Of course, Zhang Xiaoqi and the others did not gather to rebel. Their appeal was clear from the beginning, that was, to ask His Highness the Superintendent to keep the memorial for Shaowu to overturn the case, and to punish the "flattery villains" who wrote this memorial. From the beginning to the end, none of the officials initiated had the idea of ​​rebellion, but they had no reluctance to add to the crime. Zhou Shi determined the nature of this case of rebellion in the case of rebellion in the court. In order to confirm the crime of rebellion, Ding Zhixiang, who was in charge of the Ministry of Justice, brought out the law of the Ming Dynasty and selected eighteen charges to assist Zhang Xiaoqi and others as a conspiracy.

On that day, 136 court officials including Zhang Xiaoqi, Ma Anmin, Wang Wanda, Guo Tianxu, Qin Rong, Cheng Bangjun were arrested, and another 378 gentry and scholars who had not entered the school and had not returned home were arrested. 2,650 people were arrested in the troublemakers. For a time, the prison cells in Guangzhou Prefecture were full, so some prisoners had to be detained in Yuexiu Camp outside the city. Due to the strict orders of the Military Commander's Office, the Guangzhou Prefecture did not dare to release one person privately, which made the families of prisoners outside the government office cry and scream.

The King of Tang was very angry at Zhou Shixiang's behavior of killing and arresting people without his consent. He ordered the chief assistant Guo Zhiqi to take his order to order Zhou Shixiang to release people.

Zhou Shixiang said to the chief assistant Guo Zhiqi very angrily: "For those who have different opinions in the court, you can submit a memorial to the Superintendent of the State, or submit a letter to the General Secretary for the reign of the State. There will always be a public judgment in the court. How can you connect privately without official procedures and incite the people to attack the palace to cause momentum to oppress the State and the court? If this move succeeds, everyone will learn it in the future. If it does not suit the wishes, it will cause people to attack the government and the court. How can the country govern it? What credibility can the court be expressed?"

Guo Zhiqi repeatedly pleaded for Zhang Xiaoqi and others, and Zhou Shixiang was always cold-faced, saying that he had to deal with it according to the law, and could not follow the law, nor could he betray the law.

When Guo Zhiqi left, Zhou Shisuan ordered people to send a piece of paper related to smashing, robbery and other cases recorded in Guangzhou Prefecture these days. There were 369 piles, all of which were suffering masters, and all of them were clearly described. There were no shortage of those who were in prison to be punished. They also took special books and offered to the prisoners arrested to persuade the Tartars to rebel. They wanted to cause civil strife in Guangzhou, so they opposed the Tang Dynasty's supervision and the Qing Dynasty's support. In addition, the landlords and gentry involved in the troubled trouble were working hard for the Qing court. They were investigated in detail in various places and submitted to Guangzhou. There were white and black characters, and there were also villagers who had witnessed the papers of victims in the past. It was really ironclad.

Guo Zhiqi was speechless, knowing that these case files were true or false, but even if Zhou Shixiang took all the fakes as true, and the person in his hands was in his hands, he would say what he could do if he was short of the chief minister. After Guo Zhiqi failed to report to the King of Tang, the King of Tang was dissatisfied and sent the eunuch Pan Yinglong to release the people. He even claimed in the palace that if Zhou Shixiang refused to release the people, he would no longer supervise the country.

Zhou Shixiang had no choice but to go to the palace to meet the Tang King, and said to the palace: "I told Your Highness in Wencun that day: I only want to kill the enemy and restore the country in this life. Whoever wants to stop the Northern Expedition and stop the great cause of restoring the rivers and mountains? Even if I am accused of being accused of eternal insult, I will not let such a traitor succeed. If Your Highness doesn't believe me, Your Highness can order the Jinyiwei to push me out of the Meridian Gate and behead me. I will never say a word of complaint!"

He also said: "Emperor Yi once said: All officials can be killed. These so-called literati and officials are usually full of benevolence, righteousness and morality. In fact, most of them come to rush to surrender, and the enemy surrendered, without any moral integrity. When the Nandu City was broken, how many literati and officials died for their country? But the tablets were piled up into mountains and rushed to surrender Duoduo, the butcher of the Tatars, and asked for surrender! When the Qing barbarians occupied Guangdong, how many of these people were so righteous to the Tatars, and they fought with reason?! How many shot an arrow at the Tatars? Recover an inch of land? Today, our army is about to launch a Northern Expedition, and these rats are going to make trouble! If these hypocrites who ruined my plan of restoration are not severely punished, what do the soldiers of the Northern Expedition think? What do the loyal ministers and righteous men who died for my Ming Dynasty think? What do the people in the world think?!"

The King of Tang was speechless for a moment.

"If you believe me today, whether you believe me or not. If you think that what I do today is a merit or a crime, please keep it in my account. In the future, when I destroy the Tartars, restore my country in the Ming Dynasty, and let all the people of the Han family be fired, your highness will kill me with what I do today, and I will never call me an unjust!"

Zhou Shi was determined and refused to give in at all.

After careful consideration, the King of Tang thought that what Zhou Shixiang said might not be unreasonable. In addition, Pan Yinglong tactfully reminded the King of Tang that as soon as he was supervising the country, some ministers gathered in the palace to attack the palace gate. In the big picture, it could be regarded as Zhang Xiaoqi and others having ill-treason towards the King of Tang; in the small picture, it was Zhang Xiaoqi and others who violated the etiquette system, and Yu Jun was rude. So the King of Tang was angry and he did not want to make the matter big, so he agreed to agree to Zhou Shixiang to summon the cabinet to announce the rehabilitation of Emperor Shaowu in exchange for Zhou Shixiang's promise not to start a large-scale murder.

The King of Tang was very kind to persuade him, and Zhou Shixiang could not help but express his feelings, saying that those who had no official position had no prior record of crime and could be fined the matter; those who had committed crimes and who had committed crimes in the incident took the matter into consideration and robbed, smashed, and destroyed the case, and those who had committed crimes were handed over to the Guangzhou Prefecture for examination and conviction. Those who had serious crimes were punished according to the law, and those who were less guilty of crimes were sent to the Foshan Iron Mine for hard labor; those who had official positions were ordered by Zhou Shixiang to conduct detailed interrogation, and those who had no intention of colluding with enemies and had no intention of plotting against the enemy, they could be handed over to the King of Tang, and the rest were then seized by the Military Commander's Office.

The King of Tang knew that this was Zhou Shixiang's bottom line. After all, Zhang Xiaoqi and others were inciting the public to cause trouble. They directly targeted Zhou Shixiang and did not give Zhou Shixiang an explanation. They compromised immediately and agreed to this disposal.

After returning from the palace, Zhang An immediately came to see him and reported that during the interrogation, the Military Information Department found that many of the people involved in the trouble were escorts, and there were also such personnel among the gentry, and many of them were Taoist leaders who secretly formed local associations.

Zhou Shisuan ordered people to find Wang Shirong and tell Wang Shirong about what Zhang An reported. In addition, the general statements from various places in the previous period were also said, the general idea was that there were also widespread old forces dissatisfied with the Taiping Army in the central and localities of the court, including spies from the Qing army, bandits and scattered soldiers of the Qing army who were active in the countryside. These people were rampant in mountainous areas and inconvenient transportation areas. Although the Taiping army and local security teams in various places cleared out many times, they could not completely eliminate these forces. Once he led the main force of the Taiping army to fight the northern expedition, the rear might be in chaos. Therefore, I want to hear what good ways Wang Shirong could solve this problem.

Wang Shirong didn't expect that Zhou Shi would come to ask for his opinions specifically, and was very excited. After thinking for a moment, he proposed the nine-character policy, namely, "kill a group, lock a group, manage a group, and put a group."

Wang Shirong first suggested that the landlords and gentry arrested could be returned to the local area in batches, and the local area should check whether they had any behaviors of co-consensual acts during the pseudo-Qing period. If there were any, they would be killed on the charge of traitors, and the direct male family members of the family would be punished for co-consensual acts. If there was no behavior of co-consensual acts, they would be governed by the local government and ordered the village to supervise. They would not leave home without permission.

For those scholars who were unable to get official positions because of the imperial examination, Wang Shirong's suggestion was to send these people to Annan and grant them all major positions in Annan, so that these people could not only serve the military commander's office, but also be appointed as officials, and not let them complain in the country. After years of experience, they would always produce some talents.

As for the officials, Wang Shirong's opinion was very clear. With the King of Tang, it would definitely be bad to kill people. But he had to kill a group of people, otherwise these people would not be afraid, and they might cause trouble next time they had the chance. Therefore, the head officials should be handed over to the Military Information Department for handling, confirm his charge of collusion with the enemy, and kill the group of people. Only in this way can the remaining officials realize the status quo and know how much they have.

After hearing this, Zhou Shixiang thought that Wang Shirong's method was good, so he ordered someone to find Zhang An, give him a list, and ask him to go to Shaozhou, and ask the Guangdong admiral of the Qing Dynasty to help confirm the charge of colluding with the enemy. Of course, if the Military Information Department directly found out that an official secretly colluded with the enemy, it would naturally not take much effort.

In response to the issues raised by Zhou Shixiang, such as the details of the ecclesiastical elements and bandits, Wang Shirong proposed a plan to purify and suppress counter-revolutionaries.

According to Wang Shirong's plan, the suppression of rebellion was divided into three stages. This year, from July to October of the 13th year of the Yongli period, the first stage was the anti-rebellion in the Guangdong-Guangdong area, and the instability of swing elements within the local government were eliminated, with the focus on those former Qing officials surrendered. At the same time, the local garrison and local security teams should also be carried out to mobilize the people to report and expose those officials who secretly had contact with the Qing army and the sectarians.

The second phase is from October to March next year, when the Military Commander's Office is unified in command, mobilizing the garrisons, prefectures, counties and rural security teams, concentrating their efforts on combating bandits, spies, traitors and bullies, and establishing a responsibility system for the area and area, and assessing the responsible officials. At the same time, it begins to ban gangs, factions, communities, roads and other organizations in Guangdong.

The third stage is after March next year, which mainly promotes the experience gained by Guangdong to Guangxi and Hunan, and summarizes the experience of Guangdong’s first two stages into a book. The benefits should be promoted focus, and bad things should be improved in a timely manner. The so-called taking the essence and removing the dross.

After hearing this, Zhou Shixiang felt that this method was similar to the Taiping Army's experience in suppressing bandits in western Hunan. The difference was that this time the Taoist sects and bullies in the town were added, and for the first time, self-inspection and self-clearance were carried out in the Taiping Army's military and political system.

"Master, I think that for bandit leaders, habitual bandits, bullies, and important traitors who have indeed had evidence, they should kill a few groups of people and kill individuals. This is the use of serious punishment in troubled times. For those officials who have collusion with such people, even generals in the army should kill what they should be killed, and they should be caught and they should not show mercy."

"The most evil bandits will naturally kill them. From the bandits and the believers and gangs, they will pick up some of the lesser crimes and charge them to the iron ore of farms in various places, and the serious crimes will be sent to Annan. The Expeditionary Force seized two places in Annan and happened to build two new cities, so that these people could stay there after the city was built. In the future, serious criminals may consider sending them to Annan to avoid wasting manpower."

Zhou Shixiang was very satisfied with Wang Shirong's plan and signaled Yuan Kuoyu and Ding Zhixiang of the Ministry of Justice to draft a memorial to the State Administration of Responsible for the State Administration overnight, entitled "A Form for Resolution of Local Security" so that the Tang Dynasty could be supported by the King of Tang for local rectification.

Duke Xiang of Song was puzzled by Zhou Shixiang's sudden rebellion, and he also had to do something in the army. Zhou Shi explained to him that why he could not suppress the remnants of old landlords and gentry and local opposition in the past, and did not eliminate unstable elements in the army, because the time was not ripe, the population of Guangdong and Guangxi was limited, and the problem of shortage of money and food was not solved, and he had been fighting desperately with the Qing army, without the time and energy.

The situation is different now. Zhao Ziqiang's expeditionary army won a great victory in Annan, subdued the Zheng family of Annan, and received a large amount of compensation and food, so the problem of shortage of money and food was basically solved. In terms of military, the Taiping Army won consecutive victories, the Qing army in the southwest was blocked, and the Qing army in Fujian and Jiangxi could not pose a threat. Three more field corpses were built, so they could free up their hands and dispatch troops to solve this problem. More importantly, it is rare that there is a troublesome incident in the palace. We must make good use of this opportunity, otherwise there will be no benefit if the accumulated problems continue.

Duke Xiang of Song asked why he chose to launch an internal anti-rebellion at the critical moment of the Northern Expedition. Zhou Shixiang's answer was: "The benefits of the Northern Expedition, what are the benefits of it? The gongs and drums of the Northern Expedition sounded very strongly. The gongs and drums of the villages and villages were built to suppress traitors and attack old bureaucrats. The gongs and drums of the gentry forces would not be heard very much, and it would be easy to do it. If the gongs and drums of the Northern Expedition were not as powerful as that of the Northern Expedition, then the gongs and drums of the anti-rebellion would be amazing. A landlord was killed here, an old bureaucrat was beaten there, and another group of Taoist sects were killed there, and they arrested them.

Some gang members and Taoist believers are making trouble everywhere, and people in the world will think that our Guangdong and Guangxi are not friendly to landlords and gentry, are not friendly to scholars, and are not good to the people. Then many things will be difficult to deal with later, especially our Northern Expedition is to seize the Nandu and occupy Jiangnan, and there are the most gentry in Jiangnan. Therefore, we must let the people in the world know that we are going to kill gentry who collude with the enemy, those officials and gentry who collude with bandits, and Taoist gentry who harm the people, rather than those who know the righteousness, know the general, be close to the people, and be wise."

(To be continued.)
Chapter completed!