Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

They've all been brought directly onto the stage.

"Just now, when we invited you fellow villagers to this threshing ground, several Liangshan soldiers took advantage of your beauty and made advances towards your families!"

"According to the rules and military law of Liangshan! Anyone who arbitrarily bullies the villagers shall be flogged twenty times! Guards, carry out the punishment!"

At Zhao Yuan's command,

Lu Zhishen's enforcement team then stepped forward with their whistles.

The soldiers who harassed the women of Xixi Village, along with their captain, had their pants pulled down.

Begin the caning!

"Pah, pah, pah..."

After twenty blows with the stick,

The soldiers' buttocks were covered in blood.

Many of the villagers who had just been harassed by them now showed expressions of gratitude.

"Men, bring Sun Chai, Hei San, and all the other soldiers from Sun Chai's squad here!"

A total of twelve people were brought onto the stage.

Zhao Yuan looked around.

He spoke loudly to both the villagers and the other Liangshan soldiers.

"Among this group of soldiers, there is a man named Hei San who raped and abused a maidservant of the Li family!"

"According to the Liangshan military law, any soldier who rapes or insults a woman shall be beheaded! His captain shall also be beheaded! The remaining soldiers in his squad shall each receive forty strokes of the cane!"

"Guards, carry out the execution!"

Hei San and Sun Chai, their faces deathly pale, were dragged to the front of the stage.

The enforcement team swiftly beheaded the two men.

Then,

The remaining ten soldiers were punished with caning!

Looking at the soldiers groaning under the beatings, and the two heads lying nearby,

The entire threshing ground fell silent.

The soldiers of Liangshan held an even deeper reverence for military law.

Especially those few who had been given twenty lashes before.

I'm even more relieved that I was just being flirtatious, and at most I might have gotten physical.

However, they did not dare to actually commit violence.

Otherwise, they would definitely have their heads chopped off by now!

The villagers of Xixi Village were utterly shocked.

No one expected that this mountain bandit who robbed Li Baozheng's house...

They actually stood up for Li Baozheng's maid.

He even killed his own soldiers!

It was Li Baozheng who had previously dared to try and get away with it by taking advantage of the fact that the surrounding villagers dared not speak out against him.

Now he witnessed Zhao Yuan beheading his own soldiers.

Li Baozheng was able to protect his vast family business, which naturally shows he was a smart man.

Knowing that given the evil deeds he had committed in the past, he had no chance of escaping punishment today.

He quickly kowtowed and begged for mercy.

"King Zhao, I confess. I did oppress and exploit the tenants in the past, and I have even killed several people. Now, I am willing to pay with my life. I only beg you, King Zhao, to spare my children and grandchildren and leave some bloodlines for the Li family!"

"Don't worry, Liangshan only punishes evildoers and will never harm the innocent! If your son and grandson have not done anything wrong, I will not do anything to them!"

Zhao Yuan assured him.

Seeing this, Li Baozheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

But he didn't notice that his children and grandchildren had all changed their expressions.

As the saying goes, if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too.

Li Baozheng himself committed all sorts of evil deeds in Xixi Village.

How could his children and grandchildren be kind?

Naturally, they were also arrogant and domineering, committing all sorts of evil deeds!

"Fellow villagers, as I just said, today Liangshan will hold a public trial for Li Baozheng right here! If you have any grievances, please speak freely!"

Zhao Yuan addressed the surrounding villagers loudly once again.

This time, unlike the numbness I felt before,

Many villagers finally reacted.

A young man, ignoring his parents' attempts to pull him away, walked out of the crowd.

He knelt down directly on the ground, looked up and asked,

"Your Majesty, will you really stand up for us?"

"I am the leader of Liangshan, and I will never go back on my word!"

Zhao Yuan said decisively,

"Tell me your name, who you are accusing and what you are accusing, and I will take care of it for you!"

The young man then said,

"Your Majesty, my name is Li Dazhuang, and I want to sue the eldest son of Li Baozheng!"

“I originally had a wife, but because she was beautiful, she was forcibly taken to their farm by Li Baozheng’s eldest son, who said she was there to do show work for them!”

"But after only one night, when I saw my wife again the next day, she was already a cold corpse!"

"The Li family's steward said that my wife lost her footing and accidentally fell into the well and drowned!"

"But later, a villager who worked at the Li family's farm that day secretly told me that after my wife was taken into the Li family's farm that day, Li Baozheng's eldest son tried to rape her and commit indecent acts!"

"My wife couldn't resist and couldn't bear the humiliation, so she threw herself into the well and committed suicide!"

“I also went to the county government to report this matter, but the county magistrate and all the runners in the county government had accepted money from Li Baozheng’s family. Instead, they said that I was making a false accusation and beat me up!”

"Everyone in the village knows about this. Please, Your Majesty, do me justice!"

"Who else can testify to this?" Zhao Yuan asked.

“Your Majesty, Li Liu and Wang Qi from our village are both witnesses, and they told me about this!” Li Dazhuang replied immediately.

"Li Liu, where are Wang Qi? Come out immediately and explain what you saw that day!"

After Zhao Yuan shouted, a commotion immediately broke out in the crowd.

After a while, two people were pushed out.

It was Li Liu and Wang Qi.

The two men were working at the Li family estate that day and witnessed Li Dazhuang's wife being forced into rape and then throwing herself into the well.

After they finished recounting what they had seen that day,

Zhao Yuan then ordered his soldiers to bring Li Baozheng's eldest son to the platform.

He then asked sternly.

"Li Dazhuang accused you of forcing his wife into sexual intercourse, causing her to commit suicide by jumping into a well. Do you plead guilty to this?"

Seeing that his scheme had been exposed, Li Baozheng's eldest son hurriedly begged for forgiveness.

"Your Majesty, I... I didn't mean to! I didn't expect that woman to be so fiery. I just wanted to have some fun, I didn't mean to kill her!"

"So you're admitting it?"

Zhao Yuan sneered, "Guards, execute this man! To console Li Dazhuang's deceased wife!"

"Your Majesty, spare me! Your Majesty, spare me..."

Before he could finish pleading for mercy, the Liangshan law enforcement team swiftly brought down their blades.

Then they chopped off the head of Li Baozheng's eldest son!

A head fell to the ground.

Li Dazhuang immediately burst into tears.

He knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing to Zhao Yuan.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for redressing my wife's grievances! Your Majesty is none other than Bao Zheng reincarnated..."

Chapter 82 Where did Brother Zhao Yuan go?

The Bao Longtu that Li Dazhuang mentioned was Bao Zheng.

This man, known among the people as Bao Qingtian, was a good official who dared to speak up for the people.

By this time, he had been dead for more than fifty years.

Of course, if this incorruptible and righteous Bao Zheng were alive today,

Having witnessed firsthand the corruption in officialdom today,

It might even anger him to death!

With Li Dazhuang leading the way, they witnessed Zhao Yuan behead Li Baozheng's eldest son.

The rest of the villagers finally believed it.

Liangshan will truly redress their grievances!

For a while,

Villagers emerged from the crowd one after another, weeping and pleading.

And the people they accused

From Li Baozheng himself to his fourteen-year-old grandson,

This grandson is the son of Li Baozheng's eldest son.

Don't underestimate him just because he's young; when it comes to shamelessness...

He was even more capable than his father.

Li Baozheng's eldest son only raped Li Dazhuang's wife.

This grandson, however, has surpassed his master.

In Xixi Village alone, three people were raped and killed.

And they were all mature women, at least 18 years old, more than two or three decades older than him!

In the end, the entire Li family...

Apart from a seven-year-old child who is incapable of committing any wrongdoing,

The remaining male members of the Li family, including the steward and guards,

They had all been involved to varying degrees in forcing tenants' wives and daughters to commit rape, resulting in deaths.

That was Li Baozheng's first wife, a kind-looking old lady.

He also drove Li Baozheng's concubine and a maid who had a relationship with him to their deaths.

The surrounding villagers continued to cry out.

This made Li Baozheng's face grow paler and paler.

In the end, he simply fainted!

After the villagers of Xixi Village finished their tearful account,

In one swift motion, Zhao Yuan beheaded all members of the Li family, including their steward and guards, who were involved in a blood feud.