The princess was ordained by Heaven.

Chapter 321 Liang Youde

Upon learning of this, the eldest prince was so angry that he ate two extra bowls of rice.

Of course, it wasn't that he didn't want to do something else, but the country was too far away and he was willing but unable to do so.

He didn't just do that; he also grabbed his son's ear that very night and told him to remember what kind of beasts the Brown Kingdom was.

He didn't care whether the three-year-old could understand or not; he just spoke his mind.

The reactions varied from party to party. The emperor, who learned about the matter from Zheng Xun, even went to the farm himself for a visit.

This was also his first time visiting a farm.

Not only because his travels as emperor inevitably involved a great deal of trouble, but also because he didn't think Zheng Xun could really come up with anything special.

His thoughts were the same as most people's: he felt that this matter was not so easy.

Even though Zheng Xun had some extraordinary abilities in his mind, she only provided a venue; the specific matters were handled by the people of Dayong.

He never expected that this matter could actually be accomplished.

After seeing the golden rice seeds with his own eyes, he didn't say anything on the spot, but he immediately sent the Azure Dragon Guards to protect the area in layers upon layers.

Not only that, he also assigned a team of guards to each of He Wuyang and others.

Of course, while these guards were ostensibly responsible for protection, they were also secretly tasked with surveillance.

He Wuyang and the others were not used to it.

After all, having several pairs of eyes around always makes one feel uncomfortable and restricted.

Zheng Xun knew what they were thinking, so he made a special trip to talk to them.

“Your safety is not just your own business. To put it bluntly, you are now half the lifeline of the Great Yong Kingdom. The Brown Kingdom will definitely covet you if they know of your existence. Even within the territory of the Great Yong Kingdom, you will have to keep people around to protect you.”

That makes one incredibly proud.

They are the lifeblood of the Great Yong Dynasty!

Well, thinking about it that way, it's not entirely incomprehensible.

After playing the bad cop, Zheng Xun finally had time to deal with the soil theft case.

As the case escalated, after consulting with his superiors, Le Zhenghong naturally decided to hold a public trial.

Even the final location was not in the Chengtianfu government office, but on a temporary platform erected outside the palace gate.

On one side of him were the Emperor and Empress, Zheng Xun and other younger members of the family, next to him were important court officials, and below him were a dense crowd of common people.

Even though Le Zhenghong considered himself a man who had seen a lot, he still broke out in a cold sweat when he sat in the main seat.

He was really nervous; even sitting down, his body was trembling uncontrollably.

Seemingly sensing his unusual behavior, Zheng Xun looked at him and said, "Lord Yue, let's begin once you're ready."

Her voice was neither gentle nor harsh, but it was like the sun breaking through dark clouds, dispelling Le Zhenghong's negative emotions.

He couldn't help but laugh at himself.

They're all so old, yet they still panic so easily.

He took a deep breath and gestured to the bailiffs beside him to strike the gong.

Such a large venue cannot be controlled by a gavel; only a powerful gong and heavily armed palace guards can maintain order.

The sound of the wooden handles of long spears striking the ground was uniform and resonated with the sound of gongs, suppressing all the noise.

Le Zhenghong called out loudly, "Bring the prisoner."

Soon, the soil thieves were brought in.

Zhou Pengtao and Ma De also came up with them.

Zhou and Ma, having already achieved official rank, were considered somewhat of the victims, so they didn't need to kneel. But the soil thieves were in a much worse situation.

The curses of the people below filled the air; their faces were ashen, and their heads were bowed so low they seemed to want to bury themselves in the ground.

"Who is in the hall?"

Zhou Pengtao cupped his hands in greeting: "Lord Yue, my name is Zhou Pengtao, and I am the manager of Princess Yuanjia's pig farm."

"My name is Ma De..."

"This humble citizen is Zhang San..."

"This humble commoner, Li Si..."

After they introduced themselves, Le Zhenghong continued, "Whom are you suing? And what is the matter?"

Zhou Pengtao: "Naturally, we should sue these thieves for stealing soil from the horse farm!"

"soil?"

"But that wasn't their real purpose. They somehow learned that the princess's estate had developed a new rice variety. They coveted the new rice variety, blinded by greed, and assumed that the soil on the estate was different, so they decided to steal the soil."

"Oh? Since they're so eager for the new rice varieties, why don't they just steal soil from the farm?"

Zhang San, kneeling on the ground, hurriedly said, "Your Excellency, please understand! I am just an ordinary commoner, honest and law-abiding, making a living by doing manual labor. How could I have such audacity!"

The other laborers chimed in.

"Oh? So you mean you were forced!"

"That's right! The person who forced us is Liang Youde, the head of the Liang family, the largest grain merchant in the capital!"

Li Si added, "We were just ordinary laborers, but we were tricked by the Liang family. Not only did we lose our land, but we were also forced to sell ourselves into slavery to the Liang family to survive. The Liang family holds our indentures, and we dare not disobey!"

Zhang San kowtowed: "Lord Le! Although we are servants of the Liang family, we are first and foremost citizens of Dayong. We are dull-witted, not very literate, and don't understand many profound principles, but we all understand one thing: grain seeds are extremely important to Dayong, and we cannot do anything that goes against our conscience. We dare not disobey Liang Youde's orders, so we could only use soil from the horse farm instead of the farm's soil to get by. Lord Le, we know we deserve to die, but the mastermind behind this will not escape the punishment of the law!"

Upon hearing this, the emperor suddenly spoke up: "Le Zhenghong? How much of what they said is true?"

Le Zhenghong stood up: "Your Majesty, before this, I interrogated them separately. Their testimonies were largely the same, so this matter should be true."

After he finished speaking, he looked at the clerk next to him.

The clerk cleared his throat, stood up, and read out the testimonies of several people.

The clerk was a truly frail scholar, who usually spoke slowly and softly.

After hearing him read a few words, Le Zhenghong frowned: "Speak louder!"

The document suddenly stopped.

He felt like crying but had no tears left to shed.

Lord Yue didn't mention this happening!

I should have known better and let him practice his voice!

Looking at the massive crowd, it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see.

Despair filled his heart. He cleared his throat and, steeling himself, read a few more lines at the top of his lungs, almost screaming.

It was no use; his voice remained very soft.

But you could tell he had tried his best, because his face was flushed red and he almost passed out.

Zheng Xun sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation: "Wei Yanxing, you go."

Wei Yanxing nodded, used his lightness skill to land on the platform, and intended to snatch the paper from the clerk's hand.

The document was not released.

Wei Yanxing looked over in confusion.

The clerk stammered, "Um...you're not angry, are you?"

Wei Yanxing chuckled and said, "Don't worry, no one will blame you."

The clerk smiled with relief and then released the testimony from his hand.

Wei Yanxing reluctantly accepted the document, channeled his inner strength, and loudly read through all the testimonies.

With the support of internal energy, the sound traveled very far.