The melancholy autumn rain fell naturally like this. Before the green trees on both sides of the streets and alleys of Kyoto had time to dye their leaves yellow, they had no choice but to shake off a few fallen leaves to prove the coldness of the autumn rain and the strength of the autumn wind. The rain slowly moistened the earth, but it annoyed the Limin people who worked hard to make a living in the market, because they didn't like the chills in their bodies after autumn rain and cold.
The vermilion palace walls are ignorant, unaware of cold and warm, but silently and indifferently welcome the washing of the rain. The rain wet the majestic imperial city, making the bright vermilion deeper and darker, like bloodstains that are about to condense.
The deep palace door was slowly opened with a creaking sound, and the newly repaired brass nails on the big wooden door were shining brightly. More than a hundred officials filed out with complex expressions, led by a guard of honor, along the Follow the imperial road all the way to the depths of the square, lined up on both sides. These are the ministers of the court of the Qing Dynasty, responsible for all affairs and people's livelihood in this country. However, in today's weather and atmosphere, they can only be silent bystanders.
The little eunuch of the Yellow Gate whipped his whip three times, and there was a drum beating somewhere in the turret of the imperial city, making a buzzing and trembling sound, hitting the hearts of everyone in the imperial city.
The court meeting was over, and today's court meeting only dealt with one thing, and that was to set the charges against Chen Pingping, the former director of the Overwatch Council.
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In the streets and alleys of the imperial city, many people from the Qing Dynasty gradually came. These people wore clothes of different colors, with different smells of noble and low. They were summoned by the sound of drums from the palace, and slowly walked towards the square in front of the palace. Come on. The crowd gathered more and more, and gradually filled the entire large square, densely packed, like ants.
Before dawn in the morning, the capital and the yamen at all levels began to beat gongs and drums everywhere, and posted notices to inform all the people in Kyoto what would happen today.
As long as the point of the knife does not fall on their body, these common people are always interested in watching the excitement, especially since everyone knows that the high official who will be sentenced to death by His Majesty today is the always mysterious Director of the Overwatch Council, Chen Pingping , the interest of all the people is more intense.
The Overwatch Council's reputation in the folk circles of the Qing Kingdom was too high, and its image was too ghastly. Few people had actually seen the old dean in a wheelchair, and all the people gathered around the square. They wanted to see if this big man was really as devil-like with three heads and six arms, covered in black mist, as the legend said.
Especially knowing that the devil of the Overwatch Council was not angry with His Majesty's handling, and frantically assassinated in the palace. Our Daqing Emperor, His Majesty the Emperor who is wise, powerful, and benevolent, all the people felt a wave of anger from the bottom of their hearts. They want to watch Seeing how this villain was burned into a piece of black smoke under the brilliance of imperial power.
Over the past few decades, the Overwatch Council has been known for being mysterious and gloomy. Although it has always targeted the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, it has acted cruelly and with terrifying methods. If it offends civil servants, it offends the scholar-bureaucrats in the world. public opinion, so the Overwatch Council has always had a very bad reputation among the people.
According to folklore, the Overwatch Council is a gloomy yamen that cannibalize people without spit out bones. It is best at torture, torture, and murder. Maybe the Overwatch Council really has many shady means, but how much do the people in the capital, the Qing Kingdom, and the world know? It's just a rumor.
Although in these years, a dazzling little Mr. Fan appeared in the Overwatch Council, which slightly diluted the dark atmosphere of the Overwatch Council, but the time he presided over the affairs of the Overwatch Council was still short, and it was not enough to change the deep-rooted opposition among the people. The impression of the Overwatch Council.
After all, there are not many things that can be changed for Fan Xian, the indifferent public. The worship and admiration for Fan Xian by the common people and scholars in the Qing Kingdom is more concentrated in his personal image standing on the cloud, but not too much for the Overwatch Council. Make a difference. For the common people in Kyoto, the Overwatch Council may be a little more crowded, but they still don't have any good impression of that square and gloomy building. Instead, they subconsciously feel a sense of fear. The continuation of fear is unreasonable anger
Chen Pingping, the frightening dark leader in the legend, was about to die in front of her. All the people in the capital felt faintly excited. Maybe this is just a kind of emotion naturally expressed by the common people. In this life, I can have the opportunity to see a big man who only existed in legends die in front of me, so that I can have more conversations after drinking for my boring life in the future. Maybe it was a good leisure activity
Just like the Chunwei case a few years ago, at Yanshikou, the heads of those officials from the Ministry of Rituals were chopped off, rolled around on the execution ground, and were almost taken away by wild dogs. How many cups of turbid bad wine have been sent down in the boring time of bitter hahas.
Another example is the rebellion in Kyoto three years ago. It was also at Yanshikou. I don’t know how many generals who participated in the rebellion were beheaded here. The blood painted half of the long street red, and after a few days, the smell of blood still oozes into the sky. And Zhang Deqing, the commander of the thirteen city gates, screamed so miserable when he was executed by Ling Chi.
In the past three years, Zhang Deqing's death has enriched the lives of the people in Kyoto with the company of countless spit stars. However, these major events that have happened in Kyoto in recent years are of course not as good as today, because the one who died today was the head of the Overwatch Council, the old black dog known to the world as His Majesty's most loyal, but this black dog has gone crazy. To be slaughtered, haha!
And today's place of execution is not Yanshikou, nor the killing field in front of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, but in front of the palace, on the square! Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the official who was punished by the Ming Dynasty in front of the palace is probably the only one today. The people are excited to think of this, and they can't help but feel angry again. That high-ranking official named Chen Pingping, I don't know how much he has done. Only the most rebellious things will die in this kind of place.
It's not that no one thought of Mr. Fan because of the Overwatch Council, but all the people watching the sentence subconsciously forgot this, and they never thought that Mr. Fan had any connection with that old black dog. They are just some ordinary people in the city. They don't know the entanglements among the people who rule this land. Even some smart people will probably only think in another direction. His Majesty just handed over the Overwatch Council to Xiao Fan. My lord, I want to kill the former dean, probably to clean up the resistance and crimes in the Overwatch Council for Mr. Fan
Countless people poured into the square in front of the temple, tense, indifferent, excited, and unreasonably sad, surrounded by countless complex emotions, surrounded the small practice field, the soldiers of the Imperial Army and the Kyoto Prefecture all around The yamen servants responsible for maintaining order forcibly stopped these tens of thousands of people outside the border, ensuring the quietness of the execution ground.
The people of the Qing Kingdom cannot be blamed, because they are used to it, they are used to knowing what they can know, giving up what they can't know, enjoying what they can enjoy, and being angry at what is allowed to be angry. Your Majesty wants to kill a minister, no matter whether the minister really deserves the crime or not, but if the important minister they have been educated dies, the minister will naturally have a reason to die.
The dense crowd was like a sea, rippling in the flat square in front of the majestic imperial city, the place near the palace gate was vacated, and a very simple wooden platform was set up, this is the so-called law field. Surrounded by the vast sea of people and the majestic imperial city, this method field looks like a poor lonely boat. It seems that it may sink in the sea of people at any time, and it may hit the imperial city at any time. On the huge rock that cannot be shaken for thousands of years, the body is smashed to pieces.
Along the open space below the imperial city, a line of troops walked over silently and sternly. They passed by the two sides of the royal road, subconsciously bowing their heads and keeping silent. Hundreds of officials from the Qing Dynasty, under the curious and nervous eyes of the people in the capital not far away, , came to the bottom of the small wooden platform.
A stretcher was lifted out of the prison car, and an old man was lying on the stretcher. The old man was unconscious and did not know whether he was alive or dead. He Zongwei raised his head and glanced at the head of the imperial city, the corners of his eyes twitched slightly, he waved lightly, and the stretcher was carried onto the wooden platform.
Finally saw the high official who was going to be sentenced to death today, saw this legendary dark old thief, the people in the capital at the front sighed in satisfaction, and immediately became silent, they looked at the motionless The old man, thinking in his heart, is this person dead
Three eunuchs came out of the dark gate of the imperial city. The little eunuch on the left handed the crimes that were proposed by the court today, and the little eunuch on the right held up the incense case. In the case, His Majesty executed Chen Pingping. will.
The eunuch with an indifferent face in the middle was Eunuch Yao, and he did not have empty hands, but was holding a small bottle.
Everything was ready on the wooden platform, and Chen Pingping's thin body, which seemed to have no breath, was placed on the wooden board that was wet by rain. Eunuch Yao went to his side and squatted down. With the help of the imperial physician, he fed him a pill, and carefully fed the soup in the bottle into the old man's withered lips.
After an unknown amount of time, Chen Pingping woke up from the coma. He had lost a lot of blood, and his vitality was dying. His face was very pale, and his eyes were cloudy and lifeless. He looked at Eunuch Yao beside him, opened and closed his withered lips slightly, and said slowly in a rustling voice: "Thousand-year-old ginseng...wasted."
Eunuch Yao's body trembled, but he didn't dare to say anything, and he didn't do anything. Instead, he gave the old man a half-crying and smiling look, and stooped back to the side of the wooden platform.
The moment Chen Pingping opened her cloudy eyes, Yan Bingyun, who was standing behind He Daxue on the execution ground, also trembled, but he immediately calmed down and lowered his head weakly. With just a glance before, he knew how tightly guarded the execution ground was, not to mention the densely packed imperial guards around, not to mention the masters of the inner court scattered around, but those masters in sackcloth and hats, Yan Bingyun has already let Yan Bingyun know that no one can change everything today.
Last night in the prison of the Overwatch Council, there were four masters wearing hats, which made Yan Bingyun and He Zongwei feel a little weird, but they all knew where these sudden masters came from. When the light was dim, Yan Bingyun was extremely sharp-eyed and discovered that under the hat, none of these masters had hair.
It seems that they are ascetic monks scattered in the world, but... the chief priest of Qing Temple died in a strange way shortly after returning from preaching in southern Xinjiang, while the second priest, Master Sanshi, devoted himself to the Junshan Society and died tragically In the rain of arrows outside the capital, he was killed by His Royal Highness the Eldest Princess.
His Majesty the Emperor has always looked down upon Tianyi and the ascetic monks of the Qing Temple, and the royal family has never had much contact with the Qing Temple. Why did the ascetic monks in these temples suddenly appear in the capital today and appear in front of everyone? In front of her, appearing next to the execution ground where Chen Pingping was about to die
Yan Bingyun lowered his head and thought, until today, he didn't know that His Majesty not only reached the peak of the world in terms of imperial power and strength, but even the Qing Temple had become a sharp weapon in his hands. Thinking of this, he couldn't help sighing inwardly, suddenly there was a mountain-like cry, and he immediately raised his head in shock.
A wooden frame was erected on the execution ground, and Chen Pingping's thin body was tightly tied to it. All the clothes on the old man's body had been removed, revealing his pale body. She looked extraordinarily thin, and in the cold autumn rain, she looked extraordinarily desolate and pitiful.
The rainwater hit the thin body without any breath of life, and then slowly trickled down, returning to the dust.
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The previous shout in the square was that the people in Kyoto, who were watching the execution, finally saw the erected torture rack and the heinous treacherous official tied to the rack, and burst into mountain-like shouts, like ocean waves. Generally resounded all around.
However, this shouting quickly turned into silence. The people who were closest to the execution ground were the first to be silent. However, whispers and discussions spread from the front to the back. It didn't take long before it became like thunder. Shocked discussion.
I don't know if some god in the sky issued a command, and all the people in the imperial city fell silent at the same time. I don't know if the place where tens of thousands of people gathered at the same time became as quiet as death, and it seemed to be so quiet. The people at the end could hear the rustling of the grass ropes binding Chen Pingping's body against the wooden stakes on the torture rack.
Not only the common people were shocked, but the imperial guards, including the prison officials, the eunuchs in the palace, and a very small number of officials of the Overwatch Council, all looked at the body of the old man on the rack with horror on their faces. Thousands and tens of thousands of eyes were looking between the old man's thighs.
There is nothing there.
Chen Pingping, the old director of the Overwatch Council whose reputation of darkness has been spread throughout the world... is actually an eunuch!
A silence, tens of thousands of eyes, countless emotions, or pity, or shame, or horror, or disgust.
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Yan Bingyun's body finally trembled uncontrollably. He lowered his head firmly, his eyes were bloodshot. He didn't know about the old dean's hidden disease, this secret. He just felt that those gazes were not only directed at He walked between the legs of the old man on the execution ground, and looked at himself, and at all the officials of the Overwatch Council. This was an indescribable humiliation.
He clenched his fists tightly, and his fingertips dug deeply into his palms. He finally understood why the Ninth Five-Year Supreme in the imperial city had to punish everyone with Ling Chi. Torture must go hand in hand with this mental humiliation.
His Majesty the emperor wants to announce to the world that this big man who dared to betray him is just a slave and a dog in my eyes, and I can humiliate him as much as I want. Dignity is under your feet and under the eyes of everyone.
After trying to understand all this, Yan Bingyun's head buzzed, he raised his head unusually forcefully, and met the cloudy eyes of the old man on the execution ground, he didn't say anything, and he didn't do anything. From the corner of the eye, I could see the shocked expressions on the faces of the imperial court officials below the execution ground. They probably never imagined that the old director of the Overwatch Council whom they usually respected like their ancestors was actually the eunuch whom they looked down upon the most!
This is Chen Pingping's sadness, this is Chen Pingping's secret, not many people knew his identity as a eunuch back then, most of them had already died, and later, under the supreme favor of His Majesty the Emperor, under the strong suppression of the Overwatch Council Underneath, no one knows this fact.
That's why these officials showed such horrified expressions. However, apart from their astonishment, there was a hint of disdain on their faces. There was still a sense of respect and awe in the face of the dying Chen Pingping, but at this time, these emotions were gone.
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Eunuch Yao took the scroll from the eunuch next to him, forced himself not to look at the old man on the rack beside him, and began to read out the thirteen deadly crimes about Chen Pingping drafted at the court meeting with a trembling voice. On the execution ground, Eunuch Yao's heart was also extremely cold, and a kind of unstoppable sadness of the same kind began to rise in his heart, but he had to continue his work.
"One, on the twelfth day of the fourth month in the seventh year of the Qingli calendar, the rebel secretly delivered obscene drugs into the palace, causing the court to become filthy..."
"Second, the rebels have repeatedly instigated, seduced the superiors with flattery, lured the princes with benefits, and turned my father and son against each other. This is a great rebellion..."
"Third, the traitor organized a plot to assassinate me at the Sixth Division of the Overwatch Council in the Xuankong Temple, and afterward, Fan Xian, the governor of Kyoto..."
"Fourth, the rebels colluded to rebel against Qin Ye, took the military crossbow from the inner treasury privately, and killed the imperial envoy in the valley outside the capital..."
"Fifth, the rebels sent assassins into the palace and assassinated the third prince..."
The thirteen major crimes were the crimes drafted by several major ministries yesterday, but the first seven were personally committed by His Majesty, and it was precisely because Chen Pingping's crimes were read out at the court meeting that the ministers knew that Mr. Chen The dean has actually committed such a rebellious and evil deed. Even the two bachelors Shu and Hu, who were about to plead desperately before, couldn't help but stop with a gloomy expression.
The latter six crimes were drafted by the six departments, but they were just crimes such as possession of property, bullying men and women, and compared with the previous seven crimes, they seemed too common. However, no matter which one of these thirteen major crimes is one, it is a dead end. Adding up the thirteen...
Following the voice of Eunuch Yao’s internal force to read out the guilt, it sounded in front of the square of the palace, and drifted in the autumn wind and autumn rain to the ears of all the observers. Countless buzzing voices and angry scolding voices.
Originally, there may have been many people who came to watch the punishment just nervously and with complicated emotions. As these crimes resounded in front of the palace, their gazes on Chen Pingping became indifferent. Of course, His Majesty will execute such a mad criminal. .
"Kill him!" Someone in the crowd took the lead in shouting, and the crowd was suddenly excited, and the sound of shouting to kill resounded through the sky.
But Chen Pingping on the execution ground just looked indifferent. The thousand-year-old ginseng soup woke him up, but it couldn't save his life. He seemed to have seen through everything, and there was nothing but peace in his indifferent eyes. Autumn wind and autumn rain worry Sharen, Dong Sharen, his face is pale, his lips are black and blue, but it seems that he can't hear the deafening shouts in front of him at all, he just turns his head with difficulty, as if he wants to take one last look The one at the head of the imperial city who always wins and always wins.
As if sensing his intentions, the wooden frame turned slightly, allowing his cloudy eyes a chance to see the imperial city.
High above the imperial city, His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom, wearing a black and gold dragon robe, was standing alone under the eaves, at the very center. There was no one around him, the eunuchs and maids were all driven away from a distance, and the third prince who was forcibly tied up to observe the decree was watching his father's face from afar with a pale face.
His Majesty the Emperor stood very high, very far away, and his figure was extremely small, but in Chen Pingping's cloudy eyes, it was still so clear.
The lonely emperor looked indifferently at his old partner surrounded by crowds on the execution ground, his eyes showed no emotion, but this indifference was more frightening and creepy than resentment.
Most of the steel balls in his body had been taken out last night, but the incisions on his body were still bleeding and painful, and the blood was stained on the black gold belted dragon robe, nothing could be seen. His Majesty's face was only slightly pale, and he didn't feel any pain, but when he looked at the miserable-looking old partner under his feet, he had the desire to make him feel even more painful.
His Majesty the Emperor nodded lightly. The third prince, who was holding the palace wall with his hands about ten feet away, looked pale and subconsciously grasped the city wall. After a long time, the third prince shouted to the bottom with a trembling voice: "Execution."
This cry actually forced Li Chengze, a young man who had been cold and ruthless since he was a child, to cry, because he knew why his father asked him to shout this. After the shouts from the imperial city came down, eunuch Yao began to read out the last will, which was written by His Majesty himself last night.
"I have known you for dozens of years, and I have entrusted you with a heavy burden. However, you are deeply in love with me. I am in great pain. I am in great pain. For all kinds of crimes, the three divisions will interrogate you. I will execute you at the end of the day. I don't hesitate. The following are slaves, and the crime will be stopped for one of you, and the rest will be released without questioning."
The decree was clearly spread throughout every inch of land in the palace, every drop of rain, every wisp of autumn wind, calmly but absolutely. The family members of the criminal eunuchs, the pain during the period is palpitating and depressing.
However... these hypocritical words fell into Chen Pingping's ears, he just smiled slightly, let the rain seep into his dry lips, lowered his head, and no longer looked at the emperor at the top of the city.
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The execution begins.
The fishing net tightly covered Chen Pingping's skinny body, and it was extremely difficult to use the mesh to highlight the skin and flesh on the torso. A sharp and special knife fell down tremblingly, and slowly cut off the flesh and the old man. body separation.
This was the first cut, and there was a mountain of applause from under the execution field!
The blade left the mesh, a piece of meat fell to the ground, and was immediately picked up by the officials of the Ministry of Punishment into a plate. Strangely, the wound in the mesh was a little white and a little dry, and not much blood flowed out. It seemed that the blood in this thin traitor's body had already flowed out, and all the blood had already been dedicated to something. out.
The executioner who carried the knife was an old official from the Ministry of Punishment. However, even though he had already drank two cans of spirits today, he still couldn’t stop shaking his hands. He felt that the skinny old man he killed today was different from the officials he had experienced before, because There was no blood in the opponent's body, no flesh in the opponent's body, there seemed to be only a ghost in the opponent's body, and I couldn't help shivering due to the cold.
When the second cut was made, the flesh and blood were separated, and a few streaks of blood flowed on the fishing net. There was another round of applause. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars behind
Chen Pingping closed her eyes tightly, her face was pale, her lips were extremely closed, and she was trembling all over, as if she was enjoying this unbearable pain. He suddenly opened his eyes slowly, looked at the executioner in front of him, gasped and said: "Your technique... is a little... poor."
The executioner has never seen such a person in his life. He has already transcended the so-called toughness, and some are just indifferent, indifferent to life, to his own life and pain, maybe there is something in this old man that has surpassed pain? His hands trembled again, and he almost dropped the knife on the wooden platform that was wet by the autumn rain.
Another knife, another knife, another knife, one after another cheers one after another, but these cheers gradually became quieter, and finally fell silent. All the officials and people watching the execution closed their mouths, watching the tortured with extremely complicated emotions. the old man.
There was no howling, no screaming, no begging for mercy, no begging for death, no cursing, the old man who was hacked into pieces in the execution ground in the autumn rain was just blindly silent, deathly silent.
So all the people in the imperial city were also silent, involuntarily silent, deathly silent.
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(In these few chapters, I have devoted myself to writing about Chen Pingping. I love this person. Who can save him? No one, because the life is gone, the thought of life is gone... Maybe the old cripple is a person who should have died a long time ago, That's why he faced death so calmly. As for the pain, it is the proof of life, so what is it? Please calm down and accompany me to send the old guy through the last part of the journey. I have counted the last volume one About 100 chapters left Chen Pingping on the road with peace of mind, and finally arrived at this section, so I was very committed and tried to write something appropriate. PS: The monthly pass in the back is catching up. I would like to call the monthly pass in my hand and shake my head. I am really sorry. Today's emotions are really not suitable for canvassing.) (, If you want to know what will happen next, please log in, there are more chapters, support the author, support the original!)