Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 947 Clearing Up Debts
Ji Xin said: "Maybe they take advantage of the common people, so why don't we do the same?" He smiled, "I don't even need to follow our own Commercial Code and Civil Code—just use the laws promulgated by the Ming government to rule them. .”

Ji Xin said that the two grand legal codes have not been written down until now, and they are still being compiled—or rather, they are being adapted.

"really?"

"Of course, Da Ming at least does not allow usury in the law. Not only in the Da Ming law, but even in the local area, the government has repeatedly issued a ban. There are materials in the stalls, but no big family has ever taken it seriously. This is one. Second, these large households have owed a lot of grain over the years. Is it against the law according to the law of Ming Dynasty? The accumulation is a huge number. What else is there to talk about in this article, "the grain is paid by the grain, and the grain is rented out" ?" Ji Xin was confident, "If necessary, I'll settle the score with them first."

After the discussion, the list of "quasi-migrant workers" registered by Liu Xiang's caretaker was hung in front of the Taoist temple and made public for 24 hours. Anyone who had any objection to a certain person's debt must immediately bring evidence to the temporary court. Objections will not be accepted after the deadline.

As for those who cannot prove that the tenant has debts, the tenant cannot be prevented from leaving—the tenancy system in the Ming Dynasty basically no longer has the nature of personal attachment. Although the peasant tenant is still lower than the landlord at the legal level, the tenant has personal freedom. Come and go at will, and the landlord has no right to detain them.

At night, about [-]% of the refugees who applied for it proved to have debt problems.All kinds of debt materials are piled up on the table.Ji Xin had a well-thought-out plan, and told the financial staff sent by Delong, the retained county governmental office, household book office, and court staff to work together to sort out the materials, collect the plaintiff's various evidences into files, and then number them one by one. Call someone to come in and clean up.

Ji Xin has materials from the county office: this is the list and amount of dues that were collected and counted when clearing the land and taking over the county government office. Some large households have owed grain and taxes for many years, and some have never paid at all.The numbers add up to a very large scale.If it is true, there is no problem in raising a big prison.It's just that the time-traveling people are not on a firm footing, and they don't plan to show too ugly eating faces for the time being.When the time is right, they will naturally be dealt with severely.

Both the plaintiff and the defendant were gathered in a temporary court, a side hall in a Taoist temple, for debt settlement.The temporary court was full of people, but none of them dared to speak: infantrymen with bayonets flashing, government servants borrowed from the county government all held water and fire sticks and leather whips, and the entire temporary court was majestic.

The creditors and debtors who were called in first confirmed the authenticity and amount of the debt in front of Ji Xin.During the cleaning process, a large number of forged and altered contracts and IOUs were cleared up, some of which were smeared numbers, some were simply crowned and worn, and some had no handprints at all, so they took a note that they smeared themselves as evidence.

Any evidence proved to be forged shall be canceled and confiscated.Immediately, the plaintiff was dragged to the hall to hit forty big boards first, one false deed for forty, two for sixty, three for ninety...and so on.The seconded yamen servants had long wanted to show their faces in front of the Australian chiefs. They were all in high spirits, and they didn't let a little water go.Also directly killed one.A group of plaintiffs were scared out of their wits and demanded to withdraw the lawsuit one after another, never asking for any more debts.

"How can this be? It's only right and proper to pay back the debts. I beat up the villains. You are all good citizens. Why should you be afraid?" Ji Xin also felt that it was almost the same. , come out and surrender immediately, let bygones be bygones,"

Immediately thereafter, a group of people turned themselves in—the feeling of being hit with the [-]th board is not good.Ji Xin immediately showed these people's forged documents and canceled them as evidence, and then ordered a group of people to write down their defenses and fine them ten stones for each forged document.

Any valid contract shall be settled according to the above figures and interest—that kind of "debt" that is played with money and profit for three generations will not be recognized by the court, at most according to Delong's regulations: the maximum annual interest shall not exceed 25% to settle.The principal and interest were converted into grain circulation coupons and paid by Delong.

In order to ensure that the creditors are willing to accept the negotiable notes, Ji Xin announced the policy on the spot: the negotiable notes can be used to offset the payable grain tax and other miscellaneous taxes in the summer and autumn tributes.In this way, even if the large households think that the circulation vouchers have no circulation value, ensuring that they can pay the public grain is tantamount to using the national credit as a guarantee.

Delong did not pay off without compensation, but actually acquired the debt: these debtors used their labor—that is, their future wages—as collateral to borrow money from Delong.

During the liquidation process, some tenants owed debts to big households. When they heard that they were going to work in Lingao, they had to borrow money from the "government" first, and they immediately changed their minds in fright.Faced with this situation, Yang Yun worked hard and did not save a few—after all, in this era, borrowing money from the government is a kind of horror rooted in the subconscious.Liu Xiang didn't care about this, anyway, the more he stayed, the better for him.

The cleanup process started off slowly and then moved quickly.Ji Xin saw that there was nothing difficult to do below, it was nothing more than cleaning up procedures, so he handed over the work to a few naturalized civilian cadres under him, and came out to get some air.

Liu Xiang went up to greet him: "You did a great job! Your hand is a big stick to open the way, and the carrot will follow."

Ji Xin didn't speak, but just smiled.A common wry smile appeared on his face.

"Honestly, it's a bad thing to do. It's just a stopgap."

"What's wrong?" Liu Xiang didn't understand. "This big family has blatantly forged documents and exploited them. If they don't deal with it severely, they probably want to continue to do whatever they want. Yurou Township."

Ji Xin nodded: "That's right, but when I do this, I'm talking about the constitution of the sky and disregarding human life. To put it bluntly, it's no different from what Han Fuju and Han Qingtian did. From the perspective of building a legal society, it's extremely inappropriate." He sighed and continued. He added, "Actually, they don't deserve to die."

Although Liu Xiang felt that what he said was reasonable, he still felt a little bored, and couldn't help but criticize in his heart: "The petty bourgeoisie's weakness has flared up again."

"Don't think too much about it. Hasn't the situation in China been like this for thousands of years?" He said, "I'm not biased towards the poor. Poor people don't mean good people. There are shrews and troublemakers everywhere. But look at the current situation. Well, the rich and big households really have no bottom line at all when they do things. They just write a piece of paper, and they don’t know who to draw a mortgage to exploit the tenants. If we don’t kill their arrogance fiercely, we can stand like this Stop? Even if there are people who are not guilty of death, which temple does not have ghosts to die?" He became agitated as he spoke, pointing to the refugees in the Taoist temple, "Look at these refugees, they have suffered disasters and have no food. Eat, which one is not their tenant? If we hadn’t forced donations, we wouldn’t have offered a single grain of rice for relief, waiting for them to fend for themselves. We’re going to take people away, and they’ll think of it—no one farms land No way, I knew what I was doing so early!"

"That's why I said that we can only follow the power. But in the long run, such an approach is not advisable." Ji Xin did not argue, he suddenly said, "Liu Xiang, you are the magistrate of the county now, and you may become a high-ranking official in the future. Local high-ranking officials, please don't have the urge to be the blue sky, China's affairs can't be done successfully by relying on a few blue sky."

Liu Xiang didn't say anything, he knew that Ji Xin was advocating "governing the country by law" after all, and he didn't object to this, but it seemed a bit too early to talk about it now.He suddenly realized that what he said just now seemed to be in line with Duke Dugong's thoughts again—it seemed that he was really a revolutionary in his heart.

Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly saw Yang Yun and his people distributing rations to the refugees: the rations were changed to seafood porridge—the traditional nutritious meal in the quarantine camp.

"Hey, the food is good!" Liu Xiang looked at the meals of the victims and greeted Yang Yun.

"Hehe, how can we send them away if we don't take care of them? No matter by sea or by land, it will take a lot of energy." Yang Yun pointed to the crowd: "There are also some children who are skinny, ouch! If you don't add some nutrition, you will die before reaching the high school. gone."

"It took a lot of effort to get thousands of people, don't you think it's a bit of a loss..." Liu Xiang asked Yang Yun tentatively.

"This is called dredging from the bottom of the pot. People are one aspect, and the landlord's life is the second aspect." Yang Yun didn't hide it, "You should have read the documents, right?"

"Of course, of course," Liu Xiang said, "but I have concerns—is it too radical to do this?"

Liu Xiang inspected like this, chatted with Yang Yun casually, and inquired about what was going on in Lingao, especially on the BBS.Being far away from the core area, many things can only be guessed from official business words. This kind of information asymmetry makes Liu Xiang feel very bad.

Yang Yun smiled and said, "Isn't it absolute? What the governor wants: nothing more than enough food, manpower, and strong grassroots control."

He had no choice but to say: "Actually, Qiongshan's population is not overpopulated, it can be digested on the spot..." He decided to talk to Yang Yun about his idea first.

"I really didn't expect that you were also planning on these labor forces." Yang Yun heard Liu Xiang talk about his idea of ​​applying to transfer part of his property to Qiongshan, "However, this time the governor is not only targeting these tenant farmers, There is also the surplus grain of the landlord’s family.”

"I'm afraid there is still the landlord of Yu Liang's family." Liu Xiang joked seemingly unintentionally.

(End of this chapter)