Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 435: Let Me Die Knowing Why!

Xu Qing’s voice softened a little, but it carried a power that struck straight at the heart.

“The Yongchang Marquis case has been clarified, yet the soldiers on the northern frontier have bled and toiled while their pay was long withheld, naturally unsettling military morale. I propose that the irrefutable evidence that the Yongchang Marquis colluded with the enemy and embezzled military funds be transcribed by the great scholars of the Hanlin Academy into multiple copies and distributed to the military camps across the Northern Frontier for circulation.”

“Let those sentries standing guard in wind and snow know the court was not deceived, that it has not forgotten them. The traitor has been lawfully punished, and the great injustice has been cleared!”

When the emperor heard this, his eyes instantly shone with a keen light.

What a brilliant move to regain the army’s loyalty! With this action, those northern border troops who might have wavered over the Yongchang Marquis’s death will surely feel grateful to the court and be completely won back.

“Approved!” The emperor immediately struck the imperial desk, his voice like a bell, “Issue the edict! Order the Ministry of Works to carve stone tablets at once, inscribing Chen Yuan’s ten major crimes upon them, and erect them on the parade grounds at each garrison in the Northern Frontier as a warning to all!”

“At the same time, all the gold and silver seized from Chen Yuan’s residence, and the proceeds from selling his lands and shops, shall not enter the national treasury. The Ministry of Revenue will appoint commissioners to distribute those funds directly to the families of the fallen soldiers at the Northern Frontier as compensation! Xu Qing, you will personally carry out this matter; anyone who dares to intervene will be executed on the spot!”

“Your servant receives the decree! Long live the emperor, ten thousand years!” Xu Qing kowtowed deeply.

As the court dismissal bell rang, this earth-shattering imperial assembly, destined to be recorded in Great Xing’s history, finally drew to a close.

The ministers dispersed like people who had just survived a life-or-death ordeal, their steps faltering as they left in ones and twos. No one dared speak to Xu Qing; they looked at him as if he were a death omen.Xu Qing paid no attention to those glances.

He was the last to leave the Hall of Golden Chimes.

Standing on the white marble steps, he looked up and inhaled a deep breath of the clear, cold late-autumn air.

Above the high palace walls, the sky was a pure blue, without a single cloud. The rising sun warmed his green robe, soft and gentle.

He slowly closed his eyes.

Five years.

Su Ming, can you see it?

Those woodworms that sucked your blood and the blood of the soldiers at the Northern Frontier, I dug them all out.

……

Three days later.

bustling teahouse not far from

unremarkable gray cloth robe and a bamboo hat. He held a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, his

were fixed toward the southern part

vegetable market square. The execution

divine sense, a dull, teeth-grinding metallic scraping

executioner, sharpening his

......

the vegetable market

and a bone-piercing chill rode the cutting autumn wind as it

that cold, enough to send people shivering, could not dampen the cityfolk’s volcanic

the execution ground so tightly there was no room to slip through. Heads jostled, forming a dense black tide that swelled like the ocean. Not only the open ground around the execution platform, but the second floors of shops along the street, the teahouse windows, even the sturdy branches of ancient trees were filled with people craning for

come to

the capital so arrogantly that even

“He’s coming! He’s coming!”

already noisy area around

the distance, at the far end of the long street, a squad of heavily armored Imperial

carts made from thick round logs, their massive wooden wheels creaking, slowly rolled

was especially large, its sides welded shut with

cart was the Yongchang

white prison garb. Salt-and-pepper hair hung disheveled over his shoulders; the face that had once been stern and dignified

iron hook that had pierced through his pectoral bone remained fixed deep in his flesh; every jolt of the cart tugged on

did not

and wail like the other

chain-bound hands gripped the iron rail in front of him so tightly, and his back remained as straight as ever, like when he used to patrol the northern borders astride his warhorse

His eyes, like a wounded lone wolf’s,

Traitor to the nation!

my son’s life! You stole his compensation,

to death! Kill this beast who colluded

people’s fury detonated like a

and hardened mud were hurled like a storm

Slap! Slap!

Chen Yuan’s face and dripped down his salt-and-pepper beard. Putrid leaves stuck to his prison garb, giving off a nauseating stench. A walnut-sized stone struck his temple