Northern Song Dynasty? Xia Zhiyuan – A Study of Female Criminals from the Yang Family 1-3

Chapter 1.

Yuan Yi, a senior official in the Ministry of Justice, looked across the edge of the desk and down to the ground. Before his eyes rose
a pair of bare buttocks and two bare feet, bound in long wooden shackles, suspended in mid-air above the bluestone floor
.

It was a woman's buttocks. The woman was completely naked, without a single piece of clothing
covering her from shoulders to ankles. The undulating soles of her bare feet and the two semi-circles of her round buttocks were all flesh, though
filthy, muddy, and bloody, the skin stretched by the flesh still shimmered somewhat. This
thing was directly in front of a man's eyes; that man would likely feel some turmoil. Yuan
Yi kept his eyes down, sitting upright and solemn, pretending that he felt nothing. Yuan Yi heard
another man sitting beside him speak.

"Beat them. Beat them hard."

This was probably how male officials handled cases. Several men sat in a row
behind a long sandalwood table, on which simmered delicate tea in earthenware pots and porcelain cups. Yuan Yi knew this opening
was meant to temper the prisoner's arrogance. The female prisoner, her back to the interrogating officials, knelt outside the table. Her head,
face, and arms were bound tightly by two large wooden planks. The rectangular neck and hand yokes rested on the ground, forcing
the woman inside to bend over, face down, maintaining a kneeling posture
. Another pair of leg yokes restrained her legs; long, thick wooden planks spread her ankles,
locking them two feet apart. A pair of protruding ankle bones jutted out from the outer side of the planks,
secured with heavy black iron rings.

Next came the flogging. Two burly men stood on either side of the woman's bare buttocks. Two split
bamboo strips swung in a near-circular arc, the sharp, clean cuts of the bamboo strips slicing across her trembling flesh.
The sound was crisp and clean, leaving a slightly sticky aftertaste.

The stickiness came from the elasticity of the flesh, combined with the tearing force of the bamboo strips' edges and sharp points cutting into her skin. The woman
cried out intermittently from the other side of the shackles, her voice hoarse and not very loud. Her
ankles were bound by heavy iron shackles, and her large feet twitched and bounced a few times, but couldn't make much of
a sound.

Yuan Yi knew, of course, that anyone who had spent so much time in such a place wouldn't have much
strength left to cry out in pain. The man beside him said again, "Stop."

The other man said, "Help her up. Let's see.

Let's see her face." Two men restrained the woman, lifting her body into a roughly
straight position. Her shoulders were spread, her hands bound, and a large, hard wooden yoke supported her weight on these three points. Her
bare feet, with their sharp, angular frame, were wedged between the clumsy, long planks, along with thick, black iron
rings and chains, dragging and clattering as they spun across the blue bricks. As they spun, two high, perky, and large breasts swayed
—a woman's bosom. At times like this, perhaps it should be more directly called…
a breast?

Beneath her eyes lay a row of large, round, yellowish mounds of flesh, two prominent, purplish-black nipples
standing erect and firm. Even though they were on the chest of a general capable of leading troops into battle, a man's most direct
reaction would probably be to exclaim in his heart, "Such magnificent breasts!"
Let's not even mention any talk of "lotus seedpods" or "soft peaks."

The naked woman was long-legged, her wrists were shackled, and her two long, ape-like arms lay prostrate
beneath thick wooden boards. However, her strong arms, slender waist, and smoothly extending, broad hips were
all impressive. Even more horrifying were the
old and new torture wounds on her naked body, torn and bleeding, red and swollen. The woman's hair had long been torn off, and she had no chance to comb it. Her long, disheveled
hair covered the sky, so her face was not clearly visible.

Yuan Yi had seen that face before. Yang Zongbao's wife, Yang Mu, had led the Song Dynasty's border troops and was granted
an official title by the court. In recent years, she had not been inactive in the official circles of Bianjing (Kaifeng). The customs of the time were flexible
; it wasn't that women had to remain hidden behind the curtains of their chambers. However, women who truly rose to high positions were
rare, making them easily memorable. When Yuan Yi saw Yang Mu at welcoming and sending-off
ceremonies, and at gatherings with fellow villagers in the capital, she wore a simple dress and a short jacket. Aside from her tall, handsome figure and somewhat heroic air, her
demeanor was almost that of a quiet, ordinary woman. Since migrating to Bianjing, the Yang family of Shanxi had lost
the land and population they could maintain, and they no longer commanded an army capable of field battles. Although the women of the Yang family were renowned
throughout the land for their military exploits, they always maintained a cautious attitude while living in the capital, deliberately avoiding any mention
of their military identity.

The Yang family, favored by Emperor Taizong, owned a thousand acres of land west of the capital for farming and grain storage. Yang Mu's family took in
widows and young women from the northwest refugees, raising silkworms and reeling silk; many of them were relatives of soldiers who had died in battle. Besides business
, the Yang family, perhaps out of compassion, couldn't bear to see these loyal relatives wandering the streets and villages, reduced
to selling themselves out of desperation.

After the former Chancellor and Vice Minister of the Chancellery, Kou Zhun, was dismissed, the Vice Minister of State Affairs, Ding Wei, handled
the case of the Yang family's alleged treason on behalf of the Emperor. The core of the case was to present evidence that Kou Zhun had secretly contacted the army and supported the establishment of the Crown Prince.
Prior to this, in the fourth year of the Tianxi era, news began circulating in the capital that the Emperor was seriously ill, and the Crown Prince was very young. Kou Zhun strongly
advocated that the Crown Prince oversee the state, leading to a fierce conflict with Empress Defei and Vice Minister Ding Wei. The Yang family elders
had a close personal relationship with Kou Zhun in their early years. The women now implicated in this incident were simply innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.
But this was the natural order of things under the dynasty's operation. Yuan Yi himself had spent many years navigating the officialdom of the capital, serving in various departments
, and was naturally well aware of the dynasty's ways and practices. Ding Wei's residence had detained the suspect and interrogated him for a
month and a half, and now they were informing the Ministry of Justice to send personnel for a review and conclusion of the case, clearly seeking procedural approval. Yuan
Yi himself was simply a handpicked official to affix the seal of the Ministry of Justice. He thought that as long as he maintained a composed and
solemn posture, he would be fine.

On the stone slab beneath the platform, a woman in shackles and chains staggered, kneeling and banging her head on the ground.
She mumbled some of the usual platitudes a convict paying homage to Minister Yuan Yi of the Ministry of Justice. After she managed to straighten her knees and
kneel upright again, she tossed her disheveled hair left and right a few times before finally managing to gaze upwards. Yuan Yi
and the woman even stared at each other for a moment, then he instinctively reached for his teacup. He had to find
a way to break the awkward silence. Yuan Yi thought that for a woman of high rank and a renowned warrior to
maintain composure in such a humiliating situation, exposing her naked body to an official of even lower rank,
was no small feat and worthy of respect.

Besides Yuan Yi, the other men present were staff members of Prime Minister Ding Wei's household. They might not have been
officials of the court, but they now wielded power over cases through the Prime Minister's name. The man in charge
said, "The convict, Yang Mu, is investigating a conspiracy by former Prime Minister Kou Zhun to imprison the Emperor and Empress and to hold the Crown Prince hostage."
Kou Zhun and the Yang family have also colluded extensively. You and your great-grandmother, Yang She, have met with Kou Zhun several times in secret, promising to mobilize the Yang family
's military farms to the capital to forcefully coerce the emperor and help him succeed. The crown prince is currently young,
and Kou Zhun's ambition to control the court is blatantly obvious. The Yang family's accomplice's intention to expand their power is also obvious .

The case has been under investigation for over a month, and you have already confessed in detail to all the rebellious acts of collusion and plotting
. You have signed and sealed all the confessions, confirming your innocence. Now, the Ministry of Justice has sent important officials to review the case. If you agree to this and take
responsibility, we and Lord Yuan Yi can return to report. He smiled calmly at this point. ...
Helping others is helping yourself. You can also be spared the suffering of being tortured day and night and peacefully await your death.

Now tell me, are all of the above true?

The woman's tone was unexpectedly calm. She said, "The women of the Yang family have never
discussed state affairs with Lord Kou Zhun. The Yang family received land from the late emperor, and those recruited to grow grain and reel silk were all commoners. The claim that they led troops into the capital is
utter nonsense."

"Ah," said the man in charge, "Well... in recent days, under questioning,
it's been recorded in black and white which month, which day, what you said at midnight, and what you said at dawn. You also signed and
pressed your fingerprint..."

"That was just something the woman made up because she couldn't withstand the beating. No one in the Yang family did these things."

"Oh, so you're going to reopen this case."

"Yang Mu has absolutely no connection to the aforementioned schemes."

"Good. Very good." The man leaned back in his chair, glancing at one end of the long table. He said,
"The maid in charge of writing, have you written all of this down?"

Besides the men handling the case and the female defendants, there were two other young women present.
From the very beginning, two young women stood silently at the outermost edge of the long table, also naked
, their hands and feet bound by chains. However, unlike the convict, they had carefully applied
makeup; their black hair, styled neatly in a bun, was perfectly styled, and their fair, clean skin and delicate features made them
quite attractive.

On the table at that end lay a stack of scrolls, a brush, and an inkstone. One girl knelt, the other stood.
The kneeling girl silently ground the ink, while the standing girl, her shackled white wrists pressed together, checked
the scrolls and answered with a simple "Yes." She said, "This servant has memorized it."

The man in charge laughed again, this time turning to face Yuan Yi: "The daughter of a convict accused of treason,
bought as a maid by the household. Her looks aren't anything special, but what's rare is that she can write beautifully.

During trials, having two naked female slaves as scribes can be called charming and amusing.
Of course, you can't expect this in the main hall of the Ministry of Justice, but high-ranking officials and nobles can indulge in it at home
. The important thing is that you have power or favor; even if you steam your own wife alive to serve as a
side dish to guests, it can still become a chivalrous tale of prioritizing friendship over lust and displaying unrestrained heroism."

He said, "Girl, what have you written down? Read it aloud. "

The girl said yes. She lowered her eyes and looked at the paper.

"The Lord asks: The convict Yang Mu, investigated, former Prime Minister Kou Zhun conspired to imprison the Emperor and Empress, and to hold the Crown Prince hostage to oversee
the country…"

He continued reading like this until "The Lord asks: Good, then you're going to overturn this case."

"The prisoner replied: Yang Mushi has absolutely no connection with the aforementioned schemes."

"What is this little girl saying?" The man frowned. "Wrong, fabricated, incomplete, omitted—the recorded
answers are incoherent, untrue, utterly absurd. How can a servant act like this?" He
gestured with his chin towards the strongmen outside the table: "This person can no longer be used. Drag her over and cut off her hands."

The female slave knelt down, her face deathly pale, stammering a few words of explanation, but of course, no one cared
what she said. She was swiftly dragged to the prisoner Yang Mushi's side and pinned down.
It took some time to bind her forearms with rope to seal the blood vessels, but then her wrists were haphazardly slashed
seventeen or eighteen times—perhaps intentionally to avoid a quick death. The girl's pale body writhed and struggled on the bluestone floor
, emitting one agonizing wail after another. The naked body remained kneeling,
half-hanging in the corner of the wall. Since she had no hands or wrists, the only support for her was
a sharp iron hook piercing through her limbs.

"Is it done? Hmm, good." The official in charge slowly poured tea with his left hand. "What a pitiful child, tsk
tsk. Yang Mu, shall we go back to your business?" He raised his right hand, making a vague
gesture in the air.

The men on the other side of the table grabbed the female prisoner's hair, one on each side holding the yoke around her neck.
Another man, holding a short stick, swung it down hard, striking
the woman kneeling on the ground in the chest. Yuan Yi saw something like a stream of water suddenly
surge and churn before his eyes. The woman, held firmly to the ground by several large hands, was howling and jumping high. So what he saw might
have been the woman's back suddenly arching from under the edge of the neck yoke, or it might have been the
breast that bounced off the stick. In any case, what he saw were some lively, writhing lumps of red and white human flesh. That short stick...
With a rhythmic, alternating motion, the woman stopped screaming after a few blows, only emitting
hissing sounds of inhalation and exhalation. The onlookers already knew that firstly, there was a
robust woman, and secondly, that she was naked and being tortured. That long, strong body, with its full breasts and buttocks,
was squeezed between the neck yoke and the low gap on the ground, twisting and turning as much as possible under that powerful restraint.
Driven by a storm of pain, her torso, limbs, veins, nerves, all the
undulating tendons and joints, down to the jagged arches of her feet, and the bare,
curled toes, resembled a lioness's wild dance, like a performance of animal wrestling by a wandering Persian sorcerer in a brothel
.

The man in charge of the beating stopped and took a step back, waiting for the beaten woman to catch her breath. When he started again,
he changed his actions, using a stick to thrust straight forward. The first thrust hit the ribs of the naked body
.

The sound of wood hitting a woman's breast was sticky and cloying. Yuan Yi saw that the blood
and broth seeping from the breasts, which were bouncing wildly on the prisoner's chest, were also sticky, but the echo of the skeleton being smashed in was decisive and crisp, making one think
that the human body was actually an empty cavity. After the force of the blow was poured in, the internal
organs contained inside must have been shaken and twisted into an unknown state. Yuan Yi heard
waves of vomiting coming from the intestines and stomach.

The person sitting next to Yuan Yi talked to him about Fujian tea. The teacup he was using was also
a black porcelain from the Jian kiln of Fujian, as solid as iron. In the face of adversity, one must remain calm. Both of them pretended not to care about
the knocking and banging outside the table, and the pitiful creaking and groaning. The two men
briefly discussed the differences and merits of using Jian ware and official porcelain for tea preparation , then glanced at the situation in the tea room.

The woman in the tea room was sobbing and panting. Her hair was being pulled, her face raised, her eyebrows, eyes, nose,
and mouth completely filthy. Making her raise her face was to allow
the men to clearly see her thoroughly violated state. The old wounds on the woman's ribs and abdomen were now covered with fresh red swelling and bruising
. The woman was wearing leg irons, so apart from the strong muscles around her waist and abdomen, her thighs were parted, and
the light brown mound and dark hair below her buttocks were barely concealed. Everyone seemed to stop for a moment, a
brief silence, before the kicking resumed. Someone raised their foot and hooked, the instep
striking the woman squarely in the crotch. Yuan Yi didn't close his eyes; he heard a scream. A person's abdominal muscles are usually
square, flat, and dormant, but he felt that the woman's belly suddenly bristled like a fighting rooster's neck
feathers. Her restrained thighs were actually twisting wildly from side to side within a limited range, and now he
saw yellow urine trickling down from beneath that bulging, round mound of flesh.

"Alright, alright," the man in charge spoke again, his tone tinged with weariness
. "Yang Mu, are you feeling better now? Have you come to terms with it?"

"This woman from the Yang family, listen carefully, I'll ask you one more time. If you still have anything to say,
then say whatever you want."

"I don't want to say anything, I don't want to say anything… it doesn't really matter."

"You, the girl grinding ink, stand up. Get the pen. You take notes."

On the day Yuan Yi attended the joint trial at Prime Minister Ding Wei's residence for the Yang family's alleged collusion with Kou Zhun in a rebellion case, the head of the Prime Minister's residence,
under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice, interrogated the woman three times. Yang Mu denied everything from beginning to end. Yuan Yi believed that in
the entire month before this day, she must have said a lot. She would say whatever Ding Wei wanted her to say
; after being beaten to that extent, that's how it was. Yuan Yi also believed that the three parties present, including the accused
herself, knew that her denial wouldn't lead to any real possibility of acquittal. Since Kou Zhun had been exiled from the capital,
the current political situation was dominated by Lord Ding Wei. As long as the imperial court's trust in the councilor Ding Wei remains unchanged, the women of the Yang family
cannot escape the charge of treason. Ding Wei intends to use this incident to drive the final nail into Kou Zhun's
coffin. He can continue to beat and retry, even beat the criminals to death, and the case will only be closed with a statement that the evidence
is conclusive and the defendant committed suicide out of fear of punishment. Even so, Yuan Yi understands Yang Mu's
reasons for her desperate attempt to overturn the case today. Precisely because the case is beyond overturning, she chose to launch her attack today, with herself as an outsider witness
, aiming to drive a wedge into the rigid official documents and leave a fabricated
mark. The Yang family has at least denied these accusations and framing; this is a flag raised, a stance taken.
Perhaps this purely posturing, this empty rhetoric, is meaningless in the short term, but who
can definitively know the future? On the other hand, Ding Wei could have chosen to have the woman strangled in
the basement of his mansion. The reason he notified the Ministry of Justice was merely for show and to create a hollow, fabricated
legitimacy. Decisions made for political reasons can be reversed for the same reasons. People
gamble with fate on the probability of the dice roll; even the smallest probability is still a probability. At least she wanted the outside world
to know that there had been another version of events and another possibility. And Yuan Yi herself was
the only person outside the iron curtain of Ding Wei and his gang, with only one chance.

One more time. The presiding judge read the charges verbatim, and the defendant calmly and resolutely refuted each one.
Even as the woman sobbed, tears and saliva streaming down her face, and the cangue around her neck was soaked with
green and yellow bile and gastric juice, she still tried her best to control herself, maintaining a voice as calm as possible.

After the perpetrator denied the charges for the second time, a copper basin filled with swirling flames of burning charcoal was brought out from the lower area. Inside,
sharp iron skewer and small, shovel-shaped branding marks were heated. The resisting perpetrator was now pulled upright,
his ankles locked to iron stakes fixed to the ground. Then, iron chains hanging from the ceiling were lowered and bound to the woman
's elbows. Her wrists and neck were confined to the same plane by a neck yoke, her elbows
rising towards the ceiling. Her upper body naturally twisted and leaned back, her face gradually turning upwards, revealing her large breasts
, flared armpits, and protruding navel. Her ankles, however,
remained fixed in place due to the iron chains and stakes.

The young maidservant who took over the interrogation duties from her predecessor was also dragged outside the table and had her hands chopped off
. Since there was hot iron in the brazier, a red-hot, sharp iron rod was then inserted into both of her ear
canals, leaving her fair face covered in blood. This was because the official interrogating her determined that
besides reciting falsehoods, she hadn't been paying attention at all. Therefore, she needed to be deafened
as punishment. The second girl, who had lost both her hands and her hearing, was also set aside. Now everyone focused on the
crucial matter of treason.

The entire process involved branding. After the iron rods and stamps were thoroughly heated, they were used to
touch or press various delicate or plump areas of the woman's naked body. The former always involved the nipples, armpits, and the large and small membranes within the groin
, the urethral opening, and the vulva; the latter were the actual thighs, buttocks, and shoulders. Facing the woman's
fragrant shoulders and jade-like legs, plus her two large, gourd-like breasts, he used a red-hot iron to sweep
across them like a tidal wave. Naturally, wherever he went, the seas dried up and rocks crumbled, accompanied by cries of despair—but that was beside the point. What he
needed to focus on at the very beginning were those delicate areas. You see, the sharp,
stinging pain of the hot iron tip had a unique, insidious, and agonizing quality. Beyond the fiery destruction, it directly attacked the woman's sense of shame and preciousness.
Imagine that the most secret place a woman had vowed to cherish for life was being thoroughly explored,
slowly roasted like half-cooked meat over a gentle fire. Even if she had painstakingly maintained her chastity and purity,
at this point, her defenses would inevitably crumble. Her beautiful, jade-like body was gone; what was the point?
Where could she possibly go to preserve her original heart?

Beneath the fiery red iron seal, what seeped from the charred human skin was not vibrant blood, but murky oil.
After a cloud of smoke rose, Yuan Yi saw one of the large, black, congealed nipples, like a ripe fruit, suddenly bloom
, bursting open into a cluster of petals, delicate stamens, and glistening, vibrant flowers.

The presiding man turned his face; this time, he was discussing with Yuan Yi the appropriate
jujube-shaped tables and chairs, and the boxwood bed, for the tea ceremony. Out of the corner of their eyes, they could see
a large bucket of cold water being prepared below. A long-handled wooden ladle was scooped up and filled to the brim, splashing the
woman's entire body. The supervisor on the platform showed some sign of loosening the restraint, while
the men administering the torture began to show signs of impatience and restlessness. Several burly men began to remove
their shirts, revealing their muscular chests. A man pressed his muscular chest against the side of the woman being tortured
, rubbing it against her. One hand cupped her ample buttocks below the waist, while the other vigorously kneaded
the other breast, which hadn't yet been branded.

"What a beautiful body," he said. "The female general's big white buttocks, the female general's beautiful breasts."
He pleaded, "General, please forgive me, allow me to properly serve this beautiful body of yours, Commander..." He exerted even more
force, his kneading interspersed with grabbing, squeezing, twisting, and pinching the nipple, pulling it two inches out.
"Is it good? Is it good?

Do you want that?" The man lewdly moved aside. The branding iron, now red-hot , was pressed down directly

onto the remaining breast . 　　From the initial, meticulous exploration to the final, more generalized treatment, every part of the woman's body had been branded. Finally, the chains hanging from the beam were lowered, and the dying female prisoner slumped to the ground. Someone grabbed her head and face, this time lifting a wooden bucket, scooping it up by the bottom, and tilting it forward. A 　　torrent of water swirled and crashed over her head and face, whipping her long, disheveled hair. A fleeting look of furrowed brows and terrified expression flashed across her face amidst the fierce wind and water. The second bucket of water was poured over the woman's naked body. The man teased, "Wake up, beauty, wake up! 　　Wash your face, wash your damn cunt, get up and greet the guests!" 　　In short, Yuan Yi, the Ministry of Justice official attending the joint trial that day, waited until the third round of questioning the female prisoner. The female prisoner, covered in torture wounds, whimpered weakly, her voice barely audible; no one could tell whether she had confessed to the heinous crime of treason this time. 　　The official in charge of the Prime Minister's residence stood up straight and bowed to the supervising official of the Ministry of Justice in gratitude. In short , the gist was that the woman who committed the crime suddenly fell ill during questioning, fainting and losing consciousness, making it difficult to clarify the key points of the case in such a rush. Perhaps she needed medical treatment and recuperation before a more appropriate time for trial could be chosen. Plan carefully before acting, proceed slowly. 　　Proceed slowly, proceed slowly. Yuan Yi repeatedly echoed this. He took his leave of the Prime Minister's residence and hurriedly returned to his department to report . 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Chapter 1 2 　　The woman, now standing upright, saw the barren beach and water. The earthen plateau, the mountains. And behind her, the ten-mile-long pavilion, and the ten-mile- long pavilion again. 　　The woman couldn't remember if this was the fortieth or fiftieth pavilion after leaving Bianliang City to the west. She only saw three mud-brick and tile houses in front of her. It was a post station built beside a river ferry, providing resting places for traveling officials and soldiers . The woman stood on the other side of the main road outside the post station, her legs spread wide , facing the door of the guest room. A cangue was around her neck, so she couldn't see her feet; she could only feel their pain, their aches, and the cold. Standing barefoot on the cobblestone beach in early spring, the roughness, the chaos , the sense of degradation, the humiliation of being lowly—all of this was certainly foreign to a female official of the Song Dynasty. Even after walking the first thousand li barefoot, it hadn't truly become a habit. 　　Thick iron chains around her ankles, weighing ten jin, turned the natural flow of walking into a heavy, arduous task of dragging and carrying. Not only was it heavy, but the chains constantly clamored and disturbed her peace of mind for a thousand li ; they were a humiliating, ostentatious spectacle. 　　A woman's face was meant to be seen by all, and so were her feet. A woman who has experienced countless battles and campaigns is not a woman who has never traveled; it's just that wearing soft lambskin boots and walking with ease is a completely different matter. If she were on her bedside in the central army tent, under her husband's watchful eye...

The couple had used nutmeg juice to dye each of their toenails. The bare feet they saw then
were strong and beautiful, their bones robust and full, their joints gracefully curved, enticing the young soldiers of the imperial border army.
The Grand Marshal would steal glances at the large feet of the young female general, a woman from a distant fortress—such
things were naturally considered the pleasures of a woman's private life. But when they became filthy, vulgar, and aggressive, though thousands of
people and miles away had passed by, they would be nothing more than a village woman, or a slave or convict.

The women of the Yang family were daughters of the northwestern mountains, a place of constant war and powerful clans for a century. She had
witnessed slaughter, plunder, enslavement, and rape. She had indeed seen love; with her bold and straightforward
nature, she had chosen to marry the third-generation son of the Yang family, who guarded the borders of the Song Dynasty. But she had also witnessed
much death. If, amidst a century of constant warfare and clashing swords, battles and bloodshed
were merely the fate of those on the frontier, then dying on the battlefield was almost a glorious reward. The era of war
was not merely a period of rapid advance; it inevitably bred intrigue and cunning, schemes that appeared to be legitimate but were actually deceitful . For every
successful frame-up, there were countless innocent souls who perished. The woman, enduring brutal torture in the dungeon of the Song Dynasty prime minister's office,
was prepared to die, even if it was a prolonged, drawn-out ordeal, she was certain of an end.
But fate took a different turn. And it was uncertain when it would end.

First, in the first year of the Qianxing reign, the emperor died, and the eleven-year-old crown prince ascended the throne, with Empress Dowager Liu E ruling from behind the curtain. Liu E's first priority
was to eliminate the real trouble caused by Ding Wei, her former political ally. A powerful remnant of the previous dynasty
was not someone she and her son needed; she still had many relatives from her own family to arrange for. That year
, the situation developed rapidly. Ding Wei was dismissed from his post as prime minister in June and
exiled to Yazhou, the same far south as his longtime political rival, Kou Zhun.

The two Yang family members, She and Mu, were taken from Ding Wei's home and imprisoned in the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice also reported that Yang and Mu
had not fully confessed during the retrial. Of course, the removal of Ding Wei did not mean the innocence of his political enemies. Kou Zhun did
oppose Empress Liu's interference in politics, and she would never forgive him. As for the aftermath for the Yang family involved, it was not a very important
matter. A favor could be shown, sparing the lives of those women… not unthinkable.

"The people aren't expecting those widows to be loyal to the country, to pacify Liaodong and conquer Xia, are they? Let them go fight in the west
," Yuan Yi heard this rumor in the Ministry of Justice, supposedly an imperial edict from the Empress Dowager. The final verdict
was that She and Mu had formed a faction with Kou Zhun, engaging in illicit activities, and therefore their ancestors' titles and honors for three generations were stripped, and they were exiled
two thousand li away to serve as laborers on the frontier. The plot of the conspiracy to rebel is no longer mentioned,
but many people probably still covet the land bestowed upon the Yang family. Therefore, another charge is added: the arrogant and unemployed vagrants are corrupting the local area.
Simultaneously, an order is issued to register and screen the tenant farmers and laborers working on the Yang family estate, selecting able-bodied men and women to be escorted two thousand li
away to serve in the army, forced to work alongside their masters building cities and roads, to be treated like cattle and horses.

The Yang family was once a crucial stronghold relied upon by the dynasty as a bulwark against the Liao Kingdom, managing the northern frontier for many years and monopolizing military,
economic, and administrative power within its territory. After several generations of male leaders died in battle, their power waned, and they migrated inland. However, the family soldiers
, generals, relatives, and children they brought with them were remnants of years of warfare, possessing both a warlike nature and skilled combat abilities. These
people often resided near the capital, and it's not entirely unreasonable to consider them a destabilizing factor. Given the opportunity, they were
eliminated together.

Because of their severe injuries and illnesses, and fearing they could not withstand the long journey,
the two female prisoners from the Yang family, surnamed She and Mu, who had been sentenced to exile, received medical treatment and medication in the Ministry of Justice prison until the following spring when they were transferred to the army.
Having soldiers guard the prisoners throughout the journey was not a standard practice of the dynasty for exiles, but at that time, the empire was preparing for war against the Western Xia, and
the army had many official business trips between Henan and Shaanxi. Finding a convoy about to depart to take the prisoners along
was just a convenient arrangement.

The army transporting the prisoners prepared an oxcart for the old woman, with a wooden cage with drafts on all sides. The old woman
, like everyone else, had to wear shackles, handcuffs, and leg irons; since she would be confined in a cage for the entire journey, physical strength was not a
major concern. Her granddaughter-in-law, on the other hand, was in her prime,
plump where she should be and lean where she should be, able to walk and work like an animal—she deserved to suffer more.

The mother-in-law and granddaughter-in-law were only allowed to put on
the linen garments made for prisoners after they entered the Ministry of Justice's jail. The linen garments fell straight down from the shoulders, covering
about two inches above the knees; it didn't matter if it was a long robe or a short apron, it was just the cheapest form of cover. The woman
's long cangues around her neck and hands weren't changed; they were simply labeled with an official seal, to
be inspected and removed upon arrival at her place of service.

This would become a major problem. Exiles wore cangues, but the protective headbands
didn't restrict the hands. The long board with three holes—wider at the top and narrower at the bottom—was always used for confining prisoners in jail;
the two smaller holes were for the wrists to be threaded through and chains fastened, preventing the hands from being pulled back. The problem was that
once on the journey, this tortured woman couldn't do anything by herself.

She couldn't change clothes, bathe, or relieve herself.

The woman stood upright on the desolate riverbank, facing the hillside and the inn's guesthouse, slowly spreading
her legs. She knew her legs were long, and she knew her calves, exposed beneath her hempen apron,
were strong and firm, her knees hard and wrinkled, the muscles prominent and smooth. The three soldiers surrounding her
looked at her casually and shamelessly, one of them picking up a short wooden stick and using it to lift her apron from bottom to top. He used the stick to
raise her hempen apron higher than her hip bones. The woman wasn't wearing a bra or undergarments underneath. Her
cleavage was exposed like a landscape painting. The man poked at her flesh and hair with the stick a couple of times and said
, "Pee!"

This was the woman being exiled a thousand miles away. Before resting at the inn for the night, she was led to the roadside outside the gate
and made to urinate. She wasn't allowed to squat; she had to stand upright, facing the gate.

She couldn't see the urine gushing down. She could feel the drops of urine splashing onto her feet.
The soldier stepped aside, taking two steps back with his stick. The woman felt the prison clothes that had just been
pulled back down her lower abdomen, covering her genitals, bare legs, and the flowing
urine.

The hot, wet cloth clung to her thighs, and now urine was flowing down her bare legs to the ground
. The soldier said, "How filthy are you, woman? At your age, still wetting your pants? Even puppies pee
!" He swung the wooden stick he had pulled from the front behind him, slamming it down on the woman's buttocks with a loud crack.
"Don't hold it in! Finish peeing!" "

Finished?" This time, the soldiers grinned. "Come on, come on, there's a big river over there. We'll
wash you clean and take you to a place to pee."

Standing up to pee wasn't the worst thing that had happened on this journey. The woman, dressed in prison clothes and barefoot, walked along the streets of Bianjing
. A wooden cangue around her neck was chained to a prison cart pulled by an ox. Inside the cart's wooden cage
, her great-grandmother's disheveled white hair fluttered. "Want to relieve yourself while traveling during the day?" the escorting
soldiers would glance at you and laugh. Anyway, the old ox pulling the cart wouldn't stop, and no one would
pull its nose to make it stop. "You're on your own; do whatever you want." After leaving Bianliang,
the woman relieved herself along the way. She hadn't bathed or changed her clothes for three days; both she and her clothes
reeked. Three days later, the soldiers led her to a roadside ditch, took a sharp knife
, and sliced her hemp sweater in two along her chest and under her armpits. The collar and cuffs of the upper half of the sweater
were cut open with a knife and thrown away, while the lower half, unbuttoned, revealed a wide strip of linen, which was also
tossed aside. At that time, Old Granny She was also led out of the prison cart, hunched over and hobbling to the riverbank.
"You old hag, wash your grandson's wife's clothes!"

After washing the clothes, the old hag also bathed herself. She wore a yoke around her neck, but not her
hands. The old woman, using her chained hands and feet, managed to do all this, albeit shakily.
The soldiers personally bathed their wives, who were inconvenient with the yoke on. The young woman, now naked, stood in
knee-deep water. A man's arm pulled her back, and another large hand
reached up from her crotch. The man in front, of course, didn't stop either, slapping her
breasts several times with both hands, making them sway from side to side. The man's hands were calloused and rough, and her own cleft was covered in
calluses from hot irons, also rough and calloused. But the rubbing and scratching of those things still produced
a sensation. It was both disgusting and pleasurable, like a swarm of toads crawling along your naked, tender skin
. The more pleasurable it was, the more disgusting it became.

The washed clothes were hung on the wooden cangue to dry.
When the mother-in-law and granddaughter-in-law returned to the inn, they were completely naked. The officials hadn't provided an extra set of clothes, and the soldiers had no choice.
They ignored the pointing and whispering of the idlers at the inn's entrance. Back in their room,
they squatted naked on the floor, surrounded by a dozen or so soldiers, all burly and rugged men. The men said,
"Hey, you, wife, the grandfathers have all eaten. What are we doing now?"

"Old woman, you watch closely, see how your grandfathers make your wife scream with joy, so happy
she's practically floating on air."

From then on, the woman on the road always walked naked, her shoulders and arms exposed. A wide piece of linen
was wrapped around her chest and under her armpits, several strips torn, crumpled, and rubbed together to
roughly tie from her shoulders to her apron. This made it very convenient to take it off and put it back on whenever she wanted.
They walked, touched, and even slept in those fifty long pavilions in this way, enduring sun and rain all the way. This one and only apron naturally became
scattered tattered pieces of cloth. Even if no one could see it, the woman knew that the bumps and ridges of her
skin were exposed to the light and wind, faintly visible. No matter how much exposure she received, her neck
was held captive by the oxcart, preventing her from moving an inch. Countless villages, post stations, and countless pointing
fingers of passersby along the thousand-mile journey were all fleeting glimpses. The soldiers joked, using their rifle shafts to tease her long legs: "Sure enough
, she's a woman who's been a general and ridden fine horses. Her two legs are so smooth and easy to handle, so obedient, so compliant, tsk tsk, just
like two white poplar branches growing from the loess plateau."

We're not saying anything bad about you, sister-in-law. This kind of entertainment is
only allowed because of special instructions from the doctors and generals above. Please be understanding, sister-in-law. We servants
are as lowly as they come; we're just a bunch of dogs paid by the court. If the officials say 'bite,'
we have to pounce and bite them a few times."

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