I become a god in another world

Chapter 566: The Dispute over Official Land
Chapter 566

"..." Xie Jingsheng looked at Zhao Fusheng suspiciously. He remembered the way her eyes lit up when he took out the imitation golden bell, and an incredible thought came to his mind:
"Wan'an County won't be poor and destitute, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone except Chen Duozi showed embarrassment on their faces.

Wan'an County is poor from top to bottom.

Liu Yizhen's ancestors were a wealthy family, but unfortunately their family fell into poverty.

When they were young, Fan Da and Fan Xiao lived under the care of others. When they grew up, they followed Zhao Qiming to work in the Demon Suppression Division. It should have been a lucrative job, and they could have lived a life of luxury with the identities of the three of them - but the good times did not last long. As Zhao Qiming's evil spirit revived, the two of them soon became embarrassed.

After Zhao Fusheng took over the Demon Suppression Division, he completely stopped the two men from taking anything.

As for the others, except Chen Duozi, Meng Po, Kuai Manzhou and Wu Shaochun all came from poor backgrounds and could only handle ghost cases.

The main labor force that can currently earn money is Zhao Fusheng - she relies on handling ghost cases to collect donations from wealthy households, but there are not many wealthy households in Wan'an County at present, and the income is limited.

"Speak of Du Shengming!"

Zhao Fusheng became unhappy and raised his tone.

The corner of Xie Jingsheng's mouth twitched.

"This person was originally recorded as a wealthy farmer in the south of the Imperial Capital."

Zhao Fusheng breathed a sigh of relief.

"If you are called a rich peasant, you should have a lot of land, right?"

Xie Jingsheng wanted to laugh, but the pain in his fingers restrained him:
"According to the statistics of the Demon Suppression Division, his assets are recorded as being around 40,000 taels of silver."

Converted into land and farms, that is a considerable amount.

The people in Wan'an County had just dealt with the case of the Chang family in Jin County not long ago, and they had a good idea of ​​the price of good farmland.

During the Later Han Dynasty, Du Shengming's family property was worth more than 40,000 taels, making him a well-deserved wealthy man.

"At that time, it was very dangerous to have land but no power, so he recognized a ghost rider in the Imperial Capital as the head of the family."

Xie Jingsheng's words involved some complicated relationships in the Han Dynasty.

In fact, at this point, after the establishment of the Later Han Dynasty, it has become an invisible rule for wealthy businessmen and gentry to seek refuge from the Demon Suppression Division.

The ghost riders of the Demon Suppression Bureau provide power to protect the rich, and the rich pay taxes and additional donations to support the ghost riders.

A tacit understanding is formed between the two.

But in the Western Han Dynasty, this kind of relationship was recorded in the rules set by the Demon Suppression Bureau itself.

"How do you say this?"

Wu Shaochun asked curiously.

Xie Jingsheng glanced at him. After working together for a long time, he got to know the people in Wan'an County better and better. Naturally, he put away his initial arrogance as the Golden General of the Imperial Capital and answered Wu Shaochun's question:
"A rich peasant like Du Shengming, according to the rules, has to pay a large amount of taxes every year. But if he finds a 'master' and entrusts himself to a ghost tamer as a slave, then he only needs to pay taxes to the ghost tamer alone."

This is a rule formulated by the Demon Suppression Bureau of the former Han Dynasty, which is beneficial to itself.

When everyone heard this, they understood something.

"Isn't this stealing food from the imperial court? Will the imperial court allow this?" Fan Bisi asked.

Xie Jingsheng smiled when he heard this, but said nothing.

He didn't say anything, but his attitude gave away something.

By the end of the pre-Han Dynasty, the prestige of the royal power had been declining. Since the Demon Suppression Division was able to formulate such a rule, it must be that the power of the ghost riders had overwhelmed the court and the emperor. Whether the emperor would allow it was no longer within the scope of consideration of the Demon Suppression Division.

"So what happens next?" Chen Duozi asked curiously.

Xie Jingsheng continued:

"According to the records of that time, he was recognized as a subordinate of a silver general in 204 of the Pre-Han Dynasty."

Three years later, General Yin was sent out for a new post, and eleven years later, Li Gui revived and died in office.

"In 229 AD of the Pre-Han Dynasty, the descendants of General Yin suddenly sued Du Shengming, saying that he had seized his ancestral property and demanded compensation of taels of silver."

This reversal caught everyone off guard.

"..."

Liu Yizhen and Wu Shaochun looked at each other in shock for a moment, then they realized what was going on:
"After General Yin died, there was no more income, and his family squandered all the ancestral property. Do you want to make a fortune?"

Xie Jingsheng nodded.

Meng Po heard this and sighed:
“It’s absolutely unscrupulous.”

Having said this, more than a quarter of an hour had passed in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, suddenly the knocking sounds of "clang, clang, clang" rang out again!
Once this knocking sound is heard, it means that the evil ghost will appear again.

Everyone's heart was shocked involuntarily.

Xie Jingsheng also put away his relaxed look and made a long story short:
"Du Shengming is a man who owns a lot of good farmland. He has one daughter and two sons, and both sons work in government offices."

Zhao Fusheng noticed a detail:
"The files of the Demon Suppression Department mention his daughter."

"Yes."

Xie Jingsheng nodded.

The archives of the Demon Suppression Bureau will not record idle people.

The last years of the pre-Han Dynasty were turbulent and class-divided—which also led to a power structure with layers of oppression, with women at the bottom.

Du Shengming has a little wealth, but he still cannot escape the oppression of the Demon Suppression Division.

In this case, the existence of his daughter was recorded in the files, which shows that his daughter is no ordinary person.

Although Zhao Fusheng's words were short, they revealed her meticulous and cautious temperament.

"His daughter entered the palace, served the emperor, and was favored by him."

When he said this, Zhao Fusheng sighed.

Du Shengming has done his best to live a good life within his capabilities.

He made the deployment.

The son entered the imperial court and found a supporter for himself, and the daughter entered the palace.

The Du family seemed to be flourishing, but within a few years, it fell apart.

He got into trouble and eventually died in prison, which was a foreseeable outcome of the lawsuit.

"Bang, bang, bang—"

The knocking sounds became more and more rapid, and half a quarter of an hour passed.

At this moment, the heavy footsteps sounded again, and the terrible heat wave mixed with cold and hot came again.

The evil spirit reappears and begins to randomly select victims.

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, and the fiery red flames illuminated the gap in the door. A small cluster of flames even spread a little bit inward along the door panel.

The flame was shaped like a snake, winding on the ground.

Just after walking a few inches forward, a large amount of thick blood flowed out from the door.

Blood flowed along the door panel, forming a stream, and swallowed the fire snake's body bit by bit.

The flames were extinguished, and a large amount of black smoke rose slowly, eventually leaving a dark, terrifying flame mark on the ground.

The ghost's footsteps disappeared.

"It seems that this time, the ghost chose us." Zhao Fusheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw this scene.

The ghost was stopped by the door god, and everyone in the hall escaped a wave of laws. "Sir, what should we do now?" Wu Shaochun asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng said:

"The causes and consequences of the case in the first level of hell have not been clarified."

Everything in the ghost realm might be an illusion - the tenth level of hell trapped the past, but the people who broke into hell at this time were real, and they could not die here just because of greed and recklessness.

She said:
"We will leave the temple after another round of evil spirits appear."

Everyone followed her lead and responded when they heard her words.

Xie Jingsheng then continued:
"Du Shengming's lawsuit is very troublesome. It is not just related to him personally."

This is a struggle between the Demon Suppression Division and the imperial power of the imperial court.

There was nothing wrong with his use of the Demon Suppression Bureau to avoid heavy taxes in his early years - after all, according to the laws at the time, he had to pay as much as 70% tax on his land.

The remaining 30% was for his own use, and part of it was to be shared with the tenants hired on the farm and to support his family.

As a result, with the addition of other additional levies and taxes, even if Du Shengming owned a lot of fertile land, he might still be in debt in two or three years.

Therefore, it was right for him to look for a backer, but his move also laid the seeds of disaster.

There are many twists and turns in this process. In the late Han Dynasty, many wealthy families took advantage of loopholes like Du Shengming did - doing so is naturally risky, and it all depends on whether the ghost rider has a conscience.

Du Shengming carefully selected a "master" for himself. When the general was alive, he was still in good circumstances and could make a living. But a few years after his death, his descendants squandered his accumulated wealth and set their sights on Du Shengming.

The lawsuit was soon brought before the emperor.

"The process is unclear." After all, this is a past event of the previous dynasty. When the emperor at that time recorded this case in the file, he did not spend a lot of time and effort to record it.

"But the final result was that Du Shengming lost the lawsuit." Xie Jingsheng sighed:
"He was commuted to slavery under another ghost rider."

This loss in the lawsuit had a great impact on Du Shengming.

"His property was taken over as official land and transferred to the imperial court. Not long after, he died of a sudden illness, and his two sons were dismissed from their posts."

In just a few sentences, a wealthy family that was once quite wealthy lost its family and ended up with an evil ghost resurrecting.

Chen Duozi was deeply saddened by this case:
"Nothing lasts forever."

Zhao Fusheng suddenly asked:

"Where's his daughter?"

"Daughter?" Xie Jingsheng was stunned for a moment, then scratched his head:
"There is no detailed record in this file, but I guess he is dead."

After saying this, he felt that it was a bit brief, and added:

"In this ghost case, Du Mingsheng's daughter was not the main cause of the fire in Yong'an Palace. The reason why the adults at that time recorded her was probably because of her special relationship with the emperor, which might affect Du Mingsheng's case."

On the day when Du Mingsheng's evil ghost was resurrected, it caused a small disturbance in the capital, but the disturbance was not serious and was quickly quelled.

The reason why this case is mentioned specifically is purely because the time when Du Mingsheng's ghost was resurrected was a coincidence - he was resurrected on the day of the fire in Yong'an Palace.

Because of his special relationship with the emperor, the Demon Suppression Division specially entered Zhongdu and reported the matter to the emperor.

That night, something happened to the emperor.

Later, the emperor's evil spirit revived and caused a fire in Yong'an Palace.

This is the whole story of the fire in Yong'an Palace in the late Han Dynasty.

Xie Jingsheng himself had risen step by step from handling cases in the county to the capital. He naturally knew the impact of minor clues in ghost cases on solving ghost disasters.

But after he finished speaking, he did not find any connection between the Du Mingsheng case and the Yong'an Palace case - if they forced a connection, it would be that Du Mingsheng's daughter served the emperor.

"Do you think the Du Mingsheng case is related to the Yong'an Palace fire case?" Although Xie Jingsheng judged that the two cases were not closely related, he still asked Zhao Fusheng out of caution.

Zhao Fusheng said:

"It's too early to judge now. Anyway, we will know whether it is related or not after checking it out." Finally, he said:

"But in a ghost case, whether they are related or not, it is better to know more clues than less."

Xie Jingsheng nodded in agreement:

"That's right."

As we talked, time passed slowly.

More than a quarter of an hour passed, and the "clang, clang, clang" sound started again from somewhere.

The ghost is here again!

Footsteps were heard passing in front of the palace gate. The evil ghost's target just now was Yong'an Palace, but in the end the evil ghost was stopped by the door god and returned empty-handed.

The power of the door god has been consumed. If the evil ghost's target is still Yong'an Palace this time, the ghost may break in and everyone will have to face the evil ghost head-on.

Just when everyone was worried and terrified, the terror did not come.

The ghost's footsteps sounded just like the previous times, slowly passing by the main hall gate of Yong'an Palace.

The red light of the flame shone through the crack in the door.

The door god's power weakened, and waves of heat came. Everyone could almost hear the slight sound of the door panels being burned by the flames.

The footsteps of the evil spirit soon faded away. Soon, familiar screams were heard along with the sound of human flesh being burned.

Soon after, everything calmed down.

"us--"

This time, Zhao Fusheng was not going to wait any longer.

After experiencing four rounds of attacks by evil spirits, the evil spirits' rules that could be understood have been figured out. It would be impossible to know more if we continue to wait in Yong'an Palace for unknown clues.

She planned to leave the hall and check the palace.

As she spoke, the originally quiet palace came to life after the evil ghost killed someone and disappeared.

This feeling is very subtle.

It was as if the palace servants hiding in the dark breathed a sigh of relief and began to move slightly.

The rustling sound of clothes rubbing against each other, the sound of breathing, walking, and even the sound of whispered conversations and doors opening could be heard one by one.

The sudden change caused Zhao Fusheng to pause and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"It seems that the ghost disaster has come to an end for the time being."

After the ghost case happened, the "survivors" in the palace should have figured out the pattern.

At this time, according to the rule of four rounds of evil spirits, the next safe time should be longer - this rule is inferred based on the reactions of the people in the palace.

They have "lived" in the ghost realm for a long time, and the laws are verified by the lives of their own kind, so they are relatively accurate.

Zhao Fusheng rolled his eyes:
"Let's take advantage of this opportunity to go outside and ask someone if the fire in Yong'an Palace has anything to do with the Du Mingsheng case."

Everyone responded.

Zhao Fusheng was the first to walk towards the gate of Yong'an Palace. The gate was still closed, but when he got closer, he could vaguely see that the edge of the door frame had been blackened by smoke and fire, and a part of it was carbonized black.

She reached out to touch the door, and it was surprisingly warm and a little thin to the touch.

This is not an illusion.

Zhao Fusheng reached out and pulled gently, and the door shattered.

A large amount of debris fell to the ground, and then the door panel fell apart, turning into countless carbon residues.

The door god's mark had long lost its effect, and countless densely packed and overlapping black ghost footprints appeared on the ground.