“It’s already dark, and you gentlemen are still out patrolling the city to protect us common folk’s safety—truly hard work! Are you officials getting off duty and want to have a drink or two?” the innkeeper said with a smile. “Then please, gentlemen, come upstairs… This humble one will arrange the finest wine and dishes for you, officials, guaranteed to satisfy you!”
The lead constable who stepped across the tavern’s threshold had a grim expression, his icy gaze sweeping over the tavern patrons who looked toward him in confusion—some silent, some worried or frightened, others already drunk with glazed, vacant eyes. He turned his head and said, “Bring the man up!”
“Yes!”
Soon, a thin, sharp-faced man with shifty eyes was pushed in by the constables. The man hunched his back, shrinking his neck and not daring to look at anyone, tremblingly extending his hand to point out to the constable those who had just spoken with considerable dissatisfaction toward the Great Zhou court.
The lead constable raised his hand and shouted, “Arrest them all!”
“Hey! Hey! Officer! Officer…” The innkeeper’s face changed drastically as he hurried to intercept them, but how could he match these constables? A burly constable shoved him aside with one push. If not for a waiter supporting him from behind, the innkeeper would have fallen to the ground.
Three or four constables pressed the drinking butcher against the square table, causing wine cups and dishes to crash and shatter across the floor.
Seeing the armed constables charge in, the tavern immediately fell into chaos. Some sat at their tables, not daring to move; others stood up in fright, knocking over wine cups and jugs.
The innkeeper hurriedly tried to block the constables rushing in while stuffing banknotes from his hand into the lead officer’s palm: “Officer, look, these are all our local people. Coming to my place is just to have a little drink. They’re all drunk and speak carelessly for a sentence or two. Please be lenient! Please be lenient!”
“Get out of the way!” The lead constable again shoved the innkeeper aside. The banknotes the innkeeper had tried to stuff into the constable’s hand also fell to the ground. The constable’s face was stern as he pointed at the innkeeper, stepping on the banknotes and saying, “Attempting to bribe court officials—arrest him!”
At the head constable’s command, the innkeeper was also seized by the constables. The innkeeper’s knees went weak as he immediately knelt on the ground, shouting, “Officer, spare my life! Officer, spare my life!”
Six or seven soldiers went to arrest the scholars who had been speaking eloquently earlier. The four scholars who had been sitting at the same table, before the constables arrived, raised their wine cups in tacit understanding, nodded to each other in acknowledgment, drained their cups in one gulp, then stood up together… displaying the integrity of scholars, they declared loudly, “No need to trouble yourselves with force—we’ll go willingly!”
“Take them away!”
“What are you doing! On what grounds are you arresting me? What law have I broken?” The butcher pressed against the table, used his brute strength to shake off the constables holding him, grabbed a plate from the table, and smashed it, clutching the fragments in his hand with a fierce, menacing expression. “Try coming near me!”
“On what grounds are we arresting you? Because you can’t control your tongue, because you dare to criticize His Majesty here! Showing disrespect to His Majesty!” The lead constable first cupped his hands toward the south, then pointed at the butcher, shouting, “What are you standing around for? Arrest him!”
Just as the constables were about to advance, the butcher gripped the ceramic shard with his bloodied hand, pointing it at the constables: “Whoever dares approach, I’ll take them down with me!”
The butcher was naturally built large and strong, and his fierce expression momentarily intimidated these constables.
Perhaps emboldened by alcohol, the butcher, who had harbored much dissatisfaction toward the Great Zhou court due to Prince Han’s death, could no longer contain his inner rage. He shouted, “What damn emperor! Whoever can protect us coastal people’s safety is our emperor! Prince Han died protecting us, coastal people, his body detained in Dongyi. The Dongyi keep saying that if the Great Zhou emperor doesn’t personally come to retrieve it, they’ll chop Prince Han’s body into pieces and feed it to dogs. You… were once Great Liang people too, also under Prince Han’s protection! Now Prince Han is in Dongyi, and you’re not anxious, but when we say a few words against the Great Zhou emperor, you get anxious—so eager to be the Great Zhou emperor’s lapdogs!”
The few scholars who had been led to the door by constables turned to look at the butcher with his flushed face, bloodshot eyes, and angry expression, then at the other scholars who had just complained about Great Zhou with them but now cowered aside with evasive gazes, wishing they could shrink themselves invisible to these constables. They couldn’t help but sigh, “Truly… righteousness is often found among butchers and dog-handlers.”
Having said this, the scholars stepped out of the tavern ahead of the constables.
“Are you dead men?!” The lead constable’s face also turned red with anger as he roared, “Still not arresting him!”
Only then did the constables draw their sabers from their waists.
Seeing the constables’ superior numbers, the butcher glanced at the wine jars beside him, grabbed one, and hurled it at the constables. Taking advantage of the constables’ retreat to dodge, he suddenly turned and overturned the wine jars stacked toward the kitchen area of the tavern, running toward the back kitchen.
For a moment, the tavern was filled with the aroma of wine flowing from the open screens and window lattices, attracting the common people gathered outside watching the commotion to crane their necks and peer inside, muttering what a waste it was.
“Pursue him!” The constables immediately raised their sabers and stepped through the wine covering the floor to give chase.
The innkeeper, pressed to kneel on the ground by the constables, heard the sounds of chaos, broken bowls and dishes, and kitchen staff’s cries of alarm from the back kitchen. His heart bled as he continuously pleaded with the constables: “Officer! Officer! This humble one runs a small business! Really can’t withstand such turmoil! Please be lenient, officer. That’s Butcher Wang from the east end of Changping Street—could you officers take your men there to arrest him instead! Please be lenient, officer!”
The constables turned a deaf ear. After a good while of chaos in the back kitchen, the drunken butcher who had struggled violently was finally dragged out by the constables, his head covered in blood, hanging limply.
The lead constable’s gaze swept over the tavern’s interior—the waiters and common folk who had come to drink stood silently against the walls, faces full of fear. He declared loudly, “From today forward, anyone who dares show disrespect to His Majesty or criticize the government will be imprisoned! Take them away!”
The butcher, dizzy and disoriented from his head injury, struggled to lift his head and let out a roar, suddenly shaking off the constables dragging him. Swaying unsteadily, he grabbed the saber from a nearby constable’s waist and wildly stabbed outward.
One thrust, two holes—the constable looked down at the blade piercing through his abdomen, stiffly raised his head to look at the butcher, then fell straight backward, crashing into tables and benches.
“Murder… murder!”
“Murder!”
The tavern immediately erupted in chaos.
The butcher was startled, his drunkenness sobering considerably. He immediately dropped the saber in his hand, wanting to help the constable whose abdomen was bleeding profusely, but was tackled to the ground by several constables rushing at him together.
The butcher watched helplessly as the constable was carried out to the medical hall, while he was dragged up by his hair.
His mind went completely blank. He had slaughtered pigs and cattle his entire life, but he had never thought of killing a person…