Chapter 1026: The Beginning Under the Butcher's Knife
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Chapter 1026: The Beginning Under the Butcher's Knife
The gentry inside and outside Shanghai County made a plaque the next day that read "Love the People Like Sons" and sent it to the Liaoguo Mansion with gongs and drums. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info
The first purpose of sending the plaque was to reward Wang Tong for rectifying public order, and the second was to intercede for the two temples outside the city, after all, this is a matter that hurts Yin morality.
The Liaoguo Mansion didn't see these people at all, and the plaque was not accepted, but it just arranged for someone to lead them to the temple, and no one dared to argue, so they obediently followed.
I went to the temple, and yesterday I was locked up here and escorted out, leading the gentry into the temple, but to the backyard meditation room, everyone is in the front hall on weekdays, and the temple also has a special house for hospitality, which everyone has not been to the backyard.
As a result, I saw a cellar underneath the meditation room, imitating the style of a prison, and dozens of young women who were now recuperating in the meditation room, all accompanied by the mothers-in-law invited from the city.
There is a difference between men and women, so naturally they will not be allowed to look closely, but after reading it, it shows that these women are the people who have recently disappeared in the county, and they have all been found in the cellar.
Everyone was shocked, and they also understood that even if the Duke of Liao wanted to be framed, he would not do such a troublesome thing, which must be ironclad evidence.
After careful questioning, I found out that the pirates were active more in and out of the county, and they were bolder, and they were short of women on the sea, so they wanted to get some women on the ship here in Songjiang Prefecture, and they could use them for their own use, or they could sell them.
These two temples were originally the owners of the nest, and on weekdays, they used the identity of the monks as a cover, hiding filth and dirt in the temple, and doing unsightly pickled things, and the women who were abducted and robbed by the Cao family inside and outside the city were directly hidden in the temple, waiting for the pirates to pick up the goods.
Fortunately, the time to do things is short, and there has not been any uncontrollable harm, Wang Tong has already known the news here, and took this opportunity to catch them all.
Seeing this, the gentry still had the intention of pleading, and they all scolded endlessly, complaining that they were blind, and they all went to kowtow in front of the Duke of Liao, thanking and thanking.
All of them are afraid, and they all ask the Duke of Liao to continue to purge them, and this time there are so many people involved with pirates inside and outside the city, and the pirates have to come to retaliate, and they still have to ask the Duke of Guo for protection.
For this, Wang Tong sent someone to give a message, don't worry, you will definitely be able to see it within a month, according to the usual knowledge of the gentry of Songjiang Mansion, the Duke of Liao is ready to shirk, but there is no way, can everyone still urge to be in a hurry, and can only return to the city in a foolish way.
With Wang Tong's supervision, it is more likely that the purge was carried out vigorously and resolutely that day, and the county government questioned the case with extremely high efficiency, that is, two days of work, and most of the cases have been concluded, but this verdict is really bloody, and those who have a life lawsuit on their bodies are all killed and stolen from their homes, and those who abduct and sell women are also killed and stolen from their homes, and those who have fought and injured people are all killed and stolen from their homes, and the rest of the people are all forced to work hard for several years.
After calculation, the county set the death penalty of more than 150 people in one day, and the hard labor of more than 600 people, which was really a harsh punishment, and the confiscated family property was also rich.
If you count the cadres who were killed on the street yesterday, the number of people who have died and will die in the past two days is almost more than 300.
The gentry and people in the county applauded their hands, but they were also frightened by this killing, and they were cautious and cautious, not daring to violate the king's law in the slightest.
According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, even if the county order sentences the execution, the prisoner will not be beheaded immediately, and it must be reported layer by layer as usual, and then the criminal department will be summarized to the Son of Heaven for execution.
This went up step by step from the grassroots level to the Jingshi Palace, and had to go through a number of formalities, which were approved by officials at various levels, and many judgments were rejected in the process of approval, and a retrial was requested.
However, this time there was no rejection, the county sent it, and the government probably read it, and directly signed it with the seal, and then reported it, and the same is true for Nanjing, all the way to Beijing.
The rules of the Ming officialdom are too much, and there will be no good words in the performance appraisal of this official, and if you kill too many people, this is called no mercy, and there are so many death penalty cases, doesn't it mean that the place under your rule is not peaceful? Therefore, the prefect of the county and the prefect of the prefecture rarely sentence the death penalty, not that they can't cure the dead, and if they want to kill people, they just let you go to the cage and stay in the cage, and the person will die in less than two days, which is not the death penalty, and it also plays a deterrent role.
When the document was sent to the Criminal Department, seeing so many people who were sentenced to death, there was still a Lang official who couldn't stand it, so he took the document to Shangshu and said:
"Songjiang Prefecture is really not like that, last year the entire Nanzhili reported a total of more than 70 prisoners pending execution, and this year he reported more than 150 people in one county in one month, which is really ridiculous."
Shangshu of the Criminal Department didn't even raise his eyelids, but said:
"Since he reported it, you have also read it, but what is not in order?"
"I don't see this, the confession and painting are all complete"
"Then you will report to the palace and let the king judge be, what are you doing?"
"My lord, Wang Tong went to Songjiang, and he was so careless about people's lives, if our center was so indulgent, wouldn't the people of Songjiang be poisoned by him?"
"Full of nonsense, Wang Tong is good at killing, but never kills indiscriminately, this reputation is still there, besides, he has killed more than 100,000 people in the north and south, why go to Songjiang to kill so many gangsters to show his majesty, besides, he is now in Songjiang, no matter what he does, the court will be indulgent, why bother our criminal department to touch this mold, do you understand?"
Wang Tong was originally a man of great merit and wealth, and his title, status, and power were inflated, but he gave up all this and went to Songjiang by himself.
As soon as this attitude was made, the public opinion of the government and the opposition immediately changed, originally they were worried that Wang Tonggong was high and ambitious, but now he has become a cautious person who retreats bravely and understands the measure, but there is public opinion that is not conducive to the court, saying that Wang Tonggong has made such great achievements, but he can't live in the court, he can only retreat to the countryside, is it not that the Ming Dynasty can tolerate a meritorious hero, is the prince so stingy?
Before Wang Tong did not come back from Liaozhen, everyone in the court was worried from top to bottom, but Wang Tong went to Songjiang, but everyone in the court was a little sneering.
In such a situation, if Wang Tong does something in Songjiang Mansion, or even does something wrong, and is blocked and made difficult by the center of the imperial court, the spearhead of public opinion will be pointed at the princes of the court.
Then again, although Wang Tong went to Songjiang Mansion, he is the Duke of Liao after all, and after all, he has the official title of the commander of the Jinyi Guard, and his henchmen and cronies have won the trust of Emperor Wanli even more because of his departure.
Everyone understands this, don't say that Wang Tong has the title of the general office of Songjiang, but he doesn't, he is doing mischief in Songjiang, killing people and overselling goods, bullying men and women, the court will pretend not to see it, and will take care of the abnormal.
What's more, although there are many people who are sentenced to death this time, Wang Tong has done everything completely, and the formalities are complete, and he can't find fault with it, so why bother to condemn him like righteousness, it is self-inflicted.
More than 150 people who were punished by the Ming Dynasty, in addition to more than a dozen people who committed the most heinous crimes, did not report it, and directly used a standing cage in a place with a large flow of people inside and outside the city, and within two days people died directly in the cage, and then cut off their heads and hung them at the city gate to show the public, and the thunderous means were immediately to subdue everyone.
Although the other counties in Songjiang Prefecture are not as harsh as here, they do similar things, and the county orders over there are now to save their lives, and they don't care about anything, they still have to be officials, so there are not so many death sentences, but there are a lot of hard labor to do to raid homes.
Don't think about what kind of bargain you want to get from it, there are people sent by the Duke of Liao everywhere to watch, and they can't take advantage of the loopholes, all those sentenced to hard labor are led to Shanghai County, and the most laughable thing is that the rations of these hard laborers still have to be supplied in their original places.
Fortunately, Songjiang Mansion is rich, and he doesn't care about this bit of grain, grass and silver, and not offending the prince of Liao is the first priority, and he is simply and neatly allocated.
Now there were about 2,000 prisoners in Shanghai County, and when they were gathered, they began to do hard labor, building ports and paving roads under the watchful eye of soldiers.
The Duke of Liao began to post proclamations again, requisitioning young men to participate in hard labor, which was paid to the wages, which came from the confiscated property.
Whether you are a commoner or a gentleman, no matter whether you have a reputation in your family or not, you can be exempted from taxes and labor, as long as you are transferred, you must send someone to go, if this kind of thing is put in the past, it will definitely make a fuss, but the blood is still there, who dares to make a mistake, do you think your head is too strong?
With enough money invested and enough labor to build, a cadre of the imperial court in Nanzhili had to write in the twists and turns that the procrastination and stagnation of the opening of the port of Songjiang finally began to make great improvements after the arrival of the Duke of Liao, and all the projects were started.
Songjiang opened its port and officially embarked on the track, albeit under the coercion of a butcher's knife