Chapter 164 Chapter 163 Arguing in Court
When County Magistrate Fan heard that someone looked down on his backers, he looked at the young men who appeared at the gate of the county government office with displeasure.
He shouted angrily, "Don't speak such arrogant words, you little brat! How dare you insult the duke's mansion with a noble title?
Come, take him out and give him fifty lashes."
Fan from the Wuchang Marquis's mansion nearby was worried about her not-so-bright brother being sent away, so she asked the Wuchang Marquis to send a middle-aged man to follow County Magistrate Fan. The man stood behind him and frowned.
"What a great official power," Yuchi Yi looked at the yamen runner who was walking towards him with a ferocious look on his face and a killing stick in his hand, smiled sarcastically, and took out the black token calmly.
Magistrate Fan was obviously ignorant and did not recognize the token in Yuchi Yi's hand.
The man standing behind him narrowed his eyes in surprise, but did not say anything to stop him.
Although the first-rank General's Mansion is higher in rank than the second-rank Marquis of Wuchang Mansion, the Marquis' Mansion with meritorious titles can be comparable to it.
When the middle-aged man saw the calm and reserved young man next to him holding a silver token in his hand, his pupils contracted sharply and a trace of panic flashed in his eyes.
"!!!"
Damn it... Are the tokens of noble families now as cheap as cabbage? Everyone has one, who are you trying to scare!
The middle-aged man who had worked for the Marquis of Wuchang for many years in the capital was much more knowledgeable than Magistrate Fan. He hurriedly stretched out one foot and wanted to walk over to salute, but then retracted his step under the other's stern gaze.
Then his eyes flickered and he leaned close to Magistrate Fan and whispered something in his ear.
Fan Mengsheng raised his head in surprise and looked at Yuchi Yi and the other young men who were looking at him with pride.
Even if County Magistrate Fan was ignorant, he knew that the title of Marquis' Mansion was lower than that of Duke's Mansion, not to mention that it was the Duke's Mansion of Cheng'en, the mother's family of the deceased queen.
Once the most aristocratic family in the capital.
Seeing that Magistrate Fan's momentum was suppressed, Tang Sicheng regained the initiative.
He took out the official document that the government sent him to investigate the matter, unfolded it and showed it to Magistrate Fan, and then said solemnly: "The case of the landlord Qian bullying the people and forcibly buying the villagers' land at a low price is now under the jurisdiction of this official."
Magistrate Fan glanced at the document and his face darkened.
At this time, he also regretted accepting too much silver and precious items from the Qian family. Some of them had already been sent to the Wuchang Marquis Mansion in the capital and to his sister.
He is a higher-ranking official and holds documents in his hands.
The most important thing is those guys who are holding tokens to scare people, they are obviously on his side.
He wanted to pretend that he didn't recognize the sign that represented his status, but the people arranged by the Wuchang Marquis' Mansion around him hinted to him several times that he should be aware of the current situation.
Fan Mengsheng had always thought that the title of Wuchang Marquis was very honorable, but he did not expect that today he would be suppressed by a few young teenagers and could not even raise his head.
But anyone who has been to the capital, even a servant with some knowledge, would know that the token representing the super-class Duke's Mansion is in the hand of the calm young man.
Even if it was a young man holding the token of the First-Rank General's Mansion, the now declining Wuchang Marquis Mansion might not be able to afford to offend him.
Under the pressure of the middle-aged man's gaze, County Magistrate Fan had no choice but to give up his seat. Tang Sicheng curled the corners of his lips, walked over and sat in the lobby to begin hearing the case.
The villagers kneeling below breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that they would not be beaten with the sticks.
These people were the ones Tang Sicheng had sent to notify the people in Zhengjia Village and several nearby villages when he came to the county government, telling them that people from the provincial capital were coming to investigate a case of buying and selling land.
If they have any grievances, they can go to the county government lobby to complain today.
At first, the people did not believe it, but the people sent to the village showed the educated ones among them the imperial edict, and then the villagers saw hope and told each other the news.
At this time, hundreds of villagers had gathered at the entrance of the yamen hall, just to see if they could get back the land they were forced to sell.
"Sir, we want to sue the landlord Qian for forcing us to buy our village's land. And the villagers who were beaten and taken away but didn't want to sell their land, when will they be released?"
"Yes, yes, sir, I will also sue the Qian family for buying our land and claiming that they paid us to farm for them.
But every time they said we would get more than 20 cents a day, and when we finished the work they said we didn’t do a good job, and in the end we didn’t even get 10 cents a day.”
"Yes, sir."
"The Qian family bought all our land. In order to avoid starvation, we had no choice but to work for them. However, the Qian family treated us like tenants and oppressed us."
The people kneeling in the middle of the hall recounted what the Qian family had done to the surrounding villagers in recent years.
Tang Sicheng felt sad when he saw the people below looking at him with hope. He had only been transferred away for a few years, and the people had been oppressed so much by corrupt officials and bullies.
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Tang Sicheng turned his head to look at the guards sent to arrest the Qian family, and gritted his teeth: "Bring up the landlord Qian and Qian Ergui."
When the pale-faced landlord Qian was carried by the guards to the lobby and made to kneel, and when he looked up and saw that the person sitting under the mirror was Tang Sicheng, he knew that he was probably finished.
As a well-known landlord in Moshan County, how could he not know Lord Tang, Tang Sicheng, who once served as the county magistrate here and was known for being impartial and honest.
Landlord Qian originally wanted to go to court to sue An Xin and his men for the atrocities they committed against him, but just now he saw Magistrate Fan and the middle-aged strategist beside him exchanging glances.
Qian Ergui, who had learned to read people's expressions when he was a gangster, began to understand that those teenagers were people he could not afford to offend.
When Tang Sicheng saw the landlord Qian being brought up, he looked at him seriously, his eyes full of sarcasm: "I haven't seen you for a few years, how come the landlord Qian has become so capable.
You can actually use two or three taels of silver to buy one mu of land from the people. How come I don’t know that land is so worthless now? ! "
When asked, the landlord Qian's neck shrank.
Standing at the entrance of the county government hall, An Xin in the crowd whispered: "It was fun to buy the land at a low price, but now I'm afraid I'll be sent to the crematorium."
"Bang!" The gavel was slammed down in Tang Sicheng's hand: "Why don't you confess quickly? What evil things have you done over the years that harmed the people?"
An Xin and the others stood in the crowd at the entrance of the county government hall, watching Tang Sicheng try the case. Chen Qibao whispered, "This man really does a good job trying the case."
An Xin glanced at him with disdain.
As far as she knew, this young Mr. Tang had been in the officialdom for many years after passing the imperial examination. If he couldn't even do the most basic trial, he could go home and sell sweet potatoes.
"Sir, it's unfair!" Landlord Qian endured the pain somewhere on his body and tried to struggle. He made a final effort to see if he could use his eloquence to earn a way out for himself.
When the people nearby saw that such a wicked man still had the nerve to cry out for justice, they really wanted to take off his worn-out shoes with big toes sticking out and hit his face with a shoe horn.
(End of this chapter)