Likewise, all of these officials also had bitter expressions on their faces.
Although Beiping Mansion is only fifty miles away from Tongzhou, even traveling such a long distance by horse-drawn carriage is still a hardship, not to mention that you can only ride a horse now.
Moreover, I will have to walk at night for a while.
However, looking at the battle between Yan King Zhu Di, even if they didn't know the inside story, they could feel that there must be some unscrupulous people in Tongzhou who provoked the Yan King.
As Zhu Di and others left, the entire Beiping Mansion began to stir again.
King Yan actually led a thousand soldiers and generals, as well as some officials from the Beiping government office, the inspection department, and the chief envoy department, and headed towards Tongzhou with murderous intent.
Who could actually make King Yan so furious?
…
While all the officials and gentry in Beiping City were in shock and confusion, there was laughter and laughter in the backyard of Tongzhou Government Office, fifty miles east of Beiping City.
Cui Shijian, the magistrate of Tongzhou, sat in the first place. On the left and right sides sat a fellow magistrate and magistrate of Tongzhou. Opposite him were four middle-aged or old men of different statures with kind faces and gentle turbans in Confucian shirts.
"Congratulations to Cui Zhizhou, as long as Prince Yan's Mansion rebuilds the Zhangjiawan Wharf, all the passing cargo ships will inevitably dock at the Zhangjiawan Wharf.
By then, Tongzhou will definitely be several times more prosperous than before.
With such a great achievement, I believe that the officials in the Ministry of Civil Affairs must not ignore it. Cui Zhizhou will definitely have a smooth official career, and maybe he can directly enter the central government. "
"That's right, that's right. That Guo Changshi is the famous God of Wealth in Beiping Prefecture. He is so optimistic about Zhangjiawan Pier, so it must be the same..."
These four well-known rural gentry in Tongzhou poured out words of praise one after another, and their faces were full of sincerity.
With the help of this plan, they not only bought hundreds of acres of farmland, each family also took on more than a dozen tenant farmers, making a lot of money.
As for Cui Shijian and his fellow magistrates and judges on the left and right, they were all in a good mood when they thought about the two boxes of silver that they had brought into their home in the afternoon.
Cui Shijian took a sip of tea and said with a reserved look: "This matter is all due to the kindness of His Highness King Yan. In order to relieve the pressure on water transportation on the Tonghui River, he actually prepared to pave roads and repair the Zhangjiawan Wharf.
Of course, Prince Yan's Mansion was able to successfully purchase the 500 acres of land at Zhangjiawan Wharf, thanks to all the sages and gentry! "
The four rural sages and gentry quickly replied: "Cui Zhizhou is too polite. This matter is all the credit of you and all the superior officials. We just accepted a group of tenants and dealt with a few unruly people."
"It's true, it's true. If it weren't for Cui Zhizhou and all the superior officials, this matter wouldn't have been possible..."
Cui Shijian nodded reservedly and asked seemingly casually: "Have all those troublemakers been told their truth?
His Highness King Yan's paving of roads and repairing Zhangjiawan Pier this time is a great good thing for Tongzhou. I must not offend His Highness because of a few unruly people, or cause any trouble?
If it tarnishes His Highness's reputation, that would be a big mistake..."
"Don't worry, Cui Zhizhou. They're just a few unruly people. We've seen them a lot. As long as we explain some reason to them and give them a little punishment, they will naturally become obedient people."
"That's good."
"Hahaha……"
The lights in the backyard of Tongzhou Yamen stayed on until midnight before going out.
…
On the road from Beiping City to Tongzhou, Zhu Di, Guo An and others were running non-stop.
A team of thousands of people, holding hundreds of torches, marched along the way.
The fifty-mile road was most painful for horseback riders like Zhu Di and Guo An.
For the guards on foot, it was better. They were used to traveling long distances.
As for the scribes in Prince Yan's Mansion, as well as the small officials in the Chief Envoy and Inspector's Department, they suffered a serious crime. They walked for fifty miles in a row without stopping for a moment. Along the way, their I have no feeling in my legs.
However, suppressed by the dull atmosphere along the way, they did not dare to speak out and ask for a rest.
Finally, after an unknown amount of time, when all the officials seemed to be like walking corpses, the team finally stopped in front of a large house.
In front of the team, several strong men wearing Feiyu uniforms also appeared quietly.
"Your Highness, more than ten families were imprisoned in the home of this man named He Ji." Pu Sanji reported.
Zhu Di looked up and said emotionlessly: "Open the door for me."
"Here."
Pu Sanji responded and looked at the Jinyi guards in front of him.
Several Jinyiwei skillfully turned over from the door, and with a creak, the door was opened.
Two Jinyi guards, dragging a slave with one hand, walked out of the gate and threw them directly in front of Zhu Di, Guo An and others.
The two slaves were lying on the ground, their heads lowered, and they were trembling and begging for mercy, "You heroes, have mercy on me, have mercy on you, I know nothing, and I haven't seen anything."
"snort!"
Zhu Di glanced at him with disgust and asked, "Where are the Zhangjiawan people you captured?"
"What?"
The two slaves were startled and subconsciously looked up at Zhu Di.
However, the night was dark, and all I could see was a tall and majestic figure.
On the contrary, behind this burly man, there were actually rows of soldiers holding torches, wearing cold armor, and holding steel knives and spears?
"This general..."
Before the two slaves could finish speaking, they were kicked aside by Pu Sanji.
Pu Sanji didn't even look at it, and reported directly to Zhu Di: "Your Highness, the dozen or so farmers who were arrested are all locked up in the woodshed of the back house of the He family."
"Take me with you."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Pu Sanji and several Jinyi guards led the way.
Zhu Di and Guo An followed.
Behind him, a group of soldiers and generals had already surrounded the entire He family, and some soldiers rushed in with torches to control the entire He family.
The sound of the friction of armor and the dense and heavy sound of boots directly shocked the entire He Mansion.
There are also silhouettes of people on the roof.
Even on the ridge, there was a group of people in fish suits, crouched, with either steel knives or bows and arrows in their hands, peeping around to be on guard.
"A thief broke in!"
"Draw the knife quickly to protect Mr. He..."
As the houses lit up, a group of shirtless Zhuang Hus holding steel knives rushed out with ferocious faces.
However, before taking two steps, everyone's eyes widened and they looked ahead, cowering and not daring to take a step forward.
In front of them, there was a row of gleaming armor, sharp steel knives and spears, and rows of arrows on the roof!
I was so frightened that I lost my mind!
"Officers and soldiers?... How could officers and soldiers come?..."
"Ah~"
Suddenly several screams rang out. When everyone saw it, it turned out that it was several Zhuang Hus who tried to sneak away, but were shot to death by a few arrows.
All the village guards shuddered together, and the steel knives in their hands fell to the ground with a clang, not daring to make any small moves.
On weekdays, facing soldiers in full armor like this, they may not survive even five against one.
But now, the opponent's numbers are obviously far outnumbered by theirs. The only option is to commit suicide except to surrender obediently.
Obviously, they don't want to die like this...
"Who are you?"
"Do you know who owns this house here? How dare you lead your troops to rush in?..."
At this time, a series of scoldings also sounded in the backyard.
Especially He Ji, who had just returned from Tongzhou and had not been in bed for a while, was even more panic-stricken.
Could it be that Cui Zhizhou wanted to take advantage of others?
It's a pity that no soldier paid attention to him.
at the same time.
In the backyard, outside the woodshed, dozens of torches illuminated the entire backyard as brightly as day.
Two Jinyi guards stepped forward and opened the wooden door of the woodshed.
Inside, there was a sudden panic.
Following this, a strong stench came out.
Zhu Di frowned, but he still shouted loudly: "This king is Zhu Di, King of Yan. If you have any grievances, you can file a complaint."
As soon as he finished speaking, an old man with unkempt hair and gray face stuck out from the small door of the woodshed.
Seeing the scene in the hospital, his eyes narrowed.
Then, he looked at Zhu Di expectantly.
"Are you really His Highness King Yan?"
"How dare you, who else in Beiping Mansion dares to pretend to be His Highness Prince Yan?"
Pu Sanji scolded directly.
Hearing this, the old man was not surprised but overjoyed, "Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo for for might...Everyone, please come out quickly. There's no need to huddle in there..."
Immediately, forty or fifty people poured out of the woodshed, which was no bigger than the hut in Prince Yan's Mansion.
There were men and women, old people and young people, and children.
Every common person has chapped lips and is weak. Half of them have scars all over their bodies. There are also several children lying motionless in the arms of their parents.
Guo An's eyes were red and his fists were clenched white.
As for Zhu Di, although his face was calm, his eyes were as cold as ice. "Quickly send someone to find a few doctors and give them a look."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Pu Sanji quickly turned around and gave instructions to several Jinyi guards on the side.
Several Jinyi guards quickly disappeared into the darkness and could not be seen.
Only then did Zhu Di look at the old man at the head, "May I ask this old man, what happened to you?"
"Your Highness, I am waiting for injustice!"
The old man's eyes suddenly shed cloudy tears, and his face was filled with grief and hatred, "We, farmers for generations, have lived and farmed near Zhangjiawan and never caused trouble.
Unexpectedly, a group of government officials suddenly came the day before yesterday and wanted to buy our fields. They said that His Highness, King Yan... His Highness wanted to use these fields to repair the Zhangjiawan Pier.
His Highness wants to requisition, and we, the humble commoners, dare not disobey.
It's just that those officials are unreasonable. The old man's eight acres of land are only given twenty taels of silver.
With these twenty taels of silver, you can buy at most two acres of land, which is still inferior land!
The old man wanted to reason, so they said they could let him join the He family as a tenant. However, the eight acres of land that the old man had so well were lost, and he still had to work as a tenant.
The old man didn't want to, but those officials didn't care. They not only threatened the old man, but also directly took away the old man's land deed...
The old man's son tried to resist, but they suppressed him and beat him until his legs were broken..."
"Your Highness, the husband of a civilian woman was beaten to death by them!"
"There was also Old Man Li from the next village. Because his two sons went to serve as soldiers and never came back, they beat Old Man Li to death and dug a random hole to bury them..."
"Also, because Mr. He fell in love with Bai, they took this opportunity to beat Bai's husband to death and take Bai away..."
The common people also knew that this was their only chance to redress their grievances, and they spoke out regardless of their grievances.
"These bastards are worse than beasts!"
Zhu Di's face was filled with rage.
Guo An was furious and trembling all over. He guessed that some gentry might cause trouble and be greedy.
However, I never thought that someone could be so evil and so unscrupulous?
Behind him, Yu Rentian, the prefect of Peiping, as well as the chief envoys, the inspectors and other officials were also dumbfounded and chilled all over.
The complaints in my heart immediately disappeared.
They had heard of He Ji, a local sage from Tongzhou, who often donated money to repair schools and roads in Tongzhou, and had a good reputation.
I didn't expect that he would act so recklessly in private!
No wonder His Highness Prince Yan is causing such a big fight today?
…
(End of chapter)
