Chapter 144: The County Magistrate is Threatened
Gu Mian thought and thought but couldn't come up with a good solution. He hit his head with his fist in frustration, "I'm so useless! When the critical moment comes, I can't think of anything!"
Lin Xiaoyue didn't know what was bothering Gu Mian, so she asked curiously, "Mr. Gu, what's wrong with you? Actually, you can tell me and we can find a solution together!"
Gu Mian said worriedly, "I think someone will go to the county magistrate to file a complaint, and someone will definitely go to the General of the Cavalry for help, so we must stop the General of the Cavalry from entering the city at all costs!"
Lin Xiaoyue pretended to feel around in her sleeves, but in fact, she pulled out a packet of laxatives from her space. "Shall we go to the Cavalry General's camp now? After we take this packet of medicine, they won't be able to get out of bed tomorrow!"
Gu Mian asked doubtfully, "Is it too late now? What if the General of Cavalry is already on his way?"
Lin Xiaoyue thought this was possible, so she put the laxative back into her sleeve and took out a packet of poison powder from the space. "This poison powder will cause vomiting blood and death if inhaled. I've tried it many times and it works! Let's go to the city gate and wait. Once the Cavalry General passes by, we'll throw the poison powder!"
Gu Mian took the poison powder from Lin Xiaoyue's hand and said, "I'll throw this! The city gate is too dangerous, you guys wait here!"
Lin Xiaoyue said worriedly, "Once a fight breaks out, this place may not be safe! Let's go together. As a last resort, we'll use Yunyun's homemade bombs. If we can't stop him, we'll blow him up!"
Gu Mian nodded and said, "Okay, let's go!"
Lin Xiaoyue and Chen Yunyun put on their veils and followed Gu Mian out of the Pink Rouge Shop.
At this time, Liang Jingyao was standing on the Drum Tower, with a panoramic view of the situation downstairs. When he saw three familiar figures, he was a little surprised. When he went to look for the figures, they had disappeared without a trace!
"What nonsense! How could he run out at this time?" Liang Jingyao was so worried that he was restless. He planned to go down and look for him.
Zhan Ying didn't understand who his master was talking about, so he asked curiously, "Master, what happened? Who did you see running out?"
Liang Jingyao said gloomily, "I think I saw Yue'er, Amian, and Yunyun!"
Zhan Ying looked around and shook his head, saying, "No, the majority of people down there are ours. The common people have already fled home in fear. The Cheetah Army will soon clear out all the shops opened by Emperor Liang!"
Liang Jingyao rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He looked at the streets in front and behind the Drum Tower again, and sure enough, those figures were not there.
Is it really that I am seeing things?
"Maybe I saw it wrong! Is everyone else ready? We have to take the food that the Cheetah Army looted and hide it somewhere else!"
Zhan Ying patted his dirty clothes and said, "We're ready. We can go down anytime."
Liang Jingyao was afraid that the night would be long and full of dreams, so he nodded and said, "Let's go!"
Zhan Ying led his team to secretly leave the Drum Tower and blend into the crowd of refugees. A leading refugee and Zhan Ying exchanged glances, then Zhan Ying deliberately pushed the other person, snatched his food and ran away!
Then, Zhan Liang, Zhan Tian, Zhan Wei and ten others followed Zhan Ying's example, grabbed the food and ran away. After a while, these refugees were left with only steamed buns, steamed bread and flatbreads!
"Robbery! Help!" A large group of refugees pretended to chase for a few steps until the county magistrate of Yangming Town appeared before them. They knelt on the ground and cried, "County magistrate! Please! Someone just stole our food!"
The shopkeepers of the robbed shops were so angry that smoke was coming out of their heads. These refugees were really thicker-skinned than a copper wall and an iron wall! They actually flattered their faces and said that someone stole their food?
It was obvious that these things were stolen from my store by these refugees!
Several shopkeepers shouted angrily, "Bullshit! This is all ours! County Magistrate, you have to make the decision for us! We have paid the full tax every month!"
The county magistrate of Yangming Town was a middle-aged man with a very tall stature. Whenever he stood in front of these shopkeepers, he would look down at them from a superior position. Therefore, he also saw clearly the shopkeepers' arrogant attitude!
The county magistrate snorted coldly and said, "How dare you! Until we investigate thoroughly, none of your opinions will be of any use!"
The shopkeepers were dissatisfied. Why did the county magistrate side with these dirty refugees?
They all said in unison: "If the county magistrate is unable to handle this matter, we will go to the capital and file a complaint with the emperor!"
The county magistrate had anticipated this. He shouted in a deep voice, "Come here, lock up all those causing trouble! There are too many refugees here. They're temporarily locked up in the dilapidated temple. I'll make further arrangements after I've investigated!"
So, the yamen runners directly handcuffed the shopkeepers, but the refugees did not have their hands and feet tied, and were taken to the dilapidated temple.
The shopkeepers protested unconvincedly, "This isn't fair! Why are we handcuffed while those thieves who stole our things aren't? County Magistrate, how dissatisfied are you with us? How dare you treat us like this?"
The county magistrate said with a smile, "There's nothing we can do about it. There are simply too many refugees. We don't have enough shackles in our yamen, and I'm not sure if we've captured them all. If you continue to obstruct me, I won't bother with your nonsense!"
These shopkeepers were all close confidants of Emperor Liang, and had been following him since he was still a prince. Even though Emperor Liang was not favored by the late emperor at that time, his status as the only prince of Dongsui Kingdom made others still flatter Emperor Liang, who was still a prince at that time, so these servants also enjoyed the glory and had never suffered such humiliation!
They looked at the county magistrate in front of them, feeling angry and humiliated, and even wanted to kill him!
But when they left Beijing, Emperor Liang ordered them not to reveal their identities and to expand their sphere of influence to the greatest extent possible, so now they can only swallow their anger!
"County Magistrate, let me be frank! You can arrest us if you want, but if the result doesn't satisfy us, your fate may be even uglier than ours! We are not people you can afford to offend!"
The county magistrate is now pretending to be ignorant. Of course he knows that these are Emperor Liang's men, but these people will not speak out. Even if he reports it to Emperor Liang, Emperor Liang will have nothing to say!
"Alright! I know you run a big shop on this street, and you pay a lot of taxes every year! But these refugees are also very pitiful. They have nothing to eat or drink, and they are homeless! And just now, another group of people showed up to steal food. It's obvious that they are not running together, otherwise why don't they run away together?"
These shopkeepers were speechless. They had seen what happened just now, and it certainly didn't look like a collusion or a show!
The shopkeepers stared at each other and said, "Okay! Then we'll trust you this time. We hope you can handle things impartially!"
The county magistrate's eyes flashed with sarcasm. "How many bad things have you done to help Emperor Liang? Are you worthy enough?"
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