A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 72: Clear Defense
A battle that must be fought to the death.

The surrendered enemy cavalry, led by Lord Gu Luoquan, Lord Qu Bei, and their chief ministers, put up a desperate resistance, but they couldn't even withstand a single charge from the Han army's elite cavalry.

Corpses littered the ground, and blood stained the moat. No matter what the surrendered cavalry shouted, Huo Qubing simply ordered his soldiers to charge in shifts, determined not to let a single person live.

The surrendered cavalry crumbled at the first touch, their morale shattered. They dismounted in disarray, dropped their scimitars, and rushed to the riverbank, kneeling down and wailing in despair.

Bloodstained swords hung like a jungle above everyone's heads...

On the city wall, someone was moved, their body trembling, and they whispered, "My Lord... please release them."

"Does Lord Jiang not know they are ungrateful wolves?" Liu Ju looked at Lord Jiang of Xiaqiu. "Let them go? What if they bite again?"

Xiaqiu is a place name.

"Jiang Gong" is similar to "Dong Gong" in the title of Dong Zhongshu, and is a term of respect used by people.

If Dong Zhongshu was the leading scholar of the Gongyang School, then Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu was the leading scholar of the Guliang School.

During this period, Jiang Gongzheng of Xiaqiu, along with his prized students Rong Guang and Haoxing Gong, taught and educated the people in the new city.

Clearly, it was of little use. In order to resist the new policies, the surrendered captives even wanted to raise an army to go to Ganquan Palace, intending to use the emperor to command the Han Dynasty.

“Barbarians are ignorant, like three-year-old children in our dynasty. They are spoiled and can be educated with a little discipline,” said Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu.

"In Jiang Gong's opinion, what kind of punishment can educate these surrendered captives? 'Imitation of punishment'?"

"Or light."

"Shou, qing?"

"...Also light."

"Abandoned in the marketplace, beheaded, dismembered, or cut in half at the waist?"

"...or heavy."

"Lord Jiang's benevolence has put me in a very difficult position."

"..."

Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu was somewhat speechless.

Your Majesty is extremely learned.

The terms "punishment" and "military" share a common origin, and often military matters are listed first, followed by criminal law.

This is because in ancient times, war was the norm between tribes. Both sides fought with weapons in order to conquer each other by force, which was called "military affairs".

Those foreigners who were not killed on the battlefield but captured alive were used as slaves and criminals. Whenever they were sacrificed, their lives were taken by sharp blades or other means, which was considered "criminal punishment".

The saying "The most important matters of state are sacrifice and war" is exactly like this.

Slaves who made mistakes were naturally subject to punishment, so initially, the focus of criminal punishment was on dealing with slaves of other races.

However, even members of the tribe made mistakes. Given the distinction between insiders and outsiders, it was impossible to treat tribesmen and slaves from other tribes equally, so the practice of "elephant punishment" came into being.

As the name suggests, it uses symbolic means to represent punishment. For example, if a foreign slave is to be beheaded, a member of one's own tribe who commits the same crime is given a collarless garment as a symbol of beheading.

As the population continued to expand and elephant punishment lost its deterrent effect, some special forms of punishment gradually emerged.

Shaving the head and tattooing the face became new forms of punishment, but they were often ineffective against people of other ethnic groups. For example, among the Yue people captives in the Jianghuai region, cutting their hair and tattooing their faces were customs.

This led to the death penalty.

At the beginning of the Qin and Han dynasties, the official death penalty included, but was not limited to, public execution, beheading, dismemberment, and waist-cutting.

From ancient times to modern times, punishments were not suitable for punishing these surrendered captives, so there were not many punishments to choose from.

Corporal punishment, also known as torture. This refers to the practice where, after a prisoner's hair is shaved, their face is tattooed, or their nose is cut off, they are forced to continue performing hard labor as atonement for their crime.

Although he still felt that inflicting corporal punishment and torture on the ignorant and surrendered captives was too harsh, Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu wisely said, "Your Majesty is wise."

"Too lenient." Liu Ju shook his head and laughed: "Those who intend to take the emperor hostage, whether dead or alive, are guilty of the crime of exterminating their entire clan! — Cut off the left ears of all the rebels and send them, along with their three clans, to Kunming Lake for labor."

Your voice fell.

The surviving captives lined up in rows, flashes of sword light, and mournful howls filled the air, a testament to their despair and anguish.

In addition to physical torture, they were subjected to prolonged torture. Hundreds of surrendered prisoners, along with thousands of families of thousands of rebel surrendered prisoners, were to be sent to Kunming Lake to dredge sand.

Of the surrendered prisoners who remained in the new city, less than half were left, and most of them were women and children.

The eyes of Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu, Rong Guang, Hao Xing Gong and their disciples all turned red, their shock and anger hidden within them.

Without the surrendered captives, where would Confucianism go to educate foreign peoples?

Are we going to the grasslands?

For some reason, the Confucian scholars suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable in their necks.

The magistrate of Xincheng acted swiftly, following the clues to capture the three clans of the rebels who had surrendered. Ten people were tied together with thousands of thick hemp ropes and escorted towards Kunming Lake.

On the hills and plains of the Wei River, there were people everywhere with missing ears and bleeding, and their desperate and painful growls could be heard from time to time. Even tigers, wolves and wild beasts kept their distance.

The affairs of Xincheng were also new political matters. The problem of the surrendered captives was resolved in a bizarre way. Huo Qubing immediately rushed off to a distant place, but Liu Ju did not leave in a hurry. Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu had something to say to him, or rather, he had a principle to tell him.

It is evident that Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu and his disciples were in a difficult position, as there were very few principles they could explain to the crown prince or that would interest him.

The question of the legitimacy of the succession of Duke Yin and Duke Huan in terms of ritual system was originally a very good starting point, but with the improvement of Dong Zhongshu's "New Gongyang" theory, which was specifically designed for Liu Ju as the "sole legitimate heir to the empire," the Guliang School's ideas became inadequate.

In a theoretical contest with Dong Zhongshu, not a single member of the Guliang family could win, not even a single piece.

Furthermore, the Guliang family is naturally aligned with the emperor, making it even more difficult for them to choose a topic to discuss with the crown prince.

After much deliberation, Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu finally chose "Tang and Wu replacing Xia".

When Cheng Tang overthrew the Xia dynasty and established the Shang dynasty, was it by divine mandate or by the act of a subject murdering his ruler?

It directly points to Liu Ju's exile of his father, Emperor Liu Che.

“Your Majesty, the replacement of Xia Jie by Shang Tang and the replacement of Shang Zhou by Zhou Wu were not ordained by Heaven, but were in fact acts of ministers murdering their rulers,” said Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu.

Under heaven, only the emperor is the sovereign. Even the crown prince is the emperor's subject. Any action that is detrimental to the emperor is considered disloyal.

"Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were tyrannical and disrupted the world. The people of the world turned to Shang Tang and Zhou Wu. Shang Tang and Zhou Wu obeyed the will of the people and killed Jie and Zhou. The people of Jie and Zhou were unwilling to serve Jie and Zhou and turned to Shang Tang and Zhou Wu. Shang Tang and Zhou Wu had no choice but to become emperors. Jiang Gong, is this not a mandate from heaven?"

"My lord, even if a hat is old, it must be worn on the head; even if shoes are new, they must be worn on the feet. If you wear shoes as a hat, you will make a fool of yourself. Why is that?"

Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu retorted one after another: "This is because hats and shoes are different in status. Although Xia Jie and Shang Zhou were wicked rulers, they were still kings in power!"

Even if Tang of Shang and King Wu of Zhou were sages, they were still subjects in lower positions. As subjects, instead of correcting the mistakes of their rulers and upholding the dignity of the people, they killed their rulers for their faults and took their place as rulers. What is this if not regicide by subjects?

Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu was not good at speaking. He once lost a debate with Dong Zhongshu in the Mingtang Hall over the Gongyang and Guliang schools of thought, which resulted in the Guliang school not being established as the official school.

At this moment, Jiang Gong of Xiaqiu believed that his unprecedented eloquence and persuasiveness, which had failed to win over His Majesty in the past, could now win over the Crown Prince and perhaps finally put an end to his obsession.

"As Jiang Gong said, was it right or wrong for our Emperor Gaozu to replace the Prince of Qin and ascend to the throne?"

Your voice faded again.

Young Master Jiang suddenly realized that it was dark.

(End of this chapter)