Zuo Liangyu, who was escorted back to Suizhou for public trial by Zhang Pizhu, was still in a daze. He was beaten so badly by Pang Cun that his head still didn't wake up after such a long time.
It wasn't until General Ping Thief met his son Zuo Mengeng, whom he had not seen for a long time, in prison. The father and son met, looked at each other and cried, that he gradually regained his consciousness and began to slowly realize the situation of his prisoner.
Zuo Mengeng, a dandy, almost lost his human form after being imprisoned by the army for a few days.
In fact, Li Laiheng treated Zuo Liangyu and his son quite well. Although they were detained in the old prison in Suizhou Yamen, people were sent to carry away the filth every day. Although their breakfast and dinner were only full brown rice, they were still full of brown rice.
There is never a shortage.
This kind of treatment is no better than the Chu people who flooded the Central Plains and were killed by the left army's ring sword.
It was just that Zuo Mengeng was afraid of all the tortures he imagined and frightened himself, which scared him into a skeleton with no human form.
Zuo Liangyu is much better.
He is indeed a heroic figure who has seen big scenes. Even if the army collapsed, he became a prisoner of Xiao Li, and even let an ordinary soldier of the invading army ride on his head and beat him up. But Zuo Liangyu still did not give up on his comeback.
hope.
His hope is not out of thin air or self-deception, but it does have a certain basis.
Why did Li Laiheng take him back to Suizhou?
Why did Li Laiheng imprison himself in prison?
He also gave himself a treatment that was not too bad!
Zuo Liangyu had a bold idea in his mind. It seemed that Li Laiheng didn't intend to kill him. Not only did he not intend to kill him, but he might also reuse him!
After all, he is the most important general in the imperial court. If even Zuo Liangyu surrenders to the Chuang army, what impact will it have on the imperial court?
He immediately thought of Huang Taiji. Didn't Huang Taiji recruit and surrender a large number of civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty? It seemed that Li Laiheng wanted to follow the example of Corporal Hong Taili and convince himself to surrender to the invaders.
Zuo Liangyu touched the place where Pang Cun had hit him, but it still hurt. He thought that even in this situation, if Li Laiheng came in person to persuade him to surrender, no, if any general of the Chuang Army... no, as long as the Chuang Army showed his
If you are willing to surrender, then surrender.
But after he surrenders, he must find a way to deal with the thug who beat him.
If Li Laiheng understood the value of horse bones worth a thousand pieces of gold, he wouldn't refuse such a small request, right?
Thinking of this, Zuo Liangyu couldn't help but reveal a happy and bright smile on his face.
The two soldiers who were guarding the door of the old prison in Suizhou looked at Zuo Liangyu several times. They both looked at each other as if they were seeing exotic animals: Could it be that the Zuo thief has gone crazy?
He was imprisoned in prison, but he smiled as happily as a three-year-old child!
However, the development of things seemed to confirm Zuo Liangyu's conjecture bit by bit. After being imprisoned in the old prison for three days, he and his son Zuo Mengeng were finally taken out by the rebel soldiers.
On the way, he heard the conversations of the guards. What were they talking about about the public trial meeting? Zuo Liangyu had never heard of what a public trial meeting was, but he knew what a trial meant.
In Zuo Liangyu's view, trial is a bureaucrat, a tool for gentry and gentry to compromise with each other, negotiate and bargain with each other. This little Li thief has occupied the territory of several prefectures in Huguang and made the cause of Chuangjun so impressive. There must be several
In terms of ability, just by looking at the public trial he held, you can tell that he is infinitely smarter than Li Zicheng, who only knows how to torture!
Zuo Liangyu felt even more optimistic in his heart. If Li Laiheng really planned to kill him, he would never have kept him locked up for so long. Even if he wanted to imitate what Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting did when they sacrificed Gao Yingxiang as a prisoner to the Ancestral Temple, he would not do anything.
The "public trial" seemed to be a step Li Laiheng left for himself. As long as he cooperated with Li Laiheng in that bird's public trial meeting and helped him put on a drama of Zhou Gong vomiting the world and returning his heart, his life should be saved.
Zuo Mengeng, who was on the side, was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground. He was dragged by several intruders who looked like wolves and tigers before he escaped from the prison. This made Zuo Liangyu heartbroken. How could the tiger father have such a son?
That's all, after you surrender to Li Laiheng, you won't have to arrange for Zuo Menggeng to join the army, and let him spend half his life as a rich man.
After the two of them were released from prison, they were put into a specially made prison car by the soldiers of the rebel army. In addition to Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Mengeng, there were several other captured Zuo Army generals who were also waiting here for Zuo Liangyu's inner thoughts.
A strong sense of uneasiness suddenly arose. This scene was not very similar to the scene of persuading surrender that I imagined, right?
The prison car set off from the old prison in Suizhou City and passed through most of Suizhou City. There were countless people watching on the street. Zuo Liangyu couldn't hear what they said clearly, but from the angry faces, he could feel the absolute anger.
Not a nice thing to say.
Could it be... could Li Laiheng really want to kill him?
Zuo Liangyu's composure was crumbling bit by bit, his legs began to tremble, and his face turned earthy in an instant, looking no more courageous than Zuo Mengeng, his most troubled and despised son.
In the end, all the prisoners in the prison car were detained on a high platform. Several intruders were holding documents in their hands and did not know what they were reading. Zuo Liangyu listened very vaguely, but after a while, he heard a familiar voice
Name: Lu Ding.
Lu Ding was one of Zuo Zhen's deputy commanders. After Zuo Liangyu heard his name, his consciousness was mostly awake from the chaos.
Lu Ding was called to the front of the high platform by the Chuang Army, and then a dozen people who looked like ordinary people walked out from the audience. The soldiers of the Chuang Army continued to read the contents of the documents in their hands. Those common people seemed to be from the villages that Zuozhen had massacred.
Zuo Liangyu actually couldn't remember exactly where the army had burned and looted. It was only after repeated emphasis by the soldiers of the invading army that he felt like he had a little memory.
Then the dozen or so people began to talk about their own experiences. Some people said that they had met Lu Ding and witnessed Lu Ding ordering the village to be set on fire. There was also a young woman who said that she was taken into the camp by Zuo soldiers and suffered a lot.
Lu Ding was insulted, but she went on to say that she could not remember the specific face of that person and was not sure whether it was the Lu Ding in front of her.
Zuo Liangyu was greatly confused by Chuang Jun's approach. What on earth were they doing?
Then another person came out. Zuo Liangyu looked at his dress and felt that he should be a well-educated scholar. Listening to his description, he seemed to be some kind of judge in the army. The man who recommended the judge kept talking a lot of nonsense. What was the general idea?
The army was in trouble and the situation was chaotic. The army was unable to investigate all the cases one by one and had to resort to the method of first-person witness to handle the case.
The man then announced that based on the accusations made by the people in Huguang, Lu Ding, the deputy commander of Zuozhen, had committed seventeen crimes, including burning and robbing villages, instigating and deploying robberies, etc. However, after the investigation by the army, the main crimes that were considered conclusive were
Three crimes.
He finally said that according to the temporary laws for breaking into the army formulated by Secretary Fang, Lu Ding would be sentenced to twenty years in prison for these three crimes of his.
What the hell is this?
Zuo Liangyu was even more puzzled. Lu Ding was sentenced to prison, which seemed to mean that the Chuang Army did not intend to recruit General Zuo Zhen to surrender?
But that’s not right either!
If he really didn't intend to surrender, why didn't he kill Lu Ding? Instead, he said a bunch of weird things that were hard to understand.
Zuo Liangyu was puzzled, but he soon no longer had to worry about it, because the trial would soon come to General Zuo himself.
Compared with Lu Ding, a somewhat ethical figure, Zuo Liangyu's crime was very conclusive. There were hundreds of witnesses who accused him of crimes, and the judges of the Chuang Army had to choose from them.
Ten people will speak as representatives.
Zuo Liangyu himself had forgotten many of the things they mentioned. For example, the day before he sent troops to Xiangyang, he forced every household in the city to pay ten taels of silver and forced countless people to death. Such small things, he
How can you still remember it?
The more these people talked, the more strange Zuo Liangyu felt.
What on earth do the invaders want? Does Li Laiheng still want to persuade him to surrender?
After the witnesses cried, the judge said that although the current situation was turbulent and verification was difficult, through the efforts of the Chuang Army, 83 of the 121 charges against Zuo Liangyu were cleared.
Received relatively strong witness support.
Then he suddenly said:
"Zuo Liangyu, a thief, was sentenced to death by execution under the twelve provisional laws for breaking into the army."
Zuo Liangyu was suddenly shocked. Although he couldn't understand what the witnesses, the testimonies, or what they meant, he could hear the three words "Zhan Li Jue" very clearly.
The tall and tall General Pingthief suddenly withered like a frosted eggplant. He didn't know what to say, his legs became weak for a while, and his knees suddenly hit the ground.
Following his forehead, his whole head, and even his limbs all fell to the ground.
As if seeing Emperor Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu threw himself on the ground and threw himself on the ground. He wanted to say something to beg for mercy, but his teeth and tongue were tangled up in fear, and he couldn't even make a sound.
.
Standing next to him, Zuo Mengeng, the always dandy prodigal, seemed to have gone completely insane. Zuo Mengeng looked at his father who was lying on the ground with a pitiful look, trying with all his strength to beg for mercy and spare his life.
, suddenly burst out laughing uncontrollably and shouted:
"My father is truly a hero! My father is truly a hero! It's easy to be a high official! It's hard to move away from important matters!"
Zuo Liangyu, behead him.
The head fell to the ground, and Zuozhen disappeared into smoke.