Chapter 2918 Return to Yamen
"Sir, five people ran away." The two teams of soldiers joined together and counted the people, and found that five people still ran away.
Bai Shan: "Where did you go?"
The soldier pointed towards the village, where a group of people holding hoes and sticks were gathered. However, seeing that there were more soldiers here, and they were all carrying swords and bows, they did not dare to go forward.
Of course, it would be difficult for the soldiers to rush in and arrest people. What if something happened to the villagers?
Bai Shan turned his head and looked at Village Chief Sun.
Village Chief Sun stepped out of the line trembling with fear, and could only walk in front, going forward to persuade the villagers, "Fellow villagers, this is the county magistrate. They are here to arrest bandits. You, you cannot resist arrest."
The crowd became restless, and many people looked at their fellow villagers nearby with suspicion, "Did your son go steal something?"
The other party's face turned pale and he immediately denied it, "No!"
Bai Shan said in a deep voice: "The bandit leader has confessed, and many of them are from your village."
"That's slander."
Bai Shan nodded: "That's why this county wants to ask them to return to the county government office for investigation. If it's fake, I will naturally release them."
"Can the county government release someone after arresting him?"
Zhou Man couldn't help but mutter, "How bad is the reputation of the county government? Living in a prison cell also costs money, okay? You have nothing better to do than to support a bunch of innocent people."
Bai Shan glanced at her and said to the villagers, "If they are innocent, why is the county arresting them? Doesn't the county government have to pay for their daily food and drink?"
Someone murmured quietly, "To ask us for money?"
Bai Shan heard it and said bluntly: "I am from a noble family in this county, and I am very wealthy. Not to mention your family, even your entire village is not worthy of my respect."
The villagers felt as if they were shot in the chest. Although they felt a little relieved after hearing this, they still felt very uncomfortable.
Bai Shan said: "Hand him over, otherwise this county will investigate your resistance to arrest."
The villagers were numerous and powerful, so although they hesitated for a moment, they did not leave.
Could he still catch them all?
Bai Shan's face darkened upon seeing this. He turned to the village headman, Sun, and said, "Write down the names of those who refuse to retreat. When the county government gives you grain, farm tools, oxen, and future disaster relief, all of that will be deducted."
Village Chief Sun widened his eyes and said, "This, this, this..."
"You've defied the county government and shielded criminals, adding burdens and disasters to the country and the surrounding people. The county has shown leniency by not pursuing charges, but there's always a price to pay." Bai Shan narrowed his eyes and threatened the already confused villagers, saying in a deep voice, "Anyone who dares to injure an official will be apprehended and demoted."
People in the crowd retreated one after another, and some even went home carrying their hoes.
Dongyu Village is different from Dajing Village and Xiaojing Village. There are too many bandits in those two villages, and many people know the truth, so there is a bandit spirit in both villages.
Dongyuzhuang Village is large, fewer families are involved, and even fewer people know the truth.
They are willing to help because they are from the same village and have various relatives, but they can't end up in jail themselves.
In the end, Bai Shan caught the five people hiding in the village.
Then they continued to move to another village to capture people.
There were even fewer suspects in that village, so Bai Shan didn't need to use any strategies like luring the enemy. He just let the soldiers surround the village and then go in calmly to arrest people.
Unfortunately, some people were not in the village when the arrest was made, so no one was caught. Including the two who escaped last night, a total of eight people were not caught.
Bai Shan asked County Lieutenant Dong to take twenty people to stay behind to search for and capture the people, while he took the army to escort the captured people back to the county town first.
He said to County Magistrate Dong, "We've arrested so many people with such fanfare. I'm afraid the relationship between the government and the people here is very tense. So you must be careful not to disturb them."
He said, "Just search for three days. If they haven't returned after three days and you haven't found them, then there's no need to keep guarding them any longer."
County Magistrate Dong responded.
Bai Shan and his group returned to the county government office. Because they had arrested too many people and the jail could not accommodate them all at once, he cleared out two rooms in the front yard of the county government office to lock up the remaining people. He also asked people to clean the City God Temple outside the city and locked up the remaining people in the City God Temple.
The number of people arrested was the largest in Beihai County in recent years. Therefore, when the people were escorted into the city, many people stood on the roadside and watched curiously.
When the people heard that they were bandits, they were incredulous. "We have bandits in Beihai County?"
"Never heard of it."
"They look pretty much the same as us, could it be a mistake?"
"Why don't you just say that the county magistrate is wrongly accusing people for the sake of political achievements and military merits?"
"I didn't say that, you said that."
"That's what I said. I said it was impossible. If they wanted to claim military merit, why bother escorting the man back alive? Wouldn't it be better to just kill him and hang his head up for the report?"
"Is it really possible? What does my husband do? How could he have such insight?"
"I'm not talented. I'm just a storyteller in a restaurant."
As they were discussing the matter, a yamen runner came out with gongs and drums, banging them loudly, saying, "The Lord has said that the trial will be held in the county yamen tomorrow. You can all go and watch when you have time. In your spare time, you should think about your duties as a human being..."
The bailiff paused for a moment, unable to recall the word the county magistrate had said. He decided not to dwell on it, as he thought everyone would know when they went there tomorrow.
Bai Shan returned to the county government office and summoned Zhao Wu. He said, "Keep an eye on the prison cells and the City God Temple outside the city to see how they react. Not all of them are criminals; we need to screen them out."
Zhao Wu was pleasantly surprised to be entrusted with such an important task for the first time. "Sir, shall I go alone?"
Bai Shan: "Call your brother and you'll just be in charge of the conversation."
Zhao Wu is famous throughout the county government for being a chatterbox. Bai Shan thinks he is as good as Manbao, so he thinks it is better to send him than other yamen runners.
Zhao Wu: ...
He looked at the adults, and finally accepted the task silently and went to find his brother.
The people who were captured showed different expressions: some tried to remain calm, some were filled with resentment, and some were crying bitterly.
Zhao Wu turned around and couldn't help crying, so he went to talk to those who were crying bitterly, "Why are you crying? Why didn't you cry when you robbed people? You also killed people."
When the man saw Zhao Wu squatting in front of the cell and talking to him, for some reason, his tears flowed even harder. "I didn't rob. I was wrongly accused. At most, I stole a chicken from a nearby village. How could I dare to rob?"
Zhao Wu asked him, "Whose chickens have you stolen?"
Seeing that he actually opened the topic like this, Zhao Wen couldn't help but twitch his lips, but his eyes were fixed on the expression of the person who was speaking.
The other person choked and stopped crying. "Do I have to go to jail for stealing a chicken?"
"Yes," Zhao Wu said, "My Lord just said some time ago that we shouldn't do something just because it's too small..."
Zhao Wen: "Don't do evil, no matter how small it is."
"Yes, yes, that's it, brother, you still have a good memory."
Zhao Wen ignored him.
My eyes hurt a lot today, and I always felt like there was something foreign in them. Eye drops didn't help, and when I finished taking a shower and was carefully wiping my face, I vaguely saw a flash of golden light.
So I stopped what I was doing and stared at myself in the mirror for a few minutes. Then I tried again and finally pulled out a line of light golden eyelashes from the bottom of my eyes that was longer than the other eyelashes next to it.
It was almost transparent and very thin. The gold color looked particularly noble. Then I found tweezers and pulled it out. Foreign objects should not exist, especially those near the eyes.
PS: See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
