Chapter 74

Chapter 74

It had been agreed that Wang's eldest son and the condemned prisoners in the jail would be executed after autumn.

However, it turned out that there weren’t many condemned prisoners in the county jail, and executing just two or three people was deemed unnecessary.

At that time, Yun Changxie also had other matters to attend to, so the executions were postponed until the third day of the twelfth lunar month.

On that day, they would be taken to the execution ground at the market square, where many townsfolk would come to watch.

Yun Changxie thought that since his brother-in-law, Su Wangzu, had nothing else to do, he might as well bring him along to observe the executions.

As for Su Wangzu’s fate in the meantime?

Naturally, he would remain confined in his cell.

Yun Changxie had finally caught him and certainly wouldn’t allow him to escape punishment so easily.

On the morning of the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the yamen officers gathered at the market square and set up a scaffold.

The head gaoler would lead the condemned through several nearby streets in a public parade.

The prisoners, shackled and collared, were slowly paraded through the streets under the escort of the yamen runners.

The lead yamen runner would strike a gong while announcing the execution time to the onlookers.

Some morbidly curious and bold townsfolk would gather at the market square.

Executions were usually carried out at noon, and beheadings were quick.

Other punishments, such as flogging, caning, or lingering death (dismemberment), were more complicated.

This time, there were six condemned men. Condemned men, destined to die, were kept separate from other prisoners.

Apart from these condemned prisoners, there were others who wouldn’t be executed but would still face public corporal punishment.

For example, thieves, robbers, and bandits.

Though their crimes didn’t warrant death, their offenses had a notorious reputation, so they were also brought out for public punishment.

Yun Changxie arrived close to noon. After taking his seat and checking the time, he signaled for the executioner to proceed.

First, the condemned prisoners were beheaded.

Wang's eldest son was also a condemned prisoner, but due to the heinous nature of his crimes, Yun Changxie intended to use him as a warning.

He was to be subjected to lingering death.

Yun Changxie threw down the verdict placard, and the five condemned men were beheaded one by one.

The relatives and friends of the condemned keened and wept at the sight.

Next was Wang's eldest son. His family was also very distraught.

Unfortunately, no matter how distraught they were, they couldn’t compare to the crowd’s outrage.

Even beasts know not to harm their young.

He was worse than a beast—not only harming but also defiling them.

Like an animal in heat, he would rut at the slightest provocation.

Calling him a pervert would be too generous.

Such a person was nothing but a putrid carcass, beneath contempt.

Wang's eldest son was also agitated. He was furious and thrashed against his restraints.

Yes, seeing the heads of the others tumble, he couldn’t help but feel fear now.

His fate was different from theirs—they died quickly, but he would endure death by a thousand cuts.

This was just like how he had tortured defenseless creatures.

As if divine justice existed, his retribution had finally arrived.

Seeing him still daring to resist, Yun Changxie ordered the yamen runners to shatter his kneecaps.

In ancient times, someone who committed such heinous crimes and openly defied the authorities deserved nothing less than being flayed alive and drawn.

Watching Wang's eldest son’s legs being broken before enduring lingering death, some faint-hearted townsfolk couldn’t bear to look.

But most of the onlookers were vindicated.

Only when such evildoers died could honest, law-abiding citizens dwell in safety.

Yun Changxie watched coldly throughout, occasionally glancing at Su Wangzu, who was forced to watch from a distance.

Su Wangzu had long been reduced to a quivering wreck. From the moment he saw the prisoners’ heads tumble, he had voided his bladder in fear.

The yamen runner guarding him recoiled in disgust and couldn’t help but curse at him.

When he saw that another prisoner was to be dismembered slowly, Su Wangzu, being craven, collapsed insensate on the spot.

The yamen runner asked, “Sir, what should we do with him?”

“Escort him back. After this, release him.”

“Yes.”

No matter what, Su Wangzu was Su Qingruo’s younger brother.

The current Su Wangzu hadn’t yet committed the disgusting acts described in the novel.

Yun Changxie couldn’t actually kill him just for spreading rumors.

He only hoped that after this lesson, Su Wangzu would learn to mend his ways and stop trying to cause offense.

Lingering death required 999 cuts.

Wang's eldest son only endured 160 before he succumbed.

Yun Changxie didn’t want to watch any further. After all, he wasn’t like Wang's eldest son.

Such a grisly spectacle was more than he could stomach.

After that, the executions concluded.

The remaining prisoners were either subjected to flogging or caning.

Those being punished were all hardened criminals, and the watching crowd got a real kick out of it.

After Yun Changxie left, he returned directly to the county office. He still had some official duties to finish and planned to rest in the backyard once he was done.

He had already reviewed the financial accounts of Qiuping County.

He had no idea how his supposed father had managed as an official—the county treasury had always been in the red.

Fortunately, he had obtained a good haul of gold, silver, and jewelry from the bandits; otherwise, getting Qiuping County on its feet would have been extremely difficult.

Last time, he had hauled down a total of sixteen hundred taels of silver from the mountain.

He had given some of this silver to Hunter Chen and his friends, spent five hundred taels to call in backup, and now had less than a thousand taels left.

Among those items, the silver wasn’t the most valuable.

The most valuable were the jewelry, jade, and night pearls.

Yun Changxie had Hunter Chen help move them to a more distant location to cash them in.

In the end, they obtained nearly four thousand taels of silver.

Four thousand taels looked like a fortune.

But in reality, when used for the county’s development, it wouldn’t go very far.

He had initially considered using the money for good deeds, such as handing out free meals.

But after some thought, he realized that giving out porridge could only put a band-aid on the problem, not solve it permanently.

Rather than spending the silver on such measures, it would be better to invest it in things with more lasting impact.

Yun Changxie wanted to set up a cement factory.

As the saying goes, "To get rich, first build roads."

If he wanted the people of Qiuping County to prosper, the smartest move was to start by constructing roads.

Well-built roads would help spread the reputation of the cement factory.

If the cement factory could keep going long-term, the people of Qiuping County would have another way to put food on the table.

As for whether suddenly introducing something as useful as cement would raise too many eyebrows—

Yun Changxie didn’t plan to put his name on it himself.

Instead, he would simply float the idea, gather a group of craftsmen, and occasionally steer them in the right direction. Producing cement wouldn’t be difficult.

Given the primitive technology of the time, manufacturing cement would require a large workforce.

And this workforce would consist of local strong backs—mostly men.

But if all the men worked in the cement factory or joined Yun Changxie in road construction, who would work the fields?

Naturally… this would provide an opportunity for ordinary women and "ge’er" (a third gender in this world) to get out of the house and farm.

Yun Changxie wasn’t about to pull off something like freeing up women and ge’er overnight.

But when a region faced not enough hands, and women and ge’er were allowed to do outside work, their status would naturally rise.

As for why Yun Changxie, a man, was so dedicated to improving the status of women and ge’er—

First, because he came from a modern society and knew that women’s strength was nothing to sneeze at.

In an ancient setting with a small population, keeping women and ge’er cooped up indoors was bad for business.

In their world, there were three genders: men, women, and ge’er.

If men controlled the two more vulnerable genders, their world would be down two-thirds of its people.

Two-thirds—that was an enormous amount of labor.

Second, he didn’t believe oppressing women and ge’er was anything to be proud of.

Oppressing them didn’t bring him joy, because he came from a woman, not from a man’s belly.

Moreover, his own children might include ge’er and daughters.

If he oppressed other families’ ge’er and daughters, more people would inevitably come down on his own kin in the future.

Whether for the sake of his own children or the development of Qiuping County, Yun Changxie believed his ideas were justified.

He could take the first step and give it a shot, then observe the reactions from other parts of Great Zhou and the emperor.

If the response was unfavorable, he would abandon his plans and just stick to being an ordinary feudal official.

But if the response was positive, and the emperor approved—then… Great Zhou would never be the same.