At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 4 Wang Ji
More and more people were forced to gather in front of Zhou's mansion, time slowly came to noon, only to see a young man with a thin figure, a gloomy face, and a little bookishness slowly stepped forward, looking around at the people.

Seeing this, everyone fell silent immediately, and the place where more than a hundred people gathered could even hear the sound of dropping needles.

The man is Wang Ji, who is only in his twenties and has already become the Prime Minister of Pei Guo, which is incredible.In fact, Wang Ji has been in Peiguo for five years, and he has already held a high position just after reaching the crown.

Gein Wang Ji was the adopted son of Wang Fu, who was one of the ten permanent servants. Wang Fu was one of the ten permanent servants.

However, compared to many relatives of eunuchs who can only make money, Wang Ji is a little different.When he was young, he liked reading, loved fame, and was quite talented, but his temperament was a bit cruel.During his five years as Prime Minister of the Pei Kingdom, he was able to understand political affairs, resolve difficult and old cases, discover and arrest treacherous people, and his ability was obviously far superior to that of others.

Wang Ji can be said to be stern and selfless in his administration. Since he served as the Prime Minister of the Pei Kingdom, he has encouraged the people to expose corrupt officials and dirty things in the aristocratic family. , will also be thoroughly investigated to the end, and punished according to the law.

If only this is the case, Wang Ji can be regarded as a parent official who guards the side, and is worthy of the love and respect of the people.

However, Wang Ji's understanding of the law is obviously putting the cart before the horse.

The law is not to punish people, but to draw a red line for the people and tell them what not to do. This is to regulate people's behavior.

According to the practice of the Han Dynasty, the government should promote education, let the people understand etiquette, know honor and disgrace, and through this kind of gentle means, guide the people to be good and not violate the law.The emperors of the Han Dynasty continued to reduce punishments and promote benevolent governance.

This is not the case with Wang Ji. He is not interested in enlightenment, but only knows about large prisons, and those who violate the law a little will be punished with the most serious laws.

It's like abandoning babies and killing babies.Most of the common people abandoned and killed infants out of helplessness, because they were too poor to pay tribute and raise children.

The so-called oral tax is a population tax levied on minor children. Originally, only children aged seven to 14 would be taxed with oral tax. The 23 qian per person increased to [-] qian. Because the people could not bear the burden, they were even forced to kill infants.In the period of Emperor Han Yuan, it was changed back to starting at the age of seven.

It's a pity that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, in this era, the oral tax was changed from seven years old to one year old, which would undoubtedly be a great burden for the poor people. In addition, serious land annexation, frequent natural and man-made disasters, this This led to the intensification of infanticide.

A long time ago, in order to curb this phenomenon, the government regarded infanticide and abandoned infants as the same crime as homicide.

As the saying goes, those who kill will die, and those who injure others will be punished.According to Han law, parents who abandoned babies or committed infanticide would be put to death.

However, at any time, we always pay attention to "the people do not prosecute, and the officials do not prosecute." When abandoned babies and infanticide become common practice, even if someone finds out, they will not report to the government, so the matter will naturally be left alone.

These conventions were broken by Wang Ji.

He gathered a group of tough officials and searched around. If he found anyone who gave birth and refused to raise children, he would kill his parents, and then buried the parents and the baby's corpses together.

If the murderer was caught, Wang Ji's method was even more brutal. After the murderer was executed, his body would be slaughtered, and then the body would be loaded on a bullock cart, patrolling the counties and announcing the murderer's crimes.If the hot weather caused the corpse to rot early, he would ask people to connect the bones with ropes, and he would not stop until he traveled all over the Pei Kingdom.

In the five years since Wang Ji served as Prime Minister of Pei, he has executed more than [-] people. Such a huge number is simply shocking.You must know that the entire Pei Kingdom only has a population of one million. Wang Ji killed more than one percent of the total population in just five years with the help of one person. The cruelty of his methods can be seen.

This is why the people of Pei Kingdom are so afraid of Wang Ji.

At this time, Wang Ji's face was gloomy, and he pointed to the couple kneeling on the ground, and shouted to the crowd: "Born but not raised, disregarding human relations; abandoning a baby to death is the same crime as murder. Now let's punish these two thieves, and look forward to the fathers and fellow villagers." Let’s take this as a warning, don’t do this again!”

After saying this, Wang Ji drew out the sword from his waist, first stabbed the man kneeling on the ground, and then ignored the woman's frightened screams, pulled her hair and cut the woman's throat.

"Pfft!"

Blood spattered out, staining the official uniform in front of Wang Ji red, and leaving spots of blood on his face.

Wang Ji didn't care at all, kicked the woman's corpse to the ground, put the sword back into its sheath, then took out a handkerchief from his arms, wiped the blood on his face carefully, and continued to shout: "Three days of killing these two people, Bury with the baby again!"

Seeing this situation, everyone fell silent, and Zhou Qi clenched his fists.

He had already remembered that the couple lived not far from here and had a five-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter at home.

It is certainly wrong for a couple to abandon a baby, but in this era there is no contraception, and their family is poor, coupled with all kinds of exorbitant taxes and frequent natural and man-made disasters, so that this family cannot afford to raise a third child.

Otherwise, how can parents have the heart to abandon their children?

As the prime minister of Pei Guo, Wang Ji didn't try to solve the problem fundamentally, but only wanted to kill people to build power.As everyone knows, Wang Ji killed not only the couple, but also the two young children in their family!

How can a child who has lost his parents live alone?

Zhou Qi clenched his fists and took several deep breaths in succession to suppress his anger.

Seeing that everyone was shocked by his thunderous tactics, Wang Ji suddenly sighed: "Infant abandonment and infanticide have been repeatedly prohibited in Peiguo, and the truth is that most of those who did this were forced to do so because of their poor families. However, I thought about it for a long time, but I was very puzzled in my heart, Xiangxian County is surrounded by mountains and rivers, the climate is suitable, and the land is fertile, why is the life of the people in the county so difficult, and they can't even support their families?"

Wang Ji looked around at everyone and asked, "Can anyone tell me the truth?"

Silence, deathly silence.

Seeing that no one answered, Wang Ji suddenly raised his voice, and shouted: "Last year, there was a severe drought in the spring, and Xiangxian County was built on the Sui River, but there was no canal to divert the river to irrigate the land, which greatly reduced the grain production; The skyrocketed, and the river overflowed the embankment, destroying fields and countless houses!"

"Drought and floods occur frequently, so that Xiangxian County has fertile land but it is difficult to harvest food, and the people work hard every day but it is difficult to feed themselves."

"I want to completely eradicate floods and droughts. I wonder if you are willing to help me?"

After Wang Ji's words fell, the people who were silent at first suddenly became agitated. They all whispered to each other, and their eyes showed anticipation.

(End of this chapter)