If you want to enter the palace from the palace gate, the first thing that catches your eye is the Xuande Gate. Xuande Gate is the main gate of Xuande City, very majestic, it is composed of two parts of pier platform and city tower, the plane is concave shape.

In front of Xuande City is a wide square, and the so-called 'noon gate beheading' is here.

Officials who have committed serious crimes are usually sent here to be punished, either by kneeling, by a cane, or by being executed.

In the Great Western Kingdom, there are generally two places where beheading is carried out. One is a more desolate place in the suburbs, because there are not many onlookers, which is conducive to maintaining order. The other is in the downtown area, such as the Fengcheng prefect Yamen used Caixia Street as a place to behead, which was used to show the public and warn the surrounding people.

Caixia Street is next to Fengcheng Baihua Street, which is a very prosperous street, located near the intersection of the main street, where there is a large vegetable market, which is crowded on weekdays.

Hundreds of years ago, it was a suburb, and after the establishment of the Great Western Kingdom, it became the largest vegetable market in Fengcheng. After the prisoners were dragged to the execution ground on Caixia Street, the bodies were taken away, and the blood stains that splattered all over the ground were covered with some loess. When the sun came out the next day, the execution ground was again a bustling and bustling scene.

In fact, in order to execute Chu Tiankuo, it is natural to choose the place where those ordinary people who committed crimes were executed.

And the queen lives in the palace, and if she wants to execute Chu Tiankuo, she will naturally not choose such a bustling city, let alone a desolate place in the suburbs. Just in case, she naturally set up the execution ground in the palace, so that it was convenient for her to supervise the implementation.

Of course, it was counterintuitive for her to do so. Chu Tiankuo is just a person in the rivers and lakes, not an important member of the imperial court, let alone a person in the palace, and his execution in the palace will inevitably be criticized. It's just that Chu Tiankuo broke into the palace and executed according to the rules of the palace is quite reasonable. What's more, this matter was decided by the queen, and under the pressure of the queen, who would dare to object? Even if it is discussed, it is only discussed in private.

I always thought that the sky was getting darker and the sun was slowly rising. After experiencing a lot of things in life, I realized that there were many things that would be unrecognizable overnight, as if they were pulled between heaven and hell by a powerful force.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was not a single white cloud, and beneath the sky was a desperate execution ground.

The execution ground in front of Xuande City is a sealed brick wall on the east side, about three and a half meters high. Leaning against this wall, about the same distance from the two ends of the execution ground, there was a shelf, on which were always hung some heads of various degrees of decay. Next to the shelf, there is a bamboo pole used to keep time.

On the north side of the shelf, a Xingtai was built along the brick wall, and prisoners in prison uniforms stayed on this Xingtai.

In front of Xingxingtai, a prison and beheading platform was set up, and the officers and soldiers escorted by two rows under the stage were unsheathed, majestic and solemn, and a murderous atmosphere.

At this moment, the prison officer who was executed this time was dressed in military uniform, sitting on the prison beheading platform, with a sad face. He didn't look at the people on the torture table, as if he was struggling with something.

The prison officer is the official who supervises the beheading of prisoners, and is also the enforcer of the death penalty. However, some of them, for the sake of their own selfish interests, bend the law for bribes, disregard human lives, and cause people to die without regard for life, thus causing many tragic and unjust cases and killing many innocent lives in vain.

Speaking of the corrupt and perverted prison officials, I have to mention a folk story - Dou E's injustice.

Synopsis Dou E lost her mother since she was a child, and soon after she got married, her husband died of illness, two generations of widows, and her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law depended on each other for their lives, and their lives were very poor.

One day, Cai Po went to Dr. Sailu to ask for debts, and Dr. Sailu was killed for money, and Cai Po was rescued by the local villain Zhang Donkey. From then on, Zhang Donkey relied on herself and herself to save Cai's mother-in-law's family, forced her to marry, and asked Cai's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to sit in the court to recruit marriage. The Cai family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law refused, so Zhang Donkey wanted to poison Cai Po in order to occupy the beautiful and weak Dou E.

Unexpectedly, the poison he had prepared was accidentally drunk by his father and died. In order to avoid the disaster, Cai Po gave Zhang Donkey ten taels of silver and asked him to buy a coffin to bury his father. Zhang Donkey used these ten taels of silver as evidence to blackmail Cai Po to kill his father, and he bribed the local county order to torture Cai Po.

Dou E was afraid that her mother-in-law would be old and frail and would not be able to withstand the torture, so she had to bear the pain herself and was sentenced to death. After Dou E's death, in response to his oath, blood was spattered and practiced, and the snow flew in the dog season, and the ground in Chuzhou was dry for three years. Six years later, Dou E's father, Dou Tianzhang, was nominated for the gold list, won the top prize, and passed by Shanyang.

Late that night, he was reviewing the case file, and suddenly saw his daughter Dou E coming and begging his father to avenge Zhaoxue on his daughter's behalf. The next day, Dou Tianzhang opened a court trial and finally revealed the unjust case. As a result, Zhang Donkey and the county order were sentenced to death, and Doctor Sailu was assigned to the army, and Dou E's unjust case was finally revealed.

In "Dou E's Injustice", the county order is a person who is greedy and perverts the law.

Today, this official who is responsible for supervising Chu Tiankuo has a surname of Song and a single name. Song Liang was an official, like the county order, and was also one of the many corrupt officials.

When he first set foot in officialdom, he once aspired to be a clean official and a good official. However, in order to get promoted and find a way out, he had to keep climbing up. After a long time, Song Liang gradually betrayed his original ideals and oaths, and joined other corrupt officials and corrupt officials, brazenly trampling on the majesty of the law.

One day, his friend, the son of a court official, was arrested and imprisoned for robbing a people's daughter, killing someone, and was about to be beheaded in the near future. The big man was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, he only had this one son, and if he was killed, then their family would be doomed.

The senior officer found Song Liang, who served in the Criminal Department, and begged him to think of a way for himself.

Song Liang smiled slightly, patted the shoulder of the compound, and said, "Brother Xia, I understand your feelings, it's just that Ling Lang is a very serious crime to kill people, and if you want to settle it, it may take a little ......."

After saying that, he made a gesture to collect the money.

The chief smiled slightly, ordered his subordinates to carry up two large boxes, and then opened them.

Song Liang looked at it and saw that it was filled with dazzling jewels and white silver. Song Liang's eyes lit up with golden light.

The chief said: "This is just a deposit, and I will not treat you badly after the matter is completed." ”

"Old friend, I'm out of sight if I say that." Song Liang stared straight at the two boxes of glittering gold and silver, and said shamelessly: "Ling Lang's business is my Song someone's business, you can put a hundred hearts!"

As the saying goes, take people's money and eliminate disasters with people. Since he received money from others, Song Liang naturally didn't dare to snub this matter, he chose for a long time in the prison of the Criminal Department, and finally decided to find a Xiucai who had just been imprisoned and looked a little similar to the official's son as a scapegoat.

Song Liang succeeded in saving the life of the eldest son, however, the senior was not grateful to him. Because, Song Liang asked for too much in return.

The big man was a relative of the queen, and he gave Song Liang a lot of property afterwards, and the more he thought about it, the more unwilling he became, so he sued Song Liang in front of the queen.

So, Song Liang's handle was in the hands of the queen. He was at the mercy of the Empress at first, but he was soon promoted, and soon became a chamberlain in the Criminal Department.

After being promoted and making a fortune, Song Liang became more and more bold, and he still did this kind of life business that cost his conscience. Desperately trying to make money. More people have become scapegoats for those noble death row prisoners, Song Liang doesn't care about these at all, all he cares about is whether he can make more money.

I often walk by the river, how can I not get my shoes wet? There are countless people who have been beheaded by Song Liangjian and succumbed to death. He never expected that today, the person the queen asked him to behead was such a special person.

The queen found him and promised him many benefits, as long as he could handle this matter well, promotion would not be a problem in the future. He happily agreed.

However, when he saw Chu Tiankuo's face, he regretted the deal. He never imagined that the person he was going to behead would be so much like the current emperor. It's really hard for him. He was deeply disturbed by the deal and sat on the prison table like pins and needles.

However, having promised the queen, he had no room for regret. What's more, he still has a handle in the queen's hand, and he has to obey the queen's orders.

The person who is in stark contrast to the prison officer is Chu Tiankuo. The prisoner who was about to be executed, Chu Tiankuo, was wearing shackles and standing on the execution platform. As soon as three o'clock in the afternoon came, he was about to be beheaded, but there was not the slightest trace of panic or panic on his face. As if he didn't know that he was about to face death, the expression on his face was still as faint as usual, and he looked calm.

In addition to Chu Tiankuo's calmness in the face of execution, which was different from other prisoners to be executed, the shackles he wore were also different from ordinary people.

Ordinary people wear shackles that are either wooden shackles or leather shackles. And Chu Tiankuo was wearing a cast iron shackle. Probably considering that he is a person from the rivers and lakes and has strong martial arts, the queen is afraid that he will escape, just in case, and gives him a special iron shackle.

The flail is a torture instrument that is placed around the neck of a prisoner. A variant of the punishment instrument that originated in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the punishment instrument was formed by clamping the neck with a log and developed into a flail torture instrument composed of two wooden boards.

When the flail first appeared, someone made a flail to trap two people, and at the same time it was named the flail inspired by threshing farming tools.

The specifications, weight, and style of the shackles are constantly changing, sometimes heavy and sometimes light, sometimes large and sometimes small; There are also the functions of using the flail to be applied to the hands and feet, and more often it is mainly the flail neck.

The prisoners who wore wooden shackles were very miserable. The flail has two thick planks, firmly clamped around the neck, the weight of the flail varies from at least fifteen catties, at most fifty catties, and sixty catties, and it is pressed on the shoulders for a long time, and after a few hours, the shoulders are often numb, like dead flesh and unconscious, and the prisoner wearing the flail has to move every once in a while.

In summer, the neck where the flail is stuck is often worn by the edges and corners of the flail and bleeds.

If the prisoner wears a small flail, he can touch his mouth with his hands and accept food from relatives and others, but if he wears a longboard flail or a slightly larger flail, his eyes can only see the wooden flail in front of his head. The legs and feet of the other bodies are not visible, and some of the flails not only clamp the prisoner's neck, but also the prisoner's hands at the same time, and the degree of self-care in life can be imagined.

The shackles themselves are not a lethal torture tool, what is really terrible is the mental torture it brings, making people lose their will and live worse than death.

For Chu Tiankuo, it was different from other prisoners. The shackles constrained his body, not his spirit. The shackles that Chu Tiankuo was wearing were made of cast iron, and no matter how good his martial arts were, he couldn't open them with internal force.

If he had replaced it with a wooden shackle, he might have been able to shatter the wooden planks with his skills and escape. I have to say that the queen is really far-sighted.

He is different from other criminals, who once they commit crimes, they are listless. But he was in good spirits. If it weren't for Dali Temple, in order not to involve Lord Duan, how could he be so willing to be captured?

Sikong Hua, the chief manager of the guards, ordered someone to prepare a good meal of wine and food, which was called a severed head meal, so that Chu Tiankuo could eat it and go on the road.

Ordinary people wear shackles that are either wooden shackles or leather shackles. And Chu Tiankuo was wearing a cast iron shackle. Probably considering that he is a person from the rivers and lakes and has strong martial arts, the queen is afraid that he will escape, just in case, and gives him a special iron shackle.

The flail is a torture instrument that is placed around the neck of a prisoner. A variant of the punishment instrument that originated in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the punishment instrument was formed by clamping the neck with a log and developed into a flail torture instrument composed of two wooden boards.

When the flail first appeared, someone made a flail to trap two people, and at the same time it was named the flail inspired by threshing farming tools.

The specifications, weight, and style of the shackles are constantly changing, sometimes heavy and sometimes light, sometimes large and sometimes small; There are also the functions of using the flail to be applied to the hands and feet, and more often it is mainly the flail neck.

The prisoners who wore wooden shackles were very miserable. The flail has two thick planks, firmly clamped around the neck, the weight of the flail varies from at least fifteen catties, at most fifty catties, and sixty catties, and it is pressed on the shoulders for a long time, and after a few hours, the shoulders are often numb, like dead flesh and unconscious, and the prisoner wearing the flail has to move every once in a while.

In summer, the neck where the flail is stuck is often worn by the edges and corners of the flail and bleeds.

If the prisoner wears a small flail, he can touch his mouth with his hands and accept food from relatives and others, but if he wears a longboard flail or a slightly larger flail, his eyes can only see the wooden flail in front of his head. The legs and feet of the other bodies are not visible, and some of the flails not only clamp the prisoner's neck, but also the prisoner's hands at the same time, and the degree of self-care in life can be imagined.

The shackles themselves are not a lethal torture tool, what is really terrible is the mental torture it brings, making people lose their will and live worse than death.

For Chu Tiankuo, it was different from other prisoners. The shackles constrained his body, not his spirit. The shackles that Chu Tiankuo was wearing were made of cast iron, and no matter how good his martial arts were, he couldn't open them with internal force.

If he had replaced it with a wooden shackle, he might have been able to shatter the wooden planks with his skills and escape. I have to say that the queen is really far-sighted.

He is different from other criminals, who once they commit crimes, they are listless. But he was in good spirits. If it weren't for Dali Temple, in order not to involve Lord Duan, how could he be so willing to be captured?

Sikong Hua, the chief manager of the guards, ordered someone to prepare a good meal of wine and food, which was called a severed head meal, so that Chu Tiankuo could eat it and go on the road.