Chapter 230 A Defeated Journey
The leader then slowly spoke, "It wouldn't amount to a massacre of the entire village, but killing a person or two..."
Before he finished speaking, the threat was already quite obvious.
Chen Lizheng, abandoning his previous sarcastic tone, calmly and sternly reminded the leader, "Xiaozhi is Ayuan's sister. Let alone killing her, even if any of you dare to hurt her, Ayuan will fight you to the death."
"Besides, do you all still think this is a chaotic world? Do you intend to throw the laws of the Great Wei under your feet and trample on them at will?"
"Although I am in a rural place like Mingfu Village, I know that our Emperor of Great Wei is wise and powerful, unparalleled in history. Aren't you all afraid of bringing trouble to your master by acting so recklessly?"
Thanks to Xie Wanniang and Jiang Yuan's marriage, Chen Lizheng is now an old man who has met many soldiers and heard a lot about the affairs of the court from them.
During his time in Yi County, he listened attentively to the casual conversations of the soldiers coming and going, so when he spoke threateningly now, his aura was no less imposing than that of the group on horseback.
He was joking; he simply didn't believe these people would actually dare to kill someone in their Mingfu Village.
Let alone the fact that their county magistrate of Tang County is a good person, even if he is not, even if he chooses to protect each other, does Baoding Prefecture not have a place to seek justice?
Not to mention that there are prefects and governors above Tang County, as well as the two sets of supervision systems, one overt and one covert, under His Majesty the Emperor. Just consider Jiang Yuan, who, even after becoming an official, still greatly respects this old man. He is a trusted general of Chang Yao, the commander of Zijing Pass and the heir of the Marquis of Dingbei.
Chen Lizheng was unaware that Chang Yao's mother and the Empress were related, but even so, he did not believe that any high-ranking official or noble in the Northern Border would dare to lay a hand on the families of border soldiers.
He stared at the leader and said, “As you all just mentioned, our Mingfu Village is just a remote mountain village on the frontier. As you all probably know, although we are just a small mountain village, we are under the jurisdiction of Baoding Prefecture, an important border town.”
“In such a strategically important border region, if a villain who impersonates a nobleman and kills people at will, and whose origins are unknown, neither civil nor military officials would sit idly by.”
Chen Lizheng thought to himself, "Although I'm just a peasant who toils in the soil, I'm not someone you bunch of bastards can easily scare."
How many years has the Great Wei Dynasty been established? Before that, there were bandits and refugees causing trouble everywhere, and the Northern Hu people had frequently come to the interior to burn, kill, and plunder.
Although he and the others in Mingfu Village do farm most of the time, when bad guys come knocking, they will not hesitate to pick up weapons and risk their lives to protect their families and property.
Not only the leader, who was being closely watched by him, but also the members of the Earl's Mansion who had drawn their swords were shocked by Chen Lizheng's attitude, which was completely different from his professional fake smile just now.
They never expected that the village head of this remote region would possess such formidable courage and integrity. On the contrary, their arrogance had long since been completely suppressed.
Firstly, it's impossible for them to massacre the entire village just to vent their anger by killing Wang Xiaozhi. That wouldn't be venting their anger; it would be courting death, especially since they would be taking their uncle with them on a suicidal journey.
Secondly, they were indeed afraid that their use of power and force to oppress ordinary villagers would inadvertently alarm the civil and military officials of Baoding Prefecture, as well as the inspectors sent by the emperor.
The censors on official inspection tours are one thing, but even when they travel incognito, those with a keen eye can still recognize them. The real trouble lies with the undercover agents who are widely distributed throughout the country and in all walks of life, whose identities and positions are extremely secretive.
They all have legitimate identities on the surface, and they live normal lives that are very consistent with their identities, making it very difficult for others to identify them.
But in private, they would quickly pass on all the intelligence they had collected through their superiors.
The people Jiang Tong sent couldn't guarantee they wouldn't encounter any undercover agents along the way.
Given the grand scale of their search for relatives, they were certain that at least one informant was already watching them.
Although those undercover agents would most likely not follow them into Mingfu Village to avoid exposure, if they killed someone in Mingfu Village, those undercover agents would definitely be able to identify them immediately without conducting an investigation.
They were just there to go through the motions and put on a show. Even if these villagers were a bit difficult, they didn't need to go looking for trouble or get themselves into trouble.
After quickly weighing the pros and cons, the leader reluctantly chose to back down for the time being.
Although he felt extremely aggrieved and his expression looked even more dangerous than before, he did nothing more. Instead, he simply pointed at Chen Lizheng and Wang Xiaozhi to indicate that he remembered them.
"Let's go." With a wave of his hand, the man turned his horse around and led the way away from the village.
The villagers, especially the Chen clan members, were somewhat uneasy. They looked at Chen, the village head, and wondered, "Could those people be plotting something underhanded?"
"What's there to be afraid of? I'm just an old man. If they really dare to kill me, I'll be the one who gains something." Chen Lizheng said, glaring at Wang Xiaozhi, whose eyes were even fiercer than the leader's. "As for you, you'd better stay in the village and not run away during this time."
Wang Xiaozhi shook her head, "I have to find a way to send a message to A Yuan."
Chen Lizheng looked disgusted. Wasn't this girl usually so sharp-witted when she was arguing with people? Why is she suddenly not working properly now?
He said, "Once you've written the letter, just send it to my house. I'll find someone from their clan who hasn't offended them to help you deliver it to the post station."
Wang Xiaozhi thought about it and agreed, "Okay."
Without lingering, she grabbed Chen Zhao and ran back home.
Chen Zhao jogged after her, and when they saw that there was no one else around, he muttered to himself, "Why are you so genuinely angry? You know perfectly well that A Yuan will never acknowledge his biological parents again."
Wang Xiaozhi snorted, "I'm angry because they're shameless. They clearly don't care about A Yuan at all, yet they still have to come all this way to disgust him."
"A bunch of bastards, not only are they putting on an act, but they also insist on forcing us to join in. Why should we? Do they really think that just because their family is powerful and influential, everyone else has to bow and scrape to them?"
"I want to see if they dare to kill people at will on the territory of the Zhenbei Army!"
Baoding Prefecture is an important border town. The people living in this area may not have much of a sense of belonging to the new dynasty, but they have unreserved gratitude and trust in the Zhenbei Army, which has protected this land for hundreds of years from the previous dynasty to the present.
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