Upon hearing this, the magistrate panicked and hurriedly said, "Please forgive me, young lady. I had already ordered my men to drive them out of the city. It must have been a mistake by my men that disturbed you. I will drive them out of the city right away and never let them enter again."
The previous decision was to expel Zhang Laozei's other children and descendants from the city, so that they would not have the opportunity to come back and cause trouble for Sun Changyuan.
Jiang Jiuniang has already shown leniency by not investigating their dirty secrets one by one; otherwise, none of them would have been able to leave with dignity.
And it wasn't that all their property was confiscated; at least they were given resettlement allowances to move to other places. But since they were so ungrateful, Jiang Jiuniang didn't need to say anything more to them.
"Wait a minute! You didn't leave when we told you to, and now you want to leave? No way!"
Jiang Jiuniang looked at the magistrate with a cold smile. Wasn't this magistrate trying to test her through Madam Yin? Very well, try it and you'll die!
The magistrate was frightened by her gaze and felt guilty, not daring to look at her. Then he heard Jiang Jiuniang say, "Take all these people back to the yamen to await interrogation. I want to see who is really behind this."
She glanced meaningfully at the magistrate, and seeing his guilty look, she understood even better.
"Yes, yes, I will take care of it right away."
As the magistrate turned to leave, Jiang Jiuniang added, "Before I personally interrogate them, you'd better make sure everyone is alright, or I'll hold you responsible!"
The magistrate's face immediately darkened, but Jiang Jiuniang didn't care and the family left.
After walking a distance, Lu Baichuan said, "I'm going to the prefectural city to find someone to investigate this county magistrate."
This was something that was supposed to be done earlier, but I thought he had handled the Zhang old scoundrel's matter quite well, so I thought I would give him another chance. I didn't expect him to be so ungrateful and insist on making trouble, so there's no need to think about it so much.
Jiang Jiuniang nodded. This time, Lu Baichuan's identity was not revealed when dealing with Zhang Laozei. She thought it would be resolved smoothly, but she did not expect that someone with real power would have to take action.
The tokens given by the retired emperor were only used around the capital. In remote areas like this, even if the other party knew the tokens were genuine, they wouldn't pay much attention to them.
Upon returning home, Lu Baichuan rode away on horseback. Jiang Jiuniang, however, did not remain idle; she summoned Zhuzi to inquire about the situation.
Zhu Zi told him everything he knew. Basically, the villagers didn't go fishing in the sea often, unless they were families who made a living by fishing. They did often go to the beach to collect clams and oysters for themselves, but they had been eating them since they were little and were tired of them. Only the poorest families would go to collect them.
"Why don't people rely on fishing for a living? Living off the sea is a good way to make a living."
Jiang Jiuniang was puzzled, so Zhuzi explained, "Because there isn't that much demand, and if you don't have experience, you might bring back some worthless fish, which still won't be enough to support your family. Also, some people find fish and shrimp too fishy and don't like to eat them, so..."
He didn't say everything, but Jiang Jiuniang already understood what he meant. In short, the demand was not large, and the outside market had not been fully opened up. Even large families like the Sun family did not have access to it.
Firstly, some people can't stand the fishy smell, and secondly, it's difficult to transport the fish out of the area, so sales are low, which is why the local people live in such poverty.
Jiang Jiunang then said, "Okay, I understand."
She already had a specific idea in mind, but before things were finalized, she decided not to say anything, lest something unexpected happen and she get excited for nothing.
"Zhu Zi, I urgently need some fresh seafood. If you know any fishermen, you can introduce me to them. I want all the seafood I like."
Zhu Zi's eyes gleamed; several of his friends came from families that made a living by fishing, so he could go and ask them.
"Yes, madam, I'll ask when I get home tonight!"
Jiang Jiuniang smiled and said, "Don't wait until tonight, go back now. You can stay at home for the night and come back tomorrow at noon. Remember, I want all the seafood alive."
Zhu Zi was very happy to know that Jiang Jiu Niang wanted him to go back and reunite with his family because he hadn't been home for the past few days. He thanked her and left.
He has been studying and practicing writing with his young master these past few days, and has already memorized several characters. He will tell his elder sister about them when he gets back!
He never imagined that he could live such a good life after becoming someone's slave. He could eat with his master every day and eat whatever his master ate. It was so much better than being at home. If he had known it would be like this, he would have agreed to let his sister stay so that she could also live such an easy life.
That evening, Jiang Jiuniang took Gou'er and Xiangxiang to the county government office. The magistrate, seeing that she had brought her family along, did not dare to say anything. He personally led people to the prison, where the entire Yin family was present, all staring at her with wide eyes.
Madam Yin's husband was the second son of Zhang the Old Thief. Apart from the least favored Sun Changyuan, this second son was actually more like the eldest son in the family and was always very favored. Otherwise, Madam Yin would not have been qualified to manage the household affairs.
However, the second son was nowhere to be seen this time. Instead, his wife and son and daughter-in-law were causing a ruckus, and even the children in the house were nowhere to be found.
Seeing their calm attitude, the child must have been arranged in advance. It seems that the magistrate had indeed done a lot without her knowledge.
"Bring that out; I want to interrogate him alone."
Jiang Jiuniang pointed to a young woman in the corner who hadn't said a word and was just sitting quietly in the corner.
When Madam Yin saw that Jiang Jiuniang had actually chosen her least favored daughter-in-law, she worried that the daughter-in-law would expose the truth. So she immediately put on a dramatic show of affection, standing in front of the daughter-in-law and saying, "One person does the work, one person takes the responsibility. Don't make things difficult for my daughter-in-law!"
Jiang Jiuniang had no interest in watching her act. She raised her chin, and the yamen runner shoved her aside and brought out her youngest daughter-in-law, Li Shi.
The younger daughter-in-law glanced back at her mother-in-law before being silently led away.
But Jiang Jiuniang happened to see the warning look in Yin Shi's eyes.
Jiang Jiuniang was worried about leaving the two children outside, so she brought them inside as well.
Only the mother, her two children, and her youngest daughter-in-law, Li, were in the room. Jiang Jiuniang didn't waste any time and asked directly, "Did they threaten you with your child?"
Li originally intended to speak as her mother-in-law had instructed, but unexpectedly, Jiang Jiuniang didn't ask about the street commotion at all, and instead went straight to talking about the child.
She had only been married for less than two years when she gave birth to a daughter. Her mother-in-law and husband both said she was incompetent and that having a daughter as her first child would bring her bad luck for the rest of her life.
The mother-in-law even encouraged her son to take a concubine and have a son, completely disregarding her as the legitimate daughter-in-law.
This time, they even forcibly took her daughter away, threatening to sell her if they couldn't reclaim the Zhang family's property.
Seeing that she was stunned for a moment and remained silent for a long time, Jiang Jiuniang understood what was going on. She continued to ask, "Are they doing this to take back the Sun family's property and then share it with the magistrate?"
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