Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 63: Painstaking Efforts to Peace the People (V)
"I am Zhou Wenming, your student, and I am here to see you, General. I ask you to uphold justice for our Zhou family." Although he was here to see you, Zhou Qillang did not even get off his sedan chair, and he almost looked at Liu Huai on the stage at eye level.

"You asked me to uphold justice, but you wouldn't let others carry me around, would you?" Liu Huai frowned on the stage, "Are you dissatisfied with the condescending attitude of our Loyalty Army?"

Zhou Qilang was startled and laughed dryly: "General, you are joking. I am not being rude. I just broke my leg the night before and it is really inconvenient for me."

Zhou Qillang lifted his robe to show the splint on his leg, and quickly asked the servant to put down the sedan chair.

Liu Huai nodded, then frowned as he held the document and asked, "Zhou Qilang, in your complaint, you said that Wang Zeng of Ganyu County led his men to kill nineteen members of your family, thirty-seven of your slaves and servants, and twenty-one of your tenants and clients. Is this true?"

"That's right!" After saying that, Zhou Qillang burst into tears.

"Bring Wang Zeng up here." Liu Huai ignored him and waved his hand back. After a while, another person was brought to the stage.

The man had his mouth blocked and was tied up, but he still struggled hard, as if he was unwilling to give in.

The man first stared at Zhou Qillang fiercely, then when he scanned the crowd and saw Zhou Da Hu, he suddenly paused, and then his eyes seemed to be spitting fire, and his body struggled even more violently. Although his curses were blocked, a sound like a bull's roar squeezed out of his throat.

"It's this guy, this thief!!!"

Zhou Laoqi's eyes also turned red. He stopped crying and pointed at Wang Zeng on the stage and cursed him.

Liu Huai ignored him and simply flipped through the documents and read out loudly Wang Zeng's charges. He then said to the bound man, "Do you admit to these evidences? Is there anything else you want to say?"

Zhou Laoqi: "General, what else do you want him to say? Did he let us say a word when he slaughtered our village?"

Liu Huai stepped forward and took the rag out of Wang Zeng's mouth, then glanced at Zhou Laoqi. "In my place, everyone can speak: officials, civilians, soldiers, merchants, and even bandits. Killing someone without teaching is like punishing them without giving them a lesson. I see you're an educated person, but killing someone without teaching them is cruelty. Haven't you heard?"

Wang Zeng coughed twice, spitting out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. Then he raised his head with a sinister grin and said, "General Song, he's right. I was the one who killed the entire Zhou family. That Zhou brat, I not only killed your father, mother, brothers and sisters, but I also burned down your old house. What do you think? Are you willing to reason with me now?"

Zhou Laoqi was filled with grief and anger, his finger trembling as he pointed at Wang Zeng. "General, this beast is brutal and savage. He dares to speak nonsense in front of you. Nothing less than the death penalty will quell the public's anger! General!"

"So, you admit your guilt?"

Liu Huai asked with a frown.

Wang Zeng was forced to his knees by a Song army soldier. Upon hearing this, he turned to look at Liu Huai with difficulty: "General Song, do you know why I killed his entire family?"

Without waiting for Liu Huai's response, Wang Zeng spoke out loudly, "Five years ago, Hebei was struck by a disaster, and my parents took my brothers and sisters with them to Shandong. My father became seriously ill, and my mother had no choice but to put straw tags on my younger brother and sister and sell them to the Zhou family as slaves."

"I originally thought that even if I became a slave, living in a wealthy family would be better than a life of wandering. But who would have thought..." Wang Zeng's voice choked slightly, "Who would have thought that the next day, my younger brother and sister would be stuffed into a newly built brick kiln and become sacrifices, and burned alive to ashes!"

"During this time, my mother and brother heard the news and wanted to get my younger siblings back, but they had their legs broken by the Zhou family. My father was already ill, and he passed away upon hearing the tragic news. My mother and brother didn't survive the winter either. I'm the only one left in my family of six! General Song, this is why I killed all nineteen members of the Zhou family. I'm the only one left in my family!"

"Why are his parents and siblings human, while mine are nothing but mud? Why are they still able to live a life of luxury and prosperity after harming my entire family, while I can only change my name and become a bandit in the army? How can there be such a logic in the world?!"

Wang Zeng banged his head against the ground, but immediately straightened his upper body and roared to the sky, his voice roaring like thunder.

"Boss of the Zhou family, that day my mother and brother came to your house to ask for an explanation, and you said the Zhou family was unreasonable. Why are you trying to reason with me now? Is it because the knife has finally fallen on your head?"

Liu Huai followed Wang Zeng's gaze and saw Mr. Zhou sweating profusely in the crowd. "Zhou Qilang, is this true?" Liu Huai ignored the fat man and turned to ask Zhou Laoqi, who was also sweating profusely.

Zhou Laoqi finally couldn't sit still anymore. He knelt on the ground regardless of the injury on his leg, and his whole body was shaking violently.

He originally thought that the Zhou family had suffered a great loss of strength this time, and several brothers and guards who were employed had died at the hands of the rebel army. If they could not find a protector quickly, they might be wiped out by the enemy tomorrow.

As for finding the golden man?
Stop joking, who is responsible for the Zhou family's fate?

Although surrendering to the Song army might lead to liquidation by the Jin people, Zhou Qillang didn't care about that anymore and just wanted to have some peace for a while.

As the first local tyrant to pledge allegiance, the Zhou family was willing to treat them well even if the Song army offered them a huge sum of money.

But at this moment he finally realized another possibility.

Although spending a fortune to buy bones and killing a chicken to scare the monkeys have completely opposite meanings, their effects are similar.

"Zhou Qilang, let me ask you again, is what Wang Zeng said true?"

Liu Huai held the document and his voice had turned cold.

Zhou Laoqi fell to the ground, trembling all over: "Student...student usually goes to school outside, so I really don't know about the housework."

"Oh?" Liu Huai's face also turned cold. "Liu Bazhu, a worker at the Zhou family kiln, came forward to report that when the kiln opened last year, the boy they found fell ill and died. Zhou Jia Qilang was supervising the kiln at the time. That night, Liu Bazhu's two-year-old son was stolen, and the next day he was stuffed into the fire pit and sacrificed to the kiln."

Zhou Laoqi was struck by lightning: "Impossible..."

"Impossible what? Is it impossible for Liu Bazhu to discover that it was his son who was sacrificed? Or is it impossible for Liu Bazhu to discover that it was you who did it? Or are you sure that even if Liu Bazhu discovered it, he wouldn't dare to tell anyone?"

Liu Huai's voice was loud and clear, and it spread throughout the already silent square.

"Zhou Qilang, your brick kiln doesn't just offer sacrifices once, or sacrifice only one person? Every year, a young boy and girl are burned to ashes as sacrifices, and you actually say you don't know?"

Liu Huai clapped his hands and said, "Let's not talk about the other evil things your Zhou family has done. Just for this one thing, you have ended up with no descendants and your entire family wiped out. Isn't this just as it should be?"

There was a sudden silence in the audience, and then an uproar.

Zhou Laoqi kowtowed like pounding garlic.

Several Song army warriors surrounded the stage.

Mr. Zhou wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape, but he felt as if his shoulder was grabbed by an iron clamp and was being dragged forward.

Just as he was about to struggle, he was slapped twice and became dizzy. His fat body was dragged forward by Li Xiu and then thrown heavily next to Zhou Laoqi.

(End of this chapter)