Chapter 42: Generations of Loyal Bones_1

Bai Qingyan’s words made the people gathered in front of Manjiang Tower suddenly have tears in their eyes and their hearts surge with passion.

They remembered that indeed, all ten-year-old children of the Bai family from the Duke of Zhen’s Mansion would train in the battlefield with the Duke.

They recalled that half a year ago, when the Duke of Zhen marched to war, even the seventeenth son of the Bai family, who was not yet taller than a horse, was clad in armor and rode alone. The eldest daughter of the Bai family before their eyes also went to war at ten and was severely wounded in a fierce battle at sixteen, with little hope of having children for the rest of her life.

Hearing Bai Qingyan’s words about considering the people as her kin and her humility in fearing that the Bai family might not be able to repay the taxes that support them! Having such a Duke’s Mansion and such sons of the Duke sacrificing their lives at the front lines, how could the people not feel grateful and moved? How could they not appreciate a Duke’s Mansion that, despite its high status, did not treat them as insignificant?

Bai Qingyan’s voice was steady and clear, echoing resoundingly, “An illegitimate son not included in the mansion’s genealogy, who has never fought bloodily to protect the nation! Who has never achieved merit for the people! Where does he get the audacity to claim himself as a son of the Duke! Where does he get the audacity to use the Duke’s influence to bully and kill the citizens of Jin?”

These words were undoubtedly stepping on Bai Qingxuan’s face into the mud.

The entire long street was crowded with people, with every viewing balcony of the restaurants along the street also filled with people.

The most famous idle youths of Dadu City were on the balcony of Yanque Tower’s second floor. Hearing Bai Qingyan’s words, they were stunned. So, this was how the Bai family educated their children! Even a woman had such a strong sense of duty and integrity. Despite losing her martial skills, she did not lose her spirit, embodying the Bai family’s pride. No wonder the Bai family of the Duke of Zhen, which had been a military family for a hundred years, never produced any worthless offspring.

Xiao Rongyan stared at Bai Qingyan, who stood resolutely in the dim light, clutching the jade cicada tightly, his deep, dark eyes containing only her slender and upright figure.

“This… Sister Bai is truly righteous!” Lu Yuanpeng’s throat rolled as he felt sincere respect from the bottom of his heart. He no longer held any previous superficial thoughts due to Bai Qingyan’s beauty.

“Miss…” Chen Qingsheng hurriedly came out of the medical hall opposite, bowing deeply before speaking, “Doctor Liu from the opposite Huichun Hall said the elderly lady, having been kicked, spat out the blood accumulated in her lungs, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise! The coachman’s bleeding has stopped, and the child only has superficial injuries that will heal with some days of medication.”

Bai Qingxuan, now utterly hateful towards Bai Qingyan, could no longer feign submission, and glared angrily at the guards of the Duke’s Mansion, “Everything’s fine now, why won’t you let me go!”

Without Bai Qingyan’s order, the guards did not dare to release him and pressed Bai Qingxuan down even harder as he struggled anxiously.

Seeing Bai Qingxuan’s unrepentant and defiant look, her heart sank completely with no intention of teaching him anymore.

“Grandfather set the family rules, and the Bai family military regulations are the family law! Bullying the people… thirty rods for soldiers, and for Bai family descendants who offend, the penalty is doubled! Fifty rods!” Bai Qingyan’s gaze was scorching like a mirror, biting her words out, “Uncle Ping, borrow a rod from the shopkeeper of Manjiang Tower, and beat him right here on the long street!”

Bai Qingxuan stared wide-eyed at Bai Qingyan.

“No!” A woman crawled to Bai Qingyan’s feet, kowtowing and crying, “Xuan’er is still young, Miss! Fifty rods will kill him! He must not be beaten!”

“Bai Qingyu, the legitimate son of the Bai family, was twelve years old when he received sixty rods for chasing bandits and trampling wheat fields! Bai Jinxiu, the second daughter of the Bai family, went to war at ten and received fifty lashes when her horse injured a lumberjack on the march! Were any of them older than your son when they were punished?” Bai Qingyan looked at the woman’s act with deep disgust, raising her voice.

“Miss, the rod is here!” Lu Ping returned with the rod.@@novelbin@@

Seeing the thick wooden rod, the woman cried in panic, crawling back to the ashen-faced Bai Qingxuan, holding him tightly, “Xuan’er is of the noble flesh of the Duke’s Mansion, and these fifty rods… let me take it for him! Please, Miss, have mercy!”

“As if youth isn’t an excuse, you now speak of nobility?!” Bai Qingyan sneered coldly and unhurriedly said, “In the third year of Xuanjia, during the Battle of Pingcheng, the Xiliang army besieged the city. Our army had no grain for three days. My father, the Princely Heir of the Duke’s Mansion, took livestock from the city’s households to feed the soldiers, waiting for reinforcements. After the victory at Pingcheng, my father knelt to the people in apology, and barebacked in the snow, took two hundred rods! He said that before the law and military regulations, there is no nobility! Wasn’t my father’s status noble?! What makes your son, an illegitimate child, untouchable?!”

Bai Qingyan tightened her grip on the hand warmer. “Pull him away and hit him hard! Not one rod less!”

Amid the woman’s cries, Bai Qingxuan was pressed to the ground by the guards, and Lu Ping personally wielded the rod. The dull thud of the wooden rod hitting flesh echoed through the long street with Bai Qingxuan’s screams.

After thirty rods, the blood already oozed from Bai Qingxuan’s buttocks, and his screams were weak.

The idle youths on the upper floor felt their chills as if the rod landed on their bodies alongside white Qingyan’s cold and unchanging expression.

After fifty rods, Bai Qingxuan lost consciousness, and the woman broke free from the guards, holding Bai Qingxuan and crying heart-wrenchingly.

Bai Qingyan’s anger had not fully subsided, but she couldn’t actually kill him on the long street, so she said indifferently, “Have him carried back to the mansion and treat him well!”

“Yes!” Lu Ping responded, ordered someone to call a doctor, and had Bai Qingxuan carried onto a carriage.

“Chen Qingsheng, stay and take the wounded elder and child home. Apologize and comfort them well!” Bai Qingyan said, “Return to the mansion. I am tired!”

Seeing the Bai mansion’s eldest daughter’s carriage approaching, the onlookers spontaneously made a path for it to pass.

On the carriage, Bai Qingyan rested one hand on the spring pillow, closed her eyes, her throat rolled, and tears seemed to glimmer in her eyes, with sorrow and desolation filling her chest.

Today, speaking of her siblings and father’s past, images of her grandfather, father, and uncles gathered around the fire in front of the camp, discussing strategies, flooded her mind.

Scenes of the Bai family’s brothers full of vigor before setting off to war flashed before Bai Qingyan’s eyes, making her whole body tremble uncontrollably.

Today, things went far more smoothly than Bai Qingyan had expected. It would indeed elevate the Bai family’s reputation even higher when speaking of the Bai family’s ancestral teachings and recalling the Bai family’s loyalty to the king and the people… falling into ruin due to the suspicions and punishments inflicted, she was filled with intense hatred.

It was the Jin royal family that betrayed the Bai family’s generations of loyalty.