Chapter 800 Another Interrogation
Baldy was a little hungry. He was addicted to gambling and didn't feel hungry even after not eating for a whole night. But now he was locked up alone in a cell, and as soon as he was quiet, he felt very hungry.
But he had already had breakfast in prison, so he had to go hungry until the afternoon before he could have dinner.
In order to prevent them from having too much energy to cause trouble, there was no lunch in the prison, and even the bald man was not given water.
Baldy swallowed his saliva, crawled to the door again and shouted, wanting something to eat or drink, but no one paid any attention to him.
Baldy cried for a while and then gave up.
It was not until the afternoon when someone from the prison came with buckets and bowls to distribute dinner that Lai Tou swallowed his saliva and rushed to the door to wait. As a result, he watched the yamen runners distribute dinner to the cell at the corner, and then turned around and left.
The bald man was startled and quickly shook the railing and shouted, "Sir, sir, there's still me, there's still me."
The yamen runner turned around and saw him, and seemed to have just remembered him. He tilted the bucket in his hand towards him, knocked on it and said, "I forgot to tell the kitchen staff that there's one more person today. You don't have any share today. Eat tomorrow."
"No, sir, I haven't eaten anything for a whole day and night. I'm really starving. Please give me a steamed bun."
"Steamed buns? You're still thinking about steamed buns?" Before the yamen runner could say anything, the prisoners in the cell started to make a noise, laughing and saying, "You may not even be able to eat steamed buns outside. If there were steamed buns in the cell, who wouldn't want to live here?"
The guards knocked on the wooden bars of the cell and shouted, "Behave yourself! If you want to eat, eat. If you don't want to eat, pour it back."
Then he yelled at the bald man, "Why are you yelling? You won't die of starvation if you don't eat for a day. Just bear with it. I won't let you starve to death."
After saying that, he picked up the wooden bucket and left. No matter how Lai Tou called him from behind, he refused to go back.
Lai Tou was extremely frightened, even more frightened than the last time he was caught and beaten with a stick and had his fingers pinched.
This time the board hit him particularly hard. He felt that his waist could hardly straighten up, and he couldn't see behind him, so he always felt that there was sticky bleeding.
The last time I was beaten, a coroner came to check on me and gave me some medicine, but this time, they didn’t even give me water.
Baldy was locked up alone in the depths of the cell. He felt pain and hunger, and he couldn't help but have wild thoughts. He even hoped that the official would question him, but he waited until the light in the small window connecting to the outside went dark, but no one came to ask him.
At this moment, County Magistrate Tang had just finished flipping through the documents on the table. He twisted his stiff neck, stood up, stretched his arms, glanced at the darkening sky outside, and asked, "How is that bald man?"
"As you instructed, I haven't given him any water or rice for a day."
County Magistrate Tang nodded and after a moment's thought, he said, "Then you have one more thing to do. Select two smart and reliable officers to go to the prison. It would be best if they were on duty there. I have something to tell them."
County Magistrate Tang waved to the yamen runner, whispered something in his ear, and then said with a smile, "Go ahead. Just find two smart runners. If you can handle this, the county will pay for mutton soup for you."
The yamen runner smiled and saluted, "Then I thank you in advance, sir."
County Magistrate Tang smiled and waved, then followed him out. He planned to stretch his eyes. "Your master often treats you to food, doesn't he?"
Yamen Runner A smiled sheepishly, "Lord Yang is kind and caring towards his subordinates."
County Magistrate Tang smiled and thought to himself: Is that because he has too much money to burn?
He glanced at the Luojiang County government office in the last ray of sunlight, nodded slightly, and saw a clerk emerge from a room and bow to him. He smiled and asked, "Your county lieutenant and chief clerk have all gone home. Why haven't you left yet?"
"I'm in charge of the county yamen's paperwork. How dare I leave when the adults haven't left?"
Magistrate Tang looked at him and asked with a smile, "Since you are in charge of the documents from previous years, do you usually read them?"
"I'll look at some of it when I'm sorting through the documents. Is there anything else your Excellency needs to review?"
County Magistrate Tang asked, "How long after birth are babies registered here?"
The clerk thought for a moment and said, "It's not necessarily the case. Some children start attending school when they're three, some when they're five, and in some remote areas, even eight."
County Magistrate Tang frowned, "Not unified?"
"Parents would like to wait until their children are already established before registering them in the household register, but as soon as a child is born, a record is kept with the village head. Every year before the Lunar New Year, the head of the village submits the number of children born that year."
County Magistrate Tang asked, "Are there any records?"
"Yes, but only the number of people. For more specific information, you'd have to ask the village head," the clerk sighed. "Paper is expensive, and some village heads don't remember very detailed information."
County Magistrate Tang asked, "How long after a child's birth is it usually reported to the village head?"
"Within three days to a month," the clerk said. "If a child died before the New Year, some village heads would cross the child out of the report, while others would make a record and report it accurately. County magistrates have had different requirements over the years. County Magistrate Yang was very strict. He recorded the names and birthdates of every child born each year, and even those who died in the interim."
This is indeed Yang Heshu's style of doing things.
County Magistrate Tang smiled and asked, "It's a lot of money, isn't it?"
"Yes, the paper expenses for the village heads every quarter are not small. The request was made by the county magistrate, and we can't let the village heads pay for it themselves."
County Magistrate Tang nodded. "But it doesn't matter. Luojiang County isn't short of money these days. You've made a lot of money from the grain farming business alone, right?"
The clerk smiled embarrassedly with his head down.
Three years ago, Yang Heshu used forceful means to interfere in the grain and grain trading, hurting the gentry and big businessmen in Luojiang County. Finally, he liberalized the grain trading. As long as they stopped hoarding grain and deliberately raising the price, Yang Heshu basically didn't care.
However, Yang Heshu has always been in control of the grain seed business, but he does not have a monopoly on it.
The business was being done in the name of the county government, but in the following two years, in addition to the county government's share, County Magistrate Yang, the County Lieutenant, the Chief Clerk and others all had shares. Even the Ming governor in Yizhou City, as the clerk knew, had shares in it.
The clerk secretly glanced at County Magistrate Tang. Except for County Magistrate Tang, it was obvious that he had a good relationship with County Magistrate Yang. Everyone in the county government knew that County Magistrate Yang of their county and County Magistrate Tang of Huayang County were not only old friends, but also classmates, and they had a very good relationship.
They were so close that they exchanged letters every month, and sometimes even wrote back and forth every three to five days.
Magistrate Tang chatted with the clerk for a moment, then watched as the servants lit the lights in the county office. He said, "Find the information on all the newborns reported in Qili Village between ten and thirteen years ago, and send it to me later."
County Magistrate Tang paused and continued, "Also, find all the official documents sent to and from the county office from ten to thirteen years ago, as well as copies of the notices posted on the county office bulletin board."
The clerk's scalp tingled. "Sir, it's almost dark. Have you seen so much?"
County Magistrate Tang smiled at him and said, "Don't worry, I'm young, I can just hold on."
Clerk: ...He speaks as if he is old.
(End of this chapter)
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