The Eternal Beauty of the City of Wealth

The next morning, during the court session, Zixuan sat steadily in the main hall, his gaze sternly gazing at the ministers below him. "My dear ministers, I have a few things to tell you today."

The first piece of good news is that the nearly ten thousand li long wall surrounding my Guicheng fiefdom is now complete. I have named this city "Fuguicheng."

"From now on, my country of Lai will no longer have any land from Qi. This Fugui City will be the general name of my country of Lai from now on."

Before she finished speaking, the ministers in the hall were all excited and started talking about it: "Great! Great!"

I really didn't expect that the project would progress so quickly. It was really beyond our expectations.

Fugui City, what a good name, yes, yes, it’s great!

After everyone finished discussing, they all knelt and shouted, "Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations, Your Majesty! The completion of the project means that our city will be rich and prosperous. From now on, we will be able to rest easy!"

Zixuan also nodded with a smile on his face.

At this time, Prime Minister Bo Qu came out and said, "Your Majesty, my wounds have completely healed. I thank you for saving my life."

After saying that, he kowtowed several times. Zixuan touched his forehead.

Why did the ancient people always knock their heads? Doesn't it hurt? I even feel my forehead is numb.

"My dear Lord, please rise quickly. Now that your wound has healed, I am relieved."

"My dear, please don't do such foolish things again. Save your precious life."

"In the future, you should work hard to contribute to the development of Dali, and at the same time, you should also help me solve my problems."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I am telling you that I am stupid and feel guilty."

"From now on, I will dedicate my whole heart and soul to the work I do, devoting my entire life to helping Your Majesty achieve His Majesty's great cause."

Zixuan nodded in satisfaction: "Okay! My dear ministers, the second thing is."

"I would like to establish a new department in the court called the Urban and Rural Planning Department. This department will be responsible for the planning and construction of counties, towns, townships, and villages."

"The highest official position in this department is the Provincial Secretary for Urban and Rural Planning. This position will be held by Qijiu, the hero who built the city walls and moat. Come! Pass it to Qijiu."

After hearing the report, Qi Jiu strode in and waited for him to pay his respects.

Zixuan said to the ministers, "My dear ministers, this is Qijiu, who will be in charge of urban and rural planning from now on."

All the ministers hurried forward to greet Qi Jiu, and Qi Jiu responded politely one by one.

"My dear ministers, the third thing is that just yesterday, Qi sent Shuyi and Cui Zhu, leading an army of 50,000, to stop the construction of our Fugui City."

"But they were a step too late. By the time they arrived, the city wall had already been built."

"The Qi army, enraged by humiliation, attempted to capture the west gate of Fugui City. Unexpectedly, they were defeated by my defenders!"

"Come here, bring Xu Tu and Li Fang to the palace!"

Yes, yes, several guards outside the hall agreed and brought the two men up.

Xu Tu and Li Fang were already terrified. When they saw Zixuan, they immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly: "My king, please spare my life! My king, please spare my life!"

Seeing this, the ministers began to discuss again: "What? The King of Qi is sending an army!"

Fortunately, fortunately, fortunately, the king defeated them. Why were Xu Tu and Li Fang brought to the palace? What crime had they committed?

He must have committed a serious crime, otherwise, the king would not have brought him to the palace. Yes, yes, yes...

Just as everyone was discussing this, Zixuan slammed the table and said, "My lords! Just yesterday, Xu Tu and Li Fang, leading over 10,000 men, along with Shuyi and Cui Zhu, attempted to seize the west gate of Fugui City!"

"You still want to kill me. My dear ministers, what crime should these two be punished for?"

What? How dare you! Bastards! How dare Xu Tu and Li Fang rebel? This is simply lawless! Your Majesty, kill them!

Immediately, all the ministers were filled with righteous indignation and began to accuse and curse the two men.

At this time, Prime Minister Bo Qu came out and reported: "Your Majesty, Li and Xu are plotting rebellion and attempting to assassinate you!"

"According to the laws of Dalai, nine generations of the clan should be executed. These two people should also be sentenced to death!"

At this time, the Grand Commandant Yi Ke also came out and reported: "Your Majesty, these two were sent by the King of Qi. Their families and clans are all in Linzi, not in Fugui City."

"No problem, Commandant. I order you to send someone to sneak into Linzi and secretly exterminate the entire clan of Li and Xu."

"I want everyone in the world to know that anyone who dares to invade our Fugui City will be killed, no matter how far away they are!"

Yes! Yi Ke withdrew in response. Zi Xuan continued, "My dear ministers, tomorrow at noon, Xu Tu and Li Fang will be cooked in oil! All civil and military officials, be present to witness the execution!"

Here! Zixuan looked at Xu Tu and Li Fang who were lying on the ground, and gritted his teeth in his heart.

Although he did not want to kill innocent people, if he did not take this incident as an example and take the opportunity to intimidate others, the people in the court would be unpredictable and everything would be difficult to predict.

What's more, his own wealthy city had just been built, the political situation in various places was unstable, and there was a lot of work to be done in the city.

If she were soft-hearted and showed even a little bit of compassion at this moment, how many people in this huge and wealthy city would submit to her?

After the court meeting, Zixuan and his ministers went to the imperial kitchen to have dinner.

The queen and the concubines had been waiting there for a long time. When they saw Zixuan come in, they hurried forward to ask about his well-being.

The Queen took her hand and scolded her, "Xuan'er, why didn't you tell me before you secretly went to Donglai County to fight? I was so scared that I couldn't sleep all night last night. I was so worried!"

The other concubines all echoed, "Yes, Xuan'er, you scared the concubines too much."

Zixuan chuckled: "Mother and aunts, because this happened suddenly, I didn't have time to greet you. Xuan'er is fine, standing here well, isn't he?"

After hearing this, the queen said in a reproachful tone: "You child, you are still laughing. Do you know how upset we are?"

"Alright, mother, aunts, next time Xuan'er goes out, I must tell everyone."

"Yes, this is what a good daughter of the Queen Mother should be. Okay, Xuan'er, you must be hungry. Let's eat quickly."

At noon the next day, in the square in front of the Council Hall, two oil pans emitting black smoke were burning with blazing flames, and oil was billowing out.

More than one hundred civil and military officials were placed around the oil wok, and were ordered to watch Xu Tu and Li Fang being boiled in oil.

These ministers had seen many killings before, but this was the first time they had witnessed the punishment of boiling in oil. Everyone's face showed fear.

Especially the remnants of the Zhangzui faction were terrified and out of their wits.

Some people even peed their pants. At this moment, these people couldn't help but tremble all over, their hearts pounding.

Just as everyone was in a state of panic, they heard the executioner shout, "It's noon, execution!"

Immediately, eight guards lifted up the two numb, dead-looking people and threw them into the wok.

In an instant, a thick smoke billowed into the sky. A whoosh! A hiss! Ah! Ah! With a whoosh, the sizzling sound of frying human bodies mingled with shrill screams of pain.

Li and Xu struggled in the frying pan for only a few seconds before they died.

Everyone immediately covered their mouths and noses, trying not to inhale the unpleasant burnt smell.

A moment later, the eight guards split into two groups of four. They used the iron pitchforks in their hands to pick up the two corpses as black as charcoal and placed them on a carriage covered with oilcloth.

At this time, the executioner walked up to the ministers, pointed at the corpse and shouted loudly: "The king has ordered! From now on! Anyone who dares to rebel will be punished with the same crime as these two!"

Upon hearing this, everyone trembled with fear and quickly knelt on the ground, shouting, "We dare not do this! We will swear to be loyal to the king until death!"