Prisoners were always favored by the emperor, because no matter how many people served in corvee, they would eventually be released to farm the land.
But the emperor wanted to build too many palaces, gardens, and palaces, and the emperor was not satisfied that even the people had to serve in corvee all year round.
But if the people are not allowed to go back to farming, there will be no harvest in the fields and no tax revenue will be collected, which will also affect the emperor's enjoyment.
It is much easier for prisoners, that is, they have to work for free until they die, but they are not much easier to use than ordinary people.
That's why there was a provision that double the number of sentences could be used to redeem people from the responsibility of escaping from corvee.
Of course, once this regulation came out, once people escaped from corvee, how many innocent people would be accused by people like Gai Xiong and sent to serve as prisoners. The emperor who only wanted to enjoy himself did not care.
As for the court officials, they were accustomed to being aloof and could not see the sufferings of these ordinary people.
Because he was worried that the court would cause trouble, he heard that Zhao Yanhuan had captured the Tiger Leaping Village and collected double the number of prisoners.
Gai Xiong didn't even ask how Zhao Yanhuan did it, and hurriedly urged Feng Ji to take people to Hutiao Village to suppress the bandits and send them to the place of labor as soon as possible.
Everything was as Zhao Yanhuan had expected, and this seemingly life-or-death crisis was easily resolved.
Zhao Yanhuan solved this matter with ease, but it was not easy.
First of all, it is difficult to gather enough prisoners.
Secondly, there must be enough interests entangled with Gai Xiong to make Gai Xiong easily not want to break up with her.
Only in this way can Gai Xiong avoid jumping over the wall in a hurry, arresting the villagers of Qipai Village immediately and questioning them, giving him enough time to explain the situation.
When Zhao Yanhuan was about to leave with Feng Ji, Gai Xiong suddenly said something.
"Those villagers who have escaped back, please turn into seclusion. Escaping from corvee is always a hidden danger. Who knows when the higher-ups will send people to conduct a thorough investigation, and I will cancel all their household registrations."
Zhao Yanhuan paused, turned around, cupped his hands towards Gai Xiong, and thanked him sincerely: "Thank you, Lord County Magistrate."
Gai Xiong waved his hand, sat on the chair and poured himself a cup of tea slowly, just a casual favor.
In order to ensure that all the bandits could be brought back, Feng Ji took the county's detectives with him to Hutiao Village.
In Tiger Leaping Village, Luan Bao and Luan Xiong have been guarding here with their people.
All the bandits were tied up. Luan Bao and Luan Xiong had people feed the bandits some water and eat a few mouthfuls of steamed buns to make sure they didn't starve to death.
Wang Datian and Wang Erdi were tied together and were already half dead. To Zhao Yanhuan's surprise, they didn't even have their stomachs emptied, but they were fine. They were very lucky.
But it doesn't matter if nothing happens. Zhao Yanhuan said to Feng Ji: "These two people are called Wang Datian and Wang Erdi. They are the chief and second master of Hutiao Village."
"When you take them back, you must remind the county magistrate to pay special attention. Don't let these two people escape or encourage the bandits under them to riot."
Feng Ji glanced at Wang Datian and Wang Erdi: "Don't worry, after these people go back, their hands and feet will be shackled. Even when they are working, they cannot be taken off."
"With these two things in their possession, even if the two of them have the ability to reach the sky, they will never be able to escape from the waves."
Zhao Yanhuan nodded: "That puts me at ease. I have counted the bandits here. There are 530 of them. Just count them and take them away."
While Zhao Yanhuan and Feng Ji were talking, Wang Datian and Wang Erdi kept staring at Zhao Yanhuan with splitting eyes, their expressions twisted like evil ghosts.
If their mouths hadn't been blocked, they would have cursed.
It was a pity that no one, whether it was Zhao Yanhuan, Feng Ji, or the villagers of Qipai Village who were guarding them, paid attention to these two people.
Until he was escorted away by Feng Ji, Wang Dadian kept turning his head to look at Zhao Yanhuan. His eyes were so penetrating that Luan Bao and Luan Xiong frowned.
I didn't take these two people seriously at first. It didn't matter if they left alive or not.
But now seeing Wang Dadian's penetrating expression, the two of them felt that they shouldn't be left alive.
Luan Bao said to Zhao Yanhuan: "Village chief, this Wang Dadian is not a simple bandit, he has some brains."
"If we let him leave alive like this, if something unexpected happens and he comes back, he will definitely come to us for revenge."
"We are not afraid of upright revenge, but bandits are inhumane, and they are troublesome only when they cause harm behind the scenes. As long as this person is alive, he has unlimited possibilities, and we have to guard against him."
Luan Xiong's reaction was even more direct: "Village Chief, let me kill these two things."
Zhao Yanhuan shook his head and said, "Since we have already given the people to the county magistrate, it would be inappropriate for us to intervene and kill them again. Besides, it is not difficult to kill them."
Zhao Yanhuan said that it was not difficult to kill Wang Dadian and Wang Erdi. It was really not difficult.
She just stopped Feng Ji and said a few words when she left Hutiao Village and separated from Feng Ji.
"Captain Feng, I need you to tell the county magistrate. Although the more prisoners the better, Wang Datian and Wang Erdi are the two owners of Hutiao Village and have high prestige among the bandits."
"Anyone who can become a bandit has a traitor in his head. If two people want to rebel against the court halfway, with the prestige of these two people, it will be easy to gather these bandits to cause trouble."
"Instead of keeping these two people without knowing when they will cause trouble, it is better to send ordinary gangsters to be prisoners and punish the two gang leaders in a canonical manner to show the benevolence and prestige of the county magistrate to the people of Niumo County."
Feng Ji was also a smart man. He knew what Zhao Yanhuan meant as soon as he heard it. He immediately nodded and said, "Don't worry, Village Chief Zhao. I will definitely bring your words to the county magistrate."
After sending Feng Ji away, Zhao Yanhuan led his people back to Qipai Village to wait for the fate of Wang Datian and Wang Erdi.
Gai Xiong was also a resolute person. After hearing what Zhao Yanhuan said that Feng Ji conveyed, he felt that it made sense.
So the next day, Gai Xiong pushed Wang Datian and Wang Erdi to Caishikou and beheaded them.
It is said that people from all over Niumo County came to see the excitement, and everyone clapped their hands and applauded.
Originally, as a county magistrate, he was not qualified to execute prisoners directly, but Gai Xiong was different. He was a fifth-grade county magistrate and was qualified to execute prisoners.
Why is a county magistrate ranked fifth? This has to go back to the aristocratic family.
Today, almost all the world is controlled by aristocratic families, and all officials are from aristocratic families.
But there are only so many official positions in the world, even if they are redundant, they are still numerous.
But the descendants of the aristocratic family were born again and again, and no matter how many official positions they had, they were not enough.
In this case, the high-ranking official position is not enough, so we can only look at the county magistrate.
However, many big families really looked down upon a petty official like the county magistrate.
What to do?
It's easy to handle. Let's improve the level of this county magistrate.
Therefore, high-level county magistrates such as the sixth-grade county magistrate, the fifth-grade county magistrate, and the fourth-grade county magistrate came into being.
Although these county magistrates are county magistrates, when they meet other officials, they speak according to their rank, which is completely inferior to ordinary county magistrates.
