The Southwest citizens had suffered under the exploitation of corrupt officials, natural disasters, and man-made disasters, they were already unable to see the hope of living. Obedience to the imperial household would only lead to a dead end, the only way out was to raise the rebel banner, with this mentality, the Southwest citizens banded together to overthrow Da Qi. As the saying goes, even a dog will turn around and bite when backed into a corner, so they bravely confronted the imperial soldiers, and very quickly, they took over large tracts of the Southwest’s land.
In these kinds of circumstances, the usual way of handling it was to send the army to steam roll the rebels, otherwise, the situation was simply unlikely to quiet down. But Zhou Yun Sheng was, after all, a man from the future, he didn’t appreciate the ancient’s poisonous ‘the Emperor acts alone’, ‘Imperial power reigns supreme’, ‘a human life is as insignificant as a mustard seed’, feudalistic ideas. Although he was very ruthless, that was when he was dealing with the enemy, when dealing with innocent suffering people, he was willing to use a more moderate way to solve the problem. As he already said, as long as he was sitting on Da Qi’s throne, he would be a good Emperor, and take care of his people.
He ordered the army to disperse the nearby rebels, then arrested all the Southwest officials and gave them a thorough trial. According to the severity of their crime, he openly sentenced them, then had their sentence results spread out by word of mouth. In the end, of the Southwest’s 74 large and small officials, 16 were sacked and exiled, and 55 would be publicly beheaded. Because the last three’s crimes were too serious, not only was their whole family convicted, the men themselves would receive death of a thousand cuts.
“Don’t kill the 58 people for the time being, wait for the day I offer sacrifices to heaven, their blood will be used to comfort the people. Master Luo, send men to spread the news that I’ll be offering sacrifices to heaven to pray for rain. Say that I am the real Son of Heaven, and will certainly send up an imperial decree to make the Heavens send down the needed rain. As long as the rebel army’s citizens peacefully return to farming, I won’t hold them to account. I’ll not only return their stolen farmland, I’ll also exempt them from taxation for three years, and from then on, I’ll send an imperial envoy to secretly inspect the country every year. If they find an official raising taxes without authorization, I will severely punish them!” Zhou Yun Sheng fiddled with the rain calling tool in his hands, his attitude was casual, but his tone was full of killing intent.
Luo Zhen admired the Emperor’s care for the common people, but he was also worried that his responses were too mild. Although the Southwest’s chaos hadn’t increased, it was even more turbulent, so he persuaded, “Your Majesty, the decrees you issued are indeed very wise, but please reconsider offering sacrifices for rain. Wouldn’t saying you’ll offer sacrifices to bring rain attract an angry mob? If the rain prayer fails, I fear that they’ll spread rumors that your destiny has reach its end, you’re not blessed by Heaven, you’re not the real Dragon Emperor, and so on. Rather that receiving their criticism for no reason, wouldn’t it be better to have the Qin Tian official be responsible for the rain prayer? What do you think?”
“No, keep the decree, I am the true Dragon Emperor, I will send up an imperial decree to make the Heavens send down rain to the Southwest. The declaration should be written boldly like this, there’s no need to use vague and subtle brush strokes.” Zhou Yun Sheng counted on his fingers, then said “The rain prayer shouldn’t be delayed, I’ve calculated, it needs to be set two days after we reach the top of Fei Lai Mountain, send men down to prepare.”
Luo Zhen painstakingly tried to persuade him, then glanced at the silently standing beside him Duke Yu Gou, surprised to see him looking on in concentration, like he was listening to the Emperor’s every order.
