Zhang Xiaoqi of course they are not gathering people to rebel, their demands are clear from the beginning, that is, to ask His Royal Highness to overturn the case of Shaowu will not be issued, and at the same time punish the "lucky villain" who took this concert. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Throughout the process, none of the initiating officials had any intention of rebellion, but there was no excuse for the crime they wanted to add. Zhou Shixiang convicted the crime of treason for the disturbance in the palace of the prison state. In order to make the crime of treason confirmed, Ding Zhixiang and others in charge of the Criminal Department moved out of the Ming Law, and selected 18 charges from them to gather a crowd to plot misdeeds.

On the same day, 136 court officials, including Zhang Xiaoqi, Ma Anmin, Wang Wanda, Guo Tianxu, Qin Rong, and Cheng Bangjun, were arrested, and another 378 gentry and scholars who did not go to school and did not return to their hometowns were arrested, and 2,650 people were arrested for participating in the trouble. For a time, the prison cells in Guangzhou were so full that some of the prisoners had to be detained in the Yuexiu camp outside the city. Due to the strict orders of the military marshal's office, the Guangzhou government did not dare to release a person privately, which made the families of prisoners outside the government cry and howl.

The king of Tang was very angry at Zhou Shixiang's actions of killing, arresting, and imprisoning people without his consent, and ordered the first assistant Guo Zhiqi to take his edict and order Zhou Shixiang to release him.

Zhou Shixiang was very angry and said to the first assistant Guo Zhiqi: "In the discussion between the court and the central government, those who have different opinions can go up and down to His Royal Highness the prison state, or hand over the table to the political envoy to pass it on. If this move succeeds, everyone will learn from it in the future, but if it does not conform to their wishes, it will cause people to attack the government and the court, how will the country be governed, and what credibility will the court have? ”

Guo Zhiqi repeatedly pleaded for Zhang Xiaoqi and others, but Zhou Shixiang was cold-faced, only saying that he needed to deal with it in accordance with the law, and he could not follow the law, let alone bend the law.

When Guo Zhiqi left, Zhou Shixiang ordered people to send the case book of smashing, robbery and other cases counted by the Guangzhou government in the past few days, a total of 369 cases, all of which have bitter masters, and the piles are clearly described, and there are many bitter masters who are waiting for crimes in prison. He also took a special file to confess to the arrested prisoners and caused civil strife in Guangzhou, so as to oppose the Tang Dynasty and make a confession for the help of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the landlords and gentry who participated in the troubles used to work hard for the Qing court were all carefully investigated in various places and submitted to Guangzhou as soon as possible. In black and white, there are neighbors testifying, and there are even the reports of the villagers who were victimized in the past, which is really ironclad evidence.

Guo Zhiqi was speechless, knowing that these case files were true and false, but even if Zhou Shixiang took the fake as the truth, the person was in his hands, and the words were all said by him, what could he do if he was empty. After Guo Zhiqi played the Tang King fruitlessly, the Tang King was dissatisfied, and then sent the eunuch Pan Yinglong to release the people, and even claimed in the palace that if Zhou Shixiang did not release the people, he would no longer be in charge of the country.

Zhou Shixiang had no choice but to go to the palace to meet the king of Tang, and said in the palace: "The minister said to His Royal Highness in Wencun that day: This life is only to kill captives and restore the country." Whoever wants to stop the Northern Expedition and the great cause of recovering the rivers and mountains, even if the minister is infamous for eternity, he will not let such a traitor succeed. If His Royal Highness can't believe the minister, His Royal Highness can order the Jinyi Guard to push the minister out of the noon gate and behead him, and the minister will never say a word of complaint! ”

He also said: "Emperor Yi Zonglie once said: All officials can be killed. These so-called scholars are usually full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, but in fact, most of them break into the crowd and surrender to the captives, without any discipline. When the southern capital was broken, how many scholars were martyred? However, the wat boards are piled up, vying to surrender to the Tartar butcher Duoduo! When the Qing Dynasty occupied Guangdong, how many of these people were so righteous to the Tartars like today, and they fought with reason? ! How many more have you shot an arrow at the Tartars? Recovering an inch of land? Today, our army is about to leave the Northern Expedition, and these rats have come to plot chaos! If these hypocrites and villains who have a bad plan for self-recovery are not severely punished, what will the soldiers of the Northern Expedition think? What do the loyal servants and righteous men who died for me think? What do the people of the world think?! ”

Tang Wang was speechless for a while.

"Today's minister's words, whether Your Highness believes it or not; What the minister did today, His Royal Highness thinks that it is a merit or a crime, and please record it in the minister's account. After he waited for the ministers to destroy the Tartars, recovered my Daming Sheji, and put my Han father's people out of the fire and water, His Royal Highness killed the ministers with today's events, and the ministers would never shout an injustice! ”

Zhou Shixiang was categorical and refused to back down at all.

Tang Wang pondered carefully, what Zhou Shixiang said may not be unreasonable, and Pan Yinglong tactfully reminded Tang Wang that as soon as he was in charge of the country, some ministers gathered in the palace to storm the palace gate, and this matter can also be regarded as Zhang Xiaoqi They have ill intentions towards Tang Wang; Looking at it smaller, it is also Zhang Xiaoqi who violated the etiquette system, and Yu Jun was rude. So the anger of the Tang King subsided a little, and he didn't want to make a big deal about it, so he promised Zhou Shixiang to convene the cabinet to announce the rehabilitation of Emperor Shaowu on the condition that Zhou Shixiang would not kill on a large scale.

His ultimate goal succeeded, Tang Wang persuaded him with good words, and Zhou Shixiang could not help but express himself, saying that for the people arrested, those who have no official position and no criminal record can be fined; Those who have a criminal record and take advantage of the chaos to rob, smash and destroy during the incident will be handed over to the Guangzhou government for trial and conviction, and those who commit serious crimes will be severely punished according to the law, and those who have committed minor crimes will be sent to Foshan Iron Mine to serve hard labor; Those who have official positions will be interrogated in detail by Zhou Shixiang, and those who are confirmed to have no collaboratorship with the enemy and no intention of rebellion can be handed over to the Tang king, and the rest will be decided by the military marshal's office after the crime is verified.

Tang Wang knew that this was Zhou Shixiang's bottom line, thinking that Zhang Xiaoqi and others were also inciting the crowd to make trouble after all, the spearhead was directly aimed at Zhou Shixiang, and it was not appropriate not to give Zhou Shixiang an explanation, so he also compromised immediately and agreed to this disposition.

After returning from the palace, Zhang An immediately came to see him, and reported that during the interrogation, the Military Intelligence Department found that many of the people involved in the disturbance were members of the Daomen, and there were also such people among the gentry, and many of them were also the heads of the Daomen of the local secret society.

Zhou Shixiang ordered someone to find Wang Shirong and tell Wang Shirong what Zhang An had reported, and also said some of the previous reports from various places, to the effect that there were still widespread old forces in the DPRK and in the localities that were dissatisfied with the Taiping Army, Qing army spies and bandits, and Qing army stragglers operating in the countryside, and these people were rampant in the mountainous areas far away from the cities and towns and in areas with inconvenient transportation, and although the Taiping army and local security forces in various places had been cleared many times, they could not completely eliminate these forces, and once he led the main force of the Taiping Army to the north, the rear was likely to cause chaos. So I want to hear if Wang Shirong has any good way to solve this problem.

Wang Shirong didn't expect Zhou Shixiang to ask for his opinion, and he was very excited. After thinking for a while, he put forward a twelve-character policy, that is, "punish the evil, imprison the followers, move the living beings, and release the foolish people"

Wang Shirong first suggested that the arrested landlords and gentry should be returned to the localities in batches, and the localities would find out whether they had collaborated with the enemy during the puppet Qing Dynasty, and if so, they would be beheaded for the crime of traitor, and the men of their direct family should be punished for the crime of collaborating with the enemy. If there is no act of collaborating with the enemy, the local government will control it, and the village will be ordered to supervise it, and it is not allowed to leave the house without permission.

As for those scholars who could not get official jobs because of the promotion, Wang Shirong's suggestion was to send these people to Annan and grant them official positions in Annan, so that these people could not only serve the military marshal's office, but also get official positions, and not let them complain in China, and some talents would always be produced after a few years of training.

As for the officials, Wang Shirong's opinion is very clear, with the Tang King here, it is definitely not good to kill people. But you can't help but kill the last batch, otherwise these people are not afraid, and the next time they have the chance, they may add to the chaos. Therefore, the officials headed by the general should be handed over to the Military Intelligence Department for disposal, and his charges of collaborating with the enemy should be confirmed, and a group of them should be killed, so that the remaining officials can clearly understand the current situation and know how many catties and taels they have.

After hearing this, Zhou Shixiang felt that Wang Shirong's method was good, so he ordered someone to find Zhang An, give him a list, and ask him to go to Shaozhou, and ask the Guangdong governor of the Qing Dynasty to help him confirm the crime of collaborating with the enemy led by the officials who made trouble. Of course, if the Military Intelligence Department directly finds out that some officials are secretly collaborating with the enemy, then naturally there is no need to take any more trouble.

In response to Zhou Shixiang's questions about the details of the Taoist elements and bandits, Wang Shirong put forward a plan to rectify and suppress the rebellion.

According to Wang Shirong's plan, the suppression of the rebellion was divided into three stages, and this year, that is, from July to October of the 13th year of Yongli, the first stage was to carry out internal suppression of the rebellion in the two regions and eliminate the undetermined wavering elements within the local government, with a focus on those former officials who had been purged and surrendered. At the same time, it is also necessary to carry out investigations among the local garrisons and local security teams, and mobilize the people on a large scale to report and expose those officials who secretly have ties with the Qing army and Taoist elements.

The second stage will run from October to March next year, when the military marshal's office will take unified command of all localities, mobilize the forces of the garrisons, prefectures, counties, and rural security forces, concentrate their efforts on cracking down on bandits, spies, traitors, and bullies, set up a system of responsibility for the areas and districts, evaluate the responsible officials, and at the same time begin to ban gangs, factions, societies, and Taoist organizations in Guangdong.

The third stage is after March next year, and the main purpose is to popularize the experience gained by Guangdong to Guangxi and Hunan, and to sum up the experience of the first two stages of Guangdong into a book. The so-called take its essence and remove its dross.

After hearing this, Zhou Shi felt that this method was similar to the Taiping Army's experience in suppressing bandits in Xiangxi, the difference was that this time it added the Huidaomen and bully forces in the towns, and for the first time carried out self-examination and self-purification in the military and political system of the Taiping Army.

"Dashuai, I think that for bandit leaders, habitual bandits, bullies, and important traitors and leaders who have evidence, we should let go and kill a few batches, and kill people's heads, so that they can be used in troubled times. For those officials who collude with such people, even the generals in the army must be killed and arrested, and there must be no mercy. ”

"The first evil habitual bandits will be killed by themselves, from the bandits and those believers and gangs, pick up some of the lesser crimes and fill them in the iron mines of various farms, and send the serious ones to Annam. The expeditionary force took two places in Annam, just built two new cities, let these people go, and after the city was built, they stayed there. In the future, if there are serious offenders, they can also consider sending them to Annan to avoid wasting manpower. ”

Zhou Shixiang was very satisfied with Wang Shirong's plan, and instructed Yuan Kuoyu and Ding Zhilian of the Criminal Department to draft a letter for the state of Shangjian, called "Please Su Local Tranquility Table", so as to be able to obtain the support of the Tang King for local rectification.

Zhou Shixiang explained to him that the reason why he could not suppress the remnants of the old landlords and gentry and the local opposition in large numbers and not eliminate unstable elements in the army was because the time was not ripe, the population of Liangguang was limited, and the problem of shortage of money and food had not been solved, and he had been fighting to the death against the Qing army, and he did not have the time and energy.

Now the situation is different, Zhao Ziqiang's expeditionary force won a great victory in Annam, subdued the Zheng clan in Annam, received a large amount of indemnity and food, and was able to get manpower from Annam every year, so the problem of shortage of population, money and food was basically solved. On the military side, the Taiping army won successive great victories, the Qing army in the southwest had been blocked, and the Qing army in Fujian and Jiangxi could not pose a threat, and three major field corps had been established, which could free up their hands and transfer troops and horses to solve this matter. More importantly, it is rare to have this palace disturbance, and we must make good use of this opportunity, otherwise it will be no good to accumulate disadvantages.

Song Xianggong asked why he chose to carry out internal rebellion at the juncture of the Northern Expedition, and Zhou Shixiang's answer was: "The Northern Expedition has benefits, what are the benefits?" The gongs and drums of the Northern Expedition sounded very loudly, and the gongs and drums of building villages and townships, suppressing traitors, and cracking down on the old bureaucrats and gentry forces were not much heard. If the gongs and drums of the Northern Expedition were not so loud, then the gongs and drums of the rebellion would be terrible. Kill a landlord here, kill an old bureaucrat there, kill a gang of Taoist elements there, arrest some gang members, and make trouble everywhere, people all over the world will think that we are not friendly to the landlords and gentry, to the scholars, and not to the people, then many things will not be easy to do.... In particular, the focus of our Northern Expedition is to seize the southern capital and occupy Jiangnan, and Jiangnan has the largest number of gentry, so we must let the people of the world know that we are going to kill the gentry who collaborate with the enemy, and the officials and gentry who collude with bandits and Taoists to harm the people in the fishing and meat villages, rather than the gentry who know the general righteousness, understand the general situation, are close to the people, and are sensible. ”

(To be continued.) )