Wujiang County is located in Songling Town, more than ten miles due west of Tongli Town, about a little east and north of the later Wujiang Park.
The urban area is not large. The perimeter of the city wall is only three miles and fifty paces, which is almost more than 200,000 square meters. The permanent population of the county is more than 20,000. To the west is Taihu Lake, to the east of the city is the canal, and the Wusong River leads to the sea. It is rich in products and has good transportation. Convenient, so the city is very prosperous.
However, the current county seat was rebuilt a hundred years ago, and the previous one was completely destroyed by the war.
In the second year of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Wushu, also known as Zong Bi, defeated the Song army in Hezhou, crossed the Yangtze River, and directly attacked the city of Hangzhou.
Fortunately, there were heavy troops in Hangzhou, so Jin Wushu, who had let his lone army penetrate deeply, had no choice but to retreat. On his way back, he looted the south of the Yangtze River. Wujiang was on his withdrawal route. If he hadn't been severely hit by Chen Sigong in Taihu Lake, he would have wreaked more havoc. Many places.
After the war, when Chen Sigong returned to Wujiang County, it was devastated and in ruins. There were only three houses left in the city. There were countless corpses in the city. All the wells were blocked by corpses. Only a small amount of drinkable water was found under an abandoned pavilion.
When the swallows came, they could not find a house to build their nests, so they had to fly to the sails of the navy warships with mud in their mouths to build their nests.
Those in later generations who questioned the anti-gold and anti-yuan movement said that Yue Fei and others were not national heroes, that they were either stupid or bad, and that they should really be thrown into such a human hell to experience it.
Zhao Mengqi's boat entered the county town from Shuimen, and Geng Zhi, who was waiting there, jumped on the boat.
"How's it going?"
"Back to Alang, after I arrived, I went directly to Wu Tower. Unexpectedly, those few birds were still sleeping soundly. When one of them disappeared, we arrested them all. After they were woken up, they were very arrogant. Not only did he utter arrogant words, but he also resisted with punches and kicks, so I gave him a little lesson..."
Speaking of this, Geng Zhi's face was a little embarrassed, and it was obvious that his words were not entirely true.
Zhao Mengqi couldn't help but look him up and down. Good guy, it's really a shame to be close to the ink. You, an honest kid with thick eyebrows and big eyes, who is straight from the outside, have actually learned to play tricks.
Realizing that his master was looking at him, Geng Zhi was very embarrassed, so he quickly looked at his nose, nose and heart to calm down.
"Then the people from the county government came and asked us to release the people, so there was some conflict, but those government officials were really useless. We didn't waste much effort, and more than 20 people fell down. In the end, the imperial guards and soldiers in the city When the archers arrived, Hou Ganban showed his identity as the Imperial City Division. However, Hou Ganban said it was not appropriate to get too stalemate with the local government, so now he brought everyone to the county government office, including the victims and witnesses involved in the case. I went, I wanted to wait for His Highness to arrive before dealing with it, but Liu Zhizhou suddenly appeared and said that this was a local case and should be tried by Wujiang County. At this moment, he should be in court."
Liu Xiuren? Shouldn't this guy be busy wiping his own ass? What does it mean to have a hand in this case?
Zhao Mengqi frowned and thought carefully for a while, guessing that the old guy might be planning to create some obstacles for himself to hinder his sight.
Ha, it's a good plan, but it's better to just play with him and play with him. It will take three or four days for the army to be in place.
Their boats followed the river in the city and arrived near the county government office, stopping close to the stone bank.
Although the rain was a little lighter at this time, it was still inconvenient to travel. Considering that Gu Xixi first took poison and then jumped from the building, and was beaten and ravaged before, the body must be too horrible to look at, so Zhao Mengqi advised Wanwan, "You guys stay here Just stay on the boat and wait for me to deal with it..."
"No, I want to see Sister Gu and see those beasts punished with my own eyes!" Wanwan's eyes were very stubborn.
"I'm going too!" Qian Duo's eyes were red and he was gritting his teeth, "I'm going to chop up the trash of those pickled bird thieves and feed them to the dogs, then cut them into pieces, and finally bury their bones in the road. Let thousands of people trample on you and tens of thousands of people trample you, and you will never be able to stand up again!"
Zhao Mengqi felt a chill under his crotch for no reason. Why is this girl so angry?
Looking at Zhao Han and Zhao Fei again, they both also had sad and angry faces. Apparently after knowing this, they had empathy and hated Xu Tianyi and the others.
"Okay." Zhao Mengqi shrugged. These young ladies were his force majeure, so he no longer tried to persuade them in vain.
The group got off the boat and arrived at the county government office in the rain. Many people gathered outside the door, all talking about the ongoing case.
"It's such a sin. Miss Gu, a fairy-like person who was in her prime, is gone like this. What a pity!"
"I heard that she committed suicide. I'm afraid the officials from other places won't be able to hold them accountable..."
"But she committed suicide because she was raped. Why can't she be held accountable?"
"Brother, what you said is wrong. She is a romantic woman, how can she talk about rape? Besides, I heard that Mr. Xu comes from a famous family, and his father and ancestors are all officials in the court. This trivial matter will definitely not be able to do anything to them. It will be a big blow to them. , the reprimand will be all it takes.”
"Why isn't it rape? If it doesn't count, wouldn't everyone be able to do whatever they want to those female prostitutes without paying them!? Besides, Madam Gu has never sold her acting skills!"
"This matter depends on whether we, the magistrate of Xinyang County, are tough and willing to seek justice for a few lowly women."
"Hehe, I heard that people in Kochi County are naughty and a little bit slavish. They probably won't offend these big officials for a few unimportant women."
"I'm afraid this dear friend is right. It took so long after this happened that the county government not only didn't arrest anyone, but didn't even ask those officials to question him. Instead, the passing Imperial City Bureau arrested the person."
"Imperial City Department? Do they care about this too? Could they be involved in other things? Then it's hard to say what the outcome will be. It's interesting..."
Zhao Mengqi listened for a while, then asked Wu Qiong and the others to step forward to clear the way, and led several young ladies to the library building, which was the main entrance of the county government.
The yamen servant still wanted to stop him, but after seeing clearly the upright people in the team, he shivered in fear and cowered aside and dared not move.
Because the Wujiang County Government Office was destroyed by war and the ancient tradition of officials not repairing the Government Office, it has been very small and crude since its reconstruction. The current gatehouse and the Magistrate's Office were rebuilt more than 30 years ago, and they are quite impressive. In the past, subordinate officials still rented private houses outside the yamen to serve as public offices, or raised funds to build offices elsewhere. Therefore, the "county lieutenant's office", "county chief's office" and "chief book office" were all scattered in the county. of.
Zhao Mengqi walked through the corridor and came to the county government hall. When he saw the plaque reading "No Litigation Hall", he felt a little awkward.
The main function of this lobby is to accept lawsuits, try cases and decide matters. It is named "No Litigation". I don't know if it is a beautiful vision or a simple inaction.
Shaking his head, he walked into the lobby and saw that there were quite a lot of people there. Gao Jia was sitting under the hanging plaque under the mirror, and Liu Xiuren was sitting on the left side of the hall with a sword and a golden horse, as if he was supervising and asking questions.
On both sides of the hall were two rows of government officials holding water and fire sticks. At the end of the hall were Xu Tianyi and his entourage, in the middle were related personnel from Wu Tower, and on the other side were Hou Tao and others. At this time, he was watching the trial with his arms folded. Hearing the noise, he turned around and saw Zhao Mengqi and his party, and immediately came forward to greet them.
"How was the trial?" Zhao Mengqi asked gently.
"The duck has a tough mouth and has been refusing to admit guilt. Then Xu Tianyi kept saying that he drank too much and fell asleep and didn't know anything. Several other guys also said that they were just prostitutes and did not rape. This attitude of Kochi County seems to be He was very perfunctory and always asked irrelevant questions. The four female actors and people from Wu Lou who were also raped changed their stories after being handed over to the county government, saying that they were willing to buy and sell..."
"Haha, then let me teach them how to behave." Zhao Mengqi chuckled, then turned to tell Wanwan and the others, "Just watch from the sidelines, Wu Qiong, protect them."
After that, Geng Zhi helped him open a passage through the crowd, and then he calmly walked into the courtroom.
Since the trial of the case began, Kochi County has felt like it was sitting on a fire, in a dilemma, not knowing how to protect itself wisely.
Originally, Wu Loutou Pai Gu Xixi's death was considered a big deal, but when he knew that the person involved was Xu Tianyi and a few others, he planned to make it a trivial matter, but he didn't expect that the nobleman's subordinates he met yesterday would get involved. , arrested the person, and forced him to face up to the case.
Although he didn't know the noble man's specific identity, he couldn't afford to offend him anyway, so he changed his mind and planned to do what the noble man wanted. Anyway, even if the sky fell, there would still be a tall man to hold him up.
Who knew that his immediate boss, Liu Zhizhou, would show up again and ask him to be impartial and handle official business, which made him a bit dumbfounded.
What to do? The victim and witnesses all changed their stories. The defendant either had a shadow official, or had a reputation to protect his body, but he couldn't be tortured. How could he be tried?
He couldn't let go, but he couldn't be strict. Suddenly he saw Zhao Mengqi appear in the court, and he couldn't help but froze there and didn't know what to do.
Zhao Mengqi walked out of the crowd and saw a corpse covered with white cloth placed in the hall. Next to it were four women kneeling in gorgeous clothes. On the contrary, Xu Tianyi and the six who were supposed to be the defendants stood there with thorns. , but his nose was bruised, his face was swollen, and his clothes were in tatters. It seemed that this was what Gengzhi said and he was given a little lesson.
But even so, it did not affect Xu Tianyi's momentum. When he saw that Kochi County did not ask questions for a long time, he became very impatient.
"Mr. Gao County, how long will this trivial matter last? These bitches have proven that I was asleep. No matter what happened, it has nothing to do with me. Should I be found innocent? Also, I These friends spent money sleeping with prostitutes, so what's the crime? Hurry, Xu is feeling uncomfortable all over, and he must see a doctor quickly, otherwise something will happen to him. You, a small county magistrate, can't afford to take care of it. What?"
His friends also shouted, "That's right, it doesn't matter to us. If something happens to Mr. Xu, Li Xiang and Mr. Xu will never give up..."
"Stop dawdling and close the case quickly. We are still waiting to go back to Wu Tower to continue our happiness."
"She's just a bitch. If she dies, she will die. Considering how she has served me, I think it is kind and righteous to give her ten strings of money to burn and bury her."
"A person of lowly status is born to serve others. There is no chastity at all, let alone committing suicide for this. I think it must be the brothers yesterday who made her experience the supreme joy of being a woman, so she will spend her whole life I have no regrets, I want to be reincarnated again and be reborn in a good family so that I can be accepted into our home and enjoy eternal happiness."
"Zhengtang, you should know Wansheng. How could Wansheng do something that violates the law? Our Sun family is also well-known as a good family in Wujiang. You can't let evil people tarnish the reputation of my Sun family."
Seeing these six people clamoring like this, Zhao Mengqi couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, "Oh, Mr. Xu is so majestic. The county magistrate is just a small person in your eyes. I don't know what rank you are in!?"
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