OBS Chapter 337 Zhu Chong 8: I just can't figure it out
Chapter 337 Zhu Chong 8: I just can't figure it out
"Sun Gupu?"
Yang Shaofeng sized up the sallow-faced, sickly-looking man in front of him and couldn't help but frown before asking, "Sun Gupu?"
Sun Gupu snorted coldly and turned his head away, ignoring Yang Shaofeng.
Yang Shaofeng didn't take it to heart and turned his gaze to the scholar in Confucian robes standing next to Sun Gupu.
Damn it, what kind of idiots are these scholars in the Ming Dynasty?
Yang Shaofeng rubbed his forehead slightly, ignoring the scholar and turning his gaze to the short, thin man with a fierce face standing on the other side of the scholar, asking, "Japanese slave?"
Nine Demons clearly understood the word "Japanese slaves," and glared at Yang Shaofeng, shouting, "Baka yarou!"
Yang Shaofeng immediately laughed.
This "baka yarou" is so damn classic, so classic that any Chinese person can understand it, and most people will recall certain things because of these four words, thus arousing their destructive desires.
Yang Shaofeng smiled and directly instructed the lame man standing beside him, "Have someone go find a pair of pliers."
After Limpy Five agreed, Yang Shaofeng took the whip directly from Limpy Five's hand, walked to Jiu Gui's side, and began to whip him mercilessly.
When he was too exhausted to continue, Yang Shaofeng laughed and spat, then ordered the lame man, "Pull out his teeth first. This bastard just cursed me."
Without hesitation, Limpy Five walked to Nine Ghost's side, grabbed Nine Ghost's chin, and with a little force, dislocated Nine Ghost's jaw. Then, amidst Nine Ghost's terrified screams, he shoved the pliers that the constable had just brought into Nine Ghost's mouth.
Yang Shaofeng smiled again, then turned his gaze to the scholar, and snorted coldly at the puddle of water beneath him, saying, "Speak, name, age, place of origin, what is your relationship with Sun Gupu and this shorty, and why are you targeting me."
The scholar opened his mouth, pondering whether to answer the question honestly, when Yang Shaofeng chuckled and said, "If you confess now, you can avoid physical punishment—you'll confess anyway in the end, right?"
Following Yang Shaofeng's gaze, the scholar looked at Jiu Gui, whose mouth was full of blood and who didn't even have the strength to scream. Finally, he couldn't hold back any longer and shouted, "I confess! I confess!"
Then, Yang Shaofeng turned his attention to Hu Biao and Qian Er.
A bait of more than 20,000 people?
Just to make a commotion, so that the assassin could have a chance to strike?
Tsk tsk.
You two are really wicked. You can talk a good game about tactics, but you never considered that these 20,000 people were not bait and there were no assassins at all.
These people are just plain stupid!
Meeting Yang Shaofeng's gaze, Hu Biao and Qian Er's faces also turned bright red.
Who the hell could have predicted this!
……
Emperor Zhu felt a burning pain in his old face.
It wasn't because he was beaten by Empress Ma, but because of the embarrassment and anger he felt after being treated like a fool by certain people.
Emperor Zhu threw the memorial directly in front of Liu Bowen, and sneered, "Mr. Qingtian, if that scoundrel hadn't discovered this matter in advance, do you think it would have caused such a huge commotion?"
Liu Bowen first picked up the memorial and read it through, then closed his eyes in despair.
No wonder, no wonder the superior suddenly summoned me alone, and no wonder my fellow townsmen from eastern Zhejiang have all disappeared recently.
It turns out these people had been holding back a huge surprise!
After a long while, Liu Bowen finally sighed and said, "Your Majesty, I truly did not expect such a thing to happen, I..."
Emperor Zhu waved his hand irritably and said angrily, "Since this matter has nothing to do with you, then stop talking nonsense and tell me how to resolve this matter!"
Liu Bowen's expression changed repeatedly. After a long while, he finally let out a long sigh and said through gritted teeth, "Your Majesty, these people are clearly plotting rebellion. Just execute their entire families."
Emperor Zhu snorted coldly and said, "What if the executions are over?"
The phrase "exterminating nine generations of relatives" sounds terrifying, but most of the time it doesn't actually mean killing all nine generations of relatives. Instead, it means killing the core relatives, and the rest of the nine generations would be exiled.
The same thing happened with the previous plow case. Although more than 20,000 people were implicated, most of them were sent to Dengzhou to do hard labor. Only a few were actually taken to the execution ground and beheaded.
To put it bluntly, the term "诛连" (zhūlián) is a combination of "诛杀" (zhūshā, to kill) and "牵连" (qiānlián, to implicate). It means to kill a small group while implicating a large group, which is what "诛连九族" (zhūlián jiǔzú, to exterminate nine generations of a family) means.
If the entire nine generations of a family were killed, then the Plowshare Case alone would have resulted in the deaths of more than 20,000 people.
If it were a case of the magnitude of the Empty Seal Case, it wouldn't just be a thousand or so officials killed; at the very least, tens of thousands would have been beheaded.
Liu Bowen sighed slightly and said, "After the executions are over, I request that the education system be reformed, that the land distribution and royal land system be implemented, that the progressive tax system be implemented, that the censorate inspection system be implemented, and that the 'Four No's and Two Directs' system proposed by the Prince Consort be implemented."
As Liu Bowen finished speaking, Emperor Zhu fell silent.
After waving for Liu Bowen to leave, Emperor Zhu went straight to the Kunning Palace.
"Girl, we don't know what to do now."
Emperor Zhu held Empress Ma's hand, his face full of struggle, and said, "How can we satisfy them? Or rather, what kind of world do they want to be satisfied with?"
Empress Ma turned around and grabbed Emperor Zhu's hand, sighing as she asked, "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
Before Emperor Zhu could answer, Empress Ma continued, "If you want to hear lies, then let me tell you, as long as you are willing to govern by doing nothing, be close to virtuous ministers, and keep away from wicked people, the world will surely be well-governed."
"But if you want to hear the truth, then I can only tell you that no matter what you do, there will always be people who are not satisfied, and those people... those people will never be satisfied."
With a slight sigh, Empress Ma continued, "Leaving aside others, let's talk about you. Are you content? Don't you want to expand your territory by thousands of miles? Don't you want to be accomplished in both literature and military affairs? Don't you want the reputation of being a great emperor for all time?"
Emperor Zhu opened his mouth, but said nothing.
Empress Ma smiled and said, "If you ask me, you should actually be content now. After all, you dared to forge your own path even when no one was helping you. Now that someone is helping you and paving the way for you, what is there to be dissatisfied about?"
Emperor Zhu grunted in a muffled "hmm," pulled his hand away from Empress Ma's, rubbed his face haphazardly, and said, "It's not that I'm ungrateful, I just don't understand—what have these common people done to deserve this suffering?"
Empress Ma smiled and said, "Wait here, I'll go make you a pancake. After you finish eating, you'll be the energetic Hongwu Emperor again."