My life skills in Daming Liver

"Lan'er, where's my copy of "Yang Wenzhen's Official Letters in Official Characters"?"

As soon as Fang Ruolan entered the study, she saw Fang Zhifu looking for books on the bookshelf.

"I took it to copy it."

Fang Ruolan said without changing expression.

"You are a girl, why do you copy the copybook every day, take it back quickly, and copy it for your father."

Fang Ruolan immediately said: "Father, you really don't have much talent in calligraphy, you might as well copy it for your daughter."

Fang Zhifu was so angry that his nose was about to crooked. He wanted to reprimand his daughter, but it seemed that his handwriting was really not as good as her daughter's.

Fang Zhifu was incompetent and furious, Fang Ruolan saw that her father no longer asked for copybooks, and immediately gave another sweet date.

"Father, have you verified the method of measuring the acres that my daughter mentioned last time?"

Fang Zhifu was depressed for a while, and when he got to the business, he changed the subject.

"This method is good. I have verified it with the old officials of the household and canal houses. It is much easier to use than the fish scale cutting method, and the calculated area is more accurate!"

Fang Ruolan immediately said: "Then can I grow the land?"

Fang Zhifu sighed and said: "The matter of Zhangtian can't be rushed, if it causes the big family to backlash, it will be difficult to deal with."

Fang Ruolan's eager expression immediately changed, but she lowered her head and pondered for a while and said:

"The squire is powerful, there are too many squires hiding in the fields."

Fang Zhifu nodded and said: "Take our Yanping Mansion as an example. In the early years of the Kingdom, the total number of government and private farmlands and ponds was 9,700, but now the entire Yanping Mansion's registered fields are less than 9,000. The fact that the land is getting less and less is really ridiculous!"

Fang Ruolan also said: "Most of the Minjiang River and Jianxi River are private fields that have been seized and reclaimed, but there is still less land on the field book?"

Fang Zhifu shook his head and said: "The big family hides the land. This is already a stubborn disease of this dynasty. The most exaggerated thing is that the Songjiang Mansion has 30% less land than in the early years of the dynasty! No matter how much land has been developed, the number of registered fields is decreasing."

The difficulty of taxation in the Ming Dynasty was not only reflected in tax resistance, but also in the means of concealing land property.

The land tax of the Ming Dynasty began in the Hongwu year, reached its peak in the Xuanzong period, and then continued to decline.

The reason is that the amount of land that should be taxed in various places is decreasing with economic development!

But such absurd thing is the biggest chronic disease of the Ming court.

You said that the gentry hid the land, but to prove this point, the Ming Dynasty did not have the manpower to rebuild the land.

Not to mention Zhang Tian, ​​even the authenticity of the registered land sales cannot be guaranteed.

Fang Ruolan thought for a while and said, "Since there is no way to measure the registered land, how about grabbing the traded land first?"

Fang Ruolan said: "Father can seize the land for sale first, and the land for sale in the future must be measured by the government office before the red deed can be issued, so as to prevent these big households from hiding the land during the sale!"

Fang Zhifu shook his head and said: "It's difficult! Lan'er, you don't know the difficulties of official administration, but can you know the official deeds of this dynasty?"

Fang Ruolan nodded and knew: "Of course I know that the government's engraved and printed official deeds were used to buy and sell land in this dynasty, but because the official deeds were inconvenient for the people, they gradually changed to private self-made contracts, and the yamen stamped and transferred the land to buy and sell land. .”

The official lease is equivalent to the standard contract stipulated by the Bureau of Housing and Urban-rural Development for buying a house. It was promoted throughout the country during the Xuande period, but it was soon abandoned.

The official reason is what Fang Ruolan said, the official deed is inconvenient to use, and the common people don't like to use it.

Fang Zhifu stroked his beard and said, "The government will print the terms of the government's land sales contract. The land sales will not be set by the big households. How can the common people not welcome it?"

Fang Ruolan thought about it, and it seemed that what her father said made sense.

A government deed is equivalent to a contract endorsed by the government. The common people don't understand the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible to ask a litigator to see if there are any traps when signing a contract. They must trust the official standard contract more.

How can such a good thing not be carried out?

Fang Zhifu has also been an official for a while, and he is very familiar with the bad habits of the officialdom. He said:

"The problem lies in this last step. Those cunning subordinates hide the official deeds. When the common people go to the government to get the official deeds, they presume that the engraving plate is broken or something happened to the printing workshop. Anyway, they can't get the official deeds, and they won't sell them to the common people. Land transfer."

"Wait until the reminder is urgent, and then take out the official deed that I have hidden, and let the people buy it at a high price."

"Those subordinate officials who don't give money will not transfer the ownership, and many people who are eager to sell their land have to borrow money to buy official leases at high prices. Later, Ke Dao wrote a letter to admit the disadvantages of official leases, and finally gave up using official leases."

Fang Ruolan was dumbfounded, this is the reason?

Fang Zhifu said again: "If you want to Zhang Tian, ​​you need those officials in the house to help you do it. There is an extra link in this land transaction. Wouldn't it give these subordinate officials a means of exploitation?"

Fang Ruolan bowed her head in thought, she only now understood the difficulty of being a good official.

Scholars who can write and count in the prefectures and counties, no matter how bad they are, are the children of poor families. The so-called poor families are also families, at least they are also disciples of a big family like Lin Qingcai, or a few generations of scholarly families.

Let them clear the land? How could it be possible to find out the hidden properties of the rich and powerful.

And these subordinate officials will try their best to exploit the people whenever they have the opportunity. If they are allowed to go to Zhangtian, it will definitely make the people suffer even worse.

Moreover, officials usually serve every three to five years. Some local officials can be promoted in one or two years if they are supported.

Why do you have to cause trouble yourself and have to find out the hidden fields?

While the Fang family's father and daughter were discussing, Su Ze had also finished the courses of the county school. Hai Rui didn't leave school directly, but kept the three of them.

Hai Rui looked at Su Ze and asked, "Ru Lin, I also knew about Xiong Yue's matter right away. Father Xiong filed a lawsuit against the county government office and I hired a lawyer for him, but the government office has already signed it. Why? Do you still want to make troubles?"

"Instigating others to litigate is not what a scholar should do."

Su Ze was being scolded. At this time, Hai Rui was still a rookie who had just entered the officialdom, and he was also a pedantic person who regarded "Da Ming Law" as a standard.

Hai Rui naturally did not deviate from the thinking of traditional scholars of this era.

That is, lawsuits are not good, and civil lawsuits are mostly due to poor education, and people should be persuaded not to sue.

It's just that Hai Rui's starting point is different from that of Baizhi County.

Baizhi County doesn't like people going to the yamen to sue, because they don't want to affect their own examination results and promotion because of too many lawsuits, and they don't want to get involved in these cases and offend the local gentry.

Hai Rui didn't like the common people going to the yamen to complain, it was the traditional Confucian concept, thinking that all problems could be solved by educating the common people, and the common people should meekly accept the rule of principles and ethics, instead of using the law to exploit loopholes.

To put it bluntly, it is a simple Confucian morality. His idea is that if there is no lawsuit, then there is no lawsuit, and if there is a dispute, try to protect the interests of the weak.

He tried to replace the role of law with morality.

Regarding Xiong Yue's death, Hai Rui was naturally very heartbroken, but in addition to the heartache, Hai Rui Su Ze's method of provoking a lawsuit is disgraceful and not something a scholar should do.

Hai Rui went on to say, "I've also heard about the grievances of Xiong Yue's death, but the deceased has already passed away. Now that the happy knot has been signed, the matter has been settled, and there should be no more incidents."

"If the civility of the South is broken and everyone is arguing about everything, how will the parents and officials educate the people?"

After saying this, Hai Rui's eyes turned red. Xiong Yue was his disciple, so he was very saddened to die like this.

However, he still does not support Su Ze's behavior.

Su Ze closed the textbook and asked:

"Teacher, what is the law?"

Hai Rui was stunned for a moment, and then gave the standard answer of this era: "That is of course the principle of justice, punishing evil."

Su Ze knew this would be the answer.

The law in the feudal era was essentially the art of governing people, a system for maintaining the rule of the imperial power.

Scholars naturally put outline in the first place.

Su Ze said: "Since it is the norm, one party's officials are the parents of one party's people. Why do parents use such cruel punishments to punish their children?"

Hai Rui's expression changed.

What Su Ze proposed was actually a loophole in thinking under the feudal system of monarchs and ministers, father and son.

Since he is a good and loving father to the people, why should he give such cruel punishments to children who made mistakes, and carry out these cruel punishments in public?

This obviously cannot be explained by the Confucian moral theory of tenderness and tenderness.

Hai Rui was speechless.

Su Ze continued:

"Everyone scolds the Qin system, but there is no one in the previous dynasties who didn't learn from the Qin system."

"But I didn't learn it! Emperor Hongwu made the "Dagao" and let everyone study it, that is, to learn the "Three Chapters of the Covenant Law" of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. The law is the contract between the court and the people!"

"What is the law? It is the agreement between the people of the world and the imperial court. If officials break the law, they will be punished! If the gentry break the law, the gentry will be punished!"

After Su Ze finished speaking, there was still a sentence in his heart, "If the emperor breaks the law, the emperor will be punished." He didn't say it.

However, these two sentences already made Hai Rui stunned.

He is a Juren, so he naturally knew that Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the "Da Gao" in the early Ming Dynasty and allowed the people to tie the officials who harmed the people to the capital to sue the imperial court.

However, this system existed in name only after it was implemented in the year of Hongwu, and officials of the Ming Dynasty also relied on the Law of the Ming Dynasty instead of the "Dagao" to try cases.

In short, "The Great Patent" also belongs to the kind of Schrödinger's group training that is swept into the trash can.

Su Ze held up the banner of Master Hongwu, indicating that Master Hongwu supported the lawsuit, and even supported the people suing the government, which made Hai Rui unable to refute.

After Su Ze finished speaking, he cupped his hands to Hai Rui and said, "Teacher, this case is not closed yet, I must give Brother Xiong justice!"

Hai Rui was silent for a while, then took out a piece of silver from his sleeve.

"Ru Lin, you have a bright future, don't resort to ghostly tricks, you can handle Xiong Yue's case by yourself."

"Give this money to Xiong Yue's mother. You and Xiong Yue have fellowship. Go and see his mother more often in the future."

Su Ze and Chen Lin quickly surrendered their hands. Su Ze knew how much Hai Rui's salary was, which was a lot of money for him.

Hai Rui waved his hands and said, "As a teacher, if I can't protect my disciples, it is my dereliction of duty."

"What you just said, don't spread it outside. If it is misinterpreted, it will be bad for you to enter the officialdom in the future."

Hai Rui could also hear that Su Ze's legal contract theory concealed the most important relationship.

Since the law is a contract, who signed the contract with the people of the world?

If the contract was signed by the emperor, what should the emperor do if he made a mistake?

Does that mean that all the people in the world can renege on this contract and rise up to overthrow the emperor?

I can't continue thinking like this, the more Hai Rui thought about it, the more wrong he felt.

Su Ze got up to leave. He knew that Hai Rui was proficient in the law, and he was not a pedantic scholar.

Of course, this passage cannot change the concept of the three cardinal principles and five constant principles that he has read for decades.

But Su Ze believes that this will definitely become a seed, which will take root and sprout at some point in the future.

And as long as he sows more such seeds in Daming, then new sprouts will naturally grow on this old book of Daming.

But what Su Ze didn't expect was that he still underestimated Cai Yuanwai's moral bottom line.

In other words, Su Ze still lacks understanding of the dark heart of the gentry in this era.

On October 16, Mother Xiong sent someone to report to Su Ze, and Mother Xiong was sued.

It turned out that a few days ago, a distant nephew of Xiong's father came to find Xiong's mother with a genealogy. He said that Xiong's family had no descendants and was willing to serve Xiong's mother for the elderly, and asked him to give him the tea garden.

Mother Xiong was naturally full of vigilance towards this distant relative whom she had never seen before. After driving him away, she did not expect to receive news from the county government soon.

The distant nephew of the Xiong family sued the Xiong mother, saying that Xiong's tea garden should be inherited by him.

And it was Fang Jing who had been suing the Cai family to help this distant nephew write the pleadings.

Eat nothing.

This word was the first thing that popped up in Su Ze's mind.

Needless to say, this distant nephew of the Xiong family must have been found by Mr. Cai.

The reason why the Cai family was so anxious to make a move was also because Changningwei's indigo dyed cloth was selling so well.

Because the Prussian blue fabric is not easy to fade and is brighter than indigo, after increasing the supply, Cai's dyeing workshop soon lost business.

The dyeing workshop is out of business, and the tea garden will not have new tea until spring. Yuanwai Cai once again took aim at Xiong's tea garden.

This distant nephew of the Xiong family was naturally instigated by Cai Yuanwai. He was originally a member of a Street Fighter club. Cai Yuanwai promised him that after he won the lawsuit, he could give him a sum of money to buy a tea garden.

Anyway, it was a costless business, so the gangster naturally agreed to it.

Chen Chaoyuan's elder brother, local lawyer Chen Chaoyu also came to the editorial office.

After reading the pleading paper written by Fang Jing, he sighed and said, "It's difficult!"

"This tea garden belongs to the Xiong family. Now that the Xiong family's father and son are dead, the tea garden is indeed a family property."

"The other party uses the protection of the family property as an excuse. Mother Xiong is just an ordinary woman. I'm afraid it will be difficult to win this lawsuit."

Su Ze asked, "How will the government judge?"

"At most, a piece of land will be allocated for the mother of Xiong's retirement, and the tea garden may be awarded to the close branch of Xiong's family."

Everyone's expressions changed, and Chen Chaoyu said: "If it weren't for the chaste women who were commended by the imperial court and ordered by imperial edict, the government would rarely stand on the woman's side."

"Festival woman? Commandment?" Su Ze asked suddenly.

These chapters are mainly foreshadowing, foreshadowing the difficulties of the squires.

You can see Daming under the microscope of Prince Ma. Every case in it is extremely difficult. These squires usually do not rely on violence, but on various rules they are proficient in.

This is where Daming makes people most desperate.

Of course, it is impossible for the protagonist to fight against the Cai family all the time within the rules, so it is not a Shuangwen novel.

To put it bluntly, Fat Bird believes that the reason why feudal society is reactionary is because the entire rules are reactionary.

Not one or two corrupt officials, or one or two dishonest officials.

There has never been a fairy emperor. This view of history is what Fat Bird insists on.

So this is why Fat Bird believes that top-down reforms cannot succeed because the system has been distorted.

Here I would like to express my gratitude to the readers who voted for me.

Being able to rank so high on the monthly ticket list gathered by the great gods is due to everyone's support and support.

I know this article isn't cool enough, sometimes the plot drags, and my war scenes are shit.

But it’s still what Sanjiang said, I have prepared so many materials, just to try to restore the style of the Ming Dynasty, not to write some big principles.

If you have to talk about the positioning of this novel, it must be the Ming society at the micro level.

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