General Qin

Night falls.

The county town of Xiangxiang was controlled by Qin soldiers wearing black armor, and all the city gates fell into the hands of the Qin army. When the red Chu flag flying on the city wall was cut off by the sword, and the black Qin flag was put up again, this time it was left to the Xiang family The leader's war of rebellion came to an end.

The Xiang brothers sent out troops in the morning, were defeated in the afternoon, and committed suicide in the evening.

Its speed was so fast that the people in the city were frightened and trembled with fear.

The martial arts lord Zhao Tuo defeated one thousand against three thousand, and his force was as strong as a broken bamboo. No one in the world could match it.

The old men in charge of the big clans in the city even knelt down before Zhao Tuo, kowtowing and pleading: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty. Our clans are forced by the Xiang family with swords, but in fact they don't have the slightest intention of betrayal and rebellion. . We wish that the Xiang family would die, Jingchu would be destroyed forever, and we would be the people of Qin forever."

"I hope you will understand, we have absolutely no intention of rebellion!"

"The Xiang family is vicious, and we are all forced by them!"

In addition to the various clans in Xiaxiang City, the people in Guizhou Province all over the city also looked at the new Qin army entering the city with fear, fearing that they would be implicated.

Zhao Tuo naturally saw all this.

"I already know that the Xiang family colluded with the traitor Zhang Liang and committed treason. I said during the battle that only the Xiang family and his accomplices will be killed in this battle, and those who are coerced will not be killed."

"Everything is as I said before. Those who behead one of the Xiang family can resist the crime of rebellion and be pardoned. The rest of the people who are kidnapped can be given a lighter punishment according to the law because of their rebellion on the battlefield."

Zhao Tuo opened his mouth and set the tone of the matter.

This time Xiang Liang raised his flag to rebel, which was the first since the unification of Qin and had an extremely significant impact.

All the remnants of the Six Nations are watching here, so how to deal with these rebels is very important.

If it were a Legalist like Li Si, not only killing everyone, but degrading them all as prisoners and slaves would probably be indispensable. They wanted to use this to intimidate the world and let everyone in the world see the fate of rebels.

Zhao Tuo does not approve of this approach because the current situation is different from that of the late Qin Dynasty.

In the past two years, the emperor has carried out extensive construction projects and started wars everywhere, leaving the head of Guizhou exhausted. But it has not yet reached the point where the government forced the people to rebel. In addition, after the unification of the Qin State, the government promoted retting methods, curved shaft plows, pasta and other things in the hometowns of the princes. The life of the leaders of Guizhou is still a little better than in history.

In this situation where they can still survive, most Guizhou leaders do not want to rebel. They are just coerced by those rebels with rebellious intentions.

If all are severely punished, then if such rebellion occurs in the future, in order not to repeat the mistakes of these "predecessors", the coerced Guizhou leader may have no choice but to follow the rebels all the way to the end.

Therefore, Zhao Tuo believed that it would be better to only punish the culprits, pardon and lightly punish those who rebelled on the battlefield, divide the rebels internally, and give those who were forced to rebel a chance to survive. So in today's Battle of Xiaoyuan, the Chu army will be in internal chaos and fight against each other, which will be of great benefit to countering the rebellion.

At this moment, hearing the words of the martial arts prince, all the ministers breathed a sigh of relief.

It's better not to die. Even if you are fined and punished, you can still save your life.

There are even people who secretly hope that their relatives who are on the battlefield can take advantage of the chaos to kill a descendant of the Xiang family in order to avoid the crime of rebellion.

"Junhou Rende!"

"Your Majesty's great kindness, we will never forget it!"

In the gratitude of the Prime Minister, Zhao Tuo, who was handling the policy, went straight to the Xiang family's mansion, which was already controlled by the Qin army.

At this moment, the Xiang family's mansion had already been occupied by the Qin army. All the Xiang clan members, maids, and servants in the mansion were kneeling on the ground, burying their heads and shivering.

Zhao Tuo took one look at these prisoners and saw that they were mostly old, weak, women and children, so he was no longer interested.

The Xiang Qingzhuang who was coerced could be given a lighter punishment, but the Xiang family members would not have such treatment. Whoever was in power would have their clan exterminated.

"Junhou, I have checked with people from other clans in the city. The two corpses are indeed Xiang Liang and Xiang Mao."

Zhao Guang pointed to the two corpses placed in the middle of the mansion and reported to Zhao Tuo.

Zhao Tuo nodded. He came here this time just to confirm with his own eyes the death of the Xiang brothers.

Forget it about Xiang Juan, this person didn't have a good reputation in history. He was a guy who looked like a young man, and his abilities were not outstanding.

But Xiang Liang is different. This is a real character.

During the war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, this man led Xiang Yu to raise troops east of the Yangtze River, went north to annex the armies of Qin Jia and Jing Ju, restored the Chu State, and supported King Huai. He rescued Qi and Wei in the north, and defeated the Qin army led by Zhang Han at the gate of Dong'a City. Zhang Han fled to the west in embarrassment, and Xiang Liang's reputation shocked the world.

However, Xiang Liang was ultimately defeated by his own arrogance.

After his victory, he became arrogant and despised Zhang Han and other Qin generals. Zhang Han seized the opportunity to mobilize all the Qin troops and attacked the Chu camp at night. In the end, the Qin troops killed Xiang Liang in Dingtao.

From this point of view, Xiang Liang's military ability is undoubtedly outstanding, and this is also a figure that Zhao Tuo has always kept in mind.

Looking at the body of a man in his thirties on the ground, Zhao Tuo shook his head.

This is the wrong time to start an incident.

It is now the twenty-eighth year of Qin Shihuang. Xiang Liang is still young and has never been on the battlefield. Naturally, his abilities cannot be compared with those at the end of Qin Dynasty. In addition, this rebel army rose up suddenly and was in internal chaos. They were all a ragtag group of people who had not been trained and run in. It was only normal for them to be defeated by the Qin army in one blow.

"Unexpectedly, Zhang Liang's assassination this time actually asked me to wipe out the Xiang family in advance."

Zhao Tuo smiled helplessly.

He looked away, without looking at the Xiang clan members kneeling on the ground, and asked Zhao Guang directly: "Where is Xiang Xiang?"

Zhao Guang responded: "He is being held outside the mansion."

"Let's go, I have something to ask him."

Zhao Tuo turned around and walked out.

According to intelligence, Xiang Liang and Xiang Quan are the leaders of the Xiang Xiang rebels this time, and the highest-ranking ones are Xiang Ji's brothers Xiang Sheng and Xiang Xiang.

Xiang Sheng commanded the cavalry. Not long after the battle began, he saw that the situation was not going well and fled on horseback.

However, Xiang Xiang commanded the crossbowmen, but he failed to escape in time and was captured on the spot by the Qin army.

At that time, Zhao Tuo was on his way and came to attack the Prime Minister. He had no time to interrogate him, so he had someone take him behind him. Now that Xiang Mao and Xiang Liang are dead, Xiang Sheng has run away on horseback, and the only people left in the Xiang family's house are the old, weak, women and children, and they can't get any news even after thinking about it. Zhao Tuo naturally turns his attention to the captured Xiang Xiang. .

After a while, Zhao Tuo saw a descendant of the Xiang family who was tied up and covered in blood.

"Zhao Tuo! You traitor, evil thief, I wish I could eat your flesh and sleep on your skin... ugh..."

Xiang Xiang was about 20 years old. When he saw Zhao Tuo coming, he could tell his identity from his clothes and immediately cursed. However, before he could even curse, he was pinned to the ground by the Qin soldiers behind him, and his mouth was straight. The pestle hit the ground.

Zhao Tuo smiled faintly. As a winner, he would naturally not be offended by such insults from the loser. He did not want to make any detours and asked directly: "Where is Xiang Ji now?"

The Qin soldiers lifted Xiang Xiang up so that he could reply.

Xiang Xiang glared at Zhao Tuo with red eyes and said: "You want to find Xiang Yu? Then you go and die. If you die, you can see him! Hahaha, you Zhao Tuo are really a famous general in the world. You can't even die." Children are not spared, bah..."

Zhao Tuo smiled and said to Zhao Guang beside him: "You know the tradition of our army in dealing with people who are unwilling to tell the truth, right?"

"clear."

Zhao Guang responded, with a smile on his lips. Ever since Junhou Gu imposed that kind of punishment, he had never seen anyone who could really keep his mouth shut.

"Turn it over and water it with a cloth, water with blood."

Zhao Guang thought of Xiang Xiang's insult just now and having someone cover it with blood during water torture. This power was going to be increased to another level.

Of course, if it is more extreme, it can even be carried out with urine and feces. That kind of punishment is enough to make the hero kneel down and beg for mercy.

Sure enough, Xiang Xiang's strength collapsed completely before he could hold on for a quarter of an hour.

When the bloody piece of cloth was uncovered, he coughed heavily while honestly confessing all the information Zhao Tuo wanted to know.

"Previously, the emperor moved Zhutian and the Han and Wei clans into Guanzhong, and built the Six Kingdoms City. Xiang Liang knew that our Xiang family was probably among those who moved."

"Xiang Ji is not old, but his character is prone to reckless impulsiveness, and because of the death of Ling... Because of the death of Xiang Yan and Xiang Qu, he is full of resentment towards the Qin Dynasty. Xiang Liang is worried that Xiang Ji will cause trouble after he is moved to Guanzhong, and he also thinks In order to leave a bloodline for my Xiang family in the hometown of the Six Kingdoms, a child was drowned outside and replaced with him, so that Xiang Yu could fake his death and escape. Now he should be at the residence of General Jingtong."

After Xiang Xiang finished speaking, he lay on the ground and cried bitterly.

"Xiang Ji is indeed not dead. I know how this famous overlord of Western Chu could have died of illness."

Thinking of Xiang Xiang's last words, Zhao Tuo frowned again.

Jingtong?