Chapter 2: The Wind Rises from Zhongshan Mountain Chapter 7: Double Happiness
A month ago, Li Jiutian took people to the Fang family breakfast stall to collect heavy taxes, but was frightened by Zhao Hao's pretentiousness. He thought he had met a young man who was on a secret visit.
Li Jiutian was so embarrassed that he had to apologize profusely. He fled back to the county government office with his tail between his legs like a dog.
When they went back to inquire, they found out that the boy was just the son of an old imperial student. The father and son lived in Caijia Lane. He might have some money, but he definitely had no background.
Who would live in this shabby place if they had a background ? The person with the most background in this shabby place was Li Jiutian, who had the support of the county government. Li was a bad official!
The magistrate of Shangyuan County divided the county into several districts and ordered official servants to be in charge of each district. All matters big and small, such as public security, catching thieves, collecting taxes, fires, etc., were handled by this servant, who brought several unofficial servants.
Li Jiutian was the person in charge of Caijia Lane and several nearby streets, and he had always regarded this area as his own. As a result, he was slapped in the face by a child with no power and only a little money.
If he can't get this place back, how can he continue to bully others in this place?
Just when he was thinking about how to deal with this guy, his subordinates reported that the guy surnamed Zhao had partnered with a few neighbors to open a small restaurant. Although the restaurant was small, judging by the decoration of the store, it must have cost a lot of money.
Now Li Jiutian no longer had to worry about not being able to deal with the Zhao kid. He did not take action immediately, but waited patiently for the restaurant to open. If he took action at this time, he would have caught the Zhao kid at his weak spot. Let's see how he could still be so arrogant.
Today, Li Jiutian was patrolling the streets. Hearing the sound of firecrackers, he mistakenly thought that the restaurant was opening today, so he immediately excitedly gathered his men to come and smash the place up.
He was intent on revenge, so how could he care about five taels of silver?
"Sir, our shop hasn't even opened yet, and five taels of silver is already a lot." Fang De was careful and said nicely, "Please be gracious, sir. If the business is good in the future, I will give you a gift."
"Don't give me that bullshit!" Li Jiutian pointed at Fang De's nose and spat, "You are so unlucky that every time you open a business, you fail. Do you have any future? If you don't take out a hundred taels of silver today, don't even think about opening a business!"
"Are you robbing?!" Zhao Jin was furious. He rushed out of the store, pointed at Li Jiutian and cursed: "I'm going to the county to sue you for disturbing the people and extorting money!"
"Who are you trying to scare, you bastard?" Li Jiutian frowned, grabbed Zhao Jin by the collar, and raised his hand to slap him.
Gao Wu grabbed his hand and squeezed it hard, and Li Jiutian's face changed immediately.
"It hurts, it hurts, are you all blind? Come on!"
Those white servants were used to being aggressive in this area. When they heard their leader howling like a pig being slaughtered, they raised their water and fire sticks to hit Gao Wu.
Wu Yu raised his seven-foot wooden stick, and the other strong men also took off their shirts, revealing the short sticks on their waists!
The scene was in chaos and a melee was about to break out.
Suddenly, the window on the second floor was pushed open. Zhao Hao leaned on the windowsill and stuck his head out. He spat fiercely and said:
"Tsk, Li Jiutian, do you want to die?!"
Li Jiutian had just broken free from Gao Wu's control when he was unexpectedly spit on the forehead by Zhao Hao.
He wiped his forehead in anger, pointed at Zhao Hao and cursed: "You little bastard surnamed Zhao, you are still pretending to be so great! Hurry up and kowtow to me, or I will destroy your family!"
"Hurry up and kneel down and kowtow to me, and then shout 'Grandpa, spare my life ' three times to my elder brother," Zhao Hao ignored his threat and responded with a sharp curse: "Otherwise, I will make you pay for it!"
"Haha, you damn kid, have you taken some crazy medicine?" Li Jiutian laughed in anger, pointing at Zhao Hao and asking Bai Yi beside him, "How should we deal with this kid?"
"Catch him back and let him have a good taste of our cooking skills. Let's see whether this guy is tough in words or not!" The white servants clamored.
"What are you standing there for? Go ahead!" Li Jiutian waved his hand and pointed at Gao Wu who was blocking the way. "We are investigating the case now. Anyone who tries to stop us will be arrested!"
"Don't be afraid, he's going to be in trouble soon." Zhao Hao laughed nonchalantly and said, "Li Jiutian, I'll count to you in dozens. If you don't kneel down, even the gods can't save you!"
"Haha, I really believed your lies!" Li Jiutian folded his arms and raised his head, laughing at Zhao Hao: "Count, and if I don't get unlucky after counting, you can jump down from the building by yourself."
"Okay, then I'll start counting." Zhao Hao smiled and counted down: "Ten, nine, eight..."
Li Jiutian looked around and laughed with the white servants. They all wanted to see how this kid would end up.
"Six, five, four..."
Unexpectedly, before Zhao Hao finished counting, a Jingjie cannon exploded behind everyone.
The common people who were watching the excitement immediately stepped aside and made way for the road.
Li Jiutian looked back blankly, and saw a team of officials in red uniforms, beating gongs to clear the way and holding up signs to avoid the law enforcement, escorting a blue cloth official sedan chair carried by eight people, coming from the direction of Dashiqiao in a mighty procession.
Li Jiutian saw that the blue official sedan had a silver top, which meant that the person in the sedan was at least a third-rank official. He quickly knelt on the ground, sticking his butt high in the air, not daring to raise his head.
"Hey, Li Jiutian, I haven't finished counting yet." Zhao Hao teased with a smile.
How could Li Jiutian dare to argue at this time? If the guards thought he was disrespectful to the adults, he would be slapped in the face.
"I'll settle the score with you later..."
Li Jiutian said inwardly with hatred, he thought this gentleman was just passing by.
How could a third-rank official go to a poor place like Caijia Lane?
Unexpectedly, the gentleman's sedan chair landed steadily at the door of the restaurant.
"Mr. Xie, the Left Vice-Chief Censor of the Nanjing Censorate, is here. Anyone outside please get out of the way!"
The attendant sang loudly and opened the curtain of the sedan chair. A high-ranking official, the Imperial Censor, came down. He was wearing a black official hat, a scarlet official robe, and a xiezhi pattern on his chest.
There was complete silence inside and outside the restaurant. The Deputy Censor-in-Chief slowly glanced at the crowd and immediately saw Zhao Jin standing there, trembling slightly.
"Old senior, thank you for your hard work..." The third-rank imperial censor actually bowed deeply to Zhao Jin.
Li Jiutian, who was kneeling on the ground, caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye and was almost frightened to faint.
Why would a third-rank official bow to a thief? I just grabbed his collar and was about to slap him ...
At that moment, Zhao Jin was completely stunned. He forgot to return the greeting and didn't even hear what the visitor was saying.
In his eyes, there were only the hardships of the past fourteen years...
Everyone heard clearly what the censor said in a deep voice:
"The imperial envoy has arrived in Nanjing and announced the imperial edict to the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of War. According to the late emperor's will, all the ministers who offended the emperor from April of the 16th year of Zhengde to December of the 45th year of Jiajing will be pardoned. The surviving ones will be employed, and the deceased ones will be compensated. Therefore, Zhao Jin, who was dismissed and exiled in January of the 32nd year of Jiajing because of the solar eclipse and impeached Yan Song, will be acquitted and reinstated from today!"
"Restored to my original position..." Li Jiutian collapsed to the ground.
