A guard lit a torch to illuminate the people who came, and found that there were more than 30 people, which was equivalent to most of the servants.
Bai Shan pushed away the guards standing in front of him, stepped forward to look at them, "What are you doing here late at night?"
It was always noisy, you pushed me, I pushed you, there was a lot of discussion, but no one stepped forward to speak, the crowd suddenly fell silent, the few people standing in the front hesitated for a while, and then simply fell to their knees on the ground with a plop, "Please My lord, please forgive me—"
One knelt down, and the dozens of people behind him didn't even think about it, they just knelt on the ground, regardless of whether the ground was mud or stones, and kowtowed indiscriminately, "My lord, please forgive me, my lord, please..."
Bai Shan: ...
The guards and yamen servants also fell silent, turning their heads to look at Bai Shan, but they did not let go of the handle of the knife.
Bai Shan took a step forward and said, "Speak slowly if you have anything to say."
Everyone didn't stop, but became more eager, shouting in unison: "Please forgive me, sir, please forgive me, we will never dare again."
Bai Shan was overwhelmed by this noisy voice, and his anger flared up immediately. Under his irritability, he shouted angrily without waiting for the people behind him to step forward to replace him: "This county tells you to shut up!"
The crowd fell silent for a moment, and those who kept kowtowing raised their heads in fear, and looked at Bai Shan with some fear.
Bai Shan's face was extremely ugly, and the backlog of anger from the inspection of the problem yesterday afternoon burst out immediately, "Is it because I don't understand the words, or is it because I don't want to listen to what the county has to say?"
"If you don't want to listen to what the county has to say, you can go back where you came from. You don't have to come and kneel in front of the county. If you don't understand..." Bai Shan's face became darker, and his voice became gloomy, "The county doesn't think it's difficult to understand , then it seems that you still don’t want to listen.”
The servants were taken aback, most of them dared not speak, and the few who knelt in front hurriedly said: "Forgive me, my lord, there are too many people, the little ones didn't hear what you said, it's not that they don't want to listen..."
Bai Shan sneered, each knew the truth in his heart, he turned his head slightly and looked behind him.
However, the guards were not lucky, no one could understand what he meant, but Bai Erlang, who was lying at the door looking out, saw him tilt his head behind him, immediately reacted, went back to the room in the dark, took a chair and sent him out.
Bai Erlang put the chair behind Bai Shan.
Bai Shan glanced at him, then lifted his robe and sat down. There were more and more torches lit around him, and he could see the kneeling people more clearly.
He looked down at the group of kneeling people, and asked expressionlessly: "Well, why should the county spare you?"
The servants were silent for a while.
Bai Shan suddenly slapped the chair hard, and asked angrily, "Why, you forced yourself to the door of this county's house late at night just to howl?"
Kneeling in front of the servant who faced Bai Shan's face, the pressure doubled, and cold sweat slid down his forehead. They swallowed and had to say on behalf of everyone: "Master, we know that we are wrong, and we will not dare to cut corners in the future. Please forgive me!" Us, please forgive me."
Bai Shan looked at them coldly, his eyes gliding over their faces one by one. He had a good memory and quickly connected their faces with their names.
"Sheng Dagen? Did you pull the stone?"
The person kneeling in front was stunned for a moment and then answered "Yes", with a bad feeling in his heart.
Bai Shan counted the names of several people in succession, and asked: "How many of you are stone-milled?"
Those people were also very disturbed, unexpectedly Bai Shan could remember their names.
Several people nodded apprehensively in response to "yes".
Bai Shan turned his gaze to the side, called out the names of a few more people, and asked, "Are you pickers?"
"yes."
The kneeling person became even more uneasy.
Bai Shan sneered and said: "Originally, the county planned to punish all sixty of you to serve in the official farmland for ten days, with wages as the punishment, but today the county changed its mind, and you all went to Longchi to build a ferry. Well, sixty people will be fined 20 days, and those who come to disturb the officials tonight and kneel here will have another 20 days."
The kneeling man was startled, and quickly shouted: "My lord, you can't do this..."
Those who were excited even stood up and rushed forward to talk to Bai Shan.
A guard immediately drew out a knife and laid it across in front of Bai Shan, shouting: "Bold, do you want to rebel?"
The murderous aura came over, and the crowd fell silent for a moment, not daring to look directly at the guard and the sword in his hand with a cold light.
Bai Shan said slowly: "This is the guard Leng of the Princess Mansion. He was born as a imperial guard. If anyone bumps into a son-in-law, he has the right to cut him off."
The person standing in front couldn't help but took two steps back, and those who wanted to rush forward to plead even took a few steps back, not daring to go forward.
Seeing that they were honest, Bai Shan looked at them quietly without any expression on his face.
As time passed, the servants subconsciously avoided Bai Shan's eyes, and looked down at the irregular soil under their feet, regretting in their hearts, they would not have come with them if they had known.
Didn't it mean that if there are too many people, the county magistrate will not punish them
After Bai Shan looked down at all the servants, he said in a deep voice: "It is a serious crime to disturb the officials in the middle of the night, and this county will punish you according to the law. Assassinating officials, anyway, this county has killed a lot of people this year, so it’s okay to send a few more heads to the vegetable market.”
The servants ran away in fright.
Even standing at the front, the few who felt more courageous all turned pale, their legs trembling, and finally ran away shaking their legs.
Fang Xiancheng breathed a sigh of relief, and said to Bai Shan: "Fortunately, they just asked for mercy, and didn't want to hurt your lord, otherwise the subordinate officials will really die."
But Mr. Cui said: "It's also fortunate that we brought enough guards and yamen servants."
Originally, they were just a few groups of people, because they were going back to the county seat, and this was the only way they had to pass, so they met here by fate.
Before Bai Shan went out, he brought not only the yamen servants, but also three family guards, and Bai Erlang also brought two yamen servants and several guards.
Not to mention Yin or, he never travels with less than ten people, so they have a lot of guards and servants.
Fang Xiancheng let out a sigh of relief, and hurriedly appeased Bai Shan, "Your Excellency, go back to the room to rest first, and lecture them tomorrow?"
Bai Shan asked, "Why tomorrow?"
"ah?"
Bai Shan directly turned his head to the servants and guards and said: "Go, knock on the clapper, all the generals wake up, go to the flat ground where the rice is placed in front, the county wants to give a lecture."
He sneered and said, "Since everyone is not sleepy, don't sleep tonight."
Yin Ju also regained his composure, and had the energy to joke with him, "Are you going to be a strict county magistrate?"
Bai Shan said with a sullen face: "I think what Fang Xiancheng said is right, some unruly people are not punished severely, and they don't know what to do, and it is not enough to imitate others."
In this case, he fulfilled them.
Scaring him would cost him money!
What do you beg for mercy? So many people came to the door in the middle of the night, rather than begging for mercy, it was more like persecution. He really thought that Bai Shan was made of mud, and he would not have a temper, right