Chapter 1770: Chapter 1770: Evil Deeds

Qiu Troop Commander?

You An furrowed his brow but wasn’t really afraid. He only followed orders from his master, and as long as his master commanded it, even if the adversary’s patron was the Emperor, he would cut all the same.

"Charge!"

With that command, the men behind him rushed out like a whirlwind, their long knives hadn’t yet swung, but after just kicking one henchman, Lin Changshou dropped to his knees: "Spare us, heroes, spare us! We know we’re wrong!"

The voice trembled with tears, showing how utterly terrified he was.

The remaining henchmen froze at the sight, then all knelt down as well, their knees hitting the ground with thudding sounds that were frightening to hear: "Spare us, heroes!"

You An: "..."

With such little courage, how did they dare set up schemes to harm passersby?

He ordered: "Tie them up, start by beating each with three sticks as a warning to others."

"Yes." The subordinates immediately moved to bind the men and then kicked Lin Changshou and the others down, hitting them three times each with sticks.

They were all practitioners, with great strength. After three strikes, Lin Changshou and the others were beaten till their skin was flayed, one even had his bones cracked, fainting from the pain.

The remaining ones were trembling with fear, cold sweat soaking their backs, each terrified, Lin Xiaowa, being young, cried and shouted in fear: "Spare us, heroes, ask anything, I’ll tell you everything, boohoohoo!"

This business started five years ago, after they returned from fleeing famine, cheating many merchants. Most of those merchants were willing to pay to avoid disaster, and they felt the business easy to run, so they grew increasingly fearless.

Yet how could they know they’d run into a formidable group this time?

Lin Xiaowa had barely survived the famine, unwilling to die, he surrendered in breakdown.

You An entered the room, found a chair, and sat facing Lin Changshou and the others outside the door, saying: "How many people have you harmed? How did you harm them? Who is backing you? Who all are involved in harming people? Explain everything truthfully, dare to hide anything...hah, there are many mass graves in Gaoshui County, we’ve passed several on the way here, where many corpses are thrown. If you want to accompany those corpses, I can make it happen."

"No, no, heroes!" Lin Changshou and the others knew about the corpses in the mass graves, some died of hunger and sickness without money for burial, others were killed and thrown there, the government wouldn’t care, if you were killed, you were killed: "We’ll talk, we’ll tell you everything!"

Just begging the heroes not to kill us.

You An nodded, saying to Si’an: "Write down what they say."

The master is a military officer, having evidence is necessary to take these people down.

"Yes." Si’an responded, untied his bag, took out pen and paper and spread them out, said: "Who goes first? The first to speak has a better chance of surviving."

"Me, I’ll go first!" Lin Changshou, afraid of dying, hurriedly said.

Si’an listened as he wrote, writing faster than Lin Changshou spoke.

You An listened, and when Lin Changshou left out parts, he would promptly ask questions.

Lin Changshou thought for a moment, filling in the omissions, and by the time he finished, an hour had already passed: "Boohoohoo, hero, that’s all I know, please let me go, my sweetheart is pregnant, she’ll give birth next year, the child can’t be without a father!"

Lin Changshou’s sweetheart was a widow from Lishui Village, most of her husband’s family had died, making her daring, considering her future, she hooked up with Lin Changshou.

Lin Changshou was nearly thirty but unwilling to marry a widow, even suspecting the child in her belly wasn’t his. He planned to have the widow serve him first, make some money through several trades, rely on the Court Official Lin to blend into the county government, then ditch the widow to marry a young maiden.

But now, to save his life, he’s brought out the widow and child.

"Cooperate sincerely, there will naturally be a way out for you." You An coldly chuckled inside, having committed so many evil deeds and wanting to be spared, truly dreaming.

He then had Si’an continue questioning.

Lin Changshou had a good relationship with Court Official Lin, knowing quite a lot, the other henchmen couldn’t provide as much as Lin Changshou.

After finishing questioning, Si’an copied two more sets, totaling three confessions, to have them press handprints and seal them.

Lin Changshou was crafty, listened and was shocked, cried saying: "Heroes, we’ve told you everything we know, can’t we avoid sealing it?"

Sealing it like this would mean County Captain Tang and others would know they betrayed them, then how could they still fare well?

You An sneered: "Seal it or lose your heads here and now?"

With that said, he swiftly drew his large knife, slashing the nearby wooden door, directly chopping it down with a crash.

"Seal it, we’ll seal it now!" Lin Xiaowa and others wailed, terrified to death, seeing this Lin Changshou could only press handprint and seal.

Si’an handed the confessions to You An, You An looked through them once, nodding in satisfaction, with these confessions, the Qian Family, Bian Family, County Captain Tang, Chief Commander Huang, Company Commander Qian, and Company Commander Jia were finished.

"Where are the children held? Bring them out." You An put away the confessions and said to Lin Xiaowa.

Lin Xiaowa wasn’t too cunning, answered immediately: "At Court Official Lin’s home in the north village."

The house they lived in was Lin Houde’s home, the best green brick tile-roofed house in the village. But since Lin Houde’s family fled the famine, they never returned, so they occupied this house.

"Go bring them out." You An ordered, and his men went looking for people at Court Official Lin’s home in the north village.

It took an hour before they returned.

Upon returning, everyone’s eyes were angry, Qi An, being young, somewhat impulsively upon returning drew his knife and pointed at Lin Changshou asking: "Who did it? Step forward!"

You An frowned, knowing something had gone wrong.

Si’an came up to tell him: "Among those children was a very beautiful adolescent girl... who miscarried."

They thought they were captured to be sold, for the sake of the silver they surely wouldn’t dare touch. Unexpectedly, these beasts did, after she got pregnant she was still tormented, the child didn’t survive. When they arrived at the north village house, that girl was already on the verge of death from miscarriage... her clothes not changed, a large area with dried blood.

Having heard this, You An stood up, his angry eyes fixed on Lin Changshou and others, saying in a chilling voice: "Speak truthfully, or you’ll all die!"

They came from Water Bandit Village, one of the nightmares of their youth was water bandits abusing their mothers and sisters, the most intolerable thing was this kind of act.

Seeing each one of them with enraged eyes, seemingly about to lose control and kill, Lin Changshou hurriedly said: "No, not us, we didn’t dare... it’s Lin Changyou and Ding Dayong, they’re government officials, they’re in charge of us, they wanted to touch that girl, we couldn’t stop them!"

Lin Changshou confessed what happened to that pretty girl, saying it started with Ding Dayong touching her first, then Lin Changyou got greedy from seeing her, taking advantage when Ding Dayong wasn’t around to deal with the girl too.

Not long after, the girl became pregnant, being no longer worth much, Ding Dayong’s subordinate officials also touched her, then the child couldn’t be saved.

"The child was gone half a month ago, seeing a doctor costs money, that girl’s body was ruined, not worth much anymore, just left like that till now." Lin Changshou finished speaking, crying: "That girl used to be a cash cow, was prepared to sell for large money, we truly didn’t dare touch her, it was Ding Dayong and the others who did, heroes go kill them, spare us!"

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