Today is destined to be a day that the people of Jingnan will never forget, and today is destined to go down in the annals of Jingnan history.
Outside the west gate of Jingnan County.
Half a month ago, this was the main battlefield of the Japanese invasion of Jingnan, more than three thousand Japanese invaders attacked the city, ten thousand people defended the city, life and death fight, blood flowed into the river, the city gate, wall bricks are still residual traces of the bloody battles at that time.
At this moment, there was a sea of people here, people from half of Jingnan County came one after another and gathered in the open space outside the city gate, nearly ten thousand people. People gathered in front of the city gates in three layers, surrounding the stage that had just been set up by the county magistrate’s errand boys, each one overflowing with excitement, more lively than a theatre.
“Is it true that the Great Master of the Magistrate is still going to give us a reward of silver? Is this stage the place to give out the silver?!”
“That’s still a lie! When has the Governor ever lied to us? He said he’d give it out!”
“When I went up to the city walls to help the magistrate fight the Japanese, my wife was still throwing her weight around and obstructing the way, but the other day the magistrate gave out five taels of silver, and my wife’s attitude changed, and she’s been very obedient to me, so today, when I go back to collect the reward, I’m going to make her hold my feet up …….”
“And also the county magistrate it, our county magistrate has risen into the fifth rank of the Commander of the Department of Torture Inspection Division, the good thing is that the court is mindful of our people in Jingnan, in view of the Jingnan county magistrate candidate has not yet been determined, a county can not be a day without the county magistrate, which allows us to the county magistrate to the fifth rank of the Commander of the Department of Torture Inspection Division, the temporary Jingnan county magistrate. Waiting for the Ministry of Justice to select the candidate for the Jingnan governor, the new governor, the governor will go to the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander of the Tidings Commander.”
“I really can’t bear to see our county magistrate go, such a good county magistrate can’t be found anywhere. Why don’t we write a joint petition to the court, begging them not to bother choosing a successor, and just let us keep the governor.”
“You’re really selfish, if you really want to help the magistrate, don’t block the magistrate’s career. If you dare to drum up trouble in private, I, Zhu Laosan, will be the first to clean you up.”
People talked excitedly, and from time to time there was a burst of laughter, each happy as if it was the New Year.
From the excitement overflowing on the faces of the Jingnan commoners, it could be seen that Zhu Pingan’s credibility in the minds of the Jingnan commoners was very high, the commoners believed in Zhu Pingan, and the vast majority of them believed that Zhu Pingan would give them the bounty silver as the notice had said.
After the people waited for a short while, they saw many magistrates coming out from inside the city gates, Liu Dahammer commanded thirty magistrates to come to the front of the crowd, spread out and stand apart, making a human cordon to maintain order.
Then, there are twenty heavily armed officers, two groups of two people carrying a wooden box, a total of ten wooden boxes to the stage, the box is very heavy, placed on the stage, issued a heavy “bang” sound.
“What is in the box?”
“It can’t be silver, can it?!”
People couldn’t help but speculate excitedly when they saw the ten large boxes.
“Quickly look, the Governor’s Grand Master is here.”
Someone shouted, shifting the crowd’s gaze from the wooden boxes to the city gates.
Sure enough, following the sound, they saw Zhu Pingan in his magistrate’s official uniform, leading the new magistrates, clerks, and others from the Jingnan County Office through the city gates, all the way to the platform, bowing to the common people gathered in front of the platform.
“Good morning, all of you folks.”
Zhu Pingan arched his hand and saluted the common people, and in order for the crowd to hear him, Zhu Pingan amplified his voice.
Because of the large number of people, Liu Dahammer and the other thirty or so magistrates who were maintaining order repeated what Zhu Pingan said loudly.
This was also considered ancient wisdom, a human trumpet.
“Half a month ago, more than three thousand heartless Japanese invaders invaded Jingnan and besieged the county town. It was you all who defied the sacrifices and defended the city to the death, and that’s how you defended Jingnan. You are all heroes of Jingnan. Without you, Jingnan would not be what it is today. Before defending the city, I promise you: regardless of the military and civilians who are brave to defend the city of silver reward ten taels, the wounded additional reward ten taels of silver, killed in action and then an additional pension of fifty taels of silver. This official is ashamed to say that, limited to the shortage of finances in my Jingnan County Office, this half month, this official has only honoured less than 30% of it.”Zhu Pingan first recalled the feat of the military and civilians working together to defend the city half a month ago, praising the people at large, and then bowed to the crowd long and hard in shame, expressing his shame at not being able to cash in the bounty silver in a timely manner.
“Zhixian Daolao, do not blame you, all of us have heard, Zhixian Daolao in order to give us the reward silver, not only will the county magistrate granary in the grain folded to us, but also your own family background are empty, take out to give us the reward silver ……”
“Great Master Governor, what you did was good enough. If it wasn’t for you recognising the Japanese’s trick of attacking from the east, if it wasn’t for you defending the city to the death, and if it wasn’t for you leading us in defending the city, we would have long since become the ghosts of the Japanese’s swords …… ”
The people were moved by Zhu Pingan and shouted with emotion.
After the people quieted down, Zhu Pingan then clasped his fists in the direction of the capital in the north and said in a loud voice, “Luckily, His Holiness is wise, His Majesty’s grace is immense, and he loves the people like his own son, and when he is in the capital, his heart is concerned about the thousands of people in Jingnan. At the beginning of the year, His Majesty issued a special bounty, setting 30 taels of silver for the head of a fake Japanese, and 50 taels of silver for the head of a real Japanese. Now, His Majesty has given us a special reward of 60 taels of silver for each fake Japanese head and 100 taels of silver for each real Japanese head. This time, Jingnan captured 824 Japanese chiefs, of which 363 were real Japanese chiefs and 461 were fake Japanese chiefs. This time, the saint’s favour, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Appointments and other departments jointly issued my Jingnan reward silver 63,960 taels of reward silver, the reward silver has been issued to my Yamen yesterday in full.”
“How much?”
“Sixty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty taels of silver? My God, I have never seen so much silver in my life, this must be a mountain of silver.”
The people were thrilled to hear this, and the group was in a frenzy of excitement.
“Open the chest!”
Zhu Pingan turned around and said to the heavily armed magistrate guarding the wooden box.
“Duang.”
“Duang”
……
The yamen took out the key, opened the iron cable of the chest, and lifted the chest face towards the crowd. The silver in the box floated in front of everyone’s eyes, ten boxes were like ten small silver mountains, plus today’s sunshine was very powerful, the silver reflected the light, floating light jumping gold, connected to a piece, like a sea of silver, it was almost like the crowd’s eyes would be blinded.
“Wow!”
“Oh my god! My eyes are going blind!”
“So much silver, I can’t, I can’t breathe, I’ve never seen so much silver in my entire life.”
“Maa, in the future, old me will have something to blow on! The whole nearly seventy thousand taels of silver! Who has seen it? I’ve seen it!”
These ten boxes of silver immediately pushed the scene to the peak, people were so excited that they pinched themselves, it was hard to control themselves.
