The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

Chapter 2498 "Inheritance Law"

Faced with the criticism from the Li Palace and many aristocratic families, and with their intentions exposed, the Xing Palace discussed with Fang Yun and decided to go all out and promulgate a new law in Jingguo.

That is the "Inheritance Law".

If the previous head of the family has other children, and the successor head of the family is not the only son or daughter, the family wealth he or she receives shall not exceed 80%.

Except for the successor head of the family, the other sons have equal inheritance rights. The son with the highest wealth shall not inherit more than three times the wealth of the son with the lowest wealth. The son who has married a wife shall include the betrothal gifts, and the excess shall not be refunded, and the less shall be supplemented.

Daughters also have the right of inheritance and can get houses, shops or money. The total amount of inheritance of daughters shall not be less than that of the son with the lowest wealth except the successor head of the family. Women who have married out shall include the dowry, and the excess shall not be refunded, and the less shall be supplemented.

As for the valuables such as cultural treasures, sacred objects, relics, etc., they are not included in the distribution and shall be managed by the successor head of the family. The other children have no right to inherit.

Each head of a family can make a specific will for distribution through notarization by the government, but must follow the minimum legal requirements. Otherwise, if the children are dissatisfied with the distribution, the government can redistribute it.

In addition to the main items, there are other details and explanations. Like the previous decrees, this law is in two copies, one in official text and the other in simplified vernacular.

Once this law was issued, it immediately caused an uproar and became the focus of heated discussions in various countries. People quickly concluded that this was a replica of the "Enfeoffment Order" of the Han Dynasty.

During the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued the "Enfeoffment Order" in order to weaken the power of the kings.

Before the "Enfeoffment Order", the power and fiefdoms of the kings of the Han Dynasty could only be inherited by the eldest son. After the "Enfeoffment Order", the remaining sons of the kings could be granted titles and fiefdoms, which led to the gradual reduction of the fiefdoms and wealth of the descendants of the kings, and could not affect the imperial power.

Some people on the discussion list shouted that this "Inheritance Law" was simply a dagger revealed at the end of the plan, and it was the first knife to cut the major families of the human race.

However, the reaction of more than half of the families was not too intense, because the successor of the family head could get 80% of the wealth, and the rest of the children could only get 20%, which was completely affordable. Some family heads even secretly breathed a sigh of relief, so that they had an excuse to give their favorite sons more wealth.

A few days later, the Severe Crackdown Department announced that the crackdown would be upgraded again.

Before, the crackdown was only aimed at vicious cases, then targeted bandits and road bullies, and later targeted private punishments and private jails. In the fourth stage, it was announced that the local tyrants and evil gentry who harmed the people would be severely cracked down.

In this stage of the crackdown, the Criminal Court began to mobilize the people widely and posted notices everywhere.

The notice first explained the importance of the crackdown, explained the disasters and harms brought by the local tyrants and evil gentry to the people and Jingguo, and then encouraged the people to supervise and report the local tyrants and evil gentry who violated the law and committed crimes in various places. Once verified, they would be rewarded immediately.

The most important reward was to share money and land.

This crackdown directly bypassed the Ministry of Justice and local institutions of Jingguo, and was completely taken over by the Criminal Court, and the state and government armies of various places cooperated. The scale was far greater than any previous stage of the crackdown.

As soon as the fourth stage of the crackdown appeared, all the big and small families in Jingguo were like bereaved.

Jingguo or the entire Shengyuan Continent has very backward, conservative but pragmatic ideas. All rich and powerful families will try their best to increase their fields. Therefore, the phenomenon of land annexation in various parts of the human race is very serious, and any slightly larger family will have a large amount of fields.

With fields, there are all kinds of tenants and long-term and short-term workers. In order to establish the prestige of the landlord class, more than 90% of the families have done illegal things openly or secretly.

Some of the illegal family heads are not extremely vicious people. They even often help their subordinates, and have done porridge and food delivery. They are also quite famous in the local area. However, in order to maximize the interests of their own families, they will involuntarily do some illegal things.

For example, they will let the butler buy land, but they know what means the butler used and what disgusting things he did, but they pretend not to know and do not think they have made a mistake.

They believed that they had natural dominance over the lower classes, and as long as they did not set fires or kill people, even forcing good women into prostitution was nothing.

Can it be called beating if a father beats his son?

If the nobles wanted to buy land, and the small families did not sell it, did they want to rebel?

They treated their families, their subordinates, and their business partners well, but they would never treat ordinary people with whom they had conflicts of interest well.

Behind their gentle smiles, cold blood flowed.

Therefore, many tenant farmers and long-term workers liked to publicize their masters. They thought their masters were really good, but they did not know that it was because they had no land, let alone the land their masters wanted.

It would be the same if the land was replaced by anything else.

The reason why the master was good was that the slaves did not have what the master wanted.

When the power of the Criminal Court and the military began to spread everywhere, letters flew to the capital like snowflakes, and even to the Holy Court.

All families related to high officials, aristocratic families, or great Confucian scholars began to try their best to escape punishment and plead for mercy.

Because it is not the Ministry of Justice that investigates the case, but the Criminal Court.

As long as the evidence is solid and the Criminal Court pronounces a verdict, even a semi-saint cannot cancel the crime, and at most can only reduce the sentence.

Therefore, these people must smooth over their relationships and try to escape the crime or find a scapegoat before the Criminal Court convicts their family.

The Criminal Court is also made up of people.

As long as people are doing things, there must be a solution.

In just one day, Fang Yun received more than 140 related letters.

Some are from childhood friends, some are from neighbors, some are from former colleagues, some are from members of Fang's party, some are from senior officials in the capital, some are from great scholars from various countries, and some are from the holy families...

The contents of these letters are highly consistent, all of which want Fang Yun to show leniency to a certain family.

Some letters even clearly stated that the family accepted the punishment, but hoped not to kill them all.

After receiving the letter, Fang Yun summoned all the people in the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion to enter the side hall.

These people looked at Fang Yun, and their eyes actually hid similar emotions.

Fang Yun glanced at everyone, patted the Left Prime Minister's seal, and said: "I received 143 letters of pleas for mercy. How many have you received? Tell me."

The officials present secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Since Fang Yun said it openly, the situation would not be too serious.

Dong Yueqian confessed honestly: "There are a total of 19 clear letters, and 7 indirect letters."

Everyone rolled their eyes at Dong Yueqian. Fang Yun didn't really ask them to count, so there was no need to take the initiative to say so much.

"Well, Li Zhixiao, how about you?" Fang Yun asked.

Li Zhixiao smiled bitterly and said, "More than Dong Yueqian."

Fang Yun nodded and said, "What are you going to do? Xu Changgeng, tell me."

Xu Changgeng immediately said with a playful smile: "We know that you, the prime minister, will not embarrass me, so I will only pick one or two letters to pass on. As for the other letters, I really can't help. We can only trouble you once or twice, but not too much, don't you think?"

Others secretly thought that Xu Changgeng was really smart.

Fang Yun stared at Xu Changgeng until Xu Changgeng was covered with hair, and then said: "Doing anything has to pay a price. Have you thought about this price?"