By the time Xu He and the others rushed back to the east gate of Hailing City with their troops, the place was no longer as bustling as when they came out.
It was getting late, the wind was biting, and there was no one in the wilderness except them.
As soon as I walked not far from the city gate, I saw the city gate suddenly set on fire, and someone shouted: "Who is it?"
Xu He said: "I am Xu He, and I have brought the group training back!"
After a while, I heard Chen Hua say from the city wall: "Is it a bright sound?"
"Sir, it's me!"
Chen Hua said: "Liangsheng, tell all your people to light torches and come closer!"
Xu He knew that it was getting dark at this time, and Chen Hua was afraid that he would be kidnapped, so he was cautious. If it was really a Japanese pirate and such a large group of people came to the city gate, there must be preparations upstairs.
However, they were not from Xibei, so they were naturally not afraid of inspection, so they stood under the city gate holding fire.
Chen Hua was still not at ease, so he asked someone to drop the basket and go to the city. He asked Xu He to sit in and enter the city first.
When Xu He went up to the tower, Chen Hua said nervously: "The people below are all yours, right?"
Xu He smiled bitterly and said, "Of course!"
"Well, if you are going to be held hostage, the thief will not let you in alone!" After saying that, he waved his hand and said: "Open the door!"
"Rumble"...
As soon as the sound passed, the gate opened, and the regiment training soldiers filed into the city.
Xu He said to Chen Hua: "Your Excellency, you are very cautious!"
Chen Hua smiled bitterly and said: "When you reminded me when you left the city, I realized that I was not prepared to face a powerful enemy at all!"
Xu He knew that this situation was actually very common. Why was it that after a long period of peace in history, war suddenly broke out, and rebels were able to quickly attack several big cities?
This is because the mindset of local officials has not yet changed.
They still think about issues with the thinking of local civil servants.
What do civil servants consider?
Of course, people can't freeze to death in the wild?
But the enemy has noticed this about you, so he often uses time and space to catch you off guard.
The best example is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in later generations, which fought from Guangxi to Jinling, conquering cities and territories along the way. It was as if it was in an uninhabited country.
The corruption of the Qing court is one reason, and what I just mentioned is also one of the main reasons.
"By the way, Liang Sheng, it's a good thing you didn't remind me. After you left, I organized people to log in the names of the people in the city! We actually found about 40 people who spoke with accents from other places, and now they are detained by me. In prison! What do you think we should do about this?"
"There are more than forty?" Xu He frowned when he heard the news.
Chen Hua nodded and said: "There are also many with foreign accents. For their sake, they all say that they are doing business, but they can't see the goods!"
Xu He nodded and said, "I'll go take a look!"
After speaking, he asked Qin Lie and Zhou Bi to see Zhang Jingxian and ask him to help arrange the garrison of these three hundred people.
After saying that, he followed Chen Hua to the prison.
The first time he came to the county prison, Xu He was really not used to it.
In a place like this, the air is full of musty smell, which is also mixed with the smell of urine, which is very unpleasant.
When the prison warden saw that the eldest master personally brought the famous Mr. Xu from Hailing to this quiet place, he hurriedly threw down his chopsticks and Xiaoyi held a lantern for everyone and led the way.
The prison in Hailing County is not built with wooden fences like those in TV series.
In fact, there are two places where local governments hold prisoners.
One is a place where misdemeanor criminals are imprisoned, which is also the widely known [classroom]!
In fact, the squad room is not a place specifically for detaining prisoners, but a place where the three-level yamen officers work.
Initially, in order to prevent delays in trials, prefecture and county yamen often put parties involved in civil cases, misdemeanor criminals, and supporting evidence of related crimes into waiting rooms to await trial, and dispatched officers to guard them so that they could be there at any time.
In the squad room, both witnesses and "prisoners" were crowded together noisily, sleeping and defecating together.
Of course, the class rooms are also divided into levels. The rich can spend money to enter a large room with beds. If you spend more money, you can remove the iron chains. If you have less money, you can get a floor bunk. Even in the late Qing Dynasty, you can take opium. , it is said that it costs five pennies to turn on the lights! I just don’t know if it’s okay to bring the brothel girl in.
In short, this is where the origin of sitting in the prison camp comes from. It is a misdemeanor here.
Such serious crimes, such as the county jail where Xu He and others are now.
There is no daylight here, and each room has only a small door to enter and exit. There is a hole in the door. It is closed on weekdays. The jailer will only open the small window when he has something to do or to deliver food.
The prisoners who were the most important guards were all wearing shackles and shackles, which are similar to the handcuffs and leg shackles of later generations.
Once these people go out, such as being tried, they will go to Miki.
What is Miki? The so-called "Three Woods" that cannot be found under the Three Woods are actually the head shackles, foot shackles, and hand shackles.
Wearing this thing is torture every minute and every second.
When Xu He stood in the dark and looked at the forty or so people, he found that although Chen Hua did not give them three pieces of wood, the anklets were standard for everyone.
This... is a bit exaggerated.
Chen Hua whispered: "Just in case, let's aggrieve them for a few days. As long as they don't move around randomly, they'll be fine!"
Xu He nodded and said, "My lord just said, how many businessmen with Zhejiang accents are there among these people?"
Chen Hua nodded: "They said they were here to collect silk, but when I asked them where the silk was, they couldn't tell. When I asked them which village they lived in when collecting silk, they couldn't tell either."
In this era, merchants who went to the countryside to collect silk had to live and eat in villagers' homes. They usually found a villager's house, and then negotiated a price that included food and accommodation. They settled on a monthly basis or if they were familiar with it, they would pay it all at once.
Therefore, what Chen Hua said is not false at all. If these people cannot tell where they live, it is very suspicious.
There were many things going on, and he and Chen Hua didn't have time to bring these people to the lobby, so they ordered the jailer to bring the suspicious person to a secluded place for questioning.
The jailer went to pick up the person, but Xu He still stood in the dark and watched what was going on over there.
As soon as these people saw the jailer, they shouted that they were wronged. The jailer did not have the humanitarian spirit of later generations. When he heard the noise of this group of people, he drew his whip and threatened: "If you shout again, I will kill you!"
After scolding for a while, the group finally calmed down.
He tapped the person inside the small window with his hand and said: "You, it's you, the man with the black mole under his mouth, come out!"
After saying that, he waved to the other two jailers to come forward and watch the small door. Then he took out the key and took out one person from inside.
The man had just come out and was trembling with fear: "Brother, cell leader, you have arrested the wrong person. I am just a string collector!"
The jailer scolded: "You have to tell me the damn thing and come with me! Go see our big boss!"
When Xu He came out of the man, he looked at the man's legs. They didn't have the bowed feeling that he had when he was crossing his legs on the boat all the time.
Nor is he the wretched, fierce, or arrogant Japanese pirate he thought he was.
I can only say that I was a little nervous and a little confused.
Performance-wise, there's nothing wrong with it.
"There's another chapter a little later!
Sorry to my family, there has been a lot going on lately!
My family was in the hospital and I didn’t sit down until eight o’clock! "
