Farming and reading family

Gao E's words were true and false, and her intention to use this method to make him believe was not completely useless.

For example, this woman might know more than he expected, but she just doesn't believe him now.

"Why?" Gao E was puzzled.

Xu Boyan laughed sarcastically: "He Tangchun wants to stay out of the mud, but he has long been inseparable from it."

"Are Lord Xu and Lord He very familiar with each other?" Gao E asked knowingly.

Xu Boyan lowered his eyes and did not answer: "Did you see any clues in those things?"

Gao E shook her head. This was true. "Later, my family became better off. I felt it was unlucky for my husband to wear something belonging to a dead person, so I kept it. If the adults hadn't wanted it, I would have thrown it away."

Xu Boyan didn't like what he heard, as it sounded too fake: "Your answer was good this time." He said and was about to get off the car.

Gao E breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the matter was settled.

"But remember what you said this time, and don't let it get revealed next time you lie." Xu Boyan got out of the car without looking back.

Gao E was speechless for a while. It turned out that he was not easy to fool. Fortunately, he was willing to be fooled.

Chen Ke and his friends waited for a long time before Mr. Xu finally arrived.

As soon as Xu Boyan arrived, more than fifty people complained together, which was even louder than the one made by the three Chen brothers. The three Chen brothers felt that the situation was not good.

"Silence! Silence! Silence!" Xu Boyan slammed the gavel impatiently. "The plaintiff speaks first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Kegang bowed and the fifty people began to complain again.

Xu Boyan slammed the gavel: "Did you turn a deaf ear to my words? If you keep yelling, I'll slap each other in the face twenty times."

The fifty-plus people were completely dumbfounded. Why did they feel that the county magistrate was even more rogue than them?

Generally speaking, when there are a lot of them, as long as they make a commotion, the county magistrate might have to appease them.

After all, they were outnumbered and didn't really gain any advantage over the Chen family, but were instead tied up for the entire night.

"The plaintiff speaks first." Xu Boyan glanced at Chen Ke.

Chen Ke was a little uncertain at first, as he had just been targeted by Lord Xu. Now that Lord Xu said this, he felt much more relieved. He immediately told him about the incident in which these people stole their mulberry saplings at night.

“It’s unfair—”

As soon as Chen Ke finished speaking, someone shouted.

"Who called just now?" Xu Boyan looked over.

Those people all lowered their heads, and one of them who was shouting at the top of his voice didn't have time to lower his head, which looked very abrupt.

Xu Boyan drew a ticket and read out the name, and the officer whose name was called hurriedly stepped out of the line.

"Go, slap him in the face." Xu Boyan handed the signature to the yamen runner who was called.

The yamen runner didn't expect that the new official would actually do things this way. He hesitated and went over to slap the man in the face.

"It hurts so much to use a stick to draw it," Xu Boyan reminded.

The yamen runner bowed sideways, thinking that his master was quite nice, and immediately took the lot and started drawing.

Although the stick was thin, it was made of solid iron and wood, and it immediately left a red mark on the opponent's face, causing blood to seep out and the teeth to become loose.

"Sir, how many times should I hit you?" The bailiff thought of this question only after he had hit him once.

"Until my teeth fall out." Xu Boyan said lazily.

Everyone around gasped. If they took the opportunity to retaliate, wouldn't their faces be smashed and their teeth wouldn't even fall out?

The man immediately made up his mind, gritted his teeth, bit off the loose tooth and spat it out.

"It fell, it fell..." the man shouted in panic.

The bailiff wanted to glance at the man, then bowed and handed the signature back with both hands.

Xu Boyan turned sideways and dropped his signature into the lottery box. He looked at the people kneeling below with a somewhat disapproving look: "I haven't asked any questions, and you're already crying foul, as if I've wronged you."

Those people were silent and dared not speak.

"I have always been fair and just. I act according to reason and rely on evidence when handling cases. I will not make any difference depending on whether you are a large or small group." Xu Boyan looked at the man who had been slapped. "Is what Mr. Chen said just now true?"

The man's eyes rolled around and he didn't dare to lie easily.

"It's just a small matter of stealing young crops. If the master forgives me, I can make the punishment as appropriate. But if you deceive me and try to escape the blame, no matter how many of you there are, your crime will be even more serious." Xu Boyan looked impartial.

After hearing this, the fifty-plus people secretly glanced at the three Chen brothers.

Xu Boyan looked at Chen Ke: "If this is true, how do you plan to deal with it?"

Chen Ke saluted and said, "Admitting one's mistakes is the best way to improve. If they admit their mistakes and voluntarily dig all the holes needed for our Chen family to plant mulberry trees, this matter can be put to rest."

Xu Boyan sneered, he was really as useless as Gao.

He looked at the fifty people and asked, "What do you think?"

"I admit my mistake, I admit my mistake..."

The fifty people admitted their mistakes one after another.

I thought that with more than fifty people, it would be easy just to dig a few holes.

The people watching outside thought that the case would be very long today, but they didn't expect the verdict to be made so quickly.

At this time, the sound of drums was heard outside again. Everyone turned their heads and saw another large group of people outside.

Xu Boyan thought today was really lively, so he ordered the clerk to register the names of those people, ordered them to bring their own dry food to dig a pit for the Chen family, and then asked the person who beat the drum to come up.

Chen Ke and his companions bowed and retreated outside the hall. When they saw that it was people from their village who came, they did not leave.

Qian Yong was the one who beat the drum, but the people in Baotou Village were all filled with righteous indignation, their eyes were red, and it was not known whether it was because they were angry or because they had not slept all night.

With such a large group of people, Xu Boyan only allowed the leader to enter the lobby.

Qian Yong and Zheng Yicheng entered the hall, kowtowed, and reported their names and hometowns.

"Who beat the drum?" Xu Boyan lowered his eyes and looked at the two people.

"It was the common people who beat the drum." Qian Yong bowed and said, "Sir, these unruly people took the mulberry saplings and must sell them to the common people, and they also asked the common people to pay one ounce of silver for each tree."

"Oh?" Xu Boyan became interested.

Just now, Chen Ke only said that those people stole the mulberry seedlings that their family had just planted at night. He was also curious why so many people went to steal the Chen family's mulberry seedlings.

Zheng Yicheng was still a little panicked when he went to court: "Qian Yong bought the Chen family's mulberry saplings for one tael of silver each, and he spread the news in He County. But when we took the mulberry saplings to sell to him, he refused to buy them."

The fifty or so people who were queuing up to register their names looked over when they heard Zheng Yicheng say this.

They had evil intentions after hearing about the sky-high price of mulberry seedlings. Now that no one is buying them, haven't they worked in vain?

Xu Boyan got the general idea and turned to look at Qian Yong.

"Your Excellency is wise," Qian Yong argued confidently. "I bought mulberry saplings from the Chen family before, and they were indeed one tael of silver per tree. But I didn't ask for more. These people insisted on selling them to me at one tael of silver per tree. Isn't that forced buying and selling?"

"You were the one who forced the sale first." Zheng Yicheng became anxious.