"Why can't I kill them?" Zhang Beichen asked.
With his back facing the crowd, Liu Wen lowered his voice and replied, "Do you see those old people? They aren't ordinary old people, but retired soldiers! Moreover, they're all veterans of the Black Armored Army. I'm the one who did all the paperwork for them to leave the army."
Hearing Liu Wen's words, Zhang Beichen could not help but frown. The Black Armored Army was the King of Qin's personal army, and these retired veterans were all soldiers who had once served the King of Qin and Kingdom Qin and had shed their blood!
If he were to kill them, he would first offend the empress of Kingdom Qin and many of the Qin soldiers. If the old clans used this as a reason to file a complaint against him, even Ying Yiren would find it difficult to deal with.
Moreover, they had prestige among the people. Zhang Beichen looked at the crowd and saw that the prisoners were all indignant. If he were to punish these veterans today according to the law, the rest would definitely riot!
"How sinister! You actually used my Black Armored Army!" Looking at them from afar, Ying Yiren's hand was already holding onto her sword. She hated that she couldn't ride her horse forward and kill Bai Liangpu, Yang Shan, and the others!
Jing Ping put himself in Zhang Beichen's shoes. If he were Zhang Beichen, he wouldn't have much choice. The only possible way was to mete out a light punishment. However, it would result in breaking his own law and his body would suffer severe backlash!
"It's too difficult!" Jing Ping shook his head slightly. Anyone who went to Baiyang County would have a headache!
"Lord Zhang, what's wrong? Punish him!" Yang Shan looked at Zhang Beichen proudly and said, "Didn't My Lord say to enforce the law impartially?"
"That's right. Could it be that My Lord saw that the prisoners were once the monarch's soldiers and wanted to bend the law for personal gains?" Bai Liangpu added fuel to the fire.
Hu Cheng cursed inwardly. Zhang Beichen had overexerted himself just now. If his technique was broken now, he would probably die here today!
At this moment, Hu Cheng heard a sound that was wrapped in spiritual energy.
"Uncle Hu, remember what I'm going to say next..."
"Your Highness? Your Highness is nearby!" Hu Cheng listened carefully and replied with a serious expression, "I understand, Your Highness."
...
Zhang Beichen walked in front of the criminals and said, "Qin people should dare to take responsibility for their actions. You were once from the Black Armored Army, so I don't think I need to say more. Name, what crime have you committed, report it yourself!"
"I dare to take responsibility for my actions!" The leader of the prisoners, an old man, raised his head and shouted, "I'm Yu Yong, and I've committed the crime of murder! In the fight just now, I killed someone from the Yang family!"
After Yu Yong reported, the few people behind him also gained courage.
"I'm Wan Pingan, and I'm also guilty of murder!"
"Wu Ting. I have committed murder."
...
Not only did the criminals organize armed fights, but almost all of them had taken lives.
"Impudent!" Zhang Beichen shouted, "You've committed a serious crime and you're still proud of it? What you've committed is a capital crime! According to the law, you all should be beheaded!"
Hearing Zhang Beichen's words, the crowd was agitated.
"Why should they be killed?"
"They have made great contributions to Kingdom Qin, and this is how you treat them?"
"They just killed people by accident!"
"They're already in their sixties or seventies. It's too much to punish them like this!" Zhang Beichen had not even started to enforce the law, but the people were already in chaos.
"Silence!" Che Yang stopped the crowd. Then, he walked in front of Zhang Beichen and cupped his hands, "Lord Zhang, Yu Yong and the other veterans have indeed committed a serious crime. Considering that they have shed blood for Kingdom Qin and during the chaos earlier, it was inevitable that they accidentally killed someone. Could you take these into consideration?"
Even Che Yang couldn't help but come out to plead for Yu Yong and the others, making the matter even more complicated.
"You don't need to intercede, Che Yang," Yu Yong snorted coldly, "We have committed a capital crime. If you want to kill us, then just kill us."
"But even if you kill us today, we will still not be satisfied with it!"
"Why not?" Zhang Beichen asked.
"We're not the only ones who participated in private and armed fights," Yu Yong said, "As for killing people, there are people who killed others every year. The year before last, my youngest son was killed by them, and the person who killed him was not punished!"
"Now that you're punishing us, of course, we're not happy about it!"
"The law does not pursue the past! The previous county magistrate had already dealt with the matters that had happened in the past. If there's anything inappropriate, you can report it to the government, and the county will hold a trial for it!" Zhang Beichen said, "The 'order to cultivate grass' has been issued and the decree has been notified to the entire county. You all know about it. Why did you knowingly break the law? It's just because you're lucky and think that the law doesn't punish the masses, so you're defying the law!"
"Yu Yong, Wan Pingan, and everyone. You've all been in the army before. If you break the military rules, can you escape?"
"I've never been an army deserter!" The few of them still had their heads held high.
"The law of Qin is like a military order!" Zhang Beichen berated, "Those who break the law must be punished!"
Yu Yong and the others were a little weak, but Yu Yong forced himself to say, "Then you can just kill me, My Lord. Why waste your breath?"
"The purpose of making laws is not to kill, but to save people!" Zhang Beichen continued, "All of you, let me ask you, why did you join the army? Why did you go into battle to kill the enemy?"
A few of them replied, "Of course, it's to protect my home and the country and to make contributions!"
"To protect your home and country, right?" Zhang Beichen asked, "You went to the battlefield to protect the people of Qin. After leaving the battlefield, you are killing the people of Qin. Isn't that self-contradictory? Could it be that protecting the country is just an excuse?"
Hearing Zhang Beichen's words, Yu Yong and the others couldn't hold it in any longer. They weren't afraid of death, but they cared about their reputation and pride.
"Of course, it's not an excuse!" Yu Yong shouted with a red face and thick neck. "We didn't intend to kill them, but they won't let us off easily and want to occupy this Dragon's Eye Spring! We have no choice but to fight!"
"My Lord, you eat food befitting of an official. You won't go hungry even in a year of disasters. But for us commoners, if we don't have water to irrigate the fields, we will starve to death next year!"
"My Lord, if it were you, would you fight for it?"
Yu Yong's words struck a chord in everyone's heart. The commoners shouted, "Yeah if we don't fight, we can only wait for death!"
"The Dragon's Eye Spring should be our Bai family's!"
"It was us, the Yang family, who found it first!"
"You two families are occupying it. Can't we, the people with other surnames, use water?"
Seeing that the scene was about to become chaotic again, Zhang Beichen once again stopped everyone.
Yu Yong and the others were still indignant and said, "My Lord, you can kill us today. We're all old men and won't live for more than a few years. We don't have to be afraid even if we die. But they, without water, will still fight tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the next year!"
"As long as we fight, people will be injured and people will die! If you want to kill us, why don't you kill us all to save yourself the trouble!"
"Yes, kill us all, come on!" The prisoners all started shouting.
"Silence!" Zhang Beichen looked at them and said, "I know your difficulties. If you have a problem, you have to solve it! But not by fighting or armed confrontation!"
"Will there be more water if you injure and kill the other party? Hmm? If there was a little less water, you would attack people with other surnames. If it was even lesser, would you attack your own surnames, parents, and children? Could it be that we Qin people are uncivilized savages? A group of man-eating beasts?"
Zhang Beichen's words stopped everyone temporarily. Everyone fell silent.
"My Lord, we are not savages and we do not wish to fight. But is it wrong for us to want to live?" Yu Yong asked.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to live. But you used the wrong method!" Zhang Beichen said, "The root of the problem is not to fight for water, but to find a way to build hydraulic projects, such as drilling wells, repairing water channels, and reservoirs. These are the right ways!"
"Ha!" The few veterans sneered, "It's easy for you to say. We're not fools. It's not like we don't know how to dig a well to get water, it's not like we don't know how to draw water."
"There's no river in Baiyang County," someone said, "If we want to draw water, we'll have to build a canal that's dozens of miles long. Who's going to build it for us? As for digging a well, there's no water here except for the Dragon's Eye Spring. The ground is full of rocks, and there's no water even after a few hundred feet deep. What else can we do?"