The fellow named Niu Shigeng said, "Humph! This fellow is a mean fellow. He asked me that I could only exchange one pot for one robe skin, thinking that I don't know the market. He even said that if it was the hatchet in my waist, he would give me five. The Mongols are not honest. Some of them are civilians who come to smuggle with you. They need your things to survive. Some of them are soldiers in disguise. He wants a hatchet to fight against the Song Dynasty, but how can I agree to it? I will take this fellow's cow and beat him up."
Zhou Guitong was a little surprised: "So, you didn't agree to trade the hatchet with that Mongolian man?"
Niu Shigeng opened his eyes wide: "Who do you take me for? No matter how bad I am, I know I am a citizen of the Song Dynasty!"
"Knowing that you are a commoner of the Song Dynasty, why do you still engage in smuggling activities that are expressly prohibited by the court?!" Zhou Guitong finally slammed the gavel.
Unexpectedly, Niu Shigeng was even angrier than him: "What are you doing? The imperial court won't let me live, so why can't I smuggle?"
Zhou Guitong waved his hand: "Go down! Pass it on to the next one!"
Kui County Magistrate Zhou Guitong interrogated the suspects for seven days and discovered that the over 700 individuals arrested appeared to have little connection to the espionage case. Aside from forty-seven individuals who had visited Hengshuigou and Taoxian Town, none of the others had ever left Kui County. Furthermore, forty-two of these individuals had alibis, demonstrating no knowledge of the military deployment map. There was no direct evidence to prove that the remaining five had informed the Mongols; these five individuals had simply visited family members serving in the military.
The roads between Hengshuigou and Taoxian Town crisscross, and the garrison deployment map here was personally drawn by Han Shizhong. To prevent leaks, officials below the sixth rank were forbidden from possessing it. Furthermore, military deployments are constantly changing, and how the enemy gained access to the routes deep into Kui County remains a mystery. However, blaming these smugglers for leaks would be a miscalculation.
After seven days, Zhou Guitong was thirsty and his mouth was dry. The yamen runners under him were also complaining bitterly. Kuixian was a large county, with only forty or fifty yamen runners on duty, but with more than seven hundred smugglers, they still felt like they could not handle it.
"Sir, it's not a good thing to keep these smugglers in jail forever. I don't know how to sentence them. Please make a decision as soon as possible," the chief clerk advised.
The captain followed suit, saying, "Yes, sir. Let's not talk about anything else. Just feeding these three hundred mouths a day is a problem. Some prisoners even clamored that they were right to come here. They can get food in the cells, which is better than starving to death outside. What do you think of this?"
Zhou Guitong was scratching his head. As a newly appointed official, he had hoped to start a new project. But instead of starting anything, he ended up burning his own butt.
The master offered a plan: "Why don't we send these people up to the higher authorities, to the provincial government, and ask the governor to deal with them, which would save us all this trouble."
"Why send them to the prefecture? Thousands have already been arrested across Qinghe Prefecture. If they were all sent to the prefecture, wouldn't the prefect be dead? Besides, do you think he's stupid? He'd have already sent a letter to the local authorities to deal with these smugglers," Zhou Guitong sighed. He had originally intended to arrest a large number of smugglers and curb this smuggling trend, but he ended up shooting himself in the foot.
"It's not a good idea to keep them locked up like this. There are more than a thousand smugglers in Qinghe Prefecture, but the court has not taken any action. How will they deal with them?" asked the captain.
Zhou Guitong shook his head: "No, but I heard that they seem to have sent an envoy to appease us. We will just follow his orders when the time comes."
The lawyer came forward and said, "I think this matter will eventually come to nothing. It seems these people are forced to do this just to make a living. Besides, we have already conducted an investigation and the military leak has nothing to do with these smugglers."
This time, Zhou Guitong nodded. "I agree. These people will at most receive a beating and then be released. How about this, Captain Liu? Tomorrow, you write a document to each of them promising not to engage in smuggling again. Then release them all."
Captain Liu was surprised: "They're all released? Don't they need to be beaten with a stick?"
"There are more than 700 people. If you are not afraid of being exhausted, just beat them up with 20 sticks one by one." Zhou Guitong said.
The yamen runners weren't too idle, so they gave each of them twenty lashes of the board. These seven hundred plus prisoners would probably tire you to death. So, Liu Dutou bowed and accepted the order: "As you say!"
The next day, all seven hundred people were released by the government. The prisoners' families surrounded the Kui County government office, kneeling and weeping in gratitude to Lord Zhou, the upright judge.
This filled Zhou Guitong with emotion. He had arrested them and taken them to the yamen, and now he had released them. These people were still grateful to him, and he had tasted the joy of being a good and honest official. When the people have you in their hearts, you will have a sense of accomplishment as a hero.
Half a month later, Li Qingyuan arrived at Qinghe Prefecture, and Qinghe Prefecture Governor Zhao Kangping went to the city to greet him early.
Li Qingyuan was arrogant. He used to be the Minister of War, but now that he came to this remote area, he felt like he was the boss.
"I am Zhao Kangping, your humble servant, and I am here to pay my respects to Lord Li!" Zhao Kangping hurriedly bowed and greeted him.
According to Song Dynasty law, officials were not required to kneel and kowtow when meeting their superiors, and there are no records of such ceremonies in historical books. However, this was not the case in reality. A higher-ranking official could dominate someone. Many officials would kneel and kowtow when meeting their superiors to show respect and deference.
Li Qingyuan simply nodded and said, "Get up, Lord Zhao. How's the investigation into the Qinghe Prefecture smuggling case going?"
Li Qingyuan was well versed in the ways of being an official, and knew the principle of being submissive to superiors and strict to subordinates. The stricter he was with his subordinates, the more submissive they would be, but when it came to his superiors, they would tuck their tails between their legs and behave like dogs.
As expected, Zhao Kangping said respectfully, "Sir Li, the number of smugglers captured and registered in various counties has reached 1,326."
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