At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a bully landlord in a certain county in Kaifeng Province, Henan Province, nicknamed "The Living Yama King", Hua Zifang, relied on money and power, and did no evil, because his young daughter wanted to get married, so he took the opportunity to order the housekeeper Hua Er to extort "congratulatory gifts" from tenants.
Hua Zifang asked again, "How many gifts are given today?"
Hua Er busily opened the list and showed it to him.
Suddenly, Cui Jie, a long-term worker who had been dismissed due to illness, walked in.
It turned out that Cui Jie came to ask for four months of wages owed to him, and Hua Zifang not only did not give it, but said that Cui Jie was slanderous.
Hua Er could not say anything, knocked him out of the door, And Ya Gui Chunying was walking with the ginseng soup, and was startled by this, and the soup bowl immediately fell to the ground and shattered.
Driving Cui Jie out of the door, Hua Zifang was still angry, but he reprimanded Chunying, and Hua Er scolded her with fire and punished her for vigil.
When Qiuhua heard that Chunying had been punished, she was very sympathetic and came to accompany her to the vigil.
The two men folded the wedding dress that had been embroidered that day, counted a total of nine pieces, and wrapped them up.
When everything was sorted out, the two sat down at the lamp and complained to each other.
Chunying said that it is better to live and suffer in this way than to die happily.
Qiu Hua felt how scared he should be.
Chun Ying was still very determined.
Just after the third more, it took two to check the night, and when he heard that someone had agreed, he left with confidence.
Qiu Hua asked Chun Ying to rest for a while, but Chun Ying insisted on refusing.
Qiu Hua argued and had to leave.
Leaving Chun Ying feeling pregnant with the world, and crying sadly alone, he did not feel that he was gradually falling asleep.
I was suddenly awakened by a noise in my sleep, and when I got up to look, the door was wide open and my clothes bag was gone.
Chun Ying was very panicked, hurriedly checked the room, saw that there was something on the ground, lifted up a closer look, it was a fake mask, only to know that it was stolen.
Chun Ying was frightened and trembled and thought, "If my wedding dress is lost, Hua Er will definitely kill me, and since I can't live anymore, it is better to commit suicide."
Busy drew a short knife from his sleeve and killed himself.
In the early morning, Qiuhua came to find Chunying, and just walked into the room, suddenly frightened, pulled out his legs and ran outside.
When Hua Zifang heard that Chunying was dead and that her wedding dress had been stolen, she immediately wrote a lost list of "killing people and robbing money", and handed it to Hua Er together with Chunying's short knife, and ordered him to report the case to the county court as soon as possible.
Qiao Zidong of Zhixian County had contacts with Hua Zifang, listened to Hua Er's report, received the lost order and the short knife, and asked for the details, and then promised to immediately pursue the stolen goods and arrest the thieves.
Hanaji returned from the county court and went to the tenants' homes to ask for congratulatory gifts.
Tenant Shen Dacheng, the family is poor, and his father is sick in bed, but because he rented two acres of land for the hua family, he also had to pay a gift of two or two silver, so he had to go out to borrow money.
Dacheng's wife, Shen Niang, was anxiously waiting at home, when she overheard someone calling for the door and rushed to open the door.
When Hanaji broke through the door, she turned her face and scolded, "Why don't you pay the gift yet?"
Shen Niang was busy stating the reason, where Hua Er could listen, and seeing that there was nothing to take, she went to the iron pot on the stove.
Hua Er carried the iron pot to push away Shen Niang's obstruction and left.
Shen Niang was worried about alarming her father-in-law, and did not dare to speak up, even though Shen Father had heard the sound and walked out from inside.
Father Shen asked Who was speaking just now, and Lady Shen shook her head to cover up, saying, "There is no one coming, I am afraid that the wind outside is loud."
Father Shen pushed open the door and looked out, and sure enough, the north wind roared, and it was dark, as if it was going to snow.
Father Shen hurriedly closed the door and turned back into the house, and asked Dacheng why he didn't have a box yet?
Shen Niangzhi took half a day to make up a sentence: "Miss Huajia is going to get married, and he has gone to help the workers!"
When Father Shen heard about the "Flower Family", he couldn't help but think of a past event.
Father Shen said sadly: "I think that when your mother-in-law died, there was a shortage of rice and firewood in the family, so I pieced it together and got a coffin board of money, but I was forced to go by the Flower Family's rent collector, so I had to bury her with a kang mat."
Shen Niang was worried that the old man was too sad, so she suppressed her tears, persuaded him, and helped him lie down on the bed.
Suddenly, Shin Dacheng returned.
When Shen Niang saw her husband's sad look, she knew that she had not borrowed the silver, and she was already anxious, so she quietly told Dacheng about Hua Er's pursuit of the congratulatory gift, and urged him to borrow it from his cousin Xia Yuchan's house.
Da Cheng thought to himself, "The Xia family's cousin's family is poor and widowed, and she raises an old man and a young child by doing needlework, how can I borrow it?"
However, thinking of his own situation in front of him, he was helpless and had to try his luck.
Besides, this night, Xia Yuchan settled her mother-in-law and son's dog to sleep, and then she was embroidering the wedding dress for the flower family.
Hearing Dacheng call the door, he hurriedly let him in and asked, "Oh, my cousin came to my house so late, do you think there is something urgent?"
Da Cheng sniffed for half a day before explaining his intentions, and he looked at the flower family on the desk to get a wedding dress and sighed.
Xia Yuchan suddenly remembered that she still had a few wedding dresses, and hurriedly got up to get them.
Without much effort, Yuchan found a bag of wedding dresses, counted the total of nine, and then wrapped it up and handed it to her cousin, asking him to sell some silver to save the urgent need.
The big prejudice cousin was indignant and helpful, and I really couldn't thank you enough.
Dacheng bid farewell to his cousin, and while walking, he thought: "This wedding dress is originally my cousin's beloved thing, if I sell it, I will not live up to my cousin's kindness."
It is better to pay it as a congratulatory gift for two or two pieces of silver for the time being, and it will be better to redeem it in the future. ”
He saw that the sky was bright, so he went to the pawnshop.
Dacheng walked into the pawnshop, sent the bag to the counter, the guy opened it, immediately became alert, and signaled to the guy.
It turned out that this Yuquan pawnshop was opened by the Hua family, and the county magistrate had already informed the pawnshop of the theft of the Hua family, and Dacheng Dang happened to be nine wedding dresses, and the guy naturally saw things suspicious.
As soon as the treasurer saw that it was Shen Dacheng, a tenant of the Flower Family, he interrogated him.
Dacheng said with a straight face, "Of course it's mine, but is it still impossible to steal it and steal it?"
The treasurer rolled his face and said that Shen Dacheng's poor face did not deserve this dress.
Tell someone to tie him up and see the flowerman out.
The treasurer escorted Shen Dacheng to the Hua family quickly, and it happened that Qiao ZhiXian was also conducting an autopsy at the Hua family.
When Hua Zifang heard that the robber he had caught was Shen Dacheng, he shouted angrily, "Oh, Shen Dacheng, it was not a good thing in the first place!"
Bring me in!"
Shen Dacheng was brought in, and Hua Zifang was furious at the sight of it, and without waiting for Qiao Zhixian to ask, he ordered the family slave to say, "Fight me!"
I'm going to beat this poor bone to death!"
Shen Dacheng pointed out that he asked Hua Zifang why he beat people for no reason.
Hua Zifang insisted that Shen Da J stole his daughter's wedding dress and committed the crime of stealing clothes and killing people.
Shen Dacheng was not convinced.
Hua Fang was even more annoyed and drank ling to beat him hard.
Qiao Zhixian, who was old and cunning and had been so old for a long time, was afraid that it would be unfavorable to him, so he ordered the family slave to stop and ask the reason for the nine wedding dresses, and immediately ordered the servants to arrest Xia Yuchan, and decided to go to the court tomorrow for interrogation, escort Dacheng, and turn back to Ya.
The next day, Hua Zifang brought the domestic slaves to the county court to pursue the case, and Qiao Zhixian hurriedly welcomed him into the public court, let him sit next to the public case, and then summoned Shen Dacheng to the court to hear the trial.
Qiao Zhixian interrogated him as usual, and seeing that Shen Dacheng still did not admit it, he ordered Xia Yuchan to be taken to the court to testify.
Xia Yuchan came to the hall and was surprised to see her cousin kneeling aside.
When Qiao Zhixian asked her to identify the cloth bag, she immediately answered truthfully, and described the style and color as well, and the servant opened the clothes bag to see, and sure enough, it matched.
Hua Zifang saw that Qiao Zhixian was stunned and overwhelmed, and hurriedly prompted: "Old Father Tai, this time the little girl is married, all the wedding clothes are her needles and threads;
How could she not know this wedding dress style, it was clearly a pretext, and she would not be able to recruit without moving a big punishment!"
Qiao Zhixian was reminded by this rhetoric, so he ordered the servant to torture Yu Chan, and although Yu Chan was tortured to death, she still said that there was nothing to recruit.
Da Chengzhi knew that the county was protecting Hua Zifang, so he asked him angrily.
Qiao Zhixian asked Qiuhua to testify.
She saw that the color and style of her clothes did not match, and as soon as she said the word "no", she was drunk by Hua Zifang and drove her out of the hall.
Qiao Zhixian knew in his heart that this robber was not necessarily Shen Dacheng, so he did not want to seriously ask questions.
Dacheng could not bear to let his cousin suffer and confessed.
This just made Qiao Zhi County have a step to go down, so he hastily made a decision and announced his retirement.
Hua Zifang returned from the county court, handed Hua Er a silver ticket of five hundred taels, and told him to immediately go to the county court and hand it over to Zhi County, and must make Dacheng a capital offense.
It turned out that he had already coveted Shen Niang's beauty and wanted to take this opportunity to occupy Shen Niang.
However, he said that after Qiao Zhixian had retreated from the morning hall, after being reminded by his master, he felt that if he could chase down the murderous blood clothes on Shen Dacheng's body, the case would be completed.
It just so happened that he was bribed and entrusted by Hua Zifang, and in the afternoon he went to the church again to ask questions.
Shen Dacheng did not have any blood clothes, but Zhixian, who had violated the law against his heart, tortured and repeatedly chased after him.
Dacheng thought: Whether there is blood or not is always a death, why not take the opportunity to go home to visit your relatives.
He lied that the blood coat was hidden in the house.
So ZhiXian ordered the servants to escort him home to get dressed in blood.
Shen Niang was worried about her husband, overheard a knock at the door, opened the door and looked, and saw her husband wearing shackles and locks, all covered in scales, and staggered in.
Husbands and wives see each other and cry bitterly.
Ya Gong stepped forward impatiently to chase after the bloody clothes, and Shen Niang was wang.
Da Cheng hurriedly signaled to his wife and said, "Ah, Shen Niang, as of now, whether there is blood or not is dead, it is better to be happy."
For the sake of husband and wife on weekdays, please save me!"
Ya Gong urged Dacheng to leave quickly, and Father Shen was pushed to catch up with him as soon as he chased him out the door.
However, he said that Qiao ZhiXian got the blood coat and thought that the stolen certificate was available, so he declared it.
On this day, he received a reply, and Shen Dacheng and Xia Yuchan were brought out of prison and tied up to go to the scene.
Along the way, the people were indignant and hated the government that had no day.
Yu Chan's mother-in-law also led her grandson and dog to hurry.
After noon, Shen Dacheng was brutally beheaded.
After Yu Chan was tied up, she was released on the spot, and due to excessive stimulation, she fainted past.
Fortunately, her mother-in-law arrived, woke her up with the dog, and helped her home.
At this time, Shen Niang also hurried to see that Dacheng had been executed, and threw herself at her husband's corpse in grief, and was stopped by Ya Gong.
Shen Niang was expelled from the court, and she returned home in despair.
Shen Father repeatedly asked questions, and had no choice but to tell the truth about the truth.
When Father Shen heard this, he immediately spat out blood and passed out.
Shen Niang was calling, when she overheard Hua Er calling for the door again.
Hua Er led the house slaves to break in, and said angrily, "After the official government's judgment, the three houses and two acres of land were returned to the Flower House, and Shen Niang was asked to go to the Flower Family to pay off the debt, and the house was sealed, and the old guy got out as soon as possible!"
After saying that, the house slave rushed up and pulled Shen Niang away.
Father Shen shouted as he chased after him, "You are more powerful than the robbers, don't you have the Royal Law?"
Hua Er smiled and said, "Wang Fa?
Ha......
The words spoken by the flowerman are the king's law. ”
The words did not fall, and Shen Father was knocked down with a punch.
Shen's father desperately tried to reason with Hua Er, and Hua Er was furious, so he ordered the family slave to drag him into the woods, and after a burst of punches and kicks, the sick and weak old man was mutilated.
However, it is said that after Shen Niang was robbed of Hua's house, she was tortured because she resolutely resisted Hua Zifang's forcible indecency, and took advantage of the fact that there was no one in the middle of the night, wanting to hang herself and thinking of herself.
Strange is pregnant, so it will not stop after the Shen family.
Struggling, Qiu Hua walked in with food.
Qiu Hua knew that the Shen family had been humiliated, but he did not dare to testify in court, and felt ashamed in his heart, and now that he saw that she was going to commit suicide, he very sympathetically advised her and helped to make a plan: temporarily pretending to agree to the old thief's affair, and then trying to escape after giving birth.
Shen Niang felt that this was the only way, so she agreed.
Qiu Hua immediately acted according to the plan and informed Hua Zifang.
As soon as Hua Zifang heard the great joy in her heart, she ordered Qiuhua to accompany Shen Niang and wait for Shen Niang to become a relative after giving birth.
As the days passed, Shen Niang's delivery period would soon come, and she was worried that the baby would be mutilated by the flower family after birth, so she planned with Qiuhua and asked someone to send a letter to her cousin, so that she could send the child to be raised in the future.
The Hua family has an old worker who watches the garden, Zhao Da, who is an old neighbor of the Shen family, and he is very sympathetic to Shen Niang's plight.
Shen Niang then asked Qiu Hua to secretly entrust Zhao Da to be the messenger, and Zhao Da immediately agreed.
Besides, after Yuchan returned home from the execution site, she was frightened by a serious illness, and she has seen a slight improvement in recent days.
On this day, he was talking with his mother-in-law about "The rebel army of King Li Chuang is coming soon", when he suddenly saw Zhao Da hurriedly walk in.
As soon as Yu Chan saw Zhao Da, she asked about the rebel army again, and Zhao Da said that the rebel army had passed through Bauhinia Pass and was not far from here.
Then they explained their intentions, and Yuchan and her mother-in-law of course agreed.
Soon, Shen Niang gave birth to a boy.
Just three days later, QiuHua came to her to send the child away.
Shen Niang was hesitating, overhearing footsteps in the distance, so she hurriedly wrapped the child and let Qiuhua send it to Zhao Da's house to hide.
In an instant, Hua Zifang walked into the door, and he first asked Shen Niang if she was in good health, and then asked if she was a man or a woman, and let him show it.
Shen Niang said busily: "The child died of convulsions last night, and he was already buried in the dry well."
Hua Zifang thought to herself, "I can't let the Shen family leave this curse, and when I die, I have to look at the corpse to be at ease."
He wanted to send his slaves to dig a well to inspect it, but Hua Er suddenly knelt down and reported: "The army of the king of the intruder is not far from the city, and the people from the county have come to see him."
Frightened, Hua Zifang, who was not concerned about pursuing the baby's corpse, pointed at Shen Niang and said, "Let's settle the account again" and turned around and hurried away.
Shen Niang expected that when Hua Zifang came back, not only would the child's life be difficult to protect, but she would also be beaten and defiled, and at the urging of Qiu Hua and Zhao Da, she decided to escape from this magic cave and took advantage of the quiet people in the middle of the night to thank Qiu Hua, hugged the child, and quietly fled with Zhao Da from the back garden gate.
They didn't go far, and Shen Niang felt that her legs were sore, so she had to go to her cousin's house to hide for a while.
Zhao Da obstructed and said, "The Hua family knows that you have escaped, and will definitely send someone to the Xia family to inquire about it, so that you will not only have to give up your life in vain, but also involve the Xia family."
Zhao Da continued to struggle forward.
In the middle of the line, I overheard the noise of people behind me, and the red light of lanterns and torches shone brightly.
It turned out that the Hua family had already discovered that Shen Niang had escaped, and sent Hua Er to bring people to chase after them.
Shen Daughter-in-law was shocked and anxious, and she couldn't take a step, so she handed the child to Zhao Da and asked him to escape.
Shen Niang waited for Zhao Da to go far, turned around and found the well spring next to the road, suddenly thought of committing suicide, and climbed towards the wellhead.
But her excessive tension and weakness in her body were extremely difficult to crack.
The people who listened to the chase behind them were getting closer.
She had just climbed to the edge of the well when she was caught.
Hua Er could not ask about the whereabouts of the child, and when he saw a black shadow in front of him, he ordered someone to bring Shen Niang back first, and he himself took several other people to chase him forward.
At this time, Zhao Da ran for a while with the child in his arms, and he was also breathless due to his old age.
I thought: If the child is in trouble, will he not live up to Shen Niang's heavy trust, so he struggles to run fast, only to hear that the voices behind him are getting closer and closer.
At this moment, Zhao Da suddenly vaguely saw a group of shadows in front of him, and thought to himself: Didn't he catch up with the rebels?
He ran forward desperately.
The squad figures came in response.
Zhao Da heard a familiar voice, and when he saw that it was Cui Jie who was walking in front of the collapse, he couldn't help but be very surprised.
It turned out that after Cui Jie was expelled from the Hua family, he was indignant, and the Night Man Hua family stole the wedding dress to pay off the debt, and then defected to the rebels.
The leader of the squad, Zhang Lieyuan, is also a flower worker, and because he can't be oppressed, he joins the rebel army, and Cui Jie runs to him.
When Zhao Da saw his acquaintances, he was particularly affectionate, so he briefly told them about the murder of the Shen family and begged them to rescue them quickly.
Zhang Lie and the others were immediately filled with righteous indignation and led the team to shout at Hua Er to kill them.
Hua Er and the house slaves were immediately frightened and paralyzed, and begged for forgiveness one after another.
Therefore, Zhang Lie sent someone to deliver a letter to the brigade, and he led the team to escort Hua Er and others to the Hua family.
At this time, it was already dawn, and the rebels broke into the gate of Hua's house, and when they saw Hua Zifang torturing Shen Niang, they surrounded her.
The rebels and the people immediately stood all over the courtyard.
After Cui Jie untied Shen Niang, he explained to everyone the experience of stealing clothes to pay the account at that time.
The sinful Hua Zifang was surrounded by people.
Shen Niang was furious and grabbed a whip and drew it at the enemy fiercely, and the indignant tenants also rushed up and beat Hua Zifang to death.
Zhang Lie also ordered Cui Jie to take Hua Er, open the flower family's rice warehouse, and distribute it to everyone along with gold and silver clothes.
At this time, a nominal army came to report that the brigade had occupied the county seat and had captured the stolen officers