Chapter 286 Some things are too heavy to be measured
The Song family's decisiveness was completely beyond Xu Jingzong's expectations.

In fact, before arriving at the government office, Xu Jingzong had already guessed that something strange was bound to happen here.

I just didn't expect that the gecko would cut off its tail so easily. As expected of a local tyrant who has been entrenched in Dengzhou for so long, it must be quite capable.

The eighth-rank county magistrate is not a high-ranking official in the Dengzhou Special Economic Zone, but he is definitely not a small official.

After returning to Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Mansion, Li Jingren cursed fiercely: "These local tyrants are so slippery!"

"What's wrong?" Feng Qing, who came after hearing the news, asked with concern.

"We found the clues and found that they were from the Song family, but we didn't expect that the Song family reacted so quickly and dealt with the people involved." Li Jingren replied.

"Dead?" Feng Qing asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Dead." Li Jingren sighed, "It seems that this clue..."

Who would have thought that after hearing Li Jingren's words, Xu Jingzong, who was standing beside him, tightly wrapped his sleeves around his hands, lowered his eyebrows and asked, "Dead? So what if he died? Will it affect our investigation?"

"Old Xu, what you mean is..." Li Jingren raised his eyebrows. He didn't know what Xu Jingzong meant.

Xu Jingzong sat down on the chair, looked up at Li Jingren, and couldn't help but smile.

The second son of the King of Jiangxia County is capable, but he is still young after all and does not know how dangerous the world is.

Since His Highness wants me to partner up with him, why not take him with me?

Thinking of this, Xu Jingzong smiled and said, "Brother Jingren, let me ask you, if you were to supervise, what should you do next?"

"How should we do it?" Li Jingren pondered for a moment, and then said, "Of course, we should follow the clues and continue investigating."

Unexpectedly, Xu Jingzong shook his head.

"You must know the meaning of your Highness's establishment of a censor." Old Xu picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and continued, "The so-called censor is to do things that ordinary people cannot do. If you follow the procedures and follow the map, then why does your Highness set up this censor?"

"Lao Xu, what do you mean?" Li Jingren felt as if he had grasped something, but it was still a little vague.

"Now the yamen runners have pointed out that it was the Song family who came up with this incident." Xu Jingzong put down the teacup: "Since Song Yunlai died suddenly, it shows that the people in the Song family are hiding something."

Hearing this, Li Jingren's eyes lit up.

"The purpose of the procuratorate is not to get to the bottom of the case, but to clear the obstacles." Old Xu made the final decision: "Since the Song family has something to hide, let's deal with them. The Song family has been in Dengzhou for so many years and has developed such a large industry. How can they be clean? Let the procuratorate disperse and investigate among the people, collect more evidence, and convict the Song family of crimes. The Song family is used as a chicken to scare the monkeys of the other four families!"

"I understand!" Li Jingren suddenly understood everything. He bowed to Xu Jingzong sincerely and said, "Before I came to Dengzhou, Your Highness asked me to learn more from Old Xu. I was a little reluctant, but now I am convinced!"

"Jingren, you are too kind. I am only two years older in experience." Xu Jingzong replied with a smile, without any arrogance at all.

"What if the other four families are not convinced and continue to unite to cause trouble?" Li Jingren asked again.

"Since you don't know the current situation, then just follow suit and eliminate these four families as well." Xu Jingzong brushed his sleeves, as if he was talking about something that had nothing to do with him.

Li Jingren nodded, he already understood what he should do.

After a brief discussion, the two decided on the next course of action.

In the next two days, the inspectors went out to various places and began to conduct open and secret investigations among the people.

In fact, Xu Jingzong's assertion was not wrong. The Song family had been in Dengzhou for so many years, and their bottom line was really not clean.

But if you think about it carefully, it is true. If a wealthy family can be established in the local area, how can there be any good men and women?
Maybe someone in the family is indeed clean, but have they really not enjoyed the benefits of the family's development?
These things were not that big of a deal. After all, in this era, if a wealthy family killed a few peasants, it was not a big deal. At most, they could just find a servant to take the blame.

Li Jingren sat in the Dengzhou Grand Marshal's Mansion, rubbing his eyes as he watched the reports flying onto his desk like snowflakes.

"Can these evidences really completely suppress the Song family?"

What he held in his hand was a report about how a branch of the Song family had seized land and allowed slaves to beat civilians to death five years ago - the crime was ultimately taken by the slaves, so the matter was left unresolved.

"Some things don't weigh as much as four taels unless they are weighed." Xu Jingzong said calmly, "But once they are weighed, they weigh even a thousand pounds."

"In fact, one-third of these crimes are enough to wipe out the Song family from Dengzhou - but I, Xu, still believe in impartial law enforcement, and I will definitely make them die with a sincere heart." Xu Jingzong added at the end.

"Then what should we do next? Should we ask His Highness for instructions?" Feng Qing asked from the side. He actually wanted to deal with the Song family a long time ago, but he did not have the power back then, and recently he was busy with government affairs and could not take action, so it had been put on hold.

"Ask for instructions? If you rely on asking for instructions, you won't be able to catch up with any of the dishes." Xu Jingzong was happy. He glanced at Feng Qing who was still hesitating and gave him a reassurance: "Don't worry, Feng Changshi, before you came, His Highness has entrusted me with the decision-making power."

"In that case, let's make a decision." Feng Qing nodded.

"Yes." Xu Jingzong reached out and knocked on the table: "Send out two hundred inspectors, bring the soldiers from Dengzhou government office, arrest all the members of the Song family, and confiscate all their property into the Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office!"

Hearing this, Feng Qing couldn't help but tremble.

Even though Dengzhou is rich, the Dengzhou Military Governor's Office... is pretty damn poor.

He has to subsidize Youzhou and the Andong Protectorate. He has to pay subsidies to both sides. It will not be good to neglect either one. Now he is like Liu Luoguo going up the mountain - he is in a tight spot.

As the saying goes, when a man is poor, he has low ambitions and a thin horse has long hair. When Feng Qing heard that the Song family's property was all transferred to the Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office, he was no longer sleepy.

The inspectors acted very quickly and surrounded the Song family that afternoon.

The head of the Song family was terrified when he saw the densely packed inspectors and Dengzhou soldiers standing outside.

He had thought this day would come, but he didn't expect it to come so soon, leaving him no room for preparation.

However, it is too late to say anything now. The wealthy families today are no longer like those in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. They still have private soldiers and room to resist the armed forces of the imperial court.

Now they are like fish on the chopping board in front of the imperial armed forces.

The land seized from the Song family totaled more than 5,300 acres, and there were more than 14,600 acres of salt fields. There were also 400,000 dan of grain... As for the property, after a rough inventory, there were more than one million strings of cash, not counting the treasures such as gold, silver, antiques, and jade.

"Damn, they're so fat..." Ding Xiaoer said with emotion after finishing the inventory.

He is very powerful now. Relying on his familiarity in front of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he has risen to the rank of captain, in charge of more than 200 people.

He was also responsible for the confiscation of the Song family's property this time.

The Song family was in trouble, and other families were in danger, so they naturally couldn't just sit back and watch. Immediately, the heads of the Ye family, Wang family and other families came to the Dengzhou Grand Commander's Mansion to see what was going on.

However, what they didn't expect was that Feng Qing had already listed the crimes of the Song family in recent years, bullying the people and acting recklessly, and his words implied that if they also refused to obey the rules, they would also suffer the same fate as the Song family.

The heads of the four families immediately fell silent. The fall of the Song family was both a bad and a good thing for them.

Since this favor cannot be begged for, and there is even the possibility of getting into trouble, let's just forget it.

At the same time, they also made up their minds not to repeat the mistakes of the Song family.

Even if it means cutting some flesh and shedding some blood, I will accept it.

Who can stand sending out inspectors to search for evidence of crimes...

These family heads are quite aware of their own dirty tricks. If they really let the inspectors investigate, they would be lucky to be able to leave with their bodies intact.

The Song family cooked this chicken well, at least it scared away all the monkeys.

On the day of confiscating the Song family's property, Xu Jingzong even had people post notices all over Dengzhou, listing all the crimes committed by the Song family over the years, and listed all the witnesses and evidence to hammer the Song family to the point of no return.

Xu Jingzong also came up with a bad idea, which was to send poor scholars to read the notice, specifically to those illiterate people, for twenty cents a day.

Of course, the poor scholars would not miss such a good opportunity. They immediately flocked to it and started to explain the crimes of the Song family to the people.

In recent years, the Song family has not had a very good reputation in Dengzhou. After the scholars' deliberate publicity, the people also knew what was going on, and they all celebrated and applauded.

Obviously, Xu Jingzong's actions did not stop there. After dealing with the Song family's affairs, he asked the inspectors to investigate the interest transfer relationship between the Song family and several other major families over the years.

After that, Xu Jingzong didn't say much. He just copied the charges several times and sent them to the other families.

The Song family is not the only one going against the policy and resisting transfusion to Youzhou. The rest of you families are also involved.

It doesn't make sense that you can remain unscathed even if the Song family falls, right?

Oh, you were all safe and sound before I, the inspector, came; now that I, the inspector, have come, you are still safe and sound, so wasn't our inspector's coming here in vain?
Originally, Feng Qing planned to invite these family heads to a Hongmen Banquet, but was rejected by Xu Jingzong.

Lao Xu’s meaning is very simple. What level of status do you have to be worthy of having dinner with me?
When the four family heads saw the charges sent to each household by the inspectors, they were extremely panicked.

They didn't know what Xu Jingzong meant, whether he wanted to pursue the matter or not.

If it was Feng Qing, they would still be able to grasp his mind - but this was Xu Jingzong, the leader of the terrifying organization called "Jianxiu" around His Royal Highness the Crown Prince...

But there was nothing they could do. After all, the situation was stronger than the people, so they had to muster up the courage to ask Feng Qing for advice.

After returning, there was silence for a day. The next day, each family delivered the deeds of 7,000 acres of salt fields, 500,000 strings of copper coins, and 100,000 shi of grain to the Dengzhou government office.

There is no other way. If you want to avoid disaster, you have to spend money.

The procuratorate can turn a blind eye to their affairs, but they must show sincerity.

Xu Jingzong didn't want to do things completely, after all, this was related to Li Xiang's reputation.

As the saying goes, when it comes to martial ethics, one should stop when the time is right. If Li Xiang were to kill them all, he would probably be branded as a cruel official.

Xu Jingzong certainly didn't mind being branded as a cruel official, but he also had to consider Li Xiang, after all, Li Xiang had not yet ascended the throne.

These four major families suffered a great loss, and what made them even more uncomfortable was that not only did they have to spend money to avoid disaster, but they also had to spread the reputation of the inspector in Dengzhou and praise him with a pinch of their noses.

The Dengzhou Grand Military Governor's Office became rich overnight. Including the gains from the Song family's property raid, this time it had more than 21,000 acres of salt fields, more than 3 million strings of copper coins, and 800,000 shi of grain.

After careful consideration, Feng Qing decided to take out 200,000 shi of grain from the 800,000 shi and escort them to the Andong Protectorate by sea. He then escorted the rest by sea to Wuqing and then to Youzhou.

Youzhou also needs food, not only to fight against the Xueyantuo, but also to build Wuqing and Youzhou, which are also inseparable from the food.

As for the copper coins, Feng Qing stayed in the government office temporarily, preparing to write a letter to Li Xiang to ask for instructions on how to deal with them.

"Shi Feng has gained a lot this time." Xu Jingzong was sitting in the government office, feeling extremely happy.

Although there was no sense of accomplishment in taking down a few small local tyrants in the emerging area of ​​Dengzhou, this was after all the first time he led people to raid a house.

You know what, although Dengzhou was a barren land a few years ago, it has become very rich after development in recent years.

If the Song family had been raided a few years ago, they would definitely not have been able to squeeze much money out of them. Even a few tens of thousands of strings of cash would have been the maximum they could have gotten.

But it is different now. There are salt fields, fishing, and various favorable policies. Not only the common people, but even these big families are taking off like pigs sitting on the wind.

"What do you mean a great harvest? I'm so poor that I have to pawn my clothes." Feng Qing immediately put on a sad expression.

He wasn't pretending, it was really true.

Even if Li Xiang would keep the three million strings of cash, it would be a drop in the bucket for Dengzhou.

There are so many places to spend money, so many that Feng Qing wants to sell himself for money to supplement the needs of Dengzhou's development.

Xu Jingzong took a look at Feng Qing's brand new clothes and couldn't help but smile: "If Feng Changshi's new clothes are to be sold... they can also be sold for a good price."

"Forget it then." Feng Qing smoothed the clothes and said lovingly, "I have no other hobbies in my life except wearing new clothes."

When he said this, he laughed too.

This hobby... is really a bit strange.

"It's just a matter of wearing some new clothes." Xu Jingzong didn't think it was a big deal. After all, Feng Qing was a simple person by nature.

"Feng Changshi, Lao Xu——"

Li Jingren's voice came from outside, sounding a little urgent.

"A letter from Youzhou!"

(Please give me some monthly tickets, please… I have to go for intravenous drip tomorrow, I have been sleepy for four or five days and I haven’t played Black Monkey yet…)
(End of this chapter)