The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 738 - 727: Borrowing a Knife

Chapter 738: Chapter 727: Borrowing a Knife

County Magistrate Tang spoke indifferently, "A district with a hundred households, how many people can there be in one household? You have lived here for generations, grown up here, yet you can’t even recognize all the people from a hundred households. I am very curious, how were you elected as Chief?"

Cold sweat broke out on Chief Mo’s forehead all at once.

County Magistrate Tang picked up the gavel and slapped it down hard, bellowing angrily, "Collusion between officials and civilians, shielding each other, are you challenging me, or is the entirety of your district contemplating rebellion against Great Jin?"

Upon hearing this, both Chief Mo and Chief Sun immediately fell to the ground, crying out fervently, "Lord Tang, we beg for mercy, we have no intention of rebelling at all."

Chief Mo turned his head towards Chief Sun and shouted, "Chief Sun, are you still going to shield your clansmen even now?"

Chief Sun’s face turned ashen in an instant, feeling a fierce gaze upon him, he couldn’t help but silently grit his teeth, though he dared not show a trace of it on his face and immediately prostrated himself on the ground, admitting guilt, "Lord Tang, forgive me, this humble old man is guilty. The one being punished here is named Wang San, he is one of our local people."

County Magistrate Tang, with an expressionless face, said, "But his surname isn’t Sun, is it?"

Chief Sun, drenched in cold sweat and feeling guilty, said, "There is indeed a clansman named Sun Dashu. A couple of days ago, I overheard some news that recently Sun Dashu took a group of youths, close friends from two or three nearby villages, on a trip and made a sum of money on their return."

He continued, "These youths were indolent every day, and when I heard this news I was quite pleased, thinking they had grown up and learned to improve themselves. But later I vaguely heard that the money was not obtained honorably. Chief Mo knows about this as well, because several of the youths from his district were involved."

Now it was Chief Mo’s turn to grit his teeth.

The gaze of County Magistrate Tang turned towards Chief Mo.

Chief Mo had no choice but to admit with a "Yes," and said, "It was all vague hearsay, with no concrete evidence. After all, we are outsiders, we can’t just ask them how they made their money, otherwise it might seem as if we want to take their livelihood."

"Why is it that whenever I send my clerks to investigate them, they always give me the runaround?"

Chief Mo and Chief Sun both protested together, saying, "Lord, we truly have not been giving the runaround. It’s just that the portraits the clerks brought were all so blurry, and perhaps also because we are old and our eyesight is failing, we really cannot recognize the people in the drawings."

County Magistrate Tang sneered.

Did he not know whether the portraits were blurred or not?

The original drawing was by Bai Shan, and the person involved, Zhou SiLang himself, said it was very similar, plus it was drawn according to a sketch by a commissioned artist, which he had compared himself, and it was not much different from the real person.

Telling him now that the drawings were blurred, did they think he was a fool?

Bai Shan was also unhappy, given that it was his drawing after all.

Bai Shan, taking things seriously, stepped forward, picked up Wang San’s portrait, held it up to his face for a close comparison, and then said, "Lord Tang, although this portrait is not entirely like the real person, it is at least seventy percent accurate. I don’t believe those familiar with Wang San would fail to recognize him."

Chief Mo and Chief Sun quietly raised their heads to glance at Bai Shan, not knowing who this young man was, where he had popped up from.

So they slightly frowned.

After scanning them, Bai Shan spoke again, "Lord, it’s understandable if the two Chiefs say they are old and their eyes are failing to recognize the person, but does that mean everyone in the three villages also has poor vision? Clearly, they are deliberately shielding him."

Chief Mo, intimidated by County Magistrate Tang but undaunted by Bai Shan, retorted, "You child, how can you make random accusations without evidence? Lord, I assure you, every word we said is true, we really had no intention of hiding anything."

County Magistrate Tang, smiling at Bai Shan, asked, "And what do you have to say?"

Bai Shan put the drawing away and returned to Manbao’s side, saying, "Let’s assume that what you have said is true. Lord, if the two Chiefs’ eyesight is so poor that it affects their duties, clearly they are negligent. The Chiefs are supposed to manage the villagers on behalf of the imperial court, yet if they can’t even recognize the members of their own hundred households, how can they be effective in managing the people for the court?"

With a detached look, Bai Shan glanced down at the two Chiefs kneeling on the ground and said, "Perhaps Lord Tang could show some compassion and let them return home to retire."

County Magistrate Tang nodded slightly, smiling, "You make a good point."

Chiefs Mo and Sun turned pale but simultaneously felt a faint sense of relief.

County Magistrate Tang smiled thinly and said, "However, even if Chief Mo and Chief Sun are at fault, they have been managing the villagers on behalf of the imperial court for many years. If there are faults, there should be punishment, but if there are merits, there should naturally be rewards as well. Someone, please escort Chief Mo and Chief Sun to stay in the government office for now, and tomorrow I will call for other Chiefs to come and discuss their merits and punishment."

Chiefs Mo and Sun, taken aback, immediately fell to the ground refusing, "We dare not, we dare not. With such troublemakers emerging under our governance, we are already grateful that Lord Tang hasn’t punished us. How could we dare talk about merits?"

County Magistrate Tang said with a smile that was not quite a smile, "You two elders jest. If there are merits, they should be rewarded, and faults must certainly be punished."

Chiefs Mo and Sun felt a chill in their hearts, realizing that he wasn’t really keeping them to discuss merits and rewards, but waiting to punish them, right?

But then again...

The two thought it over carefully. Yes, they had faults, but there seemed to be no actual evidence proving their guilt.

At worst, it was just negligence and oversight.

If they stuck to their story that they couldn’t recognize the person in the drawing, who could say for sure that they could?

After all, both of them were indeed getting on in years.

The bailiffs led the two away.

County Magistrate Tang watched their backs with a sneer.

Manbao stared at County Magistrate Tang, then whispered to Bai Shan, "I think County Magistrate Tang has set you up."

Bai Shan, not being foolish, said, "Are you suggesting I shouldn’t have been so outspoken?"

Manbao: "Be careful they bear a grudge against you."

Bai Shan replied, "What to do then, I was angry and just wanted to snap back."

Seeing the two whisper to each other right in front of him, County Magistrate Tang couldn’t help but tap his fingers and said, "Can you two be a bit more discreet?"

Manbao and Bai Shan immediately quieted down.

The bandit, no, Wang San, was dragged up instantly.

County Magistrate Tang refilled his tea, took another sip, waved his hand, and the secretary brought forward a household registration ledger that had just been consulted, saying, "Lord, based on the testimony of Chief Sun, we found Wang San’s household registration. His name is indeed Wang San, with a family of eight members, both parents alive, with two elder brothers, both brothers are married, and there’s a nephew, living at the twenty-eighth household of Sun Family Village..."

Wang San, lying on the ground, turned deathly pale.

County Magistrate Tang glanced at him and threw down a token, commanding, "Take some men and bring the entire Wang family here, all of them."

Wang San immediately looked up, crawling forward a couple of steps and pleaded, "Lord, Lord, this has nothing to do with my family, they know nothing at all, absolutely nothing."

County Magistrate Tang asked coldly, "What doesn’t concern them?"

Wang San’s face turned even paler.

County Magistrate Tang pressed on, "If it doesn’t concern them, then whose matter is it? Sun Dashu’s? Besides Sun Dashu, who else?"

After finishing his question, County Magistrate Tang slammed the gavel down once more and demanded, "I’ll ask you one more time, will you confess or not? If you won’t, someone else will confess for you. By then, I’ll have no patience to listen to your excuses. The clerks have taken your portrait to your home and neither your parents nor brothers recognized you; that’s the crime of concealment. Whatever crime you have committed, they will receive equal punishment!"