The ancients believed that people have souls, and the prisoners who were killed were too resentful, and it was easy to become evil ghosts after death, so the execution would generally be carried out at three o'clock in the afternoon, that is, around twelve o'clock in the afternoon.

At this time, the sun is high in the middle of the sky, the shadow of people is the shortest, the yang energy is the strongest, and the yin energy is weak, and the fierce sunlight can eliminate the resentment and yin energy of the criminals, so that they can't even make ghosts.

At about 10 o'clock in the morning, the temporary execution ground in the north of Leadshan County was already overcrowded, and all the people who came to watch the execution were all ordinary people. An hour later, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the Commander of the General Judgment was to behead two hundred and thirty-five thieves and prisoners.

At about 11 o'clock in the morning, more than 200 thieves were successively identified and escorted to the execution ground, divided into several columns and knelt on the ground, each of whom stood behind an executioner with a ghost-headed knife. In an instant, the cries and begging for mercy rang out, and some thieves even peed their pants on the spot.

Yang Qing and Wang Ru knelt at the front, both of them in high spirits at the moment. Yang Qing had already been hit by a fire, and that night he was "singled out" by Qiu Man, the deputy Qianhu, and at this moment his nose and face were swollen, and his body was shaky. Wang Ru was better, but his mouth was slapped by Xu Jin's personal soldiers, the upper and lower lips were rotten, and the toothless gums were exposed, which was miserable.

"Look, the two people in front of me are the leaders of the thieves, and I heard that they used to be big thieves who robbed homes and houses."

"Huo, no wonder you look like that, you should kill it!"

The people around pointed at Yang Qing and Wang Ru and discussed and cursed, and then someone threw a rotten egg at Wang Ru, who suddenly showed a fierce look, but it attracted more rotten egg attacks.

As the so-called phoenix in the water is not as good as a chicken, let alone a thief who almost falls to the ground, so no one is afraid of Wang Ru at all, and everyone enjoys it.

At this time, someone suddenly shouted: "Look, everyone, the prison officer has entered, and the scholar dares to be a judge, he is really young, I heard that Lord Xu is not yet sixteen years old this year." ”

The people watching around suddenly boiled, and they all looked at the prison platform, and sure enough, they saw a young man wearing a beautiful robe, leading a group of officials.

Xu Jin's general sentence was temporarily appointed by Sun Sui, so there is no specially customized official uniform, and he still wears the jade-colored shirt of a student today.

Xu Jin's expression was serious, his steps were firm and calm, followed by officials such as Wu Linguang, the county magistrate, Meng Xuan, and the chief Bo Fang Tianlu, and in addition, the famous gentry of Leadshan County were all "invited" to watch the execution.

Xu Jin sat down in the position of the supervisor and beheader, and Xie Erjian Wang Lin Er and other personal soldiers guarded the front and back, pressing the handle of the knife one by one, murderous.

Yu Linsheng strode forward and clasped his fists and saluted: "My lord, the two hundred and thirty-five prisoners have all been verified. ”

Xu Jin nodded and waved his hand to let Yu Linsheng retreat, and then ordered: "Meng Xiancheng, hand over the execution list to Wu County to read out." ”

Meng Xiancheng had a pair of rabbit eyes and gave a thick roster to Wu Linguang, who was in the position of deputy supervisor and beheader.

It is said that Meng Xuan has been interrogating the prisoners day and night in the past few days, and he really asked him to get out a roster of more than 300 prisoners, which recorded the identity information of each prisoner in detail, as well as the crimes he had committed.

Xu Jin selected 235 people to be beheaded according to the roster of prisoners, all of whom were water thieves or prisoners in the original Poyang Lake, and only a few dozen landless refugees who had not committed great evils escaped by chance.

Wu Linguang took the roster handed by Meng Xuan, and secretly felt bitter in his heart. Originally, in Wu Linguang's eyes, Xu Jin was just a fifteen-year-old boy, and with his many years of experience in officialdom, was it more than enough to deal with him?

However, after working together for the past few days, Wu Xianling found that he was very wrong, this Xu Jin was sophisticated and meticulous, he couldn't fool at all, and his methods were sharp and decisive.

Now that he is the deputy supervisor and beheading officer, he personally read out the crime and beheaded more than 200 people under King Ning, I am afraid that I can't do it if I want to be a wall grass, so I can only follow Xu Jin and King Ning to the end.

Wu Linguang originally planned to use the trick of "low back pain" to shirk this errand, but he didn't dare, because a gentry wanted to pretend to be sick and not attend, so Xu Jin sent a hundred households to bring a doctor to the door to "visit", and the gentry immediately ran like a burning buttocks.

Wu Linguang opened the roster and began to read it out loud, including the names of the prisoners, their ages, their nationality, and the crimes they had committed. The list of more than 200 people, Wu Linguang read it for nearly half an hour before finishing it.

"Your Excellency!" Wu Linwen wiped the fine sweat on his forehead and respectfully handed the roster to Xu Jin.

Xu Jin took the roster, circled all the names with a red pen, then picked up the arrow and threw it on the ground, and said lightly: "Execution!" ”

Wang Lin'er and other pro-soldiers immediately shouted: "Execution!" ”

Those shirtless executioners immediately raised the ghost-headed knives with cold light, and a snow-bright knife light fell, and in an instant it seemed that the heavens and the earth were all lost, and the temperature around them was suddenly cold, blood was splashed, and more than two hundred heads rolled down into the dust......

The originally noisy execution ground was as silent as death in an instant, the air seemed to be still, and the gentry present subconsciously tightened their thick clothes, and a chill rose from the backbone and instantly flowed all over the body.

Xu Jin turned around and left with a calm expression, he also had to rush to Sun Sui's mourning hall to offer incense, read out the sacrificial text written by Fei Shi himself, as for the heads of Yang Qing and other thieves, they would be hung outside the city for seven days to show the public, in order to set an example.

As the scholar of Chunmingju said, extraordinary times have to use extraordinary means. Xu Jin must use vigorous and resolute means to deter those surrender factions and wall-riding factions in the city, the reason why Wu Sanba can go all the way is that those wall-riding factions and surrendering factions are indispensable, Xu Jin does not want to follow in the footsteps of Yiyang County's order.

As long as he can keep Leadshan County and save himself and his relatives and friends, Xu Jin doesn't care about the reputation of a cool official. What's more, his position as a general judge is only temporary, and when the rebellion of King Ning is pacified, what should he do, the imperial examination is his right path. If according to the trajectory of history, the god Wang Shouren will be able to quell the rebellion of King Ning in more than two months, and he will still have to participate in the township test in August, and it is impossible for the imperial court to let himself continue to serve as a general judge.

Sun Sui's mourning hall was set up in the county office, and today is his first seventh. Xu Jin went to the mourning hall to offer incense, recited the sacrificial text of Fei Hong's handwriting in public, and then threw it into the furnace to burn it.

Fei Hong is a talented man of Sanyuan in Zhongda, full of talent, this sacrificial text is written in a subdued and frustrating manner, touching and heartfelt, not only praising Sun Sui's Ning bending, loyalty and death, but also denouncing King Ning's perverse behavior.

In addition to the officials and gentry who came to worship Sun Sui today, there were also a large number of scholars, and the mountain chief of the Goose Lake Academy led a group of teachers to worship, so Fei Hong's sacrificial text quickly spread among the readers, and the verbal and written criticism of King Ning also began, and it became more and more intense......

Never underestimate public opinion momentum, as the so-called winner wins the world. The three elements of the soldier: time, place, and people. People are the hearts of the people.

After worshipping Sun Sui, Xu Jin, under the escort of a group of personal soldiers, rushed back to the Tongju Yamen non-stop, because the scouts sent out came to report that Wu Sanba was leading nearly 10,000 horses and horses to be killed by land and water. Therefore, Xu Jin summoned all the military generals last night, and held a meeting at the Tongju Yamen at two o'clock this afternoon to discuss the way to deal with it.

As soon as Xu Jin returned to the Yamen, Ding Dabao stepped forward to report: "My lord, the third master is coming, and he is waiting in the living room. ”

It is said that Fei Hong felt that there were too few attendants waiting around Xu Jin, and Erniu was not smart enough to be competent for some rough work, so he gave Xu Jin the clever treasure as an entourage.

Xu Jin naturally knew that the third master mentioned by Dabao was Fei Cai, and hurriedly walked into the living room.

"Ziqian!" Fei Cai's eyes were red, and he looked very sleepy, and when he saw Xu Jin, he immediately greeted him.

Xu Jin hurriedly said: "Fei Xiu, please sit down, Dabao serves tea." ”

Fei Cai's resignation was written by Nai Hanlin, so Xu Jin called it Fei Xiu.

Fei Cai obviously felt that he was a little out of shape, so he sat down again and said, "If Ziqian doesn't mind, you can call me Uncle Cai." ”

Fei Cai is only thirty years old, nearly twenty years younger than his eldest brother Fei Hong, and his schoolwork since childhood has been taught by Fei Hong, and the relationship between the two is also that of a brother and a brother.

Xu Jin nodded: "Is there something wrong with Uncle Cai?" ”

Fei Cai said a little hesitantly: "Ziqian is busy with affairs, so he shouldn't have bothered you at this time, but this matter is ...... Let's take a look at this first! ”

After Fei Cai finished speaking, he handed a stack of papers to Xu Jin.