Chapter 352 Kidnapping a High-Ranking Official
Magistrate Pei knew that King Xuan was heading north today, so he waited at the city gate to see him off.
"This humble official respectfully sees off His Highness Prince Xuan."
He looked at Jia Quan with envy, a mere city defense battalion commander who had risen to become a favorite of the future emperor.
The county magistrate will likely have to be subordinate to him from now on and will have to try to curry favor with him.
King Xuan lifted the curtain of the carriage and said to Minister Pei, who was bowing outside the window, "Minister Pei, many beggars in the city are coughing incessantly, and some are lying motionless on the roadside. The accumulation of corpses may cause a plague. Deal with it as soon as possible, and don't let the situation get out of control."
"Yes, yes, yes, I will send people to investigate. If the situation is true, I will make them drag the body to the mass grave and dispose of it as soon as possible."
Zhao Xuan gave him a few instructions and then ordered the team to continue their journey, getting further and further away from Panyu County.
Magistrate Pei watched the procession leave until it disappeared from his sight.
He remarked with a sigh, "Finally, we've sent this great Buddha away."
A man dressed as a guard from a wealthy household walked up behind him, glanced at him in the direction of his gaze, and then bowed respectfully, saying, "Lord Pei, our master requests your presence."
"What do you need me for at this hour? I have official business to attend to later."
“Lord Pei can finish his work immediately and then go over. Our master has patience, but the old man may not.”
"knew."
On his way back, Lord Pei did not take a sedan chair but walked. When he saw someone lying on the ground, he would go over and kick them a couple of times. If they could still move, they were not dead, so he would move on to the next person.
Until we reached another street, the ground was covered with coughing beggars, "cough cough cough..."
Some were so bad that they coughed up blood, which almost splattered onto Magistrate Pei's official boots.
Magistrate Pei was so startled that he covered his mouth and quickly took two steps back. "Oh dear, be careful. I'm wearing official boots today, which you can't buy even if you have money."
Before the dentist could even react, the guard swiftly kicked the woman, sending her crashing into the wall with a loud thud!
"You're courting death! Do you know who this person is? He's the magistrate of Panyu County! You spat poisonous blood on him and spread the plague to him. How many heads in your family do you have to chop off?"
The woman's husband, without even checking on his wife, hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, begging for forgiveness, "Sir, my wife was ignorant. I beg you, please don't kill us, sir, spare our lives..."
Hundreds of eyes on the street were watching him.
Magistrate Pei was angry but dared not show it, waving his hand, "Never mind..."
Feng Gan, a guard from the Feng family who was following him, drew his sword and killed the man and his entire family in a few swift moves.
The man who had just been kneeling and begging for mercy, along with his wife and children, now lay on the ground with a bloody gash on their necks, their eyes still open, dead. "Uh..."
Magistrate Pei was startled. "What...what are you doing?"
The onlookers were so frightened that they ran away.
A fellow beggar on the street quickly pulled up his sick relative who was lying on the ground, hid the person behind him, and shielded him with his body.
Those who still had strength were so frightened that they ran away.
They didn't know if the executioner's blade would fall on their necks the next moment, and they dared not gamble.
This world is too chaotic.
“The lady has developed a rash, and so have the two children. It is suspected to be an epidemic. Kill them to prevent future troubles.”
Magistrate Pei waved his hands in fright, "There's still hope for the plague! Killing them all at once... you're the one who killed them, it has nothing to do with me, I didn't kill them..."
Feng Gan ignored his rebuttal, sheathed his sword, bent his left arm into an elbow, wiped the still-damp blood from the blade, stepped forward and approached Magistrate Pei, whispering, "Lord Pei, it's too late to sever ties now. Come with me."
After he finished speaking, a carriage stopped in front of them, and two men jumped off the carriage and grabbed him from the left and right.
Magistrate Pei's feet left the ground, sliding back and forth in the air. "Where are you taking me? I'm the magistrate! Holding the imperial court hostage is a capital offense..."
Ignoring his struggles, they threw him off the carriage. "Ouch..."
The carriage sped away from the street.
The constables looked at each other in bewilderment. "What should we do? The magistrate has been taken away."
"Should we chase after them and take it back?"
"Rob them? Are you out of your mind? They're from the Feng family, and behind them is the Pu family. Even the county magistrate has to listen to them. What can a lowly yamen runner like us do to them?"
The other party was someone even the adults dared not offend, so how could they dare to offend them?
"So we're just going to ignore it?"
One of the yamen runners said, "Why don't we go back and report to Military Advisor Lu first?"
"That's a good idea. Go back and report it quickly."
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