Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 132 Pros and Cons
When Xu Yan spoke at this time, he did not expect Bai Tu to allow him to "ransom" him, that is, to use money to atone for his crime. He just said it casually to make things difficult for Bai Tu. Even if Bai Tu disagreed, at least he had established a persona of "sympathizing with his colleagues."
Moreover, Xu You also chose his words carefully. On the surface, he respected Bai Tu very much and did not oppose his judgment. At least there was nothing wrong with it on the scene.
"The military laws heard by the Privy Council do not apply to any ransom!" Bai Tu said.
Sooner or later, all redemption and other things will be cancelled, but it is not advisable to rush into it now and we need to take it step by step.
"Alas, although Sima Pan harmed the civilians, he was indeed loyal to his lord..." Xu You wanted to say a few more words.
In short, he insisted on Pan Zhang's loyalty in order to weaken Bai Tu's prestige and establish the impression among the army that "loyal ministers are not as good as commoners in the eyes of the lord."
Xu You also knew that even if he chose his words more carefully, he would definitely be put on Baitu’s blacklist.
He just figured that as long as he didn't offend Bai Tu in public, the other party wouldn't punish him in public...
As for after returning?
Xu You would immediately resign from his military post and would not give Bai Tu the opportunity to settle the score later. In a sense, he was the suicide truck released by the Xu family.
But at this moment, Bai Tu directly signaled Zhou Tai to unveil two vertical wooden plaques that had been prepared long ago. On them were the words that Bai Tu had shown to Kong Rong before. Except for Lu Lingqi who did not avoid mentioning the words when writing, and the carpenter who carved the words, only less than five people knew about these two lines of words in advance!
This was the trump card that Bai Tu considered for a long time before deciding to use - the kind that could easily sprain his wrist.
After Xu You read these two lines of words, he seemed to be choked by an invisible stone. He was speechless for a long time and his train of thought was completely disrupted...
Not only Xu You, the scene had completely quieted down. Even Wang Lang, who was originally present as a member of the Criminal Department and was about to bring in several Dubo and Shichang who needed further trial, was briefly "dizzy". He was first a little indignant and puzzled, and then looked at Bai Tu with a complicated feeling... and some admiration.
Killing one person is like killing my father!
To rape a man is like to rape my daughter!
There is no need for any prior explanation or translation. Even if you are illiterate, as long as you know these few words, you will understand what - killing a civilian is equivalent to killing my father, and raping a woman is equivalent to raping my daughter.
There are always literate people around illiterate people, but when anyone reads this sentence, the voice trembles a little.
This is the most intense and resolute "declaration of war" against Pan Zhang, Xu You and others!
Aren’t you just asking why soldiers loyal to their “lord” would be executed by their “lord” for killing civilians?
Now I tell you - killing them is the same as killing my parents.
If you are loyal to me, please be polite to my parents!
Don’t even talk about being loyal to me as the “enemy who killed my father”!
Is this reason enough?
This was also a "aphorism" put forward by Li Zicheng, the leader of the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty, more than a thousand years later, after he experienced a disastrous defeat and made a comeback. Like "equal distribution of land and exemption of taxes", it was a powerful weapon for him to win the hearts and minds and gain their support.
At the beginning of Li Zicheng's uprising, his army had the same flaw as all rebel armies - extremely poor military discipline.
After being ambushed and defeated by the Ming army in Tongguan, they were depressed for several years. Later, they took advantage of Zhang Xianzhong to attract the firepower of the Ming army and were able to make a comeback.
At this time, Li Zicheng's makeshift team also had some scholars, and they also realized the importance of popular support, so they put forward this slogan - of course, the original sentence was "To rape one person is like to rape my mother", but it was changed by Bai Tu at the beginning. After all, he didn't want to be beaten to death by his adoptive father.
Even the rebel army like Li Zicheng, which fought all the way to the capital and was still a makeshift group, saw their military discipline improve dramatically under this deterrent slogan!
At least on the surface, none of his subordinates dared to try to kill King Chuang's "father" and see what the consequences would be.
However... this was definitely an extremely wrong slogan in the feudal era. Bai Tu also understood before how great the side effects would be.
Lu Bu would want to beat him, but it’s just a family matter, there are many bigger side effects!
First of all, there is the unavoidable issue of "moral principles". The absolute core of Confucianism is respect for one's elders and kinship, which is both a hierarchical system and a symbol of distinguishing between close and distant relatives.
Confucianism pays great attention to the difference between close and distant relatives, so there is the principle of protecting one's relatives... Therefore, Mozi's "universal love" is "fatherless" in the eyes of Mencius, and "universal love" is also a heresy that Confucianism strongly resists.
Moreover, Confucianism’s benevolent government and love for the people mean loving the people as one’s own children and regarding the king as one’s father.
Firstly, Li Zicheng was barefoot and not afraid of those wearing shoes. Secondly, his team was a makeshift one and was not very sensitive to this aspect.
But Bai Tu is different. He is a great scholar and a wise man. When these two sentences come out, he can be said to be directly suspected of advocating the evil doctrine of "universal love".
If it were anyone else, they would have been "buried alive" in the Confucian public opinion and would not have been able to dig themselves out. Only Bai Tu, who was known as a sage, still had the power to fight back, so he asked Kong Rong to make preparations in advance and "whitewash" himself on the academic level.
And in terms of closeness, when treating his subordinates and officials, he compared the people to his parents and children. Who was he close to and who was he distant from?
If there are even nitpickers present, they can point at Bai Tu's nose and ask, "You regard the people as your father, but where do you place your father and His Majesty?"
What is most shocking is not that it goes against Confucianism, nor is it Bai Tu's behavior of expressing his "love for the people", but that these two sentences of Bai Tu, on a theoretical basis, conflict with the current clan system, that is, the "absolute correctness" of respecting one's relatives and elders.
Not to mention the wealthy and powerful families, even the children of poor families have a "background" and are linked by clan.
Can a person who doesn't even care about our foundation, the patriarchal system and rituals , be our monarch?
If you are playing the game, you should be able to see on the white map that most of the scholars from prominent families have a "Favourability -1" sign popping up above their heads.
Of course, it was only "-1". With great scholars like Kong Rong cheering for him, and his previous reputation, I believe that most reasonable nobles would not put themselves directly in the "reject" option.
As long as Bai Tu works hard, he can still be like Yu Fan - he didn't like you when he first met you, but who knew that he would become such a close friend later on (Yu Fan: Not really.)
At this moment, there was a sound of "flopping". After hearing the two sentences, the people who were invited to testify, although not in a standard way, prostrated themselves in front of the white map with great sincerity, and even tears welled up in their eyes.
Bai Tu remembered something and looked back at the wooden plaque.
The carpenter before was the same, he was very taciturn in speech and said nothing while carving the words, but Bai Tu found traces of tears on them!
Although Bai Tu did not think that having the victims' families worship him was something worth showing off, at least at this moment, Bai Tu felt that he was willing to bear the disadvantages brought about by these two sentences...
At the same time, what Bai Tu didn't know was that in Jinling's Chengji Mansion, Jinling Ji, who was dressed in jewels but had empty eyes, was "plotting" something. There were also dozens of seemingly unreal figures around her, making Chengji Mansion very "lively".
Bai Tu also recognized several of them, including the familiar Qu Aji, but apart from Jinling Ji, only Yu Ji's body was solid - Jingkou had not yet been built, and Yu Ji was temporarily living in Jinling.
"Are you sure what you want to do? This is not what Cheng Ji should do." Yu Ji seemed to be warning Jin Ling Ji about something, but her tone did not sound like persuasion. Instead... she sounded eager to try!
