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

Chapter 63 Complaints
It was night, the Zhou family mansion was brightly lit, and Zhou Qi held a grand banquet to warmly entertain the Ranger Xiangdang who had helped him assassinate Wang Ji.

In addition to Shi Huan, even Xiang Hong also rushed to Zhouji Township.

At that time, ten passionate young people gathered here to plan big things together. Although Shi Huan, the future brother-in-law, is missing now, there is more Xu Chu, the current fierce general.

Zhou Qi made friends with Xu Chu sincerely, so he didn't intend to hide these things from him at all, which also made Xu Chu feel a little warm in his heart, and he was even more kind to Zhou Qi.

Three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Zhou Qi raised the wine glass in his hand, stood up and said to everyone: "In the past, all brothers were able to risk their lives to help me when I was in the most difficult time. Zhou Qi will never forget this kind of kindness!"

Zhou Cheng also stood up and said: "Who in the countryside doesn't respect the old stingy man? He is a member of my class to avenge him, how can he deserve Ziyi's gratitude?"

When the rest of the people heard the words, they also echoed their words one after another.

Chen Wen even patted his chest and said: "Peiguo Prime Minister Wang Ji, that dog official, has done so many things that hurt the nature and reason, and everyone will be punished. Ziyi is to eliminate harm for the people, and it is reasonable for us to help each other." Middle. You may not know that there is a family in a certain kiosk where a baby was born with a serious congenital disability. If it continues to be raised, it will inevitably become a burden for the whole family."

"Because of this matter, the baby's parents cried for many days, and finally, under the advice of the pavilion chief and the clan elders, they drowned and abandoned the baby."

"It is true that drowning a baby is contrary to human ethics, but it has always been the case in the countryside. Even those wealthy families will never keep disabled babies unless there is only one child in the family."

"The so-called people will not hold the officials accountable. Originally, the government would turn a blind eye to things like this and would not pursue them at all. But Wang Ji's servants have maintained a large number of ruthless minions and scattered them all over the country to investigate privately. Somehow, they When he found out about this, all the parents of that family were beheaded, and even the pavilion chief was severely punished for abetting murder!"

"As a result, the old mother cried to death in that family, and the old father also froze to death at home last winter because there was no one to take care of him."

"Just because of a disabled baby, the whole family was wiped out. What justice is there!"

Having said that, Chen Wen suddenly took a sip of wine, obviously very angry.

Zhou Qi was also silent when he heard the words.

A baby with a disability, even in the era of Zhou Qi's later generations, is enough to drag an ordinary family into the abyss, let alone the ancient times with extremely low productivity.

If this happens, the most common practice is to abandon the baby so as not to drag the whole family down.

Even those big families with a lot of wealth will basically abandon this type of baby, except that the number of people is really thin and needs to be passed on to the next generation. Because in ancient times, if you want to be an official and get ahead, in addition to various internal cultivation and knowledge, you also need Have external conditions.

Those who are not outstanding in appearance are very likely to be disliked, like those with congenital disabilities, even if they have extraordinary talents in a certain area, it is basically impossible to stand out.

Raising such a child will not only bring a great burden to the family, but also affect the family's reputation.

Regarding the matter of abandoned babies, the situation is actually very complicated, and there are many reasons. One of the main reasons for abandoned babies is that babies are born with disabilities.

In addition, some may be because they cannot survive, some may be because they prefer sons to daughters, and some may be out of superstition, thinking that children born at the wrong time will bring disaster to the family.

Although the Han law criminalizes abandoning an infant as the same crime as murder, it does not encourage the actual killing of an infant's parents. This law was enacted out of helplessness, just to act as a deterrent.

In most cases, it is the latter two that the government needs to crack down on. If they really want to kill people across the board, it will definitely cause great social turmoil.

Because this kind of thing cannot be completely eliminated.

Unexpectedly, when the other young man heard the words, he suddenly put down the wine glass in his hand, and said with red eyes: "What is this? Uncle of a certain family is even worse!"

Zhou Qi hurriedly asked after hearing the words: "Don't get angry, and speak slowly."

The young man took a few deep breaths and then said bitterly: "A certain aunt had a difficult delivery. In order to save the aunt, the uncle did not protect the child. As a result, the child was a dead baby after birth, and then they threw the dead baby into a remote water Wali.”

"I never thought that within a few days, officials would come to the door, arrest uncle and aunt, and execute them for infanticide. Even the midwife who was in charge of delivering the child was executed for perjury and cooperating in infanticide. I want I have been killing Wang Ji and the dog thief for a long time. I only wish that I had no power to help Ziyi kill this evil thief. Even if I die, I will have no regrets!"

Zhou Qi couldn't help taking a deep breath when he heard this.

It was only then that he deeply realized how terrible the tyranny of Wang Ji was. He was punished even for abandoning a dead baby, and he directly killed the baby's parents. Such a cruel official could serve in Pei for four years. , can always sit firmly on Diaoyutai. It must be said that Wang Fu's power is indeed very terrifying.

Some people may find it strange that since the baby died, why not bury it, but throw it in the puddle, which caused this kind of misunderstanding.

In fact, this is also a folk custom.

Children who die in childbirth or premature death are not allowed to enter the ancestral graves. In some places, the custom is even worse. In such cases, babies cannot even be buried or have graves, and the bodies have to be thrown into remote woods or puddles.

This custom prevailed even in the 90s and [-]s of later generations.

When Zhou Qi was young, because family planning was not implemented at that time, and the level of medical care was underdeveloped, the child did not even get vaccinations, so the child mortality rate and infant mortality rate remained high. In remote puddles, the bodies of abandoned babies can often be seen.

It was not until family planning was implemented and medical conditions gradually improved that this situation gradually disappeared.

Xu Chu also felt a chill down his spine when he heard this.

He lives in Xujiazhai in Qiao County, which is far away from Xiang County. Although he has long known that Wang Ji's methods are very cruel, he has never experienced it himself. He suddenly heard people's complaints today, so he couldn't believe it.

"It's a major matter of murder. Hasn't anyone investigated the cause of the baby's death carefully?"

"investigation?"

The anger in the young man's eyes became thicker, and his face was full of ridicule, saying: "Those minions only care about how many murderers they can uncover and how many major cases they have solved. As for whether the murderer really kills people, there are Who cares?"

Xu Chu was silent when he heard the words, but his heart could not be calm for a long time.

(End of this chapter)