I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 84 It’s not Qin Hui’s turn to invent fried cypress

Zhao Zi said that this idea, which he came up with on the spur of the moment, required the cooperation of Zhao Lin and Dong Chao, and they could sign together to make it happen.

Originally, there was a stubborn Wei Xian in Suzhou who was reluctant to tolerate the falsification. Fortunately, Wei Xian had been transferred to Huzhou by imperial decree, and his position had already been handed over. He had rushed to Huzhou to take up his post the day before, so he would not be in the way.

Of the remaining two, Zhao Lin held a higher position, but Dong Chao held the greater say in the matter. Although he was only a militia commander, Dong Chao's wing troops were the first eyewitnesses to Zhu Jie's death. Therefore, as long as Dong Chao cooperated with Zhao Lin's description of Zhu Jie's true death, he would be unable to find any disproven evidence.

Moreover, the fighting had already reached such a state of chaos that Zhao Zicheng had just been released and two more days had been wasted while dealing with these issues. Regarding the Hangzhou battlefield, it was said that Fuchun County had been captured by Fang La.

In these dire times, when new prefectures and counties could fall every few days, who would bother with the details of the criminal justice system? As long as the cause of Zhu Jie's death and the identity of the murderer were plausible and the evidence was sufficient, the case would be closed.

After returning to Suzhou City, Zhao Zi informed Zhao Lin of the consensus he had reached with Dong Chao. As expected, Zhao Lin only hesitated for a moment and then obeyed obediently.

He had only one request, which was, "I can sign the secret report on the true cause of Zhu Jie's death. But I will not take the step of beheading Zhu Jie's corpse and displaying it to the public to win over the people's hearts. Zhao Tongpan, you can do as you please, and I am only responsible for testifying for you."

Zhao Zi said he was very satisfied with the result. The other party was afraid of taking more responsibility and did not need fame. It was just right for him to take both responsibility and fame, and each got what he wanted.

It makes sense that with great responsibility comes great fame.

Zhao Lin could tell that Zhao Zi said he was not here to "discuss" with him, but only to "inform" him.

A prefecture governor was being led around by the nose by a newly powerful magistrate who had been a county magistrate just a few days before. This kind of bizarre situation could only occur during wartime.

From this perspective, Zhao Zicheng should be thankful for Fang La's rebellion, which opened up the situation for him. All the restrictions he had in peacetime were swept away overnight.

So that night, Zhao Zicheng, Zhao Lin and Dong Chao jointly signed a secret memorial, in which they wrote down the difficulties in Suzhou, the actual cause of Zhu Jie's death, the recommended cause of death to be announced to the public, etc.

Both of them signed, which was a pledge of allegiance. On this issue, everyone was on the same page, and no one could go back on their word.

In one prefecture, the prefect, the magistrate, and the militia all said the same thing. The county magistrate in the county in question was also the magistrate. With all four positions saying the same thing, especially during wartime, even a thorough investigation by the higher-ups would be unable to uncover any loopholes.

Finally, Zhao Zicheng added a postscript, signed only by himself. He explained that because the people of Suzhou were in turmoil, and the people in Xiu and Hu were also uneasy, Zhu Jie must be killed by the court to regain their hearts. He said he could only arbitrarily exercise power during wartime and behead his corpse to restore order to the world. If Your Majesty felt that I had abused my power, I would come and confess my guilt after the Jiangnan bandits were pacified.

After handing these secret reports to the envoy who came to deliver the imperial edict, he also gave the envoy a lot of gold and silver as a reward for his hard work, and said all kinds of good things to ask him to deliver it as soon as possible. The envoy did not refuse or make things difficult for him because of the large amount of money.

Anyway, he was just a messenger, and whether what was written in the letter would anger the emperor was none of his business.

After finishing all this, Zhao Zicheng was afraid that the night would be long and full of dreams, and Zhu Jie's body would rot, so he agreed with Zhao Lin:

Zhu Jie's sentence will be announced tomorrow, and word will spread that the case will be handled expedited according to wartime procedures, with the main charge being "fleeing from justice." The day after tomorrow morning, his body will be publicly beheaded within Suzhou City, with the public declaring it a canonical execution.

……

After finishing all this, it was already late at night, and Zhao Zicheng returned home to rest.

He did not live in the county government office because he wanted to inform the Murong family of the latest news so that they would not think that he had gotten into trouble and would keep worrying about him.

He rode his horse hurriedly to Murong Manor. The housekeeper Deng Yue was actually waiting outside the door. It was obvious that the mistress had asked him to wait for news all night. As soon as he saw Zhao Zicheng, he hurriedly let him in.

Zhao Zicheng didn't hesitate and went straight into the main hall. Duan Yuyan and the Murong sisters were already waiting there.

Before this, although Murong Qiu had contact with him several times, he had never appeared with his sister or had an in-depth conversation with him. There was always a layer of window paper between them. Sometimes he would take advantage of Zhao Zi's claim that he couldn't tell the sisters apart (including when he could clearly tell the difference but pretended not to, or was too lazy to tell the difference), and chat casually without any psychological burden.

This time, it was the Murong sisters who openly came out to discuss things with him at the same time, showing that they were too lazy to pretend and didn't want to act anymore. They told Zhao Zi clearly: We know you know we know you misjudged us before.

Zhao Zicheng didn't waste any time, he sat down and drank a sip of tea and then explained directly:
"It's done. Those loopholes you left behind have finally been plugged. The cause of Zhu Jie's death will be reported to the court in secrecy, and the news will be suppressed from the public. Tomorrow, we will conduct a formal trial for his crime of 'fleeing from justice'. He will not be brought to court, and the trial will not be public. The day after tomorrow morning, according to wartime custom, his corpse will be executed by military law. Then tell the people that Zhu Jie was killed by imperial law."

Murong Yan and Duan Yuyan didn't think anything of it after hearing this, but Murong Qiu was a little nervous because it was she who helped come up with the decision of "pretending to be Fang La's men to break through and kill Zhu Jie when there is a chance."

Now it seems that this idea was very good in terms of "reality", but it was not very effective in terms of "reputation", which would only embolden the enemy and undermine our own prestige. Fortunately, Brother Zhao was more far-sighted than I was and took both the reputation and the reality into consideration.

However, with Murong Qiu's insight and wisdom, she saw a little more than her mother and sister, and couldn't help but sigh with worry, "Brother, if you act so 'conveniently', you'll inevitably leave the impression of being 'authoritarian and domineering' to the emperor. For the sake of the court's dignity, I'm afraid that even if you achieve great merit in suppressing the rebellion in Jiangnan, your official career will not be smooth."

When she said this, she felt genuinely guilty, thinking that her carelessness would cause Zhao Zicheng's career to be hindered and delayed.

Zhao Zicheng knew what she was feeling guilty about and waved his hand, "My dear sister, don't worry about this. Since ancient times, gains and losses have been calculated, and the strong are easily broken. I'm not even twenty yet, so what good is a promotion too quickly?
Besides, as a member of the imperial clan, it's impossible for me to hold the position of a prime minister. Living in a stately home for my entire life, enjoying a life of luxury and wealth, is enough for me. "My dear sister, you helped me gain the reputation of killing Zhu Jie, and I should express my sincere gratitude. How can a few years of official position compare to the good reputation I have earned in the hearts of the people of Jiangnan?"

Some things are intangible, invisible and intangible. Yet, sometimes one has to trade quantifiable official positions and ranks for those intangible things.

Murong Qiu felt much better after hearing what he said. She also knew that what Zhao Zicheng said was probably the truth and not necessarily to appease her.

But Zhao Zi said that this frankness and open-mindedness made her admire him even more.

Sometimes a woman's admiration for the strong is like this: the less you coax her, and the more you act naturally and not deliberately for her, the more she will admire you.

After these words were spoken, the people of the Murong family felt relieved and all went on in silence for the rest of the night.

……

The next day, Zhao Lin completed the trial of Zhu Jie's "fleeing from justice" case at the fastest speed, and Zhu Jie's crimes were finally made public to the people of Suzhou.

This included the previous imperial edicts and the opinions on how to deal with Zhu Jie. Some of the information that was suitable for public disclosure was also selected and made public directly in order to win the hearts of the people in the south of the Yangtze River.

Within a day, the people of Suzhou spread the news to one another, and everyone was ecstatic. Some people who were not very wealthy pawned their clothes and other belongings to buy wine and meat to celebrate.

"Have you heard? County Lord Zhao/President Zhao Tong has sentenced the thief Zhu to death! He will be beheaded tomorrow!"

"Heaven has eyes! County Lord Zhao is truly the Gao Yao of our time, a true justice!"

"I've long heard that County Lord Zhao is a descendant of Emperor Taizu. He is truly as brave and courageous as his ancestors, and he dares to take responsibility for his actions!"

"Yes, yes. I heard that at the beginning of last year, he was still a scholar. At that time, a ship carrying flowers and stones sank, and the corrupt officials of the Yingfeng Bureau wanted to frame him. It was Zhao County Lord who spoke up for Zhu and stopped his evil deeds." "Over the past year, Zhao County Lord has pleaded for the people countless times! God has finally opened his eyes! Good is rewarded, and evil is punished!"

The people of Suzhou were instantly swept up in spontaneous public opinion and talked about this incident all day long.

The next morning, Zhao Zicheng ordered Zhu Jie to be executed according to military law on the grounds of emergency during wartime.

Zhu Jie's relatively intact body was dragged to the execution platform by Lin Chong and Lu Da. Cao Zheng served as the executioner and beheaded him in public.

Zhao Zi said that he did not dare to use the original executioners and yamen runners because he was afraid of leaks, so he had to use his own people in the most core links.

At the time of the execution, the streets were deserted, and almost everyone in Suzhou who could come to watch wanted to come. If it weren't for the impending battle and Zhao Zi's order not to open the city gates, perhaps countless people from the neighboring counties of Kunshan, Changshu, and Wujiang would have come to watch.

Despite Zhao Zicheng's strict order not to open the city gates, many residents of the three counties still ventured forward, hoping for a lucky break, only to be turned away. The Suzhou defenders offered reassurances, explaining that they weren't being unkind, but simply needed to maintain order and feared Fang La's spies might take advantage of the situation. The onlookers from the three counties finally understood, but still refused to disperse, preferring to wait outside the city gates for several hours to confirm Zhu Zhen's beheading before leaving.

Zhao Zi said that he couldn't wait until three quarters after noon, and he was also afraid that the light at noon would be too good and people would see the flaw, so he started the operation early in the morning at noon.

Cao Zheng used the technique he had learned from slaughtering pigs to chop off Zhu Jie's dirty, ugly, fat and greasy head cleanly and neatly.

Cao Zheng was quick-witted and took advantage of the falling head to block Zhu Zhen's body and secretly spilled a bag of pig blood hidden in his sleeve.

In order to create this fake, Cao Zheng specially wore a long-sleeved execution uniform today instead of his usual shirtless outfit, so that he could hide something in his sleeves.

As Zhu Jie's body fell completely, his head was picked up by Cao Zheng and displayed in all directions. The onlookers from Suzhou cheered like thunder.

Countless people wanted to rush to the execution platform to cut off some pieces of Zhu Jie's flesh to eat, but they were all stopped by Zhao Zicheng's personal soldiers.

Zhu Jie's body had been dead for several days. If he had been bitten by someone, the foul smell would have immediately exposed him.

Zhao Zi said he was afraid the situation would get out of control, so he quickly went on stage to calm everyone down, saying that this was a special period and in order to restore order as quickly as possible, he asked the folks to cooperate.

Then he waved his hand and asked Cao Zheng and Lin Chong to carry Zhu Zhen's headless body and throw it directly onto a pile of firewood that had been stacked nearby. Zhao Zicheng personally threw a torch and cremated Zhu Zhen's body.

"It's a good deal for you. You can avoid being humiliated and be cremated directly." Zhao Zicheng thought to himself, if it weren't for the stench, Zhu Jie would not have been able to enjoy the treatment of cremation.

However, this way of handling the matter could also be written in the supplementary memorial to the emperor: At that time, Zhao Zicheng would explain the exact circumstances of Zhu Jie's death, and that he had to cremate the body immediately in order to prevent his colleague's body from being dismembered and eaten raw by the people.

I hope that after Zhao Ji sees how much Zhu Zhen is hated in Suzhou, he will be more restrained.

Even if Zhao Zicheng is held accountable for hurting his reputation in the future, he can be gentler.

After watching Zhu Zhen being cremated, the crowd dispersed helplessly. Just like the people of Chang'an who had heard of Dong Zhuo's death over nine hundred years ago, they celebrated with singing and dancing.

……

Seeing the people so excited, Zhao Zicheng thought of the history of Dong Zhuo's death, when people shared his fat slices and ate them. Later, when Yuan Chonghuan was tortured to death by slow slicing, people also bought his meat slices.

Zhu Jie committed such a great crime, but because he needed to cover up his corruption, he could not be eaten alive. It was a pity and not conducive to completely boosting morale.

Zhao Zicheng thought about the examples in history of people who were hated to the extreme, and naturally came up with a remedy.

"Eh? I remember that in later generations, Hangzhou had a famous snack called fried dough sticks and scallion-wrapped cypress. Scallion-wrapped cypress is spring roll wrappers with scallions and fried dough sticks. The fried dough sticks were originally called fried cypress. It was because the people hated Qin Hui for killing Yue Fei, so they made two dough figurines to represent Qin Hui and Wang Shi and put them in the frying pan.

Later, as time went by, the hatred faded, and because making dough figurines was too troublesome, they simplified it to just two sticks of leavened dough. So, now that I've traveled through time, Qin Hui no longer has the chance to harm Yue Fei, and youtiao might be lost—well, not lost, it's probably never been invented. So, let's make use of the waste and use youtiao to replace Zhu Zhen."

Zhao Zicheng did what he said and ordered several cooks from the Murong family to go out and set up stalls in secret that day. They made dough figurines of Zhu Jie and his father, fried them in oil and sold them to the people of Suzhou.

Considering that Zhao Ji had not yet retroactively recognized the crime that Zhao Zicheng had convicted Zhu Jie of, and the court's evaluation of Zhu Jie was not yet so bad, Zhao Zicheng did not want to take credit for the idea of ​​frying the dough figurines, and instead said it was a spontaneous idea of ​​folk wisdom.

When the Murong sisters heard this idea, they were a little worried: "Can this be eaten? It's fried until it's burnt black. Is it just to relieve anger? Isn't it too deliberate and give people something to talk about?"

Zhao Zicheng was very confident: "Don't worry, as long as they are not fried too dark, they will definitely taste good. Since it is troublesome to make dough figurines, I will sell them for fifty yuan each, just for the chef to earn some money. I can also sell fried dough sticks that don't need to be made into human shapes, at a cheaper price of ten yuan each. It depends on whether people are willing to queue up.

Tell those chefs to stop hiding their secrets and teach the other dim sum chefs from Suzhou City who are here to learn. This isn't about making money, it's just to give the people an outlet to vent their anger. We don't have enough people to handle it."

So before the morning market ended that day, several stalls selling fried dough figurines appeared on Yaqian Street of Suzhou County Government Office. Some made dough figurines in the shape of Zhu Jie, and others made dough figurines in the shape of his father Zhu Chong. After they were made, they were thrown into the oil pan and accompanied by a few shouts, which immediately attracted the attention of the Suzhou people who were still eager to see more.

"Fried noodles! Selling fried noodles!"

"If you haven't had pork noodles, come here and take a look!"

There is no need for too many fancy advertising slogans, just these two sentences, and countless Suzhou citizens will pay money.

"Fifty coins for a dough figurine, ten coins for a non-mold one! We don't make money from everyone, but we make back the labor cost! Those who can't wait can just eat fried dough sticks!" The pastry chefs sent by Zhao Zicheng were so frightened by the scene that they kept recommending a version that didn't require molding.

Unfortunately, the people were too enthusiastic, and even fifty coins for a dough figurine couldn't stop their hatred: "Wait! We want to eat the dough figurines!"

Soon, almost all the pastry chefs in Suzhou were alarmed and attracted to the event. Zhao Zi said that the people he sent were open to teach on the spot, and anyone who wanted to learn could do it.

Within one day, hundreds of fried dough figurines appeared in Suzhou City, and they were in short supply.

Tens of thousands of Suzhou residents crunched on the fluffy and crispy fried dough figurines, finally finding a way to vent the hatred in their hearts.

This new food will soon become popular in Changzhou, Xiuzhou, Huzhou and other places. By then, Zhao Ji will know how right his distant nephew was to kill Zhu Jie.

-

PS: It's Friday clinic day again, so I'll update a lot. I'll adjust the rhythm and start the war scene tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)