Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Dong Ti did not come forward. He was the demoted leader of the puppet dynasty, and he did send people to set fire to cooperate with the siege.

Since rewards and punishments must be clear, one cannot break one's word. Ju Ming asked him to temporarily assist Zongze and do some post-war recovery work, waiting for the corresponding official position to be given by the court.

Many people from the three tribes came, but Ju Ming was too lazy to receive them all, so he only asked one representative from each of them to come in.

"Little citizen Dong Yang (Lu Guoting, Li Zhun), pays homage to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

When the three of them came in, they knelt down and bowed to the ground.

"Get up." Ju Ming didn't have a good impression of them, but there was no need to deliberately make things difficult.

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

The three of them stood up one after another, peeked at Ju Ming, and then looked down at the ground, not daring to look directly at the prince's face.

The Jin people have been showing off their power in Hebei for more than a year, and these wealthy people are scared to death. Now he was driven back to Youzhou by Prince Zhu. The wealthy people already regarded Prince Zhu as if Li Shimin was still alive, and they didn't even dare to show off when they were in close proximity.

Ju Ming asked: "Are you here to complain?"

"It's not... not a complaint," Lu Guoting hesitated at first and said, "During the siege of Gaocheng by Master Wang, the Lu family's cloth shop was plundered by the traitor Kong Yanzhou. The owner of the cloth shop was my brother, and all the men in the family were killed. , even children of several years old were not spared, and they also occupied my brother’s female family members.”

Zhu Ming said: "Kong Yanzhou, this fellow, helps the tyrants and brings harm to the whole party. I also plan to punish him severely. Is there anything else you can do?"

Lu Guoting said cautiously: "Fortunately, Master Wang expelled the Jin soldiers and did no harm to the common people. Our cloth shop was also taken back. However, Kong Yanzhou robbed a lot of silk and silk yarn in the shop, and also robbed the shop. Some money was in the house he occupied, but Zhang Di sent troops to confiscate it..."

Ju Ming said: "I asked Zhang Di to search the property of prisoners of war. Did he embezzle it secretly?"

"No... I don't know." Lu Guoting said and took a step back, saying that he had nothing to say.

The Lu family's shop was looted by Kong Yanzhou. Since the prince said he would severely punish this person and clearly wanted to swallow up the property, how could Lu dare to make a fuss in court to recover the cloth and money?

Li Zhun then said: "The Li family's shop was also robbed by Kong Yanzhou. Your Highness is wise, this man really deserves to be killed!"

Li Zhun was too lazy to mention the matter of wealth, and only asked Zhu Ming to kill Kong Yanzhou to vent his anger.

Only Dong Yang was in trouble, because it was Zhang Di who robbed the Dong family's gold shop, and Zhang Di helped the Ming army attack the city and made great achievements.

Zhu Ming asked with a smile: "Did Dong's shop also be robbed by Kong Yanzhou?"

Dong Yang subconsciously wanted to retreat and did not dare to pursue the matter further.

However, the Ming army committed no crime in the autumn of Gaocheng, and the prince again reused Dong Ti and asked him to assist in the aftermath of the incident in Zhending.

These actions seemed to give Dong Yang the illusion that Prince Zhu valued the wealthy family very much and was a benevolent and righteous prince who respected the rules.

Dong Yang tentatively said: "Although Zhang Di has the merit of surrendering, he has a very bad reputation in Hebei. This man was originally a Mingzhou bandit. He gathered hundreds of thousands of people to rob prefectures and counties, Mingzhou, Zhaozhou, Jizhou, Zhenzhou, etc." Dingfu...several state capitals were burned, killed and looted by him, and tens of thousands of people died. There was a Feng family in Julu, from the Feng family in Changle, who was slaughtered by Zhang Di's men. Such tragedies are rare. The people are so evil."

Ju Ming's face showed anger: "Zhang Di has really done such a thing?"

Dong Yang observed the words, and suddenly felt happy. He felt that the prince was really looking towards the gentry, and said quickly: "It's absolutely true. The Feng family has an eldest son, who was a classmate of the grassroots. The surviving member of the Feng family came to Maocheng and defected to me."

Ju Ming suddenly asked: "Since Zhang Di has done all kinds of evil things and he was an official in the puppet government with Dong Ti, why didn't Dong Ti impeach him?"

Dong Yang immediately felt something was wrong and explained: "The emperor of the puppet dynasty was fatuous, and the Jin people and Zhang Di were even more cruel. My brother was forced to serve as an official in the puppet dynasty. Although he was able to survive in the mud, he could only protect himself wisely in order to achieve great things. "

Ju Ming wondered: "But when I besieged the city, I sent people to shoot letters into the city. As long as I am willing to abandon the dark side and turn to the bright side, all past sins will be forgotten. Is it possible that you want me to renege on my promise?"

Dong Yang finally understood the prince's difficulty. It turned out that he was afraid of breaking trust with the people.

He took the initiative to eliminate the prince's worries: "Zhang Di ransacked the Dong family's gold shop and killed men and women. These were all after His Highness sent people to shoot books. It is not a past crime, but a new crime."

"That's it," Ju Ming said, "You guys, please go home. I'll send someone to investigate as soon as possible, and I will definitely give an explanation to the rich people in Guocheng."

"Your Highness is wise!"

Dong Yang was overjoyed and the three of them resigned together.

After leaving the prince, Dong Yang smiled proudly: "It's done, even a bandit dares to show off his power."

What he really wants to say is: Kill my Dong family members, and you still want to get promoted and make a fortune?

Li Zhun also said: "Zhang Di is a man with a plundering streak. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is benevolent and loves the people. How can he be allowed to go unpunished?"

Lu went to court but was speechless. He always felt that something was wrong, and Prince Zhu seemed a little unhappy.

Ju Ming actually didn't take it to heart. As soon as these guys left, he went to read the post-war report carefully.

Some small things can be handled easily.

On the evening of the third day, the people Bai Sheng sent out to investigate brought his family back and asked to see Ju Ming.

Ju Ming asked: "Who are these people?"

After a young man paid his respects, he said: "Your Highness, my name is Gao Chunxiao, and my brother's name is Gao Chunren. My family was originally a farmer in Dongxiang, Gaocheng, with more than 300 acres of fertile land. Both of my brothers were educated. Therefore, Xuanhe of Song Dynasty During the year, bandits broke out all over Hebei Province, and my whole family took refuge in the county town. Because my money was robbed, I borrowed 50 guan from the Dong family and promised to pay it back with land if I couldn't pay it back in three years."

"The interest on this debt was quite high. Two years ago, we paid 40 acres of land to the Dong family. Later, the Jin people went on a rampage. Not only did they exploit the people to excess, they also forced them to shave their hair and change their clothes. I couldn't bear the heavy burdens and humiliation, so I took it with my brother. The whole family of six defected to the Ming Dynasty."

"My brother was still serving as a soldier under General Yue Fei, and he has already done a lot. Now that the king's army was victorious, I took my family back to my hometown, only to find that all the houses and fields had been occupied by others. The people who occupied the land were the ones who occupied the houses. It's the Dong family from the same town. I took out the land deed and went to the county government office to complain. Most of the people in the government office were old friends of the Dong family, but they kicked me out!"

This kind of thing is too common. Not to mention going through war, even if you come back from famine, your property may be occupied by others.

Ju Ming asked: "You didn't tell me what your brother is doing as a soldier under Yue Fei?"

"Say," Gao Chunxiao said, "that Yaqian is the cousin of the Dong family's son-in-law. He also laughed at me for using chicken feathers as an arrow. A stinky Qiu Ba dared to touch the beard of a Dong family tiger."

Ju Ming asked: "Is Tian Qi still there?"

Gao Chunxiao said: "I protected them to the death, so they were not snatched away by Yaqian. They are all land deeds from the Song Dynasty, but... most of them are Tianmian (field skin)."

The field surface or skin is the land use right, which is divided into two types: permanent use right and limited-term use right.

"The farmland counts," Zhu Ming ordered, "Bai Sheng, you send someone to take their whole family to the Gaocheng County Office to find Xu Xin. If the officials in Gaocheng don't obey their orders, they will directly dispatch Zhang Di's soldiers to handle the case. If you become a model, you will be dealt with severely! After the case is concluded, it will be sent to the officials of various states and counties in Xinfu, Hebei for viewing."

"Yes!" Bai Sheng led the people away.

This case needs to be handled as a typical case because it involves two points:

First, it involves military families. The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are not rotten soldiers, and they cannot be bullied by just any squire!

Second, it involves large clans occupying the property of returnees. All parts of Hebei were ravaged by the Jin, and there were countless people who fled their homes. Their real estate must have been occupied. And it cannot be occupied by small people, it can only be occupied by the wealthy families or wealthy households who have stayed behind.

…

Xu Xin, courtesy name Zili, was born in Gongzhou, Kaifeng Prefecture.

His father's name was Xu Yong, an agriculturist who wrote agricultural books during the Huizong period.

Xu Xin was a Jinshi during the Xuanhe period. He impeached his treacherous officials before he was awarded an official title, and returned to the countryside to farm in despair.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Ding recommended Xu Xin, and the officials inspected his talent, and he was sent to serve as county administrator. His father, Xu Yong, was also recruited into the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture as a consultant and enjoyed extra allowances from the court.

In this battle in Hebei, a lot of territory was recovered, so ministerial officials were transferred from nearby counties and urgently transferred to Xinfu territory to serve as first and second leaders.

Xu Xincai served as the county administrator for more than a year and was quickly promoted to the county magistrate of Gaocheng.

He has a lot of things on his hands now. He heard that Wang Shi was victorious, countless people returned to their hometowns in the snow, economic disputes emerged one after another, and people came to complain every day.

There are even many marriage cases. A husband who has fled south for several years returns home and finds that his wife has remarried, and she has remarried with her family property...

The mountain of cases drove Xu Xinji crazy.

"Xu County Magistrate, this is the crown prince's order. Your Excellency can deploy the troops stationed in Gaocheng at will. His Highness also said that this case must be handled as a model. Soldiers are not bad guys. They should not be bullied for killing the enemy and serving the country."

"I already know."

Xu Xin breathed a sigh of relief. He was still afraid that taking action against the rich family would ruin the prince's military affairs.

Now that it’s easier to handle, we can start investigating the big families and many cases can be solved easily.

Xu Xin didn't trust any of the officials in the county government office. They were all so intricate and complicated that they were the spokesperson of a wealthy local family!

Xu Xin went to visit Zhang Di at night, hoping to establish a good relationship with the leader of the army.

Zhang Di suffered a severe abdominal injury and almost died from infection and fever. He is still unable to move around and is carried around every time he goes out. Most of his former troops were demobilized, leaving only 500 men to garrison in Gaocheng, and the prisoners of war were transferred to Zhending for custody.

"The county magistrate is here, please forgive me for not getting up to greet you!" Zhang Di sat on the chair and held his hands.

Xu Xin quickly said: "General Zhang, please don't move."

After greetings, Xu Xin took out the prince's warrant and planned to borrow troops from Zhang Di to do something.

Zhang Di read the warrant and said: "My cousin Zhang Hao has also been studying for several years. My Zhang family used to be a third-class household. Now the five hundred soldiers under my command are all old brothers who have been with me for many years. They They kill people like crazy, but they listen to my words very much. No one harasses the people these days. Even if the county magistrate orders them to do things, whoever dares to take the opportunity to prey on the people will not need the county magistrate to take action. I will let them hang themselves to apologize."

Xu Xin smiled and said: "With General Zhang's words, you can do whatever you want."