Chapter 257: The Autumn Levy (Part 22)

On the morning of the interrogation, Wu Ya and Sun Ruiwu arrived, dressed in their official attire. They had spent a restless night—after returning home, they learned that the servants sent out on errands today had all been turned back, with the explanation that the county yamen was under strict security and no one was allowed to enter or leave without permission.

The next morning, the two men forced themselves to wake up, washed up early, and went to the flower hall. They saw that the public desks and a dozen or so chairs had been set up. Some of the involved gentry had already arrived and were exchanging greetings in the courtyard.

Sun Ruiwu had good eyesight and saw that Liu Dalin had already arrived and was talking to someone in the hall. He hurried over to greet him.

Liu Dalin seemed to be in good spirits. Wu Ya was very surprised that this semi-reclusive person who usually never left his house would come to attend a hearing—for such a matter, a man of his status would at most send a steward. The Australians really had a lot of face!

Because the case was being heard in the flower hall, all the usual ceremonies for holding court were dispensed with. Wu Ya and Sun Ruiwu’s desks were at the head, and a desk was also set up for Zhou Dongtian at a lower position. Below, two rows of bailiffs, each holding a water-and-fire staff, stood in neat formation, though their clothes were a motley collection—their uniforms had been stripped off and worn by the students of the Political Security Directorate.

Zhou Dongtian looked at this scene, which resembled a courtroom from a television drama, and knew that he was about to play the role of the “great master” and try a case. He felt very awkward. He thought that this trial system would definitely have to be reformed in the future, otherwise, how could he stand acting like this every day!

Lin Changsan saw that the officials had all taken their seats and the gentry had also arrived. He was about to lead the cry to establish the court’s authority when Zhou Dongtian waved his hand. “Bring in the prisoners!”

The three prisoners were brought in. Zhou Dongtian asked the usual questions about their names, ages, and places of origin. He knew these three were not the real criminals and this was just a show, so he didn’t waste any words and went straight to questioning them about the case. The three were quite cooperative and took the blame for all the crimes.

“Who instigated you to do such a thing!” Zhou Dongtian berated them.

“Replying to the master,” one of them said, “it was Li Gong.”

The faces of the gentry in the audience changed. Li Gong was Li Xiaopeng’s personal attendant, and everyone in the county town knew him. Everyone also knew that Li Xiaopeng had recently been following Huang Bingkun around, organizing petitions. All eyes immediately fell on Huang Bingkun.

Huang Bingkun was shocked. He hadn’t expected to be blamed! He was about to stand up and argue when he saw Liu Dalin shake his head slightly, so he controlled himself and waited to see what would happen next.

Zhou Dongtian, however, did not know who Li Gong was. He asked, “Who is Li Gong?”

Someone beside him quickly replied, “He is Li Xiaopeng’s long-term attendant.”

“Li Xiaopeng?” Zhou Dongtian casually flipped through the materials at hand and had a sudden realization. “So, he’s the young master of the manure tyrant’s family.”

When this title was spoken in public, everyone in the hall couldn’t help but chuckle. The bailiffs kept a straight face but smiled inwardly. The gentry either covered their faces to hide their laughter or simply took a sip of water and pretended to cough.

“Where did you buy the small knives?”

“Li Gong gave them to us.”

“And the bow and arrow?”

“He gave them to us too.”

Zhou Dongtian sneered, “Is your testimony true?”

“Every word is true. We wouldn’t dare to deceive the master.”

“Where did you shoot the arrow? What was the draw weight of the bow?”

How would they know this? They looked at each other. One of the bolder ones said randomly, “On the street in front of Master Liu’s main gate, with a ten-shi bow.”

“Nonsense!” Zhou Dongtian slammed the table. “You shot the arrow from the front of the gate, so why is the direction of the arrow’s impact the opposite? A ten-shi bow, do you think you are Li Guang reincarnated! Besides, Li Gong has no grudge against any of the gentlemen. Why would he do such a thing? It makes no sense. You are clearly lying!” He roared, “Take them down and give each of them twenty strokes!”

The bailiffs of the Soap Squad shouted in unison, “Twenty strokes!” They came forward and dragged the three men down to be flogged. Fu He had already given the word, so this was a familiar routine. The plank only hit the ground with its head, making a loud “thwack-thwack” sound, but in reality, not even a piece of skin was broken on their buttocks. After a short while, the flogging was over, and they were brought back. Zhou Dongtian saw the three men only pretending to be in pain and knew they were faking it. His face darkened.

“Playing the ‘stick head hitting the ground’ trick on me?” Zhou Dongtian’s face showed a ferocious expression. “Little You, give these goddamn bastards a good lesson!”

You Guotuan, with a few interns from the Political Security Directorate’s interrogation section, immediately came over and twisted the arms of the bailiffs who had just administered the flogging, forcing them to kneel on the ground. The men, held in a joint lock, grimaced in pain.

“What’s the use of keeping such useless people around?” Zhou Dongtian waved his hand. “Cripple them for me!”

A few “crack” sounds were heard in the hall. The joints of several bailiffs were immediately dislocated with a special technique. Cries of pain filled the air, and some fainted on the spot from the pain.

“Registrar Sun!”

“Here, here.” Sun Ruiwu had not expected these Australians to be so violent on the spot and was already trembling with fear.

“These useless people are of no use. Dismiss them!”

“Yes, yes, dismiss them immediately!”

The men were then dragged down, tied up with ropes. You Guotuan and the interns from the Political-Security Directorate’s interrogation section, all of whom harbored deep hatred for the government and were ruthless, immediately tied them up like rice dumplings and threw them on the ground, with a rope around their throats—this was a technique Wu De had taught them, to silence a prisoner without a gag.

Everyone in the hall turned pale. They knew these bailiffs with dislocated arms would not have a good end. At the very least, they would be sent to Nanbao to break rocks.

“Take them down and flog them again!” Zhou Dongtian ordered.

The bailiffs were already trembling with fear. Lin Changsan, being more experienced, knew he had encountered a “tough magistrate” today and didn’t dare to be negligent. He quickly instructed, “Flog them for real!”

The three men were immediately dragged down. Fearing for their own lives, the bailiffs struck with great force. After twenty strokes, the three unlucky men were left with barely enough strength to breathe.

“I’ll ask you again, was it you who threw the knives and shot the arrow?”

“Master, have mercy, it wasn’t us—”

“Then who was it!”

“It was—it was—” The men were now in a difficult position. They couldn’t afford to offend Fu He either. They deeply regretted taking a few taels of silver for this job.

“Flog them again!”

“Master, don’t flog us!” Seeing that their lives were in danger if they were beaten again, the three men quickly confessed that it was Fu He’s instruction to accuse Li Gong.

The gentry were quite surprised. Fu He had nothing to do with the tax collection. Why would he get involved? But Sun Ruiwu and Wu Ya knew: this was Fu He’s attempt to extort the Li family, a common trick of the fast-response squad yamen runners.

“Someone, bring Fu He!”

In a moment, Fu He, who was still gossiping with his men in the duty room, was brought in. Seeing the three unlucky men with their buttocks and thighs covered in blood, he thought to himself that Lin Changsan, that bastard, was truly disloyal. He had told him to go easy on them and had even given him money for the flogging, yet he had still been so harsh.

“Fu He!” Zhou Dongtian shouted. “These three are not the culprits in this case. It was already improper for you to find random people to take the blame, and you even instructed them to falsely accuse Li Gong with the intent to extort. What is your crime!”

Fu He knew the matter was exposed, but he was an old hand at this. He could naturally handle this kind of situation. He showed no fear and said that these three were local ruffians whom he had punished in the past, and this was their attempt at revenge.

“…If the master convicts me based solely on the one-sided testimony of these three, it would be too credulous.”

Zhou Dongtian smiled. “In that case, I’ll let you die knowing the truth.” With a wave of his hand, someone at the side turned on the amplifier of a tape recorder. Fu He’s voice immediately echoed from the speaker in the flower hall: “…Just insist that Li Gong instigated you to do it!…”

“Well, do you want to hear more?” Zhou Dongtian asked.

Everyone in the flower hall was so shocked they couldn’t speak. To be able to produce a human voice from a black box! This was too terrifying. And to be able to repeat what others had said verbatim—it was simply sorcery! Could this be the legendary “clairaudience”? Huang Bingkun was engulfed in a wave of fear, his face ashen. For a moment, he felt like a presumptuous ant trying to shake a great tree.

Fu He collapsed to the ground, speechless, trembling all over. Hearing Zhou Dongtian’s question, he kowtowed repeatedly on the ground, begging for his life. He then confessed everything: how he had gone to see Chen Minggang, taken his silver, and, according to his instructions, had people falsely accuse Li Gong with the intent to extort.

“Seeing that you are being honest!” Zhou Dongtian said slowly. “I’ll give you a chance to redeem yourself. You have half an hour to bring me the real culprits!”

“Yes, yes, I’ll go at once,” Fu He said and scrambled away.

The flower hall was deathly silent. Everyone was sweating cold sweat. Zhou Dongtian looked at the faces of the crowd with satisfaction. It seemed the effect of killing a chicken to warn the monkeys was quite good. This group of large households and gentry really needed to be shown some color to know their power. He then gave Huang Bingkun a mocking look, which almost made the young master collapse to the ground.

Before long, Fu He returned with the three men who had been hired by Zhou Qi. These three didn’t need any torture. As soon as they entered the hall and saw the intimidating scene and the precedent—a few bloody buttocks—they immediately confessed everything.

Hearing that the instigator was Zhou Qi, a look of “as it should be” appeared on everyone’s faces.

“Arrest Zhou Qi and bring him to justice!”

The rest of the matter went very smoothly. As soon as Zhou Qi was arrested, he immediately confessed:

“It was I who hired these three to intimidate the gentry and scholars.”

“Oh, and for what reason did you do this?”

“I wouldn’t dare!” Zhou Qi kowtowed repeatedly. “It was—it was—” He deliberately stammered, as if he had a hidden difficulty.

“Speak quickly! To avoid physical suffering!”

“It was my master, Chen—Chen—Chen Minggang, who instructed me to do it.”

Although this was the confession everyone expected, when Zhou Qi said it, a suppressed gasp still went through the flower hall. Wu Ya and Sun Ruiwu sighed inwardly: Chen Minggang was finished!