In the cell.

No matter how much Zhao Hao and his son tried to persuade Xu Wei, he just didn't want to be released from prison.

"Why don't you go out?" Zhao Hao asked helplessly, "What's so good about this prison that makes you want to stay there so much?"

"Here I eat well and sleep well, no one disturbs me, and someone writes novels for me." Xu Wei randomly transferred the **'s paintings to the table and lay down comfortably. "It's just that the updates are too slow."

"Tell him to get out of here right now! He is going to force me to death!" An angry voice suddenly came from the next room.

"Haha, just give up on this idea." Xu Wei sneered, "I won't leave until I see the end."

"Hehe, as long as you're here, I won't be able to finish writing!"

"Bah, you're a dog that's not updating..."

"What the hell is this?" Hua Zhongheng was confused and pointed to the next room.

"That old gentleman used to be an official, and he has never been convicted of any crime, so he has been staying next door." The jailer explained hastily, "He talks about writing books all day long, but he can't write many words in a month. He is really a waste of paper."

"What do you know? I am choosing my words carefully and I am responsible for my writing!" The old man next door was so angry that he walked to the fence to protest.

Zhao Haofang saw that his hair and beard were disheveled and his eye sockets were black, and thought to himself, if he can't write, then don't write. What has he been forced into?

What a pitiful person.

"Come on, the stories are ready, you just need to string them together." Xu Wei showed no pity for him, and pouted his lips and said, "What's so difficult about this? I can write 20,000 words a day!"

"You are just posting nonsense, do you know that?!" The old man was furious and said, "Yes, there are ready-made stories to refer to, but adaptation is not fabrication! You have ruined our traditional culture, and you have to apologize to the people, do you know that?!

"This is also a person from the Kuyin School..." Master Zhao whispered from the side.

Zhao Hao walked to the table, found a few pieces of manuscript paper under Xu Wei's drawing paper, picked them up and took a look.

All I saw was written on it clearly: 'Chapter 42, The Great Sage earnestly worships the South Sea, and Guanyin out of kindness binds Red Boy'!

He couldn't help but burst out laughing. No wonder Xu Wenchang didn't want to be released from prison. It turned out to be "Journey to the West"?

Then wouldn’t the old gentleman next door be Zhang... uh no, Wu Cheng’en?

I didn’t expect that “Journey to the West” has only been written halfway... Mr. Zhao thought to himself, do you want to collaborate on it?

Forget it, just be a human being.

He called Hua Zhongheng over and asked in a low voice, "What did the old gentleman do wrong?"

"This?" Hua Zhongheng was a little confused. He didn't know who that person was, so he waved to the jailer to come over and ask.

The jailer hurriedly reminded him in a low voice: "It's Wu, the county magistrate of Changxing County, Huzhou Prefecture."

"Oh, it's him." Hua Zhongheng suddenly realized. This case involved a lot of people, and although he didn't participate in the trial, he had a basic understanding of it.

He explained to Zhao Hao:

"This story started two years ago when Liu Zhongcheng, the governor of Zhejiang, implemented the 'Lidi grain collection policy' throughout the province... Simply put, the local village head and the head of the village concurrently served as the grain chief to collect grain for the court. But to be honest, this method was not very smart. Because it caused chaos in grain collection and might harm small households, it caused a lot of backlash in the local area."

Zhao Shouzheng's eyes lit up and he thought to himself, I've heard this in class!

~~

Although Hai Rui and County Magistrate Zhang had very different statements, both admitted that "taxation" and "criminal law" were the top priorities of a county's government.

Yesterday, Hai Rui had explained to him in detail that the current grain collection system was extremely unreasonable - the tax grain was not collected directly by the government, but the government divided it into several grain areas according to the amount of grain collected. The largest households in each area who paid the most grain took turns to serve as grain chiefs, responsible for the collection and transportation of grain.

At the beginning of the country, this was a good job with both substance and reputation, so the wealthy families scrambled to be the grain chief. But later, due to serious land annexation, a large amount of land was owned by officials and gentry who were exempt from tax.

As a result, the tax burden fell entirely on the remaining self-employed farmers. How could honest farmers afford to pay double the tax for one piece of land? They either followed suit and became slaves in the homes of the gentry, or fled with their families and became refugees...

As a result, fewer and fewer people paid taxes, but the imperial court still levied grain according to the original standards. As a result, the wealthy not only lost their profits, but had to pay out money to make up for the shortfall in grain taxes.

How could the wealthy households suffer such a loss? They resorted to various methods to avoid being the grain chief.

The policy of collecting grain in Lidi was introduced under their lobbying - the village head and the head of the village were changed to concurrently serve as the grain chief, which was essentially an act of shifting the blame from the big households to the small households.

Because few wealthy people would be willing to take on the thankless job of village and jia head... and those village and jia heads are not well off, and if they are forced to become grain heads, they will lose all their wealth.

However, these village heads and headmen have a high reputation in the countryside. If we force the blame on them, it will definitely cause a backlash. By then, the village will be in chaos and we won’t be able to harvest a single grain of food!

~~

"So the Magistrate of Changxing, Gui Youguang, took the lead in opposing this policy, and at one time more than 20 magistrates responded. Liu Zhongcheng was tough and unmoved, and issued a strict order to push forward the "Lidi Di levy of Grain". As expected, in the 45th year of Jiajing, only half of the tax grain in Zhejiang was collected..."

"Liu Zhongcheng was furious, so he ordered the Censorate and the District Governors to investigate the leader Gui Youguang. But because of the overwhelming public opinion, the people attacked the governor's office, and in the end, they just transferred Gui the magistrate." Hua Zhongheng paused and said:

"But Wu Xiancheng, who led the people to cause trouble, was arrested and thrown into prison on charges of inciting civil unrest. The Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate was worried that it would lead to more trouble, so it cited the law and sent him to the Ministry of Justice."

"So what stage is the case at now?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

"Nothing has happened yet." Hua Zhongheng said with a bitter smile, "This matter has been discussed in the court, and Liu Zhongcheng was soon transferred away. His 'policy of collecting grain through local delivery' was naturally invalidated. I heard that Gui Youguang has been protesting for Wu Xiancheng, and built an earthen room, hiding in it all day, saying that he wanted to go to jail with him..."

"The ministry is in a dilemma, and it's not clear whether to sentence him or release him. As a result, this hot potato has been left here. I guess they want to wait until it cools down before making any decisions." Hua Zhongheng suddenly laughed and said, "In fact, it's been almost two years, and it's been completely cold for a long time."

He was all too aware of the Nanjing Ministry of Justice's dereliction of duty, and it was estimated that the officials in charge of the case had probably forgotten the existence of such a person.

"This is an opportunity." Zhao Hao said softly, "See if I can help him along the way."

"That's right." Hua Zhongheng has been in the department for many years, so of course he understands what Zhao Hao means.

But he was a little puzzled. Could it be that science could teach the ins and outs of officialdom?

~~

Zhao Hao walked up to Xu Wenming and asked with a smile, "If I take the book out, will you follow me?"

"Of course I have to follow it." Xu Wei smiled and said, "Otherwise where can I go to read the next chapter?"

"Okay, you wait." Zhao Hao smiled confidently, "I'm going to have two things happen today!"

ps. Chapter 5, please give me a monthly ticket~~~~