"Why can't you kill him?" Zhang Beichen asked.
Liu Wen carried everyone on his back and lowered his voice: "Have you seen those old people? They are not ordinary old people, they are veterans! And they are all veterans of the Black Armored Army. I have handled the paperwork for them before they were discharged. of."
Hearing Liu Wen's words, Zhang Beichen couldn't help but frown slightly. The Black Armor Army is the personal army of King Qin, and these veterans are all soldiers who have served the King of Qin and the Qin State and shed their blood!
If you kill them yourself, you will first offend the King of Qin and many Qin army officers and soldiers. The old clans sued themselves for this reason, and I'm afraid even Ying Yiren would find it difficult to deal with it.
Furthermore, they also have prestige among the people. Zhang Beichen looked at the crowd and saw that the faces of the prisoners were all angry. If he punished these veterans in accordance with the law today, the others would definitely riot!
"It's so insidious! You actually took advantage of the mediocre black-armored army!" Ying Yiren watched from a distance, her hand already holding the sword. She hated it so much that she didn't ride forward and kill Bai Liangpu, Yang Shan and others directly!
Jingping thought about it for a moment. If he were Zhang Beichen at this time, he didn't seem to have much choice. Maybe the only way to deal with serious crimes and light punishments is to break your own laws and backfire on yourself!
"It's too difficult!" Jing Ping shook his head gently. Anyone who goes to a place like Baiyang County will have a headache!
"Sir Zhang, what's wrong with you? Punish him!" Yang Shan looked at Zhang Beichen proudly and said, "Didn't you say that the law should be enforced impartially?"
"Yes, could it be that your Excellency, seeing that the prisoners were once your Majesty's soldiers, wanted to bend the law for personal gain?" Bai Liangpu added fuel to the fire beside him.
Hu Cheng secretly thought that it was not good, Zhang Beichen had already exhausted his body just now. If the law was broken at this time, I am afraid he would have to die here today!
At this time, Hu Cheng heard a voice wrapped in spiritual power in his ears.
"Uncle Huber, remember the following words clearly..."
"Your Majesty? Your Majesty is nearby!" Hu Cheng listened carefully and replied with a cautious look on his face: "I understand, Your Majesty."
…
Zhang Beichen walked up to the felons and said, "Old Qin people dare to do what they do, and you were once part of the Black Armored Army. I don't think I need to tell you your name and what crime you committed. You can avenge it yourself!"
"I dare to take responsibility!" An old man who was the leader of the prisoners immediately raised his head and shouted: "My name is Yu Yong, and I committed the crime of murder! In the fight with weapons just now, I killed a man named Yang!"
After Yu Yong reported himself, several people behind him also became bolder.
"I am safe, but I am also guilty of murder!"
"Wuting, committed murder."
…
Not only do serious criminals organize armed fights, but they almost always have human lives on their hands.
"Presumptuous!" Zhang Beichen shouted, "You are quite proud of committing a serious crime, aren't you? What you committed is a capital crime! According to the law, you should be executed!"
After hearing Zhang Beichen's words, the crowd was excited.
"Why kill them?"
"They have made great contributions to the Qin State, and this is how you treat them?"
"They were just manslaughters!"
"They are all 60 or 70 years old. It is too much to punish them like this!" Before Zhang Beichen started enforcing the law, the people were already in chaos.
"Quiet!" Che Yang shouted to everyone. Then, he walked up to Zhang Beichen, cupped his hands and said, "Sir Zhang, Yu Yong and other veterans have indeed committed serious crimes. After all, they have also shed their blood for Qin, and In the chaos just now, accidental injuries are inevitable, can you consider it as appropriate?"
Che Yang couldn't help but come out to plead for Yu Yong and others, which made things more complicated.
Yu Yong snorted coldly: "Che Yang, you don't need to intercede. I have committed a capital crime. If you want to kill me, just kill me."
"But even if you kill us today, we still won't accept it!"
Zhang Beichen asked: "Why don't you accept it?"
Yu Yong said: "We are not the only ones participating in private fights and armed fights. As for beating people to death, people are beaten to death every year. The year before last, my youngest son was beaten to death by them, and the beaters were not punished! "
"If we are punished now, of course we will not accept it!"
"The law does not look at the past! What happened in the past has been dealt with by previous county magistrates. If there is anything inappropriate, you can appeal and the county will try it on its own!" Zhang Beichen said, "As soon as the "Grass Reclamation Order" is issued, the decree The whole county has been notified, and you all know it too. Why knowing the law and breaking it is just a matter of luck, and you feel that the law does not punish everyone, so you flout the law!"
"Yu Yong, Wan Ping'an, and you. You are all soldiers. If you break military regulations, can you escape?"
"I've never been a deserter!" Several people still held their heads high.
"The Qin Law is like a military order!" Zhang Beichen scolded, "If you break the law, you will be punished!"
The momentum of Yu Yong and others was a little weak. He held on and said, "Then just kill me, sir. Why bother talking?"
"Legislation is not to kill people, but to save people!" Zhang Beichen continued, "Hey, let me ask you, why are you soldiers and why do you go into battle to kill the enemy?"
"Of course it's to protect our country and make contributions!" several people said.
"To protect our country, right?" Zhang Beichen asked, "You went to the battlefield to protect the Qin people. After you get off the battlefield, you are killing the Qin people. Isn't it contradictory? Could it be that to protect the family and defend the country? Is the country just an excuse for you?"
Hearing what Zhang Beichen said, Yu Yong and others couldn't help it immediately. They were not afraid of death, but they cared about reputation and face.
Yu Yong shouted with a red face and a thick neck: "Of course it's not an excuse! We had no intention of killing them, but they are powerful and want to occupy this Longyan Spring! We have to fight!"
"Sir, you are a government official, and you cannot go hungry in years of famine. But we common people, if there is no water to irrigate our fields, we will starve to death in the coming year!"
"Sir, if it were you, would you argue?"
Yu Yong's words reached the hearts of everyone, and the people shouted: "Yes, if we don't fight, we will just wait to die!"
"Longyan Spring should belong to our Bai family!"
"It was our Yang family who discovered it first!"
"You two are occupying it. Can't we, the other surnames, not be allowed to use water?"
Seeing that the scene was about to become chaotic again, Zhang Beichen shouted to stop everyone again.
Yu Yong and others still looked angry and said: "Sir, you can kill us today. We are all old people, we won't live for a few years, and we are not afraid of death. But they, without water, they will still fight tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, next year, it will be the same!”
"As long as we fight, people will be hurt and killed! If you want to kill, why not kill us all to save trouble!"
"Yes, kill us all, come on!" all the prisoners shouted.
"Quiet!" Zhang Beichen looked at them and said, "I know your difficulties, and if you have problems, you must solve them! But it will never be solved by fighting or fighting with weapons!"
"If you injure or kill the other party, will there be more water? Huh? If the water is less, you will attack the outsiders. If it is less, will you attack your own surnames, parents and children? Don't we? Are the Qin people uncivilized savages? Are they a group of man-eating ferocious beasts?"
Zhang Beichen's words temporarily stopped everyone, and everyone fell silent.
"Sir, we are not savages, and we do not want to fight privately. But we want to live. Is there anything wrong with this?" Yu Yong asked.
"There is nothing wrong with wanting to survive. But you are using the wrong method!" Zhang Beichen said, "The root of the problem is not to grab water, but to find ways to build water conservancy projects, dig wells, build canals, and reservoirs. These are the right ways. !”
"Ha!" Several veterans sneered, "It's easy for you to say. We are not fools. We don't know how to dig wells to get water, don't we know how to divert water?"
Someone said: "There is no big river in Baiyang County. If we want to divert water, we have to build dozens of miles of canals. Who will build it for us? As for digging wells, except for Longyan Spring, there is no water at all. The ground is full of rocks. How many miles of water can we dig? There’s no water a hundred feet deep, so what else can we do?”
