Three small army leaders: Wang Hong of the Tianjin Army, Yang Yufan of the Tongzhou Army, and Deng Xi of the Jimen Army.

These three veterans, with a large amount of property, entered the capital, wanting to curry favor with the emperor and make the emperor no longer target them.

But as soon as they entered the capital.

It was immediately detained.

Surrounded by hundreds of elite Royal Legion soldiers, the weapons were aimed at them, telling them to lay down their weapons, give up the idea of resistance, and cooperate obediently, otherwise they will bear the consequences.

"What do you want to do, we are here to enter Beijing, to give gifts to Your Majesty, we are here with a piece of loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, in order to lose sincerity to Your Majesty's question mark, what are you doing here, aiming guns at our loyal ministers and veterans, is there a heavenly reason, is there a royal law?"

Wang Hong couldn't stand it, his temper was relatively hot, and he was used to being powerful and blessed over the years, he had always been coaxed by others, and he had not suffered any grievances, but today he was actually pointed at by a group of Qiu Ba with muskets, which made him feel the threat of death, which simply made him unbearable, and immediately shouted loudly to show his attitude.

But it was useless for him to shout like this.

A royal legionnaire slammed the butt of his rifle over, with a loud bang, Wang Hong hit his shoulder, felt that the old bones were about to break, and let out a whining scream, and the soldier who smashed him also said viciously: "Don't talk nonsense, hurry up and follow us, otherwise you will kill your dog!" ”

"Ahh Yes!

”

Screams from severe pain.

Wang Hong's face was incredulous: "You, how dare you do this, you actually beat me, a veteran who is loyal to the country?" If I hadn't been born and died to serve the royal family, would I still be so stable in this great future? The Ming Dynasty, I'm afraid that I have already been sat by those rogues, but you are treated like this, good, very good, I saw the emperor, I must sue you, I will definitely make you look good! ”

But in response to him was a heavier butt.

"Ahh

”

Wang Hong let out an even more terrible scream, shattered, he felt that the bones in his arm were really broken, and the pain almost made him faint.

"Okay, Lao Wang, don't go down hard, let's go with them."

Yang Yufan sensed that something was wrong, and had to persuade: "The trap, I feel that this is like a trap set for us, that is, to lead us to the capital, and then to capture the thief and capture the king, we are afraid that we will be pinched, if we want not to be abused, we can only cooperate honestly, hey, the tiger fell to Pingyang, I knew that we shouldn't have come, this time, I am afraid that the heart must take down us." ”

"Oh, we can take it, but now in this world, it is no longer an era of supremacy of imperial power, now we must talk about freedom, everyone can call the shots, in front of the public opinion of the world, it is the supreme imperial power, and we must bow our heads and listen, otherwise it is to work against hundreds of millions of people in the world, there will definitely be no good end, wait, this thing is happening in front of everyone, the newspaper will immediately report what happened to us, put pressure on that person, we will be released soon, And he wants to apologize to us! ”

Deng Xi, a veteran of the Jimen Army, also broke out at this moment after his hands were tied with ropes, and expressed his opinion, although he did not get a gun butt, but he was also ridiculed in response, feeling that this veteran was too naïve.

Subsequently!

In the capital, a relatively dilapidated small courtyard with two entrances and three wings was heavily guarded.

Then Wang Hong, Yang Yufan, and Deng Xi, the three veterans, were confined in this small courtyard, losing their freedom of movement, and the care was strict, that is, a strange bird in the sky flew by, all of them were slammed with a gunshot, and the bird was killed by bullets to avoid any information being transmitted.

And after being confined.

Wang Hong, Yang Yufan, and Deng Xi were not abused at first, but the food they ate was only coarse tea and rice, and there were no servants to serve them, so they could only take care of each other, and even wanted to take a bath could not be satisfied, so they could only wipe their faces and bodies with the cold water of the well.

Back to the state of self-reliance in everything.

After only two days like this, they were a little overwhelmed.

"What the hell is this food, only the pigs in the pigsty and the dogs at the door of the house will eat these foods, we can't get used to eating them at all!"

"What about the servants, the servants who serve me, why are they all gone, I have to struggle to get up, I need someone to help, there is no beautiful maid as a cushion and pillow at night, I can't sleep well at all, and the quilt is very cold, not the silk quilt produced by Xujiazhuang, the bed board is too hard, not the yellow bed of Xujiazhuang, no, I can't stand it, bring a few servants in to serve me, I can't live like this, I can't live, you want to kill the old man!"

"Meat, I haven't eaten meat for two days, give the old man some meat, the old man is not happy without meat, and if he doesn't give the old man meat, he will starve to death!"

"Wrong, I Wang Hong know that I did something wrong, Your Majesty, spare me Wang Hong, I really know that I am wrong, give me some ginseng chicken soup to drink, give me a woman, give me a servant to serve, and soft paper for wiping my buttocks, as long as I give me these things, I can do anything, I am willing to be loyal to Your Majesty for generations, and I will never betray!"

"Me too, me too, I also know it's wrong, spare us, let us out, we are willing to give five million silver in exchange for our freedom!"

"10 million, the three of us take out 10 million, and let us out immediately, okay, this is 10 million, and human lives can buy thousands."

"Thirty million, we will each take out 10 million and dedicate it to the royal family, isn't this okay, Your Majesty the Emperor, hurry up and send someone over to talk about the conditions, as long as we are let out, any conditions can be discussed!"

It's soft.

Convinced.

Just in the dilapidated courtyard, I stayed for just two days.

He was not abused or beaten.

There is no lack of food and clothing.

I didn't suffer much.

Wang Hong, Yang Yufan, and Deng Xi couldn't stand it at all, and began to obey loudly, exposing their extremely fragile side, just because they didn't eat meat for two days, or there were no servants to serve, or the bed was not a yellow bed, and there was no beautiful maid to warm the bed, they felt as if they had fallen from heaven to hell, one by one, they wanted to die or live, it was simply shocking, you must know that the three of them did not suffer hardships, Deng Xi was born from the bottom of the soldiers, and the setbacks and sufferings were countless. Just because after a few years of heavenly good life, now from luxury to frugality, it is actually faster than anyone else, and the price is getting higher and higher, reaching the psychological threshold of 10 million silver dollars per person.

Even so.

Their shouts and begging for mercy still did not get an immediate response, as if they were boiling eagles, and they still wanted to boil them.

Until the fourth day.

Finally, a middle-aged man dressed as a civil official and looked kind-eyed, entered the dilapidated courtyard, saw the three veterans, and apologized to them very gently, saying that it was not intentional, but wanted to give the three veterans enough time to think about it, what kind of price they have to pay in order for them to get back their precious freedom and return to the place they want to go back to, whether they have shown the greatest sincerity, whether they know how many mistakes they have made, and are willing to make up for these mistakes, How much compensation is paid?

Anyway, I talked a lot about going around and around.

It's a bit cloudy, and I don't understand what it means.

But in the end, the three veterans still barely understood: ransom.

This civil official is testing their inner bottom line, wanting them to pay the maximum ransom and redeem themselves.

"I can only contribute 15 million silver dollars, and there will be no more."

Wang Hong thought for a while and said: "The land of Tianjin, although every inch of land is expensive, the logistics are developed, but the manpower employed is also very large, and the expenses in all aspects are also very large, in fact, the cash that can be taken out in Tianjin is only 15 million silver dollars, you can only get so much, no more, I can't let the livelihood of millions of people in Tianjin fall into trouble for myself." ”

Which elegant civil official said: "Wrong, wrong, the land of Tianjin, is a bright pearl of the Ming Dynasty, put down the hands of people like you, it is a pearl dust, is inefficient use, is to hinder the development of the Ming Dynasty in a better direction, so let's do it, don't want a silver dollar, you can keep your own flowers, but the city of Tianjin, let the army of the imperial court, the officials of the imperial court to take care of it, backed by the big market of the capital, and there are countless development policy support, it is estimated that in a few years, the land of Tianjin will develop to no weaker than the port city of Xujiazhuang...... General Wang, do you think this is a good thing? ”

"And General Yang, the land of Tongzhou is now much weaker than before, but it is still the end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, there are still countless human resources, and there is very great potential for development, you and your Tongzhou army, or stop continuing to oppress and persecute the people of Tongzhou, sweatshops and slave factories are against the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and they are going to be beheaded, Xujiazhuang's newspapers have also reiterated many times that sweatshops are inhumane, and slave factories should exterminate the nine clans, you have already committed a heinous crime, if you don't wake up in time and hand over your rights, Reform the past, that can only be a canonical punishment, and give an educational demonstration to other businessmen. ”

"General Deng Xi, I heard that your hometown is in Sichuan, which is not suitable for living in the bitter cold land here in the north, you are old now, it is time to enjoy your happiness, with enough money, with your family and children, you will go to your hometown in Sichuan, enjoy your old age well, don't bring trouble to your family and children because of your stubbornness, so, you should know what to do, right?"

The elegant civil official said with a smile.

But after all, it was a dagger to see and tell his true purpose.

In fact, it is also the goal that Emperor Chongzhen wants to achieve, to let them hand over the rights in their hands, hand over the territory, hand over all the industries they operate, and disband the army, and become an idle rich man in the future, and live a chic life of ordinary rich people, which is a good choice.

It's just that......

After hearing the words of this elegant civil official.

The hearts of Wang Hong, Yang Yufan, and Deng Xi all sank.

fell into silence and did not dare to speak again.

At the same time, they also really realized that it was over, they were afraid that it was really going to be over this time, they didn't expect that His Majesty the Emperor's appetite was not a little bigger, not for the gifts they offered millions of silver dollars, nor for the ransom of tens of millions of silver dollars per person, his real purpose was actually aimed at two words-

All.

The emperor wanted to take away everything they had.

That's right, that's what it means, it's to take everything from them, it's just that you want them to die directly.

The reason is very simple, once you lose your territory, disband your army, and give up all your property, you really go and become the rich man with millions of silver dollars.

Their enemies over the years will immediately take revenge and kill none of their families - because they have lost the protection of the army, the protection of their networks, and the rights in their hands, even ordinary people dare to roar at them, draw their swords and cut them, maybe they will be killed by thieves after passing through some nameless mountain.

The emperor wanted the three of them to be wiped out, and the incense was completely cut off.

It was impossible for them to agree, so they could only remain silent and say that they would consider it.

Then I thought about it for a day and there was no reply.

I thought about it for three days and there was no reply.

Considering that on the fifth day, when Xujiazhuang's newspaper began to care about their safety, the elegant civil official finally became angry and came to them with a hideous face: "You want to use a silent way to delay time for me, hehe, from now on, you can't drag it out for a second, come and punish me, and serve me to death!" ”

The kind of clamp stick that pinched the finger came up.

Then it's time to hit the board.

Then there is the use of nails to nail nails, this kind of torture is very painful, but the three veterans just fainted in pain, and they did not compromise and nodded.

"Scald it with a soldering iron again, give me a hard scald, and you must cook the meat!" The elegant civil official has a hideous face like a devil, and he just wants to desperately complete the task given to him by the emperor, so as to become the emperor's favorite minister and reach the pinnacle of power, and the biggest obstacle is these three old bones!

"Whipped with an iron whip soaked in salt water, whipped hard, whipped to death, these three are scum, beasts, and national thieves who plague the people of the Ming Dynasty! Only when all the thieves like them are gone, can the people of the Ming Dynasty live a good life and have a happy life, our choice is not wrong, we are right, His Majesty the Emperor is on our side, that is, they are all killed, they also deserve it, it is karma! Hit, keep calling me! ”

More than 30 kinds of torture methods were used one by one.

The elegant civil official was surprised to find that Wang Hong and the other three still did not say a word, did not say a word of begging for mercy and admitting their mistakes, and did not intend to compromise.

"Wake up with cold water, keep fighting!"

The elegant civil official said hysterically.

After three days of frantic torture, he still couldn't pry anyone's mouth open, and he was even more stubborn than the most stubborn criminal.

"Hit, keep beating me!" The tired eyes of the elegant civil servant were bloodshot, and people were about to feel hopeless.

"Oh no, my lord, the three of them are all out of breath, and they have been killed by us!" A pawn's face suddenly changed dramatically.