The farce only settled down after half an incense stick's worth of commotion.
Shen Tang had wrestled with her subordinates until her forehead was slick with sweat.
With one hand, she hefted the bronze table that had been twisted out of shape beyond recognition. With the other, she flung the strands stuck to her lips behind her head and panted, "Fine, fine, fine. I won't kill the bastard today, but there's no way I can swallow this humiliation. Those aristocratic families have gone too far! So what if they refuse to serve? My makeshift government won't stop functioning without them! They even insulted my good name and ruined yours! Today's disgrace must be repaid tenfold, a hundredfold!"
Seeing Shen Tang calm down a little, everyone relaxed their guard.
She seized the opportunity and kicked the man in the butt.
The unconscious man, covered from head to toe in footprints, woke in pain and rolled half a zhang away amid his screams. The others could not stop him. Shen Tang ground her teeth. "Someone, bind him! Find a novice military physician to examine him. Just make sure you don't heal him to death!"
She thought of herself as a just and incorruptible official standing up for the victim. To restore the truth, she had gone so far as to expend manpower digging the victim out and bringing him face-to-face with the culprit in court. Why had she gone to such lengths?
Because desire existed in everyone, men and women alike. Once they gained the power to oppress the weak, they needed no guidance at all. Power would gradually and imperceptibly tempt its possessor to use it for profit—money, authority, and sex!
The female soldier's behavior looked outrageous, but what if she had been a he?
Beside a pool in a deep