Chapter 125 The Last Wish of an Ancient Farmer 4
They discussed the specific details for a while, and then Gu Laoliu took his people to leave the teahouse and went to the Fulai Inn, which was a hundred meters away, and booked two upper rooms to stay in.
Gu Laoliu and Chang'an don't want to live in the village. They lived in the village in the previous plane, so they decided to live in the city in this plane.
They planned to rent a yard in Feng'an City. They would not live there for long, so there was no need to buy a house because Lin Jing would be taking part in the Autumn Examination next year.
After passing the exam, the next step is the spring examination of the following year, and finally the palace examination. The examination times for each level are staggered, and they are held every three years.
They will follow Lin Jing and will not stay in one place for too long.
In order to suit the occasion, late at night, Gao Yi and Lin Jing wore night clothes, while Chang An and her sixth father came out with spiritual consciousness, and they headed straight for the target.
They went to the Xue Mansion first. Apart from the servants on night watch, only Xue Jianren's yard was bustling with activity. The servants serving in his yard were trembling with fear.
After Master Xue was carried back home in the afternoon, he was particularly unlucky, and the servants who were implicated were also punished a lot.
As soon as I lay down on the bed, it collapsed, adding to my injuries. The medicine bowl I was drinking burst, and I almost choked to death while eating. Even drinking water would cause me to choke.
Gu Laoliu recounted to Chang'an the evil things the Xue family had done, "The Xue family runs a grain shop. They maliciously hoarded grain and speculated on the price of grain. When natural disasters occurred, they sold it at high prices. During several natural disasters, the Xue family's moldy rice was sold for one tael of silver per liter."
"When we collected grain from the people, the price was kept extremely low, and the purchase price of new rice was only five cents per liter. So the Xue family could no longer get grain in Feng'an County, and they had to collect grain from other places and sell it back."
"Master Xue beat and killed his servants, and would forcibly take beautiful girls back to his house when he saw them on the street. Madam Xue once burned to death a poor family of eight in the north of the city in order to take care of Xue Jianren.
Because the fire could not be controlled, it eventually burned down the entire street, and 123 people were burned to death in their sleep."
"Mr. Xue is doing evil in business. He mixes sand and gravel into rice, old flour that hasn't been sold out from several years into the new white flour, and moldy rice into the stubby rice. He bids maliciously and threatens the lives and safety of his competitors."
He said this to tell Chang'an that he need not worry about his merits being reversed, as these people deserved their punishment.
Gao Yi and Lin Jing quietly collected all the property of the Xue family. They were not as rich as the people in the previous ancient dimension, and after collecting all, they only got half of what others had. Maybe their family was too small?
Then they took away all the stored grain in Xue’s warehouse, and would go to Xue’s grain store later to empty it out.
Gu Laoliu helped Lin Jing move all of the Xue family's servants out of the Xue Mansion. Lin Jing also moved Xue Jianren out of the house, so that he could experience the life of the poor.
He may be even worse than a poor person, a useless person who only knows how to eat, drink and have fun. Without his parents, he will starve to death.
In my first year of high school, I set a fire in the front yard. The structure of the house was mainly made of wood. Although fire prevention measures were taken when the house was built, it could not withstand the deliberate arson by others.
The fire was crackling and growing bigger and bigger. Gu Laoliu controlled the fire within the Xue Mansion and did not let it go over the courtyard wall. The neighbors next door lived far away, so he could also take precautions.
They did not watch the Xue Mansion burn, but went to the Ma family who lived in the same place. They also listed the crimes of the Ma family to Chang'an, and then skillfully collected the property and burned the house.
It was late at night and the fire was under control in both houses. The neighbors did not live next to each other's walls, so no one discovered the fire in time.
After Chang'an and his men had robbed two other shops in Xicheng District and emptied their shops, they heard the night watchman howling, "Fire! Fire! Fire!"
Chang'an and Gu Laoliu: Is it too late to discover this?
The Xue and Ma families in Dongcheng District, and the Shi and Luo families in Xicheng District suffered fires in the middle of the night. The fires did not go out until noon the next day, and the four mansions were reduced to ruins.
The fire burned in a strange way. It burned only within the mansion, and not a single spark went over the courtyard wall. All the servants, concubines, and illegitimate children of each family were thrown onto the street. The dead were all the heads and mistresses of the families. Even several of the heirs were safe.
The storyteller in the teahouse talked a lot and tended to talk about ghosts and gods.
The storyteller accidentally revealed the truth. People who often prayed to gods and Buddhas believed it about 70% to 80%. People who did not believe in ghosts and gods were more inclined to believe that it was man-made. However, they could not find a reasonable explanation for the strange fire.
The county magistrate went to the scene to investigate himself, but found no clues at all. It was as if the fire had appeared out of nowhere.
He was more inclined to believe in the theory of ghosts and gods. Who the hell could move four families and thousands of servants out of the house by manpower overnight?
Even if there is such a capable person, he has to bring his men with him, and the number of them will not be small. It is impossible for them to act at night without any noise.
The bush was halfway burned last night before it was discovered by the night watchman. Do you think this is outrageous?
It must be that these four families did too many immoral things and were punished by God.
God: It’s not me, I didn’t do that, please don’t accuse me.
This was a major case, so the county magistrate followed the procedures. The first person he found was Lin Jing, who had a conflict with the eldest sons of the four families.
The county magistrate saw that he still had a wound on his head and looked listless, so he said a few words casually.
"Lin Jing, is it true that the sons of the Xue, Ma, Shi, and Luo families have conflicts with you?"
"Yes," Lin Jing said weakly, with a look that said, "Ask quickly, or I might kill you right here and there." The county magistrate's mouth twitched.
"Where were you last night? What were you doing?"
"What else can I do if I don't sleep at night? I'll stay with my brother. My employer and his eldest daughter live next door."
The way Lin Jing looked at him like a fool, as if the county magistrate had asked a very stupid question, made the county magistrate's teeth ache.
With his current condition, even if he had the evil intention, he couldn't accomplish such an earth-shattering thing. He might even be beaten to death as soon as he started.
The county magistrate thought about it and picked Lin Jing clean off. He was not interested in asking any more questions and waved his hand to let him leave.
Tian Ye: Are you stupid? He did it.
The big families in Feng'an County were also suppressed by this incident. They taught their children to be self-disciplined, to be careful in words and deeds, and not to bring disaster to the family.
Of course, the adults in charge also always remind themselves not to jump around, for fear that one day they may be inexplicably deleted from the account if they are not paying attention.
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the entire Feng'an County became much better. Everyone followed the rules, was modest and cautious, and even the brothels were well-behaved.
The most comfortable days for the county magistrate since he took office were actually because of the four families' sacrifice to heaven. If he had known that this would help suppress those local bullies, he should have done so earlier.
He can only think about it, he doesn't have that ability. If he does that, he will lose his life.
The events of Feng'an County were reported to the court by the prince of the royal family who was studying at Fushan Academy. The princes of other noble families also sent letters home. For a time, the incident of the four families in Feng'an County resounded throughout the capital of Tianze State and then spread outward.
The incident involving the four major families in Feng'an County was spread as a punishment from heaven, and evidence of each family's guilt was listed one by one and scattered across the country.
The princes and nobles and aristocratic families of the entire Tianze Kingdom were so frightened that they all calmed down. The emperor felt the same as the magistrate of Feng'an County, and it was the most comfortable day since he ascended the throne.
(ps: One liter of rice is about 1.25 jin, ten liters is one dou, about 12.5 jin, ten dou is one shi, about 120 jin. The data of each dynasty are different. One shi of rice in the Ming Dynasty is about 153.5 jin. For detailed data, please refer to "Research on Grain Yield per Mu in China's Successive Dynasties")