Born a phoenix? The husband I picked up is the young emperor

Chapter 1549

The princess had issued a decree earlier that anyone who touches the disaster relief money, no matter how much, will be beheaded!

Kang Jingliang and his son were frightened at first and behaved themselves for half a year. But handling so much disaster relief money that was not their own made it impossible for people like them to sleep.

As time went by, it seemed that he thought that "beheaded" was just the princess's catchphrase, so he stretched out his claws to the disaster relief silver.

They did it in secret, and the inspector had to work hard to find substantial evidence. Even if the princess left Youzhou, Kang Jingliang and his son would still be sent to the capital to be executed.

Shi Anxia waited for Kang Chenyan for a few days, and unexpectedly found the evidence of Kang's crime. It was just right, so he cleaned it up at the same time.

But she didn't expect that at this critical moment, she would happen to support Kang Chenyan.

At this moment, Yuan collapsed on the ground, feeling as if thunder was hitting her head one by one.

She was a woman who acted arrogantly in the backyard, but she had never seen the world. When she heard the inspector listing the crimes of Kang Jingliang and the other two, especially when she heard the sentence "no matter how much, they should be beheaded", she fainted on the spot.

The Kang family's joy was gone. The idea that a big family prospers together and suffers together is ingrained in their bones, and there is even a fear of collective punishment.

Although Emperor Mingde abolished the system of collective punishment and wrote it into the law, it made an exception for treason, and it would take a long time to implement it at the local level.

In addition, when someone in a large family commits a crime, a large number of people will be implicated to a greater or lesser extent, such as the Ying family.

The Ying family in the capital participated in the rebellion and were almost wiped out, even the empress in the palace was not spared.

Then there is the Ying family from Hong County, Qizhou, who have absolute power in the local area and have caused public outrage.

Except for very young children, few of these families, including women, were clean. So after the officials sent by the court investigated, they dealt with a large group of people from top to bottom.

The common people who didn't know the truth thought that the system of collective punishment still existed. The Kang family also thought so at this time. Everyone turned pale, trembled, and some even cried out.

Kang Zuzhi knew, however, that it was impossible to implicate everyone, especially since Princess Haiyan had just given a reward.

He has lived for decades and has seen all kinds of people. He knows that Princess Haiyan is conveying a message that she will not be stingy with rewards and will not be lenient with punishments.

But they were his eldest sons and grandsons after all, how could he watch them being beheaded? Kang Zuzhi suddenly remembered an incident in the capital that a colleague had mentioned.

That incident was somewhat related to Princess Haiyan. The person involved was the princess's uncle, who, in order to save his daughter, proposed to Emperor Mingde to demote him in exchange for his daughter's life.

At that time, Emperor Mingde agreed because he was eager to protect his daughter.

Kang Zuzhi wondered if he could follow suit. After all, he had been promoted to the highest rank of military medical officer and had made great military achievements. He could use these to save the lives of his son and grandson.

His face was dejected, his mind was made up, he kowtowed to the princess, "Your humble servant..."

How could Shi Anxia not know what he was thinking? She interrupted what he was about to say and said slowly, "The Kang family is not only very important in Youzhou, but also the pillar of the North Wing."

Changing the subject, "This princess suddenly remembered a dear relative. He had a daughter who committed a serious crime and was sentenced to 40 strokes of the cane and then exiled. After 40 strokes of the cane, a woman would surely die, so how could she be exiled? That dear relative took 30 strokes of the cane for his daughter at the cost of being demoted, and only then did he save his daughter's life. Later, my dear relative never went to court again, and her career was over."

She raised her calm eyes and looked at the elderly Kang Zuzhi, "Does Lord Kang know what this means?"