"But it doesn't hurt to say it." Although Wen Tiren has temporarily gained power, it is not yet time to monopolize the government, and he still has to be polite in the face of Ji Qingwen, a new magnate.

Ji Qingwen replied: "It's not a big deal. Elder Wen Ge also knew that Yuan Chonghuan and I worshiped under the old supervisor Sun Chengzong, and they were considered to have some friendship with the same family. Right now, he's going to be slashed, so I want to accompany him to drink a glass of severed head wine, which can be regarded as sending him on his way. I wonder if Elder Wen Ge can make it? ”

When an official kills his head, it is also the custom of the Ming court to drink a few glasses of wine and give a few lines of poetry to the officials who committed the crime in the same country.

Although Yuan Chonghuan has a special identity, Ji Qingwen is not an ordinary person, and Wen Tiren naturally couldn't think of any reason to refuse, so he said: "Don't dare." This is also Lord Ji's heart, so please do it! ”

"Okay!" Ji Qingwen was waiting for this sentence.

I saw that he arched his hand and thanked Wen Tiren, and as soon as he turned around, he instructed Huang Degong: "Degong, put the wine and food on the table, I want to see off Inspector Yuan!" ”

Huang Degong agreed, "Okay, the owner" agreed, and ran down quickly, beckoned a few miners brought into Beijing by Ji Qingwen, and boarded the execution table with a few large food boxes.

In the puzzled and angry eyes of fake Yuan Chonghuan and Zhenkang on the stage, two pots of fine wine and more than 20 small dishes were gradually opened, which were much more sumptuous than the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner eaten by ordinary rich families during the New Year.

Ji Qingwen put down so many drinks and dishes just to delay time, so that the executioners under Wen Tiren could not carefully inspect the appearance of "Yuan Chonghuan" in a hurry, so as the person who saw him off, whether it was a real play or a fake play, he always had to do it all.

So Ji Qingwen personally poured two glasses of wine, sent them to Kang Yidao, and said with a smile: "Today is the first knife, I can't save it if I want to." You drink this glass of wine first, and think about whether you deserve it if you die clearly? ”

Kang Yidao has stolen money, robbed aisles, killed people, kicked widows' doors, and demolished desperate graves in his life. However, he was tied to the execution table at the entrance of the vegetable market like a zongzi today, but he was very confused and didn't understand it at all.

This made Kang Yidao, who claimed to be a good hand in the underworld, very angry, and when he heard Ji Qingwen's words, he was even more unconvinced, how could his throat be cut by Zhou Xiuying with a dagger, and his mouth could only make a "babbling" sound like a baby crying, otherwise he had to scold it.

Wen Tiren over there couldn't help but be a little worried when he saw that Ji Qingwen was actually putting on such a big show, so he sent someone down from the prison beheading platform and asked Ji Qingwen: "Sir, it is usually just a glass of water and wine and a few side dishes to see off the prisoners, why did you set up a banquet?" Doesn't seem to be a good idea? ”

Ji Qingwen said to the audience: "What rules are not ruly? The amount of wine and food depends on the relationship with the offender. Inspector Yuan and I are brothers, and comrades-in-arms who have fought side by side, what are these things? You go back and tell you that Old Man Wen Ge will say that if something bad happens to his old man one day, I will set up a table to see him off! ”

After all, the messenger did not have the courage of Ji Qingwen, and only told the reason why Ji Qingwen was present, but he hid the last ridiculous sentence.

Wen Tiren is now proud, he just wants to kill Yuan Chonghuan in peace, and he has no reason to offend Ji Qingwen, a hedgehog-like figure, so he will give up.

In this way, Ji Qingwen stayed on the torture platform for more than half an hour, and suddenly heard the sound of cannons from the audience, and someone shouted loudly: "It's three o'clock in the afternoon, verify the criminal's identity, and ask ...... to cut ."

The spectators were waiting for this moment, and when they heard the shouts of the executioner, they suddenly made a sound like a mountain and a tsunami.

Ji Qingwen's little heart was beating non-stop in his chest - he was scheming, buying a house, digging holes, changing clothes, saving people, delaying time, and it seemed that he was about to be done, but he couldn't make anything go wrong at this last juncture!

So Ji Qingwen pretended to drink a glass of wine with the fake Yuan Chonghuan, said a few words, and then under the urging of the executioner who had been waiting for a long time, he reluctantly picked up the plates and wine glasses all over the ground, and then left the execution table.

The executioner waited for a long time, climbed onto the high platform, pinched the face of the fake "Yuan Chonghuan" and the real "Kang Yidao" with blurred flesh and blood for a long time, and suddenly showed a puzzled expression on his face, and quickly ran to the front of the prison beheading platform, and said to Wen Tiren: "My lord, this Yuan Chonghuan seems to be a little strange......

"Strange? What's strange? Wen Tiren asked.

"Back to my lord. The villain has always been on an errand in the Criminal Department, and they all say that after Yuan Chonghuan entered the prison of the Criminal Department, Lord Ji Qingwen took care of him a lot, and he didn't suffer much, why is his face now beaten with a blue nose and swollen eyes? ”

Ji Qingwen didn't expect that this executioner was actually a careful person, hearing this sentence from a distance, sweat suddenly broke out on his back, and he was so nervous that he choked on the saliva in his mouth, and couldn't stop coughing.

But I heard another person in front of the prison beheading platform say: "There is no care for it!" At the end of yesterday, I just met Yuan Chonghuan with Lord Ji, and the new clothes on Yuan Chonghuan's body were still changed in front of me! ”

Ji Qingwen was stunned when he heard this, and followed the prestige, but it was the commander of Jinyiwei who made Luo Yangxing help him speak. Luo Yangxing has always been a secret opponent in Ji Qingwenming, but he didn't expect to pack a ticket for Ji Qingwen at this time, which made Ji Qingwen himself surprised.

Wen Tiren over there saw that it was not early now, and if he didn't open the knife again, he was afraid that he would miss Emperor Chongzhen's will, so he waved his hand and said to the executioner: "Okay, there is a guarantee from Lord Luo under the command of the Jinyi Guard, what else do you say?" Make your red difference, and don't let you worry about other things. ”

The executioner kills people for bad luck, so he deliberately called it "Red Difference" just to get a lottery. And the officials and ordinary people who commit crimes will often spend money to hire executioners with superb "craftsmanship" to execute them in order to die happily, otherwise, if they encounter a new hand, they will go down with a knife and toss for half a day before they die, won't it make people die in peace?

So how do you define an executioner's craft?

It is obviously inappropriate to temporarily arrest a person and kill him on the spot, so the only way to see is how many times this executioner has made a "red difference", and who is the target of the "red difference".

And there is no doubt that the execution of Yuan Chonghuan, the once powerful Jiliao Governor, can be said to be a great resume in the executioner's career, so the executioner who was executed today is naturally doubly careful, and when he heard Wen Tiren speak like this, he did not want to make extraneous branches.

I saw this person stretch out his round and stubby hands, and bowed his hand to Wen Tiren, then turned around, shouted the word "bah", raised his head and chest, and walked towards the execution table with a majestic demeanor.

After walking to the side of the fake "Yuan Chonghuan", the executioner leaned over and said a few nonsense words such as "Destiny is like this, don't blame", then he lifted the machete beside him that had already sharpened the blade like cicada wings, held the handle of the knife tightly with both hands, held it high above his head, breathed a long sigh of relief, and suddenly used all the strength of his body to slash downward.

Kang Yidao, who was dressed as Yuan Chonghuan, obviously did not resist the hardness of the blade of the machete-only heard a "swish", Kang Yidao's head fell from his neck with a puzzled expression, rolled twice on the execution table, and finally ended his life inexplicably.

As for the exorcist shell that lost its head, it was naturally drained of all its vitality, and it fell to the execution table, turning into a useless piece of carrion.

Among the idlers who watched the execution under the stage, many of their fields and properties were plundered and destroyed by the Manchurians in last year's "Jisi Change", and naturally they hated Yuan Chonghuan deeply. Therefore, when they saw the head of "Yuan Chonghuan" fall to the ground, they were all relieved, and shouted in their mouths: "Good! Well done! ”

And most of the spectators have no grievances with Yuan Chonghuan, only hearing someone call "good", it seems that they feel that they have come all the way to watch the beheading today, if they don't call one or two "good", it will be in vain for half a day's effort, and they also shouted: "Good!" Well done! ”

With the life of "Yuan Chonghuan", the entrance of the vegetable market shouted inside and outside, as if the local general was beheaded before the battle, as if the Ming army went deep into Liaodong, defeated Manchuria and captured Huang Taiji alive......

When the shouting subsided a little, the executioner put down the butcher's knife, bent down and lifted the head that had fallen to the ground, strode to the bottom of the prison beheading platform, and raised it to a group of prison beheaders, including Wen Tiren, and said: "Back to your lords, Yuan Chonghuan, the official of the King James Prisoner, has been sentenced to the canon, and now there is a head to offer, please check it." ”

The people sitting on the stage are all serious scholars, and even the chickens and geese in the kitchen are afraid to avoid it, how can they still look closely at this bloody meat ball?

I saw Wen Tiren glance at it hastily and said, "Okay, you did a good job, and you will go to the Criminal Department tomorrow to receive the reward." As for Yuan Chonghuan's corpse, you waited to collect it first, and the court had no plans. ”

Before the words fell, he saw Ji Qingwen come forward again and said, "Lord Wen, I am Yuan Chonghuan's junior brother below, can my body be temporarily buried by me?" ”

Ji Qingwen raised this because the person he killed was not really Yuan Chonghuan, and he couldn't withstand further investigation at all, and only by taking this head and this corpse into his own hands could he make things seamless.

Wen Tiren naturally didn't know the joints, so he had no reason to refuse, so he casually agreed, and said, "It's okay." However, Yuan Chonghuan is a critical figure, and his corpse lord should also be handled carefully, maybe the court will have another punishment. ”

Wen Tiren's other punishment means that the coffins of dead characters are opened, the corpses are broken, the bones are scattered, etc., Ji Qingwen is not worried about this, anyway, it is not a big deal to bury it in the soil and dig it out, and make it unrecognizable.

So Ji Qingwen agreed without thinking about it, and after a while, he said, "That's right, Lord Wen." In the name of the money bank, Keri is about to open, but the holy decree is like a mountain, I will leave Beijing on the same day, and I should have no time to operate. Therefore, I will set up a banquet in the money village tonight, if Lord Wen is free, can you come and eat me a glass of water and wine, so as to give me face? ”

Hearing this, Wen Tiren suddenly remembered the scene when Fang Cai Ji Qingwen toasted the dead ghost "Yuan Chonghuan", and felt very unlucky, but he didn't want to refuse like this, so he could only say a reason: "I understand the kindness of the lord." It's just that I've been busy with government affairs recently, so I'll definitely come over to cheer for the lord when I'm free. ”

With that, Wen Tiren got up and left.

The rest of the prison officials are all high-ranking officials such as Dali Siqing, the right capital of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and they all have some friendship with Ji Qingwen, and a few of them have also received his money.