Since ancient times, ordinary people have loved to watch the excitement, and this is the case at home and abroad, not only the Chinese people like to be lively.

This is also human nature, as long as this lively sufferer is not himself, the more people the better, and the more exaggerated or intense the scene, the better.

The reason why the rulers of the past dynasties liked to execute in public was precisely to take advantage of the habit of the people who loved to watch the excitement, and took this opportunity to make a violent declaration to deter the people and discipline future generations.

At noon on February 18, the third year of Chongzhen, at the entrance of the vegetable market outside the Xuanwu Gate in the inner city of Beijing, the Criminal Department emptied the open land at this intersection on the first day, cleared the small merchants and vendors who sold vegetables and meat, and then sent people to build a large platform about three feet high, one zhang wide, and fifteen or sixteen zhang long overnight.

This stage, when a discerning person looks at it, he knows that this is not a stage, and the place on the stage is not only narrow, but also too long.

Coupled with the long slip on the stage that looks like a swing frame, it looks quite terrifying.

In addition to this, on this strange rectangular platform, in addition to a long "swing frame", there are no more than forty-two log pillars.

This is not to sing!

The vegetable market outside the Xuanwu Gate is located in the southern city of Beijing, that is, the outer city, and it is the most densely populated place in the 49 city at the foot of the Son of Heaven.

This place, after the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, is the largest vegetable market in Beijing, from the inner city to the south out of the Xuanwu Gate, the street is wide, and it is a crossroads, the vegetable shops and vegetable stalls in the eyes are numerous.

Over time, Xuanwumen Outer Street has the name of Caishi Street, and this intersection outside Xuanwumen is also called Caishikou.

On the morning of February 18, the third year of Chongzhen, the ordinary people who came to sell vegetables in Jingshi City, although they did not buy vegetables as usual, saw a more interesting scene than selling vegetables and meat.

There were many well-informed people under the roots of the Imperial City, who stood in the crowd at this time and showed off their knowledge.

And there are many literate people who have already known what will happen next from the notice jointly issued by the three legal departments of the imperial court, and they are all waiting and watching with anticipation.

In the middle of February, the weather was still cold, but the midday sun had the power to warm up.

Yan Yingyuan, who was standing in front of the crowd to maintain order at the execution ground with the personnel of the Nancheng Terracotta Division, squeezed around and squeezed out a stinky sweat.

Yan Yingyuan, who became more and more involved in the role of the commander of his Nancheng Soldiers and Horses, actually didn't want to see the scene in front of him, in his opinion, the execution, it would be over with a knife, why bother to make such a big battle, so that almost the people of the whole city came, so that the entire street outside Xuanwu Gate was flooded.

As the commander of the Nancheng Soldiers and Horses Division, Yan Yingyuan has a lot of problems to consider now.

In addition to arresting and preventing thefts, cracking cases and arresting thieves, and fighting fires and saving people in the jurisdiction, even the traffic on the street now has to be directed and commanded by the Division of Soldiers and Horses.

Nowadays, so many people are crowded at the intersection of the vegetable market, which blocks the passage from east to west, south to north, especially to enter Xuanwumen.

In addition to the problem of street congestion, what worries Yan Yingyuan even more is that so many people are crowded together, once something happens to chaos, the problem will be big, and the consequences will be serious.

However, after Yan Yingyuan reported to his boss Liu Wenbing, the commander of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, Liu Wenbing laughed and ignored Yan Yingyuan's worries.

Seeing that the sun was on the third pole, and the three o'clock in the afternoon was approaching, Yan Yingyuan couldn't help but look in the direction of Xuanwu Gate.

On the Xuanwu Gate, the dragon flying and phoenix dancing flags of the Ming army fluttered in the wind, and a group of soldiers of the Shenji Battalion with muskets and tall figures stood solemnly on the tall city wall, ignoring the crowded and noisy crowd on the vegetable market street outside the city gate.

Yan Yingyuan was looking at the military flag of the dragon flying and the phoenix dancing that year, and suddenly heard a gong sound of "clang" in the Xuanwu Gate.

This is the sound of the gong of the Terracotta Division in the city to open the way for the officials of the Three Law Divisions who were imprisoned this time.

The personnel of the Five Cities Terracotta Division are mostly composed of some five big and three rough ruffians and hooligans, at this time, wearing uniforms, foxes and fake tigers, five people and six people drove the people at the city gate to watch the excitement, and forced out a passage.

Yan Yingyuan watched from afar and shook his head, but at this time, he really couldn't think of any other more effective way.

After a team of soldiers and horses passed, they were the squad army officials in the prison of the Criminal Department, and after these squad army officers were one after another "traitors" who were shackled and shackled to the enemy.

As for the crime of traitor, a new crime issued by the emperor today, Yan Yingyuan, who is familiar with the laws of the Ming Dynasty, can't find anything wrong, but as soon as he hears about this crime, he feels that it is appropriate to use this crime on the heads of people who have captured enemies in the past.

In the history of all dynasties, people who can be called traitors are really endless, and there are so many traitors with great crimes in each generation.

In the Han Dynasty, when the Han nation had just been formed, there was a Zhongxing that took refuge in the Huns and led the Huns to attack the Han Dynasty.

During the Song Dynasty, Zhang Yuan and Wu Hao defected to the Western Xia people and led the Western Xia army to attack Shaanxi.

There is also Zhang Hongfan in the late Southern Song Dynasty, and he left a joke in Yashan that "Song Zhang Hongfan destroyed the Song Dynasty here".

At this time in the Ming Dynasty, there were many such big traitors, not to mention the Fan Wencheng brothers, Ning Wan and I and others who took refuge in the Jurchens, even the Burmese natives living in the southwest, and there were also individual traitors who took refuge for glory and wealth.

This person's name is Yue Feng.

Yue Feng was originally a businessman, and after taking refuge in Mang Yingli, he told Mang Yingli about the virtual and real situation in the border areas of Yunnan, as well as the war situation of the Ming Dynasty in the north.

After Mang Yingli knew that the Ming Dynasty was as strong as this, he gathered a large number of elephant soldiers, and then, under the leadership of Yue Feng, led the Burmese army to attack the Ming Dynasty and occupied many places in northern Myanmar that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty and Yunnan.

Of course, in the end, this Yue Feng did not end well, and he and his son were beheaded by Liu Wei after the Burmese army was defeated and retreated the following year.

This is the matter of Yue Feng leading the Burmese army's Northern Expedition to the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period, and not many people know about it.

If it weren't for the problem of the Jin merchants who killed Hukou this time, and Jiang Pai who escaped from Hukou was revealed, then the current Ming Dynasty, except for the current Emperor Chongzhen, probably wouldn't care much, or how serious this problem would be.

Although Emperor Chongzhen had already arranged for everyone to recite and memorize Emperor Taizugao's Fengtian Northern Expedition against Yuan Yuan (i.e., "The Edict of the Central Plains"), and arranged for the review and revision of the Hanlin Academy to speed up the compilation and annotation of the aphorisms and famous sayings of the Huayi debate in the past dynasties, and then compiled and distributed them into a book for use by private schools and county schools in various places, but so far, the idea of Huayi's defense or Huayi's debate has still not been popularized.

Therefore, not everyone in this era can recognize the harm of traitors.

However, for people like Yan Yingyuan, in the study of the martial arts hall, especially when he was in the military attache in front of the imperial court, and in contact with Emperor Chongzhen, he already had a simple national concept.

He knew that whether it was Mongolia or Jurchen, once he entered China, it would be a change of Yi into Xia, according to the current emperor, this not only means the death of the country, but also the death of the world!

At the same time that Yan Yingyuan was leading the personnel of the Nancheng Soldiers and Horses Division to maintain order in the vegetable market, the forty-two traitors who were sentenced to death under Ning Wanme, Fan Yongdou, and Wang Dengku were tied to the log pillars that were erected one by one.

Another 123 people, including Fan Yudong and Fan Yuxin, were also escorted to the high platform one by one by the squad officials of the prison of the Criminal Department, put a noose around their necks, and then ripped off the black cloth covering their heads.

Some of them, such as Fan Yongdou's grandchildren, are still children.

But at this time, after listening to the crimes of these people read out by the personnel of the Three Law Divisions, none of the ordinary people in the audience sympathized with them.

Although some women covered the eyes of their children, there were many more who threw stones and sundries in their hands at these traitors who were said to be willing to be Jianguo's internal response and colluded with the Jianyu army to attack Beijing.

The crowd was noisy, noisy, and scolding, as if they were trying to judge these public enemies from within.

In the midst of this uproar, the one hundred and twenty-three people who were sentenced to be hanged, one after another, were hung high on the noose around their necks under the strong pull of the officials of the Criminal Department, crying and struggling, and finally straightened their legs and drifted in the cold wind.

Ning Wan I had already been tortured by Jinyiwei half dead and delirious before I was brought to this execution ground, and at this time I heard the cheers and screams coming from the crowd around me, and I tried to open my left eye, which could still be opened, and the pus and blood flowed out of my mouth involuntarily, and after looking at it for a while, I closed my eyes again, and seemed indifferent.

And Fan Yongdou watched his young grandsons hang on the gallows like a dog, the slave opened his eyes and cried hoarsely, his triangular eyes had long been gone, and he was about to cry blood.

However, what was waiting for him, as well as his brother Fan Yongkui, son Fan Sanba and others, lasted for three days.