Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 217: Qingluan Shocks Jinling (3)

In the Qingluan Guard’s cell, the dim light reflected on the cold stone walls, and the air was filled with a smell of terror.

Xu Yunjue was tied tightly to a special torture rack, his hands and feet were locked tightly with iron chains, and his body could not move. Zhou Zhuo stood in front of him, expressionless, with a cold light flashing in his eyes.

Zhou Zhuo's voice came: "Xu Yunjue, your crime has been exposed. Tell the truth. Tell us who your accomplice is. It will be good for us. Don't be stubborn when you are here. The torture instruments here are all new. The Duke doesn't want to be the first one to taste the torture of my Qingluan Guards."

Xu Yunjue raised his head and said stubbornly, "I am the Duke of Wei of the Ming Dynasty. How dare you torture my own Duke!"

Zhou Zhuo simply nodded and said nonchalantly, "The Duke is very courageous. I admire him deeply."

Then he signaled with his eyes to the jailer next to him to start the execution. I saw a burly man with bare chest, holding a long whip covered with fine barbs.

With the whistling sound of the whip, Xu Yunjue's body began to tremble violently after just one whip. He let out a shrill scream, and beads of sweat instantly oozed out of his forehead. His face turned pale, and Xu Yunjue's tears and snot flowed. He screamed, "I want to say it, I want to say it, don't hit me, don't hit me, wu... wu!"

Zhou Zhuo nodded in satisfaction and said, "It's just one whip. This is definitely not the level of the Duke. Go on, give him ten more whips." Then Zhou Zhuo turned back and sat back in his chair, drinking his tea slowly. He heard Xu Yunjue's shrill voice begging for mercy.

At the same time, two slightly injured and one uninjured assassin were also suffering the same torture. One was tied to a table and suffered water torture, one was forced to kneel on gravel, the pain under his knees almost made him faint, and another was hung in the air, his limbs were pulled almost to pieces.

Although these assassins had much stronger endurance than Xu Yunjue, under torture, the three assassins spilled out everything they knew.

Zhou Zhuo took two sips of tea, feeling the warm liquid sliding down his throat. After two cups of tea, Xu Yunjue was already a bloody mess, and each whip left deep marks on his skin. After ten whips, his body had reached its limit, and the severe pain finally made him faint.

Zhou Zhuo put down the teacup and said, "Wake him up."

A basin of cold water was poured hard on Xu Yunjue's face. He slowly woke up, his eyes were lifeless, and he was even unable to shout. He just said weakly: "Stop hitting me, I'll tell you everything you want to know!"

Zhou Zhuo said with satisfaction: "If you had said it earlier, you wouldn't have to suffer this. Come, record it."

Within half an hour, Xu Yunjue told all the details of the conspiracy of Zeng Daowei and others. Zhou Zhuo then read the records carefully again and asked, "Why was Liu Jiyan not involved?"

"Liu...Liu Jiyan is unwilling to participate. He just...just wants to write a letter to give advice..." Xu Yunjue said weakly.

"Yes, yes." Zhou Zhuo nodded, indicating that he understood, and then said to the executioner: "Give him ten more lashes, and then ask him again later to see if there is any discrepancy."

Xu Yunjue………………

All the information was gathered in Meng Bian's hands. Meng Bian showed a satisfied smile on his face, and then he personally wrote a letter and sent the confession to Ma'anshan at full speed.

After doing all this, Meng Bian said to Zhou Zhuo: "Arrest all the people on the list, and don't let anyone escape!"

"Yes, my lord"

"Zeng Ying, Zhang Guobi, Wang Duo, Zeng Daowei, four idiots." Meng Bian said with a sneer.

As the arrest order was issued, the Qingluan Guards quickly set out. The fate of Zeng Ying, Zhang Guobi, Wang Duo, and Zeng Daowei was like smoke blown away by the wind, vague and unpredictable.

When the soldiers of Qingluan Guard broke in and arrested them one by one, Zeng Ying's eyes flashed with sadness. At the moment when he was pinned to the ground by the soldiers of Qingluan Guard, he shouted with his last strength: "What happened today was not what I wanted, but in the face of justice, I had no choice but to do it."

Zhang Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, could not protect him at this time. His face was full of fear. When he was dragged out of the mansion by the soldiers, he pleaded in a trembling voice: "I was just confused for a moment and was bewitched by others. I only ask the King of Zhou to show mercy and spare my life. I am willing to offer a fortune of ten thousand to save my life."

Wang Duo desperately shouted: "I am a scholar, how could I do such a thing as assassination? You must have made a mistake, a mistake..."

Zeng Daowei, when he heard a large number of Qingluan Guards banging on the door outside, he said to his staff: "Things have come to this point. God is not on my side. I will die as a punishment." Then he turned and walked into the house.

The aide burst into tears and bowed three times to Zeng Daowei, then rushed out of the hall. The Qingluan Guards just broke in through the door, and the aide shouted, "Traitor, you want to kill the commander-in-chief, so just step over my dead body!"

A soldier turned his spear upside down and hit the aide hard with the butt of the spear. The aide fell to the ground with a thud, unconscious.

Zeng Daowei was in the house at this time. In front of him, a white cloth was tied into a knot and hung on the beam. Zeng Daowei's hands were trembling. He knew that as long as he put his head into the loop of the white cloth, everything would be over.

However, when he was about to stretch his head out, the fear in his heart surged up like a tide. He was struggling fiercely. On the one hand, he was afraid of the impending judgment and humiliation, and on the other hand, he had an instinctive attachment to life.

Just as he was hesitating, hurried footsteps were heard outside the door, followed by the rough knocking of the door by the Qingluan Guard soldiers. Zeng Daowei's heartbeat accelerated, and he knew that time was running out and he had to make a choice.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. When he opened his eyes and saw the white cloth, he murmured, "Even if I die, I should die in a busy city, so that the world will understand that Zeng died for his country, how could he die in a secluded house!"

So, at the moment when the Qingluan Guard soldiers broke into the room, Zeng Daowei made a choice. The Qingluan Guards escorted Zeng Daowei out of the door, and the hanging white cloth swayed gently in the breeze, as if mocking something.

The gentry in Jinling City had different feelings when facing this sudden arrest. Some were shocked and panicked, worried that they would be involved, while others were secretly glad that they had no contact with these people.

Under the strict search of Qingluan Guards, Zeng Ying, Wang Duo, Baoguogong Zhang Guobi and others were arrested one after another. Their mansions were turned upside down, and all letters and documents were carefully checked to try to find more evidence and accomplices. The whole city of Jinling was shrouded in a tense and depressing atmosphere.

As the news reached Meng Jun, he had no choice but to cancel his original plan to visit Su Gang in Wuhu and return to Nanjing with his personal guards.