Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 319 Humiliation
"General Zhu Tingfang of Mingwei has been ordered to investigate the affairs of Cangzhou!"
In one day, this sentence was repeated everywhere in the streets of Cangzhou. And the chaos at the gate of the Cangzhou Palace, because there were many people present at the time, spread all over the city. What Xu Xianzun offered a generous reward and ordered people to attack the palace, what about the eldest prince who came out to stop the attack but was mistaken for a fake... Anyway, there were all kinds of arguments, but the most mainstream one was only one.
That General Mingwei was really amazing! He shot down the leader of the rebels who occupied the palace with one arrow - although according to the eldest prince, whether Xian Yunhe was a rebel was still debatable - and shot off the hat of the honorable official of Xu County who came forward to speak with great joy, frightening him so much that he wet his pants; the last arrow pierced directly in front of the eldest prince who rushed out, frightening him so much that he sat on the ground.
As soon as Zhu Tingfang arrived, he used three arrows to make the entire Cangzhou, from top to bottom, realize his fierce means and firm determination.
However, few people knew that the seemingly majestic General Mingwei actually only brought those twelve people. Even if Zhu Er's guards who were outside and could not follow him to the palace were included, there were only more than twenty people in total, all from the Zhu family of the Zhaoguo Mansion. As for the soldiers and horses of the Ruiqi Battalion he wanted, they were left far behind by his group who rode two horses day and night.
At this moment, Zhu Tingfang ignored the officials, gentry and merchants who wrote letters asking for a meeting, nor did he pay attention to the comments of outsiders. He even left behind Zhu Er, who was trying to please him. After asking about some inside information, he led his men into an underground stone chamber in the palace that was used for wartime concealment.
The moment the lock was opened, he saw a figure suddenly rushing out. Before the generals on both sides could rush forward to intercept him, he kicked the man back. The next moment, he heard a series of screams of pain. He raised his hand to signal the people around him not to panic, and said in a cold voice: "General Zhu Tingfang of Mingwei has been ordered to investigate the Cangzhou incident with full authority!"
As soon as he had ordered people to shout this sentence throughout the city, the stone chamber suddenly fell silent. Then, although someone groaned in pain, a deep voice was heard: "Is it the eldest son of the Duke of Zhao?"
"That's right." Zhu Tingfang took the lead, head held high and walked straight in, and people on both sides hurriedly came forward with torches to protect him. As he walked down the steps, the light of the torches illuminated the road ahead, and most people saw the unbearable scene inside. Especially Zhu Er, who was the last one to fall behind, he stuck his head out to take a look, and then immediately dragged Xiao Huasheng next to him and walked back.
When he got back to the ground, he saw the eye-catching scene and asked in disbelief: "Are you so bold that you dare to humiliate these guards and the Sharp Cavalry Battalion like this? Are you going to fight to the death? Did Xian Yunhe's head get caught in the door?"
The old man who was following him also had a gloomy face. Hearing that Xian Yunhe and his men had captured the royal guards and the soldiers of the Ruiqi Battalion, he felt that something was wrong. Moreover, even if they captured them, there were so many people to be watched, and if things went wrong, there might even be riots. However, Xian Yunhe and the others ignored it, as if they were not worried about it at all.
It was not until he saw the scene just now that he realized what a sinister method the man had used!
All of them were stripped of their clothes, shoes and socks and thrown naked into this stone chamber. At the entrance were two stone doors with heavy locks. When they came in just now, dozens of people were mobilized to move a dozen stone pillars that were blocking the door.
Not only that, Peanut just explained hesitantly that, like the eldest prince, no one had brought him food in the past few days. They just threw a dozen or twenty steamed buns into the stone room through the ventilation gap. There were too many monks and too little porridge. It was obvious that there was not enough food!
At this moment, Xiao Huasheng thought of Xian Yunhe, whose right hand was injured and who was captured by Zhu Tingfang. He immediately glared at Zhu Er with anger and resentment. It was not until Lao Xianyu patted his shoulders twice that he said with a suppressed voice, "Even if we tie them up, they will help each other to untie the ropes. Besides, Uncle Yunhe will need their clothes! What's wrong with being naked? Many women in the silkworm house are naked!"
Zhu Er was stunned for a moment. After a moment of silence, Lao Xianyu said calmly, "You young men from wealthy families don't know what life is like for the poorest people. A family shares one pair of pants. Whoever goes out wears it. Women work in the fields just like men, and they work topless even in the hottest weather. A family of three men marries one wife. No one cares about the so-called humiliation."
Although Lao Xianyu's voice was flat, Zhu Er felt his scalp tingling when he heard it.
In his eyes, the beggars fighting for food were already the poorest people in the world, but he didn't expect that there were even more outrageous people... After a long while, he heard Lao Xianyu speak again.
"When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they know honor and disgrace. Most of you who have read books have only read Guanzi's words, but how can you know the real situation of the people? Being stripped naked is a humiliation, and you want to die? Haha, if that's the case, I don't know how many poor people have experienced this, and the number of people who want to die can probably fill up several rivers!"
Zhu Tingfang, who just came out, heard these words and looked at his "runaway" second brother. He couldn't help but squeeze his hands together, and his knuckles made a crackling sound. Seeing Zhu Er turning around and hiding behind Old Salted Fish and Little Peanut, he just laughed, but there was no joy in his laughter.
"They failed to protect their master, the prince was captured, their clothes and weapons were stolen... Each of these is a serious crime. No matter what the backgrounds of these guards and the officers and soldiers of the Sharp Cavalry Battalion are, or what achievements they have made, they are all bound to be punished. Because regardless of any conspiracy, compromise or trade-offs, they have all made the biggest mistake."
Zhu Tingfang glanced at the people in front of him, who had different identities, and said word by word: "Thinking back then, Queen Han was held hostage and threatened Taizu to withdraw his troops, but Taizu only did one thing. He agreed openly and secretly selected 800 elite soldiers to personally raid and rescue Queen Han in one fell swoop. Afterwards, Taizu only said one sentence, if such a thing happens again, take this as an example!"
"If you give in to the bandits because you are concerned about the hostages, there will be no peace!"
Zhu Tingfang's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, and many of the guards and soldiers in the stone chamber behind him, who were either hopeless, gritting their teeth, furious, or listless, heard it. Duan Yonghui, the commander of the left battalion of the Ruiqi Battalion, who had just been kicked hard by Zhu Tingfang, could not help but punch the wall next to him.
How could he have thought that the eldest prince, a son of a noble family, would be held hostage ; how could he have thought that the eldest prince would be so stupid as to trick them into coming here, giving the rebels a chance to drug them; how could he have thought that the rebels would be so shameless as to strip them of their clothes and weapons! He was not one of those guards who laid down their weapons when they knew that the eldest prince was held hostage!
After saying this, Zhu Tingfang instructed a guard beside him, "Go collect all the clothes and return them to them. As for the sizes that are not right, let them adjust them themselves! If you want to atone for your sins, then cheer up and wash away the shame with practical actions! Think about what caused things to develop to this point.
He paused as he spoke, then said calmly, "Two hundred people from the Left Battalion of the Ruiqi Battalion will arrive in Cangzhou soon, led by the Commander of the Left Battalion, Du Heng."
In the stone chamber, Duan Yonghui, who was struggling to get up, felt his scalp tingling. It was not just him, but many people felt the same way. Even those guards who were not from the Sharp Cavalry Battalion were terrified because of the embarrassing situation they had just encountered.
The Ruiqi Battalion and the Linhai Battalion exchanged commanders. This was a decision made by the emperor before the end of last year on his own initiative, against all odds. Of course, with the support of the two cabinet elders, Wu and Zhang Yu, who were ranked lower on the list, and with the support of the first assistant, Jiang, who was also restrained by the second assistant, Kong, the whole thing was finally passed without any disturbance.
However, when Du Heng, the commander of the Linhai Camp, entered the left camp of the Ruiqi Camp as the commander, everyone in the Ruiqi Camp was dissatisfied with him. It was not easy for him to get away with being involved in the rebellion of the Linhai Camp! However, Du Heng used clever tactics to divide and win over others, and he did not know who had the connection to transfer two old subordinates. He used various tactics, and finally scared the troublemakers.
They finally followed the eldest prince out of the capital and avoided the commander, but they didn't expect to run into him again! And this time they were still under suspicion, no matter how coldly they were treated or how they were punished, they had no way to judge! At this point, if they didn't keep up with Zhu Tingfang, the eldest son of the Duke of Zhao, then they were doomed!
After a few words that stirred people's hearts, Zhu Tingfang beckoned Zhu Er to come over. When he brought Zhu Er to a courtyard and stepped into the three spacious study rooms in the center, he glanced around at the neatly arranged books and finally turned around to look at Zhu Er. However, he only took two steps after entering the door, as if he was ready to escape at any time.
"If I give the order , everyone outside will stop you. Do you think you can escape?"
Zhu Er was speechless after hearing what Zhu Tingfang said. He had to take a few steps forward, but he refused to get within five steps of Zhu Tingfang. He knew how powerful his brother's small grappling skills were. Even if the possibility was small, he hoped to escape a beating. Just as he was thinking this, he heard something unexpected.
"You came at the right time this time, and what you did was remarkable. Especially inciting the group of people including the eldest prince and Changlu County Magistrate Xu Cheng to regard each other as enemies, this move was the finishing touch."
Seeing Zhu Er grinning so hard that his mouth was almost stretched to his ears, Zhu Tingfang said nonchalantly, "However, you didn't expect Xu Cheng to be unwilling to sit there and wait for death, and actually planned to fight to the bitter end; you also didn't expect that the rebel leader would dare to strip the clothes and weapons of the Ruiqi Battalion and equip his own people, and dare to break out of the palace, and almost killed Xu Cheng. In this regard, you are still far from it."
Although his elder brother said he was still far from achieving his goal, Zhu Er was still overjoyed.
In the past, he was either ignored or neglected, and he was content if he did something that his elder brother praised. However, the next moment, he didn't know why, but blurted out a sentence without thinking.
"Brother, Xian Yunhe is not the leader of the rebels. The eldest prince has already said that they were only forced to go to the palace to plead their case to him. They were regarded as rebels because of what Xu Cheng and his people said..."
"Some people outside may believe it, but Xu Cheng doesn't believe it, and neither do the gentry and merchants. Do you think the eldest prince will go back on his word? What? Do you want to speak up for a group of traitors?"
"I didn't!" Zhu Er subconsciously refuted, but then he made up his mind and said, "I just think that they were also forced to do so. Can't they surrender?"
"Recruit them? Are they pirates who scare people, bandits who wreak havoc on the region, or barbarians? Do you think anyone can be offered amnesty? Put away your unnecessary sympathy. Even the eldest prince can't protect himself, let alone the others? At least only the main culprit should be questioned, and the rest should be pardoned."
"But big brother, if you kill Xian Yunhe, those hundreds of people will definitely fight to the death!" Zhu Er suddenly became anxious, "Old Xianyu suppressed those people before, otherwise, big brother, you are leading these people in our family now, what if they defect..."
Zhu Tingfang smiled immediately. It was rare that his second brother, who was always careless, could think seriously about something. Even if he thought superficially, it didn't matter. It was better to use his brain than not to use it.
"Don't worry, I'm not that stupid. Besides, we're only questioning the main culprit, not just executing him." Seeing Zhu Er let out a long sigh, Zhu Tingfang further asked Zhu Er about the situations he knew. When he learned that Xian Yunhe had beaten the eldest prince, he was slightly startled, and then sighed: "Seeing that this man dared to wield a knife against Xu Cheng, I thought he was bold, but I didn't expect that I still underestimated him."
"Brother, I just met Xian Yunhe today. I didn't do this to plead for him, but..." Zhu Er hesitated for a moment, then said with a drooling face, "His uncle Lao Xianyu was being hunted down because of him, and I happened to be there too. This guy has some secrets , and they happen to be related to the matter that my brother-in-law asked me to investigate, so I hope to give Xian Yunhe a lighter sentence."
"It's probably inevitable, so don't expect too much." Zhu Tingfang sneered, and then said calmly, "As for what you said Zhang Shou asked you to do... Hehe, he recommended me to clean up this mess, but I also suggested that the emperor let him come and see for himself the mess he made. He is in the back, with Du Heng from the Ruiqi Battalion. In addition..."
Seeing Zhu Er's stunned face, he smiled and said, "Yingying has the indulgence of her grandmother and mother. Even if Dad is furious, she will probably follow him secretly. Instead of begging me, you might as well go back and do something to them."
"Both of them are coming?" Zhu Er confirmed again. Seeing his elder brother nodded slightly, he couldn't help but pat his forehead, and then he was actually happy. "Yingying is making her way around the palace, and my brother-in-law is even more so. It's good that they are coming! Brother, let's not talk about them first. You must make the decision for me. I was forced to jump into the sea to survive by Xu Cheng and those profiteers!"
While Zhu Er was talking incoherently, Zhang Shou was also suffering from the pain of his thighs being rubbed by the horse. He pushed Zhu Tingfang into the water, but he didn't expect that his future brother-in-law would directly pull him into the water after meeting the emperor. The emperor pushed him out on the grounds that another teacher was sent to the Banshan Hall branch, and Lu Sanlang was a substitute teacher at Jiuzhang Hall, so he naturally had to go on this trip.
When he stopped to rest, he was drinking water from his kettle when he saw Du Heng coming towards him from the corner of his eye. He was not familiar with the man and was suspicious, but he saw Du Heng smiled and suddenly a cold light came towards him from his hand.
