The Song Dynasty has been deliberate for 16 years, only to know that it is the Water Margin

In the military prison of Zhuolu City, the lights were brightly lit, and two night walkers had been tied to the pillars.

Bai Ba pulled off the veils of the two of them, and Zhao Tong saw that it was the old man and woman driving sheep that he had seen during the day.

There is no doubt that this was definitely sent by Concubine Jing to rescue Yuan Guo, or she would kill him too if there was a chance.

Bai Zhan moved a chair, Zhao Tong sat down and said in a deep voice: "Send your name!"

The old man looked unruly, silent, and his eyes were slightly closed.

The old woman cursed loudly: "Damn Song Gou, now that grandma is in your hands, it's up to you to kill or cut her into pieces, but if you frown, you are not a hero!"

Zhao Tong sneered and said: "The Western Xia barbarians only dare to sneak attack and assassinate, are they worthy of being called heroes?"

"You..." the old woman heard the words and shouted angrily: "You Song dog, you coerced the imperial concubine's brother and used treacherous tricks to seize the city. Do you think you are worthy of being called a hero? I think you are just a treacherous person. If you fall into In my old hands, I will definitely gouge out your eyes and chop off your hands, making your life worse than death."

"She is a sharp-tongued woman." Zhao Tong sneered, "Execute punishment!"

At this moment, Ding Erxie and Shi Qian also came to the prison. After hearing Zhao Tong's order, they stepped forward and pulled the old woman's hand out of the rope. The old woman shouted: "What are you doing? You Song dogs, let me go." , otherwise His Majesty’s army will attack and you will be left to die without a burial place!”

Ding Erxie scolded: "You are an idiot, you are so arrogant at this time, why don't you confess your origin and name to the truth!"

As he spoke, he took an iron pick and pierced it hard into the old woman's finger. Shi Qian did the same thing over there, piercing the sharpened skewer into the fingertip of the old woman's other hand.

This finger piercing is punishable by law. It sounds simple, but in fact it is more difficult than bone peeling because the human palm is extremely sensitive to touch, especially the fingers, which are the most densely distributed areas of nerves in the human body. It can be done With 75 movements, you can imagine how painful it would be to insert something into it.

The old woman immediately let out a shocking scream, and her whole body was shaking with pain. She couldn't curse anyone even if she wanted to, so she could only wail intermittently.

The old man next to him secretly opened his eyes and glanced at the old woman, but then hurriedly shrank his head and looked indifferent.

Zhao Tong looked at him and said, "What's your name? Where does it come from?"

The old man snorted and closed his eyes again. Zhao Tong said lightly: "Torture all your fingers and toes!"

After a while, there were screams in the prison. After a long time, they gradually weakened, leaving only the sound of panting.

Both the old man and the old woman were skilled in martial arts, so even though the pain was heartbreaking, they did not faint. Instead, their faces were distorted and their whole bodies were shaking uncontrollably.

Zhao Tong said: "Only one of you two can live. Whoever opens his mouth first to reply to my questions will survive. The one who speaks later will live, no matter how much he talks, I will not spare his life."

After hearing this, the two of them still gritted their teeth and remained silent.

Zhao Tong smiled: "What I said about not sparing his life is not as simple as the result of one knife. I have 360 ​​kinds of punishments, all of which will be used on him. There are also ways to make him suffer all kinds of severe punishments without dying!"

"You, come on..." the old man said in a hoarse voice: "I'm afraid you won't be considered a good man!"

"A hero?" Zhao Tao snorted coldly: "Are you people in Xixia Beifeng Hall considered heroes?"

"Of course Beifeng Hall is full of heroes, how can they be compared to you and other Song dogs!" The old man's eyes flashed.

"When I was in Tokyo, I once captured a spy of Beefeng Hall, but he only confessed after being sentenced to three to five types of punishments. Is this what you call a hero?" Zhao Tao said scornfully.

"Impossible, you are lying!" The old woman over there screamed with all her strength, but immediately moved her fingers to the execution wound, and then screamed in agony.

"The spy's name is Yuan Chao, and he is also from the Yuan family. I wonder if you have ever heard of it." Zhao Tao waved the folding fan in his hand. It was sweltering in the prison, and even though it was past midnight, it was still not cool.

"Yuan Chao?" There was an imperceptible thought in the old man's eyes.

"Later on, I only used a few types of punishments. Within half a day, he used all kinds of punishments. Do you think you two are more tolerant than the people in Beifeng Hall?"

"No, this is impossible!" The old man endured the excruciating pain in his hands and feet and shouted, "You made this all up!"

"It's true that I can't shed tears until I see the coffin." Zhao Tong exclaimed, "How about I recite the various punishments to you?"

As he spoke, he began to recite some of the severe punishments he had used on Yuan Chao. Before he finished talking about them all, the faces of the old man and the old woman turned green.

Is this something that humans can come up with?This is simply devilish!

"How's it going? How many of them do you two think you can withstand?" Zhao Tong said with a smile: "Although some torture instruments are not available at the moment, we can just make them now."

Neither the old man nor the old woman spoke, and Zhao Tong continued: "As I said before, only one of you can live. Whoever confesses first can save his life."

Seeing that the two still kept silent, Zhao Tong's face turned cold: "Nail the stick in a little longer! Go get the wood and make a torture instrument in front of them!"

A few breaths later, the miserable howl sounded again in the prison, and after a while, Shi Qian and Ding Erxie found wood from nowhere and began to make execution tools "clinking".

"This wooden fork is too smooth, so there is no need to peel off the bark on the outside."

"This one is good, it has a lot of spikes on it."

"It's a little short, go look outside!"

As Zhao Tong watched and directed, a look of fear gradually appeared on the old man's face. He secretly glanced at the old woman next to him. The old woman, like him, had an expression full of fear.

An hour later, several torture instruments were built. Zhao Tong stood up and walked around twice, frowning and saying to himself: "It's a bit crude, but it's still usable."

He glanced at the old man and the old woman, and smiled slightly: "Which one comes first? You two decide for yourself!"

The two of them immediately looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion and panic.

Zhao Tong stretched out his hand and pointed at a torture tool that looked like a Trojan horse and said: "Just use this. In the past, the interrogation of Beifengtang Yuan exceeded the time limit, and it was only after this that he confessed. I think this time, if you use it first, you can get through it." This is the real hero!"

"Who comes first?" Zhao Tong looked at the two of them.

The old man and the old woman made eye contact, but neither of them wanted to open their mouths.Zhao Tong wondered: "Aren't you two husband and wife? It's time for both of you to stand up for each other. Why don't you talk? Someone, put the sign in one more point!"

The Bai brothers immediately started to attack, but this time the iron stick penetrated directly from the fingertips into the palm of the hand, and the two of them screamed in pain.

After watching the sign being inserted, Zhao Tong narrowed his eyes and pointed at the old man: "I'll start with you first, and I'll be tortured!"

The old man's painful expression suddenly changed, becoming even more distorted and panicked. Shi Qian and several others pulled him over the pillar, then tore his robes and dragged him towards the torture device.

The old man was trembling all over. When several people were putting him on the torture device, he suddenly shouted: "I'll do it, I'll do it, put me down quickly, put me down..."

The indescribable fear in his heart controlled him to shout these words, and then his whole body seemed to have lost all strength and was paralyzed. The sweat on his body mixed with the blood of his hands and feet, dripping to the ground.

At this moment, the old woman next to me suddenly screamed: "You can't do it, who asked you to do it? I did it first, I did it first!"

The old man panted heavily and did not look at the old woman or answer.

The old woman suddenly became hysterical: "You can't do it, let me do it, I'll do it..."

Zhao Tong frowned: "She was rude just now, insulting me and the Song Dynasty. She chopped off her hands and feet and threw them out to feed the dogs!"

"Yes!" The Bai brothers stepped forward quickly, swung their swords and chopped. Blood spurted out, and the old woman opened her mouth and wailed twice before she passed out. Then the Bai brothers dragged her out of the cell.

The old man closed his eyes tightly, not daring to look at this scene, but he heard Zhao Tong's voice: "You want her to die. This is your choice. Do you regret it now?"

"No, I don't regret it... The old man's teeth were almost broken, and a few words popped out of his mouth. He is not afraid of death, let alone at this age. Even when he was young, he had never been afraid of death. Otherwise, how could he be? He and the old woman got the nickname Hengshan Double Fierce.

But although he is not afraid of death, he is afraid of torture. After spending so many years in Xixia, and later joining the Beifeng Hall, he deeply knows that there are many things in this world that are far more terrifying than death.

"As long as you don't regret it!" Zhao Tong said calmly: "Tell me about your identity!"

Shi Qian and Ding Erxie then pulled him back to the pillar, tied him up again, and gave him saliva again. Only then did he say: "My name is Wang Heishan, and my mother-in-law calls her He Zhihu. The Jianghu comrades call them the two evil men in Hengshan..."

"Is it just Jianghu?" Zhao Tong shouted.

"I, the two of us are still the wedge players of Beifeng Hall." Wang Heishan exhaled weakly and said.

"What is a wedge hand?" Zhao Tong frowned.

"We are the ones responsible for killing people in Bei Feng Hall. We are only responsible for killing some people in the world who do not obey the court's discipline. We are not used in foreign affairs and the court."

Zhao Tong said: "Did Yuan Jing send you here?"

Wang Heihu said: "It was Concubine Jing who sent us to Zhuoluo to rescue her brother and return to Xingqing."

Zhao Tong thought for a while: "Since you are from Beifeng Hall, why can Yuan Jing instigate you? She is just a concubine of Wei Ming Qianshun, how can she have such great power?"

Wang Heihu said: "Concubine Jing is not only His Majesty's concubine, but also one of the three leaders of Beifeng Hall. She is in charge of one-third of the power of Beifeng Hall."

"One of the three leading halls?" Zhao Tao was stunned. He really didn't know this, and couldn't help but wonder: "Since she is a concubine... shouldn't she be in the harem on weekdays? How can she still go to lead the Beifeng Hall?"

Wang Heihu said: "This... I don't know the specific reason. It's just that although Concubine Jing lives in the palace, she spends a lot of time in Beifeng Hall. Your Majesty doesn't say anything, and no one dares to ask anything."

Zhao Tong pondered, and this matter was really unexpected. However, he knew that Xixia's management of the royal court was relatively loose. It was not as cautious as the Central Plains Dynasty. It was probably because Dangxiang was traditionally nomadic and moved frequently, so there were few restrictions. The customs of the harem.

This was the case during Li Yuanhao's time. At that time, Li Shuangmei was still the master of the Zizi Sect, and it was the same when Empress Xiaoliang was later. Even chaos in the back court often happened, but even though rivers of blood flowed every time due to usurping power, rape and murder, she did not go there. It may not be possible to change it, so we have to continue like this.

Some of the concubines of Xixia were in charge of the government and some were in charge of the military, but this was the first time that Zhao Tao, who was in charge of the intelligence department, heard that Beifengtang was basically a department that trained and used spies, including domestic civilians. There are three parts: ministers and officials in the court, and foreign ministries and countries.

Zhao Tong said: "Yuan Jing is in charge of the right to investigate this part of the private world?"

Wang Heishan said: "That's why Concubine Jing has the power to supervise the civil society in the country."

Zhao Tong touched his chin and looked at Wang Heishan: "Tell me more about this matter. Who are the other two people in charge of Beifeng Hall? What are their backgrounds? If it's good, I won't kill you for now. If it's bad, I won't kill you. Continue the torture!”

Wang Heishan opened his mouth when he heard this. Didn't he just say that he would not kill him if he confessed?Why does this still mean to impose punishment?Don't all Song people keep their word... But the Song person in front of him talks like his own party members, as if he doesn't care about what he wants to say, and forget about it.

But at this moment, he didn't dare to question Zhao Tong, so he had to tell everything he knew. Under Zhao Tong's constant questioning, he racked his brains to remember some things that had long been vague and forgotten.

It wasn't until it was bright outside that Zhao Tao finished listening to Wang Heishan's story, then thought for a moment, got up and left the cell.

In the next few days, Zhao Tao ordered the city gate to intensify the investigation, but Songtao Tower did not move for the time being. After all, the people in Songtao Tower did not know that the two murderers in Hengshan fell into his hands. He planned to raise a child in this place. See if we can catch any big fish.

As for the war, the battle reports from Yongzhu and Tiandeng are delivered daily. Although there are not many defenders in these two places, it is not easy to attack if they occupy the city. After all, neither General Lu nor Shi Jin want to be blunt. Attacking the city, because that would inevitably lead to great losses, both of them wanted to use strategies to break the city.

Zhao Tong wrote back to the two of them, asking if they needed more troops, but they both said no, so Zhao Tong wrote another letter with instructions and asked them to free their hands and do what they wanted.

It was impossible for him to stay with him in every battle. He had to have a general who could stand alone. General Lu felt relieved, but Shi Jin had a headache. After all, although Shi Jin could immediately dismount his spear and stick, he had trouble with the military formation. It's really not good enough, so I took this opportunity to give it some exercise.

Shopkeeper Niu of Songtao Tower has been restless these days, thinking every day about how to get the old man and old woman to sneak a living person out of the city, but after much deliberation, there is no way. Fortunately, the two of them have never come to look for him.

But it didn't matter if he didn't look for him for a day or two. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight days passed, and there was still no news from these two people, which made him doubtful.

He wondered if the two of them never found an opportunity to make a move?This is probably the best. After all, no one has been kidnapped, so you should avoid going to him to avoid suspicion.

But as time passed, he began to worry about whether both of them had been caught, but after thinking about it, it didn't seem like it. If the two of them were caught, then his Songtao Tower would definitely be picked up by the Song Army, and it would not be possible every day. Business continued as usual under calm conditions.

Just when he was a little confused and worried, suddenly at noon that day, four people came to the door.

(End of this chapter)