jdhmnovel Chapter 1137 These are clearly two living devils!
Chapter 1137 These are clearly two living devils!
Upon hearing the phrase "perhaps they have encountered some difficulties," Emperor Zhu, Heizhi Tangyuan, Li Shanchang, and others perked up.
The grand assembly will not begin until tomorrow.
I've pretty much done exploring this area today.
It's time to go and watch the show.
Emperor Zhu never expected that after following two yamen runners for half a day, the large group of people would end up in a rather inconspicuous little courtyard, passing through streets and alleys.
As soon as he reached the courtyard gate, Emperor Zhu smelled the stench of blood emanating from inside. This was followed by screams and the shouts of yamen runners cursing loudly.
"What exactly do you want, you bastard!"
"Do I have to break your legs before you'll behave?"
"Damn it, the magistrate might not bother with you, but I don't have his good temper!"
Emperor Zhu's expression changed drastically. He was about to call Xia Yu and Mao Xiang in to take a look when he heard another yamen runner also cursing loudly.
"Now you're all set. Seventy strokes of the cane, a year and a half of penal servitude, and I'll have to go to Liaodong with you, you dog!"
"You son of a bitch, I'd beat you to death and that wouldn't be enough!"
"..."
The sounds of beatings kept coming from the courtyard. Xia Yu and Mao Xiang rushed into the courtyard and saw a cow lying in a pool of blood, and two yamen runners were beating a man in tattered clothes.
Xia Yu, his face dark, shouted "Stop!" Then he took out his Embroidered Uniform Guard badge, waved the words "Imperial Guard" at the two constables, and said in a deep voice, "I am the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. What is going on here?"
The two constables looked at each other, both with bewildered and innocent expressions.
Who the hell would have thought that beating up a scoundrel would attract the attention of the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard?
While the two constables were still in a daze, Mao Xiang had already turned around and gone outside the courtyard to invite Emperor Zhu and Heizhima Tangyuan and others.
As soon as Emperor Zhu entered the courtyard, his head buzzed and his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
The sight of the slaughtered ox, combined with the phrase "seventy strokes of the cane, one and a half years of penal servitude" that he had just heard, made Emperor Zhu understand everything almost instantly.
According to the "Great Ming Code", if a draft ox dies from injury or illness and the skinning is done without reporting it to the government, the person will be punished with forty lashes; if a person slaughters his own draft ox without permission, he will be punished with one hundred lashes; and if a person intentionally kills another person's ox or horse, he will be punished with seventy lashes and penal servitude for one and a half years.
Emperor Zhu strode over to the ox, ignoring the pool of blood flowing on the ground. He first knelt down and touched the ox's face, then glared angrily at the two bailiffs and asked, word by word, "Speak, what exactly happened!"
The two constables didn't recognize Emperor Zhu and just looked at Xia Yu with blank expressions.
Xia Yu, his face dark, shouted, "This is His Majesty the Emperor of our Great Ming Dynasty! You all just need to answer truthfully!"
The two constables were startled. The leader quickly bowed and clasped his hands, bowing to Emperor Zhu and saying, "Your Majesty, we are constables from Shangyuan County. This man is named Zhang Luer. He is a well-known lazy and destitute man in this area. He is thirty years old and still unmarried."
"The newly arrived Prefect Liu said that Ningyang County under the rule of Prince Consort Yang is extremely wealthy. As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Yingtian Prefecture cannot be outdone by a county. There are lazy men in the county who are thirty years old and still unmarried. It is an insult to the reputation of Yingtian Prefecture as 'under the emperor's feet'."
"Therefore, Prefect Liu instructed the county to take good care of and assist him. County Magistrate Cheng then assigned this task to the two of them, and allocated an ox and several chickens and ducks from the county, instructing them to cultivate the land diligently and, ideally, to use the money from selling eggs and ducks to get married, so as not to waste their livelihood."
Emperor Zhu nodded slightly, but the head constable grew increasingly angry as he spoke.
"But that damned Zhang Luer, not only did he secretly kill and eat the chickens and ducks, he even dared to plot against the oxen."
"In the end, it was Zhang Luer's neighbor who was afraid of being implicated. Seeing that he was going to secretly slaughter the cow again, he rushed to the government office to report it to the authorities."
"By the time the servants rushed over, the ox was almost dead!"
The head constable, fearing that Emperor Zhu was not angry enough, added fuel to the fire: "Your Majesty, although the ox was allocated to him by Magistrate Cheng, it does not belong to him."
"Magistrate Cheng said that this scoundrel was notorious, so he gave him the ox directly, fearing that he would sell it."
"They also said that it's better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish, and told him to take good care of the cow and feed it for five years. Only when the cow gives birth to a calf should he return it to the county and then the cow will belong to him."
Emperor Zhu suddenly stood up, pointed angrily at Zhang Luer, and shouted: "Beast! You living beast! You killed chickens and ducks, and you even dared to kill oxen!"
Zhang Luer, who had already been beaten black and blue and bleeding from his mouth by the two yamen runners, was terrified and cried out, "Injustice! Injustice! This is my ox! The county gave the ox to me, so it belongs to me!"
Emperor Zhu was furious, but the head constable shouted, "Injustice? I dare to call your neighbors to confront me on the spot, do you dare! Besides, killing a cow is a serious crime, even if it's your own cow, killing a cow is punishable by seventy strokes of the cane!"
Zhang Luer dared not cry out for justice any longer, but Emperor Zhu's anger only grew stronger.
"Exiled to Liaodong! Exiled to Liaodong!"
"Send this bastard to Liaodong!"
Emperor Zhu angrily pointed at Zhang Luer and cursed incoherently, "Three years of penal servitude! No, ten years! Three years is too short, we'll make him serve ten years of hard labor in Liaodong!"
Black Sesame Dumpling tugged at Yang Shaofeng's sleeve, then walked to Emperor Zhu's side and said, "Father, don't be angry. We'll deal with him according to the Ming Dynasty law. If it's one and a half years, then it's one and a half years."
As soon as the black sesame dumpling finished speaking, Yang Shaofeng's eyes widened.
Are these black sesame glutinous rice balls?
This guy is clearly a living devil!
Don't forget, the Ming Dynasty Code stipulated that killing a cow was punishable by "seventy strokes of the cane and one and a half years of penal servitude."
The relationship between these two is not seventy strokes of the cane or one and a half years of penal servitude, but rather that after seventy strokes of the cane, one must be exiled for another year and a half.
If you beat someone lightly, seventy strokes of the cane can still leave them jumping around.
Black sesame dumplings themselves have suffered this kind of punishment quite a bit, and Yang Shaofeng, because of Black sesame dumplings, has also been punished once or twice.
However, no executioner would allow Zhang Luer to enjoy such treatment.
Forget about any underhanded tricks or anything like that; even with the normal punishment, seventy strokes of the cane would be enough to kill Zhang Luer!
Thinking of this, Yang Shaofeng simply shook his head and said, "Let's just forget about the seventy strokes of the cane. Why not convert it into cash and change it to three years of penal servitude? That way, we won't have Governor Hu complaining about not having enough manpower every day."
What the hell?
Li Shanchang and Liu Bowen looked at the black sesame dumplings, then at Yang Shaofeng.
Your Royal Highness?
Prince Consort?
These are clearly two living devils!
One person would be punished with seventy strokes of the cane, which would kill them outright.
Another went even further, creatively proposing to reduce "seventy strokes of the cane to half a year of imprisonment" and then send the person to Liaodong.
That's Liaodong, you bastard! Hu Weiyong, that other living devil, is always complaining about a manpower shortage. Lazybones like Zhang Luer have fallen into Hu Weiyong's hands...
Li Shanchang couldn't help but click his tongue and whispered to Liu Bowen, "That's ruthless."