"Pooh! Pooh! Pooh! Pooh!"

The common people were immediately furious. These bastards were so cruel that they even dared to burn the life-saving grain of the entire county!

Xu Yang, Zhang Dawu and others were criticized beyond recognition, but they just didn't say a word.

"Don't say anything. It seems that the master really didn't wrongly accuse them!" The citizens no longer had any doubts. When there was nothing left to vomit, they picked up vegetable stalks, clods of earth, took off their rotten shoes, and threw them at them.

'Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!'

Xu Yang, Zhang Dawu and others were beaten to pieces, but they just kept crying and didn't say a word.

Seeing that they were no longer in human form, the officers banged gongs and shouted at them to stop, almost stripping the ordinary citizens of their pants.

Then the officers took the group of people for a quick stroll along Yaqian Street and hurried back to the yamen.

It's not that they dared to be perfunctory, but the firepower of the crowd was too strong. It was fine when they were targeted at the Shenming Pavilion before, but after walking around the streets and alleys and becoming a moving target, the detectives were frequently injured by mistake. They were attacked by rotten eggs and rotten rice soup after taking a few steps. Who could withstand this?

However, it was just changed from 'traveling in shackles' to 'being displayed in public in shackles'.

The bailiffs divided them into two groups and locked them under the eight-character wall.

These arsonists will spend the next month here, rain or shine.

~~

Kunshan County Government’s pledge office.

Wu Cheng'en handed a list to Xu Wei with an embarrassed look on his face.

"The results of the house raid are not optimistic."

"Oh?" Xu Wenchang was lying on the kang, too lazy to get up, so he pinched the flyer that Wu Chengen had placed on the head of the kang with his toes, then hooked his legs and brought it to him.

Wu Cheng'en, however, turned a blind eye to this, obviously having seen more exciting things.

"So little?" Xu Wei was a little surprised. Fortunately, Wu Cheng'en went with him, otherwise he would have shouted that someone was corrupt.

"That's right. The five families combined don't have 300 dan of grain. They don't have much money, and the deeds to the land and houses haven't been found." Xu Wei sat down at the table depressed and said, "It's obvious that they have made preparations for escape in advance."

"Well, that's true." Xu Wei thought about it and it made sense. Although the monk could escape, the temple could not. But the servants of the Xu family were different. They still had Huating as their base.

As he said this, he crumpled up the list and threw it back to Wu Cheng'en, saying, "Then we can only ask Inspector Lin for help to recover the losses of this county."

"Do what you can." Wu Cheng'en curled his lips, hesitated for a moment, picked up the paper ball, flattened it and put it away.

"If you don't believe me, let's make a bet. If he helps you recover the loss, you should finish writing that chapter for me." Xu Wei asked with a smile, "The emperor of Chechi Kingdom likes Taoism and suppresses Buddhism. This is interesting. I like it very much."

"I didn't allude to the late emperor!" Wu Cheng'en glared.

"No, no, absolutely not. We are talking about foreign affairs. It has nothing to do with the emperor of our country." Xu Wei hurriedly coaxed his beloved writer and said, "I just want to see the result of the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism. Is that right?"

"I didn't allude to the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism!" Wu Cheng'en said angrily.

"Okay, no." Xu Wei sighed helplessly.

As the two were talking, they saw the gatekeeper Yu Men running in to report: "The personal attendant of Lin Anyuan, the inspector of Susong, is here with a letter! We dare not neglect him, so we have asked the superior to wait at the Moon Gate!"

"So fast?" Wu Cheng'en was surprised, and quickly found shoes for Xu Wei from under the kang and asked him to put them on to avoid the attack.

If outsiders saw him being so unbridled in such a confidential place, it would affect his employer's reputation.

Then Mr. Wu straightened his clothes and walked out quickly to greet them.

~~

When Wu Cheng'en came out of the Moon Gate, he saw a man wearing a round-collared blue shirt and a double-winged official scarf on his head standing there with an impatient look on his face.

Although the other party was just a clerk, he did not dare to be careless. He quickly bowed and saluted, saying that he was respectfully welcoming the envoy.

There is no way. The other party is a close follower of the Inspector General and we cannot afford to offend him.

Although the rank of the inspector censor was not high, being the seventh rank like the county magistrate, their authority was incomparable.

Because he is an imperial envoy who patrols the country on behalf of the emperor! All the ministers, prefectures, states, and counties under his jurisdiction must accept his inspection. If he finds any fault, he will report it to the emperor for judgment, and make decisions on minor matters. Wherever he goes, no grass will grow... Oh no, he is invincible, and he can even compete with the governor.

Initially, in order to prevent their power from expanding excessively, Emperor Taizu strictly stipulated that the term of office of the Inspector-General was one year, that he was only granted the seventh rank, that he was only allowed to travel on a donkey, and that he could have no more than four followers.

Think about it, how can you be respectable as an official who came here to inspect on a donkey? Of course, it is not good to pretend to be Boyi too much.

Emperor Taizu even stipulated that when county officials received inspectors, they must not be servile or servile, and must not display extravagant decorations, and must only provide basic necessities such as writing brushes, ink, and firewood.

And they must strictly abide by the four dishes and one soup meal standard, and they even specifically emphasize that goose is not allowed...

All these things are written in great detail in "The Etiquette of Procession".

But as we all know, rules are meant to be followed, but ultimately they are meant to be broken.

The power of the imperial censor was so great that he could hold the official hats of the officials in his hands. Naturally, every prefecture and county he visited would try to please him in every possible way.

The imperial court stipulated that inspectors were only allowed to ride donkeys, so the county would prepare a sedan chair carried by eight people and a full set of ceremonial guards.

The imperial court stipulated that the number of accompanying personnel for an inspector should not exceed four, so the county would arrange for the entourage and guards.

As long as the counties are connected seamlessly point to point, the inspectors will always have a decent appearance.

This was in public, subject to public scrutiny. As for the private meeting, the county magistrate was servile and fawning, needless to say...

Over time, the inspectors from various places developed the bad habit of being domineering and taking the fawning of county officials as the norm, and considered normal reception according to the rules to be extremely disrespectful.

Inspector Lin was in charge of the two most prosperous prefectures in the country, Suzhou and Songjiang, so one can imagine how arrogant he was.

Wu Cheng'en heard that last month, Lin Anyuan was in Changshu. Because the county was slightly negligent in its reception, he directly opened the door to complain and let the people report the illegal activities in the county.

The whole county was in chaos, and finally the magistrate had to kneel down and apologize, and only then did Inspector Lin let him go.

How could Wu Cheng'en dare to be negligent towards such a person? He would never dare to offend even his close followers.

~~

As the saying goes, a dog takes advantage of the power of the master. The clerk was also very arrogant. When he saw an old man in a cloth robe coming out, he did not return the greeting and said with a snort, "Is your County Magistrate Zhao here?"

"My master has been living on the bank of the Wusong River for a while now and has not been in the government office." Wu Cheng'en hurriedly replied respectfully, and then politely invited: "Please come in and serve tea. I will go and report to the master now."

"He's not here, why should I go in?" The clerk shook his head and said, "My family's court has already arrived at the dock. Please quickly arrange guards and sedan chairs to welcome him."

"Yes." Wu Cheng'en responded in a deep voice.

ps. I'm sorry everyone, this chapter is not easy to write. The key is that I need to look up some information, so I'm delayed.