The next day.

"Captain He, your treatment is better than mine!"

Zhou Cheng, the commander of the Ming army, held a cigarette in his mouth, and looked at the tin box in the chest pocket of Captain He of the Qingzhang team next to him with some envy, and the cigarette in his mouth was just taken out of this tin box.

Smoking is already common in Daming.

In fact, smoking has already started in the Wanli Dynasty, and tobacco in Beijing was already very common and sought after in Chongzhen, and even the earliest records of tobacco cultivation in the north have appeared. The final result is that Chongzhen banned smoking, in order to avoid tobacco cultivation taking up a lot of farmland, from this point of view, Chongzhen is still very far-sighted, but his order is a dead letter, there is no reason, and when Yang Qing releases the smoking ban, the entire Ming Dynasty immediately smoked like a dog. However, ordinary people are mainly smoking cigarette pouches, and this kind of paper cigarettes are high-end luxury, and even the tin box has two eye-catching big characters on it......

"I've been shot seven times in two years, can you compare with me?"

Captain He said.

As he spoke, he smiled horribly at his disfigured face.

"Huh?"

Zhou Cheng quickly shut up.

Suddenly, in the green of the mountains and forests in front of him, a little white light shone, he and Captain He looked at each other, and then he dismounted and hid behind a carriage, took out two small flags from his arms, and quickly sent flags towards the sky.

The team begins to slow down.

At the same time, a mile behind their team, on a hot air balloon in the sky, a signal soldier waved a signal flag to relay his order, and the Ming soldiers hidden in the mountains and forests below immediately accelerated their speed forward. These soldiers are not red uniforms, they are all green suitable for the mountains and forests, which represents their special status, they are not ordinary infantry, but military reconnaissance battalions. After giving the order, Zhou Cheng picked up the signal flag, walked out as if nothing had happened, remounted his horse, and continued to move forward slowly with this decoy detachment disguised as the Qingzhang team......

Half an hour later.

They finally reached the foot of the hill near a creek.

Zhou Cheng immediately raised his right hand, the long line behind him stopped, and the last one rode forward on horseback, and there was still silence in the mountains and forests in front of them, only the wind pushed the pine waves, and the dense wild grass under the forest covered everything, and nothing could be seen in the dark green.

Suddenly, there was a flash of white light in the green.

"Bang!"

Zhou Cheng exaggeratedly simulated a gunshot.

Countless red fires flickered in the mountains and forests ahead, followed by dense gunfire, and gunpowder smoke rose like mist.

"Ready!"

Zhou Cheng shouted excitedly.

As he spoke, he drew his saber.

The soldiers on horseback behind him drew their swords as fast as they could, and at the same time, a large number of bandits ran out of the mountains and forests in confusion, some of them also opened fire backwards as they ran, and the reflection of the bayonets could already be seen behind them, and the outflanking Ming army easily drove them out of the mountains and forests.

"Kill!"

Zhou Chang roared and urged the war horse.

The cavalry behind him rushed at full speed, shouting and pointing straight forward with their sabers, like British cavalry charging in a war horse......

In fact, that's how they train.

The bandits who had been driven out of the forest were in chaos.

They were lying in ambush here according to intelligence, waiting to ambush this Qingzhang team, but they didn't know that a brocade guard had been lurking beside them since last night. I didn't know that the so-called Qingzhang team was actually a cavalry sentry pretending, and I didn't know that this Qingzhang team was followed by a reconnaissance battalion, and according to the early warning of the Jinyi guards lurking on the side, they quickly completed their outflanking. When they fled out of the mountains and forests like rabbits driven by hounds under a sudden blow from behind, they faced the cavalry directly on the banks of the open stream. These bandits, who were themselves a rabble, immediately lost their fighting spirit when they saw the cavalry rushing towards them, and scattered in panic one by one.

But they certainly can't outrun the horses.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Chengcheng was the first to rush to the middle of the bandits, and the bandits on the opposite side still wanted to aim at him, but at the moment when the war horse swept by, the carotid artery was cut by his sabre. In the spray of his blood, Zhou Cheng's war horse crashed straight into the second bandit, who screamed and was knocked away.

And then the third ......

Just as his saber slashed through the throats of the bandits, the subordinates behind him rushed in, drowning less than a hundred bandits in an instant.

Some of the bandits tried to flee back to the mountains, but the outflanked infantry rushed out immediately, and the Ming army, armed with rifles with bayonets, almost like cavalry in the downward hills, overwhelmed these remnants in an instant. It can be said that in the blink of an eye, this skirmish has ended, whether it is the cavalry or infantry of the Ming army, it is a wave of charges, and when their charge is over, there are almost no bandits who can still stand.

"It's no fun to fight!"

Zhou Cheng said with obvious dissatisfaction, wiping his saber with a cloth.

"Sentry, there's a stinker here!"

One of his subordinates shouted.

Zhou Cheng looked at it, there was a bandit with a shaved head on the ground, trembling on the ground, this guy was obviously very lucky, he was not trampled in the charge of more than a hundred cavalry.

"Take it away, it's just useful!"

Zhou Cheng said.

"What about the other wounded!"

The subordinate asked.

"Let's practice the knife!"

Zhou Cheng replied very dryly.

Injured bandits are only equipped with swords, after all, it costs money to treat their wounds, and slaves are not expensive these days, and their worth may not be able to catch up with the medical expenses! However, this one who is not dead is very valuable, and Zhou Cheng, who is still wearing the blood of a slave, looked at this slave with satisfaction, and Captain He also walked over slowly.

"Do you know how to speak official language?"

Captain He said amiably with a cigarette in his mouth.

The slave continued to tremble.

"Don't be afraid, I look scary but have a good heart, as long as you can honestly prove who instructed you to attack the Qingzhang team, then you will be my prisoner, I am not an officer and soldier, and you will be handed over if you are captured by officers and soldiers. As long as you testify honestly, then you will be my domestic slave, and as my domestic slave, you can make meritorious service and atone for your crimes, and you will not have to suffer any punishment. If you don't testify, then as a traitor, you can only be late, you are still young, there are still decades to live, don't do stupid things! ”

Captain He continued to maintain his terrifying smile and said.

This is indeed the case with the system of the Ming army.

The soldiers of the army must hand over the seizures, and it goes without saying that the redistribution of them is the same, and the same is true for the capture of slaves, but the soldiers must be indispensable, otherwise the soldiers' committee will not do it. But if there is a civil registration on the battlefield, even if a public official catches a slave or seizes something, this is his own, so there are already soldiers who fight and bring their relatives to the battlefield.

The Ming Dynasty encouraged the people to help the country in the war.

Especially in the economically underdeveloped areas of the Western Regions, usually as soon as the army attacks, the local young and strong immediately bring their own war horses and weapons to follow as if they were celebrating the festival, and when the time comes, the soldiers who cooperate to fight, they follow to pick up the spoils, and after the war, the two are divided equally, and even merchants follow to provide services......

Blatantly digging into the corners of the country.

It's the same in this battle, even if these bandits are all gentry slaves, since they are traitorous slaves, they are classified as ownerless.

Killed without guilt.

Catch it is your own.

Therefore, there is no good result in rebelling against slaves in Daming.

Captain He's words made the slave's eyes light up immediately.

"Come, get up!"

Captain He said amiably with his hand.

"Slave, the slave is willing to testify, it was the slave's former master, Li Xiucai, who instructed it, and the slave's name is still on his family's slave register."

The Japanese slave said in slightly stiff Chinese.

"What's the use of this, according to our Ming law, slaves can't prove their masters."

Zhou Cheng said.

What he said was the truth, in order to maintain the criminal slavery system, the newly revised Daming Law clearly stipulates that slaves cannot testify against their masters, that is to say, slaves and slaves cannot testify when the master commits crimes, so it is useless for this slave to prove that it was instigated by Li Xiucai, and his testimony has no legal effect.

Indeed, the Great Ming Law does stipulate that a slave cannot prove his master, but it does not stipulate that a slave cannot prove a good person, that is to say, he can testify against any good person who is not his master. Of course, as a domestic slave, he must not do anything without the permission of his master, such as testifying in court, and he is now my prisoner, so he will become my slave, so I can agree to him appear in court and let him act as a witness to testify against Li Xiucai. ”

Captain He said.

"But theoretically, you don't know if Li Xiucai instructed them, if you allow him to testify, first you have to make sure that it is true, if he perjuries you, you will be punished."

Zhou Cheng was stunned.

"Yes, but I trust him!"

Captain He said with a smile.

"No, no, there is a chance for some false accusations!"

Zhou Cheng said messily.

"Yes, just like the protector said, this is a loophole in the law, but before the Four People's Congress revised the law, this loophole was legal, and slaves cannot prove their masters, but it is not clearly stipulated that slaves cannot prove their beloved. He can testify in court against any other good person who is not his master, as long as I allow him to do so, and although I really don't know how Li Xiucai instructed him, I believe in him, and I can authorize him to do so. This is indeed not quite right, this is easy to be exploited by some people, but in law this is no problem, as long as the Four People's Congress does not amend this law, then we can do this, we are a country with a legal system. ”

Captain He said with a smile.

"Then the Li family sat down and rebelled?"

Zhou Cheng said.

"That's right, the mastermind organized armed gangs, attacked and killed state officials, and used force against the national army, what is this not a rebellion? The rebellion of the Ming Dynasty is to raid the family. ”

Captain He said.

"You literate people are so dark!"

Zhou Cheng said with emotion.

Of course, it doesn't matter if there is no testimony from this slave, because when he went back last night, Li Xiucai's nephew, who was carried away by Jinyiwei in a sack, had already confessed in Jinyiwei's overnight surprise interrogation. As for how to interrogate, this is not enough for outsiders, in short, when Zhou Cheng and Captain He went back with this Japanese slave, Li Xiucai's crime of rebellion was basically conclusive. And the testimony of this slave made up the witness chain for his rebellion.

That night, Jinyiwei directly raided Li Xiucai's home, and the latter also quickly confessed to his accomplices to two witnesses in Jinyiwei's prison, and then Jinyiwei imprisoned more than ten gentry in Guangde and Jianping......

"This can't be considered a rebellion, right?"

Yang Yi, the secretary of the Criminal Department, argued on the basis of reason.

"This can only be said to be a bandit, these people are bandits, bandits who rob homes and houses, the Li family colludes with bandits, sells stolen goods for them, buys weapons on their behalf, and harbors them.

What is rebellion?

doesn't even have his own official name, how can this be considered a rebellion? ”

Plug Yinxi is also arguing on reason.

The bandits only cut off the heads of Li Xiucai and the gentry who were arrested, and the rebellion was to raid the house and connect the nine clans, which is an essential difference, and it is obvious that for the civil officials, they still want to try to save these people. If Yang Qing really rebelled against these people and connected the nine clans, then the gentry in other places would definitely be frightened to retreat, after all, the gentry of Nanzhili were actually rich, and it would be worth the loss just to resist the public land law and put the nine clans on the line. But if they retreat and the Gongtian Law is successfully implemented in Nanzhili, it will be even more difficult for the other provinces to set off a wave of resistance.

"First of all, raising armed men privately, attacking and killing state officials, and confronting the army with force is a rebellion, this is not a rebellion, so what is a rebellion? Do you have to wait until they become emperors? Besides, these are not bandits, this is their house slaves, and they use their house slaves to fight against the country by force, which is indispensable in any dynasty and a rebellion, right? ”

Yang Qing said.

"Lord Protector, I think this matter needs to be cautious!"

Chen Zilong said.

"Since you all have objections, then let's hand them over to the Four People's Congress, if there are objections, it means that our laws are not clear enough, and we need to redefine the crime of treason, and clarify which crimes are considered rebellion. If the Four People's Assembly thinks that their crime is treason, then we will try them in accordance with the law formulated by the Four People's Assembly, but the Zhulian Nine Clans are indeed too much, and the Zhulian Three Clans are still okay. If the Four People's Congress believes that their crimes do not meet the criteria for rebellion, then we also respect the decision of the Four People's Assembly, in short, we are a country with a legal system, and the Four People's Congress has the right to decide the law. ”

Yang Qing said very simply.

Those ministers looked gloomy, can there be other results if they want to get the Four Peoples Conference? Those representatives of the four peoples are not what Yang Qing said? The last session was still manipulative, but this one, at least for now, is completely uncontrollable, and it will become more and more difficult to manipulate in the future.

After all, if the Gongtian Law is really to be completed, there will basically be no place for scholars.

After all, then there would be no scholars.

At most, like the Northern Huangzhuang, there are a bunch of messy down-and-out literati, and they complete the occupation of the magpie's nest in the name of the scholars, but they will not speak for the gentry, and they are not landlords.

But what can be done about this?

The new Four People's Congress has been completely controlled by Yang Qing, and even Li Laiheng's members of the Peasants' and Workers' Party have surpassed Wang Fuzhi's Datong Party.

(The book will be completed soon, and a new book is being written)