Had Li Jing gotten himself locked up?
Zi Shou asked, "Why was Li Jing put in Yuan Prison?"
Ao Bing shook his head, not knowing. Ao Lie replied, "Minister Li had himself taken into custody. Word has spread all over Chaoge. He dragged the brothers of the noble family heads to the Ministry of Punishments and gave each of them twenty strokes. Although he did it to establish his authority for changing the land system, it was truly indefensible. He ought to be imprisoned."
"Then were those nobles beaten to death?" Zi Shou asked again.
"The younger ones were mostly fine. The older ones were only injured badly enough to be bedridden for a few days. They won't die."
Zi Shou swept his hand through the air. "What does that amount to? Last year, I even beat the Feudal Lords. Can Li Jing not beat a few nobles?"
"When the world falls into chaos, not a single noble is innocent. I'll issue an edict pardoning him. No, there's no need for a pardon. Li Jing committed no crime at all. On the contrary, he rendered a service."
Ao Lie looked miserable. "But Your Majesty, although a beating is no great matter, Yuan Prison is the most suitable place for Minister Li right now. To force the nobles to register their households, the Ministry of Punishments handled thousands of cases in just a month or two. Now complaints fill the streets of Chaoge. People believe there must have been wrongful judgments. Minister Li imprisoned himself not only because of the beatings, but also to wait for these cases to settle, leaving the nobles with absolutely no grounds for opposition."
Zi Shou understood. Li Jing must have known that false charges and wrongful judgments were inevitable, so he had simply locked himself