The next day I took my secretary to the Municipal Affairs Bureau.
The director of the Municipal Affairs Office was the former director of the Education Committee, and he was assigned this position just before his retirement. To be honest, only those who are about to retire can occupy such a position. There is not much oil and water, and they have to deal with writing things all day long.
I also came into contact with some antique-level characters.
This director is very talkative, perhaps because few leaders come here on weekdays. He spent most of the morning introducing the situation to me, including the historical evolution of Shangjiang City, important historical figures, and the highest-level local-born officials.
officials, etc.
His memory is very good, and he can talk about these things very well. Moreover, his narration is also very skillful, and I don't think it is boring. I suspect that he has been a teacher before.
Later, when he mentioned one thing, it particularly caught my attention.
He said: "We had a temple in Shangjiang City during the Ming Dynasty. At that time, it was the most popular temple within a few hundred miles. It is said that the lottery in this temple is particularly magical, and many people come there to draw lots to predict misfortunes and fortunes.
It is a pity that the temple was later destroyed. It is said that one of Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates set fire to it because when he went there to draw lots, he drew a lower lot, so he set fire to the temple in anger.
And it is said that he brutally killed all the monks in the temple and threw them into the fire."
I shook my head and said: "This rumor may not be true, right? Killing people and setting fires just for a lottery ticket?"
He said: "Many people know about Zhang Xianzhong's cruelty. And there were Western missionaries who testified at that time. Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor soon after entering Sichuan. One day, he went to Daci Temple in Chengdu to burn incense, and was unexpectedly killed.
He stumbled on the high threshold and almost fell down. After being helped up, he immediately became furious and ordered all the monks in the temple to be killed.
So, all his men immediately drew their swords and killed all the monks in the temple. After killing the monks in Daci Temple, before Zhang Xianzhong was completely relieved, he ordered all the monks in the temples around Chengdu to be killed.
Killed. So, his army marched into all the temples around Chengdu and started killing. For a time, blood flowed into these temples, the sound of killings was loud, and many temples were reduced to ashes. In this bloodbath, a total of
More than 2,000 monks were massacred, and almost no one escaped.
The Buddhist faith of Chengdu people for many years was wiped out by Zhang Xianzhong's anger. When Zhang Xianzhong was massacring monks, two Western missionaries who were preaching in Chengdu advised him not to be so inhumane. Zhang Xianzhong listened.
, immediately became furious and dragged the two missionaries to him and wanted to behead them. Considering that they were Westerners, they let them live. However, Zhang Xianzhong did not let them out and kept them under house arrest.
around."
I asked: "Is there any record of such a thing in the history books?"
He shook his head, "Although there are no formal historical records, there are such records in many folk materials. These records are also valuable materials for us to study the history of Shangjiang City. According to those records, Zhang Xianzhong began to
Recruiting talents and opening up courses to recruit scholars to consolidate his political power. So he put up lists everywhere and advertised in Sichuan that he wanted to recruit talents.
Sichuan has always been a place where talented people gather. With such a good thing, those who respond will naturally flock to it. Talented people who are taking the exam rush to Chengdu day and night from all directions, hoping to be admitted and get an official position. On the day of the exam,
Because a student taking the exam had offended Zhang Xianzhong, he felt very unhappy. He immediately roared into the exam room and ordered that all the more than 17,000 talented students who came to take the exam be killed. So, on the empty dam in the Qingyang Palace in Chengdu, a
An unprecedented massacre of scholars occurred.
These students, how could they fight back? With a flash of the butcher's knife, their heads immediately fell to the ground, and blood splattered. Some students wanted to run, but before they could run ten meters, their legs were cut off, and then they were disemboweled.
The blood mixed with the internal organs flowed all over the floor, and they were tortured to death. Some students cursed loudly, and their tongues were immediately cut off, their scalps were peeled off, and then they were killed.
Some students were scared to death and knelt down to beg for mercy, but before they could even finish their words for mercy, they were stabbed to death. Some students helped to kill their own kind in order to survive. As a result, he still did not escape the disaster.
They were killed. The massacre of the students lasted for most of the day. There was blood everywhere in the Qingyang Palace, and there was a strong smell of blood. The slaughtered corpses were piled up into a huge mountain. Later, the massacre scene was cleaned up.
Just the writing brushes and stone inkstones were piled up like a huge tent.
Due to Zhang Xianzhong's massacre of students, Sichuan's intellectual circles were in a state of depression for several years, almost to the point of desolation. Also, whenever Zhang Xianzhong caught so-called rebels, he was usually not in a hurry to kill them, but
He asked his men to skin him. In the process of skinning a person, Zhang Xianzhong had many rules. These rules are: First, you can't skin a person to death, you must hurt him to death. Second, you can't be soft-hearted. Whoever is soft-handed will be skinned.
Third, start a competition to skin people. If you skin more, you will be rewarded. If you skin less, you will die.
Because of these regulations, those who participate in human skinning are all extremely cruel, move quickly and carefully. After skinning a large number of people, some are soft-hearted, have poor psychological endurance, or suffer from mental breakdown.
Those who were abnormal instinctively put down the butcher's knife and did not dare to skin people anymore. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong became furious and thought that they were colluding with the party, so he ordered those who put down the butcher's knife to be hung up one by one and skinned. These
Those who rebelled with Zhang Xianzhong and conquered the world together had their human skin peeled off by him and died of pain.
Zhang Xianzhong not only skinned those who were soft-hearted, but also arrested all his family members, old, young, women, and children, and had their human skins skinned. Finally, they died tragically. Zhang Xianzhong stretched the skins with bamboo poles and carried them along the street.
It was so full that for a while, some streets in Chengdu were filled with stretched and bloody human skins. When the wind blew, they screamed and screamed. Looking at the human skins all over the street, Zhang Xianzhong actually walked with his head held high, shouting in front of and behind him.
, laughing endlessly.
The most cruel thing is the killing of babies. One day, Zhang Xianzhong caught a rebel wife. This woman was pregnant and had a big belly. On a whim, Zhang Xianzhong asked someone to cut her belly open to see.
What did the baby look like inside? So, the woman's belly was cut open and the baby was taken out. As soon as he saw the baby, Zhang Xianzhong was very unhappy and said that if he didn't kill the baby, he would become another sworn enemy twenty years later, so he called his men.
Think of the most ingenious way to kill the baby. After thinking about it, I finally came up with this trick: insert large knives and spears on the ground, and then throw the child into the air. After the child falls, he will be stabbed to death by the tips of the knives. See
Zhang Xianzhong found this scene very interesting and asked to come again. So, his men went all over the city looking for pregnant women. After finding the pregnant women, they followed the same pattern.
It is said that on this day, Zhang Xianzhong killed many women and unborn babies. He also cut open their bellies, but there was another thing that Zhang Xianzhong did that was really ridiculous. One day, one of his men told him about governing the country and bringing peace to the world.
After hearing the truth, he felt very good and thought that his subordinates were particularly wise and thoughtful. On a whim, he asked: How come you have so much knowledge in your belly?
The subordinate was proud of his praise, but unexpectedly Zhang Xianzhong shouted: Come here! Cut open his stomach, I want to see what the knowledge inside looks like! Just like that, the subordinate's stomach was cut open.
Zhang Xianzhong looked over and over in his men's stomachs, and finally said: There is only a pile of smelly intestines, and there is no knowledge! Zhang Xianzhong's absurdity and perversion have reached the point of being beyond reach. One day, he suddenly wanted to see a woman's feet, so he
He ordered the women's feet in the city to be cut off and brought back to the palace for appreciation. The next day, in his garden, the women's feet were piled up into a mountain. At this time, he took his concubine to admire them.
After admiring the woman's little feet for a while, he suddenly felt that the mountain was missing a peak, so he took out his knife and chopped off the concubine's feet and put them on top.
The foothills now have peaks, and Zhang Xianzhong was so happy that he leaned forward and backwards, laughing loudly."
He was talking with excitement and could not help but sigh. After listening to it, I immediately laughed and said, "Such a story is false as soon as it sounds. Think about it, he can gather so many people to rebel in a short period of time, and in the end he can
Is it possible to become a prince and be so cruel? Obviously, this was a rumor created by the later ruling class, or the vested interests at that time created such absurd rumors because their interests were violated by the peasant army.
.
Director Fan, those of you who organize city records must adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts. It is said that it is better not to include such things as unofficial historical records in our city records."
He was startled for a moment, and his face immediately turned red. I suddenly felt that my words were too harsh, and then he said: "I'm here today to learn about the cultural and historical evolution of our city, and I also want to know about our city's existing cultural heritage."
Where are they? By the way, where is the temple you just mentioned? Has it been rebuilt now?"
Seeing that my attitude had changed, he was no longer as embarrassed as before. He replied: "According to records, this temple is on a mountain east of our city, but I have been there several times. What is there in that place?"
None of it is gone. But this matter does have formal historical records.”
His words suddenly reminded me of the incident that Zhong Feng once told me, and I hurriedly said to him: "Please bring me the records about this incident. Can you?"
He immediately said: "Of course. Just wait, I'll get it right away." (To be continued)