Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

As the news spread more and more widely, each village elected representatives to prepare to participate in their negotiations, although many people felt that negotiations were not feasible.

But no matter what, this attempt must be made.

Because no one can stop these people from wanting stability.

It was precisely for this reason that some representatives had already organized rebel forces.

They were all nominated and prepared to go to the place Du Zi mentioned to negotiate with them.

Du Zi chose the blood-stained execution platform as the location for the peace talks.

The bloody odor of yesterday's execution had not yet dissipated, and the tattered flags fluttered in the cold wind.

He ordered his soldiers to roughly wash the ground and spread a white cloth as a symbol of peace.

On both sides of the platform were armored executioners and archers armed with sharp weapons.

The iron gleamed coldly in the thin sunlight.

More than a dozen elected representatives of the people also arrived one after another in the past few days.

As they gradually approached this side, Sun Jinshan and Chu Ying finally found out the message transmission between Hua Yunhong and Du Zi.

Sun Jinshan ran to Chu Ying in a panic that day.

"Oh no! Hua Yunhong doesn't want to negotiate at all. He wants to gather all these people together and kill them. This will cause many surrounding villages to be leaderless!"

"They will be able to take out these rebels better!"

The moment he heard the news, Chu Ying's face immediately turned gloomy.

He also thought that Hua Yunhong would most likely take advantage of the peace talks to make a big fuss about these aspects.

But he didn't expect the other party to be so brutal.

You know, at the beginning they all thought that the other party was likely to be feigning compliance and delaying the rebels.

But it can't be so brutal.

Now it seems that Hua Yunhong really wants to kill all those people at once.

Once this method is used, it will definitely make the people alienated from him.

After thinking about this, he slammed the table in anger.

"Immediately arrange secret guards to protect those people."

"If there's a chance, let them catch all these representatives!"

As long as they are still alive after what happened this time, no one will talk to Hua Yunhong again.

Chu Ying was right, as the saying goes, "Every failure makes you wiser."

If after this real encounter, they were attacked by Hua Yunhong.

Then I want them to cooperate with Hua Yunhong in the future.

The chances will be very slim.

After saying this, Chu Ying was also willing to let them make a mistake.

As for the death of several representatives, there is nothing we can do about it.

Because it was a bit late for Chu Ying to arrange people to go there now.

I don't even know if I can make it to their negotiation time.

A few days later.

Below the execution platform.

The representatives of various rebel forces gathered together and walked cautiously through the corridor formed by layers of spear-wielding armored soldiers.

Among them was an old fisherman whose face was deeply furrowed by the sea wind and brine.

There is Zhang Tieguo, an old salt worker with burn scars all over his arms, and Chen Sanniang, a representative of the Sangzhou peasant women with a worried face.

They were forced onto low benches like prisoners awaiting trial.

After seeing this scene, many people had a bad premonition in their hearts.

You have to know that they came here for peace talks, but just looking at their seats, they were very low.

On the contrary, Du Zi, who was sitting on it, looked extremely tall.

From the very beginning they knew something was wrong.

It's even a bit unfair.

Several representatives felt dissatisfied.

I was about to give up and leave.

But under such circumstances, Du Zi would never let them go.

He waved his hand, and a team of soldiers immediately blocked the retreat route.

"What are you doing?"

"We are here to negotiate, not to be treated as prisoners."

"Why are you in such a hurry? I'll let you go as soon as we finish talking here. Now that you're here, do you still want to regret it?"

Looking at the noise from the crowd below the stage.

Du Zi sat in the main seat, forcing a smile that almost tore his skin apart.

"Fellow elders! Your Majesty is kindhearted, and I, too, am deeply aware of the sufferings of the people! I have invited you all here today to resolve this conflict and discuss the great cause of peace!"

He spread his hands out as if bestowing supreme grace.

"If you have any requests, please tell me, and I will report them to the heavens!"

A brief moment of dead silence.

The air was so thick that it was suffocating, with only the heavy breathing of the representatives and the tapping of Du Zi's knuckles on the table.

The old fisherman Wang Haishan was the first to break the silence, his voice hoarse but carrying the deep power of the sea.

"Sir! The fishing tax has been waived. We are now allowed to dry our nets and fish on our own! The government's fishing tax boats were the ones who burned down the Jiangyun Navy camp, not anyone else, but us!"

An astonishing light burst out from his cloudy eyes.

"The fire that day happened because we couldn't survive!"

A cold look flashed across Du Zi's eyes, but his smile remained unchanged.

"Okay, the tax issue is negotiable, it's negotiable...but..."

His tone changed like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue.

"That iron pot in the salt warehouse is a government property. Shouldn't it be returned?"

"I can't pay it back!"

Zhang Tieguo stood up suddenly and slammed his crutch to the ground, stirring up some blood and mud.

"Those pots were earned by the salt workers at the cost of their lives! It's not enough for you to tear off our tendons and skin, but you're also trying to steal the tools we use to make salt? The pots were won back by our brothers at the cost of their lives! We don't have the pots, but we have our lives!"

His words were like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, stirring up suppressed shouts from the representatives behind him.

Du Zi's face completely sank.

At this tense moment, a tall and thin man in a respectable long gown stood up.

It was Luo Wenju, the grain merchant from Sangzhou, who was the leader of the peace negotiation faction secretly cultivated by Du Zi.

He forced a flattering smile and bowed to Du Zi.

"Master Du, calm down! Calm down! These rough guys don't know the rules. I and a few sensible folks know you're in a difficult position. Our requests are modest. We simply ask the court to waive this year's spring tax and allow us to return home and farm! Fighting and killing only hurts ourselves!"

He turned around and scolded Zhang Tieguo.

"Lao Zhang! How dare you talk to an adult? Apologize to the adult now!"

"Pooh!"

Chen Sanniang spat in front of Luo Wen's foot.

"Luo Ba Pi! During the famine two years ago, who was it that drove up grain prices and forced our village to sell children? Waiving the spring tax? Your conscience has been eaten by dogs, sir!"

She turned to Du Zi, her eyes as sharp as knives.

"We want the imperial government's relief grain! And the return of all the excessive taxes and levies collected over the years! Did our men die in vain at the hands of the patrolmen?!"

Below the platform, the secret guards mixed in with the crowd of people frowned.

Luo Wenju's disruption gave Du Zi an opportunity to divide and suppress the enemy.

But it also exposed the deep-rooted contradictions within the rebel camp, and those who feared and had illusions about the government did not disappear.

Du Zi's lips curled up into a triumphant smile, and he was about to attack.