Two days later, outside Mojiazhuang, a group of green or red officials gathered at the scene of the incident, surrounded by a layer of blue-clothed guards and a layer of gray-clothed patrol officers separating the large group of onlookers.

"On June 22 of the first year of the Holy Dao, in Mojiazhuang, Moshan Township, Qujiang County, tenant farmers made a rebellion, attacked the landlord Zhong Shang, the head of the landlord held a firearm and injured people, the tenant farmer died three and injured seven, and the wanderers hired by the Zhong family died one and injured four......"

Zheng Xie hurriedly used a hard pen in his notebook, and at this time he had been promoted to the Hanlin Academy from the five-grade review, and his official uniform was changed to a red robe. The reason why he was in Shaozhou was that he was appointed as the Shaozhou Guanfeng envoy to assist the administration of the prefect of the prefecture and county, which was regarded as an internship for the local officials. They also want to disband, but unlike the Ming and Qing dynasties, they can't even get the post of county magistrate after the disbandment, and they will be distributed to various substantive departments under the prefecture and county according to their interests and abilities.

Zheng Xie, like most Hanlin who had only buried himself in the sage books before, had not yet decided on the direction, so he could only follow the chief official and submit affairs reports to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the General Administration Department at the same time. And he is the champion of Enke, with a good salary, and he was assigned to Shaozhou Mansion in the land of Longxing today, and followed Cheng Guijue, the prefect of Shaozhou.

Cheng Guijue is the younger brother of Cheng Yingde, the pacification envoy of Yungui and Guizhou, known for his diligence, since the transfer of Yangjiang County to Shaozhou, coordinating the affairs of various counties, has quite an official reputation, and is listening to the report of Qujiang County at this moment.

Qujiang Zhixian said: "The main leader, Deng Xiaotian, after committing murder here, dragged more than 20 tenants to flee south. Sneak attack on the patrol shop ten miles away, wound six patrol officers, take away two muskets, six waist knives, and then disappear again......"

Cheng Guijue said: "This government has sent a letter to the Shaozhou Guard, and this gang of bandits has been listed as the focus of inspection. The patrol police of Wengyuan, Yingde, and Nanxiong counties have also urgently set up cards for investigation. The most important task of your county is to keep an eye on the relatives and friends of this gang of bandits and prevent them from making waves again. ”

"In addition, your county should tell the ins and outs of this matter in detail, and inform the heads of the townships and districts, the inspection and the law, and only state the facts, not conclusive, and not speculate, so as not to incite the people of the young people and take the opportunity to cause trouble. Those newspapers are fast, and they have to keep an eye on them, and they want to visit them, but they have to remember everyone they visit, and prepare for the impeachment of the imperial history in the future. ”

Then Cheng Guijue sighed: "These are still trivial matters, the key is the foundation of this matter, you have to work hard to find out." ”

Qujiang Zhixian was sweating and panicked, and this said to the bottom of his heart. This dynasty has greatly promoted the holy weather, but in the land of the emperor's Longxing, a group of chaotic people jumped out, which is definitely not the emperor's fault, but the fault of the magistrate. As a magistrate, it is his basic duty to coordinate the harmony of all parties in a county, so as long as this happens, he has to take responsibility. But how much to bear depends on the nature of the matter.

Cheng Guijue spoke quickly, Zheng Xie was calm, his pen was flying, and he barely memorized his decision, and when he heard the last sentence, Zheng Xie's heart moved, and he interjected: "Fuzun, let Zheng Xie investigate this matter together." ”

He is an envoy of the wind and has this power, Cheng Guijue nodded, and the county governor of Qujiang also saluted Zheng Xie nervously. There is an envoy to watch the wind, and it is difficult for the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to impeach him at the beginning and end of his handling of this matter, but this also means that it is difficult for him to hide what is related to him.

In Mojiazhuang, Zhong Shangwei was in the family, and the owner Zhong Shangwei looked wronged.

Zhong Shangwei really felt that he was wronged, as far as he was concerned, life was already stormy. A few years ago, he was killed in England and Germany, and his wife and children died. Throwing away the Yingde family property and running to Guangzhou as a duke, the poor boy Li Xian, who didn't want to be a fellow villager, turned over and became the lord of Guangdong.

He had a grudge against Li Shi, and he also had old friends, thinking that Li Shi would not bother with him, so he didn't run to other places, but started a pig iron business with peace of mind. Relying on the familiarity of the door, after a few years, he actually accumulated tens of thousands of taels of silver in his family property.

At this time, in Guangzhou, the space has been squeezed out by those who have united, and the wealthy businessmen who have swept the production and sales of the company have been squeezed out, and Zhong Shangwei has the intention to return to Yingde, but Yingde has long been controlled by the Manchu magnates. I had to go to Qujiang and buy land and property.

Zhong Shangwei is not only familiar with the pig iron business, but also started from the field, during which there are many doorways, even if the new dynasty is erected and the legal net is detailed, he also knows it in his heart. In just half a year, more than ten hectares of land were placed, and more than ten hectares of fields were held with white deeds. Although the new dynasty emphasized that it would not pass the deed in the government, the purchase and sale of acres would not recognize the guarantee, and the money and grain would not recognize the white deed set by the people. However, many people do not know this, and still follow the past and directly communicate with each other in white deeds.

Taking advantage of this loophole, he not only squeezed many people to sell their fields, but also pressed money and grain on their heads, but also counted the money and grain after the land rent was divided.

Zhong Shangwei didn't feel that he was wrong, first, he didn't break the law, this way was deliberately enveloped by the local law, and he had to explain the law clearly, if you want to blame it, only those people are to blame, they are always afraid of dealing with the government, and they don't want to pass the contract, and the government will naturally not help them speak in this matter.

Second, he is not alone in doing this, many people from other provinces, as well as businessmen who have retired from Guangzhou and other places, have also begun to operate the fields in this way. For them, no matter how prosperous the industry and commerce are, it is always false, and if they don't buy land and property, can they still be called people? And to buy land and property, now the new dynasty money and grain are divided into field silver and material silver, and they are combed very finely. If you don't grow your own, it's always difficult to make a big profit, so it's natural to find a way to transfer the tax to the tenants.

Even if the land tax is transferred, the land price is so high, it is reasonable to suppress those tenants on the land rent, anyway, they used to have no food if they didn't have the land, and now the land is so expensive, there is no way to live, and if they suffer some losses, as long as they can survive, most of them still have to bow their heads.

Like many provincials and merchants who diverted their silver into their fields, Zhong felt that he was much more law-abiding than he had been in the Kangxi Dynasty. Unexpectedly, there were still tenants who jumped out to make trouble. Compared with the Kangxi Dynasty, the new dynasty is smeared brightly, and the law is indeed much less, but the legal net is denser. Without his Zhong ascending activities, then Deng Xiaotian gathering crowds to make trouble is already a dead end, not to mention that he also attacked the official errand, which is a rare chaos in Shaozhou Mansion this year.

So when the young Guanfeng envoy followed the county magistrate to interrogate Zhong Shang, he felt that his victim was still being interrogated, and Zhong Shangwei was full of grievances.

"Where is the villain's coaxing? They sold the land to the villain, and the villain asked them to go to the government to pass the deed, and they didn't want to take care of the tax money written on the deed, and I charged them six cents, which was a bit higher, but they were also voluntary, and it was not forced by the villain. ”

"The land sold at the beginning of the year has risen by 30% by the middle of the year, and they feel that they have lost money and come to find a price. It is clearly written on the deed, even if you want to find a price, you will find it again over the years, these people are Diao Min"

"Why don't you let me? Let them, the villain will not let the others? The rest of the land has been caught, isn't the villain at a loss? Did the villain buy this land to provide for them? The land price is so high, the villain has to think about his own capital, right? ”

Zhong Shang's posture is humble, but he is full of business, Zheng Xie and Qujiang Zhixian have nothing to say. The establishment of industry and commerce in this dynasty is about faith and reason, and in terms of these two words, Zhong Shangwei has indeed done nothing wrong.

Investigate deeply, collude with the township to inspect the village, threaten the tenants, cheat on the two catties when collecting rent, and bribe everywhere to seek the director of the township public bureau.

After a few days of investigation in Qujiang County, the cause of the Deng Xiaotian incident was basically clarified, and Zheng Xie returned to Shaozhou Mansion and reported to Cheng Guijue.

"Qujiang Zhixian has a fault of not being strict with the inspectors in this matter, and it is only a small section, although Zhong Shangwei has a greedy behavior and coaxes the ignorant people on the field deed, but it is difficult to punish him legally. Therefore, the nature of the whole thing is that Deng Xiaotian killed people and made chaos because of something. ”

Cheng Guijue made a very sharp judgment, of course, this is just a report he submitted to the Department of Justice, this case is under the jurisdiction of the Qujiang County General Judgment under the direct management of the Department of Justice, and at this time Deng Xiaotian has not yet been arrested The case, it is not clear how the verdict will be announced, Cheng Guijue just judged how much this case has to do with the government's actions.

Zheng Xie found it difficult to accept this result: "There is nothing wrong with the government in this matter, and there is nothing wrong with the landlord Zhong Shang, only Deng Xiaotian and other tenants are at fault." There is no dispute that the crime of homicide should be determined. But wasn't it Zhong Shang's greed that forced Deng Xiaotian to be angry? ”

Cheng Guijue sighed: "Although Zhong Shangwei is greedy, he is not guilty of the law, if you want to say who really forced Deng Xiaotian to be angry......

Zheng Xie's heart was heavy: "That is the land price pushed up by people and businessmen from other provinces. ”

Cheng Guijue shook his head and handed Zheng Xie a newspaper: "The one who is really responsible is our government and ...... Imakami. ”

Zheng Xie looked at the "Righteousness" in his hand, and the first line of the edition was eye-catching: "Industrial and Commercial Food Country"

Not only the title, but also the content are vaguely familiar, just like a year or two ago, when the old article was turned out during the great debate of people's hearts. The only difference is that this article is based on facts, and the land price in Guangdong is generally three or four times higher than that in the Kangxi period, while the price of grain has fallen by two or three percent. As a result, farmers in Guangdong have switched to other crops, and the resulting land tax has also increased considerably. Many farmers are not familiar with the new species law and have lost money. Some crops, such as sugarcane, have suffered numerous losses due to excessive production and the price of sugarcane has plummeted.

"In a province of Guangdong, the farmers who broke their families accumulated a huge amount of money, although they threw their fields to produce silver, but they sat on the empty mountains and had no skills to make a living. The industry and commerce of other provinces and this province have brought Yinshan in, not only the land price has exploded, but everything has risen. The imperial court also issued a mining order, which attracted huge sums of money to buy mountains and farmland, destroying fields and stopping farming. At this time, my generation of scholars has already seen and spoken, but the imperial court has sworn to industry and commerce, regardless of farming, and now, what will be the face of this country? ”

Although he felt that this article was a bit exaggerated, after reading Deng Xiaotian's incident, Zheng Xie felt that it was not completely unreasonable, and his heart was even more disturbed. Yes, it has been said a long time ago that there are all kinds of harms in the development of industry and commerce, and before today, we can listen to more words, act more cautiously, and restrain industry and commerce, so that there will not be such chaos in front of us.

Cheng Guijue said: "Literati are always exaggerated, and there are still too many places for people who have lost their land today. Regardless of industry and commerce, neighboring provinces, and even Nanyang, there are measures to encourage relocation and property purchase. The imperial court is now rich, and the prefectures and counties are also rich, and they are all building on a large scale, and the rise in prices is also related to these major events. ”

Zheng Xie said worriedly: "After all, it is a turmoil, and what I am afraid of is that the momentum that was originally lying in the shadows will rise up in the chaos." ”

He didn't say it in his mouth, but he said in his heart that this "Righteousness" and the "Righteous Path" that specifically exposed the background of officials were the so-called "Holy Confucian Party" before, and now the government and the opposition are collectively called the "Confucian Party", and now they are taking advantage of the situation to advocate suppressing industry and commerce and rejuvenating agriculture, of course, behind it is respect for Confucianism. And the previous "Three Sages Party", and now the "Sage Party", which now occupies half of the power of the court, will take advantage of the chaos to ask for authority from the present? The faction of Baicheng Academy, plus the "Taoist Party" that has become a school with the "Three Treatises" in the government and the opposition, will fight back with the hands of the three parties, and I don't know how fierce the struggle between these three parties will be in this situation?

Cheng Guijue saw him flustered, shook his head and said: "This is not the time, just look at this "Righteousness", not to say the restoration of the old rule, but to appeal to the court to pay attention to such chaos, at this time it is difficult to turn back." ”

Zheng Xie said: "As the article says, what everyone is most afraid of is not knowing where the road leads. ”。