Since the Qingming Festival on the eighth day of March, Ding Yi, the head of the Ding clan, visited the heads of the six surnames Quan, Zhu, Gu, Fan, Du and Dai one after another. He stated their interests and asked the seven surnames to jointly sue Chu Wenqian for expanding the county house.
Among them, the Zhu family and the Fan family wanted to stand by and watch the corruption and perversion of the law. Ding Yida said: "The inspection of records has always only targeted poor families and not the nobles. Now, in order to vent his personal anger, the Chu family wants to strictly investigate the secrets of the Ding family's manor."
Hu, if you are unwilling to join forces to fight against it and think that this is a matter for my Ding family, then I, the Ding family, will have to hand over all the hidden households and temporarily surrender to the Chu family, but I am afraid that your life will not be easy in the future.
This is a matter of both prosperity and loss—"
Du Zigong had been informed privately by Ding Yi about the six noble families with poor surnames, including his son-in-law Sun Tai's Langya Sun family and the Qiantang Chen family. The Chu family had no information, but they still wanted to hide the refugees and evade rent and taxes.
In suppressing the Chen family, the Chu family's failure can be imagined, so he said: "Last year, the Chu family secretly supported the Lu family to impersonate the scholar, which was really an insult to the dignity of the noble family. Now they use official business to vent their private anger. How can such people benefit the country? If
The people of Dingshe were forced to hand over their privately attached houses, and the Qiantang gentry became disgraced. I am afraid that I, the Du family, will have to send out some of the refugees who have been sheltered, so as not to give the Chu family control."
Since Du Zigong said this, the Zhu family and the Fan family agreed to jointly accuse Chu Wenqian. The seven surnames of the Qian and Tang dynasties jointly submitted a letter to Wang Shu, the governor of Yangzhou, requesting that Chu Wenqian, the acting magistrate of Qiantang, be investigated and punished for wantonly expanding the county building and covering up the Lu family's false registration as a scholar.
thing--
Chu Wenqian did not know that the Chu family was about to face a disaster. Early in the morning on March 13, he ordered Wu County Lieutenant to lead 30 infantry archers to Chenjiawu to arrest Chen Xian, the leader of the Chen family, Laifu, Ran Sheng, Jingnu and others, and Wu County Lieutenant and his party.
When we arrived at Chenjiawu, it was almost noon, and we saw a crowd of people outside Wubao. There were about five or six hundred people. Wu County Lieutenant was shocked. Chen family wanted to gather a crowd to resist the law? Chen family members
Including the tenants, there are probably no more than a hundred people. Why do so many people gather here?
How dare Wu County Lieutenant dare to arrest people as aggressively as Chu Wenqian ordered, and ordered his men to stop far away. He took two subordinates to see Chen Xian, the leader of the Chen family. The tenant farmers outside Wubao refused to give way. There were many people and they were brave.
, no matter how Wu County Lieutenant showed off his official power, no one paid attention to him.
During the stalemate and quarrel, Chen Shang, Chief Liu, and several chiefs of the common people in the county walked out of the Wubao gate. Chen Shang asked Wu County Lieutenant what business he was here for.
Wu County Wei said: "On the order of Lord Chu Mansion, please ask Chief Chen to come to the county government office to ask some questions."
Chen Shangdao: "My father is old, let me go to the hearing on my behalf." After that, Shi Shiran and several other clan chiefs took an ox cart, and left Chenjiawu for the county seat. Behind several ox carts, they followed.
It was hundreds of sharecroppers.
Wu County Lieutenant was dumbfounded and hurried back with his men. While sending someone back to the county to report the letter, he sternly asked Chen Shang and others what they wanted.
Chen Shangqi said: "Wu County Lieutenant, didn't I go with you to the county government office for questioning? Could it be that Wu County Lieutenant wants to tie me up?"
Wu County Lieutenant said angrily: "Mr. Chu Mansion only calls you for questioning, what do you want to do with so many people gathered together?"
Chen Shangdao: "These tenants have to go to the county town, so what do they have to do with me?"
Knowing that he could not stop him, Wu County Lieutenant said bitterly: "Chen Shang, you, Chen, are the culprits of this gathering of people to cause trouble, let's go!" He rode his horse and led a group of foot archers to Fenglin Ferry first. After crossing the river, he ordered
The ferry did not want to return to the south bank for the time being. He hurriedly returned to the county office to discuss countermeasures with Chu Wenqian.
When Chu Wenqian heard this, he was furious: "Just let them cross the river. The county will check the registration status and make the decision impartially. If the Qiantang Chen family wants to gather a crowd to make trouble, let them make trouble. The bigger the trouble, the more serious the Chen family's crime!"
He hurriedly ordered people to return to Fenglin Ferry to let Chen Shang and others cross the river. At the same time, he ordered fifty infantrymen from Qiantang County to assemble and stand by, and also mobilized fifty people from the Chu family's manor to prevent the tenants from being killed by the Chen family.
Incited to attack the county government.
Chu Wenqian was giving orders here. The messenger sent by Chu Jian rushed over and presented Chu Jian's secret letter. Chu Wenqian read the letter and was speechless for a long time——
Five days ago, Chu Jian learned that it was a foregone conclusion that the six surnamed poor families would be admitted as scholars. The edict has been issued. Officials from the Genealogy Department, the Ancestral Department, and the Official Department will arrive in Qiantang soon. Starting from March, the Chen family of Qiantang will be registered.
The night after he got the news, Chu Jian stayed up all night. The next morning, he was ten years older and realized that there was nothing he could do about it. The Chen family became a scholar, so all the methods he had planned to frame the Chen family were useless.
, such as high-grade fields and low-grade fields, illegal possession of shade houses, private attachment to refugees, all kinds of crimes were easily solved because the Chen family of Qiantang became a scholar. The Chu family could not suppress the Chen family in this regard, and could only continue to endure--
Chu Jian wrote a letter to his nephew Chu Wenqian, instructing Chu Wenqian to immediately stop the investigation of the Chen family in Qiantang. If the three households of farmers had gone to the county government to accuse the Chen family, he would immediately sternly reprimand them and find a way to reconcile with the Chen family, especially
For Chen Caozhi, it is necessary to cater to Chen Caozhi when necessary and even bear the burden of humiliation. Qian and Tang inspected the records as in previous years, not seeking merit, but seeking no faults. Don't conflict with Ding anymore——
Chu Jian was able to bend and stretch, and he made a decisive decision, but he didn't know that the situation in Qiantang was beyond control, and the seven Qiantang surnames headed by Ding and Chu had already traveled to Yangzhou day and night...
Chu Wenbin was also at the county government office that day. When he saw his cousin Chu Wenqian reading the letter, he was stunned and asked what happened.
Only then did Chu Wenqian recover from the shock, and urgently ordered people to rush to Fenglin Ferry again to prevent the tenants from crossing the river——
Seeing Chu Wenqian's capricious changes in orders from morning to night, Wu County Lieutenant couldn't help but secretly shook his head and asked: "Why did the Lord change his mind?"
Chu Wenqian handed the letter to Chu Wenbin and said to the Wu County captain: "The Chen family of Qiantang has registered as a noble family." With just such a sentence, it seemed that he had exhausted all his efforts, and Chu Wenqian was mentally and physically depressed.
"The Qiantang Chen family has become a scholar!" Wu County Lieutenant was surprised and jealous.
At this time, Chen Shang, Patriarch Liu and others had already crossed the Qiantang River to the north bank. They were not in a hurry to go to the county seat and waited for the hundreds of tenants to cross the river in batches. The two ferries could ferry 60 people at a time and five or six hundred people on the south bank.
It took less than two hours to get through.
When the subordinate officials sent by Chu Wenqian for the second time saw that Chen Shang and others had arrived at the north bank, they knew they could not stop them, so they turned around and went back to report the news.
Chu Wenqian was panicked and didn't know how to deal with this situation. Wu County Lieutenant was still old and said: "Master Fu, the matter has become serious. Since we can no longer deal with the Chen family, we must calm down the people immediately, otherwise it will be difficult to suppress the commotion.
It will be troublesome if you stay here."
Chu Wenqian said repeatedly: "Yes, yes, but how should we calm down the situation?"
Wu Xianwei said: "The Lord should personally come forward to explain the matter and give the Chen family the 20 yuan of spine sticks from the three farmers who falsely accused him."
Chu Wenqian was silent for a long time, then nodded and said: "That's the only way." Looking at his cousin Chu Wenbin who was sitting stunned, he was really frustrated to the extreme.
At dusk, five or six hundred poor tenants appeared outside the south gate of Qiantang County. Chu Wenqian and a group of county officials set up a tent by the city gate, and invited Chen Shang, Patriarch Liu and other tenant leaders to the tent to talk.
Dao Ming was a villain who made a false accusation. Now that it was found out, the three tenants were taken over and beaten on the spot. They were beaten until they cried like ghosts and howled like wolves.
Chen Shang remained calm, knowing that Chu Wenqian had learned about the news of the six surnames being naturalized, so his expression suddenly changed.
The heads of the Han clan, headed by Patriarch Liu, asked Chu Wenqian to register their private households as tenants, and promised not to move these households to other places, and not to arbitrarily raise the household status of each household——
The so-called household level means that the government divides households into different levels to collect taxes according to the amount of land and property. It is also generally divided into three grades and nine grades according to the richness and fertility of the fields.
Those who coerce private households and send money and silk as bribes will be rated as middle-lower. Those who refuse to pay bribes will be rated as upper-class households. This first-class household is different from the first-class official. The higher the grade, the more miserable and the more likely they will be punished.
peel.
Chu Wenqian did not want to turn these poor hermit households into naturalized tenants, because the taxes paid by naturalized tenants had to be handed over to the prefectures and counties, and the counties could not withhold them. As for the hermit households, they had no registration in the prefectures and counties and did not need to pay taxes, but the county officials knew everything about them.
, it is a tacit convention that one can seek personal gain from it. If the water is clear, there will be no fish.
But Patriarch Liu and others insisted on handing over Yinhu, and Chu Wenqian could not shirk it, so he had no choice but to agree, and asked Chu's Manor to send several carts of dried jujube steamed cakes to treat the five or six hundred tenant farmers to a feast and then comfort them with kind words.
Let them go back to the south bank of Qiantang River.
Recalling the words in his uncle's letter about enduring humiliation and bearing the burden, Chu Wenqian went to Chenjiawu in person the next day to apologize to Chen Xian, the leader of the Chen clan, saying that he had misunderstood the villain and almost made a big mistake.
Chu Wenqian went to Yuhuang Mountain to visit Chen Caozhi again, saying that Chen Caozhi was a filial, honest and virtuous person in the county. As the head of a county, Chu Wenqian wanted to visit the virtuous and famous people in the county and inquire about the gains and losses of his administration so as to better benefit the country.
Hometown——
In the Yuhuang Mountain hut, Chen Caozhi listened quietly to Chu Wenqian's words with a smile on his face and was polite. When he heard that Chu Wenqian said that he wanted to pay homage to his mother's grave, he refused. He didn't want this duplicitous guy to disturb him.
The resting soul of his mother, this forty-six-year-old wretched man once wanted to marry his sister-in-law, which is disgusting to watch.
Chu Wenqian was rejected and returned in dismay, thinking: "Chen Caozhi, you are just a new member of the gentry, so what can you be proud of? We will wait until I discuss it with my uncle. Should I just let you, the Chen family, be arrogant?"
After the petition incident of the poor tenants, Chu Wenqian, the county magistrate, had no prestige at all. Before he could recover, the Chu family's greater crisis came——
On the eighth day of April, more than a hundred Yangzhou officials and officers, headed by the newly appointed Yangzhou internal history Wang Shao, came to Qiantang. Also with them was Chu Jian, who was temporarily acting as the prefect of Wu County.
I wanted to express my love to Wang Shao, but Wang Shao ignored him.
Wang Shao is the fifth son of Dao Wang, nicknamed Da Nu. He is handsome and has good moral character. He is highly valued by Huan Wen. He was originally the deputy of the governor. He does not need to come forward to investigate and deal with such small matters as expanding the county building. He is here.
Mainly, I wanted to meet Chen Caozhi, the Chen Caozhi who made Yu Xi so angry that he became ill, the Chen Caozhi who was said to be good at calligraphy, painting, music, Go, and conversation. It was also rumored that Lu Na's daughter Lu Weirui fell in love with this Chen Caozhi.
