Volume 3 Chapter 10: North and West
Wu Jie is not a fool. He is 37 years old this year and has been in the army for 17 years. He went to school when he was young and has been working in the army for more than ten years. He can see through some things at a glance. He knows that he has bumped into this and is being blamed by these people.
But knowing is one thing, and understanding is another. The problem now is that the man in the prison is indeed the Chief Censor and the emperor's envoy, a so-called senior official representing the central government. Moreover, the seriousness of the matter is also clear before his eyes, and his old boss Qu Duan has indeed behaved in an incredible way .
Therefore, no matter how dirty or ugly this matter is, since he has been involved in it and has been forced into a corner, he can only bite the bullet and do it.
As for how to do it, although Wu Dujian looks ignorant, he has been in the Western Army for seventeen years, how could he not know the procedures of certain things?
Even if it really happened, with Wu Dujian's expertise in military tactics and his lightning-fast attacking methods, he would have the momentum to be swift and decisive and capture the thief and the leader.
This day was the first day of May.
Wu Jie left the prison without stopping. He first imprisoned the commander surnamed Xue and placed him opposite Hu Zhongcheng and others. Then he immediately presided over the annexation of Xue's troops.
At the same time, he wrote a confidential private letter and asked his younger brother and son Wu Gong to take it personally to meet his younger brother Wu Lin who was on the other side of the river.
Two days later, after serving the masters in the prison for two days, Wu Jie calculated the time and wrote more than a dozen letters to the generals he was familiar with in Jingyuan Road...
Moreover, the military system of the Song Dynasty was complicated . As border routes, the Guanxi routes had special military systems from the beginning, just like military districts. Therefore, the titles of commander and commander were not as common as those in the Central Plains. Military generals were more often divided according to the geographical unit of "Road".
For example, before Wu Jie became the commander-in-chief, he had served as the tenth general and second deputy general of Jingyuan Road respectively. Qu Duan's step to annex the military power of Guanxi was to first obtain the military power of Jingyuan Road for his own use, and then use the troops of Jingyuan Road as capital, and then use war to try to annex troops from other places.
Therefore, these letters were naturally addressed to Qu Duan's core followers, who were also old acquaintances of Wu Jie, and the generals of Jingyuan Road who were now concentrated in the border area between Yan'an Prefecture and Fuzhou. However, the content was nothing serious, just some slightly suggestive consolations and reminders, which was not what he really expected... In other words, a soldier naturally has his own way of doing things, so how could he rely on letters to connect them?
In fact, just as these letters were sent out, Wu Dujian received the news that General Qu Duan had already arrived on the other side of the river under the escort of his younger brother.
That day was the fourth day of May. Wu Jie did not dare to delay and immediately led a hundred personal guards out of the city to meet them on the floating bridge over Huachi River in the north.
Qu Duan, who is about forty years old this year, is at the golden age for a general. He is tall and strong, with a slightly red face. He is dressed in dazzling armor and rides an exceptionally tall mount, which is none other than the divine horse "Iron Elephant" that is famous in Guanxi. A hundred personal guards follow from the left and right wings, and Wu Lin leads more than a hundred cavalrymen from the rear to escort him... Nearly two hundred cavalrymen are galloping from the north, which has its own momentum, not to mention the flag of the commander-in-chief fluttering in the summer breeze, which matches General Qu's recent complacent state, and is truly majestic and spectacular.
However, no matter how spectacular it is, the basic laws must be followed. Before Qu Duan arrived at the floating bridge, he saw Wu Jie leading a hundred cavalrymen to dismount and wait respectfully on the other side of the river. He smiled triumphantly, then dismounted, led the Iron Elephant and led the way.
The rest of the guards knights also dismounted and carefully went up the bridge one by one.
When Qu Duan crossed the floating bridge, he came to the roadside, got on his horse, and prepared to continue. However, Wu Jie was extremely respectful today. He stepped forward and led Qu Duan's horse as the second most powerful general in Jingyuan Road. He also stopped the others from following him. He stopped under the shade of a tree a few dozen steps away so that the two of them could talk privately.
Qu Duan was calm and composed throughout the whole process, and did not dismount when he came under the shade of the tree. Instead, he still looked down at the iron elephant and asked:
"Da Wu, you said that Yuwen Xianggong sent an envoy again, and was beaten by Xue Feng? And was he thrown into jail?"
"Yes!" Wu Jie glanced at the other side of the river, raised his head, and looked at the other person calmly and seriously.
"How did you deal with it?" Qu Duan frowned.
"I was in Luojiao City at the time. I received a letter from Magistrate Huang in the city, so I came here to capture Xue Feng and prepare to rescue the envoy of Yuwen Xianggong. But for some reason, the envoy just said that it was you, the commander-in-chief, who deliberately let Xue Feng beat him to death and let me be a good person. But he stayed in prison and refused to come out..."
Hearing this, Qu Duan frowned even more, but he was not angry at all. Instead, he sneered: "If I were to set up a plan to beat him up, why not use an old man from Jingyuan Road, but an old subordinate of Wang Xie?"
Wu Jie also sighed: "That's the truth. Others may not know, but I know that it must be Xue Feng's fault and has nothing to do with the commander-in-chief. But for some reason, the envoy was sure that it was arranged by you, the commander-in-chief. Not only that, County Magistrate Huang was also put in jail after chatting with the envoy in private... and told me directly that unless you, the commander-in-chief, come here in person, he will never come out. And I think, what exactly is going on with Yuwen Xianggong..."
"No need to say more." Qu Duan finally lost his patience and waved his hand. "It's these high-ranking officials in the court who are so self-righteous and repeatedly ruin the overall situation on the front line. I thought that Yuwen Xianggong was a proper person who would just sit in Chang'an and give me power. Who would have thought that he would make such a fuss... Besides, you sent the message so urgently, so I came here as soon as possible, right?"
Wu Jie looked at the knights who dismounted from their horses and crossed the river at the floating bridge, then remounted. He nodded repeatedly and continued calmly, "That's exactly the reason. No matter what, the commander-in-chief should explain the matter of Wang Jinglüe to the angel. Otherwise, wouldn't the twenty or so generals on Jingyuan Road be implicated by the commander-in-chief and then regarded as traitors by the court? Wu was born in a good family. He worked hard for seventeen years, but he never thought of rebelling."
Qu Duan, who was riding on the iron elephant, was slightly stunned, and then his face suddenly changed. Just as he was about to speak, he followed the other party's gaze and suddenly looked towards the bridge entrance.
It was only at this time that Qu Duan noticed that Wu Lin, who was supposed to turn back directly to the other side of the river, had followed him at some point. Not only that, when he was talking with Wu Jie just now, Wu Lin's guards and his own guards were mixed together crossing the river. At this moment, half of the guards, about a hundred people, had just crossed the river, and they were half Wu Lin's troops and half his own guards.
In other words, there were only a few dozen of Qu Duan's personal guards on this side of the river, but they were surrounded by the Wu brothers' guards, which were more than three times their number.
"Don't cross the other side again!"
At this time, Wu Lin at the bridgehead also jumped on his horse and raised his voice to the bridge: "The commander-in-chief is a general from the outer garrison. He is going to the city to meet the envoy from the government. According to the rules, he cannot bring too many guards... There are enough people. The rest of you should wait on the other side of the river. I will bring you food later."
Complaints arose from the other side of the river, with some even questioning why Wu Jie had to go through all this empty formalities when he clearly had his troops stationed in the city?
However, several guard officers who were familiar with Wu Lin soon came to the rescue, asking if the imperial envoys had any rewards, would they share them equally? Would there be wine and meat later? And so on.
As soon as these words were spoken, the people on the other side burst into laughter, and no one paid any attention to the previous complaints.
Qu Duan turned around and looked at him coldly: "Da Wu, what are you brothers doing?"
"It's not that we want to do anything, but the angel is very clever. He used your suggestion to kill Wang Jinglie to say that you want to rebel, and then he took the opportunity to blame me." Wu Jie answered frankly. "I was forced into a corner, and I don't want to be wronged, so I can only use this method to ask the governor to meet the angel in person!"
"You idiot angel!" Qu Duan came back to his senses and sneered. "Nine out of ten, Yuwen Xu got a few eunuchs from Tokyo and used them to take over the top. You have been in the army for 17 or 18 years, and you have become the commander of the army. You are the first general under my command. How could I control you like this?"
"They are not some eunuchs, but the Chief Censor and the Deputy Chief Military Officer of the Privy Council." Wu Jie continued calmly. "These two were the emperor's confidants who fled from Nanyang City at the beginning of the year and went to Yanling to fight the battle... These two are the emperor's original intention!"
"Just because I was beaten by Xue Feng, they said I wanted to rebel?" Qu Duan was stunned when he heard the previous identity introduction, but then he became resentful.
"General, there is no point in saying more now. Why don't you go to the city to meet with the Chief Censor and explain things face to face?" Wu Jie also became impatient.
Qu Duan was stunned and said nothing.
"The commander-in-chief doesn't think that I, Wu Jie, want to harm you, right?" Wu Jie was getting more and more impatient. "If so, you can just go to the floating bridge and order a fight... But if you do that, I'm afraid everyone in the world will know that you want to rebel."
"I am no match for despicable people like you brothers!" Qu Duan finally sneered, but rode his horse towards Zhiluo City.
Wu Jie's face was grim. He also turned around and mounted his horse, then galloped after the knights on the north side of the bridge.
After walking two or three miles, they arrived in front of the city, but saw Qu Duan riding a fast horse and arriving at the city gate early. However, he did not enter the city, as if he was on guard and wanted to wait for the dozens of guards who followed him before entering.
However, when they arrived in front of the city, before Qu Duan could speak, Wu Jie simply turned around and shouted: "Half of the people who came with the commander-in-chief will stay, and only the other half can enter!"
Qu Duan was furious, and turned around on his horse and pointed at him with his whip: "Wu Jie, do you really want to rebel against me?"
At this point, Wu Jie was too lazy to pretend to be nice to him, so he simply raised his head and whipped his horsewhip to confront him: "General Qu, the Censor-in-Chief is here with the emperor's order. You are the Prime Minister, if you don't obey my orders, do you really want to rebel against the Song Dynasty?!"
The guards around had already been stunned, but the two sides were one family, and when they looked at each other, they were all panicked.
Qu Duan was furious, but there was nothing he could do. He just sneered and urged the iron elephant under his hip to rush into the city. The remaining guards looked at each other, and they found that half of them were left behind under Wu Lin's pressure, and only about twenty riders followed into the city.
However, that was not all. After entering the city, Qu Dutong had only taken a hundred steps when he was intercepted by an armed group at the first street intersection.
Qu Duan turned around and saw Wu Jie leading a hundred cavalrymen. He was completely furious: "Great Wu! You are not going to rebel against me today, you are going to kill me, right? I, Qu Duan, have been in Guanxi for twenty years, but I am going to be killed by my subordinates in the army?"
"Does the commander-in-chief also know that subordinates should not threaten their superiors?!" Wu Jie reined in his horse and approached him, still fearless. "Qu Da! Think carefully, what I am doing to you today is no different from what you did to Wang Jinglue in the camp of Diaoyin Mountain? Didn't he come to see you, his subordinate, just like that, but half of the guards were gone after passing through a checkpoint... If you, Qu Da, didn't have the intention to kill your superiors and rebel, how could I, Da Wu, have such an intention? What I did today was just to make you sober up!"
Qu Duan was stunned and speechless, then he rode his horse silently through the street checkpoint.
And then, just as Wu Jie said, Qu Duan suffered the same fate as Wang Shu did in his camp that day... At every street corner and gate, half of the guards were left behind, and when they arrived at the gate of the county prison, only one was left.
Seeing that the only guard on horseback was also forcibly stopped by Wu Jie's soldiers, Qu Da dismounted and continued to move forward. But as soon as he stepped into the prison, he suddenly felt cold all over and could no longer suppress it. Then he stopped and looked up at the sky, sighing.
"Now that we've come this far, what do you want to do?" Wu Jie followed behind him, looking at him coldly.
"I feel sorry for Tiexiang. This horse can travel 400 miles a day. It is the best horse in Guanxi." Qu Duan looked up to the sky. "I will give it to you in the future. It won't be a disgrace to him."
This time it was Wu Jie's turn to be furious: "Qu Da! No one wants to kill you! We just asked you to defend yourself! If the Chief Censor wants to kill you without any evidence, I will let you go even if it costs me my life!"
Qu Duan shook his head slightly, without making any excuses, but finally stepped proudly into the prison.
