Originally, Zhuangzhuang and Feng Huan could go together for a few days, but Zhuangzhuang thought that it would be easier for the original officials in Mei County to relax their vigilance if he went alone, which would help him better recognize the true colors of these people. You can act more carefully, and then pull out Feng Huan's banner when needed. Although many people knew that he was a member of Feng Huan's faction, it was different from knowing that he was escorted into Yunzhou by Feng Huan. Besides, it would be too eye-catching to follow the large army, and it is not convenient for him to understand the people's sentiments.
Although the decision had been made before, Feng Huan thought that Zhuang Zhong was deliberately avoiding him, and when he left, he still looked angrily. Zhuang Zhong promised that he could come to pick up the gift in one month, which made Feng Huan willing to let him go. Feng Huan left and asked the guards to follow him for protection, four of them were personal protection, and the others pretended to be ordinary people to follow. The few guards were not impressive, only one Zhang Butou who was appointed as a yamen servant was tall and burly, and the others were not obvious.
Zhuang Zhong rested with his eyes closed in the carriage, and when he was about to fall asleep, he heard noises outside the carriage. The coachman said from outside the curtain: "My lord, Miss Fang's carriage hit and killed someone, and the relatives of that person are making a fuss."
Zhuang Zhong hurriedly got up and quickly jumped out of the carriage. Fang Yingying's carriage was ahead, surrounded by many people.
"My miserable mother-in-law, you died so badly! You helped me cook this morning, why are you gone now!"
"Mother, wake up! You damned, you killed my mother, I will make you lose your life!"
"Brother and sister-in-law, calm down, those of us who can ride in a carriage can't be messed with..."
"You bastard, you usually eat and drink from my house, but now you are saying something like this, if my mother is dead, if I can't take revenge, how can I be a son of man! Let me tell you, no matter what your background is, dare to kill my mother I will never forgive you if you kill me."
"Don't talk nonsense, your mother is lying here, and our carriage didn't pass by, how can you say we hit it!"
Solemn recognized that it was the groom's voice.
"God, mother, you died so unjustly. You were hit to death by a carriage, and you still don't admit it! It's unreasonable, unreasonable! This lady, seeing how well-educated you are, why do you have such a vicious heart!"
The guards pushed aside the crowd and walked in solemnly, only to see an old woman lying in the middle of the road, a young woman kneeling and crying, and a man angrily trying to find Fang Yingying desperately. If there were no guards to stop him, something might have happened. There is a village not far from this road, and people rushed over after hearing the letter. When they heard that the old woman was killed by a carriage, they all condemned Fang Yingying.
Fang Yingying's face was pale, thinking of the past when she was expelled for giving birth to a freak, she looked like she was about to faint.
Zhuang Zhong hurried forward, "Sister, don't be afraid, I'm here."
Only then did Fang Yingying regain her strength, and smiled, "I'm fine, it's just... hey, let's not talk about that, we really didn't hit this woman. The carriage was going well, but the driver stopped suddenly, I was curious Open the curtain and look, and you can see this woman lying in front, about two zhang away from the horse's head."
The man was furious, "You still refuse to admit it! You are really vicious, I want to take you to the government to seek justice for my mother!"
An uncle stepped forward and said: "Da Lang, don't be impulsive. This lady probably encountered this for the first time. Besides, it was her driver's fault. She was deceived by the driver. This lady listens to you. It must be a stranger who speaks, and it is not easy to go out, so don't make things difficult for her. If a woman's family is locked in a pickling place, how can there be a living head? Besides, the person is dead. The lady didn't do it on purpose, it's not easy for your mother to leave such a big place, she has to go to the official road, otherwise, let's go private."
But the man yelled, "Impossible, she killed my mother, I can't spare her so easily! I want her to pay with blood!"
"Your mother is dead, and death cannot be brought back to life. It's better to let this lady pay more for the coffin, so that your mother can be buried in the ground." The uncle turned to Fang Yingying and said, "This man is a famous man in our village. Er Lengtou, usually the most filial, you just killed his mother, this, this is really... If you don't want to enter the government, you should spend money to eliminate the disaster."
The man was extremely unhappy, "Second uncle, how can you do this! I don't care about money, and I want her to give me justice."
While consoling the man, the second uncle talked to Fang Yingying about the money, but ignored the solemnity. This can't be blamed on him, Fang Yingying looked solemn and tender, but Fang Yingying was dressed as a woman, and she looked like a person with ideas. Just thinking that the widowed sister will lead the younger brother to live, and the older sister will be in charge of the house. What's more, women are better at talking.
Solemnly signaled for the green curtain to help Fang Yingying go, but Fang Yingying refused, saying, "I want to be here."
Zhuang Zhong didn't refuse, but said: "I am the master of our family, if you have something to say, please tell me." The second uncle only paused for a moment, then kindly said: "I will help you stop now, you Seeing that you have given the money, leave quickly. I will explain to my eldest nephew. Her mother is timid, and she is afraid that she will be frightened and bumped by you again, so she didn't. It's not all your fault , but after all, it was you who killed his mother, and the meaning was to please yourself. It is not easy for you outsiders, if you get involved, I am afraid that it will be difficult to do things in this land in the future."
The man jumped up, "Second Uncle, why are you turning your elbows outward? They were the ones who killed my mother, why don't you blame them!"
The second uncle turned around to comfort him earnestly, but the man still had an air of aura, as if he would pounce on him and fight him at any moment. The man was tall and burly, with eyes like copper bells, it was quite frightening to look at.
Solemn squatted down beside the old woman.
"What are you doing?! You are not allowed to touch my mother!" The man jumped over and wanted to pull Zhuang Zhong away, but Zhang Butou stopped him. The man wanted to break free but found that he couldn't do so at all. This man has kung fu skills!
"You said your mother was killed by our carriage?"
The woman guarding the old woman's body cried: "I saw it with my own eyes. My mother was walking well, but this carriage suddenly ran out and knocked down my mother. I rushed over to have a look, and I The mother is no longer angry."
"You said your mother came here by herself?"
The woman nodded while wiping her tears, and the coachman hurriedly said: "That's not the case at all! This old woman was lying here before!"
The man was about to jump violently again, but Zhang Butou stopped him. Others yelled and condemned them, saying that they were rich and unkind, that they disregarded human life and so on.
Zhuang Zhong has been wearing regular clothes along the way, and so are the others, looking like ordinary businessmen. Although the clothes and carriages are not ostentatious, it is possible that the people who use the carriage are not ordinary people, and they all have some money.
"You said your mother-in-law made breakfast for you this morning?"
The young woman nodded, and the man said impatiently, "What are you asking for?!"
"Is she okay last night? What's wrong?"
The young woman sneaked a glance at the man, and the man said: "It's all good, I was picking up a bucket of water yesterday, and everyone in the village saw it. Don't try to renege on your debts, my mother is in good health!"
Zhuang Zhong snorted coldly, and suddenly shouted loudly: "Come here, quickly take down these two murderers!"
The guards quickly arrested the man, but the woman and the man were tied up tightly and still looked puzzled, completely unresponsive.
"You, you villains! You beat my mother to death, and now you still want to kill us. Come on, someone is going to kill someone, someone is going to massacre the village!"
"Mother, you died so badly! God, please open your eyes, how can there be such a vicious person in this world, who would kill someone to silence him if he knocked him to death!"
Seeing this, the onlookers raised their hoes to attack Zhuang Zhong, and more and more people surrounded him. But even so, with the guards sent by Feng Huan, no one can do anything to Zhuangzhuang and his party. Zhuang Zhong didn't want to explain, and he didn't speak until a person who claimed to be Li Zheng came.
"Are you Lizheng of Hexi Village?"
Li Zheng saw that he was dignified and decent, and he couldn't help but feel a little bit drummed. He also thought that the new county magistrate was about to take office, and he had an ominous premonition. But I thought that the news said that I would not arrive in office in a few days, and I felt relieved a lot. But at this time, he didn't dare to be negligent, and said: "I am old and not talented, it is my subordinates."
"I've heard for a long time that the villagers in Hexi are tough. As long as people passing by are like geese plucking their feathers, they can't get through without being scraped off a layer of skin. I used to think it was an exaggeration, but now it seems that it is true!"
Li Zheng broke into a cold sweat behind his back, and said with a sneer, "This, this is all a misunderstanding."
The man was displeased, "Li Zheng, you can't just talk nonsense just because the little boy looks good! Don't think we don't know what your plans are, if you want to..."
"Shut up!" Li Zheng angrily shouted. The man looked like this, and his heart was pounding, and he didn't dare to speak any more.
"My lord, don't listen to the nonsense of this idiot. It's just that people died in front of your carriage. If you don't explain something, it's always bad, and it's not auspicious for you."
Zhuang solemnly snorted, "How dare you mention money at this juncture! Let's not talk about how this old woman died. I just checked her body. The deceased has been dead for at least seven hours. Now it is a quarter of noon, that is to say She died at Yinshi last night! And just now these two people said that she was fine last night, and they cooked breakfast for them in the morning. Could it be that what they saw was a zombie, they fixed everything, and then deliberately lay under my carriage?"
The woman and the man were shocked, the woman lay limp on the ground, her face turned pale, and the man straightened his neck and said, "You are talking nonsense! How do you know that you died yesterday? You are clearly talking nonsense on purpose to escape responsibility! "
Zhuang Zhong snorted: "Your mother's body is going to stink, can't you really treat everyone as a fool? Her exposed skin is clearly visible, the skin does not fade when pressed, the fingers are hard, the corneas are cloudy, the pupils are visible, and there are small wrinkles on the surface. folds, all these indicate that the deceased had been dead for more than seven hours! Moreover, those who were trampled to death by horses had yellowish corpses, their hands were scattered, and there were many bleeding marks on the mouth and nose, which were black. However, the deceased did not have such a state, so it is impossible to carefully examine the body. Check it out, but it can be concluded that it is definitely not a horse trampled to death."
Cold sweat rolled down the man's face, "You, you are talking nonsense, who can prove that what you said is right!"
Fang Yingying walked forward, and said in a loud voice that everyone could hear: "Just because he is the newly appointed magistrate of Meixian County, just because he is a well-known case-solving expert in Beijing!"
The man softened immediately, and if the guards hadn't grabbed him, he would have sat down on the ground.