Bai Shan and Manbao exchanged glances before imdiately kowtowing, saying, "Your Majesty, this individual is soone in the know. Please bestow rcy and allow him to enter to plead his case."
Minister Feng said, "For striking the grievance drum, one must be flogged with eighty strokes, as it is the rule."
In his heart, Bai Shan thought, it’s precisely because it is the rule that he is beseeching for leniency.
Bai Shan raised his head and pleaded with the Emperor earnestly, "Your Majesty, after eighty strokes of the heavy rod, if one does not die, they also won’t be able to speak. I implore Your Majesty to show rcy."
Wei Zhi and Lord Tang also interceded on his behalf, but there were other court officials who expressed their opposition, arguing that once rules have been established, they are there to be followed.
How could they be changed on account of one person?
In Bai Shan and Manbao’s view, those arguing were focusing on the issue, not the person, but to them, the rule itself was wrong. How could it be that one has to suffer eighty blows before they can even plead their case?
Yet, the people in the hall began arguing over this matter.
The Prince of Yizhou, unable to help himself, slightly curled the corner of his lip. Manbao grew increasingly anxious; now they didn’t seem to mind wasting ti, yet the drumming had already stopped, aning the flogging must have begun.
Although she had never t them, they were allies, weren’t they?
Manbao turned to the Emperor, deep in thought, and said, "Your Majesty, eighty strokes truly can kill a person."
It was then that the Emperor ca back to his senses and furrowed his brows, declaring, "Alright, let them halve the punishnt, and after it is done, bring him to the Great Hall."
He glanced at the Prince of Yizhou with lowered eyes and said, "I too wish to see where the Prince of Yizhou’s private army is harbored."
The clamor in the Great Hall subsided, and the Emperor asked everyone to return to their seats, leaving only the Prince of Yizhou, Bai Shan, and Zhou Man still kneeling.
He wondered, who could it be that struck the grievance drum?
How would he know the location of the Prince of Yizhou’s secret troops?
Lord Tang and Wei Zhi also pondered, these two children and the Bai Family surely were hiding sothing from them; how could they not know soone would strike the grievance drum?
The crowd in the Great Hall waited for a long ti before the guards arrived, carrying a bloodied person on a door.
They dragged him off the door; forty lashes, the first twenty intended to break bones before the Imperial edict arrived, and only after the Emperor’s decree reached them did the executioner, guessing this man was soone the Emperor wanted to see, lighten the blows considerably.
However, after forty lashes, he was severely injured. He lay there limp on the ground, trying to support himself with his arms in an attempt to sit up, but failed. Instead, pulling at his wounds, he couldn’t help but cough up several mouthfuls of blood.
Manbao turned her head to look and imdiately realized he had an internal injury; how severe it was, she could not tell.
He looked up to et Manbao and Bai Shan’s concerned gazes, and couldn’t help but crack a smile. Though they had never formally t, they were both familiar with each other and shared a deep connection.
Bai Shan tugged at Manbao, and the two shifted aside a bit, allowing him to see directly the Emperor sitting above.
The Emperor glanced at the wounds on his back and buttocks, and asked, "What is your na? Why do you strike the petitioning drum?"
Unable to get up, he simply didn’t bother and lay prone on the ground, replying, "Your Majesty, this humble subject is Xiang Chao, a resident of Qingshi County, Suizhou."
Not only the Emperor, but even the Prince of Yizhou couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrows, his hand tucked in his sleeve involuntary clenched slightly.
Xiang Chao tilted his head slightly to glance at the Prince of Yizhou, and sneered, "Prince, do you find this place na particularly familiar?"
The Prince of Yizhou said expressionlessly, "As for the vast territory of Great Jin, there is nothing unfamiliar to , especially Suizhou, which is not far from Yizhou."
"Indeed, Suizhou is very near to Yizhou, too near, in fact! Your Majesty, I accuse the Prince of Yizhou of murdering the innocent and infringing upon land, harboring a private army!"
Angered, his whole body rose up, he braced himself on his elbows and looked squarely at the Emperor, exclaiming, "Dongxi Village, he harbored a private army there; to take over that land, he murdered all the elders and children of my Xiang Family, as well as all the tenant farrs of the village. I beg Your Majesty to seek justice for all those wrongfully killed!"
The Emperor, shocked, opened his mouth in surprise, and stood up abruptly.
Clearly, Xiang Chao had waited a long ti for this day. He crawled forward a couple of steps, tears streaming down his face as he stared at the Emperor, "A total of two hundred and nine people, they all died. They died because of the Kuiwei Canal breach, their deaths were completely covered up. But Your Majesty, they died unjustly, so unjustly!"
The Emperor slowly sat down, staring at the Prince of Yizhou for a while, then turned to Xiang Chao, "Speak then, I am listening."
The Prince of Yizhou raised his head to look at him, lips pressed tightly together, and finally bowed his head without saying a word.
Xiang Chao lay back down on the ground, sowhat exhausted after that outburst, but his voice was still clear enough to reach the ears of every minister and every clan head in the great hall.
"About six years ago, soone approached our clan leader, wanting to buy the entire Dongxi Village. The clan leader did not agree; our Xiang family’s roots are all here, with the ancestral hall here, how could we possibly leave?" said Xiang Chao, "Later on, that person ca a few more tis but never succeeded in his negotiations; even though he was articulate and generous, he indeed beca friends with many in our clan."
Xiang Chao continued, "Five years ago, it rained continuously for days. Our village had a river connected to the main waterway. The clan leader had long ordered preparations for flood prevention, but no one could have anticipated the Kuiwei Canal breaking. We were still asleep when the torrential floodwater roared down from above, many people were buried under collapsing mud walls or swept away by the water before they could react..."
Xiang Chao tearfully said, "There was no way to react in ti. A mont ago, my great uncle was standing on high ground yelling for everyone to run to higher places, the next mont a wave swept him away. By morning, when people from the entire village were scattered and fleeing to safety, only about two hundred people made it out. As the water receded a bit, we couldn’t give up, we ran back, hoping to dig out and save more people..."
"But as soon as we got back to the village entrance, so soldiers riding tall horses launched a sudden attack, hacking away..."
Xiang Chao turned his head and glared at the Prince of Yizhou with red eyes, saying, "They weren’t bandits, they wore armor, the saddles on their horses, the weapons they used were all of the highest quality, they just weren’t skilled enough in killing that my brothers and I, who fell behind, managed to escape... but we couldn’t understand; who, who wanted to kill my Xiang family? Although our clan has its rascals and failures, we certainly never made such an enemy that would lead to the extermination of our clan. After escaping, we snuck back to take a look, and Dongxi Village had already been rebuilt, filled with people, filled with horses..."
Xiang Chao shifted his gaze away from the Prince of Yizhou, looking back up at the Emperor, "We went to find the magistrate of Qingshi County; he offered us tea, saying he would go to Dongxi Village to fetch soone for questioning, but instead, he went to the back hall. We felt sothing was amiss, so we quietly fled."
"After that, we beca more cautious. When we went to the Governor of Suizhou, we also held back our trust. And sure enough, the Governor of Suizhou also tried to capture us," said Xiang Chao, "My cousin said, a person who can make a county magistrate obey orders and let a state governor cover for him must be no ordinary figure, and afterwards, we didn’t dare to seek out officials any longer. We started investigating on our own, and finally found out that the two people who frequently visited that village lived in the residence of the Prince of Yizhou."
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