After leading the troops to Chang'an City, Su Ce asked Lu Ben's army to arrest people. Someone among the officials in the East Palace had close contacts with Mole Cricket, and the second prince got a clear list.
"Boom! Boom!" Lu Benjun knocked on the door of a house.
This is the home of Kang Ning, an official of the East Palace. Talented people came out of the Jiangnan water town. Kang Ning was the newly promoted Jinshi in the ninth year of Longsheng.
When one person attains enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven!
This courtyard is very large and is the home of Chang'an grain merchant Liu Zhixun. His eldest daughter married Kang Ning, which made Liu Zhixun's back straighter than others when he went out.
But today's disaster was caused by his proud son-in-law.
"Arrest people!" Su Ce, who was sitting on the horse, did not go in. Su Ce was very reluctant to confiscate his home. If the second prince hadn't given him 40% as a pension for his subordinates who died in the battle, Su Ce would not have gone to pick them up.
This errand.
Liu Zhixun, who was nearly fifty years old, didn't know what big shot he had offended. When he was arrested, he was still shouting: "My son-in-law is an official of the East Palace, please let me go!"
Officials of the East Palace are noble officials with the same reputation as the Yushi in the officialdom. No one wants to touch these people. The Yushi is too hard-boned, and the official career of the Officials of the East Palace is too smooth.
But today, the son-in-law that Liu Zhixun talked about in the past did not bring about the misunderstanding that Liu Zhixun thought. Later, someone came over to apologize.
As he got closer and closer to Dongshi, Liu Zhixun panicked and shouted: "Kang Ning, Kang Yangping, who have you offended!"
Kang Ning, who had a gloomy look on his face, said nothing. His place of origin was true, and he successfully passed the Jinshi examination at the age of twenty-six.
Ever since he went to Pingkangfang once, his whole life has been controlled by mole crickets.
After a night of spring breeze, I woke up in the morning and saw the beauty last night dead beside him, with a short blade in his hand.
He couldn't explain it clearly. Even the subsequent encounter with Miss Liu was facilitated by Mole Cricket. As an official of the East Palace, he knew that he could not escape, so he did not resist. It was a pity that Miss Liu was implicated.
The subordinate officials who were executed by the East Palace last time were all brought into the trap by him. For the sake of clearing his name, he got deeper and deeper into the trap.
In the end, it was all in vain!
Throughout April 12th, the air throughout Chang'an City was filled with the smell of blood.
Not to mention the fighting last night, let’s just talk about today’s fighting at Goujiling in the East City and Duliu Shu in the West City. The fighting lasted from noon to dusk.
Last night, hundreds of people in Dai Dezhen's house were killed by the Luben army who resisted. As for the women and children, they were dragged to the west city under the lonely willow tree, accused of treason.
There are seven lieutenant generals, 13 captains, 37 school captains, and more than a hundred people below the brigade commander in the Nanya Imperial Army. There are also six Jinshis captured by Su Ce in the afternoon with the Brigade Ben Army. They are accused of treason.
There is a word called killing once to serve as a warning to hundreds. This principle is generally followed in executions. If a person commits a capital crime, his death will serve as a warning to the subjects. Therefore, the execution place must be arranged in a place with a large flow of people to facilitate the display of the body.
Public.
So where is the busiest place with the largest flow of people in Chang'an City? It is the commercial center of the Tang Dynasty, namely the East Market and the West Market.
But today, the bodies were not displayed to the public because too many people were killed.
The Minister of Dali Temple and the Minister of Punishment jointly reviewed the matter together with the Censor Zhongcheng.
Chang'an and Wannian counties and east and west cities each have one Dali Temple Shaoqing and eight detailed officials.
The Ministry of Punishment dispatches a minister of the Ministry of Punishment to each of the two cities in the east and west, two persons in charge of the Ministry of Punishment, nine people in the Ministry of Punishment, and 18 people in the Book of History.
The Sixteenth Guards of Nanya, the Peony Internal Guards, and the Luben Army took turns to escort people.
"cut!"
"cut!"
"cut!"
…
Without any unnecessary words, the magistrates of Wannian and Chang'an counties, who were sitting on the execution platform, were sweating on their foreheads and turning pale.
On the left hand side, the Ministry of Punishment is conducting the trial, and on the right side, the Dali Temple is reviewing the case. The swordsmen and pen-writers of each temple are writing furiously. The young minister of the Dali Temple and the minister of the Ministry of Punishment are holding large seals to stamp the scrawled documents.
Eight rivers circle Chang'an. The canals that were originally used as water sources, drainage, flood prevention and fire prevention were turned into rivers of blood.
The common people who came to watch the execution were no longer as interested in chatting and watching the excitement as before. The executioner no longer sprayed wine on his knife. If he sprayed any more, he would become drunk.
There were crowds of people in the east and west cities, and horse-drawn carriages hauled corpses to the mass graves outside Chang'an City.
The magistrate of Wannian County led his men to dig holes here. In the afternoon, they dug less than a hundred holes, but thousands of corpses were transported, and the carriages carrying the corpses were still being transported here.
Only the first evildoers will be punished. This is the order issued by the prince at noon to supervise the country.
The second prince, Zhao Zaixiao, originally thought that all evil should be eradicated, but he went to the Dongshi execution ground, took one look at it, turned around and left, never mentioning what he had said before.
A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, the magistrate of Wannian County felt his scalp numb as he looked at more and more corpses.
They had no choice but to let the government officials find a trench washed out by the rain, throw the body into it, and then let the people who did not observe the curfew and do additional corvee work fill the trench with soil.
Except for Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment, no one knows how many people were killed in the east and west cities on the 12th.
Su Ce was the last to escort people there, but Gouji Ridge in Dongshi was bloodier than any battlefield Su Ce had ever encountered.
Su Ce left without leaving the man behind, letting Lu Ben's army watch the execution.
The emperor was so angry that he laid down millions of corpses.
Chang'an City on the 12th was not so exaggerated. It was just that the Minister of Dali Temple and the Minister of Punishment, who had read the documents at night, submitted a letter begging for the bones overnight, and the next day they went to Zen Buddhism to become monks.
Before leaving, the two wrote down the last document of their official career under the slip.
On the 12th, documents are banned! No inspection for a thousand years!
In the evening, at the execution ground of Nanya Shiliu Weijing Street and the east and west cities, the green brick floor was dug up, four meters deep, and the blood bricks and blood soil were transported overnight.
In the early morning, the magistrate of Chang'an County led the people to fill the pit and re-paved it with blue bricks.
The historian used only one sentence to describe the massacre in Chang'an City on April 12, the twelfth year of Longsheng's reign: "On April 12, the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Longsheng, on the 12th day of the twelfth year of the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Longsheng, on the twelfth day of the twelfth year of the twelfth year of the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Longsheng, on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Longsheng, there was a day of intense killing and killing of crickets."
When the curfew drums sounded, Su Ce led the Brigade Army back to the camp. At this time, there were only about a hundred people in the camp, and the others were sent out in the afternoon.
Su Ce had the camp gate closed, and the troops from Brigadier to Guard and down to ordinary soldiers did not go back to their rooms to sleep at night, but gathered on the school grounds.
On the school grounds, the officer on duty lit a bonfire. More than 800 people sat cross-legged on the ground, their left arms tied with black cloth, looking at Su Ce and the six guardsmen on the general stand.
No one spoke, they ate hard cakes and drank corn porridge. The killings in Chang'an City frightened many people, including the Luben Army.
On the battlefield, life and death depend on one's own fate, but when the sword is pointed at one's own people, this is something that many brigade soldiers cannot understand.
Therefore, no one wanted to leave, and even the military commander did not send everyone away.
Government soldiers, when given an order, must complete the military order even if they risk their lives, but in the past few days, no one has ever told them why they should do this!
But today on the execution ground, seeing heads rolling and blood flowing, they were confused as to how their swords could face their own people.
"Mole cricket, remnants of the former Yuan Dynasty!"
"In the third year of Shenwu, Taizu personally conquered the Western Regions. Mole cricket formed a blood alliance with hundreds of nations. The Anxi army was besieged by the coalition of hundreds of nations. The 40,000 Anxi army was cut off and completely destroyed!"
"In the ninth year of Shence, our ancestors conquered Annan, and mole crickets ignited the mountains and forests. The grain roads of the Annan Protectorate were cut off, and the army was defeated, with a loss of 30,000!"
"In the fifteenth year of Shence, the ancestor of the throne personally conquered Annan. Mole crickets dropped rotting corpses in the water sources. The Annan army was infected with the plague. Twenty thousand Annan soldiers died in the Heartbreak Valley."
"In the 17th year of Shence, the crickets incited the Lingnan people to rebel. Nanzhao took the opportunity to occupy the center of Jiangxi. King Qing went on a personal expedition. In seven battles in three years, he lost 90,000 troops. King Qing contracted lung disease and died of vomiting blood at the age of twenty-one."
"In the fourth year of Zhending, mole crickets set fire to the warships of the Anton Protectorate in two ports. Shi Wei took the opportunity to go south, and the two princes fell!"
"In the early years of Fengwu, Emperor Gaozong personally conquered Shiwei. Mole cricket and Jiuhu Shiwei set up a retreat in Yanshan, and Emperor Gaozong withdrew his troops."
"In the 19th year of Fengwu, Emperor Gaozong conquered the Wei Dynasty from all directions and suffered a total of 210,000 casualties."
"In the tenth year of Pingshuo, eleven years ago, during the Northern Expedition, Mole crickets collected water to divert water from the Wuding River. The floods continued for three months. The Anbei army ran out of food and returned in defeat. The late emperor was so angry that he vomited blood and even beheaded most of Anbei's capital.
Protecting Zhou Zheng, the Deputy Protectors Li Wendao and Wu Kun, the Deputy Protectors Zhao Jingcheng and Xiao Shuning, and three Cao Cao participated in the military affairs, a total of nine people. The late emperor died three months later."
"The past events are still vivid in my mind. Today, what we are killing with our swords is not my people, but the remnants of the mole crickets."
"Let's talk about last year. The crickets lured Ross and the remnants of Jiuhu southward, and the Dingbei Army lost 60%. You wait until next year to pick up the remains."
"The crickets are messing with my ambition and will not rest for a day. It is better to kill a thousand people in Chang'an today than for our soldiers to die without fighting."
"You know who instigated the attack on the palace gate by the officials of the East Palace a few days ago, Kang Ning! But today we ransacked seven households, and every one of them was unclean. They were either spying on the East Palace for information, or they were deceiving the world and stealing their names.
This generation has long been corrupted by mole crickets."
"Is there any unknowing person among those killed today? I can give you an answer, yes!"
"However, the hatred of family destruction and death, if we let them go today, they will be the next mole crickets tomorrow. What's more, these so-called ignorant people have already been inextricably linked to the mole crickets. If they don't know today, they will be punished if they know tomorrow.
How many casualties did our soldiers cause?"
"The prince was assassinated last year. How did the Jiuhu people enter Chang'an City? It was the crickets who brought these Jiuhu people into Chang'an City all the way."
"The third prince was sent to the south by the saint when he was over 16 years old. Why?"
"Because the mole crickets disrupted the transportation of grain from the south to the north, the third prince sat in the south and stabilized the grain merchants in the south."
"Please tell me whether this cricket should be killed, and whether these people who are disrupting our national destiny together with the cricket should be killed!"
"Commander on duty, let them disperse!"
…
Su Ce had a long conversation, some of which he couldn't say in too much detail. The saint had been on the throne for twelve years, and the country had prospered during the Great Qian Dynasty. But for some reason, he always didn't like to stay in Chang'an City.
Su Ce did not go home at night, but stayed at the camp.
Looking at the oil lamp on the table, Su Ce began to write documents. He had lost 600 brigade of soldiers in the battle. He would finish writing these documents and send them to the Ministry of War tomorrow. Looking at the six East Palace Guards led by Jiang Lan beside him, except for Shangguan Bo,
Outside, the remaining five people bit their pens and hesitated to write.
"Copy it!" Su Ce threw a document to Jiang Lan angrily. Looking at the five guards who gathered together to copy the document, Su Ce counted each one and kicked each one.
After kicking, Su Ce walked out the door and looked at the bright moon in the sky. Su Ce sighed.
Compared with the simple border army, things in Chang'an were too complicated and cumbersome. Su Ce missed the days when the enemy and ourselves were clearly distinguishable at the border.
In the city of Chang'an, civil servants and nobles were vying for power. The generals went to the Anbei Protectorate and temporarily ceased their activities.
Among the civil servants, the three ministers and various ministries are fighting, there are constant fights among the nobles, and the aristocratic families who have always wanted to interfere in the government are also uneasy.
The complicated situation in the Great Wall made Su Ce a little dazzled. The aristocratic family had been eyeing the two positions of Minister of Dali Temple and Minister of Punishment for a long time. In other words, the purple-robed position in the court had always been the goal of the aristocratic family.
To get rid of the crickets this time, too many people were killed. I am afraid that the aristocratic family will take the opportunity to make a comeback and regain the majesty it once had in the Da Qi court. But I don't know how the prince and the saint will plan.
Even Su Ce on the outside could see clearly, and the civil and military officials in the court could see it even more clearly.
The family's reputation is quite high in the local area. In this year's imperial examination, the civil servants want to compete in order to find some talents who can be used against the family in the future.
Xungui does not want the civilian government to be controlled by civilian officials, but Daqian wants to recuperate and make a fuss to let the civil servants see the power of shield and nobles, so that in the future, civilian officials will not dare to suppress Xungui.
As for the aristocratic families, you don't want them to come back. Daqi was destroyed by these aristocratic families, and now they want to harm Daqian. Isn't it better to be a wealthy family in the place?
Chang'an City spans 40 miles from east to west, north to south, and has a population of one million. It is said to be the largest city in the world.
Chang'an City is too small to accommodate too many people, at least not in the court hall.
Su Ce stayed outside for a while and then went in to write documents. Not only did he have to write battle reports, but he also had to write documents about the casualties of the soldiers. I'm afraid he won't have time to sleep tonight!