Chapter 114: Killing the Chicken to Frighten the Monkeys [VIP]
When the guards at the quarry saw Chen Yao, Tian Baolai and the others, they immediately drew their swords and attacked them.
Several farmers also came prepared. They immediately pulled out iron tools from the cart and protected Chen Yao and Tian Baolai behind them.
Zheng Fu was pushed to the middle and screamed in fear, fearing that someone would accidentally hurt him.
"Don't do anything, don't do anything. They are following my advice and are here to bring you food."
How could they believe these words coming from Zheng Fu's mouth?
The two sides confronted each other for a long time, and neither was willing to lay down their weapons first.
Finally, Lin Dachuan, who was still doing hard labor, saw that the number of guards around was not right, so he took advantage of the guards' unpreparedness and bravely sneaked to the entrance to check.
When I looked, I found an acquaintance.
"Niu Wazi's father, why are you here?" Lin Dachuan from Shanghe Village jumped out from behind the rock and walked straight to Niu Wazi's father.
Zheng Fu winked at the old man who was coming over, but the old man was so fierce that he couldn't understand at all.
He came over and said to him, "Is there something wrong with your eyes?"
Zheng Fu rolled his eyes almost to the sky.
The men were also excited when they saw Lin Dachuan, but they still didn't put down the iron tools in their hands.
I could only hear Niu Wazi's father and Lin Dachuan arguing in the back.
"It's all because of this official. He came to our village before dawn and said people were dying from hunger. We all pooled our food and wanted to send it to you as soon as possible."
"It's true that we're short of food and can't get enough to eat, but where are the deaths?"
Lin Dachuan walked towards the cart, picked up a sack and opened it to see that it was indeed food.
But this cart of food was not enough for all of them to eat.
Lin Dachuan sighed. The family's income was not good. This was the only food they could scrape together. In the future, the children and the elderly would have to live frugally.
Upon hearing this, Chen Yao and Tian Baolai hurriedly grabbed his arm and asked, "Uncle, didn't you beat him and his subordinates last night? He said his subordinates were dead."
Lin Dachuan was so frightened that his face turned pale. "Ayao, head of the village, please don't say anything nonsense. It was the convicts who beat them yesterday. We, the hard laborers, didn't do anything."
"really?"
"Of course it's true. We want to finish the work quickly and go home early. Why should we fight this official?" Lin Dachuan walked towards the guards with a sack in his hand and showed them the food in the sack.
"My dear officials, this is all a misunderstanding. These are people from our village, and they are here to bring us food."
Niu Wazi's father stiffened his neck and said, "That's right, we are here to deliver food. Why don't you put down your swords and knives?"
No one has stipulated that they cannot come to deliver food.
The guards looked at the group of farmers, and just as they were hesitating whether to put down their weapons, a scream suddenly came from the quarry behind them.
From the sound, one could guess that it must have come from Zheng Fu's tent, and everyone looked at each other in surprise.
Especially this group of guards, they all feel guilty.
Last night, after they discovered that Zheng Fu had escaped on horseback, they realized that someone had died. They were all panicked for a moment and just wanted to catch Zheng Fu back.
But I didn't expect him to escape to Qingfeng Town. The trouble has already been exposed and it's too late to regret now.
We have to do it once and for all!
There was murderous intent in the guards' eyes.
But Zheng Fu didn't notice it, still jumping around in the same place, and said angrily: "If someone dies, I wonder how you guys will end this?"
They are ungrateful bastards. The food he used to buy by pawning his accessories is better for feeding the dogs than for feeding them.
If they had taken action to control these servants at that time, why would there be deaths?
The more Zheng Fu thought about it, the angrier he became, and he shouted for someone to untie him immediately.
Niu Wazi's father glanced at Baolai, and at Baolai's signal, untied the hemp rope that bound Zheng Fu.
Zheng Fu flexed his wrist and roared at the guard, slapping him in the face. "What are you still standing there for? Why don't you let me investigate? How did the manager die? Find out who did it, and I'll let you off the hook."
The guards remained motionless.
It was not until he saw Yang Jizong riding a horse and a group of yamen runners coming on the road behind him that he became panicked.
Yang Jizong dismounted and walked quickly towards Chen Yao, Tian Baolai and the others: "Is everyone okay?"
"No."
Zheng Fu was overjoyed when he saw the yamen runners. "Yang Jizong, was it that old scoundrel Li Menghong who sent you to bring people here to suppress this mob?"
He knew that this old man would not sit idly by.
Yang Jizong didn't bother to pay attention to him. He said to the guards in front of him, "Why don't you put away your swords? Do you really want to be treated like a mob?"
One guard was so frightened that he dropped his sword, picked it up in a panic, and put it back into the scabbard.
At first they just wanted to teach Zheng Fu a lesson, but who knew that this group of fugitives would secretly kill him.
Fortunately, it was Zheng Fu’s steward who died instead of Zheng Fu.
this.
"What you just said, sir, is true. If we investigate thoroughly, will you really forgive us for what happened?"
, holding his head high: "Naturally."
Soon, the guards came over.
Looking at the group of fugitives kneeling on the ground, Zheng kicked them.
He was not satisfied with cursing and tried to snatch the iron tools from the men's hands to beat them.
"What are you doing!" Niu Wazi's father held the hoe tightly in his hand and refused to give it to him.
Before Zheng Fu could even get angry, he was silenced by Yang Jizong's scolding.
"Okay, were these the guys who beat you up last night?"
"Yes, it's them." Zheng Fu kicked the man on the ground again.
The prisoners knelt on the ground and cried out that they were innocent.
Yang Jizong refused to listen. "You claim it's unfair, but don't forget there are so many eyes watching you at the quarry. If any of you had made a move last night, someone would have seen it clearly."
Lin Dachuan and Zheng Fu beside them nodded vigorously.
Lin Dachuan stepped forward and bowed to Yang Jizong, imitating his son. "Teacher Yang, the people from our two villages and several people from Wanhe Township saw it clearly. It was these people who did it."
Zheng Fu glared at Yang Jizong from the side. He was already feeling depressed after suffering such a misfortune. He said it was this group of people, but Yang Jizong didn't believe him.
Yang Jizong rubbed his brows and gave him some face: "Master Zheng, how do you plan to deal with them?"
"He committed treason and beat my men to death. Of course, I killed them all."
When the prisoners heard that they were going to be killed, some of them fainted from fright, some kowtowed and cried out for justice, and some even stood up to resist.
Before those who resisted could stand up, the guards had their swords at their necks.
Zheng Fu snorted coldly, "Execute him on the spot!"
Seeing that these prisoners were about to be beheaded, Chen Yao stepped forward and spoke out in time to stop them: "Wait, you should find out the cause of death of your subordinates. Maybe there is something else going on?"
Zheng Fu looked at Chen Yao and wanted to attack, but he was afraid of Yang Jizong and remained silent for a moment.
This gave the exiles an opportunity to appeal for justice.
"Sir, sir, we were wrong. We didn't kill anyone. It was wrong for us to hit you, but we really didn't kill anyone!"
"Sir, we are just too hungry. If Guo hadn't kept instigating us, saying that you drink and eat meat every day but only give us half a steamed bun, we wouldn't have hit you!"
"It's unfair, sir!"
Guo Changrong, who had been squatting among the group of prisoners, heard someone betray him and hid in the pile of dirty people without moving.
Zheng Fu was so angry that he took a half step back. "The imperial court only gave us so much. The yamen runners sent you all here to cut stones and build the city wall, but they didn't send any food. You each got half a steamed bun, but that was also paid for by me myself."
Otherwise, you won’t even get half a steamed bun!
Everyone was shocked and some couldn't believe it, but what could they do if they didn't believe it? They had only half a steamed bun to eat and the person had been beaten. Now they just wanted to stay alive.
"Sir, it was Guo Changrong. He sneaked into your tent last night and slit your men's throats with a thin stone blade. I saw it with my own eyes."
Zheng Fu looked around in the crowd but couldn't find Guo Changrong, but Chen Yao saw him at first sight.
Well, she had experience finding people among this group of people who looked like homeless people.
In fact, it was the man's efforts to hide that caught her attention.
Under the identification of both Shen Yao and the whistleblower, Guo Changrong was brought to the front by the guards.
At this time, Guo Changrong was like a vicious dog, biting whoever he caught, especially when he saw Chen Yao and Yang Jizong.
These two people are his enemies.
Although Guo Changrong was forced to kneel in front by the guards, the guards were staring at by everyone and became guilty and relaxed for a moment, allowing him to break free.
I saw Guo Changrong take out a thin stone blade from his sleeve and quickly slash it towards Chen Yao's neck.
Everyone exclaimed.
Yang Jizong, who was standing beside Shen Yao, was prepared. He put his arm around Shen Yao's waist and brought her into his arms to protect her tightly. He turned around and kicked Guo Changrong away.
Guo Changrong fell into the scattered pile of stones like a kite with a broken string.
The yamen runner behind Yang Jizong immediately followed, drew out his sword and inserted it into Guo Changrong's right hand, with the tip of the sword piercing into the ground.
Chen Yao felt pain just looking at it.
"Now that we have all the evidence, you examined the body of my steward last night. Do his wounds match those on this thin stone blade?" Zheng Fu picked up the stone blade from the ground and looked at the bright red bloodstains on it with a stern expression.
One of the guards carefully bent over and took a look at the stone blade in his hand, which indeed matched the one on the corpse.
Hearing this, Yang Jizong felt a little regretful about why he had spared his life.
"Can I kill him now?" Zheng Fu held the thin stone blade, his fingertips turning white.
Was it true that the person Guo Changrong wanted to kill at that time was the one in charge, not him?
Chen Yao only saw the yamen runner's hand rise, and at the moment the knife fell, Yang Jizong held her head tightly and buried her head in his chest.
All I could hear were the exclamations of the crowd and Guo Changrong's screams as he was dying.
"Throw the body into the mountains to feed the wolves!" Yang Jizong gave an order, and two yamen runners immediately stepped forward to clean up Guo Changrong's body.
"The remaining men shall each be lashed with twenty lashes, and sent back to continue chipping away at the stone!"
"Yes." Without waiting for the guards to take action, the yamen runners brought by Yang Jizong had already escorted those people to be executed in front of other hard laborers.
Killing a chicken to scare the monkey is a common tactic used by these police officers.
Zheng Fu found it hard to accept that the group of convicts only received twenty lashes.
But Yang Jizong told him, if they really killed them all, when would the city wall be completed? And when could he return?
Zheng Fu finally stopped making a fuss, but he still refused to accept the situation: "Even if I don't kill them, I don't have enough food to feed them."
"You live off the land, have you ever thought about taking the guards with you to hunt?" Yang Jizong knew he was stupid, but he didn't expect him to be so stupid.
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