"Putting that aside, your kidnapping of the Yang family and insulting Old Master Yang is utterly lawless and makes you the most unruly of all!"
"Chief Zhao, the Yang family killed our men and seized our farmland. Can't we even utter a few curses?"
"You audacious scoundrels, surrender now! If you dare to resist again, we'll shoot you all dead!"
"Chief Zhao, don't fire the arrows! We surrender!"
"All of you, come over here and surrender obediently!"
Listening to the conversation between Zhao Bantou and "Li Laosan," and after asking the village head a few questions, Qin Chuan finally understood the whole story.
It turns out that this whole incident was caused by the Yang family's attempt to seize these people's fertile land.
Seeing that many farmers had suffered from the disaster and had no surplus grain, the Yang family offered to buy their affected fields.
The landowners thought that since their fields had been affected by the disaster, they should sell them and exchange them for fields on higher ground.
Unexpectedly, the Yang family imprisoned them and attempted to force them to buy and sell rice at a price of five shi (a unit of dry measure) per mu (a unit of land area).
They also threatened that the imperial court would reclaim these disaster-prone fields at an even lower price.
The landowners refused to sell, and the Yang family, used to being domineering and arrogant, had no intention of letting them go.
A dispute ensued, and the Yang family members accidentally killed someone. The landlords then banded together, kidnapped three members of the Yang family, and prepared to fight the Yang family to the death.
However, they didn't dare to kill the Yang family members directly, and they hoped that the government would resolve the matter fairly, so they hid here.
After understanding the situation, Qin Chuan said to Zhao Bantou, "This matter is entirely the fault of the Yang family. Why only arrest Li Laosan and his group? We should bring both parties to the county government hall to resolve this matter fairly."
“Your Excellency is unaware,” said Zhao, the squad leader, “that Yang family is not one that you or I can afford to offend.”
After saying this, he ordered his subordinates to tie up Li Laosan and the others.
Li Laosan and the others shouted, "Gentlemen, you must stand up for us!"
Zhao, the squad leader, shouted "Retreat!" and then led everyone to the Yang family to return the three Yang family members to their home.
Old Master Yang personally came out to thank him and Qin Chuan.
Because they were in a hurry, they declined Old Master Yang's offer to stay, and except for the village head who went home, the whole group went to the county government office.
The county magistrate immediately threw Li Laosan and his gang into prison.
That night, Qin Chuan went to the prison to interrogate the suspect and finally found out the truth.
It was pretty much what the village head had said: the Yang family was tyrannical and domineering, they killed people, and then falsely accused Li Laosan and other landlords of being troublemakers.
Qin Chuan then asked about the breach in the dike. Li Laosan said that many people had indeed drowned. He had thought the government would provide disaster relief, but they hadn't. Thousands more had starved to death.
In other words, in Yuhang alone, 8,000 people drowned and several thousand starved to death.
After the trial, Qin Chuan decided to stop pretending.
As he walked out of the county government office, he said to Zhang Cheng, "Go to the military camp and have Song Lian send some troops to Hangzhou. I'm going to personally start a massacre."
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