Ji Sanduo, a minor official in charge of land distribution in Nantian Village, Zhulan Town, and a group of soldiers were soon called in.
Upon seeing these people, the somewhat fat Lu Qian knelt down in front of Qin Mu and loudly accused him: "Your Excellency, it is them, it is them. As soon as they arrived in Nantian Village, they came to my house to ask for food and drink. I did my best to provide them, but I didn't expect them to go even further and demand a bribe of 1,000 taels from me.
My family and I just returned home from the disaster, and we really can't afford so much silver. We barely managed to get a hundred taels to give them. They were dissatisfied and forcibly divided up my thousand acres of good land. County Master, you are the great magistrate, you must make the decision for me. "
The other gentry who followed also knelt down and kowtowed, shouting in unison: "Your Excellency, please make a decision for us, the common people!"
"Get up, get up, everyone, don't worry, I will investigate this matter thoroughly and bring the criminals to justice."
As soon as Qin Mu finished speaking, it was Ji Sanduo's turn to kneel down with a group of soldiers. They quickly defended themselves, saying, "Your Excellency, they are slandering us. We are innocent! We have been following your orders to remake the imperial edict and distribute the ownerless land to the disaster victims. We have always fulfilled our duties and have never dared to have any selfish thoughts, let alone embezzlement and abuse of power. We have never asked for bribes from anyone. Please be careful."
Lu Qian pointed at Ji Sanduo and said angrily, "Sir, he is lying! They clearly asked me for 100 silver coins, not a cent less. Besides, I have the title deed to this large piece of land, and you, the county magistrate, have also seen it. But now they have divided it up. This is a fact, how can they deny it? Please, the county magistrate, please make the decision for me, please, the county magistrate, make the decision for me..."
Lu Qian kept kneeling and kneeling, his voice filled with tears, all his indignation leaking out in his accusations.
"Sir, we didn't ask for a bribe, we really didn't..."
"Then what's the matter with this piece of land?" Qin Mu looked serious and threw the deed of the divided 1,000 acres of land in front of Ji Sanduo.
Ji Sanduo quickly picked up the land deeds, checked them and said with a changed expression, "My lord, listen to me, things are not as they say. I just saw these land deeds last night. It has been three days beyond the seven-day deadline set by my lord. According to my lord's rules, if the land deeds are not registered within seven days, they will be treated as unowned land and distributed to the disaster victims. I am doing things according to the rules..."
Lu Qian jumped up immediately, interrupted Ji Sanduo and said, "You are lying! Five days ago, Lu clearly gave you all the land deeds in my family, including the deeds of the thousand acres of land. Your Excellency, he lied, he lied, he lied, he was trying to cover up the fact of corruption and abuse of power. Your Excellency, when I took these deeds to him for registration, there were many people present, these people can testify for me..."
"Shut up!" Qin Mu shouted coldly with a fierce look in his eyes, causing the two arguing parties to fall to the ground and dare not say a word.
When the people who were working in the fields saw the quarrel happening here, many of them gathered around curiously, standing about ten or twenty feet away, whispering to each other and talking. This matter was getting bigger and bigger, and if it was not handled quickly, it would definitely trigger a huge chain reaction with unpredictable consequences.
It seems that things in this world cannot be solved by force and iron-blooded means alone. In this case, the husband says he is right and the wife says she is right. It is not easy to find out who is true and who is false.
One thousand acres of land is not a small amount. Regardless of whether Lu Qian has other purposes behind this, it is normal for him to ask someone to give false testimony just for the sake of these one thousand acres of land.
On the other hand, who can guarantee that Ji Sanduo and others were not driven by greed to take risks and commit corruption and abuse of power
Qin Mu did not return to the county town either. He immediately separated the two parties involved. First, he had to find out whether the bribery was true. Once this was clarified, other things would be easy to clarify.
He set up a court under a mulberry tree at the edge of the field and interrogated the ten soldiers one by one.
After the first soldier, Zhang Kai, was brought up, he insisted that he had not solicited any bribe. Qin Mu did not torture him, but chatted with him in a friendly manner about the work of dividing the land, and then asked Wu Wangcai to take him aside.
The other soldiers were standing far away and couldn't hear what Qin Mu and Zhang Kai were saying, but they could see Qin Mu's expression. They were relieved to see that he and Zhang Kai were having a pleasant conversation.
When the second soldier, Qian Si, was brought up, Qin Mu asked him about soliciting bribes, and Qian Si also denied it.
Qin Mu frowned and shouted coldly, "Qian Si, think carefully. Those who confess can be given a lenient sentence. If anyone refuses to repent and confess the truth, he will die.
Qian Si, I might as well tell you that it doesn't matter if you don't confess. Zhang Kai has already confessed. Once another person confesses later, and I have verified that the confessions of both are correct, you will all be executed regardless of whether you confess or not."
After hearing this, Qian Si's heart skipped a beat and his expression changed drastically. Just now, when Qin Mu was interrogating Zhang Kai, he was very friendly and it didn't look like he was trying a case at all. Could it be that Zhang Kai confessed from the beginning, so Qin Mu treated him so well
"Do you confess or not?" Qin Mu shouted suddenly, drew his sword, and was filled with murderous intent.
Qian Si, who was struggling with his conscience, shuddered all over, thinking of the many people behind him. If one of them confessed, he would be finished.
Qin Mu had made it clear at the beginning that if anyone committed acts of corruption and abuse of power, he would not wait until the autumn to punish the corrupt officials immediately. In this special period, even the military salaries were paid by Qin Mu. Qian Si did not dare to doubt his words. Qin Mu was used to killing people to establish his authority, and everyone had heard of this.
“Sir, I confess, I confess… ... ... ... ” After two or three minutes, Qian Si, who was deciding between life and death, was already drenched in sweat as he looked at the cold sword in Qin Mu's hand. Finally, he could not hold on any longer and finally gave in.
Hearing that Qian Si wanted to confess, Qin Mu's brows were furrowed even more tightly. This method of cheating in investigating cases was very common, but it always worked. It's just that he couldn't really find out the trick, which meant that Lu Qian was not framing him maliciously.
This posed a serious problem. The one thousand acres of land had already been distributed to the disaster victims, who were already plowing and planting the land. If the land was to be forcibly taken back at this time, it would only lead to the loss of public support, and the people would begin to doubt all the policies of his official.
"Confess quickly. If you tell another lie, I will be the first to execute you." Qin Mu was furious. He had given repeated warnings and provided supervision from many sides, but he did not expect that someone would dare to take the risk and forcibly divide up a thousand acres of land at once. To Hui Mao, this was tantamount to poking a hole in the sky.
"Please spare my life, sir. Please spare my life. This was all the idea of Ji Sanduo and the squad leader Ji Daguang. I just followed their orders. Ji Sanduo and the squad leader each got 20 taels of silver, and the ten of us got 6 taels each. I don't know who asked for a bribe from Lu Qian. Sir, this is all I know. Please spare my life..."
"When did you get the money, who gave it to you, who was present at the time, what was said, and where is the stolen money now? Tell me everything clearly, don't leave out a single word."
"My Lord, the silver was distributed to me and my friends by the squad leader on the night of May 29th. We were all there at the time. The squad leader said that everyone could make money, but we had to keep our mouths shut. Whoever leaked the news would have his whole family die miserably..."
After Qian Si was taken away, Qin Mu interrogated another soldier and found out that the situation was consistent with what Qian Si said.
Now Qin Mu was too lazy to interrogate the remaining soldiers. He first asked Wu Wangcai to search their residence for the stolen silver, and then asked Liu Meng to bring Ji Sanduo and Ji Daguang up.
Even with all the evidence, Ji Daguang still denied it. Qin Mu was furious and shouted, "I warned you that anyone who dares to take bribes, abuse the power for personal gain will be punished. Do you think I was just joking, Liu Meng?"
"exist!"
"In times of chaos, severe punishments are used, and execution is required."
With a "clang" sound, Liu Meng drew his sword and slashed down with a cold light. Ji Daguang's head rolled more than two feet away in an instant, and the spurting blood splashed all over Ji Sanduo's head and face. This guy was so scared that he lost all his strength and wet his pants. He seemed to have no bones left and fell limply to the ground.
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ps: I still beg in various ways, shameless and helpless, dear friends, either spit at me or vote for me, let me cry out of despair or excitement, it is said that crying is not a sin for men, I feel really tired recently, I have setbacks in my relationship, and my new book is not doing well, oh, I won’t say anymore, I’m going to take a cold shower and continue writing.
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