Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law.

Chapter 638: The Evil of Disorder

Less than a hundred miles out of Tianchuan City, the road became difficult to travel on.

The corruption of the Song Dynasty's bureaucracy began during the reign of Emperor Ling. In addition, due to the country's voyages to sea, the national treasury was not rich, so there was naturally no extra money to maintain the official system.

Over a long period of time, except for the section of official road in the capital which remained intact, the official roads in other states and counties were in dilapidated condition. Now, potholes can be seen everywhere. After several months of spring rain, the official roads have become muddy.

Not to mention the bumps, if the wheels accidentally fall into a puddle, even a packhorse won't be able to pull it out.

This situation has happened several times in a row.

Seeing that the wheels had fallen into the pit again, Chen Mo got out of the carriage with a frown, intending to ride on horseback to continue his journey.

His horse Xuelongjun is very old. According to Xia Zhining, he is already seventeen years old, which is already old age for a horse.

Therefore, when he returned to Xiangyang this time, Chen Mo did not ride the Snow Dragon Horse. He left it in Tianchuan as a "stud" to spend his old age in peace.

Chen Mo rode a fast horse and went straight to Huaizhou with Xia Zhining, Nalan Yiren, Wu Changlin, Nangong Xian and his personal guards. As a large force, the Yu Scale Guards were definitely not as fast as Chen Mo and his men in large-scale marching, and fell behind.

During the day, he passed through cities and towns and stayed in an inn at night. He did not disturb the county government offices along the way and did not display any ceremonial guards.

After seven days, they arrived at the Hexi area.

When he was in Tianchuan before, many counties in Hexi submitted several memorials to the emperor, reporting that there were bandits in their jurisdictions who were robbing on the roads, not only taking the money and property of passers-by but also killing people. Due to their high mobility and insufficient staff in the government offices, they were no longer able to deal with these bandits and requested the court to send troops to suppress them.

Thinking of this, Chen Mo got an idea. He changed into the clothes of a rich young man, asked Xia Zhining to change into a skirt and sit in the carriage, then took Sun Meng, Luo Yong and five or six personal soldiers with him, asked the personal soldiers to change into casual clothes, and went ahead, leaving the personal soldiers camp behind.

When they arrived at the place mentioned in the book as the place full of bandits, as expected, dozens of figures rushed out from both sides of the road and surrounded Chen Mo and his group.

Some people even chanted the robbery slogan in the local dialect: "I built this road, I planted this tree, if you want to pass through here, you have to leave money for the passage."

"Boss, it's a woman, her skin is so white, it seems we have met a fat sheep this time"

"bang"

A bandit lifted the curtain of the carriage window and saw Xia Zhining inside. Before he could finish his words, Sun Meng, who was disguised as a servant beside the carriage, took the lead and punched the bandit in the stomach. Suddenly, the bandit flew out like a cannonball, hit a big tree beside the road, vomited blood and died.

"King Bug."

The other bandits were shocked when they saw this, and then they became furious. The leader frowned and shouted, "They are martial artists. Go together. Leave the women behind and kill the rest."

After a fierce fight, dozens of bandits who surrounded Chen Mo and his men all fell to the ground, wailing in pain.

Chen Mo and Xia Zhining did not take any action. Sun Meng, Luo Yong and a few others alone took care of all the dozens of bandits.

These bandits may seem ferocious, but in fact they are just ordinary people who can't make a living and just want to make a living. However, after doing this highway robbery business for a long time, they have lost their conscience and gather together to bully passers-by.

Killing people, raping women, etc.
After the personal guards arrived, Chen Mo had the bandits handed over to the local government office, which would deal with them and punish them to see who should die and who could live.

Seeing that this method was effective, Chen Mo did the same thing in several places where bandits appeared.

If we don't encounter them on the spot, we will go directly into the mountains to suppress them until these bandit gangs are wiped out.

During this period, an interesting thing happened.

In order to save his life, a bandit leader in a certain area gave away the fact that there was a Black Wind Village in Hun County, dozens of miles away. The leader of the village, Black Wind, was also a martial arts master.

They say that Heifeng is much more cruel than us, and he also robs and sells people.

In Hun County, Heifeng is the local tyrant.

However, this news was not reported to the court.

Then Chen Mo made some inquiries and found out that Hun County was located in a remote area. Since the imperial court had weak control over the local area, since the death of the previous county magistrate of Hun County, the county magistrate of Hun County was nominated by local gentry and took office directly without reporting to the imperial court.

Now, it is said that the gentry of Hun County are in collusion with Heifengzhai, because Heifengzhai never attacks the gentry of Hun County. On the contrary, some people who offend the gentry disappear not long after.

In this case, wouldn't Black Wind Village have absolute power over the local area?

Even if the neighboring counties knew about it, they would not interfere.

Even if there were people who meddled in other people's affairs, the court was originally ruled by Xu Guozhong and Lu Sheng, and even if things were reported, their superiors would not care. Over time, they had become numb to it, and it had even become a habit.

Even if Chen Mo is in power now, no one is willing to give it a try.

Hun County was not originally a place that Chen Mo had to pass through on his way back to Linzhou. After learning about this, Chen Mo secretly went to Hun County.

Of course, after Chen Mo arrived, even if he went there in secret, he could not find any evidence of collusion between the local gentry and the Black Wind Village.

But Chen Mo doesn't need evidence.

All he had to do was confirm that this happened.

He broke into the mansion of the local gentry Cai family at night, and after forcing the location of Black Wind Village out of Mr. Cai, he went to Black Wind Village alone the next day.

The reason why he didn't bring any troops was that he was afraid of alerting the enemy and scaring away the bandits in the Black Wind Village.

In fact, Chen Mo’s worries were not wrong.

When he went up the mountain, he found several sentries, both visible and hidden. If a large group of people had gone up the mountain, they would have been discovered long ago.

Moreover, even if Chen Mo did not bring troops with him, he alone would be enough to wipe out these dozens or hundreds of bandits.

It’s not even past noon.

Chen Mo captured Heifeng and the main leaders of Heifeng Village, went down the mountain, and came to the "downtown area" in Hun County. After explaining their identities, he personally dealt with them, which drew applause from the surrounding people.

At the same time, the royal guards also entered the city, raided the Cai family's home, and held a public trial of the Cai family in the city.

After dealing with the Cai family, Chen Mo arranged for someone to temporarily serve as the magistrate of Hun County until the court arranged for an official to come.

The problems reflected in Hun County made Chen Mo realize that it was urgent for officials to take up vacant county government posts in various places.

Later on the road, Chen Mo encountered another incident.

A young man was being chased and happened to meet Chen Mo on the road. Chen Mo asked Sun Meng to rescue the young man.

Chen Mo asked the boy why he was being chased.

The boy saw that Chen Mo was a good person, and after some hesitation, he said it out.

It turned out that the bully in the city had set his eyes on his paddy field and wanted to exchange his inferior land for it.

Naturally, his parents refused, so the bully retaliated by breaking their legs and forcing his father to put his fingerprints on the land deed.

The boy was so angry that he wanted to avenge his parents, so he sneaked into the bully's house at night and wanted to kill the bully. However, the boy had never killed anyone before and hesitated at the critical moment. When the bully noticed him, he hurriedly chopped the bully with a knife and ran away.

After getting into such a big trouble, the young man was suddenly at a loss. In addition, Liu Da's men were chasing him, so he ran outside until he met Chen Mo.

After Chen Mo heard this, he frowned and said, "Why don't you report to the authorities? Is your county's government office vacant as well?"

The young man said, "I reported it, but the government said that since we signed the contract, we must abide by the agreement. My father said that he forced his fingerprints on him, but that damn official told us to produce evidence. Besides, Liu Da denied that my parents had their legs broken by him. No one dared to accuse Liu Da of breaking my parents' legs, and the government did not investigate. The government doesn't care, so I am like this." As he spoke, the young man began to cry, feeling very aggrieved.

After all, he was just a thirteen-year-old boy.

The Liu Da mentioned by the boy was the bully.

Chen Mo frowned and asked, "Did you kill Liu Da with that blow?"

"Probably not. I just cut his arm, and the kitchen knife wasn't sharp." said the young man.

"That's it." Chen Mo's face changed.

The boy asked, "What's wrong?"

"You injured Liu Da and ran away. Do you think he will take revenge on your parents?" Chen Mo said.

The young man never considered the consequences when doing things and just did things based on impulse. After hearing what Chen Mo said, the young man felt like he had been struck by a bolt from the blue.

After being stunned for a while, the boy raised his hand to wipe his eyes, then ran towards home in panic. He fell to the ground with a thud after only a few steps.

But the boy seemed not to feel any pain, he got up and continued running.

Chen Mo rode up to catch up, grabbed him in front of him, and asked, "Where is your home? Tell me the direction and I'll take you there."

……

Soon after, Jiyin County.

Old mountain village, the boy’s home.

Fortunately, Liu Da did not kill the boy's parents, but he did not let them go either.

Originally, Liu Da only broke one leg of the boy's parents, but now, both of their legs were broken.

Liu Da also brought his lackeys and stood outside the boy's house to show his authority. He sternly threatened the villagers who gathered around him, saying that anyone who dared to offend him, Liu Da, would end up like this.

When the villagers saw this scene, although they felt sorry for it and felt sympathy, no one dared to step forward to intervene.

Until Chen Mo came over on horseback with the young man.

"How dare you come back, you little bastard? Oh, you brought helpers with you?" Liu Da looked at Chen Mo on his horse and did not rush to take action. Instead, he said, "My friend, this matter has nothing to do with you. Don't meddle in other people's business."

"But why should I care about this?" Chen Mo sneered.

"Then I'm sorry. Come on, catch that little bastard. I'm going to chop his arm." Liu Da only said that in a friendly manner because he saw Chen Mo riding a horse and wearing extraordinary clothes. But since Chen Mo wanted to intervene, he didn't hesitate.

"bang bang bang"

In just a few blinks of an eye, Liu Da and his lackeys were knocked to the ground by Chen Mo in no time, looking very relaxed and leisurely.

The people watching nearby were shocked.

"I'm going to kill you." When the boy saw that his parents' other leg was also broken, he rushed towards Liu Da like crazy, but was stopped by Chen Mo.

"Let me go, I want to kill him, kill him, woooo." The boy roared and then began to cry, thinking that he was the one who harmed his parents.

"Don't worry, I will give you an explanation about this matter." Chen Mo said.

"What are you going to do?" Chen Mo saved him and helped him defeat Liu Da this time, so the boy trusted Chen Mo very much and gradually calmed down, but his eyes were still red as he stared at Liu Da.

"Go to the government office and beat the drum to appeal for justice," said Chen Mo.

juvenile:"……"

The onlookers: "..."

Seeing Chen Mo's serious look, the young man said, "The government won't care."

However, Liu Da, who was knocked to the ground by Chen Mo, breathed a sigh of relief.

Liu Da knew exactly what the government office looked like now.

Liu Zhubo from the yamen is somewhat related to his family.

Liu Zhubo told him that the county magistrate and the adults of Jiyin County were sent from Chongwang Mansion and were considered Chongwang's men.

After King Chong was defeated by King Wei, He Da Ren had been worried about being purged.

As the saying goes, a new emperor appoints new ministers. Even if there is no reckoning, I am afraid that the magistrate of Jiyin County and your Excellency will not be able to continue their duties.

So from that moment on, he and the adults gradually stopped caring about things. As long as no one was killed, they turned a blind eye to what happened in their jurisdiction. As a result, the affairs of the yamen gradually fell into the hands of the county lieutenant and the chief clerk.

"If he ends up at the government office, I'll make sure he pays for his crimes." Liu Da looked at Chen Mo with a sinister look in his eyes.

"Don't worry, the government will take care of it." Chen Mo's eyes flickered.

……

The backyard of Jiyin County Government Office.

There is a peach tree planted in the yard.

The peach trees were full of peach blossoms, but after April, they had gradually begun to fall and wither.

He and the county magistrate sat under a peach tree, holding a book of sages and reading it with great interest.

The He County Magistrate is nearly 70 years old, an old man with a confused mind. He has no talent for cultivation and is only at the seventh level. It is estimated that he will not be able to reach the middle level even before his death. However, he does not force it and has let it go.

Actually, the relationship between Magistrate He and King Chong was not very close.

Although Jiyin County is not in Chongzhou, it is also within the sphere of influence of King Chong.

He, the county magistrate, had a dream of becoming an official, so he paid off a person with influence in Chongwang Mansion and became the county magistrate of Jiyin County. He served in this position for more than ten years. Although he had no hope of promotion, he was satisfied.

But what he didn't expect was that King Chong actually fell.

After all, he was an official working in Prince Chong's palace, so naturally he was regarded as being in the same group with Prince Chong.

You never know when the King of Wei will plead guilty. At the very least, you will lose your official hat, and at worst, you may lose your life.

So, he just gave up and said, "Whatever happens, I can't be an official anyway, so why should I care about the affairs of the county? It's none of my business, just like the flood."

In fact, he thought about running away.

But he is old and won't live long, so he is too lazy to make any trouble.

Secondly, if the King of Wei really pursued him, he would have nowhere to run in such a big world, so he might as well stay in Jiyin County and wait for his fate to come.

(End of this chapter)