Chapter 73: Changes

Chen Mo looked at the several documents in his hand; they recorded evidence of Liu Mingqiao bullying men and women, accepting bribes, and engaging in corruption and lawlessness.

According to what was written here, Liu Mingqiao was incredibly greedy and stingy, to the point that he even owed money to prostitutes.

Of course, Chen Mo believed this claim was highly likely to be exaggerated, but the matters recorded on these few pages were likely at least seventy percent true.

When Liu Mingqiao committed evil deeds, he never wasted energy covering them up; in fact, it was not just him, as many villains in this world were like this, never spending effort to overly conceal their own evil acts.

Because there was no need.

Ordinary commoners had nowhere to appeal, and if there was any connection to the government, then as long as an ordinary person dared to report them, the intimidation staves could beat a person half to death.

Since ancient times, the yamen gates face south; if you have reason but no money, do not enter.

Most common folk, even if they suffered bitterness and endured hardship, could mostly only swallow their teeth along with the blood.

That Liu Mingqiao was the same; he was able to sit in this position mainly because he had a good relative.

He was able to hold this official position because of the Prefecture Assistant; as long as the Prefecture Assistant did not fall, and he did not take the initiative to offend people he could not afford to provoke.

Even if he did many more evil deeds, he could still sit securely in this position, and perhaps one day when the Prefecture Assistant was promoted, he could be promoted too.

But if the Prefecture Assistant's position was not secure, even if he worked diligently and was an upright official, it would be useless; when it was time to be liquidated, he would still be liquidated.

As long as no one wanted to use him to bring down the Prefecture Assistant, then even if he did many more evil deeds, no one would dare to interfere.

And if someone wanted to use him to fight and topple the Prefecture Assistant, then no matter how many good deeds he did, it would be useless; coerced confessions could still serve as evidence.

Actually, if it were Chen Mo, it would be the same, only that compared to Liu Mingqiao, he did not go around committing evil deeds.

He also did not do much to cover up when he accepted bribes, but as long as his foster father was fine, no matter how much money he took, it was a minor issue.

"Alright, you did a good job with this matter." Chen Mo put away the papers and smiled at He Luoyun, who was standing to the side.

These pieces of information were all collected at Chen Mo's instruction; as for whether doing this would be known by Liu Mingqiao?

There was absolutely no need to worry about that; the goal was for him to know, and if he knew and still had no reaction, then it would be time to take action.

"My Lord, I have also found two witnesses from elsewhere, and they have now been sent into the settlement; how would you like to handle them?" He Luoyun bowed and asked.

"You take them to find a place to settle them well first; keep them, as this official has use for them," Chen Mo instructed carefully.

He Luoyun did not have the slightest hesitation and hurriedly retreated; actually, he did not want to do this matter either, but he had no choice.

He could not afford to offend Chen Mo, but he also could not afford to offend Liu Mingqiao.

He did not want to get involved in this matter, but caught in the middle, he had no way out.

He could only pin his hopes on Chen Mo being able to topple Liu Mingqiao, otherwise, with that lord's petty nature, his own days ahead would be difficult.

He Luoyun walked out the door, and Chen Mo picked up the few documents again, looking at them carefully.

Recorded on them was Liu Mingqiao's general range of activity and times of activity; Chen Mo was already pondering how to make the other party disappear completely in a physical sense.

This person was too evil, so evil that he was dripping with malice.

Chen Mo did not consider himself a good person, nor did he have any sense of justice, but seeing the filthy things the other party did—seizing people's property, using torture to extract confessions until people were beaten to death, and scheming to send people to prison before forcibly occupying their wives and daughters.

He privately opened a Salt Mine, but there were people living on that Salt Mine, and he forced the people on the mine to relocate without giving a single cent.

This person was too evil, and his heart was very small; having someone go to investigate him was already offending him.

Although on the surface he definitely could not touch him, to prevent him from disgusting him behind his back, Chen Mo still decided to resolve this hidden danger a step early.

Of course, evil is evil, but Liu Mingqiao was definitely not stupid; he had never done things that harmed others without benefiting himself, only things that harmed others to benefit himself.

The bullying was also all directed at common folk or ordinary merchants.

He knew who could be offended and who could not, otherwise, even with the Prefecture Assistant protecting him, he would not have been able to sit in this position until now.

As for whether resolving him would attract an investigation from the Imperial Court, there was no need to worry about that.

The reason the Dutian Dao Sect was exposed was because they did not handle the aftermath cleanly, letting the matter leak out. And more importantly than killing an official, they were actually harboring able-bodied men, which was why it drew an investigation from the Imperial Court.

And as long as he handled it cleanly enough, disguising the matter as a vendetta or a crime of greed, then even if the Imperial Court wanted to investigate, they would have no leads to start from.

It was just that what Chen Mo did not expect was that the evidence he collected had not yet had time to be sent to his foster father.

His foster father, over there, had already sent a letter first.

The meaning in the letter was very clear: have him find a way to control Liu Mingqiao as soon as possible, and it was best not to let too many people know.

Try to keep him alive if possible; if it really was not possible, a dead one was also acceptable.

Chen Mo looked at the letter in his hand, feeling suspicious; his foster father's previous letter clearly had no intention of directly tearing off the mask with the Prefecture Assistant yet.

How could the attitude in this letter change so drastically!

Not only that, he specifically had two Personal Soldiers deliver this letter, which was enough to show how much he valued this matter.

"The two brothers have worked hard; Zhu Niu Ji is a good place, the local rice noodle soup is not bad, you can go and try it later."

While speaking, Chen Mo took two ingots of five taels of Official Silver from his Huai and handed them to the two Personal Soldiers respectively.

"I still have some matters to resolve, so I won't entertain the two brothers any further." Chen Mo smiled at the two.

The two were naturally happy to receive the silver, bowed and retreated slowly, preparing to go to the settlement to spend some money.

Although Chen Mo did not know why his foster father's attitude had changed so much, since it was his foster father who had personally given the order, no matter what, he would do it first.

Because this letter was not a simple family letter; it also had his foster father's seal on it.

This was not a family letter asking about his well-being, but a military order; once he received the order, he had to do it.

…………

…………

The night Wind was desolate, the cold moon and lonely stars; Chen Mo glanced at the corpses on the ground and gave each person two more stabs to ensure they were dead.

Liu Mingqiao was indeed very concerned about his own safety; there were several soldiers by his side with not-bad strength, at least in a one-on-one fight with the Personal Soldiers under his foster father, they would definitely not fall behind.

This was already quite good in the Xingyuan Prefecture territory, but compared to Chen Mo, the gap in strength was too large.

Even though he did not use his specialty weapon, relying only on a Short Blade, he still easily resolved the several men in just a few breaths.

Liu Mingqiao was still alive now, but his limbs were broken, and the whole person had been knocked unconscious.

Since his foster father wanted him alive as much as possible, Chen Mo would not kill the person casually.

He was very careful when tapping this person's bones, ensuring it would only cause pain without ever piercing the muscles or internal organs.

Medicine and martial arts are inseparable; with his current understanding of the human body, doing this was not a difficult task.

Casually grabbing Liu Mingqiao, Chen Mo's figure quietly vanished into the darkness.

Next, he still had to hurry back to the military camp near Zhu Niu Ji; with eighty miles to cover while carrying a living person, the road would not be easy.

He had not ridden a horse this time, but had come running on foot.

Firstly, riding a horse made too much noise and was hard to conceal.

Secondly, with the speed of his physical body now, whether for short or long-distance raids, even while carrying a living person, his speed was faster than a horse.

Unless one had a rare, peerless steed, or was deliberately trying to save energy, there was not much point in him riding a horse.

The corpses strewn across the ground were quickly discovered.

The night watchman beat the Gong and Drum, attracting the patrolling constables.

"Master, what should we do? Should we go and chase that thief now?" a young-looking constable dressed in black uniform asked his elder colleague respectfully.

The other night watchmen also turned their gazes toward the elder constable, clearly waiting for him to make the decision.

"Collect the bodies and report it tomorrow, that will do," the elder constable said; he clearly had no intention of investigating this matter.

He could see that the sword wounds on these people were incredibly precise, and one look told him they were left by an expert.

Furthermore, he recognized several of the people killed; they were all personal attendants of that Lord Liu, each possessing quite extraordinary strength, and having been killed so easily, they could see even more clearly how strong the perpetrator was.

As for such an expert, let alone the fact that he wasn't here now, even if he were, he would pretend not to see him.

The government office only paid a few coins of silver a month, why would he risk his life!

Staying alive was what mattered most.

As for chasing? If such an expert wanted to escape, how could a bunch of people like them catch up? Even if they could, he wouldn't dare to; what difference would that be from throwing their lives away!

"Understood." The few night watchmen shared the same thought as him and had no intention of putting much effort into this matter.

Chen Mo sprinted all the way back to the military camp, locked Liu Mingqiao in the barracks room he had arranged for people to prepare in advance, and prepared to interrogate him personally every day.

He really wanted to know what exactly Liu Mingqiao had done to make his foster father issue a military order for him to capture and control him immediately.

(End of chapter)