Chapter 736 Causes and Consequences
County Magistrate Tang immediately betrayed Manbao, saying, "At first, I thought someone was trying to sow discord. After all, I'm resettling refugees here, and you're trying to snatch them from me. But after a closer look, I found out she was the one spreading the news among the refugees. Ahem, you know, everyone was snatching people from their families back then, so I figured, who's snatching them? Sending them to your side is still a civilian, but if they're taken in by those people, whether they become slaves or hidden households is not up to the refugees to decide."
Manbao was capable of doing such a thing, but County Magistrate Yang still snorted.
County Magistrate Tang continued, "The incident with Chang Changshi was also an accident. At that time, Zhou Silang's kidnapping hadn't happened yet. This was all a result of one thing after another."
"So you're just using a knife to kill someone?"
"Don't worry, what do you mean by borrowing a knife to kill someone? I didn't kill anyone, and they weren't the knife. I just pushed them along." County Magistrate Tang said with a smile, "Don't worry, the new chief historian will be here soon. Who will care about us then?"
Yang Heshu narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "Who is the new chief historian?"
"It is said to be Zuo Tong."
Yang Heshu: ...
He calmed down and asked, "Who told you that? Uncle?"
County Magistrate Tang just smiled and said nothing.
Yang Heshu knew that this matter must be settled, otherwise he would not have said that.
He took a deep breath, not knowing whether to be happy or worried. He said with a complicated expression, "Zuo Tong, aren't you afraid that you won't have peace after he comes?"
"I'm not afraid of that. After all, he's the Chief Clerk of the Royal Palace. His duty is to monitor and advise the King of Yizhou. This has nothing to do with me, the Magistrate of Huayang County. At most, he'll exercise his authority as an Imperial Censor and report me, the Magistrate of Guo County, to his superiors."
County Magistrate Tang, with the air of a dead pig fearless of boiling water, said with a smile: "But I am neither corrupt nor harsh. I am not afraid of such a small matter. But you..."
Yang Heshu slapped the table and remained silent.
County Magistrate Tang smirked, but he still offered his hand to comfort him, saying, "Alright, with your current achievements in Luojiang County, you might be transferred back to the capital for a promotion next year. You won't be under his watch for long."
Yang Heshu was from the Yang family, a prominent family. There was also an imperial concubine in the palace who gave birth to a prince. The censors loved to target these relatives and aristocratic families and make trouble for them.
Especially Zuo Tong, who is famous for his uprightness and honesty, he wishes he could have his eyes on them.
However, compared to these aristocratic families, County Magistrate Yang felt that Zuo Tong would definitely prefer to target the royal family, especially vassal kings like the King of Yizhou.
Thinking of this, County Magistrate Yang felt much better. After all, he was not the most unlucky one, right?
However, County Magistrate Yang couldn't help but ask, "Why did you suddenly become antagonistic to the Yizhou Palace? During the Dragon Boat Festival, I heard that you saved the Yizhou King, and the Yizhou King even wrote a letter to you to commend you for your achievements."
After drinking a glass of wine, County Magistrate Tang said, "Nonsense! When did I ever confront the Yizhou Palace? I'm just doing my job."
County Magistrate Yang frowned, "So was it really Zhou Silang who ordered others to steal the wheat seeds?"
County Magistrate Tang laughed and said, "It's not that he ordered someone to do something. It was just that his cousin had the steward under him hint to that Sun Dashu. After the incident, he hinted to the head of the Sun Village and the head of the Mo Village to cover up the matter. There is no real evidence, it's just an impeachment based on hearsay."
But at this time, this little bit is enough.
The Yizhou Palace had just had a quarrel with the Ji family, and had left a very bad impression on the emperor. Chang Changshi was so happy in front of him. If County Magistrate Tang impeached him, not only would his father, Lord Tang, the Left Censor-in-Chief, help, but Prime Minister Ji in the court would also lend a hand.
That's why the speed was so fast. As soon as his memorial arrived in the capital, Chang Changshi was demoted and recalled to the capital before he even had the chance to submit his defense.
County Magistrate Tang was in a good mood as he listened to the noise coming from next door. He complained to his good friend, "You have no idea how difficult it has been for me these past three years. He's supposed to be the chief official in charge of the palace, which has nothing to do with me, the magistrate of Huayang County. Yet, everything he does seems to be related to me."
"I want to reclaim wasteland, he's enclosing it; I want to resettle refugees, he's interfering in intercepting the relief grain allocated by the court, forcing them to become displaced and destitute and to surrender to him and the Yizhou Palace," Magistrate Tang muttered. "I have no money, but he insists on holding a grand dragon banquet for New Year, forcing the Ming governor to pressure me; I want to set up a high-platform parade for the Dragon Boat Festival, but he hasn't even investigated the invited Nuo performers. They're fighting among themselves in the palace, and I'm fighting to protect them."
County Magistrate Tang was still furious when he thought about this. "If something really happened to the King of Yizhou at the Dragon Boat Festival, not to mention that my father is only the Left Censor-in-Chief, even if he were the Prime Minister, I wouldn't be able to save my head. Tell me, wouldn't I be furious?"
Yang Heshu nodded, "Angry!"
"Not only can I not survive, but he can't survive either, right? So when you say I saved the King of Yizhou, did I also save his life?"
Yang Heshu nodded: "Yes!"
"But he's ungrateful. I won't mention the arrest of the assassin. I saved the King of Yizhou's life and complained to him, asking him to allocate some wasteland to the county government to resettle the refugees. The prince himself was about to agree, but he suddenly showed up to stop me. Do you think I should have a grudge against him?"
Yang Heshu nodded fiercely: "It's deserved!"
County Magistrate Tang slapped his thigh and said, "So he deserves this bad luck!"
What happened afterwards was one thing after another, and County Magistrate Tang would feel sorry for himself if he didn't do something.
Of course, before Wang San was caught, he hadn't thought of doing anything. The main reason was that he didn't expect the Chang family to be so suicidal and they just happened to run into him.
Wang San, Sun Dashu and others were tenants of the Chang family. Most of the land that used to belong to them now fell into the hands of the Yizhou Palace and the Chang family.
County Magistrate Tang was self-aware and only targeted Chang Changshi, but did not say anything bad about the Yizhou Palace.
However, it is almost common knowledge that the Chang family is backed by the Yizhou Palace.
County Magistrate Tang stood up and walked to the window, hands behind his back, saying, "You don't know, but when I did some research, I discovered that the grain merchants who usually import new wheat seeds from your Luojiang County are actually people under the Yizhou Palace. And they're all officially under the supervision of Chang Changshi."
"It's been two years, and they've harvested the new wheat they planted. They have a lot of wheat seeds that can be used as seeds, but they're still reluctant to sell them and are still raising the prices of grain and wheat seeds. Their only purpose is to force these displaced refugees into a corner and force them to become their hidden households. Humph..."
Yang Heshu remained silent.
"At this time, Zhou Silang was secretly selling new wheat seeds, trying to seize the market before them. What do you think they were thinking?" County Magistrate Tang sneered, "He only transported one cart at a time, so only Chang Changshi's cousin was busy. He used the connections of some yamen runners in my county government, and when he found that he couldn't control them, he started to instigate the tenants to seize the people."
Yang Heshu: "You checked very carefully."
"Of course. If you don't investigate carefully, how can you know the cause and effect?"
"After this incident, you didn't stay in Yizhou City for long, did you?" Yang Heshu asked. "Will you come out again after returning to the capital? Or will you go straight to the Ministry of Justice?"
The next update will be around 9pm
(End of this chapter)
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