Song Xiang diligently checked the identities of the prisoners one by one, and soon climbed up to the stage and reported: "The prisoners are all the same, and there are no mistakes. Welcome to read."
Ouyang Xiu nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Song. Please take a seat and wait."
Time passed slowly, and the whole square was silent. People stopped cursing and stretched their necks and tiptoed to look at the stage and down, for fear of missing the moment of beheading.
Not long after, a minor official came to report: "My lords, it's almost three o'clock noon."
Ouyang Xiu nodded and ordered: "Prepare for execution!"
The executioners took action one after another, pulling out the death cards behind the prisoners, holding them one by one like chickens and pressing them on the wooden pillar, and tied their hair to the nails on the side of the wooden pillar to fix it.
When the prisoners knew that it was time to go on the road, they lay down on the cold wooden pillars, stretching their necks and waiting for the knife. The fear made many of them cry and howl, and more of them had their trousers full of feces and urine, and they were exhausted.
The six executioners on the stage had an amazing tacit understanding. They pushed Feng Jingyao and others down on the wooden pillar and tied them up. They stretched out their cold hands in unison and touched the part of the knife on the back of their necks.
He also muttered: "Don't move around. If this sword blow is not accurate, you will be stabbed one more time and suffer more. Furthermore, it will ruin our reputation. My six Ruan brothers have never struck a second blow."
Knife, you don’t have to make people laugh at me for not being good at it, that was the sin you committed before you died."
Guo Pinchao and others knew that there was no hope of escaping. Although the executioners' words were scary, they were true. It was better to kill with one knife than to be chopped with multiple knives like vegetables, so they all collapsed with tears streaming down their faces.
On the wooden pier, I just want to die quickly.
The watchman shouted: "It's three quarters past noon."
Ouyang Xiu stood up, raised the token in his hand and was about to throw it, when he heard the sound of horse hooves at the street entrance, and someone roared loudly: "The Holy Spirit has decreed that the execution is suspended."
Ouyang Xiu and Su Jin were furious. They turned around and saw dozens of horses rushing along the street. The leader was wearing a guard uniform, holding the reins in his right hand and holding a brocade box in his left hand. Su Jin couldn't help but
I know the person, but I know the brocade box, it is the brocade box specially used for imperial edicts.
But Ouyang Xiu even knew the person riding the horse. That person was Zhang Mei, the deputy commander of the army in front of the palace. There were three forbidden troops entering the city. One was the army in front of the palace, the other was the infantry guard, and the other was the horse guard. They were commonly known as the three.
Yamen, and the Palace Front Army, as its name suggests, is the army directly responsible for the security of the palace. It has more trust from the emperor than the other two armies. Ouyang Xiu went to the Holy Palace morning and night, and he was naturally very familiar with the generals of the Palace Front Army. One glance
When he saw it, he quickly put down his arrows and stepped out to meet him.
How could Su Jin allow someone to disrupt the situation at a critical moment? Ouyang Xiu had a way out, but he had no way out. As long as one of these people survived, his life would be gone. Without thinking, he snatched the token from Ouyang Xiu's hand and threw it with a wave of his hand.
, shouted: "Execution!"
As soon as the token fell to the ground, the executioners no longer hesitated and waved their steel knives in unison and raised them high; Ouyang Xiu exclaimed: "No...!"
The executioners hesitated for a moment, then Su Jin stared and shouted: "Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"
I saw a dazzling sword light, and the clicking sound of the steel knife cutting into the neck bone was heard. Heads rolled down with splashing hot blood. Suddenly, the stage and the audience were filled with steam, and the hot blood quickly hit the cold air.
It became cold and soon turned into a reddish color.
Ouyang Xiu and Song Xiang looked at Su Jin with their mouths wide open. After a long time, they looked at the heads on the ground and muttered: "Special Envoy Su... you are... resisting the decree."
Su Jin said: "You two adults, don't panic. It has nothing to do with you. It was my order."
Zhang Mei watched helplessly as the executioners chopped down the prisoners one by one, but they were too far away and there was nothing they could do. She angrily shouted at the people who were crowding in and blocking the road: "If you don't move out of the way, left and right, let me get some."
The whip strikes.”
The military guards in front of the palace who followed closely took out their riding whips and beat them in both directions without thinking. The people panicked and got out of the way, and they were forced out of a passage.
Zhang Meizong rode close to the stage, turned over and dismounted, looked at the headless corpses lying on the ground with a pale face, suddenly stepped onto the stage in a few steps, ignored Ouyang Xiu and Song Xiang and left their seats to salute, and shouted angrily: "
Who gave the order? Who?"
Su Jin walked out slowly, cupped his hands and said: "This general, this is the beheading order issued by my envoy."
Zhang Mei approached Su Jin with wide eyes, looked up and down, and sneered: "Who are you?"
Su Jin saluted and said, "I am Su Jin, the special envoy for food affairs appointed by the emperor."
Zhang Mei snorted and said, "Are you Su Jin? Did you give the order?"
Su Jin said: "Exactly."
Zhang Mei shouted coldly: "Capture this person and bring him back to the capital for questioning."
Several guards in front of the palace swarmed forward to take Su Jin. Ouyang Xiu and Song Xiang panicked, and kept sighing and not knowing what to do.
Su Jin quickly took a few steps back, raised his hands and said, "Wait a minute! What crime did I commit?"
Zhang Mei laughed angrily, stared at Su Jin's face and said, "Why are you pretending to be confused? This general has told you that the emperor has ordered you to wait for a moratorium on execution. Are you deaf? Or are you blind?"
Su Jin said with a cold expression: "General, please respect yourself. The emperor has decreed that if you speak rudely to me again, I will no longer be polite to you."
Ouyang Xiu shouted hurriedly: "Envoy Su, please don't be rude. This is Mr. Zhang Mei, the deputy commander of the army in front of the palace."
Su Jin sneered and said: "Even high-ranking officials of the imperial court cannot slander the imperial officials casually. This envoy is the emperor's envoy. Although he has no rank, the emperor does not want me to be insulted when he sees a high-ranking official."
.”
Zhang Meifei was so angry that she pointed at Su Jin's forehead and nose and said: "Okay, okay! If the emperor gives you two cents for the color, you can open a dyeing workshop. You really think you are a person; today the general is going to take action on you, come on
Man, take down Su Jin, the food envoy who resists the decree and is disrespectful."
Su Jin glared and shouted: "Who dares? Come, protect me."
Zhao and Fang were both dumbfounded. Zhang Mei and the others knew each other. Although Ma Jun and Dianqian Army were not affiliated, they were the commanders of the army after all. Even if their immediate boss, Ma Jun, commanded them here, they would not
If you dare to make trouble against Zhang Mei, there is a difference between closeness and distance. If we say that in the army of the Song Dynasty, the imperial guards were the main wives and the chamberlains were concubines, then the guards in the front palace of the imperial guards were the wives, and the cavalry and infantry troops were the second wives.
However, the special envoy is currently his immediate superior. If he does not respect Su Jin's orders, he is directly disobeying the orders. If he offends Su Jin, life will not be easy for him.
When they were in trouble, they saw dozens of Xiang troops, led by Pan Jiang, rushing up to the wooden platform and surrounding a dozen of palace guards.
"Bold! How dare you help this man resist the decree? Do you want to rebel?" Zhang Mei roared.
Pan Jiang cupped his hands and said: "I have returned to the capital to command the general. I am a humble person who only acts according to orders. The prefect of Song Dynasty has already given the right to allocate troops to Special Envoy Su. Please forgive me, general."
"What? You've rebelled, you've rebelled. It's not bad. I didn't expect that someone would be treasonous. I must report it to the emperor. You will all be executed." Zhang Mei roared. He was used to arrogance, but he didn't expect that he would be killed by a bunch of people.
Surrounded by rustic-like soldiers, it was like a powerful person having his pants stripped off in front of everyone on an important occasion. It was simply a great shame.
"Well... General Zhang, please be patient. This is the end of the matter..." Ouyang Xiu walked forward with a smile, intending to offer some words of comfort.
Zhang Mei interrupted him mercilessly, pointed at his nose and said: "And you... Mr. Ouyang, I didn't expect that you, an important minister in the court, would dare to resist the order and be disrespectful. It's okay. Don't blame me for not being respectful."
Be gentle, none of you can escape this time."
Su Jin said coldly: "This General Zhang, we have been ordered to execute Yangzhou prisoners. What are you doing here, jumping and shouting? The execution ground is a place of official business, what are you here for?"
Zhang Mei took a breath and said: "I have already spoken from afar, asking you to save people under the knife, why do you want to execute me by force?"
Su Jin pretended to be surprised and said: "Did you shout? Why didn't I hear you?"
Zhang Mei's eyes almost fell out. She tilted her head and curled her lips and said, "How dare you lie without hearing me? How dare you tell such a lie in front of everyone?"
Su Jin blinked innocently and said: "I didn't hear it in the first place, so how could I lie?" After saying that, he turned around and asked Pan Jiang and others: "Did you hear it?"
Pan Jiang shook his head and said: "There are many people and it is noisy, but I didn't hear it because of my humble position."
A group of soldiers also shook their heads and said: "We didn't hear it either."
Zhang Mei gritted her teeth and nodded frequently, then suddenly pointed at Ouyang Xiudao: "Master Ouyang, what about you? Did you hear that?"
Ouyang Xiu didn't know how to answer, so he hesitated and said: "This...this...this officer..."
Su Jin said loudly: "Why don't you ask the people on the stage and the 70,000 to 80,000 people below the stage? Why don't you ask them? You just said that the ambassador's ears are deaf, but the people's ears cannot all be deaf?"
Without waiting for Zhang Mei to answer, Su Jin walked to the stage and shouted to the people in the audience: "Dear fellow citizens, this General Zhang from the capital said that I disobeyed his order to spare people under the sword, and privately beheaded criminals. I want to take them."
I went to Beijing to punish him; I am extremely unjust, because I did not hear him shouting, but he did not believe it; so I would like to ask you, did you hear him shouting that the sword should save people?"
The common people had already seen what was happening on the stage. Although they could not hear clearly what Su Qingtian and this aggressive official were arguing about, they had seen the cause and effect, and they could guess a little bit.
At this time, there is no need to use your brain. He opened his mouth and said: "I didn't hear it. We didn't hear anything."
Zhang Mei pointed her fingers towards the audience and said: "A bunch of unscrupulous people are telling lies. Do you want to die?"
A short man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks suddenly shouted: "Sir, the common people have heard it."
Everyone looked at the man in unison, wishing they could slap this bitch to death.
Zhang Mei said with great joy: "Very good, what did you hear? Tell me about it. Tell the truth and I will reward you!"
The man said with a playful smile: "There is no need to reward me with money. It is my duty as a common people to report back to the officials for questioning according to the truth. I really heard you."
Zhang Mei chuckled and said, "Tell them quickly."
The man said: "I heard it, little man. Just now, a donkey roared at the street corner. I wonder if everyone heard it."
The people burst into laughter, and someone chimed in, saying: "Yes, yes, it's a big stupid donkey. I'm afraid the butcher Zhang from Nanjie is fanning the donkey."
Zhang Mei's face turned purple and she stretched out her hand to draw the sword. A military guard in front of the palace quickly stepped forward to stop him and whispered comfort in his ear.
Zhang Mei turned around with a sneer, cupped her hands to Su Jinyi and said: "It is indeed well-deserved, very good. I, Zhang Mei, admit my defeat, but let me tell you, this matter will not go away so easily. Let's see you in the capital!"