Chapter 24: Making a Big Deal (Part 2)

  Confucius said: 'The common people can be made to follow it, but cannot be made to understand it.' No matter what the original intention of this sentence was, since Dong Zhongshu turned it into a national doctrine, emperors and officials for thousands of years have consistently interpreted it as that ordinary people are better off being ignorant.

  Why? Because fools are easy to fool, fools are easily satisfied, and fools are easy to control. How comfortable it is for those in power to rule over such people...

  Now, someone is greatly displeased! They dare to stir up the emotions of the people of the entire county, making them boil over and petition fervently, with a determination that will not rest until their goal is achieved. Good grief, isn't this like putting our Li County on a pedestal and pushing it into the fire? That saying is really apt: 'I ask you, whose territory is Shaoxing today?'

  The angry County Magistrate finally burst out, slapping the table and shouting: "Someone come! Help this official change his clothes, I'm going to ascend the hall!"

  The servant hastily rummaged through the trunk and found the old master's official uniform. Taking it out, he saw that it had already grown a lot of green mold. It turned out that recently, during the plum rain season, the county magistrate had not been in office for a whole month, and the silk official uniform had been idle for a long time, and had become a fur coat that could be worn as winter clothing.

  County Magistrate Zun had to wear casual clothes to ascend the hall, sat behind the large case with a huff, and glared at everyone, scolding his subordinates from the county lieutenant, chief clerk, historian to the inspector, and team leader one by one.

  After scolding, he had to assign tasks and threw down a large red fire sign. He ordered Ma Dian Shi, who was in charge of maintaining law and order: "Investigate for me, no matter who it is, bring them back!" Ma Dian Shi did not dare to say more, picked up the fire sign, led the patrol team and others, went down to investigate and arrest people.

  After those rough men left, the grand hall with a large mirror hanging high was left with only the county lieutenant, the chief clerk, and six house clerks. The county magistrate had been neglecting his duties for a long time, relying on these few people to manage such a large first-class county. Li County Magistrate naturally relied heavily on them. He saw him frowning and said: "Everyone, if this matter is not handled properly, we will be in big trouble, we must deliberate carefully."

  Everyone nodded and turned their eyes to County Magistrate Zhang, waiting for him to express his opinion. County Magistrate Zhang was a jinshi, with academic credentials second only to those of the county governor, and many years more senior in terms of experience. He cleared his throat lightly and said with slight reserve: "Your Honor, in my humble opinion, even if we were to capture that troublemaker now, it would be of no use."

  Magistrate Li narrowed his eyes and said: "What makes you say this?"

  "That case was deliberately exaggerated to stir up public outrage, and now it seems they've succeeded." The county lieutenant spoke calmly: "If we arrest him now, the people will only become more agitated. If something unexpected happens, you'll have a hard time explaining it to the prefectural governor." In fact, when it came to handling matters, he was much more capable than the idle County Magistrate.

  Magistrate Li thought for a moment and indeed it was so. He couldn't help but say: "If that's the case, why didn't you stop me just now?"

  "Let them make a big show, it's good to intimidate those unruly people and suppress their arrogance." Zhang Xiancheng hastily smiled and said: "Make a false appearance without actual action, that's what I meant."

  "Hmm..." County Magistrate Li nodded slowly and said, "These are wise words, I must listen to them. But after all, who is behind the scenes, still needs to be investigated, this official will not let him off!"

  "The great one is wise and brilliant." The officials all said in unison.

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  County Magistrate finished speaking, it's the turn of Third Master Chen to speak. He looked at County Magistrate first, then looked at Prefectural Governor, and finally said with a worried face: "Sir, will Wang Erhu be released or not?" Wang Erhu is the black big man who was caught back two days ago, the younger brother of Mount Yin Tiger Head Gang's boss Wang Lao Hu.

  In order to redeem that foolish younger brother, Wang Erhu asked someone to find Zhang Xiancheng and also sent 20 taels of silver. 20 taels of silver was Zhang Xiancheng's annual salary, he felt it wasn't a big deal, so he agreed in one mouthful. First inform the historian who is in charge of the prison, let those little guys not torture Wang Erhu, then go to the county magistrate to beg for mercy.

  Magistrate Li spent his days not asking about worldly affairs, who would have thought that the tiger head would be so ferocious, and it actually came to this county again to do evil, capturing Yao Zhangzi, the one who saved people that day. This only led to more troubles afterwards.

  "Shut up!" He yelled at the refined county magistrate, "Lock him up properly and don't let anyone visit him."

  County Magistrate sighed silently, and scolded in his heart: 'Wang Lao Hu, you are so presumptuous! Your younger brother has not been released yet, and you dare to cause trouble again. Aren't you asking for trouble?'

  "What's to be done now?" Seeing the two officials getting angry, Chen Zhubu had no choice but to ask stiffly.

  Magistrate Li also looked at County Magistrate Zhang and snorted, "Aren't you familiar with them? Go get that whatever-long-or-short-son back."

  County Magistrate Zhang had no choice but to reluctantly accept the order and leave.

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  Two flowers bloom, each representing a branch. Then Mai Dian Shi took the task of catching people, and the first suspect was Shen He's family. He brought a group of officials to the riverside grass shed with great momentum, only to find out that they had long since moved away from here.

  After inquiring about it, they found the Shen family's mansion and saw two flags of Imperial Scholar standing in front of the door. They immediately became three points shorter.

  Ma Tian's voice was low and gloomy, so he had his subordinates wait at a distance, while he himself handed over the token issued by County Magistrate to the gatekeeper, cupped his hands and said: "County Master has an order, investigating the rumor-mongering villain, please ask this brother to report inside, and ask Shen He, Shen Xianggong to follow us to the county government office for interrogation."

  Menzi immediately became unwilling, pointing at the large flag at the door and shouting: "Our Shen family is a scholarly family, with no men who have broken the law within three generations, and no women who have remarried. What makes you suspect us?" He also threatened: "Be careful, our two old masters will report to the Imperial Censorate, accusing you of provoking trouble!"

  Ma Dian's face was originally long, and upon hearing this, it became even longer. He spoke in a flattering tone: "We just invited Mr. Shen out, we didn't have any other intentions."

  Just as he was about to take advantage of his victory and launch a pursuit, a stern voice suddenly rang out from behind him: "What's going on?"

  "Second Master." The gatekeeper hastily bowed and greeted.

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  Chapter 1. I took a look at the homepage's signed author new book rankings and new book overall rankings, and found an interesting phenomenon - Shang is currently ranked 13th on the first list and 11th on the second list, both just one spot away from appearing on the homepage, hehe, everyone please support me!!!

  I'll code another chapter for you guys.