After the meal, Xiao Wenli and the others went directly to the government office to find out the way. Liu Nan and Liu Bei happened to be there. Although Xiao Wenli was not familiar with them, they all knew each other in the upper and lower villages, so he still had the honor to inquire about something.
Hearing someone calling him, Liu Nan came out and saw that it was Xiao Wenli. Liu Nan said clearly
"You are here to help inquire about Xiao Yuanhang, right?"
"Yes! Brother Liu Nan, we heard that Xiao Yuanhang was arrested and said to have been cheated in the imperial examination and was deprived of his honor!
Uncle Xiao asked us to find out what's going on!
When we came here, we heard that he had harmed people. Is this true? "
Although Liu Nan couldn't meet Xiao Yuanhang and Mr. Xiao and Mrs. Xiao, he had a pretty good impression of Xiao Wenli, so he was very considerate.
"The evidence of fraud in the imperial examination is conclusive. He has been convicted, his reputation has been wiped out, and he has been slapped with a blackboard. Now he is being held in prison!
Although there is insufficient evidence for the harm done to people, his accomplices have been captured and will be known at the first trial! "
"Then how will he be sentenced? Is there a rough number?"
"It's hard to say. If it is confirmed that he is indeed the murderer, and his family has a good attitude, takes the initiative to apologize, compensates, and seeks forgiveness from the victim, the sentence may be lighter, slapped with a slap in the face, and jailed.
If the attitude is not good, he may be exiled to a certain mining area to work as a coolie, or he may be beheaded after next autumn. This is only if the victim forgives him. If he is not forgiven, then there is no discussion. "
These two paths are definitely not acceptable to Mrs. Xiao. She is sent to the mining area to work as a coolie, which is worse than a donkey.
After a day's work, the donkey is given good fodder by its owner.
The coolies in the mining area get up earlier than chickens and go to bed later than dogs. There are people who are watching from behind with a whip. If you are slow, you will be whipped. They have three black crotches a day. If you don't starve to death, you have to work hard. To put it bluntly, , where they are all exiled prisoners. They are not treated as human beings at all, and they are no better than beheading!
After hearing this, Xiao Wenli felt sorry for his misfortune and was angry that he would not fight, but he had to walk his own path and there was nothing he could do about it.
"Brother Liu Nan, do you know when this case will be retried?"
"Six days later."
"Okay, thank you brother Liu Nan. If you are busy, we will go back!"
"Okay, come here later and ask if you have anything to say. Our brothers have errands to do, so I won't send them off!"
Liu Nan said a few polite words and went back to work.
Xiao Wenli and the others calculated that there were still six days left, so they went back without taking any rest.
Old man Xiao and Mrs. Xiao suffered for another three days. Xiao Wenli and the other three came back. They heard that not only was Xiao Yuanhang not wronged, but he might have harmed someone else, and he might be exiled or beheaded, the two of them suddenly went dark. , almost fainted.
Xiao Wenli and two young guys quickly pinched the two of them and shook them awake.
"Uncle, aunt, you two can't faint. The trial will start in three days. If you two still want to save people, you have to leave immediately. If you are late, it will be too late!
I asked Brother Liu Nan, if your family had a better attitude, made amends to the victim, made compensation on your own, and begged others to forgive you, Xiao Yuanhang could also get a lighter sentence. You should hurry up and make an idea! "
"This, how much do I have to give to others! My money! I haven't covered my body yet, oh my God..."
Mrs. Xiao started crying again and wanted to slap her thigh.
Xiao Wenli and the others didn't like to see her act like this. They had said everything they needed to say, and what to do was not their business, so they said
"Uncle, aunt, you can make up your own mind about the rest. In order not to delay your work, we didn't dare to rest. We rushed back so hard that we almost fell apart. We went back to rest!" "
Seeing that they were leaving, Mrs. Xiao didn't forget to ask
"All those five hundred coppers were spent? Bring the rest back to me!"
Xiao Wenli wanted to curse, but the other two boys couldn't hold him anymore.
"Auntie, what are you thinking! We only eat two meals a day. In this cold weather, you think we live in the wilderness at night. We are still thinking about the leftovers, so we didn't ask you to make up for the two meals. That’s pretty good!”
"Auntie, if you can't trust us, don't come to us if anything happens to your family in the future!"
The three of them left immediately after the argument, and Mrs. Xiao was heartbroken, patting her chest and cursing, saying that they had betrayed her!
"Okay, get up quickly and go rescue the fourth child! The second child is promising. As long as we rescue the fourth child, we won't have to worry about the future!"
When Mrs. Xiao heard this, she thought the same thing, so she got up and patted the ground. As soon as the old couple went into the house, they took the money, put on new coats, and hurried to Tai'an Mansion!
Why don't you ask a few people to go together? It's easier to come up with ideas if you have more people. Of course you're afraid of spending money!
I don’t know how many days it will take to come back. One more person will cost three to four hundred copper coins. For this, they didn’t even call Xiao Dayong!
Although the two of them felt sorry for Yinzi, the old son, the eldest grandson, and the old lady's lifeblood, no matter how much they loved Yinzi, Xiao Yuanhang was the person they had loved for more than twenty years, so they might just say they didn't want it, so they took it. All the more than 60 taels of silver at home were taken away!
This is what is left of the one hundred taels sent by Chu Mingzhu.
At first, he gave Xiao Yantian twenty taels as a dowry and bought a banquet. Xiao Yuanhang returned to the county to learn how to buy materials and took away another ten taels. In the middle, Widow Liu said she wanted to buy a pair of silver bracelets, so Old Xiao secretly gave Widow Liu five taels. Two, plus the five hundred coppers I took out a few days ago, it's now more than sixty taels!
Old Man Xiao and Mrs. Xiao each carried thirty taels, and the remaining few taels of silver were put in the pockets of Old Xiao's coat and spent on the road. After the two of them took them, there were only a few copper coins left at home.
At first, I thought Xiao Wenli and the others had spent too much, but when I came out, I realized that they had spent a lot of money outside. After walking to the town, the two of them were cold, hungry, and tired, and couldn't walk anymore. A bowl of noodles cost 20 yuan. The coins and steamed buns were all bought at this time. The two of them gritted their teeth and ate a bowl of noodles. It was almost dark, and then they found an inn to stay. Another twenty coins per person, which made Mrs. Xiao feel distressed. My teeth were broken!
By the next day, their legs and feet hurt and they couldn't walk. They had no choice but to hire a donkey cart and send 600 copper coins to Tai'an Mansion. They were still complaining that they would have to do it themselves. There was no need for Xiao Wenli and the others to come, and it cost her five hundred coppers in vain!
Let’s just say that if this person loses his conscience, even a dog will eat her if he hears that!
But Han Zhongyu has been very busy these days. Although Cao Chengan, the old man, has just been arrested and looked at the torture instruments a few times, he told him everything he knew about the bamboo tube pourer. He mainly wanted to be lenient if he confessed and try to get fewer punishments. board.
However, County Magistrate Liu is an old fool. No matter how he is interrogated, he insists that he does not know about Xiao Yuanhang and Li Mingcheng's fraud and harm!
As a last resort, Han Zhongyu personally took people to Yonghe County to check, and checked all the colleagues and subordinates who were close to Liu Hong. Finally, he got the evidence and returned to Tai'an Mansion before the second interrogation.
