Tiger Guards

Chapter 595 A Mountain of Evidence
Gao Chong arrested Bi Chen, the Prefect of Henan. Since he promised not to torture him, and with Luoyang Magistrate Man Chong supervising him, he would not break his promise.

But since Bi Chen was arrested, his subordinates, relatives, and all sorts of cronies were naturally doomed.

When Dong Zhuo retreated, he set fire to many buildings, turning them into ruins.

But prisons are not something that can be easily burned down.

In the Luodu prison of that time, Bi Chen had a cell all to himself.

Separated only by a wooden fence, he could only watch helplessly as Gao Chong's armed men tortured his Henan clerks one by one.

Man Chong, as the supervisor, sat to the side, seemingly oblivious to everything.

In a prison, just a door separates two completely different worlds.

Gao Chong also sat upright, quietly awaiting the results of the interrogation.

The interrogation methods were very brutal. The Henan officials and their subordinates, who had been detained, lined up to wait. Their arms were tied behind their backs, yet they could still see Bi Chen through the wooden bars.

Each clerk who was to be tortured would be pushed and pulled to a wooden stake by his armed followers. They would be whipped without being asked anything, and only then would they be questioned.

Anyone who showed the slightest sign of defiance or verbal abuse was whipped to death, without any chance to demonstrate loyalty, courage, or steadfastness. If they showed no sign of cooperation, they were beaten to death in public.

Under the whipping, their clothes were tattered, and their bodies were covered in blood and gore as they were dragged away.

Man Chong remained calm despite this, as did Gao Chong.

After the Chief Clerk and the Registrar were killed one after another, the third person to be killed was the Chief Clerk.

The man was firmly tied to the wooden stake, and the blood that had soaked the stake earlier immediately stained his back, causing his legs to go weak.

Before the whip could even be cracked, he shouted in a shrill voice, "I'm willing to confess!"

The executioner held his whip still, turned to look at Gao Chong, who waved his hand: "Next."

Gao Chong remained silent, and someone immediately stuffed a cloth into the mouth of the official and tied it tightly with a hemp rope, not giving him a chance to spit out the cloth.

If anyone fails to cooperate, they will be elbowed or kicked in the groin; the actions are simple and brutal.

Soon, several of his followers took turns whipping him, and while they were drenched in sweat, they whipped the clerk to death.

After the other followers dragged away the corpses, Gao Chong said to Bi Chen, who had remained silent, "Your affairs are not exactly secret. My hundred or so followers have been keeping an eye on you all this time. If you had confessed to the General, you wouldn't have ended up in this situation."

Bi Chen remained silent, his eyes lowered as he contemplated.

At this time, his position as the Eastern Inspector was originally ranked fifth. He was responsible for inspecting and supervising the governance and policy implementation in the eastern counties of Henan Province.

The Western Inspector, who was ranked fourth, was already pale and trembling all over. He was only able to be supported by his followers, otherwise his legs would have given way and he would have collapsed to the ground.

To their surprise, as well as those of the Henan magistrate, the executioners bypassed the western inspector and directly dragged out the fifth-ranked eastern inspector, intending to pull him towards the execution site.

The Eastern Inspector was unwilling to go, jumping and struggling like a pig in the New Year: "This guilty official is willing to expose! It was the Yuan family of Hebei who asked someone to force this guilty official to pass on a secret letter to the Prefect! Prefect, please admit it quickly, do you really have to execute us all?"

Bi Chen's expression grew even colder, and he remained silent.

At this point, Gao Chong spoke up: "The three people who were beaten to death, namely the registrar and the chief secretary, were all accomplices. The one who exposed them will be spared death, while the one who knew about it but did not report it will be executed, and their relatives will be demoted to servants."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, and his subordinate released the Eastern Inspector, who had taken the initiative to expose him. The man immediately collapsed to the ground, crying out in shame for betraying his lord.

He abandoned his two armed followers and turned to the Henan Yin Yuan's entourage to find the criminal clerk. The man was trembling all over, and before he could even grab his shoulder, he collapsed into a ball: "The criminal official was brought to justice. The Prefect secretly instructed him to select strong men from among the convicts and laborers. Armor, weapons, and crossbows were all hidden in the residence of the Prefect's friend!"

"Thief!"

Bi Chen flew into a rage, pointing at the criminal officer and cursing, "We serve the country; how can we retreat because of life, death, fortune, or misfortune?"

Then he glared at Gao Chong and said angrily, "You treacherous villain, you are an accomplice to the tyrant. The chaos in the world is all because of you!"

Upon hearing this, Gao Chong turned to look at Man Chong: "Now that we have all the witnesses, the physical evidence should not be difficult to obtain either."

Man Chong considered the influence of the Bi Chen family in Yanzhou and nodded to Gao Chong: "I will go to see the General now and make sure to spare his life so that the General can interrogate him personally."

"Thank you, Lord Xie." Gao Chong casually cupped his hands in greeting, then turned to look at the ranks of the Henan Yin Yuan: "Those who do not wish to implicate their families, please step forward. You are all talented individuals. Even if you are demoted to subordinate officials, you will eventually be able to atone for your crimes and reform yourselves. Do not make a mistake."

As Bi Chen glared angrily, seven more officials from Henan stepped forward, heads bowed, not daring to look at Bi Chen.

"Take him away to take a statement."

Gao Chong waved his hand and then addressed the remaining majority of his subordinates: "I'm sorry to have startled you all. Bi Chen plotted rebellion without informing you. I suppose none of you are Bi Chen's confidants. Please each perform your duties and prevent any chaos from arising."

The Western Inspector, who was at the front of the line, replied in a trembling voice, "I dare not."

Gao Chong waved his hand again without saying anything, and the people who knew better cooperated and withdrew.

After these people left, only Gao Chong's disciplined followers remained, and they immediately dragged Bi Chen out.

It was also inappropriate to punish Bi Chen, as the Governor of Henan held a high position, similar to that of the Nine Ministers.

While they couldn't readily resort to corporal punishment, these people possessed other forms of torture that didn't harm the skin or flesh.

After Bi Chen realized this, he looked surprised and tried to apologize, but it was too late.

Gao Chong lost interest in watching any longer and led most of the people away.

The main problem in Luozhong lies with Bi Chen. When Lü Bu entered Luozhong, the former magistrate of Luoyang followed Liu Song, the Chamberlain, to join Yuan Shao.

Apart from Bi Chen and the Henan Yin Prefecture composed of the sons of prominent families in Henan, everyone else was on Lü Bu's side.

If Gao Chong isn't keeping an eye on Bi Chen, is he going to keep an eye on Wei Yue and Gao Shun instead?
As Gao Chong achieved his goal, and the curfew was imposed in Luozhong that night, Lü Bu remained silent as he watched Gao Chong and his hundred-plus men openly arrest people in the dark.

Under the Duting system, Luodu city was also divided into different areas.

During curfew, each pavilion closes the roads and arrests pedestrians at night.

This is also a great opportunity to make large-scale arrests of hostile elements.

The enemy had no time to react and were defeated one by one.

The vast majority of accomplices, after going out together, encouraged each other and became fearless and reckless, without caring about the consequences.

Now, most people are alone and lack the strength to resist; they are mostly surrounded by family members, which makes them feel burdened with worries, and therefore their will to resist is generally weak.

As more and more people are arrested and their confessions become more detailed, the corroboration between them will bring more people to light and make them new targets for arrest.

As dawn breaks and the morning bells toll, the streets of Luodu remain closed off at all pavilions inside and outside the city.

Other officials and commoners, men and women, sensed something was amiss and dared not go out to make a living.

Gao Chong was busy until noon and only managed to capture seventy-three people. He then sent them, along with Bi Chen and other evidence such as letters, armor, and weapons, to Lü Bu.

Lu Bu patiently read through the various letters, but he felt no lingering fear. He only felt that he was as wise as ever, and that he had indeed cleverly distanced himself from these treacherous wolves in advance.

Gao Shun and Wei Yue also reviewed the letters and Gao Chong's recorded confession. Wei Yue asked, "General, should we report this to Xu Du?"

"No need. I was careless and let the emperor fall into the hands of a treacherous minister. To ask the emperor for instructions now would be tantamount to asking the henchmen of the treacherous minister Bi Chen for instructions."

Lu Bu glanced at Bi Chen, who looked dejected and as if struck by frost: "Such treacherous officials should be killed by everyone, let alone those whom the emperor has granted me with the authority to act as his general?"

As he spoke, Lü Bu raised his eyebrows and looked at the sky: "Break off the heads of those who have committed heinous crimes and report back. The rest, along with their families, shall be escorted back to Jinyang by Gao Congshi and handed over to Lord Yuanming for judgment."

"Here."

Everyone bowed, and Gao Chong followed suit.

He should have left long ago; if he hadn't, it would have been Lü Bu's turn to find evidence of his crimes.

Moreover, Gao Chong didn't want to stay in Luozhong any longer. He wanted to return to the army, even if it was just as a battalion commander, rather than any other official position.

This wasn't a proper career path, and he had little interest in torturing prisoners or exposing conspiracies.

(End of this chapter)