Murong Danyan listened to Situ Qiao's words, and was very surprised, and said, "The capital?

After she finished speaking, she turned her head to look at Li Qiufeng. Under the starlight, he saw that he was surprised, and looked at the tall city tower dozens of feet away.

Murong Danyan was suspicious, and turned his head to look at the leaders of the other gangs. But seeing Liu Yong, Deng Yao, Zhu Sanjia and others also had an unbelievable look on their faces. There are only three or four people like themselves, although they also have a look of surprise on their faces, but they are not like Li Qiufeng, Situ Qiao, Liu Yong and others like they have seen a ghost.

The more Murong Danyan looked at Li Qiufeng's expression, the more frightened he became, he didn't know what was strange in this city tower, which could make Li Qiufeng, Liu Yong, Deng Yao and others afraid of being like this. And although Situ Qiao has a strange temperament, he is not small, and he doesn't know how much he has stolen from the mausoleum. Why did he look stunned at this time, and say "returned to the capital"?

Murong Danyan was suspicious in his heart, and when he was about to ask again, he heard Deng Yao say: "Could it be that the road in this mountain does not lead to any Jingxin Temple at all, but Yao Guangxiao's old suspicion array? Once there is a change in the capital, the reinforcements can go to the capital through the tunnels under the Hutou Rock and come out by surprise. ”

He didn't say this to ask anyone, but as if he were talking to himself. Murong Danyan said: "Gang Master Deng, why can't I understand what you say?"

Deng Yao smiled bitterly and said, "Girl, do you know where this city tower is?"

Murong Danyan shook his head and said, "I don't know about this." But looking at this momentum, it's not an ordinary city that would build such a tower. However, Mr. Situ just said that he has arrived in the capital, could it be that this city tower is the city wall of the capital?"

Deng Yao nodded and said, "Not bad." This tower is the inner city of the south gate of the Forbidden City in the center of the capital, called the Noon Gate, which refers to the gate under the tower in the middle......"

Before Deng Yao's words fell, Murong Danyan clapped his hands and said, "I know." Launching the noon gate and beheading, is it this city tower?"

Deng Yao said: "Exactly." If the emperor wants to kill the minister, he will have the Jinyi guard tie up the minister, push him out of the noon gate, and the eunuch will read the holy decree on the top of the city tower, and then the Jinyi guard will execute him......"

"It's not like that. ”

Li Qiufeng said suddenly, interrupting Deng Yao's words. Deng Yao was stunned, although he had seen the noon gate, but the stories such as "launching the noon gate and beheading" were also told by others, and he had not seen it himself.

Murong Danyan saw that Li Qiufeng had spoken, his right hand gently patted his chest, and said happily: "Brother Li, you finally spoke." ”

Li Qiufeng was still staring at the city tower, holding the embroidered spring knife tightly in his right hand, and said word by word: "Gang Master Deng said that this is the noon gate of the south gate of the Forbidden City, which is indeed good." There are five pavilions in the left, middle and right three Taicheng of this city tower, which are shaped like phoenixes, and are called five phoenix towers by the people of the capital. However, 'launching the noon gate beheading' is just a fallacy among the people. Since Emperor Chengzu issued an edict to build the Forbidden City in Beijing, until the current Emperor Jiajing ascended the throne and sat in the palace, he never pushed the ministers out of the noon gate and beheaded them, but there were indeed ministers who were punished by the rod outside the noon gate and died. The noon gate was the place where the Forbidden City held a grand ceremony, how could it kill people in such an important place? The punishment of the court staff was not originally intended to kill, but only to punish the corporal punishment of the offender, and it was indeed executed by the captain of the Jinyi Guard. When Emperor Zhengde reigned, he had to go to Jiangnan for a year, and the ministers advised, and the first emperor was furious, and more than 130 ministers such as Shufen and Huang Gong were on the east side of the imperial road outside the noon gate. At that time, Liu Jin, the governor of Dongchang, accepted bribes, and wanted to take revenge for personal gain, and conspired to kill people when he was executed. He agreed with the captain of the Jinyi Guard who carried out the execution that if his toes were open, he would not really beat him, and at most he would cripple the tortured. If the toes of the feet are closed, the victim is to be struck with a rod and killed. As a result, among the 130 officials who were sentenced, 11 officials were killed on the spot because they had offended Liu Jin. Among the remaining officials, the gold, silver and jewelry given by their families to Liu Jin and his henchmen were lightly injured although they were beaten with a court rod. Those who did not send gold or silver were punished normally, and received dozens of rods, although they were seriously injured, but they were not killed. After the Jiajing Emperor succeeded to the throne, because of the dispute over the Great Rites Discussion, he was strongly admonished by the ministers, and the emperor was furious, and ordered more than 100 ministers to be escorted to the noon gate to be punished for court battles, and 17 officials were killed on the spot. In addition, Da Ming has never killed people at noon. ”

Murong Danyan said in a trembling voice: "Killing more than ten people alive, what is the difference between this and beheading? Isn't it much more cruel to beat a person to death with a stick than to behead him?"

Li Qiufeng shook his head and said, "Miss Murong, you are a girl's family, and you know very little about officialdom. For officials, the punishment of the court rod is not a capital crime. Even if he is beaten, it will only temporarily hinder his career. If it is beheaded, it is a capital crime of raiding the family and exterminating the family, and most of the family members will be implicated. It is that for officials, the court staff is much better than beheading. The emperor ordered the punishment of the court rod on the officials, generally not with the intention of killing, but only as a punishment. As for the killing of ministers, most of them were committed by eunuchs who were imprisoned. More than 100 years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although there were 28 officials who died because of the court staff, the number was much smaller than that of the previous dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Ming of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the court staff was generally made of chestnut wood, and one end of the beating person was cut into a mallet, and it was wrapped with an iron sheet, and there was a barb on the iron sheet. If the executioner's men show no mercy, the flesh and skin of the tortured person will be crushed and the body will be torn to pieces. Most of the tortured officials died under the rod. Even if you don't die, nine times out of ten you will be crippled for life. Although the maximum number of rods was 100, it was of no practical significance, and after fifty or sixty strokes, the tortured person could not bear it anymore and died. A person with a hundred rods rarely has a chance to survive. ”

Murong Danyan and Deng Yao were dumbfounded when they heard it, and the several gang leaders and heads standing beside Li Qiufeng could also hear it clearly, all of them with surprised expressions on their faces.

Murong Danyan said in a trembling voice: "Is it really like what Gang Master Deng said, there is a tunnel in the belly of this mountain under the Hutou Rock, which leads directly to the noon gate?"

Li Qiufeng shook his head and said, "Impossible." The capital is more than 100 miles away from Hutou Rock, although we have walked for several hours in the belly of this mountain, it is impossible to go to the capital. ”

When he said this, he still stared at the noon gate tightly, and after a while, he said word by word: "Unless Yao Guangxiao is really as powerful as the legend says, and he casts a spell such as the earth shrinking technique in this cave......"

When he said this, his head turned slightly, he looked around, shook his head again, and said in a deep voice: "No, this is definitely not the noon gate of the Forbidden City!"

Deng Yao said: "I always called Huazi to go to the noon gate a few times, although I sneaked in, I remember it clearly." This tower is the same as the shape of the noon gate, except that there are no guards on the city. Maybe because it was night, the officers and soldiers on duty at night were lazy to sleep......"

Li Qiufeng didn't wait for him to finish speaking, then turned around and pointed behind him and said, "Gang Master Deng, if this is really the noon gate, it should be the Daming Gate behind us, and we can see the Chengtian Gate farther away from the Daming Gate." But Gang Master Deng might as well look back, what's behind us?"

Everyone walked all the way from the road, and when they arrived here, they were shocked by the situation in front of them, and they forgot to look back at the way they came. At this time, as soon as Li Qiufeng said this, Deng Yao and the others looked back one after another, only to see that behind everyone was a cliff like a knife and an axe. The entrance of the Yongdao cave drilled out by everyone is impressively on the stone wall, and you can see the light emitted by the fluorite on the stone wall on both sides of the Yongdao.

Those who were shocked by the situation in front of them had all seen the noon gate. As for the few gang leaders and heads who had never seen the noon gate, although they were also surprised, it was because such a majestic and majestic city tower suddenly appeared in the belly of this mountain, and they felt that this matter was beyond reason, and they were a little surprised. Deng Yao, Liu Yong, Situ Qiao and others have all seen the noon gate, and naturally know that from the noon gate to the south is the Daming Gate, and outside the Daming Gate is the Chengtian Gate. At this time, I turned around and looked, except for a stone wall that was not high, I could no longer see any city tower, and I immediately knew that the situation was different, and the city tower in front of me was definitely not the noon gate.

Liu Yong said to Situ Qiao: "Mr. Situ, what do you think is this city tower?"

Situ Qiao looked dazed, thought for a moment, shook his head, and said, "This, this...... I don't know ...... either."

Everyone was very strange in their hearts, and they all thought in their hearts: "This person can actually say the word 'I don't know', what a strange thing in the world!"

Situ Qiao looked at the city tower, and then said: "I originally thought that as the surnamed Zhu said, Yao Guangxiao built a temple in the belly of this mountain, as the center of driving the various organs in the belly of this mountain. It's just that he never thought that he would build such a city tower in the belly of this mountain. It stands to reason that Yao Guangxiao gave advice to Zhu Di and snatched the world of Emperor Jianwen, and his fashion did not have the name of Beijing, but called Beiping. There was only the Yanwang Mansion in Beiping City, which was much smaller than the later Forbidden City. And Yao Guangxiao secretly built a place to store military rations and equipment and baggage in the belly of this mountain, why did he build such a city tower? Moreover, in terms of shape, it is no different from the noon gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing?"

Liu Yong groaned and said, "According to Mr. Situ, the construction time of this city tower is even earlier than the Forbidden City?"

Situ Qiao nodded and said, "Exactly." When Zhu Di conspired to compete for the world, it was still in the Hongwu period. And he ordered to build the imperial palace in Beiping City in the fourth year of Yongle. The scale of the palace is so huge, although Zhu Di requisitioned millions of people, it also took fifteen years, and it was not completed until the nineteenth year of Yongle. Later, Zhu Di moved the capital from Yingtianfu to Beiping, changed Beiping to Beijing, and called Yingtianfu Nanjing. In this way, Yao Guangxiao built the underground tower five or six years earlier than the Forbidden City in Beijing. ”

Chu Danyang said: "According to what Mr. Situ said, it took millions of people to build the Forbidden City, and it took fifteen years. Yao Guangxiao spent manpower and material resources to build the city underground, and it was many times more difficult than building the Forbidden City in Beijing. At that time, although Zhu Di was named the king of Yan, he did not get the emperor's edict and had no right to call the soldiers of the guards around Beiping City. No matter how powerful Yao Guangxiao is, where will he requisition so many people to build a city?"

In fact, everyone present had this question in their hearts, but no one raised it. After Chu Danyang finished speaking, everyone was silent. After a while, I heard Li Qiufeng say: "Maybe this city tower is not what we thought, although the appearance is the same as the noon gate we saw, but there is no Taihe Hall and other halls inside." If this is the case, more than 10,000 people will be recruited, and it will take four or five years to build this tower. ”

(End of chapter)