Chapter 2590 Innocent
What’s the big deal if my two sons have different political views?
Apart from his talent and good character, Zheng Fei did everything else that did not please Zheng Boming. He and his son also had different political views, just like him and his fifth brother. They got along well in daily life, but as soon as they talked about the development of the family, life ideals and the training of disciples, they would quarrel. Basically, they were in a state of quarrel all their lives.
But no one said they wanted to kill each other. It was just a difference of opinion. Some people like to eat cabbage, while others like to eat radishes. Does he have to require everyone in the world to like eating cabbage like him?
Even brothers can’t do that.
The Zheng clan leader would definitely not be able to bear this. If it was his wife's nephew who did it and Zheng Dalang was unaware of it, he would not let him go.
If Zheng Dalang and his wife's nephew joined forces, he would not let them go. In his opinion, his good son was ruined by the Sun family.
County Magistrate Guo, who was also from a noble family and knew a lot about the Zheng family, could guess what the Zheng clan leader was thinking. It was impossible for Yin Li, the official in charge of the case, not to know about it.
He is still your Majesty's confidant.
It's just that it's very difficult to find evidence for this matter. Even if we wipe out the bandits, we may not be able to find evidence that Chief Zheng ordered anyone to do so.
But sometimes, it is this kind of seemingly true and false situation that is the most torturous and emotionally draining.
Patriarch Zheng would think, you have no evidence to prove that I did it, but you keep suspecting me. Doesn't that mean you don't trust me?
The Sun family would think, your two sons killed each other, but you took out your anger on my son. He was kidnapped as soon as he left Xingyang. If you say it wasn't done by the Zheng family, they won't believe it even if you beat them to death.
Manbao was confused and asked, "Did Chief Zheng really do it? Why didn't he do it from a distance? Isn't that inviting suspicion?"
County Magistrate Guo said, "Perhaps Chief Zheng thinks the same way."
Manbao was stunned. After a long pause, he shook his head. "No, this is all speculation. If you are so suspicious of people, there are still many possibilities. How can you judge a case so freely? You need to find evidence, right?"
Magistrate Guo looked her up and down. "Lord Zhou is wise. This kind of suspicion of people's hearts cannot be the standard for our judgments. Even someone like Chief Zheng knows this. But how many people in this world can truly avoid guessing people's hearts? And among them, how many can avoid doubting based on their own assumptions?"
County Magistrate Guo said affirmatively: "Apart from a few ministers in the court, I'm afraid even His Majesty can't do it?"
Yes, the emperor really couldn't do it. At this time, he couldn't help but discuss with Wei Zhi whether the Zheng family was going to turn against the Sun family.
He had just met Yin Li this morning and learned about Sun Zhi's disappearance.
Then Wei Zhi scolded him, saying, "Your Majesty should order local officials to solve this case as quickly as possible and eliminate the bandits, especially the latter. If the bandits are allowed to run rampant, not only will the local people be in panic, but passing merchants will also be uneasy. In the long run, the trade route will not only be cut off, but it will also have a huge impact on merchants along the way."
This is a major matter concerning people's livelihood and taxation. As an emperor, you still have time to sit here and eat melons and gossip. Besides, is it a good thing that bandits appeared outside Xingyang?
Should you be more careful and worry about the Zheng family's private support of soldiers?
The world has only been peaceful for a few decades?
Now the power of many local clans is still far above that of the imperial court. If they want to rebel against you, although the probability of success is very small, it is more than enough to seize a few cities and have fun for a few years, okay?
After being scolded by Wei Zhi, the emperor finally got back to work and ordered the local officials in the Xingyang area to conduct self-inspections and to eradicate the bandits to ensure the safety of the people and merchants along the way.
At the same time, he issued an edict to appease the Sun family.
Then he turned around and took charge of the investigation in Qizhou.
Lord Tang went to the palace to report.
The situation in Qizhou may not seem serious on the surface, but once you investigate and think deeply, you will find that the situation is very bad.
When the previous dynasty collapsed, the people were displaced and many people left their hometowns to flee. Some villages were even completely deserted, and some villages had only one or two households, leaving behind large tracts of uncultivated land.
Plus those who died in the war...
In any case, when the Great Jin Dynasty was first established, large tracts of farmland were abandoned.
Most of these lands were nationalized by the imperial court, while a small portion was occupied by local clans who did not leave and directly marked as their own land.
Some people could not produce land certificates but their land was still nationalized. Some people bribed officials and clerks to supplement their land certificates, and some people simply forged land certificates.
But most of the land was still in the hands of the imperial court and local government offices.
Then the imperial court began to collect refugees. Those who fled to the local area were generally not sent back to their hometowns, but were directly taken in by the local people. The imperial court distributed land, provided good seeds, loaned agricultural tools on credit, and organized laborers to build houses for them...
This divided up a batch of land, and the rest was distributed to the adult population every year, and the rest was still in the hands of the local government.
Some of these fields were being cultivated by prisoners sentenced by the government and hired temporary and permanent workers, but most of them were abandoned.
Shortly after the current emperor ascended the throne, the imperial court issued a policy to prevent the land from being left uncultivated. People who had been allocated land but lost it, as well as refugees, were allowed to reclaim wasteland and cultivate it for more than three years, which would then become their permanent land.
They could also use money and grain to purchase land from the imperial court, but the amount of permanent farmland under the buyer's name could not exceed 20 mu.
In other words, only good citizens with less than 20 mu of permanent farmland could purchase land from local government offices.
The land in the capital and Yongzhou had almost been sold out, especially the public land, which was not only to be distributed to newly-adult citizens, but also to be used as official land for the court.
Further out, there is only more land in the areas of Shangzhou, Fengzhou and Qizhou.
When the Zheng family and the Prince of Hejian bought the land, they first bought a large amount of land from the Qizhou Governor's Office in the names of a large number of their tenant farmers, and then the land was transferred from the tenant farmers to their own names, basically changing hands once.
Minister Li waited for a period of time before reselling it to the Ministry of Revenue, thus achieving the final success.
However, after changing hands, the Zheng family controlled a large tract of land in Qizhou.
There are many people who do the same thing as the Zheng family.
And this is just one of the problems. Another big problem is that the price the Zheng family paid for these lands was less than one-third of the price they had paid when they consulted the Ministry of Revenue and the Qizhou Governor's Office.
Even Prince Li Gong of Hejian spent more money to buy eight hectares of land than the Zheng family spent to buy ten hectares of land.
Of course, the governor of Qizhou also had his reasons, and the court did give him this right, whether he was guilty or not, unless there was evidence that he had benefited from the Zheng family.
However, the people from the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple investigated for a long time but could not find any evidence. The money used by the Zheng family and the Prince of Hejian to buy the land was indeed deposited into the public treasury of the Governor's Mansion and was not withheld.
The official sent by Prince Hejian to buy the land used Prince Hejian's letter to abuse his power and did not give anyone a bribe. Therefore, the Governor of Qizhou said with confidence that since he did not ask Prince Hejian for a bribe, how could he ask for a bribe from the Zheng family?
He is innocent!
Bai Shan and Man Bao said, "His Majesty is very angry and asked me to draft an imperial edict to summon the Governor of Qizhou to the capital. He has already left the capital, and we will be able to see him in a few days."
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
