Outside the city of Hangzhou, the roads are muddy, the countryside is vast, and the green early rice is swaying in the wind.

There was a light rain last night, and the air seemed to be fresh after the rain stopped.

However, in the midst of this beautiful scenery, dozens of people ran out of the city in embarrassment. In the scramble, there are still people falling down from time to time.

A few of these people were gorgeously dressed, and the rest of the entourage were also silk clothes and shoes, and they seemed to be rich and noble.

But at this moment everyone was so tired that they were out of breath, and when they went out of the city, they saw a small boat wharf, and they didn't care about getting dirty, so they ran to the wharf and jumped on a passenger boat.

After negotiating with the owner of the ship, without even asking the price, everyone got into the cabin and gasped for breath, so that they could rest for a while.

"Brother Zhou, fortunately, you have a subordinate brother who works as an errand in the yamen, otherwise we will definitely have a big incident this time."

"Yes, no one thought that the imperial court would suddenly start arresting people. And the above news was all hidden, and my brother also received the news temporarily in the morning, and risked death to send me a letter. ”

"It's over, and there are still a lot of people in the city who haven't escaped. When we came out, the yamen had already started to search for them."

"We can't care so much now, it's important to save our own lives."

Several landlords shouted for a long time.

They are big landowners in Changzhou, not only in the family business, but also in Changzhou City there are many storefronts.

But at this moment, these tycoons fled from Hangzhou with their entourage in embarrassment.

Just because in the morning when they were preparing for today's protest at the inn, the brother of the landlord surnamed Zhou suddenly came to tell him the bad news - the court was going to arrest people.

Suddenly hearing the news, they hurriedly ran out of the inn where they lived, and as soon as they hurried out of the city, they saw countless soldiers pouring in from all the city gates, and all the city gates and water gates began to close, and the court obviously wanted to close the doors and beat the dogs.

This frightened them, and they were glad that they were lucky enough to get the news and run away early.

"Bang!"

At this moment, there was a sudden loud noise outside.

Everyone was in shock, and someone shouted outside: "Captain, what's going on?" ”

"A few officials, what's the matter?"

I heard that the captain outside did not answer the words of the people in the cabin, but vaguely said to the others.

The people in the cabin suddenly rioted, but before they could react, someone opened the curtain and glanced around the cabin, and then grinned: "By the order, the whole city is blocked, and you are not allowed to enter or leave." ”

Everyone inside turned pale and had no faces.

After a long while, the landlord surnamed Zhou hurriedly took out a small bag of silver from his pocket, handed it over tremblingly, and said, "Official, it's convenient." ”

The officer's face changed slightly, and he instinctively wanted to take it.

But subconsciously retracted his hand again, if it was before, he would definitely take it, and shared the silver with his brothers, hello everyone, I'm good together.

But that's no longer the case.

For these officials, meritorious service can participate in the official examination.

Once the brothers under him have a more motivated person, and on the surface they share the silver, they will turn around and go to the transfer envoy or the Yushitai Yamen to report.

On the cusp of this storm, isn't that a future for your brother?

And the most important thing is that the salaries of the officials are now linked to performance, and merit can increase performance.

Therefore, if there are many people arrested in this operation, the credit will definitely be great, although it is obviously impossible to reach the first-class merit and be qualified to participate in the official examination, but it is not bad to mix the second- and third-class merit of the collective, and the salary is not bad.

Even if that salary is too far from the silver in front of him, it is still much better than being corrupt and taking bribes, and being reported by his brothers from being a subordinate to a prisoner.

So his face was cloudy and uncertain for a few minutes, and after considering the pros and cons, he slapped off the silver in the hands of the landlord of Zhou, and shouted: "Sure enough, it is the person who the court wants to arrest, and the brothers will surround the boat." ”

In an instant, the surrounding officials surrounded the boat, and under the pressure of swords and guns, the people on the boat were also forced to come out, tied up with ropes, and sent to the yamen.

At this time, the city of Hangzhou was already in chaos.

Xia Wei's plan is still relatively thorough, and all the gates of the city are closed, including several water gates.

Originally, Qiantang Gate, Fengyu and Qianhu Gate were outside the West Lake.

There is even a street of West Lake next to the western city wall, but in order to prevent people from escaping by boat, all rivers in the city are now blocked, and there are errand servants everywhere inside and outside the city.

There were only a few thousand landlords left who protested, and Xia Wei mobilized more than 10,000 forbidden troops from the states of the two Zhejiang roads, plus thousands of officers from various government offices in the city, almost 15,000 people, to search and arrest people everywhere in the city.

On the streets of Benmenwa City, a large number of soldiers were running briskly.

"Quick, this way."

"Let's go!"

"Don't hit my stall."

"Bang!"

"My stall!"

"Officer, they ran over there."

"Chase!"

Dozens of landlords and their entourage fled in a panic, knocking over more than a dozen stalls, leaving the streets in shambles.

The original vendors haven't come out to set up their stalls in recent times.

But at this moment, the landlords and their entourage who fled in embarrassment made some street vendors who had to make ends meet and were forced to come out to make money cry without tears.

Because these people fled in all directions, and the inside and outside of the city were full of chickens and dogs.

Especially as the news spread that the imperial court was searching all over the city, the landlords were completely panicked and full of thoughts about escaping.

Some went to their relatives' houses, some bought property in the city and hid their own mansions, and some had no relatives or real estate in the city, so they had to find a way to hide.

However, soon a large number of landlords and their retinues were arrested, because the people of Hangzhou had had enough of them these days, and when they heard that the imperial court was finally going to arrest people, they immediately rejoiced and led the way for the servants to arrest people.

The stall owners who were knocked over their stalls, the landlords of the shops who were smashed and looted before, and the citizens who were so disturbed by these people that they did not dare to go to the street all helped the servants to show the way.

How can those landlords have Hangzhou locals?

As a result, in less than two days, more than 6,000 people in the city were all brought to justice, and except for a very few who saw that the news was wrong, more than ninety percent of them were all imprisoned in the Hangzhou City Prison and the Imperial City Division Prison.

For a time, the prison was overcrowded, and more than a dozen prisoners were often held in a small room of a few square meters, so that those pampered landlords suffered old crimes.

"Wronged, I'm not, you caught the wrong person."

"I didn't rebel, we just came to the city to walk around, and when we saw them making trouble, we followed the excitement, and the court couldn't frame good people."

"Official, let us out. The villain lard is blinded by heart, and we will never dare again. ”

"Hmph, we didn't break the law at all, and the court can't arrest people indiscriminately for no reason."

"Yes, is it also wrong to protest against the tyranny of the imperial court in the streets? What law says this is not the case? There were officials who smashed the prime minister's house before, and the court treated us like this? ”

In the cell, everyone shouted grievances, pretended to be pure passers-by, repented of not being at the beginning, and some were more stubborn, stubbornly believing that they had not broken the law at all.

However, no matter how much you shout, it is useless.

Because of shouting grievances and pretending to be pure passers-by, there is naturally a list to serve.

If regret can calm anything down, then what do you need to do with the government officials?

As for those who are hard-hearted, there is naturally a big memory recovery technique.

Xia Zhu then asked Liangzhelu to raise the Xing Prison official Ma Xun to be in charge of the trial, mainly interrogating the interrogators, who planned the plot, and what they had done these days.

Basically, you can't lie if you want to, because there are too many people, such as the part that smashes and loots, and naturally there are too many witnesses.

In particular, in cases of injury or even death, there is no need for the court to arrest them, and the landlords have already handed over the people themselves.

After all, this matter is too involved, and if you don't hand over people, I'm afraid everyone will suffer.

Therefore, after the overnight interrogation, after about a few days, Ma Xun reported to Xia Wei on the arrest and review in the past few days.

"Ji Xiang, through the vigorous search in the city this time, a total of 6,134 rioters have been arrested, and more than 1,000 people have been arrested by the wealthy families in the list, and the rest are their entourage."

"According to their confessions, at least half of them left Hangzhou after the riots on the 20th of last month, which means that there are still more than 1,000 people on the list who have not been arrested."

In the office of the Criminal Division, Ma Xun told the situation and continued: "There are more than 130 participants who injured people, and more than 60 people were injured. Some were injured, some were trampled on, and all have been treated. ”

"What happened to the three deceased?"

"It's all poor street vendor owners, at that time, the group of wealthy people led the doormen to shout at the gate of the yamen, and even threw sand and stones at the yamen, Du Si did not act, seeing that the yamen did not move, they smashed the street vendors along the street in anger and burned down the shops, if it wasn't for the government's timely response."

"I see."

Xia Wei nodded slightly, and then said, "Did those newspapers in Hangzhou talk nonsense?" ”

"It's all about the wanton behavior of these wealthy families."

Ma Xun hesitated for a moment, and then said: "But there are also two newspapers that say that the imperial court has not acted these days. ”

"Well, you go first."

Xia Wei thought about it, then stood up and left the Office of the Criminal Department and went to the Office of the Transfer Embassy.

It didn't take long for him to get to Du Qi.

Du Qi came out to greet him, and now because of this matter, the chief officers of their five divisions are also busy.

To appease the people, but also to hunt down those who escaped, there is not much time to spare.

Xia Wei didn't say anything after he came over, and directly asked him: "Now that the imperial court is paying attention to this matter, this matter must be cut through the chaos quickly, and it must not be delayed for too long." ”

"Yes."

Du Qi replied.

"You immediately issue an official document and ask the state and county offices, the imperial history platform and the Imperial City Division to jointly handle the case and arrest all the remaining people on the list."

"Yes."

"Then post a list of people in the city to appease the people in the city."

"Yes."

"Go and say hello to the newspapers again, don't talk nonsense if you don't give it, wait for the government to send a general document, and the government will give them a satisfactory answer."

"Yes."

"Well, I still have to go to the Imperial City Division, so I'll stay soon."

Xia Wei also sat in the yamen of the transfer division for a while, and left without stopping.

He actually understood what Zhao Jun meant.

That is, we should pay attention to influence and proportion, and don't kill indiscriminately.

Nowadays, the imperial court allows local people to set up newspapers to increase the channels for news dissemination.

The purpose is naturally not only to let the people be able to read the newspaper, so that the policies and trends of the imperial court can be popularized.

At the same time, it also has a sense of supervising the local government to prevent the local government from acting in a wrongful manner and deceiving the superiors and subordinates.

So in fact, the imperial court has some control over this aspect of the news, but not much. Even the Information Agency, for its part, allowed them to post articles attacking the local government.

In this way, the local government will be subject to the supervision of public opinion, and it will be much more restrained.

But if the same court wants to establish a fair and just image in front of the public, it must first ensure that it handles things fairly and justly.

So like this one.

Some landlords should be killed, such as those with a bad reputation, or those who used to oppress tenants and landlords more ruthlessly, these people are not popular with the local people, and it is easier to bring prestige to the court if they are killed.

However, some landlords are actually quite good, and let the tenants pay a relatively low rent, and they are often generous, and the voice of the people in the countryside is better.

Although they were killed, it was unlikely that the people would protest violently for a few landlords who were friendly to them and cause a popular uprising. However, it is easy to give the local people the impression that the court is indiscriminate and kills good people.

When the time comes, the newspaper will always have a bad impact.

Therefore, in order to reduce the negative impact of this aspect and give the people a concept of fairness and justice in the court, it is necessary to do a good job in this regard.

Either there is a legitimate reason to kill them, or to find out what they have committed in the past, so it is obvious that this job is not easy, and even if it is done and dealt with as soon as possible, it will probably take at least several months to get the result.

Xia Wei tossed back and forth between several yamen, and the transfer made the yamen responsible for coordinating with the state capitals and letting the state capitals arrest the remaining people on the list.

The pacification envoy and the transit envoy yamen joined forces to appease the people and prevent panic from spreading.

The Criminal Division, the Imperial Historical Observatory, and the Imperial City Division's Yamen had to investigate the situation of these landlords and distinguish between those who were good and those who were bad.

This kind of thing is actually very easy to investigate.

Because of the reputation of a landlord, some people in his hometown naturally know it.

As for whether he maintains the image of a good person on the surface, but in private he is a bad person, which is simple.

In the past, it was necessary to arrest such people, and they could not quarrel, and they had to investigate and find conclusive evidence before they could arrest them.

But now.

All the people on the list were arrested first, their accomplices were interrogated, and if they confessed, they were all arrested.

After the person is arrested, he will raid the house and see if he has done anything bad.

It is much easier to find out that you have done bad things at home, such as the confession of a slave or a handmaid, and there is actual evidence.

If they are sure to be good landlords, but the court has harmed their interests and is forced to go to the streets, without smashing and looting on the streets, and not doing other bad things, then this can be handled lightly.

But even so, after these rounds of tossing, the good landlords will be tossed enough.

As for the bad landlords, they have suffered, and this time, plus what they have done before, they will be sentenced to whatever crime they should be convicted of, their family property should be confiscated, and they should be punished, and they must not be allowed to get out of the way.

This time it is also necessary to set a model, and it is necessary to let the landlords of Jiangsu and Zhejiang either spit out the land, or change careers to start business, or continue to hold on to high taxes.

Anyway, no matter what the three endings are, they are all good things for the imperial court.

Xia Wei came over this time, and that's what he did.

(End of chapter)