The Empress, whom everyone knew, was a frail woman who only knew how to play the zither. Upon seeing this heroic and valiant scene, everyone took a few steps back, their expressions filled with fear.

Forget about his last words, the second son of the Zhao family couldn't utter a single word at this moment, his face as white as if he had just been buried.

At this moment, a commotion arose in the crowd. A woman stumbled through the throng, ran to the warhorse, knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed three times.

Sobbing and wailing, she pleaded, "Your Majesty, spare my life! Your Majesty, spare my husband! He was just confused for a moment. I beg Your Majesty to spare my husband's life. I have elderly parents and young children to support. If my husband is gone, how will my family survive?"

Before Shen Jiao could speak, Chen Bao couldn't help but sneer, "Now you're scared? Didn't you think about the consequences when you came to cause trouble? You only have yourself to blame."

"How can you be so heartless!" The woman's chest heaved as she screamed, "Even if my husband is wrong, you haven't suffered any loss, have you? Why don't you each take a step back and give my husband a chance to make amends!"

It is said that wicked women come from remote and impoverished places, but the women in the royal city are even more unruly and unreasonable than those in Langya Pass!

Chen Bao snorted heavily, "How dare you say such things? How many pots of wine have you drunk? I'm ashamed to hear it. Why should our Empress give way to you bunch of scoundrels just because she's powerful? According to you, if a vicious dog can't bite anyone, I should thank this useless vicious dog?"

"Furthermore," he said, his tone becoming increasingly unpleasant, "there is a distinction between superiors and inferiors. Your actions deserve the punishment of having your entire family executed."

None of the three families present had much courage. After Chen Bao's words, they were all terrified and turned pale. However, the second son of the Zhao family was a troublemaker, and his wife was always unreasonable and wouldn't listen to reason at all.

She immediately rolled around on the spot, wailing, "Pah! Pah! Pah! You dead turtle, you rotten tortoise, you son of a bitch, you filthy ghost, you're talking nonsense! Everyone come and see, you're bullying people with your power, this is terrible, this is going to kill someone! How can I live if my man dies? I might as well just kill myself."

The Liu and Zhang families had been standing far away, thinking they couldn't fight from a distance, so they immediately joined in shouting, "That's right, everyone come and see! The Empress is bullying the common people!"

"This is outrageous! This is outrageous! The Empress herself is taking revenge and has trampled someone to death!"

At first, a few bolder people made a few calls, but their voices gradually grew louder, and eventually everyone joined in, creating an unexpectedly large and impressive scene.

Seeing this, the woman cried even harder, her clothes were dirty and disheveled, and she looked like a madwoman.

Suddenly, Chen Bao threw something out. Before anyone could see what it was, the stone pillar where the man who had led the chorus was hiding snapped with a "crack".

Upon seeing this, everyone's expression changed drastically; they were so frightened that they couldn't even open their mouths and immediately fell silent.

The man who had led the argument was so frightened that he kept backing away. His feet slipped, and he couldn't even stand up straight. He fell down, and when he turned his head, he found a walnut.

A walnut that can shatter a stone pillar!

What power!

This group of people were truly scared now. They were good at arguing, but not at fighting. They all shrank back like turtles and pretended to be dead.

Seeing that her commotion had failed, the woman became furious. She jumped up and yelled, "Who are you trying to scare? Who are you trying to scare? Your hands will definitely get sores and rot and stink soon! In the end, they'll be infested with maggots and fed to your old mother, poisoning your whole family to death."

After she had finished cursing, she raised her face, which was covered in smudged makeup, and cried out loudly, "Do you nobles value your lives, but the lives of us common people don't? You, you, the Empress of a nation, are so narrow-minded and vicious. You are unworthy of being called Empress!"

Knowing Chen Bao's ferocity, the woman wasn't stupid either. She turned her anger towards Shen Jiao, knowing all too well that this kind of noblewoman was extremely careful with her words and knew she couldn't win a fight with insults!

"You're quite the character," Shen Jiao said, shaking the "fish" in her hand. "Initiating trouble and committing treason is a capital offense. You're pretending to be ignorant and blaming me. Blocking the palace gates and disrupting order, are you trying to rebel? Hmm?"

"Wang Fu!" she called out.

Wang Fu stepped forward: "This old servant is here."

Shen Jiao's eyes hardened, and she said in a clear voice, "Issue my imperial decree: anyone who leads trouble and disrupts order shall be executed!"

"Anyone who spreads falsehoods, misleads the public, or incites unrest shall be executed!"

"Anyone with ulterior motives who attempts to rebel shall be executed!"

The three "execution" characters transformed into invisible shackles and sharp blades, binding those who were present. Wang Fu kowtowed and said, "This old servant—accepts the decree—"

The Zhao, Liu, and Zhang families, who had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of their lord, were immediately thrown into a kneeling huddle upon hearing these words. They wept, kowtowed, and howled in apology.

In short, it was a complete mess.

The woman was illiterate and relied solely on men for survival. Overwhelmed by fear, she lost her composure and cried uncontrollably, no longer daring to throw a tantrum.

The commotion here is so intense that it's disturbing everyone's sleep. Many people have turned on their lights, put on their clothes, opened their windows, or peeked through a crack in their doors to observe the situation.

After a moment of deep thought, Shen Jiao threw the unconscious second son of the Zhao family onto the roadside.

The woman shouted "Husband!" and rushed over to help, but was restrained by a group of guards. It turned out that the imperial guards had come to deal with these troublemakers.

Before long, all three families were captured.

Shen Jiao rode forward a few steps, looked around, and said loudly, "Since you all got up early to watch the show, then listen to what I have to say. I know that you all have a lot of complaints about His Majesty's tyranny, or rather, you hate it to the extreme. But I want to ask you a question: Over the years, has His Majesty really been arbitrarily calling for killing and disregarding human life? Has he really slaughtered the people without any reason?"

After a long silence, just when everyone thought no one would respond, voices came from all corners: "No, it seems there really isn't one."

"To be honest, His Majesty spends very little time in the capital. He spends most of his time fighting on the frontier. Not to mention us, even his ministers rarely see him more than a few times a year."

"That's right. My aunt's youngest son was promoted this year and finally qualified to attend court, only to find out that His Majesty doesn't attend court."

"Those aristocratic families that were wiped out, if you think about it carefully, they don't seem to be any good people either."

"That's right, that's right, I think so too."

Upon hearing this, Chen Bao and the Iron Cavalry soldiers had very complicated expressions. Perhaps it was because of the strong wind this morning, but their eyes were quite sore.

Wang Fu, who was seeing them off, simply watched the young girl not far away.

He listened quietly as she defended His Majesty, smiling with satisfaction.

"No one is perfect, and nothing is flawless." Shen Jiao's voice was soft, neither an angry roar nor a bitter complaint, but rather very calm.

She said slowly, "I know you all know a lot about His Majesty's background. Please put yourself in his shoes and think about it. If you were him, what would you do?"

Everyone said in unison, "No good. After all, they wouldn't have survived anyway; they would have killed themselves long ago."

"I might go crazy, well, not maybe, I'll definitely become the biggest madman in the world."