Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Chapter 850: The dog bites people because the owner didn't tie it up properly

The emperor’s purpose is actually not difficult to guess.

Shen Zheng clasped her hands on her knees, and in just a moment, she had come up with the answer.

——Cowpox.

The emperor wanted to popularize the smallpox vaccine throughout the Great Zhou.

This decree is a signal.

This made it impossible for Shen Zheng to ignore it.

She looked at Watteau.

Huaduo is illiterate.

After a pause, Shen Zheng could only ask the Yulin Army following the car: "Can you read?"

Huaduo lowered his head quietly.

Just now, her master praised her for her good hearing, which made her secretly happy and felt that she was still of some use to her master.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, she was splashed with a bucket of cold water by reality.

There are many people with good hearing and great strength. Why should the master treat her differently because of this?

A person who is truly useful must be both civil and military, just like the soldiers of the Yulin Army.

Unfortunately, she is not, she is just a woman.

One of the Yulin soldiers squeezed into the crowd, wrote down the contents of the imperial edict, and came back to repeat: "Sir Shen, His Majesty ordered that Lu Sichu, the former Minister of Works, who held an important position but did not think about serving the country, but instead acted in rebellion, has three crimes."

Shen Zheng restrained his expression upon hearing this and waited quietly for what to come next.

"He embezzled the construction materials funds of the Ministry of Works and enriched himself, causing the repair of rivers in Changnan, Luzhou and other prefectures to be delayed. This is one of his crimes."

There was a hint of coldness in Shen Zheng's eyes.

She had already heard about the tragic situation in Changnan Prefecture from Yu Jiusi.

If Lu Sichu had not done anything, the people would not have been displaced, and would not have...eaten each other.

Lu Sichu deserves to die.

She motioned for the Yulin Army to continue.

"He also formed cliques, colluded with people both inside and outside the court, excluded those who were different from him, and attempted to control the government, disrupt the government, and formed cliques for personal gain in order to commit crimes. This is his second crime."

Shen Zheng nodded.

Lu Sichu wanted to kill the Yu family, and Yu Jiusi was the first person he targeted.

The Yulin Army also said: "When the smallpox in Xingning Prefecture was rampant, Lu Sichu concealed it and did not report it, treating the lives of the people as worthless, causing the disaster to spread. This is his third crime!"

At this point, even the soldiers of the Yulin Army gnashed their teeth.

Any one of these three charges is not a light one.

I didn't expect that today, they would all focus on the same person.

Shen Zheng lifted the curtain of the carriage, and the people outside were outraged. Some even cursed the royal family.

"How do we cut this end?" She looked outside, her voice a little cold.

"Seven days later, he will be paraded through the streets and taken to the West Market to be beheaded in public." The soldiers of the Yulin Army felt that Lu Sichu had gotten away with it.

When a person dies, it is like a light going out. Once the head falls off, the person knows nothing.

But who will pay for the crimes committed by the other party?

Lu Sichu only has one worthless life. How can he repay the lives of the people in Changnan, Xingning and other prefectures?

This time, it really is not a pity to die!

"That's a good deal for him." Shen Zheng also said, "The Ministry of Justice supervises the execution? How can they just behead without torturing him?"

"It is clear in the edict that General Yu Lang will supervise the execution." said the Yulin Army officer.

Yu Jiusi?

Shen Zheng suddenly laughed.

The emperor's move was quite murderous and heartbreaking.

Don't you want to harm the Yu family? Then let the Yu family take you on this last journey.

......

More and more people came after hearing the news, making it increasingly difficult for the carriages to move forward.

Two Yulin Army soldiers walked forward to lead the way, while Shen Zheng and Hua Duo sat in the carriage together.

There was nothing to do but sit there. After calming down from being angry, Shen Zheng started to think about the imperial edict again.

This decree was issued by the emperor himself, but it should have also been approved by the Hanlin Academy.

Lu Sichu was corrupt, formed cliques, and treated human life as worthless. His crimes are too numerous to list. Once made public, they would inevitably arouse public anger.

Such as now.

Countless angry voices of doubt poured into the carriage from all directions.

"If such a person can become an official in the imperial court, then why should I pay taxes? All the taxes will go into the pockets of corrupt officials!"

"Who said it wasn't? I don't know how the emperor selects officials. This is the governor and the minister of the Ministry of Works. He can ruin our family with just a few spit. The emperor lets such a person be an official. Isn't this harming us?"

"In my opinion, the Great Zhou Dynasty is rotten from the root... We are in the imperial city, and there are corrupt officials here. So how can the people in the countryside live?"

"Hush, keep your voice down. There might be people from the imperial court among us."

"What am I afraid of? The official is corrupt, and we are not allowed to speak out? Not only will I speak out, but I will also throw rotten eggs at the corrupt official in seven days! My mother was reluctant to eat the rotten eggs before, and we ordinary people are living so tightly, but what is the result? The corrupt officials can harm the people of several states with just one bad idea! I am just a worthless life, and if the emperor doesn't like it, you can take it away!"

As a court official "mingling with the crowd", the more Shen Zheng listened, the more pain she felt in her heart.

When the emperor announced Lu Sichu's crimes to the world, did he ever think about the people's reaction?

But he still listed Lu Sichu's crimes, which was tantamount to a disguised admission - I was a bad emperor and the officials I brought up harmed the people.

In Shen Zheng's opinion, the harm this edict caused to the emperor's reputation was no less than that of the "Edict of Criticism of Sins".

Every word of what was said outside reached Hua Duo's ears, and she carefully observed Shen Zheng's reaction.

There was no anger as imagined, only a hint of...bitterness?

"Your Majesty is kind and kind, but not arbitrary." Shen Zheng leaned on the carriage board, letting the voices outside fill her ears more clearly. "This will only embolden those with quick minds to extend their butcher knives to your Majesty's people. In the end, your Majesty will be the one who suffers the most."

The common people did not recognize this official or that official. They only knew that the emperor was in charge of the officials. It was the same principle as “If a dog bites someone, it’s because its owner didn’t tie him up properly.”

She was talking about the emperor just like everyone else.

Hua Duo didn't dare to answer.

Shen Zheng sighed slightly and lifted a corner of the car curtain.

Suddenly, there was a different sound outside.

"The emperor issued the decree to give us the people an explanation."

The person who spoke was a female student in a green skirt. "If the emperor didn't want us to know, he could have just dealt with him secretly. Why did he go to so much trouble to issue an imperial decree? And why did he parade Lu Sichu through the streets? He did this because he didn't want to disappoint us, the people."

The rest of the people did not comment on what he said, but instead asked, "You are a student of the Imperial College? Then there must be a high-ranking official in your family, right? It is normal for people from a high-ranking official's family to speak for the court and the officials."

This means that they are of the same nest.

Shen Zheng lifted the car curtain a little wider and tilted half of her head to look at the female student.

The other person was wearing a Qingjin robe, but that didn't seem to be the attire of the Imperial College.

"You are wrong." The female student said calmly, "I am just an ordinary student at Xijiao School. My family runs a small business and has nothing to do with the court."

The female student's words made sense, but it was obvious that the other party would not listen to her reason.