Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 85: Old Huai's Old Story
"Come down, don't dawdle, and don't cry. If you anger me, I'll chop you all into pieces and cook you into soup! You'll stay at Mr. Wang's place for the next few days. If Mr. Wang and Miss Xuan have any instructions, you'll all listen to me obediently!"
Xu Huai shouted at the five women to get off their horses and asked them to help move the swords, guns, crossbows, quivers and the wart armor in the carriage into the next yard.
He, Xu Xin'an, Xu Wukun and Han Qi disguised themselves and sneaked to the vicinity of Hutouzhai to scout for bandit information. Of course, they would not carry armor with them, but Xu Wujiang and Xu Wuliang heard that they had sneaked into Huaiyuan Town again this morning, and they were afraid that they were going to do something weird again, so they specially gave this set of armor to Xu Huai.
"How can you be so rude?" Wang Xuan glanced at Xu Huai with her bright eyes, pulled him aside, and comforted Tian Yanyan and the other two girls, "Xu Huai is trying to scare you. Don't be afraid of him. He won't do anything to you. You can stay here for now. I'll ask him to let you go after a while."
Wang Xuan didn't like Liu Qiong'er because there was a sense of arrogance in Liu Qiong'er's every move. She could also feel that Liu Qiong'er didn't take her seriously. Liu Qiong'er's background was only a secondary factor.
Although Tian Yanyan's five daughters also came from Yuehonglou, when Wang Xuan saw how frightened they were, she suddenly felt that they were not annoying at all, and even felt that they were pitiful.
Women are just weird like that.
Although Wang Xuan said so, Tian Yanyan and the other four girls were afraid of ghosts and stayed away from Xu Huai.
They looked at Wang Xuan in strange eyes. This girl was so beautiful, but she had a mental problem. Otherwise, why would they think that the killer was just trying to scare them?
"There are two rooms over here. You can stay here for now."
Wang Bing pointed to the two rooms on the east side and asked the five women to stay there temporarily.
…
…
The courtyard on Wang Bing's side only has three main rooms and four side rooms. Usually, Wang Bing, Wang Xuan, the grandparents and grandchildren, Lu Xiong, and the wet nurse Zhai Niangzi live here, so only two side rooms can be vacated for the five girls to stay.
Fortunately, the courtyard next door where Xu Wujiang and Xu Huai had lived was still empty. As they had hurriedly escaped from the military camp, the pots, pans, beddings, curtains and other daily necessities were still there, so Xu Huai and Yin Peng happened to move in.
Yin Peng unloaded the cart into the next yard and took the three good horses to the stable in the backyard and tied them up.
There was no bean grass to feed the horses here, but fortunately, when they returned to the military camp, Jin Longquan said that the Inspection Office would take care of the food and horse feed here; Yin Peng said something to Xu Huai and went to the Inspection Office to get the horse feed first.
Xu Huai changed his bloody clothes, walked to Wang Bing's yard, stuffed the bloody clothes into Tian Yanyan's arms, who was talking to Wang Bing in the corridor, and asked her to take it to wash.
Tian Yanyan was trained by Yue Hong Lou to be Liu Qiong'er's successor. Although she also served the girls in Yue Hong Lou when she was young, she has focused on learning music, chess, calligraphy and painting in recent years, and her slender fingers have never touched water. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, she was holding a pile of bloody clothes, and she was about to faint from the bloody smell.
Xu Huai sat under the shade of the locust tree in the yard and told Wang Bing and Lu Xiong in detail about the bloodbath of Zhongjiazhuang by the bandits yesterday, the panic in the streets today, and the stubborn bandits in Laoyatan who were mobilized by the news. "Zheng Hui's bloodbath in Zhongjiazhuang means he is destined to stir up a bloody storm in Tongbai Mountain. Deng Gui has no other choice but to defend the Huaiyuan military camp, and we are his only straw! However, I still have some doubts in my heart, and I would like to ask Mr. Wang to solve them."
"You say." Wang Bing said, sitting on an old tree stump.
"Although Cai Ying was suspected of nurturing the enemy, and Zheng Hui's character can be considered a reason, Zheng Hui is not Cai Ying after all. Without Cai Ying's support, he would not dare to act so recklessly. There is a lack of explanation here," Xu Huai said, "There must be a more convincing reason, that is, the old soldier of the Jingsheng Army called Cai Ying grudge. Cai Ying served as the military judge and the chief supervisor in the Jingsheng Army. What stories are there that the outside world doesn't know?"
Wang Bing closed his eyes, sighed slightly, and said:
"In the ninth year of Tianbing, the Khitans provoked a border conflict in Yunzhong, and 20,000 border troops and civilians were slaughtered. The court dispatched Wang Xiaocheng to lead the Jingsheng Army to rush to Yunzhong for assistance. Yunzhong was quickly recovered, and Shuozhou, Wei and other places were also taken back from the Khitans. Later, the court negotiated peace with the Khitans, and the government allowed the Khitans to restore the old borders, and ordered Wang Xiaocheng to lead his troops to withdraw from Shuozhou, Wei and other places. However, Wang Xiaocheng refused to obey the order because Shuozhou, Wei and other places were his homeland. Cai Ying held a secret edict to execute Wang Xiaocheng and replaced him, and led the Jingsheng Army to withdraw from Shuozhou and Wei. Your father Xu Wuxuan was the commander of Wang Xiaocheng's personal soldiers, and many members of the Xu family were also Wang Xiaocheng's personal soldiers in those days, and they were all cleared out of the Jingsheng Army after that..."
"Wang Xiaocheng disobeyed the emperor's order and the government wanted to kill him. Cai Ying was only acting in accordance with the secret decree. What was he afraid of?" Xu Huai asked.
"The problem lies in this secret decree," Wang Bing said. "I was working in Yuezhou in the ninth year of Tianbing. I felt that there was something fishy about this matter, but I didn't know the details. It was not until before the change of the reign to Tianxuan that I returned to Bianjing to work in the Censorate and checked many laws and regulations during the Tianbing period that I learned that Cai Ying did not have the so-called secret decree at the time. Instead, he forged the decree to kill Wang Xiaocheng. After the fact, it was Wang Yongqi and others who wrote to the government, thinking that Cai Ying's forging the decree to kill Wang Xiaocheng was an extraordinary act. Therefore, in subsequent official letters, they all tacitly acknowledged the existence of this secret decree and confirmed the crime of Wang Xiaocheng's disobedience to the emperor's order. Lu Xiong escorted me to Tongbai Mountain Road to avoid assassins, and you and Xu Wujiang and others were involved. Cai Ying was guilty and perhaps thought that I would use this secret to deceive Wang Xiaocheng's old subordinates..."
"General Wang disobeyed the imperial order back then, which was a violation of the law. He did not deserve death. However, Cai Ying forged an imperial edict to kill General Wang, and he has been brooding over it for more than ten years," Lu Xiong sighed. "Other soldiers of the Jingsheng Army are fine, but it is General Wang's personal soldiers who were recruited when he went to Tangzhou. He is most worried about them."
The generals and soldiers of the Dai Viet imperial army were not affiliated with each other, but the civil and military officials checked each other.
Wang Xiaocheng was transferred from Tangzhou to be the commander-in-chief of Jingsheng Army in the fourth year of Tianbing. Wang Bing had even served as the judge of Jingsheng Army before Wang Xiaocheng. The former military leaders of Jingsheng Army, including Lu Xiong, had no particularly deep connection with Wang Xiaocheng. They only accepted his jurisdiction after the fourth year of Tianbing.
However, it was Wang Xiaocheng who was sent to Tangzhou to suppress the bandits in Tongbai Mountain and captured hundreds of bandits, as well as some of the confidants that Wang Xiaocheng had trained during his many years of service in the army and some of the young soldiers of the Wang clan. These generals and soldiers had the deepest feelings for Wang Xiaocheng.
These are the people that Cai Ying fears the most.
"What's this?" Xu Huai said with a wry smile.
Xu Huai was about to ask Wang Bing about the situation of the Dangxiang and Khitan people in the west and north, wanting to know what major threat these two barbarian enemies posed to Dai Viet, or what actions they were making in secret that had not yet aroused sufficient vigilance in the court, but then he saw Deng Gui push open the gate and look in .
Seeing Xu Huai, Wang Bing and Lu Xiong sitting in the yard, Deng Gui pretended to knock on the wooden door.
"Mr. Deng, what's the matter with you?" Wang Bing nodded slightly in front of Deng Gui to show his courtesy.
Deng Gui took a long breath, calmed his mind, and walked in with Jin Longquan and Tang Tiande behind him.
Even though he didn't know who the Yaksha fox that was hiding behind the scenes to protect Wang Bing was or what it looked like, one thing was certain: since this man sent in a brave general like Xu Huai and didn't rush to find an excuse to take Wang Bing out, it meant that he would not sit idly by and watch the Huaiyuan military camp fall.
In addition to Xu Huai, Lu Xiong and others in the Huaiyuan military camp, Deng Gui suspected that Xu Wujiang and others and even the entire Xu family were secretly controlled by this man.
In other words, although the situation seems bad, the Huaiyuan military camp and Yuhuangling are interconnected, so they are not without a chance.
Although the current dynasty valued civil officials over military officials, and used civil officials to control military officials, it was generally tolerant of civil and military officials.
As long as Deng Gui was not foolish enough to commit high treason, no matter how great or serious the crimes he had been charged with before, including the assassination of Guo Caoling, after the liquidation, he would at most be demoted to a commoner, and it would not even affect the official career prospects of his sons and nephews.
Therefore, no matter what, he had to guard the Huaiyuan military camp; he would not go to great lengths to inquire about the arrangements at Xiema Mountain - there was no need, why would he be suspected of colluding with the bandits.
"The bandit army looted Yushan Post in the afternoon. Two old soldiers just fled to Huaiyuan Military Camp to report that more than 200 bandits have occupied Yushan Post to recruit soldiers. From what they said about the appearance of the bandits, they seemed to be the bandits of Gao Xiangzhong from Shixi Village. Since then, if Huaiyuan wants to contact the prefecture and county, it can only cross the Huai River from Xinyang to borrow a passage. This round trip is six or seven hundred miles. Even if Chen Zhizhou and Cheng Zhixian have any orders, Huaiyuan will not be able to execute them in time. Everything can only be done at will!" Deng Gui saluted to Wang Bing. After getting Wang Bing's approval, he sat aside and told Wang Bing and Lu Xiong about the latest situation. "I am a low-ranking official with little experience. I have never experienced such a severe bandit problem. I am at a loss and my mind is in a panic. Please give me your instructions..."
Yushan Posthouse was lost, and bandits such as Laoyatan became restless in the east. In fact, the Huaiyuan Inspection Office had been cut off from the outside world.
According to the rules, all matters that previously required the approval of the prefecture, county and road officials before being decided could now be handled with discretion after Deng Gui summoned his subordinates for discussion.
As a demoted official, Wang Bing stayed in Tangzhou and was not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the prefecture and county under normal circumstances. However, in such an urgent situation, Deng Gui consulted Wang Bing on all matters and even asked Wang Bing, a demoted official with great reputation, to temporarily preside over all matters, which was in line with the etiquette of Dai Viet.
Of course, Deng Gui was also being cunning by doing this.
In other words, Xu Wujiang and others would become a great threat to the imperial court in the future. Everything he did today was just to discuss the defense of the military camp with Wang Bing in accordance with the etiquette. He had absolutely no intention of colluding with the deserters and bandits. All the blame could be put on Wang Bing.
Of course the one who has the biggest problem should take the blame.
Wang Bing could see through Deng Gui's scheming, so he stood up with his hands folded, stood under the locust tree, and gazed at the distant mountains and blue sky:
Under normal circumstances, he did not want to tarnish his reputation, and he had previously resolutely refused to flee to Yuhuangling. However, whether he could defend the Huaiyuan military camp was related to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Tongbai Mountain, and even to whether dozens of counties outside Tongbai Mountain would be affected by banditry. There were some things he had no choice but to do...
