Several officers and soldiers grabbed the steward by the collar and dragged him all the way to the second hall, where he stopped in front of the prefect.
"kneel!"
The housekeeper was so frightened that he kowtowed three to five times.
The magistrate crossed his legs and asked in a low voice: "Where are you from? Are you a family member?"
The housekeeper replied repeatedly: "Yes, the young one is from the mansion."
The prefect raised his eyebrows and asked, "Why did you go to Taiping Bridge in the middle of the night?"
Seeing that the situation was not right, the housekeeper became a little vigilant and said: "You villain...You villain violated the ban for no reason, just deal with me."
"You can't deal with people indiscriminately. I want to ask you clearly." The prefect lowered his head and stared at him, "Why did you come to Taipingqiao? But you were ordered by your master!"
His face suddenly turned livid, and he shook his head in panic: "The little one is just dizzy. It has nothing to do with my master, absolutely not."
"Check which house this guy stopped at last." The prefect glanced at the officer beside him.
After receiving the order, the officer went to the other room to check the roster. After a while, he came back and reported: "It's... a widow's family."
When the magistrate heard this, he said angrily: "Is it possible that you are secretly communicating with this woman?"
Just when the housekeeper was speechless, the master of the house suddenly had an idea and thought: 'It would be better to take the opportunity to involve the Guoxiang people and ruin the housekeeper's reputation...'
After thinking about it, he grabbed Xingmu, slapped it hard, and shouted: "Could it be that your master is from Hunan...recruit him from the truth!"
"My government will definitely not do this kind of behavior that corrupts moral character!" the housekeeper gritted his teeth and argued.
"If he refuses to fight, let's give him a beating first!" the magistrate ordered, and the officials on both sides picked up sticks and hit the housekeeper on the head and face. A scream was heard in the hall.
"Stop." The magistrate waved his hand lightly and ordered everyone to disperse. "Butler, can you plead guilty?"
The housekeeper was beaten until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen, his clothes were torn to pieces, and the top of his head was bleeding.
"The villain has nothing to do with this widow... nor does my master..." After the housekeeper said this, he fainted and fell to the ground.
"Sir, do we still need to torture?" the officer stepped forward and asked.
"No need. What if I beat someone to death? Wouldn't it be a bad thing? I'll imprison him for now and try again tomorrow."
"It's better to take the widow here and force her to confess. It's much easier than dealing with these people." The prefect looked at the clerk, "What do you think?"
The clerk smiled bitterly and said: "I won't obey unless I do it, but if the governor can help me..."
The magistrate said: "The Liu Party has long wanted to go south. Now that it has gained control of the Jiangsu area, it will definitely show its ambition to Jianghuai. It is important to send party members to the hinterland of Wanlu. How can he care about the trivial matters in Jiangdu? How dare he bear the criticism and go there?"
As a prefect, don’t be too cautious. Just follow this plan."
The clerk didn't dare to say anything anymore, so he said "I understand" and retreated from the hall.
The Xiang man had been waiting in the mansion for a long time. He saw that the east was white, but the door was still very clean. He walked back and forth for more than an hour. At first, he thought he was sure of it and didn't think much about it. Later, he thought it was the governor who had left the housekeeper behind.
I was drinking wine; only then did I become suspicious and felt quite uneasy.
Just as he was about to walk back into the house, the door lock suddenly rattled. He turned around, ran to the door quickly, and pushed the door open.
"Chen Tongzhi?" It wasn't the housekeeper. He was dumbfounded.
"Master Guo, fortunately I arrived at the Yamen early today and learned something terrible - the housekeeper is imprisoned and has to wait for trial!" Chen Tongpao said leaning on the door frame, breathing a little.
Unstable.
"What?" Guo Xiang took two steps back, "Why do you want to arrest him?"
"You broke the curfew. But the prefect wants to ask you about the crime of adultery..."
"Have you been recruited?" Before Tongpao Chen could finish speaking, he asked in a panic.
"No move. I still don't know what happened. The widow was escorted to the Yamen again. The situation is really chaotic." Chen Tongpao shook his head.
After hearing this, the people from Hunan were startled at first, and then, as if thinking of something, they touched their hands and laughed.
"The master of this mansion has countless calculations, but he can't count on this!" Xiangren clenched his fists, "Without further delay, let's change our clothes and let's go find the governor!"
"It's urgent to come to see you! There's something urgent to come to see you!" The people from Guoxiang roared at the top of their lungs. The sound passed through the wall and reached the ears of the governor.
"What the hell, who is making such a noise?" Governor Kuang looked around.
"He's the boss of the dye house." The servant hurriedly replied.
"What's the emergency..." Kuang Chang was only wondering about the woman at Taiping Bridge at the moment, but he was dismissive of it.
"The shopkeeper here is a well-known businessman in Jiangdu. It would be nice to make some friends." The servant muttered.
"See you when you see him." Even though Kuang Chang was upset, he still ordered his servants to greet him.
The Xiang people took two steps and one step, and when they arrived in front of the governor, they knelt down with a bang.
"Greetings to the Governor!"
"Excuse me. What's the urgent matter?" Kuang Chang asked straight to the point as he was tired of small talk.
The Xiang man moved two steps forward, his eyes were red, and he cried: "Sir! The prefect wants to steal my house!"
The governor pouted and gestured for him to continue.
"In order to harm the common people, the magistrate captured and tortured a slave of our government for no reason. He had to accuse him of having an affair with a widow. He also arrested an innocent girl from Taiping Bridge and accused him of being a prostitute. You think this is the right thing in the world! Sir, you are stupid.
, I just ask you to uphold justice!" After he said that, he kowtowed again at the governor's feet, and then burst into tears.
Nothing else mattered, but when he heard the three words "Taiping Bridge", Kuang Chang's eyes immediately opened up like a lion's, which was very scary.
His face turned red and he said angrily: "I can control even Jiangsu, which is so big; but I can't control Jiangdu, which is so small?"
Governor Kuang called a servant and said: "You can lead the horse, I will go to the Yamen to dispatch troops and generals, and raise an army to investigate the crime!"
The magistrate looked at the sun and saw that it was almost the time to be elected to the council. He stood up, straightened his clothes, and said to the clerk: "Go and pick up the slave from the prison. Tell the magistrate on the way and ask him to pick up the widow as well."
Come."
After the clerk agreed, he hurried into the cell.
The prefect looked in the mirror, smoothed his hair, put on his official hat, and strode out of the house, intending to wait for the secretary to come back and then go to court immediately.
After a while, the clerk came back with sweat rolling down his face and his lips turned purple.
"Sir... Your Majesty, the governor's soldiers are here and they want to... remove you from your position as prefect."
The prefect was shocked and hurried out of the government office to see the governor sitting on a horse with rows of soldiers standing in front of him.
Kuang Chang smiled and said: "Master Magistrate, I don't want to cause trouble in Jiangdu. Unfortunately, you bullied others too much, so I have no choice but to do this."
With that said, he gave an order and the soldiers surrounded the prefect, frightening him into silence.
"I feel aggrieved. Please go back, Lord Magistrate. When I ask for instructions from the court, your position will not be guaranteed." Kuang Chang said proudly.