Fix Smile Order Chapter 99
Pure: Ahhh thank you reader Kiki for pointing out that I completely skipped chapter 99 ><
Translated by Pure
Unedited
If you can read this, it means this chapter was stolen from p uretl . com
Chapter 99
Tang Tianyuan didn’t answer as he continued, "And this matter lasted three years. Starting shortly after the former magistrate took office and ended shortly before the former magistrate's accident."
Seeing that Cong Shun still didn't understand, Tang Tianyuan reminded him again. "Remember the five corpses we found in Tianmu Mountain? Their time of death coincides with this timeline."
Cong Shun widened his eyes in shock. He looked at Tang Tianyuan and exclaimed, "My Lord means..."
Tang Tianyuan nodded. "Tianmu Mountain was closed and guarded during the day, but not at night. This made it convenient for people and goods to enter and exit. Messages could also easily be passed between without being caught. In this way, it was not difficult to explain Old Tie’s situation."
Cong Shun maintained his shocked face, "This... is not possible, right? The former county magistrate..."
Tang Tianyuan didn't seem to be concerned as he continued, "Why do you think he had an accident? Hadn’t you been serving him for several years, haven't you noticed anything unusual about him?"
Cong Shun shook his head in frustration, "To tell you the truth, I just investigate cases, but he didn’t care much about it."
True. People who would die for money would only have gold in their eyes.
Cong Shun asked again, "Lord, do you mean that Official Sun and the former county magistrate are both related to gold mining?"
Since Cong Shun was quite involved in this case, Tang Tianyuan didn't intend to hide it from him, so he nodded. Albeit, Tang Tianyuan didn't reveal anymore. Since he was just a small officer, it was not appropriate for Cong Shun to know too many secrets.
"Then, my Lord, should we still investigate this case?" Cong Shun wasn't an idiot. This matter was getting bigger and bigger; the water was getting deeper and deeper, so he didn't know if he should continue to flow in.
Tang Tianyuan replied, "Let us suppress the bandits first."
The people he sent to Nanling County also came back, bringing with them a you-rank official of Nanling County: an arresting officer and some information. The arresting officer was named Mei Laowu. He was a tall and muscular man, with a loud voice, and very straightword. As soon as he came, Mei Laowu complained to Tang Tianyuan. "Our Lord had also sent official documents to the prefecture magistrate. He tried several times asking for the suppression of bandits. Unfortunately, the lord, Prefecture Magistrate, thought that there weren’t enough dead and did not agree."
Bandit suppression was related to dispatching officials and soldiers, and the county government does not have the power to deploy troops. If it was large-scale bandit trouble, it needed to be reported to the imperial court. The imperial court would then issue an imperial decree, issue a tiger tally[1], and mobilize troops to suppress the bandits. But there was no need to alarm the court for a small group like the one situated in Phoenix Mountain. If you want to save the trouble, the local prefect could directly submit a petition to the local defending general commander. Having them send two or three hundred regular troops would be absolutely enough.
However, Zong Yinglin, the prefect of Chizhou, refused to do it.
The Magistrate of Nanling County believed that to borrow troops from others, one would need to lower their face to ask for a favor. The Prefect Magistrate and the General Commander were the same in ranking, so Lord Zong refused to lower his face.
Tang Tianyuan knew that Zong Yinglin was reluctant to suppress the bandits mostly because Phoenix Mountain was too close to Tongling County. For him, Tongling County was a detrimental area, so Zong Yinglin was quite on guard when it came to this location.
But this Mei Laowu was too brave; he dared to say anything. Tang Tianyuan reminded him, "My county deputy is surnamed Zhou. You will see him in a while. Don't mention the prefect magistrate in front of him."
Mei Laowu seemed to have caught the hint as he asked in a low voice, "Is he on the side of the prefect?"
Tang Tianyuan laughed. This rough guy was also quite careful.
Tang Tianyuan let Mei Laowu settle down first, and then he took a closer look at the documents that Mei Laowu brought.
The documents were all recorded in great detail; when, where, and who made the reports… what was robbed, whether there were any casualties, and so on. After Tang Tianyuan went over everything, he felt that something was a bit off. He took out the first document again and looked at it.
The bandits from Phoenix Mountain first appeared more than half a year ago.
This time was when Old Tie feigned death and escaped. It was the time when gold mine owners killed and silenced the miners.
Tang Tianyuan suddenly thought of another possible idea.
It was a physical toiling labor to mine and refine gold, so there should be a large demand of people to complete this work. Except for the five who died, where did the rest go?
At first, he thought the rest might have died in other mines - a mine was big, and although he hadn’t found any others, there should be more than one. But think, who would disperse the bodies after murdering a mass amount of people? Scattered evidence would be easier to be exposed than just hiding all the bodies in one spot. No one was that stupid.
There was only one explanation. The mine they accidentally found was the one where the bodies were dumped. There were only five corpses in total. The other people didn't die, they all ran away and went to Phoenix Mountain to become bandits.
There was probably a problem in between the process; it is very likely something had gone wrong when they were trying to silence everyone. Because of this, Official Sun and the others remained unaware of the fact that the bandits on Phoenix Mountain were their previous miners. Otherwise, Official Sun would be unlikely to report this incident. The reason why he dared to report was because he chose to believe that Old Tie was dead; that everything was in his favor.
Official Sun may have become muddle headed while grieving for having all his grains robbed. Unable to make a better judgment, he retorted to reporting this matter to the authorities. Or perhaps Old Tie had become so different from the past that he became difficult to identify.
All of the above were speculations that needed evidence to be confirmed. But if they were true, Tang Tianyuan only needed to arrest all the bandits and interrogate them. This way, the matter of the stolen gold could finally be resolved.
This possibility was quite exciting.
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Footnote:
[1] Tiger tally (虎符) - a two-piece object made in the shape of a tiger, used in ancient China as proof of authority. One half of a tally could be issued to a military officer and this would be matched with the other half when verification was required. (source from Yabla)
translat ed by pure tl. com / do not re post
