Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 633: There is a loophole in the decree

After hearing from the imperial court that land would be distributed for free, he brought four poor younger brothers to Mobei and became residents of Beier Village.

However, after half a year, I got five pieces of land for housing, but I haven't built a house yet. Even a thatched house has not been built.

I dug a cave with four of my younger brothers, following the methods of the Diwozi Village, and lived together. There was no vegetable planted on the open space next to it, and it was still a wasteland. Several people lived a life of hunger and fullness.

Originally, if he worked harder, he could go to the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works to work and earn some cash, and live a good life. Unfortunately, Jin Mancang was spoiled.

He was afraid of hard work and was lazy. The reason why he brought a few younger brothers to Mobei was that he wanted to get the homestead and fields for free and then sell them quietly to get some money for his own extravagance.

So, he was not happy when he saw the number 57 in his hand. There were only 60 households in the village, and he was the third from the bottom. How could he get any good land?

And, to be honest, if Hualei still divided the land according to the first-come-first-served method, he and his younger brothers would be among the top ten in Beier Village.

If he couldn't get good land, he couldn't sell it at a good price, so wouldn't the money he got be less than half? So he started to quarrel with the few brothers he brought with him.

Seeing the people who were deliberately picking quarrels, Hua Lei tried to hold back her anger at first. However, as the quarrels went on, from the foul language they were using, Hua Lei discovered a loophole in the imperial court.

Among these newly immigrated people, are there many who have the same idea as Jin Mancang, just to get the homesteads and fields distributed by the court for free and then sell them off?

"Catch all these people and send them to the jail." Hua Lei ordered the runners behind her. Every official who came out to patrol would be followed by a few runners.

The bailiffs rushed forward, arrested several people, and tied them up. "What do you want to do? You won't let people talk. We were the first to come to Mobei, why should we be the last to choose the land?"

The few people who had just been scolding so arrogantly panicked when they saw that Hua Lei was serious, and shouted in a bluffing manner:

When the other villagers saw this, they also looked unhappy, especially those villagers who also hoped to divide the land according to the order of first come, first served.

They didn't know Hua Lei, who had just returned to the county government, and didn't know what kind of person she was. They just felt that Hua Lei was abusing her power.

Hua Lei took out the doctor's token and said clearly: "These people disturbed the order, refused to follow the rules, and insulted the court officials. You have all heard about this. I will take them back and let County Magistrate Zou to try them.

However, it makes sense that everyone doesn't want to draw lots and wants to divide the land according to the order of first come first served. How about this, we won't divide the land today, everyone go back and discuss what to do next? "

Hualei calmed down the villagers who were talking about it, and took Jin Mancang and a few others back to the county government. Then she immediately went to find Minister Zhang and told him about the loopholes caused by the court's free distribution of homesteads and fields.

When Minister Zhang heard this, he was stunned. He had never thought of this possibility. There were more than thirty prefectures in the Great Sheng Dynasty. There was still a huge gap between the rich and the poor among the prefectures.

In many provincial capitals, including the capital, many aristocratic families and wealthy gentry bought large amounts of land. Many local people did not have land of their own and had to rent land for farming.

However, areas like the northern and eastern deserts are vast and sparsely populated, with many fields uncultivated.

Therefore, in order to attract these landless people to Mobei, the imperial court came up with the policy of distributing land for free based on the number of people.

If Jin Mancang really does something like this, then the problem becomes a bit distorted.

Therefore, Minister Zhang assigned a few people and personally worked with Hua Lei to survey Beiyi Village, which had already received the farmland, and the other three villages that only received the residential land.

The investigation revealed that two families in Beiyi Village had sold the fields and homesteads allocated to them by the court and left the village in October and November last year respectively.

Among the two families, one of them was named Shen, with six people in the family, so they only got a medium-sized residential plot and seven mu and two fen of land. After hastily planting for one season, they sold the residential plot and the land to someone in the same village for twenty taels of silver.

Another family, surnamed Liu, had seven members: a middle-aged couple in their 40s, a young couple in their 23s and 24s, two children under the age of 10, and a 26-year-old woman who was divorced and sent back to her parents' home.

Because the imperial court did not have any explicit regulations stating that people who had obtained homesteads and fields could not buy and sell them, and everyone was new and not very familiar with each other, and the village chief did not think this was a problem, so he did not report it.

The three villages that have obtained homesteads have not yet discovered the problem of resale. Of course, the biggest reason is probably that everyone has not yet obtained the house deeds and land deeds.

Minister Zhang's face was a little ugly. The Ministry of Revenue must intervene in this issue and plug this loophole. Otherwise, more people will take advantage of it.

Hualei looked through the information of the two families who had sold their homesteads and fields, and her mind moved slightly. She turned around and went to find County Magistrate Zou to check the road permits issued by the county government in October and November last year.

In the Great Sheng Dynasty, a road permit was a pass issued by the government to the people, or an identity document, which usually contained basic personal information, including name, gender, age, place of origin, and reason for travel.

If people who have sold their homesteads and fields want to return to their hometown, they need a pass issued by the Mobei County Government before they can set off.

After returning to their hometown, they need to send the pass to the local county government office and exchange it for a settlement certificate before they can settle down. Of course, some people use forged passes or impersonate others.

Hualei found a pass for a family surnamed Liu in the pass slip. There were seven people in total, and the reason for the trip on the pass slip was to send a girl back to her hometown to marry. Regardless of whether the reason for the trip was true or not, it at least proved that this family had indeed left the small town of Mobei.

But Hualei couldn't find the pass of another family named Shen. Could it be that they didn't leave Mobei Town and were still working for the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works?

This is unlikely. If you really want to do something, you don't need to sell the homestead and the land.