Chapter 60 241 Tomb of Five

After Wei Zhongxian killed Yang Lian and Zuo Guangdou, he took control of the government.He promoted all the officials and disciples who catered to him to important positions in the court.Some helped him make suggestions, and some specialized in spies killing people.The folks gave them some nicknames, called "Five Tigers", "Five Biao", "Ten Dogs", "Ten Children", and "Forty Grandchildren". Wei Zhongxian was so powerful that both court and local officials had to flatter him if they wanted to keep their positions.When Wei Zhongxian went out, the scene was exactly the same as that of the emperor, and everyone treated him as the emperor.In the feudal era, the emperor was called "long live".Wei Zhongxian is not an emperor, so he cannot be called "Long Live".An official called Wei Zhongxian "nine thousand years old". Wei Zhongxian was very happy to hear that, and rewarded the official heavily.After that, Wei Zhongxian became "nine thousand years old".There is also a governor of Zhejiang who built an ancestral hall for Wei Zhongxian in order to please Wei Zhongxian.Generally, ancestral halls are man-made to commemorate the dead. Wei Zhongxian built the ancestral hall when he was still alive, so it is called "Shengci".As soon as such a strange incident came out, some people objected, and Wei Zhongxian dismissed the objectors.Various local officials were afraid of offending him, so they built Wei Zhongxian's "shengci" one after another.

At that time, the court was full of eunuchs and officials who catered to the eunuchs, and those with a little sense of justice were unwilling to join them, so they all resigned.An official, Zhou Shunchang, could not get used to the rampant eunuchs, so he took a long vacation and went back to Suzhou to live here.In 1626 AD, Wei Zhongxian once again arrested the Donglin Party. Soldiers escorted a Donglin Party official passing through Suzhou. Zhou Shunchang held a banquet for him to see him off. At the banquet, he named Wei Zhongxian by name.The escorted soldiers went back and reported to Wei Zhongxian.Wei Zhongxian was furious and ordered Dongchang to send soldiers, led by Nanjing governor Mao Yilu, to Suzhou to arrest Zhou Shunchang.

As soon as the news that Dongchang went to Suzhou to arrest people spread, it caused a sensation among the citizens of Suzhou.More than 20 years ago, under the leadership of Ge Xian, the citizens of Suzhou fought against the tax supervisor.Now that Wei Zhongxian's spies have come to Suzhou to arrest people again, why not arouse everyone's anger.Besides, Zhou Shunchang was persecuted for opposing the eunuch party, and everyone sympathized with him.So on the day when Dongchang soldiers arrived in Suzhou, tens of thousands of Suzhou citizens took to the streets to support Zhou Shunchang.

Everyone stopped Mao Yilu's sedan chair, pushed several scholars to petition Mao Yilu, and demanded that the order to arrest Zhou Shunchang be revoked.Mao Yilu was so frightened that he was sweating profusely when he saw the huge momentum of the crowd, he couldn't say a word.The soldiers next to us were anxious. They threw the iron shackles in their hands to the ground, and said sternly, "We are from Dongchang, who dares to stop us!" The iron shackles made a "clang" sound, and the citizens were irritated.Someone stood up and asked the soldiers: "Didn't you say that people were arrested under the imperial decree of the emperor? So it was Dongchang who did it!"

Before the soldiers had time to answer, the crowd shouted: "So it's the traitor from Dongchang!" The crowd rushed towards Mao Maoyilu and the soldiers while shouting, and the sound was like a landslide.These bullying soldiers on weekdays were frightened and ran here and there, trying to escape the siege of the masses.The angry crowd caught up with them, grabbed them, and beat them hard.A soldier was hit in the heart, rolled on the ground, and died.The rest of the soldiers were also beaten badly, and fled scrambling. The citizens beat the soldiers hard, and they kept on trying to find Mao Yilu to settle the score.Mao Yilu was pretty well-behaved, he got out of the sedan chair early, took off his official uniform while the crowd was in chaos, and slipped out from an alley, just in time to see a cesspit in front of him. In the corner of the smoked cesspit.It wasn't until the citizens dispersed that the followers dragged the fainted governor out from the cesspit.

After the Dongchang spies fled back, they immediately cried to Wei Zhongxian.Wei Zhongxian was not willing to give up, and ordered Mao Yilu to send troops to Suzhou to suppress.They put Yan Peiwei, Yang Nianru, Ma Jie, Shen Yang, and Zhou Wenyuan, who led the riots that day, into prison, and charged them with sedition, and sentenced them to death. When the five people were taken to the execution ground to die, they looked calm and cursed at the names of Wei Zhongxian and Mao Yilu! After they sacrificed, the local people paid money to take back the corpses from the executioner and buried them on the mountain pond east of Tiger Hill.Later, a tombstone was erected, with the words "Tomb of Five People" written on it.

Although this riot was suppressed, after that, the secret agents of Dongchang saw the strength of the masses, and they no longer dared to go around and arrest people.