The plaintiffs were Chen Guanglu and Chen Changping. Soon after they were called into the court, the bailiffs brought in Jiang Sanlang.
Chunniang quickly followed in with her daughter in her arms.
Song Wenyu had already submitted his complaint to the county clerk and now followed him in, carried on a bamboo chair by his father.
Yingbao looked at her father and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he was not being tortured.
When he looked again at the desk in the court, he saw that County Lieutenant Cao Shen was really sitting there. He became nervous again.
The county lieutenant is Chen Guanglu's superior and regards Chen Guanglu as his confidant. Yingbao doesn't believe that he can be not partial to his subordinates.
The county lieutenant slammed the gavel and shouted, "The accused, please state your name!"
"My humble servant Jiang Sanlang greets you, sir." Jiang Sanlang clasped his fists.
"Mr. Chen Changping and his wife, Mr. Chen Guanglu and his wife sued you for intentionally assaulting and injuring them. Do you plead guilty?"
"I don't recognize it!"
"Hey! The evidence is here, but you still refuse to plead guilty. Do you want me to torture you?" Cao Shen shouted.
Jiang Sanlang: "I didn't do it, how can I plead guilty?"
Chen Guanglu sneered: "You haven't done it? Well, I remember stabbing you in the shoulder. Let me see if there is a stab wound on your shoulder."
Jiang Sanlang turned to look at him: "Didn't you check it last night? Chen Dutou, you also had someone poke my shoulder with a wooden spike. Now I know that you wanted to fabricate a false testimony."
The scar on his shoulder had long disappeared, having been rubbed away with the crumbs of his own fine gold ear. Only a faint red mark remained, which could not be seen without careful observation.
He once heard his daughter say that the birthmark on her wrist was rubbed away by using gold ear, so he tried it, and to his surprise, the scar was really rubbed away.
But last night, Chen Guanglu brought two people to forcibly take off his shirt to check, and seeing no scars, Chen Guanglu actually had someone poke his shoulder with a wooden spike, leaving a wound with the skin and flesh turned outward.
"Nonsense!" Chen Guanglu shouted, "How dare you, a troublemaker, slander the government in court!"
"We can tell whether it is slander or not by looking at it." Song Wenyu said beside him, "Jiang Sanlang, why don't you show us your shoulders?"
Song Wenyu had not had time to communicate with Jiang Sanlang and did not know that he had a shoulder injury, but he believed that this calm man would never lie.
Jiang Sanlang didn't care that there were other women in the hall and took off his shirt, revealing his bloody shoulder.
Chunniang screamed and tears fell when she saw this.
Yingbao was very angry and felt sorry for her father. She wanted to use Wudingzhi to treat him, but she knew it was not possible now.
Song Wenyu stepped forward to check the injury and said with a click of his tongue, "This is obviously a fresh wound. Captain Chen, it was you who really caused Jiang Sanlang's injury."
"Bullshit!" Chen Guanglu was so angry that he said, "Who are you? How dare you slander Bendu in court?"
Song Wenyu took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and shook it. "I was entrusted by the Jiang family to clarify the facts and give Jiang Sanlang justice. My complaint has been submitted. This is my letter of authorization. Since Chen Dutou thinks it is slander, why not let the coroner check Jiang Sanlang's wound to see if it is a fresh wound caused by a wooden thorn or an old wound from more than a month ago."
Chen Guanglu's face looked grim.
He did have someone stab Jiang Sanlang last night. On the one hand, it was to vent his anger, but more importantly, he wanted to fabricate evidence so that the county lieutenant could support him. He didn't expect that this peasant family of the Jiang family would actually hire a lawyer.
When the lawyer comes, many things have to be put on the table, otherwise the new county magistrate is not a decoration, he will eventually review the entire case. If there is any mistake, the county lieutenant will suffer.
County lieutenant Cao Shen had not expected Chen Guanglu to do such a thing, so even if he wanted to show his favoritism, he didn't dare to do it too obviously.
He slammed the gavel and said, "Bring the coroner to examine the injury!"
After a while, the coroner came to the court to examine Jiang Sanlang's injuries.
After the examination, he said, "Sir, this man's wound is new. The wound was caused by a blunt object. The skin and flesh are turned outwards, and the bones are not injured. It seems to be a wound left by a bamboo arrow or a wooden thorn."
Upon hearing this, Cao Shen frowned, waved the coroner away, turned to Chen Guanglu and asked, "What do you say?" This stupid thing must be the one who is adding unnecessary details.
Chen Guanglu denied it outright, "I didn't do it."
Song Wenyu immediately stepped forward and said, "Mr. Cao, why don't you call the jailer who was on duty last night to question him? We can find out whether Captain Chen went to the county jail or not. Besides, there are other prisoners in that jail, so we can ask them if that doesn't work."
If Chen Guanglu didn't want people to know, he would have to bribe all the jailers in the county jail and all the prisoners in the jail.
If he couldn't do it, the things he did in private could not be concealed, and not everyone would believe Chen Guanglu's account.
Cao Shen didn't want to involve too many people in this case, so he avoided Song Wenyu's question and asked Jiang Sanlang instead: "Defendant Jiang Sanlang, since you feel you are innocent, do you have any witnesses?"
Jiang Sanlang: "What kind of witness does the lord want?"
"Witness evidence that proves you were not there that day."
"Yes. After the court case was closed that day, I left the county with my family and returned to the river engineering site that night. My family and my co-workers can testify to this."
He had anticipated this day would come, and had informed several of his fellow workers in the village early on, so he was naturally not afraid of investigation by the government.
Han stepped forward and said, "You are lying. The criminal who sneaked into the Chen family that day was masked, but his figure was unmistakable. It was you, Jiang Sanlang. Sir, you have to make the decision for us."
Song Wenyu said, "This is just your one-sided statement, all speculation. And since you think it was Jiang Sanlang who did it, why didn't you catch him on the spot? There are many people in your Chen family. Jiang Sanlang is not a 3D man, nor is he a martial arts master. Can he beat four or five of you alone?"
"We were not together at the time. My husband and I were at home and all of a sudden someone came in and beat us up..." Han said aggrievedly, "My husband and I didn't react at all."
Chen Guanglu: "Indeed, he is extremely strong, and ordinary people are no match for him."
"Yes, he kept hitting my head and face, and we had no power to fight back at all." Chen Changping said.
Song Wenyu smiled and turned to ask Chen Guanglu: "It's fine if Chen Changping can't win, he's just a weak scholar and has never fought with anyone, but you, Chen Dutou, are one of the best masters in the county government, why can't you beat a farmer? Or does Jiang Sanlang have martial arts skills, or does he have other helpers?"
Chen Guanglu looked unhappy.
He really couldn't win. Even if he pulled out his dagger, he couldn't defend against the man's fist.
I clearly stabbed him with a dagger, but that man seemed to feel no pain and broke his shin bone with a kick.
Now one of his legs is disabled, and he is expected to lose his position as the captain. How could he not be shocked and angry
Without his position as a captain, who would be afraid of him in the future
In the past years, I have helped County Captain Cao many times and offended many people. Once I am abandoned by County Captain Cao, I believe that my life will not be easy in the future.
"Of course he has helpers!" Chen Guanglu shouted in confusion, "It was his three brothers who committed the crime together that day!"
Everyone knows that the Jiang family has three brothers. It is not impossible that they committed the crime together.
After all, he was put in a sack at the time, so it was reasonable that he didn't see other people.