mtl008 Chapter 394: The Dong Family Goes to Jail Together
Chapter 394: The Dong Family Goes to Jail Together
In the warm room, Jiang Heng told Ye Jintang and Xiao Mo about the interrogation of Tian Xin last night.
"At first, Tian Xin wouldn't say anything no matter how we asked him. He just said he had nothing to do with the burning of the cotton."
"However, General Duan's ability in interrogating people is still very impressive. Tian Xin couldn't hold out for more than an hour before he confessed everything."
"This is Tian Xin's confession. He said that Yi Wang, the owner of Yi Zhong Cloth Shop, was the mastermind. He didn't want to get involved, but was forced into it and had no choice but to agree to participate."
As he spoke, Jiang Heng handed the signed confession to Ye Jintang.
Ye Jintang quickly scanned the confession and felt that what Tian Xin said was ridiculous.
"They really think they are a big deal. How can our production of fine cloth affect their coarse cloth business? Do they think we are just making a small move and will have to buy all the cotton from farmers next year?"
The Qin Palace had so much farmland that they could not use up all the cotton they grew themselves, so why would they need to go outside to collect cotton? They couldn't even figure this out. Ye Jintang really didn't understand how they managed to make the cloth shop so big.
"Nine out of ten merchants in Ningchuan City are violent and aggressive people. They use their ruthlessness to do business and make money, but if you really say that they have any business acumen, then you are overestimating them."
Xiao Mo took the testimony from Ye Jintang and continued, "Jintang, don't forget that this is a place of exile. Serious businessmen will not come here to do business."
After hearing what he said, Ye Jintang suddenly realized that he had always used normal thinking to think about everything in Ningchuan City, which was somewhat deviated from reality.
"Your Highness, have you thought about how to deal with these cloth shop owners?"
"According to the laws of Tianqin, anyone who sets fire to the prince's property is punishable by death. I just arrived in Ningchuan City and it is not appropriate to kill too many people. It is better to arrest them all and put them in jail."
"Each of us will be sentenced to ten years in prison, which is enough. Of course, they will also compensate us for the twenty cartloads of cotton we lost."
"What the prince said is that a bunch of small minions are not worth the prince's killing. Let them stay in prison for 10 years to reflect on themselves. If they want to do something bad in the future, they'd better weigh themselves first and see if they have the ability to bear the consequences."
The palace's cotton warehouse was burned down yesterday, and this morning the palace guards arrested the owners of several major cloth shops. This matter has become a hot topic in Ningchuan City. Anyone with a brain can figure out that the burning of the palace's cotton warehouse is probably related to these people.
People are arrested in the morning, and the government office opens the case in the afternoon.
Many ordinary people in the city went to join in the fun, wanting to see if these people had lost their minds as they dared to burn the storehouse of the Prince of Qin's mansion.
In just one hour, the case was solved. Yi Wang was the main culprit and was thrown directly into the mine to dig holes. From now on, he was a refugee and had to dig in the mine for 10 years before he could be released.
Although the other people did not have to go mining, they were also sentenced to 10 years in prison and had to do hard labor every day to atone for the evil they had committed.
Of course, in addition to these, they also have to compensate the Qin Palace for the loss of cotton.
The families whose heads of household were arrested were all terrified, so they were naturally very generous in paying compensation. As soon as the notice was posted, they immediately brought silver to the yamen.
It has to be said that Xiao Mo's move of cutting the Gordian knot was very effective. It only took two days to resolve the issue of the burning cotton quilt.
He did not take the lives of Yi Wang and the people in the city had a better impression of him. From now on, if anyone dared to say that the King of Qin was tyrannical, they would definitely not listen.
If he was a tyrannical person, how could he have allowed only a few people from Yi Wang to do hard labor? He would have confiscated all three of their clans and beheaded them at the entrance of the vegetable market long ago.
Two days later, Gu Wan'er hurried to find Ye Jintang.
"My lady, I went to the street to buy some charcoal this morning, and I saw several cloth shops having big sales. They also took out all the cotton that they had been hiding before, and the price was much cheaper than before."
"Should we take this opportunity to take all the cotton from them?"
"Of course, how can we miss such a good opportunity? Cousin, take the people to pick the cotton quickly. Take as much as you can. Don't go too late or someone will pick it up."
"Okay, I also heard that those cloth shops don't want to open anymore. Should we buy them? The cloth shops on the street are secondary. I am mainly interested in their weaving workshops."
"Although they only weave coarse cloth for sale, the women in the weaving workshop are all skilled. We don't need to teach them how to weave fine cloth here. They can start working on the machines right away."
Gu Wan'er was quite excited when she talked about this. These cloth shops were not small and they had hundreds of weavers and spinners. If all of them could become employees of the palace, not to mention weaving 1000 pieces of cloth in one winter, even 2000 pieces would not be a problem.
"We naturally can't let go of such a good opportunity. Cousin, go find Manager Qiao and ask him to help you negotiate the purchase of the cloth shop."
"Okay, I'll go right away."
After getting Ye Jintang's consent, Gu Wan'er ran away. She was afraid that she would be very busy in the next few days.
A few days ago, Yi Wang and his friends bought all the cotton in the city and stored it in the warehouse. They never expected that in just a few days, the cotton they stored would become Ye Jintang's.
If they had known this would happen, why would they have created so many troubles, which ultimately resulted in not only losing themselves but also all their properties.
Without a backbone, the family members were afraid that they would not be able to protect the cloth shop in the future, so they sold all the money before anyone targeted them.
Especially the Yi family. The eldest son of their family sold the family property and planned to leave Ningchuan City with his family in the early spring of next year to live in other more stable cities. As for Yi Wang, they all treated him as dead.
All the cotton was put into the warehouse, and Gu Waner came to see Ye Jintang again.
"I'm so angry. Those gossipers on the street don't stay at home in the middle of winter. They gossip about other people all day long. Aren't they afraid of freezing their tongues?"
Ye Jintang was very surprised to see Gu Waner looking angry.
"What's wrong? Who is trying to make trouble for my cousin? Tell me now or I'll tear their mouths apart."
"Yesterday, Manager Qiao and I took people to collect cotton and discuss the weaving workshop. I thought that so much cotton would need someone to move it, so I took a few more people with me."
"As a result, I heard someone say behind my back today that our Qin Palace was bullying others by taking advantage of our power. We set traps for the big cloth shops and forced them to sell cotton to us at a low price."
"And what they said was so detailed that if you didn't know, you would really think it was the Qin Palace who deliberately framed the cloth shop for that little bit of cotton."
"I don't know if they are full of idiots. If I want to frame the cloth shop, would they be stupid enough to burn down their own cotton warehouse? That's 20 carts of cotton. Who would be willing to burn it?"
The more Gu Wan'er spoke, the angrier she became. She wished she could take some people with her and capture those people who were talking nonsense and beat them up, so that they would know what true bullying looks like.