"I am Chen Erzhu, a commoner from Huainan, Anhui. I am suing Sheng Huairen, the prefect of Huainan, for colluding with bandits to embezzle disaster relief funds, forcibly abduct women, and maliciously murder people."
This is a serious crime!
Emperor Kangxi's expression darkened upon hearing this.
Emperor Kangxi did not have a deep impression of Sheng Huai Ren. The Qing Dynasty was vast, and there were countless officials sent to the provinces. Sheng Huai Ren was only a high-ranking official in the local area, but in the grand scheme of things, he was not much.
"Is there any evidence?" the elder at the head of the table continued to ask.
"This humble citizen has a petition signed by people from my hometown. The testimony on it was written by the local scholar, and the fingerprints are from the villagers. Every word I have said is true, and I dare not lie. I beg you, sir, to do me justice!"
As they were talking, the person started wailing.
The old official at the head of the table glanced at Kangxi's seat and continued, "I will send someone to verify the evidence. If it is true, I will certainly give you justice."
"This humble subject thanks Your Excellency."
"Tell me in detail how Sheng Huai-ren colluded with bandits, embezzled disaster relief funds, abducted women, and committed malicious murder?"
Chen Erzhu then recounted that the story began in June.
Chen Erzhu lived in a village in Huainan. Although he had not received much education, he was quite clever. When he was thirteen or fourteen years old, he went out to do business with the people he had met.
He was quick-witted and understood things easily, and he earned some money. When he was sixteen or seventeen, his family urged him to get married, and he took a liking to Minghua, the daughter of a scholar from the neighboring village.
He intended to marry her, and the scholar told him that although he was uneducated, he had good insight and came from a decent family, so he agreed.
The two families exchanged wedding invitations and set a wedding date. The wedding was just around the corner when something went wrong.
Before her wedding, Minghua went to the street to buy things and was glanced at a few times by the prefect Sheng Huai Ren. Sheng Huai Ren didn't say anything, but the "clever" person next to him secretly brought her into the Sheng residence.
Sheng Huai-ren was a man with impure intentions. When someone brought a woman to him, he did not refuse. However, Minghua was unwilling. She was already engaged, and Sheng Huai-ren was older than her father. Of course, he was unwilling to submit to her and would rather die than comply.
In the end, Minghua was carried out of the Sheng residence covered with a cloth. Sheng Huai Ren didn't take it seriously. Chen Erzhu had been searching for his fiancée's whereabouts. Because he was a merchant, he knew a lot of people from all walks of life, and he actually found out where she was.
Upon learning from an old woman in the Sheng household that Minghua was dead, and hearing that he had no decent skin left on his body before his death, Chen Erzhu immediately felt an urge to rush into the Sheng household and kill Sheng Huai Ren.
Later, before Chen Erzhu could take revenge, the flood came. The imperial court provided timely disaster relief, and although Chen Erzhu's hometown was affected, he was still able to survive. At this time, Chen Erzhu had not given up on avenging his fiancée and kept his eyes on Sheng Huai Ren's things.
He followed cautiously and actually discovered quite a few things.
Sheng Huai Ren colluded with local bandits to rob the disaster relief grain sent by the imperial court and then resell it at a high price. He did this several times. Sheng Huai Ren was careful, and apart from Chen Er Zhu, who was watching him day and night, no one really noticed.
Originally, Chen Erzhu intended to expose Sheng Huai Ren directly, but Sheng Huai Ren was good at putting on a show, and Chen Erzhu was afraid that he would not avenge his fiancée but would get himself into trouble instead.
Only then did he join forces with his fiancée's father to write this joint petition, which he then submitted to the emperor.
Chen Erzhu's sorrowful words didn't seem like a lie. With the emperor far away, such situations were not uncommon.
After the interrogation, Kangxi immediately sent people to investigate.
That evening, Kangxi said, "I plan to visit Jiangnan next year."
Youqing: "That's fine."
"You will come with me."
Youqing nodded: "Yes, it's a good opportunity to go and take a look over there. These days, Yan Yuege's business in Jiangnan is even better than in the capital."
This is also due to the fact that the Jiangnan region is vast and rich in resources.
At the end of November, the people Kangxi sent to Jiangnan to investigate returned and confirmed that Sheng Huai Ren had indeed done those things. According to the law, his property was confiscated, he was dismissed from his post, and executed immediately.
Another year has passed, and the 29th year of Kangxi's reign has come to an end in such a thrilling way.
A lot happened this year.
The Dzungars were completely defeated and submitted to the Qing Dynasty.
The matter of trade with Mongolia is gradually making progress.
The problem of people having difficulty obtaining salt has been solved.
...
Furthermore, Emperor Kangxi and Youqing had a lovely daughter.
In the 30th year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, in March, the Kangxi Emperor toured the Jiangnan region.
Starting from Beijing, the journey first goes to Tianjin, and then to Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang.
If possible, Emperor Kangxi even wanted to visit Fujian and Guangdong, but he probably wouldn't have enough time for that.
First, I went to Tianjin.
Tianjin is relatively close to the capital, and it only took us less than two days to get there. Along the way, we stayed at post stations most of the time, and camped out wherever it was inconvenient.
Upon arriving at the post station, Kangxi inquired about a two-day stay.
Kangxi's large army could not be kept secret. Ordinary people did not know of his arrival, but officials in Tianjin did.
Emperor Kangxi had the Crown Prince, the First Prince, and others entertain the officials, while he took Youqing and Le'an with him and went out.
The two were dressed casually, a family of three, followed by several servants; they didn't seem particularly special.
"Grandpa, how much is this wooden hairpin?"
"Ten coins each, you'll want two for fifteen coins."
Kangxi nodded: "Let me see."
As he examined the wooden hairpin, he casually asked, "How old are you, sir?"
"I'm already fifty."
He's fifty, but he looks like he's seventy.
It's not surprising that Emperor Kangxi didn't take care of himself. He usually met with court officials, and even if he didn't take care of himself, he ate well and dressed well, so his face naturally didn't show his age.
"You're fifty now, shouldn't you be holding your great-grandchildren by now?"
"My eldest grandson's son was born last year."
"That's great!"
At this point, the old man frowned and said, "It's good, but it's also not good."
"How so?"
"What's so good about it when we can't even get enough to eat!"
"How could that be? The imperial court has distributed cheap fertilizers that can more than double the yield. How could we not have enough to eat?"
The old man probably felt really bitter, and when he heard people ask him this, he couldn't help but reveal his true feelings: "We were happy when we heard about the new fertilizer, but we were happy for a short time. The landlord then extended the lease and increased the price by almost double. The harvest was higher, but all the grain went into the landlord's granary. We had to do even more work, but we still got the same amount of grain. How can we say that's good?"
"Didn't a good family inherit any land from their ancestors?"
Ordinary people should, in principle, own land.
The old man seemed to have had a painful memory brought up.
"Not to mention, thirty years ago, a scholar from the same village, who was nearly fifty years old, passed the imperial examination and became a Juren. He suggested that the villagers put their land in his name to avoid taxes. At first, it was fine, everyone could cultivate their own land. But then the scholar died within two years, and his son took all the land. The government only recognizes land deeds, so all the land in our village became someone else's."
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