choke element

Enter the corner gate and walk along the scattered stones under the high wall.

The palace is not big, and the walk from the corner gate to the side courtyard can only take more than a hundred steps, and there are two turns. There are rockery and stone walls along the way, which are sparkling and exquisitely built. However, it is actually not far from the square outside. Compared with the specifications of the emperor's palace, it is too cramped.

The rockery was surrounded by warriors holding halberds. Guo Ning paced back and forth under the rockery, walked twice and stood still, showing a thoughtful expression.

The attendant sang loudly: "Li Yunxuan is here!"

Li Yun quickened his pace and moved forward, bowing politely.

Guo Ning nodded to him.

He listened to the sounds outside and said slowly:

"When the palace was just built last year, I stood here and could hear the noise of the civil and military officials waiting in front. The civil servants were better. Even if they talked, they mostly talked in low voices. The military men were different. They liked to talk loudly. Yelling loudly. Many of the soldiers who came to see me had just experienced the war and were very excited. They wanted to show off their military exploits and publicize the hardships. Some soldiers met their old colleagues here and talked and laughed with each other. Sometimes I stand here, Listening to their words, it felt like they were warming themselves by a fire on the march. Everyone was eating their newly caught prey while talking nonsense. But at this moment, they are so quiet."

Li Yun smiled bitterly and said: "They have all made mistakes, and they all know that His Majesty runs the army very strictly. Not to mention these mere petty officials, even ministers and generals will be killed when they should be killed, and demoted when they should be demoted. Now everyone If you are in danger, you are not in the mood for small talk."

"You know how strict I am in running the army, but you still have such courage!"

Guo Ning shook his head and took two steps back and forth: "You were busy all day yesterday. Did you find out any crimes?"

Li Yun took out the document from his sleeve and presented it respectfully.

Guo Ning held the document in his hand and asked: "How many cases are there in total? How many officials are involved?"

"What I was looking at yesterday was the case at Sanchakou Wharf. There were eleven officials involved."

"The report from the Recorder's Department only mentioned six people about the delay in transshipment at Sanchakou Terminal. Presumably those you mentioned in the document have been included. In addition, he also reported a few people This case involves the transfer of ordnance in Tongzhou and the manufacturing of arrows in two factories in Baodi County. I haven’t looked at the books carefully about the specific details, but in total, there are more than forty officials involved. "

Having said this, Guo Ning patted another book beside him and asked Li Yun to take a look at it too.

Li Yun flipped through it and immediately knew that he had been tricked by the old fox Xu Yan. This guy persuaded the generals to come forward and ran amok everywhere, but he secretly closed the net and gathered far more clues than he did.

What's ridiculous is that there are only about forty people on Xu Yan's list. After the emperor gave him a day, the whole Tianjin Mansion was in a state of panic. At this moment, he felt that he was guilty, and sixty or seventy people knelt outside the door early.

The more than 40 people who dared to interfere with water transportation and military supplies were certainly bold, but what did the other dozens of people do? They frightened themselves and jumped out to beg for mercy at the risk of being severely punished by the emperor. The Department of Left and Right Affairs and the Department of Records actually knew nothing about their actions. Wasn't it an oversight?

Li Yun felt a slight shiver in his heart: "The Left and Right Division pays more attention to the movements of the Southern Dynasties on a daily basis. After I arrived at Tianjin Mansion, I was in a hurry to conduct inquiries, and there must be many omissions. If Your Majesty..."

"No, no need."

Guo Ning sighed: "The Confucian ministers in the court have always advocated benevolence and righteousness, asking us to be virtuous and careful in punishment in order to inherit the destiny. Those words are not unreasonable. However, most of the people in charge of public security and supervision in this dynasty came from the army and regard killing as a crime. It's normal. If you guys are really ruthless and investigate carefully, I'm afraid that the people below are eager to perform meritorious deeds and will torture and extort confessions. Not only will the impact be too great, but there may be new unjust cases."

Li Yun bowed and said: "In that case, we can only let them surrender themselves to the Tianjin government and deal with them in accordance with national laws."

This idea coincides with what Guo Ning had previously thought.

While dealing with military and political affairs, Guo Ning often listened to modern stories being explained, and often lamented why the Song Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties valued culture over military affairs, leading to such a decline in power. Later, when we went back to the Five Dynasties, we found out that after the warriors came to power, they could act recklessly and be arrogant and domineering to such an extent. The reason why the Song Dynasty desperately suppressed the warriors was not motivated by a certain emperor or a certain civil servant. It was actually the experience of After the terrible world, the common wish of all people in the world is this and cannot be shaken.

After all, warriors are not saints. Each of them has desires and attitudes, and their desires and attitudes are not naturally consistent with the commander-in-chief. In many cases, they are truly wild and untamed. Hundreds of thousands of warriors are like hundreds of thousands of wolves, tigers and leopards. As the commander-in-chief of the army, Guo Ning had to drive them but also restrict them; he had to ensure their loyalty, but he also had to tolerate their stupidity and nonsense from time to time, which was really helpless.

So Guo Ning had already thought clearly that this time, he would raise the military stick in his hand high and put it down gently. The best way, as Li Yun said, is not to worry about military needs, but to regard them as a lot of government affairs and even daily security-related cases, and leave them to the Tianjin government to deal with.

At this point, the Tianjin government will definitely not be able to find any big problems. After all, this group of people has been busy all night. If they want to leave something for the local officials to use, they are really stupid to a certain extent and deserve to be unlucky.

Guo Ning wanted to gain a favor from Li Yun, so he ignored him for now and asked the guards to call in all the dozens of people kneeling outside.

Almost all of those dozens of people were retired soldiers. They were not young anymore, and they had more or less old injuries and diseases, which were much worse than when they were young and full of energy and blood. Before dawn, they knelt down in front of the palace gate to apologize. By now, everyone's knees were sore from the cold. They reluctantly followed the guards in, but they were afraid that they would stagger when they walked and would be disgraceful in front of you, so they tried their best to hold up their waists and legs.

When he arrived in front of the emperor, he saw Li Yun still bowing to beg for mercy. Many people concluded that Li Yun's position was completely different from that of their own side, and they were afraid that they would take the opportunity to frame him. Everyone was frightened and knelt on the ground again, kowtowing repeatedly.

Unexpectedly, Guo Ning glanced at them lightly, turned to Li Yun and stretched out his hand to support him: "I wanted to scold them, but I didn't have anything to say when I saw them. I will follow your idea and take them to see Tianjin Mansion." Yin!"

Didn't the emperor transfer everyone to Tianjin Mansion instead of investigating it thoroughly? This, is this forgiving everyone? Tianjin Mansion has never been in charge of military affairs, and the governor Zhang Lin has always known how to advance and retreat. He never competes with the new dynasty's honorable ministers and veterans.

Deport everyone to Tianjin Mansion, and wait for it to show your superiority!

The emperor understands our difficulties after all! After all, the emperor is truly one of his own! When he is not fighting, the emperor is still very amiable and understanding!

Everyone was overjoyed and thanked him profusely. Hu Zhonggui was very excited, kowtowing loudly, and some people swore on the spot, patting their chests and saying they would never do it again or be deceived by others.

Guo Ning did not speak to them, and stood up directly and turned to the inner courtyard behind the rockery.

After taking two steps, he stood still and patted his forehead: "By the way, what's the crime of killing good people without permission?"

The people who were chatting at each other instantly shut up and fell into silence.

Hu Zhonggui suddenly thought of how he had flaunted his authority at the beginning of the year, used various reasons to kill troubled people, and then dumped their bodies. He can settle some things with benefits, but the people he kills are real and cannot survive.

He was suddenly sweating profusely. After a while, someone next to me trembled and said, "Death penalty."

Hu Zhonggui was stunned for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said: "Killing good people without permission is a capital crime."

"So you all know."

Guo Ning sighed regretfully and added: "I can tolerate your mistakes. If you make some small mistakes, I can't give you a chance to correct them. But once the power is in hand, I will treat the people as trivial. The wanton killing of fish and meat is destroying the foundation of my new dynasty and cannot be tolerated."

After speaking, he pointed at a few people in the crowd, and soldiers immediately dragged them out of the queue.

Several people, including Hu Zhonggui, were so devastated that they did not resist. The soldiers easily held down their arms and forced them to kneel down.

"What you guys have done is too outrageous. I hope you and others have served on the battlefield for a long time, so there is no need to trouble the Tianjin governor and end up with a serious crime and bring shame to the family... Just behead me here."

At the emperor's command, the soldiers waved their swords. The head fell to the ground, blood spurted out wildly, and a strong fishy smell spread everywhere, making everyone onlookers feel frightened.

Guo Ning squinted at a few familiar faces rolling around, waved to others and said, "You can go, what are you waiting for?"