Upon arriving at Shiligou, Magistrate Jia's eyes were truly opened! Not only him, but everyone else also showed expressions of horror.
The bandits were all tied up and were currently lying in the threshing ground to sunbathe.
A dozen or so kids stood guard around with sticks in their hands, looking more like bandits than actual bandits!
And what about the bandits? They were all beaten black and blue, their faces unrecognizable. When they saw the constables, they even showed excited eyes, as if they couldn't wait to be taken away.
In short, it was absolutely stunning!
The constables felt their worldview shattered once again. If they didn't know what had happened, they would have suspected who the real bandits were!
The bandit leader was tied up like a dumpling, and his face was slapped until it looked like a pig's head. Ouch, it hurt just looking at him...
When the bandits saw the officials arrive, they couldn't wait to follow them. What kind of freaks are these people in the village? Not to mention the adults, even the kids are like they've been injected with chicken blood. They're all incredibly violent and even came up with the idea of forcing confessions by force-feeding them spicy water. I wonder where they learned that from? And I wonder why the spicy water is so spicy?
Magistrate Jia didn't care about such things. Now that the bandits had been captured, even though he hadn't done it, the villagers of Shiligou were under his jurisdiction, which meant that he had many talented people under his command! Even though he hadn't slept all night, he felt refreshed! Oh, he was really lucky!
"You've all done a great job! I will report this matter truthfully to the Prefect, and then all the people will learn from you." Magistrate Jia praised you repeatedly in high spirits. He also requested to see the brave woman who had captured the bandit leader!
When the strong woman, Fatty, heard that the county magistrate wanted to see her, she walked out of the crowd trembling with fear.
Magistrate Jia stared incredulously at the unremarkable chubby girl before him, wondering if he had made a mistake. He glanced at Qi Yuchen on his left, who recognized the chubby girl and nodded in agreement.
Magistrate Jia cleared his throat, startling the chubby girl so much that her flesh involuntarily trembled.
"Your name is Fatty, right?"
"Uh...yes, Magistrate...My name is Fatty."
"You did very well this time. As a woman, you are truly a heroine who is no less capable than men!" He was about to blurt out the word "weak" woman, but after seeing the fat girl's tall figure and thinking about her terrifying lethality, he consciously dropped the word.
"Thank you for the compliment, sir." The chubby girl quickly kowtowed again. "This is not just my achievement. Everyone participated. I just have a little more strength. I managed to subdue the bandit leader when he wasn't paying attention."
After stammering on and on, Fatty thought to herself, "How can all this be her achievement? Everyone deserves some credit, okay?"
Magistrate Jia thought to himself, "Your strength is truly great, not just a little bit. There's no need for such modesty."
But this girl is so selfless; she's truly an honest person! The people of Shiligou are all very nice!
He was pleased and said with a smile, "I know that the capture of the bandits was the result of the joint efforts of the villagers of Shiligou. But you are also quite good. It is admirable that you, a woman, could do what men do. And those young men, who were not afraid of the thugs, are the future of the country! I have recorded your merits."
Magistrate Jia's words greatly excited the villagers of Shiligou. They never expected that they would be able to capture such a large group of bandits!
When I woke up this morning, it felt like a dream. The first thing many people did after getting up was to go to the threshing ground to see if they were dreaming or if they had really been in a fight!
And it was actually true! Wow, that's so satisfying! If I see any bandits I don't like, I can just turn around and kick them, or swing my arm around them.
They had all suffered greatly at the hands of bandits, and some of their family members had even died at their hands. The thought of it filled them with rage! Unfortunately, they also knew that these bandits were most likely not the same group they had met before; otherwise, it would have been a blood feud!
The bandits, trembling with fear and hanging their heads in dejection, knelt on the ground. Seeing that Magistrate Jia had finished speaking, they all breathed a sigh of relief. They thought to themselves, "Now we can finally leave, right? Your Honor, please take them away quickly, otherwise they'll be tortured to death in this awful place!"
Several times, Magistrate Jia thought he was seeing things. Why did these bandits look at him with such an expression, as if they had seen a lifeline? It was really strange!
The constables, holding the portraits, finally managed to identify a few leaders. "Sir," they reported, "a total of 148 bandits survived, including one leader and six core members. Thirty-six bandits died."
Are all the bandit leaders inside?
The lead constable said, "There is still one person who has not been brought to justice, and that is this man."
Qin Sanniang glanced at the painting through the gap. Wasn't that the person next to the bandit leader? The one shouting the loudest! Wait a minute, this guy seemed to have been tied up yesterday…
Magistrate Jia waved his hand, saying it was no big deal. The bandit leader had been caught, and this one escaped was hardly enough to accomplish anything.
"Take them all back!"
At a single command, all the bandits, escorted by the constables, fled Shili Gully at top speed. How valiant they had been when they arrived! How pathetic they were now. But they had no time to think! Escaping this hell on earth—who cared where they went?!
Qin San Niang thought to herself, could it be that the missing bandit has escaped? It doesn't matter to Magistrate Jia, but to them, it's a ticking time bomb!
Thus, this banditry came to an end.
But from Liu Meixiang's house came the sound of crying, "Husband, you're finally back!"
She stared at the corpse in front of her for a long time before recognizing it as Chen Guang'an! He had been missing for more than half a year, and she thought he was long dead. She never expected that he had become a bandit.
If he were still alive, Liu Meixiang would have kicked him a few times! Has he forgotten how his parents-in-law died? Although the old couple weren't exactly good people and were probably possessive of their food, if it weren't for their Wang Shouren-like personalities, they wouldn't have been able to accumulate so much land!
When the bandits attacked the village, the old couple desperately tried to hide their grain, but once they had hidden it, they had no way to escape and were killed by the bandits! If Chen Guang'an had any conscience, he wouldn't have aided and abetted the evildoers!
It turned out that when Chen Jincai and his patrol team were searching the surrounding area and worried that there might still be survivors, they actually found Chen Guang'an!
At that moment, Xiao Sanzi felt that this person was familiar. He carefully shone the torch on him and was suddenly startled. Wasn't this Shuanzi's father? How did he become a bandit? But looking at his clothes, they were exactly the same as those of the bandits.
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