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 the 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 Yudao went all the way to the depths of the square and 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 a hidden drum beat 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 Qing Kingdom gradually came. These common people were dressed in different colors of clothing, with different smells of noble and humble, summoned by the sound of drums from the palace, and slowly walked towards the square in front of the palace. 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 our Emperor of the Daqing Dynasty, His Majesty the Emperor who was wise, mighty, benevolent, and caring for all people. 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 sinister. Although it has been targeting the official circles of the Qing Dynasty, its actions are ruthless and its methods are terrifying. But to offend civil servants is to offend the world's scholar-officials, that is, to offend the world's speeches, 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 people of Kyoto, the Overwatch Council may have a bit of a human atmosphere, but they still don't have any good impression of that square and gloomy building. Instead, they subconsciously feel a kind of fear, and the continuation of the 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, the 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, and now 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 sad for no reason, surrounded by countless complex emotions, surrounding the small practice field. The soldiers of the imperial guards around and the yamen servants in charge of maintaining order in the Kyoto government forcibly stopped these tens of thousands of people outside the border, ensuring the tranquility 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 they have been educated so that the king wants the minister to die, and the minister has 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 thousand-year-old imperial city at any time. On the immovable boulder, the body was smashed to pieces.
Along the open space below the imperial city, a line of troops walked over silently and sternly. They passed by the over a hundred officials of the Qing Dynasty who subconsciously lowered their heads and remained silent on both sides of the royal road. Down, 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 Kyoto at the front sighed with 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 too much blood, and his life energy was about to die, 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 left side of the execution field, 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 didn't know where these sudden masters came from. , when the light was dim, Yan Bingyun was extremely sharp-eyed and found that under the hat, none of these masters had hair.
It seems that they are the ascetic monks scattered in the world, but... the chief priest of Qing Temple died strangely in Qing Temple shortly after returning from preaching in southern Xinjiang, while the second priest and master Sanshi devoted himself to the Junshan Society, and finally Died tragically in the rain of arrows outside the capital, and was killed by His Royal Highness the Eldest Princess.
His Majesty the Emperor has always dismissed the ascetic monks in Tianyi and Qing Temple, and the royal family has never had much contact with 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. Only today did he know that His Majesty has not only reached the peak of the world in terms of imperial power and strength, but even the Qing Temple has become a sharp weapon in his hands. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sighed quietly in his heart. Suddenly there was a mountain-like shout, which made him raise his head immediately.
A wooden frame was erected on the execution ground, and Chen Pingping's thin body was tightly bound to it. All the clothes on the old man had been removed, revealing his pale body. Due to years of disabilities from the chest down, he looked very thin and small. In the cold autumn rain, he looked very 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. They burst into shouts like mountains, like waves. All around.
However, the shout quickly turned into silence. The crowd closest to the execution ground was silent first, and then whispers and discussions spread from the front to the back, and it didn't take long for them to turn into thunderous shocking discussions.
I don't know if some god in the sky issued an order, and all the people in the imperial city fell silent at the same time. The place where tens of millions of people gathered at the same time turned into deathly silence, and even the people at the back could hear the rustling sound of the grass rope tied to Chen Pingping's body on the torture rack rubbing against the wooden stake. .
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!
There was silence. 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 tightly, his eyes were bloodshot. He didn't know about the old dean's hidden illness, this secret, but he just felt that those eyes were not only on the old man's legs on the execution ground, but also on himself, and on all the officials of the Overwatch Council. It was an unspeakable 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 be punished by Ling Chi before everyone. It turned out that the physical torture must be matched with the spiritual 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 thinking about all this, Yan Bingyun's head buzzed, he raised his head unusually forcefully, and met the cloudy and powerless eyes of the old man on the execution ground, without saying anything or doing anything. From the corner of his vision, he could see the shocked expressions on the faces of the court officials below the execution ground. They probably never imagined that the old director of the Overwatch Council, whom he usually respected like his ancestors, was actually the eunuch he 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 astonished expressions, but apart from being astonished, there was a hint of disdain on their faces. Human emotions are always so strange. Previously, when the court was convicted and left the palace to watch the sentence, the faces of these officials were still awe-inspiring, and they still maintained a bit of respect and fear for the dying Chen Pingping. However, at this time, these emotions were gone. up.
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Eunuch Yao took the scroll on the eunuch's case beside him, and forced himself not to look at the old man on the rack beside him. With a trembling voice, he began to read the thirteen deadly crimes about Chen Pingping drafted at the court meeting. At this time, Qiu Yu hit the execution ground, and Eunuch Yao's heart was extremely cold, and an unstoppable kind of 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..."
"Five, the rebels sent assassins into the palace to assassinate 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 actually did such a rebellious and evil deed, even the two bachelors, Shu and Hu, who were about to plead desperately before, couldn't help but shut up 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...
With the voice of Eunuch Yao's internal force to read out the guilt, it sounded in front of the square of the palace, and wafted into the ears of all the observers in the autumn wind and rain. The original strange silence was immediately broken, and there were countless buzzing voices and angry scolding voices in the crowd.
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 court ladies were all driven away from a distance, and the third prince who was forcibly tied up to watch his punishment was looking at 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, he 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 the body have been taken out last night, but the incision on the body is still bloody and painful, and the blood is stained on the dragon robe with the black gold belt, nothing can be seen, His Majesty's face is only slightly pale, There was no taste of pain, but when he looked at the miserable-looking old partner under his feet, he had the desire to make him suffer even more.
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 bear my heart deeply, and it hurts so much. All kinds of crimes will be interrogated by the three divisions, and I will be executed early. As a slave, the crime will be stopped now and you alone, 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 decisively. Your Majesty did not mention the crimes, but only said that my heart was wronged, and I did not hesitate to suffer. In the end, I extrajudicially merciful, and I did not offend the eunuch's relatives.
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 is the first cut. 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 Criminal Justice. Although 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. There was no blood or flesh in his body, it seemed that there was only a wisp of a ghost, and he 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 the pain that a human could not bear. He suddenly opened his eyes slowly, looked at the executioner in front of him panting and said, "Your technique...is...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. The applause came and went, and then the applause gradually became quieter, and finally fell silent. All the officials and people watching the sentence closed their mouths, looking at the old man who was being tortured with extremely complicated emotions.
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 just kept silent, deathly silent.
So all the people in the imperial city were also silent, involuntarily silent, deathly silent.