Chapter 101: Three bloodbaths

In July of the 23rd year of Hongwu, Zhou Ji, the son of Zhou Dexing, Jiangxiahou, had an affair with a palace maid while being a guard in the palace and was reported. The Jinyiwei found out the case in just one day. The evidence was conclusive. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and told the court that he ordered Zhou Dexing and his son to behead him for the crime of "not practicing the deeds". His family was sent to Yunnan to exile the army, and ordered the Jinyiwei to confiscate his property and public land.

As the sky was getting dark, nearly 500 lieutenants from the Third Jinyiwei Institute, led by Zhao Yue, deputy Qianhu and Fei Tingan, surrounded Zhou Dexing Mansion in Maxiang. This is the rule of the Jinyiwei, and house searches and murders are usually carried out at night.

It was still early at this time, and there were still many people walking on the street. Seeing the brigade of Jinyiwei coming with murderous aura, the people along the way were so scared that they ran around and fled. Every family closed their doors and lie on the crack of the door and looked out.

The Jinyiwei School Captain surrounded Zhou Dexing Mansion. Zhao Yue led several hundred households to smash the door. After a moment, a family member opened the door tremblingly. Zhao Yue said coldly: "Call your master out!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Dexing walked out with great strides, following his sons. Zhou Dexing has been guarding Japanese in Fujian for the past few years. Because he is old, he has just been transferred back to the court this year to take care of his old age. However, he suddenly suffered a sudden disaster. He was wearing a second-rank court ward. He originally wanted to enter the palace to apologize to the emperor, but he was still one step later. The Jinyiwei had blocked the door.

"What are you going to do?" Zhou Dexing's voice was very stern, but his legs were already trembling. He was almost seventy years old and had passed by Death countless times in his life. But at this moment, in front of this Jinyiwei, who was called Zhao Butcher, he suddenly felt an inexplicable fear.

Zhao Yue coldly raised the letter of the horse, which was the official arrest warrant of the Jinyiwei. "According to Your Majesty's order, Zhou Dexing, Jiangxia, was betrayed the holy grace and was unforgivable for his crimes, and his whole family was taken to the imperial prison."

Zhou Dexing and his sons' faces turned pale. Zhou Dexing's legs became weak and he collapsed to the ground. 'It's over, the Zhou family is really finished.'

He suddenly burst into tears and beat the ground desperately, and hated his son to the core, "I hate it! I hate it!"

His sons also burst into tears. No one has ever been able to come out alive when they were admitted to the Jinyiwei Prison. The Zhou Mansion was filled with crying.

Zhao Yue had seen this scene a lot, and he sneered, waved his hand and said, "Take it!"

Hundreds of Jinyiwei lieutenants, who were like wolves and tigers, rushed into the Zhou Mansion. They were extremely cruel and tied dozens of men in the Zhou family like pigs and dogs with thick ropes. Many of them broke their muscles and bones. The Zhou man shouted in pain like killing a pig, but soon, their mouths were also strangled by the ropes, their heads were covered with black cloth bags, and they took them out of the Zhou Mansion and threw them into closed trucks. The women were all in a room waiting for disposal.

At this time, a hundred households came forward to report: "Reporting to the Thousand Houses, there are 26 men in the Zhou family, and there are many of them!"

Zhao Yue nodded, turned around and smiled at Fei Tingan, "The house search below will be led by Lord Fei!"

Fitingan hurriedly bowed and said, "I have a shallow experience, how can I interfere with the affairs? Why don't I take the criminal back to the imperial prison and ask for confession first, and the commander is still waiting!"

Zhao Yue was just a little polite. He had no doubts at all, and then smiled and said, "Okay! Then there's a labor fee."

Fitingan turned over his horse and ordered his opponent: "Go away! Take the prisoner back to the imperial prison."

More than a hundred people drove the carriage and disappeared into the night. Zhao Yue saw him leaving, and then turned around and ordered: "You can start raiding the house."

This is the thing that the Jinyiwei has liked the most. After the Guo Heng case, there were much less house searches and murders across the country. At the beginning of the year, the Li Shanchang case was not dominated by the Jinyiwei. Later, although he also participated in some house searches, the five offices were mainly responsible for that time, and three offices had no share. As the Jinyiwei's wealth became increasingly exhausted, their desire for house searches became stronger day by day. Finally, it was time to wait for a chance today. With Zhao Yue's order, the Jinyiwei's lieutenants began to rush into the inner house of Zhou's mansion and began to rummage boxes and cabinets.

Zhao Yue's lower body couldn't help but itch. He smiled gloomyly, gave a wink to his confidants. The confidants understood and immediately went to the room of Guan's family to pick people. This was Zhao Yue's big preference. He liked to play with women. Every time he searched the house, he always chose young and beautiful women to take it for himself. When he was tired of playing, he reported to the public to deal with it, or sent to prison to kill him. If he really liked it, he would be sent to Beppu for private care.

Soon, several confidants brought two beautiful young women, and their confidants attached themselves to his ears and said, "These two are Zhou Dexing's concubines. According to the old rules, we have already divided their names into the servants and prepared for auction."

Zhao Yue looked at the two women carefully. They were both young and beautiful, with delicate skin. He nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay! Send it to my Beppu first."

Soon, the two women were sent onto the carriage and disappeared quickly. At this time, Zhao Yue shouted: "Catch Zhou Dexing's family into the carriage and send them to the imperial prison for temporary detention."

Just as Zhao Yue led his people to search the house, a Jinyiwei lieutenant rode a horse to Zhao Yue's house. He held a small box in his hand, knocked on the door, and said to his family: "I was sent by the adults, and I have something to do to see my wife."

Zhao Yue's wife came out after hearing the news. The Jinyiwei lieutenant looked familiar and seemed to have seen it. She saw the small box in the captain's hand at first sight and asked in surprise: "Is this what the master asked you to send?"

The captain nodded and handed her the box and said, "Master, please keep it away. He may not be able to come back tonight for the time being."

The captain bowed and left. Zhao Yue's wife immediately took the box back to the inner house. She closed the door and opened it impatiently. She was stunned. The box was full of gems and pearls. These were all from Zhou Dexing's family fortune. She had never seen so many treasures before.

After staying for a while, she couldn't close her mouth. She immediately dragged out a large box with quilts from under the bed, hid the gems and jadeites under the quilts, and waited for two days before returning to her hometown in Changzhou to pack it.

Before the commander Jiang Yan of the Jinyiwei, he was reviewing the report of Zhou Dexing's house search. The house search was over. All the prisoners had been executed in a brief interrogation according to the emperor's family's order. After a brief interrogation, they were executed on the spot. However, at night, the execution of the criminals was still underway, and from time to time, there were faint shrill screams across the heavy night sky.

Jiang Yan walked up to the front and closed the door. He shook his head gently. This time the emperor was really furious and didn't even have a chance to explain Zhou Dexing. He directly ordered the whole family to be executed, and even the family members were not spared. Poor Zhou Dexing followed the emperor to conquer the country, but was finally implicated by his son and became a ghost under the knife. Although Jiang Yan was quite sympathetic to Zhou Dexing, he had always been honest and low-key, but suddenly suffered a disaster. But there was nothing he could do. If you want to blame, blame his son for being brave and dared to have an affair with the palace maid. This happened to give the emperor who had a long-awaited murderous intention.

‘You can’t live if you commit sins!’

Jiang Yan sighed and put the approved house search report aside. At this time, the personal soldiers reported outside the door: "Sir, Li Wei, three thousand households in three places, are asking for a meeting."

Jiang Yan was stunned. Didn’t Li Wei recover from his injuries at home? What did he do? He was surprised, but he still ordered: “Let him come in!”

The door opened, and Li Wei, wearing a gold flying fish official uniform, appeared in front of Jiang Yan. He knelt down on one knee and said, "Li Wei was meeting with the commander!"

Seeing that he had no wounds on his body, Jiang Yan couldn't help but ask in surprise: "Where are you injured?"

Li Wei was pulling up his sleeve and revealing a piece of gauze and laughing: "Today the doctor came to change the medicine. He said that his subordinates were not fractured, but had a little bone crack. There was no big problem. He couldn't stay at home, so he came to dismiss the adults."

"It turned out that it was just a little bit of a bone crack, and there was nothing serious." Jiang Yan laughed and said, "Then you will come to court tomorrow. I will mediate you and Deputy Qianhu Zhao. Everyone is a colleague, so we should get along peacefully!"

Li Weizheng sneered and said, "I have another thing to report to the Lord today. Zhao Yue was ordered to raid the house, but he was corrupt and abused the law. He secretly took the criminals' family members for himself. According to the military discipline of the Jinyi Guard, he should be executed!"

Jiang Yan was startled and hurriedly said, "Li Qianhu has no evidence, don't slander good people." He actually knew it well. When the house was searched, the officers of the Jinyiwei did not take property privately. This was an open secret. If the law did not blame the public, he turned a blind eye. As long as he did not do too much, it would be fine. This time, Zhou Dexing had problems when he searched the house. Zhou Dexing had been rewarded many times and led troops to sweep away many rebellious mountain tribes. The furniture was extremely rich, but from the list of house searches, there were many large items and many treasure money, but the fine and soft gold and silver were obviously less. There was no doubt that this was the Jinyiwei's secretly tampered with it. Jiang Yan was considering how to hide it, but Li Weizheng raised it out without tact, making him unable to come to Taiwan.

He stretched his face and said, "Li Qianhu, you just took office, so don't take it seriously."

Li Weizheng glanced at him sideways and asked slowly, "Did you forget how the emperor explained?"

Jiang Yan suddenly had a cold sweat on his back. He remembered the emperor's hinting at the rectification of military discipline. In this flash of lightning, a thought flashed through him. Could it be that Li Wei was the undercover spy sent by the emperor to the Jinyiwei?

He remembered what the emperor said yesterday, "The key is to look at what matters. When you should take care of it, you still have to take action." Isn't this already suggesting yourself?

Jiang Yan stood up sweating profusely and asked nervously: "I wonder what Li Qianhu wants to do?"

Li Weizheng respectfully bowed and said, "Report to the commander, since the commander is the chief officer of the three institutes, my subordinates are now openly violating military discipline. I should deal with it with military law. According to logic, the Nanzhen Punishment envoy should exercise the investigation power. However, the situation is special, I beg the commander to watch and support my subordinates."

Li Wei was about to deal with Zhao Yue, but he had the right to deal with hundreds of households. The handling of the deputy thousand households must be investigated by the Nanzhen Fu Office first, and then the commander will deal with it. As for dealing with the thousand households, Zhu Yuanzhang had the right to deal with it, so he had to get Jiang Yan's support when dealing with Zhao Yue.

Jiang Yan didn't speak for a long time. No wonder the emperor told him not to take special care of him. This matter would be natural. It turned out that there had been premeditated. He suddenly felt extremely tired in his heart and nodded slowly and said, "Okay! This time the situation is special, I will make an exception to support you."

When it was almost dawn, Zhao Yue left his Beppu and prepared to go to court. He finished killing the man last night and was busy until the first update. Of course, he did not go home, but couldn't wait to enjoy the two new women. This has always been his old rule, not bad. Zhou Dexing's two concubines satisfied him very much. Although he had only slept for less than an hour, the excitement of killing made him still energetic.

The cool morning breeze made Zhao Yue feel refreshed. He remembered that the night before yesterday, Li Wei was coming to him to surrender and was willing to share the three offices by decentralization. Although this was not the most satisfactory result, Zhao Yue also knew that after all, Li Wei was a thousand households, and his reputation was pressing on him! So it was expected that he would get such a result. Let's talk about the future struggle in the future! He is going to court in the next two days, and he should prepare a plan for decentralization in advance. Thinking of this, Zhao Yue accelerated his speed and headed towards the Jinyiwei General Office.

After entering the yamen, he went to Jiang Yan to report the execution of the criminal last night, but when he learned that the commander was not present, he was a little surprised and walked towards his room. As soon as he reached the gate of the courtyard, Wang Han called him. Wang Han naturally came by Lu Siyuan. In the past two days, Zhou Dexing's case suddenly came and was handled by three special agencies. Before the mediation with Li Weizheng was completely reached, Lu Siyuan was still a little worried. He was worried that Zhao Yue would fall into a fight in this case, so he asked Wang Han to warn him. Seeing that there was no one around, Wang Han pulled him to a corner and asked in a low voice: "Did you have any private corruption last night?"

Zhao Yue's habit is to only look for women, but not to directly greedy for money and property. Generally, the hundred households pay tribute afterwards. This has always been his method, so that he will become the same interests as the hundred households and can better control them. When he saw Wang Han asking unpleasantly, his face sank, he said, "What is this? When did I take the stolen goods during the house search? You are too underestimating me!"

Wang Han laughed dryly and said, "I am kind enough to remind you to be careful not to be caught by Li Weizheng."

"He?" Zhao Yue sneered, "Don't worry! I have a sense of my own affairs, so there is no need for Lord Wang to worry about it anymore."

After saying that, he ignored Wang Han and quickly walked into the room. Seeing that his attitude was cold and hard, Wang Han shook his head and left the courtyard. Zhao Yue sat down in the room and listened to the report for a while. Suddenly, a lieutenant ran across from outside, reporting urgently: "Zhao Qianhu, the commander-in-chief is inspecting the three military camps. I ordered you to go there immediately."

Zhao Yue was stunned for a long time. Although he didn't understand what Jiang Yan was going to the military camp, he did not dare to neglect and hurriedly got up and rushed to the military camp.

As soon as he entered the military camp, Zhao Yue immediately felt uneasy. The atmosphere in the military camp seemed very serious. No smile was seen on the faces of the lieutenants, and no one of the 100 households saw him. When several lieutenants saw him coming in, they immediately stepped forward and said, "The commander-in-chief is waiting for you in the tent, please go quickly."

After walking a few steps, Zhao Yue suddenly felt that these people seemed to be controlling themselves. He suddenly turned around and shouted sternly: "What are you going to do?"

Several lieutenants ignored him, grabbed him firmly like an iron hoop, and dragged him into a temporary tent. As soon as they entered the tent, Zhao Yue was stunned. He saw the six hundred households kneeling on the ground that were searching the house with him, all tied up with ropes. On the top was Li Weizheng, the thousand households of the institute, and next to him was Jiang Yan, the commander of the Jinyiwei, who sat in the Jinyiwei, with expressionless faces, while Li Weizheng was sneering on his face, and murderous intent appeared in his eyes.

Zhao Yue suddenly understood that Li Weizheng came to find him the night before yesterday, but he was just to numb him. In order to attack him today, he saw a large sign standing beside Li Weizheng, which was the third article of the Military Discipline of the Jinyiwei: "If anyone who is greedy for money or who uses his power to seek personal gain when performing official duties, he will be killed!"

"Kneel down!" Several lieutenants pressed him down. At this time, dozens of Jinyiwei brought a group of people and took the two women in front, the two concubines of Zhou Dexing who was placed in another house by Zhao Yue. Zhao Yue's face suddenly felt ashamed, his lips trembled, and he couldn't say a word.

The lieutenants placed the property they searched for from the households of various households in front of them. These were all the items that were collected from Zhou Dexing last night. Almost everyone had a share, but there was a few differences. The last one who came in was Zhao Yue's wife. The two lieutenants placed a small box on the ground and opened it. It was filled with a small half box. Luo Guangcai stepped forward to report: "Report to the Lord Qianhu, this was seized in Zhao Yue's mansion. We have asked Zhou Dexing's family to distinguish them one by one. They are all things from Zhou's mansion. His wife has already offered people to others. It was last night that Zhao Yue sent someone to send them home.

Zhao Yue was so shocked that he was about to jump up, but was pressed by the captain behind him. His eyes were almost red. It was true that he had taken two women privately, but he had never sent anyone to send any jewelry home last night. He suddenly understood that this was Li Weizheng's frame-up. He shouted: "Mr. Jiang, Hu Zhi is wronged, and Hu Zhi has never sent anyone to send these things home. Master, please understand!"

Li Weizheng was also secretly surprised. He did not send anyone to deliver these jewelry. When the house was raided, his people had already left the scene. He checked Zhao Yue's house to find his former corruption, but he did not expect to find the things from Zhou Dexing's mansion. He immediately understood that someone must have secretly helped him, but at this time he could not think too much. He turned around and said to Jiang Qi, "Sir, no one is willing to admit that he is greedy. His subordinates hope to use the Jinyiwei method to inquire."

When Jiang Yan saw Zhou Dexing's two women, he knew that Zhao Yue was inevitable this time. He was a smart man and would not make him angry when the evidence was conclusive. He nodded immediately and said, "Li Qianhu can handle this matter with full authority."

Li Wei was about to say this, and immediately turned around and winked at Fitingan. Fitingan pulled Zhao Yue out. The Jinyiwei had some way to get the confession. After a while, Zhao Yue screamed loudly and the footsteps quickly rang out. Fitingan brought the dying Zhao Yue in. He presented a confession with a fingerprint on his finger and said: "Sir, Zhao Yue has confessed, and he really ordered someone to send it home privately."

Li Weizheng looked at Jiang Yan again, and Jiang Yan nodded expressionlessly. Li Weizheng waved his arm and said coldly: "The evidence is conclusive, please deal with it according to military regulations. Push it out for me and kill it!"

Several Jinyiwei's lieutenant dragged Zhao Yue down, and the tent was silent, and everyone was shocked. This was the first time that Jinyiwei was killed for greed. After a moment, a lieutenant came up with a plate. The plate was Zhao Yue's head. Zhao Yue's wife screamed and fainted. Li Wei was pointing at her and said, "Take it down and question it, and investigate Zhao Yue's previous greed."

At this time, several hundred households kowtowed like pounding garlic and begged for mercy. Jiang Qi felt a little reluctant and kicked Li Weizheng gently, meaning that he would stop when he saw the answer. After letting these hundred households go, Li Weizheng raised a piece of paper on the table, and saw a line of words written on it: "I can't make any mistakes to the emperor like this!"

Jiang Yan sighed in his heart and said nothing more. Li Wei was snorting coldly. He bent down and said to the six Baihus, "I am willing to let you go once, but the military discipline is like a mountain. If I let you go, who will let me go?"
Chapter completed!