The first poisonous scholar in Daxia, starting from the abdication of the prime minister

Chapter 127: The disregard for human life is too heinous to describe...

"grown ups……"

Zhou Yin lifted his clothes and knelt directly in front of Gu Jingzhi: "My family and the whole village died unjustly. I beg you to make a decision for my family and fellow villagers."

"..."

Gu Jingzhi scratched his head and said sullenly, "If you want me to make the decision for you, you have to explain the situation clearly first. Stand up and talk!"

"Yes Yes!"

Zhou Yin quickly stood up and said, "This spring, my hometown has been hit by heavy rain for several days, which has destroyed a lot of farmland and caused disasters for many of my neighbors!"

Spring...

He thought for a moment and asked, "Is it Chongning County, Jizhou Prefecture?"

"Does the lord know about this?" Zhou Yin looked at Gu Jingzhi curiously.

Gu Jingzhi nodded and said, "At that time, I was still working in the Hanlin Academy. I did hear about the incident in Chongning County. Your Majesty once ordered Jizhou Prefecture to provide relief to the victims of the Chongning disaster!"

This disaster was mainly flooding, but the affected area was not wide. Chongning County suffered severe damage because it was backed by the Ji River, and many fertile fields were destroyed.

This type of county-level disaster is usually handled by the local government and does not require disaster relief from the imperial court.

He asked curiously, "Since His Majesty has already issued an order to provide disaster relief to the local area, why are you villagers..."

"grown ups……"

Zhou Yin choked sadly, "Local warehouses have indeed opened to distribute grain, but what will the dead eat?"

"Dead people? What do you mean?"

Gu Jingzhi stood up immediately.

The Jeju Prefecture hadn't reported any food shortages. On the contrary, within a month or so, the Jeju Prefecture had reported that all damage within Chongning County had been alleviated, save for the casualties caused by the floods.

wrong!

He suddenly thought of the contents of the memorial. It seemed that three villages in Chongning County were the worst hit. According to the report, the Ji River broke its dike, and three of the villages were flooded. Except for a few young children, no one survived.

In other words, before Jeju Prefecture provided disaster relief, these three villages had already disappeared...

He asked, "Do you know these three villages in Chongning County: Lijia Village, Fengshu Village, and Shangyao Village?"

"Sir, I am a villager of Shangyao Village. Lijia Village, Fengshu Village and our Shangyao Village are the three villages most severely affected by the disaster. But even if the disaster is severe, there will be no survivors!"

"The report says that the Ji River burst its banks, causing the destruction of your three villages..."

Gu Jingzhi was a little hesitant. The report said that the flood was caused by the destruction of the river embankment at night, which led to the suffering of the villagers.

Zhou Yin said angrily, "The flood did indeed destroy the riverbank at night, but that wasn't a natural disaster, it was man-made..."

"Man-made?"

Gu Jingzhi was shocked: "Did someone dig up the riverbank?"

"It's not..."

Zhou Yin sobbed and said, "The Ji River floods from time to time, but there have been floods even bigger than this year, and yet it has never breached the embankment. Someone took advantage of the heavy rains to build a dike upstream to hold back the water. When the water level increased, they opened the sluice gates and released the water, allowing the flood to rush downstream... That's how the Ji River embankment was breached..."

"what?"

Gu Jingzhi was horrified.

Someone had taken advantage of the heavy rain to intercept the flood upstream, then breached the dike and released the water, which destroyed the riverbanks. This is why all three villages were wiped out...

If this is the case...

He asked, "Then where did you get the news?"

"That day, I went to the county town to visit my mentor. When I returned to the village, it was already late at night. On the way, I happened to encounter a group of people. They were all holding sharp weapons. I was afraid, so I hid in the woods. Then I heard their conversation and realized that they were the ones who had done all these things!"

"Someone from the Gu family?"

"That's right! They are the clan of Ning Hou Gu Heng. They also said that with Ning Hou here, there will be someone to help even the biggest problem..."

"Snapped!"

Gu Jingyi slammed his palm on the stone table, and the powerful force of his palm directly broke a piece of the table. He said angrily: "How can they resist such disregard for human life?"

"This……"

Everyone present was stunned as they looked at the shattered tabletop.

That's a stone table...

"Sir, you are a high-ranking official of the current dynasty, so naturally no one would dare... But that is Ning Hou Gu! To ordinary people like us who have no power, he is a very important figure!"

Zhou Yin suppressed his grief and anger and spoke to Gu Jingzhi.

Gu Jingzhi looked at him coldly and said, "General Wu's letter to me mentioned that the person who did this was Gu Yong, the head of the Gu family in Jizhou Prefecture. If you knew who the culprit was, why didn't you report it to the authorities?"

"Sir, it's not that I don't want to report it to the authorities, but I just don't dare!"

Zhou Yin whispered, "At first, the flood only destroyed the fertile fields. Although there was no harvest this year, no lives were lost!"

"Although the villagers are helpless, they also believe that the court will definitely deal with this matter!"

"But instead of waiting for the imperial court to deal with this matter, we came to the Gu family. They wanted us to transfer our fertile farmland or exchange grain for land, but they only offered one tael of silver per mu. How could the villagers agree to this? The paddy fields cost at least three taels of silver per mu."

"and then?"

"At the time, we were unwilling, and they didn't say anything. We just went to other villages, but other villages were unwilling to sell their good land at such a low price, and they kept waiting for the government to deal with the matter!"

Gu Jingzhi frowned.

One tael of silver for one acre of land...it's simply robbery.

He asked, "Didn't the government handle it?"

"no!"

Zhou Yin said, "They never showed up. Instead, the Gu family came a few times. Some villagers were afraid of them, and they also thought that they had suffered a disaster this year and their families could not survive, so they sold their land."

"Our villages, including Shangyao, Lijia, and Fengshu, are located near the Jishui River, so the fields are very fertile. We think that after the disaster, there's still hope for the next year, so no one is selling their land!"

"We originally thought that as long as we didn't agree, the Gu family would be helpless. Who knew..."

"Who knows..."

"They actually broke the dike and released the water in the middle of the night. All the people from our three villages were killed... Woo woo..."

"Deserves to be killed!"

Gu Jingzhi's eyes were red and he shouted angrily with murderous intent.

He thought about robbing people by trickery and using his power to oppress them, but he never imagined that they would do such a cruel thing just for some land.

Shangyao Village, Lijia Village and Fengshu Village are backed by the Ji River, which makes irrigation convenient, so they are considered wealthy villages.

The three villages together have at least three hundred households.

These more than 300 households...thousands of lives!

Is it not worth thousands of acres of land?

He looked at the sorrowful Zhou Yin and Lan Niang, thought for a moment, and said, "Right now, the matter still needs to be verified. It's difficult to convict without solid evidence. You will stay in my house for the next few days. When the time is right, I will present it to His Majesty and will definitely seek justice for you!"

The three nodded when they heard this, and Zhou Yin even bowed and said, "Thank you, sir!"

"Ok!"

Gu Jingzhi nodded, then pulled Lin Feng away.

On his way back to his residence, he thought about it and asked Jiang Feng to inform Tao'er that she would be responsible for taking care of all the food in the yard from now on.

As for why it was Tao'er, it was naturally because of Emperor Xia's arrangement.