Erhu stared at Su Luo with wide eyes; this woman did have some brains.
Unfortunately, the village is so big, with hundreds of people, finding just one person is not an easy task.
"Yan Chuan's mother, is it possible that Li Xingye's family has colluded with bandits to rob our soy sauce?"
Grandpa Yang said loudly that the most suspicious people in the whole village are Li Xingye's family.
Their family withdrew from the soy sauce factory, but now that they see everyone in the village making money, they are envious and eager to do this.
"Just wait and see, you'll find out soon enough."
Soon Wang Dehou brought someone over.
The man was bound hand and foot, and Wang Dehou kicked him right in front of Magistrate Jiang.
The entire village held up their lamps and could clearly see the man's face; it was indeed Li Xingye.
"Reporting to the magistrate, this Li Xingye is from this village, and the exit of the bandit passage is right next to his ancestral graves."
After guarding the perimeter for a long time, the commoner finally caught the traitor, who actually negotiated with the thief.
I witnessed it with my own eyes; they only brought Li Xingye back after the thief had left.
The villagers all accused Li Xingye's family of being a cancer in Changping Village, saying that they even dug up their own ancestral graves to facilitate robbery by bandits.
His grandfather is buried at the foot of that mountain; that's really cruel.
"Chang'an, take a few men to Li Xingye's house and capture his entire family, don't let a single one escape."
In fact, the village chief and Su Luo had long suspected Li Xingye and had already sent people to surround them.
They weren't just sitting around at the soy sauce factory for three days; they were waiting, waiting to catch a turtle in a jar.
"yes!"
Magistrate Jiang had the rag stuffed in Li Xingye's mouth removed before asking the question.
“Li Xingye, according to the laws of Nanning, you have colluded with bandits, which is the same crime as bandits. In serious cases, I can sentence you to death.”
Upon hearing the death penalty, Li Xingye was terrified; he didn't want to die.
"My lord, spare me! I don't want to die... It was him... they lied to me..."
Li Xingye looked at Erhu, a grown man, who was crying with tears and snot streaming down his face.
"You son of a bitch, they're just trying to scare you. You've never seen bandits get beheaded before, you coward."
Erhu believes that wealth and honor are found in danger. You can either live a life of luxury or spend your life in prison. What is there to be afraid of? Everyone dies eventually.
Su Luo could guess his thoughts just by looking at his fearless eyes. Li Xingye was indeed an ambitious but weak man. But who else would she take advantage of if not him?
“Magistrate Jiang, it seems we won’t get anything out of them here. Take them to the county dungeon and let them see the bed of nails. They’ll be able to find out what you want to know then.”
Nangong Chiyu was used to these methods; their threats and inducements were useless against him.
Only by seeing is it possible to tame them. If they hadn't seen the bandits being beheaded, they would have really thought that the dungeon was so easy to get through.
That's the place where life is truly worse than death.
Magistrate Jiang glanced at Nangong Chiyu. Was this man teaching him how to do things?
He still relied on his position as the Vice Minister of Agriculture, thinking that he could also give orders to others.
"Guards! Take all these bandits away!"
Yu Feipeng put all the surviving bandits into the prison van, and the village chief stepped forward and spoke.
"Sir, Li Xingye is from our village. Could we deal with him ourselves before you take him away?"
Magistrate Jiang saw an opportunity for promotion after capturing so many bandits tonight, and he was lenient with the village chief.
"Solve this quickly!"
"Thank you, sir!"
Li Chang'an and his men also captured Li Xingye's wife, parents, and even his youngest son.
Holding the Li family genealogy, the village chief swore an oath to the entire Changping Village.
"Tonight, my Li clan has been found to have colluded with bandits, bringing shame upon my Li clan."
I, Li Fangzheng, hereby announce in front of the entire village that the Li Xingye family lineage is expelled from the Li family genealogy.
Changping Village cannot tolerate people who are in cahoots with bandits and rats. From this moment on, their entire family is to be driven out of Changping Village.
“Village chief, you can’t do that. Our family has lived in Changping Village for generations. We can’t leave.”
Li Xingye's father also pleaded desperately, but he seemed to have forgotten that even if the village chief didn't drive them away, they would still be taken away by Magistrate Jiang, and whether they would come back alive was another matter.
"What do you mean by ancestor after ancestor? Your family's ancestral graves have already been given to bandits. If you dare to resist again, the whole village will dig up your family's ancestral graves and let you take them away."
Wang Dehou was a burly man, and when he roared in his rough voice, Li Xingye's family fell silent.
Even his shrewish wife didn't dare to utter a word when she saw the county magistrate.
"You are a traitor, you are a traitor..."
Li Xingye knew that he had really messed things up this time.
He regretted withdrawing his shares from the soy sauce factory every time, and together with his parents, they would beat his wife.
Everyone in the village received a share of the silver; some built new houses, while others got married.
Next year, everyone will be able to send their children to school, but what about their family? They have nothing.
He could have been like everyone else, but it was all because of his wife's bad ideas.
He just wanted a piece of the pie, is that wrong?
“We will not leave Changping Village, and no one can drive us away.”
The village chief scoffed: "Listen up, everyone in the village! Throw all their stuff out of the village. From now on, if anyone sees them coming into the village, kick them out. If anything happens, I, Li Fangzheng, will take responsibility."
"It's the village chief. Get them out of here."
“Drive them all out. Their family is colluding with bandits, so they are bandits themselves. Our village will never keep bandits here.”
"Get out of Changping Village..."
"Get out of Changping Village..."
Li Xingye was taken away by people from Jiang County, but his family members, who hadn't done anything wrong, were only taken there for questioning.
However, while the government let them go, the villagers did not and drove them all out.
Although Magistrate Jiang disliked Nangong Chiyu, he always felt that he was a freeloader.
Nevertheless, he accepted Nangong Chiyu's suggestion to take the men to the prison for further interrogation.
Let these bandits see what they're capable of, otherwise they'll have nothing to be proud of.
There were also dead bodies on the ground, which Magistrate Jiang ordered his yamen runners to collect and take to the county office for further processing.
“Deputy Minister of Agriculture, tonight was a terrifying night, and we won’t be able to get any information out of you. But if you give me a few days, I will definitely be able to give Changping Village a satisfactory answer.”
Su Luo also knew that there were still bandits who had fled to other places, and it was impossible to interrogate them all in one night.
Let's listen to Nangong Chiyu and take him to the yamen first, then slowly search and arrest him.
"Alright, Magistrate Jiang hasn't slept all night either, thank you for your trouble."
"This is all within my duties, but..."
Magistrate Jiang looked at Nangong Chiyu and the thirty Chiyu soldiers.
Those people looked like a professionally trained army, and Chen Huaixu's sudden appearance, unlike Li Chang'an and his group, did not indicate that he had returned through the government.
His unauthorized return with an army is no small matter.
If anything goes wrong and he is taken advantage of by someone with ulterior motives, he, as the county magistrate, will be implicated, which is a major taboo.
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