The crowd fell silent for a brief moment, then erupted into thunderous applause, with cheers rising higher and higher. The profiteer deserved to die! At that moment, James Harris and his son Michael Harris arrived. All they saw was a corpse, three feet of bright red...

Chapter Eight: The Renowned Young Master Washington of Haozhou

James Harris rushed to the scene and saw that the grain merchant surnamed Jiang had already been beheaded, his body lying across the platform. Terrified out of his wits, he scrambled up, rushed forward, and, ignoring the blood and filth, cradled the gray-haired head in his arms and burst into loud sobs.

His crying startled many people, including William Bolton below. What was going on? Could it be that what the old grain merchant said was true? Was his relationship with James Harris really that close?

William Bolton listened carefully, and sure enough, there were people in the crowd who knew the details.

James Harris came from a powerful family and had known the Jiang grain merchant for over ten years, even having received favors from him in the past. Every year during festivals, James Harris would visit to express his gratitude, always very respectful.

Later, when James Harris joined forces with Sun Deya and others to raise an army and seize Haozhou, the Jiang grain merchant even gave James Harris a hundred cartloads of grain, helping him to establish his footing.

By rights, this man should have been a great benefactor to James Harris, so why didn’t he get an official post in the Red Turban Army?

It turned out that this Jiang grain merchant had a nephew who was an official in the Yuan court. He intentionally kept his distance from James Harris, but also didn’t abandon his family business—so things remained ambiguous.

In the end, after all the back and forth, John Washington ended up arresting him and beheading him in public.

Now things had gotten serious.

Michael Harris, seeing his father weeping, was so angry he jumped three feet high.

“John Washington, how dare you kill someone at will?”

John Washington kept a straight face and said coldly, “I acted according to military orders, not on a whim!”

“What military order? How come my father didn’t know about it?”

“The commander ordered us to requisition grain from the city, so I was simply following orders,” John Washington replied to Michael Harris without arrogance or servility.

Michael Harris was furious. “You were told to requisition grain, not to kill people! You’re out of control!”

John Washington’s expression grew grave, and he was about to speak when suddenly James Harris climbed up from the platform, tears in his eyes, glaring angrily at John Washington.

“How dare you! Brother Jiang was a good friend of mine and has done me favors. Who gave you the courage to murder him?”

James Harris shouted loudly.

John Washington was taken aback at first. Of course, he didn’t dare be disrespectful to the commander, but the commander’s accusation wasn’t entirely reasonable either.

He could only bow and say, “Reporting to the commander, this man refused to cooperate with military orders. The grain concerns the life and death of all the people in the city—how could I allow him to act recklessly? I had no choice but to execute him. If the commander wishes to punish me, I am willing to accept it!”

With that, John Washington dropped to his knees, holding back everything he wanted to say, awaiting his fate!

The few grain merchants who had been brought in with the Jiang merchant, having narrowly escaped death, now found someone to rely on. They all knelt down, weeping bitterly.

“Commander, Old Jiang was killed unjustly, please give us justice!” They sobbed and wailed, having just escaped death, full of grievances.

James Harris saw this and was burning with anger. He knew these people too. This John Washington had caused such a disaster—what was he supposed to do now?

“I told you to collect military grain, but you—you should have done it peacefully, discussed it properly. How could you just kill someone? This is infuriating!”

John Washington remained kneeling, even more silent.

At a time like this, who would agree to a peaceful discussion?

Seeing John Washington remain silent, Michael Harris was overjoyed, thinking he had no response, and quickly said, “Father, John Washington has killed the innocent and ruined the people’s trust in the city—he should be executed!”

He could never forget the matter with Lady Ma. Such a beautiful woman—how could she end up with a brute like John Washington? What a waste!

James Harris glared at John Washington, unable to make a decision for the moment. The whole scene fell into a stalemate...

William Bolton watched everything clearly from the crowd, growing anxious inside.

If John Washington were to pay with his life, James Harris probably wouldn’t go that far, but he would definitely suffer a loss.

William Bolton saw this and grew even more anxious, but he couldn’t step forward to speak for John Washington, so his eyes darted around anxiously. Suddenly, William Bolton noticed that the common people were all filled with righteous indignation, their eyes wide with anger, clearly dissatisfied.

William Bolton immediately had an idea—what was needed now was a leader.

Ignoring the dirt on the ground, he lay down and shouted loudly, “Young Master Washington is innocent!”

His shout startled countless people.

That’s right—at first, everyone had just come to watch the commotion; they didn’t care who lived or died.

But when John Washington offered to sell grain at a fair price, the people were moved and thought he was a good man. When John Washington killed the Jiang grain merchant, the people admired him even more, thinking he was a man of action and courage.

A profiteer—he deserved to die!

Now, seeing that the commander wanted to punish this man—what was this? Turning right and wrong upside down?

The people wouldn’t stand for it. They all knelt down, crying out for John Washington’s innocence.

Hidden in the crowd, William Bolton became even more enthusiastic, shouting with all his might, stirring up the crowd.

“Young Master Washington is innocent!”

“What’s wrong with killing a profiteer?”

“Young Master Washington has done nothing but good!”

“The commander must not wrong a good man!”

...