Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

On the largest threshing ground in Fenglingtou Town, the Xingfu Army erected a wooden platform, and hundreds of people from the four major families, along with Tao Sanyong and others, knelt on the platform with their hands tied behind their backs.

Liang Zicheng waited until the sun was high in the sky and there were enough onlookers before he began the public trial of these people.

Liang Zicheng held a tin megaphone to his mouth and shouted, "Fellow villagers, my Xingfu Army has come to Fenglingtou Town for only three things: fairness, fairness, and more fairness!"

Land surveys, equal tax payments for everyone, reduced land rents, separation of property rights and leases, collection of mining taxes, and so on—all these were done for the sake of fairness and for the benefit of the people!

But now, someone wants to undermine fairness and make you live a life of hardship, like beasts of burden...

Liang Zicheng gave a long and impassioned speech, and arranged for his bribed "shills" to occasionally chime in and shout "Bravo!" to liven up the atmosphere.

Finally, Liang Zicheng said, "It was them, Master Liu, Master Jiang, Master He, and Master Shen. The four of them hired Tao Eryong, a vicious and ruthless man from Dahu Mountain, at a high price, intending to kill all of our personnel implementing the new policies! They are heartless and heinous!"

I hereby sentence them to have their property confiscated and be executed!

Besides the ringleaders, the accomplices will also not be let off lightly. The Liu, Jiang, He, and Shen families have been tyrannical in the village, oppressing the people and committing countless evils. Fellow villagers, the time has come for blood to be repaid! Let everyone seek justice for their grievances and revenge for their grudges!

Liang Zicheng knew that killing someone was easy, but destroying their spirit was difficult. No matter how loudly he shouted, he couldn't achieve the effect of killing someone or destroying their spirit.

So they specifically sought out the victims of the blood debts owed by the four major clans, and encouraged them to boldly expose the crimes of the four major clans. After the matter was over, they were promised a piece of fertile land.

What? You're saying you're afraid of retaliation from the four major families? Aren't you afraid of the knives in the hands of the Restoration Army?

Liang Zicheng: Let me be frank, I want to use you to bring down the four major families. If you don't cooperate, I'll get you!

Under Liang Zicheng's "coercion and enticement," these victims finally agreed to come forward and expose the crimes of the four families.

Old Wu walked onto the stage, pointed at one of the men kneeling on the ground with a rag stuffed in his mouth, and said in a choked voice, "That year, my son married a beautiful wife, the second son of Master Liu, who is also this beast. He took a fancy to my daughter-in-law and framed my son for stealing his cow... Then he bribed the county magistrate and imprisoned my son. My poor son was not even twenty years old, and two months later he died mysteriously in prison. My daughter-in-law was also defiled by this beast..."

Although he was "coerced and lured" by Liang Zicheng to come forward and expose the case, the wrongful death of Wu Laohan's son was a genuine miscarriage of justice!

Old Wu's tearful accusations also moved many onlookers.

Although more than ten years have passed since Old Man Wu's son was murdered by Young Master Liu, many onlookers still remember the incident clearly!

The onlookers were also discussing it animatedly:

"Yes, I still remember that incident. Old Wu's son is so honest and hardworking, how could he possibly steal someone else's cow!"

"Old Wu's daughter-in-law was indeed beautiful, but unfortunately she was defiled by Liu the Second Young Master. Later, unable to bear the humiliation, she hanged herself. Alas!"

"My house is only a few hundred steps away from Old Wu's. I saw with my own eyes that Old Wu's hair turned completely white overnight. It's so pitiful!"

After listening to Old Man Wu's accusations, Liang Zicheng asked him, "Do you have any evidence?"

Old Wu stood there, stunned: More than ten years have passed, where are we supposed to find any evidence now? Besides, many people know about this, isn't that evidence enough?

But Liang Zicheng had already made arrangements. As soon as he finished speaking, someone stood up and said, "General Liang, I'm willing to be Old Man Wu's witness! The thing is, that day..."

Old Wu looked at him and realized that this was his neighbor.

Not only this neighbor, but several other neighbors whom Old Wu knew also stood up to testify for him.

The response at the scene was overwhelming!

Liang Zicheng finally pronounced the verdict: "Liu Zhi, the second son of Liu, murdered his father and stole his wife; he is sentenced to death!"

After a decade-long injustice was finally redressed, Old Man Wu sat on the ground and burst into tears, kowtowing to Liang Zicheng more than a dozen times.

Wu was originally "coerced and lured" into taking office, but this time he is truly grateful to the Restoration Army and Liang Zicheng!

After Wu stepped down, another person went on stage to accuse the wealthy man's son of defiling his daughter, causing her to commit suicide...

Using the same method, Liang Zicheng sentenced He Yuanwai's son to death.

Surprisingly, the third person to come up was not arranged by Liang Zicheng. This time, he was accusing Master Jiang, who had plotted to make his family's fields yield no harvest. Then, by taking advantage of the two bushels of grain that his family owed Master Jiang, he directly and blatantly seized his family's fertile land, turning him into a tenant farmer.

His mother died of anger because her land was taken away that time.

This is a typical example of extortion and plunder.

He also produced the consent form he was forced to transfer his land ownership years ago, and two other people came forward to testify on his behalf.

Master Jiang has already been sentenced to death, but his eldest son was also involved in the incident.

Liang Zicheng directly sentenced Jiang Yuanwai's eldest son to death.

A public trial lasted from morning until afternoon.

More and more people gathered to watch, and those on the outermost edge had already stood outside the threshing ground.

To Liang Zicheng's surprise, more than half of the people who cried foul were not people he had arranged in advance.

This only proves that the four major families in Fenglingtou Town have caused immense harm to people!

The public trial did not end until the sun was about to set, and these four families had more than thirty wrongful convictions.

Moreover, this doesn't even include the minor cases that don't warrant the death penalty; all thirty-plus cases involved serious crimes that resulted in death!

In the end, more than thirty people were sentenced to death!

What if the ringleader has already been sentenced to death? Easy, just pull out the accomplice with the greatest crime and sentence them to death!

Finally, with Liang Zicheng's order, the heads of the four major families and more than thirty others, plus the bandits from Dahu Mountain, a total of fifty people, fell to the ground!

The people at the threshing ground were greatly shocked, and at the same time, they cheered loudly and for a long time when they saw the heads of those evil people fall to the ground.

The handling of the four major families not only deterred the hidden resistance forces but also won the hearts of the people.

The Restoration Army also profited considerably from this raid.

Afterwards, a total of more than 3,000 mu of fertile land and more than 20,000 taels of silver were confiscated. The amount of grain was relatively small, but there was still a total of 2,000 shi!

There are six coal mines, four limestone mines, and one iron mine!

This made the Restoration Army a fortune.

For the Restoration Army, the most important thing was not money and food, but the eleven mines that were seized this time.

Liang Zicheng was racking his brains trying to figure out how to get these mineral deposits. At the time, he didn't want much; he just wanted to get a coal mine and an iron mine.

Now we have coal mines and iron mines, and more than one!

The more than 3,000 mu of fertile land confiscated by the Restoration Army were returned to their original owners through trickery and coercion, while the remaining land was rented to the original tenants at one-tenth of the rent.

They also told the tenants that even if the land belonged to the Restoration Army, the Restoration Army would abide by its own rules, so they only needed to pay rent and taxes on time and didn't need to worry about anything else.

The tenants, who had been renting land for 60% of the rent, were overjoyed to learn that the rent had been reduced to 10% and that they no longer had to worry about having no land to cultivate. Some even lay on the ground and cried, shouting "Long live the Restoration Army!"

The power of the four major families was completely eradicated, leaving the other small landlords with no desire to resist the Restoration Army. They could only obediently comply with the new policies implemented by the Restoration Army.

The new policy was successfully implemented in Fenglingtou Town.