Song Zhen conscientiously checked the identities of the prisoners one by one, and soon climbed onto the stage and reported: "The criminals are all themselves, and there is no mistake. ”

Ouyang Xiu nodded and said, "Thank you Lord Song, please sit down and wait." ”

Time passed slowly, the whole square was silent, people stopped cursing, stretched their necks and tiptoed to look up and down the stage, for fear of missing the moment of beheading.

After a short time, the little official came to report: "Ladies and gentlemen, three o'clock in the afternoon is approaching." ”

Ouyang Xiu nodded and ordered: "Prepare for execution!" ”

The executioners took action one after another, pulled out the death cards behind the prisoners, and carried chickens to press them one by one by their hair to the wooden pier, tying the hair to the nails on the side of the wooden pier to fix it.

The prisoners knew that the time had come to go on the road, and the fear of lying on the cold wooden piers, stretching their necks and waiting to be stabbed, made many people cry wolf, and many more were already full of and urine, and their bodies were full of strength.

The six executioners on the stage had an amazing tacit understanding, only to see them press Feng Jingyao and others down on the wooden pier and tie them up, and neatly stretched out their cold big hands to touch the part of the knife on the back of their necks, and muttered in their mouths: "Don't move, if this knife goes down and loses its head, you will suffer more knives and more suffering; Moreover, it has also ruined our reputation, my six Ruan brothers have never been stabbed a second time, and no one has to laugh at our poor craftsmanship, which is a sin you created before you died. ”

Guo Pinchao and the others knew that there was no hope of escaping, although the executioners' words were terrible, they were also true, it was better to kill with one knife than to be chopped several times by them like chopping vegetables, so they collapsed on the wooden pier one by one with tears streaming down their faces, just begging for a quick death.

The official said in a loud voice: "It's three o'clock in the afternoon." ”

Ouyang Xiu stood up, raised the token in his hand and was about to throw it, when he heard a sound of horses' hooves at the corner of the street, and someone roared and shouted: "There is a decree in the Holy Spirit, suspend the execution." ”

Ouyang Xiu and Su Jin were stunned, and when they turned their heads, they saw dozens of horsemen rushing along the street, the first one was dressed in Praetorian Guard uniforms, holding the reins in his right hand, and holding a brocade box in his left hand.

Ouyang Xiu is even known to the person riding a horse, that person is the deputy envoy of the palace army, Zhang Mei, the commander of the palace army, into the city forbidden army three points, one for the palace front army, one for the guard infantry army, one for the guard horse army, commonly known as the three ya, and the palace front army as the name suggests is directly responsible for the security of the palace The army, more trusted by the emperor than the other two armies, Ouyang Xiu faced the saint in the morning and evening in the evening, and the generals of the palace army were naturally familiar with each other.

How could Su Jin allow someone to stir up the situation at a critical moment, Ouyang Xiu has a way out, he has no way out, as long as one of these people survives, his life will be gone, without thinking about it at the moment, he snatched the token from Ouyang Xiu's hand, waved it out, and shouted in his mouth: "Execution!" ”

The token landed on the ground, and the executioners no longer hesitated, and waved the steel knife in unison and raised it high; Ouyang Xiu exclaimed, "Don't ......! ”

The executioners hesitated for a moment, and Su Jin was dumbfounded: "Violators, behead!" ”

I saw a dazzling knife light, the click sound of the steel knife cutting into the neck bone rose and fell, and the heads rolled down with splashing blood, and suddenly the hot air on and off the stage was steaming, and the hot blood quickly became cold when it touched the cold air, and it turned into sauce red after a while.

Ouyang Xiu and Song Zhen looked at Su Jin with their mouths wide open, and only looked at the heads all over the ground for a long time and muttered, "Special envoy Su...... What are you...... Resist the will. ”

Su Jin said: "Don't panic, the two adults have nothing to do with you, it is my order." ”

Zhang Mei watched the executioners slash the prisoners one by one, but they were too far away, and there was really no way, so she angrily shouted at the crowded people blocking the road: "Don't dodge a way, left and right, give General Ben a whip." ”

The guards of the army in front of the palace who followed behind struck both sides without brains, and the people panicked to avoid it, and they were forced to break out of a passage.

Zhang Meizong rode close to the stage, turned over and dismounted, looked at the headless corpses lying on the ground with a pale face, and suddenly stepped onto the stage in a few steps, ignoring Ouyang Xiu and Song Zhen leaving their seats to salute, and shouted angrily: "Who gave the order? Who is it? ”

Su Jin walked out slowly and arched his hand: "This general is the beheading order issued by this envoy. ”

Zhang Mei glared at Su Jin, looked up and down, and sneered, "Who are you?" ”

Su Jin said: "I am Su Jin, the special envoy of grain affairs. ”

Zhang Mei snorted and said, "You are that Su Jin?" Your order? ”

Su Jin said: "Exactly." ”

Zhang Mei shouted coldly: "Take down this person and bring it back to the capital to ask for the guilt." ”

Several guards in front of the palace rushed forward to take Su Jin, Ouyang Xiu and Song Zhen panicked, and sighed uncontrollably, not knowing what to do.

Su Jin hurriedly took a few steps back, raised his hand and said, "Wait!" What crime did the officer commit? ”

Zhang Mei laughed angrily, stared at Su Jin's face and said, "What are you pretending to be confused?" This general passed the emperor's decree and ordered you to wait for the postponement of the execution, are you deaf? Or is it blind? ”

Su Jin's face turned cold and said: "Please respect this general, the emperor will give orders, if you speak disrespectfully to the envoy, the envoy will no longer be polite to you." ”

Ouyang Xiu hurriedly shouted: "Special envoy Su is rude, this is Lord Zhang Mei, the deputy commander of the army in front of the palace. ”

Su Jin sneered: "Even if you are a member of the imperial court, you can't casually slander the imperial officials, the original envoy is the emperor's order, although there is no grade, but the emperor doesn't want the envoy to be insulted when he sees the official." ”

Zhang Mei's lungs exploded, pointed at Su Jin's forehead and nose and said, "Okay, good!" The emperor gave you two points of color and you opened a dyeing workshop, and you really thought you were a character; Today, General Ben is going to take you down, come on, and take down Su Jin, the disrespectful grain envoy, for me. ”

Su Jin glared and shouted, "Who dare? Come and protect the envoy. ”

Zhao and Fang Er were dumbfounded, Zhang Mei they knew each other, although the Ma Army and the Dianqian Army were not subordinate, but after all, they were the commanders in the army, even if they were the top Sima Jun commanded here, they didn't dare to make a mistake to Zhang Mei, there was a difference between relatives and alienation, if it was said that the forbidden army in the Great Song Dynasty army was the wife and the Xiang army was the concubine, then the army in front of the temple of the forbidden army was the eldest woman, and the Ma army and the infantry army were the second room.

However, the envoy is currently his top boss, and if he does not respect Su Jin's order, he will directly disobey the order, which will annoy Su Jin, and it will be difficult to live that day.

was in a difficult situation, but saw dozens of Xiang soldiers rushing onto the wooden platform under the leadership of Pan Jiang, surrounding more than a dozen guards in front of the palace.

"Bold! This man resists the decree, do you dare to help him and want to rebel? Zhang Mei roared angrily.

Pan Jiang arched his hand and said: "Returning to the capital to command the general, the lowly rank is just acting on orders, the Song prefect has already granted the right to deploy the troops to the Su envoy, please forgive the general." ”

"What? On the contrary, on the contrary, this is worth it, I can't imagine that there are people who are rebellious, I will report to the emperor, and you will all be beheaded. Zhang Mei roared, he didn't expect to be surrounded by a group of turtle-like van troops, which was like a powerful person being stripped of his pants in front of everyone on an important occasion, which was a great shame.

"This ...... General Zhang, don't be impatient, the matter has come to this ......" Ouyang Xiu stepped forward with a smile on his face, intending to say a few words of comfort.

Zhang Mei interrupted him mercilessly, pointed to his nose and said, "And you...... Lord Ouyang, I didn't expect you, an important minister in the court, to dare to resist the decree and disrespect, it's okay, don't blame the official for not being emotional, this time none of you can escape. ”

Su Jin said coldly: "This General Zhang, we are waiting for the order to execute Yangzhou criminals, what are you doing when you come here and jump and shout?" The execution ground is a place of official business, what are you here for? ”

Zhang Mei took a sip and said: "The official has already spoken out from afar, asking you to keep people under the knife, why are you forcibly executed?" ”

Su Jin pretended to be surprised and said, "Did you shout?" Why didn't the envoy hear it? ”

Zhang Mei's eyes were about to fall, and she tilted her head and pouted, "You dare to say that you didn't hear it?" Do you dare to tell this lie in front of everyone? ”

Su Jin blinked innocently and said, "I didn't hear it in the first place, so why lie about it." After that, he turned his head and asked Pan Jiang and the others, "Did you hear that?" ”

Pan Jiang shook his head and said, "There are many people and the voice is noisy, and I didn't hear it." ”

The soldiers also shook their heads and said, "We didn't hear it either." ”

Zhang Mei gritted her teeth and nodded frequently, and suddenly pointed at Ouyang Xiu and said, "Lord Ouyang, what about you?" Did you hear that? ”

Ouyang Xiu didn't know how to answer, and said hesitantly: "This...... This one...... The official ......"

Su Jin said loudly: "Why bother asking the people on the stage, the seventy or eighty thousand people in the audience, why don't you ask them, you just said that the ears of the people are deaf, and the ears of the people can't all be deaf, right?" ”

Without waiting for Zhang Mei to answer, Su Jin walked to the entrance of the stage and said loudly to the people in the audience: "Fellow villagers, this General Zhang from the capital said that I didn't listen to his order to keep people under the knife, and I was killed privately, and I was going to Beijing to be punished; I was very wronged, for I did not hear him shout, but he did not believe it; Therefore, I would like to ask you, did you hear him shout that he had left people under his sword? ”

The people had already seen the situation on the stage in their eyes, although they couldn't hear what Su Qingtian and this menacing official were fighting for, but they had seen the cause and effect, and they could guess a few points.

At this time, where do you need to use your brain, open your mouth and say: "I didn't hear it, we didn't hear anything." ”

Zhang Mei pointed her finger at the audience and said, "A group of Diao people, open their eyes and talk nonsense, do you want to die?" ”

A short man with a sharp beak and a monkey's cheek suddenly shouted, "My lord, the grass people have heard. ”

Everyone looked at the man in unison, and they couldn't wait to slap this dog to death.

Zhang Mei was overjoyed and said, "Very good, what did you hear?" Tell me about it. To tell the truth, this official has a reward! ”

The man smiled and said: "There is no need for a reward, it is the responsibility of my generation to ask the officials for questioning, and the villain did hear it." ”

Zhang Mei smiled and said, "Tell them about it." ”

The man said: "The villain heard it, just now, a donkey was barking at the street entrance, I don't know if everyone heard it." ”

The people laughed, and some people echoed: "Yes, yes, it's a big stupid donkey, I'm afraid that the butcher of Nanjie Zhang is fanning the donkey." ”

Zhang Mei's face turned purple, and she was about to draw her knife when she reached out and was about to draw her sword, but a guard in front of the palace hurriedly stepped forward to stop her and whispered in his ear to comfort her.

Zhang Mei sneered and turned around, and arched her hand to Su Jinyi: "Sure enough, it's well known, it's very good, I, Zhang Mei, admit it, but let me tell you, this matter is not so easy to pass, let's see you in the capital!" ”