There was almost no open space around the execution ground. As far as the eye could see, they were all full of people. There were three floors inside and three floors outside. It was a dark place surrounded by water. Such a scene of empty streets had not been seen in Chaoyang City for many years. Pass.
People gathered here just for one thing, to see Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong being executed.
The family members of the five of them were also taken to the execution ground, but they were not beheaded, but were just taken for public display.
The people in Chaoyang hated the five Zheng Das with all their heart, and naturally they would not treat their families well. Fortunately, there were soldiers protecting them. Otherwise, they would have been killed just by the stones thrown by the people. .
When Zheng Da, Wei Chong and other five people were led to the beheading stage, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly reached a climax. People pointed their fingers at Zheng Da and others, and they all yelled and cursed, and the noise became louder and louder.
Zheng Da and others did not even dare to raise their heads. They all had their heads drooped. Their bodies were shrinking into a ball while kneeling on the beheading table, shivering and shaking.
Soon, four soldiers carried two large boxes up. The people below could not see what was in the boxes. They all nodded their toes, stretched their necks, and scrambled to look around.
At this time, a young man wearing a Han military attaché uniform walked onto the beheading platform. He first looked at Zheng Da and others, then walked to the center of the beheading platform and stood still. He did not speak, and his eyes slowly scanned the people below. them.
The young man is not very old, but his aura is not small, especially when he wears Han official uniform, which gives people a faint sense of oppression.
His eyes were as bright as two obsidian stones, and his scanning gaze made people feel as if two lightning bolts were passing by on his face. The noise of the crowd below became smaller and smaller, and gradually, the entire execution ground became silent.
Hearing that there was no movement below, the young man said loudly: "I am Liu Xiu, the general of the Naizhu Tiandu tribe!"
Following his words, there was a roar below, and the silent scene suddenly felt like it was exploding.
"He is Liu Xiu!" "Is this what Liu Xiu looks like?" "Is he really Liu Xiu from the Zhu Tiandu Department?" "..."
The people below said everything, but most of them were skeptical.
In the Battle of Chaoyang, the Chongling Army led by Liu Xiu not only withstood the joint attack of Chaoyang County soldiers, Shandu County soldiers, and Cheng Fortress Army, but also annihilated thousands of officers and soldiers.
People have spread the word about this war for a long time, and there are many rumors about Liu Xiu. However, in the rumors, Liu Xiu's image is mostly eight feet tall, with a tiger's back and waist, a green face and fangs, and looks like a fierce ghost.
Now that people see Liu Xiu in person, they can't believe their eyes.
There is a huge difference between Liu Xiu's real image and the rumored image. Far from being intimidating, he is actually handsome, delicate, and gentle. At a cold glance, he looks like a young Confucian scholar.
Although he didn't know how he was described in the rumors, Liu Xiu could guess a thing or two by looking at the surprised expressions on the people's faces. He smiled secretly in his heart, but did not show it on his face.
He pointed at the five Zheng Da people and said: "Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong committed plunder, hoarded grain, and drove up grain prices for their own benefit, resulting in falsely high grain prices in Chaoyang. , the people have no means of living and no food to eat, it is truly an unforgivable crime and an unforgivable crime!"
His words spoke to people's hearts. The people in the audience were excited and raised their arms and shouted: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Liu Xiu walked up to the two boxes, bent down, grabbed inside, and took out a handful of IOUs written on silk. He said loudly, "I believe all of you folks know these, right?"
"Yes...it's an IOU!"
"That's right! When I borrowed food from Zheng Da, I issued such an IOU!"
Everyone opened their eyes wide, held their breath, and stared at the large handful of IOUs in Liu Xiu's hand.
Liu Xiu threw the IOU back into the box and waved to the side. A soldier holding a torch walked up to Liu Xiu.
The latter took the torch handed by the soldier, looked at the people below, then put the torch into the box, and with a whoosh, the silk cloth that had been doused with kerosene in advance touched the fire and lit it.
Without any hesitation, Liu Xiu lit all the IOUs in the two large boxes on fire.
Everyone present was dumbfounded when they saw the two large boxes glowing with fire.
Liu Xiu threw the torch aside and said loudly: "These are the IOUs found from the homes of Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong. From now on, these IOUs have been burned to ashes. Void!"
Wow——
In the execution ground, there was an explosion again. You must know that the IOUs that people wrote to Zheng Da and others were like reminders. They were always in fear and had trouble sleeping and eating, for fear that one day someone would suddenly come to the door and force them to pay off their debts.
But now it's better. All these IOUs were burned by Liu Xiu, and he no longer has to live in fear.
I don't know who it was, but the first one shouted: "General Liu will be reborn with kindness and will be worshiped by the common people!"
Immediately afterwards, the people in the audience knelt down and kowtowed to Liu Xiu on the stage.
Liu Xiu hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Fellow folks, please get up quickly!" After a pause, he said again: "I am here and I can assure you that as long as Zhu Tiandu is in Chaoyang, the price of food in Chaoyang will never rise. More than a thousand dollars and a stone!”
With the national price level at that time, it was not easy to control the price of food within a thousand yuan per stone.
Although the food price of 1,000 yuan per stone is still very expensive for ordinary people, it is at least much better than 10,000 yuan per stone. Even if people are not full, they will not starve to death.
"Thank you, General Liu!" "Thank you, General Liu!"
The people thanked each other endlessly, and Liu Xiu continued: "The thieves have no morals, and the dog officials are causing trouble in the place. The folks in Chaoyang have suffered. Later, the folks can go to the county government to register with the household officials. All the people in Chaoyang City Every household of the common people can receive five measures of grain and three hundred dollars of money."
People simply couldn't believe their ears and wondered if they had heard wrongly.
The noisy scene suddenly became silent again, and people looked at each other in confusion. Some brave people bravely asked: "General Liu, is it... can I go to the county government office to get five buckets of grain and three hundred coins for free?"
Liu Xiu smiled, nodded and said, "Yes!"
"Anyone...anyone can get it?"
“As long as the household registration is registered, every household can come and receive it!”
This time, everyone present could hear it clearly. The scene exploded again. Everyone who had just stood up knelt down again, knelt down and thanked Liu Xiu, and almost shouted long live him three times.
People never thought that they could encounter such a good thing, that they could get food and money for free.
In fact, Liu Xiu was just being generous to others.
There are more than 8,000 households in Chaoyang City. Each household has five measures of grain, which is only 40,000 dan. It seems like a lot, but in the secret granary of Zheng Da's family alone, they have about 100,000 dan of grain. If you add in Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong had a total of 200,000 dan in their grain crops.
It is hard to imagine that during a severe drought, the five of them could actually hoard 200,000 stones of food in Chaoyang.
Liu Xiu took 40,000 shi from the captured grain and distributed it to the hungry people in Chaoyang. This was not a big deal and could win people's hearts.
In addition, when they occupied Chaoyang, they did not want to have a good time here and then leave, but they wanted long-term peace and stability here, so internal stability became crucial.
If the people in the city don't have enough to eat, how can the situation in Chaoyang City be stable?
The decision Liu Xiu made at this time was not a temporary decision, but a deliberate decision. Opening warehouses to release grain was the best way to win people's hearts and stabilize the situation the fastest.
After a series of policies that benefited the people were promulgated, the next step was the main event of beheading. Five people, Zheng Da, Wei Chong, He Wen, He Pu, and Shen Zhong, were beheaded one after another.
When the execution first started, the people below were still swearing, but gradually, there were fewer and fewer people at the scene. By the time the last person, Shen Zhong, was executed, there were almost no people left at the scene.
People were rushing to the county government office to collect money and food. Compared with the money and food, the excitement of watching Zheng Da and the other five people being beheaded became less important.
After the execution, the heads of Zheng Da and others were hung on the top of the city for public display, while the bodies were rolled up in straw mats and buried hastily.
On the way back to the county government office, Liu Xiu looked at Deng Yu who was happily beside him and asked, "Zhonghua, how did I do?"
Deng Yu cupped his hands and said: "From now on, the people of Chaoyang will definitely remember the kindness of our lord."
Liu Xiu smiled and said: "It doesn't matter whether people can remember our kindness. As long as the city is stable, we can have long-term peace and stability in Chaoyang."
Even if the county army attacks one day, they will have the support of tens of thousands of people in the city, and they will feel more confident when they resist.
While they were talking, a soldier came running over on horseback. Ma Wu turned around and looked, thinking he was the soldier, and asked: "Captain Xue, why did you run into the city if you didn't guard the city gate?"
The village chief surnamed Xue came to the crowd, got off his horse, stepped in and saluted, and said: "My lord, general, there is a large group of refugees outside, and they keep asking to see my lord!"
Liu Xiu was startled, refugees? Ma Wu asked inexplicably: "How many are there?"
"There must be five or six hundred people!"
"So many! Why do you want to see the Lord?"
"This... they didn't say that!"
"My lord, I'll go take a look first!" Ma Wu said and headed for the city gate. Liu Xiu pondered for a moment and said, "Zizhang, let me go with you!"
Liu Xiu took Deng Yu, Ma Wu and others to the gate of Nancheng.
When we arrived at the city gate, we looked outside and saw, just as the village chief Xue said, there was a large group of refugees standing outside the city gate. It looked like there must be more than 500 refugees if not 600.
Ma Wu's face was as dark as water, and he reminded in a low voice: "Master, could it be that the officers and soldiers were disguised? Be careful of fraud!"
As soon as he finished speaking, someone outside the city gate shouted loudly: "General Liu! Does General Liu still know the villain? The villain Tang Qun!"
Liu Xiu followed the words and looked around, and saw a thin young man standing in front of the crowd, waving to him. Liu Xiu actually knew this young man named Tang Qun. When he came to Chaoyang to make a feint attack, he brought
There are more than 3,000 refugees in the country, and Tang Qun is one of them. Although he is young and thin, he is very strong, powerful, smart, able to organize, and eloquent. Among the refugees, he is
I also made a mini-boss.
Seeing Tang Qun, Liu Xiu was startled for a moment, then urged his horse out of the city gate. At the same time, he asked in confusion: "Didn't you go back to Deng County? Why did you come back again?"