"Let me tell you! He was the one who took my cow away, and he still hasn't gotten it back!"
"As for me, my son had an argument with him over a small matter, and he didn't say anything bad, but he ended up bringing a group of people to my house, knocking down the door, smashing everything in the house, and breaking my son's leg!"
"I was beaten by him too..."
At the beginning of Liu Sanzi's story, many villagers criticized Geng Laotou's nephew.
Old man Geng was speechless and squatted on the ground smoking his pipe.
Those who were originally planning to go to Baling City with Old Man Geng began to hesitate.
Liu Sanzi chuckled and said loudly: "Did you hear that, fellow villagers? Think about it carefully, old man Geng's nephew was a ruffian who brought trouble to the neighbors, how come he suddenly became a good man and led the people in our village to oppose the papermaking workshop? Speaking of this, I suddenly realized that he used to live a hard life and had no food to eat, so how could he afford to wear silk robes and eat in restaurants these days? Tsk tsk... I heard from the officials that the government will definitely arrest those who took money to cause trouble. Maybe... Hehe, anyway, I, Liu Sanzi, am upright and have not taken a penny, so I am not afraid of what people say!"
Someone on the side echoed: "When did our Da'ao Village become a village of fools? Look carefully, look carefully, except for Lao Geng's nephew, who in our Da'ao Village has been arrested? Besides, Lao Geng's nephew is not often in Da'ao Village, he lives in Baling City. The governor is such a high-ranking official, if he really wanted to arrest someone, he would have sent people to take us to jail by now!"
The villagers suddenly fell silent and no one scolded Fang Yun anymore.
Liu Sanzi smiled and said, "We are completely in the dark now and don't know what's going on. Well, I have a few good brothers in Baling City. I will go to Baling City overnight, gather information tonight, and return to the village tomorrow morning to give everyone an explanation. How about that? If I don't come back tomorrow, you can rob my house, how about that?"
The villagers of Da'ao Village discussed for half an hour, and finally agreed to let Liu Sanzi take a few people to Baling City to inquire about the news.
Liu Sanzi and four others arrived in Baling City at dawn and went straight to a tavern in the North Workshop District. They ordered a pot of wine and a few side dishes, and then eavesdropped on the conversations of people nearby.
After listening for a long time, no one mentioned what happened today. Just as they were about to leave, a few yamen runners suddenly came in, saying they were tired, and asked the children to serve the food. They also made it clear that they did not want any wine for fear of delaying things.
When Liu Sanzi heard this, he deliberately sneered and said, "Those people who went out to the streets have withdrawn. What can you officials be afraid of delaying?"
The five officers were extremely unhappy. The youngest one looked at Liu Sanzi arrogantly and said, "The matter has basically been settled. I am not afraid to tell you that our new governor, Fang Xusheng, treats the people very well. He does not blame them even if they take to the streets. I even heard people say in private that he said that as long as the people take to the streets, nine out of ten times it is because the government has not done its job. However, this gentleman is not a goody-goody, but a powerful figure who does not tolerate any injustice. He does not arrest the people, but arrests those ruffians who deliberately cause trouble, and also arrests those behind the scenes who bribe the ruffians! Do you think they..."
"Well, even if the emperor has already gone down, don't talk nonsense!" said an elderly officer.
The young officer quickly shut up.
Liu Sanzi hurriedly admitted his mistake, stepped forward to try to get close to the man, then generously offered to pay for the officers' meal, and finally inquired about the whole matter.
Finally, Liu Sanzi learned the whole story.
Just this morning, Fang Yun ordered his men to launch a large-scale arrest operation. The target was not the people who took to the streets, but the thugs who were deliberately causing trouble. At the same time, he asked the legal family to use the legal code to interrogate and catch several shop owners in Qingjiang Commercial Bank. Those shop owners of Qingjiang Commercial Bank hired them to cause trouble.
Then, Fang Yun sent people to arrest the shopkeepers of Qingjiang Trading Company. However, those shopkeepers of Qingjiang Trading Company insisted that they paid the money privately and it had nothing to do with anyone else. Even using the Legalist code, they could not be made to confess completely. The matter ended here for the time being.
An officer even imitated Fang Yun and said, "I heard that when an official disagreed to arrest someone, Governor Fang pointed at the official's nose and cursed, 'How did your reputation and power as an official get ruined? It's because of useless idiots like you who dare not pursue people who shit on their heads! If Jingguo doesn't even dare to arrest spies from the enemy country who are openly doing the opposite, then the King of Jing might as well hang himself, and this country might as well perish! You don't care about this country, but I, Fang Yun, do!' I guess this was made up by some scholar, Fang Xusheng would definitely not curse so harshly, but the last few sentences sound true."
When Liu Sanzi heard this, he understood everything. He decided not to stay in Baling City and rushed back to Da'ao Village overnight.
Almost at the same time, someone on the discussion board brought out the confessions of those ruffians and several shopkeepers of Qingjiang Trading Company. Although those shopkeepers did not admit the involvement of Qingjiang Trading Company or Qing State officials, they insisted that they were afraid that the new papermaking workshop would affect their own business. However, any discerning reader knew what was going on.
The truth has been revealed, and the scholars who had attacked Fang Yun before were completely silent, while the originally silent scholars breathed a sigh of relief, saying that they had not trusted Fang Yun wrongly. As the governor-general of Liangjiang, if he did not even dare to catch the culprit behind the trouble, he could only be described as incompetent and cowardly, and the human race did not need that kind of governor.
As a result, Fang Yun was completely identified as a capable official by scholars from all over the country, and no one on the list opposed it.
That night, several cavalry teams galloped across Xiangzhou.
Later, Xiangzhou officials learned that Fang Yun had issued a governor's order to arrest several Xiangzhou officials on charges of making false comments about the emperor and attempting to collude with merchants from Qing State. They were dismissed and investigated, including a county magistrate with seven Jinshi degrees and three officials with six Juren degrees.
These four officials were the Xiangzhou officials who attacked Fang Yun for arresting civilians indiscriminately. Anyone with a little experience would know that these four people were only targeting Fang Yun on the surface, but in fact they were responding to Qing State's call to tarnish Fang Yun's reputation and disrupt Xiangzhou. They were completely Qing State's slaves.
Fang Yun has never been a kind-hearted person.
The official in charge of Xiangzhou suddenly fell silent and moved away from the discussion board.
After a few days, the matter of the Fuxing Society was settled. The newly established procuratorate of Xiangzhou gave up the prosecution of the Fuxing Society member headed by Zhou Ziren on the grounds of insufficient evidence, and the Fuxing Society members were acquitted.
Soon, Fang Yun's father-in-law appeared on the desk of Yan Wu, the prefect of Taihe Prefecture.
As the governor, Fang Yun ordered Yan Wu to find out who was impersonating the Fuxing Society, burning down the academy, and plotting a rebellion.
This is the Governor's book, and it is also Fang Yun's preparation for punishing Yan Wu.
Fang Yun's pen was directed at all the disloyal officials of Qing.
When he learned that he was going to serve as governor of two states, Fang Yun knew clearly what he should do.
Xiangzhou fell into a brief period of calm, but on July 16, a major event occurred in Baling City. A dancer in a brothel of Qingjiang Trading Company actually bowed to Lord Qing while welcoming guests with a dance.
If the owner of the brothel had simply used the portrait of Qing Jun by mistake, nothing would have happened. However, a guest from the Kingdom of Jing in the brothel pointed out that they had hung the wrong portrait, but Hua Qingniang insisted on not replacing it with the portrait of Jing Jun. Some guests were very angry and demanded that the portrait be replaced.
Unexpectedly, Hua Qingniang not only did not settle the matter peacefully, but instead threatened the guests, saying that she would report to the police and arrest anyone who dared to cause trouble.
.(To be continued.)