The black pressure in the courtyard pressed down on the prisoners, these prisoners were men and women, old and young, ragged, pale, obviously had not seen the sun for many years, they had long lost the courage or desire to continue to live, death was a relief for them, they knelt very numb, there was no sense of atonement, so the rain from the sky did not add much solemnity to the scene.

The officials from the household department couldn't help but be a little nervous when they looked at this scene, and their hands holding the pen trembled slightly, while those who were waiting for the executioners seemed very calm, and their hands holding the handle of the knife were extremely steady.

"How to kill?"

Shangguan Yangyu stood behind Ning Que with a half-bowed body, and said in a low voice: "The cultivators who participated in the rebellion back then, except for those who died of illness and torture, are they all here, are they all killed or provoked?"

Ning Que looked at the prisoners in the autumn rain and said, "I may have to kill a few times, don't kill them all today." ”

Shangguan Yangyu said: "What criteria are you used to choose? The importance to the Xiling Temple or the severity of the crimes committed in the rebellion back then? These guys have blood on their hands." ”

Ning Que said: "Since it's for the temple, just pick some randomly to kill." ”

Shangguan Yangyu didn't understand, and asked puzzledly, "Random?"

Ning Que waved his hand and said, "That's what it means to pick blindly." ”

The household officials looked at each other, even those murderous veterans who were holding knives and preparing to execute were also a little stunned, only Shangguan Yangyu did not hesitate, waved his hand in the rain, and signaled to pick half of them first.

The blade sliced through the rain and landed on the prisoners' necks, easily slicing through the dirty skin and dry muscles, slicing bones with a puddle of unbright blood.

With a snap, the human head fell to the ground like a ripe fruit. After bouncing twice in the stagnant water on the bluestone slab, it quieted down, and the blood gushing out was quickly diluted by the rain.

Seeing the death of their companions, those prisoners were finally awakened by the fear of death, and their numb nerves regained some vitality, some tried to break free of the rope and escape, some fell into the rain in despair and cried, and some looked at Ning Que standing under the verandah, their eyes full of hatred.

The murderous picture is inevitably bloody, and Ning Que is not perverted enough to be willing to appreciate it. He had no interest in making eye and mental contact with those who were dying, and turned around and walked back into the hall.

Raising the still warm teacup and taking a sip, he looked up at the court again, only to see that more than a dozen corpses had fallen in the autumn rain, and the blood on the bluestone ground had become much thicker.

The autumn rain is miserable. Killing people in the court is like weeding, except for the sound of knives cutting into flesh and bones, there is only the sound of corpses leaning forward, smashing into the ground, and smashing stagnant water into a splash.

Ning Que looked at the clear tea in the bowl and didn't know what he was thinking. Shangguan Yangyu looked at his side face, not knowing what he was thinking. Household officials kept ticking and smearing on the prisoner rolls. As those names became fewer and fewer, their faces became paler and paler, not knowing what was going on in their hearts,

The autumn rains continue. The frequency of the sounds in the court gradually slowed down, and the breathing of the axe men became thicker and thicker, and it was still a very tiring thing to cut off so many heads.

Officials sent by the Criminal Department and relevant functional personnel of the Household Department. Before rushing into the courtroom, they began to examine the bodies while preparing to dispose of them. After drinking a bowl of spirits, the axemen took a break beside them.

It's not over yet, Ning Que said that he will kill a lot of people today, remove these corpses, empty the ground in front of the court, and continue to kill people when the knife and axe hands recover their bodies.

In addition to the prisoners escorted by the Criminal Department, there were also dozens of people specially sent by the Military Department at the request of Ning Que, and there was no way to kneel on the ground in front of the court, so they had to be divided into several groups.

"These ...... Most of them are just family members. A household official flipped through the prisoner roster in his hand, looked at Shangguan Yang Yu and said in shock: "Do these people also want to be killed?"

Shangguan Yangyu didn't answer his question, looked at Ning Que and asked, "Also blindly picking and killing?"

The faces of the officials were a little ugly. The hundreds of people who were escorted to the court were all implicated family members, even if they didn't report it in the war, and even had accomplices, it was difficult to sentence them to death according to Tang Law, and the death penalty was also the power of the Criminal Department or Dali Temple, so should they be killed like this?

These hundreds of family members have been imprisoned in prison for several years, and their spirits are not bad, because they are not cultivators, they are not subject to any restrictions, and they can still make a sound, and listening to the words of the officials, they know what is going to happen today, and they can't help but be terrified, crying and crying out for injustice.

The biggest difference between collaborating with the enemy and treason in Tang Law is whether or not it is carried out on the initiative, so the most common collaborator is often the family members of the traitor, which is a very understandable thing.

After the outbreak of the war a few years ago, many Tang people returned from all over the world, and two-thirds of the Taoists at the south gate of Haotian Dao cut off contact with the Xiling Temple, but there were still devout Haotian believers who swore allegiance to the Xiling Temple and refused to return, and even served in the apologetic cavalry of the Xiling Temple. These people are traitors, and their families are collaborators, whether they have severed ties with their relatives in Xiling or not, they will always be collaborators, because the blood connection is continuous, which is the most cold-blooded and cruel law in Tang Law.

In the past few years, the Tang government and the opposition have searched everywhere, strictly guarded the border, captured thousands of people suspected of collaborating with the enemy, and then imprisoned them in the prisons of Chang'an City and various prefectures and counties.

Today, Ning Que is ready to kill these people, which is a very incomprehensible thing, not only these family members can't figure it out, but the officials in the court can't figure it out either.

The alley on the side of the courtyard was full of the smell of blood, and the heads that had been cut off before were temporarily piled up on the carts waiting to be disposed of, when suddenly a human head rolled down, rolling in the rain, until it rolled to the court, to the eyes of the family members, causing a burst of exclamation and crying.

Ning Que raised his head and looked at the men, women, and children kneeling in the autumn rain, as if he saw the gray wall that was wet by the spring rain opposite Lao Bizhai many years ago, and saw the dead little black man.

Looking at the human head in the rain, he remembered the massacre that happened in the General's Mansion many years ago, the blood that spilled through the cracks in the door, and the heads of acquaintances like watermelons.

"That year, there was a spring rain in Chang'an City, the court and the temple were negotiating, preparing to negotiate peace, I took the Fish Dragon Gang and the Yulin Army to rush into the Qinghe County Hall, and killed all the people in Qinghe County in the rain. ”

"Now that I think about it, I regret it a little," he said. ”

The officials looked mild, thinking that the academy was benevolent...... However, then Ning Que said: "At that time, you should have left some to kill slowly, or you could get more benefits." ”

There was a dead silence in the courtroom, save for the sound of rain and the uncontrollable cries of children.

"I know that you feel very innocent, and those Qinghe people probably think so too, and even from the perspective of Tang Law or morality, some of you are really innocent. ”

Ning Que looked at the hundreds of people in the rain and said, "But I don't care. ”

The officials in the court and Yu Linjun were all Tang people, and they cared about these things very much, so their faces were a little ugly, but Shangguan Yangyu didn't care, and slowly raised his right hand in the autumn rain.

He and Ning Que are both Tang people, Tang Law is just a tool for them, as for those beautiful morals or feelings, it is good to appreciate them, and they don't need to have them.

When the hand starts, the knife falls.

When the knife falls, the head falls.

The old cheeks, the young cheeks, the still childish cheeks, because they lost their blood and were washed by the autumn rain, instantly became extremely pale, and there was no longer any breath of life. With frightened cries, mournful begs for mercy, vicious screams, and desolate weeping, all kinds of heads kept falling in the rain.

Hundreds of family members of traitors died in the autumn rain, the blade cut through the flesh and bones, bringing death, the sound became more and more muffled, it was the relationship between the edge and the blade, until finally, the sound of the head cutting became some kind of stick beating, like a broken drum being beaten incessantly, dull and terrifying.

The hands of the axemen finally trembled, and the hands of the household officials became even more quick to hold the pen, and the ink on the register became larger and larger, and the hook was difficult to form, but there was no signal to stop.

Shangguan Yangyu thought that he really didn't care, but looking at those men, women, and children falling in a pool of blood, and watching the heads piled up higher and higher in the rain in the court, he realized that his heart was still not strong and hard enough, and he reached out to wipe the water droplets on his forehead that he didn't know whether it was sweat or rain, and looked at Ning Que and asked in a trembling voice, "Is it enough?"

Ning Que said: "The household department is the best at calculating money and food and counting heads, I asked you to do this, just to know how many people to kill, so this question should be answered by you." ”

Shangguan Yangyu sighed and said, "I'm an ordinary person, I can't understand the state of mind of the great cultivators, and the most important thing is that I don't know how much influence the temple has on that person, so ...... I can't even know how many people to kill, and I suspect that no matter how much you kill, it's not enough. ”

Ning Que knew that Shangguan Yangyu's statement was reasonable, and this was also the thing he was most unsure of, could the joys and sorrows of the world really affect people like alcoholics?

The cold rain was pouring cold, but it couldn't stop the pungent smell of blood from permeating the court, he looked at the thick blood that the rain couldn't dilute, and said: "The autumn wind and autumn rain are sad. ”

At this time, Shangguan Yangyu did not forget to praise: "Good poetry." ”

Ning Que said, "Or are you going to be the first too?"

Shangguan Yangyu smiled bitterly and said, "Where is this mood." ”

Ning Que stretched out his hand to pick up the rain dripping from the eaves, and said, "Hitting children on a rainy day is idle when you are idle." ”

Shangguan Yangyu said: "Mr. is so funny. ”

"I actually don't know how many people to kill is enough, but as I said just now, being idle is idle anyway, these people deserve to die anyway, anyway, the court still spends money and food to raise these idlers, so you might as well kill and see." Killing people when you have nothing to do, killing idlers in the autumn wind and autumn rain, if you want to say that this is idle fun, it is also passable. ”

Ning Que walked into the rain, turned to look at the officials and said, "Or, you can try to kill more, the household department is in charge of the rations of the prisoners of war, you should know the number of people, how to kill?"