Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 350: Hidden Deep
In the Changlu County Government Office, the result of the trial conducted by General Zhu Tingfang of Mingwei that day was spread throughout the city through hundreds of mouths.
Among the six families, it was not only the three from the Qi family who were sentenced to immediate execution because of their various misdeeds. There were also two others, all of whom were involved in murders. As for the others, they were sentenced to either caning or exile to Liaodong, a total of seventeen people.
From the master of the house, the dandy young master, to the accountant, the steward, and the exiled soldiers, Zhu Tingfang would sentence all of them in one day as long as he could get solid evidence and witness testimony within a few days.
On the surface, the charge of colluding with the eldest prince to the point of causing the rebellion of innocent people did not occupy a very prominent position either in the words passed down by word of mouth or in the notice posted on the wall of the county government office.
However, apart from the majority of the people who applauded, the smart people who were able to be patient and think about it all knew that the reason why Zhu Tingfang punished a group of criminals severely this time and did not hesitate to dig up old accounts that many people did not care about at all was because these wealthy families foolishly colluded with the eldest prince who was only interested in making money and caused that shocking case!
A bunch of peasants have already occupied the palace. How can this be tolerated? Even if the eldest prince changed his words and claimed that Xian Yunhe and others were "righteous people", Changlu County Magistrate Xu Cheng was a corrupt official, and the Jiang family and other families were traitors, he changed his words when he found out that he had escaped. Besides, people have to believe this!
Of course, although Zhu Tingfang planned to execute five people, it did not mean that he could immediately send these five people to the execution ground to serve as a warning to the public. He still had to report to the court and wait for the Dali Temple to review the case. The Dali Temple would report back and the emperor would make the final decision. In other words, these five people could live a few more days. Those who were exiled to Liaodong were also not executed.
On the contrary, none of those sentenced to caning escaped the round cane. Mr. Jiang was "lucky" enough to get half of the 40 canes because his filial son, Mr. Jiang, pleaded for him. The remaining 40 were shared by his three sons. The rest of them were beaten as much as they deserved. Not to mention that they had no filial sons willing to take the beatings on their behalf, even if they did, they would have been placed under house arrest.
If it was a court trial on a normal day, only some idle people would be interested in watching the excitement , but today, many people did not care about doing odd jobs, farming, or even eating lunch, and stayed outside to watch all the cases until sunset. They heard the arrogant guys being dragged to the platform and crying for their parents after being beaten with the stick. Many people even forgot about the trouble, and the only feeling they had was - it was great!
Among them, the happiest person was Xiao Huasheng. Zhang Shou was originally behind the screen in the court, and he hid behind Zhang Shou. When Zhang Shou went out to deal with the matter between Young Master Jiang and Young Master Qi, Zhu Tingfang set up a chair for him to listen in the court after he came back. The box behind the screen became his exclusive box. When he heard something exciting, he was so excited that he even had to cover his mouth.
He was afraid that he would laugh out loud because of excessive excitement.
Because of this, after the trial was finally over in the evening, Xiao Huasheng wanted to find someone to share his experience with. Although he thought Zhang Shou was a good person, he was an official appointed by the court; Miss Zhu was also a good person, but there was a difference between men and women, and she was too good at making people laugh; as for young masters like Zhu Er and Zhang Chen, he was not like his uncle, who always kept a distance from them.
Therefore, he wanted to find Lao Xianyu to share his unspeakable joy. However, he went from the front yard of the county government office to the back yard, and even went to the water tank and the roof to take a look, but he couldn't find Lao Xianyu. It was only then that he remembered that he hadn't seen his uncle since early morning.
How could my uncle, who always loves to watch the fun, restrain himself from watching today's excitement that countless people from Cangzhou came to watch?
Peanut was puzzled. When he returned to Zhang Shou's courtyard, he looked up and saw Ah Liu sitting on the wall in a daze. He rushed over and shouted, "Sixth brother, have you seen my uncle? I can't find him anywhere!"
Ah Liu lowered his eyes and stared at Peanut for a while. Finally, he said three words calmly: "I saw it."
Peanut was already feeling a little down, and when he heard these three concise words, he instinctively lowered his head: "Oh, so you saw it..." Suddenly, he realized something was wrong, and hurriedly raised his head again, "No, Sixth Brother, you didn't see it, you saw it? Where did Uncle go?"
Ah Liu teased Peanut a little, then he stretched his legs and jumped down from the wall. He suddenly reached out and patted Peanut on the head. Although he was not tall, he was still half a head taller than Peanut. Seeing that Peanut was a little confused, he said, "He went out with Mr. Zhu."
Peanut was immediately more puzzled. In his opinion, among the three Zhu siblings, Zhu Tingfang was the most frightening, Zhu Ying was the most independent, and Zhu Er was not so impressive, either being ordered around by his eldest brother or his younger sister. Even the newly arrived eldest son of the Qin State, he had seen people make Zhu Er run around in circles.
He thought about it and couldn't help asking, "Only the second son Zhu followed my uncle out? No guards? Will it be dangerous? After all, there were people in Cangzhou City who dared to assassinate General Zhu before..."
Ah Liu glanced at Peanut with a strange expression and said bluntly, "People who want to target them are dangerous."
Don’t you know how powerful your uncle is?
Xiaohuasheng didn't see the mockery in Ah Liu's eyes, and actually thought about it for a while before he sighed and sat down on the steps at the gate, holding his chin and talking about his feelings about the trial today. Ah Liu leaned against the curved moon gate in a strange posture, until Xiaohuasheng suddenly expressed his concerns, and his calm expression changed.
"I am very happy that General Zhu severely punished those greedy guys... But what about Uncle Yunhe and the others? The last time I went to the palace, I took the opportunity to deliver food to Uncle Yunhe and secretly ran to meet other people. There are still eight people imprisoned... Will they die? Will they also be beheaded?"
Ah Liu really couldn't answer this question, so he thought about it again and again, and finally decided to remain silent. Fortunately, he was sure that Peanut would soon have no time to dwell on this question. Sure enough, not long after, he heard a loud shout: "Hey, I didn't hear that Big Brother was going to try those cases today when I left this morning. Why didn't he wait for me to come back!"
Master Zhu and Young Master took advantage of your absence to rush to handle those cases, so that you wouldn't just watch the fun without doing any work...
Ah Liu thought so in his heart, and his eyes showed it. When Zhu Er, who was striding over excitedly, met his cold eyes most of the time, he immediately shut up. However, Lao Xianyu, who was a few steps behind Zhu Er, was carrying a huge backpack and panting as he walked, saying, "Oh, I'm old and can't walk anymore. Second Master, you don't know how to respect the elderly..."
Zhu Er's forehead was suddenly throbbing with veins. He turned around and angrily yelled, "You dead salted fish, who treated the things in this backpack as treasures and wouldn't even let me touch them? Now you're turning the tables and saying that I didn't help you?"
The more he spoke, the angrier he became. He wanted to poke the old, wrinkled salted fish's nose with his finger: "You said you would take me to see your secret garden, but you blindfolded me halfway through the journey and said that since it was a secret garden, you couldn't let me remember the way. You almost made me fall a few times! It's just a big vegetable garden, isn't it? How rare! And you, an ignorant old salted fish, treat it as a treasure!"
Although he was scolded by Zhu Erkuang, Lao Xianyu remained calm and composed, not looking embarrassed at all - let alone guilty. Especially when he saw Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying coming out of the inner room one after the other, Zhang Shou was elegant and Zhu Ying was beautiful, and they looked so good together, he couldn't help but whistled like a scoundrel.
It was not until he saw Ah Liu glaring at him unkindly that he quickly nodded and said, "Hey, seeing Dr. Zhang and the eldest lady reminded me of my youthful days. I lost my composure and deserved a beating!"
He was also able to save face and slapped her in the face. Then he took off the backpack with a big smile on his face: "I was just joking with the Second Young Master just now. It's not that I don't want him to help me carry it, but this backpack is too heavy. He is such a pampered young master. He has walked so much with me today. I guess his shoes are almost worn out. How can he carry this!"
Zhu Er was so angry that his eyebrows were raised. He strode forward and grabbed the backpack to show his strength, but his face changed as soon as he did so. He lifted it once, but the backpack didn't move at all. He lifted it a second time, and the backpack moved slightly, but he still couldn't lift it up. It wasn't until he exerted all his strength that he finally lifted it off the ground.
But if he pushed harder, he felt like his waist was going to break! This time, he didn't dare to show off anymore. He let go of his hand and glared at Lao Xianyu with a dark face: "Do you have gold hidden in here or something else? Why is it so heavy?"
Old Salted Fish chuckled nonchalantly, "They are just some Qin bricks and Han tiles or something like that. But they have been with me for a long time. If I really go to the capital, I will be worried if I don't take them with me. As for my vegetable garden, I will have to tidy it up when I really leave!"
As he spoke, he opened the blue cloth covering the backpack, first took out two large bundles, and then took out a brick from the bottom. Zhang Shou didn't know much about these objects, and Zhu Ying came up to take a look. After taking this piece, he was immediately amazed and held it in front of Zhang Shou with both hands.
"Ah Shou, no wonder my second brother couldn't lift it, it's really heavy!"
Zhang Shou was slightly stunned, but when he touched the piece to feel its weight, he was also surprised. Just that one piece weighed at least ten kilograms!
However, when he looked more closely, he found that it was not a Qin brick or Han tile at all, but more like a broken stele with some words vaguely visible on it. However, when he squinted his eyes and tried to recognize the words, he was stunned.
This seems to be... English? No, it's clearly a combination of pinyin and weird Chinese English! As for why he knew it... No matter who it is, if they don't understand the structure of shen cang blue, then there's no way!
However, this small piece of stone was too broken. Apart from this one word, the rest of the words were all fragmented, and he couldn't make out any clues at all. Therefore, he just stroked the handwriting and studied it for a while, and then looked at Lao Xianyu.
"Isn't this Qin brick and Han tile? I have seen these words on it in the Taizu manuscripts that the emperor gave me."
"Oh, really? I thought it was a heavenly book, that's why I bought it from those who stole and sold the stone tablets!" Old Salty Fish's eyes widened, with an expression of surprise. Then, he smiled and said, "Dr. Zhang, you are knowledgeable. If you think it is useful, I will pass it on to you."
"Oh?" Although Zhang Shou knew that this old man was the type who would take advantage of opportunities, he still didn't expect that he would be so straightforward in stuffing the things in his hands.
Although he had never studied any stone tablets, he could tell from the weathering of the fragment that it was quite old, and the letters were very distinctive. At least, if it were him, he would never be able to write such beautiful English cursive. His English letters were no longer in good shape after he left school. Anyway, there was a printer...
After a moment's silence, Zhang Shou smiled and said, "Then I will be honored to refuse. If I can find out anything, I will tell you the progress."
"Then I'll be waiting for your good news, Dr. Zhang. This is what's left. I've collected a lot!"
As Old Salted Fish spoke, he took out the remaining fragments of the stele from his backpack. Zhu Er watched him take out one piece after another, one piece after another... He couldn't help but feel angry for a moment. No wonder he couldn't lift it just now. How many of these heavy things did this damn Salted Fish hide in his backpack? And the secret garden... Is that a secret stone quarry?
Although Zhang Shou's eyelids twitched, he finally picked up the dozens of stone tablets of different sizes and examined them carefully - at least he acted like a researcher of Taizu's manuscripts. Then, he asked Ah Liu to put the stone tablet fragments back into the backpack one by one and then carry them into the house. Xiao Huasheng also volunteered to help.
Seeing Ah Liu carrying the more than 100 kilograms of things into the house effortlessly, Zhu Er couldn't help but turn his head to look at Lao Xianyu. He thought to himself, the old man was carrying such a heavy thing over such a long distance and he only had sweat on his forehead. What kind of extraordinary strength does this have!
If someone really fights with Ah Liu, will the result be a draw?
However, Zhu Ying noticed that the two bundles that Lao Xianyu had taken out before were naturally carried on his back, as if those were more important than the so-called Taizu stele. She had long been very wary of people, so she simply went over and poked the bundle out of curiosity. Seeing that Lao Xianyu did not dodge, she smiled and spoke.
"Compared to those tombstones that are hard to understand right now, how about you take out the things in your bag, Old Salty Fish, and show them to everyone? Do you have anything else to eat?"
