The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 858: prevalent
Chapter 858 Prevalence
“General Liu said that he dared to guarantee with his life that the emperor did not want to use these children to make elixirs, but what right do you have to guarantee it with your life?! Children… are the future of a country! Who can guarantee that the generals… or prime ministers in the future will not come from these children?! Is your life, General Liu… more precious than a thousand children?! How dare you say that you would guarantee it with your life!”
Liu Hong’s face turned pale and he couldn’t utter a word.
“Imperial power and majesty?! Ha! By then… the imperial power will take the lives of these one thousand children! Majesty will take the lives of these one thousand children! General Liu… can your death bring back the lives of these children?!” Bai Qingyan asked coldly, “General Liu, have you forgotten that King Liang used children to refine elixirs and gave them to the emperor?! We all know that it was King Liang who did it, but whose orders did King Liang follow?! Why did the emperor try his best to ensure that King Liang was safe afterwards?! General Liu! Have you really forgotten everything?!”
“As soldiers, why do we fight so hard? To protect the people! But look! Open your eyes and look!” Bai Qingyan pointed at the people whose eyes were filled with tears and hatred, “They are the people we risked our lives to protect! But the emperor treats them as worthless, and the lives of these children as worthless! If you abandon the people for the so-called imperial power, are you worthy of your dead brothers?! Are you worthy of your dead soldiers?!”
Bai Qing’s words were so powerful that Liu Hong was almost moved by them.
“What kind of person is our emperor? General Liu knows better than me! He is selfish and only cares about his own desires…”
“Princess Zhenguo!” Liu Hong interrupted Bai Qingyan, his eyes bloodshot, and shouted, “Don’t forget, you are a minister of Jin! You were given the title of Princess Zhenguo by His Majesty!”
“I don’t want to be the princess of the country anymore.” Bai Qingyan threw the whip in her hand, turned around and faced Liu Hong seriously, “The descendants of the Bai family are born to learn to protect the people! The Bai family soldiers will not take off their armor until they die in battle, in order to protect the people’s worry-free and peaceful country! It is never for the imperial power! Whether it’s me, Bai Qingyan, or Bai Jinzhi… we fight to the death, but it’s never for the royal family! It’s for… taxes to support our people! Whoever hurts the people… is me, Bai Qingyan, the mortal enemy of my Bai family and even the entire Bai family army!”
The atmosphere between Liu Hong and Bai Qingyan suddenly became tense, as if they were on the verge of a showdown.
How could the people who knelt down and begged Bai Qingyan not see what was going on? They all looked at Bai Qingyan… with tears in their eyes. The Princess Zhenguo was going to risk her life to protect the people!
The people of Jin State have passed down from generation to generation that the Bai family is the backbone of Jin State, that the Bai family is the pillar of Jin State, and that the Bai family army is an army that protects and loves the people. It is true!
“Princess Zhenguo! You are going to… want to…” Liu Hong hesitated to say the word “rebel” because he was not sure whether the hundreds of thousands of surrendered soldiers, including Yang Wuce, who were brought back to Jin State, would obey his orders.
No… these surrendered soldiers would never obey his orders. He knew it when he saw Yang Wuce’s reaction just now. Yang Wuce only obeys the orders of Princess Zhenguo.
“Princess Zhenguo!” The county magistrate of Chunmu City stood on tiptoe and stretched his neck, shouting inside through the tall and strong soldiers including Yang Wuce, “Princess Zhenguo! I am the parent official of Chunmu City, please see the Princess Zhenguo!”
Bai Qingyan, who was standing with his hands behind his back, turned his head and looked towards the entrance of the government office and said, “Let him in!”
Liu Hong was holding his breath, but because of his small power and lack of influence, he did not dare to force Bai Qingyan to say the word “rebellion”. He stood aside angrily, but in his heart he was thinking about how he should respond.
The magistrate of Chunmu City avoided the tip of Yang Wuce’s knife, carefully squeezed in through the gap between the soldiers blocking the gate of the government office, and holding the hem of his official uniform, he trotted to Bai Qingyan and knelt down.
“Princess Zhenguo, please understand. An imperial decree has come from the capital, ordering me to gather 100 boys and girls in Chunmu City, and send them to Jiuchongtai on the fourth day of May! But we in Chunmu City simply can’t gather them all. I and the general Li, the city defender, pooled our money to buy a dozen children, but it’s too late to send them to Jiuchongtai on the fourth day of May. We both spent all our family wealth to beg the envoy who came to pick up the children for a grace period. The envoy then agreed that as long as we can set off this afternoon, he is willing to speak well of Chunmu City in front of His Majesty, and see if you can forgive the people of Chunmu City for the delay. Now… we only need the two boys and girls rescued by Princess Zhenguo today, and we can set off for Jiuchongtai!”
The county magistrate looked up at Bai Qingyan and said, “It doesn’t matter if I lose my life, but I am afraid that the emperor will be angry and the people will suffer as a result!”
On the way here, the county magistrate already knew that Bai Qingyan had rescued two children outside the city.
“Princess Zhenguo, you don’t know that not only Chunmu City, but also Longyang City, Puwen City, Youhua City… all received 100 boys and girls! When the general guarding Longyang City and the county magistrate heard about the imperial decree, they refused to obey. As a result, they were beheaded by the envoy who came to deliver the decree, and their wives and daughters were not spared! There were also people in Longyang City who fled with their children overnight… When they were caught, their entire families, including their neighbors, were beheaded!” The county magistrate couldn’t help crying when he said this, and he was really sad. “Your Majesty also issued an order to recruit adult men within a hundred miles to build the Nine-Layered Terrace, and they had to get there within a time limit, otherwise they would die and their entire families would be in trouble. Many people have already been killed!”
Liu Hong opened his eyes wide, and his fists behind his back trembled. He actually used such brutal means to treat his own people.
Laws like collective punishment had long been abandoned because of their cruelty, but now they are becoming popular again in the State of Jin.
“I was thinking that if the child is sent to the Nine-Layered Terrace, who knows, he might have to die to make the elixir? Although the hope is slim, it is better than… killing all the people in the city!” The county magistrate said this, kneeling forward, looking at the people who were protecting the child behind them, and kowtowed, “I am sorry to all of you. As your father and mother, I cannot protect the children of our Chunmu City!”
As soon as the county magistrate finished speaking, a child was heard calling for his father and running towards him.
Only then did the people realize that the seven-year-old child was actually the county magistrate’s child!
When the county magistrate saw his son, tears welled up in his eyes. He held the child and cried bitterly. He said to the people, “I bought the child not to replace my own child, but because we in Chunmu City really don’t have enough children!”
The seven-year-old child hid in the arms of the county magistrate and cried loudly. The children who were bought stood aside, without parents and no one cared about them, looking at a loss.
Second update, continue to ask for monthly tickets…