The Record of Righteousness

However, after two of Zhai Zongyao's confidants were killed, Wan Qing was not retaliated against...

The next day, Zhai Zongyao, as the commander-in-chief, reported to the court the whole process of suppressing the rebellion and capturing the false emperor alive.

Even if the messenger of the post station galloped, it took half a month to go back and forth.

The emperor and all the civil and military officials in the court were happy.

Several civil officials were important members of the cabinet. They petitioned the emperor and asked the court to order a sweep of the prefectures and cities in Shandong to eliminate the remnants of the White Lotus and prevent them from reviving.

The emperor readily approved the request and ordered Liaodong Admiral Zhai Zongyao and Shandong General Fang Daqing to work together to sweep the villages and towns in Shandong.

Strictly investigate the remnants of the pseudo-Zhou, and kill the suspects without reporting to the court. After the army clears the area, leave 20,000 troops to guard Shandong, escort the pseudo-emperor of the pseudo-dynasty and its civil and military officials back to Beijing, and the rest of the soldiers will return to the court to receive rewards.

As the commander-in-chief, how could Zhai Zongyao not know the will of the court?

The emperor and the officials in the court meant that this sweep should completely wipe out the remnants of the White Lotus Sect in the dark, and it would be better to kill a thousand by mistake than to let one go!

This order from the court was tantamount to another disaster for Shandong

But in order to make the country clear, Zhai Zongyao had to send troops, and he was still confident in his soldiers.

The court asked him to clear the three prefectures of Jinan, Qingzhou, and Yanzhou. Before deploying troops in each prefecture, he asked the soldiers to distinguish the turbidity of the people and not to kill innocent people indiscriminately.

Fang Daqing had few troops, so he mainly cleared the three prefectures of Laizhou, Dengzhou, and Xuzhou.

He was not as upright as Zhai Zongyao, but he was secretly happy. The imperial court ordered a sweep, and this was another good opportunity to kill people and make money!

The New Year had just passed, and the first month of the year had passed. The gongs and drums had passed, and all parts of the Ming Dynasty were peaceful and harmonious.

Only Shandong was once again shrouded in terror, and bloody storms were coming again.

Shandong was already plagued by epidemics, floods, droughts, and famines, and this was even worse.

In the middle of the first month of the year.

The Liaodong Ming Army dispatched troops to ensure that every prefecture and county had soldiers to search and arrest, and then the Ming Army took large-scale torture and execution in three prefectures.

After such a sweep, a lot of White Lotus remnants were really caught, but it was unknown how many of them were unjust, false, and wrongly convicted.

After all, Zhai Zongyao couldn't take care of everything. He was completely unable to handle the three prefectures. When sweeping, it was all up to the conscience of the soldiers and generals. The arrested people were suspected of having secret dealings with the White Lotus Sect and were beheaded one after another.

In just half a month, the three prefectures were covered in blood, and a total of more than 40,000 people were executed by the Ming Army as remnants of the White Lotus Sect.

For a time, the people were panicked and everyone was in danger.

The Liaodong Army had strict military discipline, let alone Fang Daqing's Ming Army.

Fang Daqing's Ming Army was divided into three prefectures in Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Xuzhou.

Without Zhai Zongyao's meddling, Fang's Ming Army was even more unscrupulous, regardless of black and white, turbidity and clear, and right and wrong, and killed and looted in the three prefectures.

The pseudo-emperor's palace was located in Dengzhou Prefecture. It was only built for a few months, but the scale of the pseudo-Zhou emperor's palace, which mobilized tens of thousands of people, was still not small.

Fang Daqing ordered it to be burned down. In addition, he sent troops to burn down the residences of the civil and military officials of the pseudo-dynasty and smashed the statues of the gods worshipped by the White Lotus Sect.

The murals that pretended to be gods and ghosts were also smashed down, and any people and objects stained with the three words of the White Lotus Sect were completely annihilated.

Those who paid the money to buy their lives could barely save their lives.

Those who did not pay or could not afford the money to buy their lives were suspected of colluding with the White Lotus Sect. They would be caught by the soldiers and taken to the barracks for torture. They would be executed after being charged with a crime at will.

Gradually, the soldiers became more and more unscrupulous, and those remote villages that were not affected by the war also suffered bloody misfortunes.

The people in the villages and towns were raped and looted by the soldiers, and they were burned and killed. The originally peaceful and quiet villages and towns were turned into a sea of ​​fire. Those people who had never communicated with the outside world were regarded as remnants of the White Lotus Sect by the Ming army and killed one after another.

This made those generals who were bloodthirsty in their bones feel like fish in water, especially Zhang Lingchong and Long Shuo.

The two were cruel and brutal, and they enjoyed killing civilians and even ate women's organs raw.

Compared with Zhang Lingchong, Long Shuo was even worse. His soldiers plundered many female "white lotus remnants". He picked five or six young women to serve him every night, and asked the cook to cut out their organs for his own consumption the next morning.

There are countless examples like this.

The people who died unjustly had no place to appeal, no way to appeal, and no weapons. They dared not act rashly and let them be slaughtered and bullied.

At the same time, the bandits who occupied various hilltops also wanted to get a piece of the pie. They moved one after another after hearing the news, disguised as the Ming army, burning, killing, raping and looting everywhere, doing all kinds of evil.

As the saying goes, bandits are like combs, and soldiers are like combs.

In just half a month, the people of these three prefectures suffered. The remnants of the White Lotus Sect captured by the Ming army amounted to 100,000.

Then they were all killed by the Ming army. These prefectures and counties were already sparsely populated, and now only one in ten people remained.

As the general commander, Fang Daqing naturally collected a huge amount of money and grain, and Wang Hao and the other generals also robbed a lot of money, and the soldiers were satisfied.

Such atrocities lasted for nearly a month, and the people were naturally resentful, because the people were all killed, and where would the people complain? Shandong was uninhabited, and no one could be seen after walking a hundred miles.

Then the two Ming armies returned to the capital, leaving only a devastated mess, leaving it to fend for itself.

Now, Shandong has experienced drought, flooding, famine, epidemics, and war disasters, and nine out of ten houses are empty.

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