People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 344: Catch them all in one fell swoop, pay attention to 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 few headed by these people were gorgeously dressed, 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 negotiating with the ship owner about 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 lucky that you have a brother who works in the yamen, otherwise we would definitely have a big problem 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."

But things are different now.

For these subordinate officials, they can participate in the official examination by making meritorious service.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

"My stall!"

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

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.

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."

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

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

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.

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.

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

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."

So he kept counting the breaths with a gloomy expression on his face. After considering the pros and cons, he knocked the money out of Landlord Zhou's hand and shouted: "It is indeed the person the imperial court wants to arrest. Brothers, surround the boat."

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.

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

"Officer, they ran that way."

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.

"boom!"

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.

"Don't hit my stall."

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.

"Quick, this way."

Several landowners hissed.

"boom!"

Everyone inside was pale and pale.

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

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.

Therefore, if many people are arrested in this operation, the credit will definitely be great. Although it is obviously impossible to be qualified to participate in 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.

"Chase!"

"Several officials, what's going on?"

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.

"Let's go!"

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

Some went to relatives' houses, some bought property in the city and hid in their own mansions, and some had no relatives or real estate in the city, so they had to find ways to hide.

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

The stall owners who had their stalls knocked over, the landlords who had been smashed, looted and burned, and the citizens who were so troubled by these people that they dared not go out on the streets all helped the policemen with directions.

How can those landlords have a good family background as Hangzhou natives?

As a result, in just two days, all the more than 6,000 people in the city were brought to justice. Except for a few who saw something wrong, more than 99% of them were all imprisoned in the Hangzhou City Prison and the Imperial City Prison.

For a time, the prison was overcrowded, with more than a dozen prisoners often held in a small cell of a few square meters, causing those pampered landlords to suffer old crimes.

"It's unfair. I'm not. You arrested the wrong person."

"I didn't rebel. We just came to the city for a walk. When they were making trouble, we just followed them. The court cannot frame good people."

"Officer, please let us out. The villain's lard has deceived his heart, and we will never dare to do it again."

"Humph, we didn't break the law at all. The court cannot arrest people randomly and without reason."

"Yes, is it wrong to protest the tyranny of the imperial court on the street? Which law stipulates that this cannot be done? Previously, some officials smashed the prime minister's house and ignored it. Is this how the imperial court treats us?"

In the cell, there were some who complained about injustice, some who pretended to be just passers-by, some who were regretful, and some who were more stubborn and stubbornly believed that they had not broken the law at all.

However, no matter how much I shouted, it was of no use.

Because those who complain about injustice and pretend to be just passers-by will naturally have a list of people waiting for them. If regret can calm down anything, then what else do government servants do?
As for those who are stubborn, they naturally have great memory recovery skills.

Xia Song then asked Liangzhe Road to raise Xing Prison official Ma Xun to be responsible for the interrogation, mainly interrogating the personnel, who planned the conspiracy, and what they had done these days.

Basically, you can't lie even if you want to, because there are too many people. For example, in the part about smashing, looting, and burning, there are naturally too many witnesses.

Especially in cases of wounding or even death, there was no need for the court to arrest them; the landlords had already handed the person over themselves.

After all, this matter involves too much, and if we don't hand it over, everyone may suffer.

Therefore, after an overnight interrogation and a few days later, Ma Xun reported to Xia Xue on the arrests and examinations over the past few days.

"Prime Minister, this time through vigorous searches in the city, a total of 6,134 rioters were captured. The wealthy families on the list arrested more than 1,000 people, 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 there are still almost a thousand people on the list who have not been arrested."

In the office of the Criminal Division, Ma Xun explained the situation and continued: "There were more than 130 participants who injured people, and more than 60 people were injured. Some were injured, and some were trampled. All injuries have been dealt with."

"What happened to the three dead people?"

"They are all poor vendors. At that time, the group of wealthy people led their customers to shout at the entrance of the transfer office, and even threw sand and stones at the office. Du Si did not take any action. Seeing that there was no movement at the transfer office, they were angry and smashed bricks along the street. Vendors would burn down their shops if the government did not respond promptly."

"I see."

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

"They are all talking about the wanton behavior of these wealthy families."

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

"Well, you go ahead."

Xia Wei thought for a while, then stood up and left the Office of the Punishment Department and went to the Office of the Transfer Envoy.

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

Du Qi came out to greet him. Because of this incident, the chief officer of their fifth division was also very busy.

He had to appease the people and hunt down those who had escaped, so he didn't have much free time.

After Xia Wei came over, he didn't say anything else. He directly asked him: "Now the imperial court is paying attention to this matter. This matter must be cut through quickly and cannot be delayed for too long."

"Yes."

Du Qi replied.

"Immediately issue an official document and ask all state and county government offices, Yushitai and the Imperial City Department to jointly handle the case and arrest all the remaining people on the list."

"Yes."

"And then put up placards in the city to appease the people in the city."

"Yes."

"Go and say hello to the various newspapers. Don't talk nonsense if you don't want to tell them. When the government issues a formal document, the government will give them a satisfactory answer."

"Yes."

"Well, I still have to go to the Imperial City Division, so I'll stay here soon."

Xia Chu also sat in the Yamen of the Transportation Department for a while, and then left without stopping.

He actually understood what Zhao Jun meant.

That is to pay attention to the impact and proportion, and not to kill indiscriminately.

Now the imperial court allows people from all over the country to set up newspapers to increase news dissemination channels.

The purpose is naturally not only to allow the common people to read the newspaper, but also to popularize the policies and trends of the imperial court.

At the same time, it also means to supervise local governments and prevent them from doing anything wrong and deceiving the superiors and concealing the truth from the inferiors.

Therefore, the imperial court actually had some control over the news, but not much. The Information Agency even allowed them to publish articles criticizing local officials.

In this way, local governments will be more restrained under the supervision of public opinion.

But if the same 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 landowners deserve to be killed, for example, those with a bad reputation, or those who exploited tenants and landowners in the past. These people are unpopular with the local people, and killing them will more easily bring prestige to the court.

But some landowners are actually quite good. They allow their tenants to pay relatively low rents, are often charitable, and have a good reputation among the people in the countryside.

Although they will be killed, it is unlikely that the people will violently protest and cause a civil uprising for a few landlords who are relatively friendly to them. However, doing so can easily give the local people the impression that the court is killing good people indiscriminately.

When the newspaper publishes it, it will always have a bad impact.

Therefore, in order to reduce the negative impact in this area and give the people a sense of fairness and justice in the court, we must do a good job in this area.

There is either a legitimate reason to kill them, or it is to find out what they have committed before. Therefore, this job is obviously not easy. Even if special cases are handled specially and dealt with as soon as possible, it will probably take at least several months to get the results.

Xia Ju went back and forth between several yamen, and the yamen were responsible for coordinating the various prefectures and asking them to arrest the remaining people on the list.

The pacification envoy yamen and the transfer envoy yamen united to appease the people and prevent panic from spreading.

The Ti Xing Department, the Yushitai and the Imperial City Office were responsible for investigating the situation of these landlords and sorting out which ones were good landlords and which ones were bad.

This kind of thing is actually very easy to investigate.

Because a landlord's reputation is good or bad, and naturally there are people in his hometown who know about it.

As for whether he maintains the image of a good person on the surface and is a bad person privately, that's simple.

In the past, evidence was needed to arrest such people, and there could be no quarrels. Conclusive evidence must be investigated before arresting people could be made.

but now.

Arrest all the people on the list first, interrogate their accomplices, and then arrest them one after another.

After arresting someone, they ransack their home to see if they had done anything bad.

It would be much easier if someone found out something bad had been done at home, such as a slave or maid giving a confession and having actual evidence.

If they are sure to be good landowners and are only forced to take to the streets because the court has harmed their interests, and they have not broken, smashed, looted or burned in the streets or done other bad things, then they can be treated with ease.

But even so, after these rounds of tossing, good landowners will probably be tortured enough.

As for the bad landlords, they suffered a lot. This time and the things they did before, they were sentenced to whatever crime they deserved. Their property was confiscated and they were punished. They could not escape unscathed.

This time we also want to set an example. Landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang must either spit out their land, switch to business, or continue to survive under high taxes.

Anyway, no matter how these three endings turn out, it will be a good thing for the court.

This is what Xia Wei came here to do.

(End of this chapter)