The intersection of North and South Streets and Commercial Street forms an intersection, with a raised platform in the middle.
This was originally the place where the discipline officer preached the Kaiyuan government decree, and later became the place where the executioner sat when executing prisoners on death row.
Death row prisoners from all over Liaodong were taken here for execution, and the intersection became Kaiyuan's food market, specially used for executing prisoners and allowing people to watch their executions.
Liu Zhaosun advocated leniency in sentencing and killing as little as possible in the punishment of crimes committed by the people in his jurisdiction. Therefore, Ping Liaohou was known as "Liu Bodhisattva" among the people.
Under the influence of "Liu Bodhisattva", there were only a few executioners in the vast Liaodong.
Because there were so few executions of prisoners, executioners were often unemployed and had to take on some private work, killing pigs and sheep, exorcising ghosts and suppressing houses, to make up for their family income.
However, the rectification movement launched by the Kaiyuan military and political system in the second year of Taichang completely changed the executioners' embarrassing situation.
Under the thunderous attack, more than two hundred military and political officials were arrested and imprisoned, and half of them were taken to the intersection and beheaded.
After the twelfth lunar month festival, the executioners are busy killing people every day. The main prisoners on death row include:
Corrupt officials, deserters on the battlefield, and stubborn slave-building prisoners.
Yang Tong walked on the North-South Street with vigilance.
This town soldier was wearing a red uniform with wide shoulders and a high collar. The sword in his hand was clicking. The ceremonial belt tied around his waist looked quite energetic. The new short flint gun on the left side added a bit of majesty to him.
Although he has retired from the army, Yang Tong still exudes the unique temperament of a Kaiyuan soldier.
Yang Tong, the corps commander of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Guards Army (formerly the 1st Banner of the 2000th Headquarters), is known as the best marksman in Kaiyuan.
Two months ago, Ping Liao Hou besieged Hetuala with an army of 32,000 troops and launched a war of annihilation against Hou Jin.
Yang Tong fought against two yellow flags outside the Khan's Palace. While sniping a Houjin archer behind the parapet, a heavy arrow hit his left hand.
The moment he fell into the horse pit, he stuck his dagger into the inner wall of the pit, and his toes were suspended in the air with the densely packed sharp bamboo stakes for half an hour.
When soldiers in the follow-up attack rescued him, his left arm lost too much blood, and the arrow wound was frozen into a blood pimple. When he returned to the wounded camp, his left hand had to be amputated from the wrist.
After losing his left hand, Yang Tong could not continue to serve.
According to the Kaiyuan military pension system, soldiers who retire due to injury can receive a pension of 300 taels and 50 acres of farmland. The pension is paid out in five years.
Wounded soldiers who are unwilling to retire will receive a pension of 100 taels and continue to engage in some work within their capabilities in Kaiyuan, such as serving as military attachés in schools or serving as pacification soldiers - this type of pacification soldiers are not used to supervise battles on the battlefield - Similar to later generations of police, they were responsible for the security of cities and villages.
Yang Tong left one hand in Hetuala, feeling disheartened.
Either because of the blessing of the Supreme Lord, or because the shoulder bandage on his body played a role in bringing the dead back to life, the wound did not develop gangrene, and the tight bandage to stop the bleeding did not rupture the blood vessels. In addition, Old Songtou and his disciples' superb skills Medical skills do not require cutting off bones with a saw. They just need to take apart the joints and apply a layer of Dianxi Baiyao on the broken part of the wrist. Yang Tong was in strong health and recovered after two months.
On the recommendation of flag captain Cheng Liang, Yang Tong, who lost his left hand, became one of the 600 soldiers in Kaiyuan City.
He took out one or two and a half coins of broken silver from his pension and asked a private blacksmith in the city to make an iron hook for himself. The blacksmith heard that Yang Tong was injured while fighting Tatars, so he gave him a pair of long nails for free. , used to fix the iron hook on the wrist.
The iron hook is made of fine steel, carefully wrapped in buffalo leather. It has been repeatedly hammered and quenched to make it strong and strong. Two straps of different lengths connect the iron hook to the shoulders and elbows, and the outside is covered with a special iron The arms and hands are extremely strong.
After installing this pair of iron hooks, Yang Tong gradually forgot what he had experienced on the battlefield.
When he was patrolling Kaiyuan Street wearing an iron hook, he had to curl up the iron hook in his uniform sleeve to avoid scaring the children who were walking towards him into tears.
Around the Laba Festival, merchants in the city were killed one after another. The Han, Mongolian and Jurchens accused each other of being responsible. Because of fear and suspicion, people fought every day.
Patrols have been strengthened in the city. Yang Tong and other town guards patrolled the streets and alleys of Kaiyuan, checking all suspicious pedestrians, and were busy until late at night every day.
He has been busy like this until the new year. The murderer of the merchants has not been found out, but prisoners are beheaded every day in the city.
Yang Tong had no sympathy for these civil affairs officials who were beheaded. Not only were they greedy for money, but they also secretly colluded to create slaves.
According to the decree enacted by Marquis Ping Liao, any officer who embezzles property worth more than five hundred taels of silver will be executed immediately, and his family property will be confiscated.
So this time many officials were beheaded.
Yang Tong had participated in several such house raids. In the backyard of a civil affairs officer, the security guards used iron hooks to lift open the cellar shutter, and a mountain of cloth and silver appeared in front of them.
As he was busy like this, Yang Tong gradually stopped thinking about the girl from the Kong family.
Now that he is disabled, no woman wants to be with a cripple.
Fortunately, as long as he didn't look at his broken left hand, as long as he felt the itching on the tip of his index finger, and imagined that he was still scratching it with his thumb, he was content.
If he dreams tonight, he will see in his dream that his body is unscathed, returning from the battlefield unscathed, leaving Kaiyuan, and returning to his distant and vague hometown. In front of his parents, his exhausted head can rest peacefully on his pillow. The palms of my hands cannot sleep soundly.
A burst of people shouting from behind brought Yang Tong back to reality.
He looked back toward the execution platform.
A dark crowd of people gathered at the crossroads. It was as far as the eye could see. Everyone stretched their necks and stood on tiptoes like ducks.
Under the gaze of thousands of pairs of eyes, a plump Hong Yangban (executioner) walked into the execution ground carrying a ghost head knife.
The executioner saluted to the prison officer on the high platform, climbed onto the execution platform, faced the death row prisoners kneeling on the platform, and ruffled their hair buns as if they were slaughtering chickens.
The supervisor, Qiao Yiqi, was wearing a bright red auspicious suit and a red velvet hat. He was sitting under a huge umbrella with a black and red inkstone on the table in front of him.
"Prisoner Song Yingding."
"have!"
"Being corrupt and perverting the law, he embezzled 30,000 taels of silver from trade. The evidence of the crime is conclusive!"
Qiao Yiqi reached out and used a red pen to write the word "Zhou" on Song Yingding's Zhaozi (a sign representing the prisoner's identity), drew a red circle, and threw it on the ground.
A policeman picked up the stick and ran quickly to the execution platform. The executioner pulled up the prisoner's head so that he could see clearly the word "Choose" on the stick.
"Prove your true identity and kill him!"
The executioner pushed Song Yingding's bun to one side and pulled the prisoner's shoulder.
Song Yingding was tied up and knelt down on the execution platform, staring blankly at the cheering crowd in front of him.
The executioner took the coconut gourd handed to him by the soldiers under the stage, drank a few mouthfuls of strong wine, and sprayed the wine on the ghost head knife with a puff.
The executioner looked at the distracted Song Yingding and said with a drunken look on his face:
"My lord, you have been greedy for so much money. It's enough to die ten times. I'll send you on your way today. I'll burn more paper money for you later to ensure that you have enough money down here. Don't blame me for the little one who was born to eat this bowl of rice." .”
The people watching all around let out loud shouts.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
"Things that are worse than pigs and dogs, kill them!"
"Let him be greedy and kill!"
"kill!"
Finally, all the shouts merged into the word "kill".
Yang Tong turned his head, too lazy to look more.
He had seen many such scenes in the past half month, and it was nothing unusual.
The man who was beheaded on the stage worked as an accountant in a trading company. He took advantage of loopholes in the accounts to smuggle out employees of the trading company and embezzled 30,000 taels of silver from Kaiyuan. It is said that this person was a relative of a high-ranking official in Kaiyuan, and that high-ranking official was Ping Liao. The elders under Hou's command have a very prominent position.
Fortunately, Kaiyuan didn't engage in any implication, otherwise the number of people killed today would not be three, but at least thirty.
Yang Tong carefully observed the people around him, hoping to find anything strange in the crowd.
The executioner with the palm knife followed the bone seam near Song Yingding's occipital point, and with a sound of "Ah--", he suddenly swung the ghost head knife.
Yang Tong left the execution ground, turned around and walked towards South Street. After walking dozens of steps, earth-shattering cheers came from behind.
He didn't stop and kept walking forward. There were very few people on the street, and they all came to watch the beheading.
Just after taking a few steps, a suppressing soldier flashed across his face, and the man said hello to Yang Tong.
"Brother Yang, it's New Year's Eve tomorrow, why don't you rest?"
"Where can I rest? See you later."
Yang Tong hesitated and passed by the Zhenfu soldiers.
Just as he was about to continue walking forward, he caught a glimpse of blood on the belt of the Zhenfu Bingzheng.
Kaiyuan's military law is strict, and they, retired town soldiers, must maintain a strict military appearance when patrolling the streets.
Yang Tong was about to remind the man, but when he looked back, the suppressing soldier had disappeared into an alley behind him.
"I don't know this person, how does he know my name?"
Yang Tong felt surprised in his heart. He kept walking and took a few steps forward. Suddenly he suddenly raised his head and saw a figure shaking on the Seven Stars Tower dozens of steps away.
The top marksman in Kaiyuan instinctively noticed that at the moment he raised his head, a pair of eyes in the restaurant were looking at him.
The iron hooks under the sleeves glowed coldly.
The Zhenfu soldiers strode towards the Seven Star Tower.
A private room facing the window on the third floor of Qixing Building.
A middle-aged man dressed as a foreign businessman put down the window lattice alertly and looked back at a young civil affairs officer sitting at the table. The civil affairs officer looked panicked and turned a blind eye to the table full of delicacies, just like Song Yingding on the execution platform, his eyes a little Scattered.
"Master Song, we ask you again, do you want to leave? The boat is ready now and we can leave tomorrow. There will be strong winds the day after tomorrow. They will not be able to go out to sea, and they will not be able to catch up with us by land."
After hearing this, the young civil affairs official's face became even more anxious.
There were five or six strong men standing in the corner of the private room, all with murderous expressions on their faces and looking around with vigilance.
"Eunuch Zeng, if you leave like this, Liu Zhaosun will definitely kill my second brother."
The foreign businessman laughed dryly, as if he had heard a great joke.
"What you did in Kaiyuan was enough to wipe out the Song family several times. Liu Zhaosun will not let you go! Will letting him know that you are connected with Dongchang spare your life? It is better to take care of yourself first."
Eunuch Zeng patted the civil affairs official on the shoulder and whispered:
"Go back to the capital and let you be the head of the household department."
There were loud cheers on the cross streets, and the civil affairs officer's face became even more ugly.
"Liu Zhaosun first seized the military power of your second brother Song Yingxing and placed Qinghe under house arrest. Then he accused your eldest brother Song Yingding of being corrupt and beheaded him. Mr. Song, you will be next. This is to scare the monkeys. You, the Song family, helped people named Liu earn so much money. Now, If you lose power, you will become a chicken to be slaughtered."
"Go to the capital, the emperor will put you in high regard, and you will enjoy endless glory and wealth! If you stay in Kaiyuan, you will only die."
Song Yingsheng stood up silently, came to the window, and looked at the execution ground where his eldest brother was beheaded, which was flooded by onlookers.
Two lines of hot tears flowed from the corners of the civil affairs official's eyes.
He suddenly remembered that the three brothers of the Song family were the first civil servants to defect to Kaiyuan.
At that time, Liu Zhaosun had nothing, and even the officials' salaries were often in arrears.
The brothers worked conscientiously in workshops, shops, and the army, helping him, Liu Zhaosun, to rise through the ranks, from staff general to commander-in-chief, and finally to the title of Marquis of Liao.
The cheers of the people in the distance floated to the window, the sound became louder and louder, and gradually became harsh.
The expression on Song Yingsheng's face kept changing, and Eunuch Zeng waited patiently.
After a long time, he finally said:
"Go to Sun Chuanting tonight and take him with you. Sun Chuanting has been humiliated many times, so he must be rebellious. Also, instead of going to Tianjin, go to Shandong."
Eunuch Zeng looked suspicious.
"Going to Shandong?"
There was a hint of coldness in Song Yingsheng's eyes.
"Liu Zhaosun was unkind to our Song family, so don't blame me for being unjust! Go to Weihaiwei first, arrest Jin Yuji, pull up the 6,000th headquarters soldier, and join the capital together. Only in this way can you and I have the capital to ask for credit from the imperial court."
Eunuch Zeng's eyes gleamed, like a beast smelling blood, he said impatiently.
"Go on."
"The Six Thousand Headquarters are refugees who were only recruited in October. They are in Wendeng and their hearts are unstable. President Qian is from my hometown and we have a lot of connections. He said that Liu Zhaosun wanted to abolish them. As long as President Qian was given a staff general, he would definitely be willing. Come with us."
Eunuch Zeng nodded repeatedly, looked back at the dozen or so Dongchang harp heads in the room, and said with a ferocious expression:
"We are leaving tomorrow. I want to give Liu Zhaosun one last surprise. You guys go to reinforce Ma Tianxing, pick a place with a lot of people to attack, kill more people, and let Liu thief know the consequences of going against the emperor!"
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