Chongzhen was furious: "This is what you said earlier? ”

Chen Hongmi explained: "Xu Taishi was only 17 years old when he got married, and his family was originally rich in Wuzhong. Therefore, when he was in charge, he was never greedy for the interests of the court, and he didn't look down on it. As for the so-called bribery, there must be people who can afford to bribe? ”

Chongzhen was stunned for a moment, and then he was a little confused, shouldn't the Qing officials and ministers be two-sleeved? Or is this kind of family very rich, who has taken money since he was a child, and he will not be greedy after becoming an official?

Chen Hongmi doesn't need to guess to know why Chongzhen is confused, whether he is greedy or not is still a personal behavior in the final analysis, and what does it have to do with his identity background? Knowing that Chongzhen could not be allowed to drill this bull's horn again, Chen Hongmi hurriedly diverted the topic: "Speaking of which, the Dong family and the Duke of Jiehuan still have a story. ”

Jiehuangong refers to Yuan Keli, and Jiehuan is its name. He went through the four emperors of Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi and Chongzhen, and was a proper veteran of the four dynasties, but he died of exhaustion in resisting Jianyu. If you say who Chongzhen admires the most in this life, Yuan Keli is definitely in the forefront.

Chongzhen questioned Chen Hongmi: "Are you sure that you are not talking about it?" Jiehuan Gong Henan native, first served as the governor of Suzhou Prefecture, and has been in the north since then, what is the story of the Dong family in Zhejiang? ”

Suddenly remembering someone, Chongzhen asked, "You don't want to talk about Dong Qichang, do you?" It's true that Jiehuangong and Dong Qichang are friends, but this matter is almost known to everyone, so there's nothing to say, right? What's more, I remember that Dong Qichang is from Songjiang, although Suzhou and Songjiang are not far from Zhejiang, but there is no reason to say that he is the Dong family of Zhejiang, right? ”

Dong Qichang and Yuan Keli were in the same year as Jinshi, he was seven years older than Yuan Keli, but because of his admiration for Yuan Keli's talent, he has always been humble as a younger brother. The two have a close friendship, often respond to each other, and even create together. Their friendship has been widely praised by the people, and even many anecdotes have been circulated. When Yuan Keli died, Dong Qichang wrote "Jiehuan Yuan Gongxing" to send condolences, because of his concern for Yuan Keli, Chongzhen also read this memorial text, and was deeply impressed. So he also knows the relationship between Yuan Dong and the two.

Of course, Chen Hongmian would not change the topic with well-known things, and explained: "Of course, the minister does not refer to Wen Mingong, Wen Mingong died last year and was buried in the tomb of the Dong family in Yuyang Bay, Wu County, and the minister also went to worship at that time. What the minister is talking about is the story that happened when the Duke of Jiehuan was appointed as the governor of Suzhou Prefecture. ”

Wen Min Gong refers to Dong Qichang, and Wen Min is his nickname.

Chongzhen came to be interested, and when Yuan Keli was serving as a magistrate in Suzhou Mansion, he was known as a god in judging cases, and there were many folk legends, chasing Bao Qingtian. Even Chongzhen was in the palace when he was a child, and he grew up listening to the story of Yuan Keli's case. Although he later knew that many of them were incidental, Chen Hongmi's remarks could be regarded as evoking one of the few good memories of his childhood.

"Hurry up and talk about it, why did the Jiehuan public judgment case still break out of Suzhou Mansion? Could it be that someone from the Dong family came to Suzhou to commit a crime? ”

Chen Hongmi didn't expect Chongzhen to be so interested in this, and he didn't delay, and the organizational language was told.

It turned out that after Dong Fen returned home from his dismissal, he used his family assets to release foreign debts, combined with usury and high land rent, and occupied tens of thousands of acres of land, which was boiling in the local people's resentment. But strictly speaking, his methods did not violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and within the scope of the laws of the Ming Dynasty, he collected the highest land rent and the highest interest rate.

In the twentieth year of Wanli, Dong Fen's grandson, Dong Sicheng, was also dismissed and returned home because of his letter of advice. Two years later, Dong Sicheng found that his family had many disputes with the people because of the land. His methods of dealing with the problem were too drastic, proposing to punish domestic slaves, clarify the rights and wrongs of land disputes, allow households to redeem, and make up for the shortfall.

It is difficult to tell whether he proposed this practice for the purpose of appeasing public opinion or for the purpose of exploiting it in a different way. But as soon as this practice was proposed, the people, who were originally distrustful of the Dong family, were stimulated and protested out.

The people who were stimulated broke out with grievances, and directly rushed into the Dong family and the Fan family, who also had great grievances in the local area.

At that time, the governor of Zhejiang and the governor of the imperial history, as the competent department, did not conduct a detailed investigation, and in order to calm the people's grievances, they directly arrested Fan Ying, the head of the Fan family.

Fan Yingqi's life was smooth and even legendary.

When he was young, his family was well-off, and he was admitted to the Guozijian by donations, which simply means that he bought a school status.

When he took the township exam, Xue Yingyi, the examiner of the township exam, dared to go against Yan Song, the minister of power, and then because of this demotion to the Zhejiang school inspector, people didn't even give Yan Song face, how could he say good things about him when he had a little money? So he directly put his test paper into inferiority, saying that he didn't learn and didn't know how to do it.

How could he have been so angry? In a fit of anger, he said, "The eldest husband is the leader of the world, how can he do nothing all his life?" Then he was angry and studied hard, and the result really fulfilled his promise, was admitted to the top prize, and completed the counterattack from the bottom of the township to the first in the world.

After 20 years, his official position was steadily promoted, and he was valued by Emperor Wanli because of his good learning, and he was more than 60 years old when he served as a priest in the country.

How can such a pedant, who has not even experienced setbacks, and who is respected by the emperor when he sees him, who was insulted by the magistrate after retiring?

Fan Yingji, who was nearly old, could not bear the humiliation and hanged himself directly.

Fan Yingqi's wife also couldn't bear it, and went directly to Beijing to sue the royal court.

Wanli was furious, the university questioner I valued, your local officials didn't check it, and they were forced to die directly, so it's worth it? directly dismissed the governor of Zhejiang and the governor of Yushi, and Wucheng Zhixian, who directly took the people, was assigned to the border. Even the backers behind these three people have been implicated, and it is not good.

The result of such a treatment is in line with the law, but Wucheng's public resentment is even more boiling, and it almost leads to a civil uprising.

The local officials in Zhejiang had no choice, and when they heard that Yuan Keli was outstanding, they seconded him to take charge of the case.

Yuan Keli first received all the people's accusations against Dong Fan's family, so as to temporarily settle the people's grievances, and then personally visited and investigated.

The results of the investigation are very simple, everything that Dong Fan and his family did was within the limits of the law, and all the accusations of the people were due to ignorance of the law, and they were indeed exploited and could not live.

In this way, from a legal point of view, the Dong and Fan families are in charge, and they naturally do not spare people when they gain power, and demand that the government severely punish all those who participate in the smashing and looting.

But the troublemakers are all poor people, even if they don't say the law and don't blame the public, Yuan Keli can't help the Dong Fan family to bully the disadvantaged groups. What's more, the imperial court has long followed certain rules for dealing with similar problems, and has always only punished the evil.

Yuan Keli was more proficient in the law than Dong and Fan's family, and he brought to justice several key figures who participated in the troubles among the people, and sent the others back to the counties directly in accordance with the relevant laws on civil disputes.