Chapter 2601 - 2574: Innocent, Really

What does it matter if the two sons have different political views?

Besides talent and character, Zheng Fei never does anything that pleases Zheng Boming. They, just like him and his Fifth Younger Brother, get along well in daily life, but as soon as they start discussing family development, life ideals, and educating disciples, they end up arguing, spending their entire lives in rivalry.

But neither one has ever talked about wanting to kill the other; it’s just a divergence of opinions. Some people like eating cabbage, while others prefer carrots—does he expect everyone in the world to like cabbage just because he does?

Even with your own brothers, it doesn’t work like that.

Patriarch Zheng certainly won’t let this slide. If his nephew was involved and Zheng Dalang didn’t know, he wouldn’t let him off;

And if Zheng Dalang conspired with his nephew, he wouldn’t let him off either, as he believes that the Sun Family corrupted his perfectly good son.

Even County Magistrate Guo, who is familiar with the Zheng Family and also a son of noble lineage, can guess what Patriarch Zheng is thinking, so the official Yin Li who is handling the case must know.

After all, Yin Li is a trusted aide of the Emperor.

The problem is, evidence is hard to obtain in this matter. Even if they clear out the bandits, they might not find any proof that Patriarch Zheng was behind it.

These ambiguous circumstances are often the most torturous, sapping one’s spirit and eroding personal relationships.

Patriarch Zheng might think, you have no evidence to prove I did this, yet you still suspect me—doesn’t that indicate a fundamental distrust?

Sun Family might think, your two sons are at each other’s throats, but you vent your anger on my son—he was kidnapped as soon as he left Xingyang—how can you say it’s not the Zheng Family’s doing? No one would believe it!

Manbao was confused, asking, "Was Patriarch Zheng really behind it? Why not keep his distance before taking action? Wouldn’t that avoid suspicion?"

County Magistrate Guo replied, "Perhaps Patriarch Zheng is thinking exactly that way?"

Manbao was shocked into silence and after a moment shook her head, "No, this is all speculation. With this kind of conjecture, anything could be possible. How can judgement be based on intuition? You must find evidence."

County Magistrate Guo studied her, "Lord Zhou is wise. Indeed, such suspicion cannot be the foundation for our judgement, even someone like Patriarch Zheng understands that. But how many truly refrain from speculating over others’ motives in this world? And among them, how many can avoid letting their own speculations lead to distrust?"

County Magistrate Guo asserted, "Apart from a few ministers in the court, even the Emperor probably cannot achieve that."

Indeed, the Emperor couldn’t; he himself couldn’t resist discussing with Wei Zhi whether the Zheng Family and Sun Family were about to turn against each other.

This morning, he had just met Yin Li and learned about Sun Zhi’s disappearance.

Then Wei Zhi critiqued him, stating, "The Emperor should order local officials to swiftly solve the case and eliminate bandits, especially the latter. If bandits are allowed to roam freely, not only will local residents be in fear, travelers and merchants will be anxious as well, and over time, if trade routes are severed, it will also severely impact economic activities along the way."

Involving taxation and livelihood issues, is it a good thing for you as an Emperor to be gossiping here? And is the appearance of bandits near Xingyang a positive event?

Shouldn’t you be thinking about the problem of families privately raising troops like the Zheng Family?

How long has the world been stable again?

In many places now, the power of large families still exceeds that of the court. If they decide to rebel, although the success rate is low, they could still capture several city-states and stir trouble for years, couldn’t they?

The Emperor got a scolding from Wei Zhi, finally reverting to his duties. He ordered the local officials near Xingyang to conduct self-checks and eliminate bandits to ensure the safety of residents and travelers;

Simultaneously, he issued a decree to reassure the Sun Family.

Then, he turned his attention to investigating the situation in Qizhou.

Lord Tang came to the palace to report.

At a glance, the situation in Qizhou didn’t seem severe, but deeper investigation revealed serious problems.

When the previous dynasty collapsed, the people were displaced, with many fleeing their homes. Some villages were entirely abandoned, others were reduced to one or two households. This left large areas of uncultivated land.

Combined with those killed in the chaos...

At the founding of Great Jin, vast amounts of farmland were left fallow.

Most of these lands were claimed by the government as state-owned, while some had been seized by local noble families that remained, marking them as personal property.

Some couldn’t provide land certificates and lost their land to the state, some bribed officials and clerks to supplement their land certificates, and others outright forged them.

However, most of the land was held by the government and local offices.

The government then began resettling the displaced families, generally not sending them back to their original homes, but integrating them locally; allocating land, providing quality seeds, lending farming tools, organizing laborers to help build houses, etc...

This distributed some of the land, while the rest was assigned annually as new men reached adulthood, remaining in the hands of local offices.

These lands were partially farmed by those convicted by the courts or hired short-term and long-term laborers, but more remained uncultivated.

Not long after the current Emperor’s enthronement, to prevent excessive fallow land, a policy was introduced: citizens who had received and then lost land, as well as displaced families, could cultivate barren land. After farming for over three years, it could become their Yongye Fields...

They could also purchase land by paying money or grain to the court, but the Yongye Fields under a buyer’s name couldn’t exceed twenty acres.

Meaning that only good citizens with Yongye Fields less than twenty acres could purchase land from local offices.

The land near the capital and Yongzhou was mostly bought and sold, particularly public lands, which must be allocated to newly adult citizens and used for court officials’ fields.

Further out, places like Shangzhou, Fengzhou, and Qizhou still had plenty available.

The Zheng Family and the Prince of Hejian purchased land by using the names of a large number of their tenant farmers to buy land from the Qizhou Governor, and then transferring it to their personal names—just passing through one hand.

While Minister Li waited for a period before transferring it to the Ministry of Revenue, thereby achieving the ultimate outcome.

After one transaction, the Zheng Family took control of large swathes of land in Qizhou.

And many others operated similarly to the Zheng Family.

And that’s just one issue—another major problem is that the price the Zheng Family paid for these lands was less than one-third of what the Ministry of Revenue and the Qizhou Governor consulted initially.

Even Prince Li Gong of Hejian paid more for his eight acres than the Zheng Family paid for ten acres.

The Qizhou Governor had his reasons, and indeed the court granted him this authority, guilty or not—unless proof of him being bribed by the Zheng Family can be found.

But the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and Punishments investigated for a long time without finding evidence, as both the Zheng Family’s and the Prince of Hejian’s land payments went into the governor’s public treasury without being withheld.

When the Prince of Hejian sent his steward to purchase land, he directly used his own title to intimidate rather than bribing anyone, so the governor boldly asserted that if he didn’t ask the Prince of Hejian for a bribe, why would he solicit it from the Zheng Family?

He claimed his innocence!

Bai Shan told Manbao, "The Emperor was really upset and asked me to draft an edict summoning the Qizhou Governor to the capital. The person has already left the capital, and he should arrive in a few days to meet this Qizhou Governor."