Chapter 113 Cui Rong (Two chapters combined into one)

Jiang Han understood that this matter had nothing to do with his second daughter, but that the chef Zhang and his wife were most likely a pair of thieves.

Jiang Han didn't want to embarrass the child, so he put away the three notices and was about to leave.

But the little boy called out to him: "Can you leave one for me?"

Jiang Han was startled, but then he heard the little boy continue, "My mother is up there."

Anyway, the three notices were the same, so it didn't matter if there was one more or one less. Jiang Han took out one and gave it back to the little boy, then turned around and walked out.

......

A few days later, Zhao Shiqing and her party entered Liangdi. Zhao Shiqing borrowed Zhen Wuduo's guards and delivered the letter she had written on the road to Wang Ling.

My eldest brother is the lord of Liangdi, so there are some things I need to tell you in advance.

Then, she took her team, together with Cui Sanshao and Zhen Wuduo, to Fuyun County.

When they were halfway there, the guard who delivered the letter caught up with them and brought Zhao Tinghan's reply.

There were only a few words in the letter: I got it, go home early.

Zhao Shiqing felt warm in her heart. Going home, these two words were so good, even though the Prince Liang's Mansion was no longer her home...

Cui Rong, you are an official who loves the people like your own children, but you even hurt your own son. People like you are not worthy of being an official.

This girl has brought your son with her to take you in!

Fuyun County is administratively under the jurisdiction of Changwei Prefecture, which is named after Changwei Lake. It has a unique geography and is the place with the most water areas in the entire Liangdi.

Changweizhou is under the jurisdiction of Yuncheng Prefecture.

Although Fuyun County belongs to Changwei Prefecture, it is far away from Changwei Lake and is surrounded by mountains on three sides. Murong Linlang's hometown is located in Banshan Village not far from Fuyun City.

A few years ago, a major case occurred in Fuyun County, which made this small county notorious.

There was a wealthy businessman named Wang in Fuyun County. He was a horse dealer in his early years and made his fortune by selling horses. Later, the management of horses in the Dayong Dynasty became increasingly strict, and the horse trading business could no longer be done, so he returned to Fuyun County.

Not long after, Mr. Wang opened the largest brothel in Fuyun County. How big is this brothel? People who have been to Liangdu said that the scale of this brothel is not inferior to Liangdu.

Not only is the brothel large, but the prostitutes are all extremely beautiful and talented. It is conceivable that the small Fuyun County cannot afford such a large brothel.

A month later, another big gambling house was opened in Fuyun County. Then, guests from Changweizhou and other places came to Fuyun County one after another. One was to look for beautiful women, and the other was to gamble forever.

The increase in guests from other places has also boosted other industries, such as inns, restaurants, pawnshops, etc.

For the next five years, Fuyun County became a famous den of brothel in Liangdi.

Until one day, the procession of the old King Liang (Zhao Shiqing's adoptive father) passed through the streets of Liangdu. Suddenly, a middle-aged man rushed out from the side, stopped the sedan chair and cried out for justice, thus revealing the darkness behind the prosperity of Fuyun County.

During these five years, Mr. Wang forced women of good families into prostitution, colluded with officials and businessmen, robbed and plundered, and killed people to silence them.

Old King Liang ordered a thorough investigation and eventually found out that Chang Wei, the prefect, Fu Yun, the county magistrate, and officials in the Yuncheng government office, a total of ten people, all held shares in Mr. Wang's business.

Only 30% of the money earned by Mr. Wang belonged to him, and the rest belonged to these people.

This case lasted a whole year from the time the people stopped the sedan chair to appeal for justice to the final settlement.

Although there were only ten officials holding shares, there were dozens of officials involved in the case, and Changweizhou and Fuyun County were completely wiped out, and the Yuncheng prefectural government was also greatly affected.

Cui Sanshao's father, Cui Rong, was the second county magistrate transferred to Fuyun after this case occurred.

The one Zhao Shiqing met in Fuyun that year was the first one. He was transferred after only one year, and was succeeded by Cui Rong.

Although there was a term in between, the one who came was mainly to deal with the aftermath of the previous case. After that, he was transferred away.

Therefore, when Cui Rong took over, the government office was not completely in order, and Fuyun was still a mess, because the big brothels and gambling houses were uprooted, and the shops that relied on them for survival also closed down. The originally prosperous county town was now in depression.

If there was a better choice, Cui Rong would not come to Fuyun. Then, he had no choice.

When Cui Rong was the magistrate of Lang County, an earthquake occurred in Lang County. As a result of the earthquake, nearly a hundred people were killed or injured, and countless houses collapsed. Cui Rong not only failed to provide disaster relief in the first time, but also failed to fulfill his due responsibilities in resettling the victims. If he had not spent a lot of money, even if he was not punished, he would not have been able to keep his official position.

Therefore, he sat on the bench for a year, spent a lot of money, and finally came to Fuyun County.

But things did not go smoothly after he arrived in Fuyun County. After he finally adapted to the situation, he was fined a whole year's salary because of a case.

This case is actually very simple, it is a case of property infringement by uncles.

The father died, leaving behind a widowed mother and two children. The son was only eight years old at the time, but the elder sister was very capable. She started doing business at the age of fifteen. Not only did she develop the one shop left by her father into three, she also built a big house.

For the sake of her parents' home, my sister didn't get married until she was 25 years old.

The mother and brother didn't want their sister to suffer any injustice, so they gave one of the shops to her as a dowry.

Because the younger brother was determined to take the imperial examination and had no interest in business, the mother and son discussed and decided to let the elder sister continue to manage the remaining family business. In other words, the younger brother would only focus on studying, and 70% of the annual profits of the remaining two shops would belong to them.

In this matter, my sister is satisfied, my mother is satisfied, my brother is satisfied, and my sister's in-laws are also satisfied.

However, my uncle and uncle were not satisfied.

As elders, they did not allow the sister to receive such a large dowry, nor did they allow the married woman to continue to manage the family business.

Although my younger brother has no interest in business, he still has cousins. If that doesn't work, my uncle and aunt can manage the shop for him. It's not the turn of a married woman to take care of her parents' affairs.

Finally, the matter was brought to court.

Cui Rong made the following judgment: there were two options: first, if the elder sister still wanted to manage her mother's shop, she could stay in her mother's home as an aunt (because there were males in the family, they could not marry into the family), and her nephew would take care of her in her old age and see her to the end of her life.

Secondly, the shop can be used as a dowry for my sister, but she has no right to manage her mother's shop. Since her younger brother doesn't want to do business, then she can leave it to her uncle and aunt.

My younger brother was a scholar and had already become a student at that time. After the case was decided, my younger brother went to find his classmate without saying a word.

This classmate of his had a cousin who worked as an aide to the newly appointed Yuncheng prefect.

So this matter reached the ears of the prefect at a speed that Cui Rong could not have imagined.

It was originally a dispute over family property. Coincidentally, an official from the government office was passing through Fuyun on business, so the prefect asked him to take a look on the way.

Coincidentally, when the official went there, he saw the widow of that family kneeling in front of the yamen with disheveled hair, saying that her uncles in the clan bullied her and her widowed daughter, and that the magistrate not only did not stand up for the people, but also forced her daughter to break off the engagement, so she didn't want to live anymore and wanted to die here.

Although the widowed mother was later forcibly sent back home, the matter was reported to the prefect through this official.

The prefect was furious. You have to know that Fuyun had just experienced a major case of collusion between officials and businessmen, and the public anger had not yet subsided. Now Cui Rong had caused another incident. If the widowed mother really died in front of the yamen, not to mention Cui Rong, he, the prefect, would also be implicated.

The prefect called Chang Wei, the prefectural governor, over and scolded him. The prefect felt wronged because he knew nothing and was still the first to be scolded.

He called Cui Rong over again and scolded and threatened him, but in the end he told him that the family had been separated for many years and that there were male children in the family. His younger brother was already eighteen years old and was the head of the family, so he was the one who made the decisions on family affairs.

So the elder sister got married smoothly with her dowry, and continued to manage her mother's shop after marriage. Her widowed mother and younger brother had no worries about food and clothing, and her younger brother devoted himself to reading his books of sages.

Cui Rong also left a bad impression on the prefect and was fined one year's salary.

There was negligence in earthquake disaster relief in the beginning, and then there was unfair judgment in the case. These two things made Cui Rong's career as a county magistrate the same for more than ten years.

Zhao Shiqing didn't know about these things at first, and although Young Master Cui knew a little, it was only a little.

Before this, he even thought that his father was deliberately ostracized and slandered because he was too outstanding. Yes, this is what the Cui family themselves said.

As soon as Zhao Shiqing arrived in Fuyun, he went to the Murong family. His master Murong Xiang and his wife were out traveling and were not at home, so they were received by Murong Li, the second master of the Murong family.

Murong Li used to be a general in the Royal Guard, but later he had to retire due to severe rheumatism.

When Zhao Shiqing asked about County Magistrate Cui Rong, Murong Li immediately asked someone to inquire. In less than two hours, he had found out everything clearly.

Young Master Cui was so ashamed that he wanted to find a hole to hide in. Unless he went to Liangdi, he would never believe it even if he was beaten to death. His father was not only not a good father, but also not a good official.

Zhao Shiqing didn't try to persuade him. There was nothing to persuade him.

However, what Zhao Shiqing found even more interesting was that no one in Fuyun County knew that Aunt Wang was a concubine. Even Murong Li thought that Cui Rong had brought his wife with him when he took office.

Young Master Cui clenched his fists in anger. If Cui Rong took the initiative to tell others that Wang was just his concubine, how could outsiders mistake his concubine for his wife?

So everything was caused by Cui Rong.

Yes, if there is no favoritism towards concubines and killing of wives, how can there be killing of legitimate wives and praising illegitimate children?

"I'm going to sue him. I'm going to file a complaint in Liangdu!"

Although officials in Liang were appointed by the Ministry of Personnel, King Liang could dismiss anyone he wanted without reporting to the Ministry later. All he had to do was send a supplementary official document to the Ministry of Personnel afterwards.

In other words, after these officials arrived in Liang, although they were still managed by the capital, they had to obey the leadership of King Liang.

Therefore, Mr. Cui went to Liangdu to file a complaint.

He seemed to have thought of something and looked at Zhao Shiqing: "Second Miss, you are from Liangdi, you must be very familiar with Liangdu, you must know where to complain?"

Zhao Shiqing shook her head: "I'm not familiar with him, I don't know."

She looked at Chen Guanyue, then at Niu Qiu, and they both shook their heads. Yes, it seemed that they had indeed not mentioned Zhao Shiqing's true identity in front of Cui Sanshao.

So this silly child still doesn’t know that this second lady is actually the second lady of Prince Liang’s Mansion.

Zhao Shiqing: "Was Cui Rong's crime treason, high treason, or rebellion?"

Cui Sanshao shook his head, not understanding why Zhao Shiqing asked this: "Neither."

Zhao Shiqing looked at Shen Guanyue: "Do you know how to answer this question?"

Chen Guanyue nodded. As an unfilial son of the princess's mansion, he had also been forcibly indoctrinated with the Dayong Law.

"According to the Dayong Code, any descendant who accuses their grandparents or parents shall be punished with 100 strokes of the cane and three years' imprisonment. If the accusation is false, they shall be hanged.

You want to sue your father, do you have evidence? If you don’t have evidence, or if the evidence is false, then you will be sentenced to death by hanging.”

Young Master Cui was stunned. Yes, how could he forget that it was impossible for a son to sue his father.

He was an educated man, so of course he knew that he was just impulsive and his brain was filled with water.

"Then what should I do? Should I just let him and Aunt Wang go? Wouldn't my death be in vain?"

Zhao Shiqing narrowed his eyes and said, "Think of a way."

......

The group did not stay in an inn as that would make them too conspicuous, so they stayed in Banshan Village.

Banshan Village is a small village with only more than 30 households, all of whom are tenants who work for the Murong family. Although Murong Xiang and his wife are not at home, Murong Li can still make proper arrangements for Zhao Shiqing and his party.

In addition, Murong Li also sent over a long-time attendant of his named Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu's sister's home was not far from the county government office and she opened a snack shop. The bailiffs in the county government office often frequented the snack shop, and even Xiao Wu became very familiar with them.

The next day, Loach and Cui Sanshao appeared in the snack shop. Not long after, Xiao Wu came in with a maid.

The old woman's surname was Li. She was a servant in the back yamen and belonged to the county yamen. Her husband was the jailer in the yamen, her two sons were yamen runners, and she had a little daughter who worked with her in the back yamen.

Three county magistrates have come and gone, but their family is still there.

Loach handed over a silver ingot with a smile, and Mrs. Li looked at Loach more affectionately than she looked at her own son.

"Ask the magistrate's wife. Oh, I've never seen anyone so shameless at such an old age. I saw it with my own eyes the other day. She was sitting on the magistrate's lap. Tsk, tsk, tsk, oh, what about the magistrate's wife? Why are you two blushing? You're both grown men, and you're going to be married in two years. What are you blushing about?"

"Who is the magistrate's wife close to? You've asked the right person. No one else would know. She has a good friend, the court clerk in the pawnshop in the east of the city. Whenever she comes to the back office to see her, she's always very sneaky, afraid to be seen."

"Oh, there's one more thing you all must want to know. This is something very unusual..."

Loach handed over another ingot of silver, and Mrs. Li smiled and said, "Although this matter is unusual, if you want to know, I can tell you."

"When County Magistrate Cui first took office, in addition to his wife and two daughters, he was accompanied by a young girl of eighteen or nineteen years old. We all called her Miss Cousin. She was the niece of the County Magistrate's wife.

Later, the girl left, saying she was going home.

But guess what, just last month, my cousin had a new grandson, and I went to his third birthday. Her family lives in a remote area, and I haven't been there for several years.

I didn't expect to see the girl just after I came out of her house. She had changed into woman's clothes. She was accompanied by a woman with a child in her arms. Looking at the child's appearance and calculating the time she left the back office, it seems that she didn't go back to her hometown at all. It turns out that she hid here to give birth to a child!