Yangzhou City, Jiangnan Tower.
Guan Huaigong's eyes flickered.
And a knight in royal robes beside him and Zhu Ming had already stuck his head out and looked downstairs.
"Order of the King of Qin."
"cut!"
Following the order, the officials of Yangzhou Prefecture, who had been escorted to Jiangnan Tower for a long time, kept wailing for a while.
But the sounds soon stopped.
After a while.
Outside Jiangnan Tower, there was silence.
The people of Yangzhou City, who had already heard the noise and were secretly watching from a distance, had fear in their eyes.
With just a cup of tea, almost all the officials in Yangzhou Prefecture were beheaded.
The Yangzhou officials who had previously participated in the evaluation of officials in the 18th Prefecture of South Zhili looked at their former colleagues and superior officials from a distance, having their heads chopped off by the superiors in Beijing. A bloody head rolled to the ground.
Because there were so many people, the heads rolling on the ground were crowded and bumped together.
A heat wave swept through, and the smell of blood soared into the sky, causing the sound of vomiting to be heard from the crowd quietly watching in the distance.
From the Yangzhou Prefecture to the Lianghuai Supervisory Salt Transport Envoy, Division of Transport Envoys, and down to the county officials, almost the entire army was wiped out.
The bloody scene seemed to have covered the towering Jiangnan Tower with a layer of bright red blood gauze.
The sun was shining brightly, but the onlookers only felt cold and eerie.
Jiangnan upstairs.
Guan Huaigong's eyelids were trembling.
He couldn't control his slightly trembling legs, and lowered his hands to press on the outside of his thighs.
In just a short breath, Guan Huaigong's lips were already white without a trace of blood. His breathing was heavy and difficult. In his wide eyes, the pupils shrank violently due to fear.
Sniff...
Zhu Xi, who was standing under the window, put his hands on the railing and took a deep breath outside.
Guan Huaigong's face turned even darker.
He actually saw a look of enjoyment on King Qin's face.
The young official shuddered violently.
However, Zhu Xi had already looked over with a faint look: "Do you know why this king would do this?"
At this moment, in Guan Huaigong's eyes, Zhu Ming was just a demon with a mouth full of blood.
His eyes were a little evasive, he lowered his head and took a deep breath, and said in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty wants to cut through the mess quickly."
"That's quite right." Zhu Ping seemed very relaxed.
There are less than a thousand heads downstairs in Jiangnan, so this is nothing.
Zhu Ping continued: "In addition to the county yamen, Yangzhou Prefecture also has the Lianghuai Supervisor Salt Transfer Envoy Si Yamen and the Water Transport Governor's Yamen. These yamen used to be under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. Although Zou Xueyu became the governor, he had no control over these yamen. Yamen have always been able to mediate conflicts.
Yangzhou Prefecture has the largest number of people absent from the exam this time, as if these people were tacitly approving it behind the scenes. Kill them, of course. By killing them, Zou Xueyu can continue to implement reforms in Southern Zhili and there will be less resistance.
But more importantly, there is another point. "
Guan Huaigong swallowed silently.
It was really difficult for him to accept the scene in front of him.
"I... I don't know, I don't know..."
Zhu Xi smiled and reached out to pat Guan Huaigong on the shoulder: "Actually, the most important thing is that I don't want them to live."
The reason is simple.
It was so simple that Guan Huaigong couldn't believe the explanation he heard.
But at this moment, he was extremely convinced that the reasons His Highness the King of Qin had mentioned before were of no importance at all. The most important or the only reason was that His Highness the King of Qin wanted to kill these people in Yangzhou City.
Guan Huaigong closed his mouth tightly, his throat was choked and twitching, and the smell of blood seemed to be spurting out from his belly, which was suppressed by him.
Zhu Ping laughed heroically, and patted Guan Huaigong's shoulder heavily a few more times.
"You have to get used to it. There is an old saying that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. Why are you even afraid of seeing some blood?"
Guan Huaigong lowered his head deeply: "Xiaguan...Xiaguan just has some..."
Zhu Xi waved his hand: "We have just arrived at the last place, and there are still many places to go next. Let me teach you in advance, the more you are afraid of such a scene, but you feel uncomfortable, the more you have to look, the more you have to open up on the spot. Use your nose to smell the smell of blood. Once you have seen and smelled more, not to mention taking your time, even when you hold the rice bowl, you will feel the aroma is overflowing, and it will make you enjoy your meal."
Zhu Xi's face was full of pride and smile.
Finally, Guan Huaigong couldn't hold on any longer and rushed into the building with a sudden movement. Holding a basin that he didn't know what it was used for, he opened his mouth and vomited it out.
At this time, Zhu Xi seemed to be a gentle and kind-hearted uncle next door.
"Drink some wine to strengthen your courage."
As he spoke, Zhu Xi had already handed a glass of wine to Guan Huaigong.
Guan Huaigong: "..."
The young man couldn't help but roll his eyes. He had seen caregivers feeding people water and soup, but he had never seen anyone feeding them wine.
Zhu Ping sat aside with a smile.
"When I was your age, I led people to fight outside the border, drank the blood of captives, and ate the meat of chiefs. There were mountains of human heads, sitting on top of them, holding the meat in their hands, and lying down drunk to death. It was extremely enjoyable."
As he spoke, Zhu Xi held a pot of wine in his hand, raised his head and poured it into his mouth.
The wine flowed from his mouth, soaking his neck and chest.
However, Zhu Ping licked his lips and patted Guan Huaigong on the back.
"Take a sip! Keep it and you'll be fine!"
But with this slap, Guan Huaigong almost vomited out his entire intestines and stomach.
After a long while, Guan Huaigong fell weakly to the ground, looking up at His Highness King Qin who was still carrying the wine bottle in front of him.
Guan Huai Gong felt a strong heart, took the jug, struggled to remove the cork, held the jug with both hands, raised his head and poured the wine into his stomach.
After a few sips, Guan Huaigong swallowed a bottle of wine.
He let out a long wine burp and lowered his head. His face was already red and his eyes were bloodshot.
Zhu Xi held the fried beans and stuffed them into his mouth one by one, looking at the young man in front of him calmly.
After a while.
Guan Huaigong took a long breath and shouted loudly.
"color!"
Zhu Ming's calm face gradually became vivid.
He laughed loudly: "Keep drinking!"
At this time, Guan Huaigong no longer felt sick or uncomfortable at all. He stared at the table, grabbed the table with both hands and sat on the chair.
"drink!"
"It's fun to cook sheep and slaughter cows, but you have to drink three hundred cups at a time!"
With a bright face, Zhu Ming reached out and moved a plate of mutton legs in fish soup on the table to Guan Huaigong, then grabbed a handful of garlic from the side and slapped it in front of the young man.
"How can you drink without meat!"
"Eat a big bite!"
Guan Huaigong was already full of alcohol, and his chest and clothes were completely wet with alcohol, but he slapped the table with both hands: "Okay!"
Upstairs in Jiangnan, Zhu Shuang swept aside the exquisite wine and dishes prepared by Yangzhou Mansion, while his personal soldiers brought pots of beef and mutton from the back kitchen.
Drinks are free of charge and can be brought up from downstairs.
Wine jugs and jars were scattered all over the floor.
This meal lasted until dusk.
After all, Guan Huaigong was a young man. He was too drunk. He lay limply among a pile of cattle and sheep bones. His mouth was raised high and his tongue was stuck out as if he wanted to put it into the fallen wine bottle in front of him.
His hands hung down weakly, shaking every now and then.
Guan Huaigong's eyes were confused and his vision was blurry, but he murmured from time to time.
"drink……"
"Keep drinking..."
"Don't get drunk after drinking a thousand cups."
"My lord, you drink too, don't act shamelessly..."
"..."
Zhu Xi was leaning on the chair at this time, looking at the orange-red sunset shining into the building outside the window.
The light seemed to have a shape at this time.
A few streaks of smoke twisted and rolled in the light.
He had also been drinking today, but his eyes were gradually becoming clearer at this moment.
As Zhu Cang waved, his bodyguard brought him a bowl of hangover soup, which he drank.
Except for Zhu Ping's face, which was a little flushed, he didn't look like he had drunk too much wine at all.
He glanced at Guan Huaigong, who was lying on the table, with a slight smile on his face.
Young people are like this, they like to drink hard and fast.
After drinking several bottles of wine, the person's stomach will absorb the wine before he or she can react. How can one not get drunk quickly and wake up slowly?
The leader of the three guards of Prince Qin's Mansion stood aside, watching the prince stand up and walk to the window.
"Your Majesty, all the officials in Yangzhou City have been beheaded, and now there are only about a hundred officials left. The news has been sent to the sky."
Zhu Xi lowered his head and looked downstairs at Jiangnan.
The nearly a thousand heads and corpses have been cleaned away, and there are only some water stains on the ground reflecting the reflection of the surrounding buildings.
In the ditch under the courtyard wall, you can still vaguely see some blood-red soft bodies.
The temperature is slightly cool, and the smell of blood only occasionally wafts out from the corners.
At this moment, Yangzhou City is as quiet as a woman in a Jiangnan ink painting, hazy and beautiful.
Zhu Feng spoke in a low voice: "Let the people from the Yangzhou Taxation Department take over the important military and political affairs of Yangzhou first. When the people from the imperial court arrive, Yangzhou will almost be stabilized."
The royal guard commander who acted as a personal guard nodded and whispered: "I'm afraid that if the prince doesn't wait until he returns to Beijing this time, he will receive news of impeachment from the imperial court again."
Zhu Xi smiled faintly: "Then the cabinet must thank me for saving so much firewood for them to keep warm in the winter."
A smile immediately appeared on the guard commander's face.
Zhu Ming turned around, looked at Guan Huaigong who was still lying on the table, frowned and said: "Let him have a rest. Young man, it will be fine if you see blood a few more times. When you see blood again, you can't move." If you have good looks, you can take on big responsibilities."
The guard commander had a smile on his face and whispered: "Zou Dutai must remember the prince's favor this time."
Zhu Xi curled his lips and said, "Zou Xueyu can repay this favor by doing a good job for our Ming Dynasty. Training students for him is not training talented ministers for our Ming Dynasty."
The guard commander smiled.
What the prince said is true.
What happened in Yangzhou City quickly spread throughout Zhili Road.
On the first day that Prince Qin entered the city, he beheaded all the officials in Yangzhou City. Almost all the officials were slaughtered, leaving less than a hundred people. For a time, the Zhili Dao officials were frightened and everyone was in danger.
Now everyone knows that the imperial court's large-scale absence from the examination of officials in the 18th Prefecture of South Zhili this time has been handed over to the King of Qin for investigation.
This is a knife hanging over everyone's head.
Today, the knife fell on Yangzhou Mansion. All the officials killed were killed, and there were not many left.
Tomorrow, who knows where this knife will swing from Yangzhou Mansion.
So the impeachment memorials poured into the capital from all over the country like snowflakes.
Many timid officials did not even write impeachment memorials in the coming year. Instead, they wrote a resignation letter and sent it to the capital as soon as possible, so that they could dare to resign and return to the Yangzhou government before the sword fell on their heads. Rural pension.
And in Beijing.
When the news arrived, everyone in the court was trembling.
Even if the imperial court implemented the "shared households" and the Hongwu New Deal in the past few years, there were many local cases and people were convicted and executed, but there was never such a thing as killing so many people at once.
The last time nearly a thousand heads were chopped off like this was during the Kongyin case and the Guo Heng case.
One Yangzhou Prefecture killed nearly a thousand people, and the entire Zhili Road had to kill tens of thousands of people!
For a time, even in the Sanfa Division, which had been in power in recent years with heavy codes, many officials wrote to the King of Qin that he was too cruel.
It was already afternoon in Beijing at this time, and it was almost time for the various offices to go down to the office.
Wang Xinling rushed out of the government office in a hurry, stood in front of the government office and took a look around, then continued towards the right gate of Chang'an.
After a while, Wang Xin's mausoleum entered the imperial city, passed Chengtianmen, Duanmen, and Meridian Gate, and entered the palace.
Turn left and follow the door to the cabinet.
Wang Xinling glanced at the cabinet room where candles were already lit, took a deep breath and turned to the front of the public room next to the cabinet room.
Bang bang bang.
There was a knock on the door.
The voice of Bai Yuxiu, a doctor in the Literature and Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, came from the room.
"Enter."
Wang Xinling walked in casually and closed the door behind him.
"Do you still have enough people on the list of the Literary Selection Department of your Ministry of Civil Affairs?"
At this time, Bai Yuxiu was reviewing the matters handed down by the cabinet today to fill the posts of officials for various departments and yamen in Yangzhou City.
When Wang Xinling asked, he raised his head and said with a smile: "It's enough, don't worry."
With the implementation of the public examination system, the imperial court has not only filled the official vacancies accumulated in previous years in the past two years, but also reserved many government officials for the imperial court who have not yet been awarded official positions.
Once suitable positions are vacant at the central and local levels, these officials who have passed the public examination system to observe politics in the central government can immediately fill them.
A more complete official reserve system has already been established.
Wang Xinling took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to the senior.
"This is the news I just received, please take a look first."
Bai Yuxiu was a little confused, picked up the piece of paper, and looked down at it.
Wang Xinling said worriedly: "Originally, the imperial court should know about it tomorrow, but I think this matter is probably very serious, so I will tell you first.
Our King of Qin is really going to kill the 18th Mansion of Zhili this time.
He had just killed someone in Yangzhou City, and now he went to Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture to behead people.
Nearly 1,500 officials in the two governments were beheaded, more than 500 households were confiscated, and nearly 8,000 people were implicated and awaiting conviction by the court. "
Wang Xinling spoke quickly.
Then he searched the table with his eyes, picked up a cup of tea that he didn't know was Bai Yuxiu's, and started drinking heavily.
Bai Yuxiu, who looked at the contents on the paper, took a deep breath at this time.
Wang Xinling sneered: "Senior, do you still have enough manpower to fill these vacancies in your Literature and Selection Department?"
………………
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