Free Web NovelChapter 1247: Chapter 1218: Spine-Chilling (Part 3)
The former will not be pursued, the latter will not be implicated, and their lives can be spared.
However, she requires that from now on, all the aristocratic families in Jiangnan must adhere to the national laws. Moreover, to quell this rebellion and appease the people, each family must release a certain amount of land, to be redeemed by the national treasury;
They must unconditionally release some tenant farmers and servants, allowing them to return to their hometowns...
Provide a certain amount of relief grain to the common people to help them get through this winter...
Finally, Lu Jing must die.
Zhao Hanzhang’s statement was, "It’s not because he provided provisions to Wang Dun and participated in the rebellion, but because he was corrupt and exploited his village, causing public sentiment in Wuxing County to boil over."
This time, Lu Yuan did not oppose it, nor did he plead. He agreed particularly obediently, but he didn’t believe Zhao Hanzhang’s statement in his heart. He felt that she still killed him because Lu Jing participated in the rebellion.
In the eyes of these aristocratic families, being a poor official, dereliction of duty, corruption, or even cruelty were not reasons for the court to execute someone; only rebellion, because it touches the fundamental interests of the court, was.
Zhao Hanzhang naturally saw their thoughts and didn’t insist on making them believe her reasons.
No matter, there’s plenty of time in the future. She has time to slowly correct their views, and moreover, as long as the common people believe it to be so, that’s enough.
This time, Zhao Hanzhang didn’t even bother to send a letter through the post station, directly telegraphing Yuan Li her decision.
After receiving the telegraph, Yuan Li arrested the subordinate officials of Wuxing County, detained those who needed to be detained, directly took military control of Wuxing County, and had the news spread throughout the streets and alleys.
In a few days, a large number of people gathered in Wucheng County, Wuxing County. Yuan Li had Lu Jing paraded through the streets and taken to the execution ground, where he was beheaded in front of the whole city.
The people watched with eyes full of tears, especially the villagers and fishermen that Yuan Li intentionally brought from the seaside. Seeing Lu Jing’s head fall, they fell to their knees with a thud, beating their chests and shouting to the heavens.
If they hadn’t been shouting "Well done, well done," those watching would have thought they were lamenting for Lu Jing.
The villagers and fishermen cried out and wept, and in the end, they broke through the soldiers’ defenses, directly grabbing the corpse and head. They wanted to take Lu Jing’s body and head to the seaside to pay tribute to the innocent family members lost over the years because of him.
Even Yuan Li was startled, and in the end, he had to increase forces to retrieve the body.
Executing Lu Jing was one thing, but if even the body were to be snatched away and insulted, that would be another matter altogether. He himself didn’t mind making enemies with the Lu Family, but the Great General would not allow it.
To prevent the Lu Family from holding a grudge against the Great General, Yuan Li not only retrieved the body but also pretended to have the coroner sew up Lu Jing’s body in front of the Lu Family’s servants and prepared a coffin for the burial.
In the end, he even had a team of soldiers escort them to carry the coffin back home, avoiding the angry public.
Therefore, when these servants returned to report to the Lu Family, they even spoke well of Yuan Li, "If it weren’t for General Yuan’s protection, I’m afraid the master’s body wouldn’t have survived, and we couldn’t escort the coffin back home."
The people of the Lu Family were furious, "Should we even thank that Yuan Li then? If it weren’t for him leading troops into Wuxing County and deceiving Zi Mi, how could Zi Mi have ended up like this?"
Lu Jing, styled Zi Mi.
However, some in the Lu Family had different opinions, "We have opened the coffin and seen that Zi Mi doesn’t have many wounds on his body, showing he wasn’t severely tortured. He was too reckless in Wuxing County; I reminded him before not to exploit the people’s resources too much. We are Wu people, living here for generations. If we treat the people so poorly, even if they endure it now, someday there will be retribution upon our descendants."
"Well, this is good, the retribution didn’t fall on the descendants; he encountered it himself." He said, "I have to say, he died well. The common people hated him so much they wanted to eat his flesh and insult his corpse. If we suppress them any longer, it would implicate the entire family."
No one else spoke.
After a while, someone said, "I heard even Zhao Hanzhang in Luoyang heard of his infamy, public indignation was boiling, therefore she ordered Yuan Li to go to Wuxing and capture him."
"Even so, she should have interrogated before executing. She didn’t even see Zi Mi, just ordered his execution directly, and beheaded him in the street so violently. Can she truly tolerate our Lu Family, and the Jiangnan aristocrats in politics?"
"Indeed, I find her to have a very hard heart. It would have been better to choose King Langya at the start."
"Shut up, there are petty people like Diao Xie around King Langya. I’d rather not be an official than be humiliated by such a person."
"It seems Wang Dun is still more suitable."
"Be cautious, the Family Head is still in Luoyang, and the matters of Wuxing County must be given to him to know. We should wait for his reply before discussing further." They immediately wrote a letter and sent it to Luoyang.
Lu Yuan was already on his way back. After coming out of the Imperial Palace that night, he urged Wang Dao and Zhou Qi to return to Jiangnan together the next day.
He needed to hurry back to see Lu Jing one last time.
He thought, no matter how fast the documents from the court were issued, they would arrive almost simultaneously with him. The review and execution process would have a time gap. He wanted to see Lu Jing one last time, to find out if he confessed to anything deadly.
But who would have known that Zhao Hanzhang didn’t issue any document, but directly used a telegraph to execute him?
Lu Yuan was just about to cross the river when he encountered family members heading north to deliver the news, holding the letter, Lu Yuan finally felt that legendary sense of terror.
Zhao Hanzhang indeed had the ability to instill fear.
