Magistrate Lu's body fell to the ground with a thud. Meng Jian, carrying the severed head, let go and the head rolled down the high slope.
The imperial guards opened a passage, and people poured into the populace, who avoided them like the plague.
They recognized him clearly; it really was the county magistrate!
How could this be...? The county magistrate loves the people like his own children, how could he have embezzled disaster relief funds?
Moreover, the assassination of the eldest princess is simply absurd!
At this moment, the county magistrate was stepped forward.
The eyes of tens of thousands of laborers were fixed on him, and the county magistrate felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.
But this is a chance to redeem himself; otherwise, he would have no chance of survival.
So the county magistrate took a few deep breaths, made up his mind, took a step forward, and looked at the huge crowd.
"That's right! I witnessed with my own eyes the county magistrate attempting to assassinate Her Highness the Princess with a short knife."
Furthermore, traces of reeds and clay can be seen in the breaches in the embankment!
These words were like a raging storm.
Many people were unsure whether to believe the county magistrate's words, but some had already begun to waver.
Qin Zhaoyue held her breath and refused to lower her head, forcibly controlling her body as she handed the Shangfang Sword back to Suimo.
"I didn't kill her, my eldest sister did..."
Suppressing the discomfort in his chest and abdomen, he looked into the distance and saw the astonished and panicked expressions on the faces of the people ahead.
The reason for this performance was to replace resentment with fear and awe of the royal family, thus achieving a deterrent effect.
Incidentally, pin the blame for the bran and the breached dike on him, so that there's no way to prove it when he's dead.
It looks pretty good now.
"The collapse of the Huilongtan dike was due to the county magistrate's corruption and the use of substandard materials in the construction. It had absolutely nothing to do with any talk of the River God."
Why did His Majesty order the prohibition of unauthorized worship? Don't you yourselves know why?
Sacrificing young boys and girls to the river is against the natural order!
If you insist on attributing this to the River God sacrifice, then fine, I will make an exception and allow you to perform the sacrifice.
Don't bother with a pair of young boys and girls; that wouldn't be enough to quell the River God's fury.
In Longmen County, all families with children under six years old, regardless of whether they are officials, gentry, wealthy households, or commoners and river workers, and regardless of whether they hold official titles or not, shall contribute to the River God sacrifice. Is this acceptable?
One ceremony is nothing; let's follow this practice for the next three or five years, shall we?!
These words reignited the unrest among the people.
You don't feel the pain until the knife stabs you, but you sacrifice others, especially the lowly river workers and farmers.
Does everyone believe in the River God? Of course not, but since it won't harm my own interests, why not give it a try?
"Silence!" Meng Jian spoke again, suppressing the disturbance.
“The breach of the dike will affect Longmen County, the land on which you depend for your survival.”
Those of you who tend the fields know better than I what the consequences would be if tens of thousands of acres of fertile land were flooded.
Entrusted by the Emperor, I am responsible for flood control and disaster relief in the three prefectures, and naturally I will not abandon this task.
But one must defend one's own home and land.
"They resent the court, attack His Majesty, and say that women are unworthy to be emperor and that it violates etiquette..."
I believe that, at the very least, women who don't support such statements will stand up and refute them.
"Your Majesty's opening of the imperial examinations for women and the recruitment of women into official positions is not for women to overpower men, but simply to give women a way of life, a way of life where men and women are equal!"
"Women don't have to only know how to embroider and farm, they don't have to be ready to marry as soon as they reach marriageable age, they don't have to be the first to be abandoned in a year of famine, they don't have to be sold as concubines or maids in exchange for the tuition fees of their brothers' schooling or the dowry for their marriage..."
If one experiences mistreatment or hardship in their husband's family, or is mistreated by their mother-in-law, they can choose to divorce, remarry, or establish a separate household for themselves.
Women could read and write, and take the imperial examinations to enter officialdom.
Is passing the imperial examinations too difficult? Your Majesty has established the Ming Suan Ke (明算科), which allows one to become a Doctor of Mathematics, enter the ranks of ninth-grade officials, or seek employment as a manager of a merchant guild.
Even without taking the imperial examinations, reading can broaden one's horizons and help one distinguish right from wrong, preventing one from being confined to the small world of a secluded courtyard for life.
"So when 'yin and yang are reversed' rhetoric is rampant, at least you should stand up."
What we're upholding isn't His Majesty, but your own way of life—a way of life that walks freely in the sunlight, a way of life that is like that of men, like that of human beings!
"His Majesty has given women a way to live and given you the will to strive and resist. This is both a right and a responsibility."
Uncultivated land cannot yield golden ears of wheat, nor can it sustain burning hope.
In Longmen County, both men and women can handle the challenges.
This breached dam can be repaired by men, and women can repair it too!
After a long and rambling speech, Qin Zhaoyue let out a deep breath.
When Hu was first sent to recruit laborers, he said that there were no gender restrictions. At the time, he was worried that the time was too short, so he just wanted anyone who could be used, regardless of gender.
But after hearing about the warlock's plan, he made the speech he is giving now.
Feudal etiquette is not so easy to break. Even though the empress had been on the throne for fourteen years, there were still many people who continued to follow the ancient ways.
This is why the Empress Dowager values her eldest sister so much.
Qin Zhaoyue didn't expect that a speech could awaken women's right to fight for autonomy, nor could it break down the mountain of prejudice in people's hearts.
Suppressing public opinion should be enough; at least it has ignited a spark.
Many women clenched their fists, their chests heaving, their expressions changing from bewilderment and anxiety to determination, while others remained dismissive.
Qin Zhaoyue didn't care what they thought. Argumentation was better than one-sidedness. Anyway, it was just a matter of a few words and wouldn't take up much time.
This is true for ordinary people, but it's different for those around us.
The way Shattered Ink, Ink Group, and even Hidden Ink looked at Qin Zhaoyue was different.
With her resounding speech and the potential impact it could have, how many more surprises can this sixth princess bring?
The imperial guards in the arena displayed various expressions.
At first, when the magistrate of Longmen County was executed, everything was fine, except for the princess's personal guards who noticed something was amiss.
However, Qin Zhaoyue's long speech, tone, and pronunciation habits were completely different from those of the Eldest Princess.
Beneath this imperial armor lies not the eldest princess, but the sixth princess... This...
Ignoring them, Qin Zhaoyue waved her hand and gave the order, and twelve whistling arrows immediately took to the air.
The crowd was confused, as if nothing had happened.
Two watchtowers had already been erected beside the riverbank, their tops ablaze with flames like beacon towers.
With its illumination, people gradually saw the giant ships coming on the water with the waves.
The floodwaters were raging, and many boats were stuck at the Huilongtan Wharf. Now they are all stockpiled near the shore.
Thousands of imperial guards worked for an hour, using logs and tow ropes to drag the largest merchant ship into the Yu River. After anchoring, they continued to move stones to fill the gaps.
This is a multi-masted, large merchant ship with compartments, mainly made of camphor and fir wood, with mortise and tenon joints reinforced with iron nails.
The ship was twenty zhang long and could carry a maximum load of eight or nine thousand shi (a unit of dry measure).
On such a massive merchant ship, there were only three people at the helm.
Mo San steered from the stern deck, while Mo Er controlled the masts and sails to adjust the direction.
Hidden in the bow, its veil remained unmoved by the fierce winds and torrential rains...
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