Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 373 You bunch of traitors, I'm too lazy to reason with you, you don't deserve to listen!

On the first day of the tenth month in the second year of the Han Dynasty, it was the Clothing Distribution Festival.

The Book of Songs, in the section "Bin Feng: July", says: "In July, the Fire Star moves westward; in September, clothes are given out."

Every year starting from the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the north wind gradually rises, and the chill seeps into people's hearts. People buy winter clothes to prepare for the winter.

Since the beginning of the two weeks ago, the system of corvée labor and garrison service has been initially established. Women were required to prepare winter clothes for their relatives who were serving in distant border areas or performing corvée labor. This practice gradually evolved into the custom of "giving clothes" to ancestors and the deceased.

The Qin dynasty took October as the beginning of the year, so October was also regarded as the "month of true yin." Sacrificing to the spirits of the dead at this time when yin energy was at its peak was in accordance with the principles of yin and yang.

Ordinary families may simply offer one or two simple sacrifices to express their filial piety.

Those families with slightly better financial means would have the head wife prepare special funerary clothes for the deceased to get through the winter, with prayers inserted inside, and burn them in the fire to send them to the underworld.

For the imperial family, this was one of the few sacrificial ceremonies presided over by the empress.

Empress He was to personally go to the temples of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Shizu to conduct a simple sacrificial ceremony under the supervision of Zheng Xuan, the Minister of Ceremonies.

Although Emperor Liu Bian was not required to personally visit the two temples to offer sacrifices, he still had to keep in mind his gratitude towards his ancestors.

But this year, on the day of giving clothes, he had to apologize to his ancestors in his heart.

Because he is going to unleash a massacre today!
Guo Tu was extremely efficient; in just three days, almost all the scapegoats brought up by the powerful families had confessed.

He also showed the Censorate, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the Governor's Office of Yuzhou, and the Prefect's Office of Chenjun what a truly cruel official was!

Isn't it just torture that doesn't leave external wounds?
Fine, we respect your wish to protect your reputation!
Guo Tu "invited" the first batch of prisoners to eat steamed buns!

If they don't confess, we'll keep feeding them cakes!
For the second batch of prisoners, Guo Tu "invited" them to drink vinegar!
Despite being a common condiment, vinegar is still difficult to swallow when consumed raw.

Forced into the mouth, the sour smell assaults the nose, and the strong sour taste stimulates the taste buds, causing one to subconsciously vomit the vinegar out of their mouth.

But the jailers weren't going to be polite to these prisoners. They slapped them twice across the face, then grabbed their chins and forced vinegar down their throats with a copper strainer.

Drinking too much vinegar can burn your stomach!
Soon after, some people experienced shortness of breath, and in severe cases, they vomited filth, had persistent diarrhea, and even coughed up blood or had bloody stools.

At that time, Guo Tu ordered the official doctor to feed them grass ash water to relieve the symptoms. If they still did not confess, he would continue to force-feed them vinegar!
The third batch of prisoners were subjected to water torture by Guo Tu, who had their heads submerged in water and repeatedly experienced the pain of drowning until their will broke down and they confessed to the powerful family behind them.

Other methods included standing in shackles as punishment, pouring ice water on prisoners in winter, locking prisoners in bronze bells and torturing them with the noise produced by constantly striking the bells, prohibiting prisoners from sleeping, tying prisoners to fires to keep them warm until they were thirsty and dehydrated, and steaming prisoners in steamers.

However, unexpected incidents are inevitable under torture.

Of the more than 200 prisoners, 37 were scared to death in their cells, 24 went insane, and 19 died suddenly during torture.

However, even the most experienced coroners in the governor's office of Yuzhou and the prefectural governor's office of Chenjun could not find any external injuries.

The doctors sent by various powerful families could only conclude that the deaths were caused by choking, drowning, burning to death while warming themselves by a fire, or sudden death.

The Court of Justice is unusually benevolent, providing him with ample food and clothing, and allowing him to bathe and warm himself by the fire. Given his lowly fate and guilty conscience, who can he blame for his unexpected death?
Therefore, facing public opinion, Guo Tu not only didn't care, but instead responded with a sneer, vowing to investigate thoroughly! You question whether these people died unexpectedly?
Okay, so-called experts also believe that these prisoners did not die accidentally, but rather committed suicide out of fear of punishment or killed to cover up their crimes!
As for those who have lost their souls and gone mad, they have all done bad things and had their souls taken over by vengeful ghosts!
For Guo Tu, the sudden death or insanity actually provided more room for maneuver.

Guo Tu did not shy away from the issues of methods and procedures. He had people imitate his handwriting to sign pre-prepared confessions and use the corpses' fingers to make their fingerprints. On September 28, these confessions, along with those obtained through torture, were presented to the emperor.

Some have questioned whether the signatures on the signed confession were actually written by the prisoners themselves.
Guo Tu merely scoffed and dismissed it with disdain.

You bunch of traitors, I'm too lazy to reason with you, you don't deserve to listen!

On that very day, the emperor approved the arrest and ordered General Huangfu Song to cooperate with Guo Tu in the arrest operation.

Huangfu Song immediately mobilized the central army stationed in various counties of Chenjun under the pretext of "suppressing the remnants of the rebellious emperor" and, together with the officials of the Court of Justice, broke down doors and arrested people overnight!

Chen Commandery comprised eleven counties, each garrisoned with at least one battalion of troops, totaling two thousand central soldiers.

This was also thanks to the previous cowardly behavior of Wang Yun, Zhang Zhao, and others, which lulled these originally timid and powerful families into a false sense of security, making them mistakenly believe that this was just a lot of noise but little action.

However, not all powerful families lowered their guard. The central army acted swiftly, breaking down doors and killing anyone who offered resistance.

Swordsmen and shieldmen burst through the door, archers and crossbowmen provided suppressive fire from behind, and short-range weapons such as hammers, swords, and axes followed closely behind, easily defeating these private soldiers.

The training subjects of the Central Army are not limited to field battles and simple siege and defense battles; they also include street fighting within the city.

Those private guards who were just there to protect the houses were as fragile as paper when faced with the elite central army, whose soldiers were all dressed in fine armor and had experienced many battles.

All of these rebels were killed on the spot, skipping the trial process.

The prominent families of Changping, Chenxian, Wu, and Li were directly exterminated. Countless other wealthy and powerful families were trampled underfoot by the boots of the central army soldiers and turned into prisoners.

Only a few families, such as the Yuan, He, Xie, and Ying families of Chenjun, who consistently supported the imperial court, were spared after discarding the most heinous members of their clans, paying back the taxes and fines evaded over the years, and registering all the hidden land and people.

On September 30th, officials from the Court of Justice obtained confessions from all the arrested noble families in less than two days.

Those who funded Liu Chong's rebellion or possessed armor in their homes will have their entire families exterminated, and the ringleaders will be torn apart by chariots!
The rest shall be dealt with according to the law; those with serious offenses shall be executed along with their entire clan, while those with minor offenses shall be exiled!
The execution was to take place on the day of the Clothing Festival, when the "yin energy was at its peak."

On this day, the execution ground was shrouded in blood, with over 30,000 people executed and another 80,000 sentenced to exile.

Liu Bian recalled that his senior brother often complained in his letters about the sparse population of Liaodong County.

Therefore, more than 20,000 relatively healthy convicts were specially selected and exiled to Liaodong to populate the border counties of Liaodong.

It wasn't that he was reluctant to send all 80,000 people to Liaodong, but in Liaodong Prefecture, which had a total population of only 82,000, if all 80,000 related criminals were sent there at once, it was hard to say what the future of Liaodong Prefecture would hold.

Therefore, of these 80,000 convicts, 20,000 were exiled to Liaodong Commandery, while the remaining 60,000 were all sent to the four southern commanderies that were in dire need of development.

When Liu Bian mentioned Nanzhong, he recalled the open-pit gold, silver, copper, and iron mines, countless salt wells and salt lakes that could be used to make salt, and a great deal of wealth that could be seen with the naked eye, as described in Jia Cong's memorial!
Jia Cong has basically pacified the various barbarian tribes in the south and the local powerful clans; what remains is governance and development.

After dealing with the powerful and influential families in Chen Commandery, Liu Bian was eager to return to the capital and handle the affairs of the four commanderies in the south!
(End of this chapter)