Chapter 344: Catch Them All in One Swoop, Be Aware of the Impact

Outside Hangzhou, the roads are muddy, the countryside is vast, and the green early rice is swaying in the wind.

There was a light rain last night. After the rain stopped, the air seemed to be fresh. The willows were clinging to the riverside, the breeze was gentle, and there was a light fragrance.

However, amidst this beautiful scenery, dozens of people ran out of the city in embarrassment. In the scramble, some people fell down from time to time.

The leaders of these people were dressed in gorgeous clothes, and the rest of the entourage were also wearing silk clothes and woven shoes. They seemed to be wealthy people.

But at this moment, everyone was panting from exhaustion. After leaving the city, they saw a small shipping dock. Regardless of the dirt, they rolled and crawled to the dock and jumped onto a passenger ship.

After discussing with the ship owner where to go without even asking the price, everyone got into the cabin, breathing heavily, and finally had time to rest for a while.

"Brother Zhou, it's a good thing you have a brother who works in the yamen, otherwise we would definitely be in big trouble this time."

"Yes, no one expected that the imperial court would suddenly start arresting people. Moreover, the higher-ups had concealed the news. My brother also received the news temporarily in the morning and risked his life to deliver the letter to me."

"It's over, it's over. There are still many people in the city who have not escaped. When we came out, the Yamen had already started searching everywhere. They"

"We don't care about so much now, it's more important to save our own lives."

Several landowners hissed.

They are big landowners in the Changzhou area. Not only do they have a long family business, they also have many front shops in Changzhou City.

But at this moment, these rich people escaped from Hangzhou with their entourage in great embarrassment.

Just because in the morning when they were preparing for today's protest at the inn, Brother Cong, a landlord named Zhou, suddenly came to tell him a huge piece of bad news - the court was going to arrest someone.

Suddenly hearing the news, they hurriedly ran out of the inn where they were staying. As soon as they left the city, they saw countless soldiers pouring in from various city gates. All city gates and water gates began to close. It was obvious that the court was going to close the door and beat the dogs.

This made them terrified, but they were also lucky that they were lucky enough to get the news early and run away.

"boom!"

At this moment, a loud noise suddenly came from outside.

While everyone was still in shock, someone shouted outside: "Master, what's going on?"

"Several officials, what's wrong?"

I heard the boatman outside not answering the people in the cabin, but talking vaguely to others.

The people in the cabin immediately started to commotion, but before they could react, someone lifted the door curtain and glanced around the cabin, then grinned and said: "According to the plan, the whole city is sealed off, no entry is allowed, no exit is allowed."

Everyone inside was pale and pale.

After a while, the landowner surnamed Zhou quickly took out a small bag of silver from his pocket, handed it over tremblingly and said, "Officer, this is a convenience."

The officer's face changed slightly, and he instinctively wanted to take it.

But subconsciously he retracted his hand. If it had been before, he would have definitely taken it and divided the money with his brothers. Everyone, hello and I can do well together.

But things are different now.

For subordinates like them, they can participate in the official examination by making meritorious service.

Once one of his brothers is more ambitious and ostensibly shares money with them, he will turn around and report it to the transfer envoy or Yushitai Yamen.

On the cusp of this storm, isn't that giving our brothers a future?

And the most important thing is that the salaries of subordinate staff are now linked to performance, and merit can increase performance.

Therefore, if many people are arrested in this operation, they will definitely get a lot of credit. Although it is obviously impossible to qualify for the official examination by achieving first-class merit, it is not bad to get a higher salary if you join the group with second- or third-class merit.

Even if that little salary is far behind the money in front of me, it is still much better than being corrupted and bribed, and being reported by my brothers and turned from a subordinate to a prisoner.

So he counted the breaths with a gloomy expression on his face, and after considering the pros and cons, he knocked the money out of Landlord Zhou's hand and shouted: "Sure enough, he is the person the court wants to arrest. Brothers, surround the boat."

In an instant, the surrounding government officials surrounded the boat. Under knife and gun pressure, the people on the boat were also forced out, tied up with ropes, and sent to the government office.

At this time, the city of Hangzhou was already in chaos.

Xia Ju's plan was still relatively thorough. All the city gates were closed, including several water gates, and no entry or exit was allowed.

Originally, the West Lake was outside Qiantang Gate, Fengyu Gate and Qianhu Gate.

There is even a West Lake street next to the western city wall, but in order to prevent people from escaping by boat, all the rivers in the city are now blocked, and there are police officers everywhere inside and outside the city.

There were only a few thousand landowners who protested on their own, but Xia Ju mobilized more than 10,000 imperial troops from the two Zhejiang provinces, plus thousands of police officers from various government offices in the city, almost 15,000 people. Search and arrest people everywhere in the city.

On the streets of Bianmenwa City, a large number of soldiers were running quickly.

"Quick, this way."

"Go, go, go!"

"Don't hit my stall."

"boom!"

"My stall!"

"Officer, they ran over there."

"Chase!"

The dozens of landowners and their followers in front of them ran away in a panic, knocking over more than a dozen stalls and leaving a mess on the street.

The original vendors have not come out to set up stalls recently.

But the landlords and their entourage who were fleeing in embarrassment at this moment made some vendors who had to make ends meet and were forced to make money burst into tears.

Because these people were fleeing in all directions, there was a lot of chaos inside and outside the city.

Especially as the news that the imperial court was searching the city spread, the landlords were completely panicked and thought about escaping.

Some fled to their relatives' homes, some bought property in the city and hid in their own houses, and some had no relatives or property in the city, so they could only find ways to hide.

However, a large number of landlords and their followers were arrested soon, because the people in Hangzhou had had enough of them these days. When they heard that the imperial court was finally going to arrest people, they were immediately excited and led the officers to arrest people.

The stall owners whose stalls were knocked over, the shop landlords who were smashed, looted and burned before, and the citizens who were afraid to go out on the street because of these people, all helped the officers to point the way.

How could those landlords know as well as the locals of Hangzhou?

The result was that in less than two days, more than 6,000 people in the city were all arrested. Except for a few who saw that the wind was not right, more than 99% were all imprisoned in the Hangzhou City Prison and the Imperial City Prison.

For a time, the prison was overcrowded. A small room of a few square meters often held more than a dozen prisoners, causing the pampered landlords to suffer.

"It's unfair, I'm not guilty, you arrested the wrong person."

"I didn't rebel, we just came to the city to watch the fun when we saw them making trouble, the court can't frame good people."

"Sir, let us go. We are blinded by greed, we will never dare to do it again."

"Humph, we didn't break the law at all, the court can't arrest people without reason."

"Yes, is it wrong to protest the tyranny of the court on the street? Which law stipulates that it can't be done this way? Previously, there were officials who smashed the prime minister's house and nothing happened. Is the court treating us like this?"

In the cell, some people cried out for injustice, some pretended to be passers-by, some regretted their actions, and some were more stubborn, stubbornly believing that they didn't break the law at all.

However, no matter how they cried, it was useless.

Because those who cried out for injustice and those who pretended to be passers-by naturally had a list to serve.

If regret can calm down anything, what are the officials for?

As for those who are stubborn, they naturally have great memory recovery skills.

Xia Song then asked Ma Xun, the official in charge of the prison in Liangzhe Road, to be responsible for the trial, mainly to interrogate the personnel, who planned the conspiracy, and what they did in the past few days.

Basically, you can't lie, because there are too many people, such as the part of looting, smashing and burning, there are naturally too many witnesses.

Especially in cases of injury or even death, the court does not need to arrest, the landlords have already handed over the people themselves.

After all, this matter involves too much, if the people are not handed over, I am afraid everyone will suffer.

Therefore, after the overnight interrogation, after about a few days, Ma Xun reported to Xia Song about the arrests and investigations in the past few days.

"Prime Minister Ji, through the vigorous search in the city, a total of 6,134 rioters were arrested. More than 1,000 of the nobles on the list were arrested, and the rest were their followers."

"According to their confessions, at least half of them left Hangzhou after the riot on the 20th of last month, which means that there are still nearly 1,000 people on the list who have not been arrested."

In the office of the Ministry of Justice, Ma Xun described the situation and continued: "There are more than 130 participants in the injury, and more than 60 people were injured. Some were beaten, and some were trampled. They have all been dealt with."

"What happened to the three dead?"

"They are all poor vendors. Lord, at that time, the group of nobles led their retainers to shout at the gate of the Transport Commissioner's Office, and even threw sand and stones at the office. Du Si did not take any action. Seeing that there was no movement in the Transport Commissioner's Office, they smashed the street vendors and burned the shops in anger. If the government had not responded in time."

"I know."

Xia Song nodded slightly, and then said: "Did those newspapers in Hangzhou say anything nonsense?"

"They are all talking about the reckless behavior of these nobles."

Ma Xun hesitated for a moment, and then said: "But there are also two newspapers saying that the court is not doing anything and has not taken any action these days."

"Well, you go first."

Xia Song thought about it, then stood up and left the Office of the Criminal Division and went to the Office of the Transport Commissioner.

Not long after, he arrived at Du Qi's place.

Du Qi came out to greet him. Now because of this matter, the chief officers of the five departments are also busy.

To appease the people and hunt down the escaped people, there is not much free time.

After Xia Song came over, he didn't say much. He directly told him his request: "The court is paying attention to this matter now. This matter must be cut off quickly and cannot be delayed for too long."

"Yes."

Du Qi replied.

"You should issue an official document immediately, asking the state and county governments, the Censorate and the Imperial City Department to jointly handle the case and arrest all the remaining people on the list."

"Yes."

"Post a notice to appease the people in the city."

"Yes."

"Go and say hello to all newspapers. Don't say anything if you don't want to. Wait for the government to issue a circular, and the government will give them a satisfactory answer."

"Yes."

"Well, I have to go to the Imperial City Department again, so I won't stay for long."

Xia Song just sat in the Transportation Department for a while, and left without stopping.

He actually understood what Zhao Jun meant.

That is, pay attention to the impact and measure, and don't kill people indiscriminately.

Now the court allows local people to start newspapers to increase news dissemination channels.

The purpose is not only to allow the people to read newspapers, but also to spread the court's policies and trends.

At the same time, it also has the meaning of supervising local officials to prevent them from doing wrong and deceiving their superiors and subordinates.

So in fact, the court has some control over the news, but not much. Even the Information Bureau allows them to publish articles criticizing local governments.

In this way, local governments will be supervised by public opinion and will be more restrained.

But at the same time, if the court wants to establish a fair and just image in front of the public, it must first ensure that it handles things fairly and justly.

So like this time.

Some landlords should be killed, such as those with a bad reputation or those who used to exploit tenants and landlords. These people are not popular with the local people, and killing them is more likely to bring prestige to the court.

But some landlords are actually quite good, asking tenants and landlords to pay relatively low rents, and they are often kind and generous, and have a good reputation in the countryside.

Although killing is killing, the people are unlikely to protest violently for a few landlords who are still friendly to them and cause civil unrest. However, doing so can easily give local people the impression that the court is indiscriminate and kills good people indiscriminately.

When the newspaper is published, it will always cause a bad impact.

Therefore, in order to reduce the negative impact in this regard and give the people a sense of fairness and justice in the court, it is necessary to do a good job in this regard.

Killing them must either have a legitimate and appropriate reason or find out what they have done in the past. Therefore, it is obvious that this job is not easy. Even if special matters are handled as soon as possible, it may take at least several months to get the results.

Xia Song tossed back and forth between several yamen. The Yamen of the Transport Envoy was responsible for coordinating with the prefectures in various places to let the prefectures in various places catch the remaining people on the list.

The Yamen of the Pacifier and the Yamen of the Transport Envoy joined forces to appease the people and prevent the spread of panic.

The Yamen of the Criminal Division, the Censorate and the Imperial City Division were responsible for investigating the situation of these landlords and distinguishing between good landlords and bad landlords.

This kind of thing is actually very easy to investigate.

Because the reputation of a landlord is naturally known by someone in his hometown.

As for whether he maintains the image of a great good man on the surface and is a bad person in private, it is also simple.

In the past, you need evidence to catch such people, and you can't quarrel. You must investigate solid evidence before you can arrest people.

But now.

All the people on the list should be arrested first, and their accomplices should be interrogated. If they confess, they should be arrested first.

After the people are arrested, their houses should be searched to see if they have done anything bad.

If they are found to have done something bad at home, such as confessions from slaves and maids, and there is actual evidence, it will be much easier.

If it is confirmed that they are good landlords, and they were forced to go to the streets only because the court harmed their interests, and they did not smash, loot, burn, or do other bad things on the streets, then they can be dealt with lightly.

But even so, after these rounds of tossing, the good landlords will probably be tossed enough.

As for the bad landlords, they will suffer. This time, combined with what they did before, they should be sentenced to whatever crime they should be confiscated, their property should be confiscated, and they should be fined. They can't get away with it.

This time, we also want to set an example, and make sure that the landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang either spit out the land, or switch to business, or continue to hold on under high taxes.

Anyway, no matter what these three endings are, it's a good thing for the court.

Xia Song came here this time to do this.