Chapter 47 The Wang Family’s Downfall

Shortly after the Wang family members were taken away, Constable Yu, accompanied by constables and forensic officers, arrived at the Wang family’s residence once again.

The Wang family’s courtyard was now surrounded by villagers, three layers deep, eager to witness the unfolding drama.

Constable Yu and his men had a clear objective: they headed straight for the abandoned cellar in the Wang family’s house.

Half an hour later, the constables who had descended into the cellar dug up three skeletons.

They also found hundreds of taels of silver and nearly a hundred pieces of valuable gold, silver, and jade ornaments in Wang Lizheng’s house.

Constable Yu and his men took the skeletons and the recovered valuables back to the county office.

The onlookers were stunned and began speculating about the identities of the three skeletons.

News of the Wang family reached Changhe Village again three days later.

The three skeletons dug up from the Wang family’s cellar were identified as the three missing merchants from out of town, a master and two servants, who had disappeared in Taihe County seven years ago.

Seven years ago, a merchant named Lu from Shengzhou, carrying a batch of gold, silver, and jade ornaments, along with two servants, passed through Taihe County on their way to Ganzhou to do business.

Upon reaching Taihe County, they learned that the land route to Ganzhou was unsafe due to bandits, so the three decided to take the waterway instead.

However, they encountered continuous heavy rain in Taihe County, causing the water level to rise and making it impossible to sail. They were forced to stay in Taihe County for several days.

Lu, bored with staying at the inn, decided to take his two servants to Datong Township to experience the local customs.

That’s how Lu caught the attention of Wang Lizheng, who was in Datong Township to buy goods.

After becoming the headman of Changhe Village, Wang Lizheng was honest and upright for the first year, doing his duty diligently.

In the second year, his desires began to swell.

Although he used his position as headman to gain some benefits for the Wang family, those small gains gradually failed to satisfy his greed for money.

When Wang Lizheng saw Lu and his servants, dressed in fine clothes, spending generously, and speaking with an accent from out of town, he became envious.

When Lu encountered trouble with a dishonest vendor, Wang Lizheng stepped in to help.

After successfully getting close to Lu, he learned that Lu was planning to do business in Shengzhou, and his greed grew.

Lu was a generous man who loved making friends.

Being new to traveling and experiencing the world, he was completely unsuspecting of the deceitful Wang Lizheng.

Wang Lizheng warmly invited him to his home as a guest, and Lu, along with his servants, happily went with him in their carriage.

That night, however, became the last supper for Lu and his servants.

After Lu and his servants entered the Wang family’s house, Wang Lizheng secretly instructed his son and daughter-in-law to add poison to their drinks.

After poisoning Lu and his servants, Wang Lizheng searched their luggage and found a large amount of valuables.

Wang Lizheng buried the bodies in his cellar.

To cover his tracks, Wang Lizheng chose the busiest time at the village entrance the next day to personally drive Lu’s carriage, pretending to send them away.

Villagers who witnessed it that day still remember it vividly.

When Lu’s carriage passed through the village entrance, the curtains were drawn.

The villagers couldn’t see the people inside.

However, the villagers present could smell the strong scent of alcohol coming from the carriage.

The villagers remembered it so clearly because the carriage was moving very slowly as it passed through the village entrance.

There were several sounds of vomiting coming from inside the carriage, followed by the rolling out of several empty wine jars.

Many people had seen Lu’s carriage enter the village.

Now, seeing Wang Lizheng personally send them away, they simply assumed that the people in the carriage were Lu and his servants who had gotten drunk.

Who would have thought that this was just a trick by Wang Lizheng?

The people in the carriage were actually Wang Laoer and his son.

After killing them, Wang Lizheng secretly sold Lu’s horse and carriage to a peddler in a neighboring town.

He never dared to touch the gold, silver, and jade ornaments, and he couldn’t find a suitable opportunity to sell them.

He had also considered leaving Changhe Village and fleeing with his family, but he was afraid of the consequences.

After keeping a low profile for a while and finding that things had calmed down, and no one from the Lu family had come looking for them, he gradually relaxed.

He first had Wang Laoer and his son go to Taihe County every day to give the villagers the impression that the Wang family had other businesses outside.

The villagers rarely went to Datong Township, let alone Taihe County, if they had no business there.

Regarding Wang Lizheng’s casual “revelation” that the Wang family was involved in some small business in Taihe County, there was no way to verify it.

Half a year later, the Wang family suddenly became wealthy.

They built a new house next to their original one and hired a carpenter to make new furniture.

Wang Laoer and his son still dressed well and went out every day.

The villagers were envious but dared not have any thoughts about the Wang family.

Only now did the villagers understand why the Wang family had suddenly become wealthy.

Wang Lizheng, who appeared to be kind to others, was actually the mastermind behind it all.

They were all terrified, realizing that they had a murderer who had committed several crimes living among them, and it was a family affair.

Wang Lizheng, for colluding with Old Lady Wang and Wang Laoer’s wife to murder Lu, the merchant, and his two servants, and then, to cover up the crime, using extreme measures to kill Wu Changsheng and his family of four, was sentenced to death by lingchi.

Old Lady Wang and Wang Laoer’s wife, as accomplices, were sentenced to death by beheading.

As for Chen Shi, the headman’s wife, who was always disliked because she had two daughters and no sons, was sent back to her parents’ home by Wang Lizheng before the case broke.

Even so, Chen Shi was implicated by Wang Lizheng and was sentenced to exile after the county magistrate reported the case.

Wang Laoer and his son, Zhao Bao Gen, were deceased and were dealt with separately.

As for the Wang family’s relatives, they were imprisoned for various crimes, including corruption and oppression of the people, during Wang Lizheng’s tenure as headman.

The Wang family, some died, some were imprisoned.

After this incident, the Wang family basically disappeared from Changhe Village.

Since Wang Lizheng became headman, the Wang family had been flourishing.

Changhe Village was vast and sparsely populated, with few good fields and mostly uncultivated wasteland.

When the previous headman was in office, there was an unwritten rule in the village that whoever cleared the land would own it.

In the second year after Wang Lizheng became headman, he forcibly reclaimed the land that the villagers had cleared.

After a series of manipulations, he sold it to the Wang family’s relatives at a very low price.

Villagers who were dissatisfied quickly faced Wang Lizheng’s retaliation.

For example, he deducted grain and seeds allocated by the higher authorities and gave the villagers the worst land.

The villagers relied on the harvest from their land for their livelihood, and Wang Lizheng’s actions were no different from taking their lives.

After being beaten, the villagers understood that they couldn’t fight against the powerful and could only accept their fate.

Gradually, no one in Changhe Village dared to clear land anymore.

Over the years, the villagers’ lives became increasingly difficult, and it was inseparable from Wang Lizheng.

The villagers were all delighted to hear about the fate of the Wang family.