Han’s Son is Not a Slave

Chapter 64: Seiki

After controlling the crowd on the official road, Zhou Shixiang immediately asked Ge Wu to lead people to search for those who fled into the woods on both sides. After about half an hour, except for a few people who had escaped by night, the team in the city was completely controlled. There are estimated to be hundreds of people.

Men were ordered to squat on the ground, while women and children were held in another place, flanked by torched Taiping soldiers. In the face of the Ming army’s swords and spears and the corpses on the ground, everyone in the crowd froze, and no one dared to speak. In the sight, from time to time soldiers picked up packages full of valuables and threw them on the ground, many of which were still stained with red blood.

The carriages filled with goods were led back by the soldiers. Zhou Shixiang held a torch in one hand and carefully looked at the list in his hand. Every time he read a name, a man with a masked face next to him whispered what he said.

When all the vehicles were pulled to the back, Zhou Shixiang came to the group of men squatting on the ground, glanced at the list in his hand, and then shouted: “Who is Zheng Longfa?”

There was a commotion in the crowd, but no one answered.

Zhou Shixiang frowned and shouted again: “Zheng Longfa comes out by himself, don’t ask this general to send someone to bring you out!”

After a moment of silence, a fat man dressed in silk stood up from the ground, then squeezed out of the crowd tremblingly, came to Zhou Shixiang and bowed, saying very carefully, “General, I am Zheng Longfa.”

Zhou Shixiang flashed the torch in front of him, and Zheng Longfa, who felt the heat of the torch, quickly turned his face away, and when he turned around, he heard the person in front of him ask him: “In the sixth year of Yongli, did you tie up the prefect when you were appointed to the Nanxiong House? Kaesong asks the Qing army to surrender?”

Hearing this, Zheng Longfa immediately shuddered, jumped up like a mouse seeing a cat, and shouted to the sky, “There is absolutely no such thing! I have never done it!”

Zhou Shixiang snorted, stared at him coldly and said, “You said there was no such thing, but why do people say you did it?”

Zheng Longfa was stared at with a guilty conscience, but he cursed in his mouth: “This is the one who kills a thousand knives and chews maggots to slander me. My Zheng Long is a clear minister, and death is a clear ghost. How can I open the door and accept it? The matter! The general must not listen to the slanderous words of the villain…”

“Crack!”

Seeing that this guy dared to speak stubbornly, Zhou Shixiang couldn’t help but get angry with his dazzling braids, so you dared to pretend to be a clear minister and a clear ghost. Whether you say yes or no, say one more word, and this will kill you immediately!”

“I…”

Zheng Long felt bitter in his heart, knowing that he was in front of the gate of hell. He didn’t dare to say yes, but he didn’t dare to say anything more. He was shivering and sweating. He couldn’t care less, he gritted his teeth and said, “It was good that I was there when I left the city, but I was also forced to go. If I didn’t go, those people would kill me…”

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Shixiang’s hand had already waved down: “Drag and chop!”

“Yes!”

Immediately, two soldiers rushed forward and dragged the stunned Zheng Longfa aside, and then cut off his head with a knife when he shouted “wronged”.

“call!”

When Zheng Longfa’s head fell to the ground, the crowd squatting there suddenly let out a cry of exclamation. The people in front were even more frightened and stepped back. There were even a few people inside who felt like a thousand drums were beating in their hearts, and their hands were slamming on the ground. , I don’t know if the fingernail is broken.

Before the crowd had reacted to Zheng Longfa’s death, Zhou Shixiang had already called out a second name.

“Li Qingshui!”

This time, no one came out. Fortunately, Zhou Shixiang was well prepared and glanced at the masked man. The latter immediately walked towards the crowd with a torch, and in a short while, a man who was already frightened turned pale. middle-aged man pointed it out.

“General, spare your life, general, spare your life!”

When Li Qingshui was brought up, he kept begging for mercy, and Zhou Shixiang begged him to cut him off, but asked: “In the second year of Yongli, did you secretly report to the Qing army that I was the former Prince Taibao of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhang Jiayu, a scholar of Wuyingdian University, when you were appointed magistrate of Zengcheng. whereabouts?”

This time, Li Qingshui didn’t cry anymore, his mouth was tightly closed, but there were beads of sweat oozing from his forehead, and his eyes were even more terrifying.

“Don’t talk? If you don’t talk, you will die!”

Zhou Shixiang didn’t say much. With a wave of his hand, Li Qingshui was immediately pulled to Zheng Longfa’s body. When he wanted to speak, his head was already on the ground.

“Wang Shiyun!”

Zhou Shixiang called a third name, but no one came out, and he was also identified.

When Wang Shiyun was dragged out, Zhou Shixiang was about to speak, but someone in the group of women not far away yelled: “Wang Shiyun, you are the one who kills thousands of knives today. Slash him with a thousand swords!”

Wang Shiyun was already extremely frightened, but after listening to the scolding from the mother-in-law, he was so frightened that his legs trembled, and the coldness in his throat went up.

After Zhou Shixiang motioned the soldiers to shut up the woman, he said to Wang Shiyun, “Did you donate 12,000 taels to the general Zhaoqing army of the Qing Dynasty in the seventh year of the Yongli calendar?”

“There is this.”

Wang Shiyun didn’t hide it. He thought to himself that he did not open the city to accept the surrender, nor did he harm the officials of the Ming Dynasty. But what he didn’t expect was that just as he answered, the young general in front of him waved his hand down: “Beheaded!”

“…”

One after another, men with fat heads and ears, upright bodies, or mouths full of copper, were brought up and beheaded, and there were seven or eight heads on the ground plus one piece.

After so many people cut down, the crowd was not as frightened as before, because they clearly saw that the Ming army was only trying to avenge those guys who had betrayed Ming, and it seemed that they had no intention of embarrassing ordinary people. The relatives of those who were killed even breathed a sigh of relief. The injustices and the debts have their own masters. Everyone is dead, so they will not be implicated. They thought so, and the servants even felt that the knife would not cut them.

Waiting for death is a painful thing, and watching other people’s heads fall to the ground is even more torture. When Ye Jinglian’s name rang, Ye Jinglian suddenly no longer felt that there was anything scary about death, and the heavy burden on his shoulders disappeared. People are much more relaxed. He didn’t ask anyone to identify him, but walked out by himself. When he came out, he didn’t forget to take a last look at the unconscious old wife who was lying on the ground not far away.

After walking in front of Zhou Shixiang, Ye Jinglian wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy, but seeing that the other party was younger than his own son, and none of the people who were called out by him were alive, the thought of begging for mercy faded in an instant, and he pretended to be a generous general. He stiffened his waist, and then said neither humble nor arrogant: “This old man is Ye Jingjie, and if you want to kill you, you have to be slaughtered.”

Zhou Shixiang looked up and down at this old man who was still kneeling on the ground half an hour ago and begging for mercy. As if going through the process, he asked in a straight-forward manner: “In the seventh and eighth years of the Yongli calendar, you sent people to report to the Qing army several times, which caused many casualties in the Ming army. This time, I organized people to intercept and kill our wounded soldiers, is there such a thing?”

Ye Jinglian said without thinking: “Yes, I have done all these things.”

“That’s good, you don’t have to say anything more, just go over by yourself.”

Zhou Shixiang pointed at the temporary court where several corpses were lying down. Ye Jinglian did not go over immediately, but looked up at the pitch-black sky, and walked over with a long sigh. But I don’t know if I regret what I have done, or if I regret not leaving the city.

“master!”

When Ye Jinglian’s head fell to the ground, an old woman’s scream sounded, and then there was no sound.

Sun Sitai was the last name to be called. This was a middle-aged man in a Confucian shirt who looked quite righteous.

In later generations, Sun Shitai should be a good official with a righteous body, at least, with a dignified appearance. It’s a pity that such a handsome, upright scholar has become a traitor, but he responded to Chen Peisi’s words, “I didn’t think you would betray the revolution with big eyebrows and big eyes.”

After a small sigh of relief, Zhou Shixiang said sternly: “Master Sun, you are the prefect of Zhejiang Yanzhou in the Qing court. In November last year, my old mother passed away and returned to my hometown, Ding You. I’m afraid it won’t be more than a month since I just returned to Deqing. .”

Sun Sitai snorted: “You know what, why do you still ask me?”

“Aren’t you afraid of dying?”

Zhou Shixiang put the list on the torch and lit it ~www.readwn.com~ The paper soon became embers along with the flame.

Sun Sitai took his eyes away from the paper that had turned into ashes, and said loudly: “If you die, what is there to be afraid of?”

“Do you really want to resist Master Wang with your own death? If Master Sun decides to surrender, perhaps he would have spared your life, and even recommended to the court to you.”

If the current prefect of the Qing court can be successfully persuaded to surrender, the Yongli court sent to the Anlong mansion is probably a big credit. In addition, Sun Sitai did not have any bad deeds, so Zhou Shixiang had no intention of killing this person. After all, there are too many Han people who are upright officials in the world. If everyone wants to kill them, it is impossible to kill them all. The consequences of indiscriminate killing will only arouse the desperate resistance of the Han people who served the Manchurians, which will undoubtedly do no good for the restoration of China.

Unexpectedly, Sun Sitai was not moved at all, instead he snorted and scolded: “What Wang Shi, he is just a gang of gangsters and rebels under the Daxi thieves! I, Sun Sitai, have been serving in the Qing Dynasty, and I have only one thing in my heart. I, the Qing Dynasty, cannot be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, and I will never be in the company of the grass bandits like you!”

After scolding, Sun Sitai gritted his teeth and glared at Zhou Shixiang. But what is there to be afraid of? The emperor of the Qing Dynasty treated me well, and served as the prefect of the government as a person. How many people can there be in the world? I, Sun Sitai, have no way of repaying such honor and favor. Today, I will repay the Qing Emperor’s favor with one death! On top of his daily history books, there is no shortage of my Sun Sitai’s clank deeds!

“Forget it, since you are begging for death with all your heart, I will fulfill it for you.”

The opponent’s posture made Zhou Shixian to persuade him to surrender, and he waved to let Sun Sitai be dragged down. If this person wants to be a ghost of the Qing Dynasty, let him be a ghost of the Qing Dynasty.