If you traveled back to ancient times, while others ate Guanyin clay, you would actually have giant

Qingyang County

Magistrate Chen was having a headache over the sudden increase in refugees when a yamen runner came to report that Niujia Village had gone to wipe out bandits again, this time from Qinglong Mountain.

"You're saying the leader of the Qinglong Mountain bandits was killed by the people of Niujia Village?"

Magistrate Chen was somewhat skeptical. According to the county government's records, the leader of Qinglong Mountain was also a soldier with exceptional skills, yet he had been killed by the small village of Niujia.

"Yes, sir, the bandit leader's head has been brought in, along with more than twenty prisoners."

Good heavens, last time they sent over a few bandits, this time they sent over twenty! When Magistrate Chen arrived at the county government office, the entrance was already crowded with people watching.

The bandits, now timid and helpless, knelt at the entrance of the county government office, their previous arrogance and conceit gone. They now only begged to save their lives.

"The villagers of Niujia Village are truly brave warriors of our Great Dragon."

Magistrate Chen, who had served as an official for many years, couldn't help but sigh upon seeing this scene.

"Throw them all into prison and await the court's decision."

"Yes."

Magistrate Chen had been very troubled these past few days because of the refugees, but the bandits sent by Niujia Village were like a refreshing mountain spring in summer, making him feel completely refreshed.

"Bring me the current situation of Niujia Village."

Niujia Village's outstanding performance prompted Magistrate Chen to prepare to take good care of it. However, after seeing the recent situation of Niujia Village, he was somewhat bewildered.

"Has Niujia Village not asked the county government for grain or other assistance until now?"

Magistrate Chen originally intended to allocate some supplies to Niujia Village to alleviate the pressure on the displaced people, but his subordinates said that Niujia Village had none.

"Yes, sir. So far, only Niujia Village in the entire county hasn't asked us for anything."

Since the disaster struck the southwestern region of the Great Dragon Empire last month, Qingyang County, although not the most severely affected, has received the largest number of refugees. Villages throughout the county are reaching out to the county seat for food and supplies.

However, it was only when Magistrate Chen conducted his investigation that he discovered that Niujia Village had never asked the county government for supplies even once, and had even been cracking down on bandits one after another.

This made Magistrate Chen look at Niujia Village with new respect and he made up his mind to go to Niujia Village to find out more about it.

------

Wow, this is all grain?!

One horse-drawn cart after another was pulled into the village and brought directly to the warehouse. Then, under the organization of Uncle Niu, the men of the village carried the grain into the warehouse in an orderly manner.

With food in hand, the villagers felt more at ease, especially now that the total population of Niujia Village has exceeded five hundred.

"Uncle Niu, Brother Wu, the magistrate has arrived and is waiting at the village entrance."

"What? The county magistrate himself has come to Niujia Village! Hurry!"

When Niu Ye heard that the county magistrate had actually come to this godforsaken Niu Family Village, he panicked, unsure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. He grabbed Zhou Wu and ran towards the village entrance.

"Slow down, Uncle Niu. I've never seen you in such good physical condition before."

"Stop talking nonsense, you little rascal."

Unlike Master Niu, Zhou Wu guessed that since the bandits had just been escorted there a few days ago, and the magistrate had arrived so soon, it probably wasn't anything bad.

"I've met the magistrate."

"No need to be polite. We're not here for anything important today, just taking a stroll. Lead the way."

"Yes, my lord."

Although both men knew that the magistrate would not come to Niujia Village to wander around, since the magistrate did not say anything, the subordinates could not ask him directly. So they could only take the magistrate for a stroll around the village.

"It seems that only about a hundred people are registered in your Niujia Village."

After strolling around for a while, Magistrate Chen noticed the large number of people around him and couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Reporting to you, sir, these are all refugees who have come to seek refuge recently."

"Refugees? Dressed so clean and tidy, with a rosy and radiant complexion?"

As a county magistrate, he has probably seen far more refugees than he has as a village head. Just take the recent refugees in the county town, for example, there must be at least two or three thousand of them. Every single one of them is disheveled, dressed in tattered clothes, and emaciated.

You're telling me now that these people in Niujia Village are refugees? You must be joking.

"You don't believe me, sir?"

"It's not that I don't believe it, it's that I simply can't believe it."

Zhou Wu noticed the suspicion in Magistrate Chen's eyes and immediately led him to the warehouse.

"Someone, open it."

Niujia Village built two warehouses. One was for storing salted fish and was much larger. The other was the one in front of us, which currently holds 1,000 shi of grain that was brought back from Qinglong Mountain.

"Is this grain?"

"Top-quality white rice."

Magistrate Chen seemed unconvinced, so he stepped forward and pulled out a handful of rice. Sure enough, it was pure white rice. He tried another bag, and the same thing happened again. This time, he had no choice but to believe it.

"Sir, there is a total of one thousand shi here."

"What? A thousand shi? Where did your Niujia Village get so much grain?"

"Has Your Excellency forgotten Qinglong Village?"

Now everything makes sense. It turns out that Niujia Village was using the pretext of suppressing bandits to plunder the mountain bandits' property. In that case, Niujia Village was the "mountain bandit" itself.

"That's not right. You wiped out Qinglong Village a few days ago, but as far as I know, the refugees from Niujia Village didn't just arrive a few days ago."

Magistrate Chen was just about to offer some praise when he suddenly remembered that something seemed amiss.

"Sir, please don't rush, please come with me."

Zhou Wu then led Magistrate Chen to another warehouse, but before they even got close, Magistrate Chen quickly covered his nose.

What smells terrible?

"Someone, open the warehouse."

When the gate opened, Magistrate Chen was utterly shocked. He couldn't even smell the stench that had been so unbearable just moments before.

The warehouse was filled with countless salted fish. As the local official, he had seen all sorts of things, even chests of silver, but the shock he felt was nothing compared to this warehouse full of salted fish.

"Sir, there are thousands of bushels of salted fish here, and fresh live fish are delivered every day."

"what!!!"

Magistrate Chen could barely accept a thousand shi of rice, but who could accept several thousand shi of salted fish? Putting aside who would be so bored as to turn fresh fish into salted fish, where did these several thousand shi of fresh fish come from?

"Where did you get these fish? From Qinglong Village?"

"You jest, sir. There's no way a bandit's den would have salted fish. These are sea fish that our Niujia Village catches itself."

"Haha, Clerk Zhou, are you trying to fool me by saying I don't know anything about the common people? These sea fish are extremely difficult to catch. An ordinary person is lucky if they can catch a few a day. You have several thousand shi of fish. Even if the entire Niujia Village went fishing for sea fish, they probably wouldn't catch that many in a year."

“What you say is true, but we didn’t catch these fish.”

"Not caught by fishing? Did it just come to you on its own?"

Niujia Village had done a good job in suppressing bandits, and they had also done an excellent job in dealing with the refugees. Magistrate Chen had originally planned to reward the village head and Zhou Wu, but he did not expect that the other party would be so unreliable.