Chapter 165 Chapter 164 Tang, a man with means and evil spirit

"Cough." Tang Sicheng saw some villagers ready to take action and coughed lightly.

If someone really beat someone in the court, even if the landlord Qian was an unforgivable villain, the villagers would still be beaten with a stick for the crime of disrupting the court.

Landlord Qian saw that all the villagers were waiting for him eagerly, so he said hurriedly: "Sir, please listen to my excuses."

"No, no, no, Master Tang, please listen to my explanation."

Tang Sicheng: "Mr. Qian has no brains but no honest mouth, so it's better to tell the truth."

County Magistrate Fan also glared at the landlord Qian. If it wasn't for the trouble caused by him, why would he be driven from his seat in the lobby to sit on the bench nearby?

The landlord Qian wanted to use the eloquence he learned when he was a gangster to deceive people, just like he deceived Fan Mengsheng, to deceive Tang Sicheng.

"Sir, I bought the land from the people around me for their own good."

"There are many paddy fields here, and farming is very hard without oxen. In bad years, even one year's farming is not enough to pay taxes. I can't bear to see them like this."

The villagers inside and outside the lobby rolled their eyes and said, "……" We really will thank you.

Landlord Qian had a bitter face, as if he was doing this for the good of everyone, but was still misunderstood. "I didn't expect that my kindness would be misunderstood by the villagers around me. Blame me for not explaining it clearly to them."

If someone who didn't know the truth saw him, they would really think he was a good man who was misunderstood and saved his neighbors from suffering.

Tang Sicheng: "If you say so, the people around here will come to thank you."

Landlord Qian knelt on the ground and glanced at Tang Sicheng, who was sitting in the lobby with an expressionless face.

For a moment, I couldn't tell whether what he said was true or sarcastic. "No need to thank me." I could only bite the bullet and answer, "In order to make the villagers live a more relaxed and affluent life, it's nothing for me to suffer a little grievance."

"Don't hold me, I'm going to beat him to death." Some villagers couldn't help it and took off their worn-out shoes and threw them over.

The common people nearby who were also disgusted by the landlord Qian pulled him back and said, "Calm down, calm down. Lord Tang is here and he will take care of the matter for us."

"Ah——" Landlord Qian cried out in pain.

An Xin saw that Village Chief Zheng's wife, who also came and knelt in the crowd, took advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention and stretched out her hand to twist the landlord Qian's thigh while gritting her teeth.

Then he pretended nothing had happened, retracted his rough hands that were worn out from farm work, and knelt there honestly, looking like he had done nothing.

"Bang!" Tang Sicheng slammed the gavel: "Silence."

Landlord Qian looked at Tang Sicheng with grievance: "Someone twisted my thigh."

"Ahem." Tang Sicheng: "Who saw it?"

An Xin, who was standing in the crowd, also raised the corner of his mouth. This is also a wonderful person... This bias is too obvious.

The people inside and outside the yamen hall shook their heads collectively, and everyone said that they were blind for a moment and did not see anything.

"You...you guys!" Landlord Qian glared at the villagers next to him fiercely.

Tang Sicheng: "Do you think I'm like someone else, being fooled by you like a fool?"

County Magistrate Fan glanced sideways at Tang Sicheng, wondering who the someone he was talking about was.

“???” I always feel like someone is hinting at me.

Tang Sicheng looked at the landlord Qian who was clearly robbing people by trickery but still managed to say that he was doing good things for others. If it wasn't for the damage to his official authority, he would have spit in his face.

This also fooled him. Landlord Qian thought that he was just like the county magistrate Fan next to him, who did not bring his brains when he took office.

After arriving in Moshan County, he started accepting bribes and doing things for others before he did anything.

Relying on the backing of the Wuchang Marquis Mansion in the capital, he dared to accept any money. Tang Sicheng turned his head to look at County Magistrate Fan who was still glaring at him with unwillingness, and felt that this man was too stupid to be accepted.

According to the information obtained by the people he sent out, in recent years, at the instigation of the landlord Qian, he even arrested all the villagers who came to sue the landlord Qian Ergui, and that was not all.

They were so bold as to sell those people to a nearby private mine to work and earn money.

This is something a smart official can do.

Tang Sicheng actually overestimated Fan Mengsheng.

He was not a smart man, nor was he a juren or jinshi. He came here to be the county magistrate through formal channels.

As for his title of scholar, it was also from the sister of Fan Mengsheng, who was a favorite concubine in the Wuchang Marquis' Mansion, that he was able to improve his status in the mansion.

The teacher who was hired at great expense taught for nearly twenty years before he was able to help the only brother from my mother's family pass the imperial examination and become a scholar.

How can you expect a man who becomes a county magistrate by relying on connections to be able to manage the affairs of a county?

This was the reason why An Xin, General Liu, and Li Ziyu all strongly supported Liu Boxing, whose brain was a hundred times smarter than Fan Mengsheng, to stay in the capital to serve as an official after he passed the imperial examination.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Being a local official is not as simple as it sounds.

When An Xin saw Tang Sicheng's mouth curled up, she knew that this guy must be up to something bad.

As expected, he began his counterattack against the landlord Qian.

"Qian Ergui, a local squire, forcibly bought the people's land.

The witnesses are all the people in several villages surrounding the Qian family, and the physical evidence is the deed that you used to buy the land.

Do you think I will believe what you say about doing good for the neighbors?"

Landlord Qian tried to argue: "Sir."

"Shut up! Do you really think I'm a fool?" Tang Sicheng's eyes were cold and sad. "Spend two or three taels of silver to buy the villagers' good farmland, which is worth fifteen or sixteen taels per mu."

"You say this is for their own good, then go back and ask the hundreds of thousands of people at the government office whether they believe it or not."

"I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I don't believe it." The people inside and outside the yamen shouted in unison.

The landlord Qian shrank his arms, looked grim, and wanted to say something.

Tang Sicheng didn't want to listen anymore: "If you dare to quibble again, I don't mind charging you with another crime of fooling an official."

I thought that forced purchase of land would not result in a serious crime. At most, I could return the purchased land to that group of poor people, and then use some connections to get myself out of trouble.

The landlord Qian then lowered his head and said no more words, which aroused public anger and was considered as admitting the crime.

But the landlord Qian underestimated the situation.

Tang Sicheng then exposed the evidence that he had colluded with officials from the county government and sold many of the captured prisoners and villagers who had accused him to a mine as laborers.

When Tang Sicheng took over the case, he sent more people to collect information and handled it as quickly as possible.

When a group of ragged, unkempt, skinny men with protruding cheekbones, sunken eye sockets were brought to the yamen.

(End of this chapter)