Li Qingyuan was surprised. "So many? No wonder these border generals couldn't stop the Mongol cavalry invasion. Put these 1,326 people under my strict supervision! I will report this to the court and punish them severely!"
Zhao Kangping felt something was amiss: "Sir, I don't know how severe the punishment should be."
Li Qingyuan made a beheading gesture: "These smugglers have no respect for the law and are colluding with foreign tribes. They should all be executed!"
Zhao Kangping shuddered with fear. He knew these smugglers had committed no serious crimes. "Sir Li, I've already investigated. Most of these civilians are desperate and have no means of survival, so they resort to private transactions with the Mongolian people. At most, they'll be punished with a beating. Furthermore, according to the files submitted by the various counties, no one has been implicated in leaking military secrets. Your Excellency, please think about it. How could these ordinary people be connected to a heavily guarded army? Over a thousand lives are at stake."
"Zhao Kangping!" Li Qingyuan was furious. "You're colluding with foreign powers! I never thought a prefect like you, the governor of Qinghe Prefecture, would say such a thing. Have you forgotten the tragedy of Kui County? The Mongols hung the corpse of County Magistrate Kuang Licheng outside the government office, and countless civilians were brutally slaughtered. This was all caused by someone leaking the garrison's deployment to the Mongols!"
Zhao Kangping gritted his teeth and shouted, "Sir! This is over a thousand lives. I've investigated, and so have the magistrates of various counties. The new magistrate of Kui County, Zhou Guitong, arrested over seven hundred people and interrogated them for three full days. The files they sent us all say the leak had nothing to do with these smugglers."
"How dare you! This matter is decided by me. If it's not them, who else could it be! What's wrong with more than a thousand people? It's better than watching innocent people of my Song Dynasty being killed. Lord Zhao, I might as well tell you, let alone a thousand people, I will kill them even if they are ten thousand!" Li Qingyuan shouted angrily.
This was the first time in Zhao Kang's life that he dared to challenge his superiors. Although he wasn't a very good official, he at least had some conscience. He knew that these more than a thousand people were wrongly accused: "Sir! You must not allow this injustice to last forever!"
Li Qingyuan didn't care about these things. He wanted to win the emperor's praise. Unexpectedly, the first meeting with the prefect turned out to be unpleasant. However, he was the emperor's personal envoy, so he didn't take a small prefect seriously.
"Hmph!" Li Qingyuan flicked his sleeves, left Zhao Kangping behind and walked away.
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