Crossing the Ming Dynasty to be the magistrate

Chapter 32

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it has been more than half a year since Wen Yu first arrived in Mengyang.

In the past half a year, Wen Yu successively lowered taxes, pacified bandits, improved people's livelihood and solved strange cases.

Mengyang not only has a larger population, but its living environment has also improved a lot. It has also gained its reputation through snacks, cement and other things.

Now many locals who chose to leave because of the poor living conditions in Mengyang have returned to Mengyang.After all, at this time, due to underdeveloped communication, people's homesickness is still very serious.If it is not really hard to live, no one is willing to leave their hometown and go out to seek a living.

What Wen Yu did was seen by the people, and most of the people in Mengyang loved their parents and officials.Once the people's hearts are stabilized, the crime rate will be low, and it will be very convenient to implement any order from the government.

Wen Yu has been very comfortable these days.Now younger siblings and sons are very obedient, Mengyang's economy and people's livelihood are developing steadily, and everything is proceeding according to his own plan.Going to the yamen every day is to deal with official business, and by the way, get in touch with friends, and then go home after get off work.To paraphrase the words of Shu, this kind of life is simply unbearable, and it would be great if it could last forever.

Facts have proved that Flag can't stand immediately. Wen Yu just lamented that the law and order in Mengyang has improved, and someone immediately came to slap him in the face.

The yamen servant reported that two children died in the village under Meng Yang's rule last night, apparently they were poisoned.

There was another murder case, and it was a child who died. Wen Yu was so sad that he asked to hand in the incident report.

After examination, the two children died of a strange toxin.There is no record of this toxin in the book, and the time of poisoning is uncertain.

After Wen Yu went to investigate, he learned that these two children were children of farmers in the village. They were only seven or eight years old, and they were both boys. They were inevitably naughty.However, most of the children in the village are raised like them, going up to the mountains to hunt birds and fish in the water all day long.The two children's families are honest farmers, and they have never heard of any grudges with anyone.

Early this morning, as usual, the two children met to play together, probably just wandering around the village.The two didn't come back until sunset.At that time, everything was normal, and the two children did not show any abnormalities.

When he was about to take a break after dinner, one of the children suddenly complained of a headache. The elders in the family didn’t take it seriously, they just thought it was because he played too crazy today and caught a cold. alright.

In the middle of the night, the family members were woken up suddenly. After careful inspection, they found that the child had a high fever, his body was extremely hot, and he was sweating all over.Just as he was about to take him to the hospital, the child suddenly twitched and lost his life in just a moment.The remaining child on the other side had the same headache, high fever, and convulsions.

The two families together realized that something was wrong, endured the grief and came to the Yamen to report the case.

Wen Yu's face was serious, two children died in a row, and it is not known exactly why the two children were poisoned, it may be man-made poisoning, or it may be that the two children accidentally ate something in the forest for fun, but no matter what No matter what, the case still needs to be solved.

Wen Yu ordered a search of the activity area on the day the two children died. Fortunately, the village was not too big and the search area was limited.After excluding some locations, I quickly asked and delineated the suspicious location in the small earth temple in the village.Only in this place are the two children completely out of the sight of others.

In the Ming Dynasty, almost every village had a small earth temple, and most people chose to go to the earth temple to burn incense in the spring after New Year's Eve.The worse the year is, the more frequently people worship the Earth Temple. They often go to worship when they have something to do at home, or when they want to pray for safety.Now that the weather is good, the Earth Temple is empty.

Wen Yu asked the local people that only some beggars outside the city would choose to rest in the Earth Temple these days.

It's a beggar again... After experiencing Jiang Lei's case last time, Wen Yu has learned how powerful beggars were in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the administrators of the Ming Dynasty also knew that the group of beggars was a great threat to the stability of the society, and it was better to use them instead. Therefore, the beggars in the Ming Dynasty were directly controlled by the court.In the society of beggars, the leaders who rule beggars, big and small, are collectively referred to as beggars. Perhaps in the eyes of country gentry and literati, beggars are the bottom of the ranks, but in the world of beggars, what he commands is golden words.

The beggars in Mengyang kept in touch with the government all the time, and sometimes even went to have a drink with Deng Wu. Wen Yu ordered Deng Wu to find a hijab, and asked him to learn about the beggars in Mengyang City in the past two days, and see if they were safe. Does anyone come to this earth temple often.

The results of the investigation were quickly found out that only an old beggar was active in this area yesterday.Wen Yu asked someone to bring the old beggar here, but was told that the beggar was not feeling well today, and he was afraid that Wen Yu would be overwhelmed by his illness.

Wen Yu quickly asked, "Does that person have fever, night sweats, and convulsions? Is there any danger?"

The other party denied it, only saying that the old beggar felt a little cold.Wen Yu lowered his head and thought for a while, ignoring everyone's obstruction, and finally planned to go to the old beggar to find out the situation in person.

The old beggar is now resting at the home of the beggar in the west of the city. This is a poor area in Mengyang, and it is also a gathering place for some beggars and others.Hearing that the county magistrate was coming, Hijab hurriedly drove away all other irrelevant people.

When Wen Yu arrived, she found that the place was not as gloomy as she thought, and the road surface was relatively clean. Some people even decorated the gatehouse with flowers.Although they are of humble origin in name, they are nothing more than ordinary people engaged in business such as catching frogs, matchmaking, and selling beads.

Wen Yu went directly to the beggar's house to see the old beggar. Although the old beggar could see that he was a little weak at this time, he was in a good mental state. It seemed that his life was not in danger.

Wen Yu asked the accompanying doctor to treat him, and finally concluded that he was also slightly poisoned.The old beggar had never seen such a battle in his life, and he was so frightened that he shivered like a quail.Wen Yu asked him as gently as possible what he did in the Earth Temple that day?Do you know how you got poisoned?

The old beggar replied respectfully: "My lord, I just rested in the Earth Temple that day and ate something. Halfway through eating, my stomach hurt, and I felt that the bean cake I ate seemed to be broken, so I went to find a convenient place. After returning to the city, I had a little fever, but the illness of us beggars is common and we don’t take it to heart.”

"You old bastard! Why don't you just throw away things that feel bad! What if others pick them up and eat them!" Beggar cursed at the side, sneaking glances at Wen Yu.

Wen Yu knew that he was afraid that he would not be able to catch the murderer, so in a rage he took the beggar as the top of the vat and ignored him.

From the words of the old beggar, Wen Yu deduced that the two children might be greedy and ate the bean cakes that were thrown on the ground. The bean cakes were poisoned. Adults ate two bites without incident, and the children with low resistance were directly thrown away by the poison. killed.

So Wen Yu asked, "Where did you get that bean cake?"

The old beggar replied hesitantly: "The bean cakes...the bean cakes are all fed to rabbits and pigs in the farm in Yazhu Village. I saw that they were quite fresh, so I couldn't help but steal some while no one was looking."

Unexpectedly, a farm was involved here. Wen Yu was surprised. In order to avoid further incidents, he hurriedly ordered the doctor to prescribe two medicines for the old beggar, and then went straight to the farm to investigate.

Liu Guihua warmly received Wen Yu, and at this time she had become the person in charge of the farm by virtue of her prestige among the crowd.Now that cold-eating rabbits and bamboo rats have become famous, the business of their farms has become more and more prosperous.Some sisters even bought a lot of land by themselves with the money they earned in the past few months, all of which were brought to them by the county magistrate.

Wen Yu patiently listened to Liu Guihua talking about the changes of the people these days and their plans for the future of the farm.It can be seen that Liu Guihua, the person in charge, is very competent, ambitious and far-sighted. I believe that under her leadership, the farm will be better and better.

Liu Guihua talked for a long time, got up and found that Wen Yu was listening to her nagging with a smile all the time, a little embarrassed to change the subject: "I don't know why your lord is here this time?"

Wen Yu saw that the time was almost up, so he told Liu Guihua about the poisoning of the old beggar who stole the feed here.

Liu Guihua was shocked after hearing this: "It turns out that someone really poisoned us!"

Wen Yu asked: "Oh? So, you have already noticed it."

Liu Guihua nodded and admitted: "Yes, about last month, a few sisters found that the rabbits they raised were a little wilted, and they didn't get better after feeding some medicine. Because we have always strictly followed the adults' instructions, and we have been aware that these rabbits may be sick. It was dealt with. Since then, every three to five days, there will be problems with some things raised by the sisters. But the number is not large, and now that the season has just changed, it may be a period of high incidence of diseases, so we just suspect .According to the words of the adults, this time it was poisoned to death! What should I do!"

Liu Guihua's anxious tears were about to flow out. These poor women themselves had to bear the pressure of being judged and worked hard every day.It's hard to support myself now. If this job is gone now, I'm afraid I will go back to the dark days before.

Wen Yu comforted her and said: "Don't panic, you have handled it well. Even if you were poisoned, it should not have spread. I will send someone to help you check the feed and drinking water now." After speaking, Wen Yu ordered his subordinates to immediately View them one by one.

Finally, it was found that a basket of bean cakes and several bundles of hogweed had been poisoned.

But the strange thing is that the amount of poison was very small. If Wen Yu hadn't brought a famous doctor in Mengyang City this time, he might not have been able to find out at all.It is estimated that such a small amount can poison small animals such as rabbits and mice, and it would take a lot of effort to poison a piglet, let alone a human.

"Are you sure this is the same poison as before?" Wen Yu asked.

The accompanying doctor nodded: "Return to your lord. This is the only thing that can't be wrong."

Then this is strange... Wen Yu fell into deep thought.

The author has something to say: About cheap books

Last time, I said that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, no matter whether they were civilians, merchants, soldiers, or craftsmen, anyone with the conditions and opportunities could live a good life, so who can live a bad life?I'm afraid it's cheap.

This humble family is called differently in different places. It is called Danhu in Guangdong, lazy people in Zhejiang, and "Bandang" in Anhui. There are beggars, Lehus, etc.

The lowly people from all over the country are treated differently

Danhu in Guangdong must stay with the boat all his life, eat, drink, and scatter all on the boat, and are not allowed to go ashore to live and farm.Idle households in Zhejiang are not allowed to read and write, and cannot sit with good people. Untouchable women are not allowed to wear the same color as good people. They must hold umbrellas upside down on the road."Bandang" in Anhui is equivalent to a landlord's serf, who has to work for the landlord for a lifetime, yes, for a lifetime.

These cheap people have different names and receive different treatment, but one thing is the same:

That is to say, the descendants of these lowly people are born lowly and stay lowly all their lives. When looking for wives, lowly people can only find lowly people.

It doesn't matter that you are inferior to others in this life, your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren are all low-class, and your family will all be low-class for hundreds of lifetimes...

These people are basically remnants of the previous dynasty or committed serious crimes. For example, during the Yongle period, many courtiers who were loyal to Emperor Jianwen and did not bow their heads were classified as cheap.

The system of humble nationality is not unique to the Ming Dynasty, it has existed since a long time ago.In the end, it was abolished by Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty. The change of this system is very complicated, and it is not clear in a few words.Generally speaking, the society at that time had developed to a certain stage, and such things were no longer needed.

Cough cough, the last Gu Dan’s new article "The False Taoist Going Down the Mountain (Ming Chuan)" asks for advance receipt ~ A couple of things between the big guy in women’s clothing and Emperor Jiajing

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