Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 207: Severe crackdown and extraordinary punishments!

Shu Sheng knew that although he was the governor, he should put the overall situation first.

After all, in the entire Huguang region, there were only two officials, himself and Gui E, who were transferred from the capital, and they brought with them the hope that His Majesty would implement new policies in Huguang.

Therefore, after knowing that Gui E's character was to dare to disobey his superiors, he simply took the initiative to obey Gui E, his subordinate, agreed to his proposal, and ordered the arrest of these officials.

Officials in other parts of Huguang were naturally shocked by this.

Some were secretly glad that they had arrived in time, while others were secretly indignant and decided to file a complaint with the Censorate against the two for their tyranny and cruelty.

Officials like Meng Jing who did not come to the Fuyuan Yamen within the deadline were also very surprised.

But they were not too afraid.

Firstly, they had been in the local area for a long time and had little respect for the imperial power;
Secondly, they didn't know that the emperor had issued an edict to crack down on them.

Therefore, after being brought here, Meng Jing and others still held their heads high and had no intention of kneeling down to pay their respects to Shu Sheng.

It stands to reason.

In this era, lower-level officials have begun to kneel down to greet their superiors.

Otherwise, Hai Rui would not have been given the nickname Hai Bijia.

However, strictly speaking, it makes no sense for lower-level officials to kneel before their superiors, so it was not a mistake for Hai Rui not to kneel. It can only be said that he was unwilling to abide by the unspoken rules of officialdom and to be servile to his superiors.

Meng Jing and others had no intention of being servile to Governor Shu Sheng. He even showed a look of contempt towards Governor Shu Sheng and looked down on Shu Sheng from the bottom of his heart.

Because Shu Sheng was an official who was highly valued because of his punishment of the Northern School of Confucius.

In Meng Jing's opinion, Shu Sheng was certainly not worthy of the respect of a moral gentleman like him.

Shu Sheng was not angry because Meng Jing and others did not kneel. He just asked Meng Jing and others: "Why didn't you obey the order and come to the Fuyuan to listen to the training and discuss matters?"

"I am ashamed to work with you traitors in Huguang, so how can I be willing to come to see you traitors? After I come, I can only scold you traitors!"

Meng Jing gave his reasons in a loud voice, as if he intended for all the officials present to hear.

"So do we!"

The other three county magistrates also replied proudly.

Snapped!
Gui E's eyes widened with anger, and he slammed the table and stood up, bowing to Shu Sheng and saying:
"Zhongcheng, since His Majesty has issued an order for severe punishment, these officials have offended their superiors and questioned the emperor's great courtesy. It is better to directly follow the extraordinary order and impose extraordinary punishments!"

"rational!"

Shu Sheng nodded, then stood up and said, "Please give the imperial decree, and all the ministers shall obey it!"

Not long after.

The commander of the governor's camp handed over the imperial edict.

After Shu Sheng took it, he read out the imperial edict to crack down severely in Huguang:

"Huguang is where my secret residence is located, but thieves are rampant and the governor was dismembered. This is a serious violation of the rules and regulations. If we don't take strict measures, we won't be able to correct it..."

When Shu Sheng read it, all the officials knelt down, even Meng Jing and others knelt down.

But what they didn't expect was that the emperor's decree was to crack down severely in Huguang, requiring the Huguang governor to punish the offenders in Huguang as severely as possible.

"According to the decree, Meng Jing and other traitors who disobeyed their superiors, slandered their superiors, and questioned the great ceremony, drag them out and execute them immediately!"

At this time, Shu Sheng also personally drafted a strict order for the king to kill Meng Jing and other officials with flags.

"Yes!"

The officers and soldiers of Fuyuan Biaoying immediately dragged Meng Jing and others away.

Meng Jing did not expect this to happen, and his expression suddenly changed after hearing this imperial edict.

"Zhongcheng!"

"Can't kill!"

After he and the three county magistrates were taken away by the soldiers, the inspector Chai Wen suddenly shouted.

At this time, Gui E stood up and walked over, snatched out a soldier's knife, and chopped it directly on Meng Jing's head.

Gui E, who came from a military background, had also practiced martial arts since childhood. His wrist strength was quite strong, and with his powerful force, Meng Jing's head fell to the ground on the spot, with blood splattering everywhere.

Chai Wen was stunned on the spot, unable to say anything.

"What can't be killed?"

"The order from the Fuyuan has been issued. It is the king's order. If anyone disobeys the king's order, I, the military officer, will be the first to disobey!"

Gui E spoke in a cold voice. Although his tone was not loud, it was like a thunderclap, ringing in the hall and making the officials from Huguang tremble.

One of the other three county magistrates was named Zheng Yingkai. He was originally from Zhenghe, Fujian. He was from a family of officials and aristocrats in Fujian. However, his academic performance was not good, so he only passed the imperial examination and was sent to Huguang as a county magistrate. However, he was not afraid of his superiors just because he was only a county magistrate. Seeing this scene, he directly cursed:

"You cruel officials and treacherous ministers who murdered gentlemen will surely be punished by heaven!"

Click!

Gui E slashed with his knife again, also cutting Zheng Yingkai's head off, and a hint of ridicule appeared on his bloody face:

"The king's order is the will of heaven. Those who resist the king's order are treacherous ministers, and those who obey the king's order are gentlemen! Heaven's punishment will only befall you. Today's sword is a punishment from heaven for you!"

Gui E's cruelty frightened all the officials from Huguang present!

Even the Imperial Censor Chai Wen began to hold his forehead with trembling arms, fearing that Gui E would also regard him as a traitor and punish him severely.

Even Shu Sheng was shocked. He thought that he was harsh, but he was still far worse than Gui E. "Why do you have to do it yourself?"

afterwards.

When Shu Sheng and Gui E were alone, Shu Sheng told Gui E about what Gui E had done personally.

Gui E answered directly: "Because I am afraid that the Minister of Justice will revoke the imperial decree because of what the inspector said!"

"How could I?"

Shu Sheng smiled.

"If not, do we really have to kill another inspector?"

Gui E asked.

Shu Sheng was silent.

"You are the superior, but you are willing to accept my advice. Then I, as an inferior, will help you out!"

Shu Sheng was deeply touched after hearing Gui E's words.

Gui E took the initiative to speak and then said: "Besides, I have been fighting to the death with these ritualists since Zhang Bingyong and I discussed the grand ceremony for the emperor in Beijing! There is no room for turning back. We can only scare them so much that they dare not retaliate in the future!"

"Speaking of the discussion of the great ceremony at that time, you were a censor at the time, and you dared to be the first to stand up after Zhang Bingyong questioned it. This is admirable and unexpected."

"That's because I know that I was promoted to the position of Imperial Counsel in name only by Shi Yaoxing, but in fact it was Your Majesty's grace. If Your Majesty hadn't insisted on letting Shi Yao take charge of the Ministry of Personnel, someone like me would have wasted even longer in the local area."

……

……

After Meng Jing and others were executed, local officials in Huguang dared not disobey the orders of their superiors anymore.

Whether it was the governor's office checking the money and grain stored in local warehouses or the actual number of soldiers in each place, no one dared to disobey.

Let’s talk.

When Shu Sheng and Gui E left Beijing, the soldiers who were sent to Huguang as inspectors had already set out a few days earlier. When these soldiers set out for Huguang, the monk Jue'an was leaving Shishou with a gloomy face, because he saw with his own eyes Yuan Zonggao hosting a banquet for the villagers at the Shenming Pavilion in the village, and at the same time preaching the court's low-interest policy to benefit the people.

Therefore, after returning to Jiangling, Jue'an met Miao Shan and said to her, "Yuan Zonggao has indeed not been eliminated. I have to go back to the capital and ask the nobles in the capital to see if I can get any answers. By the way, I can also find out what new policies the court will have! Yuan Zonggao has not been eliminated, so someone must have leaked the news. In this case, the court cannot fail to respond."

Miao Shan asked, "What about me?"

"You stay here! Continue to instigate the local monks and believers to cause trouble, or try to destroy the emperor's father's tomb and prevent the policy of interest rate reduction from being implemented!"

Jue'an replied.

Miao Shan asked hesitantly, "Can we really do it?"

"Everything depends on human effort. Just do it. As long as the momentum is big enough, there will be royal family members and gentry who will respond, and even the government may change its attitude!"

"No matter what, the emperor's actions directly affect the interests of us monks, but fundamentally they are affecting the interests of all the powerful and wealthy families!"

Jue'an sneered at this point: "Giving the common people money at low interest rates, how could he have thought of that! He thought that if he didn't learn from Wang Anshi and let the government directly implement the Qingmiao loan, but instead used his cronies to lend at low interest rates and only let the government supervise, he would succeed? After all, he is a scholar-emperor who is good at women's hands and didn't see through the essence of Wang Anshi's failure!"

Miao Shan knew that Jue'an was a very knowledgeable person, well versed in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and she had always admired him, so she naturally believed what he said.

Therefore, after Jue'an left, Miaoshan really gathered monks according to his wishes, and took the opportunity to talk about Buddhism and Zen to spread the evil rumor that a great chaos was about to come.

And what she called the coming chaos was that the Yuan family falsely passed on the imperial decree, used low interest rates to deceive the ignorant people, and wanted to cut off the way of life of all Buddhas and gods, which would bring a great disaster to the world. Only by confiscating the Yuan family and killing the ignorant people who were bewitched by the Yuan family can this disaster be avoided.

Although Miao Shan's rhetoric had many loopholes, she used medicines such as Wuxiang in the name of medical treatment to deceive monks and people's trust, which made many people believe her, especially monks, nuns and Taoists whose interests were affected by low-interest loans, who were more willing to believe her.

In addition, Miaoshan was a monk and nun who, like Jue'an, was quite prestigious among monks and nuns in the world.

Therefore, this makes it easier for her to deceive the public.

On this day, the evil monk Jingtong, who was influenced by Miaoshan, gathered hundreds of believers at Huayan Temple in Jingzhou Prefecture.

Most of these believers came here because they heard that Jingtong was going to donate holy water here.

"Master Jingtong, please give me some holy water!"

"Is what Master Jingtong said true? Is chaos really coming?"

……

The holy water of Jingtong was nothing but water made from opium or something like that given to him by Miaoshan. It was said to have miraculous effects, but in fact it made people addicted to drugs and even completely lose their minds.

As a result, he was able to win over more people and took the opportunity to instigate more people to work for her.

Many people who actively cooperated have even urged their followers to kill the common people who borrowed low-interest loans, to wipe out the Yuan family, and to go to Anlu Prefecture to destroy the source of the chaos.

Miao Shan and others started to incite people in this way in early July of the second year of Jiajing, and the momentum of the incitement came in late July.

A large number of inspection offices were added to the Inspection Department, and a large number of soldiers arrived in Huguang to serve as newly appointed inspectors in early July of the second year of the Jiajing reign.

Therefore, when Miao Shan was building up momentum, all the newly added local inspectors in Huguang also took up their posts. They recruited and trained patrol soldiers for nearly a month and deployed a large number of spies in the patrol offices.

Thus, when Jingtong, instigated by Miaoshan, was donating holy water to instigate rebellion in Huayan Temple, the inspector Ma Jixian learned that a large number of monks and evil followers had gathered here, so he informed his superiors and brought the trained archers to suppress these people first.

"Kill all the foolish people! Wang Sanshi from our town refused to offer his daughter to the Buddha just because of this! He should be killed."

Zhou Fuyao, a lay disciple of Yuanjue Temple in Yaosuo Town, was standing inside Huayan Temple and joining in the clamor.

But as soon as he finished speaking, a knife suddenly pierced his chest: "You evil traitor, you still want to kill people, but you don't know that your death is imminent!"

After Ma Jixian stabbed Zhou Fuyao in the back with a knife, he said this in a deep voice, then drew his knife and looked at the people in the temple:
"Everyone kneel down! Otherwise you will be killed without mercy!"

(End of this chapter)