Therefore, as long as they make slight adjustments, even if it involves favoritism, abuse of power, or accepting bribes, these ordinary people still won't notice.

They even thought the officials were very impartial, so they had no idea what was really going on.

Just like now, the man who had been wronged in court, after listening to the series of routines offered by the officials in the courtroom, actually thought that he was wrong.

At this moment, the case being heard in the courtroom is that of an ordinary citizen suing a wealthy man, who claims that the man has seized his family's fertile land.

Since Annam came under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, all its policies have followed the Ming Dynasty's lead.

Therefore, land reform and grain seed reform were also carried out, so now the people of Annam all own their own land.

Under such circumstances, it should be impossible for something like seizing someone's land to happen again.

Because the imperial court explicitly stipulated that land could not be bought or sold, at most it could be leased.

Therefore, once the land is allocated, it is absolutely impossible for it to be seized, forcibly bought or sold, or any other such situation to occur.

Therefore, this commoner's family, whose fertile land was destroyed by this rich man, was dissatisfied and went to the government to report the case.

But the reasons given by those wealthy people were also very tricky.

It was said to be fertile land, and although it was allocated to the people by the imperial court, before the allocation, this wealthy man had always been cultivating the land.

After the land was distributed, the produce should, in principle, belong to the wealthy person.

Because he was the one who sowed the seeds, he was the one who maintained this fertile land, he was the one who nurtured this fertile land.

This same thing happened in the Ming Dynasty before. When the land in the country was surveyed, all the land was returned to the imperial court and then redistributed to the people.

In this situation, some fertile land has indeed been planted, which can lead to some conflicts. Who owns this land? Moreover, someone else had previously maintained the fertile land and paid a lot of price for it.

The court's approach to this was quite simple at the time.

It means transferring the extra fertile land owned by rural landlords directly to the common people.

Regardless of what you've planted or how well you've maintained this fertile land, it has nothing to do with the previous landlords anymore.

After all, those were the extras they had originally acquired, so this can be seen as a punishment for them.

They wouldn't reason with those local gentry and landlords too much.

Now the same situation has occurred in Annam. If the local officials handle it in the same way as some similar cases in the Ming Dynasty...

Therefore, the fertile land should be directly judged, regardless of whether it previously belonged to the wealthy person, what price the wealthy person paid to maintain the fertile land, or whether seeds had been planted before the land was allocated.

All of it is directly attributed to the person who was assigned to this commoner; everything belongs to him.

As for the losses incurred by the wealthy, they should bear them themselves. After all, these fertile fields were acquired by them through various means, so naturally they wouldn't help them protect their so-called rights.

And now, the official in this courtroom is clearly only helping this rich man.

So he began to speak:

“Zhang Daniu, although this fertile land was allocated to you by the imperial court, in principle, Zhao Dashanren did invest more before that.”

Moreover, the philanthropist Zhao has already sown the seeds; these seeds were planted by him. The harvest should belong to him as well. You can only plant your own crops after he has harvested them.”

Hearing this, Zhang Daniu said with a hint of helplessness:

"But sir, this fertile land is mine now. Even if he planted the seeds, once they grow in the field and he harvests them, wouldn't I be delayed in planting crops? What would I eat then?"

"Besides, if the crops I've already planted aren't harvested, and I still can't use the land, then what difference does it make whether I have the land or not?"

The magistrate, whose name was above, frowned and said:

"Zhang Daniu, are you questioning me? As you say, that field is yours. Let's leave aside the fact that it was previously well taken care of by the benevolent Zhao."

But those seeds were indeed planted by someone else. Are you suggesting that the seeds they planted should be given to you along with the field? That's unreasonable.

These words left Zhang Daniu speechless. While it's true that what someone else planted belongs to them, the field itself is his.

If what others grow continues to grow in their own fields, then in the end, they will harvest what they have grown in their own fields.

But if someone else is planting on your land and you can't plant anything there, then in the end, having land that you can't use is the same as not having land at all.

This situation gave Zhang Daniu a real headache, but he didn't know how to explain himself. After a moment, he could only sigh and say to the magistrate:

"Your Excellency, what should we do now? He has planted seeds in my fields, so I have nowhere to plant them."

The magistrate stroked his chin and said to Zhao the Great Philanthropist:

"Mr. Zhao, do you think there's a good way to resolve this matter?"

The philanthropist Zhao chuckled and gave the county magistrate a wink. The two worked together quite well, and then Zhao began to speak:

“I’m not an unreasonable person. Although this field belongs to Zhang Daniu, it is indeed planted with my grain. So, we can only compromise.”

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