In the face of the censure from the Hall of Rites and the other aristocratic families, in addition to the fact that their intentions had already been exposed, the Punishment Hall and Fang Yun discussed and decided to go all the way. They issued a new set of laws in Jing Country.
It was the Law of Inheritance.
If the previous head of the family had other children, and the successor was not the only son or daughter, they could not inherit more than 80% of the family's wealth.
Apart from the successor to the head of the family, the rest of the sons had equal right to inherit. The son with the most wealth should not inherit more than three times the wealth of the son with the least wealth. The son with the most wealth should not inherit more than three times that of the son with the least wealth.
Daughters also had the right to inheritance. They could inherit houses, shops, or money. The total inheritance of a daughter could not be less than that of the son with the least wealth. The dowry of a married woman should be included in the family's inheritance.
However, treasures, relics, and other treasures were not included in the distribution. They were managed by the successor, and the other children had no right to inherit them.
The head of each family could be notarized by the government and make a specific distribution will, but they had to follow the law. Otherwise, if the children were dissatisfied with the distribution, the government could redistribute it.
Other than the main articles, there were other details and explanations. Like the previous decree, this law was made in two copies, one in Mandarin and one in Simplified Chinese.
Once this law was issued, it immediately caused a huge uproar and became the focus of discussion. Everyone quickly came to the conclusion that this was a copy of the Han Dynasty's Tui En Edict.
During the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Han issued the Tui En Edict in order to weaken the power of the kings.
Before the Tui En Edict, the power and land of the kings could only be inherited by the eldest son. After the Tui En Edict, the other children of the kings could receive titles and land. This caused the land and wealth of the descendants of the kings to gradually decrease, and they could no longer influence the imperial power.
Some people on the list were clamoring that this "Law of Inheritance" was simply the first blade to be used against the great clans of the human race.
However, more than half of the families did not react too strongly. This was because the successor would receive 80% of the family's wealth, and at most 20% would be given to the other children. This was completely acceptable. Some of the family heads even secretly sighed in relief. This way, they had an excuse to give more wealth to their favored sons.
A few days later, the Crackdown Department announced that the crackdown had escalated.
Previously, the crackdown only targeted malicious cases. Then, it targeted bandits and road bullies. Later, it targeted lynchings and prisons. In the fourth stage, they announced a crackdown on local tyrants and evil gentry who harmed the common people.
During this phase of the crackdown, the Punishment Hall began to mobilize the common people and put up notices everywhere.
The notice first explained the importance of cracking down on criminals and the disasters and harm that the local tyrants and evil gentry had brought to the people and Jingguo. Then, it encouraged the people to supervise and report the local tyrants and evil gentry who had committed crimes. Once they were verified, they would be rewarded immediately.
The most important reward was the distribution of money and land.
The crackdown this time had bypassed Jingguo's Ministry of Justice and various local organizations. It was completely taken over by the Punishment Hall, and the various provincial and prefecture armies cooperated with them. The scale of the crackdown was far greater than any previous phase of the crackdown.
As soon as the fourth phase of the crackdown began, all the families in Jingguo were devastated.
Jingguo, or rather, the entire Saint Origin World, was very conservative and pragmatic. Any rich and powerful family would try their best to increase the amount of land available to them. Therefore, the annexation of land was very serious. Any large family would have a large amount of land.
When there was land, there were all kinds of tenant farmers and workers. In order to establish their prestige as the landlord class, more than ninety percent of the families had done illegal things openly or secretly.
Some of the owners who broke the law were not evil people. They even often helped their subordinates by giving them porridge and food. They had a good reputation in the local area. However, in order to maximize the benefits of their family, they would involuntarily do some illegal things.
For example, they would ask their housekeepers to buy land. However, they knew what the housekeepers had done and what disgusting things they had done, but they pretended not to know and did not think that they had done anything wrong.
They thought that they had the natural right to control the people of the lower class. As long as they did not commit arson or murder, it was not a big deal even if they forced women into prostitution.
How could it be called beating up a son?
The rich and powerful wanted to buy land, but if the small families did not sell it, would they want to rebel?
They were kind to their families, their subordinates, and their business partners, but they would never be kind to the ordinary people who had a conflict of interest with them.
What flowed behind their gentle smiles was cold blood.
Therefore, what many tenant farmers liked to do the most was to proclaim that their master was good. They thought that their master was really good, but they didn't know that it was because they didn't have land, and they didn't have the land that their master wanted.
It was the same if they exchanged land for anything else.
The reason why their masters were good was because the slaves did not have what their masters wanted.
When the power of the Punishment Hall and the military began to spread throughout the country, letters were sent to the capital like snowflakes, and even to the Notre-Dame.
Any family that was related to high officials, aristocratic families, or scholars began to think of ways to escape punishment and plead for leniency.
This was because the investigation was not conducted by the Ministry of Justice, but by the Punishment Hall.
As long as the evidence was conclusive, the Punishment Hall would pass a sentence. Even the Half-saint could not cancel the crime. At most, the punishment could be reduced.
Therefore, these people wanted to use their connections to try to escape punishment or find a scapegoat before the Punishment Hall convicted their families.
The Punishment Hall was also made up of people.
As long as people were doing something, there would definitely be a solution.
In just one day, Fang Yun received more than 140 letters related to this matter.
Some were from childhood friends, some from neighbors, some from former colleagues, some from the local party members, some from the capital officials, some from the scholars of various countries, and some from the All Saints...
The contents of these letters were highly consistent. They all wanted Fang Yun to be lenient towards a certain family.
Some of the letters even explicitly said that the family would accept the punishment, but hoped that the family would not be exterminated.
After Fang Yun received the letters, he gathered everyone in the Left Minister's Pavilion into the side hall.
These people looked at Fang Yun with similar emotions hidden in their eyes.
Fang Yun scanned the crowd, patted the Left Minister's seal and said, "I received 143 letters pleading for leniency. How many letters did you receive? Let me hear it. "
The officials present secretly sighed in relief. Since Fang Yun said it out loud, the situation would not be too serious.
Dong Yueqian honestly said, "There are a total of nineteen letters that are explicit, and seven letters that are indirect."
Everyone rolled their eyes at Dong Yueqian. Fang Yun did not really want them to report the number, so there was no need for him to take the initiative to go into such detail.
"Hmm, Li Zhixiao, what about you?" Fang Yun asked.
Li Zhixiao smiled bitterly and said, "A little more than Dong Yueqian."
Fang Yun nodded and said, "What about you? Xu Changgeng, tell me. "
Xu Changgeng immediately smiled mischievously and said, "We know that the Prime Minister will not make things difficult for me, so I only picked one or two letters to pass on. As for the other letters, I really can't help. We have troubled the Prime Minister once or twice, but we can't trouble you too much. Don't you think so? "
The others secretly thought that Xu Changgeng was indeed shrewd.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
