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Chapter 53 Making a plan

Standing on both sides of the court were runners from Runzhou Prefecture. When they heard the words of the Golden-faced Censor, they immediately knocked on the ground with the water and fire sticks in their hands.

Li Wencai huddled on the ground, not daring to raise his head.

As a county magistrate, he was very familiar with the routine of going to court. Usually, he sat high up in the court, feeling awe-inspiring. But now, kneeling down in the court, he felt as if every blow hit his heart, causing his whole body to tremble uncontrollably.

Zhu Yu came to Lu Qing, who gestured for her to sit in the seat next to him, which was in the center of the courtroom and was obviously the presiding judge.

In the morning, the talisman said that the person would be handed over to her for interrogation after being caught, but she didn't take it too seriously. She didn't expect Lu Qing to be so serious.

Since he is so sincere, I will not refuse it.

Besides, there are not many suspense about the cause of this case and how the murder was committed. We just need to verify them one by one.

On the way here, she had already heard the general situation from Fu Wen.

It turned out that late at night the day before, Lu Qing and Fu Wen had already set out quietly with a few imperial guards under the cover of darkness and ambushed around the ruined temple in advance.

They used Li Wencai as bait and asked him to go to the dilapidated temple to worship the gods and pray for wealth. After dawn, Li Wencai followed their request and obediently brought tributes and incense. The centurion of the imperial guards changed him into a set of coarse cloth clothes, dressed up as a coachman, and drove Li Wencai's rather eye-catching carriage around outside for half a day before heading to the Ghost Fairy Temple.

By the time he got there, it was almost dusk.

Li Wencai pretended to burn incense and worship the gods for a long time. Fu Wen, who was hiding behind the statue, was always paying attention to the movements outside. When he found that there seemed to be some movement in the place where the bamboo tube was hidden behind the ruined temple, he used the prepared stones to knock Li Wencai unconscious from a distance.

The big bruise on Li Wencai's forehead was caused when he accidentally hit the edge of the altar when he fainted.

Not long after, a thin man with his mouth and nose covered with a rag sneaked in from outside the dilapidated temple. As soon as this man appeared, he was caught by Fu Wen. He didn't even have time to scream before he was knocked unconscious and dragged away.

After waiting for less than half an hour, someone else tiptoed into the Ghost Fairy Temple in the dark, went straight behind the statue, and touched Li Wencai who had fainted on the ground.

The man felt the person on the ground was still warm when he touched it. He sniffed and found that the person was breathing. He was shocked and realized that something was wrong. He turned around and wanted to escape, but it was too late. The Ghost Fairy Temple had been surrounded by the Forbidden Army. After all, he didn't have wings behind him, so he had no choice but to surrender.

After understanding these, Zhu Yu basically grasped the division of labor between the two people.

Now sitting in the hall, looking at the two people kneeling below, one of them looked to be about forty years old, with a sturdy build, a calm expression, and was kneeling straight.

The other one looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a thin build, shivering and looking very scared.

Zhu Yu looked at the two of them, then at Li Wencai who was looking dejected, and the people of Qingshui County who were craning their necks outside the yamen, and suddenly he had an idea.

"In the past, there was a Luji Distillery in Qingshui County that was rampant in the countryside, bullying the market. You must be one of their victims, right?" Zhu Yu asked the thin man. If her guess was correct, this person was the little mute they had heard about from Fu Wen. According to Fu Wen's information, the little mute was only mute, but his ears were still working and he could still make sounds in his throat, but he just couldn't speak.

When asked this by Zhu Yu, he raised his eyes tremblingly, first glanced at Zhu Yu, then quickly glanced at the middle-aged man next to him, lowered his eyelids, and did not react at all.

Zhu Yu didn't care. He spoke in a voice that could be heard even outside the courtroom, saying, "People outside say that Lu Ji is tyrannical and tyrannical, forcing countless colleagues to death, and monopolizing the winemaking industry in Qingshui County, reaping huge profits.

Little did they know that Lu Ji was just a puppet who could not turn back, and the one who was really hiding behind and sucking your blood was none other than your official, Lord Li Wencai.

It was under his instigation and manipulation that Lu Ji committed so many crimes. Even the thugs who gathered information for Lu Ji and forced people to buy and sell were not recruited by Lu Ji, but were minions of Lord Li.

Not only did he instigate and support puppets in all walks of life to help him make money, he also squeezed farmers' harvests by collecting grain in large measures, and secretly transferred official grain from official warehouses to his own rice and flour shop, selling it in small measures to make more money.

Such evil deeds cannot be tolerated by Heaven and justice, and the offender should be punished."

There was anger in Zhu Yu's tone, and he spoke the last four words with gritted teeth, emphasizing each word. Li Wencai couldn't help but shiver when he heard it.

"However, during his tenure in Qingshui County, this man not only caused untold suffering to the people within the city, but also forced farmers outside the city to abandon their farmland and migrate far away. If we simply bring him back to the capital to ask Your Majesty for his fate, then chopping off his head with a single blow will likely not quell the anger of the people of Qingshui County."

After saying that, she turned her head to look at Lu Qing who was sitting next to her.

To put it bluntly, I am just relying on the power of others to bully others. Without the order from the Lord Censor, it is not the turn of a chief clerk who does not even have a certificate to issue orders.

Lu Qing clearly understood what Zhu Yu meant when he looked at him. He nodded slightly and said in a cold tone, "Today in this court, what the Chief Secretary says is what I say, and what the Chief Secretary orders is what I order."

After hearing his words, Zhu Yu stopped hesitating and called out to the yamen runners beside him, "Come here, give Li Wencai twenty lashes of the cane! Five lashes for the farmers who have fled far away, five lashes for the merchants in Qingshui County who can no longer conduct business, five lashes for the people who have been harmed by the large-scale use of small-scale measures, and five lashes for the innocent people who were killed by his minions at his instigation!"

"Yes!" The yamen runners in the hall responded loudly. Two of them stepped forward, grabbed Li Wencai on the left and right, and pulled him. Li Wencai fell to the ground. The other two stood on both sides, ready to fight.

Li Wencai originally thought that he would not suffer any physical pain during the trial today. Although he was nervous, he was not sure what the censor would do with him after agreeing to let him go.

He never dreamed that he would suffer physical pain in this class. Not only would he be beaten with a stick, but he would be beaten twenty times, and hard at that!
Before the first blow fell, Li Wencai was unable to come to his senses and forgot to beg for mercy.

After the first board fell, Li Wencai only felt a burning pain on his buttocks, and the words for mercy that were already on the tip of his tongue turned into a shrill scream in an instant.

Outside the court, the people of Qingshui County heard the scream and burst into cheers.

(End of this chapter)