The Beautiful County Magistrate
Chapter 423: Conspiracy!

Chapter 423: Chapter 423: Conspiracy!

Xu Qianli wasn’t surprised about some village officials in certain villages retaining and embezzling funds allocated from above.

But what Zhao Family Village had done today was just too bizarre.

Since the fifty million had been intercepted and used for high-interest loans, Zhao Lao Gen should have appeased the villagers, smoothly gotten through half a year, paid back the money, pocketed the interest without anyone being the wiser, handled the situation, and made a profit.

Instead, he actually brought the villagers to make a scene, intending to blow things up, which was suspicious.

Why did Xu Qianli vaguely feel that Zhao Lao Gen was targeting him?

Zhao Lao Gen said, "Secretary Xu, you’re mistaken about me. The commotion from the people of Zhao Family Village today wasn’t instigated by me. Even though I’m the village head, I can’t suppress them. You’ve misunderstood me. I truly have no ill intentions. My sole desire is to get more money for the villagers. I’m acting out of kindness. If you don’t believe me, I can swear an oath. I swear to heaven."

Xu Qianli sneered.

"No need for swearing oaths. Words from someone like you, even dogs wouldn’t believe. Careful when you swear, lest you be struck by lightning!"

"You refuse to tell the truth, right? I’ll make you have no choice but to spill it."

"Red Hair, and the rest of you, didn’t you say I embezzled your village’s compensation and want to beat me to death?"

"Now the real culprit has been found. It’s this guy who embezzled the money."

"You claim it went to high-interest loans, but who knows, maybe it went straight into your own pockets and you could run off any day now."

"You all are angry, right? Go ahead, beat him to death. Dare you?"

When Xu Qianli said that, many of the villagers’ murderous gazes fell upon Zhao Lao Gen.

It was this guy who told them the money was withheld by the town government and hadn’t been distributed, intentionally bringing them here to create trouble.

It turned out he was playing the thief shouting ’catch the thief.’

Fifty million! Each family could get over two hundred thousand, which could make the villagers of Zhao Family Village instantly wealthy.

But this guy pocketed it all himself and deceived them, nearly causing them to kill Secretary Xu. This bastard deserved to die!

For a moment, the villagers were restless, ready to rush forward and beat Zhao Lao Gen to death.

Seeing he was about to be beaten to death, Zhao Lao Gen couldn’t hold it in any longer, and fast-talked, "I’ll tell you! I’ll tell everything, as long as Secretary Xu, you can protect me, I’ll reveal it all. It’s like this..."

To save his own life, Zhao Lao Gen recounted the whole story without leaving anything out.

It turned out that when the town’s finance department transferred the fifty million in compensation to Zhao Family Village’s account, someone approached him, instructing him to carry out a task: embezzle the money, tell the villagers that the town government hadn’t given any money, and incite the villagers to make trouble, stop the Five-Colored Cave construction, and best if it resulted in fatalities.

He agreed because the person who came was extremely generous, offering him five million as a reward on the spot, with the promise of another fifty million after the fact.

For the sake of money, Zhao Lao Gen blackheartedly agreed, and lately had been spreading rumors in Zhao Family Village, drumming up the villagers to make trouble.

He had intended to bring people to kill a few workers today, but who knew that Xu Qianli would stop him.

Learning the truth, the workers broke out in cold sweat. They were truly lucky that Xu Qianli came today, otherwise who knows how many of them would have lost their lives.

The villagers’ eyes turned blood-red, cursing Zhao Lao Gen for not only embezzling the money but also exploiting them for profit, using their riot to kill for his own financial gain.

This guy, truly ruthless to the core!

Red Hair, who had been the most aggressive earlier, realized he had been deceived. Ignoring the wound on his hand, he swung his steel pipe and gave Zhao Lao Gen a hefty blow.

"You damn dog, I’ll kill you!"

Someone took the lead, and a group of angry villagers, blinded by rage, were fighting to come forward to kill Old Zhao.

Seeing that the situation would soon spiral out of control and a life could be lost, Xu Qianli fired a shot into the sky.

"Everyone go back! If you kill him, will that solve anything? Will it bring back the money?"

"Leave him to me, and I’ll make sure to thoroughly investigate and retrieve that fifty million. I promise it’ll be back in your hands soon."

Upon hearing what Xu Qianli said, the villagers gradually calmed down and began to look on.

Old Zhao, having narrowly escaped death, was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground.

How he regretted everything, but regret was useless now.

Xu Qianli made a phone call to Zhang Tao, asking him to come over immediately.

Before long, the sound of several police cars approaching was heard, and Zhang Tao arrived with officers from the police station.

Zhang Tao was instructed to arrest Old Zhao, and along with several villagers and the foreman, they all headed back to the town.

Xu Qianli asked Ding Meixin to accompany Ge Pingping and Teng Zining for a walk around the town, while he went to the police station to personally interrogate Old Zhao.

The whereabouts of the fifty million in compensation was soon discovered; indeed, Old Zhao had embezzled it for high-interest loans to a so-called big boss in the city.

Xu Qianli reached out to his connections in the city, asking Sister Wen to move in and detain that big boss.

As for the employer who had paid a significant sum for Old Zhao to create trouble and commit murder, he didn’t know their exact identity, only remembering that the person was in their thirties, of average height, and had plain, unremarkable features.

Xu Qianli had Zhang Tao bring in a skilled sketch artist, instructing Old Zhao to describe the man’s appearance so they could sketch him out.

After obtaining the portrait, Xu Qianli frowned; he didn’t recognize the man at all, having never seen him before.

He had thought an enemy of his had made a move, yet the person was a complete stranger. Could it have been someone sent by someone else?

For the moment, setting those questions aside, Xu Qianli made a call to Wu Kai, photographing the portrait and sending it over, asking him to start an investigation to see if they could find out the person’s identity and what they were up to, ideally to arrest them.

Furthermore, Xu Qianli notified Du Rumeng, who was now the head of Qingshan Town’s finance office, instructing her to send people to the villages to check on the situation and ensure the compensation had been dispersed accordingly, thus preventing a situation like the Zhao Family village from happening.

If they were short-staffed, they should pull in personnel from other departments to clarify things as quickly as possible.

Before long, some information was relayed back.

Sister Wen informed Xu Qianli that she had already confirmed the supposed big real estate boss in the city was a fraudster, running a shell company that had already fled, leaving little hope of recovering the money.

Wu Kai also provided an update; they had found the man who had employed Old Zhao. Two days ago, the police discovered a male corpse matching the given description—it was almost certainly him.

Du Rumeng’s feedback arrived quickly as well. Her dispatched personnel had only managed to reach a little over forty villages, out of which only a measly four had received full compensation that reached the villagers’ hands directly, not even one-tenth of the total. A few had completely failed to disburse any funds, similarly claiming that the town hadn’t provided any money, just like in the Zhao Family village.

Learning this information, Xu Qianli fell deep into thought.

He could feel that these events were far from ordinary.

Someone had covertly hired Old Zhao, awaiting the opportunity to disturb the development plans of Qingshan Town, even going to the length of committing murder to cover their tracks. Whoever was behind this was definitely not simple.

His instincts told him that all this was targeted at him.