The Great Hall of the Four Peoples.

"Marquis Zhongyong, are you trying to incite the evil slave to bully the master?"

A scholar representative angrily rebuked Yang Qing.

"Do you have a house slave?"

Yang Qing said.

"Yes!"

That representative said without hesitation.

"Why did your house slave become a house slave?"

Yang Qing asked.

"I can't afford to pay back the money I owe, so I sold myself into slavery, what does the Marquis of Zhongyong want to say? Am I not righteous enough, should I forgive his debts and not sell him into slavery? So, who will pay back my money, and who will make up for my losses? ”

The representative sneered.

"How much does he owe you?"

Yang Qing said.

"Twenty taels."

"Even if a person is the lowest, the annual harvest of farming is not less than ten taels, of course, he has to deduct taxes and his own food and clothing, but even if these are all deducted, at least two taels of silver are left, that is to say, he can pay off in ten years. And you want him to pay him back for a lifetime, and not only for his whole life, but also for your children and grandchildren to pay you back endlessly, so please tell me, do you want face? ”

Yang Qing said.

"Marquis Zhongyong didn't calculate interest, right?"

The representative sneered.

"Loan sharks? I'm sorry, the law of the Ming Dynasty prohibits usury, Taizu has a will, the interest is not more than three points, and the final interest shall not exceed the principal, and those who exceed it will be counted as stolen goods, and the maximum number of violators is one hundred, so that means that you can collect a maximum of forty taels, or only twenty years! ”

Yang Qing said.

Zhu Yuanzhang really has a clear law on usury, the monthly interest rate is up to three cents, and the final interest must not exceed one interest.

Of course, the afterlife completely ignored it.

"Since you are a saint and a believer, you should know benevolence, righteousness and morality, and others can repay the money in twenty years, but you have to pay him back for the rest of his life, and even his children and grandchildren will pay it back endlessly? So tell me, what kind of righteousness and morality are you? ”

Yang Qing said.

The representative sat down in a laugh.

"Loyal and brave marquis, my house slave is voluntary, this is not against benevolence and morality, right?"

Another representative of the scholars stood up and said.

"Why did he volunteer?"

Yang Qing said.

"The family is poor and can't afford to marry a wife, so I will marry my maidservant!"

The representative of the scholar said.

"Where did your handmaid come from?"

Yang Qing asked.

"During the famine, his parents could not afford to raise him, so he sold them to my family for adoption and was raised by my family since he was a child."

The representative of the scholar said.

"The Law of the Great Ming. Criminal Law. Thieves", those who resell the children of a good family in the name of adoption will be punished with a hundred rods for three years, even if they are wives and concubines, they will be punished with ninety rods for two and a half years, congratulations, your family has broken the law, but if your ancestors bought it, then the death case will be eliminated, so is the one who bought her still there? ”

Yang Qing asked.

The Ming Dynasty was not lawless about human trafficking.

In fact, there were legal restrictions in all dynasties, but no one followed them later, even if parents sold their children to others as slaves and maids, it was actually a crime, and selling the young, that is, the children and nephews of young brothers and sisters, were all imprisoned for three years according to the law. It's just that in practice, almost no one abides by it, after all, except for some bad behaviors, those parents have reached the point of selling their children, and they must be trying to find a way for their children to live. In order to prevent too many starving people from starving to death, the government has adopted a tacit attitude towards this kind of human trafficking, and do not think that human trafficking was legal in ancient times, in fact, the vast majority of human trafficking in any dynasty was illegal.

Including the Mongols.

The same was true in the time of the Mongols.

"No, it's gone!"

The representative hurriedly said.

"That's a pity, but since it's an illegal transaction, this servant girl is not your family's slave, your family is at most an adopter, since it is an adopter, then what you said about being a slave does not exist, at most it is considered a son-in-law, since it is a son-in-law, then he is not a house slave, since he is not a house slave, then what are you talking about here?"

Yang Qing said.

The representative of the scholar was speechless, so he had to sit down honestly.

However, this did not stop the representatives of the scholars from coming forward, and then a third challenger stepped forward......

"My house slave is an ancestral heirloom!"

A representative of the scholars stood up and said proudly.

"Please find out the deed of sale, let me see the reason why he sold himself into slavery, he didn't create a house slave for your family when Nuwa created people, right? There's always a reason why he became your slave, and the deed of sale must have made it clear! ”

Yang Qing said.

"His ancestor was my family's house slave!"

The representative said.

"Which dynasty?"

Yang Qing said.

"Hu Yuan."

Said the representative of the scholar.

"The Mongol invasion belonged to the period of the fall of China, during which the contract concluded by the official or the people was not recognized by this dynasty, you take a deed of sale signed by the Mongols to the Ming Dynasty as a legal basis, where do you place the Taizu who expelled the Tatars and restored China? What's more, since Ling Zushang was still able to sell domestic slaves during the Mongol invasion, it is very likely that he was an accomplice of the Mongols, and we need to discuss your ancestor's suspicion of being a traitor. Or we should publish a notice in the newspaper, maybe there are people who are knowledgeable and can verify the identity of Ling Zu, do you think it is necessary? ”

Yang Qing said.

"I don't think that's necessary, right?"

The representative of the scholar said with a gloomy face.

The imperial court did issue a holy decree to reinterpret Hu Yuanshi before, and there were indeed similar words in it, but no one took it seriously, after all, it was almost three hundred years, who would care about that, Yang Qing's historical attitude towards Hu Yuan was well known, and he was willing to live a good life. But the collaborators of the Mongols back then were indeed redefined as traitors, and many gentry protested for this, but at most they protested privately, after all, they didn't care much about the reputation of their ancestors three hundred years ago.

Besides, it is recorded in the history books, and if it is not recorded in the history books, except for the genealogy, who else will know!

But who will proclaim it among the people who are recorded in the genealogy?

Who will make their ancestors a traitor? For this reason, there are a lot of people who secretly modify the genealogy, if it is like Yang Qing said, find some historians to verify his ancestors, and then render it in the newspaper, his family's reputation will stink, and Yang Qing is famous for this, and a white-haired girl makes the word gentry stink.

"I don't think it's necessary!"

Yang Qing said with a smile.

That means snorting coldly and sitting down.

"Who else?"

Yang Qing looked at those scholars and representatives arrogantly, just like on the battlefield, but the latter was obviously a little lacking in courage, after all, the source of the vast majority of slaves and maids was actually not legitimate. Human trafficking is the most important of these. The vast majority of human trafficking is illegal, and the laws of the Ming Dynasty have strict standards for human trafficking, and the crime of selling a good person covers the vast majority of human trafficking, except for those that are not within the scope of the protection of the Ming law.

Like what......

"My house slave is a bought official slave, there is nothing wrong with this, right?"

A representative of the scholars stood up and said.

"Of course, there is no illegality for official slaves, but since they are official slaves, then the court also has the right to give back good records, do you need me to give some examples?"

Yang Qing said with a smile.

"No, you don't!"

That means snorting coldly and sitting down.

It is indeed not necessary, the vast majority of the sources of officials and slaves are the families of convicts, but the families of convicts who have been rehabilitated in previous dynasties will be refound, not to mention the return of good records, that is, there are re-officials, there are a lot of such examples, and the officials and slaves cannot refute Yang Qing's unreasonable argument that slaves and maids are unreasonable. Human trafficking is also difficult to refute him because of the law, the only thing that is useful in theory is the family heirloom slave maid, but this point was cut off by him from the source, so it is still useless, unless it is said to be passed down from the Song Dynasty, but it has been four hundred years, who can come up with the deed of sale? In fact, even in the time of Hu Yuan, it was difficult to find out except for some real families.

From a legal point of view, in fact, the vast majority of slaves cannot be said to be clean.

Who hasn't taken it by force?

Especially those who donate, this is strictly forbidden in the law, and it is impossible to put it on the table, and the rest is difficult to say morally moral, for example, those who sell themselves to bury their relatives, Yang Qing can block them with a sentence of making a fortune from the dead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am not prohibiting slaves and maids, but I forbid the use of the Huaxia people as slaves and maids, they are all human beings, so why can some people treat others as livestock? We are all descendants of Nuwa's creation, and we are both the successors of the two emperors of Yan and Huang, so there should be no distinction between high and low. It is true that the slave and maid system was not created by the Ming Dynasty, and it has indeed continued since ancient times, but as far as I know, the system has changed in the Song Dynasty, and it was the invasion of the Mongols that interrupted the process. Taizu expelled the Tartars to restore China, and also strictly limited the number of slaves and maids, but since Taizu, the emperors have become more and more lenient, so that the number of good slaves has increased day by day, until today, the land south of the Yangtze River is full of farmers.

This time it's just to set things right and restore Taizu's unfinished business.

I'm not trying to scare you.

Is slavery rare in Jiangnan?

When the first emperor took advantage of the chaos in the world, how many slaves were there? How many people are there who break their homes for slaves and maids? Who welcomed Zhang Xianzhong into Macheng? How many of the Macheng gentry died at the hands of domestic slaves? Aren't you afraid that one day, the millions of slaves and maids in the south of the Yangtze River will fight against you?

Peaceful and prosperous?

At that time, Xiao Yan also felt that he was a peaceful and prosperous era.

But Hou Jing's eight hundred Hu Qi smashed his prosperous fireworks, and eight hundred Hu Qi ruined Nanliang's prosperous clothes, what is the root cause of this exaggerated result? Because Hou Jing's 800 Hu cavalry was followed by millions of slaves, when the slaves swarmed, the well-dressed Chinese could only carry gold and jade and starve to death! Aren't you afraid that one day, when the Jiangnan slaves will swell, you will starve to death like them, pregnant with gold and jade? ”

Yang Qing looked at those scholar representatives and said with a sneer on his face.

"Fill it up."

He then said: "I have no interest in protecting those slave owners, and the Ming army is not interested in protecting those slave owners, the duty of the Ming army is to protect the people of China, not those who use the people of China as slaves!" ”