Shen Mingchen asked curiously, "But Master has already received the banknote."

"You have to collect the banknotes and report to the authorities. Spit out what you ate from me, return what you stole from me, and double the amount!"

Xu Yan said coldly.

Shen Mingchen exclaimed in admiration: "As expected of my mentor, you have the best of both worlds."

Xu Yan winked at Shen Mingchen, indicating that he should remove the cloth bag from Zhou Dafu's head.

Although Shen Mingchen was a little afraid that Zhou Dafu would do something bad to him out of desperation, he thought that with three people in the room, it should not be a problem to deal with a vicious servant with his hands and feet tied together, so he walked up to Zhou Dafu.

He took a deep breath, bent down and pulled the cloth bag off Zhou Dafu's head.

In an instant, the image of a vicious servant with a bruised face and a beaten nose jumped into the eye.

Xu Yan couldn't help but frown.

The people from the Zhou family are really ruthless.

"Take the rag out of his mouth."

Xu Yan said lightly.

Shen Mingchen secretly groaned in his heart, what if this evil servant took the opportunity to bite him?

But since his mentor had given the order, he dared not disobey, so he had to bite the bullet and stretch his right hand towards Zhou Dafu's mouth.

It happened so quickly that Shen Mingchen did not give Zhou Dafu any time to react. The moment he pulled off the rag, he took a step back and retreated to a safe area.

Xu Yan looked at the Zhou Mansion steward with interest and said leisurely, "How does it feel to be used as a scapegoat?"

Zhou Dafu remained silent and did not respond to Xu Yan.

Xu Yan was not in a hurry. He said to Shen Mingchen beside him, "According to the Ming Dynasty law, how should theft be punished?"

Shen Mingchen said loudly, "Anyone who commits theft but fails to obtain any property shall be caned fifty times, but spared from tattooing. However, if property is obtained, the crime of the thief shall be considered as the heavier penalty, including the crime committed by the thief. The punishment for the thief who was an accomplice shall be reduced by one level. Furthermore, if the amount is less than one string of cash, the penalty shall be sixty canes. If the amount is between one string of cash and ten strings of cash, the penalty shall be seventy canes... If the amount is one hundred and twenty strings of cash, the penalty shall be limited to one hundred canes and exile for three thousand miles."

The Ming Dynasty law has relatively clear sentencing divisions for theft.

They can be roughly divided into two categories: one is completed and the other is attempted.

According to Zhou Youde's previous characterization of Zhou Dafu, he "attempted to steal but failed" and then ordered someone to write a fake manuscript.

Naturally, the punishment should be in accordance with the rule that "whoever commits theft but fails to obtain the property shall be flogged fifty times but exempted from tattooing."

Caning and flogging are essentially the same, except that the boards used for caning are thicker, heavier and larger.

The board used for flogging should be smaller.

But even so, the butt would be broken after fifty strokes.

Xu Yan looked at the silent Zhou Dafu and said with a faint smile: "You have to think it through. It's not a pleasant feeling to suffer for others."

Zhou Dafu groaned inwardly when he heard this. He didn't want to be sent to see the official anyway. Otherwise, he would be flogged to death, or at least his skin would be peeled off.

"Please spare my life, Master Xu. I made a terrible mistake in a moment of confusion and offended Master Xu's authority. I deeply regret it. Master Xu, please consider my sincere repentance and give me a break. Let me go."

Under extreme fear, Zhou Dafu finally spoke up. He begged for mercy and hoped that Xu Yan would let him go.

But Xu Yan shook his head and said, "It's not a question of whether I will forgive you or not. It depends on whether you are willing to cooperate."

After saying that, Xu Yan winked at Shen Mingchen.

Shen Mingchen understood and said aloud, "The Great Ming Law stipulates that the punishment should be reduced by one level from the crime. If you can prove that someone else instructed you to steal the manuscript, the punishment can be greatly reduced."

How could Zhou Dafu not hear the hidden meaning?

This means that he is asked to identify Zhou Youde as the mastermind behind the scenes and to convict him as well!

"Master Xu, please forgive me. Even if I had the courage to do so, I wouldn't dare to identify the head of the family."

Xu Yan frowned and asked, "Why is that? He's so mean and ungrateful. When something goes wrong, he pushes you to take the blame, and yet you want to defend him?"

Zhou Dafu sighed and said, "Mr. Xu, you don't know. For a servant like me, not only is my life dependent on the master, but so are my wife and children. To be honest, my wife is a servant in the Zhou family, and my son is also a child of the family. The master of the family can decide their life or death with a single word. If I were to point the finger at the master during the trial, they would definitely not survive the next day."

Xu Yan couldn't help but feel moved when he saw that the misery he described didn't seem fake.

The status of servants in wealthy families during the Ming Dynasty was extremely complex. Some were indentured servants, while others were under annual contracts.

The former not only belongs to the master's family, but also his wife and children, who are all the master's property.

The latter is relatively free and can choose to leave or renew the contract when the annual contract expires.

According to Manager Zhou's description, he should have signed a contract to sell himself.

If this is true, the lives of his wife and children are indeed in Zhou Youde's hands.

The Ming Dynasty laws explicitly recognized and protected the slavery system. Slaves who signed an indenture could not escape their slavery and were bound to their masters.

If a master executed a slave, at most he would pay some money as compensation, and the government would usually turn a blind eye.

This Zhou Dafu is actually a poor man.

But there must be something hateful about pitiful people.

Xu Yan's sympathy for Zhou Dafu did not last long.

Evil servants like this are accomplices of evil forces and domineering things in the market, and they do a lot of dirty things in their daily lives.

How many small bookstores were suppressed by the Zhou family and had to swallow their anger and endure it.

In other words, they met Xu Yan. If "Miaofengtang" was opened by an ordinary person, after the intimidation from the Zhou family, they would probably have been scared and fled Hangzhou overnight, right?

Xu Yan shook his head and said, "You need to understand one thing. If you don't identify Zhou Youde, you will be the one who will be held responsible. Even if you are lucky enough not to be beaten to death in court by the yamen, you will be expelled from the Zhou family. By then, Zhou Youde will have no scruples left, and your wife and children will continue to be bullied at will, with their lives hanging in the balance... Oh, I almost forgot. According to Ming Dynasty law, intentional burning of houses and shops that causes damage is punishable by death. Now, only I can save you. If you agree to identify Zhou Youde in court, I will do my best to protect your family."

Xu Yan was naturally testing Zhou Dafu's psychological defenses.

The fact that Zhou Youde was willing to hand him over to Xu Yan proved that he had sufficient confidence that Zhou Dafu would not betray him. Zhou Youde's confidence was because he had Zhou Dafu's wife and children in his hands.

So what Xu Yan had to do was to keep hitting Zhou Dafu's most vulnerable spot, eventually causing his psychological defenses to collapse. So Xu Yan promised him that he would do his best to protect his wife and children.

This process is repetitive and will not happen overnight, but the accumulation of quantity will eventually lead to qualitative changes.

Sure enough, Zhou Dafu was not convinced by Xu Yan at this moment, but chose to remain silent.

Xu Yan was not in a hurry, he had plenty of time.

He winked at Shen Mingchen, then sat back by the window and started sipping tea.

Shen Mingchen did not beat or scold Zhou Dafu, but pulled him aside and put the cloth bag on his head again.

According to Xu Yan's instructions, he would ask Zhou Dafu again every half hour to continuously destroy his psychological defenses.

...

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