Chapter 47 The injustice is settled
Chapter 47: Redress

"Oh, this Ye Xuan is quite capable. I really didn't expect him to come back so soon."

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up suddenly, with a look of surprise on his face, "Hurry up and announce it!"

After a while, Ye Xuan strode into the Wuying Palace.

After kneeling in a military salute, Ye Xuan said solemnly, "Your Majesty, the case of Li Yanran has been solved."

Old man Li standing by also stood up and looked at Ye Xuan nervously.

They were afraid that Ye Xuan would be bribed like the magistrate of Shangyuan County, or that officials would protect each other as people said.

Zhu Yuanzhang noticed the old man Li’s expression and felt a pain in his heart again.

It seems that even in the new dynasty established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the reputation of the court and government among the people was still just so-so.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang stopped talking and asked Ye Xuan to tell him the story of the case.

Ye Xuan took the order and then told the whole story of Li Yanran's case.

Just as Zhu Yuanzhang thought, Li Yanran happened to encounter heavy rain when she came back from the market that day, so she took shelter in a shabby house at the entrance of the village. She was also unlucky.

As soon as Li Yanran entered the house, she found that Niu Er, the village scoundrel, was also taking shelter from the rain.

Niu Er had just returned from drinking with his friends in the next village. When he saw Li Yanran, the beauty in the village, coming, he was immediately attracted by her beauty.

Regardless of Li Yanran's resistance, he defiled her.

Afterwards, Li Yanran kept saying that she would report the case to the authorities. Niu Er woke up from his drunkenness and couldn't help feeling scared.

So he decided to kill Li Yanran and then dumped her body into a dry well.

What happened next was simple. After being captured by the Shangyuan County Court, Niu Er bribed the Shangyuan County Magistrate Lin Zhiqi with fifty taels of silver, and Lin Zhiqi acquitted Niu Er.

As for Old Man Li, Lin Zhiqi didn't take this country old man seriously at all.

I just want to drag this case out until old man Li dies and naturally no one will pursue it.

If it were an ordinary case, this would have been the case. But who could have expected that Old Man Li was so eager to redress his grievances that he actually dared to go to Yingtian Prefecture to file a complaint!

After explaining the whole story of the case, Ye Xuan took out a stack of books from his bosom and handed them over with both hands, saying, "Not only that, Lin Zhiqi has been an official in Shangyuan County for less than two years, and he has brought misery to the people of Shangyuan County. This is a letter from the people of Shangyuan County accusing Lin Zhiqi of corruption and abuse of power. Please take a look, Your Majesty!"

Eunuch Yunqi quickly took the book from the people and handed it to Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, only flipped through a few pages, and threw the book to the ground, angrily saying: "What a Shangyuan County Magistrate, what a Lin Zhiqi!"

"The court appointed him as a local official so that he could stabilize the local area and benefit the people on behalf of the court. But he ruined Shangyuan County into this state in just two years!"

When everyone saw Zhu Yuanzhang getting angry, including Ye Xuan, they all lowered their heads and dared not speak.

After Zhu Yuanzhang vented some of his anger, he looked at Ye Xuan and said, "Ye Xuan, you did a great job on this case!"

"I originally thought that you were a capable official if you could get to the bottom of Li Yanran's rape and murder case in just a few hours, but I didn't expect you to find out all the details about this bastard official!"

"Yes, Ye Xuan, you are very good!" When Zhu Yuanzhang said this, the angry expression on his face disappeared. Instead, he looked at Ye Xuan with admiration and praised him.

Yun Qi, who was standing by, saw this and knew that Ye Xuan had caught Zhu Yuanzhang's eye, so he was happy to help him. He used an excuse to praise him and said, "Your Majesty, you don't know that Captain Ye not only found out Lin Zhiqi's crimes, but also brought back all the money that Lin Zhiqi had embezzled over the years!"

"Oh!" Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned. As a grassroots emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang also climbed up step by step from the bottom.

When the uprising started, they also raided the homes of many officials from the previous dynasty and were well aware of these corrupt officials' abilities to hide money.

Curious, he asked, "How much silver did you steal?"

Ye Xuan didn't dare to hide anything and told everything.

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard that a small county magistrate had embezzled a huge sum of money equivalent to two thousand taels of silver in just two years, he became furious again!
"This Lin Zhiqi is really good at making money! If I don't wipe out his three clans, I will be sorry for his ability to make money!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Xuan couldn't help but sigh again for the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Although corruption and abuse of power were indeed hateful, it was indeed a bit cruel to implicate three entire families at every turn.

But this is what Lin Zhiqi deserves. Ye Xuan certainly won't be overly loving at this time.

And this was not an overreaction by Zhu Yuanzhang, as it was still the early days of the Ming Dynasty.

The entire Chinese land was still in the process of being rebuilt and developing, and after decades of war, the lives of the people were not easy at all.

The purchasing power of silver was at its strongest. Two taels of silver could buy one stone of grain, and in the Ming Dynasty, one stone of grain weighed nearly two hundred kilograms.

A family of three with some wild vegetables and complementary foods will have enough to eat for half a year!
The monthly salary for ordinary soldiers in the army was only one tael and six cents of silver.

In other words, it would take an ordinary soldier more than a hundred years without food or drink to earn these two thousand taels of silver.

And it only took Lin Zhiqi less than two years, not counting the money he spent on food, drink, and entertainment during these two years. If you count them one by one, the number will be even larger.

Obviously, Zhu Yuanzhang also thought of this, which is why he was so furious.

What's more, Zhu Yuanzhang came from the lower class of the people, and his concept of silver was much clearer than any other emperor in history.

After a round of angry curses, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered that the Shangyuan County Magistrate Lin Zhiqi be skinned and the daylily be circulated to the eight county government offices in Yingtian Prefecture as a warning to others!
Then exterminate their three clans!

As for the ruffian Niu Er, he was rampant in the village and killed innocent women. His crimes were extremely heinous and he was sentenced to death by slow slicing!

After the bloody imperial edicts were issued, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Old Man Li again and said, "Old man, your daughter's grievances have been redressed. I believe that her spirit in heaven will be comforted."

Old man Li was already in tears at this time, and he kowtowed to Zhu Yuanzhang and Ye Xuan excitedly.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for redressing my grievances. Thank you, sir, for redressing my grievances!"

Old man Li's action frightened Ye Xuan so much that cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He thought to himself: You old man are so ignorant. I helped you, but you want to harm me?

Zhu Yuanzhang is the supreme ruler today. Old man Li bowed to him and then to himself. Doesn't this mean that Ye Xuan is placed on the same level as Zhu Yuanzhang!
If the emperor had a narrow-minded mind, he might have already started to hate Ye Xuan.

Fortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang was not that kind of emperor. Generally, founding emperors are always more magnanimous.

Zhu Yuanzhang just glanced at Ye Xuan with interest, and asked Yun Qi to send Old Man Li away.

(End of this chapter)