When Song Anhao gradually quieted down, Qingshuang waved her hand toward the outside.
A maid brought in the food. Song Qiming sat down and carefully picked up some food with his chopsticks. He waited until the atmosphere had eased up a bit before speaking.
"Sister, I need to go out of the city tomorrow to select a site. Are we still going to fight the remaining bandits?"
In addition to the twenty-four bandit lairs in Suining Prefecture, there were also many scattered robbers and thieves. Although these people had never killed anyone, they had stolen a lot of money.
Song Jinzhao unhurriedly picked up a chopstickful of leeks and placed them in Song Anhao's bowl.
The little guy stole a pitiful glance at Song Jinzhao. Seeing her expressionless face, he had no choice but to stuff the leeks into his mouth.
Looking at his deeply aggrieved little appearance, Song Jinzhao secretly curled the corners of her lips.
"The remaining bandit groups are small and have no fixed dwellings. Many of them are even farmers from nearby villages. They might have already been scared into hiding by now."
"Issue a public notice in the name of the government, asking the commoners to report them. Depending on the severity of their crimes, we will punish them by making them work to atone for their sins."
Song Qiming thought this was a good idea. Rather than putting in the effort to catch these people, it would be better to let the commoners report them.
It would be highly efficient and save trouble.
The next day, shortly after Song Qiming led his men out of the city, the government office's notice was already posted on the notice boards in the city.
At the same time, the yamen runners sent to deliver the message to the four county towns also set off.
A sallow-faced woman nudged a scholar who was reading the notice.
Seeing him turn around, she immediately asked, "Little brother, what is written on this?"
Seeing that her basket was full of scavenged rotten vegetable leaves, the scholar stood to the side in disgust.
"The prefectural magistrate is calling on the commoners to report robbers. Providing information that leads to an arrest will be rewarded with ten copper coins."
The woman's expression changed suddenly. Thinking of the people in her village who occasionally went out to rob, her eyes shifted repeatedly.
But thinking of the ten-coin reward, her expression became hesitant again.
Ignoring the other party's disgust, she continued to ask, "Will these people be beheaded if they are caught?"
The scholar shook his head. "The government wants to open up wastelands. The notice says they will be made to work to atone for their crimes."
The woman stood there thinking for a long time, and was finally squeezed out by the crowd.
The yamen runners who had gone out to suppress the bandits rested well and came to the government office. They heard the sound of an abacus coming from the office room, which hadn't stopped for a quarter of an hour.
"What's going on?"
A yamen runner who had arrived a step earlier said, "Calculating accounts. The prefectural magistrate ordered that the reward money be settled tomorrow."
The yamen runner widened his eyes in excitement. "Really?"
The other nodded.
"Not only will the reward money be settled, but each family of a yamen runner who died in the line of duty will be compensated with ten taels of silver. Even the injured will receive dozens to hundreds of copper coins for recovery."
The woman hurried back to her village outside the city.
She told her family about getting a reward for reporting.
"Er Mazi from the head of the village went out to rob two months ago. He took ten people with him. Hubby, do you think we should report them?"
The man frowned in thought. The woman waited, and the two young boys standing by the door also waited.
Ten copper coins for one person, ten people meant one hundred copper coins. That was enough for their family to save for half a year.
After hesitating and struggling for half an hour, just as he walked to the village entrance to report them, he saw his childhood friend, who was also from the village, leading a dozen yamen runners this way.
His heart skipped a beat, and he had an ominous premonition.
He subconsciously asked in a low voice, "Liuzi, what are you doing bringing these officials to the village?"
The man called Liuzi smiled and didn't speak. He just gestured twice with his hands, as if to say it was inconvenient to talk.
In the end, the man could only watch helplessly as Er Mazi and the others were taken away by the yamen runners, feeling endless regret in his heart.
"These people need to be taken back for interrogation first. Come find me at the government office tomorrow. If there are no problems, the reward will be given to you."
Liuzi happily watched them leave. "Thank you, official. I will go tomorrow."
The same thing happened in various villages outside Suining City.
Two days later, the same scene quickly repeated itself in Qingxia County and the other three counties.
In less than seven days, the number of robbers sent to the government office from various places reached an astonishing eight hundred, more than what Song Jinzhao and her people had caught.
Fortunately, there were enough yamen runners in Suining City, and with the additional manpower provided by Song Jinzhao, managing these more than a thousand people was quite orderly.
