My life skills in Daming Liver - Chapter 621

c613 Pretend to be a pig and eat the tiger

All things in the Ming Dynasty were in chaos. Southeast’s policy towards Henan changed from its previous softness and adopted a more stringent policy than that in Huguang.

All landowners must clear land according to official land registers, and landowners who own more than a certain amount of land will be progressively levied heavy taxes.

At the same time, the Ministry of Criminal Justice in the southeast sent officials to quickly identify conflicting land disputes in various places, especially supporting tenant farmers to sue landlords, and even hired lawyers to help them litigate for free.

In addition to cracking down on large landowners, the southeastern government also registered unregistered land, included these lands within the scope of land tax, and re-registered occupied official land to ensure that official land was only rented to those without security For the poor, the income from official land is guaranteed to be used to support local almshouses.

For the officials who surrendered in Henan, except for officials at the governor level like Chen Yiqin, ordinary local officials were not given any positions. These people were deprived of their qualifications to be officials. Officials with problems were imprisoned and investigated. Even rampant officials were All were arrested.

The common people clapped their hands and praised, Henan’s officialdom was corrupt, and many officials and officials colluded with local tyrants to oppress the people. These officials and gentry continued to dream of riding on the heads of the people, but they did not expect that Southeast would be so ruthless this time.

As dynasties changed over the years, ordinary officials often did not lose their jobs. Grassroots governance required manpower. In the early days of the establishment of many dynasties, they were filled with old officials from the previous dynasty from top to bottom.

For example, people like Yang Lie from Bozhou who lived on the frontier could survive several dynasties.

This is also because the world was in turmoil at the end of the dynasty and there was a lack of talents. Officials from the previous dynasty had to be accepted to govern the place and maintain stability.

But this time Southeast’s attitude was completely different.

Southeast has a large number of officials trained by itself, and it has a system for official appointment and governance, which does not rely on combining with local powerful people to govern the place.

In provinces such as South Zhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, which have developed culture and education, there are still people who specially organize scholars to go to other provinces to examine officials.

So this time, there was a big change of officials from top to bottom in Henan, and the southeast came. Except for some officials who were regarded as mascots and officials who were very prestigious in the local area, they were eliminated.

In a county under Kaifeng Prefecture, several former Ming officials gathered together. The leader was Song Tongwei, the head official of the local household.

Song Tongwei was a son of a local powerful man. Relying on his status as the head of a household, he bought ten shops in the county. There was also a large amount of land outside the city, many of which were occupied public lands.

Originally, Song Tongwei did not panic because of Chen Yiqin’s surrender. If the sky fell, the officials would hold him up. Even if the officials changed dynasties, they could still continue to work in the local area.

Song Tongwei was a ruthless man. He occupied ten shops and also occupied farms and public fields outside the city. While occupying these shops and fields, Song Tongwei was involved in many cases and even forced people to death.

If he was no longer an official in this county, those who had been oppressed by him would immediately start a riot. Taking back shops and land would be trivial, and he might even be imprisoned.

Therefore, Song Tongwei was the one who was most afraid. He gathered dissatisfied local officials and prepared to drag key officials across the county to confuse matters in the county and force Southeast to continue to retain him.

Song Tongwei was a cunning old man. On the one hand, he made friends with the newly appointed Magistrate Huang. This magistrate was ordinary. It was said that he was promoted from a clerk to an official. It sounded like he had a poor official career.

Magistrate Huang was very kind when he arrived at the county. He just asked the original officials to hand over the files in their hands and announced that they would be given a “severance package.”

Song Tongwei kept befriending Magistrate Huang, and then usurped other dismissed officials to cause trouble. When the county was in chaos, Magistrate Huang would need to rely on his “prestige” to calm the chaos, and then he would be able to stay in office.

Among them, the one who caused the most serious trouble was Meng Yayi, the leader of the Gongfang soap class.

Similar to Song Tongwei, this Meng Yamen was even more crazy about making money. He was known in the county as “Ghost Seeing Sorrow”, and his best thing was “sending messages to the King of Hell”.

The so-called “King of Hell’s Tie” is a summons from the government. Regardless of whether it is the plaintiff or the defendant, as long as he reports to the official, he will be caught and imprisoned for a while. Many victims can’t bear it and die in prison earlier than the defendant.

Through this method, Meng Yamen married a concubine with seven rooms and lived a very luxurious life in the county.

Meng Yamen knew that he had a lot of blood debts on his hands, and he wanted to keep his position. He was most disgusted with the Southeast Policy, so he led his Yamen to keep making trouble.

Meng Yamen even seized the county government files and refused to hand them over to the new county magistrate.

This incident also gave Huang Zhixian a headache. Song Tongwei seemed to be helping to solve the problem, but in fact he kept stirring up trouble, just waiting for the impulsive Yamen Meng to make things worse.

The Southeast government gave these old officials a one-month handover period, and then issued corresponding severance pay based on their seniority.

In fact, this money is already quite generous, but obviously this is not what these officials want.

Meng Yamen agreed to continue protesting in front of the prison tomorrow. If Huang Zhixian still refused to give in, they would rush into the prison and release all the prisoners.

After the discussion was completed, Song Tongwei left immediately and entered the county government office at night.

Song Tongwei told Huang Zhixian about Meng Yamen’s conspiracy. Huang Zhixian immediately praised him and announced that he would provide a guarantee to his superiors and keep Song Tongwei in his post.

Song Tongwei was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately thanked Huang Zhixian for his kindness.

The next day, it turned out that Meng Yamen led other government officials to make trouble at the gate of the prison. But what Meng Yamen didn’t expect was that a group of soldiers armed with muskets rushed out from the prison gate and surrounded the troublemaking corvees.

Immediately afterwards, Huang Zhixian, wearing the official robe of the county magistrate, appeared at the door of the prison and read out the lawsuit received by the county government, accusing Meng Yamen of committing a crime of indulging in human life.

Meng Yamen had no time to resist and was thrown directly into the cell.

Huang Zhixian simply set up a table at the door of the prison, and then began to accuse the county officials and officials one after another of their crimes. The officials and officials whose names were called were sent directly to the prison.

The last name was Song Tongwei. He was trembling all over after hearing the accusation. He occupied other people’s shops, forcibly purchased their land at low prices, and even committed adultery with the female relatives of wealthy families in the city. All were recorded in detail, and the evidence was very Perfect, both human and material evidence are present.

Only then did Song Tongwei know why Magistrate Huang didn’t care about other county affairs after he took office. He just led people around the county every day. It turned out that he was collecting evidence!

Almost all the subordinate officials in the county were wiped out. Except for some officials with relatively minor crimes, Huang Zhixian asked them to return the stolen goods, and the rest were all sent to prison.

Only then did Huang Zhixian change his harmless expression. He had been promoted from a clerk to an official. He had been in officialdom for more than ten years. He was very familiar with these bad habits of officialdom!