Chapter 69: Northern Kingdom: The Zhou Emperor's Thunderous Measures...

Wen Tao was busy all morning. He raided the homes of three ministers. There was no room left in the Jingchang dungeon. The prisoners who usually lay in the corner like dead now stood up.

It's not a medical miracle, it's just that there's no place to lie down, and if you lie down any further you might get stepped on and killed.

The Minister of Justice looked at the pile of files on the desk and felt so scared that he almost lost his soul. How long would he be able to finish reading so many files?

Thinking of this, the Minister of Justice was filled with resentment. These were a group of blind ministers. The king was wholeheartedly developing the Great Zhou, and the generals were fighting bloody battles outside. Not only were they holding the king back in the rear, they were also causing trouble for other ministers. He had already been very busy recently, and now he had a lot of extra things to do.

The Minister of Justice even wanted to go to the dungeon to interrogate a few prisoners, give them a good beating, and vent his anger.

In the end, he gave up the idea. It wasn't because he was kind, but mainly because he was overwhelmed with the case files. He only had twelve hours in a day to interrogate the prisoners, so he didn't have that much time.

There was another morning court session today. When Shen Zhiwei went to court, he took a look and saw that several seats in the court were empty. The ministers were all busy outside.

Fortunately, today is not a grand court meeting and there is nothing important to discuss. It won’t cause any trouble if the ministers don’t come because of something else.

If there was anything special about the morning court, it was that several imperial censors impeached the officials whose properties were confiscated. It was like getting on the bus first and buying the ticket later. The crimes committed by those officials were made public to prevent people who did not know the truth from thinking that the court was arresting people indiscriminately.

After the court session, Shen Zhiwei returned to the back hall and told Yanxia to inform Gui Yang and Hu Youan to return to Jingchang.

She planned to ask these two people how to deal with Beiguo in the future. Beiguo gave her a big gift, and she couldn't just not give anything in return. That would be so rude.

That's right, the matter has been investigated clearly. The rumors are all caused by spies from the Northern Country.

When the news of Jingchang reached the North, Gui Yang and Hu Youan both got up and went to Jingchang.

Su Wang paced back and forth in the mansion with Jingchang's information. He should have taken the news to the palace to meet the king, but he was uneasy and felt that something bad was going to happen, and he even felt a little timid.

Seeing how anxious he was, his followers also showed a hint of uneasiness between their brows.

"Prime Minister, why are you so alarmed? Did the Zhou Emperor find out who was spreading the rumors?"

The retainer couldn't help but ask.

Su Wang seemed to have found an outlet for his emotions. He sighed deeply and said bluntly, "If that were the case, it would be fine. But she not only found out who it was, but also found out that it was the work of the Northern Kingdom. The entire families of Jingchang's allies have been imprisoned and punished. The Zhou Emperor ordered their faces to be peeled off. Most of them are now dead!"

"The whole family? The Zhou Emperor acts so cruelly, isn't he afraid of what the world will say?"

The retainer's heart was pounding, and he didn't know whether it was fear or anger that surged in his heart. He only knew that the disaster would not affect the whole family. Generally, when an official did something wrong, it was rare for his entire family to die together.

Even for a crime as serious as treason, most of the time the mastermind would be executed, and the followers would be exiled or enslaved.

The officials were all aristocrats, and their ancestors came from very high families. How could their entire family lose their lives because of a little rumor, especially a rumor directed against the emperor?

Anyone who could become a retainer of the Prime Minister would naturally not have a bad family background. The retainer became angrier and angrier as he thought about it, feeling a sense of grief for the loss of another.

If he treats his own people so cruelly, wouldn't he be even more cruel to the subordinates of his enemies?

The retainer's heartbeat quickened as he thought of this. He blurted out, "Is Hu Youan really so precious that she can't even say a word? I heard that Hu Youan and Emperor Zhou have known each other since childhood, and they supported each other in the harem. Emperor Zhou has never taken anyone into his harem. Could she be..."

"Be careful with your words."

Su Wang was also very angry at first, but after hearing what the retainer said, he was no longer angry in an instant.

I just find it funny. I wonder how the nobles of the world will discuss the King of Zhou's biased behavior if it gets out.

Although everyone says that the emperor and the common people are guilty of the same crime, in fact everyone knows that the emperor and the common people cannot be guilty of the same crime, and the nobles and the common people cannot be guilty of the same crime either. The nobles are supposed to be more noble, and even for the crime of treason, the entire family of the nobles cannot be killed.

The Zhou emperor wanted to kill those traitors, but using the charge of treason was not tough enough.

Because if you really want to say it, every prince has committed treason.

Su Wang laughed and laughed until he couldn't laugh anymore.

The retainer kept silent. Seeing Su Wang's expression suddenly change from a smile to an extremely ugly livid, he asked worriedly, "Prime Minister?"

"Are all the royal family members of Bian Kingdom dead?"

Su Wang's sudden question left the retainer a little stunned. He frowned and thought carefully, it seemed that he had not heard any news about the royal family of Bian State for some time.

"The Taisheng royal family, as well as the royal families of the small kingdoms that were later conquered by Jingchang, are there any of them still alive?"

Su Wang then asked another question, and the retainer was completely panicked. He could not think of any information about those people!

The retainer had a pale face and looked at Su Wang with fear. When Su Wang met those eyes filled with fear, his heart sank to the bottom of the lake in an instant.

This is truly a thundering move by the Emperor of Zhou.

Su Wang immediately took the information into the palace to find the King of the North and began to discuss the matter with him in detail. The Northern Kingdom must not lose to Jingchang. Looking at the behavior of the Zhou Emperor, it is known that she is not an easy person to deal with. She wants to kill all the princes in the world!

The charge of treason brought out now is nothing but an excuse. Today it is treason to kill court officials, and tomorrow it is treason to kill princes!

Shen Zhiwei herself didn't know that she had such intentions. She simply hated traitors, no, now it was traitor Zhou.

In any case, any traitor should die, especially those who have enjoyed the country's offerings. They have risen to power by stepping on the backs of most of the common people in this country. As the emperor, she is more tolerant of these people. She has not been disappointed in them because of their stupidity and has not abandoned them. How can they have the face to discredit the generals who fought for the country on the battlefield?

A tree will die without bark, and a person will die without skin!

Shen Zhiwei did not sentence those people to death, but instead ordered people to peel off the skin of their faces, hands and feet, because she felt that these people were shameless and it was useless to have skin.

The reason these people died was because medical care was underdeveloped, their wounds became infected, and they died.

The skinning and subsequent treatment were all done by the doctor that Shen Zhiwei had found earlier. I can't say anything else, but the doctor's surgical skills have improved by leaps and bounds. At the beginning, he couldn't control the scalpel well, and with one cut, not only the skin but also the flesh was gone. Later, he was able to peel off an entire skin completely.

The development of medicine is inevitably bloody and cruel, either cruel to humans or cruel to animals.

Shen Zhiwei had anticipated this and didn't think it was inappropriate. After a person committed a serious crime, their human rights were stripped away. How could a person without human rights still be considered a human being? In any case, Shen Zhiwei never thought it was necessary to care for prisoners, especially when it came to crimes with victims. Caring for the prisoners would only cause greater harm to the victims.

Shen Zhiwei knew that many people felt that treason was not that serious. After all, the person was arrested, the rumors were clarified, and no one paid with their life throughout the process. How could a case that did not involve human life be considered a big case?

But those who think this way ignore one point, which is what the consequences will be if the crime is not stopped.

If Hu Youan is tarnished with a bad reputation, Shen Zhiwei will be wary of her, and Jingchang will be caught in the vortex of political struggle. The generals will fight hard outside, while the king will be suspicious behind the scenes. All the generals will watch this matter, and Hu Youan's fate will serve as a wake-up call to all the generals.

What will be the result if the ruler and his subjects become alienated?

The consequences of estrangement between the monarch and his ministers in peacetime will not be particularly serious, as long as the monarch can stop the loss in time and introduce a second general who can replace Hu Youan.

But now is a time of war, and each country is in serious internal competition. Not making progress is considered regression, and directly regressing means that they are likely to exit the circle. Jingchang is the orthodox Zhou Dynasty. Once he reveals his weakness, all the princes will rush forward tacitly, tear Jingchang apart, completely destroy the Zhou Dynasty's rule, and wash away the stain of treason on them.

That's why Shen Zhiwei took ruthless measures to deal with these people.

Gui Yang and Hu Youan heard Shen Zhiwei's order halfway. After learning about this, Gui Yang immediately sent people out to spread the king's words of mercy, saying that the king had forgiven those traitors and that those traitors were taken away by heaven themselves.

Losing a layer of skin does not mean losing life. If they lose their lives, it means they don’t have the ability to survive!

Among so many people, there must be some who are lucky enough to survive the bacterial infection, but in the end, no one survived. Only the doctor holding the scalpel knows why.

Doctors also have selfish motives. If the news that she performed surgery on them here gets out, she will not benefit from it.

Everyone values ​​the integrity of the body and the afterlife. "Died without an intact body" is a very cruel saying. A doctor has caused so many people to die without an intact body. If there are really some people still alive, her reputation will be completely ruined. It's okay in private, but everyone will have to pretend on the surface.

After Gui Yang arranged for her subordinates to calm down public opinion, she went to talk to Hu Youan about the doctor.

"I heard that the king picked her up from outside. Her name is Qingzhu. She's in her early twenties. She used to be a witch, but now she's a doctor. I don't know how the king got to know her, but her medical skills are truly remarkable."

Hu Youan didn't care about the doctor. Her heart was burning with passion, all for the king. The king had done so much for her. How could she repay him for such a deep kindness and friendship in the future?

She is willing to fight for the king on the battlefield until she sheds her last drop of blood.

"Youan? Hu Youan!"

Seeing that Hu Youan had been ignoring her, Gui Yang called out to him. She and Hu Youan had become quite familiar with each other recently and they both called each other by their names.

"What are you shouting? I'm listening."

Hu Youan glanced at her, and Gui Yang choked and shrank her neck.

Hu Youan had been on the battlefield for a long time, and his eyes were like a wolf's. When he was silent, they were full of murderous intent. Gui Yang felt a chill on her back when she saw him, and when she spoke again, her tone was obviously much lower.

"Hey! Uh, that doctor, what do you think about the doctor's matter?"

"It's none of my business."

Hu Youan spoke with certainty at this moment, but when she arrived in Jingchang and met the queen she had been thinking about, she could no longer say that it had nothing to do with her.

Because the king wanted Qingzhu to take a few students and follow Hu Youan to the battlefield to serve as military doctors.

Hu Youan's first reaction was to refuse. She said bluntly: "Your Majesty, there are doctors accompanying the army."

Hu Youan does not trust Qingzhu, a doctor of unknown origin.