Chapter 288: Sharpening the Knife [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
Which companies own this place?
Seeing this number, Shen Tang assumed it was the sum of several families, so he casually picked up a document and opened it to take a look. But then he heard Qi Shan say with a dark face, "One family, all related to the Zhang family."
Shen Tang nearly dropped the dossier and scrolls.
His fingers trembled as he pointed at the pile.
He asked incredulously, "You mean—one family?"
How many people are in the Zhang family, the magistrate of He County?
How could they commit such a heinous act?
Shen Tang quickly read through the case file. In short, the son of a family was falsely accused by Diao, the manager of the front yard of the Zhang family, of stealing a chicken. It was a fighting rooster with a distinguished record, worth as much as several acres of prime farmland.
According to the law, the loss must be repaid twice.
Unless the plaintiff is willing to settle out of court.
How could this family possibly afford to pay compensation?
The male head of the household died of a serious illness while serving in the military, leaving behind only the mother and her two children. The widow struggled to raise her son and daughter, enduring attacks from her parents-in-law, criticism from neighbors, and contempt from relatives who believed she was destined to bring misfortune to her husband and children.
To appease Diao's anger and mitigate his losses, he offered to sell the widow and her daughter into prostitution and also sell the widow's savings accumulated over the years.
Desperate and helpless, the widow rushed into the house to grab a blunt knife.
In full view of everyone, the baby was cut open.
This serves as strong evidence that the family of three is innocent.
It turned out that there was no chicken meat in the son's stomach.
However, it did unearth some spoiled food that hadn't been fully digested.
Terrified by the widow's actions, Diao muttered curses and claimed he had mistaken her for someone else, then left with the group of constables who had come to confront him. The widow, holding her son's corpse, sued Diao, but the matter was naturally dropped.
While it's true that Diao made a mistake, that's a minor error. However, the widow's act of murdering her own son is a grave one! She killed her deceased husband's only son. Such a vicious, cruel, and inhuman woman should be flogged fifty times, branded, and forced to pound the dead as a warning to others!
What happens to a widow after that?
Shen Tang didn't see a specific answer either.
"Pounding rice" simply means sending someone to a labor camp to pound rice with a wooden mallet. The laws of Xin and Geng differed; in the former, it generally required three years of rice pounding before freedom, while in the latter, depending on the severity of the offense, it could be five or seven years.
The time frame for reviewing the case file was based on the laws of the Xin Kingdom.
Three years is probably not enough time.
If Diao is determined to take revenge...
The death of a rice-pounding slave girl goes unnoticed.
Furthermore, the widow was subjected to flogging, tattooing, and three years of forced rice pounding. How was her only daughter supposed to survive during those three years?
Judging from the attitudes of his parents-in-law and relatives, they don't seem like they'd take on this hot potato. The so-called mistaken identity by Diao is also unfounded. According to the details recorded in the case file, it's highly likely that he did it on purpose; he just needed to suppress it a little, and his goal was achieved.
Who knew the widow had such a strong personality?
This is how they prove their family's innocence.
Shen Tang read it and sighed sadly.
He picked up another scroll at random, which was also by the Zhang family.
They were either members of the Zhang clan, servants of the Zhang family, or relatives by marriage who relied on the Zhang family connections. Compared to the widow being forced to disembowel her child, it was equally infuriating. One couldn't help but want to punch the brains of those who abused their power and treated human life so lightly.
"It's early in the morning, my lord, you should avoid reading such things that can make you angry..." Qi Shan said this, but waited until Shen Tang finished reading and closed the book before reaching out to take it from him.
Shen Tang took a deep breath.
He waved for the soldiers to carry everything inside.
The county seat was so poor that there were hardly any people there.
People like Zhang were too lazy to plant spies.
Bribing spies costs money too.
Shen Tang was not worried about the news leaking out.
She asked, "Tonight's the operation?"
Kang Shi never expected that Shen Tang would act on his word so readily.
On the second night after taking over the position of Governor of He, he kicked down Zhang's door. This efficiency would make even the indecisive Commander Yang blush with shame.
Kang Shi said, "Isn't this too hasty?"
Shen Tang: "It may be rushed, but by the time they realize what's happening, we'll be the ones on the defensive. Before they can even react or notice us, we should forcefully take Zhang down as an example! If we're too late, the chickens will already be on their guard."
Besides this reason, there is another one.
She's really desperate for money!!!
Money is needed everywhere!!!
Shen Tang got up at the crack of dawn to help repair the house. The roof tiles were broken, and the leaky areas inside were moldy, covered in mushrooms, and gnawing at by insects. This morning, the snow melted, and water was dripping from the house; the mattress on her bed could be wrung out to yield half a pound of water.
The work-for-relief program still lacks start-up funds.
Qi Shan did not speak.
There are advantages to starting early.
There are advantages to starting later.
He could see that Shen Tang was now like a ferocious beast, starving for days and with eyes reddening at the sight of its prey. She could devour a whole mountain pig in one bite. Who could stop her from hunting and eating? As her lord, she had already made up her mind, and all he needed to do was help her achieve it.
Upon hearing this, Kang Shi said no more.
In fact, he also disliked Zhang Shi.
He stayed up all night, his eyes bloodshot, sorting through files related to the Zhang family, seething with anger.
If our lord is willing to take action to remove this malignant tumor as soon as possible, it is a good thing that is beneficial in every way, both publicly and privately.
We need to squeeze some grain from Zhang's family to make it through the New Year.
On this point, there is a high degree of consensus from top to bottom.
Although the decision was made on a whim by Shen Tang, careful planning was needed to actually carry it out. They were still unclear about the background of the Zhang family, the governor of He Yin, how many retainers they had, and how many of them were capable martial artists and scholars who could pose a threat.
If things aren't handled properly, and things escalate to the point of mutual destruction, the entire Fugu City will likely be the first to suffer, which is not what Shen Tang intended.
She hopes the city will prosper and flourish.
I also hope that the common people of this land will be reborn.
Instead of acting rashly and dragging them into hell.
To ensure the secrecy was not compromised, Shen Tang originally planned to use a bluebird to deliver the message, but then she thought again, Fu Gu was so poor that even birds wouldn't poop and chickens wouldn't lay eggs, and suddenly a nimble bluebird flew out...
It's bad to alert the enemy.
Shen Tang then made an excuse to make the trip himself.
Zhao Feng was one of the main forces in this operation.
While Zhao Feng hadn't returned with his men yet, Shen Tang racked her brains for ways to exploit their labor; getting something for free was the best thing ever.
Although the tasks were somewhat trivial, they weren't difficult, and Zhao Feng himself was quite happy to do them, never slacking off—a capitalist's favorite thing. Oh, and out of respect for Shen Tang, he even took on an "apprentice."
This "disciple" is naturally Bai Su.
Bai Su is quite famous in He Yin.
To avoid trouble, Qi Shan helped her disguise herself.
She had aged from a vibrant seventeen or eighteen to a woman in her late thirties, her skin sallow and dark, her face deeply lined, her appearance the kind of ordinary that would blend into a crowd. Beside Zhao Feng, outsiders would only mistake her for a maidservant.
Qi Shan was initially worried that Bai Su wouldn't be able to pull off the look convincingly.
It turns out that you shouldn't use your own limited understanding to challenge someone's profession. Bai Su is a well-rounded female thief; infiltrating someone's home to scout is just one of her basic skills!
If Qi Shan hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn't have imagined that the inconspicuous person in front of him, whose demeanor and temperament were flawless, would be that female thief! Bai Su's professional skills were indeed outstanding.
Most of the people brought by Shen Tang were temporarily settled in the poorest, most remote, and sparsely populated southwest corner of Fugu City.
It wasn't that the officials in charge of the administrative area were deliberately making things difficult for people, but this place had the most collapsed houses, was the largest area, and was almost uninhabited, making it the most suitable place for resettlement; other places were not suitable.
Sigh, we're already poor during the Lunar New Year.
My phone broke a while ago, costing me over six thousand yuan.
My rice bowl, which I rely on for dinner tonight, has gone black again and crashed, swallowing 500 of my drafts. Damn it!
It's Chinese New Year, and JD.com is even shut down! Where am I supposed to buy a new job?
Huawei laptops are ridiculously expensive.
The tablet I bought before wasn't very good for typing.
This year has been so tough. (灬灬)
PS: Pounding rice was a punishment from the Qin and Han dynasties. It was roughly the same as a woman who committed a crime being demoted to a labor camp to pound rice, and it was a life sentence...
P.S.: Tangmei: I'm going crazy from being broke.
Shiitake mushroom: Me too.
PPPS: I currently have 5843 monthly passes, and I only need 823 more to reach 6666. Today is the 30th, and my monthly passes will expire in less than two days. Please help me!
(End of this chapter)
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