The officials present were all stunned at this moment.
But among those present, they were not the most fearful.
After all, they were still officials of the imperial court. Even if they showed some disrespect when facing imperial gifts, they still had the excuse of ignorance to shield them.
As long as this item was not damaged, everything else would be easy to handle.
However, Wang Daolu was completely different. Who was Lin Ling Su?
He was the elder immortal highly supported by the entire Shenxiao Sect. It could be said that he was the heaven and the earth of the Shenxiao Sect.
His word within the Shenxiao Sect could decide life and death.
If he had known that Han Mo and Lin Ling Su had such a connection earlier, he wouldn't have dared to step forward and cause trouble for Han Mo even if he had ten thousand heads!
At this moment, he finally understood why he had sent so many messages to Bianliang City, only to receive no reply in the end.
So, this was what they had been waiting for!
"You all chat about your matters. This has nothing to do with this old man. I'm just here to listen to the trial. Don't push everything onto me!"
Xu Churen shrugged his shoulders decisively, showing no intention of paying attention to them.
This left Li Jixian somewhat speechless. The case had escalated to this point, and he no longer knew how to proceed with the trial.
"County Magistrate Han! Although you carry an imperial treasure, you should understand that even if this matter is brought before His Majesty, the charge of seizing imperial property against you is ironclad!"
After hesitating for a moment, Li Jixian finally gritted his teeth and resumed speaking with a heavier tone.
It wasn't that he had suddenly become tough. It was simply because he had also come to realize that Han Mo was being utterly unreasonable.
If he couldn't suppress Han Mo's arrogant demeanor, the matter would likely end inconclusively today. If it were any other time, it would be fine for such a matter to end inconclusively. At most, he would apologize to Han Mo privately afterward, perhaps even treating him to a meal!
But the problem was that they were now at a critical juncture, and they desperately needed Han Mo's life as a bargaining chip.
Although their investigation into Han Mo had indeed been flawed, what use was regret now that things had reached this point?
"My lord, you say it's ironclad. I don't like to hear that. Have you read the characters on the land deed clearly?"
Seeing that the other party was not budging with kindness and was resorting to force, Han Mo said with a cold smile.
"All land deeds in the world are the same, what's so special about them!"
As officials of the Transport Bureau, they had seen the most official documents and deeds in their lives.
Reviewing all the land deeds in the Hebei East Circuit was one of the Transport Bureau's responsibilities. When it came to studying such things, there was absolutely no one in the Hebei East Circuit who was more familiar with them than they were.
"My lord, please take a good look and see who the owner is on the deed!"
Han Mo smiled and then continued.
"The owner?"
Hearing Han Mo say this, even Li Jixian immediately took out a land deed and began to examine it carefully.
He hadn't paid attention to this issue before, but with Han Mo bringing it up, he himself felt that something was not quite right.
After carefully reading the text on the land deed, he discovered that the owner listed on all the deeds was indeed Mr. Yuan Miao!
Upon seeing this, not only Liu Shanqing was stunned, but Li Jixian himself was also taken aback.
They had never noticed such a detail before.
However, it wasn't entirely their fault. In recent years, Lin Ling Su had gained so much prominence that many people had developed a fixed mindset, always believing that anything belonging to Lin Ling Su was the property of the Shenxiao Sect, and anything belonging to the Shenxiao Sect was Lin Ling Su's.
Since this old Taoist was the abbot of the Shenxiao Wanshou Palace, and the land deed he produced was genuine, there shouldn't have been any other problems. But it was this very detail that caused them all to fall into a trap!
These lands were indeed bestowed upon Lin Ling Su by the emperor, but Lin Ling Su himself did not have the time to manage them, so he distributed the lands in various regions to the Tianning Palaces in each place, which later became the Shenxiao Wanshou Palaces.
Under normal circumstances, this deed would not have caused any problems. The abbots of the Shenxiao Wanshou Palaces in various regions managed the lands on behalf of Lin Ling Su.
Even the newly reclaimed lands were re-labeled under Lin Ling Su's name.
There was no other reason than the fact that by bearing Lin Ling Su's name, they were exempt from taxes. Moreover, even lands of unknown origin became legitimate once they were under Lin Ling Su's name. That was all.
However, at this moment, if the matter were to be thoroughly investigated, it would become very interesting.
Since these were Lin Ling Su's private properties, they had nothing to do with the emperor.
After all, land was different from other things. In the past, there had been many cases where officials' families fell into decline, and their unfilial descendants would pack up and sell the imperial manors and lands bestowed by the emperor.
The local government had never pursued charges of great disrespect.
Since the land belonged to Lin Ling Su, the charge of seizing imperial property that they kept talking about naturally no longer existed.
Even though Lin Ling Su was revered as Mr. Yuan Miao by the current emperor, and many officials and royal descendants referred to him as the Old Immortal, in the end, his possessions were still unrelated to imperial property.
"I, I..."
Liu Shanqing's mouth opened and closed several times, but in the end, he couldn't figure out what to do with the remaining matters.
Once the case changed from seizing imperial property to a dispute over private land, the nature of the matter would be completely different.
Even if Han Mo had occupied some private land in an emergency to alleviate the disaster, it would be resolved by providing some compensation to the victims afterward.
After all, in emergencies, it was common to act according to circumstances. There were countless benevolent officials throughout the land who did such things.
Especially on the Yellow River defenses, in urgent situations, it wasn't just a few thousand mu of private land; even one or two counties could be flooded just like that.
If they were to escalate this matter to the Ministry of Justice for such a trivial reason, both of them would likely receive another label of incompetence in their evaluations for the year from the other department.
"But, but even if it's private property, you can't just occupy it without the consent of the victim or discussing it with them..."
After a long silence, Liu Shanqing finally stammered out a sentence.
"My lord, who said our master did not get the victim's consent?"
However, as soon as his voice fell, a clear voice sounded from outside the door.