roccoschili Chapter 238: The Situation Has Changed 2
Chapter 238: The Situation Has Changed 2
What made Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou happiest was that County Magistrate Peng was retained in his position because of his integrity, and most of the other officials in the county were also retained.
Only people like Gu Yongwen, who took advantage of the chaos and abused their power for personal gain, were quickly convicted for their previous actions.
They were in office for a very short time, and except for two who forced civilians to death in order to make money and had to pay with their lives according to the law, the others were only beaten with a stick and their illegal gains were confiscated.
It is worth mentioning that when the war was tense and the superiors ordered an emergency recruitment of soldiers, Gu Yongwen originally wanted to capture the people of Baijia Village to serve as cannon fodder on the front line. However, the people of Baijia Village had already moved away collectively because of the refugees' attack on the village before he brought his men over.
Gu Yongwen couldn't find anyone and didn't have time to investigate their whereabouts, so he could only return to the county government office in disappointment and temporarily let Gu Wenxuan and the others go.
Gu Yongwen was very angry about this matter at the time, but when he was being held accountable for his crimes, he couldn't help but secretly be glad that he failed to find those guys from Baijia Village.
Thanks to those guys who ran away faster than rabbits, his crime was not that serious. Although he lost his job, he at least saved his life.
Of course, Gu Yongwen did not feel grateful for “surviving” for long. Soon, the reality of having no money plagued his family and began to cause them trouble.
The little savings his family had had had had squandered by them, and the money he had gained through abusing his power was taken back by the government, so his family was instantly plunged into a financial crisis.
When they went to seek help from his relative-in-law, who had helped him get a job as a clerk in the county government, and was now the county magistrate, not only did he refuse to help, he also forcefully proposed to cancel the engagement with their daughter.
In the words of the county magistrate's wife, his daughter used to be a beautiful girl from a scholar's family, but now she is the daughter of a criminal. How can she be worthy of marrying her son?
Gu Yongwen's family pleaded in vain, and the marriage was finally forcefully cancelled. They had no choice but to scrape together the little money they had hidden away, hire a doctor and get some medicine for Gu Yongwen who had been beaten with a stick, and then hire an ox cart and return to the town with the whole family.
When they went to the county town before, they had already sold their house. This time when they came back, they could only go to Gu Wenxuan's great aunt Gu Tao and eldest cousin Gu Yongmei for help. However, Gu Tao was a profit-seeking person. When Gu Yongwen's family returned after being convicted, she had no time to hide, so how could she take in Gu Yongwen's family who were no longer of any use to her?
Her family has fewer people than Gu Yongmei's, so Gu Yongwen's family initially planned to stay at Gu Tao's house and then ask Gu Yongmei for some money to spend.
Now that Gu Tao refuses to accept them, they can only go to Gu Yongmei.
Although Gu Yongmei was also a person like Gu Tao who would not do anything without profit, her parents were still alive and she did not dare to bear the reputation of being unfilial. So even though her parents-in-law refused to let Gu Yongwen's family move in on the grounds that there were too many people in the family and there was no extra house to accommodate the whole family, she and her husband still had to help Gu Yongwen's family rent a small courtyard to settle down.
The money came from their family's public account. In addition to renting the house, her parents-in-law also gave them some silver money to help buy some food and daily necessities.
As relatives, they considered themselves to be very kind to be able to do this even though their family had suffered a lot of losses due to the previous chaos.
But Gu Yongwen's family was not satisfied. They did not dare to offend their in-laws and son-in-law, so they put pressure on Gu Yongmei alone.
Gu Yongmei had no choice but to secretly give some of her own money to her parents' home.
Gu Yongwen's family temporarily settled down in Liulin Town, but Gu Yongwen's parents became more and more angry, and they cursed Gu Tao at home every day.
Gu Yongwen was also very angry that Gu Tao wanted to run away after taking the benefits, so he gave his parents an idea and asked them to go to Gu Tao's house and make a scene.
Gu Tao's family is in business. If they make trouble every day, how can customers dare to buy things from Gu Tao's family?
Gu Tao had no choice but to give them twenty taels of silver as a reward for their misfortune.
The two families broke off completely, and even though they lived in the same town, neither of them wanted to talk to the other anymore.
Because Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou made a special trip to the county government office, they were the first to hear from the government officials the good news that Gu Yongwen was dismissed from his post, fined, and beaten with a stick.
Although the two did not know what happened to their family afterwards, the news that Gu Yongwen was kicked out of the yamen was enough to make Gu Wenxuan's family happy.
At the very least, Gu Yongwen will not be able to use his position to make trouble for their family in the future.
After talking with the people in the county government office, and responding to the summons from County Magistrate Peng, they went to meet this rare good official. Then Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou said goodbye to everyone and returned to the house where they stayed in the county town with the patrol team members who had come with them.
Fortunately, thanks to County Magistrate Peng's painstaking efforts, the county town has not been in complete chaos. Although the properties previously purchased by Gu Wenxuan and others have suffered some damage, the damage is not very serious and can be put into use immediately after a little repair.
The same thing happened to the house where they stayed. Only the gate and two rooms in the front yard were destroyed by someone unknown, while the other buildings were intact and undamaged.
The two men assigned rooms to other people, then repaired the door themselves and used it for the time being. Finally, they walked through all the courtyards and rooms of the house.
With their sharp five senses, even the breathing sounds in the house could be detected by them. After walking around like this, they naturally don't have to worry about bad guys hiding in the house.
What they didn't expect was that when they finished all this and walked out of the house, planning to take everyone out to eat something, the couple who had helped them look after the house before came rushing over.
The two men were holding hammers, wooden boards and other tools in their hands, and it seemed that they were here to help them repair the gate.
When they met Gu Wenxuan and Bai Jingzhou at the door, the couple were stunned at first, and then quickly changed from being stunned to looking surprised.
"Boss!" the two shouted in unison.
Gu Wenxuan smiled, "Long time no see, how are you guys?"
The middle-aged man holding the wooden board nodded vigorously, "Okay, okay. Where's the boss? Did he encounter any danger?"
"Well, I guess so." Gu Wenxuan didn't intend to elaborate. If there was any danger, it was only because others encountered them, so it was dangerous. They themselves were not in any danger.
"Are you here to help us repair the gate?" Gu Wenxuan pointed at the pile of things the two men were holding.
The middle-aged man was a little embarrassed. "Before, the county was too chaotic. We didn't dare to go out. Finally, when we were able to go out, my mother and my little girl fell ill at the same time, so we didn't take care of the house."