"Yan Zhong, can you plead guilty?" After the villagers of Shangma Village had accused Yan Zhong of the crimes committed in the conflict in Shangma Village, Feng Yong was shocked and asked Yan Zhong who was sitting on the ground with a dull look on his face.

"Little ...... The villain recognizes ...... Plead guilty! Yan Zhong was startled by the startled sound, and after coming back to his senses, he cast a look at Yang Yu for help again, but Yang Yu avoided his gaze, picked up the teacup on the side and lowered his head to taste the tea, ignoring his request for help, which made Yan Zhong feel a burst of despair in his heart, and got up and replied with his head touching the ground in panic.

"I ask you, why did you testify contrary to the present in the previous testimony?" Seeing that Yan Zhong confessed his guilt, Feng Yong's heart breathed a sigh of relief, and then he looked at the villagers of Shangma Village who testified with a stern expression.

"My lord, Yan Zhong brought people to the village to threaten the people in the village, if anyone dares to testify, he is an enemy of Commander Yang, coupled with the deliberate protection of those officials who came to investigate, so we have no choice but to make a false confession under his coercion!"

The leader of the villagers was the tall and thin middle-aged man who was drinking at Zhang Laohan's house that night, and explained to Feng Yong in a serious manner, "Someone in our village once reported to the investigating officials that Zhao Laosan and others were framed, but they were immediately framed as accomplices in the murder of the court soldiers, and they were also arrested and put in prison together. ”

Hearing this, the people gathered outside the courtyard were in an uproar, and the officials in front of them made it clear that they didn't want the people of Shangma Village to tell the truth.

"Silence!" Seeing that the people in the courtyard became a little noisy, Feng Yong frowned slightly, slapped the hall and shouted, and after the courtyard was quiet, he said in a deep voice to the guards standing in front of the hall, "Someone, pass the officials who tried the case last time!" ”

Due to the problem of severity in the trial of the Shangma Village case last time, Feng Yong must investigate the responsibility of the relevant personnel, otherwise today's court trial will be unknown.

Soon, a group of officials dressed in guard clothes walked into the hall dejectedly, knelt in front of the hall to plead guilty, and then pointed the finger at Yan Zhong, saying that Yan Zhong had bribed them with money, and they had to submit because they were afraid of Yan Zhong's power.

Although those officials didn't say why Yan Zhong had the power that scared them, everyone at the scene knew that it must be because of Yang Yu, the commander of Jianning's right guard, but this kind of thing can only be understood and not spoken, after all, Yang Yu was not directly involved in what Yan Zhong did.

Yang Yu's face was extremely pale, he knew that today's court trial was actually just a shape, since Li Yuntian came, Yan Zhong had already finished, and everyone would definitely take the opportunity to beat the water dog.

Yan Zhong knelt on the ground and didn't dare to raise his head, his body trembled slightly from fear, he knew that he would definitely be beheaded for his crime, and now no one could save him.

"Damn, you would do such a ridiculous thing, it is really a great crime, come here, put them in prison, and punish them according to the law after the guilt is verified!" After those officials confessed their guilt, Feng Yong slapped the startled wood hard, and shouted loudly to the guards standing under the hall.

The guards immediately rushed up and escorted out the officials who were crying and mourning, these officials originally enjoyed a life of worry-free food and clothing, but because of the danger of bribery and bending the law, under the circumstance that Li Yuntian was concerned about this case, they would be severely punished, and even if they were lucky enough to survive, they would probably not be able to escape the fate of being exiled to a bitter cold place.

"This case has been clarified so far, Yan Zhong violated the imperial court decree and wanted to forcibly take away the female dependents of Zhao Laosan's family to pay off the debt, and instructed his subordinates to beat Zhao Laosan, his behavior is no different from the bandits, and finally led to a conflict, so Yan Zhong is the culprit, Zhao Laosan and others do not need to be responsible for resisting in order to protect their families."

After those officials left, Feng Yong glanced around at the people in the hall and said in a deep voice, "Come on, put Yan Zhong on death row, and punish him after finding out if this person has other evil deeds!" ”

"Wait!" Several guards standing under the hall were just about to step forward to pick up Yan Zhong, who was slumped on the ground, Li Yuntian, who was drinking tea slowly, suddenly spoke, put down the teacup and said to Feng Yong expressionlessly, "Lord Feng, since this conflict is caused by the debt of the two, then this debt should be investigated, otherwise how to close the case?" ”

"What the prince reminded is that the humble post was negligent for a while." Hearing this, Feng Yong hurriedly bowed to Li Yuntian in embarrassment, and then asked Zhao Laosan in a loud voice, "Zhao Laosan, where did your debts come from, and how much do you owe Yan Zhong?" ”

In fact, Feng Yong was reluctant to ask this question, because he knew very well where the debt between Yan Zhong and Zhao Laosan came from, which involved the Juntian problem that he was unwilling to face.

However, just as Li Yuntian said, if this issue is not clarified, today's court trial will lack the reason for the conflict between Yan Zhong and Zhao Laosan, and a simple debt cannot cover up the cause of the matter in general, not to mention that Li Yuntian supervised the trial on the spot, which is the reason why this case will be sent back to the Governor's Office and the Criminal Department of the Five Armies to make up for the debts.

"My lord, fifteen years ago, the villain was seriously ill, because he had no money for treatment, so he borrowed three hangs of money from Yan Zhong's father, and then the harvest in the field was not good, and the villain tried his best to repay it, and now not only has the family's military field been compensated to the Yan family, but also owes the Yan family fifteen taels of silver." Zhao Laosan showed a look of pain on his face when he heard this, if it weren't for his illness back then, now that there is still land at home and no pressure from foreign debts, life will undoubtedly be much better.

"Is what Zhao Laosan said true?" Three hangs of money is three taels of silver, Feng Yong looked at Yan Zhong expressionlessly when he heard this, he knew that the Yan family was lending usury in the local area, otherwise the Zhao Laosan family would not have paid off the three taels of silver owed to the Yan family for fifteen years.

"It's true!" Yan Zhong's dull eyes blinked, and he nodded to Feng Yong mechanically, he was very remorseful now, if he knew that he would poke such a big basket, he would not have stopped Zhao Laosan from leaving, but now it's a good thing, he even lost his life for those military fields of Zhao Laosan's family.

"This king asks you, how much land did you pay to the Yan family?" At this time, Li Yuntian frowned and asked Zhao Laosan.

"Lord Wang, a total of forty acres." Zhao Laosan replied gloomily that if there were these forty acres of land, he would not move to Xiaoliuqiu Island with his family.

"How much is the annual harvest per acre of land converted into silver taels?" Hearing this, Li Yuntian continued to ask quietly.

"Lord Wang, fifteen acres of those forty acres of land are fertile land, twenty-five acres are flat fields, good fields can harvest three stones of rice a year, and flat fields can harvest about two stones a year, the market price is one stone and half a penny, and the price of grain we sell to those grain merchants is usually halved." Zhao Laosan thought about it carefully and answered Li Yuntian's question.

According to Zhao Laosan, the Zhao family's forty acres of land can produce 95 stones a year, and the annual grain can be sold for 23 taels of silver, which seems to be a lot.

But this is the Zhao family's annual income, and not all fields are planted with rice, and some fields are planted with other cash crops whose economic value is not as high as rice, and the sellers are not as good as rice.

The Zhao family has more than a dozen people, and they have to eat a lot of food every year, and they have to hand over the food to the health center, plus the purchase of daily necessities, etc., and it is already very good for a family to have a balance of two or three taels of silver every year.

"Yan Zhong, this king asks you, do you know that the military land is owned by the imperial court, and the imperial court distributes the military land to the military households of the guard in order to ensure the self-sufficiency of the local guards, and it is not allowed to occupy it without the permission of the imperial court.

After Zhao Laosan answered, Li Yuntian waited for Zhao Laosan with a cold expression, and said in a deep voice word by word, "In addition, although it is a natural and righteous move to repay debts, but the local health offices shoulder the responsibility of protecting the family and defending the country, and you know that this is the case and you also issued usury loans to Zhao Laosan that made him bankrupt, this move is undoubtedly to destroy the foundation of my Daming Guard, what is your intention?" ”

Hearing this, the faces of many officials of the Fujian Metropolitan Department and Yamen present at the scene changed drastically, except for Feng Yong, Song Min and several other high-ranking officials of the Imperial Metropolitan Division, who were transferred from other places by the imperial court, the rest of the people, including the military attachés including the Wei Commander and the Commander, were all hereditary "land-sitting households" with military positions, and everyone had embezzled a lot of military land, and they were all good lands in the military fields.

In recent years, the imperial court has often sent Beijing officials to the local guard stations to investigate military affairs, mainly for the flight of military households and the encroachment of military fields.

After all, the people who occupy the military field are the military attaches of the local guard posts and the local wealthy families, so they will naturally try their best to cover it up, and those military households do not dare to complain, and those Beijing officials who are responsible for cleaning up matters will definitely not pay a private visit like Li Yuntian, so naturally they will not be able to clean up the military field.

Many of the Beijing officials who were in charge of the affairs of the Qing army also knew in their hearts that the matter of cleaning up the military fields involved too many entanglements of interests, and would not only be counterattacked by local power groups, but even the Governor's Office of the Five Armies would interfere with them.

What is particularly important is that even if some Beijing officials who clean up military affairs want to investigate this matter, it is difficult to make any achievements under the cover of various local guards, and they are usually carried off the ground by those local forces.

But Li Yuntian is different, although as the saying goes, a strong dragon does not suppress the head snake, but there is also a saying that it is not a fierce dragon but a river, Li Yuntian is the king of the Ming Dynasty, and it can be regarded as a python dragon, how can those military attachés of the Fujian Xingdu Division compete with?

Therefore, after hearing Li Yuntian talk about the embezzlement of military land, those military attachés in the Xingdu Division of Fujian were taken aback one after another, and they felt panicked in their hearts; if Li Yuntian came to thoroughly investigate the case, then they would be very unlucky, and there would definitely be many military households who had lost their military land to file complaints.

In the final analysis, the military field is the land of the imperial court, and it is given by the emperor to those military households to support the operation of the guards.

With Li Yuntian's questioning of Yan Zhong, the atmosphere in the lobby instantly became tense, Ling Ran felt an invisible pressure, and several military attachés even subconsciously wiped the cold sweat oozing from their foreheads.