Chapter 2251: Pleading for Mercy
Bi Da took the slip of paper. On top was a petition of appeal. Her level of Chinese was limited, and having received an "Australian education," she naturally couldn't parse the florid pedantic prose written by a village scholar. She handed it to Zhou Da beside her—Zhou Da had studied in a private school for a few years and could understand it well enough. He explained it thoroughly.
The content amounted to declarations that Jiang Xiaotian was a great filial son, that the Jiang family had combined four branches into a single heir, and specifically emphasized that his mother had been widowed young, remained pure as ice and jade, and had maintained her chastity for over forty years. Bi Da frowned slightly at this last point—she couldn't understand why it needed to be mentioned at all.
Next came the various good deeds Jiang Xiaotian had done for the village. Repairing bridges and paving roads went without saying; he also distributed cotton clothes in winter and herbal medicine in summer, supported widows and orphans, and helped provide coffins for the dead. He could be called benevolent and charitable.
To increase the document's persuasive power, the bottom was covered with over a hundred thumbprints.
Below that was a property list: seventy-eight mu and eight fen of paddy fields, thirty-five mu and one fen of mountain forest and slope land, three mu and six fen of ponds, two courtyards, and fourteen rooms. Following this came miscellaneous items: gold and silver, furniture, clothing, livestock, farm tools—scrawled over more than ten pages. It represented roughly the family holdings of a comfortable small landlord.
Zhou Da said, "Great Lord, this Jiang family appears sincere. Especially this Old Lady Jiang—widowed in her youth, she has had no easy life..."
Bi Da did not speak. She set the property list aside, held the pleading petition in her hand, and asked, "Do you know where Jiang Xiaotian's money came from?"
The question made the village elder break out in a cold sweat immediately. He involuntarily lowered his head and trembled. "This small one... this small one does not know..."
"Do you truly not know, or are you pretending?" Bi Da pressed.
"I know! I know!" Now the old man's sweat had soaked through his shirt. "It came from him committing... committing robbery."
"You're a sensible man," Bi Da said, tearing the petition to pieces and throwing it on the ground. "I won't pursue you or the villagers over this matter any further. Otherwise, I would punish you for the crime of harboring bandits."
"Yes, yes, the Great Lord is magnanimous. This small one was blind and foolish." The old man was sweating profusely now, kowtowing vigorously, ignoring the swelling on his forehead as he banged it against the brick floor.
"You may go," Bi Da said.
The elder could no longer concern himself with Old Lady Jiang. As if granted a great pardon, he scrambled up and began to flee.
"Come back!"
Hearing her voice, the old man turned with a mournful face and dropped to his knees. "What other instructions does the Great Lord have?"
"Has your village paid the Reasonable Burden?"
"Not... not yet..."
"On your way out, go to the Finance and Taxation Section. Report your village's Reasonable Burden and pay it before month's end."
"Yes, yes, this small one will do it right away!"
The old man agreed repeatedly and fled in a sorry state. Bi Da instructed Zhou Da: "Tell the Finance and Taxation Section that after this village's Reasonable Burden is agreed upon, they are to pay double."
This handling was neither lukewarm nor hot, but it made Old Lady Jiang and her brother-in-law feel as if they had plunged into icy water. They kept kowtowing and begging for mercy.
"Stop kowtowing. Even if you knock your brains out, I won't spare Jiang Xiaotian's life," Bi Da said. "Jiang Xiaotian is a filial son in the Jiang family and a generous man in the village, but in this Yangshan County, he is an out-and-out monster! Killing people and seizing their goods—his crimes are unforgivable! Go home!"
Old Lady Jiang dissolved into tears, begging, "This common woman is willing to give her life in exchange..."
Bi Da sneered and said to those around her, "Listen to this! What grand words!" She stood up abruptly, pointing outside. "Open your eyes and look carefully! How many complaints accusing Jiang Xiaotian are posted on the spirit screen! Do you know how many people he has killed in these thirty years? How much wealth he has snatched! How many parents lost their children, how many spouses lost their partners, how many children lost their parents! And you think you can cover for him? How many lives is your worthless existence worth? Don't speak of yourself alone—even if the entire Jiang family came to make amends, it wouldn't be enough!"
These words landed with crushing weight, shocking the two into silence.
"...Jiang Xiaotian is a filial son! Hah! Have you ever considered this: of the money used for your food, clothing, expenses, retirement, and burial—which coin wasn't stained with blood? Which didn't carry the weight of wronged souls? Dare you say you never knew? And you still have the face to speak of being widowed young and your chastity moving heaven! Don't think heaven is moved just because you stayed a widow? Bah! When you reach the Hall of Yama, there will be plenty of wronged ghosts waiting to argue with you!"
Bi Da looked at the two elderly people weeping in a heap on the ground, feeling an indescribable disgust. "Drag them out!"
The naturalized cadres and local staff on both sides had been watching the two elders beg piteously, and some had felt the urge to intervene. But after hearing Bi Da's words, none dared speak. When she gave the order, they hurried to support the pair and escort them out.
Bi Da sneered slightly, clipped the property list into a folder, and summoned a naturalized cadre.
"Tomorrow, take a team to raid the Jiang family's property. This is the list they submitted—I suspect there are still hidden items. Dig three feet into the ground to find everything. Demolish the Jiang family residence completely. Sell the bricks, stones, timber, furniture, and clothing on the spot."
"Yes." The naturalized cadre was from Hainan and quite familiar with the Senate's methods.
Peng Shou'an, who had come to discuss other matters, looked uneasy and said carefully, "Magistrate Bi, isn't this handling somewhat excessive? Since ancient times, filial piety has been held as the foremost virtue. At any rate, this Jiang Xiaotian is a filial son. Since his old mother came to atone and plead for mercy, even if his crime cannot be redeemed, he could at least be given a dignified end. Must he be kept locked in a wooden cage to suffer every humiliation...?"
While Bi Da was considering her response, a sudden clamor erupted outside. The crowd burst into shouts, mixed with weeping and cursing. At first it wasn't intense, but then the shouting grew louder and louder, like mountains calling and seas roaring, as if a fight had broken out. Bi Da frowned. "What's happening?"
Before she finished speaking, Zhou Da rushed in from outside, stammering, "Not... not good..."
Every cadre in the office tensed. Zhou Da gasped twice before stammering out: "...Not good! Jiang Xiaotian's mother and uncle had just walked out when, for some reason, they were recognized... They were surrounded and beaten! One... one moment..."
"Beaten for a moment?"
"No... no... in one moment they were gone... gone..."
"Dead?" Bi Da frowned.
"Dead... and... gone..." Only then did Zhou Da calm his breathing, still shaken. "You, Elder, should go out and look..."
Bi Da took a few cadres and hurried out. Just as they reached the door, they heard mournful crying and shrill laughter. They saw several shocking pools of blood on the ground at the yamen gate, along with some torn cloth and shreds of flesh and bone. A few heaps of bloody organs remained—one could roughly tell they had originally belonged to two people.
Peng Shou'an hurriedly covered his eyes with his sleeve, muttering, "This... this... too cruel..."
"These are..."
"These are the two elders of the Jiang family," Zhou Da said.
Even Bi Da was shocked now—she was accustomed to seeing corpses, had witnessed headhunting by aborigines in Taiwan and seen Fujian immigrants boiling "barbarian paste," but dismembering two living people on the spot in just a few minutes was something she had never witnessed before.
"Where are the bodies?"
"Just... just left with... these..." The National Army soldiers maintaining order at the scene were new recruits from the Yao area, each stunned and dumbfounded. "In a moment..."
Bi Da looked out and saw someone in the crowd waving bloody pieces of corpse. One old woman was clutching a long lock of white hair, mottled with fresh blood, waving it in the air; a piece of scalp was still attached to the bottom...
"Collect and bury the remains," Bi Da said quietly, then scolded the corporal leading the scene. "Why didn't you maintain order properly!"
The corporal, however, wore a look of indifference: "Too many people—we really couldn't stop them. Besides, why stop them? This is all retribution!" As he spoke, he suddenly shouted to the crowd: "Everyone! This is the new Magistrate Bi! She is the one who destroyed Sun Dabiao's gang..."
With this shout, the commoners before the county yamen all fell silent. Hundreds of eyes instantly focused on Bi Da, making her feel momentarily uncomfortable.
Just as she was thinking of what to say, the commoners below began to cheer. Many knelt on the ground, weeping and kowtowing to her: "Finally, hatred avenged and grievances washed away."
The cheers rose in waves. At first there was crying, then the crying grew smaller and lower. Many people, tears still on their faces, began to laugh heartily—joyous laughter, laughter dripping with satisfaction, laughter of great vengeance achieved and spirits lifted high. Someone in the crowd shouted: "Magistrate Bi, may you have titles for ten thousand generations!" Others called out: "Magistrate Bi, may you find a good husband soon!" "A hundred sons and a thousand grandsons, blessings and longevity without end!" The soldiers beside her looked somewhat awkward, but Bi Da smiled slightly and said nothing.
Her heart surged with emotion. Though just a young woman in her twenties, when lying alone at midnight, she would sometimes doubt herself—fearful that she wasn't doing enough, or was doing too much, making the situation in Yangshan unmanageable. Perhaps she would fail the Senate; perhaps she would harm her subordinate naturalized citizens and the local commoners. Such anxiety had kept her awake many nights. At this moment, however, those doubts were completely washed away. Everything she had done not only lived up to the Senate's trust but also served the commoners here.
With this thought, her heart filled again with the flame of passion. Bi Da did not hurriedly express humility like many Senators or high-ranking cadres might have. She turned her body sideways, avoiding the ceremony and not accepting it, but held her head high, gazing at the distant mountains. She thought of those bandit leaders who had not yet been executed—she would not only catch them all and kill them one by one, but would also change heaven and earth here.
Next Update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Part 456 (End of Chapter)