The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

Chapter 1669: Capture

"Let me tell you! He took my cow away and has not returned it to me yet!"

"And me, my son had a dispute with him over a small matter and didn't say anything bad, but he brought a group of hooligans to my house, demolished my door, smashed everything in my house, and broke my son's leg!"

"I was beaten by him too..."

As soon as Liu Sanzi started, many villagers criticized the faults of Old Man Geng's nephew.

Old Man Geng was speechless and squatted on the ground smoking a pipe.

Those who were originally going to go to Baling City with Old Man Geng hesitated.

Liu Sanzi chuckled and said loudly: "Fellow villagers, did you hear that? Think about it carefully, old man Geng's nephew is a gangster who brought trouble to the neighbors. How come he suddenly became a good man and led the people in our village to oppose the papermaking workshop? Speaking of this, I suddenly realized that he used to live a hard life and had no food to eat. How could he afford to wear silk robes and eat in restaurants these days? Tsk tsk... I heard from the officials that the government will definitely arrest those who took money to cause trouble. Maybe... hehe , anyway, I, Liu Sanzi, am upright and have not taken a penny, so I am not afraid of what people say! ”

Someone on the side responded: "When did our Da'ao Village become a village of fools? You can take a good look, look carefully, except for Lao Geng's nephew, who in our Da'ao Village has been arrested? Besides, Lao Geng's nephew is not often in Da'ao Village, but he lives in Baling City. If the governor is such a high-ranking official and really wants to arrest people, he would have sent people to take us to jail by now!"

The villagers suddenly became silent, and no one scolded Fang Yun anymore.

Liu Sanzi smiled and said, "Now we are in the dark and don't know what's going on. How about this, I have a few good brothers in Baling City. I will go to Baling City overnight, find out the news tonight, and return to the village tomorrow morning to give everyone an explanation. How about that? If I don't come back tomorrow, you can rob my house, how about that?"

The villagers of Da'ao Village discussed for half an hour, and finally agreed to let Liu Sanzi take a few people to Baling City to find out the news.

Liu Sanzi and the other four arrived at Baling City at dawn and went straight to a tavern in the North Workshop District. They ordered a pot of wine and a few side dishes, and then eavesdropped on the conversations of people nearby.

After listening for a long time, no one mentioned what happened today. Just as they were about to leave, several yamen runners suddenly came in, saying they were tired, and asked the children to serve the dishes. They also said they didn't want any wine, fearing that it would delay things.

Upon hearing this, Liu Sanzi deliberately sneered, "Those people who went to the streets have withdrawn. What can you police officers be afraid of delaying?"

The five police officers were extremely unhappy. The youngest one looked at Liu Sanzi arrogantly and said, "The matter has basically been settled. I am not afraid to tell you that our new governor Fang Xusheng treats the people very well. He does not blame them even if they go to the streets. I even heard people say privately that he said that as long as the people go to the streets, nine out of ten times it is because the government has not done its job. However, this gentleman is not a good person, but a powerful person who does not tolerate any sand in his eyes. He does not arrest the people, but arrests those ruffians who deliberately make trouble, and also arrests those behind the scenes who bribe the ruffians! Do you think they..."

"Well, even if the official document has been issued, don't talk nonsense!" said an older police officer.

The young police officer hurriedly shut up.

Liu Sanzi hurriedly admitted his mistake, stepped forward to get close to him, and then generously said that he would be responsible for the meal money for the police officers, and finally inquired about the whole matter.

Finally, Liu Sanzi learned the whole story.

This morning, Fang Yun ordered people to launch a large-scale arrest operation. The target was not the people who took to the streets, but the ruffians who deliberately made trouble. At the same time, he asked the Legalists to use the legal code to interrogate and find out several shopkeepers in Qingjiang Commercial Bank. Those shopkeepers of Qingjiang Commercial Bank paid them to make trouble.

Then, Fang Yun sent people to arrest the shopkeepers of Qingjiang Commercial Bank. However, those shopkeepers of Qingjiang Commercial Bank insisted that they paid privately and had nothing to do with anyone. Even if the legal code was used, they could not make them confess completely. The matter was temporarily stopped.

An officer imitated Fang Yun and said, "I heard that an official disagreed with arresting someone, and Governor Fang pointed at the official's nose and scolded him: 'How did your reputation and power as an official get ruined? It's because of useless idiots like you who dare not pursue people even when they are being bullied! If Jingguo doesn't even dare to arrest spies from the enemy country who are doing the opposite, then King Jing might as well hang himself, and this country might as well perish! You don't care about this country, but I, Fang Yun, do!' I guess this was made up by some scholar. Fang Xusheng would definitely not scold so harshly, but the last few sentences sound true."

When Liu Sanzi heard this, he understood it completely, and did not stay in Baling City, but rushed back to Da'ao Village overnight.

Almost at the same time, someone on the discussion board issued the confessions of those ruffians and several shopkeepers of Qingjiang Trading Company. Although those shopkeepers did not admit that Qingjiang Trading Company or Qingguo officials were involved, they insisted that they were afraid that the new papermaking workshop would affect their own business, but all the scholars with discerning eyes knew what was going on.

The truth has been revealed, and the scholars who attacked Fang Yun before are completely silent, while the scholars who were silent before are relieved, saying that they did not trust Fang Yun wrongly. As the governor of Liangjiang, if he dares not even catch the black hand of the troublemaker, he can only be described as incompetent and cowardly, and the human race does not need such a governor.

Therefore, Fang Yun was completely identified as a capable official by scholars from all over the country, and no one on the discussion list objected.

That night, many cavalry teams galloped to various places in Xiangzhou.

After a night, Xiangzhou officials learned that Fang Yun had issued a governor's order to arrest several Xiangzhou officials on charges of making false comments about the emperor and intending to collude with Qingguo merchants. They were dismissed and investigated, including a county magistrate of the seventh-rank Jinshi and three sixth-rank Juren officials.

These four officials were the Xiangzhou officials who attacked Fang Yun in the discussion board for arresting civilians. Anyone with a little experience knew that these four people were only targeting Fang Yun on the surface, but in fact they were responding to Qingguo's slander of Fang Yun's literary reputation and disrupting Xiangzhou. They were completely Qingguo's slaves.

Fang Yun has never been a kind-hearted person.

The Qing officials in Xiangzhou suddenly fell silent and stayed away from the discussion board.

After a few days, the matter of the Fuxing Society was settled. The newly established procuratorate in Xiangzhou gave up suing the members of the Fuxing Society headed by Zhou Ziren on the grounds of insufficient evidence, and the members of the Fuxing Society were acquitted.

Not long after, Fang Yun's official document appeared on the desk of Yan Wu, the prefect of Taihe Prefecture.

As the governor, Fang Yun ordered Yan Wu to find out who pretended to be the Renaissance Society, burned down the academy, and conspired to rebel.

This was the governor's document, and Fang Yun was preparing to punish Yan Wu.

Fang Yun's pen pointed to all the Qing officials who were disloyal.

When he learned that he was going to be the governor of the two states, Fang Yun knew what he should do.

Xiangzhou fell into a brief calm, but on July 16, a major event happened in Baling City. The dancers in a flower house of Qingjiang Commercial Bank actually bowed to Qing Jun when welcoming guests to dance.

If the owner of the flower house simply misused the portrait of Qing Jun, it would not be a problem, but the Jingguo guests of the flower house pointed out that they hung the wrong portrait, and the flower house madam Hua Qingniang still did her own thing and insisted on not replacing the portrait of Jing Jun. Some guests were very angry and demanded that the portrait be replaced.

But Hua Qingniang not only did not calm the situation, but threatened those guests that if they dared to make trouble, she would report to the police and arrest them.

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