"This man's name is Li Yuan. He owes two buckets of rent. But it says that he gave it to the village chief. How can this be judged directly? Someone, go to Wangshan Village and find the village chief and ask him clearly. Registrar Zhan, let's look at the next case while we wait. This is …"
Zhang Zhong was really talking to the registrar and deputy county magistrate one by one. This went on until noon. There were two cases that needed to be locked up for a few more days and the rest had to be released. This was only 45 cases, but Zhang Zhong was still full of energy.
Deputy Xiao and Registrar Zhan nodded their heads from time to time. Both of them wanted to sleep, but since Zhang Zhong was standing, they could only stand. Originally, they didn't want to release these people. When they arrested these people with County Magistrate Wen, it was to demonstrate their power. If it was a normal day, they would have a lot of excuses to make Zhang Zhong unable to release them.
But today was different. They hadn't slept for two days and two nights. They had also done so much work. Now, they had been standing for the whole morning. Their stomachs were already empty, so they could only drink some water from time to time.
Finally, Deputy Xiao, who was the smartest, couldn't hold on any longer. He said to Zhang Zhong as if he was begging, "Sir, I think what you said this morning is right. These people should be locked up or released. You can do as you see fit. I agree. Registrar Zhan, what about you?"
"You can't just let them go. There are some people who borrowed money from my family and can't pay it back. If you let them go, who else can pay me back? Don't you want your family's money?"
Registrar Zhan was already in a half-awake state. When he heard Deputy Xiao's words, he directly said what was in his heart. As soon as he finished speaking, he reacted. It was too late for him to explain anything.
Zhang Zhong slammed his hand on the table and said, "As officials of the imperial court, you actually dared to release money to the people. How dare you? Let's talk about this after we finish the case files. Now, all of you, prepare the case files for me."
"Sir, you don't have to do it. Just like what Deputy County Magistrate Xiao said just now, you can do whatever you want." At this moment, Registrar Zhan was completely sober.
"That's good. I'll take care of these cases. You can go and write the documents. Did you release any money?" Zhang Zhong asked again.
Naturally, the two of them would not admit it. They picked up the case files and went to edit them. This matter needed to be reported when the time came. The two of them wanted to quickly edit it and go to bed.
Zhang Zhong looked at the two people leaving and smiled. He asked the yamen runners to find the scribe and said to them, "Write the notice now. It says that Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate Xiao of the yamen were framed by someone who said that they were giving out money. There is no such thing at all. If someone used their name to give out money, there is no need to return it.
Just write it like this. If you write it like this, the people won't be able to understand it. It's already noon. Hold on and write a few more pieces. After you finish, come to Jinlai Restaurant for lunch. We can't let some rascals slander Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate. "
The scribe didn't expect the county magistrate to be so ruthless. They knew how much money the Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate had given out. If they counted carefully, it was at least 3,000 strings of coins. The money that they earned in the past few years, other than spending some on concubines, they didn't even buy land.
Usually, they just ate the money or lived a carefree life. If all the money was gone, wouldn't the two of them go crazy? But the county magistrate asked them to write, who dared to not do it? In just two days, the county magistrate had beaten the Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate to the point that they didn't have the strength to fight back.
The scribe took pleasure in their misfortune as they wrote. Who asked them to not get much of the money? All of them added up to less than 5%. The rest of the money went into the hands of County Magistrate Wen and two other people. Now, County Magistrate Wen was still asking people to come out, but these two people's money was gone in the blink of an eye.
Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate Xiao didn't know that Zhang Zhong was playing tricks on them. They were still drinking tea and resisting the sleepiness. They corrected the 120 or so case files. Each of them divided half of the files. When they saw the contents, they found an excuse to acquit them. They just hoped that they could finish correcting the files as soon as possible.
There were two guards brought by Zhang Zhong at the door of the house where the two of them were staying. They didn't let them sleep. There were also guards outside the yamen. Other than the people who came to complain, no other people were allowed to enter, especially those who came to look for the Registrar Zhan and Deputy County Magistrate.
The two of them corrected the files for three hours in the room. After they were done, they threw their pens away and didn't go home. They directly fell asleep at the table. At this time, the two guards didn't care anymore. They gathered the corrected files and handed them to Zhang Zhong. After Zhang Zhong stamped his seal, they could let the prisoners go.
The door of the prison cell was opened from the outside with a bang. The afternoon sun shone in. The prisoners who entered from the door couldn't help but squint their eyes to look outside. They wanted to see if there was another unlucky person who was locked up or if there was a family member who occasionally came to take a look.
Zhang Zhong personally stood at the door of the prison cell. An unpleasant smell rushed out from the inside. It made people's eyes sour and their mouths and noses tighten. After a while, the smell gradually subsided. Zhang Zhong then took out the 120 or so case files. He took out one of them and said:
"Fan Yu, locked up for theft. It's time to release you. Go back and do your job properly. Don't ever do anything illegal again."
A cheer came from the prison cell. Then, it turned into wailing. A yamen runner went in and unlocked the cell. The person called Fan Yu staggered out. He didn't dare to look outside and used his hands to cover his eyes. He wanted to wait for a while before leaving.
"Xu Yang, locked up for unpaid rent. After investigation, it was found that he didn't owe any rent and taxes. Released without charge." Zhang Zhong continued to read out another person's name.
Similarly, the sound of crying came from there. Zhang Zhong's mood wasn't good either. Now that he was released, how was he going to account for the time he wasted in prison? There was one less worker in his family. How was he going to account for this? But this was all he could do. There was no other way.
"Zhang Lingqi, locked up for lack of money to eat. Released without charge."
Zhang Zhong read out the names one by one. Every time he called out a person, that person would do something that was close to crazy. Those who were locked up were really wronged. Those whose names were called were happy. Those whose names weren't called out suddenly realized that they were going to be released today. Would they be included?
"Sir, is there anyone called Little Eight who is going to be released? His surname is Wang. "A prisoner couldn't help but ask.
"What do you mean by sir? Sir is the new county magistrate of Huayuan County. Wait, one by one. If you call out again, you will continue to be locked up." A yamen runner at the side reprimanded loudly.
The person who was reprimanded didn't look unhappy at all. Instead, he shouted happily, "God, you finally opened your eyes. It's changed, it's changed, there's a new county magistrate."
The other prisoners who were locked up also shouted. In the entire prison, there was only one person who wasn't happy. It was Pockmarked Zhang. He was locked up alone in a room. The four sides weren't fences, but walls. He also heard the shouting outside. However, he was locked up because of this new county magistrate.
Another yamen runner also took this opportunity to flatter Zhang Zhong. He shouted into the room, "Lower your voices. Do you know who our new county magistrate is? He is the top scholar in this imperial examination. He could have been a sixth-rank official in the capital, but he insisted on coming to our county to be a seventh-rank county magistrate.
Sir is not only talented, but also loves the people. In order to solve the case, he didn't even care about his son's injury. Also, Sir has a lot of money. He won't collect more taxes and rent for himself. "
As the bailiff shouted, the people in the cell listened quietly. They were not in a hurry to go out. After listening to the bailiff's words, the people in the cell cheered.
Zhang Zhong didn't stop them. He just let the yamen runner talk. This was a reputation. After these people went out, they would help to spread it.
He read out the names one by one. When these people came out, they didn't leave immediately. They covered their eyes and waited for them to get used to it. They wanted to take a good look at the new county magistrate so that they could tell their families.
When the last prisoner came out, the door of the cell was closed again. These people were almost used to it. They carefully looked at Zhang Zhong. Zhang Zhong stood there with a righteous face and let them look at him.
While they were looking, two servants of the Zhang family pushed a cart to Zhang Zhong. One of them said to him, "Master, we have brought the money you asked us to send. You can compensate them with three copper coins per day based on the number of days they are innocent and the number of days they are guilty."
Zhang Zhong understood when he heard this. This money was sent by his son. When the time came, the money would be deducted from the yamen. There was no such law, but there was still a way to deduct the money. He felt that in this way, these people wouldn't have no money when they go back. If there was an emergency at home, they could use the money.
He said, "Well, good. Let me see how long they are locked up. Don't go yet. Wait for me to compensate you."
Zhang Zhong agreed and said to those who were about to leave.
Those people were already very happy when they came out. They didn't expect that there would be compensation money. Where did this come from? It had never happened before, especially the person who was locked up for three years. At this time, he couldn't tell if he was sad or happy. He could take away three strings of money, but no one came to visit him in three years. He didn't know how they were doing.
Zhang Zhong flipped through the files one by one and called out a person's name. That person took the money, knelt down and kowtowed three times before leaving. One by one, it took an hour for all of them to receive the money and leave their fingerprints on it.
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