Chapter 004: Capturing the Litigation Stick (Part 1)
The act of going to Beijing to file a petition was also practiced in later generations, but the name changed slightly and became much milder. It was called petitioning.
But whether it is a complaint or a petition, in short, this kind of thing has been the most hated phenomenon by local officials throughout the ages, and people who do this kind of thing are, without exception, regarded as unruly people by local officials.
In his previous life, Gao Jingshi actually had a headache with petitioners, but fortunately he was not responsible for receiving petitioners at that time. After all, there was a petition office at that time, and there were channels such as the so-called county magistrate's mailbox. Generally speaking,
As far as I'm concerned, it won't cause trouble to their county committee.
Later, when he arrived in the town, as the handicap became smaller, he could still be regarded as an "ambitious" young cadre, and he did not do any bad things that made people angry, so his mass work was limited to mediating a few conflicts between the villagers.
The collective disputes among the people were not as serious as the mass petitions.
Therefore, he is quite open-minded about the matter of petitioning. He will at least take a look at what happened before talking about it, rather than taking the person without saying a word - crisis public relations is actually the homework that a good secretary must do.
However, it is obvious that the officials of the Ming Dynasty probably did not have much personal experience of the "vast ocean of people's war", let alone any awareness of crisis public relations, so their reactions were relatively simple and crude.
I would like to add a special sentence here: Shuai Jiamo's behavior may be shocking in other places, but if it is in Huizhou, it is actually not very special.
Because the people in Huizhou are fierce. Of course, this "violent" does not mean that they are like Yiwu, the place where Qi Jiajun likes to recruit soldiers. There are many mining areas, and local people often fight and fight in groups. It means that Huizhou people are prone to lawsuits.
Chinese people have always had a tendency to avoid lawsuits, believing that lawsuits are scandalous regardless of whether they are justified or not. People who like to litigate will be regarded as "unruly people." And local officials have always been evaluated based on the
"Less involvement in litigation" is one of the important criteria for whether a place's folk customs are honest.
However, the Huizhou people's style is very disharmonious. They are very similar to Americans of later generations. They often initiate lawsuits and like to go to court when there is nothing wrong. People at the time described it as "when things get angry, lawsuits spread" and used a special word.
To sum it up in a pithy word: Litigation.
It is equivalent to saying that he not only loves to litigate, but is also very good at litigating. Whenever something happens, he will go to the Yamen!
When Gao pragmatic heard Liang Wu's introduction to this place, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. Liang Wu only thought he was a joke from Huizhou, and he also laughed. In fact, Gao pragmatic was not laughing at him, he just suddenly felt funny: It turns out that I am from Ming Dynasty.
Is there such a place with such a spirit of rule of law?
After the two of them had finished laughing, Liang Xianzun continued to introduce the situation: It is precisely because of the large number of lawsuits in Huizhou that Huizhou is rich in lawyers and litigants who are proficient in legal provisions.
.so that every Huizhou chief official felt that "you are the most cunning people I have ever led". He had a great headache about this and was famous for being difficult to treat.
However, looking at its roots, this folk custom was not cultivated only in the Ming Dynasty. In fact, as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi, who was born in Huizhou, had no choice but to evaluate the local people: "Its customs are difficult to convince with force, but easy to overcome with reason." -
-You can't convince me if you hit me. If you have the ability, let's talk about the law and make sense. If you can prevail with me, you are the master.
In fact, from this perspective, the habits of Huizhou people are actually quite "gentlemanly".
Therefore, Shuai Jiamo could not win the lawsuit locally, so he resolutely went to Beijing to appeal. This approach is completely Huizhou style.
However, no matter what kind of person you are, if you ruin the good things of the official, you can only be a dead person!
As for Huizhou Prefecture, and its six counties, they finally had enough patience with Shuai Jiamo, this reckless litigator.
You are so ignorant. Previously, you reported to Governor Yingtian and inspected the two houses. For the sake of Haigangfeng, we didn’t bother to argue. Now that Haigangfeng is gone, you are even more courageous.
Now that you're old enough, you dare to go to Beijing to complain?
If I don’t teach you a lesson, I’m afraid you won’t know why the flowers are so red!
In particular, Duan Chaozong, the prefect of Huizhou, suddenly received a private letter from his superior, the Inspector of Hui'an - whose full name is the Inspector of Military Equipment of Jiujiang Guard Station for the Reorganization of Hui'an and Other Departments - in which the soldier said to him:
Someone quietly reported the case of Huizhou native Ding Sijuan to a certain cabinet elder in Beijing. Although the cabinet elder did not express his position clearly, he also expressed an intention. The general meaning was that the case involved the tax system. Why has it not been verified for a long time?
By the way, Huizhou Prefecture happens to be the headquarters of Xin'an Guard, so it is natural for Bingbei Road to take care of them, and Bingbei Road itself is also a civil servant.
A prefect of Duan Chaozong was naturally very anxious when he learned that this matter was being paid attention to by senior ministers. However, the most troublesome problem was that the senior minister did not express his position. He just said, "Why does it take so long to deal with such an important matter like the tariff system?"
Didn’t you find out clearly?”
This statement biased Magistrate Duan's judgment: Judging from this sentence alone, the cabinet minister did not have a clear position on the matter itself. His main focus was that the efficiency of local affairs was too poor!
Well, the efficiency is a bit poor, but isn't that because you want to delay the matter?
However, since the commotion has attracted the attention of Mr. Ge, it is not easy to continue to put off this matter, and it must be dealt with in some way.
However, the previous factor still exists: if Shuai Jiamo's proposal is followed, Huizhou Prefecture will get no benefits at all, and it will offend six counties at once, and may even trigger a popular uprising.
After much thought, Magistrate Duan still felt that his black gauze hat was much more valuable than those things like justice and morality, so things like provoking a civil uprising must not happen, even if the probability of it happening is very small, it is probably only six to six.
The threat to the county cannot be turned a blind eye or be ignored.
Then, we can only insist that She County continue to bear the silk tax alone.
But in this case, that litigator named Shuai Jiamo must not be allowed to continue jumping up and down and causing trouble over nothing!
Therefore, the Huizhou Prefecture immediately issued a license to She County, requiring She County to immediately summon the plaintiff Shuai Jiamo to Huizhou Prefecture for questioning.
But at this time, Shuai Jiamo had already left for the north and was not in She County. She County could not find anyone, so they had to reply to the Huizhou government to say that the plaintiff was missing.
Now the trouble was getting bigger. The Huizhou government was furious and asked She County to find someone. She County originally wanted to conceal Shuai Jiamo's whereabouts, but they didn't dare to hide it anymore, so they had to report to the superior officer that Shuai Jiamo had set off north to report to the emperor.
Alright...
The Huizhou Prefecture originally wanted to settle the case quickly, but when it received such news, it was naturally shocked and angry. It could no longer control its emotions and directly issued cards to the yamen at the same level along the way north, asking them to help arrest Shuai Jiamo and bring him to the case.