Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 635: Plug the loopholes

After another five or six days of hard work, the land distribution to households in the four northern villages was completed. The next step was to issue land deeds to the villagers in these three villages.

Hua Lei asked someone to invite the village chief of Beiyi Village and several people in the village who liked to join in the fun and gossip, and they went to the vicinity of Liu the widow's home in Beisan Village and Shen the widower's home in Beisi Village to identify people.

Although everyone is new and has lived in the same village for half a year, they are not very familiar with each other, especially if they deliberately avoid people, they may not be able to recognize each other.

However, the approximate height and body shape should be remembered. After hanging out with several villagers, the village chief of Beiyi Village gave Hualei a 70% similar probability answer.

So, after consulting with Minister Zhang, Hua Lei asked Magistrate Zou to invite the widow Liu and the widower Shen to the county government office for questioning. Hua Lei sat behind a curtain and did not show up.

Because it was just his own guess, and Mobei was now actively attracting people to come here, so there were actually quite a few people coming from various states with family situations like Widow Liu and Widow Shen.

Therefore, Hua Lei was afraid that her wild thoughts would leave a bad impression on the people, so she just wanted County Magistrate Zou to test it out first.

However, perhaps out of a guilty conscience, the widow Liu, who arrived later with her three children, panicked when she saw the widower Shen kneeling in the hall to answer her questions.

Before Magistrate Zou could even ask any questions, Widow Liu burst into tears and confessed her affair with Widow Shen. They were from the same hometown and village, grew up together, and were in love with each other. Originally, Shen Youquan wanted to marry Liu Xiaoyu.

However, the elders in Liu Xiaoyu's family looked down on Shen Youquan's family because they were poor and had no food to eat. They could not even afford the betrothal gift, so they rejected Shen Youquan and married Liu Xiaoyu to a man in the neighboring village.

Widow Liu's husband, the Shen family, was quite wealthy, but he was frail and sickly. After Liu Xiaoyu married him, she did not give birth for several years.

Later, my husband finally recovered and had two daughters. I thought life would get better. But a few years ago, my husband caught a cold and died.

Liu Xiaoyu and her two daughters were driven back to her parents' home by her husband's uncle, and met Shen Youquan again. At that time, Shen Youquan had already married and had children.

However, perhaps it was true that what you can't get is always the best. So, not long after, Shen Youquan got together with Liu Xiaoyu behind his wife's back.

Later, the truth was revealed, and Shen Youquan's wife was so angry that she jumped into the river and committed suicide. The two of them could no longer stay in the local area, so they took their children and left the village overnight.

At that time, the children were still young. In order to support the family, Shen Youquan started a peddler's business, and Liu Xiaoyu stayed at home to take care of the four children.

However, after wandering around for a few years, life was still very tight. After hearing the news that Mobei was distributing farmland for free, he came here.

The two originally thought that they could live a good life after getting the land and the homestead, but they saw that the Liu family in the same village sold their land and returned to their hometown.

Shen Youquan, who used to be a peddler, started to think about it. He couldn't go back to his hometown, but he could learn from the Liu family and sell the land, but not go back to his hometown, and leave it in Mobei to divide it up again. In this way, he would have money and land, and he could also build a brick and tile house.

So, the two of them decided to sell the land at a discount, and after getting the money, they registered again.

In order to avoid being discovered by others, the two people "cleverly" split into two households and went to two villages, thinking that everything was perfect and waiting for the division of land.

I thought the house and land deeds would be issued quickly, just like the first time. But unexpectedly, this time, the homestead was distributed, but the land was not distributed to me, and the house and land deeds were also delayed. So the resale was delayed.

Unexpectedly, Jin Mancang, who had nothing to do with him, disrupted all his family's plans. Shen Youquan and Liu Xiaoyu's family of six were all sent to jail.

After learning the whole story, Minister Zhang was furious and ordered Magistrate Zou to deal with it strictly. Half a month later, Shen Youquan's family of six was stripped of their official titles, all their land and property were confiscated, and they were exiled to the northern desert. The whole family became refugees and were stuffed into the most difficult brick kiln for transformation.

The Liu family who returned to their hometown did not escape the wrath of Minister Zhang. However, the new policy of the court also had some omissions.

Therefore, all the money that Liu's family earned from selling their homestead and land was recovered, and they were fined 13 taels. However, because Liu's family had spent some of the money, they were unable to recover all the money and pay the fine.

So three months later, the whole family was taken back to Mobei, including the remarried daughter and new son-in-law, and sentenced to five years in prison. During the prison term, like other prisoners, they had to open up wasteland and build the state capital for free.

Afterwards, Minister Zhang asked the county government to issue a notice, stipulating that the fields and homesteads allocated to the people could not be resold for life.

If you really want to leave Mobei, you need to return all the homesteads and fields to the county government, and pay a certain amount of land rent before you can leave Mobei.

The decree was rather strict, but it had little impact on the people who really wanted to settle in Mobei. Although the decree stipulated that land could not be bought or sold for life, it was actually a form of protection for the powerless people.

Prevent wealthy and powerful people from using their power to force others to buy or sell their land.

The loophole in the court's land distribution was thus closed. The villagers who were originally ready to make some moves no longer dared to have any evil thoughts when they received the deeds for their homesteads and land.

After the land deeds of several villages were all processed, Hua Lei thought of the inconvenience caused by the lack of public wasteland and hills in Beiyi Village in front, so she made a suggestion to Minister Zhang.

Why not take advantage of the land distribution to distribute the barren hills in the village as well, so that all the problems can be solved and the barren hills can be put to use sooner.

After considering it, Minister Zhang agreed with Hualei's suggestion. So, he started to distribute the barren hills to several villages. Hualei had no experience, but according to past practice, the barren hills distributed to the villages were basically distributed according to the principle of proximity.

Thus, a new problem arose. The mountains in Mobei are densely packed, and several villages are basically located at the foot of several different mountains.

However, for the villages, the barren mountains are big and small, and the places are far and near. Every village wants to get a barren mountain that is close to the village, with better soil and larger area.