The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 739 - 728: Kill with a Borrowed Knife I

Chapter 739: Chapter 728: Kill with a Borrowed Knife I

Even Chief Sun and Chief Mo couldn’t withstand the pressure from County Magistrate Tang, so naturally, Wang San, who had already been beaten, couldn’t either. Almost as soon as County Magistrate Tang’s voice fell, he broke down in tears and snot, confessing to everything.

However, his confession was all over the place.

"It was Brother Shu who roped us in, saying we’ll just take stuff, not sell it—just for our own use. Mix that wheat seed in with our own wheat seed, and no one can tell the difference," he said.

County Magistrate Tang could only ask one question at a time, "Aside from Sun Dashu, who else was with you?"

Wang San then named them one by one—a total of thirteen people, all young men from three nearby villages who often hung out together and were well acquainted.

County Magistrate Tang looked at the secretary, who meticulously recorded each name.

He continued his interrogation, "Did you know what was in Zhou Silang’s cart before the robbery?"

"Yes," Wang San gradually calmed down, and his answers became somewhat more coherent. He said, "Zhou Silang was selling the new wheat seeds; we all knew."

"How did you know?"

"We’ve seen him selling," Wang San said, "Many people from the villages bought from him. If it weren’t so expensive, our family would have liked to buy some as well."

Manbao snapped, "Nonsense, our wheat seed is clearly very cheap. Go look at the prices in the grain shops for the new versus the old wheat seeds."

Wang San: "My family couldn’t afford it!"

Bai Shan coldly asked, "So, that gives you the right to rob?"

Wang San hung his head in silence.

County Magistrate Tang banged the gavel and inquired, "Who suggested robbing?"

"Brother Shu."

County Magistrate Tang lifted his chin and said, "Tell me, what made you think of robbing the wheat seeds? Was there enough from that cart for all of you to share?"

Wang San hung his head and said, "Sir, our family only has three mu of land, and the others don’t have much more. There was enough wheat seed from that cart for us to divide, with some left over."

County Magistrate Tang raised his eyebrows slightly and, after glancing at the secretary, continued his questioning, "What about the leftovers?"

"They’re all at Brother Shu’s place. We plan to sell them once things settle down. The new wheat seeds, well, some grain shops outside are selling good new wheat seeds for as much as two hundred wen per dou."

Manbao scoffed. On one side, they complain that her Fourth Brother is selling too expensively, yet they turn around and base their own price on the grain shops’ pricing.

Wang San did not understand the scoff, and County Magistrate Tang shot her a warning glance, pulling out a warrant and handing it to the bailiff, "Since we have a confession and witnesses, the only thing missing is the physical evidence. I would like for the bailiff to take some men to arrest Sun Dashu and the others and retrieve the hidden wheat seeds."

The bailiff bowed quickly, accepted it, and then vanished.

With a wave of his hand, the bailiff led a swarm of yamen runners away.

County Magistrate Tang watched for a while with narrowed eyes, then beckoned for one of the yamen runners who remained in the hall and whispered an instruction, "Go tell the men going to the villages with the bailiff to start a rumor at Chief Sun’s and Chief Mo’s households. Say that Chief Sun and Chief Mo were caught for harboring criminals and might be charged with a crime against their entire family..."

The yamen runner complied.

County Magistrate Tang sat up straight and as he lifted his head met the sparkling eyes of Manbao and Bai Shan. He paused, then smiled slightly at them.

The secretary, having at last found some information, brought over a ledger for him to see and murmured in his ear.

County Magistrate Tang flipped through the ledger and asked, "Wang San, so many in your family and you only cultivate three mu of land? How much of that can be used to plant wheat?"

Wang San replied, "Only one and a half mu, and another six fen is paddy field for rice. The rest is poor quality dry land, only good for planting beans."

County Magistrate Tang flipped through the ledger, "In the third and fifth years of Da Zhen, when your two older brothers came of age, they each received land, though not the full twenty mu of ’Yongye Fields’ allotted. According to Huayang County’s standards that year, they each got eight mu. How could your family have sold so much land?"

Wang San seemed confused for a moment, then said, "Seems like when my older brothers were getting married, we sold some; then, there was the flood three years ago, and we sold some more to buy grain... It’s all a blur, now we only have three mu left in the family."

County Magistrate Tang rubbed his forehead and asked, "So your family only works three mu of land a year?"

"Not only that, we also rent land from the Ji Family."

County Magistrate Tang stared at the ledger for a long while, then closed it and asked, "Is it the Ji Family with an official in the Prince of Yizhou’s court?"

"Yes, yes, that’s the one, Counsellor Ji’s family."

County Magistrate Tang traced the rim of his tea cup with his finger, then turned to Manbao and Bai Shan and said, "The hour is getting late; you should go home and have lunch. You’ve been listening to this court session for half the day. Go back and tell Zhou Silang that I have caught the men and will give him an explanation."

What remained was not for them to hear.

Manbao and Bai Shan exchanged a glance, then bowed and took their leave.

Once outside the County Governmental Office, Manbao turned to look back at the main hall and snorted, "It’s just Counsellor Ji from the Prince of Yizhou’s household taking advantage of people’s misfortune to buy land. What is it that we’re not supposed to know?"

Manbao continued, "I also know that the Prince of Yizhou’s household, the Ying Family, and the Ji Family took the opportunity during the disaster to encircle a lot of land."

Bai Shan was also puzzled, "Right, which of these matters is not uglier? Bigger? What is it that we cannot know?"

Manbao looked up at the time, didn’t feel like going back to the herbal shop, and simply climbed into the carriage, "Let’s go home."

Zhou SiLang’s arm was still not healed, but he could already hop around at will. Yesterday, he had Zhou Lijun take Zhou Liulang to summon Chen Erlang and the others, and acquainted all fourteen men he had invited.

Chen Erlang was shocked to see Zhou SiLang’s young workers, gaping in amazement.

Zhou Liulang, on the other hand, was indifferent; he had been working in the fields at their age. Driving the carriage was easy—just don’t overturn it—so he thought they would be fine.

Zhou SiLang said, "There are fifteen of you in total, so we’ll rent fifteen carriages."

He continued, "The carriages will be empty on the return trip, and we will hire another group from our village. Rest assured, the journey will be very safe. We’ve even asked yamen runners from the county government to help watch the road a bit."

Chen Erlang and the others hurried to flatter, "Fourth Brother Zhou is amazing, even able to call upon people from the government office."

Zhou SiLang humbly replied, "After all, this business deal is with the County Governmental Office. The County Magistrate himself is very concerned."

Zhou Lijun raised her hand outside, and, seeing that Fourth Uncle hadn’t noticed her, called out loudly, "Fourth Uncle, what about me? Let’s rent sixteen carriages instead."

Zhou SiLang asked, "You want to go back home? Sixteen is fine, too, an extra one means we can carry more."

Chen Erlang awkwardly ventured, "Fourth Brother Zhou, isn’t it bad to bring a woman on a business trip?"

Zhou SiLang glared at him, "Who says so? I always bring my niece when I do business. If I didn’t bring her, who would do the accounts for me?"