There were more and more people who were forced to gather in front of the Zhou family’s mansion. Time slowly came to noon. I saw a young man with a thin body, a gloomy face, and a little bookish spirit slowly stepped forward and looked around the people.

Seeing this, everyone was stunned and suddenly felt silent. The place where more than a hundred people gathered was actually heard.

The man was Wang Ji, who was only over twenty years old and had already been appointed as the Prime Minister of Pei, which was incredible. In fact, Wang Ji had been in Pei for five years and had just reached the crown prince.

Because Wang Ji was the adopted son of Wang Fu, the chief attendant of the Central Constable, Wang Fu was one of the ten regular attendants. The ten regular attendants were highly valued today and had power over the court and the country. All the tribesmen in the family held important positions in the court and various prefectures and counties.

However, compared with many eunuch relatives who only know how to make money, Wang Ji was a little different. When he was young, he liked to study, loved fame, and was quite talented, but his temperament was a bit cruel. During his five years as Prime Minister of Pei, he was able to understand political affairs, investigate difficult and old cases, and discover and arrest evil people, so that his ability was obviously far higher than that of everyone.

Wang Ji was selfless in his governance. Since he became the prime minister of Pei, he has encouraged the people to expose the dirty affairs of corrupt officials and noble families. However, the people have requested that even if they have small cases such as stealing wine and meat for decades, they will be thoroughly investigated and punished according to the law.

If that were the case, Wang Ji could be regarded as a parent official of Mu Shou and deserves the love of the people.

However, Wang Ji's understanding of the law was obviously a bit over the horse.

The law is not to punish people, but to draw a red line for the people and tell them what they cannot do. It is to regulate people's behavior.

According to the convention of the Han Dynasty, the ruler should promote education and make the people understand etiquette and honor and disgrace. Through this gentle means, the people should guide them to do good and not violate the law. The Han emperors continued to reduce their punishments and implement benevolent governments.

However, Wang Ji was not like this. He did not promote education and only knew how to promote prisons. Anyone who violated the law was punished with the most serious order.

It’s like abandoning infants, killing infants. Most people abandon infants and killing infants out of helplessness, because they are too poor, they cannot pay tribute and cannot afford to raise children.

The so-called oral tax is a tax on the population levy for underage children. Only children aged seven to fourteen would collect oral tax. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, the levy at the age of seven was changed to the levy at the age of three, and the original 20 qian per person was increased to 23 qian. Because the people could not bear this burden, they were even forced to kill infants. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, the levy at the age of seven was changed to the levy at the age of seven.

Unfortunately, by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, in this era, the vocational vocation changed from seven to one year old, which would undoubtedly be a great burden for the poor people. In addition, the land annexation was serious and natural disasters and frequent man-made disasters were caused, which led to the intensification of infanticide.

A long time ago, in order to curb this phenomenon, the government committed the same crime of killing infants and abandoning infants and killing people.

The so-called murderer is killed, and the injured person is punished. According to the Han Dynasty, parents of abandoned infants and those who kill infants will be executed.

However, no matter at any time, it is emphasized that "the people do not procure, and the officials do not prosecute". When abandoning infants and killing infants becomes popular, even if someone discovers it, they will not sue the government, and the matter will naturally end.

This convention was broken when Wang Ji.

He gathered up a group of fierce officials and investigated everywhere. Whenever he found someone who had children but did not raise them, he would behead his parents and then buried the bodies of his parents and the baby.

If the murderer was caught, Wang Ji would be more harsh in his way. He would kill the murderer after he was executed, then load the body on a ox cart, inspect and announce the murderer's crimes. If the weather was hot, the body would rot in advance, he would also have someone connect the bones with a rope until he traveled throughout Pei Country.

After five years as Prime Minister of Pei, Wang Ji had executed more than 10,000 people. Such a huge number was simply horrifying. You should know that the entire Pei Kingdom had only one million people. With one person's strength, Wang Ji killed more than one percent of the total population in just five years. This shows how violent his methods were.

This is why the people of Pei are so afraid of Wang Ji.

At this time, Wang Ji's face was gloomy. He pointed at the couple kneeling on the ground and shouted to everyone: "If you are born without raising me, you will ignore human ethics; if you abandon your baby, you will kill people. Now you will kill these two thieves. I hope that the elders and fellow villagers will take this as a warning, so don't do this again!"

After saying that, Wang Ji pulled out the sword from his waist, first stabbed the man kneeling on the ground with one sword, and then pulled her hair and cut the woman's throat regardless of the woman's terrified screams.

"Puff!"

Blood splattered out, dyeing Wang Ji's official uniform red, and leaving blood on his face.

Wang Ji didn't care at all, kicked the woman's body to the ground, put her sword into the sheath, then took out a handkerchief from her arms, carefully wiped the blood on her face, and continued to shout: "Put these two people to the death for three days, and then bury them with the baby!"

Seeing this, everyone was silent, and Zhou Qi also clenched his fists.

He had already remembered that the couple lived not far from here, and there was a five-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter at home.

It is certainly wrong for the couple to abandon their babies, but there is a lack of contraceptive measures in this era. Their family is poor, and various taxes and frequent natural disasters and man-made disasters have caused this family to be unable to raise their third child.

Otherwise, how can parents bear to abandon their children?

As the prime minister of Pei, Wang Ji did not fundamentally solve the problem, but only wanted to kill people to establish his authority. However, Wang Ji killed not only the couple, but also the two young children in their family!

How can you live alone if you lose your parents’ children?

Zhou Qi clasped his fist and took several deep breaths one after another, then he barely suppressed the anger in his heart.

Seeing that everyone was shocked by his own thunderous means, Wang Ji suddenly sighed: "The abandoned infants in Pei State, and the matter of infant killing has been repeatedly banned. My elders also know that most of the people who have done this are forced to do it because of their poor family. However, I have been thinking about it for a long time, but I am very puzzled. Xiang County is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with suitable climate and fertile land. Why is the lives of the people in the county so hard that they can't even support their families?"

Wang Ji looked around and asked, "Can anyone tell me the reason?"

Silence, dead silence.

Seeing that no one answered, Wang Ji suddenly raised his voice and shouted: "Last spring, there was a severe drought. Xiang County built a canal based on Sui River, but no canal was used to divert river water to irrigate the land, causing a significant reduction in grain production; in autumn, it was rainy and caused the Sui River to soar. The river water overflowed the river embankment, destroyed the fields, and countless houses!"

"Droughts and floods occur frequently, so that Xiang County has only fertile land but it is difficult to harvest food, and the people work hard every day but it is difficult to fill their stomachs."

"I want to completely eradicate the flood and drought disasters, but I wonder if you are willing to help me?"

After Wang Ji finished speaking, the people who were originally silent suddenly became restless. Everyone whispered to each other, and their eyes showed hope.
Chapter completed!