1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 152 Huge Amount
After listening to Liang Ziqiang's words, Li Liang said thoughtfully:

"That's right. This place is not near the village. It's quite far away! Even if we throw them into the sea and they die, they won't be able to drift to the beach near the village, right? Anyway, they are usually doing smuggling with others and don't show up in the village for more than half a month. If they are gone, at most we can think of it as a smuggling accident. Who would think of us?"

Deng Zhaocai quickly squeezed to the front and took a good position to attack:
"That's a good idea. Why didn't I think of it? I've beaten up countless people since I was a child, but I've never killed anyone. Let's try getting two today. It should be fun. It will definitely be more satisfying than beating people up..."

It's fun to kill him, this...

At this moment, Deng Zhaocai no longer had the ferocity he had before. He was just eager to try, with anticipation written all over his face.

Liang Ziqiang quickly advised him:
"Don't worry, you will definitely not be left out! Let's make it clear first. There are six of us here, and no one can stand by and do nothing. Six people, six hands, push into the sea together! If everyone has a share, there is nothing to worry about. Otherwise, if there is a disagreement one day, those who have not taken action may run over to expose it and sell out the others!"

Li Liang agreed with this: "That's indeed the truth. Then come here, line up, and everyone reach out to grab them, and then throw them together!"

Soon, things got into a discussion of technical details.

Yang Xi and Yang Qing, who were standing by, shuddered as they listened to their calm discussion. Liquid flowed out from under Yang Qing's pants. He peed...

Yang Xi was a little better. He rolled his eyes, still wondering whether these people were really going to throw it away or were just trying to intimidate him.

Yang Qing shook his legs, trying to shake off some of the urine on them, and then he cried out in a hoarse voice:

"Murder is against the law! If you kill us, you will be shot too..."

Li Liang turned around and slapped him twice:
"Breaking the law is illegal. It's illegal only when someone knows about it. Do you understand?"

Zhong Kang, who had been silent the whole time, shook his head when he saw this:
"Forget it. I wanted to stop them. How many times have you two stolen fish? Why do you put stones in the net? Just keep them in your stomach and tell the sea fish..."

Deng Zhaocai couldn't wait any longer, so he came over, grabbed Yang Qing's shoulders and pulled him to the side of the boat.

Yang Qing completely collapsed and yelled:

"I said, don't kill me, I'll tell you everything!"

He glanced at his brother Yang Xi through his swollen eyelids and began to speak in a hoarse voice:

"We started stealing from the seabed a month ago! We didn't dare to steal every day, but we would sneak to the surface every few nights to fish..."

"Aren't you engaged in smuggling? Isn't the money alone enough to fill your stomach?" Zhong Ming interrupted.

"Our group has dispersed recently! It seems that someone has been replaced in the city, and the arrests have become stricter recently. Our boss felt that he was being targeted, so he ran away without saying goodbye! We only got some money at the beginning, and we haven't received the rest yet.

We didn't dare to go back to the village, so we hid outside. We had no money and even had trouble eating. Later, we stole a boat outside in the middle of the night, discussed it, and then went to the sea to steal fish from the bottom of the sea!"

"A month ago, that is to say, the theft started in late September or early October. The fish that my sea cucumbers started losing were at that time. That means they were all stolen by you two!" Zhong Kang was right.

"I don't know whose family they belonged to, but it definitely started from that time, and it happened several times before and after..." Yang Qing admitted. Yang Xi beside him couldn't stop it even with frantic eye contact.

"Why did they stuff so many stones into the net after they emptied it?" Li Liang asked angrily. "My brother and I discussed it and said it would be best to make you suspect the people from other villages. Jitou Village has a grudge against our village. I heard that they did this kind of thing a few years ago, stealing fish from our village and stuffing the net with stones. If we learn to do it this way, you will definitely suspect the people from Jitou Village and never think it was us..."

Damn, that's how it is! Don't mention it, Yang Xi is quite sinister, he has some brains, he knew to deliberately imitate the crime of Jitou Village to mislead people.

This misleading information was so effective that Liang Ziqiang didn't even think it was a deliberate imitation. He immediately concluded that it was definitely done by someone from Jitou Village. Zhong Kang and Li Liang were the same. No one thought it was someone from their own village.

Li Liang slapped him twice again.

"Where did you take all the fish?" Zhong Kang asked again.

"How dare we go to Zheng Liu in the village to sell the fish? We always go to other counties to sell them before daybreak after we catch them."

Under questioning, Yang Qing told him exactly where and to which fishmonger in another county the fish were sold to.

Ever since he peed his pants, Yang Qing had a complete breakdown and would tell everything he knew.

"We don't know which houses we robbed. Anyway, we got about ten or twenty nets each time and made a few hundred dollars. We hid outside to eat, drink and have fun, and spent a lot of money. When we were running out of money, we came back for another round..." Yang Qing continued.

Liang Ziqiang briefly summarized:

"A few hundred per trip, so with all those stealing, it's at least two thousand. Add to that the thirty pieces of seafloor bream today, and the fish piled up on the boat, they're worth four or five hundred! Oh, and the boat was stolen, too. Just based on what you've already confessed, three or four thousand is a low number!"

Compared to Yang Laizi, you two brothers are more promising. Your father only dared to get a few cents or a few dollars in the village, but you two are the ones who can really make a fortune! Yang Laizi should call you two dad. Next time he goes to visit you in prison, he will definitely call you dad!"

Yang Xi and Yang Qing's faces turned pale. Yang Qing shouted: "I can't always catch a lot of fish. There's definitely not three or four thousand. I swear!"

At least they understood that the more money they had, the more severe the sentence they would receive.

In fact, the 1979 version of the Criminal Law defines theft as "large amount" or "huge amount" as follows: for individuals stealing public or private property, the threshold for "large amount" is 200-300 yuan; in a few regions with rapid economic development, the threshold can be raised to 400 yuan. For individuals stealing grain, the threshold for "large amount" is generally 1000-1500 kilograms.

For individuals stealing public or private property, the threshold for “huge amounts” is 2000 to 3000 yuan; in some areas with relatively fast economic development, the threshold can be raised to 4000 yuan. For individuals stealing grain, the threshold for “huge amounts” is generally 10000 to 15000 kilograms.

The corresponding sentencing range at that time was: for a large amount, imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or control; for a huge amount, imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years.

Of course, it is impossible for the people present at the moment, Liang Ziqiang, Zhong Kang, Li Liang and others to understand the amount standard in such detail, but as a general concept, the larger the amount, the heavier the sentence will be, there is no doubt about this.

"Go and swear an oath to the police! By the way, remember to swear an oath to the police regarding your smuggling as well!" Li Liang replied.

Yang Xi and Yang Qing's smuggling case will definitely be another crime they will be charged with once they go to jail.

With Zhong Kang and Zhong Ming present, it was unrealistic to throw them into the sea. But with the huge amount of theft and smuggling, the outcome would be no better than feeding them to fish...

Two chapters published in succession.

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(End of this chapter)