Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 136: Kill first and tell later, royal power charter!
In later generations, Suian County was submerged in Qiandao Lake.

As the largest artificial lake in my country, Qiandao Lake was formed by building a dam to store water from the Xin'anjiang Hydropower Station.

The original land and mountains were submerged in the lake bottom. Since then, Suian County and an area of ​​nearly 1,000 square kilometers have become a vast lake.

The former hills and mountains have become islands suspended in the lake, and thus the lake has been named Thousand Island Lake.

But in the Ming Dynasty, this place was still land, and because the county seat was located at the foot of Wushi Mountain, it was also called Lion City.

On this day, in Wannian Township, Suian County, many villagers got up early in the morning to work on the farm.

However, they were surprised to find that the streams and canals on which they had relied for their survival had no water flowing in, and that there was much less water in the fields, which shocked many villagers.

At first they guessed that it might be the neighboring village that had a conflict with their village, so they all called for someone to go upstream to take a look.

But before they left the village, they discovered that the water source had been cut off and was flowing to other fields.

"Too bullying."

When the villagers of Wannian Township saw that all the water was flowing into Hu Yongkang's fields and their fields could not be irrigated at all, they immediately knew who was causing trouble and became furious.

"Go find him!"

The villagers were furious. Someone shouted something and the angry villagers rushed to Hu Yongkang's house.

At this time, Hu Yongkang was still lying on the open space outside the gate of his house. There was an old tree on the open space. He was holding a small ceramic teapot in his hand, sitting under the tree, enjoying the cool air leisurely, with a maid beside him waving a palm-leaf fan.

The housekeeper saw the angry villagers from a distance and hurried over to report: "Dad, those unruly people are coming over, and they seem to have weapons in their hands."

"Send the servants over here, and then tell someone to report to the county right away."

Hu Yongkang took a sip of tea and spoke calmly.

Since he is a tyrant in the village, he naturally has a group of slaves, servants and thugs under his command.

Although they were not as numerous as the villagers, how many of them would dare to fight? When the fight started, he gave an order and the county yamen runners came over with shining knives, and everyone had to behave themselves.

"Yes."

The housekeeper hurried to the gate of the mansion and shouted, "Everyone, come out quickly, come out quickly, hurry up, and take your weapons."

At the call, twenty or thirty people came out of the mansion.

Then the steward asked a fast servant to run to the county immediately to inform Hu Yongkang's brother who was a clerk in the county.

Soon, the angry villagers rushed over, and someone shouted angrily, "Village head, why did you cut off our water source?"

"Yes, you must give us an explanation today, otherwise..."

"What else are you doing?"

Hu Yongkang stood up from his chair and sneered, "I cut off the water supply. My family has a lot of land and needs a lot of water, so I cut it off. I cut off the water supply for one day today, let it go for one day tomorrow, and I will cut off the water supply for another day the day after tomorrow. I am the head of the village, so I have the final say on how much water to distribute."

Seeing him approaching and seeing the Hu family servants around them holding sticks and staring at them, the villagers froze for a moment, but they still had some courage. They shouted angrily: "If you cut off the water supply, what will we use? If there is not enough water in the fields, the seedlings can't grow, what will we eat?"

Early rice is planted in late February or early March and harvested in late midsummer of May or early summer of June. Now, the end of March, is the critical time for rice growth. It needs a lot of water every day. If there is a lack of water, grain production will naturally decrease.

But Hu Yongkang had his own excuse: "I am planting new rice for you. This new rice uses more water, so naturally I should use more water. You all know that whether this new rice can produce more grain depends on me. Only if it can really produce more grain, you can switch to new rice in the second half of the year. If it doesn't produce much grain, I will have nothing this year. The greater the risk I take, the more water I need. Do you understand this principle?"

The villagers were so stunned by his fallacies and heresies that they could not find any excuse to refute him.

In fact, it is not difficult to refute Hu Yongkang's nonsense. However, the cognition of the ancient villagers was very low. They were lucky enough to have some simple moral values ​​and be able to distinguish right from wrong. They did not understand any big principles at all.

However, some villagers slowly figured it out and shouted, "No, that's not right. The new rice was originally given to us by the county, but you took it away. And you even said you were helping us grow it. What's more, if there's not enough water, there won't be any new rice in the second half of the year. We won't even have enough food to eat."

"Why tell him this? Let's go and dig up the dam he built."

Someone called out.

Hu Yongkang glared and said, "Let's see who dares."

The slaves and servants around immediately surrounded them with sticks in their hands.

Some timid villagers retreated to the back of the crowd for a while.

But some brave villagers shouted angrily: "Don't be afraid, Hu Yongkang just wants to take away our food so that he can take our land. If we lose our food, we will starve to death. Why should we be afraid of him? Let's fight him."

"Fight!"

When someone takes the lead, there will naturally be people shouting.

Hu Yongkang then shouted, "A bunch of unruly people are rebelling. Beat them up!"

At the command, the two sides started fighting each other.

There were many villagers, estimated to be seventy or eighty, but their ages varied. There were also some women and children among them, and the young and strong were about forty or fifty years old.

The most important reason was that many young and strong people did not dare to take action because of Hu Yongkang's usual tyranny and his brothers who worked in the county government. When they heard that there was going to be a fight, they immediately ran away and dared not come over.

On the other hand, the Hu family was confident. With the support of Hu Yongkang and his brother, they beat people very ferociously and the situation quickly became one-sided.

After being beaten for a while, some people became angry and picked up stones and sticks to fight back. The men in the fields were strong and slowly the situation was reversed, and the scene fell into chaos.

Seeing that his side was outnumbered and was about to fall into a disadvantage, Hu Yongkang frowned.

It seems that cutting off the water supply has indeed angered these peasants. After all, it is a matter of cutting off their livelihood, so naturally they are willing to fight him to the death.

But he didn't panic.

The bigger the incident, the better, so that his brothers in the county government will have a reason to arrest people and he can get the land.

About a quarter of an hour later, both sides were already bleeding. Although no one had been killed, it was obvious that the situation was almost over.

At this moment, more than ten people were seen rushing over from a distance.

"Stop it all!"

When they arrived at the scene, they immediately joined the fight. The leader kicked a villager to the ground, showed his shining knife, and shouted, "The county government is handling the case. Let's see who dares to take action!"

Hu Yongkang hurried over and said, "Third brother, you are finally here."

"Second brother."

The leading yamen runner, who was wearing official uniform, was Hu Yongkang's younger brother Hu Yongjian.

In the early Ming Dynasty, there was no such thing as three shifts of yamen runners. Generally, the only officials with ranks in a county yamen were the county magistrate, county magistrate, chief clerk and registrar. Lower counties did not even have registrar, let alone county lieutenants.

The six offices were responsible for the daily operations of the county. Suian County was just a lower-level county and did not have a prefect. The person in charge of the management of the county's yamen runners was the Dianli.

So to some extent, although the Dianli was not a rank official and was just a clerk, he was equivalent to the local police chief in the county and had considerable power.

This also led to Hu Yongkang becoming arrogant and domineering, with his mind full of thoughts of seizing other people's land.

Seeing his younger brother coming over, Hu Yongkang had someone to back him up, and he immediately became more arrogant. He put his hands on his hips, pointed at the villagers and said, "Third brother, you have to take care of this. These unruly people are going to rebel."

Hu Yongjian naturally sided with his relatives instead of the others, so he waved his hand and said, "Catch them all!"

"Master Dianli, you can't arrest people randomly. It's the headman who blocked our water supply. Without water, the seedlings can't grow. What will we eat?"

"Yes, sir, the head of the village is trying to kill us."

When the villagers saw Hu Yongjian, their angry minds gradually calmed down and they begged for mercy.

Officials have two mouths. They have knives in their hands. If they are charged with rioting, they may be killed.

Therefore, there has been a saying since ancient times that the people should not fight against the officials.

But Hu Yongjian sneered and said, "Since someone has reported it to the authorities, they must be taken to the county government office first. The county magistrate will decide the right and wrong. You can all go together."

"It's just a small matter, so don't bother the county master."

An older villager sneered and said, "We are all neighbors in the same village. Some things can be explained in the village."

Hu Yongjian looked around and saw that both sides were bleeding, but he coaxed and lied: "How can it be considered a small matter after such a fight? Besides, even if we don't go to the county government, we should go to the county to see a doctor. Come with me. Don't worry, as long as no one is killed, the county magistrate will not make a fuss and will deal with it impartially."

"Forget it, forget it. We still have to walk so far. These are just superficial injuries. I can just pick some herbs in the mountains and bandage them up a bit."

"Yes, there is no need to go to the county government. The court will have to be opened at that time, which will trouble the county magistrate."

"As long as you can get the water to us, we will kowtow to the village head."

The villagers waved their hands or bowed for mercy.

You must never go to the county government office.

If we go to the county government, won't they be able to decide right and wrong?

And the most important thing is that the clerk is responsible for the arrest work in the county. In many cases, the clerk will directly arrest people and put them in jail.

After entering the cell, he was severely beaten. He wanted to protest his injustice, but he couldn't even see the county magistrate. It was possible that the county magistrate didn't even know about the incident.

They will then be locked up and not brought to court.

Either the family members have to pay for the redemption, or they are forced to sign a land sale agreement, and the outcome is very tragic.

After all, these things are not just the villagers' imagination.

It has only been ten years since the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, and this is what the landlords in the county did before.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang used various means to suppress landlords and powerful people. For example, those landlords who hid to avoid war would return to their hometowns after the war, and their land would no longer belong to them.

There are also investigations into the identities of those pioneers. If it is discovered that the landlords are annexing the land, renting the land to tenants, and reaping the benefits themselves, they will be charged.

Then the wealthy families were moved to the vicinity of Yingtian Prefecture and Fengyang Prefecture.

The last and most ruthless move was to mobilize the people to report the crimes of the rich, convict the landlords and the rich, and then distribute the rich people's land to the people.

And they create big cases themselves, such as the Guo Huan case, which caused half of the middle class and above in the country to go bankrupt.

Zhu Yuanzhang used various means to strike hard at the landlord class in the early Ming Dynasty, inflicting a heavy blow to the power of the landlord class and greatly alleviating the land annexation situation since the Yuan Dynasty.

However, more than ten years later, the landlord class gradually made a comeback, using the same tactics as before, and they worked every time, causing great suffering to the people.

Therefore, the people are very clear about the interests involved and naturally do not want to go to the county government to become fish on the chopping board.

But the Hu brothers were going for their land, so they must have planned it in advance. Hu Yongjian sneered, "Since someone has reported the case, you have to go to court. It's not up to you. Come on, arrest them. Those who resist will be killed without mercy!"

"Master Dianli has great authority."

At this moment, someone stepped out from the crowd at the back and said with a sneer, "If someone didn't know, they would think you were the county lord."

"Who are you?"

Hu Yongjian saw five or six people coming out from behind. They were wearing the same uniform, with flying fish embroidered on the front of their bodies and spring swords embroidered on their waists. The leader also had a strange long tube on his back.

"Wang Danian, Hu Yongkang, Hu Yongjian, the Jinyiwei guard stationed in Suian County, a small flag, your brothers have been in trouble, come with us."

Wang Danian said lazily.

At this time, the Jinyiwei had just been established and had just been stationed throughout the country, and the locals were completely unaware of their reputation.

Therefore, the Jinyiwei throughout the country were also actively searching for intelligence, looking for evidence of local officials, gentry, and civilians committing crimes, and reporting them to the central government at all levels to draw attention.

In this way, the Jinyiwei could prove their value in front of the emperor and establish their own authority locally, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Now is the time to show their skills. Although the Jinyiwei are small in number, they are all elite soldiers and are full of confidence.

When he heard that they were Jinyiwei, Hu Yongjian frowned.

Naturally, he also heard about the imperial court sending the Jinyiwei to various places.

But he did not know the duties of the Jinyiwei, nor did he know what the Jinyiwei did, so he resisted instinctively.

"Nonsense, what right do you have to arrest us?"

Hu Yongjian said angrily.

He was not afraid of the other party.

Because in the early Ming Dynasty, the Jinyiwei's small flags and generals had no ranks, and only the centurions were of the sixth rank.

So theoretically speaking, the other party is not a high-ranking official and cannot control them.

But Wang Danian bowed to Nanjing in the northwest and said, "This is the order of His Majesty. Do you want to disobey it?"

"I think you are doing evil in the name of Grandpa Emperor."

Hu Yongjian didn't believe that the emperor would care about their remote place, so he sneered and said, "I will take you to the county government office, and the county magistrate will naturally punish you and report to the emperor."

"Oh?"

Wang Danian said happily: "It seems that you want to resist arrest."

"It's you who are causing the chaos."

Hu Yongjian waved his hand, signaling the brothers behind him to surround them.

Let’s arrest the person first. Then we’ll talk about how to tell the county magistrate and how the county magistrate will report it. They will naturally have their own way.

Wang Danian took out the bolt-action rifle from his back and aimed at Hu Yongjian.

Hu Yongjian was confused.

For the local county officials, they had never seen a musket, let alone a high-end rifle, so naturally they had no idea what this thing was.

next second.

"boom!"

With a loud bang, a bloody hole appeared on Hu Yongjian's forehead. He opened his eyes wide and slowly fell to the ground.

Wang Danian pulled the bolt to remove the bullet shell, aimed the gun at the others, and said calmly: "The Jinyiwei are the emperor's envoys, following the emperor's orders. Anyone who resists arrest will be killed without mercy!"

Kill first and play later!

Imperial special authorization.

This is how the Jinyiwei handles cases!
Starting this year.

The name of the Jinyiwei will also resound throughout the country, making the common people and corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty tremble in fear!

(End of this chapter)