Episode 190 Execution of the Death Penalty

In the intensive training, planning, and inspection, in mid-September, the furnace Nanjing finally ushered in the real coolness of autumn.

September 15th, this day is a special day for Xiang Xiaoqiang. First, it was Xiuxiu's birthday, and second, this morning, the last batch of 1,509 Ming prisoners of war boarded the ship at Dagukou, sailed out of the Bohai Sea, and sailed south to the Daming Sea under the escort of two heavy Ming cruisers and six destroyers.

Both of these things are extremely important to Xiang Xiaoqiang. Especially the second one, Xiang Xiaoqiang has been waiting for a long time. As of this time, the days of the Ming Dynasty's "rat trap" against the Northern Qing Dynasty are gone. Basically, you can throw off your arms and do whatever you want.

Xiang Xiaoqiang originally planned to take Xiuxiu, his mother-in-law and brother-in-law on Xiuxiu's birthday, and the family went out to have a good time. Last time, I got a seaplane and ran to the East China Sea on Qiu Yu's birthday, so I can't be sloppy about anything this time. A bowl of water has to be flat.

But unexpectedly, the Northern Qing Dynasty's arrangements for the repatriation of the last batch of prisoners of war were actually placed on Xiuxiu's birthday. It's really incongruous. It's not that it's not a good thing to bring back the Ming officers and soldiers, but according to the plan, this day will be very busy, and there will be bloody incidents. Not only did he not have time to celebrate his wife's birthday, but he was also very unlucky.

According to the plan, when the last batch of Ming officers and soldiers confirmed that many of them had boarded the boat and rendezvous with the Ming warships to ensure safety, a press conference would be held in Nanjing immediately, and the Ming officials would officially admit the rumors of the past month: that is, the number of Ming soldiers captured at the beginning was more than 8,000 instead of more than 6,000, and about 2,000 Ming prisoners of war had been tortured to death in the Northern Qing Dynasty.

A month ago, after the first batch of prisoners of war returned, rumors of the tragic conditions in the Northern Qing prisoner of war camps and the torture and death of a large number of Ming prisoners of war came out in large numbers, and many of them were published in newspapers. However, both the Ming government and the military avoided talking about this rumor. For the prisoners of war who had returned, the Ming army also ordered them not to talk to reporters about the situation in the Northern Qing prisoner of war camps. In short, the impression to the outside world is that the Ming officials are trying their best to cover up this matter.

Accusations against the Ming government have occasionally appeared in the newspapers, but there have been few or no large-scale protests. This time, too, the public was more unusual, as if they did not react as violently as they always did, and did not immediately jump out to accuse the government of suppressing speech. Although the official did not openly prohibit the newspaper from publishing relevant rumors, the newspaper was surprisingly conscious, and the articles that stimulated the Northern Qing Dynasty were not published once.

The government and the people reached a tacit agreement that everything would wait for a month later, when all the prisoners of war returned. Now there is only one thing to do: forbearance.

……

But now, September 15th, this day has arrived, and there is no need to endure it any longer.

At the moment when the last batch of Ming prisoners of war left the Northern Qing Dynasty by boat, many reporters and people gathered at the gates of the highest military and political units in Nanjing, and they surrounded every official who came in and out, wanting to be the first to hear official confirmation.

At a news conference held by the War Department, Minister of War Li Gaoting, who presided over the meeting, put on reading glasses unhurriedly under a spotlight, and then took the manuscript and read it calmly:

"Given that our last 1,509 officers and men are already on the Daming cruise ship at the moment, and have sailed out of the Bohai Sea, surrounded by two heavy cruisers and six destroyers, and have achieved absolute security, then, the Daming government believes that it is time to reveal the truth."

He raised his eyes, looked around at the reporter through his reading glasses, and continued:

"According to the testimony of General Xiang Xiaoqiang and the lord of Leping County, the representative of the Ming side of the "Lushun Treaty", and the testimony of the three batches of Ming prisoners of war who had returned in the past month, after a series of rigorous and detailed analysis and comparison, we have come to a relatively conservative conclusion: In the defense of Nanjing at the beginning of the year, the number of prisoners of our new 74th Motorized Infantry Division by the Qing Army's Eight Banners and Six Divisions was between 8,400 and 8,500. The number of people who have returned to Daming and are returning to Daming is 6,311. In other words, we have every reason to believe that 2089-2189 prisoners of war died in the Northern Qing prisoner of war camps. ”

After a few slow, powerful words, another flash of magnesium lights flickered in the hall.

It's been a month, and now the Ming official has finally officially said this sentence.

As the press conference progressed, the typesetting and printing rooms of Nanjing's major newspapers were already roaring. The press conference is not over yet, and the streets and alleys are already full of newsboys. Extra! Shouts.

The whole of Nanjing and Daming had a feeling: this matter was finally revealed, and the depressed feeling of a month was finally vented. Now everyone is watching the official authorities to see what they will do next after they reveal it. Is it a condemnation or something.

While the Army Department press conference was in progress, a series of intensive arrangements were going on in the office of the commander of the People's Guard Corps' security forces. The radio station in the confidential room kept sending out orders with a password, and kept receiving reports and sending them to the desk with a stomachache. Xiuxiu also sat on the sofa in the office, making phone calls, coordinating all links.

Fourteen Geges were not involved in this matter. Although Fourteen Gege knew, he didn't take the initiative to ask to participate. Xiang Xiaoqiang has already asked Xiuxiu to communicate with Fourteen Gege, which is not because he doesn't trust her, but because it involves a matter of morality. Maybe Fourteen Gege doesn't matter, but Xiang Xiaoqiang doesn't want her to be indifferent. That would ruin the image of Fourteen Gege in his mind.

And Xiang Xiaoqiang found that when doing this kind of thing, Xiuxiu was no worse than Fourteen Gege.

What's going on? …… Something that has been waiting for a long time.

Now it's time for the War Department to signal "start" to your Excellency at the press conference.

……

At the War Department's news conference, Minister Li Gaoting had already finished talking about Zhang Liansheng, and dozens of Ming officers and soldiers who were present at the time also appeared one after another to testify. In the frenzied flash of the spotlight, Xiang Xiaoqiang appeared with a sword.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood in front of the table and only said a few words to the reporter:

"More than 2,000 blood debts, more than 2,000 prisoners of war who laid down their arms were tortured to death, which is a serious challenge to the conscience of mankind and the rules of international civilization. If the murderer is allowed to go unpunished, then people will no longer believe that there is justice in the world. There are two types of criminals for this crime, one is the principal offender and the other is the accessory offender, that is, the specific execution offender. Yes, now we have nothing to do with the main culprit. But if those executors also think that they can get away with it, then they underestimate the bloody nature of our Ming Dynasty. ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang took out two documents and showed them to the reporters. One is Zhang Liansheng's death certificate, and the other is Zhang Liansheng's diagnosis certificate. There are sixteen signatures on it.

"These are the sixteen responsible officials of the Chifeng Labor Battalion, who directly participated in the killing of Zhang Liansheng and covered up the truth afterwards, and were directly responsible for the torture and death of more than 2,000 Ming officers and soldiers. Now that they have been sentenced to death, they are now being executed. ”

In the frenzied flash, he leaned down, took a red pen, and ticked the red cross on the sixteen names.

Then, the sixteen blood-red names were brought up and shown to the reporters.

The venue was a sensation. Many reporters' assistants grabbed the manuscript and rushed out first, and went out for the latest issue of their newspaper.

……

In the office of the People's Guard Security Team, Xiuxiu put down the phone and said to her stomachache:

"Lord Du, the sentence has been pronounced!"

Stomach ache glanced at the wall clock, waved his hand, and said:

"Order!"

The adjutant, who had a stomachache, immediately ran to the confidential room. The code signal representing "the operation is proceeding as planned" was sent out with the radio waves and transmitted in the air to Chifeng, far away in Inner Mongolia.

An hour later, at 11:20 p.m., in the city of Chifeng County, in the toilet of a casino, a Qing army captain was strangled to death by the pit.

Almost at the same time, in a restaurant in the county seat, a major was hacked to death by a cook with a kitchen knife, and then the cook fled.

At 11:35, the bodies of two military doctors were found in the Chifeng labor camp clinic. One had his throat slit open with a medical blade, and the other had his brain smashed out of his brain by an oxygen cylinder.

At 12:00, in a luxury villa on the outskirts of Chifeng, an official swallowed a large amount of opium and "committed suicide".

At 12:10, a captain was killed from behind with a brick on the road.

At 12:30, in a puffer fish house in Chifeng County, a major and another official were drinking and eating puffer fish in a private room. Before they finished eating a bowl of puffer fish, the two vomited and diarrhea, and their pupils were dilated before they were sent to the hospital, and they both died.

At 13:00, on the mine road of the Chifeng Copper Mine, a chief's car overturned in a ditch beside the road. One of the captains in the car was shot five times and died crookedly in his seat.

……

At this time, the press conference in Nanjing had already ended for an hour and a half, and the major newspapers had been out for almost an hour. At this time, the first spy of the Northern Qing Dynasty in Nanjing saw the number, reacted, and hurriedly rode to the residence, wanting to send a report to the north.

But halfway through, he was pulled down by a man. The man pulled him and wouldn't let him go, saying that the bike he was riding had been stolen by himself. The spy couldn't argue, and he couldn't get out of the bicycle if he didn't want it, and the two sides dragged until the police came.

After the police asked about the situation of both parties, they said that it was difficult to deal with it, and that both sides needed to go to the police station to investigate......

The spy was in a hurry, pushed the police away, and ran away. The policeman was not a vegetarian either, so he took out his siren and blew it violently, and immediately several policemen rushed out from different directions, knocked him down, and handcuffed him.

This time, he was not a thief but also a thief, and he was escorted back to the police station and temporarily detained.

An hour and a half later, at 14:30, the second Beiqing spy saw the outside of the number, and immediately became anxious and hurried to the residence. However, the spy mixed up better, and drove his own car to the residence.

When I drove to an intersection, I ran into a red light and had to stop.

At this time, someone knocked on the car window. He turned his face to see a young girl pleading with pain on her face, looking like a female college student:

"Sir, sir...... Okay, I have a stomach ache and want to go to the hospital, but I can't find a car here...... Sir, do a good deed, give me a ride, to the hospital in front...... Shi Rentang Hospital, just two intersections in front of you...... I can't walk anymore, and there are no rickshaws here...... Mr. ......"

The spy was furious, frowning and hesitating. It is true that Shi Rentang Hospital is two intersections in front of you, but you have to turn right half a street first.

He wanted to shake his head and refuse, but the red light in front of him didn't change green. If you go around to Shi Rentang Hospital, you can turn right and bypass the red light, maybe it will be faster.

He pushed the car door:

"Okay, come up! Say yes first, and get me off when you get to the front. ”

The female college student came up with a thousand thanks. came up without saying a word, first took out a foreign banknote and put it on the seat:

"Sir, don't worry, I won't let you ...... in vain"

……

So, when they arrived at the gate of Shi Rentang Hospital in front, the female college student suddenly pulled the handbrake and pulled out the car keys, and then the spy was dragged out of the car by several arms......

……

Thus, by 15:30 p.m., 8 of the 16 people on the list had died. Although there was a panic in the county town and the mine, they still didn't know what was going on, let alone what precautions to take.

It wasn't until the third spy of the Northern Qing Dynasty heard the newsboy on the street selling from his window and directly called the newsboy to deliver the newspaper, so that the news was sent back to the sticky pole in Pukou by telegram.

From the Pukou sticky pole reported to the Beijing General Administration, and then the Beijing General Administration studied and asked the emperor to decide...... Emperor Guangwu didn't know what was going on with the report, and he didn't know if this was a cruel thing to Xiaoqiang, or if he was playing for real. If you play for real, when will you do it?

Thus, by the evening of the same day, when the number of assassinations in Chifeng had risen to 13, the local government of Chifeng and the local military could no longer stand it and reported it to Beijing.

After receiving the report, the relevant departments in Beijing studied and held a meeting again, and at this time, the report at the sticky pole and the report of Chifeng finally came together.

It's terrible, Nan Ming is really here. Immediately played to Emperor Guangwu again. When Guangwudi saw these two reports, he was so furious that he almost vomited blood, and immediately grabbed the phone and directly issued an order to Chifeng, ordering the local government to take measures not to let Nanming's assassination plan succeed again.

However, it seems that by this time it is already too late. From the phone, I learned that 15 of the 16 people on the list have died in Huangquan. There was only one one left, and that was Mor'e, the top commander of the prisoner of war camp.

"Tell me the will!" Guangwu shouted on the phone, "The highest commander of the Chifeng Labor Camp, Mo Er, will enter Beijing immediately!" Accompanying security guards are arranged by lieutenant general standards! ”

"Huh!"

……

At about eight o'clock in the evening, the terrified Mor'e carefully boarded the train and headed for Beijing under heavy guards.

However, as soon as the train drove out of the Chifeng mining area, the train driver was horrified to find that a steel rail had been removed dozens of meters in front of him!

Under the sudden braking, the whole train dragged the sparks full of steel rails, and rushed forward with a sharp and strange sound, but it was useless, and it was too late to find out. The distance of tens of meters is not enough for the train to brake the train.

So, like dominoes, the whole train tumbled down the roadbed one by one, hitting several trees before stopping.

Fortunately, the speed was not fast, and most of the guards on the car were slightly injured, and some had broken legs and broken arms. But no one died.

It's just that...... Except for one person.

After the guards crawled out one after another, they counted for a long time and found that Lord Mor'e had not yet come out.

At this time, everyone panicked and hurriedly climbed into the carriage to see if Master Mo was safe.

However, the bloody situation left everyone dumbfounded.

Moore slumped on his bed, spitting blood, his eyes half-open. The box was littered with broken glass, one of which had slipped into his throat, and another ...... Actually cut into his temple.

What's even more strange is that the two pieces of glass actually entered from different directions.