That morning, the fleet entered Luoshui and soon arrived at Fengyi County, Tongzhou Prefecture. On the dock, Tongzhou Tongjian Qin Shaoan, the military envoy Liu Quan, the first director of the Supervision Department Jiang Kuangyuan and a group of officials were all there.
Go to the pier to welcome Chen Qing's arrival.
Chen Qing and everyone greeted him one by one, then got on the carriage and drove towards the city under the strict guard of hundreds of cavalry.
In the prefectural government office, Chen Qing listened to a report from Jiang Kuangyuan, the first director of the Supervision Department, who was responsible for verifying the Tongzhou land case.
"There are two land cases in Tongzhou. One occurred in Heyang County. Wang Xingmi, the current magistrate of Heyang County, was the magistrate of Heyang County at that time, and the county captain was Han Sangnong. The two colluded to embezzle tens of thousands of acres of land, using various methods.
Wang Xingmi later became the governor of Tongzhou. He used false accounts in Fengyi County to buy 3,000 acres of official land from the government in the name of his wife's brother. The selling price at that time was 5 guan per mu, for a total of 15,000 acres.
Thousands of dollars, this money was allocated to Jin Bing shortly after it was recorded in the account. In fact, the records were false, he did not pay a penny, and the county official who handled the matter has confessed."
Chen Qing had already read the report, and Chen Qing asked again: "How many people are pretending to be people in northern Shaanxi to apply for land, and how much land is involved?"
"Before my humble position, I was investigating Han Sannong and Wang Xingmi. The investigation has been completed. I have just begun to investigate the matter of counterfeiting the land. In order to make atonement for his crime, the county official who made the false accounts took out a record, which he secretly copied back then. At that time, he was in Fengyi County
Thirty-three families have impersonated land, involving 8,600 acres."
"Have you verified it?" Chen Qing asked.
"We haven't had time to verify it yet."
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said, "Take the list and let's go take a look on the spot."
Leading them was Li Kuan, the magistrate of Fengyi County. He knew all the big families on the list. The first family was Wang Yuan's wife from Xiaoqiuzhuang in the east of the city. His family pretended to be farmers in northern Shaanxi and took away 550 acres of land from the same village.
Ueda.
Wang Yuan, also known as Wang Qiang, was about fifty years old. He was very shrewd and good at maneuvering the camp. When the Jin soldiers came to kill him, he enthusiastically donated food. When the puppet Qi took control of Tongzhou, he gave money and gifts to the officials of the puppet Qi. In the distribution of wealth,
He also benefited from it. He took away 550 acres of the 700 acres of idle land in the same village and put it into the fields. Twenty-one households of farmers who migrated from northern Shaanxi divided the other 150 acres. In the end, they all became his
A sharecropper.
As people from the same village came back one after another, Wang Qiang had been having a hard time in the past two years. When she went out, she was blocked and scolded by the villagers. Wang Qiang also continued to spend money to manage the county, hoping that the county could support her. As a result,
It's pretty good, at least he still occupies 550 acres of land.
But today, his good days finally came to an end. More than a dozen high-ranking officials and thousands of soldiers appeared on his property. He was so frightened that he quickly came to see them with his two sons.
Today is the twenty-first day of the first lunar month, and there is no longer that biting chill in the air. The snow in the fields has begun to show signs of melting. In half a month, the winter wheat seeds sown in late autumn last year will thrive.
Chen Qing looked around, and saw endless wheat fields all around. The shadows of villages could be seen on the edges of the wheat fields. The ditches were covered with thick trees. People all around came to ask questions, and the fields were filled with darkness.
At this time, the county magistrate Li Kuan brought up three people, who were Wang Qiang and his son.
Wang Qiang finally met the magistrate who she had never been friendly with. Unexpectedly, the magistrate turned out to be the smallest official here. The tall general in the middle turned out to be the famous Chen Qing, the lord of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Even the magistrate nodded and bowed beside him.
Wang Qiang and his two sons came forward and knelt down to kowtow. Wang Qiang said in a trembling voice: "Kowtow to the king of the county!"
Chen Qing pointed to the large area of land around him and asked: "Is this land all yours?"
"Exactly!"
"Do you have a title deed?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Wang Qiang quickly took out a thick stack of land deeds and handed them to the county magistrate Li Kuan, who then presented them to Chen Qing.
Chen Qing looked through it and asked, "How much of this is your ancestral land?"
"Reporting back to the prince, there are a total of 950 acres of farmland here. The villain's ancestral land has 400 acres. The other 550 acres were purchased a few years ago."
"Basically, they were purchased in Shaoxing in 2002?"
"yes!"
"How much did you spend on it?"
"One hundred and fifty guan." Wang Qiang did not dare to tell lies and confessed honestly.
"Isn't this one hundred and fifty dollars a purchase? You bribed the county magistrate at the time, right?" Chen Qing's tone turned cold.
Wang Qiang wiped the sweat from her forehead and whispered: "In the eyes of Xiaomin, they are all the same!"
Chen Qing snorted coldly, "At that time, the Northern Shaanxi Farm Recruitment Order stipulated that farmers from Northern Shaanxi should move south to Guanzhong, and each household would be granted land ranging from fifty to one hundred acres. Are you a farmer from Northern Shaanxi?"
Wang Qiang knew that a disaster was coming, so he bit the bullet and said: "The common people also know that it is not in compliance with the regulations, but this was done everywhere at that time. At that time, the county magistrate even came to my house and hinted that if I gave the money, he could give me more.
As for the land, my family only had twenty taels of silver and fifty thousand coins, so I gave them all to him, so he gave me five hundred and fifty acres of land, and I begged the king to take a closer look!"
All the officials nearby looked at each other. This old boy was indeed very shrewd. He put all the responsibilities on the former magistrate, as if he was forced to grant the land. Anyway, the former magistrate had already run away, and there was no way to prove it.
Chen Qing said coldly: "Everyone says they were forced. In fact, they got the biggest benefits, so I don't think you were forced. It was you who actively paid bribes to illegally occupy the land."
Wang Qiang's lower body became hot and her urine flowed down her pants. illegally occupying hundreds of acres of land is punishable by beheading! He was so frightened that he was completely paralyzed. His two sons quickly supported him, one on the left and the other on the right. They were also extremely frightened.
, fearing that the soldiers would drag their father down and behead him upon the king's order.
Chen Qing glanced at the officials behind him again. He was handling the case personally today in order to set a case for all officials in Guanzhong. All similar lands must be disposed of according to today's case, otherwise it will be an official's violation of the law.
The three clerks took notes very quickly, basically writing down every word Chen Qing said.
Especially the last sentence just now, 'I don't think you were forced. It was you who took the initiative to pay bribes to illegally occupy the land.'
This sentence stipulates that it is an illegal occupation of land.
"Prince, spare your life! Spare your life!" Wang Qiang begged with tears and runny nose.
"You don't have to be afraid. I didn't say that you occupied the land by force. The nature is different. You just took advantage of the loophole, and you don't deserve death."
When Wang Qiang heard that he would not be killed, he breathed a long sigh of relief. Once his fear of death was gone, he became nervous again. What would he do with his own land?
Chen Qing turned around and asked the county magistrate: "How much is the price of land here?"
Li Kuan hurriedly asked the county magistrate behind him, bowed and said: "I would like to inform the county king, according to the price of last month's transaction, the cost of farming is six guans per mu."
Chen Qing frowned, "Is it so cheap?"
Jiang Kuangyuan, the commander of the Supervision Department, also said in a low voice: "Shangtian in Jingzhao Prefecture costs ten guan per mu. In Tongzhou, because it is close to Shaanzhou and Guozhou, the price cannot go up. Shangtian does only cost six guan per mu. I have just investigated
Pass."
"Okay! Just calculate it as six guan per acre!"
Chen Qing said in a stern tone: "You illegally occupied 550 acres of farmland. 450 acres of the land must be taken back by the government and the land deed is invalid. The remaining 100 acres of land cannot be used because you are not a farmer in northern Shaanxi."
The land is authorized, but it can give you a choice. Either you return the land to the government, or you buy it at six guan per acre. After deducting the 150 guan you paid before, you need to pay 450 guan.
Money, you choose it yourself.”
Wang Qiang sat down on the ground, "Four hundred and fifty guan!" He was crying and could not say a word. Chen Qing said to the magistrate Li Kuan again: "He said that he gave the former magistrate 150 guan of money, and he must be allowed to take it.
I can provide evidence, including records from that year. Also, what was the name of the previous magistrate?"
"It's called Ma Changxing!"
"I want this Ma Changxing, a Class A wanted man, with a reward of 500 coins!"
Class A wanted people are wanted by the entire world. Although they cannot reach the Central Plains, there are many bounty hunters in the world who specialize in collecting rewards for the government to arrest criminals. Five hundred guan is enough to tempt many bounty hunters.
More importantly, the Class A wanted order will be upgraded. If you do not take the initiative to surrender within a year, you will be sentenced to death in absentia, and the wanted order will be upgraded to a bounty on your head.
Therefore, once you are wanted, unless you have the ability and power to protect yourself, you will take the initiative to surrender to avoid being beheaded by bounty hunters for reward.
