Please ask me to be the emperor

When Sun Laizi and Xincheng King heard this, they couldn't help being stunned. This was a well-known unspoken rule. If the people do not raise officials, then you are a bandit leader. Why don't you open the pot and lift the pot?

It turns out that after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, the yellow register was set up to manage household registration; the fish scale register was to manage land and was compiled every ten years.

As a result, local officials wanted to save trouble, and the powerful landlords wanted to pay less taxes, so they turned every editing into copying.

Even during the two to three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, the population did not change much, and even experienced negative growth.

In the early years of Hongwu, there were still about 59 million people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces. By the time of Tianqi, there were only about 51 million left.

As for the cultivated land, it was slightly better. During the Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng carried out a large-scale re-clearance, which eventually increased the registered cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty from about 400 million acres to about 700 million acres.

However, there are still "wastelands" that are not included in the statistics, which gives the palace and the people who reclaim the wasteland an opportunity to take action.

In particular, Nanyang is mountainous and originally had a lot of wasteland, making it easier to hide cultivated land.

Originally, ordinary people deliberately did not report to the yellow book in order to evade taxes. The prince's government took advantage of the fact that the peasants who reclaimed the wasteland did not have land deeds, and used their hands to rob them by force.

According to past experience, Sun Cripples can only break their teeth and swallow blood. Otherwise, if the lawsuit goes to the yamen and they have no evidence, how can they fight against the princes of the Ming Dynasty?

To put it another 10,000 steps back, even if you win the lawsuit. If this "tax evasion" or "tax avoidance" thing comes to light, you will have to face a slap in the face, not to mention fines and tax repayments.

Sun Laizi's original plan was to take advantage of the information gap that "the bandit leader did not know the details" to take back the irrigated fields without paying the price.

But he and New City King never expected that Zhang Shun would reveal all their private thoughts.

The two couldn't help but look at each other. Fortunately, the King of New City reacted the fastest and responded quickly: "How could it be so? As the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I can grab water from whomever I want. How many acres of irrigated land are I worth doing?"

When Sun Laizi heard this, he couldn't help but think about it, and thought to himself: "It's important to get water to irrigate the ground first. Doesn't a bandit leader want to collect taxes and grain from me?"

He couldn't help but bite his tongue and said: "King Shun clearly checked the details, and the villain was greedy for temporary gain, so that he was robbed by the Xincheng Palace."

For a while, the two of them insisted on their own opinions and refused to give in to each other.

The legal system of ancient Chinese society was divided according to later generations and was originally the Chinese legal system. Its characteristic is that it emphasizes oral confessions and neglects evidence.

As long as I grit my teeth and refuse to admit it, I cannot be easily convicted of this matter.

Then Sun Laizi had a good idea. He knew that when two parties couldn't argue, the general officials would like to fight each other fifty times until one party could no longer withstand the move.

He thought that his rough skin and thick flesh would take more beatings than the King of New City who had thin skin and tender flesh and was beaten severely, so he decided to fight to the end.

Seeing both sides acting like this, Zeng Yurou couldn't help but frown. In fact, according to her thoughts, why go to such trouble? Pulling out the chief officials from the palace and giving them a beating with a cane, everything would be clear.

But after all, it involves the affairs of the palace, and judging from her previous relationship, she is somewhat related to her.

Zeng Yurou reminded Zhang Shun before that he was at his limit and it was not advisable to get too involved in this matter.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Shun heard this and asked Sun Laizi: "Where is your ten acres of watered field? Can you describe it?"

"Twenty miles northwest of the city, at the foot of Moshan Mountain, there is an old locust tree with a crooked neck. To the east of the locust tree is a big stone, which is my watering ground. There happens to be a spring flowing next to it, which can be used for watering. Come water the fields!" Sun Laizi quickly described in detail.

"King of New City, do you know about those ten acres of irrigated land?" Zhang Shun turned around and asked.

"I am a noble prince, do I still want to learn how to farm with clay legs?" King Xincheng refuted quickly after hearing this, "I think this unruly people must have seen the property of my palace and tried to seize my land."

"Yeah!" Zhang Shun nodded and said, "You guys are talking about public opinion, and mother-in-law is right about mother-in-law. Let's do this, I'll have someone bring out the fish scale book, and we'll find out after a check!"

"During the Wanli period, when Mr. Zhang Ge measured the land, all the property owned by officials, citizens, and princes were recorded in the fish scale book."

"If there is a record in this book, everything will be clear. If there is no record, it means that your Xincheng palace usurped Sun Laizi's irrigated fields that were not included in the book. What do you think?"

"This..." To be honest, a few acres of water to irrigate the fields is nothing to the king of Xincheng, but this "thief chief" is holding on to it. I don't know what his intentions are?

After thinking about it, it didn't matter whether he won or lost, as long as this thief didn't find trouble to hit him, he would have escaped.

Humph, when the imperial army arrives, when we have any grudges to avenge, any grievances to repay injustice, and all the things like "irrigating the fields with water" and "burning the fields with fire", then I will have to spit out all my capital with profits.

Thinking of this, the king of Xincheng made a speech and couldn't help but smile: "It all depends on the king!"

So, Zhang signaled Wang Jinyi by the way and asked him to go to the government office to get the fish scale book that had been sealed by the rebels.

Everyone waited for a while before Wang Jinyi led an old official and rushed over carrying a thick booklet.

Wang Jinyi reported back: "King Shun, there are mountains of yellow books and fish scale books in the government office. I was afraid of missing King Shun's time, so I dared to come here with this old official and related books, and asked King Shun to make a decision!"

"Very good!" Zhang Shun nodded with satisfaction, and Wang Jinyi became more and more capable.

This time he came in a hurry and did not have time to bring his staff. There were many messy things that took up a lot of his mind. In the future, he could also train a few more people to share his worries.

But business matters are important now, so let’s not mention this matter for now. Zhang asked by the way: “How do you record the cultivated land near the old crooked neck tree at the foot of Mo Mountain, twenty miles northwest of the city?”

After hearing this, the old official quickly sprayed some saliva on his fingers, twisted the pages of the book, and turned the pages for a long time before he responded: "Your Majesty, it is recorded in the fish scale book that this place is all wasteland and there has never been any fields!"

"New City King!" Zhang Shun was stunned and asked, "What do you have to say?"

"There's nothing to say, just give it to him, give it to him!" You have to stand up when you're beaten, and you have to give in when you're beaten. The new king of the city is a bachelor.

"Okay, since you are willing to admit it!" Zhang Shun said with a strange smile, "I guess the fields that are not recorded in the fish scale book were probably stolen by you. Tomorrow I will order the soldiers to verify it and make it public property. You What do you have to say?”

Zeng Yurou couldn't help but laugh out loud after hearing this. No wonder he was arranging ten acres of water to water the fields for a long time, but he was waiting here! This guy is indeed a scoundrel!

"Ah?" King Xincheng couldn't help being shocked when he heard this. Although he didn't care about the mundane things, he at least knew that his family had more than a hundred fields at the foot of Moshan Mountain. Who could bear this?

The king of Xincheng couldn't help but protested: "In the whole world, there is nothing but the king's land! It is really unreasonable for me, the Zhu family, to do this!"

Zhang Shun laughed loudly after hearing this, and directly ordered: "Invite the other kings out together, and follow this example, without any mistakes!"

"God's way is good, and China must be vindicated; people's hearts are willing to help, and no matter how common people are, they will avenge themselves. Zhu's fishy people, wild and rude people, should also accept the people's judgment!"