Seizing people's land
Chapter 9: Seizing People’s Land
Liang Song waved his hand, signaling the constable to take everyone away, "Then I will take my leave."
Chu Huaibei nodded: "Well, thank you for your hard work, Sir Liang."
"It's my duty." Liang Song bowed and took his leave. He took his men back to the yamen to investigate the case carefully.
The plum blossoms in the garden at home were in full bloom. Fan Liang was flirting with his new concubine in the pavilion when he saw the housekeeper Fan Xian hurriedly approaching them from a distance. He stopped flirting, casually stuffed the plum blossoms in his hand into the concubine's hand, and said, "You go down first."
The beautiful concubine also saw the figure of the housekeeper, and she tactfully bowed to Fan Liang gracefully, lowered her head, walked out of the pavilion, and returned to her own courtyard.
The butler came closer, straightened his appearance, stepped forward, bowed his head and said, "Sir, I come to report that Zhang Fang and his men have been taken away by the prefect, along with that Ma Youcai."
"What's going on? Isn't that matter settled?" Fan Liang asked the housekeeper with a frown.
"The servants reported that Zhang Fang went out without permission to a brothel in the city, and was spotted by Ma Youcai on the way. He stopped him and confronted him. Then he went back to the mansion and called the servants who were not on duty that day to help. During the scuffle, he happened to meet the Prince of Zhenbei who was returning to the city. He then called the prefect to take everyone away for questioning." The housekeeper carefully chose his words and told Fan Liang what had happened.
Upon hearing this, Fan Liang flew into a rage: "Who let Zhang Fang leave the mansion? Drag him out and beat him to death in front of all the servants. You've been causing me trouble. Go to the yamen and tell the prefect to do what needs to be done. I have no knowledge of the servants' affairs. Go to my study and bring out the restaurant's title deed and the land deeds. You know what to do next."
After hearing this, beads of sweat slowly seeped out of the butler's forehead and temples. He bent down even more and replied, "Yes, sir, I will do it right away."
"Go down. Your punishment will be recorded in the account first. We will fulfill it after this matter is settled." Fan Liang narrowed his eyes and glanced at Fan Xian in a stern tone.
"I'll take my leave." The butler hunched his back and slowly backed out of the pavilion, then slowly turned around and left the garden.
The housekeeper took the land deeds and land deeds from the study, came to his nephew Fan Xing's room, pushed the door open, picked up the teacup on the table, and smashed it in Fan Xing's face with the cup and water.
"Who is it? Who is so reckless as to dare to hit me?" Fan Xing jumped up from the bed, cursing.
Seeing him approach like that, the housekeeper slapped him in the face, and Fan Xing was instantly awakened by the slap. "No, uncle, why did you hit me?" he asked, his tone aggrieved and bewildered.
"Did I ever tell you that you must find someone to keep an eye on Zhang Fang and not let him leave the house for six months?" The housekeeper was very disappointed.
"I've asked someone to check it out, uncle. Is something wrong?" Fan Xing asked cautiously.
"Zhang Fang went out today and was seen by Ma Youcai." The housekeeper stared into his eyes and said.
"Impossible. Not only did I ask Chen Fugui to keep an eye on him at all times, I also notified all the doormen not to let him leave the house." Fan Xing denied it outright.
"The brothel that Chen Fugui went out with him went out through the west corner door. The gatekeeper, Old Wang, took ten taels of silver from them and used it to pay off his son-in-law's gambling debts. He has been detained now and will be executed in public when the servants return. The lord said: beating to death." The housekeeper said this in a serious tone.
Fan Xing couldn't help but shudder, swallowed his saliva and said, "Uncle, this is none of my business."
"Are you scared now? It's too late. Go stay at the farm and wait for the constable to come and arrest you in two days. Think carefully about what to say and what not to say." The housekeeper stuffed the small box he had been holding in his hand into his nephew's hand.
When Fan Xing opened it, he saw that it was the deed to Ma Youcai's restaurant and a hundred acres of land. He collapsed to the ground and his eyes lost their luster.
Since the master had given this to him, it meant that there was no turning back. These deeds were originally signed with his name. But Fan Xing thought again, even if Ma Youcai found out, what would happen to the Fan Mansion? There were many ways to keep it secret. There had been minor slip-ups before, and they had all been dealt with, right?
"Uncle, is there any other twist in this matter? Otherwise, the master would not be like this." Fan Xing grabbed the butler's trouser leg and looked up and asked.
"You're unlucky. Two groups of people started fighting in the street, and the passing Prince of Zhenbei encountered them. He immediately summoned the prefect to investigate." The housekeeper sighed as he looked at his nephew, whom he had nurtured. "I'll keep an eye on your parents. If you return the original land, your sentence should be reduced. You'll most likely be sentenced to a few years of corvée labor. I'll arrange for you to suffer as little as possible. After that, you can live in the farmland in the suburbs."
"Yes, thank you for your help, uncle. I will go to the manor to meet the host right away." Fan Xing bowed and took his leave, then went to the manor as soon as he left the house.
After dealing with Fan Xing, the housekeeper went straight to the government office to build relationships, and at the same time asked the people in the prison to be careful about their lives and not to say anything that shouldn't be said.
In two days, Liang Song had fully grasped the entire story. It was largely consistent with Ma Youcai's account. The Ma family's hundred acres of fertile land abutted the Fan family's, a fact that had given rise to their own selfish agenda. They'd set up this scheme at the Ma's Restaurant, simply because the Ma family had been merchants for generations and none of their relatives held official positions. This was the reason they dared to act so brazenly. Many aristocratic families used this method to annex land, but the Fan family had restrained themselves by not directly harming anyone.
Liang Song sent constables to the farm to arrest the man. When the constables arrived, Fan Xing nodded and followed without a struggle. They went to the government office and directly returned the land deeds and land deeds to Ma Youcai in court. Liang Song had the clerk directly transfer the ownership back to Ma Youcai's name. Considering that no one had died in this case, Fan Xing was ordered to pay for the medicine for the injured person and then sentenced to three years of hard labor to build fortifications in the north. Those accused of assaulting others were ordered to pay for the medicine and, depending on the severity of the offense, were sentenced to between three months and a year of hard labor to build fortifications.
Ma Youcai and his brothers were extremely grateful and kept kowtowing to express their gratitude, but they were so ignorant that they couldn't utter a single nice word.
Liang Song knew that the prince wanted to punish the aristocratic families, so he changed the location of the labor to the most difficult place. He knew that it would be difficult to prevent this from happening again. He only hoped that the aristocratic families would be more restrained in the future, and that the people would dare to come to the government office to seek justice. He would definitely handle it impartially.
That day, Ma Youcai left the yamen and took his brothers to the gate of the Zhenbei Palace, where they kowtowed three times solemnly. After returning home, his old mother set up a longevity tablet for Chu Huaibei in Baiyun Temple, blessing this great general who guards the northern border to be invincible.
It is said that after Chu Huaibei returned that day, he specially took the deputy general to the mansion to meet his mother, and even invited the deputy general to have lunch. The deputy general laughed awkwardly the whole time. In the end, it was the concubine who held Chu Huaibei's hand and cried silently, which made Chu Huaibei feel that he was an unforgivable villain. My mother was just concerned about me, so what? I actually made my mother so sad. The concubine did not say a word, and Chu Huaibei conquered himself first. Since then, when the deputy general was injured, all kinds of concubines said that the concubine ordered the concubine to... Chu Huaibei only glanced at the deputy general and no longer mocked the deputy general for being a fence-sitter.
Three days later, Liang Song delivered Ma Youcai's memorial, detailing the case. Chu Huaibei then realized that the aristocratic families had long been encroaching on the northern border. If this was the case in the north, how could other places be affected? Because he usually only managed the land used for military settlements, no one dared to intrude, leading to years of self-righteous peace. However, this matter was a matter for the emperor alone. Chu Huaibei simply wrote back, instructing Liang Song that in the event of such incidents, the punishment should be as severe as that imposed on the servants of the Fan family, hoping to give the aristocratic families some pause.
Chu Huaibei felt that there had to be another way to deal with this matter. At least, he could get the noble families in the northern border to behave less outrageously and tell others that the King of Zhenbei would not allow anyone to oppress the people. Deep in thought in his study, Chu Huaibei felt that she was truly a military commander. She didn't know the tricks of the civil officials, either overt or covert. She hadn't learned that in her previous life's university. Besides, she was a science student...
The personal guard Lu Shun, holding a small jar of wine, knocked on the study door and announced, "Your Highness, I'm back."
After receiving the memorial this morning, Chu Huaibei sent Lu Shun to Ma Youcai's house and asked Ma Youcai to take Lu Shun to ride around the reclaimed land on horseback to make sure that everyone had seen it before returning.
Chu Huaibei stared at the small jar in his arms and said, "Didn't I tell you not to accept their benefits?"
Lu Shun knelt down and explained, "Your Majesty, this is not what I received. Alas, it is not what I asked for. No, I did not accept the gift..."
The more Lu Shun spoke, the dumber his words became. Chu Huaibei's temples twitched as he listened. "Tell me first, what's in your hand?"
"Your Highness, this is medicinal wine. Ma Youcai said that this wine is for external use and cannot be drunk. It is his family's secret recipe passed down from generation to generation, and it is very effective for treating bruises and injuries. He gave it to you when he saw you with your arm in a sling that day. I said that our palace does not accept gifts, but Ma Youcai said that this is not a thank-you gift. As a citizen of Youyun City, he only hopes that Your Highness can recover soon. I couldn't think of a way to refuse, so I brought it back in a daze." Lu Shun finally explained the whole story and breathed a sigh of relief.
After hearing the explanation, Chu Huaibei's anger subsided. He picked up the small jar, looked at it, and put it on the table, ready to go back and show it to Uncle Deng.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He wanted to assign one of his personal guards to patrol Youyun City every day. If they saw any injustices like last time, or anyone with a petition, they would bring them directly to the government office. If nothing happened that day, it would be considered an extra day off. With two thousand personal guards in total, one person would take a full shift for about five and a half years, so this was a reasonable benefit. He also wanted to offer a reward: if the prefect could confirm the case's authenticity, he would reward him with five taels of silver.
Chu Huaibei stared at Lu Shun, nodding occasionally, which made Lu Shun feel uneasy. When Chu Huaibei came back to his senses, he saw Lu Shun still kneeling on the ground, so he called him to get up: "Hurry up and get up, I was lost in thought. Let me ask you, do you think there are many cases like Ma Youcai in the Northern Territory?"
"Your Highness, most of them are in the personal guard camp. I know that there are five or six brothers whose families were destroyed after suffering this misfortune." Lu Shun replied angrily.
Chu Huaibei looked at Lu Shun and told the chief of the personal guards her previous thoughts. "Every day, I'll select one of my personal guards to patrol the streets of Youyun City, or even the surrounding suburbs. If they see someone like Ma Youcai, or someone being stopped on the road with a complaint, you'll take them directly to the government office and have the prefect investigate. If nothing happens that day, it'll be considered an extra day off. If something does happen, and the prefect later uncovers the truth, they'll be rewarded with five taels of silver. What do you think?"
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