Qin Fang was a little overwhelmed. It was possible for him to lead troops to fight, but this was the first time he had encountered such a thing. In his impression, this was something the county magistrate should be in charge of. Oh, now the county magistrate was arrested by him.
The old lady even knelt down and kowtowed: "General, I have been wronged, General..."
The old lady's daughter-in-law watched secretly, covering her mouth. Seeing her mother-in-law like this, she really couldn't help but want to rush out, but she managed to hold back.
Qin Fang came to his senses and walked over. As he walked over, the crowd moved away a little, fearing that they would bump into the general and get arrested. After all, this was someone who even the county magistrate dared to arrest, so the official must be higher than the county magistrate.
Qin Fang walked up to the old lady and said, "My dear, I can't control such things, but don't worry, the imperial envoy will come in a few days, and I will tell the imperial envoy about your case and let him make the decision." He was transferred to Yunxiang County. If there was any unjust case in Yunxiang County, he would know something about it, but the affairs of Huanshui County were not his responsibility.
However, he had to wait for the imperial envoy here, so it was okay for him to know a thing or two.
The old lady didn't understand these things, but when she heard Qin Fang say that he would introduce them to the imperial envoy, she was satisfied. She knelt down and said, "Thank you, General. Thank you, General."
Qin Fang supported the old man and didn't let him kneel. The old man was about the same age as his grandmother, and he couldn't bear to watch him kneel before him. "Old man, let me ask someone to take you home first. I'll write down your home address so that when the imperial envoy arrives, I can remember the way."
The old lady was about to speak when she saw the woman running over from the corner where she was hiding: "General, you have to catch that beast first, otherwise what if the beast runs away when the imperial envoy arrives?"
Qin Fang looked at the other person: "Who are you?"
The old lady quickly grabbed Qin Fang's hand and said, "General, this is my daughter-in-law. She is a good person. She has been taking care of me since my son died unjustly. In the past year, she has never looked down on me, a blind man. She is a good person."
Qin Fang could feel his father's trembling. He held him tightly and said, "Don't worry, old man."
The woman supported the old lady at this moment: "Mom, I'm fine, don't worry."
The old lady breathed a sigh of relief when she heard her daughter-in-law say this.
Qin Fang could see that the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was good, but he didn't understand what the woman had just said: "Madam, what did you mean by a beast just now?"
The woman said, "That beast has done something bad. What if the imperial envoy comes and he runs away? So please, General, arrest him."
Qin Fang said: "I can't arrest him for no reason, but don't worry, I will have someone keep an eye on him. Since you have a grudge against him, I will not let him leave before the imperial envoy arrives. Who is he?"
Just as the woman was about to speak, Captain Lu came over with a man in his arms, "Sir, we found this man sneaking out of the back door of the county government office. Yao Qiang said that this man was Doctor Feng, the same Doctor Feng who almost wrongly accused your wife of murder, so we brought him here."
Doctor Feng was almost out of breath at this moment because of being held by Lieutenant Lu. He knew that the county government office was surrounded and the county magistrate might not be able to protect himself, so he left the county government office through the back door as soon as possible, but he didn't know that even the back door was surrounded. After hearing what Yao Qiang said, he remembered that the woman he saw in the clinic was actually such a big shot. Thinking of what he said casually, Doctor Feng wanted to die.
Yao Qiang was one of the soldiers who followed Yang Haiyan into the city. So when he saw Doctor Feng at the back door of the county government office, he recognized him at a glance.
When Qin Fang heard this, he looked at Doctor Feng with deep eyes and said, "Did you accuse my wife of murder?" His tone was cold and his attitude was very obvious.
Doctor Feng shook his head quickly: "No, no, no, it was a misunderstanding, General. It was a misunderstanding. Later, the misunderstanding was cleared up, and your wife returned home, right?"
Qin Fang snorted: "Really? But I heard that you are suspected of deliberately framing me. Why, if I didn't bring soldiers with me at that time, would you insist on accusing me?"
Doctor Feng wanted to faint, but he couldn't. He had to try hard to explain: "It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. General, you can ask the people in the county. I am a kind-hearted person. How could I do such an unjust thing? It was a misunderstanding."
Qin Fang raised his eyebrows: "Really?"
"He lied." The woman who was holding the old lady shouted, "General, don't believe him, he lied. He is a beast. His medicine killed my husband. The county magistrate favored him. We have no place to redress our grievances." As she spoke, the woman and the old lady knelt down, crying and saying, "General, the beast we are talking about is him. He prescribed medicine indiscriminately and killed my husband. We reported to the county magistrate, and the county magistrate ruled that he was not guilty. But my husband took his medicine and his health got worse and worse. I also took the drug residue to ask people, and they said that there was something wrong with the drug residue. But people were afraid of his power and dared not testify for me. General, we are wronged..."
Doctor Feng shouted, "That's nonsense. I don't even know who you are."
The woman cried and cursed, "You beast, you are so ungrateful. You didn't look like this when I sued the county magistrate." Perhaps because of Qin Fang, the woman was daring. If it were any other time, she would not be so bold and would avoid Doctor Feng. "Last year, my husband took your medicine and got into trouble. I took the medicine residue to sue the county magistrate, but you said it was not from your Feng Family Clinic. Because I couldn't prove that it was from your Feng Family Clinic, I couldn't sue you.
Afterwards, you hypocritically gave me two taels of silver, saying that you sympathized with my situation, and for this, you became known as a good man. Bah, you are clearly guilty. You want to use two taels of silver to buy my husband's life, but forget it. I took the two taels of silver and pretended that nothing happened, because my mother-in-law needed money for medical treatment, I lost my husband, and my family needed money to live, but our family cannot die yet, we have to live, and we always hope that one day we will get justice.
You beast, you didn't expect that we would wait until this day, did you? Now the general is here, the imperial envoy is coming, you just wait for the retribution to come."
Doctor Feng regretted not getting rid of the two women. He didn't think of eradicating the problem because the people in the county were paying attention to this matter. If he got rid of this family, it would inevitably lead to gossip. Besides, he had the image of a kind man, and he was not afraid of these two women. All the evidence had been taken away, and the drug residue had been dealt with conspicuously, so he was relieved.
Unexpectedly, a general appeared today, the county magistrate was arrested, and these two women came out to make trouble. But even if he regretted it, it was useless. He could only argue with them like a shrew: "I gave you money out of kindness and sympathized with your situation, but I didn't expect you to be so ungrateful. If I had known this, I would not have given you money, and I should have sued you for false accusation."
Woman: "You are just guilty."
Doctor Feng: "You are talking nonsense."
The woman said: "You beast, when the imperial envoy comes, I will make you pay for my husband's life."
Doctor Feng: "When the imperial envoy arrives, I think you, a shrew, will be arrested first."
Woman: “…”
Doctor Feng: “…”
Qin Fang watched them quarreling, and his head hurt. He seemed to recall the same scene when the women in the village quarreled when he was a child.
Qin Fang frowned and said to Captain Lu, "Take Doctor Feng away and temporarily close the Feng Family Clinic. All those involved in this matter are strictly guarded. We will make a final decision after Lord Du arrives."
Captain Lu: "Yes." Then he took Doctor Feng away.
The common people were still gathering together to discuss, some of them secretly looking at Qin Fang.
Qin Fang said to them, "Don't crowd here. The imperial commissioner will be here in a few days. If any of you have any grievances, go home and sort them out. Then tell the imperial commissioner. Also, if any of you have had your money robbed by the Wulipo bandits, go home and sort it out. When the imperial commissioner arrives, he will compensate you appropriately.
Not only you, but everyone should also inform each other about the people whose money was robbed. At the same time, I hope you remember that this is a gift from the court, a gift from the emperor, and everyone should remember the goodness of the court and the emperor. "
"Thank you, General."
"General, we understand."
"Thank you, the court, for remembering us. Thank you, the emperor, for remembering us."
Everyone was very happy. Many of these people had their belongings robbed by the Wulipo bandits. Some of them had been robbed to varying degrees. Now the court could compensate them, even if it was a small amount, they were very happy. It was a pleasant surprise to get something back that they had not expected. Who wouldn't be happy
The lives of the people in Huanshui County must have been turbulent before the arrival of the imperial envoy. Because Qin Fang said that the court would make appropriate compensation for the things that the people were robbed by bandits, so the people in Huanshui County were waiting for the arrival of the imperial envoy every day.
At the same time, Qin Fang divided the 3,000 surrendered barbarians into two groups. A group of healthy people went first, led by Captain Lu with 100 soldiers and 150 barbarian soldiers. They were also accompanied by private guards such as Yang Haiyan and Kunshi.
Qin Fang, Captain Yang and others followed behind, taking care of the sick, and more importantly, waiting for the arrival of the imperial envoy. Fortunately, Doctor Li and Liu were left to take care of the sick, so these people's affairs were relatively stable.
The most troublesome thing is the girls rescued from the bandits' den. None of them want to go home because it is shameful to go home. Moreover, these girls were given to the bandits by their own parents. The bandits are rampant, and these heartless parents gave away their own daughters in order to protect themselves. In their eyes, they are just money-losing goods.
Yang Haiyan went ahead this time and took away 20,000 taels of silver, 15,000 taels was 30% of the military pay, and the other 5,000 taels was the emperor's reward to Qin Fang. It is estimated that the emperor did not know that the bandits had so much silver, otherwise he would have felt bad if he had given a 10% reward, after all, the court was in need of money.
So, Qin Fang was smart and blurred the amount of stolen money.
Three days later, the imperial envoy finally arrived.
Du Ke was middle-aged, but he was well-informed and had a high position and a high salary. What kind of scenes had he not seen? This was the first time he encountered such a situation. When the imperial guards arrived at the gate of Huanshui County, they saw that almost all the people in the city were kneeling to welcome him.
How can one describe this feeling? He was always strict and stern in his official duties and morning court meetings, but now he felt a little light-headed, as if he was walking on clouds. And at his feet were these ordinary people.
"Sir?" The captain of the imperial guard looked at Du Ke, who was a little confused. If the common people blocked them, they could get through, but in the current situation, the common people knelt down and warmly welcomed the lord, as if the lord was the local parent official.
Although Du Ke was a civil servant, he practiced martial arts. In order to get to Huanshui County as early as possible to deal with the collusion between officials and bandits, he rode a horse all the way, as riding a horse is faster than taking a carriage.
So when he came to his senses, he got up immediately. When he got up, he heard the people saying, "Welcome to the Imperial Envoy."
He even shouted: "The Imperial Envoy is here."
Even: "The Imperial Envoy is here."
And: "Greetings to the Imperial Envoy."
In short, the enthusiastic voices of the people were very obvious. Du Ke was puzzled. What was going on with the people? Why were they so enthusiastic? However, Du Ke did not panic. He smiled a little from his serious face and said to the people in the most charitable voice in his life: "Everyone, get up quickly. Don't kneel on the ground. Get up." As he said that, he helped up the old man who was closest to him: "Old man, what's going on? Why are you all here?" Because he was in a hurry, he didn't even know when Qin Fang would arrive. How did these people know
The old man who was helped up by Du Ke was a little flattered and said: "In reply to the Imperial Envoy, since General Qin told us that the Imperial Envoy would come in the next few days, we have been waiting at the city gate every day. Today we are waiting for you, and everyone is very happy."
Du Ke didn't know what to say. Rather than saying that the people were enthusiastic, why did Qin Fang tell the people about his upcoming event? Du Ke asked curiously, "How did General Qin tell you about the Imperial Envoy?"
The old man said honestly: "General Qin said that he was ordered by the emperor to suppress the bandits. The county magistrate was arrested for collusion with the bandits. The court and the emperor will compensate us appropriately for the things we were robbed, but we have to sort it out in advance so that you can understand it when you come. Look, everyone has sorted it out. So I'm waiting for you here.
By the way, Mr. Imperial Envoy, General Qin also said that if we have grievances, we can seek redress from you. Can we seek redress from you?"
How did Du Ke answer? Of course he could. He said to the old man, "Old man, I have just arrived in Huanshui County and I have to go to the county government office to handle some business. Please tell everyone to go home. In two days, I will go along the street and beat gongs and drums to tell everyone. Then you can come find me."
The old man obeyed the order: "Yes." Then he began to shout at everyone, "Everyone, please disperse. Don't disturb the imperial envoy. The imperial envoy has to go back to the county government..."
Du Ke followed and said, "Everyone, disperse and go home first."
The common people dispersed obediently. Du Ke said to one of the guards, "Take a few people to find out about Qin Fang's situation in the past few days." Why did so many people come to welcome him
Guard: “Yes.”
Next, Du Ke went to the county government office. However, before Du Ke arrived at the county government office, he met Qin Fang who rushed over. The county magistrate was arrested, and there was no one in the county government office, so Qin Fang naturally had to take charge. Not only did he take charge of the county government office, he also asked the soldiers to patrol to prevent other things from happening in the county town without the patrolling of the yamen runners. So when the patrolling soldiers found that the imperial envoy had arrived, they went to report to Qin Fang, and Qin Fang rushed over. "I am here to see you, sir."
Du Ke looked at Qin Fang. A month ago, he was still an ordinary young man. Even if he was a captain of a thousand men, he was still not good enough in the eyes of the Minister of War. To put it bluntly, he was not even as good as his family's guards. Qin Fang at that time was nothing special. If you have to say, he was a little courageous. After all, when he proposed to let Wei Wu be the captain of a thousand men, he dared to recommend Han Zhen.
However, after not seeing him for almost a month, this person is like a precious sword, which has been polished and gradually become sharper.
Du Ke was a little surprised, but not enough to shock him. He had some good feelings towards Qin Fang, and this good feeling came from Qin Fang's letter. Speaking of which, the letter Qin Fang sent to the capital made him feel that Qin Fang was a capable person. He prepared the bandit suppression and evidence one by one, instead of throwing the difficult problem to him and asking him to suppress the bandits and find evidence, so he felt that such a capable person was good.
But if it was just good before, then this time when he came to Huanshui County and saw so many people welcoming him, no matter what the reason was, Du Ke was very happy. So, he was in a good mood. He said, "General Qin, there is no need to be polite. Please stand up." This tone and attitude were much better than when he first came to the Yongzhou military camp.
Qin Fang stood up and stood silently beside Du Ke. He was not a talkative person, so he would not say nice things to get close to the company like some smart subordinates. For example, most people would say: "Master Du, you have worked hard all the way." But Qin Fang did not say that.
Du Ke raised his eyebrows and looked at him. Seeing his silence, Du Ke felt funny. He had been an official for many years. Even though he was no longer sensitive to flattery, he could just ignore it. But to be honest, it was better to have someone flatter you than to have no flattery at all, right? But what about this person? Du Ke shook his head and started the topic directly: "When I entered the city just now, I saw many people waiting for me there. What's going on?"
Qin Fang said: "They are waiting for you. Ever since I told you a few days ago that the Imperial Envoy would come to Huanshui County to help them deal with the robbers and other unjust cases, they have been looking forward to your coming. Now that you are here, they will definitely be very happy."
These words were simple, but Du Ke smiled and felt very happy. "Tell me what happened in the past few days. You captured the bandit den and arrested all the bandits without losing a single soldier. You are a good commander. I know you come from a poor family and your family doesn't have the conditions to support you to study, but you can still do this. It shows that you are suitable to lead troops."
Qin Fang was a little happy to be praised. You know, Du Ke is the Minister of War. It is his honor to be praised by him. Although he was happy and didn't show it on his face, Qin Fang didn't show any complacency or pride. His happiness was mixed with a touch of happiness of being recognized and a touch of embarrassment. Qin Fang said frankly with a smile: "I really didn't go to school. My family is poor. It is not easy for my parents and elders to raise us brothers and sisters. Therefore, when I was fifteen years old, I replaced my father to serve in the army.
Although military service was hard, thanks to the court's grace, I ate more in the barracks than at home. Later, the court granted me a marriage. My wife was literate, so she taught me how to read. This gave me the opportunity to pretend to be a literate person. After I learned how to read, I bought a soldier to see.
"However... I feel a little ashamed to say that I won the battle without spending any soldiers or clans. My victory was not glorious, but I used some despicable means."
Du Ke was a little surprised. He didn't expect that Qin Fang's writing was taught by his wife. The imperial court would give wives to soldiers. They were all maids from the families of officials who were convicted. They were released from slavery and became good women, and then they were assigned to soldiers. This has been the practice since the founding of the Qi Kingdom, so it has been used until now. Therefore, it is not surprising that the maids from the families of officials who were convicted have read and learned some words.
However, this is because Qin Fang himself is studious, knows how to read, and has a good command of military tactics. If he were someone who was not good at this, he might not seize the opportunity even if it was right in front of him. So: "What a despicable trick, I don't know what it is, I am curious."
Qin Fang was a little ashamed. "I used knockout drugs and sleeping pills. It was raining heavily at that time. Because the bandits colluded with the county magistrate, Huanshui County could rest easy, so the defense of the bandits' nest was very poor. I took advantage of this and sneaked into the bandits' nest. Then I put knockout drugs in their water and food. I was worried that the knockout drugs were not strong enough, so I used sleeping pills to knock them out while they were having breakfast.
It’s actually… some…”
"Hahaha..." Du Ke laughed. He hadn't been in such a good mood for a long time. "Although people should be upright, I still agree to do things differently to people. As for the bandits, they are despicable people. It is unworthy to use despicable means to deal with them." Those who insist on being a gentleman in everything are those who seek fame and reputation. In Du Ke's opinion, as long as they can win, anything is fine.
Jin Xi used the marriage between the Wei and Yang families to win the battle for the throne smoothly and beautifully. Even if this matter was a topic of gossip, the imperial power was supreme, so who would dare to speak to Jin Xi? They might just whisper behind his back or hide and whisper. It would be better if the parties involved could not hear it. How could they care
While they were talking, they had already arrived at the county government office.
Du Ke was a man who got down to business. As soon as he arrived at the county government office, he did not even take a rest and asked Qin Fang to present all the relevant evidence, together with the robbers' testimony and the money that had been seized.