Chapter 121: Knocking Mountains and Shocking Tigers
Several officials felt very unhappy when Mazi ordered them around like this.
They were ashamed to make decisions for such a bully who oppressed the people, but there was an order from above and they had to come.
At this time, the leader took the official errand and said, "Girl, wasn't it you who beat Zhou Mazi?"
"Master Cha, this is just Zhou Mazi's one-sided statement. The fact is that he begged me to beat him."
Su Jiaojiao said, "In all my life, I have never heard such a strange request. He begged me to beat him, and I fulfilled his request."
"Now he is saying that I beat him, what's the point of this?!"
Several officials looked embarrassed, thinking that Zhou Mazi might have said this.
After all, he usually talks in obscene and offensive words.
"I'm talking about you guys. You were ordered to help me seek justice. Why are you standing still? What I said is the truth. Why don't you arrest them quickly!"
"Catch all these women and seal the shop..."
"What?" Su Jiaojiao asked, "This prison is run by your family. If you say you want to lock us up, you have to lock us up?"
"Although it is not opened by my family, it can obey my command."
Zhou Mazi said proudly, "I tell you, you'd better kneel down and beg me for mercy quickly, otherwise you won't be able to get out if you go to jail!"
"Really?" Su Jiaojiao said, "What if my sister is unwilling to let me go to prison?"
"Your sister is nothing. If you keep nagging me, I will put your sister in jail. Do you believe it or not?"
"I don't believe it..." At this time, the woman who had been sitting firmly behind the counter spoke.
"I don't believe you can put anyone in my shop in jail!"
"Hey, why don't you believe it?" Zhou Mazi walked in, "I will get you in first, do you believe it or not?"
"Zhou Mazi, don't act recklessly!" The official still had some conscience and wanted to stop Zhou Mazi, fearing that he would do something crazy.
"If you don't want me to mess around, then go ahead!"
Zhou Mazi said dissatisfied, "Master Fu Yin sent you here to help me, not to cause trouble, do you hear me?"
Several officials finally walked into the shop, but soon they walked out again and tied up Zhou Mazi directly.
"Hey, you made a mistake. I asked you to come here to arrest them. Why did you arrest me?"
Zhou Mazi struggled, "I tell you, let me go quickly, otherwise when I go back and tell my uncle, you won't be able to eat and walk away..."
At this time, the leading officer said, "Please keep your voice down. You have caused trouble for your uncle and you don't even know it."
"It's easy for us to tie you up. Your uncle can beat you to death. Do you believe it?!"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Why did I get my uncle into trouble?" Zhou Mazi couldn't believe it.
"Don't be alarmist here, be careful if I look back..."
An official didn't want to hear what he had to say, so he sealed his mouth.
Zhou Mazi never expected that he was obviously going to arrest someone with an official, but he didn't expect that he would become the defendant instead.
Good guy, he took the officials for a walk around Peach Blossom Street, but the officials took him back to the Yamen.
"What's going on?" Jing Zhaoyin looked at the people, also confused.
"Master Cui, you have to make the decision for me. I asked them to help me redress my grievances, but they brought me back..."
"They don't listen to your orders at all, you have to teach them a lesson!"
"Sir, after we went there, we really wanted to arrest people according to Zhou Mazi's request, but..."
The leading officer told him everything about Su Nianyun's plan to sue Zhou Mazi.
"A woman just sued Zhou Mazi, and you just believed it and then attacked one of your own people?" Cui Fuyin asked.
The leading official said, "Sir, the most important thing is that the woman is none other than Princess Nianyun, the adopted daughter of the Queen Mother."
"What?" Cui Fuyin jumped three feet high, "Princess... went to Taohua Street to open a shop?"
At first, for the sake of the Minister of Household Affairs, after he caught Zhou Mazi, who was collecting protection money everywhere, he did not punish him severely, but continued to protect him.
In this way, the protection money Zhou Mazi collected was a sign of filial piety to himself.
In order to prevent anyone from getting caught, he specially designated Furui Street and Taohua Street, where ordinary people lived, to collect protection money from Zhou Mazi.
The people there are all ordinary people. Even if Zhou Mazi dominates there and they are dissatisfied, they will not cause any trouble.
However, it was different when the princess was there.
If he doesn't give a solution to this matter, I'm afraid the princess will tell the Queen Mother.
Although the Queen Mother is now too in charge of the government's affairs, her influence is still there, and the officials are more afraid of the Queen Mother than the Emperor.
"You," Jing Zhaoyin pointed at the official, "deal with it impartially. Even if you inform the princess of the result, don't let her go to the Queen Mother."
"Well, this..." The officer looked at Zhou Mazi.
"Post a notice to let the sufferers in, refund them the amount of money they should pay, and then give Zhou Mazi a fifty-fifty beating!"
"Hey, sir, you can't do this to me. How can I have so much money to refund them?"
Most of the protection money collected was given to Jing Zhaoyin and his uncle as a filial piety.
Well, now that the trap is out, Lord Cui lets him take over by himself. How unjust he is!
However, faced with this situation, he did not dare to say anything and could only accept it silently.
Su Nianyun only stayed at Su's gouache shop for half an hour when the official sent a message in a hurry.
Su Nianyun was quite satisfied after learning that Zhou Mazi had been beaten and would have to stay in jail for a while.
"Princess, what we adults mean is that this matter..."
"I know," Su Nianyun nodded, "The Queen Mother is busy with everything, and I will not bother her with such trivial matters."
She would not be stupid enough to go against the governor of Jingzhao and the Minister of Household Affairs. A small punishment but a big warning would be good for both parties.
After receiving the answer, the official left the gouache shop.
"Ayun, for such a person, it would be too easy for him to just get slapped with a few slaps and thrown into jail!"
Su Jiaojiao said angrily.
Su Nianyun said, "Some people are evil on the surface, and some people are evil on the inside..."
"This matter is not limited to Zhou Mazi. If he can be punished until he achieves the goal of knocking the mountain out of the mountain and shaking the tiger, it is already good!"
Moreover, these corrupt officials will have evil people to punish them.
She remembered that after the Eighteenth Prince ascended the throne, these two people were among the first batch of officials to be dealt with.
It seems that these two people have some discernment and some lack of discernment.
They saw that the prince was in decline and that it was unlikely that he would be able to take over the throne, but they did not see that in the future, the eighteenth prince would be the only one to be valued by the emperor.
They spent all their accumulated gold and silver to support the sixth prince, who had the loudest voice.
This also became the reason why Zhao Chengji had to get rid of them after he ascended the throne.