The lucky girl in the village has a good way of making money.

Chapter 334: Bribery
The New Year in Ruikang in the 21st year was extremely lively. The Lu Ban lock of Tongwanzhai caused a great craze at the end of the year, attracting the obsession of countless students and even idle people.

So much so that during the Chinese New Year, everyone is talking about various kinds of Lu Ban locks, and they also get together to play with Lu Ban locks. In previous years, they competed in knowledge and poetry, but this year, they competed to see who could unlock the Lu Ban lock better.

The Lu Ban locks in all provinces were sold out and were in great demand.

There might be things to grab in other prefectures, but there was really nothing to grab in the seven counties under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture except Luoshui City.

Because there is no Tongwanzhai in these seven counties, only individual merchants buy goods from Tongwanzhai in Luoshui City and bring them back to their own counties to sell. Not only does it cost more effort, but the goods are naturally not in sufficient supply so quickly.

But these are just ordinary people. Those who have a little ability would have sent people to the provincial capital or Luoshui city to buy them long ago. They would not buy from individual merchants here at all, and there would be no need to wait.

This was the case with Liu Wei, the son of the Xiangning County magistrate. As the son of the county magistrate, if he wanted something, he only had to ask and his subordinates would deliver it to him.

Some time ago, he was very obsessed with the checkers in Tongwanzhai, and later he became obsessed with military chess. He was very interested in playing these games that both require a lot of brainpower and do not require much brainpower.

But the Lu Ban lock that was delivered to him recently was not such a problem. He thought it was fun at first, but he couldn't unlock it after playing with it for a long time. The same style was unlocked by his illegitimate brother born to a lowly aunt, which made him annoyed.

Then during the New Year holidays, he went out to play with a bunch of friends, and he found that everyone could solve those simple patterns.

Everyone else can solve it, but he can't. What does this mean? Does it mean that he is dumber than others?
How can he admit this?

He can't be dumber than others! It's not his problem, it's the problem of this Luban Lock!

As a result, the people of Xiangning who were having fun were suddenly notified by the yamen runners with drums and gongs that they were not allowed to play with the Luban lock anymore. Moreover, the individual merchants who had finally imported a batch of goods and were planning to come back to make a fortune also had their goods confiscated and destroyed by the yamen runners. Not only did they not make a penny, they even suffered huge losses!
Why are we not allowed to play with such an interesting Luban Lock?

I thought it was forbidden by the higher-ups, but after asking around I found out that it was Liu Wei who was causing trouble. He didn't want to play himself and didn't allow others to play!

County Magistrate Liu is really abusing his power and oppressing others!
Others were afraid of County Magistrate Liu, but some people were not.

This didn’t happen to them in the past, but now County Magistrate Liu forbids them from playing with the Luban lock. Isn’t this a problem for them?

So, the son of the wealthy Zheng family in Xiangning County, who was visiting relatives and friends in the provincial capital, "happened" to meet the magistrate Yan while attending a banquet with his uncle who was a tutor, and reported the matter to him.

The Tongpan has the duty of supervising the officials of the prefecture and county, and Lord Yan is a person who does not tolerate any injustice. How could he tolerate this when he heard about it?

He immediately sent people to Xiangning County for a secret investigation.

The undercover investigation revealed that not only was what Mr. Zheng said true, but also that County Magistrate Liu embezzled money, accepted bribes, bullied the people, etc. In short, he was not an honest official. We would not tell anyone unless we investigated. But once we did, we had no choice but to bring him to justice.

Lord Yan immediately reported the matter to the prefect Cheng.

It was the second day after Prefect Cheng returned from a banquet attended by Prefect Ge. Prefect Cheng was about to send someone to Xiangning County when Lord Yan arrived.

"Master Cheng."

"Master Yan."

Although the prefect's position was higher than that of a magistrate, Lord Yan was older and of the same generation as Prefect Cheng's father. Prefect Cheng was respectful to the elders and loved the young, so Prefect Cheng was naturally polite to Lord Yan. At the moment, the government office had not yet opened its seal, and both parties were dressed in casual clothes, so they were more casual. After greeting and sitting down, Prefect Cheng said, "Lord Yan didn't come last night. Lord Ge and I were also talking about it. It was really less fun to drink a few cups without Lord Yan."

Lord Yan said, "You can drink anytime. I was absent yesterday because I had something urgent to do—"

Prefect Cheng sat up straight, "Oh? What happened?"

Lord Yan said solemnly, "Lord Cheng, you may not know that a few days ago I received a report that Xiangning County Magistrate Liu Baode was partial to his own interests and perverted the law. Just because his son did not play with Lu Ban locks, he issued a high-profile order not to allow Xiangning people to play with them. He also confiscated the Lu Ban locks from a merchant and smashed them. The people were so angry that they dared not speak out.

After receiving this report, I sent people to Xiangning County for an unannounced investigation and found that the Lu Ban lock that was so popular elsewhere was nowhere to be found in Xiangning County. Even the shops selling children's toys were out of stock. Not only was this true, but Liu Baode had been the magistrate of Xiangning County for more than nine years, and he had embezzled money, accepted bribes, and bullied the people. Every one of his crimes was truly shocking!

The fact that Xiangning County has such a magistrate is truly a tragedy for the people, and it is also my fault—"

As Lord Yan spoke, he stood up, bowed to Prefect Cheng, and blamed himself.

The Tongpan was responsible for supervising officials. It was definitely the Tongpan's fault that such a county magistrate appeared under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture.

But Lord Yan had only been the magistrate of Daming Prefecture for a little over a year, while Liu Baode had been the magistrate of Xiangning County for nine years and had long been a local veteran, so his failure to supervise him was not a big deal.

Fortunately, this has been revealed.

Prefect Cheng waved his hand, his expression becoming serious, "What a coincidence, I just received a report, reporting that Xiangning County Magistrate Liu Baode abused his power for personal gain and perverted the law to harm innocent people—"

Lord Yan raised his eyebrows and said, "It's not surprising. My people secretly investigated and found that Liu Baode was corrupt and accepted bribes to enrich himself. He must have handled many unjust and wrong cases."

Prefect Cheng shook his head and said, "This is not as simple as just a wrong judgment..." and told him everything he knew.

'Snapped'!
Lord Yan slammed the table, looking shocked and angry. "He set fire to the village just for his own selfishness, killing 108 innocent villagers. This is even more abominable than embezzling and accepting bribes for personal gain! This man should be executed!"

The emperor loves his people like his own children. In the eleventh year of the Jin Kang period, Zhang Jian, the magistrate of Datong County in Chengbo Prefecture, Mianzhou, designed to seize the wealth of a local gentry in Datong for his own selfish interests and executed a family of nine of the gentry as thieves. Later, the truth was revealed and the emperor was furious when he learned about it. He dismissed Zhang Jian, who had been promoted to the magistrate at that time, and sentenced him to be beheaded. In addition, the three clans were confiscated and exiled, which shocked the world at that time.

Liu Baode persecuted 108 lives in an entire village for his own selfish interests. The nature of his actions was even more serious and appalling. If this were to reach the emperor, I'm afraid he would be even more furious.

And this happened in their Daming Prefecture——

Lord Yan could imagine the wrath of thunder and lightning at that time. If they failed to handle this case well, they would all suffer.

Lord Yan's expression twisted. "I have already collected all the evidence and witnesses that Liu Baode was corrupt and took bribes to enrich himself. Lord Cheng, please order the immediate arrest of Liu Baode and investigate his crimes!"

Prefect Cheng's expression also became serious. After hearing what Liu Jianming said yesterday, although he believed it to 90%, he still planned to send someone to investigate secretly before taking any action.

But today we learned that Lord Yan had secretly investigated Liu Baode. Regardless of what Liu Jianming said, just the fact that Liu Baode embezzled and accepted bribes to enrich himself is enough to arrest and investigate him.

Immediately, Prefect Cheng issued an order to arrest Liu Baode.