Chapter 51 is over!
"Investigate! We must investigate thoroughly! Longcheng County is not a lawless place!"
Ouyang Rong slammed his hand on the nanmu wood desk, making a loud "bang" sound.
Wang Caozhi, Manager Ma, and other grain merchants' eyelids started twitching again, following the pen holder on the table.
It's a familiar place again.
It was a familiar face again.
It was that familiar tone of voice again.
However, it does wear out the table a bit.
But the young county magistrate was actually holding the gavel under his sleeve; otherwise, his bare hands wouldn't have been able to move such a nanmu wood table. He found that this thing was quite useful; no wonder he often saw county magistrates in movies and TV dramas using it—it really was a stress-relieving artifact.
"This is outrageous! Burning ships openly within our Dragon City territory! Is there no law? Is there no justice?"
Ouyang Rong suddenly raised his hand, as if to slam it down on the table. The grain merchants below the hall all subconsciously leaned back slightly, but this time, after waiting for a long time, no sound came as expected.
Upon closer inspection, the young magistrate raised his right hand high, then gently lowered it, and turned to ask the blue-clad constable a question... This was a masterful feint.
"Captain Yan, were there any casualties this time?"
"Reporting to the prefect, only two boatmen suffered minor burns. The others were all good swimmers and jumped off the boat in time to escape. Fortunately, the cargo ship hadn't gone far, and our men arrived early, so there were no other casualties."
"That's good. It's a blessing in disguise that everyone is alright."
"Sir, my grain is gone!" It's worse than being in danger.
Manager Ma gritted his teeth and gripped the prayer beads tightly; his heart was bleeding.
Wang Caozhi and the others noticed that the strings of the prayer beads in his hand had been broken, but they didn't sympathize much with him; instead, their faces showed a hint of schadenfreude.
"Manager Ma, please calm down," Ouyang Rong reassured him, then asked the blue-clad constable, "Two cargo ships burning at the same time, it's too much of a coincidence to call it. Can you find out who set the fire?"
"The rescued boatmen all said they didn't see how the boat caught fire. The fire first started in the grain storage silo, and when they realized they couldn't extinguish it, they abandoned the boat and jumped into the river..."
Manager Ma interrupted through gritted teeth, "They didn't even try to put out the fire, all they knew was how to run away, they're all ingrates!"
Wang Caozhi sighed and said something fair: "Manager Ma, they probably did their best. After all, anyone would panic in that situation, with the ship on fire..." He paused, as if remembering something, and added: "Besides, they hadn't even eaten."
"Trying your best my ass!"
Manager Ma suddenly stood up, scattering his prayer beads on the ground, his face full of indignation:
"Not a single person died, and they dare to say they did their best?! Everyone on both ships came back, but my food supply is gone. There's definitely something fishy going on, something fishy going on!"
His eyes were bloodshot as he looked up at the head of the table and said, "Your Excellency, you must do justice for this humble subject! You must investigate this matter thoroughly."
Ouyang Rong raised his hand and pressed down lightly, then said seriously, "Manager Ma, please don't be in such a hurry."
Turning to Yan Liulang, he said, "To be able to set fire to the grain without anyone noticing, either there's a traitor among the boatmen, or... someone with excellent swimming skills sneaked onto the boat under cover of night to do it."
"It's also possible that there's an inside man providing cover!" Manager Ma interjected.
Ouyang Rong glanced at him and nodded. "Hmm, that's certainly possible. We need to investigate from both sides. Officer Yan, this matter concerns the safety of shipping on Butterfly Creek, so we must handle it with utmost seriousness!"
"Here you go!"
Yan Liulang bowed with a normal expression, but just as he stepped back, a commotion suddenly came from the county government compound outside. Soon, Yan Liulang returned to the county government hall with a distraught old merchant with a goatee.
It is Manager Li who is absent today.
Wang Caozhi and the small grain merchants beside him looked on with curiosity.
In the past two days, Manager Ma and Manager Li have been the first to check their grain reserves. Both of them are busy transporting grain and have little contact with their colleagues. There's nothing to contact them about, since they recently had a falling out with the young magistrate and were fighting over the grain.
The first warehouse inspected by Manager Ma was a dock, and yesterday evening he couldn't wait to load it onto a ship and leave.
Manager Li had just had a warehouse storing over 900 shi of grain searched out last night. However, it seemed that Manager Li had heard about Manager Ma's experience and learned from it. Instead of transporting grain at night, he chose to leave the city in broad daylight, abandoned water transport, and opted for land transport. He also personally supervised and escorted the grain...
"Manager Li, didn't you lead people to transport grain out of the city? Why do you look like this..."
Wang Caozhi looked cautiously at the old merchant with the goatee whose hat was gone and asked him a question.
Manager Li had a disheveled beard, a dazed look in his eyes, and seemed to be muttering to himself, ignoring Wang Caozhi.
He was led into the main hall by Yan Liulang. If the latter hadn't reminded him to "watch out for the threshold," he would have almost tripped over the one-step threshold at the entrance.
The young magistrate in the hall raised an eyebrow and glanced at Manager Li's disheveled appearance. He couldn't help but whisper to the clerk next to him, "No one should be stealing the sewer covers in our county, right... We need to take better care of road safety."
"..." The clerk.
"...They're all robbers...they're all robbers...they're all robbers..."
Upon arriving at the hall, Manager Li murmured sorrowfully.
Ouyang Rong cleared his throat, puzzled: "Manager Li, did you... fall into a well?"
Manager Li opened his mouth, but remained silent. Seeing this, the young steward behind him cried out in fear:
"Your Honor, this morning the shopkeeper hired a group of dockworkers to escort the grain out of the city. But as we passed through the fields on the outskirts of the city, a group of refugees and displaced people from the dilapidated sheds on both sides of the road suddenly swarmed up, like starving wild dogs, and stole all the grain from our cart. Hundreds of bags of top-quality rice, all of them were taken by these lowly people, what a tragedy!"
"Robbers...they're all robbers..." Manager Li knelt down with a thud, sobbing, "Your Honor, you must do justice for us commoners!"
Ouyang Rongteng jumped up from his chair.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The gavel shook the entire hall.
"These are outrageous scoundrels! They're blatantly robbing grain in broad daylight! Has the road security in our Longcheng County deteriorated to this extent?!"
The young magistrate was heartbroken:
"These unruly people in the disaster camp on the outskirts of the city have absolutely no guts. Who gave them the audacity to rob us like this? It's not like I didn't give them rice. I even gave each of them half a zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival. What are they robbing us for?"
"Don't they know that even the rice for the zongzi was painstakingly transported to Longcheng by you virtuous managers? So what if it's a little more expensive? Without you, they wouldn't be able to eat any zongzi for the Dragon Boat Festival. Not only do they not show their gratitude, but they also dare to turn against their benefactors!"
The young magistrate seemed to be furious. He threw down the gavel, lifted his robe, and was about to storm out of the county government hall to righteously reprimand the unruly citizens who were oblivious to sympathy.
This impassioned speech startled both Manager Li and Manager Ma, who had been complaining and crying out for justice, and made Wang Caozhi and the others who were watching from the sidelines even more so.
"Your Excellency, calm down! Your Excellency, calm down!" Fortunately, Yan Liulang, the clerk, and others tried their best to stop them.
"Tell me to calm down? What makes me calm down?" Ouyang Rong said righteously, "Manager Ma, Manager Li have suffered such a great injustice, and the people under your jurisdiction are so ungrateful. How can I calm down!"
Yan Liulang said with a bitter face, "No matter what it is, let us subordinates do it. How can we let you, Your Excellency, come in person? You are the magistrate of a county. If anything happens to you, we will be devastated."
"Alright, investigate, investigate thoroughly, investigate completely!"
Ouyang Rong pointed a finger under his sleeve at Manager Ma and Manager Li, setting the tone with a stern face:
"Put aside what you're doing now and send all your men out to the disaster relief camp on the outskirts of the city to retrieve the rice, and then investigate the burned cargo ships. We must give the two managers justice!"
Manager Ma and Manager Li looked at the young county magistrate and couldn't help but feel a little moved. He was truly impeccable.
"Yes, sir!"
Yan Liulang accepted the order and was about to leave when Manager Ma hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly called him back:
"Wait, Officer Yan, if you go to investigate the case, what about counting the grain?"
Yan Liulang casually replied, "Of course we'll put that aside for now. The important matter is that the brothers need to go and get justice for the two of you!"
Manager Ma hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.
Manager Li's lips were a little dry, and he couldn't help but say, "Officer, counting the grain is also an important matter."
Yan Liulang frowned, hugged the knife he was holding to his chest, and tilted his head to ask:
"What can we do? Both of these important matters are very demanding, and our small county government doesn't have enough manpower to handle them all at once. My brothers and I used to patrol the disaster relief camp in the suburbs quite often, and the security has always been good. But these past two days, we were a bit lax because we were inspecting your granaries, and suddenly this terrible thing happened, incurring the magistrate's wrath..."
"This..." Manager Ma and Manager Li hesitated.
Yan Liulang sighed: "Then let's continue to check the granaries for you. After all, the two managers have tens of thousands of shi of grain stored at the dock. Losing two thousand shi is nothing, just a small matter."
"No, no," Manager Ma said anxiously, waving his hands. "This time a thousand shi of grain was burned, what if it's ten thousand shi next time? Constable Yan must quickly apprehend the real culprit and find out the truth. This is a matter of great importance!"
Shopkeeper Li nodded vigorously, his face contorted with pain: "We must quickly recover the grain stolen by those poor devils, and... we must also find out the truth! I suspect that someone among these unruly people instructed and led the robbery. The constable must arrest them, otherwise who will dare to transport grain out of the city?"
Yan Liulang was speechless and spread his hands: "Then tell me, which task should our constable team do first?"
Manager Ma whispered, "Why don't we tighten things up and split into two groups to take care of everyone..."
The blue-clad constable didn't speak, but his expressionless stare at Manager Ma while holding his knife was enough to convey his attitude.
Manager Ma and Manager Li were a little guilty.
Yan Liulang suddenly nodded:
"Alright, let's split it up then. Although the constables are used to working together, what can we do when the two managers are the masters? We'll split it into two groups. But what if we run out of manpower and the case remains unsolved, or the grain isn't recovered... Please don't blame me and the brothers again. And the grain inventory will probably take even longer. Please bear with us..."
"Alright!" The young magistrate, who had returned to the head of the table and was rubbing his forehead, suddenly interrupted with a light shout: "Why are you saying such hurtful things?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head, then turned to Manager Ma and Manager Li and frowned, saying:
"Gentlemen, I know you are in a hurry, but the safety of Longcheng is more important than inventorying the granaries. We must distinguish between what is important and what is not. Let Constable Yan and his men focus on investigating the case first. We can deal with the inventorying of the granaries later."
He made the decision immediately.
Manager Ma and Manager Li were speechless, unsure how to refute, and were caught in a dilemma.
It feels like things are stuck in place; the gates to Longcheng, once again used to transport the stockpiled grain out, have slammed shut again...
These two major grain merchants couldn't help but turn to look at Wang Caozhi and his colleagues and business associates, intending to rally everyone to put pressure on the county government once again.
Faced with the pleading looks of the two men, Wang Caozhi and the group of small grain merchants remained unmoved, like clay bodhisattvas in a temple, either turning their gaze away or ignoring them.
The mood of Manager Ma and Manager Li plummeted instantly...
People's hearts have fallen apart.
A short while later, the bailiffs shouted, "Court adjourned."
Despite their reluctance, the people in the hall had no choice but to disperse one after another.
Wang Caozhi walked at the very back of the grain merchants leaving the county government office. Before leaving, he couldn't help but turn back. In the main hall, his "brother-in-law" casually patted his wide sleeves and calmly turned to go to the back hall.
The short young man frowned, his expression thoughtful.
...
In the courtyard behind the main hall, Xie Lingjiang was feeding the fish again.
Ouyang Rong walked away with his hands behind his back.
"Aren't you busy anymore?" she asked curiously.
"When besieging an enemy, leave an opening..." He nodded. "It's over."
The young magistrate smiled again and turned around first: "Let's go. I said I'd take you somewhere. Let's go check it out before it goes bankrupt."
Xie Lingjiang was stunned.
It's finally released! One good news and one bad news. The good news is that everyone was amazing; the initial subscriptions exceeded expectations. While it can't compare to the big names, it still brought tears to my eyes. The bad news is… cough cough.
Also, the bonus chapter data is still being tallied; I'll report back to everyone in the next two chapters! Finally, thank you all for your generous donations, votes, and subscriptions during this time! I, Xiao Rong, have no way to repay you, so I'll try my best to update more frequently!!!
(End of this chapter)
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