Chapter 100: Laughing at Heroes Not Waiting (II)

The dismal autumn rain fell naturally in this way, the green trees on both sides of the streets and alleys in Kyoto had not yet had time to dye their leaves yellow, and only helplessly flung down a few fallen leaves to prove the coldness of the autumn rain and the strength of the autumn wind. The rain slowly moisturized the earth, but made the people in the marketplace who worked hard to earn a living bored, because a burst of autumn rain is a cool, they don’t like the gusts of coldness felt by the body.

Vermilion palace walls are ignorant, do not know the cold and warm, just silence and indifference to meet these rain rinse. The rain dampened the majestic imperial city, making those bright vermillion colors become deeper and darker, like bloodstains that were about to coagulate.

The deep palace gates were slowly opened along with creaking sounds, the newly repaired brass nails on the large wooden gates shining brightly as more than a hundred officials came out in a line with complex expressions, led by a group of ceremonial guards, walking along the imperial road until they reached the depths of the plaza, lining up on both sides in separate rows. These were all ministers of the Qing Dynasty, responsible for all affairs of the people’s livelihood in this kingdom, however, in today’s weather atmosphere, they could only be silent bystanders.

The yellow door little eunuch three sound whip up, the imperial city corner tower somewhere in the hidden drum thud knock, issued a buzzing trembling sound, hit in the imperial city up and down everyone’s heart.

The court meeting has ended, today’s court meeting only dealt with one thing, that is to draw up the former director of the Supervisory Yuan Chen Pingping’s crime.

Gradually, many of the people of the Kingdom of Qing came to the streets and alleys in the four directions of the Imperial City. These people wore clothes of different colors, carried different scents of nobility and inferiority, and were summoned by the sound of drums resounding from the palace, slowly marching towards the square in front of the palace. The crowd gathered more and more, and gradually filled up the whole wide square, densely packed, like ants.

From early in the morning before dawn, the Kyoto government and all levels of Yamen Rizheng began to beat gongs and drums in all places, posting announcements to notify all the people of Kyoto of what will happen today.

As long as the tip of the knife does not fall on their own bodies, these people are always interested in watching the fun, especially when everyone knows that the official who is going to be executed by His Majesty today is the mysterious and unpredictable President of the Supervisory Yuan, Chen Pingping, and all the people’s interest is even more intense.

The reputation of the Supervisory Yuan in the civil officialdom of the Qing Dynasty is too loud, the image is too eerie and scary, and that old dean sitting in a wheelchair, not many people have really seen it with their own eyes, all the people have surrounded towards the square, they want to see if this big person is really as the legend says that he has three heads and six arms, full of black mist, as if he is a devil.

Especially when they knew that this devil of the Supervisory Yuan was not satisfied with His Majesty’s disposition, and had the heart to assassinate His Majesty, the wise and benevolent Emperor of the Daqing Dynasty in the palace, all the people’s hearts were filled with a heartfelt anger, and they wanted to watch how this villain was burnt into a piece of black smoke under the light of the imperial power.

The Procuratorate had been known for being mysterious and eerie over the past few decades, and although it had been targeting the officialdom of Qing, it had acted ruthlessly and with terrifying means. And if you offend the civil officials, you offend the world’s scholars, which means you offend the world’s speech, so the Supervisory Authority has always had an extremely bad reputation in the folklore.

In the folk legend, the Supervisory Yuan is an eerie government office that eats people without spitting out their bones, and it is the best at beating them up, torturing them to force them to confess, and killing them like a human being. Perhaps the Supervisory Yuan really has many unseen means, but this full of Kyoto, full of Qing Guo, full of the world’s people can know how much? But it is just a blackmail.

Although over the years, there has been a brilliant little Lord Fan in the Procuratorate, which has slightly diluted some of the darkness of the Procuratorate, the time he has presided over the affairs of the institution is after all still short, and is not enough to change the impression of the Procuratorate that has already been deeply rooted in the people’s minds.

After all, Tanyu Gong Fan Xian could not change much, and the people of Qing Dynasty’s worship and admiration for Fan Xian was still more focused on his personal image of standing on the clouds, but not much change in the view of the Supervisory Yuan. For the people of Kyoto, the Supervisory Yuan may have more human atmosphere, but for that square gloomy building is still not any good feeling, but subconsciously have a kind of fear, fear of the continuation is the unexplained anger.

Legend has it that the incomparably terrible and horrible dark leader Chen Pingping, will soon be dying in front of their own, all the people of Kyoto, all felt a hint of hidden excitement. Perhaps this is just as the people’s natural outflow of a kind of emotion, this life can have the opportunity to see a originally only exist in the legend of the great man died in front of their own, for their future boring life more talk after drinking, perhaps originally is a good leisure activities?

Just like a few years ago the chun exam case, in the salt market entrance, those Ministry of Rites official’s head was chopped off, in the court of law bone rolled, but also nearly carried away by the wild dogs, only this scene, I do not know how many Kyoto bitter hahaha fill the boredom of the time, sent down how many cups of turbid bad wine.

Another example is the Kyoto rebellion three years ago, also in the salt market, I do not know how many generals involved in the rebellion was beheaded here, the blood painted half of the street, a few days later still seeping into the sky with the smell of blood. There is also that thirteen city gate division commander Zhang Deqing, was executed by lynching, screaming that miserable ah.

In these three years, Zhang Deqing’s death, in the company of an unknown number of spitballs to enrich the lives of the people of Kyoto. However, all these major events that have happened in Kyoto in recent years, of course, are not comparable to today, because today’s death is the President of the Supervisory Yuan, is known to the world that His Majesty’s most loyal that old black dog, and now this black dog is actually crazy, to be slaughtered, haha!

And the place for today’s execution is not the Salt Market Gate, nor the killing field in front of the Ministry of Punishment, but in front of the Imperial Palace, on the square! Since the founding of Qing, the official who was explicitly executed in front of the palace was probably the only one today, the people were excited to think of this, and couldn’t help but be angry in their hearts again, that big official called Chen Pingping, didn’t know how much treasonous things she had done to die in such a place.

It wasn’t that no one thought of that little Lord Fan because of the Supervisory Court, but all the people watching the execution subconsciously forgot about that, and they also never thought that there was any connection between Lord Fan and that old black dog. They were just ordinary people, they didn’t know about the entanglements between those who ruled this land, even if they were a little smart, they would only think in another direction, His Majesty had just handed over the Procuratorate to Lord Fan, and then he wanted to kill the former head of the Procuratorate, presumably to clean up the resistance and sins of the Procuratorate in the past for Lord Fan?

Countless people poured into the square in front of the palace, nervous, indifferent, excited, and sad for no reason, wrapped in a myriad of complex emotions, surrounding that small court. The soldiers of the surrounding forbidden army as well as the magistrates of the Kyoto Prefecture who were responsible for maintaining order forcibly stopped these ten million people outside the boundary and ensured the quietness of the court.

One could not blame these people of Qing, because they were used to it, they were used to knowing what they could know, giving up what they could not know, enjoying what they could enjoy, and being angry at what they were allowed to be angry at. His Majesty wants to kill a minister, whether or not the minister really deserves it, but they have been taught that if the king wants the minister to die, then the minister naturally has a reason to die, and deserves to die, ten thousand deaths. ……

Densely packed crowd is like a sea, rippling in the majestic imperial city in front of the broad square, near the palace door of the place were empty out, built an extremely simple wooden platform, this is the so-called court. In the vast sea of people and the majestic Imperial City surrounded by this method of field looks like a poor lonely boat, seems to be at any time may be sunk in the sea of people, and may at any time will hit the Imperial City of this thousand years to shake the giant rock on top of, shattered to pieces.

Along the open space below the imperial city, a column of silent and solemn procession walked over, walked past the imperial road on both sides of the subconscious head down, keep silent more than a hundred Qing officials, in the not far from the Kyoto people’s curious and nervous eyes, came to the bottom of the small wooden platform.

A stretcher was carried out from the prison wagon, and on the stretcher lay an old man, who was unconscious and did not know whether he was alive or dead. He Zongwei looked up and glanced at the top of the Imperial City, the corners of his eyes twitching slightly, gently waving his hand, the stretcher was lifted onto the wooden platform.

Finally saw the big official who was going to be put to death today, saw this legendary dark old thief, those Kyoto people at the front sighed contentedly and immediately became silent, they looked at the old man who didn’t move at all, thinking in their hearts, is this person already dead?

Three eunuchs came out of the black hole of the imperial city gate, the small eunuch on the left hand side of the hands of the case on the case is today’s court formulated charges, the right hand side of the small eunuch in the hands of the high incense, the case is his majesty’s execution of Chen Pingping’s decree.

The eunuch in the center with an indifferent face is Eunuch Yao, he also did not have empty hands, but holding a small bottle.

Everything has been prepared on the wooden platform, Chen Pingping’s thin body that seems to have no breath was placed on top of the wooden board that was wet by the rain. Eunuch Yao walked to his side and squatted down, with the help of the eunuch, fed him a pill, and then carefully fed the soup in the bottle into the old man’s dry lips.

I don’t know how long it took, but Chen Pingping woke up leisurely from his coma. He had lost too much blood and his vitality was about to be extinguished, his face was very pale and his eyes were cloudy and lifeless. He looked at Eunuch Yao beside him, his dry lips slightly opened and closed, and said slowly in a sandy voice, “The thousand year old ginseng …… was wasted.”

Eunuch Yao s body trembled for a moment, but he did not dare to say anything, nor did he do anything, but looked at this oldest man s with what seemed to be tears and smiles, and hunched his body and retreated to the side of the wooden platform.

At the very moment when Chen Pingping opened her cloudy eyes, the body of Yan Bingyun, who stood behind the left side of He Da University’s body on the court of law, also trembled for a moment, but he immediately calmed down and lowered his head somewhat feebly. Previously only a sweeping eye, he knew this court guards how strict, and not to mention those densely packed around the forbidden army, not to mention those scattered around the inner court experts, just those wearing hemp clothes, wearing a hat and hat of the masters, has already let the words of Bingyun know that today there is no one can change all of this.

Last night in the Supervisory Yuan prison, there are four experts wearing a hat, so that Yan Bingyun and He Zongwei all feel a trace of strange, but they do not know these sudden experts are from where, however, the previous autumn rain drifting down, the clear light of the faint diffusion of the occasion, the Yan Bingyun extremely sharp-eyed to find that the hat under the hat, these experts do not have hair.

It seems to be the Qing Temple scattered in the world of bitter cultivators, just …… the Qing Temple of the great priest in the southern border of the preaching return soon after, then strangely died in the Qing Temple, and the second sacrifice of three stone masters is committed to the Junshan will, and finally died tragically outside of Kyoto in the rain of arrows, was the Princess Royal Highness extinguished.

His Majesty the Emperor had always been disdainful of the ascetics of the Heavenly Dao and the Temple of Celebration, and the Imperial Family had never had much contact with the Temple of Celebration, so why was it that today, these temple ascetics had suddenly appeared en masse in Kyoto, in front of the crowd, and next to the court of law in which Chen Pingping was about to die?

Yan Bingyun bowed his head in thought. Until today, he had never realized that His Majesty had not only reached the pinnacle of the earth in terms of imperial power and strength, but even the Temple of Celebration, had become a party of powerful weapons in his hands. Thinking about this point, he could not help but sigh quietly within his heart. Suddenly there was a mountain of shouts, startling him to immediately look up.

A wooden frame stood above the court of law, and Chen Pingping’s dry and thin body was bound to it with death. The clothes on the old man’s body had been completely removed, revealing his pale body, his chest and abdomen below because of years of disability, appeared extraordinarily thin, in the cold autumn rain, appeared extraordinarily depressed and pitiful.

The rain hit on that dry, thin and lifeless body, then slowly dripped down and returned to dust.

Earlier that shout in the square, that is, all around the people of Kyoto to watch the torture finally saw the torture rack, saw tied to the torture rack of that great evil traitor, burst out like a mountain of shouts, such as the waves of the sea like a resounding all around.

However, this cry swiftly turned into silence. The first to fall silent was the crowd closest to the court, and then the whispers and murmurs extended from the front to the back, and it didn’t take long to turn into shocking murmurs like thunder.

I don’t know if it was some god in the sky who issued a command, all the people up and down the imperial city were quiet and silent at the same time. I don’t know how many thousands of tens of thousands of people gathered at the same time, unexpectedly became as dead silent, even seems to be silent to the last party can hear the torture rack bundled Chen Pingping body of grass rope and stake friction rustling sound.

Not only these people were shocked, including the forbidden army, including the officials who supervised the execution, the eunuchs in the palace, and a very small number of officials from the Supervisory Yuan, they all looked at the old man’s body on the torture rack with horrified faces. Thousands and thousands of pairs of eyes looked between that old man’s thighs.

There was nothing there.

The old President of the Supervisory Yuan Chen Pingping …… whose dark name was spread throughout the world was actually a castrate!

A silence fell. Ten thousand pairs of gazes, countless emotions, or pity, or shame, or horror, or disgust.

Yan Bingyun’s body finally couldn’t stop trembling, his head was deathly lowered, and his eyes were covered in blood. He didn’t know about this hidden disease of the old dean, this secret, he just felt that those gazes were not only cast between the legs of that old man on the court of law, they were also looking at himself, at all the officials of the Supervisory Yuan. It was an unspeakable humiliation.

He clenched his fists tightly, his fingertips digging deep into his palms. He finally understood why that Nine to Five Emperor on the Imperial City must inflict the torture of lynching before all the people, so it turned out that the physical torture had to be accompanied by this spiritual humiliation.

His Majesty wants to declare to the world, this dare to betray their own big shot, in my eyes, just a lackey, just a dog, I want to how to humiliate him how to humiliate him, he wants to Chen Pingping’s dignity, the dignity of the Supervisory Yuan stepped on the feet, stepped under the gaze of the masses.

Thinking about all this, Yan Bingyun’s brain buzzed, unusually strong, raised his head, and met the muddy and feeble gaze of that old man on the court of law, did not say anything, did not do anything. In his afterglow, he saw that the faces of those court officials below the courtroom were also very shocked, probably they could not have imagined even in death that the old dean of the Supervisory Yuan, whom they usually feared like an ancestor, was actually the eunuch that these people of theirs despised the most!

This was Chen Pingping’s sad story, this was Chen Pingping’s secret, not many people knew about his eunuch identity back then, most of them had already died out, and later on, under the supreme favor of His Majesty the Emperor, under the strong suppression of the Supervisory Yuan, no one knew about this fact.

That was why these officials revealed such horrified looks, yet on top of the horror, a hint of contempt surfaced on their faces. Human emotions were always this strange, earlier when the court was convicted and went out of the palace to watch the punishment, the faces of these officials were still solemn, still maintaining a point of respect and fear for the dying Chen Pingping, yet at this moment, all these emotions were gone.

Eunuch Yao took the eunuch beside him on the case of the volume of books, forced to bear not to look at the side of the old man on the torture rack, trembling voice began to read out the court above the preparation of the thirteen major crimes about Chen Pingping. At this time the autumn rain hit above the court, Eunuch Yao’s heart was also incomparably cold, an unstoppable kind of similar sadness began to rise in his heart, yet he had to continue his work.

“One, Qingli seven years April 12, the rebel traitors secret delivery of obscene drugs into the palace, obscenity court ……”

“Two, the rebels repeatedly instigated, to charm the heart to confuse the top, to lure the emperor’s son, so that my father and son to turn against each other, this is a great rebellion ……”

“Third, the traitors in the hanging temple to make the Supervisory Yuan six organized plots to assassinate me, and afterwards in Kyoto assassination of the Secretary Fan Xian ……”

“Fourth, the traitor colluded with the rebel Qin Ye, took the crossbows from the inner treasury, and sniped the minister of imperial affairs in the valley outside of Kyoto. ……”

“Fifth, the rebels and traitors made assassins enter the palace to stab the Third Prince. ……”

Thirteen major crimes is yesterday’s several major ministries Yamen to draw up the charges, but this front seven is His Majesty’s royal pen pro hook, it is also because in the court meeting read out Chen Pingping’s these charges, the ministers know that the original Chen old dean actually made so much treasonous evil deeds, that is, previously prepared to plead to the death of Shu Hu two bachelors also can not help but face the face of the miserable to stop the mouth.

After the six charges are six formulated, but only some possession of property, bullying and other charges, compared with the front of the seven major crimes, really seems too ordinary. However, these thirteen major crimes, no matter which one, is a dead end, thirteen items together ……

With Eunuch Yao’s voice forced out by his inner strength to read out the charges, it resounded in front of the palace’s square, and drifted in the autumn wind and rain to the ears of all the spectators of the punishment. What had been a strange silence was immediately broken, and the sea of people resounded with countless buzzing murmurs and angry scoldings.

Originally there were perhaps many more people who had only come to watch the execution nervously and with mixed emotions, as these charges resounded in front of the palace, the gazes cast at Chen Pingping all became indifferent, such a heartless sinner, his majesty would of course have to lynch him to death.

“Kill him!” Someone in the crowd took the lead and shouted, and suddenly the crowd was energized, and the sound of shouting and killing resounded through the sky.

While Chen Pingping on top of the court was just indifferent, the thousand year old ginseng soup made him wake up, but could not save his life, he seemed to have seen through everything, all that was in his indifferent and godless eyes was calmness. Autumn wind and rain sorrowful, freezing, his face pale, lips auburn, but as if he could not hear the deafening shouts in front of him, he just turned his head with difficulty, as if he wanted to take one last look at the head of the Imperial City, the one who has always been victorious and will always be victorious. Seemingly sensing his thoughts, the wooden frame turned slightly, giving his cloudy eyes a chance to see the Imperial City.

High above the Imperial City, His Majesty, the Emperor of the Kingdom of Qing, dressed in a black and gold banded dragon robe, was standing alone under the eaves, in the very center. There was not a single person beside him, the eunuchs and palace maidens were all driven away from afar, and the third prince, who had been forcibly kidnapped by decree to observe the execution, was at this time looking at his father’s face from afar from the side with a pale face.

His Majesty the Emperor stood extremely high and far away, his figure was extremely small, yet in Chen Pingping’s cloudy eyes, it was still as clear as ever.

The lone emperor looked indifferently at his old partner surrounded by a sea of people on the court of law, his eyes did not have a trace of emotion in them, yet this indifference was even more frightening and creepy than resentment.

Most of the steel beads in his body last night had already been removed, but the slashes on his body were still retaining blood and pain, the blood stained on the black and gold banded dragon robe, it was impossible to tell what was going on, and His Majesty the Emperor’s face was only slightly white, and there was no taste of pain, yet as he looked at the miserable looking old companion underneath his feet, he had a desire to make it even more painful for him.

His Majesty the Emperor gently nodded, beside him about ten feet away hands holding the palace wall of the third prince pale, subconsciously grasped the wall, after a long time, the third prince only trembling voice shouted to the bottom: “Execution.”

This shout actually forced Li Chengze, the young boy who had been chilly and ruthless since he was a child, to be on the verge of crying out, because he knew why his father had asked him to shout this. The shouts from the imperial city came down, and Eunuch Yao began to read the last decree, which was written by His Majesty’s own hand last night.

“I have known you for dozens of years, entrusted very heavy, but you deeply negative my heart, pain, pain. All sorts of evil, three divisions of the trial, death by lynching, I do not hesitate. According to the law family members more than sixteen beheaded, fifteen or less as a slave, this is only the crime of one person, the rest are released without question.”

The decree was clearly transmitted to every inch of the palace, every raindrop, every strand of autumn wind, bland and resolute. His Majesty did not say the charge, only that my heart is negative, pain and not regret, the end of the law and extra-legal grace, not guilty of castrate relatives, the pain is heard palpitations love eclipsed.

However …… these hypocritical words fell in Chen Pingping s ears, he just smiled slightly, let the rain seep into his dry lips, lowered his head, no longer look at the emperor of the city.

The execution began.

The fishing net tightly covered Chen Pingping’s dry and thin body, extremely difficult to use the mesh to highlight the skin and meat on the torso, a sharp special knife trembled and fell, slowly cut down, separating this piece of meat from the old man’s body.

This was the first cut. A mountain of applause came from beneath the lawn!

The blade left the mesh, and a piece of meat fell to the ground, and was immediately picked into the plate by the officials of the Ministry of Justice. Very strange is that the piece of mesh wounds some white, some dry, and did not flow out too much blood, it seems that the blood in the body of this skinny rebel has already flowed out, the essence of the blood has long been for some things all dedication.

Executioner of the knife is the Ministry of Justice of the old official, he has drunk two cans of wine today, but still can not stop the hand shaking, he felt that today under his own knife of this dry and thin old man and he had experienced officials are not the same, the other side of the body there is no blood, there is no meat, it seems that there is only a wisp of the ghost, the cold so that they can not help but shiver.

The second knife went down, the blood and flesh were separated, and a few faint threads of blood flowed on the fishing net. Another burst of applause. There are hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of knives behind?

Chen Pingping closed his eyes tightly, his face was pale, his lips were extremely closed, and his body was trembling, as if he was enjoying the pain that was not humanly bearable. He suddenly slowly opened his eyes and looked at this executioner in front of him and gasped, “Your technique …… is somewhat …… poor.”

Executioner has not seen such a character in this life, has transcended the so-called hardness, there is only indifference, to life, to their own life and pain indifference, perhaps this old man in the body of some things have transcended the pain? His hand trembled again, nearly dropping the knife on the wooden platform wet by the autumn rain.

Another knife, another knife, another knife. A burst of applause rose and fell, and then these applause gradually became smaller and smaller, and finally returned to silence, all the officials and people watching the torture closed their mouths, and looked at the old man being tortured with an extremely complicated emotion.

There is no miserable howling, no wailing, no begging for mercy, no pleading for death, no cursing, the old man on the court of law in the autumn rain was cut by a thousand cuts, just a silence, a deathly silence.

So all the people up and down the imperial city are also silent, involuntary silence, deathly silence.