Crossing the Ming Dynasty to be the magistrate

Zhou Wan sighed deeply: "This matter all started because of a marriage. I don't know if Master Wen has ever heard of Wu Zhen, a local talented lady from the Wu family in Mengyang."

Wen Yu recalled that he had indeed heard of this woman, she was the youngest daughter of Wu Manjiang, a wealthy local businessman.

It is said that this Wu Zhen is proficient in all poems and songs, and she also writes good running script. Calligraphy and painting are hard to find. Even some famous people in Sichuan praise her very much. At the same time, she is also a trump card of Master Wu.

At that time, Wen Yu had just taken office, and Master Wu vaguely mentioned that he had a daughter who was talented and beautiful, meaning to propose marriage to Wen Yu. Although Wen Yu politely refused, Master Wu seemed not to give up.

Zhou Wan continued: "The Wu family originally had a marriage contract with the eldest son of Wei. The Wei family used to have a good relationship with the county magistrate Sun. In Mengyang County, they seemed to be leaders. At that time, the people rebelled, and Wei Dalang was by the county magistrate Sun's side. The county magistrate Sun was hacked to death together."

Wei Dalang died, it stands to reason that the marriage contract between the Wei and Wu families should also be abandoned, but who knows that the Wei family said that Wei Dalang died and his brother Wei Sanlang, brother and brother, and this tradition has existed since ancient times. Wu Zhen married Wei Sanlang.

Of course, Mr. Wu was not happy. Wei Dalang was well-mannered and a scholar. He seemed to have a bright future, so he was no problem with his daughter.

And Wei Erlang is only 14 years old this year, and he is domineering and domineering by his family. It is said that he is also ignorant in school.Such a person, how could Mr. Wu be willing to marry his daughter Wu Zhen, who has been in his hands for a price?

But the Wei family is powerful, and Master Wu is not easy to offend, so he thought of a way.

He went to tell Zhou Wan that he wanted to betroth his daughter to Zhou Cunchong, first use Zhou Wan to get rid of the Wei family, and finally make another plan if his daughter married or not.

Of course Zhou Wan knew what Wu Manjiang was planning.

If it's something else, it's okay for Zhou Wan to refuse, but his son is his heart disease, and he really can't bear to part with such a good daughter-in-law as Wu Zhen.

So the two reached an agreement verbally.

After Wei Erlang found out about this, he troubled Zhou Cunchong all day long. The two were classmates, and they usually looked up and down.

This time Zhou Cunchong was blocked on the road by Wei Erlang, and the two fought again.

After figuring out the whole story, Wen Yu asked Zhou Wan what he planned to do now.

Zhou Wan shook his head: "Actually, Mr. Wu was too worried. After the death of County Magistrate Sun, the backer of the Wei family also collapsed, so we can't do anything to him at all. I was thinking that Miss Wu's family is a good one. The old face wants to come here to marry Chonger. I have figured it out in the past few days, taking advantage of others' danger is not a gentleman's action, I will go and explain to Wu Manjiang in a few days, let's let this marriage go."

Zhou Cunchong heard his father say this from the side, and immediately beamed with joy: "Father, you should have done this a long time ago. I don't want to get married at all. A man's ambition is everywhere! I must leave Mengyang County one day! Fight the enemy!"

Zhou Wan slapped him hard on the head: "With your small body, why are you talking about fighting the enemy! You think your father is dead, right?"

After finishing speaking, he smiled embarrassedly at Wen Yu: "The dog has no shape, it makes adults laugh."

Zhou Cunchong's stature was not tall, and his eyes were delicate. At this time, he was puffing up beside him, like a small animal.

Wen Yu looked at his father and son amused: "It's okay, what Young Master Ling said is also reasonable. Why should a man suffer from not having a wife? He is so ambitious at such a young age. I would like to congratulate Mr. Zhou and celebrate having such a beautiful son."

Zhou Cunchong's eyes sparkled when he heard what Wen Yu said.

Seeing his virtue, Zhou Wan scolded him again.I thought it was over like this, and everyone worked normally in the next few days.

In the evening, someone suddenly beat a drum to express their grievances.Wei Song, the patriarch of the Wei family, sued Zhou Cunchong for murdering Wei Lin, the second son of the Wei family, and sued Zhou Wanzongzi, the history of the Dian Shi of Mengyang County, for the murder.

The Weishi tribe and their servants surrounded the county government tightly, shouting grievances at the door in unison.

Wen Yu's face darkened immediately, and he asked the yamen servant to tell the outsiders that anyone who gathers a crowd to make trouble will be dealt with according to the law, and then the crowd gradually dispersed, leaving only Wei Song and Wei Ping, the concubine of the Wei family.

It was getting late at this time, and many small officials had already returned home. Wen Yu read Wei Song's paper and asked Zhou Wan and Zhou Cunchong to be called.

When the two came, they had already heard the news of Wei Lin's death, and they were extremely shocked.

When Wei Song saw Zhou Cun rushing in, he was about to rush up and strike. Wen Yu asked someone to stop him, and asked, "Wei Song, what evidence do you have for suing Zhou Cun to kill your son?"

Before Wei Song opened his mouth, Wei Ping shouted from the side with red eyes: "Who else could it be if it wasn't Zhou Cunchong! So many people saw him making an appointment with my third brother Zhulin, and then my third brother didn't come back all night! The next day I found... I found my third brother's body! Zhou Cun rushed to you, you bastard! My third brother has been your classmate for many years! How could you do it!"

Zhou Cunchong was still in a trance, but now he woke up after being scolded.He rolled his eyes fiercely: "How do I know who killed Wei Lin? He asked me to fight with him yesterday, but he didn't come at all. I waited for him in the bamboo forest for two hours! If you want me to say that Man Mengyang hates him There are a lot of people here, even you, Mr. Wei Er."

He sneered, "Wei Dawei is dead now, the Wei family will be in your Weiping's pocket in the future."

Wei Ping was furious when he heard this: "You spitting blood! You..."

"Shut up!" Wen Yu felt a headache, and the quarrel would be endless.

At this moment, Zhou Wan also came to his senses. He took Zhou Cun and rushed to Wen Yu to salute: "Master Wen is aware that although the dog is stubborn, it is not the kind of person who commits crimes. Now that someone is suing Xiaguan and his son, The officer is willing to suspend his post for investigation."

Wen Yu frowned. The Ming Dynasty, or the entire ancient Chinese law followed the inference of guilt, that is, if you cannot prove your innocence when you are accused, then you are guilty.Unlike modern law, you can only be called a suspect until there is solid evidence.

He himself believes that Zhou Cunchong did not kill anyone, but now that someone has handed over the pleadings, he can only order Zhou Wan and his son to be taken into custody.

Wen Yu told Wei Song that it was getting late today, and he would give Wei Song an explanation when he found out the truth tomorrow.

Wei Song was in tears, obviously losing two aunts in a row was a huge blow to him.

He didn't doubt that Wen Yu was covering up. After all, Wen Yu had no relatives in the local area and had only known Zhou's father and son for a few days, so it wasn't to the extent of bending the law for personal gain.Just like that, the crowd dispersed.

In the early morning of the next day, Wen Yu went to the morgue in the yamen, accompanied by Zhang Hong and Deng Wu. Wei Lin's body was only parked here for three days, and three days later it would be transported back home. .

It was the first time for Wen Yu to see a dead person in his previous life and this life, but he has always been indifferent, and after being in the Ming Dynasty, he deliberately controlled himself to become rigid and polite like the original owner, so he was not too afraid.

Seeing that his gaze was clear and straight, Zhang Hong and Deng Wu couldn't help showing admiration as he watched Wu Zuo pull the curtain to cover the corpse without changing his expression.

Fortunately, Wei Lin's death was not particularly grim. The wound was near the heart, and there were no other wounds on his body. He was basically killed with a single knife.

Deng Wu expressed doubts about this: "My lord, this is wrong, this corpse is too clean. According to the Wei family, Wei Lin and Zhou Cunchong went to the bamboo forest to fight. No other scars? Unless..."

"Unless the murderer stabbed Wei Lin's heart directly when Wei Lin was unprepared." Wen Yu finished the sentence for him.

Zhang Hong added next to him: "If the murderer is really Zhou Cunchong, if he asks Wei Lin out, he may say something to coax Wei Lin first, and then kill him directly while he is not paying attention."

Wen Yu nodded: "The situation you mentioned is also possible. Has Wei Lin ever been poisoned?"

Zhang Hong took out the autopsy record and showed it to Wen Yu: "My lord, no drug residue was found in Wei Lin's body. His death time was probably between Shenshi and Xushi."

According to Zhou Cunchong, the time he had agreed with Wei Lin was Youshi, and he arrived early, but Wei Lin didn't come after waiting for two hours. He was afraid that he would not be able to make it to the curfew at [-]:[-], so he went back.

It was about one o'clock when he got home, and many people could testify to him.

But he couldn't rule out the suspicion on the timeline, and needed other evidence.

After coming out of the morgue, Wen Yu went to find Zhou Wan and his son.

At this time, Zhou Wan and his son were living in a room next to the prison cell, which was originally used for some jailers to rest. After all, Zhou Wan was the third in command of Mengyang. He lived in a stinking cell, so he arranged a rough quarters for them.

As soon as Wen Yu entered, Zhou Cunchong was forced to write big characters by his father with a disheveled face. Seeing Wen Yu's arrival, Zhou Wan hurriedly brought his son to salute.

Wen Yu waved his hand: "There's no need for those hypocrisy, I'm mainly here to ask Cunchong some questions."

Zhou Cunchong nodded: "My lord, just ask, as long as I can catch the murderer and avenge Wei Lin, I will know everything."

Wen Yu was surprised: "Don't you have a bad relationship with Wei Lin?"

A slight twist flashed across Zhou Cunchong's face: "In fact, I don't particularly hate him. We grew up together. He is a man, although he is lustful, reckless, cowardly and shameless...but in general, he is not a bad person... ...The things his family did before were all his brother and father's idea, and he never participated in it. "

After hearing what he said, both Wen Yu and Zhou Wan felt comforted in their hearts, Wen Yu said: "Good boy, since you have a steelyard in your heart, then tell me everything, no matter how big or small, strive for one thing. Don't fall behind, only in this way can the real murderer be caught."

Zhou Wan also nodded at the side: "Cun Chong, if you want to listen to Master Wen's words, you must think carefully, otherwise your father and you may end up here this time."

Hearing what they said, Zhou Cunchong looked more serious, and replied, "I will try my best."

The author has something to say: 1) Ancient time division

23 to 1 o'clock in the middle of the day, 1 to 3 o'clock in the ugly hour

Yinshi 3~5 o'clock Maoshi 5~7 o'clock

Chenshi 7~9 o'clock Sishi 9~11 o'clock

11-13:13 noon, 15-[-]:[-] noon

Shen time 15~17 o'clock, unitary time 17~19 o'clock

From 19 to 21 o'clock at Xu time and from 21 to 23 o'clock at Hai time.

In addition, the ancient one is divided into 5 points, and one point is equivalent to the current 24 minutes

The Ming Dynasty stipulated that when the evening drum was sounded at one o'clock and three o'clock (about 8 o'clock), travel within the city was prohibited.At five o'clock (around 6 o'clock) the morning bell is sounded before the traffic ban is lifted.

2) Continue to explain the taxation of North Korea

I said before that in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang made a rule not to collect commercial taxes. The main reason was that at that time, agriculture was emphasized and business was suppressed. In addition, the country’s vitality had not yet recovered. There were still very few big businessmen who were really rich. The most famous Shen Wansan was also exiled to Yunnan by Zhu Yuanzhang to pick mushrooms (later some people said that this was fabricated by the Qing government to discredit Zhu Yuanzhang), we don't care if it is true or not, but Zhu Yuanzhang hates big businessmen for sure.

The rest are ordinary people. Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a poor child. He sympathizes with the people at the bottom very much.

But he ignored two points. One is that he did not collect it, but there were corrupt officials who collected it for him. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the officials were corrupt. If any eunuch went to a local pension, he had to collect a lot of taxes under a clever name, but the money could not enter the country. pocket.

The second is that no one is willing to be poor all his life. Some of the common people he sympathizes with have gone out and created unimaginable wealth, including the famous Huizhou and Shanxi merchants in later generations.

The really poor people were exploited layer by layer, but the big businessmen didn't have to pay taxes. This made the poor get poorer and the rich got richer in the last years of the Ming Dynasty.In the end, public grievances reached the peak, and peasant uprisings continued.

In the end, the stupid author continued to be cheeky and asked for comments and collections (～￣▽￣)～