Some people don't want to get involved and plan to leave, using the excuse that they are busy.
Yu Zizhen said with a half-smile, "Busy? You're not busy when you're just watching the fun. Now our Zhenbei Palace needs your testimony, and someone suddenly remembered that they're busy? Then it seems I can only go to the palace to file a complaint."
As for whether to sue that family or those who have time to watch the fun but don't have time to testify for her, it depends on her mood.
When those who had originally planned to slip away heard this, they had to change their words and said that although they were busy, they still decided to take some time out to accompany Yu Zizhen to Jingzhao Prefecture.
Although all the officials of Da Qi knew that their emperor was a mascot, all the officials of Da Qi in the capital had also heard that Yu Zizhen was difficult to deal with.
They may not be afraid of the emperor, but they cannot help but be afraid of Yu Zizhen’s famous words “I want to go back to the north”.
Who knows if they refused to testify for her, she would say, "The people in the capital are not as honest as they used to be. My guards were bullied, and they have time to watch the fun but no time to help testify. I am ashamed to be associated with people like them. I want to return to the North."
After intimidating those guys who were originally planning to escape, Yu Zizhen frowned and looked at Lu Mingxuan and others who looked uneasy.
She said, "I told you that you are my guards, just like Feng Yuan and the others."
When Lu Mingxuan and others heard this, they almost burst into tears.
Before, they were surrounded, insulted, and whipped with horsewhips, and they felt only anger in their hearts. But when they heard what Yu Zizhen said, they felt inexplicably wronged.
Yu Zizhen threw a white porcelain bottle to Lu Mingxuan, which contained the best wound medicine available on the market.
She said, "First, treat your injury briefly, and then accompany me to Jingzhao Prefecture."
Lu Mingxuan replied "yes" with red eyes, then took the rest of the Lu family to a nearby cart shop to borrow some clean water, and began to sprinkle medicine on each other's companions to heal their wounds.
Their injuries were not serious and they soon walked out together again.
Yu Zizhen got on the carriage, and they got on their horses, and together with the bystanders left behind by Yu Zizhen, they headed straight for the Jingzhao Prefecture government office.
The prefect of Jingzhao originally did not care about such a small case, but the person who reported the case came from the Prince of Zhenbei's Mansion and claimed that their prince would be here soon.
The legal advisor delivered the news to the backyard. The prefect of Jingzhao, who had been leisurely drinking a little wine, put on his official uniform with a bitter face and resigned himself to the main hall of the yamen accompanied by his long-time attendant, waiting for the legendary Prince of Zhenbei to arrive.
As for the military general who arrived ahead of time and planned to smooth things over for his sons, the prefect of Jingzhao entertained him with kind words but cunningly did not promise him anything.
The reason why he could hold on to this position was that he was well-informed and good at networking. He knew almost all the rumors about Yu Zizhen, and he had heard some of the more bizarre versions.
He wouldn't dare to smooth things over in front of a person like that.
The Jingzhao prefect, who had quickly weighed the pros and cons and made his choice, practiced Tai Chi with the general smoothly and effortlessly.
The general was not stupid. As soon as he saw his attitude, he knew that he would definitely not favor his own side.
He was anxious, but had no one to turn to for help, and no one could help him out of this predicament.
He was just racking his brains to figure out how to convince Yu Zizhen to show mercy when the gatekeeper came trotting in with a message, "Your Excellency, the Prince of Zhenbei is here."
Because it was in the court of Jingzhao Prefecture, the Jingzhao prefect, as the head of Jingzhao Prefecture, was not suitable for him to greet Yu Zizhen respectfully from a distance as he would in other places just because his rank was lower than Yu Zizhen's. So he just stood up and bowed to greet her after Yu Zizhen entered the court.
Yu Zizhen was not the kind of person who was arrogant and domineering and wanted to put everyone under his feet. The appropriate respect from the Jingzhao prefect pleased her more than deliberate flattery.
After exchanging greetings with the prefect of Jingzhao, Yu Zizhen simply stated his purpose.
Because she had not personally experienced the entire incident, she only took the initiative and handed the field over to Lu Mingzhuo, Lu Mingxuan and Lu Mingyuan.
With Yu Zizhen clearly supporting them, the three of them would no longer continue to swallow their anger.
They restored the whole incident as objectively as possible, and then unanimously requested the prefect of Jingzhao to do them justice.
As mentioned before, this was actually a very insignificant case. Even if the Jingzhao prefect handled it impartially and did not compromise, those who beat people would not be sentenced to severe punishment.
According to the laws of the Great Qi Dynasty, the prefect of Jingzhao could only sentence them to pay compensation for medical expenses and to be beaten with a stick.
Thinking of this, the Jingzhao prefect looked at Yu Zizhen with some hesitation. He was unsure whether this ancestor would be satisfied with his impartial handling of the matter...
Receiving the look from the Jingzhao prefect, Yu Zizhen was stunned for a moment before realizing why he was secretly glancing at him out of the corner of his eye.
She said, "Please, sir, handle this impartially and give justice to my guards."
The prefect of Jingzhao heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this and was about to pronounce the verdict according to the law when the general suddenly spoke.
He pleaded, "Your Highness, I will serve in the government in the future. Being stripped and beaten with a stick in public by yamen runners is truly detrimental to my reputation. I am willing to pay more money and will also bring generous gifts to apologize. Please, Your Highness, consider that this is their first offense and that they were beating the family of a convicted official, and forgive them this time."
The first half of his words was fine, and Yu Zizhen could barely understand it as his deep love for his son, but the second half directly aroused Yu Zizhen's anger.
She sneered, "What's wrong with the relatives of the guilty officials? The relatives of the guilty officials don't deserve to live?"
"If that's the case, wouldn't the court just kill everyone with the surname Lu? Why sentence General Lu and his two sons to exile, and sell the rest of the Lu family into slavery?"
"You think that simply exiling, selling, and confiscating their property isn't enough, that's not acceptable, so your son takes every opportunity to humiliate them, hoping to torture them to death, right?"
"So you're more prestigious than the officials in the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court? Who do you think you are? The Emperor?"
The general felt that Yu Zizhen was simply unreasonable.
Haven't the relatives of criminal officials always been inferior to others, and can anyone step on them?
His sons were just doing something that everyone would do, so what's wrong with that?
If it weren't for Yu Zizhen's status and the fact that he was notorious for being difficult to deal with despite his young age, he wouldn't believe that the old fox who was used to changing his attitude according to the situation would handle this matter impartially.
To put it bluntly, this young yet extremely unruly Prince of Zhenbei is just taking advantage of his power to bully others.
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