The matter was settled.
After paying compensation, the Liu-Zhao Clans had lowered their banners and slunk away in disgrace, as bedraggled as a pack of defeated dogs. It stood in stark contrast to how they had come swaggering in to make trouble.
Lei Yangqiu had been spared for the time being. Having survived the disaster, he had no wish to linger here either.
The onlookers, however, remained gathered for a long while, still relishing the affair and sharing their excitement with one another.
Most commoners in this world lived hard, monotonous lives, struggling along the line between hunger and fullness. Their greatest hopes were usually to scrimp and save year after year, buy a few fields, find a good path for their children, marry them a good wife, and the like.
This grand drama, with its twists and turns and wave after wave of climaxes, was enough to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Aunt Gongsun Hui led several sisters-in-law and sisters-by-marriage as they directed the servants to set up porridge stalls, cooking thick salted pork porridge and inviting the commoners to have something to eat.
Today, these commoners—even the poor among them—might have seemed like mere spectators eating melon seeds. Yet in truth, they were the most crucial link in Wang Shouzhe's plan.
This meal was his banquet for them.
In the eyes of many arrogant children of aristocratic clans, commoners were lowly and insignificant, like ants that could be crushed to death at a casual pinch.
Yet the vast majority of aristocratic clans could not do without commoners. Without commoners creating wealth for them, what would those clan children use to enjoy their privileged lives? And what would they use to purchase precious cultivation resources?
A single commoner might be inconspicuous, but once their numbers