Qin rose to his feet, turned his head, glanced at the fierce back of Yang Ge, and gritted his teeth, "Someone, quickly summon Liu Yongguang to see me!"
...
Carts of documents were delivered to the spacious hall of the courthouse, piling up into a small mountain.
Yang Ge stood at the front, gazing directly at the twenty-some junior banner officers waiting below, "Each of you, inspect twenty cases of corrupt officials, and bring all those involving capital offenses to me!"
"All documents will be cross-checked three times. If anyone is found favoring anyone..."
Yang Ge slowly swept his gaze over each face below and bellowed with a resounding voice, "You share the same guilt!"
A chorus of junior banner officers responded in unison, "Yes!"
Yang Ge waved his hand, "Begin!"
The junior banner officers sat behind chests made of iron, took out scrolls of documents, and started to read at a glance.
Guards walked among them, pouring tea and water for the many junior banner officers.
Soon, a guard took the chosen documents from the junior banner officers and delivered them to Yang Ge.
Yang Ge took the documents, glanced over them, then placed them on the desk, and spread a sheet of white paper on the desk, and wrote solemnly "Magistrate of Yangzhou - Yang Yuting."
"Gu Tong!"
He called out lightly without lifting his head.
The guard Gu Tong, who was stationed outside, quickly entered, "At your service."
Yang Ge said, "Send someone to invite the best restaurant’s kitchen staff from Jiangdu, buy rice, flour, meat, and vegetables, cook meals with three dishes and one soup per person, start with preparing two hundred servings, and replenish if needed... come to me later to get the name list. Those on the list, deliver their meals to them."
Gu Tong stared blankly at Yang Ge standing above him.
Not hearing a reply, Yang Ge emotionlessly looked up at him.
Their eyes met.
Gu Tong shivered, bowed his head with goosebumps all over, and loudly responded, "At your command!"
Yang Ge lowered his head and continued writing, "Go!"
With just a few sentences, the temperature inside the large hall seemed to drop several degrees.
The hands of many junior banner officers trembling as they flipped through the documents...
They considered themselves ruthless men who could kill without blinking an eye.
But compared to the man above...
Their courage was as small as a rabbit’s!
...
Meanwhile, Qin, at the newly constructed execution ground at Vegetable Market, attracted many local people of Jiangdu.
Passerby A: "Lately, I haven’t heard of any significant bandits being caught!"
Passerby B: "Could it be that, possibly... it’s about those corruption cases that have been making noise these days?"
Passerby C: "Do you really believe the officials will care about corruption? Is there any official who isn’t corrupt? Everyone is corrupt, what’s there to investigate?"
Passerby D: "Yes, it’s all the same everywhere. They say it’s about fighting corruption, but it’s just infighting among the lords!"
Passerby A: "Believe it or not, those officials who were caught, won’t be long before they’re still lords."
Passerby B: "That can’t be said without care. If someone is willing to take care of it, wouldn’t our days get somewhat better?"
Passerby C: "Are you really that naive? Think about it, if those officials are locked up, surely their properties must have been confiscated, right? Once they’re out, won’t they extort money and land even more fiercely, and who suffers but we poor commoners?"
Passerby B: "So according to you, there’s no such thing as ’justice’ in this world?"
Passerby A: "Shh... stop talking, some of those officials are looking this way!"
Passerby C: "Let’s go, let’s go, us poor brothers don’t even know where our next meal is coming from, why care about national affairs!"
Passerby B: "Alas..."
Some left, others arrived.
Dressed in plain clothes, Qin mingled in the crowd, listening to the buzzing murmurs around him.
He felt ironic, oppressed, indignant, and sighed...
Those mixed emotions made him want to shout out to these nonsensical common folk, telling them about the effort they had put into these issues, and the sacrifices his superiors were about to make.
Eventually, he felt astonished, wondering why he would still feel oppressed and indignant about these matters?
They hadn’t really said anything wrong, had they?
Wasn’t this expected?
Suddenly he realized, something that had died in his heart years ago had briefly resurrected...
Regrettably, after looking around, it lay down in disappointment and returned to its grave.
"Youth is truly wonderful!"
He murmured quietly, beginning to ponder how he could preserve himself in the impending storm... and perhaps even advance further and take the lead!
...
Meanwhile.
Steaming, fragrant meals were delivered to the dim cells, placed before former dignitaries.
Quite a few dignitaries recognized this as the craft of Baiwei Building.
This caused many of them to breathe a sigh of relief.
Corrupt Official A: "Are we being sent back to the capital?"
Corrupt Official B: "Based on the days, it’s indeed time to return to the capital. If delayed further, no one could bear it..."
Corrupt Official C: "Returning to the capital is good. At my age, to suffer here is really a misfortune!"
Corrupt Official D: "Lord Yang, the court in the capital... they won’t abandon us, right?"
Corrupt Official A: "What are you talking about? We have devoted ourselves to our country, loyally and faithfully. The Emperor has been deceived by villains, how could the senior officials not understand?"
Corrupt Official B: "Lord Yang is right. Let us all unite, keep consistent stories,
once we are back in the capital, we will be free..."
Corrupt Official C: "Official Mei is right. At worst, we will be exiled to Lingnan… The Tang Dynasty’s Su Dongpo once wrote: ’I’d gladly eat three hundred lychees daily, never tiring to be a Lingnan man!’"
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Corrupt Official D: "Excellent poem, perfect for the occasion. Liu is truly worthy of being formerly one of the top four scholars of Jiangnan!"