Chapter 729: Borrowing a Knife to Kill
Even Village Chief Sun and Village Chief Mo could not withstand the pressure from County Magistrate Tang. Naturally, Wang San, who had just been beaten, could not withstand it either. As soon as County Magistrate Tang finished speaking, he burst into tears and confessed everything.
It's just a mess.
"Brother Dashu dragged a few of us along, saying we were only stealing things and not selling them, so we used our own things and mixed the wheat seeds with our own wheat seeds so no one would be able to tell."
County Magistrate Tang could only ask, "Besides Sun Dashu, who else is traveling with you?"
Wang San called out the names of the people one by one. There were thirteen of them in total. They were all young men from the three nearby villages. They usually played together and knew each other very well.
County Magistrate Tang looked at the clerk, who wrote down the notes one by one.
He continued to ask, "Did you know what Zhou Silang was carrying on his truck before you robbed him?"
"Yes," Wang San gradually calmed down and finally answered in a more organized manner. He said, "Zhou Silang sells new wheat seeds. We all know that."
"How did you know?"
"We've seen him selling it," Wang San said. "Many people in the village buy from him. If the wheat seeds weren't so expensive, we'd want to buy them too."
Manbao said, "Nonsense, our wheat seeds are obviously very cheap. Go and check the prices of new and old wheat at the grain store."
Wang San: "My family can't even afford it!"
Bai Shan asked unkindly, "So we can just rob it?"
Wang San lowered his head and said nothing.
County Magistrate Tang slammed the gavel and asked, "Who suggested robbing it?
"Brother Dashu."
County Magistrate Tang raised his chin and said, "Tell me, what made you think of stealing the wheat seeds? Is that cartload of wheat seeds enough for you to share?"
Wang San hung his head and said, "Sir, we only have three acres of land, and they don't have much either. This cart of wheat seeds is enough to divide, and there's even some left over."
Magistrate Tang raised his eyebrows slightly, glanced at the clerk, and then asked, "What about the remaining ones?"
"We've left them all with Brother Dashu. We plan to sell them once the storm has died down. As for the new wheat seeds, they're selling for two hundred coins a bushel at the grain shops out there."
Manbao sneered and complained that her fourth brother was selling at a high price, but she turned around and decided the price based on the grain shop's price.
Wang San didn't understand his scoff. County Magistrate Tang gave her a warning glance and handed a token to the county lieutenant. "Now that we have the confession and witnesses, all we need is physical evidence. County Lieutenant, please take your men and bring Sun Dashu and the others to justice, as well as the wheat seeds hidden with him."
The county lieutenant quickly bowed and took it, responded and stepped back.
The county lieutenant waved his hand and took away a group of yamen runners.
County Magistrate Tang squinted his eyes for a moment, then beckoned over a yamen runner who remained in the hall and whispered, "Tell the people who went to the village with the county lieutenant to tell the families of Village Chief Sun and Village Chief Mo to spread the news that Village Chief Sun and Village Chief Mo have been arrested for shielding a criminal, and their entire families might be held accountable..."
The bailiff responded.
County Magistrate Tang sat up straight and met Manbao and Bai Shanliang's shining gazes when he looked up. He paused for a moment, then smiled at them.
The clerk finally found something, brought a booklet to him, and whispered something in his ear.
County Magistrate Tang flipped through the booklet and asked, "Wang San, your family has so many people, but you only cultivate three acres of land? How much of that can be used to grow wheat?"
Wang Sandao said, "There's only one and a half acres. Sixty-tenths of it is farmland, which we use to grow rice. The rest is very poor dry land, and we can only grow beans."
County Magistrate Tang flipped through the booklet in his hand. "In the third and fifth years of the Dazhen reign, your two brothers were each given land upon coming of age. Although they didn't receive the full twenty mu of permanent farmland, they were still given eight mu each according to the Huayang County average at the time. Why did you sell off all that land?"
Wang San was confused for a moment and said, "It seems that my eldest and second brothers sold some when they were getting married, and then there was a flood three years ago, so they sold some more to buy food... It's all so confusing, and now we only have three acres of land left at home."
County Magistrate Tang rubbed his forehead and asked, "So your family only cultivates three acres of land a year?"
"No, we also rented the Chang family's land."
Magistrate Tang stared at the book for a long time, then closed it and asked, "Is it the Chang family, where someone in your family is an official in the palace?"
"Yes, yes, it's that Mr. Chang."
County Magistrate Tang waved his teacup, then looked at Manbao and Baishan and said, "It's getting late. You should go back and have lunch. You've been listening to this trial for quite some time. Go back and tell Zhou Silang that I've captured the man. I'll give him an explanation."
The rest of the story shouldn't be something they can hear.
Manbao and Baishan looked at each other, bowed together and left.
When they reached the county government office, Manbao finally glanced back at the lobby and snorted, "Isn't it just that Chang Changshi of the Yizhou Palace took advantage of the situation to buy land? What's there to hide from us?"
Man Bao said, "I also know that the Yizhou Palace, the Ying family, and the Ji family, these big families, took advantage of the disaster victims to seize a lot of land."
Bai Shan also didn't understand. "That's right, which of these things isn't uglier than this? Bigger? What's there that can't be known to us?"
Manbao looked up at the time and was too lazy to go back to the pharmacy, so he simply climbed up the carriage road and said, "Let's go home."
Zhou Silang's arm hasn't healed yet, but he can already jump around freely. Yesterday, he tied his hands and asked Zhou Lijun to take Zhou Liulang to call Chen Erlang and others, and brought all the fourteen people he invited together to get to know each other.
When Chen Erlang saw that San'er and the others were so young, he opened his mouth in surprise.
Zhou Liulang didn't care. When he was his age, he had been working in the fields. It was just driving a cart, which was easy. As long as the cart didn't overturn, it would be fine. So he thought they had no problem at all.
Zhou Silang said, "There are fifteen of you in total, so we will rent fifteen cars."
He said, "We'll go back empty-handed. Our village will hire another group of people. Don't worry, the road is very safe. We've also asked the county yamen runners to help watch the road."
Chen Erlang and others immediately flattered him, "Brother Zhou Si is really amazing. He can even invite people from the government office."
Zhou Silang said modestly, "After all, this business is with the county government, and the county magistrate is very concerned about it."
Zhou Lijun raised her hand outside, and when she saw that her fourth uncle didn't see her, she said loudly, "Fourth uncle, I'm here too. Let's rent sixteen cars."
Zhou Silang asked, "You want to go home? Sixteen is fine, one more will allow us to carry more."
Chen Erlang said stiffly, "Brother Zhou Si, isn't it a bad idea to bring a woman with you when doing business?"
Zhou Silang glanced at him and said, "Who said that? I always take my niece with me when I do business. Who will settle the bill for me if I don't bring her?"
I originally wanted to use the word "murder", but I was afraid that you would not be able to associate it with the previous chapter, and secondly, I was afraid of being blocked, so I thought I would just use a borrowed knife to kill someone.
The next update will be around 8pm
(End of this chapter)
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