Chapter 116

  As Pingyuan County expanded its military rapidly, there were newly established legions, and the guards at the City Lord's Mansion did not recognize all the legion commanders. However, judging from Cheng Jin's confident tone and bold demeanor, as if no one was around, it was likely that what he said was true. The guards felt a sense of fear in their hearts and didn't dare to approach him easily.

  Cheng Jin didn't care about all that, grabbed a house servant and rushed straight to Wang Meng's bedroom.

  He had just reached the door when it opened and a stout middle-aged man with a short stature, fat body, small eyes that rolled around restlessly, and a face still flushed with anger came out. "What's all the commotion?" he thundered. "What's happened..." He hadn't finished speaking before his gaze fell on Cheng Jin who was walking towards him.

  Others didn't know Cheng Jin, but Wang Meng did. He had met him in the county capital, but he didn't know his name or official rank, only that he was one of Tang Yin's men. At this moment, suddenly seeing Cheng Jin, Wang Meng hesitated and asked suspiciously: "You..."

  He had just spoken a word, and Cheng Jin had already taken big strides to his front. Without saying another word, he first grabbed his neck and said in a cold voice: "What a bold dog official, corrupt and lawless, not worth dying, what else do you have to say?"

  Wang Meng was stunned by Cheng Jin's scathing rebuke, his eyes wide with confusion as he muttered: "Y...you, what do you mean?"

  "What does it mean?" Cheng Jin's palm exerted force, pushing Wang Meng back into the bedroom just as he was about to leave. He then followed up by closing the door and only then said: "Let's not mention those miscellaneous things in your treasury for now, tell me, what's going on with the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in the secret room?"

  What? Hearing this, Wang Meng's head suddenly buzzed, and he subconsciously inhaled a breath of cold air. How did he know about the secret room in the silver warehouse, and how did he know there was silver inside? Besides himself and his two trusted confidants, no one else knew about this matter. His face changed color, and he stood frozen on the spot, speechless for a long time.

  "Hmph!" Cheng Jin coldly snorted, dragging Wang Meng to the table, picking up the pen and paper on it, handing them over to him, saying: "Write down everything about how you embezzled and took bribes, right now, write it all out in detail!"

  Wang Meng snapped out of his shock, forcing a laugh and stammering: "Th-this general, y-you've misunderstood, this silver belongs to my friend, he's just temporarily storing it with me!" As he finished speaking, his round head nodded repeatedly, indicating that what he said was true.

  Cheng Jin didn't believe his nonsense, and sneered: "It seems that if you don't use a bit of strong measures, you won't confess honestly!" As soon as the words fell, he suddenly punched heavily on Wang Meng's abdomen.

  Wang Meng was a civil official, not skilled in martial arts. He usually enjoyed a life of luxury and had never experienced such a severe beating. With one punch, he let out a loud cry of pain, like a deflated ball, his body slid down the table leg and landed softly on the ground.

  This was not the end, Cheng Jin opened his fist, and a black mist was released from his palm. In the blink of an eye, the black fog condensed and transformed into a dark, shiny spiritual armor on his hand. With a cold gaze, it seemed as if he had put on a black iron glove.

  Cheng Jin opened his palm and grasped Wang Meng's left wrist, without seeing how he used his strength, only his five fingers retracted, accompanied by a crisp cracking sound, Wang Meng's wrist bone shattered loudly, but if you look at the surface it was still intact, but the entire palm had unnaturally drooped down, swaying back and forth in mid-air.

  This was truly painful to the bone. Wang Meng had never been so painful in his life, he let out a pig-like scream, and then his eyes rolled up, and he fainted from the pain.

  At the same time, a cry of surprise also came from the inner end of the bedroom. Cheng Jin turned his head to look and found that there was another woman sitting on the bed inside the room. She held a quilt in her hands, covering her chest, and her body was shaking violently, apparently already frightened silly by the scene before her eyes.

  Not posing a threat to himself, Cheng Jin ignored the woman and shifted his gaze back to Wang Meng's unconscious body. He squatted down, using his fingernail to press on Wang Meng's Renzhong point, suddenly applying force to press down, and the latter groggily came to with two hums, slowly regaining consciousness.

  Cheng Jin threw the paper and pen to the ground, shouting: "Write! If you don't want to suffer, then write it out obediently for me. Otherwise," he waved his hand, which was covered with a spiritual armor, in front of Wang Meng's eyes, saying: "Next, I'll crush your feet, dig out your eyes, pinch your nose, and finally twist off your neck!"

  "Ah——" Wang Meng groaned in pain, not daring to look at his crushed wrist bone. His pale and chubby face was covered in cold sweat as he trembled with rage, saying: "I... I am the mighty King Tingming, Lord of Heng City, you... you dare to be so presumptuous, forcing me to surrender, even if I become a ghost, I will not let you off..."

  Still not writing?! Cheng Jin nodded and said, "Since you want to be a ghost, I'll fulfill your wish!" As he spoke, his palm moved down, grasping Wang Meng's ankle, his body slightly leaning forward, as if about to pinch him.

  Recalling the unbearable pain from just now, Wang Meng shivered and said repeatedly: "Wait! Wait! General, as long as you can spare my life, I'll give you all the money in the silver warehouse, that's one million taels! Think about it, even if you're a general for your whole life, you won't be able to earn that much!"

  Cheng Jin seemed to have heard the most hilarious joke in the world, and couldn't help but laugh with his face upturned. He said slowly: "If it's just for money, I wouldn't join the army. With my skills, I only need to be a thief for a few years to become rich, but that's not what I want. You're still plotting in vain, trying to make a last-ditch effort when disaster is looming, but how could I be your accomplice?" Before he finished speaking, Cheng Jin's hand grasping Wang Meng's ankle began to slowly tighten.

  This time he didn't crush his ankle bone at once, but instead applied force slowly and evenly. Of course, he also made Wang Meng's pain deeper and more severe.

  "Ah——" Wang Meng let out another miserable cry, he could even hear the cracking sound of his own bones on the verge of shattering.

  "Stop pinching me, I'm writing, I'm writing..." He was tormented by Cheng Jin's soft and hard tactics to the point of near collapse, and he let out a mad howl as his nose and eyes flowed with tears and snot, mixed with the sweat on his face, making his entire face blurry.

  "Very good!" Hearing him say that, Cheng Jin nodded in satisfaction and released Wang Meng's ankle, pushing the paper and pen forward again.

  Helpless, Wang Meng wrote down how he had embezzled and broken the law, and forcibly collected commercial taxes from merchants in the city. In fact, within just a few years, he was able to accumulate wealth of over one million taels in the impoverished Xiangcheng, and what he did was far more than that, but Cheng Jin didn't care about so much, this one point was already enough to punish Wang Meng's crime, and it was exactly what he wanted.

  When Wang Meng finished writing, he picked up the paper to take a look and confirmed it. He then cut his finger with a steel knife and used his own blood to sign the confession.

  After finishing all this, Cheng Jin secretly let out a sigh of relief. He knew that forcing Wang Meng to confess was also risky. If the latter had a hard enough backbone and refused to admit anything, then he would have trouble explaining it to Tang Yan. After all, Wang Meng was the city master, and using private punishment on him was unjustifiable in terms of law. Fortunately, Wang Meng was a softie, and after being beaten and intimidated, he confessed everything.

  At this time, the outside of the city master's mansion suddenly became chaotic, and then the gate was knocked open from the outside, and a large group of government soldiers rushed in.

  The guards at the city lord's mansion were all frightened to death and retreated one after another, with no one daring to come forward.

  As the officers and soldiers rushed in, Tang Yin also strode quickly from outside, with Bao Qing and Shangguan Yuange arriving beside him.

  Under the guidance of Ao Qing, Tang Yin and Shangguan Yuanyi first went to the silver warehouse of the city master's mansion, where they saw the wealth accumulated by Wang Meng.

  Not to mention the silver, the value of the antiques and brocades outside the secret room was already considerable. Once inside, they saw piles of silver ingots as high as mountains, leaving Tang Yin and Shangguan Yuanyu momentarily stunned and unable to react.

  Tang Yin had never seen so much silver in his life, and a mere city master could accumulate wealth to such an extent, it was truly astonishing.

  While Shangguan Yuanji was surprised, his face also turned red. As the person in charge of domestic affairs, a corrupt official like this had appeared within his jurisdiction, and he could not escape blame either.

  Actually, since Shangguan Yuange took office, a batch of officials has been replaced, but they are all directly affiliated officials in the county. He temporarily doesn't have more energy to put into each city and town in the county. It can also be said that fortunately, he didn't have more energy to pay attention to each city and town and replace their officials. Otherwise, it's not certain whether Wang Meng, this big corrupt official, could have been caught or not!

  Even so, Shangguan Yuange still felt his face burning with shame. After he and Tang Yin exited the secret chamber, he bowed deeply and said apologetically: "Sir, this is a fault of mine, it was my negligence!"

  At this time, Tang Yin was very open-minded and did not blame Shang Guan Yuanji. Instead, he comforted him, saying: "Yuanji, this is not your fault. The one who is greedy for bribes and perverts the law is Wang Meng, not you. Besides, when handling government affairs, there are many trivial matters that cannot be done perfectly. You're not a god!"

  Hearing him say this, Shangguan Yuanguo's mood did not relax, but instead felt more ashamed.

  He shook his head with a bitter smile. Tang Yin's profound understanding of the situation would only make him more diligent and responsible, and the burden on his shoulders would become even heavier.

  Tang Yin asked Jia Xi, who was guarding the silver warehouse: "Where is Cheng Jin?"

  "Sir, Captain is going to find Wang Meng!"

  "Oh!" Tang Yin responded with a sound, and immediately found a guard from the city master's mansion, who led him to Wang Meng's bedroom.

  When Tang Yin and others arrived at Wang Meng's bedroom, the latter had been tortured by Cheng Jin and was on the verge of death, his consciousness unclear. His eyes were looking at Tang Yin, but his gaze had lost its focus.

  Cheng Jin hastily stepped forward and bowed, saying in a low voice: "Sir!" As he spoke, he handed over the confession written by Wang Meng with both hands.

  Tang Yin nodded slightly, indicating that Cheng Jin didn't need to be overly polite, then took the confession and unfolded it to read carefully. After roughly reading through it once, he flung his hand and threw the confession on the ground, gazing intently at Wang Meng with a cold tone: "In order to let Pingyuan County prosper rapidly and let the people live in peace and contentment, the county specially formulated policies to reduce and exempt commercial taxes. Yet as the city master, you deliberately go against this policy, lining your own pockets, an unforgivable crime!"