Chapter 104 Killing the Chicken to Warn the Monkey
Du Min wasn't fearless; he was afraid of death. However, he knew that what he had done in Heqing County wouldn't cost him his life. Firstly, the previous magistrate had died in office due to an extravagant funeral. If he, the magistrate tasked with curbing this practice, were to die in office as well, the imperial court would surely send a governor to investigate. The local powerful families of Heqing County couldn't withstand such scrutiny. Secondly, no matter how forceful his measures, he was merely acting according to the law, suppressing only those who were considered unruly. These unruly individuals were mostly from prominent and influential families with numerous branches. Such families had many concerns, and murdering the magistrate for a lavish funeral would hand the court a sharp weapon to eliminate powerful clans. Furthermore, he had the Minister of Rites standing behind him; anyone who wanted to use him as a sacrifice would have to think twice.
Upon returning to the county government office, Du Min immediately ordered, "Prepare for court to begin."
The local gentryman was shocked. "What do you want to do?"
Du Min was surprised. "Wang Kunlun, don't you understand that you've overstepped your bounds? According to the Tang Code, transgressing one's rank is punishable by law. What am I going to do? Of course, I'm going to sentence you. Why do you think I brought you back? To invite you for tea?"
The local gentry, Wang, panicked. He grabbed Du Min's sleeve and whispered, "Magistrate Du, let's discuss this again. What do you want? I can give you anything. Money is fine, or I'll make the Wang family submit to you."
Du Min glanced sideways, "Can you be the master of the Wang family of Taiyuan in Heqing County?"
Wang, the local gentry, was speechless.
"Court is in session!" Du Min flung his sleeves. "Where is the judicial officer? Bring him here to inspect the burial goods. Where is the county magistrate? Go and summon the head of Jixianfang and all the organizers of Wang Kunlun's father's funeral."
The county magistrate immediately led two yamen runners to Jixianfang, while the judicial assistant led the clerks from the six departments to inspect the specifications of the burial goods.
Outside the yamen, crowds of onlookers filled half the street, and the locust trees along the roadside were covered with people.
Thirty-eight carts of burial goods filled the courtroom. The judicial assistant glanced at Magistrate Sun, who looked at Du Min. Du Min then stepped down and asked, "What's wrong?"
“Lord Sun, look.” The judicial officer held up the finely crafted tomb guardian beast and handed it to Magistrate Sun. “This pair of tomb guardian beasts is from the official kiln. The glaze is tricolor, and the body is made of stone. In terms of materials and carving, it is indeed made by the official kiln. However, there is no official kiln seal on the tomb guardian beasts. It is very likely that the official craftsmen took on the work privately and made it specially for the Wang family.”
Upon hearing this, Magistrate Sun knew that these tomb guardian beasts could give Wang, the local gentry, a severe sentence. Given Magistrate Du's personality, he wouldn't give the Wang family the opportunity to bribe their way out. However, this would put them directly at odds with the Taiyuan Wang family of Heqing County.
"Lord Sun, what's the situation?" Gu Wudong asked, having been sent by Du Min.
Magistrate Sun sighed and stepped forward to report: "Your Excellency, the tomb guardian beast used at Wang Kunlun's father's funeral was made in the official kiln, but it did not bear the official kiln's seal."
"The artisans of the official kiln were bribed by the Wang family and secretly violated regulations to make tomb guardian beasts for you?" Du Min looked at Wang Kunlun.
Wang Kunlun kept his head down and remained silent.
"Investigate immediately and arrest the person in charge of the official kiln and the craftsmen who made these tomb guardian beasts." Du Min drew a slip of paper and threw it down.
Magistrate Sun personally led a group of people there.
Meng Qing and her party encountered Magistrate Sun in an alley outside the county government office. Magistrate Sun's eyes lit up when he saw Meng Qing. He grasped at a straw and said urgently, "Madam Meng, you must go and persuade Lord Du. He wants to sentence the local gentry Wang. This will offend the Wang family of Taiyuan to death!"
“He offended the local gentry in Heqing County a long time ago, Lord Sun. Do you think Magistrate Du still has a chance to make peace with them? If that day comes, then they will be in cahoots, and his official career will be over.” Meng Qing said, “Go and arrest him. He has been waiting for this opportunity to make an example of someone for a long time.”
Magistrate Sun was taken aback.
“I’ll go with Magistrate Sun,” Du Li said. He could tell that Magistrate Sun was hesitant and worried that his concerns might cause things to change.
“Okay.” Meng Qing nodded.
“I’ll go with my brother-in-law too,” Meng Chun said, worried that Du Li might be in danger if she went alone.
“That works too.” Meng Qing nodded again.
Magistrate Sun sighed, "Let's keep up."
Du Li and Meng Chun ran away with the yamen runners.
Meng Qing told her parents to return to the government office through the back gate of the county government first, while she went to Honghu Academy to bring Wangzhou back.
“We’ll go with you. In this situation, neither Du Min nor any of you should leave the government office alone. There are some people who aren’t thinking straight and might hurt you from behind,” Meng’s father said.
Mencius' mother sighed and complained, "What a mess! We said we came here to enjoy a life of luxury with him, but now our business is failing, we're not doing well, we're constantly on edge when we go out during the day, and we can't sleep peacefully at night. He's clearly an official, but he's turned him into a plague that everyone hates, and we've all been dragged down by him."
Meng's father looked at Meng Qing and asked, "Qingniang, is what Du Min did really right? Wasn't he being too hasty? You were the same today, daring to stop the funeral procession. I was afraid you and your brother would get beaten up."
"You've all seen it. This county magistrate, he's been going to funerals every day, enduring insults and scorn to oversee the procession. Even after all that, the Wang family still found a loophole, going to another county and pretending to be from there, managing to haul forty or fifty cartloads of burial goods. This shows that the practice of lavish funerals is a chronic, deep-seated problem that needs to be surgically removed. His forceful methods have had little effect; would gentler methods be effective?" Meng Qing asked. "I support him. He's not afraid of being infamous, so what are we afraid of hiding behind him? As for business, don't worry, things will get better sooner or later."
Although Meng Qing was not knowledgeable about politics, she had seen plenty of news in her previous life about grassroots cadres going to the countryside to help the poor and rectify bad habits. The "poverty alleviation pigs" had even become a joke, which showed that relying on heartwarming political means had failed with some people.
Heqing County has fertile ground for the development of lavish funerals, a custom that has influenced generations. Bound by the reputation of "filial piety," countless people have squandered their family fortunes to give their parents a grand funeral. Funerals have become a means of comparison and the most effective way to win a reputation for filial piety. This is a legacy of imperial power in order to consolidate its rule, and it is necessary to use imperial power to strike back.
When Meng Qing arrived at the school, he went in to find Wang Zhou. As soon as he entered, he saw Wang Zhou fighting with five children. He was beaten to the ground but refused to beg for mercy. He kicked and scratched with his hands and feet, and even bit a classmate's hand.
"What are you doing!" Meng Qing pulled the child off Wang Zhou and threw him away, leaving only one child whose hand was being bitten by Wang Zhou.
But Wang Zhou failed to understand her intention. When he saw Meng Qing, he opened his mouth and cried bitterly. The child who had been bitten and was crying loudly quickly pulled his hand away.
"Where is the teacher? Is the teacher of this school still alive?" Meng's father roared. "Is he blind or deaf? Are you dead? Didn't you hear these children ganging up on my child? Did you sit there and die? Did maggots gnaw out your ears?"
Meng Qing picked up Wang Zhou and asked, "Tell Mother, where does it hurt?"
“My whole body aches.” Wang Zhou hugged her neck and cried. “They all scolded me, called my third uncle a bad official and a plague god, and said that I was a merchant’s daughter and that I couldn’t study.”
Meng Qing felt a pang of pain in her heart. She carried Wang Zhou and rushed into the school. The teacher, who was hiding inside, saw her and immediately scolded, "What an impolite woman! Is this a place for you to linger?"
"You beast in human form, you dare to impersonate a teacher and teach here? This must not be a sacred place. I feel ashamed to stand here and even think it would dirty my feet." Meng Qing kicked over the table and pointed at the teacher, cursing, "You condoned other students beating my child. You are unworthy of being a teacher, worse than a beast."
"You shrew! Get out! Get out right now! My school won't accept a merchant's daughter's child."
“Even if you beg my child to come to school, I won’t send him back.” Meng Qing carried Wang Zhou out, declaring, “We’ll see.”
Upon hearing this, the scholar panicked, knowing that Magistrate Du was no good official. He chased after him, shouting, "If you dare let Magistrate Du cause me trouble, I will risk my life to report him to the Jingzhao Prefecture!"
Meng Qing ignored him completely. She carried Wang Zhou out of the school and took him to the clinic for a check-up. Fortunately, it was just some superficial injuries and nothing serious.
As they left the clinic, Meng's mother said angrily, "Qingniang, let's go back to Wu County and let Wangzhou go back to Wu County to study."
"Mother, I don't want to talk right now, and I don't want to bother trying to comfort you. Just let me have some peace and quiet," Meng Qing said.
Meng's mother was angry, but she held back from saying anything harsh. After sending Meng Qing and Wang Zhou back to the government office, she grabbed Meng's father and turned to leave.
"What do you think she's thinking? It's so dangerous to stay by Du Min's side, yet she still wants to associate with him. Her business is suffering because of him, and her child is suffering because of him, and she still won't get out of there in time," Meng's mother said angrily. "Now that things are like this, if we go back to Wu County, Wangzhou can grow up happily and go to school properly, and she can earn money in peace. What's wrong with that?"
“Du Min is going through a tough time right now. If we leave now, won’t he hate us?” Meng’s father understood her thoughts, but he also understood Meng Qing’s thoughts. He comforted her, “Although Wang Zhou is temporarily implicated by Du Min, he will benefit more from following him in the future. Qing Niang is not a fool. Don’t interfere in her affairs. Think about it more positively. She has never been an obedient person since she was a child. She didn’t listen to you when she was young. Will she listen to you when she grows up?”
"Father, Mother!" Meng Chun called out, running excitedly. "Father, Mother, guess how many official craftsmen we caught? Nine! And two heads of the official kiln. They conspired to use the kiln's kilns and materials to make tomb guardian beasts, which they then sold to wealthy merchants for profit. We followed Magistrate Sun to their hideout and found a stack of account books and a room full of tomb guardian beasts. Du Laosan is going to get a big case this time."
In the courtroom, Du Min took the account book that was presented to him. He flipped through it and found that the first page contained a list from eight years ago. Judging from the thickness of the account book, he could tell that it probably included half of the wealthy gentry and merchants in Heqing County.
Du Min got excited. "Good, good, good!" With this leverage in his hands, he wanted to see which of the wealthy merchants and gentry in Heqing County would dare to go against him.
Du Min slammed the gavel down heavily. "Prisoner Wang Kunlun, having disregarded imperial authority and the law, and violated the decrees of the Tang Dynasty, bribed the official craftsman Ding Maoyi to privately cast a tomb guardian beast for his deceased father, who had no rank or title. He is sentenced to one year of penal servitude. I will also petition the court to have your Jinshi (successful candidate in the imperial examination) status revoked. The nine craftsmen, including Ding Maoyi, Ding Maoer, Li Da, and Li Er, knowingly violated regulations and still produced unauthorized burial items for him. They are guilty of the same crime as the organizers and are sentenced to one year of penal servitude. As for you and the person in charge of the official kiln, who used your official craftsman status to steal government property for personal gain, your property will be confiscated, you will be flogged fifty times, your official craftsman status will be revoked, and you will be demoted to government slaves. The head of Jixianfang, being unaware of the situation, is exempt from punishment and is released on the spot."
Upon receiving the verdict, Wang, the local gentry, collapsed to the ground, while the nine officials and craftsmen wept and cried out in despair.
"Guards, carry out the execution." Du Min threw down a slip of paper.
The yamen runners immediately brought over benches, tied the nine craftsmen and the two heads of the official kiln to the benches, stripped them of their trousers, and whipped their bare buttocks with thorny branches in front of a crowd.
Two other constables escorted Wang Kunlun away. As he left, he shouted to the steward, "Tell the second young master to find a way to save me!"
The steward nodded repeatedly. He looked at the county magistrate sitting in the hall. After the court session ended, he followed Du Min to the clerk's office, intending to bribe him with a thousand strings of cash.
Du Min waved his hand, "Go to your master and plead with the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel."
After saying this, Du Min went to the office of County Magistrate Sun to grind ink and write a memorial. His purpose was threefold: first, to report the case to the Governor of Luoyang; second, to give a detailed report to the Minister of Rites on the situation since he took office; and third, to petition the Ministry of Personnel to abolish Wang Kunlun's quota for the imperial examination.
"Hand the memorial over to the courier today," Du Min instructed.
Magistrate Sun nodded. "Sir, after this incident, have you achieved your goal of making an example of someone? Will you still attend other people's funerals in the future?"
Du Min flicked the ink from his fingertip and said, "Of course we have to go. It's time to see the results. By the way, spread the word about catching Wang Kunlun at Heyang Bridge today, so that funeral processions from other counties will have to think twice."
Magistrate Sun looked distressed. Did he have to manage funeral processions from other counties as well?
"Sir, please recruit twenty more constables. If you go out with more men, I am worried that you will be beaten up with a sack over your head."
Du Min smiled. "Okay, you can arrange it."
After finishing his official business, Du Min walked leisurely towards the government office with his hands behind his back. He was about to invite his second sister-in-law and second brother to have a drink to celebrate when he entered the door and saw Wang Zhou standing in the courtyard with a wounded face.
"Wangzhou, who hit you?" Du Min's face immediately darkened.
"I got into a fight with five classmates from the academy, and I lost." Wang Zhou had calmed down.
Meng Qing came out of the kitchen and complained, "Just like you were back then, he was bullied at the school because of us."
Du Min's eyes darkened. He took a deep breath and said, "I understand. Leave it to me."
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