The patriarchs present looked at each other and said: "Tao Gong's every statement is true! Zheng Da relied on him as a relative of the prefect, and colluded with Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong to hoard grain, drive up grain prices, and cause trouble. The people of Chaoyang are in dire straits, please ask General Liu to eliminate the evil for the people!"
Zheng Da was shaken and said urgently: "General Liu, you must not listen to these villains' words. It is true that we are grain merchants, but we are not driving up grain prices..."
Before he could finish his words, Liu Xiu shouted sharply: "Here comes someone!"
Following his shouts, a group of soldiers wearing armor and holding spears came in from outside. People all stepped in and saluted Liu Xiu: "General!"
"Capture all five of Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong!"
"Yes!" As they spoke, the soldiers walked up to Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu and Shen Zhong, picked them up and walked out.
Zheng Da realized that something was wrong, so he said urgently: "General Liu, the villain has tens of thousands of dans of food hoarded. Doesn't General Liu want it?"
Hearing this, the two soldiers holding Zheng Da immediately stopped and looked back at Liu Xiu.
Tens of thousands of shi of grain is not a small amount! The yield per mu in the Han Dynasty was about two shi. If the year was not good, the output would be less than two shi. Tens of thousands of shi of grain represents one to twenty thousand acres of cultivated land per year. Yield.
Liu Xiu blinked and asked, "Zheng Da, you said you have tens of thousands of stones in food reserves?"
"Exactly!" Zheng Da said seriously: "Only I know where these grains are stored..."
Before he finished speaking, Liu Xiu said with a smile: "As far as I know, some of Lu Yue and Jia Liang also know the location of your secret granary, right?"
Zheng Da was stunned at first, then he turned pale with fright, and said subconsciously: "Lu Yue..."
"He has sold you out a long time ago!" Liu Xiu smiled lightly at Zheng Da, then waved to the two soldiers escorting Zheng Da and said, "Drag him out!"
Zheng Da didn't expect that Lu Yue would betray him so quickly. He felt like a ball of frustration and his whole body wilted.
Watching Zheng Da and others being dragged out of the hall, Liu Xiu looked at Tao Qian and others and said, "Gentlemen, don't worry, as long as it is found out that Zheng Da, Wei Chong and others are indeed guilty of maliciously hoarding food and driving up food prices, I will You will be severely punished without credit!"
When Tao Qian and others heard this, they all looked happy and excited.
These nobles were originally the most powerful class in Chaoyang, but with Zhen Fu serving as the governor of Nanyang and Zheng Da following the chickens and dogs to heaven, their lives began to become more and more difficult day by day, especially after Zheng Da found a way to make money by collecting grain. , their life becomes more and more difficult.
Not only was their own land occupied by Zheng Da through land equalization, but even the grain market was monopolized by Zheng Da and his group. They had no other way to buy cheap grain, so they could only buy it from Zheng Da and others. , I don’t know how much advantage he took during this period.
At this time, how could people not be excited and excited when they saw that Liu Xiu was not merciful to Zheng Da and others, and had a clear attitude towards punishing these people? Everyone said in a hurry: "General Liu, I can provide clues !”
"General Liu, I can also provide important clues!"
Liu Xiu nodded frequently and said with a smile: "With the help of all gentlemen, I want to find out the truth easily."
In fact, even if Zheng Da did not raise food prices, Liu Xiu would not have given him a way to survive.
Zheng Da was a relative of Zhen Fu, and Zhen Fu was Zhu Tiandu's biggest enemy in Nanyang County. How could Liu Xiu tolerate Zheng Da living freely in Chaoyang under his jurisdiction?
But even if you want to kill him, let Zheng Da die, you have to make his death meaningful, and it is best to maximize the meaning. This is politics.
Liu Xiu is good at manipulating politics and using political means, which has always been his strength. Having said that, throughout the ages, whoever can achieve great things has not been a top master in manipulating politics?
None of the people present probably expected that while Liu Xiu invited them to the banquet, he had already sent his troops to secretly surround the residences of Zheng Da, Wei Chong and other five people.
Liu Xiu had just captured five of them, and the news spread immediately, and the soldiers who surrounded Zheng Da and others' residence began to attack.
At present, Liu Xiu's troops are basically all cavalry brought from Yizhou by Ma Wu and Yao Qi. Even though they are cavalry, their ability to fight under horses should not be underestimated.
When attacking, the soldiers formed a battle formation, with spearmen in front holding down the formation and pushing forward continuously, and crossbowmen in the back firing arrows non-stop.
Among the five people, Zheng Da's mansion was the largest and had the most people in it. House slaves, servants, guards, and retainers all added up to hundreds of people.
After the soldiers in charge of the attack broke open the door, they swarmed in and guarded the courtyard. The diners immediately came forward to greet them, but they fell down faster than they rushed up.
In the military camp, crossbow arrows flew out like raindrops. Even a master swordsman could only die in the face of such a dense arrow array.
When the guards came out to fight, the retainers were shot to the ground row after row. Occasionally, a few people braved the rain of arrows and rushed to the soldiers' camp. They were greeted by a dense forest of spears.
The sound of spears piercing people's bodies was heard endlessly. Many people were hit by multiple spears and died miserably in a pool of blood.
The cavalry commanded by Ma Wu and Yao Qi can be said to be battle-hardened and full of experience. Any soldier picked out at random has been tempered and climbed out of the pile of dead people, and has extremely strong combat effectiveness.
In front of the military battle formation, no matter how powerful the master of martial arts is, he is just a mantis with arms like a chariot, completely vulnerable to a single blow.
The soldiers who entered the Zheng Mansion fought from the front courtyard to the atrium, and then from the atrium to the back courtyard. When they arrived at the backyard, the number of female relatives began to increase. Even Zheng Da's sister Zheng Xiuying personally participated in the battle with a sword in hand.
She commanded the guards and retainers of the Zheng Mansion to fight and retreat, buying time for the Zheng family to escape. When the Zheng family ran out of the back door of the Zheng Mansion, they were greeted by an overwhelming array of arrows.
I saw soldiers on the street outside the backyard and even on the rooftop opposite. People were holding crossbows and repeating the same action, releasing arrows, loading arrows, releasing arrows, loading arrows again...
Among the random arrows, Zheng Da's son and daughter were both shot into hedgehogs and died tragically under the arrow array.
People had no choice but to retreat to the backyard. After Zheng Xiuying inquired about the situation, she no longer bothered to resist the soldiers who were attacking from the front. She led a dozen of the most skilled retainers to break out from the backyard.
There were more than a dozen of them, as soon as they walked out of the back door, they were greeted by arrows coming from all directions. People tried their best to block the arrows with their swords, and the clanging sounds were almost continuous.
Human strength is limited, but the rain of arrows flying towards them seems to be infinite. People blocked the arrow array one after another, but it was useless. Soon someone screamed, and the middle of the calf involuntarily fell.
Kneel on the ground.
Just when he paused for a moment, another arrow hit his chest. He wailed and fell forward. Then, he heard a series of popping sounds, and it was like grass growing on his back.
It seemed like there was a layer of crossbow arrows.
His fall to the ground was just the beginning. Then, one after another, people fell to the ground after being hit by arrows. In the blink of an eye, their bodies were covered with crossbow arrows.
In just a few minutes, all the diners around Zheng Xiuying were dead. She was the only one left standing outside the back door, but she had several arrows inserted into her shoulders, arms, lower abdomen, and legs.
.
She leaned on the ground with her sword, dragged a leg that had been hit by two crossbow arrows, and walked forward step by step, making a harsh roar at the same time.
All the soldiers looked at each other and put down their crossbows. Zheng Xiuying walked forward, leaving a shocking blood mark on the ground.
She came to a soldier and used all her strength to raise her sword, intending to slash forward. The soldier on the opposite side suddenly raised his crossbow and fired a crossbow mercilessly, hitting her with the sword in the middle.
wrist.
Poof, her wrist was shot through by a crossbow arrow. She couldn't bear it anymore and knelt down on the ground with a pop.
The soldier hung the crossbow back to his waist, and pulled out the sword under his ribs. He held the knife in one hand, turned his wrist, and pulled out a gorgeous sword flower. The soldier stood next to Zheng Xiuying, and then he raised his head
Raise the Huanshou knife high and slash with all your strength.
puff!
The sword flashed, blood spurted out, and Zheng Xiuying's head fell to the ground. The soldier wiped the blood on the ring-headed sword with the clothes of his arm, put the sword into its sheath, and then stood back among the troops, looking at Zheng Xiuying expressionlessly.
The back door of the house.
The order they received was to kill all those who resisted. If the Zheng family had chosen to surrender from the beginning, there would have been no fighting at all this time, let alone a massacre. Unfortunately, there were not so many ifs, and the Zheng family
They chose to resist desperately from the beginning, and the subsequent results were a foregone conclusion.
The Zheng family had no problem bullying ordinary people, and they could even bully the county soldiers, but in front of the Yizhou cavalry, their resistance was too insignificant and they did not pose any threat at all.
After Zheng Xiuying died in the battle, no one in the Zheng family took the lead in resisting. The remaining family members, servants, and retainers all surrendered to the army.
I don’t know if I don’t count them, but I’ll be shocked when I count them.
Zheng Da had dozens of wives, concubines, and concubines, and more than thirty children alone. When his home was raided, countless gold, silver, and jewels were found, which could not be moved by manpower.
Just use a car to pull it.
When the residences of Zheng Da, Wei Chong and other five people were searched, only the Zheng family resisted, and the other four families showed almost no resistance.
That night, Liu Xiu asked Deng Yu to interrogate Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong, forcing them to reveal the secret warehouse where they stored grain.
At first, the four people's attitudes were very tough, but after the soldiers took their families in, the four people's psychological defenses collapsed instantly, and they confessed their secret granaries without making any more excuses.
The next morning, the Chung Ling Army posted notices to calm the people in Chaoyang City. At the same time, they also posted punishments for Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong.
In the notice, there were more than ten crimes of the five of them. In short, the final result was that they were beheaded at noon.
People didn't care much about the Chung Ling Army's notice to calm the people, but this notice punishing Zheng Da, Wei Chong and others made the people in the city feel like it was a Chinese New Year. Many people cried with joy after reading it, and countless people rushed to complain. .
