His wife, Ge Cui, opened the door and was about to speak. Wu Ang had already handed over several strings of money.
"Keep the money and don't argue all day long. There will be a few bags of rice tomorrow. I will send them to your parents."
Ge Cuiben's sad face instantly relaxed, she happily accepted the money and welcomed Wu Ang through the door.
"Great! I can finally have a good year. Where did this money come from?"
"Go and boil some water first, my feet are too cold."
"Okay." Ge Cui patted Wu Ang's clothes and said with a smile: "Without this money, my family wouldn't even have firewood, so I wouldn't boil water for a stinky guy like you."
For a moment, she forgot what she had just wanted to say, and hurriedly went to boil the water, then approached Wu Ang and said, "Stop teasing your son, you almost starved him to death. Tell me, where did you get the money?"
"
"Brother Bao gave it to me."
"Borrowed it?" Ge Cui was a little disappointed and asked: "Twenty guan, he just borrowed it when he said it?"
Wu Ang said "hmm" in a muffled voice, not looking happy.
"No interest, right? You can't afford the interest with that little salary."
"You're talking nonsense. Can Brother Bao ask me for interest?"
"Speaking of which, Hong Ahliu from next door brought several kilograms of meat home yesterday. I heard that his monthly salary is much higher than yours. Why should he do that? He used to be an archer under Louhu, and you were still the squad leader.
Woolen cloth……"
"I told you not to make any noise, are you bothered?"
Ge Cui didn't dare to answer, and she didn't know what she was thinking of. Suddenly she remembered what Feng Cai was about to say. She hesitated for a moment and seemed not to want to say it, but finally said it.
"By the way, Mr. Jiang has been here and said that the landlord's bookkeeper is looking for you..."
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Wu Ang had already taken off his shoes, quickly put them on again, put on his clothes and walked out. He also said: "You woman, when you see money, you don't talk about business."
"Here we go? Where's the boiling water?"
"You can wash it yourself."
Ge Cui watched Wu Ang walk out again and spat on the ground.
"Fang's money and food are not distributed, and he still sends envoys in the middle of the night. Bah..."
Wu Ang rushed all the way to the county government office when he suddenly saw a group of people approaching from the opposite side.
He squinted his eyes for a while, then hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "I have seen Captain Li."
"Team Wu? Are you coming to the county office so late?"
"Yes, the landlord called me over."
Li Xia said: "I have something to discuss with the landlord, please come see him tomorrow."
"This... seems inappropriate?"
Li Xia seemed not to hear, patted Wu Ang's shoulder and said: "They packed some midnight snacks, take one back."
With that said, he has been transferred to the county government office.
Wu Ang was in a daze when Jiang Fan stepped forward and lifted up several oilcloth bags on the hook.
"Pancakes, take one back for your child to eat. It's still warm."
Wu Ang looked over and saw some blood on Jiang Fan's sleeves, so he couldn't help but asked in a low voice: "What happened?"
"Go ahead." Jiang Fan said with a smile, "Why do you look like this? Are you afraid that my brother and I will ruin the house owner's records?"
Wu Ang took a portion of pancakes, hesitated for a moment, and finally turned back with his head down...
County government teahouse.
"The county magistrate, the chief registrar, and County Lieutenant Li are here."
"Feiyu, come in quickly and have a sip of hot tea."
Jiang Chun welcomed Li Xia into the room, and someone closed the door.
"What's going on? Can we get the escaped prisoners?"
Li Xia shook his head and said: "No, I'm afraid he escaped from the city wall and ran away. This is my fault and I will bear the full responsibility."
"Escaped." Jiang Chun sighed with emotion, stroking his beard, and said: "It's a pity that I couldn't catch him. It seems that next time I catch a Mongolian prisoner, it would be better to kill him."
"yes."
Fang Yankai listened to the hypocritical conversation between the two and said calmly: "These prisoners only killed Zhang Yuanming, Zhang Shifei and his son?"
"Yes." Li Xia said: "Fortunately, it didn't cause a big commotion. It's a blessing among misfortunes."
"They didn't set fire to the county seat either?"
"Yes, they were meeting Zhang Yuanwai. Zhang Yuanwai's guards called Minzhuang in time, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous."
Fang Yankai said: "But I don't know how to explain it to the Zhang family. Is the body...the second son of the Zhang family going to collect it?"
Li Xia said: "Speaking of Zhang Shizhuo, a small case happened tonight, which is disappointing."
Fang Yankai was a little helpless. Here he called "Zhang Yuanming", and Li Xia called him "Zhang Yuanwai"; he called him "Zhang Erlang", but Li Xia called him "Zhang Shizhuo", which seemed quite inconsistent.
"Yeah?"
"Zhang Shizhuo didn't go to the banquet tonight. His physical discomfort was just an excuse. He was actually going..."
After Li Xia said this, he shook his head.
Jiang Chun had to ask: "What did he do?"
"This matter has become known throughout the city, so the county magistrate should recruit someone to ask questions." Li Xia said, "I have brought the person to the county government office, why not go to the court for trial?"
Jiang Chun was stunned, thinking that if this matter was to be tried, Li Feiyu would have done something very dirty.
He and Fang Yankai looked at each other with a tacit understanding in their eyes.
If the matter cannot be explained openly, then they, the county magistrate and chief clerk, will not cover it up for Li Xia.
The three county officials then stood up and walked to the lobby.
…
The lights have been lit in the hall.
Jiang Chun's eyes fell on a woman. His eyes lit up and he thought to himself: "What a charming woman! I haven't seen such a charming woman in this small county for a long time!"
I saw the woman kneeling there in the hall, her face full of tears, her clothes were torn, she was wearing a dress and covering her collar, which made people's hearts flutter.
When Jiang Chun came back to his senses, he scanned around and found that it was not a formal court hearing, but just using the county government lobby, and he felt relieved again.
He coughed twice and sat down on the main seat. He subconsciously wanted to slap the alarm, but immediately withdrew his hand.
"Oh? Brother Yuan is here too?"
"Magistrate Jiang, you are polite." Yuan Yutang saluted, looking a little embarrassed.
"What happened?"
Yuan Yutang hesitated and then asked: "Magistrate Jiang, isn't there a court hearing tonight?"
"Brother Yuan, tell me first, what happened?"
"How to put this matter..." Yuan Yutang rubbed his hands and said: "In short... this Miss Yan said that Zhang Shi's nephew wanted to rape her, and she killed Zhang Shi's nephew..."
"Where is the 'Shizhuo'?" Liu Jinsuo said loudly: "This picture of Shizhuo is too ridiculous. When his father and brother were captured and killed, he was still raping other girls at home. He is unfilial!"
Jiang Chundao: "It's you again...how did you know?"
"I was chasing the prisoner. When I heard someone shouting 'killer', I led people into Yuan's house. The sight... blinded me! Zhang Shizhuo was lying there naked, and they all saw it!"
Shouting, Liu Jinsuo pointed his hand, and the whole hall of river patrolmen, government officials, and Yuan's servants nodded.
"Yes, the county magistrate, all the little people have seen it..."
"Hey, if it hadn't been for this, I wouldn't have run to Yuan's house, and those prisoners wouldn't have escaped from the city. Damn it, retribution!"
Jiang Chundao: "Please keep your voice down..."
"What's the use of whispering?" Liu Jinsuo shouted: "It has been spread just now. The whole city is talking about it. Zhang Shizhuo was raping civilian girls when his father and brother were killed..."
Fang Yankai raised his head and scanned the hall full of people. Finally, his eyes fell on Li Xia's face.
Li Xia sat there expressionless, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
However, Fang Yankai knew that if anyone in Qingfu County mentioned the murder of the Zhang family and his son again in the future, they would not be talking about the escaped prisoners. Instead, they would only be talking about Zhang Shizhuo's grievances between the Zhang family and Li County Lieutenant.
That little bit of dirt in my crotch.
But he was still unwilling to admit defeat and said, "Where is the body?"
"It will be brought over right away." Liu Jinsuo said loudly: "Want to see the owner's book?"
"Look." Fang Yankai said, "Come here, please invite the widower to come and conduct an autopsy in the hall."
Jiang Chun looked a little ugly and glanced at Fang Yankai.
It was Yuan Yutang who spoke first.
"Householder's book, this matter... doesn't need to be investigated anymore, right?"
Liu Jinsuo laughed loudly and said: "Exceptor Yuan, we can't hide it unless we investigate!"
After hearing this, Li Xia thought that this was what Han Qi'an called "usurping official titles". In the Song Dynasty, there were too many officials who were "external members", and wealthy households also liked to use the title of "external officials".
It became a title for wealthy households.
Over there, Yuan Yutang glanced at Liu Jinshuo with great disgust, his expression became more and more embarrassed, and he saluted Jiang Chun with a look of bad luck: "County magistrate, can you allow me to come forward and say a few words?"
"Come closer."
Yuan Yutang took a few steps forward, got closer to Jiang Chun, Fang Yankai, and Li Xia, and whispered: "The person in charge of the Zhang family now is Mrs. Zhang, and she is unwilling to report this case to avoid making the family scandal public."
Should you ask the county magistrate not to try the case again? After all... the people will not take action, and the officials will not investigate."
"Then you're still coming?"
"It was County Lieutenant Li who said it. The county magistrate and the chief registrar should know..."
Fang Yankai said with a straight face: "Since there is a murder case, we must investigate clearly."
Jiang Chun thought to himself: "What's the use of finding out? Li Feiyu showed his tricks. Anyway, there is no way this county will follow you to deal with him."
Thinking like this, he mused: "It's wartime right now, and there are so many dead due to the war. How can the county government have time to investigate this small case?"
Li Xia said: "The landlord's book is right, it's better to check it out."
When Li Xia said the same thing, Jiang Chun understood. This was to clear up the case so that no Zhang family members would come looking for him in the future.
"Feiyu is still thoughtful." Jiang Chun nodded, without looking at Fang Yankai, and smiled warmly at Li Xia, "Feiyu is right, then let's investigate the case clearly?"
Only Yuan Yutang's face was even more bitter, thinking to himself, didn't the landlord's bookkeeper and Li County Lieutenant say exactly the same thing...