Chapter 178 Matching a Daughter's Bones

Jiang Dalang and his men rushed to the road and stopped the team carrying the woman.

Each of them had a machete hanging on his waist, and they looked ferocious, which made those carrying the pig cages suspicious and they stood still and did not dare to act rashly.

The two sides were deadlocked for a few seconds, and a man in his forties came out and said, "Who are you?"

"People who draw their swords to help when they see injustice on the road."

Zhao Jun stepped out of the crowd and frowned, saying, "You want to put someone in a pig cage in broad daylight?"

The man sneered, "This person is not a good woman, and there is a clan law to deal with him. You, an outsider, should not meddle in other people's business. Be careful of imprisonment."

"Woo woo woo woo woo!"

Hearing the man's words, the woman in the pig cage kept sobbing, shaking her head desperately, and tears could not stop flowing.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Jun was too lazy to talk nonsense, and waved his hand and said, "Save people."

"Clang clamor!"

More than a dozen elite guards drew their swords and surrounded them.

Jiang Dalang pointed the knife at the man and said, "Squat down!"

The other side had quite a few people, about seven or eight, two of them carried the pig cage, and the rest followed, all of them were strong men.

But facing the imperial guards, they dared not even fart, and under the pressure of the cold blade, they squatted on the ground one by one, and the pig cage was also put down.

Zhao Jun walked over, and at this moment Huang Sanlang opened the pig cage and pulled out the rag stuffed in the woman's mouth. The woman could make a sound and cried out at the first time: "Thank you, sir, for saving my life, thank you, sir, for saving my life!"

"What's going on?"

Zhao Jun asked.

"It was the Zhou family who died a miserable death who sold me to the Wang family to marry a daughter!"

The woman named Axia cried.

Zhao Jun was stunned at first.

Then a strong anger rushed straight to the top of his head!

This daughter's bones has another saying in later generations-marriage with the dead!

Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there has been this custom of marrying the dead son with the dead son. Cao Cao once married Cao Chong to the dead daughter of the Zhen family and arranged a ghost marriage.

However, during the Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, this custom was not particularly popular. It gradually became the mainstream in the Song Dynasty. There are many records of ghost marriages in the Song Dynasty collection "Yesterday Dream Record".

As long as the family is rich and the sons and daughters die young, they will often look for suitable women who died early, move the graves and bones, hold ghost marriage ceremonies, and bury the people together.

For this reason, the Song Dynasty even gave rise to a large number of tomb robbers who dug up bones, so that during the Zhenzong period, laws were introduced to severely punish those who dug up bones.

But all this could not stop the illegal tomb robbers. As long as there is a demand for ghost marriages among the people, there will be many people who are willing to take legal risks and run into the cemetery to open a museum to dig corpses.

But what if there are limited corpses, or the age and birth date are not compatible?

There are naturally other ways.

Obviously, using a living person for matching is also one of the ways.

Zhao Jun asked the woman about the specific situation.

It turned out that the woman was called Fang Caixia, 19 years old, from Shouzhou, Huainan West Road. Because of the drought in Shouzhou the year before last, she was forced to go north with her family to Yingtian Prefecture to make a living.

When passing through Ling County, it happened that the eldest son of the rich farmer Zhou family had reached the age of marriage. The man saw Caixia, who was 16 years old at the time, and thought she was good-looking, so he told his parents and asked them to send a matchmaker to talk.

The Fang family originally fled here, but when they passed through Ling County, they were forced to stay for a day because it was too late, and then went north along the canal and went to Yingtian Prefecture by land.

At this time, someone suddenly came to them and said that he was willing to pay a betrothal gift to marry Caixia as his wife.

In this case, everyone would agree.

After all, for the Fang family, life was already very difficult. One more person meant one more burden. Marrying their daughter in exchange for a betrothal gift would also provide money for the trip to Yingtian Prefecture.

So Fang Caixia's father agreed without thinking.

Both parties were fine at the beginning, and their birth dates were calculated. They were a match made in heaven, a match made in earth, a good marriage, and a good case.

If things develop normally, it would be a good thing.

But half a month later, on the night of the wedding, the eldest son of the Zhou family got drunk at the banquet. After the banquet, when he was supposed to enter the bridal chamber, he insisted on sending off a few friends he had grown up with.

Those friends were also drunk. Several people agreed to send them to the village entrance, and the eldest son of the Zhou family was going back to enter the bridal chamber. As a result, he was in a spur of the moment and sent them a little far away. When he was going back, a man passed by the river and fell into it and drowned.

Now the marriage turned into a funeral, and the Zhou family was in a rage, accusing Fang Caixia of being a widow and a husband-killer.

The Fang family was afraid that the Zhou family would take back the betrothal gifts, so they abandoned Fang Caixia and fled overnight. This messed up the marriage and made Fang Caixia's fate fall to the bottom.

In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Fang Caixia cannot be blamed for this.

The problem is that the Zhou family needs an outlet for their anger, so Fang Caixia became the object of their anger and became a slave of the Zhou family. They were beaten, scolded, humiliated, and physically punished.

In the past two years, the Zhou family has been abusing Fang Caixia. The villagers can only sympathize with her and can't do anything about it.

Fang Caixia lost contact with her relatives and had no one to rely on. Although she was abused in the Zhou family, she at least had food to eat, so she could only swallow her anger and dare not resist.

It just so happened that the Zhou family had an underage second son. Originally, the Zhou family could only be regarded as a wealthy family, not a big landlord. The betrothal gift was given, and a big banquet was held, which cost a lot of money, but in the end, both the person and the money were lost.

With no other choice, she could only raise Fang Caixia as a child bride, and when her second son grows up, she can be his concubine.

As a result, this year the youngest son of the Wang family, a large landowner in Fuxian County, died at the age of seventeen. The Wang family was devastated and hoped to find someone to arrange a secret marriage for their youngest son so that he would not be lonely on the road to hell.

After looking for two or three months, there was no suitable candidate.

Seeing that the child in the family had been dead for so long and the body was almost rotting, the Feng Shui master who had read Fang Caixia and Zhou's eldest son had a bad idea. He thought that Fang Caixia's horoscope was consistent with the youngest son of the Wang family and was about the same age, so why not...

So the Wang family spent a lot of money to find the Zhou family. The Zhou family thought that Fang Caixia had killed their eldest son and brought their family into ruin. Being a concubine to the second son might also harm the second son, so it was better to exchange for a lot of money.

This amount of money is many times more than the original gift, and I have made a lot of money over time.

It's just that the Song Dynasty abolished slavery and did not allow the sale of slaves. Even if you came to become a slave, you had to sign a contract. Beating the slave to death was considered murder and required a rod and a ban.

When Chen Zhizhong was prime minister, he killed his maid and was demoted. He took advantage of the fact that he was not a good doctor due to punishment and was protected by Song Renzong Zhao Zhen. Ordinary landowners killed tenants and slaves at will, and basically beat them with a hundred sticks, and then sent them to the frontier.

What's more, Fang Caixia is not a slave, but the official wife of the Zhou family's matchmaker. If she is killed directly, if the Fang family comes to visit her in the future, the Zhou family may be involved in a prison lawsuit.

So they simply framed Fang Caixia for committing adultery and wanted to deal with it according to clan law.

In this way, landlord Wang only needs to take care of the government affairs and get the villagers to change the narrative to say that Fang Caixia committed adultery and was dipped in a pig cage and died. Then the matter will naturally go away.

When the time comes, people from the village will help with perjury, and Fang Caixia is dead and has no evidence to prove that the Fang family, as foreigners, will have nothing to do with them even if they come to visit them in the future.

Today, the Wang family sent someone to pick up Fang Caixia, preparing to drown her in a pig cage and then take her body back.

After hearing the whole story, Zhao Jun was so angry that his nose almost became crooked.

Although students of history know that there were many bad habits in ancient society, I have only seen glimpses of them in history books and have never really seen such a situation.

But now he is living in contempt of people's lives in front of his eyes. If he lets it go, how can he have the face to face the heroic words that he once said he would change the Song Dynasty?

"Catch him!"

Zhao Jun said without hesitation: "Da Lang, go back to the boat and call for more manpower. No participants will be spared!"

"yes."

Jiang Dalang turned around and ran towards the river in the distance.

"This official!"

When the leader of the Wang family saw that the other party was approaching fiercely, he did not dare to speak out loudly, but said: "Everyone is just asking for food, so as not to make the matter a big deal."

"oh?"

Zhao Jun asked: "Does this mean that you care so little about human life that it is just a trivial matter?"

The leader said sternly: "Please make it easy for me. As long as you can pretend not to see it today, our Wang family will not treat you badly. I have five taels of silver in my sleeves. Please accept it with a smile."

When Fang Caixia heard this, her heart suddenly tightened. She squatted on the ground and looked at Zhao Jun with almost pleading eyes.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Jun didn't look at her. Instead, he turned to look at Huang Sanlang and others, smiling almost mockingly: "Sanlang, he said he would buy me with five taels of broken silver."

"Hahahahahaha."

Huang Sanlang and others also laughed.

The magistrate is in charge of the power of the country. After taxes were raised last autumn, the treasury's money was more than 40 million yuan?

It was all controlled by the Imperial Academy and allocated according to annual expenses.

Even if we don't mention the treasury, the worst gifts given by Guanglu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others can be worth hundreds or even thousands of guan, and the expensive ones can even be worth nearly 10,000 guan.

Just these few taels of silver?

Sending beggars away.

Seeing everyone laughing at them, the leader's face turned cold and said, "I advise you not to know what is good and what is good, lest you suffer the consequences and even be unable to leave Bozhou."

"Haha, threatening me?"

Zhao Jun sneered and said, "What if I insist on taking care of it?"

"Magistrate Shi in the Yamen is a good friend of my family's head. Please don't toast me and you will be fined with wine."

The leader said coldly.

"The county magistrate."

Zhao Jun pretended to ponder, and then said: "Logically speaking, we, the righteous people, cannot ignore death. But if the county magistrate really comes, then I can't give him a favor. But what if you lie to me?" ? So if you can ask the county magistrate to come over, then let’s talk about it, otherwise I will take care of this matter today and I will arrest you to see the official.”

"How can you meet the county magistrate whenever you want?"

Seeing that Zhao Jun seemed a little scared, the leader said coldly: "If you are afraid that we will deceive you, then follow us to the county, and you will be able to tell the truth from the lies."

After he finished speaking, a man squatting next to him whispered in his ear: "Sixth brother, and you can't go to the county. If you really let him take people to the county government office, the government office will open a court to try the case, and the matter will be big." "Everyone in the county knows what the head of the family has done, and I'm afraid it will harm his reputation."

The leader thought so and immediately changed his mind and said, "I still won't go to the county. This matter must be reported to the head of my family first."

"OK."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "You go and report the news. I have detained the rest. I advise you to go back quickly, otherwise I don't mind arresting them and reporting them to the official."

The leader stood up, hesitated slightly, and finally ran away.

The other Wang family servants were arrested by Zhao Jun.

Fang Caixia choked with fear and said, "Sir, we can't let him go back to report the news. When Mr. Wang brings people here, won't I be dead?"

Zhao Jun comforted her, "Don't be afraid. Since I dare to save you, I can make the decision for you. To be honest, I am also an official."

"Sir, you are also an official?"

Caixia asked in a daze, "Is your official rank high?"

"Generally speaking, it should be a little higher than that Shi County Magistrate."

Zhao Jun thought about it.

The official of the county magistrate in the Song Dynasty was generally the seventh rank, and he was the first rank, which was indeed a little higher.

Fang Caixia obviously didn't know how big the little the other party said was, and thought it was the county magistrate's superior, the prefect of the prefecture, so she was very happy.

After a while, Jiang Dalang brought several teams of imperial guards, about 40 people, more than 50 imperial guards, rushed into the village, broke into the Zhou family, and arrested the Zhou family.

The leader of the Wang family was a steward of the landlord Wang Da. After being released by Zhao Jun, he drove the carriage to the direction of Ling County without stopping.

When they came, they brought the carriage and horses to transport the body back, but they didn't expect it to be put to use. Although it was just a slow horse, it was faster than walking. With full whipping, the carriage took less than an hour to reach Ling County after more than 30 miles.

It was more than five o'clock in the afternoon. The steward hurried back to the mansion of the landlord Wang Da and reported the matter to him.

When the landlord Wang Da learned that Cheng Yaojin had appeared halfway, he was furious, and immediately went to the county government to find Shi County Magistrate, hoping that he would bring the yamen runners and his own servants to find trouble with the other party.

In fact, Shi County Magistrate and the landlord Wang Da had a good relationship. After all, the county magistrate was a floating official. The mobility of officials in the Song Dynasty was too strong. A county magistrate, prefect, etc., often served in the local area for no more than two years, so there was really no need to cultivate too deep interpersonal relationships.

But there is a problem. The younger brother of the landlord Wang is a Jinshi in the third year of Tiansheng. Although he is only a fourth-class Jinshi, he has been in the officialdom for so many years and is currently serving as a prefect in another place. Moreover, he has a good relationship with Guo Chengyou, the current prefect of Bozhou, who occasionally comes to visit the Wang family.

In addition, the landlord Wang is quite good at dealing with people. He often gives some silver or valuable gifts. Therefore, considering this relationship and gifts, County Magistrate Shi has basically turned a blind eye to the evil deeds of the Wang family in the past, and tried to protect them in the lawsuit.

But now the landlord Wang asked him to take the yamen runners to arrest people, as if the government was run by his family, and he directly ordered them to do it, which made County Magistrate Shi very unhappy.

However, considering that the landlord Wang recently lost his son and might lose his mind in anger, the county magistrate could only understand.

It happened that the canal was blocked again at noon, and someone had reported it to the county. County Magistrate Shi thought that even if it was for the sake of Prefect Guo, it would be a good opportunity to solve the two problems at once, so he agreed to the request of Landlord Wang and personally led people there.

There was no time to lose, and before it was completely dark, the county magistrate and Landlord Wang led a hundred people and rushed towards the village where Zhao Jun was.