Chapter 150 Qiao Xingyuan

Chapter 150 Qiao Xingyuan

Deputy Magistrate Tong was brought to the courtroom and saw exactly this scene.

The court officers were beating their colleague with deliberate blows, while the common folk looked on furtively, none daring to whisper.

He considered himself seasoned, having served under two County Magistrates, and felt quite confident. Though he sensed the courtroom atmosphere was somewhat unusual, he didn't think much of it. He swaggered toward the seat beneath Song Tingzhou.

"Did you call me here 'cause there's something you don't get and need me to teach you?"

"Detain Tong Ping!"

Tong Ping and Song Tingzhou spoke almost simultaneously. This time, the court officers in the hall had no hesitation. They immediately stepped forward, twisted Tong Ping's arms behind his back, and pushed him down to the hall.

"How dare you! Wang Xiaohu, do you still want to rent your land?"

The officer restraining him looked resolute. Even if he lost the land, he still had a proper job, earning more from his salary than those fields could ever yield. Being a court officer earned him respect; his mother and wife held their heads high in the village. If he offended the county magistrate and got dismissed, he'd have to go home and fight with his elder brother over their meager plot!

Not just Wang Xiaohu—anyone who wasn't foolish could now see something of Song Tingzhou's mettle. They all followed orders very cautiously, obeying Song Tingzhou without question.

"Tong Ping, do you know your crimes?"

Tong Ping was pushed to the hall, full of fury, and his tone toward his superior was far from respectful. "I have committed no wrong. Why are you detaining me?"

Inspector Zhang came from the rear hall with a stack of documents. "Your Honor, these were all found in the Deputy Magistrate's office."

He presented the documents on Song Tingzhou's desk for him to look through.

Song Tingzhou picked up the topmost complaint. His voice wasn't loud, but every word was heard clearly by everyone inside and outside the courtroom.

"On the third day of the twelfth month, eighteenth year of the Qisheng reign, from the Zhao family of Luyun Town, accusing Tong An of forcibly taking their young son as a concubine."

"On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, twentieth year of the Qisheng reign, from the Lian family of Hongni Village, Luyun Town, accusing Tong Jing of coercing them into selling three mu of land."

"In the autumn of the twenty-first year of the Qisheng reign, the master of the Ding family restaurant in Heshan County accused the official broker Tong Xiaoshi of leading men to vandalize his restaurant and threatening that if he didn't sell it, his family would not have peace..."

As Song Tingzhou finished each complaint, he tossed the documents he'd just read to the hall floor. One sheet landed on Tong Ping.

Trembling, he picked up that paper. At the time, he thought he had everything under control. But now, facing trial in open court, even an ordinary commoner would panic, let alone someone who had truly broken the law.

"How is this possible? I burned all of these long ago! How could they still exist?" Tong Ping said incredulously.

He had intercepted countless such documents and immediately burned them upon receipt. There was no way they could still be in his possession as evidence.

Song Tingzhou's eyes flickered. He ignored Tong Ping's frantic muttering, picked up the last complaint, and addressed Tao Er, who had been waiting below. "Tao Er of Hongshan Village, Luyun Town, you accuse the Tong family of enslaving tenant farmers. Tao Er, is this the complaint you submitted earlier?"

Tao Er stepped forward and knelt below Song Tingzhou. "This is indeed the complaint I submitted, Your Honor. I am illiterate and asked someone to write it for me."

Song Tingzhou rubbed the familiar handwriting on the paper. In his early years, almost all of Meng Wan's calligraphy practice sheets were written by his own hand. He could even say he had taught Meng Wan to write. Though the handwriting on these complaints varied, every one bore traces of familiarity.

The Tong family, as country gentry of Luyun Town, virtually ruled the area with an iron hand. These were merely the tip of the iceberg that Qin Jiao had uncovered for him, but it was already enough.

"You say the Tong family enslaved tenant farmers—is this true?"

Tenant farmers owned no land and lived by renting from landlords. To curry favor and reduce rent, they often fawned and toadied. Over time, their status degraded until they were treated like servants or beasts of burden, scolded and driven at will.

The King of Yu was benevolent. Since ascending the throne, he had sought to elevate the status of tenants. The law clearly stated that landowners could not arbitrarily command tenant farmers, and tenants need only observe the etiquette of a younger brother toward an elder brother.

When the Song family was in Sanquan Village, the Liu family rented their land. But they never spoke of "tenant" or "landlord" in degrading terms, and Chang Jinhua always treated people with courtesy.

"Your Honor, a few days ago, my elderly father was called by the wealthy Master Tong to help build a shed for livestock. Being old and slow, he was scolded. The young master of the Tong family even took pleasure in humiliating my father. When my father was at the highest point of the ladder, the young master deliberately pushed it askew, causing him to fall heavily. He was severely injured and still unconscious."

Tao Er finished his account, his eyes red. "My family is poor and cannot afford to treat my father. My brothers and I went to the Tong family to seek justice, but we were beaten and threatened by their servants. They even said if we dared to make trouble again, they would triple our land rent next year!"

The watching commoners silently cursed the Tong family for their misdeeds, but they weren't particularly shocked. The Tong family had done many unscrupulous things; in fact, among the local gentry and landlords, none were entirely innocent. It was just that the Tong family had someone in the yamen, so they had always acted with impunity.

Tong Ping, also at the hall, suddenly realized that an illiterate farmer like Tao Er could not possibly know the term "enslavement." Someone behind the scenes must have coached him.

But at this moment, Tong Ping still assumed it was some rival like the Huang family or other gentry trying to undermine him. The most urgent matter now was not to trace the source, but to appease the county magistrate's anger.

"Your Honor, please calm down! This subordinate only saw that you were ill and working hard, and wanted to share your burden. That's why I intercepted these complaints!" Tong Ping only defended himself regarding Tao's complaint. The old, murky accounts could be dealt with later. He had been carefree for so many years; only today did he suddenly realize the caution he had felt when he first entered the yamen. So now, his priority was to calm Song Tingzhou's fury.

As a subordinate in the yamen, he was only a xiucai (scholar), while the county magistrate was a full jinshi (advanced scholar). Not to mention that the magistrate was appointed by the court and outranked him; even the magistrate's post was just a starting point, while his deputy magistrate post was the end of his career.

Song Tingzhou sat in his chair, gazing at him coolly. "Now that we have both witnesses and evidence, do you still refuse to confess?"

Before Tong Ping could speak, another cry of injustice came from outside the yamen.

"Your Honor! Please seek justice for me!"

Song Tingzhou's face remained expressionless. He ordered calmly, "Who is crying out? Bring him in."

Inspector Huang, who was standing guard outside, immediately brought the man in.

The newcomer was another victim. He had been brutally beaten by Broker Tong, his face bruised purple and blue. His accusation was also against the Tong family.

As soon as one appeared, three more suddenly ran in, all without exception accusing the Tong family.

This was not just shocking—it was astonishing.

Landlords and gentry were always above ordinary commoners. Even the Huang family could not claim to be entirely blameless. But they acted with impunity because they knew these faults were not enough to topple them.

A large family, unless guilty of treason, could weather such small troubles.

This was the main reason local officials could never subdue the local gentry. If they failed to strike decisively, they lost their edge. The gentry would see they were not to be feared, and would not take them seriously.

The commoners were not fools either. Local officials stayed for a few years and then left, while they had to remain and depend on the landlords for their livelihood. Who would be foolish enough to offend the gentry?

Yet here were several fools—and more than one!

Song Tingzhou accepted all the cases without delay. He directly ordered Inspector Huang to lead all bailiffs to arrest the accused and try them one by one.

Tong Ping was sentenced for abuse of power and oppressing the people: fifty strokes of the cane and a fine of twenty strings of cash. Even as he was being dragged to the bench, he still shouted that Song Tingzhou could only beat him, that he was an official appointed by the court, and even the prefect had no right to remove him from office.

Though infuriating, his words were true. As long as Tong Ping remained in office, the Tong family would have a pillar of support, and they would not be so easily toppled.

Inspector Huang looked worriedly at Song Tingzhou. "Your Honor, what he says is not without reason. Should we really detain all the remaining Tong family members?"

He could now see that Song Tingzhou genuinely wanted to clean up Heshan's officialdom. But blindly confronting the local gentry seemed to him a very unwise move.

Inspector Huang himself came from a large family in Lingnan. Here, people were both protected by and had to protect their clans. They were tightly knit and terrifyingly united, far from being broken by a few arrests.

Song Tingzhou's actions would only provoke them further, inviting the frenzied revenge of these local despots.

But he did not know that Song Tingzhou's ambitions were far grander and deeper than he could imagine.

"This official has already pronounced the sentences. You need only carry out the orders. As for other matters, I will decide accordingly."

Song Tingzhou still had a mountain of work to handle and no time to explain in detail to his subordinates.

"Also, do you have any news about Chief Clerk Qiao Xingyuan?" he asked Inspector Huang.

Inspector Huang, who had once again changed his view of Lord Song and found him quite intimidating, quickly explained when asked about Chief Clerk Qiao, afraid of angering him: "My lord, please don't be angry. It is not that Chief Clerk Qiao is unwilling to return to the yamen; the truth is that a year ago, after the previous county magistrate left, Tong Ping took over all authority in the yamen. Chief Clerk Qiao is an upright man, and there were many clashes between them. Tong Ping threatened his wife and daughter using his family's influence, so Chief Clerk Qiao had no choice but to leave."

Lord Song was already overwhelmed by the chaotic state of the Chief Clerk's office, and now that Tong Ping and a batch of runners had been disciplined, he was even more shorthanded. "I don't care why he's been on leave. Now that the yamen is short-handed, if he doesn't want to work, he should just hand in his resignation so I can quickly hire two scholars to do the job."

Inspector Huang's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly acknowledged the order. "Yes, my lord. I will send someone to Chief Clerk Qiao's home immediately."

The next day, before the constable dispatched by Inspector Huang could even leave the city, he encountered Chief Clerk Qiao returning with a bundle on his back.

The constable was delighted. "Chief Clerk Qiao, you're back! The county magistrate has sent me to your village to find you!"

Chief Clerk Qiao, in his forties, had dark skin and a gaunt frame, looking more like a craftsman than a scholar.

Upon hearing the constable's words, his expression was complicated but tinged with satisfaction. "I heard about the cases at the yamen yesterday. This newly arrived Lord Song is indeed different from the others." Perhaps this man could actually do something for the people of Heshan.

"Different is an understatement!" The runner had much to say but feared that Chief Clerk Qiao's bluntness might reach Lord Song's ears and get the runner dismissed and sent back to farming.

Qiao Xingyuan, unaware of the runner's thoughts, assumed that Lord Song was a young official with ambition who was truly committed to getting things done. If so, he could no longer shrink back, even at the risk of offending the Tong family.

When Qiao Xingyuan met Lord Song, Lord Song was indeed young. Just as Qiao Xingyuan opened his mouth to speak some heartfelt words, Lord Song handed him several sheets of paper. "These are the records I need to review. Organize them quickly and deliver them to the second hall."

Still relying on his crutch, Lord Song finished giving his instructions and hurried off, leaving a bewildered Chief Clerk Qiao standing there.

Standing in the front courtyard, Qiao Xingyuan noticed that anyone Lord Song laid eyes on was immediately assigned a task. Everyone came and went in a rush, and the entire yamen was busy in a solemn and orderly manner.

Several members of the Tong family had been taken into custody, including the only one among them with an official post, Tong Ping. The family head was naturally anxious.

But Lord Song, with his injured leg, stayed cooped up in the yamen all day, recovering from his leg injury and attending to government affairs. The yamen had become an iron fortress, and it was not easy to seek an audience. The Tong family couldn't even bribe their way in, so they had to turn their attention to the inner quarters.

Broker Tong had been imprisoned, and his brokerage had lost its official status. The brokers under him, seeing no profit, either started their own businesses or sold off their broker's licenses.

The owner of the new official brokerage, Huang Mama, had gone to great lengths to acquire a few of them.

"Meng Fulang, take a look. Not only the one behind the yamen, but also the two you saw earlier are all on the list, and the prices are absolutely fair." Huang Mama attended to Meng Wan enthusiastically.

Meng Wan glanced at the prices. Hah, just as he suspected—when Broker Tong had quoted him prices, each house had been at least a hundred and thirty taels more expensive.

He selected the one north of the yamen. "I won't look at the others for now. I'll buy the rear one to live in first. If there are any good shops for sale in good locations, keep an eye out for me. I have a use for them."

Ever since becoming an official broker, Huang Mama's smile hadn't faded. She grinned from ear to ear. "Yes, yes, I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you. I'll go fetch the original owner of the house to the yamen to complete the deed with you."

Meng Wan had just finished the deed and was heading to the rear house to inspect it when he was cornered at the mouth of the alley.

"Oh my, no wonder you're Lord Song's husband, you're truly striking!"

A plump, short woman in embroidered silk stepped down from her carriage. Even before she reached Meng Wan, she began pouring out a torrent of honeyed words.

"Look at that figure, that face! If someone hadn't told me, I'd have thought a celestial beauty had descended to earth!"

Meng Wan appeared somewhat bashful at the praise, but acted unfamiliar with her. "Madam, who might you be?" He sensed; he hadn't expected the Tong family to be even more impatient than he and Lord Song had thought.

After the flattery, the woman sashayed over, took Meng Wan's hand, and began to lament, "I won't hide it from you, young sir. I am the mother of Tong An."