Chapter 106 - 100: Qilin’Er
Chapter 106: Chapter 100: Qilin’Er
"Fang Wuju?!!"
"Young Master Fang!!!"
"Isn’t Young Master Fang crippled? How is he perfectly fine?"
The two groups, who had been on the verge of a brawl, now stood completely dumbstruck. They rubbed their eyes again and again, unable to believe what they were seeing.
Hadn’t everyone said Young Master Fang was crippled and couldn’t even stand up anymore?
But now, Young Master Fang was perfectly fine. He didn’t look crippled in the slightest.
"You idiot! How dare you say Young Master Fang is crippled? I think you’re the one who’s crippled!" someone immediately snapped, rapping the previous speaker on the head. "Stop your nonsense."
Fang Wuju, Young Master Fang.
He was the first Martial Scholar in the history of Da Liushu Village. In terms of status, he was even more distinguished than Scholar Liu.
To say he was crippled to his face—wasn’t that just slander?
If Fang Wuju decided to pursue the matter, none of them would get off easy.
When these people had faced Fang Mu, they’d dared to talk back and openly disbelieve him.
It was only because they thought Fang Yue was crippled. They’d heard he’d broken ties with the city’s Martial Arts Hall and was now just a wastrel with no future and no backing. That’s why they no longer respected him.
That was why, when Fang Mu first came out to persuade them, they refused to believe him.
But now, Fang Yue was standing right here, perfectly hale and whole.
The sight of him instantly silenced the agitated crowd, which had been just moments away from a fight.
"What my father said represents my own intentions. Of course, you don’t have to listen. I’ll give you a choice now."
Fang Yue’s face was devoid of expression, but this only made the villagers before him fall silent with fear, not daring to utter a word.
"Whether the land was originally entrusted to the Scholar Liu Family or my family, based on the current market price, I’ll sell it back for three taels of silver per mu. Anyone who wants their land back can settle the matter now."
In the current market, the price of land had indeed fallen to three taels of silver per mu.
However, these tenants had enjoyed the benefit of tax exemption, saving more than ten taels of silver each year.
For him to sell the land back to them now for just three taels per mu was already a generous offer, made out of consideration for them being fellow villagers.
"That’s too expensive! This land was originally ours. For Fang Wuju to sell it back to us at market price...
...that’s not right, is it? Master Fang, you can’t just bully us like this."
At that moment, someone from the crowd spoke up again.
That was right. They had only entrusted their land. According to the deeds, the fields now belonged to Fang Yue’s Family, but in reality, only the owner’s name had changed. The tenants still held the permanent rights to use it.
"Heh, interesting."
Fang Yue smiled faintly, his gaze instantly locking onto one person in the crowd.
This was the person who had been fanning the flames. He even knew about the land transaction between his family and the Scholar Liu Family.
It was likely he was the one who had incited the Liu Family’s former tenants to come here today.
’This must be the Scholar Liu Family’s parting gift,’ he thought. ’Unable to accept their losses, they arranged for someone to cause trouble for us before they left.’
"Oh? So you’re saying your sale of the land to Scholar Liu was fraudulent? Perfect. According to the laws of the Great Wei, fraudulent land transactions intended to evade taxes are punishable by eighty strokes of the cane and exile of three thousand li."
"Why don’t we go to the Government Office right now? We can report this to County Magistrate Liu and ask him to pass judgment."
Fang Yue sneered, watching the ’Liu Family’s man’ with great interest.
Just as he expected, the man was too scared to say another word after hearing Fang Yue’s threat.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He didn’t dare wipe it away as it dripped to the ground. DRIP. DROP.
Within a few breaths, the man dropped to his knees with a THUD and began to kowtow. "Master Fang, I was possessed! I was blinded by greed! I took five taels of silver from Steward Liu to spout all that nonsense!"
"Please spare me! Just spare me this once! I’ll never dare to do it again!"
Then, Fang Yue’s gaze swept over the other villagers.
"If there’s nothing else, you can all leave."
With that, Fang Yue paid them no more mind and turned to go back inside.
「A short while later.」
Father Fang and Fang Cheng followed him inside.
"Zhi’Er, was what you said just now true?" Father Fang asked, his expression tense. "This business with entrusting land... if the Government Office finds out, will they really cane people? And exile them?"
’Good heavens,’ he thought, ’eighty strokes for just one person.’
’That would be enough to beat a man to death! And if you survived, you’d be exiled. There’d be no way to live.’
’His family had been the recipient of so much ’entrusted’ land. If they were investigated, how many beatings would that entail!’
"Heh, Father, don’t worry. Of course it’s fake. I have no idea if the Government Office actually has a rule like that—I just made it up to scare them. I didn’t expect them to actually believe it."
But this was only a half-truth from Fang Yue.
’The imperial court definitely has laws against this kind of tax evasion, but who’s going to investigate it these days? Everyone does it.’
’As the saying goes, the officials don’t investigate what the people don’t report. No one really cares about these things.’
「Meanwhile.」
After traveling for nearly a month, Scholar Liu’s family finally arrived at the Prefecture City.
They first rented a courtyard home in the Prefecture City to get the family settled.
"Father, I just went out to ask around," said Liu Chuanzhi. "That Captain Bai we were trying to contact supposedly performed meritorious service during the suppression of the Mo Mountain rebellion. He’s been promoted one rank and is now a sixth-grade garrison commander. This gives us a much better chance with our plan."
The connection Liu Chuanzhi had managed to secure, after pulling many strings, was with none other than Captain Bai, a seventh-grade official in the Prefecture City Guard Army.
It was only upon arriving in the Prefecture City that they discovered he had been promoted for his achievements in battle and was now a sixth-grade garrison commander.
With this promotion, he had gone from being a mid-level officer to someone on the verge of entering the upper echelons of the Prefecture City’s military command.