"My lord is right, with the emperor's word hanging here, no one dares to make trouble, and we can continue to operate with peace of mind."

Lao Liu took me to the hall, and saw that there were workers carrying things back and forth, this Zhang Hongke's work efficiency is not low, and he will start work in less than two days. The last time I visited, I didn't take a detailed look at this first floor, but today I was interested in observing.

Zhang Hongke, looking at the inside, introduced in the back: "My lord, this first floor has four floors, the upper three floors are private rooms, a total of one hundred and twenty rooms, and fifty tables can be placed in the hall below, which can hold large banquets and banquets. Now my main thing is to repair some of the damaged places that were damaged a few days ago, and the big places don't need to be moved, so the construction period is very fast, but there are more people to use, and they have to go through systematic training, so the delay lies in the workers of the restaurant. ”

"Shopkeeper Zhang, here I will 'hand' over to you and Brother Liu, you just discuss it, you don't need to ask me alone, I don't understand these things when I ask me. If you encounter any difficulties, you can ask me. ”

I went to the backyard again, the backyard here is not small, mainly the warehouse kitchen and the place where the workers live, I will 'hand' over on behalf of them, to do a good job here, especially when the weather is cold, buy more charcoal, each room must 'get' a brazier, for the welfare of employees must be done well, and we must pay attention to it in the future, we must recruit special 'door' guards to avoid the poisoning incident on the first floor a few days ago, Brother Liu, you go to deal with these things, Zhang shopkeeper is mainly responsible for the operation. ”

For the first floor, security in the future is the key, this has become my territory, but they don't know that there are still shares of the emperor here, there will definitely be people who are dissatisfied, red-eyed, come to make trouble, the emperor's inscription is here, they dare not come clearly, and it is still okay to come and make trouble at night.

After reading the inside and out, it was also noon, a few of them were here to simply buy some food, and I didn't want to disturb their work here, with Liu Lianjiang, out of the first floor, and walked to the front, I suddenly saw a team of officers and soldiers escorting more than a dozen prisoner cars to here, and the pedestrians on the road were driven to the side by the soldiers who hit the head, Liu Lianjiang and I also got off the horse and walked to the side of the road, looking at the beginning of hundreds of Shence Army soldiers past, followed by more than a dozen prisoner cars,

When the prisoner cart approached, I saw that the first prisoner cart was Zhao Quan, Zhao Quan was wearing a cloak, his eyes were closed, and thanks to the fact that there were not many spectators around, no one threw anything at them.

I'm thinking, Zhao Quan is in my plan, he has been poisoned by Chen Jiu, why is he still alive now, and there is a big wooden sign on the back of each prisoner, which says that Zhao Quan, a prisoner, was ordered to be executed by Ling Chi, I was stunned when I saw this, could it be that Zhao Quan They did not go through the interrogation of Shuntianfu and Dali Temple, and went directly to Ling Chi to be executed, and they were busy putting down his affairs during this time, and I don't know what border pass is going to kill him so quickly.

In order to allow Zhao Quan to die peacefully and not suffer from a thousand cuts, I gave Chen Jiu silver, how did Chen Jiu do this, when I was doubting, ten prisoner cars passed in turn, and I saw Chen Jiu, riding on a horse, followed by many eunuchs from Dongchang, when I was looking at him, Chen Jiu also happened to see me here, the two of us looked at each other, Chen Jiu did not speak, just nodded. As for Chen Jiu's meaning, I still don't understand, whether it means that the matter is done or it is broken, it seems that if you want to uncover the mystery, you can only follow them to see it.

Behind Chen Jiu's team, there was also a group of soldiers from the Shence Army, and after the team passed, Liu Lianjiang and I rode horses to follow, and the team went to the entrance of the vegetable market, which had always been the execution ground.

When they arrived in the West City, according to the usual practice, the beheading was under the West Archway, and Ling Chi was under the East Archway, so that morning, a group of servants set up a shed next to the East Archway, which was for the supervisors and officials to sit here, and a thick wooden pole with forks on the top was erected in front of the shed.

The surrounding area has long been guarded by the officials of the Shuntian Mansion and the soldiers of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, and when Zhao Quan and a dozen of them are 'got' down from the carriage, then the execution ground will be opened, and we will let the spectators enter, if there are no spectators, simply executing the prisoners, it will not play a warning role, so it is still open to the outside world. The executioners in charge of the execution of Shuntianfu here have long been prepared, lined up, wearing red 'colored' coats, standing there, there is a prisoner kneeling in front of everyone, because they are going to be executed by Ling Chi, so the executioner did not hold a big knife, as for other tools, they have not taken out yet, I am also curious, the first time I saw the criminal executed by Ling Chi, so I decided to take a look here even if I didn't eat.

Ling Chi is the most brutal death penalty in all dynasties, commonly known as chopping punishment, as a formal criminal law began in the five dynasties. The method of execution was very cruel, and the general account is that the 'flesh' of the human body was cut off piece by piece. There are also differences in the execution methods of the past dynasties, generally cutting eight knives, first cutting the head and face, then the hands and feet, then the 'chest' and abdomen, and finally the head. But in fact, there are more than eight knives, and in the Ming Dynasty, there were twenty-four knives, thirty-six knives, seventy-two knives and one hundred and twenty knives. The twenty-four knives are: one or two knives cut the eyebrows, three and four knives cut the shoulders, five and six knives cut **, seven and eight knives cut between the hands and two elbows, nine and ten knives cut off the two elbows and the part between the two shoulders, eleven and twelve knives cut off the "meat" of the two 'legs', thirteen and fourteen knives cut the belly of the two 'legs', fifteen knives stabbed the heart, sixteen knives cut the head, seventeen and eighteen knives cut the hands, nineteen and twenty knives cut the two wrists, twenty-one and twenty-two knives cut the feet, and twenty-three and twenty-four knives cut the two 'legs'.

As for how Zhao Quan punished them, we don't know yet, only waiting for the officials who were beheaded to come over and announce the crime, and then announced the execution method of each person, and now in the shed on the high platform, only Chen Jiu himself was standing, as if waiting for someone to come.

It wasn't until this side was ready that I saw a sedan chair surrounded by dozens of officials, through the crowd to the bottom of the high platform, and an official in his fifties came down from the sedan chair, this person I know, is the current Shangshu of the Criminal Department, Li Bingxian, this person has been there when I got married, as for whether he is close to Zhang Juzheng, or Gao Gong, I don't know very well.

After Li Bingxian walked to the stage, Chen Jiu went over to salute him, and 'handed over' a stack of files to him, and he opened it and looked at it. After reading it, Chen Jiu handed over another volume, the things wrapped by Huang Lingzi, it was estimated that it was Mu Zong's holy decree.

Li Bingxian opened the holy decree wrapped by Huang Lingzi, cleared his throat, and came to the high platform to read it. The above is a description of the crimes of Zhao Quan and his accomplices, and finally it is announced that the prisoner Ling Chi should be punished with 3,600 knives as usual.

The next thing is for the official to take Chen Jiu's file with Li Bingxian, and go to the prisoner below to draw a confession and verify his identity. After all the formalities were completed, Li Bingxian also went to the shed with Chen Jiu and sat down.

Only three cannon shots were heard, after which the execution began. The executioners also came to the prisoners with their assistants, each of whom carried a small basket in which he placed an iron hook and a sharp blade. The executioners took out iron hooks and sharp blades, etc., and sharpened them on the sand. The prisoners began to scream, and the crowd began to stir, and some of the people who climbed on the houses stood up and craned their necks to see how the executioners were chopping people. However, due to the dense crowd of people in the vicinity, the scene of the execution could not be seen from a little distance. The two of us were on horseback, and we could clearly see the movements of the executioner in front of us when we sat on the horses.

More than 3,000 knives, not a half will be able to deal with it, and it will not end until the evening at the earliest, and I don't have any 'spirit' to look at these things, it's too cruel, I just care about what happens to Zhao Quan now.

The strange thing is that several prisoners screamed, only Zhao Quan's side did not move, only the executioner and his assistant were cutting one by one, Zhao still had blood oozing out of his body, it didn't look like he was dead, could it be said that he had fainted, and when he was on the road just now, he clearly saw that Zhao Quan was still alive.

Seeing that Zhao Quan didn't scream or struggle, I was relieved, indicating that he was not guilty, and I took other people's money, which can be regarded as the last thing for him.

I said to Liu Lianjiang: "Let's go back to the house, we can't look too miserable here." ”

Liu Lianjiang was very fascinated by it, and his interest was very high, and he asked me to ask him: "Young master, this is just the beginning, and it is the first time I have seen such a scene." ”

But I said let's go, Liu Lianjiang had no choice but to go out of the execution ground with me, rode a horse and walked home, and when I arrived at home, I first went to the back to see Zihan, and brought the blessings of Mr. Wang and Mrs. Wang, and then I talked about the situation in the cottage.

When it got dark, when I was about to eat, the 'door' outside came to report that Chen Jiu was coming, and I don't know why Chen Jiu came at this time, but since people came, they also had to go over to greet them, and came to the 'door' to take Chen Jiu into the living room.

"Brother Chen, why did you come here at this time, is there something wrong?"

"Brother Lan, brother, I came here to eat, I guess you haven't eaten yet."

"Brother Chen, I'm about to eat, since you haven't eaten, let's eat together, I'll arrange for them to serve the food now."

Now Lao Liu is on the first floor, Boss Chen is in charge of the affairs of the family, and Boss Chen is also waiting in the living room, I haven't said anything to ask him to serve the food, Chen Jiu said: "Just eat a little, let's go to your study to eat." ”

As soon as Chen Jiu said that he would go to the study to eat, I knew that Chen Jiu must have a 'private' secret to say, so I said: "Brother Chen, you go to the kitchen and let them serve a few good dishes, and the dishes will be sent to the study for us. ”