The junior flag officer followed behind him, his head aching as he held his forehead and said, "Yes, yes, yes, right away we’ll send someone to find Fen Wine for you..."
The rest of the officials in the cells looked at him intently.
Some watched with cold eyes, unmoved.
Others’ eyes reddened, as if they were about to be moved…
The Analects say: "A bird’s song is sad when it is about to die; a person’s words are good when they are about to die."
The seemingly foolish and naïve words of Yang Ge truly stabbed at the cold and cruel hearts of some.
It was like waking from a great dream to see oneself, fat and greasy, with all the filth of the world, suddenly catching a glimpse of one’s youthful self—rosy-lipped and white-toothed in pure white robes, spirited and gallant.
In the crowd, I search for her a thousand times; when I turn my head, she is there, in the dimly lit place...
Life is short, a dream as fleeting as cooking millet!
...
"Convict of Yangzhou Prefecture, Jiangzhe Province, Grade 6 Judge Song Shen, begs for Your Majesty’s well-being."
The night wind howled; a light flickered dimly, and the Judge of Yangzhou, Song Kun, tremblingly penned the beginning of his letter of appeal in a dark and cramped room.
With just over a dozen words, it seemed as if he had exhausted all the strength of his life. Having written the last character "well-being," he could carry on no more and had to lay down his brush, picking up the wine jug on his desk and gulping down a large mouthful from the spout.
Bolstered by the alcohol, he lifted his brush once more.
But just as he was about to write, his emotions collapsed yet again, and he threw down his brush to weep over his desk.
In the last moments of life, all the grandeur of past days—the lavishness, the prestige—all seemed to vanish like smoke at dusk.
What replaced them were.
The calls of his admiring children from their younger days.
The simple and warm smile of his wife from years past.
The camouflaged tears and scoldings of his old father when they parted ways.
The intermittent nagging of his old mother amidst the steam over the large iron pot.
The crooked jujube tree in front of his childhood home, laden with sweet dates.
He suddenly realized how far he had strayed over the years...
He knew he was wrong.
But it was too late to turn back.
The wailings that sobbed "woohoo" carried into the night, blending with the wind, echoing again and again within the dark prison.
They caused countless sleepless convict officials to weep with age-old tears as well...
At that moment, they finally shed the armor of power and showed their true selves.
Some thought, if only time could be reversed, if only life could be redone, they would certainly do so and so…
Others thought, if only they could have another chance, they would definitely make their schemes tighter, climb even higher...
Unfortunately, time cannot be reversed, life cannot be redone, and nobody would give them another chance.
The day would inevitably dawn.
What was to come was bound to arrive.
When the narrow cells were opened one by one again, the imperial guards sent to collect the condemned were shocked to find that the officials had aged more than a decade overnight.
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Some had even turned their hair white in a single night...
...
By the time the sun was three poles high.
Hundreds of imperial guards dispersed into Jiangdu, beating drums and gongs along the streets, gathering the citizens to watch the execution at the Vegetable Market by noon.
The unwitting people of Jiangdu gathered in crowds, surging toward the Vegetable Market.
Even now, many were questioning whether this was all just for show, doubting whether the imperial envoy had brought in convicts from elsewhere to replace the corrupt officials...
Corrupt officials are still nobles, after all!
They are the stars descending from the heavens!
Aside from the emperor himself, who could put them to death?
Throughout history, when has it been heard of that a large number of officials were executed at a provincial seat?
Rumors and speculation spread throughout the city.
Even Yang Ge, seated in the yamen hall, heard no fewer than ten different versions of rumors, some so ingeniously constructed that even he felt enlightened.
He didn’t send anyone out to offer explanations...
He knew that a thousand explanations could not match the impact of executing an official before their eyes.
Besides, he didn’t have the energy to vie with these rumors and speculations.
Although he had called upon over twenty junior flag officers yesterday to help him review the case files,
in the end, he still could not rest easy and personally went through the case files of all 456 corrupt officials detained in Yangzhou.
After all, he had only one chance; he didn’t want to miss a single official who deserved death, nor did he want to wrongfully condemn one who did not...
He ultimately confirmed that 327 corrupt officials were involved in capital crimes.
This number, this ratio
It was unbelievable, yet he had no choice but to believe it!
He had carefully reviewed the case files of those convicted officials involved in murder cases and found that as soon as they accumulated a certain amount of wealth, they naturally crossed the line of human life.
Even among those who had amassed huge fortunes and half a city’s worth of land, several didn’t know they were involved in capital crimes. When questioned, they were completely clueless or stupefied until confronted with the evidence of their deeds—that they had indeed ordered those actions.
Indeed, they had merely given orders with their mouths, but their subordinates killed people and cleaned up the mess for them. They only cared about collecting money and land, not getting a drop of blood on their hands...
Yang Ge felt it was unrealistic to say these people were completely unaware of what their subordinates had done.
They simply didn’t care, had no concern, took it for granted, and regarded it casually...
They were all human, all flesh and blood raised by fathers and mothers...
Yet they behaved as if they were not the same species as those poor citizens.
Certainly, some of them too had come from hardship...
Yang Ge couldn’t understand; he only felt anger, as if there was a fire burning in his heart, unstoppable and unquenchable...