losses, but you can't take advantage of my kindness, and even accuse me of being kind, for the sake of the world there are still more consciences, so that more poor people can be helped because there is still a conscience in the world, so I can't let you go easily, I want all those who betray their conscience to be severely punished, including you!"

After Zhu Houzhao said, he looked up at Mei Zhixian: "I am a litigant, so naturally I don't dare to give any orders, I just think that your trial is very inconsistent with the rules of the imperial court, and the procedure for the pro-people officials to preside over the judiciary issued by the imperial court is not such a procedure, I mean, you have to judge and convict according to the rules!" ”

Mei Zhixian began to feel that the noble man in front of him was very strange, so strange that he was particularly concerned about some rules: "Dare to ask, nobleman, what kind of rules do you want." ”

Zhu Houzhao was speechless, he couldn't help but secretly think that the various judicial systems he had issued in the central court had not been implemented at the local level, or that this magistrate was not qualified enough, and he didn't even have the ability to handle basic public affairs, and he didn't even know these things.

"Follow the rules of the court! First ask the case and file the case, then verify the evidence, let the litigants argue, and finally the verdict will be pronounced by you, the magistrate, and the basis for the conviction will be read out! ”

As soon as Zhu Houzhao said this, Mei Zhixian was a little embarrassed, because in his opinion, this was very complicated, and if he wanted to deal with it like this, he would not have time to go to the flower boat to find the Oiran once today, but now that Zhu Houzhao, a nobleman, wants to ask for this, he has no choice but to tell the master: "Come according to the rules!" ”

So, the master began to look for the imperial decrees to start executing.

It is not difficult to ask questions and file cases, but according to the rules, the people have to pay litigation fees, which is the same reason that in the past, when the people came to the yamen to complain, they had to pay money to the officials.

However, according to the formal system, officials are not qualified to collect money, and the litigation fee is a public service fee collected exclusively by the county government and punishment room, and the cost of litigation fees is also stipulated, which is basically not high, less than one-tenth of the monthly income of ordinary people, but it is slightly higher when it involves large-scale economic cases such as property division and inheritance.

Thereupon.

Mei Zhixian had to follow the rules, and said first: "Since it was this dealer who first sued the nobleman for forcibly buying his goods, and beat him and trampled on his goods, then try the case of this dealer first, and this dealer will report your name and the valuation of your goods." ”

The farmer was also at a loss, and he first reported his name: "Grass People Chen Jing".

Then, the criminal master on the side explained to the dealer what the valuation of goods was.

In fact, Chen Jing of this village owner couldn't understand what the nobleman and the master in front of him were going to do, so he had to follow their requirements and said, "It's worth a dozen silver dollars." ”

"That's the legal fee, what do you think", the master asked Chen Jing again.

Chen Jing shook his head: "Do you still have to pay money for the complaint, but I don't have any money, I don't have any money on me!" Can I stop suing? ”

"Yes, then withdraw the lawsuit", the master on the side wrote a letter of withdrawal of the lawsuit, and let this Chen Jing stamp his handprint, and then Mei Zhixian took the withdrawal letter from the master, and also nodded: "Since Chen Jing has withdrawn the lawsuit, then the matter of the noble Zhang Xia's lawsuit against Chen Jingpan will be heard, nobleman, are you willing to pay the legal fee?" ”

Zhu Hou glanced at Guo Rong: "Give it to him!" ”

So, Guo Rong handed over the litigation fee to the master, and everyone present felt very fresh, and they didn't expect that a noble person like Zhu Houzhao would be willing to pay the legal fee and maintain his dignity in such a way that conforms to the rules.

Even the defendant Chen Jing felt fresh and overwhelmed, he suddenly understood that he couldn't leave now because he was trying to slander this noble man by the county magistrate, but it was this kind of procedure that made him start to think and wonder how the Ming law punished him for this kind of false accusation, whether it was more ruthless than cutting off his head, otherwise why this noble man would do this.

Meizhi County began to try the case, ask for evidence, etc., but because the dealer had admitted it before, he didn't bother much, so he began to convict directly, and this Meizhi County also forgot the Ming Law and the Punishment Regulations, and began to let the master read it, and after reading it for a long time, he said:

"According to the regulations on questioning and punishment revised in the 15th year of Zhengde, those who slander others in order to seek property should be punished with a rod of 60 and exiled for 5,000 li! Twenty years of labor reform! ”

"In that case, pull this man down and punish him with sixty rods!" Mei Zhixian commanded.

Chen Jing was shocked, thinking that even if he didn't die, he would be exiled for 5,000 miles, which would be equivalent to dying in another country, so he naturally kowtowed and begged for mercy: "Master spare your life!" Noble man spare his life! The grass people knew that they were wrong, the grass people should not be falsely accused, they should not be ignorant of the Entu report, the grass people just saw that this noble man was kind enough to help the grass people, drove away the green skin for the grass people, and saw Zhai Xianggong coming, so he thought that the nobles beat the grass people and trampled on the grass people's goods, so that the nobles could compensate the grass people's goods! The grass people are guilty, but the grass people ......"

"Don't say it, since you have decided to do this, you have to bear the consequences for it, Meizhi County, how can the law of the Ming Dynasty be forgiven because the criminals are pitiful?"

Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Naturally not!"

Mei Zhixian smiled, slapped the startled wood, and shouted again: "Pull down, fight!" ”

This Chen Jing was dragged down, he didn't expect it to be this kind of ending, now he does regret it very much, but even if he regrets it, it's too late, snap! When the stick hit him, he could only instinctively scream at this time, and after a few screams, he passed out.

Zhu Houzhao also left the county office.

For this matter, Zhu Houzhao was very touched, but what he didn't expect was that as soon as he dealt with this matter, the group of green skins came again, and brought more people, so they directly waved their knives and slashed at Zhu Houzhao.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao only commanded: "Kill them all!" Grab a common person to be a witness, go and bring the official who followed us over, and let the county government know that we are defending ourselves! ”

"Dare to spread wild in Nanxun Town, brothers, hack them to death for Lao Tzu!"

The green skin surnamed Xing shouted loudly, and several green skins slashed over with big knives.

Syllable!

Jinyi Wei Liu Shi fired a shot first, and immediately knocked a green skin into the river, only a patch of red.

Then, smack! Smack! Bang Bang Bang !! A series of gunshots rang out, and most of these green skins were killed on the spot!

The remaining few Qingpi were directly frightened, and they didn't expect that the entourage of these merchants was still carrying muskets.

Zhu Houzhao also took out the royal handcuff and walked towards the green skin surnamed Xing.

The surnamed Xing instinctively wanted to run, but was shot by Zhu Houzhao, and the green skin surnamed Xing was shot in the foot and fell to the ground.

Zhu Houzhao walked over, and the Qingpi surnamed Xing was also busy begging for mercy: "A good man spares his life!" We are hired by Zhai's cloth company, please spare my life in front of Zhai Xianggong! ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled coldly, and aimed his handcuff at the green skin head surnamed Xing: "I said, just by what you said that you despised the emperor at that time, you will have to die!" ”

Syllable!

Zhu Houzhao pulled the trigger, and a bloody hole suddenly appeared in the green skin head surnamed Xing, and then he fell directly to the ground, his eyes widened, and it was not until he died that he knew that he had offended the emperor.

And the others didn't notice this, and the one who was taken hostage by the Jinyi guard was even more frightened, and only nodded and said: "The heroes spare their lives, the heroes spare their lives, I can see it clearly, they are here to kill you, you are legitimate defense!" ”

It didn't take long for the county government to send someone to testify, and there were witnesses and the county government's own people to testify, and the county government could only judge that Zhu Houzhao and others were justified in defense, and did not pursue anything, of course, Meizhi County did not dare to pursue Zhu Houzhao and others now.

Next, Zhu Houzhao visited other cities and towns, and he found that the distribution of cities and towns in the south of the Yangtze River as a whole became more and more dense with the development of the commodity economy, and many towns were even developed because of the residence of merchants and expatriates, and some were formed on the basis of a market because of the peasant households in several villages because of commodity trading.

Many cities and towns have not yet been managed by government agencies, because many cities and towns do not have county offices, and some large cities and towns such as Zhujing Town and Anting Town are no longer part of the state and county seats, but these cities and towns also have no official government and have caused the emergence of tyrants, and there are many forced buyers and sellers, and no one manages them, and many green-skinned hooligans have taken the opportunity to make trouble, and even some cities and towns have not even established a tax system because of their rapid development.

Zhu Houzhao felt that as the emperor, he had to strengthen the government function of the imperial government in this regard, and could not allow the tyrants and the green-skinned hooligans to destroy the freedom of trade of the common people, nor could he allow the trade profits of these towns to be excessively concentrated in the hands of the local gentry.

Zhu Houzhao found out openly and secretly that these so-called tyrants are all supported by families with local power backgrounds, otherwise they can't manipulate the market in a place, and there is no doubt that most of the profits have also flowed into the hands of these families, if this continues, these families will become chaebols that are difficult to shake in the imperial court.

If these chaebols are allowed to seize local management power and even affect the political structure of the court, then it will be difficult for the national policy of the Ming Dynasty to be balanced and reasonable, and it will only be biased towards these chaebols.

Zhu Houzhao came directly to Nanjing and summoned the ministers of Nanjing, as well as the officials of Zhejiang's political secretary and the judicial department, who were also summoned to Nanjing by Zhu Houzhao's edict.

Of course, it was only at this time that officials throughout Nanjing and Zhejiang learned that His Majesty the Emperor had come to Jiangnan again.

Jiangnan is an inaccurate concept, according to the Yuan Dynasty Jiangnan Province division, the current Nanzhili is the Jiangnan region, but in fact, Zhejiang's Hangjiahu and Nanzhili customs are similar, and the economic development is not inferior to the Susong area of Nanzhili.

Therefore, if Zhu Houzhao wants to rectify the commodity economy and society in Jiangnan this time, he naturally also has to summon officials from Zhejiang.

However, before the officials from Zhejiang arrived in Nanjing, Zhu Houzhao changed his mind again, and in the past few days around Nanjing, the affluence and population density of the scholars, as well as some organizations similar to trade unions and local forces with the nature of the underworld, made him realize that perhaps the administrative division of the Ming Dynasty had to be changed.

At least Yingtian, Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, and other areas in the Taihu Lake basin south of the Yangtze River, where the capital economy is already highly developed, are divided into a special management zone, so as to strengthen the administrative functions of the government, curb the unfavorable factors brought about by the commodity economy, promote the development of the commodity economy, and even allow them to cluster up new production models and productive forces.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao decided to promote Wang Shouren and Yan Song to Dongge University Scholars, and both transferred them to Jiangnan to sit in the town, and assisted him in rectifying Jiangnan before the mining reform plan was determined.

Zhu Houzhao also asked Wang Shouren to bring two divisions of the elite of the Guards to come, so as to be prepared!