Qingxiangzhai is the name Wang Kuan gave to his courtyard.
However, this place is neither unclear nor unscented.
Behind the closed door, four private guards stood, and in the courtyard, there were more than a hundred private guards.
Gong Changwei's soldiers quickly dispersed and surrounded the entire courtyard.
Duan Tianming led the captain of Dongchang to the gate, stretched out his hand and patted it a few times.
The door opened with a crash, and the four guards with their swords unsheathed rushed out menacingly.
Duan Tianming looked up and down and said, "This is the private residence of the prefect. Without your invitation, you can get as far as you want."
Faced with such arrogant and domineering language, Duan Tianming immediately unsheathed the sword in his hand, and four crisp sounds of "clang, clang, clang, clang" sounded, knocking the sword out of the opponent's hand.
At the same time, he shouted: "Take it."
The captain behind him couldn't help but rush out and several people rushed out. He quickly twisted the arms of the four people and pinned them to the ground.
"Tie them up. All those holding weapons will be tied up." Duan Tianming shouted.
Before the captains could take off the ropes from their bodies, Xiao Chen slowly walked over and said, "Disaster relief is imminent. Everything will be simplified."
He patted Duan Tianming on the shoulder and gently took the knife in his hand.
With a wave of his hand, the four heads fell to the ground.
Then he handed the knife back to Duan Tianming: "No matter whether you are holding a weapon or not, as long as you resist, you will be killed on the spot."
"yes."
Duan Tianming responded, waved his left hand, and led the captains into the gate.
Seeing the four guards who had been showing their teeth and claws just now, their bodies and heads were separated in an instant. Wei Li, the deputy governor of Gongchang Mansion who was standing behind Xiao Chen, couldn't help but reach out and touch his neck, with cold sweat on his forehead.
He didn't expect that the imperial envoy, who usually had a sweet and approachable smile, could kill people so neatly.
In Gongchang Mansion, Wang Kuan is an out-and-out local snake.
Not only was he the prefect of Gongchang, but the Marquis of Dingxi behind him was also a heavyweight in the northwest.
And these guards of his were even more arrogant and domineering. Apart from Wang Kuan, there was no one else in their eyes.
Hearing the movement at the gate, they had already shouted loudly and rushed over in groups.
However, when faced with Dongchang, the best soldiers and generals selected from the entire Ming Dynasty Guards, in addition to giving away their heads, they still give away their heads.
After the brief sound of swords clashing, the yard was filled with corpses.
Xiao Chen turned around and looked at the pale-faced Gongchang Tongzhi Wei Li behind him with a smile: "Wei Tongzhi, go back and record this in the file: Gongchang Magistrate Wang Kuan privately kept his bodyguards and resisted the court's handling of the case with force, and they were all shot on the spot.
kill."
"Yes, yes." Wei Li hunched over and didn't even dare to wipe the beads of sweat the size of soybeans on his face. His legs were trembling and he said hurriedly, "I must record it truthfully."
Two hours later, Duan Tianming had already searched the entire yard.
The whole family of Wang Kuan, his wife, children, and maids and cooks were all gathered in the open space in front of the most luxurious one-story building.
"Wei Tongzhi, do you know Mr. Zhang's second daughter?" Xiao Chen asked calmly.
"I know her, I know her." As he said that, Wei Li raised his hand and pointed at a pale woman in the crowd who looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, "That's her."
Xiao Chen nodded, walked forward and looked at the woman: "Are you the daughter of Zhang Huofu's family?"
"Yes." The woman bowed and replied timidly.
"Come, come here and stand next to me." Xiao Chen smiled, trying his best to not look so scary.
"Yes." Lowering her head, the woman slowly walked out of the crowd and came to Xiao Chen's side.
"Don't be afraid, we are here to search Wang Kuan's house. I already know about you and your sister. Now, I will give you your freedom." Xiao Chen said with a smile.
A hint of surprise flashed in the woman's eyes, but it was only fleeting.
He crossed his hands on his lower abdomen, lowered his head, and whispered: "Sir, what are you doing to search your house?"
"Search the house?" Xiao Chen was startled.
This woman doesn’t even know what a house raid is?
In the blink of an eye, I think about it, ordinary people’s children don’t have the money to go to school. And as a woman, it is more important to stay at home, wash and cook, and how can she understand these official terms.
"The purpose of confiscation is to transfer everything in this yard to the government. Now, do you understand?"
The woman looked embarrassed and shook her head: "The prefect Wang is the government. If the things in this courtyard are given to the government, don't they also belong to him?"
Xiao Chen smiled bitterly.
In the eyes of women, Wang Kuan is actually a government official. So, in the eyes of other people in Gongchang, Wang Kuan should also be a government official?!
"Let's put it this way, Wang Kuan committed a crime and has been put in prison by us. He will no longer be a government official, he is just a criminal waiting to be beheaded." Xiao Chen explained patiently.
"You, you didn't lie to me, did you?" The woman raised her head and looked at Xiao Chen expectantly.
"I didn't lie to you, I was the one who took him to jail."
Before Xiao Chen could finish speaking, the woman covered her face with her hands and cried "Wow".
His legs became weak and he collapsed to the ground: "Sister, Wang Kuan has been taken to prison, and what awaits him will be beheading. You can close your eyes and leave with peace of mind."
Seeing the woman crying like this, the group of people standing were a little confused and looked over here.
Xiao Chen understood the woman's mood and did not do anything to dissuade her. He allowed her to cry loudly for a few breaths, and then said slowly: "From now on, you will be free. Now, I want you to unite this group of people with
The maids, servants, and cooks who are suffering the same things as you are pointing it out, can you do it?"
"Yes." The woman stopped crying, put her hands on the ground, and slowly stood up.
"She, she, she, are all maids."
"He, he, he, he, he, he, are all servants."
"He, he. And he, he is the cook."
After a while, the woman pointed out half of them.
Xiao Chen looked at the woman with a smile: "Then these remaining people are all Wang Kuan's family members?"
"No." The woman shook her head.
"Then they are?"
"There are stewards and servants."
"There are still servants?" Xiao Chen was stunned, "When you identified the servants earlier, why didn't you identify them?"
"The remaining servants colluded with Wang Kuan's guards and often persecuted us maids. My sister was tortured by Wang Kuan until she could breathe, and then they dragged her out and strangled her to death."
As soon as she mentioned her sister, the woman started crying again.
"Oh, it turns out they are a group of people who are working for the tiger." Xiao Chen smiled faintly, "You point it out to Wang Kuan's family, and then point it out to the housekeeper."
"This is Wang Kuan's wife, this is the concubine, this is also the concubine, and this is the eldest son..." The woman pointed out Wang Kuan's family members one by one, and finally pointed her finger at a man in a green shirt who looked elegant.
young man.
"He is Wang Kuan's housekeeper. He is responsible for everything in this courtyard."
"Wei Tongzhi." Xiao Chen shouted softly.
"The official is here." Wei Li responded hurriedly.
"Pay the cook Zhang's daughter, along with the maids, servants, and cooks he identified, one hundred taels of silver each, and send them away on the spot." Xiao Chen said in a deep voice.
"Yes." Wei Li responded, then moved closer to Xiao Chen, and said in a low voice with a mournful face: "Sir, the government office does not have so much money now."
"First use the court's disaster relief money to distribute, and later use Wang Kuan's family's property to make up for the disaster relief money."
"Yes." Wei Li nodded in agreement.
Turning around and nodding towards Xiao Lizi, the two of them opened the wooden box that Xiao Lizi held in his arms, and began to write a note that they could withdraw one hundred taels of silver from the government office.
After everyone who got the note left the yard, the smile on Xiao Chen's face disappeared instantly.
He turned around and turned his back to Duan Tianming: "Except for the housekeeper and Wang Kuan's family, everyone else resisted with force and killed them all."
"Yes." Duan Tianming responded, waved the steel knife in his hand, and rushed forward like a hungry wolf with the captain of the Dongchang School beside him.
Suddenly, screams, wails, and begging for mercy resounded throughout Qingxiangzhai.
Within a few breaths, only a dozen of Wang Kuan's family members were left in the crowd, and the bookish butler shivered in a pool of blood.
Bodies were scattered everywhere, heads rolled down, and arms and legs detached from the body, falling randomly around the crowd.