"I want him dead!"
"I want him to pay with his life!"
Zhang Huai's voice grew somewhat heated.
"The Crown Prince's life may be precious, but in my heart it is no more precious than my daughter's. Besides, I am his subject. I never showed him the slightest disrespect, yet he treated a loyal subject like this.
The Sage King Sovereign once said, if a ruler regards his subjects as dirt and weeds, his subjects will regard him as a bandit and an enemy!
Is there anything wrong with killing an enemy?"
By the time Zhang Huai finished, both Huo Guang and Liu Xiang looked rather grim.
It was not because this affair was too cruel and inhuman. They had both seen and heard of worse.
Liu Xiang, especially, had spent years as Commandant of Justice. What atrocities, what acts devoid of humanity, had he not seen?
The malice in some people's hearts far exceeded the deepest, darkest abyss in this world.
But when ordinary people did such things, it affected one person. The Crown Prince was different. He ought to set an example. He was the heir now and would be the ruler in the future. With such a ruler, how could his subjects not feel ashamed?
Since ancient times, the civilization of All Xia had despised those with flawed private conduct. Its pursuit of morality even surpassed that of achievement. Those respected and revered throughout history had always combined exemplary morality with accomplishments.
Even recruiting worthy men and seeking an education required upright conduct first. Whatever the Confucian Order actually did in practice, at least in theory it clearly stipulated the virtues a gentleman ought to possess.
In remote antiquity, the Sage Kings were likewise required to possess nine supreme virtues.
Of all evils, lust came first!
A