Chapter 1776 - The Scapegoats
"The attack on the Haiyang Guild Hall today—it was entirely my doing. I heard someone was beaten to death. My conscience is uneasy, and I fear the law, so I have come to turn myself in."
"Why did you hire thugs to attack the Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"The rice merchants in the Haiyang Guild Hall are my sworn enemies! We cannot live under the same sky!"
Mu Min knew he was a scapegoat and didn't take it seriously. She asked casually, "Oh? What happened?"
Qiu Kesheng's face suddenly turned bright red, and he gritted his teeth. "That He Gao destroyed my family. I wish I could eat his flesh and sleep on his hide..."
Qiu Kesheng claimed he was originally a rice shop owner in Guangzhou City. He had always bought stock wholesale from the Teochew-Swatow rice merchants. The year before last, his house suffered a fire, resulting in heavy losses. To keep his business going, he borrowed a hundred taels of silver from He Gao, a rice merchant he had long dealt with. The agreed annual interest was thirty percent. He mortgaged his eight mu of mulberry-fish ponds outside the city as collateral.
"At the beginning of last year, business was bad and cash flow was tight. I had to discuss with him, asking for a one-year extension. I'd pay back principal and interest together when the time came. He Gao agreed, but insisted on raising the interest by another ten percent. I had no choice but to agree."
However, the market had been poor in recent years. When he balanced his books at year's end, let alone repay the debt, he had lost dozens of taels of his principal.
"...At the beginning of this year, He Gao demanded repayment. I couldn't pay, so I proposed selling the mortgaged ponds. With the silver from the sale, I could pay off the principal and interest and still have over a hundred taels left to restart my business. Who knew he would refuse? He claimed my debt, principal and interest, had grown to over six hundred taels! I argued with him, but he ordered his men to beat me. Then he hired thugs to forcibly seize my eight mu of ponds. They beat my son so badly on his bed that after lying there for a few months, he died! 'When it rains, it pours'—my grandson fell ill and passed away not long after." At this point, Qiu Kesheng's eyes reddened. "My daughter-in-law, seeing no future and having no children left, remarried and left. My once-happy family was destroyed by this gang of Teochew-Swatow men." As he spoke, grief overcame him, and he wailed aloud.
Mu Min had originally thought this old man was just a paid stand-in, assuming his talk of "deep hatred" would be nonsense. Yet looking at his words and expression, it didn't seem fake at all—she had received professional training in body language and had dealt with all sorts of criminals. She knew when someone was telling the truth.
This made things confusing. Mu Min thought for a moment and asked, "Since you ordered it, where did the silver come from?"
This question stumped Qiu Kesheng instantly. He stammered, "It—it—it was from selling my house..."
"Your house is worth enough to hire so many people? I hear hiring the Guandi Temple crowd isn't cheap."
An uneasy look appeared on Qiu Kesheng's face, but he insisted, "It was from selling my house."
Mu Min nodded, knowing there was no need to continue the interrogation. Undoubtedly, this small rice merchant had neither the channels nor the financial strength to hire the Guandi Temple network for such a massive operation. Besides, his feud was with He Gao; even if he bankrupted himself for revenge, he should have targeted He Gao alone, not destroyed the entire Haiyang Guild Hall and attacked all the Teochew-Swatow rice merchants.
However, He Gao, the apparent victim, had such a history. It gave Mu Min a solid lesson in understanding this society: this really was a Darwinian jungle. The strong preyed on the weak as a matter of course. Where was the simple, honest kindness of traditional society?
Mu Min interrogated several other scapegoats. All claimed they were the ones who led the charge into the guild hall and killed the Teochew-Swatow merchant. As for the reason, all claimed grudges against the Teochew-Swatow merchants. The specifics were identical: either wife-stealing or daughter-raping. As for the one who insisted he had beaten the man to death: he was over sixty, his body bent with age. Seeing him trembling, Mu Min thought this scapegoating was really sloppy—not even a shred of sincerity.
She didn't know that judicial practice in this timeline was often pure formalism. If someone died, a life had to be paid. Whether the person paying with their life was the actual murderer or not, the government didn't actually care. Every dynasty forbade substitution of criminals, yet no dynasty could eliminate it. In Guangdong during the Ming and Qing, where armed feuds were rampant, allowing scapegoats to die in place of the real culprits in handling mass disturbances had become a judicial "hidden rule."
The confessions were all prepared. The scapegoat just had to recite them in court; no one would pick at the irrationalities within.
These formulaic confessions were worthless. No wonder Lin Baiguang had advised her "no need to ask."
It seemed the confessions of the forty-plus beggars caught at the scene would be more valuable.
Mu Min ordered: "Send Team B of the Interrogation Section to the detention center. Interrogate on site."
Team A of the Interrogation Section consisted of naturalized police brought from Lingao; Team B consisted of retained yamen runners from the Soap Band—specifically used for torture.
Interrogating captured beggars didn't require subtle questioning, so she handed it to Team B. The retained runners of Team B were all eager to curry favor with their new masters. Rubbing their fists and sticking out their chests, they took their torture instruments to the detention center and set up shop in the main office hall.
"Folks," the leader of Team B sneered, "we brothers are on official business today; we can't help ourselves. You'd all better be smart—Australian prison meals aren't easy to digest."
With a shout, his subordinates threw the torture instruments onto the courtyard floor with a clatter: boards, twisted whips, cudgels, cheek-slappers, finger-presses... and finally, a leg-crusher. Once that thing was pulled tight, even the toughest bandit couldn't withstand it.
Confronted with this array, the beggars—already terrified by the bayonets earlier—were scared witless. Brought up to the hall, they answered whatever was asked.
Most of those arrested had just been sent by the big bones of their local dens to do a job. Reportedly, the pay was just a feast before and after, plus three hundred cash per person. The leaders got slightly better treatment: one tael of silver.
However, they had no useful information. These people were just foot soldiers acting on orders. They said the big bones had instructed them to hit the Haiyang Guild Hall, and that if anyone died it didn't matter—someone would take the fall.
Every arrested man claimed to be an ordinary beggar acting on orders. Mu Min didn't believe it. She ordered them separated and questioned. Soon, the leaders were plucked out—including one big bone.
A Big Bone was not only a leader of beggars but had his own territory or den. In the Guandi Temple hierarchy, he was equivalent to a feudal lord, knowing far more than ordinary beggars.
Mu Min ordered the Big Bone interrogated first. He had stood trial for others several times in the past and could reportedly withstand any torture, boasting he was fearless of beating or killing. But that was when yamen runners went easy on him. Now, with no one holding back, he couldn't last past the second turn of the leg-crusher and confessed.
He admitted the attack on the Haiyang Guild Hall was organized by Shi Tidi, the steward-clerk of the Wenlan Academy.
"Master Shi came to Master Gao, and Master Gao ordered this humble one to send men. I dare not lie." Pale with pain, the Big Bone lay on the ground, confessing haltingly.
"Who is Shi Tidi? He's an academy steward; why attack the Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"That... that I don't know," the Big Bone pleaded. "I just followed Master Gao's orders."
Mu Min questioned him repeatedly but got nothing more. Still, having a suspect meant having a direction. She immediately ordered an arrest.
Shi Tidi was still working at the Wenlan Academy when the police suddenly appeared and arrested him, leaving him bewildered—how had it come back to him? Hadn't they prepared people to turn themselves in? Mu Min wasted no words; she had him put straight into the leg-crusher. Before the first turn was finished, Shi Tidi confessed with tears and snot running down his face: it was business introduced by Shi Tiji.
"I was just the middleman! This has nothing to do with me! Ahhh..."
"Who is Shi Tiji? Why attack the Haiyang Guild Hall?"
"He's my brother," Shi Tidi wailed, as the crusher hadn't been loosened. "Spare me the torture, Your Honor... He... he is Master Xue's clerk..."
Further questioning revealed that Master Xue was the Head of the Brokerage Guild. With that, the chain of evidence for the attack on the Haiyang Guild Hall was complete.
After Mu Min reported to Lin Baiguang, she immediately asked Liu Xiang to sign arrest warrants. The entire police force and Detective Squad mobilized to arrest the implicated brokers.
Zhang Yu was already in bed. Business was good, but the work left him exhausted. Once dark fell, the streets were under curfew and the street-gates closed; ordinary folk like him could only go to sleep.
His eyes hadn't yet closed when he heard a distant police whistle, followed by shouting for the watchman to open the street-gate.
"It's pitch dark; who's opening the gate?" Once the gate was shut, even gentry and rich men wouldn't easily call for it to be opened. Curious, Zhang Yu quietly got up and peered through the crack in the window. He saw a squad of black-clad police carrying lanterns running from the direction of the gate. Their faces were tense; clearly, they were on a mission.
As he watched, he almost cried out. At the end of the file, carrying a lantern, was none other than Li Ziyu! He wore a black police uniform and a copper-basin hat, with a red-and-white baton hanging at his waist. The clothes were a bit strange, but he looked spirited. He too kept a straight face, marching silently with the squad.
The police squad passed the walnut-cookie shop and stopped not far away—at Master Xue's door.
He knew Master Xue. A merchant of the Brokerage Guild, very wealthy. His wife and daughters loved the walnut cookies and dry pastries from Zhang Yu's shop; Zhang Yu often delivered goods there. He had met the master and mistress several times; they were kindly people who paid their monthly bills promptly. Once, when Zhang Yu delivered goods, Mrs. Xue had been so pleased she tipped him several "hanging-green" lychees—precious things indeed.
A perfectly good family—how had they offended the Australians? Zhang Yu felt both nervous and pitying.
(End of Chapter)