“General Liu claims he dares stake his life to guarantee that the Emperor does not intend to use these children to refine elixirs, but what gives you the audacity to stake your life as a guarantee?! Children… are the future of a nation! Who can guarantee that tomorrow’s generals or prime ministers won’t emerge from among these children?! Is your life, General Liu, more precious than a thousand children?! How dare you speak such words about staking your life as a guarantee!”

Liu Hong’s face turned iron-blue, unable to utter a single word.

“Imperial authority and royal majesty?! Ha! When the time comes, imperial authority demands the lives of these thousand children! Royal majesty demands the lives of these thousand children! General Liu… can your death bring back the lives of these children?!” Bai Qingyan questioned coldly, “Have you forgotten about Prince Liang using children to refine elixirs for the Emperor to consume?! We all know this was Prince Liang’s doing, but whose orders was Prince Liang following?! Why did the Emperor protect Prince Liang’s safety afterward?! General Liu! Have you truly forgotten all of this?!”

“What do we soldiers fight and shed blood for?! We fight to protect and guard the people! But look! Open your eyes wide and look!” Bai Qingyan pointed at those common people whose eyes brimmed with tears yet seemed to carry hatred, “They are the people we risk our lives to protect! Yet the Emperor treats them like grass, treats these children’s lives like grass! If you abandon the people for the sake of so-called imperial authority and royal majesty, how can you face your dead brothers?! How can you face the fallen soldiers?!”

Bai Qingyan’s words rang with conviction, nearly swaying even Liu Hong.

“What kind of character our Emperor possesses! General Liu knows better than I do! Selfish and self-serving, for his desires…”

“Princess Zhenguo!” Liu Hong interrupted Bai Qingyan’s words, his eyes blazing with fury as he shouted, “Don’t forget, you are a subject of Jin! This Princess Zhenguo title was bestowed upon you by His Majesty!”

“I won’t be this Princess Zhenguo anymore.” Bai Qingyan threw down the riding whip in her hand. She turned around, facing Liu Hong properly and seriously, “The descendants of the Bai family are born to learn these four words: protect and pacify the people! The Bai family army will not remove their armor until death, all to protect the people’s carefree and fearless peaceful mountains and rivers! It was never for imperial authority or royal majesty! Whether it’s me, Bai Qingyan, or Bai Jinzhi… we risk our lives in deadly battles never for the imperial family! It’s for… the common people whose taxes support us! Whoever harms the people, whoever… becomes the mortal enemy of me, Bai Qingyan, of the Bai family, and the entire Bai family army!”

The atmosphere between Liu Hong and Bai Qingyan immediately became tense, with an air of drawn swords and loaded crossbows.

How could the common people kneeling and begging Bai Qingyan not see what was happening? They all looked toward Bai Qingyan… their eyes brimming with tears and light. Princess Zhenguo was willing to fight to the death to protect the people!

What the Jin people had passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth was true – that the Bai family was Jin’s backbone, that the Bai family was Jin’s pillar of state, that the Bai family army was an army that protected and loved the people!

“Princess Zhenguo! Are you going to… going to…” Liu Hong hesitated, not daring to say the word “rebel” because he couldn’t be certain whether these hundred thousand surrendered soldiers brought back to Jin, including Yang Wuce, would obey his commands.

No… these surrendered soldiers would never obey his commands. He knew this from Yang Wuce’s reaction just now – Yang Wuce only obeyed Princess Zhenguo’s orders.

“Princess Zhenguo!” The magistrate of Chun Mushan stood on tiptoes, craning his neck, shouting through the tall and imposing soldiers like Yang Wuce toward the inside, “Princess Zhenguo! This humble official is the parent official of Chun Mushan, requesting an audience with Princess Zhenguo!”

Bai Qingyan, standing with her hands clasped behind her back, turned her head toward the government office entrance and said, “Let him in!”

Liu Hong felt stifled with anger, but being outnumbered and outpowered, he didn’t dare truly force Bai Qingyan to speak that word “rebel.” He stood aside sullenly, yet his mind was calculating how he should respond.

The magistrate of Chun Mushan carefully avoided Yang Wuce’s blade tip, cautiously sucking in his stomach as he squeezed through the gaps between the soldiers blocking the government office entrance. He lifted the hem of his official robes and jogged to kneel before Bai Qingyan.

“Princess Zhenguo, please investigate clearly. An imperial edict came from the capital, commanding this humble official to gather one hundred boys and girls in Chun Mushan, who must be delivered to the Nine-Tiered Platform by the fourth day of the fifth month! But our Chun Mushan truly cannot gather enough. This humble official and the garrison commander, General Li, pooled our silver to buy over ten children, but delivering the children to the Nine-Tiered Platform by the fourth day of the fifth month was impossible. We two scattered all our family wealth to plead with the envoy who came to collect the children for an extension. That envoy then agreed that if we could depart this afternoon, he would be willing to speak favorably for Chun Mushan before His Majesty, to see if he could forgive Chun Mushan’s people for the delay. Now… we’re just short of those two boys and girls rescued by Princess Zhenguo today, and we can depart for the Nine-Tiered Platform!”

The magistrate looked up at Bai Qingyan: “This humble official doesn’t mind losing his head, but fears that if the Son of Heaven becomes angry, all the people will suffer!”

On the way here, the magistrate had already learned about Bai Qingyan rescuing two children outside the city.

“Princess Zhenguo may not know, but it’s not just Chun Mushan – Longyang City, Puwen City, Youhua City… all have been assigned quotas of one hundred boys and girls each! The garrison commander and magistrate of Longyang City, upon hearing such an imperial edict, refused to comply. As a result, they were beheaded by the messenger envoy, and their wives and daughters didn’t escape either! There were also common people in Longyang City who fled in the night with their children… when caught and brought back, entire families, including neighbors, were all beheaded!”

The magistrate couldn’t help but weep bitterly at this point, genuinely heartbroken. “His Majesty also issued an edict to conscript adult men within a hundred li radius to build the Nine-Tiered Platform, with a deadline to reach the Nine-Tiered Platform, otherwise facing death and implicating the entire family. Many common people have already been killed!”

Liu Hong’s eyes widened, his fists trembling behind his back. To treat one’s people with such brutal methods!

The law of collective punishment, long abandoned for its cruelty, was now prevailing again in Jin.

“This humble official thought that sending children to the Nine-Tiered Platform might not necessarily cost the children their lives for elixir refining. Though the hope is slim, it’s better than… having an entire city’s people killed!” The magistrate said this and crawled forward on his knees, looking toward those common people protecting children behind them, kowtowing: “This humble one has wronged you all. As your parent official, I cannot protect our Chun Mushan’s children!”

As soon as the magistrate finished speaking, a child was heard calling “Father” and running toward the magistrate.

Only then did the people recognize that the seven-year-old child was the magistrate’s son!

Upon seeing his son, the magistrate’s tears immediately flowed out. He held the child and wept bitterly, then said to the people: “I bought children not to replace my child, but because our Chun Mushan truly couldn’t gather enough!”

That seven-year-old child hid in the magistrate’s embrace, crying loudly, while those purchased children stood aside with no parents to care for them, appearing at a loss.