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Chapter 603 Women
As the prison van moved forward, the crowd seemed to come to their senses and began to follow the van, eager to hear what crimes the once arrogant Zhao Boce had committed.

Lu Qing and Zhu Yu also joined the crowd and walked along. They heard that Zhao Boce had even forcibly driven away the people from two villages in order to find a place outside the capital to store troops. He drove them away from their houses and fields, beat them with whips and sticks, and forced them to go far away. He used those two villages to store troops and train them.

In order to accumulate enough grain, they often plundered money and food from the surrounding areas, causing great suffering to the local people. The local government dared not speak out because he was the grandson of the Duke of Yan. After being threatened by Zhao Boce, they did not even have the courage to report it and could only let them run rampant.

The talk of stockpiling troops and the imperial seal only made the ordinary people around feel that the crimes were too great, and they were terrified just by hearing about them. Other than that, they didn't have much real feeling about it.

However, the mere mention of people having their houses and land seized, forcing perfectly good farmers to become homeless and displaced, aroused the indignation of these ordinary people who were struggling to make a living.

It's unclear who started it, but someone picked up small stones from the roadside and threw them at Zhao Boce's prison cart.

Once one person started, others naturally followed. In an instant, pebbles rained down on the prison van, and there weren't enough pebbles on the roadside for the onlookers to grab. The once messy roadside was instantly cleared of all weeds.

Some people couldn't find any stones, and feeling angry, they simply took off their shoes and threw them.

Although the fence of Zhao Boce's prison cart was relatively solid, there were still gaps. Occasionally, stones would be thrown through the gaps and hit Zhao Boce. He would feel pain and try to dodge, but the narrow prison cart made it difficult to even turn around, so how could he dodge? He could only shrink his neck and grit his teeth to endure it.

Lu Qing turned her back to the prison cart, partially shielding Zhu Yu from the bouncing stones.

They moved forward for a while when suddenly a wailing sound came from afar. The crowd looked in the direction of the sound and saw several women in fine clothes stumbling and running towards them from the other end of the street, with maids following closely behind to support them.

The women rushed forward, and the soldiers at the front, seeing this, hurriedly tried to block them with their swords, but were gestured to by someone next to them. They silently sheathed their swords, stepped aside, and made way for the women to pass.

As they got closer, Zhu Yu recognized one of the people: the Duchess of Yan, the unlucky old lady who had ruined her birthday celebration last time.

She was supported by two maids on either side of her. Rather than walking on her own, it was more like the two maids were carrying her and making her run along the way.

Behind Lady Yan, stumbling along were Zhao Boce's mother and Zhao Bi's eldest daughter-in-law, and then several other women, Zhu Yu, whose identities were no longer discernible.

These people cried and howled all the way, rushing straight to the prison cart and throwing themselves at it, which trapped the cart in place.

At first, when the people around saw a group of women running over crying, they subconsciously stopped throwing stones.

After all, the woman at the front was an old woman. Regardless of her status, these onlookers all had elderly parents and young children to support, and no one had the heart to throw stones at a few women.

Supported by her maid, Lady Yan and her daughter-in-law rushed straight to the prison cart, where they lay on the bars and began to wail.

"My grandson! My good grandson! Who is the wicked one who has made you suffer like this! How could they have made you like this!" The Duchess of Yan's wife was in tears, reaching into the prison cart to touch her grandson's face, but she couldn't reach him. She could only hold her hand in mid-air, trembling and crying, "When has my good grandson ever suffered like this! What kind of sin has he committed!"

The eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhao family was also crying uncontrollably: "My son... my poor son! What kind of deity have we offended? Why have we been so unlucky lately..."

My son has suffered... he has suffered...

Don't be afraid, we...we..."

She said "we" a few times, then suddenly realized that their most trusted advisor, the Duke of Yan, had recently been imprisoned and was in dire straits himself, so he had no way to help her grandson escape. Overwhelmed with grief, she burst into tears, reaching down to touch Zhao Boce's boots as she sobbed, murmuring, "My son... my son..."

The surrounding people had initially stopped when they saw the women running over, but upon hearing their cries, their initial pity vanished, replaced by a surge of anger.

"These people are shameless!" someone in the crowd shouted, unable to bear it any longer. "Your unfilial sons drove the people out of their own land and even plotted a rebellion, and now you're here wailing and mourning!"

Once someone starts something, it's like opening a floodgate; accusations and insults immediately erupt, and any slight sympathy for the woman vanishes instantly, replaced by a cacophony of condemnation of Zhao Boce's misdeeds.

In the blink of an eye, the women of the Duke of Yan's mansion were surrounded by people, and accusations came from all directions, one wave after another.

The women of the Duke of Yan's mansion were usually pampered in the inner quarters, only associating with the women of other noble families. Not only were they all harmonious and respectful, but others also treated them with extra respect because of Zhao Bi's status.

So they had no chance to face this situation of being condemned by everyone. They were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they didn't dare to cry out. Several maids protected their mistress, and the women shrank back like a few quails.

The more wronged they looked, the angrier the people around them became, and the louder the curses grew. The bigger the reaction from the people around them, the more miserably the women cried, and the scene became chaotic.

Zhu Yu watched coldly from the side, thinking to himself that the Duke of Yan's ambition was really not a good match for the intelligence of his family.

His son is either a disappointment or has a physical disability, and his son-in-law disagrees with him politically and on different paths, so he doesn't even bother to consult with him.

The only favored grandson is mediocre in talent and not particularly intelligent; his only redeeming quality is his arrogance.

The women in the family lacked both courage and righteousness, and were not at all like virtuous wives.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before Zhao Bi's schemes failed, given his own actions.