People on both sides of the road pointed and whispered about them.
"What's going on with these people? Why are so many of them tied up?" The people in the county town rarely saw such a scene, so they couldn't help but gather in twos and threes to discuss it.
"Who knows... Could these people be bandits? Kidnapping villagers and selling them?" Someone glanced at Lin Weiming's fierce face and felt his hair stand on end from his menacing appearance.
He has quite the air of a bandit!
It looks terrifying enough!
Others immediately objected: "That's impossible, isn't it? If bandits brought so many people, why would they come to our county town? Would they just walk right into a trap?"
"Who says it's impossible? Why don't we follow them and see... I think they're heading towards the county government office!" Someone was eager to try and follow along to see what was going on.
There were quite a few people like this. Several people hit it off immediately and formed a long line to follow behind.
A large crowd had gathered at the entrance of the county government office.
"Please wait a moment, I'll go see what's going on." Lin Weiming saw that there were so many people at the entrance of the county government office, so he squeezed through first.
He could read and saw a new notice posted above.
From this day forward, anyone who can capture that group of wicked and roaming bandits will receive a thousand coins for each surviving bandit!
But if all you get is the head of a bandit, you'll only get twenty coins.
A thousand copper coins are roughly equivalent to one tael of silver!
Lin Weiming estimated in his mind that they had a total of twenty-four bandits this time, all of whom were alive, which meant they could exchange them for twenty-four taels of silver.
He raised an eyebrow, surprised that the magistrate was quite generous and not entirely inactive.
Their Ning'an Village only has about thirty households. If they could have twenty-four taels of silver, then the whole village would be able to have a good New Year.
Lin Weiming's own family didn't lack a tael or two of silver, but most people in the village did.
However, Lin Weiming was still quite happy to receive such a large sum of money for free.
"Come, make way! And please, this gentleman, help me announce that these are the bandits we caught in our village, a total of twenty-four!" Lin Weiming said to the constables of the yamen.
"What?" The constable guarding the door widened his eyes upon hearing Lin Weiming's words, stammering, "You, you said what? You're not lying, are you? You actually managed to catch twenty-four bandits?"
"Sir, if you don't believe me, just count them." Lin Weiming stepped aside, allowing the villagers to push the bandits over.
Fearing trouble from bandits, they tied each of their hands together with a long hemp rope before setting off from the village.
In this way, if one person tries to run, the weight of everyone will pull them back.
Looking at the bandits strung together with hemp rope.
The constable rubbed his eyes, his face filled with disbelief. He counted on his fingers several times before turning to Lin Weiming and saying, "Please wait a moment, I'll go and fetch the magistrate right now!"
More and more people gathered around the county town to watch the spectacle.
They also learned that the people bound by ropes were bandits captured by the people of Ning'an Village.
"Oh my, so they caught bandits! I didn't realize these people were so capable, even more so than bandits!"
"That's right, so many bandits... they've all been caught, so does that mean we're safe now?" someone said naively.
Such naive words were immediately ridiculed: "You wish! There are disasters happening everywhere these days, whether natural or man-made. I reckon this winter will be tough. Many people will starve to death. Even if nothing happens in our county, other places might not be so lucky. When those people are starving to death, won't they come and steal our food?"
"What should we do then?" Someone immediately panicked.
The poor harvest this year is obvious to everyone.
Whether in the countryside or in their county town, life is tough.
The autumn harvest has just passed, and in previous years, grain prices in rice shops should have dropped. But this year, they haven't dropped much, and even if they wanted to spend more money to store some grain, it would be difficult to do so.
After all, that's all the money I have.
Soon, a middle-aged man with an elegant beard came out from inside. As soon as he saw Lin Weiming, his face lit up with joy.
"Brave warrior! Brave warrior, you captured all these bandits!" The middle-aged man grasped Lin Weiming's hand, and after only a few glances at the group of bandits, he quickly determined that these people were not lying.
After all, the bandits were wearing much better clothes than they were, and they even had a small amount of fine silk and satin. If they hadn't stolen it, how could they possibly have such precious materials!
Lin Weiming's eyes flickered slightly.
Could it be that this middle-aged man is the county magistrate?
I'm not sure, I'll think about it some more.
"Who are you?" Lin Weiming asked, slightly puzzled.
"You country bumpkin, you really have no sense of propriety!" Before the middle-aged man could answer, the constable beside him interjected, "This is the magistrate of this county!"
"Hmm!" The county magistrate stroked his beard and nodded, his fair face still beaming with joy. He said warmly, "Come, come, brave man! You have made a great contribution to the stability of our county. Please come in and talk to us."
Lin Weiming turned to the bandits and villagers behind him and asked the magistrate, "What should we do with these people?"
The magistrate glanced at the people of Ning'an Village again.
These people looked completely ordinary, no different from any other peasants working in the fields.
Unlike the man in front of her, who was handsome, tall, and possessed an extraordinary air about him.
"Hurry up and take the other brave men to the teahouse for tea. As for this group of bandits, send them all to jail," the magistrate said to the constable beside him.
"Yes, sir!" Upon hearing the order, the constables immediately sprang into action.
“But Brother Lin…” Du Fan was a little worried when he saw Lin Weiming being taken away by the county magistrate instead of going to have tea with them.
Upon seeing the county magistrate enter the government office, the constable immediately said with disdain, "This is our county magistrate! Do you think we're afraid he'll do anything wrong?"
"Of course not..." The villagers certainly wouldn't dare, and quickly pulled Du Fan aside: "Fanzi, let's go first! I came here early this morning and I'm still hungry. I don't know if there's anything to eat at this teahouse. Brother Lin is with the county magistrate, so he'll definitely be fine. Don't worry too much!"
"Oh..." Du Fan nodded. In front of these arrogant constables, he didn't dare to say much, but he couldn't help feeling a little strange.
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