The demon private soldiers and demon iron knights rushed into Changxi Village like a torrent.
All the scholars behind Fang Yun were shocked.
There were too many demon private soldiers and demon iron knights, blocking the view so that everyone could not see what was happening.
Soon, Fang Yun's private army stopped and lined up on both sides of the road.
Corpses were scattered all over the ground, blood was flowing everywhere, and the pungent smell of blood was spreading in all directions.
Many children cried loudly and then fainted.
The woman who had first dropped her weapon lay prone on the ground, shaking like a sieve.
"The demon iron knights dismounted, cleared the streets, registered the bodies, and prepared to burn them. The government soldiers arrested the rest and brought them back to the county government office for interrogation. Except for the mother and child who could not be separated for breastfeeding, all the children were taken away and sent to the county academy to be raised by the county government office! If parents harmed their children, or were imprisoned, or abandoned their children, the parent officials should temporarily raise the children on behalf of the parents."
Some scholars nodded slightly, but many others keenly realized that the words "parents harming their children" had a clear implication.
The Legalist scholars in particular have even realized Fang Yun’s intention. I’m afraid that in the near future, Fang Yun will pilot legislation so that once it is confirmed that parents have harmed their children, local officials can take their children away.
Many Legalist scholars frowned, but their brows relaxed when they thought of the word "temporarily", which means that Fang Yun would not act on his own in terms of custody and there would be certain restrictions.
The leader of the Demon Iron Cavalry carried the trembling Village Chief Diao to a closer place and threw him to the ground. With a snap, Village Chief Diao's leg bone broke. Then he covered his leg and screamed, rolling on the ground in pain.
"Sir, the prisoner has been brought here!"
Fang Yun nodded and was about to speak when the county magistrate Tao Dingnian suddenly stepped forward and said, "My Lord, I have something to report."
All officials focused their attention on Tao Dingnian, the county magistrate who was a well-known tumbler. He had served under eight county magistrates and remained standing. He used to be a member of the left prime minister's party, but now that the left prime minister had lost power, he had not been touched because he knew his limits and Fang Yun needed stability.
But everyone knew that once the palace examination was over, the first person Fang Yun would deal with was Tao Dingnian.
"What is County Magistrate Tao doing?" Fang Yun looked at him calmly.
Tao Dingnian said: "Village chief Diao Zhili manipulated human traffickers, organized abduction and trafficking, set up private prisons, secretly stored weapons, colluded with bandits, abused women, harmed civilians, resisted the law and killed officials, and gathered people to rebel. His crimes are extremely serious and he is unrepentant. Even if I have to give up my position as county magistrate, I will severely punish him! Today, whether you allow it or not, I will imprison him in the Diao family water prison and let him taste the torture!"
The officials were silent. This was a heroic act.
If Fang Yun really put Village Chief Diao in the water dungeon as a punishment, it would be a private punishment, which is more serious than killing all the rebels. Tao Dingnian simply took the blame for Fang Yun. He would be dismissed from his post, but he also saved the Tao family.
This is a pretty big pledge of allegiance.
Fang Yun looked at Tao Dingnian, nodded slightly, and said, "Go."
"I plead guilty!" Tao Dingnian selected several officials and runners who had served him for many years. They took the village chief Diao and found a woman to lead the way to the Diao family water prison.
Fang Yun stood at the entrance of Changxi Village, waiting quietly.
The demon barbarian soldiers have returned. Although they killed people, they did not eat them. The demon iron knights of the human race are cleaning up the corpses and dealing with the blood.
Afterwards, teams of government troops came out of the village, accompanied by women and children.
Most of these women had messy hair, and their new clothes were wrapped in torn pieces. Most of them had dull eyes, more than half of them were injured, and some were chained. When they walked, the chains dragged on the ground, making a rattling sound.
Some soldiers from the government were carrying beddings, some of which were already stained with blood and were slowly dripping with blood.
These soldiers of the government army were extremely sad and angry.
The scholars standing by couldn't bear to watch this, so they started to argue and cut off the chains.
A young soldier wiped his tears and walked up to Fang Yun, crying, "Fang Xusheng, it's so tragic, so tragic. There was a cell in the house I went to. There were seven living people and three dead people. Their bodies were all rotten! After we rescued the seven women, two of them told their names and locations and asked for burial. Then one hit her head against the wall and died, and one took our knife and committed suicide. It's so tragic, so tragic... 呜呜呜..." After that, the young soldier squatted on the ground and cried.
Another soldier gnashed his teeth and said, "Before you ordered your private soldiers to kill, I blamed you for killing too many people. Now, I only blame you for not letting us kill those beasts! They are scum worse than maggots! They are simply monsters! Fuck Ji Zhibai, fuck the previous county magistrate, they are all a bunch of dogs! Fortunately, Ning'an has a clear conscience! Fortunately!"
Many soldiers followed suit and cursed. The women all lowered their heads, not allowing others to touch them or look at them.
Fang Yun sighed lightly, suppressed the anger in his heart, and said with thunderous tongue: "I am Fang Yun, the county magistrate of Ning County. I am a step late, causing you to suffer. I cannot shirk my responsibility. I apologize to you here. After returning to Ning'an, I will write a letter to apologize. In addition, this county will prepare some residences for you in Ning'an without outsiders. You can leave when you recover a little. If you don't remember where your home is, I will arrange for you to work in the workshop, and no one will know about this place."
Many officials nodded slightly. How could these people not remember where their homes were? Fang Yun was afraid that these people would not dare to go home and would commit suicide.
In Shengyuan Continent, if a woman returns home after suffering such torture and humiliation, she will probably suffer double torture and pain.
Not to mention Fang Yun, even a half-saint could not eliminate that deep-rooted idea.
Except for a few women who remained numb, most of the women burst into tears.
As for those children, most of them cried from the moment they arrived, and only a few sensible children did not speak and waited quietly.
Some soldiers gently placed the rolled-up bedding on the ground and slowly spread them out, more and more.
The blood seeped into the soil.
Fang Yun gritted his teeth and continued to wait.
It took two hours for thousands of troops to check Changxi Village from beginning to end. They even brought some well-informed village women with them. With their help, they discovered seven secret dungeons and rescued dozens of people.
Finally, the great scholar from the War Hall who was protecting Fang Yun came out personally and confirmed that there were no living people in the village.
The government army compiled a horrifying statistic: more than 900 women and children were trafficked in Changxi Village, and more than 100 of them committed suicide after being rescued.
There were more than two hundred young women, and in order to sell them at a good price, the people of Changxi Village did not have too many injuries on their bodies.
The government soldiers not only rescued people, but also, under the guidance of the village women, found a lot of gold, silver, accounts and letters.
While the government soldiers were dealing with the village, Fang Yun was looking through the accounts and letters while listening to the confessions of the surviving village women, reporting the human traffickers or Changxi villagers who were still in other places.
After the matter in Changxi Village was basically dealt with, Fang Yun asked the officials of the Criminal Court to report it, and used the excuse of suspecting that the rebels were manipulating the human traffickers. He asked the Criminal Court to issue an order requiring the government of the entire Mizhou to take action and start to arrest all those who had anything to do with Changxi Village.
Based on those letters and confessions, Fang Yun identified many people, including not only the sons of businessmen and officials, but even some officials and prominent families were involved.
Most of those who were connected with Changxi Village were from Qingwu Prefecture. Fang Yun had no scruples and sent a letter directly to Sai Zhixue, the new governor of Mizhou. He started very formally and then hinted at the end. If he didn't use thunderous means to solve the problem this time, he would personally lead his private soldiers to arrest people in various places in Qingwu Prefecture!
Sai Zhixue immediately replied that since there was an order from the Criminal Court, he would join forces with Yu Xingshu, the governor of Mizhou, and ask the Grand Marshal's Office to mobilize the state army to arrest people.
Not long after, County Magistrate Tao Dingnian came back with his men, with some blood on his body.
"Only half of the torture instruments in the water dungeon were used. Village Chief Diao died. I am incompetent." Tao Dingnian said.
Fang Yun nodded and said nothing.
Before leaving, Fang Yun asked a university scholar to write a war poem, which brought about a continuous rain of fire, turning Changxi Village into a sea of fire.
Amid the flames rising into the sky, the convoy headed towards Ning'an City.
When they arrived at Ning'an City, it was already a sunny morning. Fang Yun made all the arrangements before returning to the back court.
After dinner, Fang Yun chatted with Yang Yuhuan, played with Nunu for a while, and then returned to the study to write documents.
The first document recorded the process of going to Changxi Village to handle the case. Fang Yun told the truth that first the people in Changxi Village killed the women of yamen runners with weapons, and then they gathered people to resist the law with the intention of rebellion. In order to rescue the innocent people who were imprisoned, Fang Yun had no choice but to order the killing of the rebels.
The document records in detail the situation of Changxi Village over the years.
Fang Yun sent one copy each to the prefect, provincial governor, cabinet and criminal court.
Afterwards, Fang Yun thought for a moment and wrote a letter of apology. As a county magistrate, he took more than half a year to deal with the matter and was to blame. After the palace examination, he apologized and was demoted by one level, one grade of rank, and fined three years' salary.
After writing his letter of apology, Fang Yun wrote a letter to formally impeach all the county magistrates of Ning'an County, Tong County and Hu County in the past thirty years, all the prefects of Qingwu Prefecture, and all the governors of Mizhou!
The left prime minister Liu Shan was once the governor of Mizhou.
He is currently the Minister of Personnel and a classmate of the Left Prime Minister. He was also the governor of Mizhou.
Jing State, the capital.
Many cabinet officials were in a panic.
Fang Yun’s first document shocked all the officials. They did not expect that someone in the human race would do such a thing!
Some officials looked at their colleagues with sad expressions, because some officials were shocked not by the evil deeds of the villagers of Changxi Village, but by the fact that Fang Yun ordered the killing.
Some officials of the Zuo Xiang Party were not angry at all, but could hardly hide their joy, because this was a good opportunity to attack Fang Yun, which might ruin Fang Yun's performance in several palace examinations, and there was even a very small chance that Fang Yun's title of top scorer would be cancelled.
The second letter did not cause much problem, except that all officials thought Fang Yun's apology was too severe. However, a few officials saw the hidden intention in the letter of apology.
When the third letter appeared, many officials suddenly realized.
Fang Yun, as an acting county magistrate who had been in office for less than a year, solved the problem of Changxi Village, but still demanded that the official ranks be demoted by one level. The charges against all previous officials must be extremely serious.
Because Mizhou had been run by the Left Prime Minister for many years, almost all the people impeached by Fang Yun were the Left Prime Minister's men.
During these years, thousands of people were trafficked in Changxi Village, and more than 300 people died in Changxi Village. From the county to the prefecture to the state, the three levels of government offices turned a blind eye to this serious dereliction of duty. The left prime minister must hand over a minister of the Ministry of Personnel to appease it! .
(To be continued…)
ps: Well, I would like to add one more thing. Internet control is too strict now, so some details cannot be written. Please forgive me.