Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 149 Disposal
Under the attention of the Jiangdong gentry, Bai Tu's treatment of the Xu family has gradually become clear.
Although Bai Tu repeatedly stated that this was the result of the Ministry of Justice's trial and that he did not interfere with the normal trial process, everyone tacitly agreed that this represented Bai Tu's attitude and will.
First of all, all the hidden households and hidden fields were thoroughly investigated. As a form of "redemption", the land that Xu had previously earned from selling buffaloes was basically taken back by the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion!
Even though the Xu family still has hundreds of hectares of land, there are hundreds of Xu family branches. In fact, the rest are no different from ordinary farmers. At most, they are a little richer, similar to the previous Lujiazhuang.
Of the hundreds of cases reported by the public, about 70% were confirmed by the Ministry of Justice, involving dozens of people.
From this point of view, it is obvious that Bai Tu does not want to eliminate only Xu Gong's lineage, but intends to expand the punishment, which makes other noble families somewhat uneasy.
However, in response to pleas from all parties, Bai Tu insisted that he was upholding the Ministry of Justice's right to enforce the law impartially and that the charges were not fabricated or framed.
Facts have indeed proved that Bai Tu did not kill them all. In fact... among Xu Gong's four sons, only two who were involved in other cases were dealt with. As for the women and children who were not involved, Bai Tu did not pursue them at all.
The Xu family had already made preparations before. They immediately adopted the young and inconspicuous children from Xu Gong's branch to other branches, and married off the unmarried women as soon as possible - this way they would not be implicated!
As for the women who have married into the Xu Gong lineage, if their family has some power, they can hurry up and "divorce" them, and perhaps they will have a chance to escape.
And all of this is based on the assumption that Bai Tu allowed them to do this, or at least acquiesced to it. Otherwise, if they really wanted to investigate, the adopted sons and nephews would also have to be handed over. As for the males over the age of fourteen, there would definitely be no hope...
The final result was unexpected. To put it in a small way, many of the Xu family members who were not originally from Xu Gong's lineage had committed crimes in the past and were held accountable this time. To put it in a big way... Xu Gong's wives, concubines, two sons, and unmarried daughter were not punished at all.
For those who deserved death, Bai Tu did not arrange any too cruel death, but he did not prepare euthanasia either. All they did was the most old-fashioned "beheading".
Although he had no interest in watching the beheading, and even specially placed the execution ground in the city wall where ordinary people would not go to, so as not to scare the children, Bai Tu received a report from Wang Lang afterwards...
After seeing the documents sent back by Wang Lang's men, Bai Tu couldn't help laughing.
"This old Wang has also learned to flatter... Before his execution, he shouted 'Bai Gong is so righteous' and 'Gong is convinced', and expressed his repentance with tears streaming down his face? Why didn't he say that after Xu Gong's head fell to the ground, he wrote seven '6's on the ground with blood?" Bai Tu smiled.
At this time, Bai Tu was only accompanied by Taishi Ci, so he was not worried about being overheard by others, and...it was not really a criticism, he just felt that Wang Lang was exaggerating.
But at this time, Taishi Ci had a strange look on his face. After a while, he said, "My lord, what Wang Sibu said should be true...at most, it is a little exaggerated."
"Huh? Xu Gong can still praise me before he dies?" Bai Tu looked at Taishi Ci questioningly, as if saying: How come you can also flatter ?
"The Fengbuwei reported back that many people at the execution site also heard Xu Gong say this. There are similar rumors in the city now," said Taishi Ci.
The Fengbuwei had now been handed over to Taishi Ci. Firstly, as the head of the night guard, Taishi Ci usually followed Bai Tu. As the head of the intelligence organization, how could he not be close to his lord? Secondly, Taishi Ci was indeed careful, and with Taishi Ci's character, Bai Tu was not worried that he would use the intelligence department to do anything bad.
Of course, Taishi Ci had never heard of tears streaming down his face.
"That's strange. When I spoiled him, he never remembered my kindness. Now I feel regretful about killing him." Bai Tu shook his head speechlessly.
" Yesterday, Xu Gong's wife and children who were not involved in the case saw him for the last time in prison. I think he already knows that the lord is noble and has spared his family." Taishi Ci said.
"I didn't let his family go, I just let innocent people go. It has nothing to do with whether they are his family members or not." Bai Tu said as a matter of course.
In Bai Tu's view, this was a matter of course , which made Xu Gong truly feel Bai Tu's kindness before his death. Unfortunately, if he had understood it earlier, he would not have ended up like this.
At least if Bai Tu had killed all the descendants of Xu Gong and confiscated their wives and daughters as slaves, no one, including Taishi Ci, would have thought that Bai Tu was wrong.
Judging from the number of people who were eventually executed or sentenced, Bai Tu has already used the derogatory term "womanly kindness", but... this time there are some unexpected impacts that are vaguely disturbing.
To be more precise, the one who is most uneasy is... Taishi Ci!
Taishi Ci admired his lord's benevolence and righteousness for this act of cutting the grass without removing the roots, but he had to think that this would bring great pressure to his work as a guard.
Why was it that in the Eastern Han Dynasty, once the death penalty was reached, the family would be implicated, and they would either kill everyone or enslave the women and children?
One is to deter, and the other is to prevent future troubles...
Taishi Ci now has ten thousand supports and ten thousand admirations for his lord in his heart, but... it is still necessary to expand the number of guards!
Taking advantage of this opportunity when Xu was acting as a "chicken", Bai Tu also showed his attitude towards the Jiangdong gentry, the common people , and the people of the world.
The drought in northeastern Jiangbei continued until the autumn harvest. Judging from the current situation, the grain production in Danyang and Wujun will inevitably drop significantly, and the directly affected areas are estimated to have only half or even 40% of the harvest.
Bai Tu also reduced the grain tax for the disaster-stricken farmers in the two places, but... all the grain was collected and replaced with relief grain to be sent back!
There are very few complaints from the people about this - after all, half of the harvest is barely enough to fill their stomachs.
Without the white map, half of the harvest will be lost, and life and death will be the only option. Now at least we can survive, so let’s exchange it for relief food!
Compared to Huainan, Jiangdong was already a paradise. Huainan was in a real drought. Not only was there no water, but there were no deep wells. Countless people died because of lack of water and drinking dirty water, and the fields were completely barren...
However, Jiangdong, which seemed to be in a much better situation, continued to save food under Bai Tu's instigation. In the coastal areas of Wujun, people were promoting the idea that if they could eat fish, they should try not to eat rice and leave the food for those in need!
Bai Tu knows best that the current drought is only the "extended bonus" part. The real drought started this winter, and the real drought will come next year...
At this time, Cao Cao and Liu Bei were also running out of food and fodder. Not only was there a shortage of food in the army, but even in the areas they had already recovered, the people were almost unable to be fed, and there was no food in the fields at all - a complete "fortification and clearing of the fields".
Faced with the morale of the army due to food shortage, Cao Cao summoned Wang Hu, who was in charge of the granary, to have a heart-to-heart talk...
