The Jin family village was filled with Fei Zheng's screams.
Watching his flesh being sliced off piece by piece by the executioner, Fei was terrified by the excruciating pain of being cut into pieces, and screamed in agony.
But Liu Fu showed him no sympathy. Even the executioner who tortured him became even more excited at the sight, going to great lengths to torment him, even using a blunt knife to cut his flesh, causing Fei Zheng to let out terrible screams and howls time and time again.
The number of people who died at Fei Zheng's hands was far more than just dozens or hundreds.
How many people have been indirectly killed by his disregard for human life? How many families will be implicated?
Those who have already been murdered will never come back to life; who can hear the screams they made before they died?
When they were killed by Fairbank, who would sympathize with them?
After Fei Zheng was executed by dismemberment, Liu Fu gave the order:
"I'll have Jin Wenhua, the head of this Jin family manor, dragged up and skinned alive!"
"All the servants of the Jin family who have committed murder shall be beheaded and their heads displayed in public. Those who have not committed murder shall be sent north to build the Great Wall and become slaves for eternity!"
Upon hearing Liu Fu's order, half of the Jin family members fainted from fright.
They rushed back to Yanshan Prefecture.
Prefect Liu was executed. Zhou Chunxuan, a high-ranking official, colluded with the Grand Commandant to secretly mobilize troops to besiege the royal palace. He was taken to the Han capital and dealt with by the emperor himself.
Liu Fu was well aware of the difficulties his fiefdom in Liaodong was facing.
At this moment, he remembered Shang Yang's method of establishing trust by placing a wooden pole.
Soon, at the four gates of Yanshan Prefecture, leaning against a log weighing over a hundred pounds, Prince Liu Fu personally wrote a proclamation:
"By order of the king, whoever can carry the timber from the four gates of the city into the earthen platform will be rewarded with one hundred gold pieces!"
Liu Fu arranged for the log-carrying activity to begin at noon, with only one gate open each day, allowing one person to carry logs once.
Day 1, East Gate.
Liu Fu sat on the high platform, looking down at the small groups of pedestrians gathered below. It was almost noon, but there were only a few dozen people around the notice.
"I can't read, what does this notice say?"
Someone nearby explained:
“Prince Zhongwu said that at noon, whoever can move this wooden pole standing at the East Gate to the earthen platform in the city will be rewarded with one hundred taels of gold.”
"What? One hundred taels of gold?"
Although the people were very surprised, their surprise was only brief. They looked at the wood, shook their heads, and left.
Xiao Ying'er arrived at the city gate and stopped the pedestrians who were about to leave after reading the notice:
"Don't go! Why don't you stay and take a look? There's a hundred taels of gold here!"
An old man sighed at this moment:
“Back then, there was a tiger in Nanshan that ate people. The government promised to reward anyone who killed the tiger with a thousand taels of silver. As a result, a brave man set a trap, caught the tiger, killed it, and came to the government office to claim the reward.”
"Alas! The reward is one thousand taels of silver, but the master must take eight hundred taels to reward the mountain god. This tiger has a name called the Mountain-Suppressing Tiger, and it is the mountain god's mount. Since you killed the mountain god's mount, you must spend some silver to appease the mountain god, right? Otherwise, what will you do if the mountain god brings down disaster?"
"In addition, there was a tax of one hundred taels of silver, because this money was a reward, a windfall, not earned by the hunter himself. There were also the tea money for the master, the money for the yamen runners to report the good news, and the carriage expenses for the master to award the prize. All the exorbitant taxes were deducted, and in the end, the hunter only received one tael of silver as a reward. When he left the city gate, he was arrested by the patrol officer as a bandit. The officer squeezed the silver out of his pocket before releasing him."
"Why did the patrol officer extort him? Wasn't it because the hunter earned a reward for his hunt? In the end, the hunter risked his life to kill a tiger, but didn't get a single penny of the thousand taels of silver reward. Instead, the patrol officer took several taels of silver from him, making it a losing proposition. Do you think people would believe in this event if they saw the silver?"
Another person nearby then interjected:
“In these days, one tael of silver can buy enough rice and flour for the whole family to eat their fill for three months, along with pickled vegetables and tree roots. One hundred taels of gold is equivalent to one thousand taels of silver. The men are too busy sucking blood to even think about giving one thousand taels of silver to us poor people.”
Who can?
Liu Funeng!
A royal sword was drawn, and Liu Fu immediately stood on the city tower and gave the order:
"The Emperor's bestowed Shangfang Sword is here. I hereby declare that whoever carries the wood to the earthen platform in the city will receive a full reward of silver, which will not be deducted from his account. I guarantee that the silver will be yours. And those who do not believe me, would I deceive you commoners? If you do not believe me, do you not believe the Emperor?"
Finally, after Liu Fu's earnest persuasion, someone mustered up the courage and made the cut.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a beggar on the street.
"Your Highness, I am a beggar. May I participate?"
Liu Fu immediately smiled:
"Before me, as long as you are not criminals, you will all be treated equally. You can participate as a human being."
The beggar was covered in filth, his hair was disheveled, and he didn't even have a single piece of clothing on. In such freezing weather, he wasn't even wearing shoes. It's hard to imagine how he survived.
Upon hearing Liu Fu say that he could participate, the beggar was determined to go all out!
"I haven't eaten for almost two days, I can't even survive, why should I care about anything else? I'll take care of it!"
"At worst, the prince will break his promise and beat me to death. I'm not going to live much longer anyway!"
After saying this, the beggar went to the piece of wood that Liu Fuli had stood on.
Having not eaten for two days, and with the beggar's small frame, he could only carry the hundred-pound log a few steps; there was really no other way.
But he clearly didn't want to give up the reward of one hundred taels of gold, after all, he hadn't eaten for two days, and this was his only hope of turning his life around.
As the crowd watched the beggar struggle to lift the log, the number of onlookers gradually grew to several hundred, all eager to witness the spectacle.
Instead, it was Liu Fu who spoke up at this time:
"Don't worry, no matter what method you use, as long as you transport the wood to the earthen platform in the city, you'll have met the requirements."
Upon hearing this, the beggar had an idea.
He took off his dirty clothes, tied a knot in the wood, and then put it on his shoulder and pulled it forward forcefully.
It took the beggar almost an hour to pull the log over a distance of four or five hundred meters to finally get it onto the earthen platform.
By this time, he was so exhausted that he had no strength left.
Instead, one of Liu Fu's guards placed a roast chicken in front of the beggar:
"Eat up, it's a gift from the prince."
The beggar was taken aback:
"Your Highness is making me roast chicken?"
He was taken aback. Could it be that they were just going to get rid of him with this roast chicken?
The guard noticed his confusion and smiled:
"My lord doesn't need your little bit of money. Don't worry, the reward is right here. My lord is afraid that if you take the reward and the money, you might starve to death on the way. That would tarnish the reputation of our lord. So he is giving you a roast chicken. Eat your fill before you take the reward."
The beggar was overjoyed after hearing this. After finishing the roast chicken, he eagerly accepted the hundred taels of gleaming gold, feeling extremely excited.
No one stopped him wherever he went. He immediately went to a bank to exchange his money for silver notes and began buying things all over the streets.
A large crowd quickly gathered behind the beggar, eager to watch the spectacle...
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