Chapter 653: A group of flies and dogs, are they worthy of respect?

The third batch of prisoners who came were the family members of the strategist under the rebel Guo Dachun. When transferring, they brought pots and pans, unable to throw anything away, and had a wrong estimation of the imperial court's army's fighting power and raid speed, and a wrong estimation of the rebels' fighting power. The result was being caught in one pot.

This year, the big master Marquis Pingjiang finally stood up, launching a big encirclement and big counterattack against the rebel Guo Dachun. Victory reports were sent to the capital one after another, and Emperor Jian Shi was overjoyed, deeply believing that this was heaven's blessing.

When the late Emperor was alive, the government wasn't so smooth, and court officials were always pushing and refusing.

Emperor Jian Shi was happy!

Once happy, he wanted to scatter money.

Ministry of Revenue officials stood out, and a sentence of "no money" spoiled the mood.

However, Emperor Jian Shi was more generous than the late Emperor, or rather, he hadn't developed the virtue of being extravagant and lazy, and there weren't so many places to spend money. Without court officials consulting, suggesting, or forcing, he waved his hand and took money directly from the inner treasury. Reward! Reward heavily!

Court officials shouted in unison: His Majesty is wise!

Emperors who are willing to take money from the inner treasury to solve military and national affairs are all good emperors!

That kind of stinginess of the late Emperor was a 100% muddled emperor!

The main members of the strategist's family, such as his father, his uncle, his brother, his younger brother... were escorted to the capital for trial and escorted to the execution ground.

The meaning from above was that killing one to warn a hundred, killing for the world to see, this is the end of rebellion.

This kind of slaughter with strong symbolic meaning must be held in the capital, under the eyes of the Son of Heaven, to achieve the expected effect.

Executing people on the battlefield has no deterrent effect, and even has no effect at all. The battlefield is for killing people; what's the difference between killing one more or one less.

People arrived in the capital that day and were locked in the Heavenly Prison.

"Scholars!"

Chen Guanlou looked at this family, that temperament, that image, having traveled more than a thousand miles, dusty and embarrassed, still unable to cover up the temperament of scholars. This was a genuine farming and reading family, with inheritance!

It's a pity that they would soon be escorted to the execution ground and beheaded.

"I heard that when you were fleeing..."

"Transferring!" The strategist's younger brother corrected in a low voice.

Chen Guanlou laughed out loud. "Right, right, right, I heard that when you were transferring, you were too slow, so you were caught. I see that your legs are all quite good, no broken legs or limps, so how could you be so slow?"

This sarcasm, the strategist's younger brother turned his head, not wanting to pay attention.

The strategist's father, Old Master Zhou, coughed lightly. "Greetings, Jiang Jiang Yucheng! Alas, there is such a disaster in fate; if it's not this time, it will be the next time."

Jiang Jiang Yucheng Chen said, "Listening to you, you don't seem to think highly of Guo Dachun? Then you still agreed to let your son be his strategist, and the whole family was tied to the boat of the one surnamed Guo."

"I couldn't help myself! This matter was not my wish. It was heaven's will! Heaven's will to destroy my Zhou family!" Old Master Zhou had a look of despair and regret.

"If you truly didn't agree, you could completely destroy your relatives for the sake of righteousness."

"The imperial court won't care whether you destroy your relatives for the sake of righteousness. The imperial court only recognizes that we, the Zhou family, are rebel family members, and all should be killed! The imperial court's attitude has been very clear from the beginning: absolutely no leniency."

That's true.

The imperial court also accepts turncoats, but only accepts turncoat generals whose status isn't that high. Strategists of this kind must all be killed, must be killed clean. In the eyes of the imperial court, these rebels can toss for years, consuming countless money, food, manpower, and material resources of the imperial court, and the strategists around the rebels must bear the main responsibility. Must kill them quickly.

"As things stand, I won't say anything, I can only advise you to think openly. Anyway, it's all death; being slashed by a knife is dying straightforwardly. In the future, if your son is unfortunately caught, he might have to encounter the 'slicing into a thousand pieces' thing; that is truly miserable."

Chen Guanlou truly didn't know how to comfort people.

It would have been better if he didn't speak; once he spoke, Old Master Zhou burst into tears, a person of several dozen years, crying "woo woo woo" in front of his face. The others, seeing this, also followed and cried.

This scene was truly heartbreaking for those who saw it and tear-jerking for those who heard it.

The price of rebellion is just that big.

Without great courage, great perseverance, without an iron heart, one truly cannot do the business of rebellion.

Chen Guanlou let the jailers arrange prison cells for them, all next to each other, all single rooms. He also arranged for Medical Official Mu to see them, at least in the days they were locked in the Heavenly Prison, don't let them suffer with illness.

Medical Official Mu complained to him, "Jiang Jiang Yucheng Chen, you truly have the ability to look at people and serve dishes; they are all rebels, but the gap is too obvious."

One was cold sarcasm, without medical official diagnosis, at most letting the jailers look after them. If there was a headache or fever, let the pharmacy apprentice come out, as long as they didn't die.

Here, he specifically urged Medical Official Mu to watch them well and not be stingy with medicine.

The differential treatment was too obvious.

Chen Guanlou defended, "Old Mu, you know, I have always had extra respect for scholars!"

"Those criminal officials are all scholars, but I haven't seen you have extra respect for those criminal officials." Medical Official Mu could always accurately complain.

Chen Guanlou waved his hand, disagreeing, saying, "But once scholars enter officialdom, they lose their original heart and cannot be called scholars; they can only be called 'flies and dogs'. A group of thieves, you ask me to respect them; you are insulting me or insulting me!"

Medical Official Mu:...

This statement makes sense, and for a time, it was impossible to refute.

"In your eyes, the Zhou

"It's not that pure, either. But by comparison, it's certainly purer than a scholar's rebellion that fails in three months, and purer than that bunch of petty, sycophantic curs. I have always had a special admiration for those who have ideals and ambitions and can persist, unyielding in the face of setbacks. It may look like I'm giving the Zhou family face, but in reality, I am giving face to that strategist Zhou whom I have never met. I hope the outcome of the whole family being offered as sacrifices to Heaven won't ruin his Dao heart."

These words from Chen Guanlou came from the heart and were exceptionally sincere.

From the bottom of his heart, he wanted to meet the strategist Zhou who was by Guo Dachun's side.

Guo Dachun had developed quite well over these past few years, having survived several brushes with death. Even if there was a suspicion that the Master was intentionally letting him off to keep the bandits around for his own benefit, Guo Dachun still had to have the ability himself.

It was just like the Great Ming Prince; the Master wanted to keep him too. Anyway, it's all fish farming; raising one is raising, and raising a group is also raising.

It's just a pity that the Great Ming Prince was disappointing! He always made the wrong choices at critical moments, characterized by a lack of basic qualities and foresight for a rebel ringleader.

Guo Dachun was different; he came from the regular army, and the border troops at that, whose combat power had always been ranked at the very top. There was no need to mention his military competence. Added to that, the strategist made up for his shortcomings in strategic vision, so he caused quite a stir.

If it weren't for the fact that the Northwest was such a rotten place, with not many resources left for him to develop and grow, and the fact that he could never find a good opportunity to head south, he would have been able to expand and strengthen himself.

If only the Master were willing to open the floodgates and let Guo Dachun head south for a raid, heh heh, that scene would have been too good to watch.