Zhong Jinwei was still a little hesitant about how to deal with these leaders of the peasant army, but he knew that he could no longer let these leaders be with these peasant soldiers.
Seeing that Ma Xianglin had suggested killing again, he thought about it for a moment, then shook his head and said, "I don't know now. I'll think about it later."
Anyway, there are not many leaders of the bandits. Zhongxing Hou can deal with them whenever he wants, a few people thought so.
Now that the results of the handling of the peasant army have come out, Ma Xianglin resigned from Zhong Jinwei and went to take the leaders out individually and put them in separate custody.
These peasant soldiers have been in panic. Although they have said that they will not be killed if they surrender, but now they are the slaves and I are the flesh and blood. What if this or that Marquis is like that Hong Shatou, who first surrenders, then turns around and surrenders to him?
If everyone is killed, it will be tragic.
Then they felt a little better when they saw that the eager cavalry troops had assigned their leaders to another place.
Since these bosses are separated, they must be treated differently. If they are treated differently, at least they will not be worse than those bosses. Otherwise, why should they be separated? It would be easier to kill them all together.
On the contrary, the leaders of the peasant army were even more panic-stricken at this time. At this time, none of them had thought about what their rebellion could do to the three-hundred-year-old Ming Dynasty. However, they all also had the consciousness and knew that sooner or later such a day would come.
I didn't expect to come so early.
Zhong Jinwei did not pay attention to the leaders first. After Ma Xianglin came back to report that they had separated, he, escorted by a group of people, came to the place where the peasant soldiers were captured and looked at the peasant soldiers who were ordered to squat on the ground.[
"If you dare to rebel, according to the law, you will end up confiscating your family and exterminating your clan. But I also know that your rebellion is justified. So..." Zhong Jinwei has not watched the Ming Dynasty Law at all, and only spoke based on the information he got from movies and TV series.
When he said this, he stopped and glanced at the peasant soldiers squatting on the ground.
All the squatting people looked up at him, waiting anxiously for their fate to be pronounced.
"So, I am going to sentence you to forced labor..." Zhong Jinwei let out a slip of the tongue and mentioned the term for future generations. He quickly changed his words and said, "I will banish you to Zhangjiakou and work for the government for free for ten years."
At this point, he saw that all these peasant soldiers were in ragged clothes, and his sympathy came over again, and he immediately changed his words: "If you behave well on the way to Zhangjiakou and don't run away or make trouble, it will be reduced to five years after arriving in Zhangjiakou."
When these peasant soldiers heard this, they were exiled to Zhangjiakou. Is this also called exile? And it only takes five years without running or making trouble on the road. As for working for the government for free, isn't that just doing corvee service? Since ancient times, corvee service has been done for free by the government.
There is no land, and you have to bring your own food, so there is no need to emphasize that it is free. Now it is impossible to bring food by yourself. Since you have to do it yourself for five years, it means that the government has to take care of the food for five years.
After their interpretation, the reform-through-labour policy that Zhong Jinwei talked about suddenly became a good policy in their eyes. Immediately, everyone's faces showed strange expressions at first, and then they were ecstatic.
When these peasant soldiers were bandits, not only were their lives not guaranteed, they were always worried about the government's encirclement and suppression. Moreover, they did not always have food or a place to live. Now they can go to Zhangjiakou to work in exchange for food.
With their current conditions, they even began to consider whether to cause trouble on the road and not let the government deduct those five years.
Zhong Jinwei looked at their expressions, although they were a little strange, but he didn't care.
After checking the sky, he asked Ma Xianglin to send cavalry troops to escort these peasant troops, and then asked Xie Dong to send ten Jinyi guards to coordinate supplies on the road.
The escorting White-Gun Cavalry Army had not gone far when they encountered the Datong Army and the caravan. A hundred households of Jinyiwei conveyed the order of Marquis Zhongxing, asking eight hundred Datong Army to take over the escort of the Peasant Army. Only one of the White-Gannel Cavalry Army remained.
One hundred, the rest took over from the Datong army and returned to the Yellow River ferry with their pay and silver.
The people in the caravan saw the officers and soldiers escorting so many bandits, and they were surprised and talked about it. They didn't expect that the previous battle was so big. Fortunately, they won, otherwise they would encounter so many bandits head-on.
The team is like a sheep in a tiger's mouth.
Then they saw the peasant soldiers who were being escorted away by the officers and soldiers. There was no trace of depression or regret on their faces. Instead, they looked happy. They couldn't help but feel puzzled. Judging from their faces, they would have thought that this was the case.
The bandit won the battle!
Some of the businessmen's questions gradually came to Wang Yan, because he had the best relationship with the officers and soldiers, and these businessmen subconsciously regarded him as the leader.
Wang Yan himself felt puzzled, so he happened to see a familiar Jin Yiwei, so he stepped forward to inquire about it.
The businessmen were surprised and even more curious when they saw Wang Yan coming back from inquiring about the news. Several well-known businessmen gathered around Wang Yan to gossip.[
After Wang Yan explained the treatment given to the bandits by Zhongxing Hou, these businessmen all praised Zhongxing Hou's benevolence and righteousness.
Other lower-status businessmen would find various reasons to gossip after these high-status businessmen finished gossiping. There is no way, now we can just walk around and chat, there are so many questionable things, if we don't gossip, people will die.
Just chatting and walking, we soon arrived at the Yellow River Ferry.
Zhong Jinwei had been waiting for a long time. When he saw them arriving, he did not give them any rest and ordered them to follow the army directly into Shaanxi territory. Because of this battle, a lot of time was wasted and they had to rush down the road to reach the scheduled camping site.
Late at night, Zhong Jinwei finished writing the memorial and handed it over to Emperor Chongzhen in a letter to be sent by express over 800 miles.
Then he counted on his fingers and found that he had been away from the capital for more than a month, and he didn't know whether the capital was gradually implementing the steps he had discussed with Emperor Chongzhen.
Zhong Jinwei also thought that after today's encounter, he should return to the capital earlier than expected. After arriving in the capital, it would be time for him to say goodbye to his bachelor.
Not to mention, it’s okay to not want to fall down when you are busy. Once you calm down, when you think about the wedding, Zhong Jinwei thinks of Archie who is far away in Tongzhou, and he can’t help but miss him very much.
In this world, the person Zhong Jinwei can chat with the most is Archi. When he first crossed over, Archi went to serve him, but Zhong Jinwei was too scrupulous at that time and talked to Archi about everything.
Then Emperor Chongzhen issued a hush-hush order, and only Emperor Chongzhen, Wang Chengen, and Wen Tiren knew the inside story about Zhong Jinwei's origins.
It is impossible for Zhong Jinwei to talk about future generations with these people as he pleases, but he has no problem in front of Archie. In addition, Archie is gentle, considerate, and understanding. All these reasons combined, there is no way
Don't let Zhong Jinwei miss her.
Thinking about holding Archie in his arms after getting married and talking about various things in the future, Zhong Jinwei felt a little like returning home.
At the place where Zhong Jinwei was thinking of going back early, the talk in the capital these days has been focused on the eight major Shanxi merchants.
The property obtained from the house raid was quietly escorted to Beijing the night before and deposited in the Ming Dynasty Royal Bank.
Then, the prisoners were escorted to the capital with great fanfare the next day, causing the conversation among the people in the capital to shift from the success or failure of the death camp.
When the imperial court announced the public trial of the crimes of the eight major Shanxi merchants, the streets were empty. People from the capital flocked to listen. Many people even brought whatever they could throw away to serve the traitors.
According to the person who swept the floor later, he had enough food for several pigs in his family for a year.
The interrogation went smoothly, and the results came out immediately, and instructions were issued on the same day before and after they were delivered to the imperial court.
The head of the eight major Shanxi merchants together with the Jianlu Hesheli-Xifu were sentenced to beheading. The immediate family members of the eight major Shanxi merchants and the Zhangjiakou garrison and others who were co-conspirators were sentenced to beheading. The rest were mostly exiled to Qiongzhou, and the women were sentenced to death.
Enter the Jiaofang Division.
In the capital, almost everyone denounced the crimes of the eight Shanxi merchants as soon as they met. Every restaurant and restaurant was filled with indignant accusations, scolding these Shanxi merchants for their shameful behavior of risking their lives for money and forgetting their ancestors.
Of course, there are also some people who are discussing how much property the court has confiscated this time, and they are afraid that they will be exhausted.
But not long after, some people in the capital got the news in advance and forgot about these things.