Volume 3 Chapter 9: I am ashamed to visit someone (Part 2)
Hu Zhongcheng, who was severely beaten by the society just after leaving Emperor Zhao's house, had not yet suffered an end to his misfortune, but he was not killed to silence him as Wanqi Canjun had worried - they were first robbed and then thrown directly into the Zhiluo City Prison, where they lived in darkness.
But surprisingly, Hu Mingzhong, who came with a mindset of getting things done, was not discouraged by this blow. In other words, after just a moment, he cheered up and comforted the people around him in prison. He also took the initiative to discuss the situation with Wan Qixie, who obviously had more social experience, to study how to get out of the predicament.
This demeanor really shocked Wanqi Xie's heart, and his impression of this young Chief Censor changed greatly. He even raised this man to the level of Half-Bachelor Xiaolin - you have to know that their lives are really in danger now.
In fact, to be fair, although the Song Dynasty had the problem of emphasizing civil over military, the imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty was not as rigid as the eight-legged essay selection system of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It had been constantly reformed (six major debates before and after) in order to select the best talents as much as possible.
Overall, it did achieve this. During the Song Dynasty, the overall quality of the outstanding civil servants was always beyond reproach.
Of course, a fundamental reason for this is that Confucianism was still vibrant at that time, and various doctrines were flourishing, and had not yet entered the irreversible dead end that it later reached.
Back to the present, Hu Yin and Wan Qi Xie were able to endure the pain and calm down to think and discuss, but they quickly came to a conclusion after just one meal:
That is, either Qu Duan had found out their itinerary in advance and deliberately used this method to intimidate them. If so, as long as we can keep fighting with them in a battle of wits and courage, our lives are not in real danger. Or that Xue Tongzhi is indeed a military leader who has been spoiled by the chaotic times. If so, there is danger, but as long as we are patient, someone will come to rescue us soon, and we can take advantage of this opportunity to start from there.
As for the reason for such judgment, it was actually very simple... Although they were trapped in the prison, the floor was dirty, and lice and rats were running around, but surprisingly, the prison meal delivered to Hu Yin was particularly clean.
What does this mean?
This means that there is definitely someone watching in the city.
And sure enough, they had only eaten four or five meals in prison, and they didn't know whether it was morning or afternoon outside, when suddenly, countless soldiers surrounded the three of them and rushed into the prison.
One of them was obviously a civil official. He came directly to the prison door, bowed before opening the door, and called himself "your humble official". He was actually the Magistrate Huang in Zhiluo City. The remaining two generals in uniform turned pale. The shorter and fatter officer even took two steps forward after opening the prison door and smelling the foul smell in the prison, and knelt down to apologize to Hu Yin.
Wanqi Xie had sharp eyes and recognized that this person was the person close to Xue Tongzhi... In this way, it was clear who had protected them before.
However, just as the county magistrate stepped further into the stinking prison and prepared to personally help Hu Mingzhong up, the Song Dynasty Censor-in-Chief refused the county magistrate's support, and then stood up on his own initiative. He only looked at Wanqi Xie, then proudly put his hands behind his back and asked directly:
"Who is General Qu's subordinate?"
"Wu Yilang, the military commander of Jingyuan Road, and the commander of Huaide Army, Wu Jie, greets the Zhongcheng!"
Upon hearing this, the burly, sallow-faced general standing outside the prison hurried forward and tried to enter the prison. However, because the prison was too small and two newcomers had squeezed in, he had no choice but to stop outside the prison door, bow, and report his official position and name.
"Is Qu Duan going to rebel and send you to kill me?" Hu Mingzhong, who was emitting a foul smell, still stood with his hands behind his back. "General Wu, I am a minister of the court. I can be killed but not humiliated... Please point to the southeast for me, so that I can die facing Tokyo."
Wu Jie and the other two were all stunned where they were… They felt that they understood every word said by the high official from Tokyo, but together they understood each word as ridiculous as the heavenly book of Emperor Zhenzong. It was not that they did not recognize it, but that they did not dare to understand it.
"That's what I mean."
Seeing that no one spoke, Wanqi Xie also stood up. "Emperor Taizong said, 'Be filial and loving at home, and be loyal when you are rich.' Although I, Wanqi, have been in poverty for half my life, I have been valued by the government and have been appointed to the Privy Council. Now I am an angel. How can I lose my integrity? Kill me now. From the Minister of Justice to the lower level, none of us will be accomplices to the evil!"
After hearing this, Wu Jie still didn't dare to say anything... He had already understood those words at this time, but still didn't dare to say a word, so he had to look to the magistrate for help.
The magistrate was also sweating profusely. He was the only one who could speak here, so he hesitated for a long time before finally explaining:
"The Zhongcheng may have some misunderstandings... That bandit Xue was originally a rogue bandit recruited by Wang Xie when he was in Hedong. He used to be a dog skin dealer and had no rules. After the defeat, Wang Xie ran away quickly and left most of his troops behind. He had no choice but to follow Wang Shu, Wang Jinglüe, and Qu Dutong here... And the day before yesterday, he did such a ridiculous and rebellious thing without knowing right from wrong and without checking. Because he had soldiers in his hands, we did not dare to persuade him, for fear that the lives of Zhongcheng and others would be implicated. Fortunately, there is a commander Han who knows what to do. I asked Commander Han to stabilize the bandit Xue and protect Zhongcheng, and then sent an urgent letter to Luojiao City on the other side of the river to ask for help from Wu Dujian... That's why today's incident happened."
Hu Yin just imitated Emperor Zhao's behavior when he heard it. His face was expressionless, but his words were fierce and fierce: "Why did the county magistrate lie to me? From Chang'an to Tokyo, everyone knows that Qu Duan wants to rebel, and no one can stop him. Wanqi Canjun and I came here to cede Huanqing Road and Fuzhou to him, so that he would not follow the example of Liu Yu in Jinan and claim to be a false emperor. Then we can see if we can rescue Wang Shu and Wang Jinglüe who were detained by him..."
When Magistrate Huang heard half of it, he was completely terrified and directly grabbed Hu Yin's sleeve and said, "Zhongcheng! Don't joke!"
"Who is kidding you?!" Wanqi Xie also responded with a frown. "Everyone knows that Qu Duan wants to rebel. He refused to go to war at first, and then detained the governor after the war and annexed troops from various places. Later, when Liu Yu proclaimed himself emperor, he used the situation in northern Shaanxi to force Yuwen Xianggong to kill Wang Jinglüe... His rebellious intentions are obvious and everyone knows it. How come you don't know about it?"
The magistrate became more and more frightened, but he looked at Wu Jie outside the prison door.
Wu Jie was stunned for a moment, and instinctively wanted to defend Shangguan, whom he had followed for many years, but for some reason, when he opened his mouth, he was speechless.
Not only that, Wanqi Xie's words actually directly matched the incident that happened recently, when Yuwen Shuxiang's special envoy suddenly left the front line in a panic one day after Qu Duan detained Wang Jinglüe, and also directly matched an incident that happened recently... Did Qu Da really want to kill the Jinglüe envoy? !
"Speak up, Eunuch Wu?!" The magistrate stared outside the prison with wide eyes, almost begging.
Wu Jie was in a daze, but he could only bite the bullet and answer: "I really don't know about the matter between Wang Jinglie and Qu Dutong, but before I received the news from here yesterday, I knew one thing. It was said that at the Diaoyin Mountain camp, Qu Dutong asked Wang Jinglie to leave his seal and then asked him to leave... But who is Liu Yu? I just came from Ningzhou Xiangle less than ten days ago, and I really don't know the story on the front line, what front-line generals..."
The more Wu Jie spoke, the lower his voice became. After he gradually stopped, the cell fell silent. Finally, it was Magistrate Huang who broke the silence. He staggered and almost fell, but the young Hu Yin rushed to support him.
As for the kneeling Commander Han, he was unable to hold on any longer and his body visibly swayed on the ground.
"Wu Dujian, if you really don't know, I'll tell you." In the narrow and cramped prison cell full of sweat and stench, Wanqi Xie stood behind the bars with his hands behind his back, looking coldly at him. "After the battle of Yan'an, your Qu Dutong took advantage of the situation to detain the military governor Wang Shu and annex troops from various places. Not only that, he also reported to the staff sent by Yuwen Xianggong a few days ago, asking Yuwen Xianggong to kill the military governor Wang Shu in the army for the crime of defeating the army... The court has never heard of a precedent of a general killing a military governor, but thought that Qu Dutong's intention to rebel was already clear, so he sent the two of us here, just to ask for the return of Wang Shu, but we didn't expect that as soon as we arrived here, we were beaten to death by your Qu Dutong, and then forced to die."
"Zhongcheng, the military chaos on the front line, I really didn't know about it, this matter has absolutely nothing to do with me!" Before Wu Jie could speak, County Magistrate Huang pulled Hu Yin's shirt and cried in his arms. "I failed the exam many times, but I relied on Master Cai's reform of the imperial examination and worked hard as a student for several years to get a proper official position. I worked diligently for several years, how could I have thought of helping the rebellion?"
"It has nothing to do with me." Wu Jie was about to say something else when Commander Han on the ground finally spoke up to defend himself. "What the Xue thief did was the killing stick ordered by Qu Duan, and they were just colluding with each other... It has nothing to do with me. I hope the Minister will make a fair judgment, and I also hope that County Magistrate Huang can testify for me."
Wu Jie finally got the chance to speak, but he couldn't help but feel dazed. After a long while, he carefully bowed and said, "I just received an urgent letter from County Magistrate Huang and came to rescue him... If the Minister doesn't believe me, I will kill the villain Xue Feng now and bring his head to prove my innocence."
"Poor General Xue, he thought he was doing a good job in showing loyalty by helping others to fight a fierce battle, but instead he brought disaster upon himself." Wanqi Xie sneered even more.
"Forget it, I am the fish on the chopping board." Hu Yin finally spoke again, but he let go of the county magistrate and faced the prison through the prison door. "This Wu Dujian, please tell Qu Dutong that since Wang Jinglie has left, my trip is useless... So, if he is really sincere, please don't humiliate me, just give me Wang Jinglie's seal and let us go."
Wu Jie's scalp tingled. He stood there, not knowing whether to advance or retreat. Magistrate Huang and Commander Han were both there, and no one could hide the fact that he was Qu Duan's trusted general, a man who had risen in status by following Qu Duan for many years...but he couldn't even make an excuse.
After standing there for half a day, Wu Jie could only walk away nodding his head. However, after walking a few steps, he finally came to his senses and turned back to salute carefully: "In any case, please leave the cell for a while, wash up, eat, change back into your official robes, and rest in the county..."
Hu Yin shook his head repeatedly: "The current situation is unclear. If I leave this cell and enjoy these, I'm afraid I won't be able to explain it when I return to Tokyo in the future..."
"What can't be explained clearly?" Poor Wu Jie, who was famous in the Western Army for his bravery and aggressiveness, was now as cautious and fearful as a frightened rabbit.
"What could it be?" Wan Qi Xie sat back on the dirty floor of the cell and laughed at him. "It's easy to go out and enjoy the days, but if someone points to this in the future and says that we have bowed to the rebellion and lost the dignity of the court, we will have no way to defend ourselves... So, Wu Dujian will leave. As for us, we will not dare to leave this cell until we have settled this matter with Qu Dutong."
"I won't go out either." County Magistrate Huang thought for a moment, wiped his tears, and then sat down.
As for Commander Han, he could just turn over and save trouble.
Wu Jie stood alone outside the cell, looking at the packed cell. For some reason, he suddenly wanted to go in.
