Looking at the receipt in his hand, Meng Zhaoxiang was a little confused.

Jiang You had previously pleaded guilty and was willing to identify Yangwu Hou Xue Lian.

The sudden change of confession caught him off guard.

Meng Zhaoxiang first looked at the charges on the table, then looked at Jiang You: "You had already confessed and signed before, why did you suddenly change your confession?"

Jiang You knelt on the ground and cried: "I was tortured into confessing. Please seek justice for me, sir."

The entire government hall quickly fell silent.

The three courts held a joint trial and tortured him into confessing.

This is no small matter.

Meng Zhaoxiang was the vice minister of the Ministry of Justice after all. He quickly reorganized his thoughts and pointed at Jiang You and asked, "Who was forced to confess?"

Jiang You knelt on the ground and dared not speak.

He would never dare to reveal Wang Zhixin's name even if he was beaten to death.

If he doesn't tell, he will be the only one who dies. If he tells, his whole family will disappear.

Seeing this, Meng Zhaoxiang changed the question: "Did you tell the truth in court?"

"Every word must be true. If there is any lie, I am willing to be punished."

"Okay! If what you said is true, then these people who sued you are all making false accusations?"

"right!"

"Then...how did their fields disappear?"

"I bought it with my own money."

"Have you ever forced anyone to buy or sell?"

"No."

"How much did it cost?"

"The price of inferior land is three taels of silver per mu, the price of medium land is five taels of silver per mu, and the price of superior land is twelve taels of silver per mu." Jiang You answered fluently.

"Who asked you to buy it?"

"Yangwu..." Jiang You was halfway through his sentence when his face suddenly changed. He quickly changed the subject and said, "No, no, no, I wanted to buy it myself."

The corners of Meng Zhaoxiang's mouth turned up and a smile appeared on his face.

His previous questions were very simple and unimportant, and the quick answers caught Jiang You off guard.

Asking the key question suddenly exposed Jiang You's flaws.

"You two," Meng Zhaoxiang looked around, "This guy named Jiang You is not honest, what should we do?"

"Torture!"

After being tortured, Jiang You changed his statement again and admitted that he was instructed by Xue Lian, Marquis of Yangwu, to forcibly buy and occupy the people's land.

Facing Jiang You's testimony, Yangwu Hou Xue Lian directly denied it: "I was not aware of this matter."

"The Jiang family father and son used my name to force the sale. They really deserve to die."

After further interrogation, Xue Lian still denied it as usual.

Not only did he deny occupying and forcibly purchasing other people's land, but he also put all the blame on Jiang You.

Xue Lian could not use torture because of his title, so the scene came to a stalemate.

Just when everyone was at a loss, Ling Yiqu, the Dali Temple Minister, coughed lightly and asked, "Marquis Yangwu, are you really unaware of this?"

"I didn't know!" Xue Lian continued to deny.

"Are you sure that the Jiang family father and son used your name to force the sale?"

"Sure!" Xue Lian nodded vigorously.

"Okay!" Ling Yiqu's mouth began to rise. "Since it is confirmed that they forced the sale, then how did this land become a gift?"

Xue Lian was about to speak when he suddenly felt that there was something wrong with this question.

etc...

It's not just wrong, it's actually murderous.

When he asked the emperor for permission, he said that the land was a wasteland with no one cultivating it, and requested His Majesty to give it to him.

When the act of forced buying and selling was previously blamed on the Jiang father and son, it had indirectly indicated that this was not a wasteland.

Now it's a wasteland again...

Inconsistent!

Looking at the smiling Ling Yiqu, Yangwu Hou Xue broke out in a cold sweat.

wrong!

Ling Yiqu is not scary, what is scary is Meng Zhaoxiang.

When trying the case, Meng Zhaoxiang deliberately started from the occupation of civilian land in order to induce him to refute Jiang You's testimony, thus proving that he knew this place was fertile land before.

Then he brought up the matter of him requesting permission to turn his wasteland into granted land, making him contradict himself.

Xue Lian thought he was extremely smart, but he didn't expect to be controlled by Meng Zhaoxiang after just one encounter.

Horrible, so horrible.

"I...I, I heard that there is a piece of wasteland here that no one cultivates, so I asked your Majesty for permission to turn the wasteland into granted farmland." Xue Lian was confused and began to quibble.

"It's not up to you to decide whether it's a wasteland or not, right?" Ling Yiqu's smile remained unchanged. "The wasteland listed in the Fish Scale Book is the real wasteland. Did you check before requesting the land grant?"

"Of course I checked! The fish scale book shows that there is a wasteland there!" In desperation, Xue Lian directed his criticism towards Wang Aoyong, the governor of Tongzhou.

Wang Aoyong, who was standing next to him, was almost angry to death.

We agreed to form an offensive and defensive alliance, but ended up selling out teammates right away.

In fact, this cannot be blamed on Xue Lian.

First, he had said the wrong thing before and lost his sense of proportion, so he was forced to divert the conflict.

Second, he planned to ask Wang Aoyong to help him and minimize his guilt at the same time.

Wang Aoyong bowed and saluted: "I am the governor of a state. It is impossible for me to handle all matters personally. If the Tongzhou River occasionally overflows the dike and destroys the farmland, the people below will report it, and the government will make changes in the fish scale book."

"When Marquis Yangwu went to the government office to inquire, these lands were indeed wastelands according to the fish scale book."

Ling Yiqu frowned. Wang Aoyong seemed to have answered the question, but actually he avoided it.

He did not answer how fertile land turned into barren land.

"Who is responsible for registering it in the fish scale register?"

"The person in charge of registration died suddenly a few days ago." An officer replied.

Meng Zhaoxiang looked at the people and asked, "Have these fields ever been flooded?"

Several people answered in unison: "No!"

The case is at a stalemate.

Jiang You admitted to occupying people's land and pointed the finger at Xue Lian.

Xue Lian denied all the allegations and turned the blame on Wang Aoyong.

Wang Aoyong was even more ruthless. He directly killed the person who was responsible for registering the fish scales, leaving no evidence.

Xue Lian holds a title, and Wang Aoyong also holds a high position.

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