I'm wearing it, but I'm still suffering.

Chapter 293 Liu Yunzhou's Interrogation

When he heard with his own ears that someone in the area under his jurisdiction had the audacity to do such a big thing, he was very angry.

Then he asked the palace guards standing nearby, "Have those people confessed?"

The palace guard replied respectfully: "Not yet."

Liu Yunzhou then glanced around at everyone standing in the hall, his gaze finally landing on Liu Yingxiong. He slowly spoke, "Liu Yingxiong, I heard that you made crossbows without permission again. Is that true?"

Liu Yingxiong didn't expect that the prefect would suddenly turn around and ask him just after the guard finished replying, so he guessed: Is the prefect going to take his anger out on me?

Seeing the situation was dire, he quickly knelt down and kowtowed again, then replied nervously, "Your Excellency, I made the crossbow this time solely to protect the villagers. The mastermind behind this has been sending people to harass our village, and our villagers have long been suffering under their influence. I was left with no other options, so I resorted to this desperate measure."

Liu Yunzhou nodded slightly after hearing this, but did not forgive him immediately. Instead, he asked, "If that's the case, why didn't you report it to the police earlier?"

The person who answered this question was naturally Wang Feng.

After hearing Wang Feng's answer, Liu Yunzhou frowned and looked at County Magistrate Jiang next to him and asked, "Is what he said true?"

The County Magistrate Jiang who was being questioned was probably a cunning and cunning person himself, so he often did things perfunctorily when handling cases. Therefore, the yamen runners under him were just like him. When they encountered a slightly complicated case, they would find ways to shirk responsibility.

When people from Wang Feng's village came to him to report the case, he immediately sent his yamen runners to investigate, but the response he received was that they had found no clues at all. Therefore, he hastily closed the case.

But now, upon hearing the prefect's questioning tone, he shuddered, then quickly knelt down, stammering, "Your Excellency, I did send runners to investigate, but the thieves were so cunning at the time that our runners couldn't find any evidence, so they assumed it was a false report from the villagers."

Liu Yunzhou's expression darkened. "Hmph, you're such a fool as a county magistrate. You declared a false report based on just one fruitless investigation. How can you be so negligent in your duties as a county magistrate and be worthy of the people?"

Upon seeing this, County Magistrate Jiang had no choice but to kowtow and beg for mercy.

In order to quickly deal with the Luoya Village incident, Liu Yunzhou didn't punish him for the time being, but he couldn't help but take a deep breath. Then he turned to look at Liu Yingxiong and the others and said, "Show me the crossbows you made this time!"

Seeing this, Liu Yingxiong hurriedly took the bamboo crossbow from Liu Kun's hand and presented it to him.

Looking at the crossbow arrow, which was made of a completely different material from the one he had seen in Bizhou Prefecture before, Liu Yunzhou was filled with suspicion, as if the crossbow arrow was a foreign object from outer space. He couldn't help but ask in a lost voice, "Why is this so different from the one you gave me before?"

Liu Yingxiong gave a rather clever answer to this question. He said, "Last time, we submitted a wooden crossbow with greater lethality. This time, due to time constraints, we only had time to make this simpler, less lethal bamboo crossbow. Furthermore, in order to prevent the crossbow manufacturing method from being leaked, we deliberately controlled the insider."

After a careful inspection, Liu Yunzhou praised, "This crossbow is quite ingeniously designed. Although its material isn't very good, with a little modification, it can be used to defend the country."

Liu Yingxiong did not dare to respond to such two-sided words.

Fortunately, Liu Yunzhou didn't seem to force him to take it, and continued, "But since this thing isn't too lethal, I won't charge you with illegally manufacturing weapons for now."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yingxiong was just about to breathe a sigh of relief!

Liu Yunzhou continued, "Even if you had your reasons and controlled the number of people who knew about it, you still broke your original promise, so you still have to be punished."