Tiger Guards

Chapter 190 The Fenyin Punishment
Before noon, prisoners from Zhongdu, Jingling and Wuxian were escorted to the scene and gathered on the west side of the embankment.

Five thousand new soldiers wearing brand new uniforms, holding wooden sticks, wearing cloth helmets and cloth shoes stood in formation on the embankment.

From a distance, it looks like a thick red line is attached to the embankment.

More and more well-dressed and powerful young men were escorted here.

When the county officials in charge of escorting the prisoners saw this scene, many of them could no longer walk, but they still forced themselves to move forward.

Everyone is related to each other, so the difficulties encountered by Sun Zi were placed before them.

The Tiger Infantry troops involved in the escort lined up at the north and south ends, blocking both sides.

There were cavalry supervisors everywhere, and most of the well-dressed people and the sons of powerful families who were escorted here had their hands tied with ropes, and were grouped in groups of ten.

On the chariot, under the green umbrella, Zhao Ji looked at all this with as calm a gaze as possible.

They were busy until the afternoon, when the well-dressed and powerful young men from Qi County and Jiexiu arrived.

More than 800 people were arrested in five counties.

In terms of qualifications, they are no less than the Hedong Huben, and they are even from the same group.

In terms of family wealth, these people are far superior to the Hu Ben army led by the second son.

Wei Ji stopped his horse beside Zhao Ji and squinted his eyes at the crowd of people looking around.

If Zhao Ji had not decisively launched a military remonstration, then after the court officials completed the reorganization of the county troops and clan troops, they would have forced Zhao Ji to execute the Hedong young men in this way on the banks of the Sushui River.

By then, Zhao Ji would have lost the support of the people in Hedong and would have become a thug of the imperial court, with no support left.

As for releasing and appeasing...you have taken away the wealth that their ancestors have accumulated through mergers and acquisitions. Do you still expect them to be grateful for your mercy in not killing you?

Even if you just borrow food, these people will hate you for the rest of their lives!

Yuan Shao was waiting on the east side of Taihang Mountain, and Gao Gan was in Shangdang. If the internal hidden dangers were not dealt with quickly, these people would unite and lead Gao Gan and Yuan Shao. Many people would die, and the entire Taiyuan would be destroyed by war.

By then, there will be more than tens of thousands of casualties.
Not only were these people executed, but their homes were also completely confiscated, and their children were demoted to slavery, working in mines and other dangerous jobs that required centralized management.

His wife and daughter were taken into the government office and forced to do centralized labor.

After suffering enough, they will be distributed.

Wang Chen barely stood in the front row, hesitating and looking around, overwhelmed by endless fear.

At this moment, his voice was hoarse and he couldn't even shout out a decent sound.

More than a hundred Tiger Guards stood in front of them and read out the charges in unison.

Soon, the sound of their reading was drowned out by the death row prisoners' cries of injustice, shouts, and curses.

On the dike, the five thousand new recruits had different expressions, most of them were frightened, but there was no sympathy or compassion.

The condemned prisoner attempted to charge the formation of more than a hundred Tiger Guards, but was stabbed and forced back by the spear-wielding Tiger Infantry in front of the formation.

These death row prisoners were grouped in groups of ten and had difficulty moving. If one of them was stabbed to death, it would be difficult for the others to escape.

As the hundred or so Tiger Guards finished their reading, the Tiger Infantrymen standing in formation in front of them began to advance with spears, stabbing the condemned prisoners who had difficulty escaping.

Three Tiger Infantry heavy armored phalanxes of 100 men advanced in an orderly manner, with spears and halberds like a forest.

The condemned prisoners fled and charged to the north and south sides, but the Tiger Infantrymen stationed there stabbed with spears and halberds to prevent them from approaching.

Some death row prisoners also cooperated with each other and tried to break out of the embankment.

The embankment is more than ten feet high and the terrain is relatively flat.

Under the stern supervision of the Tiger Guards, the new recruits could only poke and chop with wooden sticks to prevent the death row prisoners from breaking out.

Three hundred-man squadrons of heavily armored Tiger Infantry continued to advance, and under the watchful eyes of the crowd, they gradually advanced to the embankment.

The last group of death row prisoners who grabbed the wooden sticks put up a stubborn resistance, but were soon stabbed to death and wiped out.

The 300 Tiger Infantrymen retreated in an orderly manner, and corpses were piled up in front of the embankment, lying in all directions and in strings.

After watching, Zhao Ji said to his attendants, "Don't execute people this way in the future. Convicts are human beings too. Separate them, blindfold them, drag them outside the embankment, and shoot them with crossbows."

Everyone was silent for a moment before they responded: "Yes."

Zhao Ji looked at Han Shu and said, "Go mobilize the new recruits. Have them come down from the embankment, pass by the prisoners, and then enter the camp."

Worried that Han Shu didn't understand, Zhao Ji raised his hand to gesture, and Han Shu nodded: "Yes."

Then he kicked the horse, and at this time a faint smell of blood filled the air.

Han Shu felt a little uncomfortable. He had fought many battles with Zhao Ji, but this way of killing made him feel instinctively uncomfortable and fearful.

It happened too quickly. More than 800 people were killed in just two quarters of an hour.

Not far away, the emperor and his ministers were also watching the execution.

They were all people who had seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They were so far away from each other that they couldn't even hear any sounds, so they didn't have any deep feelings.

Wang Rou was already guilty, yet he dared to forge an imperial edict to assassinate Zhao Ji.

If Wang Rou really succeeded, the emperor, the ministers, and the officials wouldn't necessarily be any better off. Huochequan was also watching, his expression changing constantly, and he felt very distressed.

If possible, he would rather spend more money to exchange these people.

These people are too important. If they were gathered together, they would be able to support and develop a powerful tribe of thousands of tribes.

The elite population of a county, heroes who were well-educated in poetry and literature, were cut down like grass.

Huochequan was filled with regret and even more frightened, but not surprised.

Every coup d'état in the Han Dynasty resulted in countless deaths.
The more killing there is, the more true heroes will stand out and serve in the court.

He knew very well that after this, Taiyuan was no longer something he could covet.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the Taiyuan recruits, supervised by their leader Hu Ben, marched in teams of 100 across the blood-soaked grass on the embankment.

Under their feet were the big men of the village, big men whose wives, daughters and sisters were considered a gift to them.

To their north and south were the Tiger Infantry in formation, and to their east were the retreating, blood-soaked Heavy Tiger Infantry.

While walking among them, a wounded death row prisoner grabbed his ankle and screamed out of fear, and was immediately beaten with a stick by the leading tiger guards.

After a narrow escape, the five thousand new recruits passed through this bloody road, and the blood mixed with mud dyed their clean cloth shoes red and dirty.

By the time the five thousand new recruits returned to the camp first, a route with black and red marks had already been trampled and carved out.

As they evacuated, the Tiger Infantry teams turned around and headed to the counties to take on the real tough challenges.

Zhang Yang also watched, his chariot right next to Zhao Ji.

He asked, "Minister, what should we do now?"

"General Zhang will lead his troops across the river early tomorrow morning and station at Zishi, positioning themselves between the Chanyu's royal court and his camp. Once I have pacified the five counties, I will lead my officers and soldiers across the river and then encircle and annihilate the rebels."

Zhao Ji continued in a low voice, "There's no need to rush to put down the rebellious army."

Zhang Yang nodded and asked, "How should the counties that have joined the traitorous officials in the rebellion be dealt with?"

"It's just according to the law, what else can I do?"

Zhao Ji looked up at the sky. "There are laws to follow, so there's no need to worry. The county registers are still there, and they've determined the legal land based on the tax amounts from previous years. Any hidden land outside of the taxable amount will be confiscated and declared official land. Those cultivating official land will be considered tenants and registered as household members."

Not many people can actually keep their land. Only those who pay taxes honestly and have no one in their family involved can keep their land.

These people are generally small farmers, and the land they occupy is less than 10% of the developed land, and none of them are fertile farmland or paddy fields.

In a place like Taiyuan where internal mergers are carried out behind closed doors, ordinary people cannot keep good land.

Those who can keep good land and have surplus assets to merge and develop after a little management are no longer ordinary people.

If most of the fertile farmland and paddy fields are turned into government farmland in one go, his financial situation will immediately improve after this summer harvest and autumn harvest.

Only when he was rich could he squeeze out 200,000 or 300,000 shi to support the Luoyang court.

Even if the government-owned land is distributed to hidden households, the hidden households may not be able to keep it.

It was simply classified as government land, and the hidden households became tenants, paying 30% to 50% of the profits.

Tenants whose children are in military service or who are receiving pensions only need to pay 30% of the profits, and the maximum they can pay is 50%.

Corvée labor was limited to the county itself; corvée labor at the state and county level employed hired workers or arranged for joint construction among the counties.

In short, tie people to the land as much as possible to reduce exploitation and reduce tax collection links and costs.

After hearing Zhao Ji's arrangement for the land, Zhang Yang couldn't help but praise him: "The Minister has great magnanimity."

He immediately felt a toothache. If Zhao Ji was willing to give him a thousand acres of fertile land, he could become a rich man.

While they were chatting with each other, Zhao Ji's followers and mounted slaves had already begun to collect the bodies.

They did not bury them, nor did they strip the beautiful clothes from their bodies.

Instead, they dragged the body and placed it on the firewood pile.

Finish all this before nightfall, light a fire and burn it completely to ashes.

When it comes to dealing with the bodies of both enemies and friends, cremation is actually simpler.

If we just burn it like this, it will be easier for the slaves to be released later.

Otherwise, these people would be unhappy after paying homage to their ancestors' graves, and Zhao Ji himself would be worried.

Just destroy it completely, and then destroy the documents and files after you finish all this.

The accounts have become muddled, and the identities of the children of slaves have been blurred. After twenty or thirty years, many things will not be so important anymore.

They must be suppressed if they need to be. They must not be allowed to enrich the families of military officials, let alone the emperor's harem.

Things that are too far away are not something we should consider now.

(End of this chapter)