Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress
Chapter 378 - 375: Kowtow to Thank for the Grace_1

Chapter 378: Chapter 375: Kowtow to Thank for the Grace_1

The translation of the provided Chinese text into English is as follows:

For those owing a life, Bai Qingyan also said that later, she would ensure that Lord Zhou provided justice for the deceased.

Bai Qingyan opened the ancestral hall to punish the Bai Clan members who bullied the people of Shuoyang. News that some victims had reclaimed their ancestral homes or received equivalent compensation spread like wildfire through Shuoyang City.

Those victims who initially doubted Bai Qingyan would really punish the Bai Clan members spread the news eagerly.

Soon, more victims arrived. Even elderly people with graying hair, holding the memorial tablets of their sons and daughters-in-law, came to seek justice from the Princess of Zhen.

More and more people gathered in front of the Bai family’s gate. Those who received compensation were all grateful to Bai Qingyan for her great kindness and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

The faces of the elders of the clan, whose grandchildren were involved, grew increasingly grim. Even those Bai Clan members who usually kept to themselves and did not partake in wrongdoing were frightened by the scene and began to glare at their own children and grandchildren, questioning if they had caused any trouble outside.

The commotion in the Bai Clan’s ancestral hall was so immense that the women who had been waiting for news at home couldn’t stay put. They hurried over, stood in the courtyard, and watched their children anxiously through their tears.

The offspring of the Bai family member who pushed the mute mother into the river was the grandson of the Clan Leader’s younger brother, Fifth Master. He was so frightened that he cried out, "Grandfather, save me! Grandfather, save me... I don’t want to be expelled from the clan!"

"Grandfather, Clan Leader, we dare not do it again. We’ve repaid what we owed. Even though my brother and I have been wayward, we never took a life!"

"Grandfather, please beg the Clan Leader to spare me!"

Once Fifth Master’s grandson started pleading, the other Bai family juniors kneeling in the courtyard also began to beg for mercy.

The Clan Leader looked at the stack of case file bamboo slips beside Lord Zhou and then at Bai Qingyan’s indifferent face. An ominous premonition crept into his heart.

An elder couldn’t stand it and looked at the Clan Leader: "Clan Leader, look... we’ve returned what we owed. Can’t we avoid expulsion? They really know their mistakes this time and have learned their lesson. Could you please ask the Commandery Princess to show mercy... for the sake of being of the same clan and bloodline?"

Bai Qingyan remained expressionless and only said, "These Bai Clan offspring have bullied the people and committed countless errors! Clan Leader, do you think we should deal with them according to the Bai Clan’s family laws or let Lord Zhou handle it?"

The Clan Leader shuddered. The Bai Clan’s family laws were much stricter than the laws of the land. If handled according to the Bai Clan’s family laws, hundreds of strokes would leave none of these children alive!

It would be better to expel them from the clan temporarily. Once relations with Bai Qingyan improved, they could ask Lord Zhou for leniency, and these children might still have a chance to live.

"Father! When have Bai family children ever suffered such hardships? Ah Jie is still so young. He went to prison, we returned what we owed, and the deceased can’t come back to life... Didn’t we also compensate with silver just now? Why do you have to be so ruthless?" Bai Qingjie’s mother glanced at her son, kneeling on the ground and too scared to cry, and wailed at the Clan Leader. "Our Bai family is a founding family with countless military merits over the years. Can’t such merit protect one of our own children?"

Bai Qingyan’s eyes were sharp and terrifying.

"Shut your filthy mouth!" Bai Jinzhi was so infuriated she cursed, brandishing the long whip from her waist. The whip cracked through the air with a deafening sound, intimidating the woman who pleaded for mercy into a shiver.

"Serving time in prison counts as suffering? My seventeenth brother was only ten years old when he went to the battlefield to die for the country, following my uncle’s sword to protect the people, never retreating until death. His head was chopped off, and his stomach was filled with tree roots and mud! These pigs and dogs suffered more than my seventeenth brother?! Could they be younger than my seventeenth brother?!"

Bai Jinzhi’s heart ached, and her blood boiled as she thought of her young seventeenth brother. When had Bai family children ever suffered like this? What kind of suffering could compare to her seventeenth brother?!

"Our Bai family’s military merits are not something a despicable person like you can use to plead for pigs and dogs! It’s true that the Bai family is a founding family with countless military achievements. But those were earned by the sacrifices of all the men in the Bai family on the battlefield! They risked their lives not so that you could rely on their deeds to bully the people and take lives!"

Bai Jinzhi’s words were pearls of wisdom: "If you want military merits, why didn’t you go to the Nanyan battlefield to earn them when my grandfather, uncles, and brothers were dying? Instead, it was my eldest sister, despite being seriously injured for the country, who risked her life to go to Nanyan, defeating Xiliang and Nanyan, saving the Jin Kingdom’s border people from peril! Of all the Bai family’s countless military achievements... which one of you sitting here contributed anything?! How dare you even think about using these deeds to argue for the pardon of those pigs and dogs? Have you no shame?!"

The Clan Leader looked at Bai Jinzhi and then at Quan Yu, suppressing his inner anger and said weakly, "Our Bai family shares the same spirit and branches, we are all the same..."

Bai Qingyan side-eyed the Clan Leader, her gaze growing colder: "Since we share the same spirit and branches, you should know... for generations, the Bai family fought on the battlefield, risking their lives not for military merits and certainly not to commit wrongs by virtue of their deeds. Nor would they be shameless enough to try to offset their errors by virtue of their merits. Inside this ancestral hall... the ancestors of the Bai family are above us, the spirits are above us! The main branch of the Bai family from Dadu, since following our ancestor to found the kingdom, has placed countless memorial tablets here... how many died a natural death? How many died for the country?! Living for the people, dying for the nation. These six words are the Bai family’s legacy; our main branch of the Bai family from Dadu has achieved them! But can the elders standing here today put their hands on their hearts and say any of their families have achieved this?"

Bai Jinzhi looked at the people outside the ancestral hall who were unconsciously moving towards the Bai family’s main gate. She thought of her eldest sister in front of the Bai family gate in Dadu, recounting the Bai family’s achievements, making those who attempted to slander the Bai family guilty, and stirring the people’s emotions to protect the Bai family.

She recalled the public support when her eldest sister beat the drum to force King Xin to his death, remembered her eldest sister saying... that the Bai family, being reticent and reserved, never proclaimed their loyalty and righteousness, which caused them to be forgotten.

She thought of the immense power brought by the public sentiment in Dadu City.

Bai Jinzhi gripped the whip in her hand tightly, looking at the clan juniors kneeling in the ancestral hall courtyard, and shouted resoundingly, "My grandfather donned armor in his sixties and led all the men of the Bai family, even my ten-year-old seventeenth brother, who fought and died on the battlefield! Their sacrifice... was never for you pigs and dogs!"

"The people of the Bai family are not afraid of death. We are all born of parents who anxiously wait for us to return. But every good son of the Bai family has never forgotten our ancestral teachings and is willing to fight to death to protect the people! Because the Bai family sees the people of the Jin Kingdom as their flesh and blood, because there are tens of thousands of people on the frontier with no one to protect them, because we bear the title of Zhen Kingdom and are ashamed to fail the people who pay taxes to support us!"

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