Zhang Tianshi was doing something on the capital altar when he suddenly saw the three bloody human heads. He was so frightened that he immediately forgot his words. He was stunned for a long time...
It was only after the little Taoist priest behind him reminded him that he came back to his senses and reluctantly continued to talk about the "Tai Shang San Sheng Miao Sutra":
"This sutra is not the only solution to one person's grievances. If you all are sincere and recite this sutra a hundred times, all the people in a country who have grievances will be liberated..."
~~
At the same time, a temporary execution ground was set up outside Nanchang City, on the bank of the Gan River.
Group after group of prisoners were led to the riverside, where they knelt down and bowed their heads.
The executioner suddenly chopped off the ghost head knife, and the heads rolled to the ground.
Then replace them with the next batch of beheaded ones...
There were too many heads to be beheaded. In the end, the executioner's ghost-headed knife was curled up, and he was too tired to lift his arms, so he had to replace them with officers and soldiers.
Finally, the riverside was densely packed with headless corpses, and the blood dyed the Ganjiang River red. As it flowed to Poyang Lake, you could still see streaks of blood.
Originally, watching beheadings was the common people's favorite entertainment activity. But today, the citizens of Nanchang who came to see the excitement were all numb. Today they have deeply realized what it means to be "human life is like a piece of grass."
This large-scale collective execution aroused strong fear in them. It seemed that it would be their turn to be dragged in next, and the knife clicked.
They could no longer regard themselves as outsiders watching the excitement, and they all wanted to stay away from this hellish execution ground. However, they were stopped by heavily armed troops——
"His Royal Highness, King Yan, has decreed that everyone must watch the punishment until the end! Otherwise, they will be considered as comrades!"
Well, no one can leave now. They can only stay and continue to watch this large-scale execution that brings them great fear...
Zhu Di was sitting on the prison platform, looking at the terrified crowd in front of him and the heads rolling to the ground. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, he actually felt a little excited.
This feeling of dominating everything and killing people like a fool is really fascinating...
He suddenly realized that it made sense for his elder brother not to let Lao Liu do this... As long as he does this kind of work once, he will no longer take human life seriously.
Thinking of this, he shook his head, forced himself to be normal, and turned his attention to Nanchang City. He thought that the real confrontation had already begun, right?
~~
I don't know if it was stimulated by the three heads, but the length of Tianshi's sermon today was obviously much shorter than usual.
After hastily lecturing on the sutra, without further elaborating on the subtle meaning, Zhang Tianshi was helped by the Taoist boy to get down from the capital altar and go to the quiet room set up in the Yamen to rest.
"What's going on with those three heads?" he asked Sun Jingxiu with a dark face.
"Originally, the execution was scheduled for tomorrow, but today was mentioned unexpectedly." Sun Jingxiu said with a pale face:
"And where are those three heads? They have gone crazy and killed batch after batch outside Zhangjiang Gate, turning the Ganjiang River red. They have killed several thousand people by now, and they are still here
Keep killing..."
"How many thousands?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Tianshi's face turned blue and white, and he was breathless from the huge fear.
At this time, the little Taoist boy came in and reported: "Master, His Highness the King of Chu has summoned us."
Upon hearing this name, Zhang Tianshi suddenly leaned over and vomited violently.
The little Taoist nuns quickly used the spittoon, stroked his back, fed him pills, and gave him water...
After working hard for a while, Master Zhang finally regained his composure and collapsed limply in Sun Jingxiu's arms, still twitching from time to time and saying, "I'm not going."
"Master, I'm afraid I can't go." Sun Jingxiu was also shocked by today's collective execution. For fear of upsetting the two princes, he could only persuade his heavenly master: "Their fierce flames are too strong. If you disobey at this time,
, the consequences would be disastrous."
"They are demon kings, demon kings." Zhang Tianshi, who had never seen the wind and waves since he was a child, was really afraid. He did not dare to face the younger brother of His Highness who killed Yingye.
"Master, you are a heavenly master, how can you be afraid of the devil?" Sun Jingxiu said speechlessly.
Then I heard Tianshi Zhang say quietly: "Do you know that the height of one foot is the height of the devil?"
"..." Sun Jingxiu was immediately speechless.
~~
However, no matter how reasonable Zhang Tianshi's words were, when the King of Chu summoned him, he had to see him.
In the end, he was put into the Taoist robe given by the emperor and sent to the main hall to meet His Highness.
Fortunately, Zhang Tianshi has also received professional training since childhood. Even if he is panicking in his heart, he can still maintain the dignity of a Tianshi on his face.
He took a deep breath, entered the palace, and bowed his head to His Royal Highness the King of Chu, who was sitting high in the throne room, saying that he was meeting His Highness.
"Zhang Tianshi, please be free." His Royal Highness the King of Chu raised his hand slightly, looked at Zhang Maocheng with a smile and said: "You are my teacher's niece and son-in-law. We are also a family, so there is no need to be formal."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Zhang Maocheng straightened up, and the King of Chu offered him a seat again.
After he sat down at his desk, Zhu Zhen thanked him for taking the trouble to come and conduct rituals for his senior brother.
"It's all as it should be." Zhang Maocheng hurriedly smiled and said: "As His Highness said, we are all one family, so there is no need to speak two languages."
"Okay, not bad." Zhu Zhen nodded with satisfaction and said: "Before we met, I thought that the Heavenly Master was like a god and a man who did not eat the fireworks of the world. I didn't expect him to be so approachable."
Zhang Maocheng said in his heart that this was a win-win, but he said with a smile on his face: "I think the same thing about Your Highness."
"Okay, since you are so attached to me, let's open the skylight and speak frankly." Zhu Zhen then smiled and said: "Master Tian, does he know how many people were executed with rivers of blood outside Nanchang today?"
"I've heard something..." Zhang Maocheng's face turned pale and he reluctantly said, "But we don't know how many people there are."
"Five thousand, seven hundred and twelve." Zhu Zhen reported a series of sensational figures.
"So much..." Zhang Maocheng wanted to vomit again. But the next moment he couldn't care about his physiological reaction, and his mind was completely occupied by fear.
Zhu Zhen asked in a cold voice: "Do you know why these people died?"
"No, I don't know." Zhang Maocheng had sweat on his forehead.
"A small part of it is because of Xiong Qitai's murder of Liu Lian, and most of it is because of the "Ignore the Account Book" case!" Zhu Zhen said solemnly: "And the reason why Xiong Qitai wanted to kill Liu Lian was also because of the "Ignore the Account Book" case!
"
As he spoke, he slammed the table and said: "So, it can be said that they all died because of that "No Account Book"! The Heavenly Master should know exactly what was recorded in that account book!"
Zhu Zhen's sharp, knife-like gaze pierced Zhang Tianshi's eyes, leaving him with nowhere to hide. He could only sweat like blood and say:
"Pindao has just heard that it is an account book recording hidden households in hidden fields. It also contains the property of Zhengdao Temple. Pindao is indeed lax in his control."
"The Taoist priests who have committed crimes will be severely punished when they return home, and those Taoist priests who have committed crimes will be thrown out of the mountain and left to the government's disposal!" Zhang Tianshi knew that this bleeding was unavoidable, so he simply took the initiative and said: "Besides, Zheng Yiyi is willing to donate money.
How about giving 50,000 acres of farmland as official farmland and honoring each of the two highnesses with 20,000 guan each year?"
"But we can't re-clear the land and reorganize the people into households?" Zhu Zhen said with a half-smile but not a smile.
"Your Highness, this has always been the case in Jiangxi. Every court in any dynasty will give some privileges to Zhengdao." Zhang Tianshi said and cupped his hands towards Lao Liugong, half requesting and half demonstrating: "Pindao is the emperor's appointed emperor.
The general leader of Taoism, Tianshi Mansion has been passed down for thousands of years, and his dignity still needs to be maintained."
