Qin Mu used the most severe military law to execute the chief Ji Daguang. Qin Mu's requirement for soldiers was to obey orders absolutely. If he can't even meet this basic requirement, how can you expect him to defend the country
As a soldier, Ji Daguang dared to do such corrupt and law-breaking things despite Qin Mu's repeated strict orders. Qin Mu would never tolerate it, otherwise he would be breaking his promise and his orders would be treated as a joke in the army in the future. Therefore, he would execute Ji Daguang on the spot according to military law.
This iron-blooded approach gave everyone the illusion that Qin Mu governed the people as he governed the army.
Not only did this scare Ji Sanduo so much that he peed his pants, but even Lu Qian and others were trembling all over.
"Your Excellency, I confess. I confess. Please spare my life..." Ji Sanduo cried and collapsed on the ground like a soft reptile.
"Hurry up and tell the truth." Qin Mu shouted.
"Your Excellency, I was tempted by evil and together with Ji Daguang I asked Lu Qian for two hundred taels of silver as a bribe, promising to transfer one hundred mu of unowned fertile land to Lu Qian's name. Lu Qian only gave me one hundred taels, and the matter was not carried out. I originally thought that it would not be too late to wait for him to pay the two hundred taels before carrying it out. I am guilty and I deserve to die.
But sir, this one hundred taels of silver really has nothing to do with the thousand acres of fertile land. The facts are not at all like what Lu Qian said. He really did not produce the land deed within the seven-day deadline. It was not until last night that he produced the land deed.
I told him last night that it was three days past due and it was useless to bring the deed, so I drove him out, but he turned against me and said, "Sir, I understand now that this whole thing was a trap set by Lu Qian for me."
After hearing what Ji Sanduo said, Qin Mu became suspicious again. At this moment, Ji Sanduo was paralyzed with fear and it didn't seem like he would dare to fabricate facts. If what he said was true, then there might be another hidden story behind this matter.
"No fly will bite an egg without cracks. Regardless of whether it was a trap set by others or not, the fact that you took the initiative to ask for bribes from others is an indisputable fact. For this reason alone, it is not unfair to kill you."
"Please spare my life, sir, please spare my life. I really confessed everything in the novel. I really confessed everything."
"Drag it away first, take Lu Qian with you."
Lu Qian's legs were weak and he could not walk. He was half supported and half dragged over by two yamen runners. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the two yamen runners threw him next to Ji Daguang's hideous head. Lu Qian was so frightened that he screamed and fainted.
A bucket of cold water poured down, and Lu Qian slowly woke up. Before Qin Mu could ask, he rolled and crawled to Qin Mu's feet, "Your Excellency, I am innocent. I did not set a trap to harm them. I showed the thousand-acre land deed to Ji Sanduo five days ago. I have witnesses present to prove that I did not lie.
County Master, it was Ji Sanduo and his men who extorted money from me. I had just returned home from the disaster and was unable to meet their demands, so they refused to record my thousand acres of good land in the land register and divided it all up. County Master, I am wronged. "
Qin Mu understood that the key to the problem now lies in the time when the land deed appears. The notice posted by Qin Mu at the beginning clearly stipulates that anyone who has land in the family must register with the land deed within seven days of the announcement. If they fail to register within the deadline, the land will be treated as unowned land and distributed to the victims.
The time was set so tight in the first place because Qin Mu could not afford to delay. The land had to be distributed quickly so that the people could plow and plant as soon as possible. If he delayed for one more day, many more people might starve to death in the future.
Now Ji Sanduo said that Lu Qian had just brought the deed for the 1,000 acres of land that was divided up last night. If what Ji Sanduo said was true, then it was indeed overdue. Lu Qian could only blame himself for his bad luck in having the 1,000 acres of fertile land divided up.
However, Lu Qian said that he had registered the land deed five days ago and there were witnesses. It was Ji Sanduo who refused to register the land deed in order to obtain more silver and delayed the registration deadline.
"Lü Qian, you said you had a witness, but where is the witness?" Qin Mu shouted coldly.
Lu Qian quickly called a few people over, and upon questioning, they turned out to be members of his family. Qin Mu immediately interrogated them separately.
The first person brought up was Lu Qian's son Lu Tongfang. Qin Mu asked them in detail about the process of taking the land deed to find Ji Sanduo. During the process, he listened to everything Lu Tongfang said without a single question.
Next, it was the turn of interrogating Lü Qian's brother, Lü Yi. Qin Mu changed his previous style of just listening without asking questions and shouted, "Lü Yi, I am here to ask you questions. You must answer every question truthfully and immediately. Remember, immediately. If I find that your statements are inconsistent with your nephew's, you will be severely punished."
"Yes, yes, I will answer truthfully. I will answer truthfully."
"When you took the land deed to Ji Sanduo, was it raining or sunny?"
"sunny."
"When you walk through the door, do you step with your left foot or your right foot first?"
"Right foot first."
"Who will speak first?"
"It was Caomin's eldest brother who spoke first."
"What was his first sentence?"
"He said... ... ... "
"You can't answer it, you are so bold and unruly. How dare you lie to me? Your nephew clearly said that Ji Sanduo spoke first. Ji Sanduo asked you what you wanted to do with so many people coming in at once, and told all irrelevant people to leave immediately."
"This..." Lu Yi hesitated for a moment, secretly glanced at Qin Mu, and found that Qin Mu was staring at him coldly. He was so scared that he broke out in a sweat. He lowered his head quickly, but when he lowered his head, he saw Ji Daguang's hideous head again. The feeling of fear made his whole body tremble.
"Say! Is that so?"
"Ah... yes, yes, please forgive me, Your Excellency. I just forgot about it. Please forgive me, Your Excellency..."
Qin Mu firmly believed that if Lu Yi and others gave false testimony, even if they had repeatedly made false statements beforehand, they would not be able to cover all the facts and there would definitely be loopholes. After he asked Lu Yi a few questions, he felt that his answers were full of loopholes.
It was normal to be able to give an accurate answer to the first question, but Lu Yi answered the second question too confidently, which immediately aroused Qin Mu's suspicion.
Imagine that a group of people went to see Ji Sanduo a few days ago. Under normal circumstances, who can remember whether they stepped in with their left foot or their right foot first when entering the door
As for Qin Mu's later claim that Lu Tongfang said Ji Sanduo said it first, that was simply a fabrication by Qin Mu. Lu Yi was deceived by him and actually echoed him, which further proved that they were giving false testimony.
Next, Qin Mu continued to ask questions, and the panicked Lu Yi's answers were full of loopholes and contradictions. In less than a cup of tea, Lu Yi, unable to justify himself, collapsed to the ground.
Ji Daguang's blood had not yet dried, and the hideous head's eyes were still wide open. All this caused Lu Yi to feel extremely heavy psychological pressure.
Who would have thought that the gentle and refined Qin Mu would not follow the rules of the court when investigating a case, and his methods were so cruel that once the facts were verified, he would not even need you to sign and confess your guilt, and he would not be afraid of being investigated by the court in the future, he would just chop off your head.
This is not the magistrate trying a case; this is clearly the King of Hell deciding life and death.
Not only Lu Yi was paralyzed, but Lu Qian and several other local gentry who came to file a complaint with him were also paralyzed. They were very well prepared, and some of the witnesses and evidence were true and some were false. If the magistrate had sat in the yamen to try the case as in the past, who knows how long the dispute would have lasted.
If the matter gets out of hand and drags on for too long, the "land reform" in Huichang will be difficult to carry out, and Qin Mu himself will be overwhelmed. Then, with Wang Gong's support, they will be fearless.
However, they never dreamed that while they went to the government office to file a complaint, Wang Gong in the posthouse could only defecate and urinate in his pants and could hardly protect himself, so how could he support them
Qin Mu didn't even worry about being held accountable by the imperial court in the future. He killed people without blinking an eye. The tricks they had carefully prepared were like ice melting away in the sun in front of the bloody heads.
The whole case was soon uncovered. Ji Sanduo and others took the initiative to solicit bribes, and Lu Qian and others took advantage of the situation. They deliberately hid the deeds of one thousand acres of land and did not submit them for registration. They allowed Ji Sanduo and others to distribute the thousand acres of fertile land to the victims, and then asked people to give false testimony.
This is the most difficult to distinguish between the true and the false. Generally speaking, once the bribery of Ji Sanduo and others is verified and they are defined as "bad guys", it will be difficult for them to deny having seen the deed of the thousand-acre land.
As long as Lu Qian and others insisted that everything was deliberately obstructed by Ji Sanduo because he failed to collect bribes, the chances of winning would be as high as 90%. However, Ji Daguang's head was there, which frightened Lu Yixian and made the case quickly solved.
After the investigation, Qin Mu cut the Gordian knot. Ji Sanduo and others were punished with 100 strokes of the cane for robbing people and embezzling money. They were also sent to the Zhoutian salt mine to do hard labor. Lu Qian and others framed and conspired to obstruct the administration of officials. They were sentenced to confiscation of their property and sent their entire family to Zhoutian to work in the salt mine.
Both parties involved in the case were exiled to Zhoutian. Although doing hard labor was hard, they managed to save their lives. To be honest, they really had to thank the Zhoutian Salt Mine. If Qin Mu hadn't been in need of manpower, their fate would have been even worse.
The first bird to stick its head out gets shot. Who told you to come out and cause trouble
Qin Mu did not have much time left. He had to quickly divide the land, rush to cultivate and plant, stabilize the area, and then he could gather the army together for training and improve its combat capability.
If history had not changed, Zhang Xianzhong would have swept across Huguang and marched into Jiangxi in August.
Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army was the most notorious. They were like a swarm of locusts in the sky. Wherever they passed, no grass was left behind. Their destructive power was unparalleled.
Qin Mu only has three months left. If he cannot train a decent army to stop Zhang Xianzhong and prevent the locusts from entering the country, Ganzhou will become a wasteland, and Qin Mu will have no time to play anymore. Without the foundation for his rise, he will just have to wait to become a slave of the Qing Dynasty.
Qin Mu handled the case severely, which had a great deterrent effect on minor officials and soldiers in other places.
Not to mention the local gentry. Lu Qian's family was living a life worse than death, and the other eleven gentry were fined 90% of their property for the crime of complicity. Who would dare to provoke Qin Mu, a devil who did not play by the rules
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ps: Sanjiang's votes fell to the sixth place. Everyone, please give your support. When everyone adds fuel, the fire burns higher.
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