After controlling the crowd on the official road, Zhou Shixiang immediately asked Ge Wu to lead people to search for those who fled into the woods on both sides, and after about half an hour, except for a few people who had escaped by taking advantage of the night, the team in the city was completely controlled, and it was estimated that there were hundreds of people.

The men were ordered to squat on the ground, while the women and children were held in another place, flanked by soldiers from the Taiping camp with torches. In the face of the Ming army's broadswords and spears and the corpses on the ground, everyone in the crowd was silent, and no one dared to speak. From time to time, soldiers threw packages full of valuables they had picked up from the forest on the ground, many of which were stained with red blood.

The carriages full of goods were led back by the soldiers, and Zhou Shixiang held a torch in one hand and carefully looked at the list in his hand with the other.

When the vehicles were pulled back, Zhou Shixiang came to the group of men squatting on the ground, glanced at the list in his hand, and then shouted: "Who is Zheng Longfa?" ”

There was a commotion in the crowd, but no one answered.

Zhou Shixiang frowned, and shouted again: "Zheng Longfa came out by himself, Hugh asked General Ben to send someone to bring you out!" ”

After a moment of silence, a fat man in a silk robe stood up from the ground, then squeezed out of the crowd trembling slightly, came to Zhou Shixiang and bowed, and said very carefully: "General, I am Zheng Longfa." ”

Zhou Shixiang took the torch and shook it in front of his eyes, Zheng Longfa, who felt the heat of the torch, hurriedly turned his face, and when he turned around, he heard the person in front of him ask him: "In the sixth year of Yongli, when you were the governor of Nanxiong Mansion, did you tie up the prefect and ask the Qing army to surrender?" ”

Hearing this, Zheng Longfa immediately shuddered, jumped up like a mouse seeing a cat, and shouted at the sky: "There is no such thing!" I haven't done it! ”

Zhou Shixiang snorted, stared at him coldly and said, "You said that there is no such thing, but why do others say that you have done this?" ”

Zheng Longfa was stared at very weakly, but he scolded in his mouth: "This is which maggot chewing maggot in the mouth of killing a thousand knives slandered me, I, Zheng Long, am a Ming minister, and a Ming ghost when I die, how can I do that thing of opening the door and accepting the surrender!" The general must not listen to the slander of the villain"

"Quack!"

Seeing that this guy dared to be hard-mouthed, and his bright braids made Zhou Shixiang angry, you still dared to call yourself a Ming minister and a Ming ghost, and he was furious, and shouted: "At that time, you Zheng Longfa was the one who went out of the city to ask the Qing army to surrender?" You say yes or no, one more word, and it will be an immediate result for you! ”

"Me"

Zheng Long felt bitter in his heart, knowing that he was in front of the ghost gate, he didn't dare to say yes, but he didn't dare to say anything, he was trembling in a cold sweat, and when he saw that the Ming general in front of him was already impatient, he couldn't care anymore, gritted his teeth and said: "It's good for me to go out of the city that day, but I was also forced to go at that time, if I don't go, those people will kill me."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Shixiang's hand had already waved: "Drag it and cut it!" ”

"Yes!"

Immediately, two soldiers rushed forward and dragged the stunned Zheng Longfa aside, and then cut off his head with a knife as he shouted "wronged".

"Whew!"

When Zheng Longfa's head hit the ground, the crowd squatting there suddenly let out an exclamation, and the people in front of him were even more frightened and retreated, and there were even a few people inside who were beating like a thousand drums in their hearts, squeezing the ground with both hands, and they didn't know that their nails were broken.

Before the crowd could react to Zheng Longfa's death, Zhou Shixiang had already called his second name.

"Li Qingshui!"

This time, no one came out, but fortunately, Zhou Shixiang had already been prepared, and glanced at the masked man, who immediately walked towards the crowd with a torch, and after a while, he pointed out a middle-aged man who was so frightened that his face was colorless.

"The general spares his life, the general spares his life!"

When Li Qingshui was brought up, he couldn't stop begging for mercy, and Zhou Shixiang drank it, but asked: "In the second year of Yongli, when you were the magistrate of Zengcheng, did you secretly report to the Qing army the whereabouts of my late Ming prince Taibao and Wuyingdian scholar Zhang Jiayu?" ”

This time, Li Qingshui stopped screaming, his mouth was closed tightly, but beads of sweat were oozing from his forehead, and his eyes were even more terrified.

"Don't speak? If you don't speak, you're dead! ”

Zhou Shixiang didn't say much, with a wave of his hand, Li Qingshui was immediately pulled to Zheng Longfa's corpse, and when he wanted to speak, his head had already landed.

"Wang Shiyun!"

Zhou Shixiang called the third name, and no one came out, and he was also identified.

When Wang Shiyun was dragged out, Zhou Shixiang was just about to speak, but someone in the pile of women not far away shouted: "Wang Shiyun, you who killed a thousand knives also have today, military master, you can't be cheap with this one who kills a thousand knives, you must cut him with a thousand knives!" ”

Wang Shiyun was already extremely scared, and after listening to the scolding of his mother-in-law, he was even more frightened that his legs trembled, and his throat and eyes swished up.

After Zhou Shixiang motioned to the soldiers to shut up the woman, he said to Wang Shiyun: "In the seventh year of Yongli, did you donate 12,000 taels of military salary to the Zhaoqing general army of the Qing Dynasty?" ”

"There is such a thing."

Wang Shiyun did not hide it, he thought to himself that he did not open the city to surrender, nor did he harm the officials of the Ming Dynasty, at most, he responded to the government's call to accept some silver, and he could not commit a capital crime. But what he didn't expect was that as soon as he answered, the young general in front of him waved his hand down: "Beheaded!" ”

“”

One after another, men with fat heads and big ears, or righteous spirits, or copper-smelling mouths were brought out and beheaded, and there were seven or eight heads on the ground.

After cutting so many people, the crowd was not as frightened as before, because they obviously saw that the Ming army was only to take revenge on those who had betrayed the Ming Dynasty, and it seemed that they had no intention of embarrassing ordinary people. The relatives of those who were killed even secretly breathed a sigh of relief, they were wronged, the debtors were owners, and the people were dead, so they would not be convicted. They thought so, and those subordinates felt that the knife would not cut at them.

Waiting for death is a painful thing, and watching other people's heads fall to the ground is even more torture, when Ye Jinglian's name sounded, Ye Jinglian suddenly no longer felt that death was terrible, and the burden on his shoulders was gone, and he felt that the whole person was much easier. He didn't ask for someone to identify him, but walked out by himself, and when he came out, he didn't forget to take one last look at his old wife, who was lying unconscious on the ground not far away.

After walking in front of Zhou Shixiang, Ye Jinglian wanted to kneel down and beg for mercy, but seeing that the other party was younger than his son, and none of the people he called out survived, the thought of begging for mercy faded in an instant, and he pretended to be generous and straightened his waist, and then said neither humbly nor arrogantly: "The old man is Ye Jing's integrity, and if you want to kill, you have to listen to the respect." ”

Zhou Shixiang looked up and down at the old man who was kneeling on the ground half an hour ago and kept kowtowing and begging for mercy, and sighed in his heart that he would be extremely bold after being extremely scared. As if following a process, he asked with a straight look: "In the seventh and eighth years of Yongli, you sent people to report to the Qing army several times, causing many casualties in my Ming army. At the beginning of the year, after my Xining Wang's army was in Guangxi, you organized manpower to intercept and kill the wounded soldiers of our army many times, but is there such a thing? ”

Ye Jinglian didn't think about it and said, "Yes, I've done all these things." ”

"Well, you don't have to say anything more, you can go by yourself."

Zhou Shixiang pointed to the temporary law field of several corpses with his hand, Ye Jinglian did not go over immediately, but raised his head and glanced at the dark sky, and then walked over with a long sigh. But I don't know if I regret what I did, or regret that I shouldn't go out of the city.

"Sir!"

The moment Ye Jinglian's head hit the ground, an old woman's scream sounded, and then there was no sound.

Sun Sitai was the last name to be called, a middle-aged man in a Confucian shirt who looked quite upright.

In later generations, Sun Shitai should be a good official with integrity, at least, with a dignified appearance. It's a pity that such a dignified appearance, looking at the righteous scholars, have become traitors, but they responded to Chen Peisi's words, "I didn't think that you, the thick-eyed and big-eyed person, also rebelled against the revolution."

After a little emotion, Zhou Shixiang said with a straight face: "Lord Sun, you are the prefect of Yanzhou, Zhejiang Province of the Qing court, and you returned to your hometown after the death of your mother in November last year. ”

Sun Sitai snorted: "Since you know, you still ask me what to do?" ”

"Aren't you afraid of death?"

Zhou Shixiang casually put the list on the torch and lit it, and the paper quickly became an ember with the flames.

Sun Sitai withdrew his gaze from the paper that had turned into ashes, and said loudly: "Once you die, what is there to fear?" ”

"Do you really want to resist the king to the death? If Lord Sun had decided to surrender, perhaps he would have spared your life, and he could even have recommended you to the imperial court. ”

If the current prefect of the Qing court can successfully persuade him to surrender, the Yongli court sent to Anlong Mansion is probably a great credit. In addition, this Sun Sitai has no bad deeds, so Zhou Shixiang has no intention of killing this person. After all, there are too many Han people in the world who are Qing officials, and if everyone wants to kill them, they will not be able to kill them at all. The consequences of the indiscriminate killing will only provoke these Han Chinese who serve the Manchurians to resist desperately, which will undoubtedly do nothing good for the restoration of China.

Unexpectedly, Sun Sitai was not moved at all, but instead took a "puff" and scolded angrily: "What kind of Wang Shi, it's just a group of grass bandits under the Daxi thief!" Since my Sun Sitai is in the Qing Dynasty, I am the only one in my heart, and I can't be a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, and I will never be with you and other grass cowards! ”

After scolding, Sun Sitai gritted his teeth and glared at Zhou Shixiang, today's situation is nothing more than a head falling to the ground. But what is there to be afraid of death, the Qing Emperor treats me well, and he is the prefect of the prefect with the body of a person, how many people can there be in the world? Such a glorious favor, my Sun Sitai has nothing to repay, and today I will repay the Qing Emperor with a death! On the history books of his day, I am also indispensable to the deeds of my Sun Sitai!

"Well, since you seek death with all your heart, I will fulfill you."

The other party's posture made Zhou Shixiang persuade him to surrender, and waved his hand to drag Sun Sitai down, this person wants to be a ghost of the Qing Dynasty, so let him be a ghost of the Qing Dynasty.