readx;? Chapter 4: Cultivation (6)

The words fell, and there was a dead silence all around. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Not only was Zhu Shizi scolded speechless, but Zhao Kuangyin, Han Chongyun, Pan Mei and others also changed their expressions greatly, and then gave a thumbs up to their brother Zheng Ziming from afar.

Since the eleventh year after Liu Bang, the ancestor of the Han Dynasty, publicly issued an edict saying that he would rule the world with 'scholars', and "scholars" have become a unique group. From the Eastern and Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Sui, and Tang dynasties, no dynasty, any monarch and prince, had the courage to fight against the "scholars". Even the Wuhu who entered the Central Plains, for the sake of their own long-term rule, had to take the initiative to share some benefits with the "scholars", in order to achieve the purpose of buying and wooing, and let the latter become their own ghosts and minions. (Note 1)

In other words, if a country or region is compared to a palace, the "scholar" can be seen as the pillars and pillars of the palace. Once it loses the support of columns and beams, even the most majestic palace will collapse.

Therefore, when the "scholars" commit crimes, there is always a way to get away with it. The emperor and the princes knew that the scholars were knocking out the bones and sucking the marrow of the people, as long as the people were not forced to rise up, they usually chose to turn a blind eye.

Emperors and princes need to rule the world with the "scholars", not with the people. The role of the common people is only to pay food, pay taxes, and serve in conscription in peacetime, and in the war years, they serve as soldiers and masters and fill ditches with their own lives, and their importance is not at all comparable to that of a "scholar".

Therefore, Zhu Yun's father and son and their minions still did not repent until they died. In their opinion, Zheng Ziming openly opposed the gentry for the sake of a few ordinary people, which was self-defeating. It won't be long before this person will become the soul of the other princes, and at that time, the Zhu family will naturally get revenge, and they can laugh at Jiuquan!

However, their father and son and the accomplices who worked for the tiger never expected that the big hats they carefully knitted before they died would be poked out of countless holes by Zheng Ziming's words.

The ancients once said that learning is called a scholar in a position; the ancients once said that those who use their talents are called scholars; the ancients once said that those who are filial to one's relatives are filial, those who are loyal to one's family, those who make friends are faithful, and those who live in the countryside are those who are cowardly; the ancients even once said that where righteousness lies, one does not lean into power, does not care about its interests, and does not change its view of the whole country, and those who die heavily and uphold righteousness without being a scholar are scholars!

The talents, wisdom, virtues, and courage of the scholars, the Zhu father and son are not involved in anything, what qualifications do they have to call themselves scholars? What qualifications do they have to represent the gentry of the world? Zheng Ziming killed them, and he was not openly against the gentry of the world at all, but to clean up the door for the gentry of the world and remove the hot hands of the tiger and wolf people who mixed into the ranks!

"Click-" White lightning tore through the dark and dreary sky, illuminating Zhu's desperate face.

Losing the greatest support in his heart, this son no longer had the strength to continue shouting, his body shook a few times, and he sat on the ground softly.

Other clansmen and minions of the Zhu family were arrested one after another, and when they saw the broken clay pots and the headless corpse of the owner of the village, Zhu Yun, they were all frightened. or crying for mercy, or closing their eyes and waiting for death, no one has the courage to claim their innocence.

Seeing this, Zheng Ziming didn't want to waste too much time. simply issued an order directly, requiring the arrested people to report each other. Determine for yourself who is the mastermind and who is the accomplice of the "manufacturing and trafficking" of the gnomes. As soon as the words fell, the courtyard immediately boiled again, and all the minions scrambled to clear themselves, scrambling to push the sins on Zhu Yun, the owner of the village, who had died, and his descendants and nephews. And those descendants of the Zhu family, seeing that the dog minions who were usually bowing down to their ears actually dared to fight back against their masters, they were angry, so they simply turned their hearts sideways and shook off all kinds of evil deeds of their minions.

In the blink of an eye, not only the crimes of robbing and mutilating young children and creating dwarfs in Zhujiazhuang were revealed, but also some other fake bandits killed people and set fires, forged land deeds to seize by trickery, and forcibly annexed other weak gentry near Zhuangzi through various means.

"The surname is Zhu, I'll fuck your ancestors! You, you will definitely go to the eighteenth layer of hell!" A general who was kneeling in the back row with his hands tied by ropes suddenly jumped up and slammed the head hammer to Zhu, who was sitting on the ground. "Lao Tzu dragged you to death today and went to hell together. Your whole family will go to eighteen levels of hell!"

Several other nephews of the Zhu family in the vicinity, when they saw this scene, not only did they not have the courage to help their relatives. Instead, they turned their heads sideways, trying not to meet the gaze of the famous general.

Pan Mei, who was writing down her confession, was taken aback and quickly ordered someone to separate the two sides of the conflict. Then I asked carefully, and I learned that the family general was originally the eldest son of another local family surnamed Liu. A few years ago, the whole family was killed by the "Khitans" who went south to fight the grass valley, and the family didn't rob all the money. In desperation, he sold all the land to the Zhu family, and he also married a side branch lady of the Zhu family, and through marriage, he became a capable leader under Zhu Yun, the owner of the village.

After working for the Zhu family for many years, in the end, after listening to the reports of others, he suddenly found that the real enemy who killed his father was his allegiance. Such an absurd fact, how heavy a blow to the general surnamed Liu? I saw this person struggling to kowtow to the room where Zheng Ziming was, and shouted loudly: "My lord, you don't have to work hard. The sins committed by the Zhu family are far more than these. In the spring, when the Liao people went south, the Zhu family not only sent people to show them the way, but also provided them with a large amount of grain and grass......

"You are spewing blood!" At this time, none of the descendants and nephews of the Zhu family dared to pretend to be dead, and they jumped up one after another, wanting to fight with the Liu family. Although human robbery and child trafficking are both serious crimes, as long as the Zhu family's family carries the crimes down, there is still hope that the others will escape to death. And colluding with the Liao people and leading the way for the Khitan army is treason and rebellion, and the clan should be punished according to the law!

"Everything the grass people said is true, every word is true!" The general surnamed Liu continued to shout loudly while hiding, lest Zheng Ziming and the others would not hear their accusations, "It was the grass people who were ordered to lead the way for the soldiers and horses of the Liao State in the first month. The account book of the Zhu family providing grain, grass and livestock to the Liao army was hidden in the study of the master of Zhu Zhai. There was a hidden compartment under the floor tile in the center of the study, and the adults could find it by sending someone to search it. The grass people deserve death, if they can drag the Zhu family to hell, the grass people are willing!"

The words of "wronged ——!" fell, and the descendants and nephews of the Zhu family could no longer care about fighting with this person, and they all stumbled on the ground and shouted loudly.

At such a time, how could Zheng Ziming be deceived by their lies again? Immediately sent someone to Zhu Zhai's study, and according to the accusation just made by the Liu family, the account book of the Zhu family's transactions with the Liao people was searched.

With the ledger in hand, the next interrogation does not need to take the slightest effort. The sons and nephews of the Zhu family, who knew that they would not escape death, were all depressed and confessed to any crimes exposed by the minions. And the minions, for the faint hope of escape, also dug deep into all the crimes committed by the Zhu family in the past, and strived to make sure that nothing was missed.

Among them, there are two people like the general surnamed Liu, who originally regarded the lord of Zhu Zhai as a benevolent father and was willing to work for the Zhu family. Suddenly, I can't wait to eat all the sons and nephews of the Zhu family alive. Take the initiative to climb to the forefront of the captive team, know everything and say everything, and expose more key criminal evidence in broad daylight.

The summer rainstorm comes and goes quickly. The sky was blue again, and the interrogation was over. According to Liu Hanguo's law, Zhu Zhai and several of his sons, nephews, and nephews should all be sentenced to Ling Chi's punishment. Zheng Ziming was not interested in torturing people, so he simply ordered Tao Yong to lead the brothers to push this group of criminals out of Zhuangzi and behead them all.

Most of the minions who worked for the tiger in Zhujiazhai were also full of evil, and they were successively pushed out of the village to ask and behead. Only a few young family members who had just been promoted by the Zhu family and father and son not long ago, and had not yet had time to do evil, were pardoned, and after being beaten with a military stick, they were released and sent home.

As for the daughters of the Zhu family and a bunch of underage children, Tao Yong and Li Shun'er suggested cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, but Zheng Ziming did not adopt it. Instead, from the seized Zhu family's floating wealth, a few truckloads of dry food were distributed to these people, and they were ordered to leave the village and go to other places to seek refuge with relatives and friends.

The general surnamed Liu and two other Manmen who were killed by the lord of Zhu Zhai, but were adopted as hunting dogs, were originally also executed according to the crimes they committed. But Zhao Kuangyin took pity on the life experiences of these three people, and stood up to intercede for them before the verdict was announced.

Zheng Ziming also has a relationship with what happened to these three people. After groaning, he pardoned the three of them for their capital crimes, but deprived them of their income over the years, and ordered them to leave Zhujiazhai with dry food and some soft food, and go to refuge with relatives and friends with their wives and children.

Unexpectedly, after the three escaped to death, they did not immediately go home to pack up their salutes. Instead, they came to Zhuangzi together first, and watched the enemies in different places without blinking. Then he knelt on the ground and cried in the direction of his parents' graves. Finally, they walked back to the courtyard where they had been interrogated, knelt in the muddy water, and shouted: "The enmity of my parents is not shared! If it were not for adults, I would have been a fool until I died." I don't have the face to see my ancestors and family. We can't repay the kindness of adults. I am willing to hand over this rotten life to the adults from now on, whether it is to block the sword and arrow for the adults, or to lead the horse to fall, I will never dare to resign!"

"Hehe, it's actually three people with a conscience!" Yang Guangyi heard this, and immediately laughed and joked.

"If it weren't for the conscience, I wouldn't have been deceived by the Zhu family for so long!" Zhao Kuangyin smiled, turned his head to Zheng Ziming, and advised in a low voice, "Take them in! Although what they did today had a reason, they also ruined their own way of life. If you don't keep them in the army, even if they go farther, within half a year, the whole family will die!"

"It's not so serious, is it, after all, it's their parents' enmity?" Han Chongyun did not object to Zheng Ziming taking in the three generals, but he was deeply skeptical of Zhao Kuangyin's last sentence.

"It's not so serious, why did you persuade Ziming to shake hands with the squires in the first place?!" Zhao Kuangyin smiled and asked in a low voice.

He is older than Han Chongyun, and his experience is far richer than the latter. So far, the latter still regards the sins that occurred in Zhujiazhai as a special case. And he, through today's trial, saw the viciousness of a group.

Han Chongyun was speechless when asked, so he could only smile and shake his head. Zhao Kuangyin knew that this person had a good temperament, so he didn't force him to accept his point of view, turned his gaze to Zheng Ziming, and continued: "Since they were ordered to lead the way for the Liao people, they will naturally meet many people who are ordered to lead the way in the Liao army. You follow this clue to check, and you get twice the result with half the effort from this matter!"

"Then, wouldn't that really kill all the gentry in Cangzhou?" Han Chongyun was so frightened that his hair stood on end, and he hurriedly spoke out to dissuade him. "Xiaofei, the Zhu family deserves to kill children. But other Zhuangzi, even if they have had anything to do with the Liao, may also be forced to do so. You, you've killed enough, it's time to put away the knife properly!"

"It's because I killed enough before that I can't stop now!" Zhao Kuangyin glanced at him, shook his head and sneered, "Ziming has a saying that is very right today, these guys are not worthy of being gentry at all." Kill them cleanly, so that the rivers and mountains can be reorganized!"

Note 1: Ruling the world with scholars and doctors first originated from Liu Bang, not Wen Yanbo. Wen Yanbo only gave a clearer definition of the three words "scholar".

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