A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 787 The sky has changed

In the simple farmhouse courtyard,
The ceremonial guards were set up, and the imperial guards, clad in armor and holding spears, stood solemnly on both sides.

Li Yi also changed into a purple robe and jade belt, and put on a goldfish pouch.

The villagers of Baiguwu stood outside the fence in fear and unease. Who could have imagined that the young man was actually the prime minister of the imperial court?

At this moment, the five monks, including Tanman, were ashen-faced. They didn't care about the magistrate of Dengfeng County, nor were they afraid of the governor of Luozhou.

But the Three Dukes of the Imperial Court, the Prime Minister, and the Imperial Envoys were different.

The cold wind is howling.

Snowflakes are falling.

Snapped,
Li Yi slammed a piece of wood heavily on the dining table, mistaking it for a gavel.
"Today, I, the Prime Minister, will publicly try the crimes of the monk Tanman and others!"

"Bring the ephemera!"

Tan Man was dragged directly to Li Yi's desk by Li Xiaoyi, who kicked him in the back of the knee and ordered, "Kneel down!"

"Lord Li, this humble monk was blind and failed to recognize your greatness. I have offended you in a moment of offense. I beg you, Lord Li, to forgive my petty transgression..."

Li Yi slapped the wooden stick in his hand again.
"Who is kneeling below? State your identity!"

With a bruised and swollen face, Tanman trembled slightly, but seeing the heavily armored and menacing Imperial Guards, he had no choice but to confess honestly, "This humble monk is Tanman, the steward of the Shaolin Temple's estate management office. I am responsible for this 4,000 mu of estate, as well as a water mill, an oil mill, a medicinal herb garden, and dozens of tenant farmers here..."

Tanman confessed his identity and crimes.

It wasn't just about Zhang Dashan, the tenant farmer, getting married today, and him taking the bride's first night; it also included how he used his power to force the tenant farmer to let him have his way with his wife and daughter.

He traded his wife and daughters for better land to farm.

Otherwise, he would either withdraw the tenants or give them inferior dry or wasteland to cultivate.

Tanman confessed that he had slept with the wives and daughters of many of the tenants under his jurisdiction. He even chose the foolish, kind, and honest tenants and paid for their marriages himself. However, he would not only sleep with the women he married for a month, but he could also come and sleep with them whenever he wanted.

Tanman even made tenant farmers' wives bear his children, paying them a sum of money for each child they gave birth to, or offering them a better piece of land to rent.

Li Cunli picked up his pen and wrote down all of his confessions.
As I was writing, I couldn't help but spit at that bald monk.

"This humble monk is merely trying something new."

Tanman tried to argue his way out of it, claiming that his adultery with the woman was just a new experience.

Li Yi couldn't stand it anymore, "First, give this lewd monk forty strokes with a stick."

The imperial guards were also furious. They immediately stepped forward, pinned him down, pulled down his trousers, and gave him forty lashes. If it weren't for Li Yi's instructions...
They could all just beat this bald monk to death with a stick.

The beating left Tanman with torn and bleeding skin, rendering him unable to move.

"Drag him over here and continue the interrogation!"

He answered Tan Man's questions honestly, revealing everything without daring to conceal anything further.

There are eighteen villages in front of and behind the temple, and every village has a mother-in-law.

Although Tanman was only a steward monk in charge of the estate, he managed several thousand acres of farmland and medicinal herb gardens, and those dozens of tenant farmers were like his servants.

When a girl grows up, he wants to try something new.

He wanted to try the new bride when someone got married.

He would try not only the young and beautiful ones, but also those who were neither good-looking nor young.

He would arbitrarily come to tenant farmers' homes to send their husbands away, doing whatever he pleased. Sometimes he would even use the excuse of going to work at the farm management office to summon the women away.

He confessed himself,
He had defiled all the women in the dozens of tenant households under his jurisdiction, whether they were beautiful or ugly, young or old, or even those with pockmarked faces.

However, he only ruined the old and ugly ones once to try something new and then stopped, while he frequently ruined the young and good-looking ones.

Tanman not only abused the women of the tenant farmers, but also swindled them through rented wine, gifts, and loans. Many tenant farmers worked hard year after year, but ended up accumulating more and more debt.

They were so deeply mired in debt that they couldn't extricate themselves and were often forced to sell their children to pay off their debts.

The tenants had no chance of escaping poverty; they were temple slaves for generations. Not only did they have to cultivate land for the temple year after year, handing over more than 60% of their harvest, but they also had to do at least 30 to 40 days of unpaid labor each year.

Not to mention, their debts have forced them to sell their children.

They were practically domesticated slaves, forced to work like cattle and horses, and even their children were sometimes sold off.

Land rent is split 60/40.

The forced labor of thirty to forty unemployed men each year,
Even renting land required paying a year's worth of grain as a deposit.

There are also various other forms of renting gifts and alcohol.
The large container takes in the water, while the small container takes it out.

These methods of exploitation are actually similar to those of other landlords; they're all the same.

They were especially ruthless in using loans, making it impossible for tenants to recover their losses.

If Tanman had only exploited the tenants in this way, Li Yi wouldn't have been so angry.

But what angered Li Yi the most was that he had violated the wives and daughters of dozens of tenant farmers under his jurisdiction.

It is an outrage against both gods and men.

Zhang Dashan borrowed money from Tanman to get married, but before his wife, Yu, was married, she had already been defiled by the monk who managed her estate.

Now Zhang Dashan borrowed a high-interest loan to pay a dowry to the Yu family and marry Yu Shi. However, the monk Tanman accepted the high interest but also demanded the money from Zhang Dashan's wife on their wedding night.

Most importantly, he was also a monk.

A person who has become a monk.

After the interrogation was completed,

Li Yi pointed at Tan Man, who was kowtowing and begging for mercy.

"This man is guilty of heinous crimes and shall be executed immediately!"

"cut!"

The Imperial Guards don't care whether you have Shaolin or not.

The local people regard Shaolin Temple as their heaven.

But the Imperial Guards were at least from the background of small landowners.

Landlords typically rent out their land, and it's common for them to exploit tenants through rent, loans, or even forced labor. However, it's rare to see monks openly abusing women like these.

With a shout of "Slay!",
The imperial guards then dragged Tanman away.
The tenants watching from outside the courtyard fence watched as Tanman, who had once been high above them and controlled their lives, was dragged out like a dead dog.

They all stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

At that moment, a woman trembled and cried out "Good!"

The woman had also been violated by Tanman. Later, when their daughter grew up, Tanman wanted to try something new. The couple refused, and Tanman beat the husband until he was crippled. In the end, their daughter was violated again.

"kill him!"

Another voice rang out.
She is still a woman.
It was an old woman, and on her daughter-in-law's first night in the family, Tanman took her for a try. Because she was somewhat attractive, Tanman frequently came to take advantage of her, even going so far as to forbid the old woman's son from touching his wife again.

One night, Tanman came to her house again and found the couple sleeping together. Tanman beat them and killed her son. Afterwards, Tanman forgave the debts the family owed and put the matter to rest.

"kill him!"

Another villager shouted angrily. This time it was an honest-looking farmer whose face turned red with anger.

He was a widower.
He had already married a wife, but on the first day his wife entered the house, Tanman came to try something new. His new wife resisted to the death and smashed her head against the wall.

Tanman only lost one cow.

In the past, the villagers dared not speak out against their anger, and had even become numb and accustomed to it.

But today,
They saw hope; someone was standing up for them.

Right outside Zhang Dashan's fence, on the village road,
Tanman was forced to sit on a woodpile.
He screamed in terror.

But all around him were shouts of villagers who had killed him and beaten him to death.

A flash of light,
The shiny bald head rolled to the ground.
The people cheered and applauded.

Several people even rushed up to him, wanting to eat his flesh.

The other four monks were already trembling with fear. Li Yi did not spare them either, and publicly interrogated them about their crimes. These four were not as high-ranking as Tanman, but they had done their share of evil.

Li Yi sentenced them to one hundred strokes of the cane and exile to Lingnan.

"Guards, immediately seal off the Baiguwu Estate!"

According to the confessions of Tanman and the other four, the Zhuangtian Division of Shaolin Temple, which was responsible for the management of the estates and tea gardens, as well as the rental and collection of rent, had serious problems and needed to be thoroughly investigated.

Li Yi was no longer in a hurry to go to Shaolin Temple.
Now that things have escalated, this matter is unlikely to end well.

查，
Investigate thoroughly.

This must be thoroughly investigated.

He had originally thought that if Shaolin Temple could be as pragmatic and cooperative as Baima Temple, then Li Yi could simply reorganize, dismiss some monks, reclaim some temple lands, and collect some taxes and grain, and that would be enough to get through the ordeal.

But now it seems that
This is a big problem.

Since that's the case, let's try a different approach.

Outside the fence,
The scene was extremely chaotic and out of control.

The villagers' pent-up resentment erupted at this moment.

They swarmed forward.

Li Yi forbade the Imperial Guards from stopping them.

Let the people vent their frustrations.

This is the terrifying power of resentment erupting.

Tanfeng and his three companions were so frightened they wet themselves.

He knelt down and kowtowed, begging Li Yi for protection.

"Everyone, silence!"

The imperial guards pounded their armor in unison, creating a clanging sound.

The chilling sound finally brought the villagers back to reality.

Li Yi did not blame them for their out-of-control behavior.

Instead, they announced some good news.

These tenants of the temple are now all registered as ordinary citizens and as good citizens of the state.

Furthermore, land was allocated according to the number of adult males, with each adult male receiving 100 mu of land, and each middle-aged man also receiving 100 mu. Since this area was a narrow village, the land allocation was halved.

However, if there are many people in the family, more points may be awarded as appropriate.

Those who are widows or disabled can also receive a larger share.

The allocated land
Naturally, these were the fields originally belonging to the Shaolin Temple's estate management office.

Moreover, the land currently rented by the tenants will be allocated to them first.

The first 20 mu of land was designated as permanent land, and the remainder was designated as allotted land.

As soon as this news came out,
The villagers, who had been staring at the four monks of Tanfeng, no longer paid attention to them and all rushed to inquire about the registration of households and the allocation of land.

They inquired about how much land their family would be entitled to, etc.

Each household will be allocated a minimum of fifty mu (approximately 1.3 hectares), with those having more male members receiving an additional share.

"Declare your age truthfully when registering. Do not pretend to be old or young, and do not impersonate Ding Zhong."

Li Yi also announced that all their past debts to the temple had been forgiven.

In the past, families whose wives and daughters had been abused by monks could register and report it, and Li Yi would first offer some condolences to each household.

"Each person will be compensated with ten mu of land."

If the villagers come forward to accuse the abusers and the investigation results are true, then each wife and daughter of the abused tenants will be compensated with ten mu of land, which will still belong to Yongye.

As for those families who were injured, crippled, or even driven to suicide by Tanman and his gang, each person received ten mu of land, an ox, and additional compensation in the form of money, silk, and grain.

These were all allocated from the estate management office, of course.

All debts forgiven.

Settling down is a good thing.

Land distribution...
The villagers cheered with joy.
Among the villagers, the groom, Zhang Dashan, was particularly excited.

Tonight, my wife's wedding night, belongs only to me.

The sky over Baiguwu has finally changed.

(End of this chapter)