The Chuang army set up its headquarters in Yuzhou's Zhoutang Yamen. Hao Yaoqi was as anxious as a spark. He led a group of strong men who looked like wolves and tigers. On the orders of Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang, they went down to various parts of Yuzhou to attack the enemy.
All the bullies and evil gentry who were the most angry people were arrested.
Liu Fangliang's order to him was to torture them severely and confiscate all their hoards of gold, silver and grain. But Li Laiheng had a different opinion. He said that although robbing the evil gentry was the right thing to do, it was also playing into the arms of the local people, but the imperial court
, you can also use the torture and plunder of the intruders to publicize everywhere how vicious the insurgents are and how they have brought trouble to the people.
"In order to expand our influence, we also want to show the people that we are by no means ordinary bandits. Torture and plunder are necessary, but the specific methods need to be corrected."
Hao Yaoqi was very puzzled and asked: "We have always tortured like this for so many years! Once the stick is clamped, all the local tyrants and bullies will call their father and mother. Is there any need to change? What is the commander thinking?
Great idea?"
Li Laiheng asked his men to take charge of the grain and supplies, and Zhang Yuheng, who was responsible for collecting and distributing the grain and wages, produced a confession they had collected from the citizens of Yuzhou.
He spread the confessions on the table and explained: "I asked Youan to collect a batch of confessions from the city people and villagers. Each of these confessions is shocking, and they are all about the corruption and perversion of the law by the local evil gentry and corrupt officials.
The thing you read here is a confession dictated by an Orion hunter in Guaihe. He accused the Yuzhou squire Mr. Zhao of deceiving him into being illiterate and tricking him into signing a debt from the King of Hell. He also colluded with the Yamen to force him to sell his son and daughter to repay the debt.
"
"Another part of this is that during the famine in Yuzhou last year, the guards colluded with the gentry and falsely accused the villagers outside the city of joining the army. They sent troops to burn down the village and steal food. They killed more than 120 people in the village on the spot and starved them.
More than four hundred people died."
"This confession, which is relatively rare, was written by a scholar from Yuzhou. He scolded the local magistrate for accepting bribes and tampering with the academic records. He was also accused of colluding with thieves and intending to rebel because of his own postings.
Fortunately, he was rescued by us before he was released from prison."
"And this..."
Li Laiheng read the confessions collected by Zhang Yuheng to the generals one by one. Although they all came from poor backgrounds and knew what the poor people suffered in this troubled world. But after hearing the countless blood and tears read by Li Laiheng,
Shi, still looked at each other, almost speechless.
"Look at this confession! It's a small shopkeeper in Yuzhou City. His daughter was molested by a rogue clerk. He tried to stop it, but the clerk sent him to jail. He relied on his daughter to work as a concubine for others, and then broke the law.
He was released after all the family wealth was used up. Not to mention the sages and gentry, even the small officials in the Zaoban class have such power and skill!"
Liu Fangliang, Hao Yaoqi and others all heard their blood boiling with anger. Hao Yaoqi pulled out his knife on the spot and cursed that his torture method was too light. He should just chop all these beasts in uniform with one knife.
.
Li Laiheng stretched out his hand to stop him and said: "These people should be severely punished! But if we only torture, firstly, the people will not know our intentions. They only think that we are here for wealth and do not know that we are doing harm to the people. Secondly, the government will
Taking advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, we spread the word everywhere that we are thieves after all, killing indiscriminately and indiscriminately."
Liu Fangliang glanced at Li Laiheng and knew that he must have a strategy in mind, so he asked directly: "Stop being so pretentious, just tell me what you have in mind."
"Haha, this is not all what I thought of. I also listened to the opinions of Leshan and You'an." Li Laiheng laughed twice, distributed the credit to Fang Yiren and Zhang Yuheng, and said, "After we discussed it, I still feel that
Torture is good, but in order to make the people of this state understand the purpose of our torture, all these confessions should be presented to the public first. Then all the people who have been oppressed by the local tyrants and evil gentry should be summoned for a public trial!"
"Open trial!?"
Everyone is familiar with this common vocabulary in storybooks, but public trials are generally conducted by court officials, and the generals of the Chuang Army neither understand the laws of the Ming Dynasty nor the methods of solving cases and convicting them. How can they open a trial?
After Li Laiheng saw everyone's puzzled expressions, he explained: "What I said about a public trial is to let the people decide whether these evil gentry should be killed or released. If they do have a clear name, we were arrested by mistake.
, why not just let him go, or even give him some silver as compensation? If he is deeply hated by the people of the state, and everyone wants to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin, he will be killed on the spot, and part of the money will be given to the people, and part of it will be given to the people.
Used as military supplies."
"Floating wealth..." Hao Yaoqi asked hesitantly, "Do we still need to distribute part of the floating wealth to the people?"
"Waving the flag, waving the flag, do you think that after we plunder the gold and silver, we don't have to open warehouses to release grain to help the hungry people? What's the difference between that and when we collect the floating wealth, directly distribute part of it to the people? Instead, directly distribute it to the people.
Common people, we can make the people of Zhongzhou know that my invasion of the army is indeed to punish the people and not to make money."
Liu Fangliang, Liu Rukui, Guo Junzhen, Li Hao and others all carefully considered the public trial method mentioned by Li Laiheng. However, most of them lacked experience in this area and could not make any constructive suggestions.
Come.
Only Liu Fangliang finally asked: "Lai Heng, you always have a lot of wild ideas. If you think this is beneficial to the overall situation of the army, then I have no objection at all. I will just listen to you."
"Then it's settled! You'an, I'll leave the specific matters of the public trial to you. We need to make the scene bigger and more grand. Unfortunately, Mr. Liu and Leshan are currently in contact with Xiao Yuanying, otherwise it would be called
If they write more articles and scripts to spread the news about the public trial, they will definitely alarm the Central Plains!"
"Today is the public trial of the local tyrants and evil gentry. Tomorrow there will be a public trial of Hong Chengchou and Zuo Liangyu..."
Hao Yaoqi asked, "Finally, go to a public trial of Emperor Chongzhen?"
"Yes, Zhu Youjian will be put on trial!"
The location of the public trial was chosen at the school ground in Yuzhou City. Zhang Yuheng found materials from several theater troupes and set up a large platform on the spot. The leaders of these theater troupes also asked their subordinates to write confessions and accuse them.
How they exploited actors, committed adultery and raped them.
Li Laiheng simply arrested the theater tyrants together and brought them to public trial. When the actors and actresses heard the news, they gradually believed in the intruder army's "suppression of troops and peace of the people, neither killing nor looting", "equalizing land and exempting taxes, and buying and selling to the public".
The slogan was indeed true. The happy actors set up two rows of small stages on both sides of the high stage of the public trial meeting, and performed for free for the people of Yuzhou.
Revolution is a festival of the masses.
Although Chuangjun has not yet developed to the point of reforming the productive forces and production relations, the enthusiasm of the masses has made Yuzhou a sea of joy.
Only Li Hao felt uneasy, so he persuaded Li Laiheng: "General Li, what should we do if the people in the state make random accusations and let us kill innocent people indiscriminately?"
Li Laiheng looked at Li Hao with a puzzled expression, and explained: "This kind of public trial is also for the good of the gentry! Otherwise, do you think torture and robbery will not kill indiscriminately? Torture and robbery can also cause torture and accidental killing of some people, and there is a public trial.
The process is always better than torture, but in my opinion, most people deserve what they deserve. What's more, the rebels are here to rebel, not to solve the case for Master Qingtian. Rebels have always been here, even Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and Taizu Ming Dynasty, if they were officials or gentry.
If you refuse me, you will still be killed even if you have a clear name!"
Guo Junzhen smiled coldly at the side and said to Li Hao: "The leader of the village is from Yuzhou. Are there many of your friends among the local gentry? Are you worried that some of them will be accused by the people?"
Li Hao shed a drop of cold sweat on his back. He was very wary of the high-minded General Guo next to Li Laiheng, and quickly replied: "There are absolutely no such evil gentry among my friends. If there are such scum, there is no need to break into the army."
I will also take action to clean up the door myself."
Li Laiheng laughed, patted Li Hao on the back, eased the tense atmosphere and said: "That's natural! The leader of the village is a Yuzhou hero, and the people are enamored of him. How can he have such a friend? Even if some evil gentry said
He is a friend of Village Leader Li, and I will never believe it!"
"Yes, yes, that's it."
Guo Junzhen glanced at Li Hao sideways and stopped talking. Li Laiheng's personal soldier leader Zhang Pizhu came over on horseback. He stopped his horse, came to Li Laiheng's side, and whispered: "Guard team, Mr. Leshan and Liu
The old gentleman is back."
Li Laiheng's eyes lit up and he said: "It seems that the communication with Xiao Yuanying is going very smoothly? Junzhen, I'll leave the public trial meeting to you and Yigong. I'll go talk to Leshan first."
Guo Junzhen nodded and replied: "Yes! Commander, should we kill more people or less people?"
"Hmm..." Li Laiheng thought for a while and then said, "If there is a blood debt, the main thing is to kill. If there is no blood debt, the main thing is to copy money. We may not stay in Junzhen in Nanyang for a long time in the future. Do you understand what I mean?"
Guo Junzhen's eyes flashed and he asked: "If you don't live in Nanyang for a long time, let alone consider the long-term consequences, why not just kill all the gentry?"
"Killing all the Yuzhou gentry will cause the Nanyang gentry to use up their wealth and resist the rebels. And if we don't live in Nanyang for a long time, there will be no great benefit if we clean this place too clean."
"I understand the meaning of the whistle." Guo Junzhen narrowed his eyes, looked at Li Laiheng meaningfully twice, and then turned and left.