What's wrong with me, a powerful minister, supporting a few female officials?

Chapter 49 Are you worthy?
The transfer of power is often accompanied by bloodshed and loss of life!
Su Mo was convinced that Luo Lie was behind it all. His face darkened, and he was already thinking about who to kill to establish his authority.

Is it the Five Peaks Gang?

Or is it Luo Lie, the deputy head constable of the fast squad?
Or, kill them all!

The Five Peaks Gang is simple.

What good is a gang made up of thugs, no matter how many people there are?

If the government is serious, they can take it down in no time.

With over a thousand constables, archers, and militiamen, plus even more menial laborers, how could the Five Peaks Gang dare to resist?

Not to mention the thousands of troops stationed outside the city!
Official background, Taoist sorcerer?
It's just self-praise!

Even if it were true, so what!
Even the Nine Dragons Demon, who are known as the number one demons in the world, can only hide their heads and tails and plot in secret!

On the contrary, taking down Luo Lie will be no easier than dealing with Ma Daliuzi, the clerk. We need to come up with a proper plan!

Su Mo was wondering whether she should consult her uncle.

Suddenly, a shout rang out.

Yao Shitou had changed into a set of official servant's clothes and was looking quite unwell. He led several servants and drove the crowd to the steamed bun shop.

He glanced at the Five Peaks Gang members lying on the ground, their blood pooling around them.

Yao Shitou's eyes revealed a look of disdain and schadenfreude.

At the same time, he cursed under his breath, feeling a headache coming on!

It's those so-called heroes causing trouble again!

Of all things to do, trouble had to be caused on his very first day as a regular soldier. Yao Shitou was in no mood for anything good!
In the eyes of the yamen runners, the knight-errant was definitely a troublemaker.

Unfortunately, most of these martial arts heroes are quite skilled, moving with incredible agility and proving to be very difficult to deal with!

Judging from this scene, you can tell that the troublemaker is a true master!

After cursing, Yao Shitou brandished his waist knife and shouted angrily at the onlookers, "What are you looking at! Do you want to go to jail?!"

"Get out of here right now!"

"You guys stay here and keep watch!" Then he turned to a skinny young man and said, "Go and inform the constables on duty in the East Market!"

Both the regular and fast shifts have the authority to handle such emergencies.

But Yao Shitou was incredibly cunning and treacherous.

The guy who just said he would keep Su Mo's secret, but then turned around and went to the county magistrate to inform on her.

Knowing full well that the Five Peaks Gang was not to be trifled with, they would not invite trouble upon themselves and simply left the headache to the Fast Class!
Before long, Luo Lie, with a dark face, led several constables and more than twenty servants, and walked over quickly!
Luo Lie appeared.

Su Mo's face immediately darkened.

I knew it! It was this guy who did it!

When Luo Lie arrived, he first glared fiercely at the thugs of the Five Peaks Gang, then looked at Yao Shitou and asked, "What exactly happened?"

Yao Shitou quickly said, "It's all because of what happened these past two days!"

"This is outrageous! They collect fees, but they also vandalize people's stalls and kidnap their wives and daughters, leaving them no way to survive. It's no wonder that those chivalrous heroes couldn't stand it."

As he spoke, Yao Shitou gave a wry smile: "This can't go on. We've already been severely scolded by the foreman."

"They are your men, Officer Luo, you have to keep them under control!"

"If things really get chaotic in the East Market, you might end up getting into trouble with the officials too!"

The East and West Markets were not only easy targets for the yamen runners, but also for the government officials.

Every year, the government can collect more than three thousand taels of tax silver from the two markets!

It should be noted that in Dawu, the tax on farmland was about three liters per mu, which was a relatively low tax rate.

Let's calculate based on a family with 30 mu of land.

Two shi of rice and grains had to be paid annually, which was equivalent to a little over one tael of silver.

Changping County has 100,000 households and hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are registered households, and most of their land is also hidden land or land exempted from taxes.

On the surface, the taxes to be paid to the imperial court amounted to fifty to sixty thousand taels of silver per year!
The commercial tax from just two markets alone exceeded three thousand taels, which was more than half of the total tax revenue, and most of it did not have to be paid to the state government!
It is easy to imagine how much the government valued the two cities!

If problems arise in the two cities, the county government will be furious.

Not to mention Luo Lie, even Zhong Sanyuan would have to change positions!

"Fuck his mother!"

Luo Lie cursed angrily, "Those damn bastards, knowing I've lost power, why would they listen to me!"

"Don't think that just because they've found a new backer, I can't do anything to them!"

"One day they'll know how powerful I am!"

After saying that, he waved his hand fiercely: "Take them all back to the yamen!" He paused, his gaze falling on the seriously injured shopkeeper and his daughter, and frowned: "Send these two to the clinic, don't let them die!"

Su Mo was taken aback upon hearing this.

It wasn't Luo Lie who did it?
"Too!"

"I misunderstood!"

"That old clerk Luo Lie knows he's a member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, why would he risk offending me for such a small amount of money!"

Thinking of this, Su Mo frowned again: "Even if Luo Lie gives up the East Market, he will still be one of the two deputy constables of the Fast Shift!"

Even if we've lost power, we're not someone a local thug gang can easily extort money from!

"A new backer?"

"What kind of backer could make Luo Lie so wary?"

Su Mo couldn't figure out the key point.

I'm just looking for an opportunity to meet with Luo Lie alone.

Suddenly, a loud voice rang in my ears: "I didn't expect that you, Officer Luo, would also be here!"

Su Mo looked in the direction of the sound.

A middle-aged man with a fat, pale face and no beard, was walking towards them with a forced smile, toying with two iron gallbladders in his hands.

Behind him followed a dozen or so burly and strong men who were clearly not good people!
The onlookers all looked frightened and hurriedly made way for them!
The middle-aged man glanced at the thug lying on the ground, then turned to look at Luo Lie.

"My subordinate was ignorant and disturbed your presence. I hope Officer Luo will forgive him."

"When Jia gets back, he'll definitely give them a good beating!"

After saying that, he cupped his hands to Luo Lie, then waved his hand, and the guys who had followed him were about to step forward to move the person!

Luo Lie's face darkened, and he suddenly said in a deep voice, "Wait!"

He turned to the middle-aged man expressionlessly: "Chief Jia, when did I ever say that you could leave with these thugs?"

Jia Kangyi narrowed his eyes slightly, then smiled and said, "Officer Luo seems to have misunderstood something."

According to Mr. Jia, they ate the steamed buns here yesterday and got an upset stomach, so they came to argue with the shop owner.

"The shop owner refused to admit anything, which led to the conflict!"

"Jia felt that Officer Luo should arrest the real perpetrators, not these victims."

As he spoke, he gave a look to the person next to him.

The person next to him took out two large ingots of silver and handed them to Luo Lie.

Luo Lie took the silver and weighed it in his hand: "Chief Jia is quite generous!"

"That must be twenty taels of silver?"

The constables who followed were all eyeing the two large ingots of silver in Luo Lie's hand with envy!
Jia Kangyi laughed and said, "Brothers, it is indeed hard work for you to arrest criminals and maintain peace in this area."

"Jia offered a small amount of tea and silver as a token of his respect."

Luo Lie nodded: "In that case, on behalf of my brothers, I thank Chief Jia!"

He then pocketed the silver.

Jia Kangyi then ordered his men to take away the injured thugs.

Luo Lie's expression suddenly darkened, and he coldly snorted, "Chief Jia!"

"Tea liquor is tea liquor!"

"The case is the case!"

“These thugs are involved in a serious assault case. According to regulations, they must be taken back to the yamen and imprisoned until the matter is thoroughly investigated!”

"I hope Chief Jia will give me some face and not make things difficult for me!"

Upon hearing this, Jia Kangyi's expression changed instantly.

His gaze was sinister as he stared intently at Luo Lie.

"Officer Luo, what do you mean by this?"

Luo Lie sneered and glanced at Jia Kangyi with disdain: "What do you mean?"

"Do I need to explain my actions to you?"

"You've always been a dog under my feet. You think you can change your status by climbing up to a powerful backer? You dare to point fingers at me, the head constable?"

Luo Lie's face instantly darkened, his large hand gripping the hilt of his sword, a murderous glint in his eyes: "Are you worthy?"

(End of this chapter)