Wang Yuanguo is Li Yao's uncle?
Wang Dazuang is Li Yao's son?
This information made several colleagues and He Tongpan suddenly feel that things were very bad.
The business they did privately involved a lot of frauds. Usually they could easily resolve issues relying on the power in their hands.
But there were also unwritten rules. Generally they would not provoke other officials to avoid future conflicts.
Unexpectedly, this damned Zhang Shopkeeper didn’t recognize Li Yao?
Several knife-like gazes almost poked several holes in Zhang Shopkeeper's forehead.
"Auntie, can you give some suggestions?” Liu Yun said.
"Okay," Li Yao said, "my suggestion is that everyone here should retry this case."
"I agree!" Without waiting for others to speak, Liu Yun said in a loud voice, "But according to the rules, the affairs in the prefectural government are not something I can intervene at this point. So I want to hear everyone's opinion again. Those who agree to retrial, and those who disagree?”
Everyone looked at each other silently conveying signals.
In a short instant, they reached a consensus.
This retrial would surely give rise to many problems and reveal many unknown things. It might even cause them to suffer losses in interests.
So they absolutely could not retry.
Then everyone spoke out against it. Only a few county magistrates headed by Song County Magistrate firmly stood by Li Yao’s side.
In the end, out of the 30 officials present except Liu Yun and Li Yao, 23 were against and only 7 were in favor.
Seeing this result, Liu Yun was suddenly at a loss for words.
"Prince of Yizhou," Assistant Prefect Liu and others secretly breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Why don't we end this case like this?"
End it?
Liu Yun suddenly laughed.
Did they really think that holding together tightly, I would have no way to deal with them?
Did they really think that with them leaving, Yizhou Prefecture would have no officials and no one to govern?
He looked at Li Yao and got her approval. Then he said loudly: "Everyone, let's put this case aside for now and continue discussing what we talked about yesterday."
Everyone was stunned again, what’s the next act?
"Yesterday, I asked everyone to choose to stay or leave," Liu Yun said in a deep voice, "but now you don't need to choose anymore, I have made up my mind. Those who disagreed to retrial just now, from now on, you are no longer officials of my Yizhou Prefecture. Go back and report to the imperial court to wait for reassignment of positions.”
Assistant Prefect Liu and others were stunned, as if they had suddenly turned into wood carvings.
How dare this Prince of Yizhou do this?
Was he not afraid that Yizhou Prefecture would be in chaos without officials and governance?
"Song County Magistrate," Liu Yun continued to ask, "are you few willing to continue serving in the Yizhou government?"
"Willing!"
"Good, not bad," Liu Yun said, "Song County Magistrate, I appoint you as the prefect of Yizhou Prefecture."
"I obey the order!"
"Zheng County Magistrate, I appoint you as the Secretary to assist Prefect Song.”
"I obey the order!"
...
In a blink of an eye, the vacant positions in the prefectural government were divided up by several county magistrates.
As for the vacant county magistrate positions, Liu Yun could only temporarily appoint a county magistrate to concurrently manage two counties.
After everyone was appointed, Assistant Prefect Liu and the others suddenly realized.
The Prince of Yizhou didn’t ask them to come to try cases today. He was using this to test them and remove those officials who didn’t listen to him.
Judging from his appointments, this was not a temporary intention, but a premeditated plan.
It was said that this Ninth Prince had always been ignorant. How did he suddenly become so capable?
But now things had already happened, their plan to coerce Liu Yun by sticking together had completely failed.
"Prince of Yizhou, then we will hand over today and return to the capital tomorrow."
"No hurry, no hurry," With things as they were, Liu Yun finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, "You can go after Prefect Song has investigated this case clearly. It won't be too late."
Everyone's heart shuddered. This move was too ruthless.
The money they had privately earned in Yizhou Prefecture over the years had a lot to do with Zhang Shopkeeper's tooth store. If thoroughly investigated, even if they could not be convicted, they would have to spit out a lot of the money they earned!
This Liu Yun was so fierce!
"Everyone," Prefect Song said, "please wait in the prefecture before I get to the bottom of this case."
Everyone sighed in their hearts.
This Prefect Song was originally an official from Beijing. His family was quite powerful in the capital city. And now his rank had been raised to third grade official, higher than everyone present. He was not to be offended either.
They could only resign themselves to fate and think about how to spit out less money and make Zhang Shopkeeper take this black pot.
...
With the new prefect taking office, Prefect Song only took half a day to turn Zhang Shopkeeper's tooth store inside out.
His buddies had no integrity at all, confessing everything Zhang did clearly.
But Zhang Shopkeeper remained tough, insisting that everything was his own idea and had nothing to do with several investors. He stubbornly took all the responsibilities.
In the end, Prefect Song could only sentence him to return all fraud money and exile him to the northern border to transport grain and forage for the Daleng Army.
As for the five properties Li Yao bought, of course she didn’t need to return them.
With five more sets of houses in one breath, Li Yao made a killing this time. However, she didn't intend to sell the other four sets. Just right to give to Wang Er and Du Xiao Hui to open a school.
The next evening, Prefect Song finished his official business and visited with his wife.
Li Yao was supervising the construction of toilet and kitchen renovation. Seeing the couple come, she smiled and said, "Congratulations to Mr. Song on his promotion to prefect!"
"Thank you, thank you," Prefect Song didn't look so happy, "Actually, there's nothing to congratulate."
If this was heard by Liu Yun, he would probably feel a little uncomfortable in his heart. But it was true words.
By staying in Yizhou and serving as Prince Liu Yun's prefect, it meant he had almost no hope of returning to Beijing for a position. So this was the highest office he could get.
However, if he returned to the capital city, in theory he could be appointed prime minister, with only one person above and ten thousand people below him.
The prefect of a prefecture versus the prime minister of a country, the status was tens of thousands of miles apart.
"I heard that today Prince Yizhou took over the local troops," Prefect Song said, "It didn’t seem to go too smoothly either, many generals were unwilling to stay."
Military officers were different from civil servants.
Civil servants could find someone similar as a substitute, but military officers could not. Casually choosing someone would fail to convince the troops. Then the soldiers would not listen to orders, or just be perfunctory and lazy. That would be very dangerous.
"Unfortunately Wang San is not here," the prefect’s wife said. "Otherwise he could at least serve as a platoon leader."
Wang San was in the northern border, wonder how he’s been.
Although this kid had learned decent martial arts, he neglected literary cultivation. Up to now, he had only written one letter home, which was also ghostwritten by someone else.
"If I guess right, Prince Yizhou must have a way to solve it."
"That's true," Prefect Song said. "He transferred Liu Hu and his former subordinates from the border army stationed at the Nanzhou border to come back, and also borrowed Zhang County Captain from me."
"Zhang County Captain?"
"Yes," Prefect Song smiled. "He is still very capable, serving as a platoon leader should be effortless for him."
Unexpectedly, Zhang County Captain also got a promotion because of this. It was indeed gratifying. Must let someone go congratulate him later.
With Liu Hu and Zhang County Captain, the local troops should stabilize for the time being.
It felt like it would be eternal peace after just a few days.
Next, just waiting for Wang Er to take the county exam.
