The first volume of pearl curtains rolls up the western mountain rain at dusk Chapter 51: Indifferent
If the prince is not cruel, he is not a member of the Yang family.
In fact, this is a very simple truth. If the royal family members are bullied, then what dignity and status do they have?
Not to mention that they really wanted to kill Xiahou Zhuo this time and used a killing move, even if it wasn't Xiahou Zhuo, but just a servant in the palace, Prince Yu would not pretend that nothing happened. But a servant certainly wasn't worthy of someone of his status to personally inquire about.
He was bullied once and did nothing, twice, three times, and from then on no one took the prince seriously. That's how people are, they get what they are spoiled for.
Before the people in the palace showed their attitude, many people thought that the palace would not have an attitude, but in fact, the palace’s attitude is that when you see the palace’s attitude, it is already too late.
Overnight, a storm arose in Jizhou City.
Jizhou Prefecture.
Fu Zhilian Gongming stood cautiously on one side, looking so frightened that he dared not even breathe. More than a dozen important officials of Jizhou Prefecture were also standing in this study. Fortunately, the study was not small.
Prince Yu Yang Jixing was sitting behind a desk, reading a thick book in his hands. He had just picked up the book from the bookshelf behind him. It was a new book with no signs of having been folded.
When he didn't speak, officials of all ranks in the room didn't dare to speak, not even to breathe loudly. This silence was like a knife cutting people.
After a long time, Lian Gongming, who had not heard Prince Yu speak, asked tentatively: "Your Highness, this matter is indeed my negligence. Can Your Highness tell me how to deal with it? I will definitely get it done."
"Um?"
Yang Jixing raised his head and glanced at Lian Gongming: "What are you talking about?"
He came suddenly before nightfall, and sat in Lian Gongming's study to read a book. He had already read nearly half of the book. He didn't say a word since he sat down, but how could Lian Gongming not know why the prince came?
For Lian Gongming, this hour of torture was undoubtedly like being put in a torture chamber and being tortured in every way.
When Yang Jixing asked what was going on, Lian Gongming's face became even uglier.
"Something happened in my government office, and I was dealing with it when the prince suddenly arrived. I..."
Lian Gongming's throat was so dry and sore, and he seemed to be speaking unsteadily.
"You are the governor of the government, and it is natural for you to handle the affairs of your government at your discretion. You do your work, and I read my book. I just want to read a book."
Prince Yu turned his gaze back to the book and seemed to like its contents very much.
Lian Gongming swallowed hard, his Adam's apple moving up and down as if he was swallowing a whole egg.
"Okay, okay, then I will handle my official duties first."
Lian Gongming turned to look at the officials, cleared his throat and said, "Some people in the government office have dared to collude with the bandits recently. I have already found out that the head of the police, Li Changxing, accepted the bandits' money and wanted to release the bandits' accomplices detained in the jail. To this end, they arrested innocent people to take the blame. They dared to do such a thing of deceiving their superiors and subordinates and defying the law of the country. They are not worthy of being officials, let alone human beings!"
Those officials all lowered their heads and no one dared to respond. Even if they wanted to respond, what could they say?
Lian Gongming said: "Criminal lawyer Yu Hai colluded with Li Changxing and disregarded the law of the country. His crime is unforgivable. I have decided to put him in jail and treat him as a traitor. I will confiscate his property and detain him along with his clansmen."
After he said this, he looked at Prince Yu. Prince Yu's eyes were still on the book, without even raising his eyelids.
Lian Gongming felt a slight pain in his heart. After a moment of silence, he said, "If it was just the people below who committed the crime, I wouldn't be so angry. But there are people among you who are so bold! Zheng Chun, the prosecutor in the government jail, is also a major criminal in this case, and his guilt is even greater than Li Changxing's!"
Zheng Chun was standing there, his face already pale with fear. When he heard Lian Gongming call his name, he raised his head abruptly, and for a moment he even had the determination to fight to the death.
In the official system of the Great Chu, there was no distinction between criminals and civilians, and the governor had almost supreme power in local control. The position of the prosecutor was not low, and was jokingly called the Fourth Master by the common people.
The prefect is the head, followed by the prefectural assistant, then the assistant magistrate, and then the prosecutor. This is not only the case at the prefectural level, but also at the county level, where the prosecutor ranks after the county magistrate, the county assistant, and the chief clerk.
In a big prefecture like Jizhou, the official ranked fourth was already very important. At this time, Lian Gongming directly mentioned his name, which showed that he had been bent under the pressure from Prince Yu.
"Master Fuzhi!"
The prosecutor Zheng Chun stepped forward, glared at Lian Gongming and was about to question him, but Lian Gongming would never give him a chance. He waved his hand and ordered, "How dare you roar in front of me! Come , remove his chin. We can't let him disturb the prince's peace. He is such a disgrace!"
Two guards stepped forward immediately. One of them punched Zheng Chun in the lower abdomen. Zheng Chun immediately bent over in pain. The other one took advantage of the situation and grabbed his chin, shook it back and forth, and then pulled it down. Zheng Chun's chin was removed.
Lian Gongming said: " People like you, wearing official uniforms but colluding with rebels, the laws of the Great Chu are strict, how can we let you go!"
He pointed outside the door and said, "Take him to jail."
He turned his head to look at the prefect Liu Hongming and said, "Master Prefect, I would like you to personally lead the troops to search Zheng Chun's house right now. I think there must be evidence of correspondence between him and the rebels. You must search it thoroughly, you must!"
The prefect Liu Hongming thought that this was like saving me, how could he not be excited, he immediately leaned forward and said: "I will do it right away, even if I have to dig up Zheng Chun's house three feet deep tonight, I will find evidence of his collusion with the rebels, I will!"
One said must, the other said will.
All the officials in the study were in danger. Even the prosecutor had been arrested. Who among them dared to say that they were fine?
Lian Gongming was obviously trying to save his master by sacrificing his own car, but what could they do? People are like this. They still have illusions when bad luck doesn't happen to them. They just watch others suffer bad luck without daring to intervene or wanting to intervene. No one wants to get into trouble.
Lian Gongming's men took the prosecutor Zheng Chun away. The prefectural chancellor Liu Hongming took the opportunity to say goodbye and leave. As he walked, he thought that he had saved his life this time, and he let out a long sigh as soon as he went out.
In fact, Lian Gongming was also terrified. He was deceived by Prince Yu's eldest son Yang Zhuo. He felt like he had been flying eagles all his life but was blinded by an eagle. Yang Zhuo's unclear words that day made him think that Prince Yu was deceived by Yang Zhuo to go to Beijing...
Besides, he didn't think it was a big deal to just move his fingers against a wild boy. The guy named Li Chi was an orphan and came from a poor family. If someone like this wanted to kill him, it would only take a flick of his fingers.
However, what no one expected was that this little person had made everyone in Jizhou Prefecture feel as if they were falling into an icy cave.
After Lian Gongming dealt with a legal advisor, he asked Prince Yu a question. Prince Yu didn't even raise his eyelids. He dealt with another prosecutor, thinking that this should be enough, so he turned to Prince Yu and asked again: "Prince, do you think this is in line with the rules and regulations?"
Prince Yu did look up at him this time, but he only glanced at him once before returning his gaze to the book again.
At this moment, everyone in the room felt a pain in their hearts almost at the same time, and even a layer of sweat appeared on Gongming's forehead.
Adding one more magistrate is not enough?
He pondered for a moment and then said, "Most of the runners in the government office were recruited by Li Changxing. I just found out today that he actually dared to eat a lot of empty salaries. The same is true for the prosecutor Zheng Chun. The people under his jurisdiction are all a bunch of parasites! Come on, catch up with the prefectural chancellor and ask him to dispatch troops to capture all the constables and the clerks, accountants, and jailers in the prison tonight. Don't spare any of them!"
He said loudly: "I will personally take charge tonight and see how many scums I can catch! No matter who they are, as long as they violate the laws of the Great Chu, I will not let them off easily!"
After saying this, he looked at Prince Yu again. Prince Yu stood up, put the book down with his hands clasped, and patted the book.
"This book is good. Even adults like to read it?"
Lian Gongming bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, I really like reading."
Prince Yu smiled and said, "There is a poem in this book, two lines of which are sad and sorrowful, and gloomy and desolate. What do you think of these two lines, Lord Lian?"
He patted his hands on the book again and walked away.
As soon as Prince Yu left the house, Lian Gongming rushed over and picked up the book. After flipping through the page and seeing those two words, he immediately handed the book to his men and said, "Take it out and burn it!"
As soon as he finished saying this, his head felt dizzy and his body began to sway. If he hadn't been holding on to the desk beside him, he would have fallen down.
"Get out, get out of here..."
Lian Gongming slowly sat down with the help of the table. His head ached as if something was about to explode, pushing outwards again and again.
Jizhou City was very lively that night.
The prefectural chancellor Liu Hongming mobilized soldiers in the city to arrest people overnight. It wasn't just one or two people he arrested. There were hundreds of people in total, including the officials and jailers in the prison, as well as the families of the officials involved in the case. The total number of people might be over a thousand!
Why was Lian Gongming like this? Not only because Prince Yu came in person, but also because the Jiedushi had mobilized 5,000 soldiers to prepare for battle.
All night long, troops were coming and going on the streets of Jizhou City, and a string of torches looked like huge fire snakes crawling back and forth in the city.
The next morning, everyone in the academy heard about this. Li Diudiu glanced at Xiahou Zhuo who was drinking porridge, opened his mouth but said nothing.
"what you want to say?"
Xiahou Zhuo asked him.
Li Diudiu said: "Many people will die if the prince is angry."
Xiahou Zhuo shrugged his shoulders: "Do you think that everyone in the palace is like me? When he doesn't move, it's because it's not worth it for him to move. When he moves, if there are no more than a thousand dead, then he is still not worth moving."
Xiahou Zhuo didn't think there was anything wrong with this, but Li Diudiu felt it was a bit cruel. Half of these more than a thousand people were probably innocent.
Xiahou Zhuo felt that there was nothing wrong with his father killing a thousand people, and it didn't matter whether there were innocent people among the dead, because they had brought it upon themselves.
This is the difference between Xiahou Zhuo and Li Diudiu. Li Diudiu is the loach, not the koi.
He lived at the very bottom of the pond. When he looked up, all he saw were koi swimming back and forth, but he could not see the dragon above the koi.
What is a prince? The people say he is a dragon's son.
To loach, koi is already high above, and to koi, the dragon is in the sky.
So Xiahou Zhuo remained indifferent even after knowing that so many people might die. It was natural for him to be indifferent.
When Li Diudiu saw Xiahou Zhuo's nonchalant look, he thought it was not because he was being pretentious and didn't care about the more than a thousand people who were captured, but because he remembered a sentence Xiahou Zhuo once said at that moment.
"I don't kill people because I think human life is more important. Once I feel that human life is not important, no one will dare to kill me."
After this incident, Xiahou Zhuo's mood...changed.
