Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 33: The True Intentions in the Letter
Even though they knew that Deng Gui had evil intentions, Xu Wujiang and his men had no room to struggle after losing the support of their clan; even if they wanted to struggle, it would be impossible for them to struggle under Deng Gui's nose.
At dawn the next day, Xu Wujiang led out his soldiers, including 24 men including Xu Xin'an, and ten military horses. Deng Gui also put on armor, which was rare for him, and accompanied by the chief and deputy captains Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande, he personally escorted this team of soldiers out of the Xunjiansi military camp and headed for Qingxi camp for garrison.
The ordinary soldiers were still kept in the dark. Whenever they fought to suppress bandits, there was no reward after the battle. Before the battle began, the major clans would donate a sum of money for the battle. This time, as the situation was rather hasty, Deng Gui still allocated 50 strings of cash from his private account as a reward per person, so everyone's morale was pretty good.
There was some resentment, but it was also alleviated by the reward money.
Most people would not believe that the bandits from Hutou Village would attack Qingxi Village. They thought that they only needed to hold out until the soldiers from various clans gathered in large numbers.
"Why doesn't Xu Huai go?" Deng Gui asked Xu Wujiang with his side face when he saw Xu Huai and Xu Wujiang's second wife Di Niang standing in the farewell team.
"Xu Huai has not been included in the military roster of the Inspection Office, so naturally he will not go - he will have to wait until the bandits at Hutouling are wiped out. I will ask Lord Deng for some leniency so that he can join the Inspection Office and receive military pay." Xu Wujiang said with a resolute expression and a somewhat cold voice.
Seeing that Xu Wujiang was still emotional, Deng Gui would not force him too much. He laughed and said, "Okay, okay! When you get to Qingxi Village, have a good discussion with the head of the village and guard the village. Don't let the bandits pass through. Don't fight in vain!"
Although Xu Wujiang was able to hold himself back, Xu Huai was still somewhat worried that Xu Xin'an, who was young and hot-tempered, would impulsively question Deng Gui on the spot; he saw Xu Xin'an, who was standing next to Xu Wujiang, clenching his teeth, with veins on his cheeks and temples throbbing slightly, which showed that he was also cruel in suppressing his inner impulse.
Xu Huai did not see the figures of Wang Bing and Lu Xiong - Deng Gui could restrict irrelevant people from approaching Wang Bing, but it was unlikely that he would put Wang Bing under house arrest. He also did not know what Wang Bing thought of the current dangerous situation after Lu Xiong returned last night.
Of course, Xu Huai's main attention at this time was still on Deng Gui and the chief and deputy chiefs Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande.
Deng Gui, the inspector general, was a military official appointed by the imperial court. Under normal circumstances, he would be transferred to another place after three years.
After the Xunjiansi changed its system to recruit local soldiers, the captains and Jieji were also recommended by the localities to be appointed by the county lieutenant's office.
Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande represent the Jin and Tang families, and have served as the chief and deputy chief officers in the Inspection Office for some years. It can be said that there are frequent inspectors but the chief officers remain the same. But at this moment, Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande both have slightly gloomy faces.
Xu Huai could not see anything unusual on the faces of Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande, and judged that they were probably unaware of the situation.
Xu Huaixin felt that they might still have some resentment in their hearts, and suspected that Deng Gui gave this mission, which was actually not that dangerous, to Xu Wujiang because he thought that he would have a reason to recommend Xu Wujiang to replace one of them in the future.
Yes, if they hadn’t seen through everything, how could they have seen the danger lurking beneath the water?
After the reward money for the march was distributed, Deng Gui pretended to give a lecture, and Xu Wujiang asked Xu Xin'an to take two people on horseback to explore the way first, to prevent Hutou Village from getting the news and setting an ambush halfway. Then he and the other Wuzu accompanied seven military horses and left the village.
The simple departure ceremony ended like this.
After noon, Deng Gui went to the Hedong market for something, and Xu Huai turned around and ran to the inspection office.
Deng Gui's family were all in Biyang City and did not follow him to Huaiyuan Town to take up his post. When he was in the Inspection Office, Deng Gui usually lived in a house behind the government office.
There were few people in the military camp, and the inspection office was even more deserted.
There were two clerks working in the side hall in the front yard of the government office. When they saw Xu Huai coming over, they drove him away with disgust: "What are you doing here, you idiot? This is not the place for you to play around, get out of here."
Xu Huai ignored them and walked straight in.
The two clerks stopped trying to stop him, thinking that someone had ordered Xu Huai to come over to do the job.
Xu Huai walked through the front hall of the government office and saw that there was no one in the back house. He then walked towards Deng Gui's bedroom and stood at the door to look at the layout inside.
The current military examination is slightly different from that of the previous dynasty. In addition to strict requirements on family background and tests on sword, spear, horsemanship, and archery, there will also be tests on policy essays.
Many people who passed the military examinations could be promoted through the civil service examinations without joining the army, but they were not as good as those who passed the formal imperial examinations. If you really regard Deng Gui as just a military man, you would be underestimating him.
Deng Gui sent Xu Wujiang and Xu Xin'an to the vicinity of Hutouzhai to spy on the bandit situation two days ago. There was nothing unusual, but the decision he made after meeting with Xu Wufu yesterday was full of evil intentions.
Xu Huai suspected that something happened in the middle that prompted Deng Gui to finally make up his mind.
There were several books scattered on the desk by the window, as well as paper, inkstone, brush, ink, paperweight and a stack of cut letters.
Xu Huai walked over, picked up the letters and read them quickly. They were all ordinary letters and there was nothing suspicious about them. Looking at the dates on the letters, none of them were letters that Deng Gui had communicated with anyone within the past month.
The room was tidied by a maid, the bedding was neat, the tile floor was free of dust, and there were two large and small suitcases stacked on top of each other in the corner; the larger suitcase at the bottom had a copper lock on it.
Xu Huai frowned slightly. He didn't have the ability to poke open the copper lock with just a branch!
At this time, a woman came into the yard from outside. Xu Huai peeked out from the crack of the door and waited for her to walk to the wing room diagonally opposite. He tiptoed to the corner and opened the small suitcase on top. It contained daily clothes, as well as a few broken silver ingots and loose copper coins.
Thinking that Xu Wujiang and his men might be surrounded and killed at any time by the bandits from Hutouzhai, who were ten times their number, after arriving at Qingxizhai, Xu Huai did not hesitate too much. He grabbed the copper lock with his hand and used all his strength to pull the iron wedge connected to the copper lock out of the wooden board of the suitcase.
He thought the trunk contained mainly clothes, as there was a brocade bag. When he opened it, it turned out to be several large silver ingots and a gold ingot the size of a baby's fist. Xu Huai thought that Deng Gui did not take care of any affairs during his tenure as the Inspection Officer, and was usually involved in alcohol and women, so he should be very short of money. He did not expect that he had hidden quite a lot of gold and silver. These gold and silver were worth about one thousand strings of coins.
Xu Huai turned over the clothes and found three letters lying quietly in the corner of the suitcase. He picked them up and saw that they were all written by a man named Chen Tong.
Xu Huai didn't know who this Chen Tong was, or what position he held in Tangzhou or Biyang County. The three letters were not long, and he read them all after a while.
In the first letter, Chen Tong directly asked about Wang Bing's encounter with bandits in Tongbai Mountain. The letter said that the matter had spread to Bianyang County, and the county officials were talking about it and were very disturbed. Out of curiosity, he asked Deng Gui whether the rumor was true or not, and whether there was any hidden story that outsiders did not know.
Xu Huai could not see Deng Gui's reply to Chen Tong, but from Chen Tong's second letter, it was not difficult to see that Deng Gui told him everything about Xu Wujiang leading his team to scare away the horse bandits and how he kept Wang Bing in the military camp to guard the camp after receiving the order from the prefect Chen Shi.
It can also be seen from the second letter sent by Chen Tong that Deng Gui was not in a hurry to reply to Chen Tong at first.
However, it was only after a group of merchants were robbed and killed on Zoumadao by bandits from Hutouzhai that he wrote his first letter in reply to Chen Tong - this showed that Hutouzhai's attempt to alert the enemy did work.
Deng Gui realized at that time that it was unusual for the bandits from Hutouzhai to come out and rob and kill merchants and travelers.
From the second letter sent by Chen Tong, we can also see that Deng Gui said in his first reply that he had been doing nothing in Tongbai Mountain for more than two years, often felt bored with life, and thought about resigning and returning to the countryside. Only then did Chen Tong comfort him that he was in his prime and should not have such decadent ambitions.
In addition to stating that he had entrusted Xu Wufu to bring back the letter, Chen Tong's third letter further advised Deng Gui to be loyal to the court. He said that there were several vacancies in the military headquarters and that someone like Deng Gui, who was both talented and young, was urgently needed to take on the responsibility.
Chen Tong also said in the letter that the bandit problem in Tongbai Mountain was very serious and had not been completely quelled even under Wang Xiaocheng. Even if there were any interferences, it should not be blamed on Deng Gui.
Xu Huai guessed that Deng Gui must have contacted someone before finally deciding to arrange for Xu Wujiang and others to die. However, he never expected that Chen Tong was also the key to prompting Xu Wufu to sacrifice Xu Wujiang, and he must have a high status in the prefecture and county.
If he hadn't seen through everything, he really wouldn't have been able to tell what was fishy about the three letters, and they couldn't even be taken away as evidence in court.
Xu Huai immediately put the three letters back to their original place, stuffed the bag of gold and silver into his arms, and confirmed that the old woman who took care of Deng Gui's daily life was not in the yard. He walked quickly into the yard, broke off a small piece of eaves, and faked the sign of someone climbing over the wall to go in and out.
After finishing all this, Xu Huaicai walked towards the front hall of the office. He almost bumped into a clerk and muttered, "Captain Tang came to look for Mr. Deng, but he sent me here for nothing..."
The clerk looked at the backyard and saw that it was empty. He scolded Xu Huai, "You idiot, what the hell, where is Tang Dutou?"
"See your uncle!" Xu Huai glared at the clerk unhappily and walked out with a swagger.
