Looking up at Li Yan, who was wearing a golden python robe, the Third Master was stunned for a moment. He was tied up, and he knelt on the ground and said, "Young people know your guilt!"
Li Yan turned around and said to the people: "Fellow fellow citizens! The prisoner kneeling on the ground is Cai Mingzhong, from Caijia Village, Shazhou. His family has been a soldier for generations, and his father and brother all died in battle for our Tang Dynasty, but you know
Why did he turn into a bandit?"
After Cai Zhong, the third leader, heard what Li Yan had said, the aura he had held up just now was immediately deflated. Especially when he heard Li Yan mention his father and brother, he pressed his head tightly to the ground in shame.
The people below shouted: "A born thief!"
"Unlucky family!"
"Now you are born to be rebellious!"
Li Yan raised his hand to signal the people to quiet down, and then said:
"Both Cai Zhong's father and brother were deceased. The Guazhou tax collector not only failed to exempt his family from the rent, but also allowed his father and brother to be compensated for the rent that was waived before his father and brother were killed in the war. Cai Zhong, let me ask you, is this serious?
?”
Cai Zhong immediately said loudly: "Go back to King Jianning! Every word of the common man who is about to die is true. Your Highness can ask the sinner's neighbors and villagers for proof!"
Li Yan said: "Okay! Folks, do any of you know this person?"
The old man in the front row shouted: "I know Cai Zhong!"
Li Yan immediately asked the tooth soldiers to help the old man up. The old man said loudly: "Cai Zhong's father and brother both died fighting for the country, but his widowed mother was forced by the tax collectors to make up for the rent of his family for two to thirty years. In the end, the Cai family was sold
Yongye Tian and Shi Tian failed to mend the hole, so Cai's mother was imprisoned by the tax collectors and hanged herself in prison. Cai Zhong then surrendered to the bandits."
At this time, the people no longer cheered, but fell into collective silence.
Ordinary people who had no power and power lived in the shadow of tax collectors.
Since the Tianbao period, the taxation of spring and autumn grains every year has caused many ordinary families to lose their lives.
More and more ordinary people have to sell their ancestral property, or they can only survive by joining the big families in the city.
In recent years, more and more people have sold their fields and become slaves. The common people have more or less witnessed what happened to Cai Zhong with their own eyes.
After knowing that this bandit had such a past, the people were no longer as excited as before.
It turned out that the bandits were just poor people who couldn't survive. The originally joyful atmosphere in the execution ground became condensed and the atmosphere was extremely depressing.
Li Yan said to Cai Zhong: "Cai Zhong, do you know your crime?"
Cai Zhong knelt on the ground and said: "The common people know the crime!"
Li Yan said: "It's good to know the crime. The law of the Tang Dynasty is very strict. You killed people, robbed goods, and minted counterfeit money. These are all unpardonable crimes listed in the "Tang Law Review"!"
Cai Zhong just lowered his head and shed tears.
Li Yan added: "The lonely king also asked people to investigate. It is true that the Cai family's father and brother were killed in the battle, and the widowed mother was exploited and hanged by the tax collectors. Come on! Get the tax collector who forged the Ding book and forced the Cai family's mother to death.
Bring it up!"
All I saw was a fat, white tax collector in public attire, being escorted up by two sturdy tooth soldiers.
Seeing this tax collector who forced his mother to death, Cai Zhong's eyes were filled with hatred.
Otherwise, with the government officials behind him guarding him, Cai Zhong would have rushed forward and fought the tax collector to the death.
Li Yan pointed at the tax collector and said: "The elders in the audience, those who have been exploited by this beast, raise their hands."
The people below looked at me and I looked at you, and gradually some people began to raise their hands.
Then more and more people raised their hands, and among the hundreds of people watching, nearly twenty people raised their hands.
The tax collector looked pale and shouted: "Your Highness! I am wronged for my humble position! I am wronged!"
At this time Zhou Hao came out, holding another volume in his hand, and said to the tax collector:
"Wu Ming was the tax collector of Guazhou governor. In the fourth year of Tianbao, Cai Zhong's family in Caijia Village, his father and brother were killed in the war. Wu Ming falsely accused Cai's father and brother of surviving, hid Ding, and ordered Cai Zhong's mother to pay back thirty years' rent.
"Mediocre."
"Later Cai's mother sold the Cai family's Yongye field to Wu Ming's brother-in-law, but still failed to make up the shortfall. After Qiu, she was arrested and imprisoned by Wu Ming, and she hanged herself in prison the next day."
"There are twelve confessions from neighbors in Caijia Village, all signed and stamped as evidence. There is also Tianbao's four-year Ding tax booklet and the Cai family's property resale booklet as evidence. The evidence is conclusive!"
Zhou Hao read out several other charges against Wu Ming. People all stood up to testify, and the noise in the execution ground became louder again.
"Behead! Behead!"
"Cut this bitch!"
Wu Ming's face turned pale with fear. Zhang Mian, the governor of Guazhou, who was sitting under the supervisor's seat, covered his face with his official robe, feeling ashamed.
Li Yan continued to say to Cai Zhong, the third master of Dashui Gorge:
"Killing people and stealing goods, forging counterfeit money, Cai Zhong, you have violated the laws of the Tang Dynasty, and your crime is unpardonable."
Cai Zhong knelt on the ground and said sincerely: "The common people plead guilty."
Li Yan added: "Your Cai family has been loyal to the Tang Dynasty, and your family has been ruined. It is the Tang Dynasty that has failed the Cai family, and it is the lonely king who has failed the Cai family!"
After saying this, everyone in the audience was shocked.
Prince Li Yan actually said sorry to a commoner in Guizhou, which stunned everyone in the court.
Li Yan clenched his fists and said: "Two generations of the Cai family died fighting for the Tang Dynasty, but the next generation had to fall into the trap of bandits! Whose fault is this?"
Zhang Xian was also stunned. If the person who said this was an ordinary citizen, Zhang Xian would have had him arrested long ago.
But it turned out to be the majestic Prince of Tang Dynasty who said such a thing, so what should we do?
Li Yan continued: "The great ancestor implemented the strategy of the imperial army, granting Yongye fields, rent-free and mediocre training, just to allow the imperial soldiers to fight for the country without any worries!"
"Taizong once encouraged his soldiers and said, 'If you are fighting for the country, your family will have their own government to support you after your death'!"
"But what happens now? The meritorious son who died fighting for the country has been exploited by cunning subordinates and his family has been destroyed! All the Yongye fields in the family have been sold, and he still has no way of living!"
Li Yan drew out his sword, pointed at the tax collector Wu Ming and said, "Bitch thief! Is this the reason why I gave you an official position to harm Zhongliang?"
Tax collector Wu Ming was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground, his whole body trembling with fat.
Li Yan took back his sword and said, "I won't kill you, for fear of contaminating my sword. I have my own "Tang Law" to kill you!"
Li Yan turned around again and said to Cai Zhong:
"The lonely king has found your nephew and sent people to redeem the Cai family's Yongye field. All the Cai family's property has been returned to your nephew."
At this time, a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old came up, knelt down to Cai Zhong and said, "Uncle Zhong!"
Cai Zhong shed tears. After his brother died in the war, his sister-in-law took her nephew back to her parents' home and broke away from the Cai family's household registration.
I thought I would never see him again in this life, but I didn't expect that King Jianning would let the Cai family continue to be popular.
Cai Zhong burst into tears and bowed to Li Yan: "Your Highness has been so kind to you, but the common people have committed extremely evil crimes. If there is an afterlife, I would be willing to be reincarnated as an ox or horse to be driven by Your Highness!"
Li Yan was silent for a moment and said: "Tang's laws are strict. If King Gu pardons you, the wronged souls of the people who were robbed and torn up by you will not let Gu go."
The uncles and nephews of the Cai family just knelt and cried, but they did not ask for mercy or life.
Li Yan said to the people around the execution ground: "The solitary king is going to visit Guazhou to re-determine the Ding and Tian registrations! Anyone who hides his land or Ding's mouth can surrender at the Moli Army camp.
Book Revealed!”
"If there are treacherous subordinates like Wu Ming who deceive superiors and deceive subordinates to tax mediocrity, they can also come to our Moli Army to expose them!"
After saying this, Li Yan once again sat back on the supervisor's seat and said to the swordsman and axe: "Noon has arrived, and all the criminals have been proven worthy. Let's execute them!"
The swordsman walked to the execution ground holding a ghost-headed sword. Cai Zhong knelt down before Li Yan and shouted loudly: "The common people know their sins and will repay the favor of the king in the next life!"
Then Cai Zhong said to his nephew: "My Cai family has been a soldier for generations, your ancestors and your father all died for the Tang Dynasty. Your uncle is ashamed. He saw his father and brother in the underworld without shame. After my death, I swept him away with a straw."
Just go to the mass graves.”
Cai Zhong's nephew bowed his head and cried in response.
Cai Zhong said to Li Yan again: "Your Highness, my Cai family has been loyal for three generations. My nephew is as loyal as his father. Can I let him be loyal to Your Highness when he grows up?"
Li Yan nodded and said: "The Cai family has been serving as soldiers for generations. Your nephew can join the army and serve the Tang Dynasty."
Cai Zhong kowtowed again and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Lord!"
Cai Zhong's uncle and nephew bowed their heads to Li Yan again.
When Cai Zhong's nephew raised his head, Cai Zhong cried again and said, "Uncle!"
Cai Zhong closed his eyes and said: "The time of death has come, you can go."
Cai Zhong was escorted by the officials and walked onto the guillotine.
He closed his eyes and shed tears, but with a calm and calm expression on his face, he exposed his neck and said, "Behead him quickly so that I can be reincarnated!"
Cai Zhong's head moved as soon as he saw the knife and ax being raised and dropped, and rolled to the ground with a thud.
Cai Zhong's nephew burst into tears. This time, the people in the execution ground did not cheer, and the air was filled with suffocating silence.
After hearing that King Jianning wanted to search for Maung Yue and re-determine the Ding and Tian registrations, the remaining eleven bandits changed their expressions of calm.
They kowtowed to Li Yan and then walked onto the guillotine calmly.
This time, the people did not clap their hands and applaud. They all understood that these bandits were probably ordinary people like them before they fell into the grass.
Who would become a bandit if they couldn't survive?
In a heavy atmosphere, Arhan was the last to be pushed to the guillotine.
This arrogant and domineering food merchant kept begging for mercy in various languages, and the swordsmen and axemen looked at him with contempt.
"Unlucky! After killing twelve good men, I finally have to kill something like this!"
The axeman didn't want to listen to Arhan's chatter, so he chopped off his head with a knife.
At this time, Li Yan said: "Zhou Hao, Wu Ming's verdict was also released, and he was also cut down!"