"It's just bloody and nonsense!" Zhuang Hong, who had already been suppressed by the charges that Li Ling kept citing, felt that he had caught the flaw in the boy's words, and immediately scolded loudly, "You don't think about it and then falsely accuse me of me. I didn't work in the county government more than ten years ago. Where did I get any crime?"

This was immediately responded by others. The county magistrate Feng Ping followed Fu Xu and said, "County Master, this troublemaker is just catching and biting things, saying something that is gone. If you want to see him, he just wants to disrupt the hearts of the people of Jiangcheng County. You should take down heavy responsibilities and ask who is instructing him to do these things!"

After hesitating for a moment, the chief clerk Wang He also said: "County Master, it is related to the reputation of our county government. It is better to be cautious!"

Wei Zhixian looked at Li Ling and felt that his words were too nonsense and not easy to be perfect. Of course, the thick stack of evidence on his hand did not turn back, so there was no idea about the more serious accusation Li Ling said: "Li Ling, don't talk nonsense, otherwise be careful that Wang Fa is ruthless!"

"Mr. The county master said that the people are not falsely accusing, but have indeed found a major bad policy from the many documents of the county yamen and the cabinets. This matter is indeed inseparable from Zhuang Dianshi!"

"You..." Zhuang Hong was about to refute again, but was taken first by the county magistrate. Wei Liang stared at Li Ling and said, "You said, if you can't convince people, I can only make you suffer."

Li Ling bowed and then looked at Zhuang Hong again and said, "Zhuang Dianshi, Caomin said just now that this corruption case is related to your ability to be the county government official, so you were naturally not in the yamen at that time. However, your father Zhuang Heng was working in the county government official at that time, and he was a household official. You would never deny this?"

Zhuang Hong's heart was a little nervous. This kid even knew his father's situation. It seemed that he had taken a lot of effort to investigate it carefully. But now, after being so many people, he was not easy to lie. He could only snort and nod, which was considered to have accepted this statement.

Li Ling did not talk to him again, but looked at Wei Magistrate again: "County Master, look at the next few testimonies. Caomin has clearly written the matter of that day. Just eighteen years ago, my Hengzhou Prefecture took the emperor's order, saying that we were asked to pay tribute to the local specialty jute silk cloth of 3,000 pieces, and said that this was the cost of the palace and could not be discounted. I think some older people present should still have some impression of this, right?"

The magistrate of Wei had turned the testimony behind him as he said, and looked carefully and his brows were slowly frowning. The people outside the hall also made a soft comment: "I really remember that something happened to him when he said that. At that time, the yamen wanted to level up all our fertile fields for specializing in planting jute and raising silkworms."

"Yes, that's the case, but later it was settled, and then it seemed that there were more miscellaneous donations. Otherwise, there would be problems with the grain in our county..."

"It's called Sigong Donation. This year, it seems that each family needs to take out two taels of silver..."

After a long discussion, everyone thought of this unpleasant thing. Now that the people of Dayue are in a variety of tax donations, everyone is not paying much attention to it.

Li Ling said again at this time: "As a citizen, since we are required to use it in the palace, we naturally dare not refuse to follow it. No matter how difficult it is, we have to do our best to do it. But strangely, a variable later came out, so that our county has never paid tribute to the silk cloth for more than ten years. Do you know why?"

Before anyone could answer, Li Ling had already given the answer himself: "That is an extra tax donation, jute donation. Just like we ordinary people who want to spend money to redeem the labor service, our county also spent a lot of money to waive this tribute donation. The one that was set at that time was 15,000 taels of silver. At that time, the market price of jute silk was 5,000 taels of price per piece was not high.

"Zhuang Dianshi, these policies are registered, and they are covered with the seal of Lord Lingzun, who was a county magistrate at that time. You will never refuse to admit it, right?"

Zhuang Hong pondered for a moment, not realizing that there was any problem, so he nodded and said, "I have an impression of this matter. It can be regarded as a small contribution made by my father to our Jiangcheng County, which is not worth mentioning. Why, do you want to say that my father was wrong in doing this? Do you want to say that we should destroy a lot of fertile land to save this tax and plant hemp?" Although he said this, he felt a little uneasy in his heart, but he had not yet thought that something was wrong.

Everyone around them also showed doubts, and still couldn't figure out what Li Ling sold in the gourd, why he said just now that this was a corruption case, and it was a greater crime than greed for public funds.

而这时的魏知县的脸色却已经变了,他从证词中抬头,诡异地看看李凌,又看看庄弘,直看得后者心里更是一阵发毛:“县尊……”

Li Ling smiled: "The problem is so big. Haven't you found this extremely unreasonable? At that time, the court asked the five counties of Hengzhou to jointly bear the three thousand pieces of jute silk cloth, and then the counties refused for their own reasons. In the end, the government office handed over all the donations to Jiangbei County in Lin County, and the other counties each paid subsidies to them. As I just said, the so-called jute donation was just to spend money to let Jiangbei grow hemp and silk cloth for our other four counties!"

Li Ling said this and took a deep breath and looked around: "After all, there was no royal donation, but the government at that time had just set up a name. What was even more shocking was that the tax of this 5,000 taels of silver should have been jointly borne by our other four counties, but in the end, the tax was all over our Jiangcheng County. Dear fellow villagers, for 18 years, for 18 years, we were all kept in the dark and paid taxes for the other four counties. And if I was right, this tax was not really sent to Jiangbei County, but fell into the hands of the people who lost their land as a result, but was embezzled by some people!

"In this incident, everyone was stolen and kept in the dark. Only the other three counties got the advantage, but our Jiangcheng County and the people of Jiangbei County suffered a great loss, which only allowed some corrupt officials to gain a lot of benefits from it. In eighteen years, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were all in their pockets!

"And the initiator of this matter was Zhuang Heng, the county magistrate who decided everything at that time. It was precisely because of his contribution to this matter that he was promoted to the county's dictionary. Then, you, Zhuang Dian Shi, took over your father's position and became the current county's dictionary!"

After a long passage, the slow reaction still felt a fog in the clouds and mountains. The quick-witted minds like Gu Yuezi had already changed their faces and were full of indignation. The brave one even cursed: "It's so shameless! It turns out that we have been paying taxes for others for the past eighteen years, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and it has fallen into their pockets. It's really worth killing, damn!"

First, a few people cursed. As someone explained enthusiastically, more people began to curse, and some people knelt down outside the hall and rushed up to the county magistrate Wei kowtowed repeatedly: "I would like to ask Master Qingtian to be fair for us..." For a moment, the crowd was excited and the scene was almost uncontrollable.

The officials of the county government, including Zhuang Hong and Feng Ping, were completely stunned and did not know what to do. They naturally knew about the donation of jute and had no less benefits, but no one had ever thought about whether this matter was reasonable or not. Anyway, this has been a case in more than ten years. Since senior officials did this, they could do it too.

But until today, as Li Ling completely exposes the inside story of this matter, everyone found that there is such a big disadvantage behind this matter. Now only a few hundred people know that once it is spread later, everyone knows that the dealer will be in trouble!

Because Li Ling had already said that the banker was able to become the fourth master of the county town from a minor official, and it was because of this, and the harm of the people in the town was much more serious than ordinary corruption and bribery. Because of other things, Zhuang Hong was bullied only a few people, and those people were unable to resist and could only endure it. But this matter was different. Their family had cheated the people in the city, and this grudge was really too big.

After being stunned, Zhuang Hong was panicked again and could only shout loudly: "You...you are simply talking nonsense! This matter is definitely not what you said. Take him down for me and drag him out and beat a hundred big boards!" In desperation, he had forgotten that the county magistrate was sitting above him, and directly ordered the punishment.

But this time, his subordinates did not pounce on him as if they had been cast into a destiny spell. Instead, they looked at him hesitantly and looked at the new county magistrate with a gloomy face above. On the one hand, they had concerns, and more importantly, they all had their own money to pay for the Zhuma donation, so they were naturally very annoyed and dissatisfied. At least it was impossible to do things so obediently at this time.

The magistrate of Wei County also said at this time: "Zhuang Dianshi, please be careful. Although Li Ling's words are only one-sided, they are also well-founded. If what he told me is true, then the official should make the decision for him and the people of Jiangcheng!" At the end of the conversation, his tone was already filled with a hint of silence, like a bucket of ice water poured on Zhuang Hong's head, making him silence in an instant.
Chapter completed!