GBP Chapter 122 This official is truly a dedicated workhorse!
Chapter 122 This official is truly a dedicated workhorse!
With the arrival of Magistrate Yang Shaofeng, the crowd that had been tightly packed together immediately parted to both sides, leaving a three-foot-wide gap in the middle.
Magistrate Yang coughed and slowly walked to the middle of the crowd. He saw a dozen or so young men divided into two groups, each holding a stick, shovel, rake, or other farm tools. Behind the young men holding the tools, a mother and daughter were hugging each other and crying.
After only a careful look at the two groups of young men, Magistrate Yang frowned deeply.
These dozen or so young men carrying sticks were definitely not from Ningyang County, because Magistrate Yang had traveled all over the eight communities and sixteen neighborhoods of Ningyang County and met all the people there, but he had never seen these people before.
On the contrary, Yang Shaofeng immediately recognized the young and strong men carrying farm tools such as shovels and rakes as people from the four neighborhoods south of the city.
Yang Shaofeng looked at the young men holding sticks and shouted, "Who are you? How dare you come to Ningyang County to cause trouble?"
A short man squeezed through the crowd, first bowing deeply to Magistrate Yang Shaofeng, then straightening up and pointing to the mother and daughter hiding in the crowd, saying, "Reporting to Your Excellency, my name is Chen Er, and I live in Yanzhou Prefecture. This woman is my sister-in-law, and I have come to take her back."
From the four quarters south of the city, a young man immediately shouted, "Bullshit! That's not how it is at all!"
A young man from the south of the city squeezed through the crowd and bowed deeply to Magistrate Yang. "Your Honor, it is true that Erni was originally his sister-in-law, but his elder brother has long since died. He brought Erni back this time because he wants to marry her!"
Chen Er retorted, "So what? My brother is dead, she was supposed to marry me anyway!"
Yang Shaofeng's face immediately darkened, and he frowned and shouted, "That's utter nonsense!"
Li Erqiang's marriage to his sister-in-law and brother's wife has been criticized for many years.
The filthy, smelly, and snotty noses of the Tang, Han, and Song dynasties all originated from this.
In particular, Chen Er's so-called "originally should" refers to the levirate marriage custom left by Hu Yuan, which means that after the death of the elder brother, the younger brother has the right to inherit the sister-in-law.
After glancing at the mother and daughter who were still embracing, and then at Chen Er and the others, Yang Shaofeng said with a dark face, "Come with me to the county government office."
Upon arriving at the Ningyang County government office, Yang Shaofeng immediately changed into the scarlet robe of a seventh-rank magistrate. He then instructed Lame Wu to arrange for the yamen runners to stand guard, while the fast-shifting yamen runners brought the mother and daughter, along with Chen Er and the others, directly to the courtroom.
Yang Shaofeng slammed his gavel and shouted, "Chen Er, tell me the whole story honestly!"
Chen Er bowed respectfully and replied with his hands clasped, "Your Excellency, Xu Erni married my brother in the 25th year of the Zhizheng era, and my brother died in the 28th year of the Zhizheng era. I have been away from home for many years, and only recently did I learn of my brother's death and that my sister-in-law had returned to her parents' home. I couldn't bear to see my sister-in-law living a hard life alone, so I thought of taking her back so that she could be taken care of in the future."
Yang Shaofeng was so angry he laughed.
What did Chen Er say when he was on the street just now?
"My brother is dead, she should have married me!"
They can be as arrogant as they want.
Now that we're in the main hall, what does Chen Er say?
"Take her back with us, so we can look after her in the future."
He spoke as if he were a virtuous gentleman who was concerned for his widowed sister-in-law, not at all like a lecherous old man who coveted her body.
Magistrate Yang sneered, then turned to look at Erni and her mother: "Erni, I ask you, what is your husband's name, where does he live, what does he do for a living, what does Chen Er do for a living, and do you recognize the people he brought with him?"
Erni knelt down with a thud and replied, "Reporting to Your Excellency, my husband's name is Chen Da, and we live in Laowang Village, Yanzhou Prefecture. Originally, he was, he was..."
Seeing that Erni had been trying to come up with a solution for a long time without success, Yang Shaofeng frowned and shouted, "What is it?!"
Erni was startled and stammered, "He was originally captured by the Tartars to serve as a soldier, but later died in the war. However, he was really captured, he didn't go there of his own accord, please, Your Excellency, see the truth!"
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement, signaling Erni to continue.
Erni continued, “After my husband died, there was hardly anyone left in his family. At that time, Chen Er was also in the Tartar army, but there was no news of him for many years. The uncles and brothers in the clan thought that Chen Er had died in the chaos of war, just like my husband. All the land my husband left behind was taken away by them. Just a few days ago, I was also driven back to my parents’ home by them.”
"Unexpectedly, Chen Er suddenly returned, and he had come to my family home the day before yesterday, trying to forcibly take me back to Yanzhou Prefecture, and even said that he wanted me to marry... marry him."
"This young lady is unwilling, and her brothers from her family have also stopped Chen Er. However, she never expected that he would bring so many people to cause trouble today. She hopes that Your Excellency will see the truth."
Yang Shaofeng hummed in agreement, then looked at Chen Er and asked, "Chen Er, do you have any objections to what your sister-in-law Erni said?"
Chen Er replied, "My lord, I have no objection. However, after I returned, I made it clear to my uncles and brothers in the clan that no one will dare to bully her again, and they also support my decision to take her back."
As Chen Er finished speaking, Erni's face turned deathly pale.
To Erni, Chen Er's words didn't mean how he would treat her well in the future, but rather that he could suppress the uncles and brothers in the clan, and that the uncles and brothers in the clan would stand on his side and support him in "marrying" her.
So, how will the county magistrate rule?
Although it is said that the county magistrate is a benevolent official, no matter how good the benevolent official is, he is still an official. Would he offend a powerful clan in the prefecture for the sake of a commoner girl like himself who had long been married off and whom he had never met?
Even his own mother didn't cry out again after the master appeared; instead, she held his hand and trembled. Doesn't that say something?
Just as Erni's heart was growing colder, Yang Shaofeng rubbed his forehead and casually ordered Limpy Wu, "Take this Chen Er and all the people he brought away away, whip them twenty times, and then throw them out of the county town and let them get lost."
“Every single one of those people who stood up in Binglu, south of the city today will receive a reward of five hundred coins, ten eggs, ten salted duck eggs, one can of food, five catties of lard, and one catty of salt.”
After Limpy Wu agreed, Yang Shaofeng turned his gaze to Erni's mother amidst Chen Er and the others' shouts and curses for mercy: "I remember you should be Xu Liu, the widowed woman from Bing Er Lü?"
"Erni was sent back to her parents' home, why didn't you bring her to the county government to register?"
"Why didn't you inform me when Chen Er and his men came a few days ago?"
"They came again today, why didn't you report them to the authorities?"
"Do you not regard me as your parent official?"
Just as Xu Liu was about to speak in her defense, Yang Shaofeng waved his hand and snorted coldly, saying, "I will not listen to your explanation. It is your fault that you did not send someone to report to the authorities."
After a moment's thought, Yang Shaofeng made a decision: "I hereby punish you by sending ten eggs to the county government office. In addition, you must also send ten eggs to each of the people who stood up today. Not one less is acceptable."
"Have Erni stay here for a while, and I will register her in the household register. Tomorrow, I will let her go and reclaim her land."
"Remember, if anything happens in the future, report it to the authorities. Do you think I'll just stand by and watch you get bullied?"
"Retire!"
……
It has to be me!
As Magistrate Yang ground ink and wrote his memorial, he secretly praised himself in his heart—"I uphold justice for the people, make fair judgments, and cultivate the people's awareness that they should report to the authorities as soon as they encounter problems. Is there any better official in the world than me?"
Then, Magistrate Yang wrote a few words heavily on the memorial paper.
"Yang, the magistrate of Ningyang County, Yanzhou Prefecture, respectfully submits a memorial requesting the abolition of the customs of the Hu people in order to rectify the etiquette of the Chinese people. The reasons are as follows: ... respectfully submitted."
Damn it, the Mongols practiced levirate marriage back then because productivity was low at the beginning. If the older brother died, the sister-in-law and nephew might really starve to death. The younger brother marrying the sister-in-law was a way of taking responsibility, just like how the Central Plains clans took more wives after war as a way of taking responsibility. Later, it evolved into a custom.
But things are different in the Central Plains branch. If the widowed sister-in-law is willing, others will just give her some pointers and say a few words behind her back. But to force her to marry when she doesn't agree is just going against human ethics.
Moreover, the practice of levirate marriage reflects the fact that many Hu customs have gradually penetrated into the folk, and the folk have begun to accept and even become accustomed to them!
This won't do, especially since the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, which will be recovered later, absolutely cannot be allowed to happen again.
After finishing his memorial to Zhu Yuanzhang, Yang Shaofeng pondered for a moment and then began writing official documents for the prefect of Yanzhou and the Shandong Provincial Secretariat.
Although his two superiors, Wang Guangyang, the Provincial Councilor of Shandong, and Wu Zude, the Prefect of Yanzhou, never inquired about his work, it was still unacceptable for a county magistrate to consistently fail to report to his superiors.
Thinking of this, Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, couldn't help but give himself a thumbs up.
It has to be me, what a dedicated servant!