The purpose of the existence of torture is to cause the tortured person to endure extreme pain, so that the onlookers will be frightened and take a warning. At the same time, it can also naturally make the tortured person's enemies or those who have been harmed by them feel the pleasure of revenge.

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Demand stimulates innovation. For this reason, tortures have emerged in endlessly at home and abroad in ancient and modern times, such as iron maiden punishment, rat punishment, and copper bull punishment in the West; cannon burning, beheading in half, and quartering the body with five horses in China; it is said that in that era when the death penalty was abolished in many countries and regions, a certain country ruled

The author also used dogs and anti-aircraft guns to deal with political opponents.

In ancient China, the torture method that could best achieve those effects was naturally Ling Chi - using a knife to cut off the meat piece by piece, ranging from more than a hundred knives to more than 3,000 knives. The execution lasted three days and three nights, until the last knife.

Only then did he end the life of the victim. The cruelty alone cannot be fully described as a desperate act.

When the punishment began, the old executioner took charge. According to the rules, the first two cuts cut the sky and the earth. From the third cut, fish scales were cut, and the flesh of Prince Pingnan in front of him was cut into pieces bit by bit.

Come down. Every time a piece is cut, a special caller will loudly announce the number of cuts to the people watching the execution and the common tomb on the other side. Each cut will cause a cheer. After more than ten cuts, those people are not seen.

There is something tired about it.

If that's the case, then that's it. If you cut each slice here, there will be people shouting loudly to buy it - eager to eat its flesh and sleep on its skin. Sometimes, this is not just a matter of words.

The punishment here continued. Li Dingguo, Guo Zhiqi and Chen Kai looked at each other and left quietly. The punishment is to uphold justice, avenge the dead and redress the grievances of the living. It is also to deter other innocent people.

Army. However, for them, this is by no means a time to enjoy themselves with the people. After Guangzhou is recovered, what will happen next is even more complicated, and time cannot be wasted.

They left quietly, entered the city through the Dadong Gate, passed through the city, and returned directly to Li Dingguo's handsome tent in the west of the city. Along the way, the most common sight was the Ming army, and some civilians who had just cut their pigtails were also in the Ming Dynasty.

Under the leadership of the army, we are doing our best to clean up the entire city of Guangzhou as quickly as possible.

As a group of people passed by, the Ming army and the civilians automatically retreated to both sides of the street. After seeing the flags clearly, many civilians prostrated themselves on the ground, and whispers could be heard all the time.

"That is His Highness the King of Xining. He is indeed a famous general in the country who has become a king twice."

"It was Mr. Fujun who came to Guangzhou to save people, and now it is Mr. Fujun who has restored Guangzhou. If there were more officials like Mr. Fujun in the country, how could the world have fallen to this point?"

"..."

Amidst these praises, they returned to the camp in the west of the city as quickly as possible. In the east of the city, people were killing people, but in the west of the city, they wanted to celebrate the victory. Merits, rewards, etc. were not rushed, and the casualties had to be determined.

, let’s talk about capturing these things, but the celebration banquet is indispensable, and Chen Kai and the others cannot miss it.

The celebration banquet, along with the New Year's Eve banquet, was held simultaneously. Even if the Ming army on patrol could not drink alcohol, they still had to eat meat. These almost depleted the new city of Guangzhou and the meat reserves provided for the army.

On the next day, Li Dingguo, Guo Zhiqi and Chen Kai got together again despite their hangovers. The punishment in Chengdong was far from over. Shang Kexi was still using ginseng soup to hang himself, and he would not die for a while.

. Here, after a night of counting, we finally have a rough number.

"Report to Your Highness, Governor Guo, Chen Fujun, we have been counting all night, and we estimate that more than 43,000 people have been killed in this battle, and that all of the captured Green Camps including Governor Biao, Fu Biao and other defenders have been killed. As for the captured troops, they are all participating in the war.

Privately owned, there are no relatively accurate figures. However, the inventories in the government offices and warehouses at all levels in Guangzhou City, as well as the two palaces in Pingnan and Jingnan are extremely rich, but the time is too short, so it is not clear yet. "

After staying up all night, Jin Weixin, the most useful aide in Li Ding's government, looked at him with panda eyes, but he still couldn't give an accurate figure.

On the one hand, there were a large number of Ming troops participating in the war. Just counting the towns, battalions, and even ministries, it was quite a lot. Statistics and verification would not be achieved overnight; on the other hand, within the city,

The amount of property is really huge. Even if we put aside those that were seized by the various ministries, and only talk about the public accounts, it is still an extremely huge number, especially those two palaces, which will not be clear for a long time.

However, one thing is certain, that is, almost all the vassal soldiers and their families and men in the city were killed by various Ming troops. The rest were basically female relatives and servants, and some Ming troops

They were so furious that they even spared the female family members and servants. As long as the trouble was not too blatant, Li Dingguo and the others did not intend to pursue it, so as not to offend other Ming troops.

The cruelty of war has always been like this. Just like when Shang Geng and his two feudal lords massacred Guangzhou, how could they ever consider the fate of the innocent and kind people in the city?

"In the battle of Jiangmen, less than half of the northern army's troops fled the battlefield, and most of the others were prisoners; on the southern front, in addition to Xu Erxian who led more than 2,000 cavalry, Shang Zhizhi led the five Niulu who were entrenched on the top of the mountain, as well as Shang Kexi and Zhu Mala

Except for the defeated army of about 4,000 people he led, all of them were wiped out by our army, beheading 6,637 and taking 4,906 prisoners. The fleeing captives, Xu Erxian's troops, were determined to be completely wiped out by the king's division.

In the city of Guangzhou, the defeated troops of Shang Kexi and Zhu Mala were also intercepted and killed by Chen Fujun in Foshan, leaving aside some who fell behind on the road, and the entire army was wiped out."

"Starting from the siege of Xinhui, all the troops of the King's Division fought hard for half a year, and captured a total of Pingnan King Shang Kexi, Pingnan Prince Shang Zhixin, Pingnan Fan's left wing commander Xu Erxian, Pingnan fan's right wing commander Ban Zhifu, and the feudal lord.

The subordinates will include Yunlong and other vassal soldiers of more than 8,000 people; they will capture more than 8,000 soldiers including King Geng Jimao of Jingnan, Prince Geng Jingzhong of King Jingnan, Xu Degong, the commander-in-chief of the left wing of the Jingnan vassal, Decheng, the commander-in-chief of the right wing of the Jingnan vassal;

On the top of the mountain, below Zhenzhu Mala, there are more than 7,000 Manchu, Mongolian and Han troops under the Eight Banners."

This is the overall figure for the four battles in Xinhui, Jiangmen, Foshan, and Guangzhou, because the opponents are all the same. After the four battles, the Ming army annihilated the Qing army in Guangdong and the army that rescued Guangdong, and recovered a large area of ​​lost ground. As for the Green Camp

, some were killed anyway, some were beheaded, and some were captured, but for the Ming army, which had captured so many Eight Banners and vassal soldiers, it was already somewhat unpopular.

"Fortunately, we are here near Guangzhou. In another place, we wouldn't even think about such gains."

In addition to the Ming army's own layout, what is more important for this brilliant record is the geographical environment of the Pearl River Delta water network, as well as the Qing navy's perennial bloodletting by Chen Kai and the defeat in the Jiangmen water battle in August.

The control of the sea was lost. Otherwise, simply relying on the number of Qing troops' horses, it would not be a problem to escape a Qing army of 20,000 to 30,000 troops.

The Qing army, the Eight Banners Army, the vassal soldiers and the Green Battalion who actually escaped in these battles totaled more than 10,000 troops. However, the organizational structure no longer exists and they are scattered everywhere. They have already formed a threat to the Ming army.

It was no longer a real threat, so the Ming army dared to march north so quickly and in a hurry to capture the city of Guangzhou before the arrival of the ninth year of Yongli.

"Such a glorious victory should be reported to the emperor as soon as possible!"

Guo Zhiqi waved his arms very excitedly, and Li Dingguo nodded in agreement. Only Chen Kai was still thinking about something and did not make a statement immediately.

However, they were so excited that they couldn't care about Chen Kai for a while. What they were talking about was just how to write a memorial to report a victory. Guo Zhiqi is an expert in this aspect. Although he has never written any victory reports, what is the format of the article?

He still knows it well and will never waste his honors as a Jinshi in the first year of Chongzhen.

Memorials can be submitted individually or jointly to report victory. Logically speaking, both of them are necessary. Not to mention memorials submitted individually, Li Dingguo, Guo Zhiqi, Lian Chengbi and Chen Kai all have the right to do so if they are either princes or feudal lords.

On the other hand, the issue of the joint memorial involved the positions and sensory issues of the Zheng Group and Prince Qin's Mansion after all, so attention focused on Chen Kai again.

"The lower officials are responsible for signing their names. If necessary, Lord Zhou, Admiral Ke and others will do the same."

This joint victory was tantamount to showing off the power of the Qin vassal. The alliance between Li Dingguo's Southwest Ming Army, the Western Guangdong Ming Army and the Zheng Group meant that there were hundreds of thousands of Ming troops plus two and a half provinces.

Territory, such a huge restriction is undoubtedly quite huge for Sun Kewang.

After saying this, Li Dingguo and Guo Zhiqi looked at Chen Kai with a different look. Especially the latter, if you think about it, they have never been on good terms, but looking at this matter, when facing

When the arrogant and domineering King of Qin Sun Kewang came to power, they were still on the same front. In fact, if you think about it carefully, from the time Chen Kaizhen mobilized his army to join forces, he had already chosen the former between the Yongli Court and the Qin Prince's Palace.

Just like them.

The joint declaration to report the victory is still being written. The first one does not need to be too detailed. It is enough to clearly describe the general process and let the court know the general situation. The specific details of beheading, prisoner, seizure and reward will be followed later.

Report slowly, not in a hurry.

Guo Zhiqi wrote the article himself, and it seems that he did not put much thought into it. In it, he not only mentioned the contribution of Li Dingguo's army and the Ming army in western Guangdong, but also mentioned in great detail that Chen Kai personally led the army to help, and in this

A huge contribution in the series of battles. This is not only a reward for taking sides, but also a clear way for Sun Kewang to see clearly the current alliance between the Yongli court and Li Dingguo, Chen Kai and even Zheng Chenggong behind Chen Kai.

After confirming that it was correct, they signed and sealed it. Zhou Hezhi and Ke Chenshu were still in the south and east of the city. Chen Kai would send someone to deliver the joint memorial. Of course they knew what to do.

After writing the memorial, the three of them discussed the current situation. As far as Guangdong is concerned, today, the main force has been destroyed, and the military presence of the Qing army can be ignored. Even the surrounding provinces are mostly empty now.

If it doesn't work, it's just self-protection at best, and it's basically impossible to counterattack.

However, the Ming army has been through many battles, especially Li Dingguo's troops. They sent troops in February and have been fighting until now. The battle in Jiangmen suffered many casualties. The army was already exhausted. Even the Guangdong troops brought by Chen Kai

After the Dongming Army fought four battles in a row, it was actually difficult for them to fight again.

In addition, with the recovery of Guangzhou, these Ming armies, including some troops from the Ming Army in Western Guangdong, seized a large amount of gold and silver in the city, which was enough for them to spend some time.

All in all, the sergeants were exhausted, the seizures were rich, and the soldiers had no desire to fight to the death. If they wanted to make any big moves again, it would take a while to slow down.

This did not take too much time. In fact, even the capture of Guangzhou was mostly the last effort of the exhausted Ming army, and the desire for capture was indispensable. Needless to say, Li Dingguo and Chen Kai were already

Knowing everything, even Guo Zhiqi could only sigh after hearing the two explanations.

"However, it does not mean that we are completely motionless. Guangzhou will be recovered. Most of the prefectures and counties around Guangzhou can be decided by propaganda. It cannot be done through hard work, but it is still possible to test it out."

Just as he was saying this, Gong Ming, another extremely useful aide in Li Dingguo's secretariat, came back. He had stayed behind in Prince Pingnan's Mansion to count the items seized. At this moment, he rushed back and found the items from a secret room.

He brought a bunch of account books, and several servants from Pingnan Palace confessed some things, which made him have to rush back.

"Your Highness, Shang Ni occupied land in Guangdong Province to establish Wangzhuang, controlled rivers, lakes and even coastal fisheries, organized a head office to control the province's municipal trade. As for occupying private houses, falsely accusing good people of stealing, extorting huge sums of money, imposing additional taxes, etc.

There are too many to mention. According to the account books, Shang Ni’s annual income is nearly one million taels.”

From the end of the fourth year of Yongli to the beginning of the eighth year of Yongli, Li Dingguo swept through western Guangdong. It took more than two years at least, which was an income of two million taels of silver. Moreover, this was because Chen Kai blocked the Pearl River Estuary, which caused the two

The figure that the feudal dynasty was able to achieve even when its maritime trade was cut off.

This number is probably similar to Geng Jimao's. In other words, their exploitation in Guangdong will have to be doubled. In this way, they only rely on Guangdong Province, less Chaozhou and Qiongzhou to be precise.

Even with these two big houses, they can still maintain a figure that is roughly the same as the Zheng Group's sea trade revenue every year, which really gives Chen Kai a new perspective.

The two vassal kings are like this, and the guys under them are naturally not much better. Yu Yunlong to Xinhui is an example. Now think about it, if it is simply worse, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty still have to be in the same place.

Although he was a man of power, at least he was watched by civil servants who dared to scold the emperor in memorials. Compared with these two men, he could be considered as loving the people as his own son.

Apart from other things, after the Ming Dynasty was founded for more than 200 years, provinces such as Shandong, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, and Henan are not crowded with vassal kings. Especially Huguang and Henan, both have nine vassals.

Some of the kings and vassals have thrived there for more than two hundred years, and some have lived there for thirty or forty years, or forty or fifty years, but they are not like Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao who ended up in "Guangdong Province" in just over two years.
Chapter completed!