General mighty

Hearing Meng Yuzhou's question, the man on the torture rack with his head hanging down trembled all over his body. His long hair, which was messed up by the torture, was stuck on his head and face like a chicken coop. Clear his expression.

"Your Excellency is asking you something!" The jailer stepped forward and hit him with a whip.

The man was still trembling, his lips parted slightly as if he was saying something, but when the jailer got closer, he found that he was laughing hoarsely, the laughter was as rough as torn silk, and it seemed to be when a sharp weapon scratched the lacquerware That high-pitched sound.

Meng Yuzhou frowned, and a cold light appeared in his eyes: "What are you laughing at?"

His hands were separated and tied to iron shackles hanging from the wooden beam. When he laughed, his arms vibrated, and even the two strings of iron chains made tinkling sounds.The skin around the wrist was frayed, and blood flowed down the arm, past the old wounds and bruises that had condensed into black.

"'To attack the Song Dynasty, what is the crime of the Song Dynasty?' From, from the first day I entered this big prison, I have made it clear to the adults: the grassroots are innocent, so how can we talk about confessing?"

"Innocent?" Meng Yuzhou snorted coldly, smashed the teacup in his hand on the table, picked up a stack of papers on the table, with bright red handprints on it, densely packed, eloquent tens of thousands of words, all Confessions of Luo Fei and Tong Xing.

Meng Yuzhou showed these two confessions in front of him: "Luo Fei and Tong Xing have already recruited! Do you still want to deny it? Zhang Ruqin, from Lanyang, was elected in the 15th year of the Ming Dynasty. Returning home will not lead to an official position'—isn’t that what you’re talking about?!”

Looking up at the document in Meng Yuzhou's hand, Zhang Ruqin still had a smile on his face, his voice became very soft because of his weakness, but he clearly said: "Of course...it's me, this is the imperial court record, every juren I have them all, so can my lord conclude that I am their accomplice just because they can say a few words?"

It is true that he was a Juren during the Ming Dynasty, and when he was about to enter the Shi Ke, his father passed away, so he was unable to become an official.By coincidence and by chance, he went through business trips, and he can be regarded as having a small fortune and returning to his hometown.

Unexpectedly, after one or two years of good life after Rong returned to his hometown, he was suddenly arrested by the imperial envoy of the imperial court, saying that he was an accomplice of Luo Fei and Tong Xing, and had embezzled more than 2000 dans of money and food from the state treasury.

Zhang Ruqin has read books, and after becoming rich in business, he never forgets the way of a sage, so he can be regarded as a Confucian businessman.

Lanyang gave birth to him and raised him, and the neighbors treated his orphans and widows with great kindness. Under his insistence, even after the Zhang family became rich, they built many charity villages and schools in Lanyang to help the poor. Let the children of the poor be able to study and become officials.

Zhang's righteous deeds, the local people called him "Zhang's big family". In fact, compared with the real "big family", their Zhang family is just a small family with a few acres of land and a little wealth.

Don't say that local governors like Luo Fei and Tong Xing are not something that he, a small businessman, can meet casually. Even if he could, he would definitely not join hands with the two bureaucrats of the fish and meat people to do such things like plundering the people's fat and anointing.

Gentlemen love fortune, in a proper way.

"Smart words, you are still sophistry!" Meng Yuzhou walked around the dark as hell torture room twice, "Let me ask you, have you ever borrowed two hundred dans of food from a housekeeper named Rong Bao?"

"Excuse me." Zhang Ruqin nodded.

"This Rong Bao's surname is Luo, but he is actually the housekeeper of Luo Fei's family. Do you know that?!" Fifty loans for grain; and, Xia, another eighteen loans; three years, worth a hundred..."

Meng Yuzhou glared at Zhang Ruqin, and almost crushed the confession with his fingers: "These! Black and white, do you still want to deny it?!"

"I..." Zhang Ruqin raised his head in surprise, his disheveled hair made him even more haggard, his chapped and white lips moved, and a look of surprise and uncertainty flashed in his deeply sunken eyes: "I, It is true that I lent Luo Rongbao two hundred dans of grain, but it was also at the beginning of this year's spring, so how come the two years of Qiankang?!"

"Hmph—" Meng Yuzhou turned back with a sneer, and sat back on his chair again: "Do you want me to show you the IOU you gave him?"

"Borrow..." Zhang Ruqin's face was pale and blue, and his body was shaking like chaff in the wind, "How can there be such a thing, he has never asked me to borrow money..."

As if thinking of something that made him anxious and unspeakable, Zhang Ruqin's pale face showed a desperate and sad look: "If he hadn't threatened me with his life with Qin Yan, how could I..."

Meng Yuzhou snorted contemptuously: "It's too late to find any excuses now! Go, get Luo Fei's IOUs! Every one of them was found from your house!"

The jailer next to him was ordered to fetch five or six IOUs, each of which stated the date and the amount of grain borrowed, with Luo Fei's autograph and Luo Rongbao's seal on it.

"Aren't you pleading guilty—Zhang Dahu, Zhang Ruqin, Master Zhang?"

"This is framing..." Zhang Ruqin shook his head, his face full of exhaustion: "My lord, I...you have already asked, and I have also told you... everything I know. If you don't believe me, I will explain... What's the point?"

"You——" Meng Yuzhou narrowed his eyes, and he gritted his teeth and said a few Sen Han words: "Are you trying to say that I don't know right from wrong, use lynching, and torture you?"

"Don't dare," Zhang Ruqin forced the corner of his bleeding mouth to smile, "It's just... a man is brave enough to do things, and I, Zhang Ruqin, will never deny anything that I haven't done. Fish and meat people, even if you broke every bone in my body today and refined all the flesh and blood, my lord, I will never be with them!"

Take a poisonous oath?

Meng Yuzhou squinted his eyes. Since he came to Lanyang to investigate the case, he had seen quite a few landlords and wealthy gentry like Zhang Ruqin who looked like dogs. When they were just imprisoned, they would rather die than submit. Not all of them confessed with mournful faces.

This Zhang Ruqin is just a tougher bone.

Thinking of this, Meng Yuzhou took a deep breath, and every word he uttered was tinged with iciness: "In that case, you can use that torture to treat Dahu Zhang well for me."

The jailers were taken aback, and lowered their heads in fear to say "yes", and four more people went to get the torture tools respectively. , set in the prisoner's hands.

When waiting for execution, the ten fingers of the prisoner are clamped tightly, and the torturer pulls the rope on both sides, and the wooden strip becomes tighter and tighter.

The so-called ten fingers connected to the heart, Meng Yuzhou chose this torture, one is that this torture is extremely painful and can easily destroy Zhang Ruqin's spirit, and the other is that the pain is not enough to kill him.

Only when there is fate can one plead guilty and be punished. He is famous as a teacher: none of these big rich men who are corrupt and pervert the law can be let go.

When the guards were busy putting Zhang Ruqin on the slack, the man Meng Yuzhou hated the most, Mr. He, ran down the ten steps in a hurry. His slightly chubby face was illuminated by the light of the brazier Become more shiny and shiny.

"Qin, Mr. Imperial Envoy..." He smiled flatteringly with Futian.

"What's the matter?" Meng Yuzhou signaled the jailer to stop, but took out a handkerchief from his pocket, and wiped his fingers meticulously one by one. He lowered his head and slightly rolled his eyes to look at He Futian: " Didn't I promise that no one should disturb me when I'm interrogating a prisoner—eh?"

As soon as his words fell, He Futian's short and fat body shook, and the oily shine on his face and forehead became more and more, the whole person looked like a roast suckling pig that had been slaughtered and served on the table.

"My lord, I... am..."

"Brother Meng." In the darkness, another voice rang out. The man walked down the stone steps step by step. His black boots appeared first, followed by his blue robe and black gauze. , obliquely cut in the firelight at the end of the stone steps, his handsome face slowly appeared, half in the light and half in the shadow.

"Ziyan?!" The cold expression on Meng Yuzhou's face receded like a tide, his eyes lit up, and he immediately went up to hold Li Yinshang's hand: "It's so late, why are you here?"

Li Yinshang did not speak, and looked deeply at Meng Yuzhou with his beautiful eyes. After a while, he moved his legs and walked out from the shadows without taking Meng Yuzhou's hand.

When Li Yinshang stepped on the ground of the execution room, Meng Yuzhou saw the expression on his face clearly:

Gloomy, gloomy and apprehensive.

"..." Meng Yuzhou looked at his hand outstretched in mid-air, coughed lightly, turned his head to make peace with Futian, "You go out first."

After leaving with Futian, Li Yinshang looked at Zhang Ruqin, who was tortured to the point where he was almost out of shape behind Meng Yuzhou, and heaved a long sigh, "Brother Meng, don't you think this is too cruel?"

Meng Yuzhou frowned, and moved his body to block Li Yinshang's sight: "Ziyan, if you don't want to read it, then don't read it. Let's go out and talk about something?"

"Brother Meng, you still don't understand what I mean," Li Yinshang suddenly turned his voice higher, "I want you not to be so anxious when investigating this case, because it's hard to guarantee that you will kill a good person by mistake! It will cause public anger!"

As if he didn't expect Li Yinshang to say such a thing, Meng Yuzhou was stunned for a while, his face changed, and he said shyly:

"Zi Yan, you..."

Li Yinshang was anxious, so he simply explained it to Meng Yuzhou. He didn't care whether Meng Yuzhou agreed or not. He pointed out several jailers and ordered them to take Zhang Ruqin into custody: "Brother Meng, what Young Master Jiang Jun said makes sense, and Hu Benjun , the Huben army stationed in Huazhan——Yin Wen is eyeing it, we have to guard against it!"

However, what Li Yinshang didn't expect was that after he shouted these words anxiously and earnestly, Meng Yuzhou's reaction to him was that his eyes suddenly burst into red, and he grabbed his neckline fiercely, pulling his whole body. pressed against the wall—

"Jiang Jun! It's Jiang Jun again!" Meng Yuzhou's furious voice slammed into his ears like thunder, "Before you offended Han Junzhi and General Han because of him, and you even offended the Yin family because of him. You don't hesitate to die—!"

"It's fine if it's Ling Cheng!" Meng Yuzhou's eyes were full of grievances and unwillingness, and his face became ferocious and embarrassed, "He is the emperor! Even if he is a heinous bastard, I can't compete with him, but Jiang Jun, why is it again? Jiang Jun! He is nothing—he even caused you to be given by that dog emperor..."

"Meng Yuzhou!" Li Yinshang also turned pale, it was the first time he saw such an abnormal Meng Yuzhou, "You, do you know what you are talking about?!"

"Ziyan..." Meng Yuzhou suddenly laughed bitterly, let go of Li Yinshang's lapel and took two steps back, "Ziyan, Ziyan, you have all kinds of talents, and you are unparalleled in intelligence. Why did you get on me? , so you don't understand...?"

"From the post station in Tongxiang to the Gongyuan in the capital, under the plum grove, the cold wind cracks the bones, only your smile..."

"Brother Meng, stop talking!" Li Yinshang's eyes widened, and he backed away with a pale face, but he had already been pushed against the wall by Meng Yuzhou, so there was nowhere to retreat: "Brother Meng, don't talk nonsense..."

"I'm not talking nonsense!" Meng Yuzhou shouted, his eyes were crazy and desperate, "If I don't tell you today, you will never know what I mean, Ziyan, I... like you."

"I..." Li Yinshang opened his mouth, but couldn't speak.

"Forget it..." Meng Yuzhou couldn't bear to see Li Yinshang's hesitant and bewildered expression. He sighed, turned around and covered his face with his hands, as if he had expected such an ending:

He knew Li Yinshang well. At this moment, this man's eyes were only confused and flustered, but he didn't have the rich expression when he faced the emperor—even if it was hatred, it was full of agility and brilliance.

What's more, in the second year of Qiankang, on the bank of Jiahu in Tongxiang, the emperor toured the south...

Meng Yuzhou took a deep breath, calmly covered the pain in his eyes, turned his back and said in a hoarse voice: "In short, Ziyan, you don't need to worry about this matter, I will deal with it myself."

"But..." Li Yinshang was stunned, as if he didn't follow Meng Yuzhou's thoughts.

"I... just want to let you know what kind of love I have for you," Meng Yuzhou said in a very difficult and bitter way, and he raised the corners of his mouth in a self-deprecating way: "I don't want your response, Ziyan, you He is the smartest ruthless person in the world, I... dare not force you, nor do I want to force you."

"It's getting late," it seemed that he was afraid of what Li Yinshang would say, his body was already a little bit crumbling, Meng Yuzhou quickly added: "You can stay today, the East Wing Room has been kept for you."

"I still have some things to deal with, so I won't accompany you—" After finishing speaking, Meng Yuzhou walked past Li Yinshang very quickly, without giving Li Yinshang any chance to ask questions.

Li Yinshang watched him leave, his whole body was stunned, like a tree that was suddenly drained of nutrients and instantly withered, lost its luster and greenness, leaving only dry and old twigs standing against the wind.

He never thought that Meng Yuzhou had such thoughts for him, and what he never thought was that it was not Meng Yuzhou or the boy here who woke him up early the next morning in the Sidong Wing of the Prosecutor, but the almost What caused all the conflicts between him, the emperor, and Meng Yuzhou——

Jiang Jun.

The author has something to say: Jiang Jun: I... What kind of Shura field did I enter by mistake?

Entropy: Friends, have you heard of the butterfly effect?

Wei Wu: So why are there so few shots of me as an attacker?

Ai Entropy: You have to see the essence through the phenomenon, and have you never heard a sentence: "When the next September [-]th, I will kill all the flowers after they bloom", the last laugh is the best, okay?

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The one that pinches the fingers is called "桚", and the one that pinches the legs is called the "clamp stick". Only in this way can the pain be sustained_(:зゝ∠)_