Wei Chong ignored everyone's looks and walked up to Ma Si, the last condemned criminal. He took out a document from his arms and read aloud: "Ma Si is a prisoner in the department. He accepts bribes everywhere and is good at making knots."
The cronies even recruited desperadoes from many places, levied excessive taxes on the people, and invaded the streets, which was unbearable. Now, taking advantage of the redundancy trend, they were found guilty and more than 30 of their cronies were beheaded in the city to serve as a warning to others.
!”
However, Wei Chong's impassioned speech did not attract applause, and the atmosphere became cold and silent. Wei Huai's face turned pale, and the hand holding the cane trembled uncontrollably, almost falling down; Yuan Long's expression also changed drastically, and he hurriedly came up
Hold forward.
"Ahem," Wei Chong was very unhappy with such a scene. After coughing twice, he turned his head and waved his hand, "Start...the execution!"
The sun was shining brightly, and the people who were being tortured looked up at the knife edge with tears in their eyes. The silver was shining and gradually fell towards their necks. Ma Si looked straight ahead, his face unchanged, waiting for death; Capt. Mao who was also tortured
He smoothed his black hair, closed his eyes, looked up to the sky and said, "I will never regret it if I can save the lives of all my brothers..."
The knife was raised and dropped, the blade was sharp, and without even making a sound, the heads of more than thirty people rolled to the front of the stage. Such a scene made the originally excited people feel only fear at this time.
"Take it away." Wei Chong waved his finger, and the officers and soldiers came to the stage one after another, packed the bodies together in bags, and pushed them outside the city for burial.
As Wei Chong and others led the officers and soldiers to leave, the people also dispersed in droves. Some of them could hardly move when they thought of the scene just now. Only Wei Huai stared blankly at the blood dripping down the stage and remained silent for a moment.
There were only two of them left here. Xia Yuanlong couldn't help but sigh deeply and shook Wei Huai's body: "Ji Min, Ji Min."
Only then did Wei Huai come back to his senses and looked at him solemnly.
"We should go." Seeing Wei Huai being so depressed, Xia Yuanlong hurriedly advised him.
Wei Huai shook his head and walked to the wooden platform alone with a cane.
"Oh, brother Jimin, blood!"
After Xia Yuanlong's sudden reminder, Wei Huai just lowered his head and saw a pair of shoes stained with scarlet blood, and even some of his trouser legs were smeared.
Xia Yuanlong knew that he had difficulty moving and wanted to squat down to wipe off his blood, but was stopped by Wei Huai.
"you……"
Wei Huai waved his hand and leaned down. Yuan Long had no choice but to hold him by his side. He scraped the blood on his shoes with his hands.
Looking at his blood-stained hands, Wei Huai frowned deeply, and felt a stabbing pain in his heart that wouldn't stop for a long time. This was the unjust blood of countless lives, and every drop that fell was accusing the government.
injustice and master
Their insensitivity. However, this is only the beginning, and countless people will die because of this in the future. Worried about the country and the people, he can only watch the blood flow into a river, and his academy will teach and recite scriptures all day long, becoming meaningless.
.
Wei Huai was in an extremely depressed mood and could not exchange a word with Xia Yuanlong on the road. After arriving at the inner courtyard of the academy, he slowly turned around and asked Xia Yuanlong: "Renying, look... can my lengthy advice be used?"
Take it back?”
Seeing that he was hesitating, Xia Yuanlong replied vaguely: "Don't even think about taking it back. They are fighting fiercely. If you try to stop them, you won't be able to stop them."
Just as he was about to walk in, he was held tightly by Wei Huai: "Renying, are you not sad at all that such a tragedy happened to me in Nanjing City?"
"I'm heartbroken, even sad and angry," Xia Yuanlong said, tapping his heart. "Just because I'm heartbroken, I can't be discouraged. How can I save the people?"
"Save the people?" Wei Huai's temper was building up more and more, "Let you and I carry out this bastard policy and wait until Nanjing is turned to pieces by party strife!"
Xia Yuanlong gritted his teeth and let out a few wry smiles, then sat down and drank a few sips of the cold tea in order to stabilize his mood.
Wei Huai was still saying reluctantly: "You said that redundancies and layoffs have been made for several years, and most of them were implemented by the two parties. Although there are some idle officials who were sent to their hometowns in various ministries, it was just a small storm and could not make waves. On the contrary,
The people are unbearable to suffer such harm to a loyal person! As the ones who initiated it, don’t we feel guilty and blame ourselves?”
"Then what can you do!" Xia Yuanlong was a little anxious.
"First extinguish the fire of party struggle, rather than burning it up." Wei Huai replied firmly.
"Without the redundancy, they have other reasons..."
"But it will never be worse than the current situation!" Wei Huai was very angry and shouted to Xia Yuanlong, "Our advice was originally meant to benefit the people, but it was misinterpreted like this and caused such a mess. What's the point?
debate!"
Xia Yuanlong stood up and reprimanded: "Brother Wei, short-sightedness is really unacceptable! These thirty people died unjustly today, and in the future, tens of thousands of people will be saved and benefited for eternity. The more chaotic the two parties fight, the more progress our reform will make."
A big step!"
"I won't do such a thing by using those people who died unjustly as bets for the academy." The determination and fortitude revealed in Wei Huai's eyes was intimidating.
Xia Yuanlong ignored it, walked to the stairs, turned around and said to Wei Huai: "Even if hundreds or thousands of people die, as long as it can benefit the word 'reform', Xia will not hesitate!" After saying this, he became indignant.
Left peacefully.
Wei Huai looked at everything in front of him, as if he couldn't believe it. He was a scholar with the ambition to save the country, and he always wanted to be bright and a gentleman. But how could he have imagined that he would be involved in the terrifying whirlpool of party struggle?
The Lu Party and the Lu Party control Nanjing, while the Liu Party controls life and death. The imperial power is inviolable, and reforms seem to be impossible.
The support of anyone in power. Yes, they have the support of the people, but this can't touch anything. They can still be complacent, maintain the status quo, and fall asleep. The road to reform has too many twists and turns. Wei Huai once felt that
Your efforts are in vain and will only add to the existing suffering and make it even higher.
He looked at the towering white walls of the academy, which seemed to be impossible to climb. Wei Huai stopped and continued to be lost in thought.
Xia Yuanlong didn't think so at all. He was just disappointed in Wei Huai again. Because he was so smart and capable that he had to look at everything no matter how big or small, but Wei Huai didn't bother. Although some people have used this to sow discord.
,
But Yuan Long would never have any opinions about this. He was strict with himself and lenient towards others. He had no doubt about Wei Huai's sincerity in saving the country and the people, so he believed in Wei Huai again and again and confided in his heart again and again. However,
There were few responses.
Although the quarrel was fierce this time, Xia Yuanlong was still stubborn: he was fighting for the people, not just because of Wei Huai. He was not discouraged and immediately came up with a way to persuade Wei Huai: go to Ye Yongjia.
The Yamen, which had just finished handling a serious injustice case, looked lifeless, and Yuan Long walked in gloomily.