The original intention

Inside the residence of the prefect of Minghua County, the heater was burning brightly.

Zhou Wenyuan listened to the report from his subordinates that there was a fire in Mingzhou Yangyi Hospital, resulting in heavy casualties. The public opinion in Mingzhou City was boiling, and the people were so angry that they even smashed half of the government office.

"Oh?" Zhou Wenyuan put down the jade piece he was playing with, his narrow eyes narrowed. "The people are angry? The government office was smashed? Good, very good!"

Zhou Wenyuan was very proud. This fire was really well set. Let's see how Shen Qingyan will end up now!

"Prepare the boat!" Zhou Wenyuan stood up. He could no longer hold back.

"I will personally go to Mingzhou City immediately. Such a tragic event has occurred in Mingzhou, which makes me extremely sad. The people are all my subjects, and I will definitely seek justice for them!"

Soon after he finished speaking, an official ship flying the county governor's flag sailed away from the Minghua County Wharf, went upstream, and headed straight for Mingzhou Prefecture.

The wind on the river was so fierce that the sails rustled.

Zhou Wenyuan stood at the bow, looking at the gray river surface, thinking in his mind how to make a big fuss about this civil unrest and how to bring Shen Qingyan to an irretrievable state.

Thinking of his pride, a hint of satisfaction even appeared on his face.

When the boat reached a bend where the river narrowed, something strange happened!

Several sampans covered with thick straw mats silently rushed out from the reeds on both sides and surrounded the official ship in an instant! The sampans were filled with figures, each holding a sharp machete and with a fierce look on their faces.

"How dare you! Who are these pirates who dare to rob the official ship of the imperial court? Don't you fear the law?" The leader of the guards beside Zhou Wenyuan shouted angrily and drew his sword.

The leader of the pirates was a tall man with a black cloth covering his face, revealing only a pair of gleaming eyes.

He pointed the long knife in his hand at Zhou Wenyuan and said in a rough voice: "The king's law? Hahahahaha!"

The laughter sounded particularly harsh and crazy in the river breeze.

"Zhou Wenyuan, what good have you done in Minghua County this year, besides exploiting common people like us for that damned imperial court and levying taxes that can never be paid?"

"Now the north has been occupied by Qiang dogs, and the imperial court has not tried to reclaim it. Instead, it has increased taxes, even more harsh than in previous years! Grain taxes, capi taxes, and military pay are pressing down layer by layer, forcing us all to death!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke: "We have long been unable to survive. Today we will kill you, a dog official who only knows how to scrape the land. You will be buried with us!"

Zhou Wenyuan's face instantly turned pale. He had never imagined that these unruly people would dare to kill an official! How could they dare? Shouldn't they be kneeling on the ground and letting him do whatever he wanted?

Zhou Wenyuan was frightened. Although the guards drew their swords, they were far outnumbered and surrounded on the narrow deck. The situation was extremely precarious.

"You've rebelled! All of you!" Zhou Wenyuan's voice trembled as he pointed at the pirate leader. "I'm a fourth-rank official in the imperial court! If you kill me, the imperial court will be furious. All nine of your clans..."

"Nine clans?" The leader sneered and interrupted him, his eyes full of madness.

"You can't even afford to eat, so why are you afraid of the nine clans? I'll sacrifice you, this dog official, first!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly jumped up, and the long sword in his hand turned into a streak of cold light and chopped down at Zhou Wenyuan's head!

Zhou Wenyuan felt a chill running down his spine, his mind blank, and only one thought remained: It's over! My life is over!

He subconsciously closed his eyes, waiting for the excruciating pain...

Unexpectedly, the expected severe pain did not come.

There was only a muffled "bang" sound, followed by a sharp pain and dizziness. Zhou Wenyuan's eyes went dark and he completely lost consciousness.

I don’t know how long it took.

The biting cold woke Zhou Wenyuan from his coma. He had a splitting headache and struggled to open his heavy eyelids.

What came into view was a low, rough stone roof. He was lying on a pile of hay that smelled of rot, his hands and feet tightly bound with thick hemp ropes.

This is a dungeon.

After a brief moment of confusion, he recalled what happened on the river, and the knife flash that came at him...

He's not dead? Who captured him? What was their purpose?

"Squeak"

The heavy iron door was pushed open, and a tall and gaunt figure, holding a dim lantern, walked in slowly.

The flickering lights illuminated the face that Zhou Wenyuan was extremely familiar with.

"Shen Qingyan!"

"It was you! It was you, the traitor, who set the trap. You're so bold! You dared to murder an official of the imperial court, and you're not afraid..."

"What am I afraid of?"

Shen Qingyan hung the lantern on an iron hook on the wall. The dim light enveloped his gaunt face and also reflected Zhou Wenyuan's distorted face.

"Murder? Sir Zhou, you're being too harsh. If my men hadn't replaced the blade in time, Sir Zhou would have been beheaded and buried in the belly of a fish."

He walked to the prison door and looked at Zhou Wenyuan through the thick wooden bars. "I'm just curious, Zhou Wenyuan. You're well-read and once a top-ranked scholar. You studied so hard, how did you end up like this?"

Shen Qingyan seemed puzzled. He and Zhou Wenyuan were in the same imperial examination. They often boasted about their official positions together on the streets. How glorious was it that Zhou Wenyuan led more than a hundred Jinshi scholars to travel all over the capital, with red sleeves waving everywhere in the buildings?

Looking at this crazy man now, it is really puzzling.

Zhou Wenyuan looked at the man in front of him who was profound and imposing. They were in the same exam that year. Because of his good looks, he was chosen as the third place in the imperial examination, while he himself was praised as a talent for the country and was chosen as the first place in the first class in the Golden Palace, the top scholar!

How could he not have thought back then that he would spend his entire life serving his country and would not regret it even if he died?

But today, I am in prison and he is opposite me.

Zhou Wenyuan felt it was ridiculous. He glared at Shen Qingyan and said, "What do you know?"

Shen Qingyan seemed to be talking about sex today, but he looked very respectful and said, "Please teach me."

Zhou Wenyuan looked him straight in the eye. "Whose fault is it that the world has become so corrupt? Is it me, Zhou Wenyuan?"

"You and I both know that it's the man sitting on the dragon throne, the Guangqi Emperor, the Supreme Emperor. Which of them doesn't always claim to be a wise ruler who loves his people like his own children?"

His eyes were filled with resentment and sarcasm: "Emperor Guangqi, who murdered his brother and father, came to power illegitimately, and is cruel, ruthless, and unkind!"

"What about the Emperor Emeritus? For his own selfish desires, he treated the wealth of the world like a private treasury, taking whatever he wanted. What achievements did Princess Mingzhu have? How could she have obtained the wealth of an entire state?"

"Even a top scholar like me was deposed by the Emperor, like a discarded shoe. Is this a sage monarch?"

Shen Qingyan looked at him silently with complicated eyes, and did not refute immediately.

Seeing his silence, Zhou Wenyuan seemed to be provoked by something, and his laughter became even more shrill. "Hahahaha! I, Zhou Wenyuan, started learning at the age of five, became the top scholar at the age of thirty, and studied the classics for over twenty years! But what did I find in the end?"

"I've discovered that in this world, the books of sages are no match for a single word from the higher-ups! You, me, and even the common people are but a speck of dust in the eyes of the higher-ups, easily flicked away in an instant."

"You're right," Shen Qingyan finally spoke, "The root cause of the world's collapse lies in the high-ranking officials and the selfishness of the emperor."

"Precisely because of this, it's even more important for someone to uphold the bottom line. If you believe in your heart that this is unfair, why don't you rise up against the source of this violence? Why become their pawn, wielding the butcher knife against people who are even more powerless and miserable than you?"

"What you did in Minghua County is no different from the tyrant you mentioned."

"Resist? Ha, Shen Qingyan, tell me, how to resist?" Zhou Wenyuan panted violently, with mockery in his eyes.

"In this world, how many people can be like you, Shen Qingyan, who has Princess Mingzhu as a backer and can pretend to be your saint?"

"I, Zhou Wenyuan, am just one of the countless people struggling to survive! I also want to live a decent life! Apart from relying on the powerful and becoming a knife in their hands, do I have any other choice?"

He yelled hysterically, "What you are doing now is the biggest joke in the world!"

"You dare to use the power of a small region to fight against the entire corrupt imperial court and this rotten world? And you still want to speak for the people?"

"Wake up! What are the people? They are pigs and dogs! They are ants! They are weeds! When one dies, another grows back! They can never be eradicated, and they can never be helped."

"There is only one truth in this world, to become the superior one!"

Only by standing at the highest point, holding the power of life and death, can you control your own destiny and avoid being trampled into the mud by others! Your so-called ruling for the people is nothing but self-deception, and sooner or later you will be crushed to pieces!

Shen Qingyan listened quietly, with no expression on his face, until the words "the people are pigs, dogs and ants" came out, and then a wave of emotion flashed in the depths of his eyes.

"You are wrong, Zhou Wenyuan. Very wrong."

“The most powerful and invincible people in this world have never been the high and mighty emperors and generals, but rather the humble people like weeds that you speak of.”

"When they are silent, they can bear the weight of an entire dynasty; when they are angry, they are enough to overturn any seemingly indestructible court. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. You only see their weakness when they are trampled upon, but never see their great power that can change the world."

He took a step forward, his gaze piercing Zhou Wenyuan's eyes through the cage. "You keep saying there's no way out, that we can only rely on the strong. But have you ever considered that it's the countless people who wield their swords against the weaker that have brought this world to this state, allowing the one sitting on the throne to become even more unscrupulous?"

"You are part of this vicious cycle."

Shen Qingyan looked at him, at this alienated Zhou Wenyuan, and said, "I originally wanted to kill you to appease the wronged soul. But now, I have changed my mind."

Zhou Wenyuan was stunned.

"I want you to live."

Live and watch with your own eyes, watch how these pigs, dogs, and ants you call them struggle to survive, watch how this seemingly solid and corrupt world is shaken bit by bit by them. I want you to see whether the path we are on is really a joke or not.

After saying this, he no longer looked at Zhou Wenyuan, turned around, picked up the lantern, and disappeared into the darkness outside the dungeon door.

"Shen Qingyan! Come back! Let me out! You lunatic! You are all lunatics! You will not succeed! You will never..."

*

A few days later, in the capital, in the Purple Palace.

The newly appointed Prime Minister, Zhao Deben, respectfully presented a report from Minghua County: "Your Majesty, an urgent report has been sent from Minghua County, eight hundred miles away. The county governor, Lord Zhou Wenyuan, was on his way to Mingzhou Prefecture to investigate the people's sentiments when he was unfortunately attacked by fierce bandits. Lord Zhou and his accompanying guards were all killed..."

Emperor Guangqi frowned and took the report and glanced at it quickly. It was signed by Wang Tongzhi, the county magistrate of Minghua County. The report described in detail the tragic situation of Zhou Wenyuan's attack, and emphasized in particular that the rampant pirates were rooted in the excessive taxes in recent years, which made the people's livelihood miserable, and led many people to take risks.

"waste!"

Emperor Guangqi threw the report onto his desk, his face gloomy. Zhou Wenyuan had been his pawn in Mingzhou, yet he had been defeated so easily! And his death was so pathetic! Wang Tongzhi's report hinted at excessive taxation, which further infuriated him.

Zhao Deben observed his expression and quickly bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, please calm down. Lord Zhou's sacrifice for his country is truly unfortunate. However, the northern border is in flames, and the recovery of Heshuo is urgent. The food and military supplies required are enormous, so increasing taxes is a last resort."

He continued, "Suffering for the people is also for the benefit of the country. I believe the people will eventually understand the court's difficulties."

Emperor Guangqi rubbed his eyebrows irritably.

It was a pity that Zhou Wenyuan died, but the war in the northern border and the threat of Ning Lingyi's three thousand troops made him unable to sleep or eat.

It is a fact that the treasury is empty. Without raising taxes, where will the money and grain come from to support it? He glanced at Zhao Deben. The new Prime Minister understood his thoughts very well.

"Forget it." Emperor Guangqi waved his hand.

"Zhou Wenyuan will be posthumously awarded a generous pension. As for the tax increase, proceed as usual. Order all regions to strictly collect taxes. Anyone who dares to resist taxes and incite civil unrest will be charged with treason and executed without mercy. I want to see who is more stubborn, or the court's sword is sharper!"

"Your Majesty is wise!" Zhao Deben bowed deeply.

The decree spread quickly to all directions.

The already heavy shackles of taxes once again tightened around the necks of the people of the world.