When reinforcements arrived, there was little suspense in the ensuing battle, and the process was very tedious. At the beginning, Wang Chengye also tried to send a small army to secretly go out of the city by taking advantage of the night 'color'* (please delete the forbidden book), sneak attack the outpost position of the Han army along the canal, or 'riot' to disturb the construction of batteries outside the city, but after taking a small advantage, the Han army immediately came to its senses, and took advantage of its huge manpower to build a large number of small cannons and gun-carrying fortresses, greatly enhancing the first-line firepower. It was difficult for the elite troops to achieve results, so the Texas defenders had to adopt more conservative tactics, sealing the city gates with molten iron and stones, and carrying out passive one-way defense.

With the gradual improvement of civil engineering, the battle situation finally became clear, and the power of nearly one hundred and fifty 'doors' of red-coated cannons taught everyone a lesson - before this, there had never been so many large-caliber artillery on the earth on a battlefield, so everyone present never thought that human beings could create such a scene that shook mountains and resembled volcanic eruptions, although Wang Chengye had fully prepared for the Han army's firepower superiority before the war, In fact, a large amount of river sand and lime were hoarded on the city walls and inside the city, but because of his lack of experience, he really did not expect that the power of a heavy artillery group to 'fire' in unison would be so great.

In fact, this kind of scene is not the first time it has appeared in China, just a few decades ago, a similar scene has happened, when the Qing army entered the customs, Azig only used eighteen 'doors' of red-coated cannons to crush the fighting spirit of the Tongguan defenders, not to mention that now there are ten times as much? But it is a pity that although Wang Chengye is a veteran general in the army and has some talents, he has not participated in any major urban offensive and defensive battles, so it is not very strange that he lacks knowledge of artillery.

The first 'wave' of the Fifth Army of the Han Dynasty hit the 'gate' tower in the east of Dezhou City, the collapse of this building caused catastrophic 'sexual' consequences, and the tiles of the four 'shots' flew horizontally shrouded dozens of zhang of the city wall, because of the suddenness of the incident, none of the hundreds of defenders behind the 'female' wall survived, but the loss was not only so, with the gradual 'fine' accuracy of the follow-up artillery fire, the entire city wall trembled like 'pumping' the wind under the blow of the cannonballs, hiding the soldiers' Large bricks and boulders continued to fall in the cave, scattered cannonballs flew everywhere, and even the urn city was hit violently, and in this case, the fighting spirit of the defenders of Shandong Dezhou almost collapsed, and in the end, the officers of the overseer could not hold on, and took the lead in leading their subordinates to remove the city wall.

Fortunately, the Han army did not take the opportunity to attack the city, in fact, at this time Ma Jinliang did not think of using the effect of artillery to do anything, let alone any high-level things such as infantry and artillery coordination, although he was the commander of the army, but his reaction at this time was no different from the expression of ordinary soldiers, if there was a difference, that is, he also had a 'fine' monocular, which could see this terrifying scene more clearly.

When the news of Wang Chengye's surrender reached Beijing, Lin Feng was busy fighting with the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Lin Feng had not been free for a period of time, in fact, in terms of 'fine' input, the war on the front line of Shandong did not occupy a lot of his time, because as far as the current situation is concerned, as the supreme ruler, he can not play a very big role in this regard, basically to decide the strategic direction, and then send generals to allocate military power, as for whether it can win, it is a matter of the front-line generals.

During this time, Lin Feng was mainly troubled by two things, one was Tian Fu's warehousing, and the other was the autumn decision. Because of the relationship of the war for many years, in order to support the war, the exploitation of the people by the Lin and Han empires was very cruel, except for the exemption of taxes in the first year, in the following years, the talent and poll taxes have been very heavy, compared with the previous dynasty, and in addition, the burden of labor is almost unbearable, this piece is even divided into military tasks and local government assignments - the so-called military tasks, refers to the people in the territory of the Han army, but all men over the age of fifteen and under the age of sixty may be conscripted as civil husbands, participate in the logistics and transportation work of the army, and even if they are lucky not to be 'drawn' as civil servants, they must participate in local militia organizations in peacetime, and need to conduct regular training, patrols, repair official roads, bridges, and post stations, and at the same time be responsible for the maintenance of city walls and the construction of civil engineering projects for important military bases; In addition to the cumbersome matters of land protection and lizheng, a large number of water conservancy projects also require their free services, and on average, a peasant under the rule of the Lin and Han Empires, in addition to paying heavy taxes, spent at least two months a year working for the government without compensation, in order to meet the requirements of labor required by law.

In such an environment, the peasants' revolt seemed quite 'fierce', almost can be described as "one after another", the only thing that made Lin Feng a little relieved was that the vast majority of this kind of rebellion was not large-scale, and most of them could not meet the standard of "uncovering the rod and rising up", and the usual form of expression was fleeing, and the "sexual" character was a little more intense, and those who were "fierce" might use kitchen knives to kill one or two errand servants or landlords who were angry with the people, in short, the number of people gathered did not exceed 100 people, and there was no "smashing" the old world and creating a new world Under normal circumstances, these "mobs" often move outside the customs in concealment before the local government can react, in an attempt to find a place to settle down in the eastern Liaodong region.

Lin Feng has always maintained considerable vigilance for this kind of thing, as far as he is concerned, of course, he is very clear about the power of the peasant movement, and it should be very fearful to be correct, in fact, he has not worked hard to solve this problem in recent years, but unfortunately most of them have no effect, because in this era, 70% of the financial revenue of the government comes from the peasants, in essence, if you want to solve this problem, it is very simple, and it is enough to reduce the burden on the peasants, but this also means a decrease in the income of the government, which means that the military mobilization ability of the Lin Han Empire is declining, but in this era of frequent wars, doing this kind of thing is no different from committing suicide.

There were several reasons why there were no large-scale peasant uprisings within the borders of the empire: first, the Lin Han military group had a fairly powerful army, which created a strong deterrent to all strata of society; Second, the control of the government over the people is quite effective, especially the militia organizations under the responsibility of the military, which are responsible at all levels and at all levels, and can put out most rebellions in a timely manner; The third reason is that there is a Yang Qilong next to the Lin Han Empire as an example, in the past hundred years, from Gao Yingshen to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the peasants and the imperial court have fought for decades, no matter who wins and who loses, the situation of the common people has not changed much, the vast majority of people know that even if the uprising will not have any effect, the Henan refugees who escaped from Yang Qilong's territory have passed this truth to all areas of the Lin Han Empire, although most people do not know what the righteousness is, but they still know that there is still a piece of land under the rule of Lin Feng, If you really rebel, I am afraid that there will not even be any land to plant, the fourth reason is that the Han military and political fǔ in the past few years to carry out a large-scale purge and counteroffensive against the Eight Banners, before Zhili, Liaodong and other areas because of the "horse race" The peasants who had been humiliated greatly breathed a bad breath, and more or less gained some benefits in the agrarian revolution, and the social environment seemed relatively fair, so in the face of political exploitation, many times the psychological contradictions, feeling a little overwhelmed.

In this case, the Lin Han Empire also dealt with the "slight deviations" of these peasants quite low-key, and most of them were listed as criminal cases to deal with, except for the first evil who took the lead and those who were responsible for the case, most of the others beat the matter, and were not willing to use very cruel means to "warn people".

Regarding the legacy of taxation, there have been problems in the past few years, but this year it is more serious, the main reason here is that this year's Han military and political fǔ battle is indeed a little too much, and it is also a little too big, originally because of the perennial war. Chaos' relationship, almost all the people's wealth in the north of the Central Plains has been squeezed out by the Qing court and the Lin Han Empire, and this year, because a large area of Zhuang Ding accompanied the army to Shanxi, delayed the farming, and the harvest in the fields was greatly affected, so in response to the unreduced taxes, many peasants adopted quite 'radical' means, and the criminal cases in Zhili and the state capitals of Shanxi have skyrocketed, and only in Baoding and Zhengding Mansions in Zhili, for example, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Metropolitan Guards stationed in the local area have dispatched no less than hundreds of times, arresting nearly 3,000 people. In some of these places, the situation was very serious, and the entire village participated in the "anti-tax" activities, engaged in armed confrontations with the Metropolitan Guards who came to suppress them, and finally were bloodied by the heavily armed Metropolitan Guards, and the entire village of men was collectively beheaded.

According to traditional tradition, except for those killed in armed conflicts, the right to execute criminals arrested by the imperial court is vested in the king's own decision, as a sign of the court's respect for life. Since taking up the profession of "Han King", Lin Feng has been baptized and trained for several years, and now he is no stranger to this work process, but this time the situation is really very surprising.

Now on his desk is the Metropolitan Procuratorate report documents of nearly a foot, the number of death row prisoners listed above, such as chopping, beheading, hanging, beheading, and beheading, is actually as high as more than 2,600 people, more than twice as many as in previous years, in fact, Lin Feng knows very well that this 2,600 people is definitely not an exact number, in fact, in the process of handling the case, the prisoners who were killed in the pursuit and tortured to death in the prison must be several times this number, and the criminals who died in these two procedures were like wild dogs who were reported by a certain jailer and then pulled out and buried, this" "Two thousand six hundred" is the lucky ones who escaped the first two levels - the so-called "Imperial Collusion Decision" is actually a chance to give the emperor a chance to give alms, pardon some of these lucky people, and let them live for an extra year. Lin Feng's work is very similar to the lottery beauty 'girl' at the lottery station, and the death row prisoner who was pardoned by luck is the same as the middle six and the lottery, there is no difference.

I remember that at this time last year, Lin Feng handled this matter quite sloppily, when he spent most of his time wandering around the barracks, and 90% of his 'essence' strength was put on the military, but now the situation has gradually eased, and many things that have been ignored in the past have gradually gained his attention, so when he read some of the cases, he immediately realized the crisis of governance behind these cases, so he sent someone to summon Chen Menglei and other officials to personally inquire about the relevant details.

There were a lot of officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate who came to the call, and there were no less than 20 people in total, because there were too many cases, and the 'attendant' guard in charge of the order did not understand what Lin Feng meant, so Chen Menglei seemed to be a little confused, and in desperation, he had to bring the leaders of the three legal divisions of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to the Han Wangfu in Zhongnanhai.

"Ministers, meet His Royal Highness the King of Han - Thousand Years of the King of Han!!"

Lin Feng didn't pay attention to the other officials, and just sat down at the top, he said to Chen Menglei, "Zezhen doesn't need to be polite, this time I called you here just to ...... For this autumn decision! He looked at the heads of the officials at eye level, and as far as his eyes went, all the officials bowed their heads and avoided them, and he said slowly, "The widow remembers that there were only more than 900 death row prisoners reported last year, and suddenly there are 2,600 this year. ”

Chen Menglei bowed his head and hugged his fists, "The ministers have no virtue, the customs of the people are bad, and there are even many misdeeds, please punish the lord!" ”

"Don't talk about the scene today!" Lin Feng waved his hand impatiently, glared at Chen Menglei and said, "Zezhen, I don't ask anything else, you are going to kill so many people this year, as the imperial history of the patrol capital, you should always say a few words, right?!" ”

"Back to the lord, this year's affairs are mostly in the tax dispute, and many of the crimes here are disputes with the local government, so that they lose their hands and kill people, which is pitiful, but the king's law is ruthless, and the ministers have to act according to the law!"

Lin Feng nodded, "Since you said that your feelings are pitiful, can we open the net and let these people go?!" ”

"The lord forgives the sin, and the minister thinks that this matter is not allowed!" Chen Menglei frowned and said, "Farming and paying taxes, that is the law of the king of heaven and earth, Diao people should not resist taxes, the mercy that the minister said is just pity for his ignorance and his family's poverty and helplessness, and it has nothing to do with him!" ”

Lin Feng was stunned for a moment, and looked at Chen Menglei coldly for a long time, not knowing for a while that he was telling the truth or officialdom, and said suspiciously at the moment, "Don't you think that we have worked too hard this year, and these people are not without forgiveness?!" ”

"Back to my lord!" Chen Menglei smiled bitterly, "The minister knows, but he can't be exempted from the crime," he raised his head, looked directly at Lin Feng, and sighed softly, "The lord knows, if the reason is turned according to this, then it is not our court's - how can there be a reason in this world that the court is wrong and the people are right?!" If their sins are alleviated this time, then where will the prestige of the court be in the future? Will taxes be collected in the future? If they resist taxes again next year, will our court still catch it? Do you want to kill or not?! ”

This sentence was like a big 'stick', knocking Lin Feng's head, beating him dizzy, stunned for a while, before he smiled bitterly, "That'...... What do you mean? We're going to kill at least a few thousand people this year? - Do you know that the autumn duel that killed thousands of people has not been seen in all dynasties, do you want a widow to bear this reputation?! ”

"This matter is up to the lord, if the lord is merciful, he can give a grace, and the minister will never dare to disobey!"

"You say that you want me to do it alone?!" Lin Feng was a little annoyed, "If a widow wants to have such a great ability, then what do you want to do in the procuratorate?" He was momentarily agitated, stood up suddenly, pointed at the officials, and said, "Are you officials all eating dry food?" Well?! ——”

All the officials in the hall were startled, and immediately knelt down in unison, pleading guilty again and again. Lin Feng's anger eased slightly, sat down, and said to Chen Menglei, "Zezhen, according to your opinion, how should you deal with this autumn decision?!" ”

Chen Menglei sighed, his voice was dry, "Returning to the lord, in fact, the minister thinks that this matter or the crime is not in the people, since the founding of this dynasty, there have been wars again and again, and the people are in trouble, if they really want to be peaceful, they can only recuperate and postpone the soldiers......" He secretly glanced at Lin Feng, and saw that Lin Feng's expression was calm and not angry, so he boldly admonished, "Lord Qiqi, according to the ministers, the lives of thousands of death row prisoners here are really insignificant compared to the imperial court, even if we raise it high and fall gently this time, so what, If these thousands of people are spared, at most they can suspend the grievances of the people, but when the time comes next year, they will be '2,600 death row prisoners'!! ……”

"Do you mean that giving grace at this moment is only a symptom, and not fighting a war is the root cause?!"

"Lord Shengming!! ......" Chen Menglei sang a promise loudly, knelt down in the lead, and when the deep officials saw this, they hurriedly knelt down together.

Lin Feng had a big headache, in the military plan drawn up in advance, after solving the Shandong problem, the next step was to eliminate Yang Qilong in Henan, but at this moment, there are many contradictions within the empire, the people at the bottom are resentful, struggling on the verge of breaking out, and they urgently need to cultivate, and his military plan is almost-for-tat, what a dilemma!

Chen Menglei saw Lin Feng's face flickering and darkening, hesitated, and whispered at the moment, "Lord Qi...... At present, the situation in our country is unclear, and there are many small and 'chaotic' activities in various provinces outside the country...... The minister thinks that this matter might as well be postponed......"

Lin Feng was surprised, "What do you say?!" ”

"Returning to the lord, what Weichen means is that there are too many people in this autumn, if the killing is too heavy, the people will definitely have a lot of resentment, and the princes outside will inevitably slander and slander, damaging the prestige of my Han Dynasty, so it is better to behead hundreds of people who have committed the most heinous crimes, as for the other ......" he thought for a while, "The other death row prisoners will be reduced by one class, and exiled to Nuergan, Xuanhua, Rehe and other places outside the Saiwai!" ”

Lin Feng nodded, "That's a good idea!" ”

Chen Menglei smiled slightly, and was about to speak, but an official behind him suddenly stepped forward and said loudly, "King Qihan, the minister has something to report!"

Lin Feng was stunned and said, "What's the matter?!" The official who knelt on the ground was wearing a five-grade civil official uniform, his body was thin, and he didn't know whether he was nervous or 'excited' at the moment, his body kept trembling slightly, Lin Feng frowned and said, "What's your name?!" ”

"King Xie Han inquired, the minister's surname is Wu, the name is honorable, and he is currently the director of the Metropolitan Procuratorate!"

Lin Feng was stunned for a while, suddenly walked down the steps, came closer and looked at him for a long time, stayed for a while, and suddenly laughed, "It turns out ...... It turns out that you are Wu Zhirong?!! ”

Wu Zhirong was taken aback, and couldn't help but 'touch' his face, and said in disbelief, "Could it be ...... Don't...... cough, cough...... King Qiyu, this ...... This minister is the ...... Wu Zhirong ...... "His face was full of embarrassment, he stammered a word, and before he finished speaking, his face turned red.

Lin Feng couldn't stop laughing, gasping for air, "...... Hehe, it turns out that you are that Wu Zhirong...... It's been a long time, it's been a long time......"

He laughed for a long time, 'getting' a room of officials all staring at each other, a group of officials looked at Wu Zhirong dumbfounded, all in awe, usually look at this person in obscurity, I didn't expect that the 'door' road leads to the sky, I really don't know Mount Tai, Chen Menglei couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, and immediately made up his mind, after going back, he must promote this person to be reused, so that he can cultivate and cultivate.

Wu Zhirong was embarrassed, knelt on the ground, hugged his fists and said, "...... Xie Han Wang ...... This one...... Flattering...... Wechen don't dare to be!! ……”

"Deserve it, why can't it?!" Lin Feng looked at him with a smile, "Lord Wu, have you ever been the prefect of Yangzhou before?!" ”

Wu Zhirong was stunned and said, "If you go back to the Han Dynasty, Weichen has always been a Beijing official, and he has never been to Yangzhou in his life!" ”

Lin Feng looked at him in surprise, it seemed that he had made a mistake this time, "Then you must have never handled the "History of the Ming Dynasty" case?!" ”

Wu Zhirong shook his head and smiled bitterly, knowing that Lin Feng had found the wrong person, "Back to the King of Han, Weichen is a native of Baoqing Mansion, Hunan, a second-class eleven jinshi in the thirteenth year of pseudo-Shunzhi, and has been serving in the Ministry of Rites. ”

"Okay, forget it, forget it," Lin Feng was greatly disappointed, shook his head, and pointed at Wu Zhirong and said, "That...... What's the matter with Lord Wu?! ”

Wu Zhirong kowtowed a few times, knelt on the ground and straightened up, and said solemnly, "King Qiyu, my minister asks my king to give an order to ban a reverse book!" ”

Lin Feng frowned, at this time he suddenly remembered that this person seemed to have troubled Wu Meicun before, it was really a little strange, why did he always like to get along with friends in the cultural world?! But at this moment, I can't help but ask, "What book?!" ”

"Back to the lord, this book is called "Romance of the Water Margin"!!"

Lin Fengfeng couldn't help but take a 'gasp' and said in amazement, "What did you say?" - Do you want me to ban "Water Margin"? ”

"Exactly!!" Wu Zhirong's face was serious, and he didn't seem to be joking at all, "Back to the King of Han, the king doesn't know, this book was written by a down-and-out literati in the early Ming Dynasty in the past, writing a case of robbing robbers, falling into the grass for the coward, specializing in robbing the house, 'rioting' disturbing the place, rebelling against the court as their own business, the text line, full of rebellious words, the folk are widely circulated, there are many things that corrupt people's hearts, so in order to educate the people, the tree ethics are constant, the minister asks the king to issue an edict, ban this book as soon as possible, thinking that I am the commandment of the people!! ”

Lin Feng looked at him coldly, and his tone gradually became stern, "How do you know that this book has ruined people's hearts?" I said, Lord Wu, our Han court is a court that talks about evidence, and we must not do anything without evidence!! ”

Wu Zhirong was not in a hurry, and said to Lin Feng, "Back to the lord, in fact, the minister used to disagree, thinking that family words, just a smile, but the minister has heard the servants say in the past few days, there are many teahouses in our capital, and the storyteller in it often tells the tea guests about this book......"

The more Lin Feng listened, the more impatient he became, and he was about to scold him, when Wu Zhirong continued, "...... I also heard from my family that several of them were storytellers, and they seemed to have some Henan accents......"

Lin Feng snorted a wit, and swallowed the scolding that came to his mouth, and couldn't help but glance at this person, this person really had a keen sense of smell, how did he know that Lao Tzu was going to attack Yang Qilong?

At that moment, he turned his face to each other, personally picked up Wu Zhirong, turned his head to face the officials, and his face was 'pale', "Lord Wu is right, like the "Water Margin", a 'lewd' and evil book, our Han must strictly investigate and ban it to the end!! ”