usatvline Chapter 1480 The Case of Establishing an Heir
Chapter 1480 The Case of Establishing an Heir
Although Magistrate Wang was prone to procrastination, he was actually quite efficient in getting things done.
A single announcement, coupled with the use of violence, quickly assembled the labor force.
Sun Shan used a point-to-area approach, dividing the entire Yuanlu County into front, back, left, and right sections, and using the county seat as the center, he divided the labor force into four waves.
Each team was responsible for one direction, and they built irrigation canals village by village.
In areas where water is scarce, a pond was built to store water.
The villages closest to the county seat are the happiest by this water conservancy project, while the most frustrated are the villages in remote areas.
The villagers of Da Niao Village were also subject to conscription and had to travel hundreds of miles with the conscripts to work in the villages around the county seat.
Villager A from Big Bird Village complained, "Lord Sun's method is not good. Why is it built from near to far? I think it should be built from far to near."
Unfortunately, Big Bird Village is located in a remote mountainous area.
If it weren't for the remote location, flocks of birds wouldn't defecate on the back mountain, thus creating a huge bird droppings pit.
Villager B from Big Bird Village chimed in, "That's right, I don't know what Lord Sun was thinking. The closer to the city, the richer they are, so they can build their own irrigation canals. We, who are so far away, are the ones who should be built first, because we are dirt poor."
While digging, C, a villager from Big Bird Village, complained, "Didn't the village chief say he was very familiar with Lord Sun? Why didn't he let Lord Sun start the construction in our village first? I think the village chief is just bragging, humph."
Ding, a villager from Big Bird Village, rolled his eyes and said in a low voice, "Don't argue. If the village chief finds out, you'll definitely get scolded when you get back."
"Oh, why is our life so miserable? We traveled so far to get here, only to build a pond for another village. If we're going to build one, we should build one for our own village!"
After saying that, he continued to hoe the ground.
There were yamen runners watching over them not far away. If they were caught slacking off, they would be whipped in a heartbeat.
A passerby, who recognized the man as a resident of Big Bird Village, couldn't help but say, "Hey, you people from Big Bird Village, can you talk so arrogantly? You still say you're poor? Bah! Everyone knows your village is the richest now."
They were carrying sacks of bird droppings out as fertilizer, making a fortune. "Hmph, and they even dared to demand that Lord Sun repair your village's irrigation ditches first! Pah! With all that money, go repair them yourselves!"
Passerby A is the most pitiful one, not only because his village is remote, but more importantly, because he is poor.
Big Bird Village may be remote and far away, but it's rich.
Every household has someone cooking and working, and even the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled can do the work.
For example, security guards, cleaners, cooks—everyone who could fit in was from Big Bird Village.
The most pitiful are those remote, desolate mountain villages like theirs.
In fact, Sun Shan also wanted to build water conservancy projects from far to near, but unfortunately the remote areas were too remote. Not only would it take time to survey the terrain, but the projects were also too large.
Repairing the water conservancy system of a remote village is equivalent to repairing the water conservancy system of five villages with convenient transportation.
Sun Shan decided to repair all the easier villages first, and then tackle the difficult ones one by one. Things can be done slowly or with varying degrees of difficulty.
Since remote mountain villages have always been so difficult, it doesn't matter if they continue to be difficult for a while longer.
If we repair the easier-to-repair villages first, the effect will be immediate, and they will be ready for use the following spring—no, they should be ready to use immediately after they are repaired.
Whether it's dealing with people, tasks, or exam papers, Sun Shan always prefers to finish the easy ones first and leave the difficult ones for last.
However, the people in the remote mountainous areas had no idea what Sun Shan was thinking, and they all secretly cursed him.
They say he aided and abetted the wicked and bullied the weak.
The villagers of Big Bird Village were instantly enraged by this, and wanted to start cursing.
At this moment, the yamen runners came over and cursed fiercely, "What are you doing here? Don't you want to slack off?"
At this sound, everyone fell silent and went back to work.
The yamen runners were also feeling aggrieved. In the past, they would have stopped talking nonsense and just lashed out with a whip.
Since Sun Dali arrived, he has strictly enforced discipline, with the issue of disturbing the peace accounting for a very high percentage of the score.
If you are reported or complained about, you will lose a lot of points, and your end-of-month assessment will be marked with an "X". It's not just that there are no rewards, the worst thing is that your wages will be deducted.
Lord Sun's favorite thing to do is to deduct money from his pay by enforcing discipline.
Deduct, deduct, deduct your mother's money!
The constable muttered a few words and continued patrolling to prevent anyone from slacking off and failing to complete their mission.
At this moment, Sun Shan didn't care about the military service situation at all; he had left it all to Magistrate Wang and was just waiting to see the results.
At this very moment, Sun Shan received the "lawsuit" and was about to go to court for another trial.
"So majestic! So majestic!"
Wang Chao, Ma Han, Zhang Long, and Zhao Hu stood on both sides of the courtroom, banging on wooden sticks.
Because the yamen runners were all sent to various places to supervise the labor service, the entire yamen appeared empty, and even the courtroom seemed particularly spacious.
Master Zhang looked at the complaint and circled all the key points.
In short, it's a case of "establishing an heir".
The plaintiff is a member of the Leng family, and the defendants are elders of the Wen family, members of the Wen clan, and Ma, a relative by marriage.
The case is as follows: Mr. Wen, a wealthy man from Yuanlu County, lost his wife early in life and had a son, Young Master Wen, and a daughter, Little Sister Wen, who was still a minor.
A year after Young Master Wen and Madam Leng got married, Old Master Wen passed away.
Then, a year later, Young Master Wen also passed away.
Now, the Wen family is left with only the childless widow Leng Shi and the unmarried Wen Xiaomei.
Because the Wen family is large and wealthy, their relatives and friends are eyeing this huge prize covetously.
In particular, the fact that the Wen family had no male heirs and was almost extinct gave clansmen and relatives the most natural reason to interfere in the Wen family affairs.
According to the laws and regulations of the Great Qian Dynasty:
Those who have no sons may have their nephews of the same lineage and generational order inherit the family business.
1. First, pay respects to one's father and other close relatives. Then, pay respects to the major and minor mourning rites, and finally, the hempen robes.
If none
2: Fang Xu may choose to establish a distant relative.
3: To succeed someone with the same surname.
If an heir is established.
However, if he had a biological son, his family property would be divided equally with that of the original heir.
It is forbidden to adopt a member of the opposite sex as an heir, lest it disrupt the clan's order.
Those of the same surname must not be separated by rank or status, lest the order of seniority be disrupted.
This means that if a person has no children, they should first adopt from a close relative (within five degrees of kinship). If there is no suitable candidate within five degrees of kinship, then a distant relative can be adopted.
If there is no suitable candidate among distant relatives (outside the fifth degree of kinship), then a person with the same surname (from the same village or a different village) can be chosen.
If a person has already established an heir, and then suddenly has a biological son, the family property is divided equally between the stepson and the biological son.
In other words, unless the stepson commits some illegal act that would anger both heaven and man, the heir cannot be released and the relationship cannot be severed.
In selecting an heir, adopting a man of a different surname as an adopted son (i.e., a non-biological son) is prohibited. The purpose is to prevent outsiders from inheriting the clan's bloodline, ancestral worship rights, and property inheritance rights, thereby maintaining the purity of the patriarchal clan system.
For example, if Sun Shan had no sons, he could not elevate Hu Ming to the status of a Sun family heir.
Sun Shan must first select a suitable heir from the two branches of his uncles, Sun Ershu and Sun Sanshu.
However, since Sun Shan established his own sect, the selection of his successor expanded to the entire Sun family village, and he no longer needed to choose from the branches of his second and third uncles.
When choosing a successor with the same surname, the order of seniority must be observed; succession must be based on generational compatibility, and one cannot skip generational boundaries to choose a successor.
If Sun Shan wanted to establish an heir, he could not choose a child of the same generation as Sun Bomin; he had to choose a child of the same generation as or younger than Cowboy.