What's wrong with me, a powerful minister, supporting a few female officials?

Chapter 6 Old Official
Having activated his cheat system and unexpectedly obtained a suspected magical artifact, Su Mo was in a very good mood.

I looked at the sky; it was around 5 PM, roughly the hour of You (5-7 PM).

It's time for dinner.

I took a piece of cured meat out of the cupboard, ready to cut some meat to celebrate.

As soon as I picked up the cured meat, the image of the dried corpse at the Locust God Temple suddenly flashed into my mind. It looked exactly like the dried cured meat, and I almost threw up. I had no appetite for meat at all.

Forget it, let's just eat white rice.

Add some salt, and two large bowls will be enough to last until tomorrow morning.

During the Great Wu Dynasty, salt was not cheap, and ordinary people could only eat coarse salt with many impurities, such as sea salt and mineral salt.

Su Mo wasn't a science major, but she still knew a little about salt purification.

The simplest methods are water dissolution and evaporation crystallization.

The advantage is that it doesn't require much effort; it can be dissolved, filtered, and then naturally evaporated.

The downside is that the effect is not as good, and the quality is slightly inferior to that of high-quality green salt and well salt.

Su Mo was well aware that this was a lucrative business.

However, they lack both background and ability.

Small-scale, clandestine production, passing off as well salt, can easily earn a little pocket money.

If you want to mass-produce and get rich, you'll probably be lying in your coffin the moment you throw out the formula.

Salt and iron are commodities with enormous profits and numerous hidden dealings.

Let alone a mere white-robed soldier.

Even county magistrates and prefects wouldn't fare much better than ordinary laborers.

Only high-ranking officials of the third rank or above in the imperial court, especially those who form cliques and share the benefits, would have a chance of pushing this through!
Just as they were about to start a fire to cook, there was a sudden knock on the wooden door.

Su Mo frowned.

He was all alone and deliberately kept a low profile to avoid giving himself away, only associating with his third uncle's family.

My uncle probably hasn't finished his business yet.

Besides my third uncle, who else could come to visit?
Could it be that Zhou Meng reported it to the authorities, and the yamen came to arrest him?
Not right either.

Su Mo often accompanied Chen Ping and his third uncle to arrest people.

Regardless of whether the other party has committed any offense, they are kicked in first to give them a warning—except for the gates of gentry and powerful families.

Su Mo opened the door with suspicion.

Standing at the door was none other than Widow Qin.

She changed into a light blue pleated dress with a fitted waist, which added a lot of gentleness to her appearance. She carried a food box in one hand and held her beautiful daughter, Diandian, by the hand in the other.

Seeing Su Mo staring intently at her, the young widow blushed slightly and explained softly, "I made some dumplings today, but I accidentally made a few too many."

"Thinking that my lord probably hasn't had dinner yet, I brought it here..."

As Su Mo reached for the food box, she smiled and said, "I can't accept this!"

"Speaking of which, it's been a long time since I've had dumplings."

The food container handle is only so big.

I accidentally touched someone's little hand.

Hmm, a bit rough. Making pancakes all day long, your hands naturally won't be very smooth.

But it feels pretty good.

The young widow recoiled in shock, as if struck by lightning.

Su Mo then woke up.

This is the subtlety of ancient times!
Even though the current empress holds the reins of power, women can still hold official positions, such as female centurions, who are considered "quest NPCs."

However, the rule that men and women should not touch each other is a tradition that has been passed down for thousands of years and cannot be changed overnight.

Let alone thousands of years.

Take Su Mo himself as an example; his worldview, established over the past twenty years in modern society, is quite stubborn.

Even after three months here and inheriting some of the original owner's memories, she still felt out of place and didn't dare to say much.

Su Mo coughed twice and turned his gaze to the three- or four-year-old girl.

"Is this your daughter?"

"I think her nickname was Didi?"

The young widow Qin nodded gently: "Mm."

"Dian Dian, call him Uncle Su."

"Hello, Uncle Su!"

The little girl is really sensible.

Having rarely seen strangers, she hid behind her mother as soon as she called out "Uncle Su Mo," timidly peeking out half of her little head to curiously examine Su Mo.

Su Mo smiled: "Hello to you too!"

As he spoke, he habitually reached into his sleeve to see if he had any large sum of money or something.

According to the old customs of my hometown, a child has to be given a red envelope when visiting for the first time. Before I could take out any money, a hoarse cough came from behind me.

Su Mo looked up.

Chen Qian appeared a few meters away with a dark expression.

The young widow quickly handed the food box to Su Mo, saying, "Young Master Su, I'll take my leave now."

Chen Qian gave a sinister snort: "Don't leave yet!"

"I have something to tell you later!"

Qin Bier's pretty face was filled with terror, and she dared not move.

Don't underestimate Chen Qian just because he's an old handyman.

The vast Changping County, with tens of thousands of households and hundreds of thousands of people, was the best of the best. Not to mention the Zhuangban and Zaiban, the number of regular servants in the yamen's express service was only a few dozen.

With only a few dozen people responsible for the security, taxation, and labor of hundreds of thousands of people, they were naturally overwhelmed.

The larger and more numerous group of laborers and unemployed laborers are the real law enforcement force!
A seasoned official with years of experience has accumulated a considerable network of connections, which is certainly not simple.

He was a local tyrant in Ping An Fang.

He had several thugs and villains under his command, making him a figure that ordinary people feared!

Although Qin Bier scared away many local thugs with her ruthlessness, she naturally had no means of resistance against the old clerk who represented the power of the government and was terrified of him.

Chen Qian stared at Qin Bier for a while with a dark face, then turned to Su Mo and snorted: "You beat up Zhou Meng because of her?"

Su Mo frowned slightly: "Does Third Uncle know?"

Chen Qian snorted heavily again: "How could I not know?"

"Zhou Meng has reported it to the authorities!"

"If it weren't for my third uncle having some connections in the yamen, and the case being suppressed by the criminal investigation department, it wouldn't have been me who came; it would have been a yamen runner with a warrant!"

He paused, then waved his hand: "Let's talk inside!"

The three entered the inner hall, and Chen Qian said to Qin Bier without any politeness, "Go wait in the side room!"

Qin Bier responded and hurriedly dragged Dian Dian towards the side room.

After the young widow left, Chen Qian first picked up the earthenware pot, poured a bowl of cool boiled water to moisten his throat, and asked in a deep voice, "Speak!"

"What exactly happened?"

Su Mo naturally didn't hide anything and explained what had happened.

Chen Qian's face darkened, and he snorted, "You've done a bad job!"

"When have you ever heard of the authorities needing evidence to arrest someone?"

He sneered, "As long as we put the person in jail, under Miki's command, what kind of evidence can't we get?"

"How long can that young widow hold on?"

Su Mo's expression froze instantly!
Chen Qian grew angrier as he spoke, staring intently at Su Mo with a look of utter disappointment: "This isn't your first time doing white-collar work!"

"How can you still be so foolish!"

"Since you've chosen to take action, you have to go all the way! Do you think Zhou Meng will let it go if you show mercy?"

After being subjected to a barrage of insults, Su Mo was somewhat embarrassed: "Should I beat him to death?"

Having served as a servant for some time, Su Mo knew a little about the laws and regulations of the Great Martial Arts Academy.

It's clear whether assault or murder carries a heavier sentence.

At the beginning of the Great Wu Dynasty, chaos arose everywhere. Officials were corrupt, commoners committed crimes, and remnants of the previous dynasty were eyeing the country covetously.

Therefore, Emperor Wu ordered the revision of the laws of the previous dynasty and the compilation of the Great Wu Law, which was quite strict.

If someone causes serious injury, the punishment in the previous dynasty was only "thirty strokes of the cane and exile for a thousand miles," and they could even pay a ransom to reduce their punishment by up to three degrees.

The Great Law of Martial Arts stipulates that the punishment is "one hundred strokes of the cane and three thousand li of penal servitude." If a commoner injures an official, the punishment is increased by one degree.

Moreover, injuring someone is a serious crime.

Serious crimes should not be punished with atonement money!

Even when it comes to injuring people, it's like this.

Murder is punishable by death!
Upon hearing Su Mo say that he had killed someone, Chen Qian almost laughed out of anger: "Who said that going to extremes means killing someone?"

He took a deep breath: "You should have arrested Zhou Laizi back then and taken him to the yamen in the street, the more people who saw it, the better!"

"Tear the young widow's clothes to shreds, make her disheveled, and sue Zhou the scoundrel for humiliating a respectable woman in the street!"

Chen Qian paused, then snorted coldly: "As long as everyone knows about this, even if Zhou Laizi has Ma Dianshi standing behind him, he would never dare to protect him!"

"Furthermore!"

"That big-faced Ma is shameless."

"The widow's short-lived husband was also a scholar who had read a few books."

"With us secretly fueling the flames, how could those dull-witted scholars stand idly by while their classmate's widow is so humiliated?"

Chen Qian took a deep breath, his old face showing disdain: "A mere minor official, can he really suppress it?"

(End of this chapter)