Chapter 14 Chapter Two

Laiziyan is located in the north of the junction of Youyang and Xiushan. The peaks are high and the slopes are steep, the mountains are connected, and the ditches are connected. here. The officers and soldiers of the imperial court were stationed in Banxi, and this unremarkable town suddenly became lively. Due to the small size of the place, the fields of the local farmers and the shallow slopes at the foot of the mountain were turned into barracks, and there were swords and swords everywhere.It is said that the current battle to encircle and suppress the White Lotus Sect has achieved phased results, but the remnant party still exists in the mountains.

In addition to the Qing soldiers, many foreigners came to the town, and they should have come to the battlefield to claim the corpses. Because the officers and soldiers captured the Bailian Sect camp in Laiziyan and started killing, according to those who entered, blood flowed into rivers and corpses were scattered all over the place.It is better to say that it is smuggling the corpse than recognizing the corpse.Because it is associated with the White Lotus Sect, it is natural not to be too ostentatious. Probably because countless people were killed, the government didn't bother to take care of it, and left the families of the deceased to do what they wanted.

Due to the sudden increase of outsiders, the business of various shops in the town is really booming. Many local mountain people set up temporary sheds on the side of the road, doing food and accommodation business, and taking the opportunity to earn some money.The most eye-catching one is the coffin shop, followed by those selling Mingbi longevity clothes. On the side of the road, there are pitch-black coffins scattered all over the place. Buyers don't have the heart to bargain, and usually they can be sold according to the store's asking price.The air in the small town exudes a thick smell of death, filled with the smell of burning coins...

The three of us arrived at Banxi, it was dusk, and we finally found a small hotel in the town and asked for a room to live in. Song Guoli, who we are going to chase this time, is a leader of the White Lotus Sect. After being arrested, he was detained in a temporary prison and guarded by heavy soldiers. He will be executed on the spot in two days.It is known that there are more than 30 religious leaders who were killed together with Song Guoli this time.Many young men who were arrested in the front had already been tied up in the ravine and chopped down together. After taking care of everything, we went to the town to buy some items for exorcising corpses, so we stopped going out and stayed in the hotel.

"Many children, come back." In the middle of the night, I heard a woman's voice calling, and it stopped three times.After a while, a similar voice sounded again, but the person who called it was changed, so repeated, and then one after another... The voice echoed in the valley for a long time, sad and helpless.Because too many people have died here recently, the villagers are afraid that the soul of the child will be taken away by the night ghost, so they cry for the soul every day... The cries of children are mixed with the cries of children from time to time, and adults can be faintly heard coaxing or scolding sounds, or threatening sounds, children crying intermittently...

When I got up the next day, I saw that the walls and tree trunks at the entrance of Zhentou Village were covered with paper talisman spells such as "Heavenly King, Earthly King, my family has a crying man at night...", and there were more people wearing Taoist robes casting spells on the road. The warlock, the flying whisk, the sound of spells... Right now, the urgent task of the three of us is to go to the execution ground to investigate the scene, so that the executioner can start and end the knife, so that we can quickly seal the dead Song's body. The execution ground was set on a small hill at the end of the town. In front of the hill was a spacious old cemetery with a wide view. Only one old neem tree stood alone at the side corner of the cemetery.A few crows were vigilantly digging the soil on the grave, looking at the people passing by from time to time, occasionally making a few sad calls.

In front of the cemetery is a post road, paved with bluestone.The hill was about two feet above the road, and a line of officers and soldiers and several guards were building the guillotine. The guillotine was supported by wood and faced the cemetery.Such a shape must be convenient for onlookers to watch. A strong man with a red cloth scarf on his head and a gleaming broadsword on his shoulders, sitting and standing from time to time, correcting the mistake of the stage builder with a very sophisticated look, he should be the leader of the executioner.He intervened in advance to provide technical guidance, which should be for the convenience of execution.

Although the execution will be carried out tomorrow, there are already a crowd of people waiting to watch the excitement at the execution ground, chatting, sitting, sighing or playing. A bystander asked the executioner if he would really "behead" the female bandit leader tomorrow. The executioner seemed to have important information resources, and he deliberately whetted his appetite and refused to tell others easily.Finally, under repeated pleas from everyone, he said: "Tomorrow, I will be executed naked!" Others echoed and said, "You are so lucky!" The executioner smiled contentedly, but now he became humble and said, "Where, where!"

Others booed and said, "That's right there!" Ambiguous laughter echoed in the desolate cemetery. Everyone didn't give up, and continued their curiosity, asking the red turban: "I heard that the night before the beheading of the female murderer, the man who executed the beheading can possess her body, is this true?" "It depends on the situation. If it's adultery, treason, etc., female prisoners are fine." The red scarf simply stopped commanding and set up a platform to satisfy the curiosity of others, and conducted an in-depth discussion on this issue, and those officers and soldiers also put down their work , listen to his preaching.

"Then how many did you do?" The others kept chasing after him, the red turban pretended not to hear, and others asked again. "I only once, and my master has many times, a total of eight times." The red turban said with a bit of regret, and then lost, "If the female death row prisoner is a virgin, it is generally not allowed to do so. If the master is still alive, you must first honor the master." "Then I wish you to become a great master as soon as possible, so you can pick it up cheaply." With the good wishes of others, the red turban's eyes lit up, as if hope was right in front of him: "Doing our business represents the spirit of the imperial court." My God, when this business is booming, the court will be prosperous; if this business is sluggish, the court will be exhausted."

Gradually, under the admiration of others, a sense of pride in the red turban filled the bronzed face with a thick beard, and continued to explain the beheading technique to everyone: "Our business has its own rules: execution Before, don’t whisper to criminals, don’t listen to relatives and criminals, and don’t look at them. If you are on the guillotine, you are a dead person, turning around from nowhere. The knife must be sharpened until it shines, and the blade must cut iron like mud. The tip of the knife must be able to Three points into the wood, with the knife in hand, without leaving a mark on the clothes, never dragging the water, never hurting yourself..." Everyone flattered and applauded. After that, the content of the speech became more and more unpleasant. When it comes to Xingtou, the red turban raised the big knife on his shoulders, making the appearance of beheading people, and everyone scattered like birds and beasts. I have heard of the "naked execution" they mentioned just now.All female leaders who conspired against the uprising were "executed naked" after being captured, and almost no one was spared.Chen Shuozhen, a female criminal at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and Wang Xiangu, the leader of the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty in the Jiaqing Dynasty, were both humiliated and tortured.But it is unheard of for executioners to rape female death row inmates. Tian Gudao heard this, and cursed angrily: "Grandma is a pickle, no wonder someone is willing to be an executioner!" Seeing the appearance of the execution ground, Tian Gudao was very worried: "Senior brother, this posture is unusual. Beheading in our place usually drags the prisoner to a deserted depression and cuts it off with one knife. The one who set up the stage and danced the flag, I'm afraid that if we make a loud noise, will it affect our sealing of the corpse?" I said, "Go to that mountain and sing that song. Let's play it by ear tomorrow." After surveying the execution ground, we gradually got an idea, and we returned to the town. Almost all the hotels in the town were full of people, both inside and outside the shops.A group of three or five people were discussing the same topic of "naked execution" with great relish.It turned out that these people had all come from other places to watch the "naked execution" after seeing the announcements posted by the government. Back in the room, there was a burst of booing from the next door. It turned out that the topic of naked execution and tomorrow's beheading was still on! This place seems to have suddenly become a gathering place for public opinion. Various rumors about beheadings and naked beheadings filled every corner of the town, and everyone happily sold gossip and anecdotes from everywhere. At dusk, the guests from several guest rooms on the floor were huddled in the room next to mine, and they were still talking very intensely, and it seemed that there was no sign of breaking up. Probably the topic of naked executions had almost been discussed, and at this time the topic shifted to the executioner. "Among all kinds of beheadings, Ling Chi should be the worst. Ling Chi is divided into three classes. The first class will cut 3,357 knives; the second class will cut 2,896 Knife; the third class, cut 1,585 knives. No matter how many knives are cut, the last knife should be the time when the criminal is killed. In the off-season of punishment, the master took them to volunteer in the butcher shop. They sliced ​​an unknown number of fat pigs into stuffing for buns, and finally they all practiced the hand-eye skills as accurate as a scale, saying that cutting a catty and cutting a knife Come down, it will never be fifteen taels..." In the noise of the crowd, I don't know when I fell asleep.