Chapter 344 Heavy Penalty

Zhang Shirong guessed correctly that the three strong men were here to cause trouble. They grabbed the honest people who complained loudly and aggressively. Even if the people had retreated out of fear, they still could not escape their shoving and insulting. The whole scene was in chaos. Those ordinary people who were queuing to shop retreated to the corner of the street for fear of being affected.

Zhu Youjian was not a charlatan who could make calculations, but he guessed that the chambers of commerce, aristocratic families, and Donglin Party members might retaliate and cause trouble, so he ordered the commander of the Jinyiwei, Tian Boguang, to send more people to patrol the streets and secretly protect the small merchants who were open for business.

Coincidentally, there was a team of Jinyiwei patrolling near this street. Zhang Shirong asked a shop assistant who ran to find Jinyiwei to call the police. He ran a few dozen steps and saw Jinyiwei patrolling not far away, so he called the police immediately.

When the Jinyiwei flag leader heard someone calling the police, he immediately led several men to rush to arrest people.

The commander has said that as long as the troublemakers are caught, it will be a merit, even if they cannot be promoted, they will definitely receive a bonus.

Money is motivation. If they can follow the clues and find out the person behind the scenes, a small merit may become a big merit. Everyone is eager to make merit.

The three strong men are still making trouble. They didn't expect the Jinyiwei to come so quickly. Seeing several Jinyiwei rushing over aggressively, they were all startled and quickly stopped.

A person's reputation is like a tree's shadow. The Jinyiwei is notorious. Who is not afraid?

However, they are not very worried, because the sponsor said that it is just a small friction. The Jinyiwei will not care and have no power to care. The constables are responsible for maintaining public order. Even if they are arrested and put in the county jail, as long as they refuse to confess, someone will naturally bail them out.

"Come on, take down these three Qing spies for me." The Jinyiwei flag leader held a revolver and pointed at the three troublemakers and ordered.

Qing spies?

The three ragtag men were dumbfounded. With this high hat, the Jinyiwei had the power to arrest people.

"Sir, spare me. I am not a spy of the Qing Dynasty..."

The three ragtag men were terrified and quickly knelt down to beg for mercy. It was rumored that people who entered the Jinyiwei prison went in vertically and came out horizontally. It was too frightening. They were still young and didn't want to die.

These ferocious Jinyiwei didn't care about so much. They took out ropes and tied people tightly, and blocked their mouths with stinky rags picked up from nowhere.

"Fellow villagers, it's okay, it's okay, everyone can rest assured to line up for shopping. If anyone makes trouble, just call the police, and the Jinyiwei will bring those bad guys to justice."

The Jinyiwei flag held a square bow, appeased them, and then escorted the three ragtag men back to the Jinyiwei office to ask for credit.

The people around were relieved, but they all had a strange feeling in their hearts. Aren't the Jinyiwei very bad and scary? How could they do good things and help ordinary people like them?

When the Jinyiwei flag happily escorted the three troublemakers back to the Jinyiwei office, they found that the office was already overcrowded. The various groups of comrades who were patrolling the streets had brought back many people and were happily asking for rewards from the commander.

Jinyiwei commander Tian Boguang counted the people who were caught for making trouble, and there were as many as 35 people. He immediately arranged for people to interrogate them.

Most of these strong men were local hooligans. They were okay with bullying ordinary people who were honest and simple. When they entered the Jinyiwei prison, they were already scared. Before the Jinyiwei tortured them, they all cried and confessed.

Although the people confessed, it was useless. They all received money from the financiers to cause trouble. As for the identity of the financiers, they were unknown. Tian Boguang was so angry that he beat up the unlucky guys and then went to the palace to report to the emperor.

"Send them all to the mining area." Zhu Youjian thought for a long time before saying it. His original idea was to label these 35 unlucky guys as Qing spies and then take them all to Caishikou to chop off their heads, but he changed his mind after thinking about it.

Waste utilization, the mining area needs a lot of free labor, 35 strong men, that can also supplement a little labor, can save a little money is a little, the emperor's family has no surplus food.

Besides, chopping off their heads will make them die happily. Sending them to the mining area to do hard labor is more painful than killing them. In the mining area, they are not well fed, do heavy work day and night, and are whipped by the supervisors. It is really worse than death.

People with weak bodies could not survive more than a year. Those who could survive for three years were extremely lucky and even the King of Hell did not want to take them away. However, in the end, they still died in the mine.

No one could walk out of the mine alive.