Quick wear: cannon fodder is a bit strong

"Sir, please don't take my child away. Please, I beg you."

"...I don't want the wages for the past few days. Please let us go home~"

Qu Xiaoxiao leaned over to take a look.

I saw a woman in coarse cloth holding a beautiful little girl tightly in her arms, unwilling to let go. The girl was probably only three or four years old, with a pair of round, very beautiful big eyes and fair and tender skin, which made people happy just by looking at her.

"Hmph, you ungrateful slave!"

A man dressed as a servant swung a whip and hit the woman on the back several times:

"The fact that our young master is attracted to your child is a blessing you and your daughter have accumulated over several lifetimes. She's just a little girl. Wouldn't it be better for her to be raised in our house than to be with you?"

"You're still so unwilling to do this or that. Aren't you just trying to extort a little more money from our young master?"

"No, that's not the case~"

The woman shook her head desperately: "Please have mercy on me, my daughter is still so young, she can't be separated from her mother!"

"My husband is dead, and I only have this one daughter. She is my life."

"You are powerful and influential, you can have any child you want. Please let my daughter go~"

The woman cried bitterly.

But she could not resist several hands that mercilessly snatched the baby girl from her arms at the same time, and some hands even reached for her chest intentionally or unintentionally.

The woman dodged in fear, and her body, holding the child, lost its balance and she fell to the ground involuntarily.

There were tears in the baby girl's big eyes.

Now he finally couldn't help crying, and was so scared that he burst into tears. His small body kept squeezing into the woman's arms:

"Mom, mom, I don't want to go with bad people, my daughter is scared~"

The woman trembled all over, holding the child with all her strength, and refused to let go even though the servants beat and kicked her.

Until he opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood with a "wow", and then started coughing violently "cough, cough".

The child cried even louder: "Mommy, mommy, what's wrong with you? Don't scare our daughter..."

The people around originally just gathered around to watch the fun, but now they couldn't help but sigh.

Everyone was talking and pointing.

An old man with white hair sighed:

"This young master of the prefectural government is really outrageous. He's out to harm children again. Sigh, I don't know who can control him..."

Another man dressed as a woodcutter said disdainfully:

"Why would I bother? The emperor is far away. This month I went to the city to sell firewood and I saw children being snatched three times."

"Hey, didn't they say the Xu family only looked for baby boys? Why are they looking for baby girls now?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! Are you trying to kill yourself? We only heard about this from others, so we don't dare spread it around in public."

The companion next to the person who was speaking nervously covered his mouth.

While everyone was talking, the woman's hands became weak, and the little girl cried loudly and fell into the arms of a fat-faced servant.

The servant snatched the child away and, still not satisfied, kicked the woman hard: "You ungrateful bastard!"

After saying this, he threw a dirty and torn silver bag on the ground, then rode away with everyone.

Someone curiously opened the bag and looked:

"Oh, our prefect is so stingy. He only left two taels of silver for such a beautiful girl."

Another person said:

"Be content. I guess they only gave two taels of silver because things got out of hand. I heard that last time the family refused... and beat the child to death... without even a penny..."

"Alas, the world is in chaos, there is no law at all."

"Stop talking. How can we, ordinary people, fight against the government? It's better to go home quickly and keep an eye on our children..."

"Brother Mu is absolutely right. Let's go..."

The crowd shook their heads, sighed, and gradually dispersed. Only the woman was left kneeling on the ground, weeping bitterly:

"My poor daughter, it's all your fault..."

Witnessing this farce, Situ Zhige was furious. Born into the royal family, he knew a little about the inner workings of the royal family.

The current imperial family, the Situ clan, was not very prosperous. After the last round of fierce competition for the throne, only the emperor Situ Qing and his father Situ Lang, two half-brothers, remained.

Situ Qing is a gentle person with mediocre qualifications.

Just because he did not participate in the fight for the throne, he was lucky enough to survive and ascend the throne after his other brothers died or were imprisoned.

The reason why Situ Lang was able to escape was entirely because he was still young at the time and posed no threat to the other brothers.

Before Situ Qing ascended the throne, his princess was fierce and jealous.

Therefore, in the harem at that time, only the princess gave birth to a legitimate son. The other concubines who became pregnant either did not give birth or all gave birth to daughters.

Occasionally, a son would be born, but he would soon die due to one accident or another.

At that time, Situ Qing had no interest in the throne and thought this was fine. As a result, the only legitimate son born to the princess naturally attracted much attention.

Unfortunately, the eldest son later caught a high fever and became a little stupid after he recovered.

After Situ Qing ascended the throne, he had to put more restraint on the queen, and then he had the second prince Situ Bowen and the third prince Situ Xingyun. Unfortunately, the third prince Situ Xingyun was accidentally revealed to be a eunuch just after he came of age.

The emperor was devastated and had to appoint the second prince Situ Bowen as the crown prince.

But I don’t know if the royal family is cursed.

Since Situ Bowen married, his concubines had only given him two daughters. The daughter of the Tongzhou prefect had just been sent to the Eastern Palace to become the Crown Prince's Consort at the beginning of last year.

It's time for a new favorite.

I don't know where she heard of this miraculous recipe: as long as you bathe in the blood of 1000 boys every day and burn incense and pray devoutly, you will be able to give birth to a baby boy after 1000 days.

The news was passed back to Tongzhou Prefecture.

It was not convenient for Magistrate Xu to take action himself, so he handed the matter over to his youngest son Xu Zhe.

Xu Zhe was naturally concerned about his family's future. He not only bought boys from Tongzhou, but also from surrounding prefectures. After all, the human trafficking was permitted in ancient times.

As long as the money is enough, there are many people willing to make money from this unscrupulous money. Especially in the past few years of famine, there are many families willing to sell their sons.

Of course, most families had no idea what their children were being bought for. Some even naively believed that if their children were sold to wealthy families, they might live a good life.

After these boys were purchased, they were quickly sent to the capital and became Xu Liangdi's blood bags.

This was all Situ Zhige knew vaguely, and the matter was not a secret in the royal family or even in the capital.

Because the entire royal family was hoping for a healthy boy, everyone chose to turn a blind eye.

Don’t manage what you can manage, and naturally don’t dare to manage what you can’t manage.