On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the seventh year of Hongde's reign, a farmer named Zhang beat a drum at the gate of the Jiangdu County government office and complained.
The content of the lawsuit is that the Fan family in Jiangdu was rich and unkind. In April of the third year of Hongde, they forcibly bought nearly ten acres of fertile land from their family at the low price of ten taels of silver per mu, and forced his family to write on the land deed.
At that time, the servants of the Fan family even beat people.
Afterwards, the farmer surnamed Zhang went to the Yamen to file complaints many times, but the result was nothing. The last time he was really angry, so he went to the Yamen of the prefect to file a complaint.
As a result, the prefect's Yamen sent the case back to the county government, and the official in charge of the county government directly ordered the farmer to be beaten up and kicked out.
In the following years, the family had no way to seek help, and was even beaten by servants of the Fan family. The man in the family had one of his legs broken, and they lived in fear.
But now, this lame man once again walked to the gate of the county government office and used all his strength to beat the drum and complain.
Because he heard that Mr. Zhang of Jiangdu County was a young official who was upright and not afraid of offending others.
Therefore, he once again summoned up the courage to sound the drum of injustice.
Soon, the Jiangdu County Government accepted the case, and the county magistrate personally tried the case. He ordered people to go to Fan's house and called the person involved who had bought the Zhang family's farmland.
This man's surname was Fan, and his name was Fan Jingting. He was a branch of the Fan family. Over the years, he had done many evil things in the name of the Fan family. After the case came to light, this Fan Jingting had an arrogant attitude and refused to admit it.
However, under a series of interrogation methods by the county magistrate, Fan Jingting finally had to kneel down in front of the stick and admitted that he was interested in the Zhang family's nine acres of paddy field and bought it for only one hundred taels of silver.
fact.
At this point, the case was solved.
The county magistrate was unselfish and sentenced Fan Jingting to return the Zhang family's property. The Zhang family returned Fan Jingting's one hundred taels of silver. However, from the one hundred taels of silver, the income from the ten acres of paddy fields in the past three and a half years was deducted. In the end, the Zhang family only needed
Less than eighty taels of silver were returned to Fan Jingting.
Because Fan Jingting bullied good people, the county master also fined him twenty big boards. The officials did not dare to neglect, and the boards fell hard, beating this young man from the Fan family until his butt was red, and he was finally carried back by several Fan family members.
At home.
At first, everyone thought this was just an ordinary case.
And just the next day, on the ninth day of November, someone came to sue the Fan family and seize their property!
This time there were three people.
The amount of land they had misappropriated was staggering. Together, the three of them bought nearly 50 acres of land from Fan Jiaqiang. Although the price they sold the land for reached 20 taels of silver per acre, the price was far lower than the market price at that time.
of.
For example, in the current Hongde Seventh Year, the price of an acre of Yongye field in Jiangdu should be around thirty or forty taels, and some fertile fields can be sold for more than forty taels.
The paddy fields that these three people were forced to buy were all the best fields.
The three of them are three brothers, and their land was passed down from their fathers. In the second year of Hongde, it was bought by the Fan family and has never been returned.
Jiangdu County Government still accepted the case.
The county magistrate mercilessly summoned the parties involved in the Fan family and confronted the three Zhu brothers. The three brothers and the Fan family quarreled in the courtroom for a long time. In the end, the county magistrate pronounced the verdict and declared that the transaction was invalid. Fan
The family returned the land to the three Zhu brothers, and the three Zhu brothers returned the silver the Fan family had used to buy the land.
Just when the case was about to be finalized, a member of the Fan family with some silver threads in his hair came to the court.
It is Fan Lian, the fourth eldest son of the Fan family.
Fan Lian first raised his hands to County Master Zhang, then lowered his head and said: "Mr. County Master, the names of the three buyers are on this land deed, as well as their fingerprints. The witnesses such as the village chief and Bao chief are also present one by one.
The land deed also has the seal of the Jiangdu County Yamen House, and it is a red deed recognized by the Yamen. Now just because the price of buying the land is lower, the county master does not approve of this land deed?"
Fan Lian looked at Zhang Jian silently and said slowly: "If we follow this logic, not many land deeds will be useful in that day!"
The county magistrate said calmly: "In the second year of Hongde's reign, the land price in Jiangdu was around thirty-five taels of silver. How can there be any reason to buy land for fifteen taels of silver?"
Fan Lian raised his head and looked directly at the county official.
"Master County Master, our family is willing to buy, and their family is willing to sell. This is reasonable. When will the Yamen continue to control land prices?"
The three brothers of the Zhu family knelt in the courtroom and cried loudly: "Your Majesty, the Fan family came to beat us five years ago. My father was forced to buy the land and was so angry that he died. Please tell me, your Majesty!"
After saying that, the third brother of the Zhu family knelt on the ground and cried: "Master County Master, all three of my brothers were injured five years ago. This is known to the neighbors and villagers. You can send someone to investigate. Now,
My family also doesn’t want to take advantage of the Fan family. As long as the Fan family returns the land, we three brothers will get back how much they paid for it."
Zhang Xianzun looked at Fan Lian calmly and asked, "What is the opinion of the Fan family?"
"No way!"
Fan Lian gritted his teeth and said: "The sale has been settled for five years. If the contract can be changed based on the nonsense of these three unscrupulous people, then where is the legal system of my great master? The country will be in chaos immediately!"
The eldest son of the Zhu family made a plop, knelt on the ground, took out a few papers from his arms, held them in his hands, and shouted: "Your Majesty, my three brothers have sued the Fan family several times in the past five years.
, this is the petition we submitted a few years ago. My father was so worried about these fields that he died in depression. Please ask the county master to make the decision!"
The three brothers knelt in the hall and kowtowed.
The county magistrate narrowed his eyes and reached out to pat the gavel.
"This county will find someone to find out the ins and outs of this case and retry the case in two days!"
"Quit!"
On the night of the day of retreat, the magistrate sent a dozen of his servants to stand guard at the entrance of the Zhu family's house. Sure enough, they found some of the Fan family members who came to "make peace". As a result, a total of seven or eight servants of the Fan family were locked up and taken in.
In the prison.
Then, without waiting for two days, the Jiangdu County Government reopened the court early the next morning to hear the case of land seizure.
It was sentenced that the Fan family should return the land to the three brothers of the Zhu family, and the three brothers of the Zhu family should return the money used by the Fan family to buy the land.
In two days, two consecutive land dispute cases spread throughout Jiangdu.
There was a rumor in Jiangdu city that the county magistrate was the grandson of the prime minister, he was not afraid of the powerful, he was upright, and if anything was unfair, he could go to the Yamen to file a complaint.
So, on the morning of the third day, about ten people went to the Yamen Gate to complain.
Most of them are lawsuits related to the Fan family, and the smaller half are other lawsuits.
The county magistrate was naturally too busy for himself, so he ordered the people in the execution room to take over all these cases.
Among these more than a dozen cases, one case was not a property dispute, but a case about a person who was beaten to disability by Fan's family eight years ago. He is still lying on the bed, being carried on the bed board, and came to the yamen gate to file a complaint.
The county magistrate personally accepted the case of disability and announced that a date would be set for the trial.
That night, the county magistrate, who had been busy all day, finally returned to the houya. In the houya, a young scholar laid out a table of wine and food and was waiting for him.
Zhang Xianzun walked over with a smile, sat opposite the young scholar, and said with a smile: "Zi Heng's move is brilliant. Instead of one suffering master, more suffering masters have come!"
Shen Yi raised his wine glass, clinked it with the county magistrate, and said with a faint smile: "This is the work of the Fan family. As long as you take off the tiger skin from their bodies, countless people will naturally sue them."
He looked at Zhang Jian and sighed: "I just didn't want senior brother to get involved, but now I still have to trouble senior brother."
"No trouble, no trouble."
Zhang Jian took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "When you serve as an official, you will naturally benefit one party. This is my duty as the county magistrate. Besides, this is not a bad thing for me."
He said with a smile: "Now in Jiangdu City, some people call me brother Zhang Qingtian. If I leave office next year, I might be able to become a member of the Ten Thousand People. After returning to Jiankang, I will have more face!"
Shen Yi picked up the wine glass, stood up and toasted Zhang Jian.
"Senior brother, let's not talk about other brothers, everything is in the wine!"
Zhang Jian also stood up, and the two brothers raised their glasses and clinked their glasses.
"We brothers, we still have a long life ahead of us."
Yesterday, a brother pointed out that Shen Zhang knew the daughter of the Chen family. I looked back and found that they must indeed have known each other. It has been revised. That part of the content was already written half a year ago. In addition, the character is not very important. I