Jiang Dalang and several others rushed to the road and stopped the team carrying the woman.
They all had machetes hanging on their waists and looked ferocious, which made the people carrying the pig cages terrified and confused. They stood still and did not dare to act rashly.
The two sides were deadlocked for a few seconds, and then a man in his forties came out and said, "Who are you?"
"A person who helps others when he sees injustice."
Zhao Jun stepped out from the crowd, frowning and asking, "You're going to put someone in a pig cage in broad daylight?"
The man sneered, "This woman is unfaithful to her husband, and she will be punished according to the clan law. You, an outsider, should not meddle in other people's affairs. You may end up in jail."
"Woooo ...
Hearing the man's words, the woman in the pig cage kept sobbing, shaking her head desperately, and crying uncontrollably.
Seeing this situation, Zhao Jun was too lazy to talk nonsense and waved his hand, saying, "Save him."
“Rub, rub, rub!”
More than a dozen elite guards drew their swords and surrounded them.
Jiang Dalang pointed the knife at the man and said, "Get down!"
There were quite a few people on the other side, about seven or eight of them. Two of them carried the pig cage, and the rest followed. They were all strong men.
But facing the Imperial Guards, they didn't even dare to fart. Under the pressure of the cold blades, they squatted on the ground one after another, and the pig cages were put down.
Zhao Jun walked over. At this moment, Huang Sanlang opened the pig cage and pulled out the rag stuffed in the woman's mouth. The woman was able to make a sound and immediately cried out, "Thank you, sir, for saving my life. Thank you, sir, for saving my life!"
"What's going on?"
Zhao Jun asked.
"It was the unfortunate Zhou family who sold me to the Wang family to be used as a daughter's bone!"
The woman named Axia cried out.
Zhao Jun was stunned at first.
Then a strong anger rushed straight to the top of his head!
This pairing of daughter's bones has another meaning in later generations - a ghost marriage!
Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there has been a custom of arranging ghost marriages for deceased sons. Cao Cao once arranged a ghost marriage for Cao Chong by marrying the deceased daughter of the Zhen family.
However, during the Han, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, this custom was not particularly popular. It gradually became mainstream starting from the Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty collection of essays "Yesterday's Dream Record" contains many records of ghost marriages.
As long as the family is rich and has children who died young, they will often look for a suitable woman who died young, move the graves and bones, hold a ghost marriage ceremony, and bury the people together.
As a result, the Song Dynasty even gave rise to a large number of grave robbers who dug up corpses, so much so that during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, laws were introduced to severely punish those who dug up corpses.
But all this cannot stop the illegal tomb robbers. As long as there is a demand for ghost marriages among the people, there will be many people who are willing to take legal risks and continue to run into cemeteries to open tombs and dig up corpses.
But what if there are limited corpses, or if the age or birth date is not compatible?
Of course there are other ways.
Obviously, using living people is one of the methods.
Zhao Jun then asked the woman about her specific situation.
It turned out that the woman's name was Fang Caixia, she was 19 years old and from Shouzhou in Huainan West Road. Due to the drought in Shouzhou two years ago, she was forced to go north with her family to Yingtian Prefecture to make a living.
When passing by Ling County, it happened that the eldest son of the Zhou family, a wealthy peasant family, had reached marriageable age. When the man saw Caixia, who was sixteen years old at the time, he thought she was pretty, so he told his parents and asked them to send a matchmaker to propose.
The Fang family originally came here to escape disaster. When they passed through Ling County, they were forced to stay for a day because it was too late. Then they went north along the canal and took the land route to Yingtian Prefecture.
At this moment, someone suddenly came to them and said that he was willing to pay a betrothal gift to marry Caixia as his wife.
In this situation, anyone would agree.
After all, life was already difficult for the Fang family. One more person would mean one more burden. By marrying off their daughter in exchange for a dowry, they could also have money to go to Yingtian Prefecture.
So Fang Caixia's father agreed without thinking.
Both parties were good at the beginning, their birth dates were calculated, and they were a match made in heaven, with a good marriage and a grand plan.
Normal development is also a good thing.
But unexpectedly, half a month later, on the wedding night, the eldest son of the Zhou family got drunk at the banquet. After the banquet, when it was time to enter the bridal chamber, he insisted on seeing off a few friends he had grown up with.
Those friends were also drunk. They agreed to send the eldest son of the Zhou family to the village entrance so that he could go back to his bridal chamber. However, on a whim, they sent him a little further away. When they were going back, one of them passed by the river, slipped and fell into the river and drowned.
Now the wedding turned into a funeral, and the Zhou family was in an uproar, accusing Fang Caixia of being a widow and a jinx.
Fearing that the Zhou family would take back the betrothal gifts, the Fang family abandoned Fang Caixia and fled overnight, ruining the marriage and bringing Fang Caixia's fate to its lowest point.
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Fang Caixia cannot be blamed for this.
The problem was that the Zhou family needed an outlet, so Fang Caixia became the object of their venting and became a slave of the Zhou family, being subjected to various beatings, scoldings, humiliation, corporal punishment, etc.
In the past two years, the Zhou family has almost abused Fang Caixia. The villagers have seen it and can only sympathize with her, but can't do anything about it.
Fang Caixia lost contact with her family and was left alone. Although she was abused in the Zhou family, at least she had food to eat, so she could only swallow her anger and dared not resist.
It just so happened that the Zhou family had an underage second son. Originally, the Zhou family could only be considered a wealthy family, not a big landlord. They gave the betrothal gift and held a grand banquet, spending a lot of money, but in the end they lost both their money and their lives.
There was no other choice but to raise Fang Caixia as a child bride, and when the second son grew up, she would be his concubine.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
