Chapter 80 Strike First and Be Stronger
Magistrate Sun was under pressure from County Magistrate Zhang, who had been operating in Lin'an County for many years and had infiltrated the government office and various levels of relationship networks.
He was so angry that his teeth were chattering, and he raised his hand and smashed all the teacups he liked.
He said angrily: "To be so arrogant is really too much."
Director Fang lowered his eyes. Having worked in the government office for many years, he knew that it would be inappropriate to say anything at this moment.
Magistrate Sun had been in Lin'an County for less than two years, while County Magistrate Zhang had been running the county for nearly ten years. Lin'an County was relatively rich and had a good literary atmosphere, so it was easy to achieve political achievements as a county magistrate here.
When each term of office of county magistrate is over, most of them will be transferred again and promoted after their performance evaluation.
In this way, whether it is the officials in the yamen or the wealthy businessmen and gentry in the city, they would rather cling to the county magistrate who stays in the local area for a long time, and are willing to seek his protection in any matter.
This also led to the formation of a network of relationships among them. If the transferred county magistrate did not have a strong backing, he would be suppressed by the county magistrate of the same county.
Just like Magistrate Sun, who was being suppressed like a trapped beast by County Magistrate Zhang at this moment.
Seeing that tax grain could not be collected and the officials below were slow to do their work, Magistrate Sun knew that it was County Magistrate Zhang who was trying to make things difficult for him.
But when the time came and the taxes and grain could not be paid, he, as the county chief, bore the greatest responsibility.
Magistrate Sun looked at Chief Clerk Fang with some guilt, sighed helplessly, and opened his mouth hesitantly.
Fang Zhubu's eyes flickered, and before Magistrate Sun came out, he smiled bitterly and said, "It is my duty to share your worries, sir. Nothing is more important than collecting this year's taxes.
Although my nephew was seriously injured by the young master of the Kun family, his life is not in danger after all. Your Excellency, please do not worry about me. "
Fang Zhubu gritted his teeth, feeling extremely angry, but he had to say these words.
Even if he didn't say it, Fang Zhubu knew that Magistrate Sun would eventually compromise with County Magistrate Zhang and release Kun Guangcai in order to pay taxes.
If that were the case, I would rather do him a favor and make Magistrate Sun feel guilty, and feel even more resentful and dissatisfied with the suppression of County Magistrate Zhang.
Magistrate Sun felt both guilty and appreciative of Fang Zhubu's understanding and sense of the times, and thought that he would have a chance to compensate him and his nephew for the injustice they had suffered in the future.
However, because Magistrate Sun was dissatisfied with County Magistrate Zhang and the Kun family, he forced the Kun family to compensate Jiang Zhou with one thousand taels of silver before he agreed to release Kun Guangcai.
Although Mrs. Kun was reluctant, thinking that the Jiang family was too poor to ask for such a high price, she still asked the housekeeper to send one thousand taels to the Jiang family under the arrangement of Mr. Kun.
Although the compensation amount is not small, it is just a drop in the bucket for a wealthy family like the Kun family and is not worth mentioning.
However, Mr. Kun is not a reasonable man, otherwise he would not have raised a son like Kun Guangcai. From beginning to end, his family never went to the Jiang family to apologize for Kun Guangcai's injury.
This also made the Jiang couple, under the persuasion of Fang Zhubu, grit their teeth and accept the compensation.
After the Kun family's housekeeper walked away with his head held high, Mrs. Jiang almost fainted from anger, and looked at her elder brother who loved her with dissatisfaction.
Fang Zhubu rubbed his head with a headache. Although he and his brother-in-law's family were not rich, they had enough food and money, so they were not really interested in the one thousand taels of silver.
Seeing his only sister looking at him with tears in her eyes, how could Fang Zhubu not feel distressed and angry.
So, looking at his sister and her husband, he had no choice but to explain: "Even if you don't accept the 1,000 taels of silver, the magistrate will find an excuse in a few days to make a big deal out of a small matter."
"How could this happen?" Fang Zhou's father couldn't believe it. "Injuring someone in public like this is a serious crime. How can they just let him go?"
"Humph, Magistrate Sun is being held in a tight spot by County Magistrate Zhang. If he can't pay the taxes, he will be punished if he is not demoted."
"He passed the imperial examination with great difficulty and went through great efforts to become the magistrate of Lin'an County, a relatively wealthy county."
"How could he be willing to leave a stain on his political performance because of this incident, and fail the evaluation and delay his promotion?"
Madam Jiang, "Brother, I feel bad that the culprit who hurt my son like that was released just like that."
"Brother, we are willing to do so, but we are unwilling to reconcile and offend Magistrate Sun.
Not to mention the one thousand taels of silver as compensation from the Kun family.
By then, I'm afraid Magistrate Sun will agree that Zhou'er and Kun Guangcai had a dispute over a prostitute in a brothel, which would affect your son's future career and reputation."
"Ah! This...this..." Mrs. Jiang and Mr. Jiang looked at each other. Even though they were unwilling, they had to endure it.
Seeing that the couple understood the seriousness of the situation, Fang Zhubu was upset and didn't want to stay any longer, so he said something and left.
After An Xin found out, he took a few people to visit Jiang Zhou and asked him how he wanted Kun Guangcai to die.
Jiang Zhou looked at his headmaster and several fellow disciples who were trying to seek justice for him. He leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes, feeling touched and warm in his heart.
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
Although I knew that my uncle and my parents all agreed to the settlement, I still felt uncomfortable.
Jiang Zhou looked at An Xin and said sincerely, "You are right. If I had allowed myself to stop studying, I would have really accepted the injury I suffered this time.
But now I understand that a county magistrate can influence a case. If ordinary people like us want to have a say, we really have to pass the imperial examination and become an official. "
Leng Xiangbai and Zhu Shijing, who had already been exposed to some things, nodded in agreement.
Jiang Zhou's words of insight also touched An Rui and Liu Boxing, who had no goals in the imperial examinations.
The two people who originally wanted to live off their parents and had no ambition to make progress had to rely on An Xin's encouragement to study. After that, they became more serious when studying for the imperial examinations.
An Xin: "What do you mean, after you pass the imperial examination, you can come back and take revenge?"
Jiang Zhou nodded: "Yes!"
An Xin smiled brightly and said something inexplicable: "I advise you to take revenge as soon as possible, otherwise your enemy will die before you get out of bed."
A few days later, Jiang Zhou still hadn't figured it out.
Both the Kun family and County Magistrate Zhang were thrown into jail.
The reason was that the Governor's Office in charge of the grain transport received an anonymous tip-off and conducted a surprise inspection on a cargo ship sailing to Lin'an County, and found contraband salt hidden in the cargo of the Kun family.
After hearing this, An Xin gave Li Ziyu a thumbs up, which was a good idea to strike first.
Before the Kun family had time to plant the blame for the smuggled salt in the tea boxes they brought back, they found someone to anonymously report that someone was selling smuggled salt on the ship.
The Governor's Office of the Grand Canal reacted very quickly in this matter. Following the confession of the person in charge of escorting the Kun family's goods, they successfully found the supplier of the Kun family's illegal salt.
Now it was the turn of the arrogant and unreasonable Kun family who were unable to defend themselves.
(End of this chapter)