The conspiracy of the courtyard

Seeing that Lu Zixuan was no longer so resistant, Old Chen slowly told him the results of his investigation.

When the superior leaders handed over the letters of complaint received by various ministries to Lao Chen, they told him that the contents of the letters were the same and that two teams had been sent to investigate, unfortunately one team disappeared and the other team only brought back the province's handling opinions.

The leaders did not take it too seriously. Since the matter had been dealt with, they no longer asked about it. However, when they received these letters again before the New Year, everyone took it seriously. They speculated that there were differences of opinion within the organization and asked the province to investigate the smashing and looting incidents again.

The result of the report was the same as before. The masses smashed the county government because they were dissatisfied with the high price of grain. The matter has been dealt with. The team leader was not familiar with the internal routes of the county government and encountered the smashing masses head-on. Perhaps both sides used excessive language, which led to accidental injury and death.

The provincial and county governments were afraid of arousing greater public outrage, so they did not launch a large-scale manhunt for the perpetrators. Instead, they conducted a secret investigation, but there were so many people involved that it was difficult to find them. They also comforted and compensated the family of the deceased, who did not raise any objections.

This forced Lao Chen to conduct a secret investigation, but he nearly lost his life on the way to Xiangyang Brigade. Lao Chen immediately contacted Sijiucheng and reported what he had seen and heard. The leaders immediately decided to let Lao Chen reveal his identity for investigation, but he was locked up again for no reason.

After being rescued, he contacted his superiors again and asked them to strongly order the province and the county to unconditionally cooperate with the investigation. First, he arrested all the personnel in the county government for interrogation, and then reviewed all the information.

It was discovered that the only destroyed data were from the finance and grain systems, while only the office equipment in other units was seriously damaged. Combined with the fact that Xiangyang Brigade was the only one in the county that did not implement the "big pot" policy, the account books of the commune where Xiangyang Brigade was located were urgently retrieved for review, and the trick was indeed discovered.

After asking the staff again, I learned that the Li and Zhang families have a deep connection, and what old man Li said was not the whole truth.

The Li family used to be landlords. When the county was just liberated and there was no requirement to fight against landlords, the Li family took the initiative to hand over the land and a large amount of property, winning the favor of the county. As a result, old man Li became the first village chief after liberation.

However, he was removed from office in the second month after being reported for oppressing the people. The person who reported him was Zhang Boss, the vice-president of the county. The reason is unknown.

A few years later, Li Dakuan went to find Zhang Lao Da who worked in the commune and had a fight with him. Everyone vaguely heard that the reason for the fight was because of a woman, but at that time Zhang Lao Da had already married into the county magistrate's family, so no one interfered and caused trouble.

But after the fight, the two may have resolved their misunderstandings and their relationship became very good. Boss Zhang actively fought for the position of village chief for Li Dakuan, and also won the honor of advanced captain of the county for Li Dakuan.

When asked where the county's grain reserves were stored, they all knew nothing.

Old Chen found the county party secretary and through various means of intimidation, he learned that all the public grain received by the county was stored in the large grain warehouse of the former Li family in Xiangyang Brigade. This was also the reason why public grain had not been collected from Xiangyang Brigade in the past two years.

The secretary agreed with the county head's suggestion to move the grain depot to Xiangyang Brigade. The first reason was to leave an empty grain depot in the county for supervision by superiors and the masses; the second was to cooperate with the unified grain price; and the third was that the geographical location there was suitable, with natural swamps as cover, making it difficult to be discovered.

There were originally various signs in that swamp, but they were removed to protect food security after the granary was moved there. However, people are still arranged to patrol and provide reminders every day.

As for Li Dakuan's death, he was completely unaware of it. As for the temporary control of outsiders, he only knew that this incident had happened but was not clear about the reason. Security issues have always been the responsibility of the county magistrate. Although his position has been removed, he is still responsible for the work.

Lu Zixuan sneered and asked:

"Haha... How could he not know? He's just trying to pass the buck. Is this county magistrate so important? Can he handle so many things?"

Old Chen replied solemnly:

"He didn't come from a humble background, but he made great contributions. I heard from the secretary that he spontaneously organized thousands of people to form a militia during the war against Japanese invaders, and he used only axes and hoes to protect several nearby counties. He made great contributions to the government. Both of his sons died, so everyone understood his love for his daughter.

Even if there are mistakes, there will not be severe punishment. He is much more confident than the secretaries who have only been in office for two or three years. He arranges for his relatives to work in the county, and his superiors directly approve it.

I asked someone to invite him, but he didn't come. He must have wanted to wait until Boss Zhang's matter was settled before showing up again."

Lu Zixuan guessed that the county magistrate wanted to use Lao Chen to get rid of Boss Zhang, and suggested cutting the Gordian knot and convicting and sentencing Boss Zhang as soon as possible so that the county magistrate could get what he wanted and then get to the bottom of the matter.

Old Chen agreed and without further ado called the judicial authorities in the neighboring county, asking them to take action on his behalf and make Boss Zhang plead guilty as soon as possible.

Sure enough, the next morning, the court reported that Boss Zhang had pleaded guilty, and that he was punished severely and promptly in accordance with Lao Chen's request, and was sentenced to death, to be executed three days later.

The execution date was deliberately arranged for three days later in order to test the county magistrate's attitude. If he came forward to plead for mercy, there would be a chance to intercept him; otherwise, it would mean that this was the result he wanted.

Lao Chen ordered someone to quickly pass the news to the county magistrate and invited him again to discuss the case. This time the county magistrate did not avoid it and agreed to meet with Lao Chen.

As soon as the county magistrate walked into the office, he expressed his gratitude and apologized.

"Thank you for the help, it is a helpless move, I hope you can forgive me."

Then he told Lao Chen the reasons why he did so.

Ever since the county magistrate got to know Zhang Lao Da, he ordered an investigation into him. When he learned that Zhang Lao Da already had someone he loved but was still flirting with his daughter, he immediately opposed their relationship, informed his daughter of the details, and forced the marriage on her.

However, his daughter refused to listen to his advice and threatened to commit suicide, so he had to compromise, but demanded that he must marry into the county magistrate's family. Unexpectedly, Zhang Boss agreed immediately and did not give the county magistrate a chance to regret.

As a last resort, after Boss Zhang dealt with his ex-girlfriend, he had to hold a wedding for the two of them. At first, Boss Zhang was quite well-behaved and did not make any demands.

But when his daughter gave birth to a baby boy, he took his daughter home and threw a tantrum, demanding to be transferred to a government job. The county magistrate compromised again, but directly rejected his request to join the party and put the blame on the secretary.

There will be a second time after a first time, and they had no choice but to compromise again and again. In 59, after agreeing with the secretary on the strategy of concentrating grain and selling it at high prices, he ordered people to look for a large grain warehouse throughout the county. Boss Zhang recommended the former Li Family Granary of Xiangyang Brigade.

After several inspections, it was finally decided to move the granary here, and Li Dakuan was promised that as long as the food supply was guaranteed, the brigade would be exempted from the public grain tax.

But last year, a batch of grain with a slightly lower price suddenly appeared in the county. The county chief and secretary sent people to secretly inquire and found out that Li Dakuan and Zhang Lao Da, together with others, were reselling the grain in the grain reserve.