Chapter 480: The Theft Case

Every room they entered was the same: filthy, messy, and foul-smelling. The men from the Ministry of Justice frowned the entire time. Having no concept of cleanliness, they now used wooden sticks to lift up the matted animal hides and compressed Wild Rice straw, unwilling to use their own Knife for fear of getting it dirty.

They had strictly forbidden defecating anywhere outside, but they never expected that to avoid going out into the cold, this group of people had simply taken care of it inside the rooms. The first person to step into the slippery, sticky excrement let out a sharp, explosive shriek after lifting their foot to look.

Afterward, disregarding everything else, they roared furiously toward the outside: "Which bastard took a dump in the house? Get in here!!!"

To their surprise, after the group exchanged a few glances, they all actually started shuffling their way inside!

At this moment, the men from the Ministry of Justice had not yet realized the severity of the problem and shouted sternly: "I said whoever took the dump should come in, I didn't tell all of you to come in!"

But after the group paused for a moment, they continued to crowd toward the doorway. At this, the faces of the Ministry of Justice men changed. They began to look down at their feet, and upon doing so, they discovered piles of yellow matter at the base of the walls, and even yellow water stains left on the ground.

The Ministry of Justice men were furious. The person who had stepped in the excrement took the lead, using their enchanted shoe sole to kick the person closest to them, then took down the Punishment Whip they carried as part of their official equipment.

Although the Clerks behind were angry, they could not act on impulse now; using torture instruments required a legal basis, otherwise, it would be an abuse of power and also a crime.

They hurriedly held the man back, telling him not to be impulsive and to judge before punishing.

They had originally been investigating a theft case and never expected to encounter such a situation. This also made them realize that the managers here had not done their jobs properly. They had no way to pass judgment on the spot; for officials, even a low-level Clerk, they had to be prosecuted before they could be tried, while for the common people, it depended on the severity of the crime.

The men from the Ministry of Justice angrily ordered these tenant farmers to go in first and clean up the hygiene, move everything out, and clear away the feces in the rooms. As for the matter of defecating in the rooms, they needed to let them finish the work first before punishing them, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to work.

Because the entire tenant farmer area was so large, the Ministry of Justice had mobilized almost all their own personnel and even borrowed some people from the Ministry of War. In a team of nearly three hundred people, there was not a single exception; sharp, explosive shrieks rang out one after another in different rooms.

Seeing that these tenant farmers were all defecating in their rooms, without exception, everyone suddenly felt it was troublesome. If they punished everyone, they feared no one would be able to go down to the fields to work tomorrow, so they hurriedly reported to their superiors.

Upon learning of this, the Minister of Justice was also somewhat shocked. Although there was no concept of "the law does not punish the masses" at the moment, the fact that almost everyone had this problem showed that their propaganda had loopholes.

However, the greatest responsibility for this lay with the Ministry of Revenue. The managers sent by the Ministry of Revenue had not done their supervisory and management work at all; if they had worked diligently, they would have discovered the problem long ago.

The people from the Ministry of Revenue felt their faces burn from the Ministry of Justice's words, but this was indeed their problem, so they hurriedly sent people to assist the Ministry of Justice's work while calling those managers back to wait for punishment.

Through the joint efforts of several departments, the tenant farmers' rooms gradually began to be cleaned, but the people in one room were dragging their feet while taking their things out.

An old hand from the Ministry of Justice spotted the clue at a glance. After signaling to his companion with his eyes, he walked straight into the room, not caring what was on the floor.

Several people blocked the door and then said sternly: "Stop what you're doing and come over here to stand in a line."

Hearing this, several people in the room started trembling instantly, but they still obediently put their things away and stood against the wall. However, because the wall was a bit short, the one line ended up as two.

The man from the Ministry of Justice pointed to the first spot on the kang and said: "Whose spot is this? Step out."

The owner of that spot walked to the front, trembling with fear.

The man from the Ministry of Justice pointed at the kang: "Go, pack up your things."

Afterward, he looked at the others standing there: "Now, I will give you one last chance. Whoever has hidden things, hand them over obediently now, and I can give you a lighter punishment. But if you don't take them out and we find them, you won't have a good time."

Several people hurriedly lowered their heads and started picking at their fingers. After waiting a while, no one stepped out, and the first person's spot had already been cleared, with nothing found.

The men from the Ministry of Justice had already locked onto a few people. Going one by one now was to screen for anyone with an exceptionally strong psychological state who had been faking it.

Just as they were about to call the next one, who was one of those hiding things, a shout came from outside: "Found them! Take these few and drag them out!"

Then came a burst of crying and shouting. The few people in this room were a bit confused. One person said: "You keep watch, I'll go see what's going on."

As soon as he went out, he saw that several people had already been dragged out from the doorways of the past few houses, and along with them, more than half a bag of grain had been brought out.

He was somewhat puzzled, so he shouted and asked: "You caught them? Are you sure it's the stolen grain?"

The person opposite said in a relaxed tone: "It's them. They've already confessed, but they've already eaten some of it raw."

At this moment, the man felt something was wrong and hurriedly returned to the room. Upon looking at those few suspects, they were already shaking so hard they could barely stand. He suddenly felt in his heart that there might be more than one theft case, so he hurriedly demanded they speed up.

When it came to one of the suspects, he almost fell with every step he took. Seeing this, the men from the Ministry of Justice didn't let them do it anymore; they stepped onto the kang themselves and kicked the animal hide away with their feet. As a result, an object fell to the ground, making a crisp sound.

Several people hurriedly stared at it; it was actually a Dajian. The men from the Ministry of Justice were greatly alarmed and no longer minded the filth, starting to shake the animal hides with their hands. Someone had actually stolen a Dajian! Fortunately, they discovered it early; if it had been a few days later, a murder case would likely have occurred. One had to know that these tenant farmers were not qualified to touch any kind of Weapon for the time being, let alone possess one themselves.

Shaking all the animal hides out one by one, they indeed discovered two more planing knives used by a Carpenter and a Chisel. Now, a simple grain theft case had directly escalated.