Chapter 152 Nightingale (700 words added) My codename is Night...

Competitions in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting were held in Shengzhou.

Although Governor Mo Jingchun was busy, the four departments of the State Council, the Propaganda Department, the Education Department, and the Work Department worked together to ensure that the competition proceeded smoothly from the preliminary rounds to the semi-finals and then to the finals.

"Isn't the competition supposed to be about playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting? Why is the Ministry of Works involved?"

A patrolman from the city guard asked his senior with curiosity.

The elder laughed, "Where does the zither come from? Don't we need to make chess pieces, chess jars, and chessboards? Don't we need to produce brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones for writing and painting?"

The patrolman who asked the question: "..."

He scratched the back of his head. "If that's the case, then every competition is inseparable from the Ministry of Works. Dancing also requires a dance skirt and dance shoes."

Just as the senior officer was about to say something, they saw a boy of about thirteen or fourteen running towards them, shouting as he ran, "Uncle, police officer uncle, there's a fight going on over there!"

The two men's expressions immediately changed. They drew their knives and approached the boy. "Where are you?"

"Lead the way for us?"

As the boy led the way, he explained the situation to them: "It's in the restaurant up ahead. I was playing on the street when I saw someone get kicked out of the restaurant."

"Were we kicked out?" The two city guards looked at each other in bewilderment.

The boy said, "Then they started fighting and knocked over all the stalls of the vendors next door, so I came to find you right away."

"Well done, kid. Let's go now."

When the two guards arrived at the restaurant, the fighting had already stopped.

A young man dressed in obviously more expensive clothes was being pinned to the ground by a taller man. The young man was furious and shouting insults.

The tall man sneered, "Want another punch?"

Criminal investigation department.

"A fight in the street?" Judge Ni Changkong, who had just finished hearing a robbery case, asked while rubbing his temples. "What was it about?"

Behind him, clerk Qi Xiaoman was organizing documents.

The patrolman replied, "Because one of them was harassing women in the restaurant, the other couldn't stand it and started a fight."

Ni Changkong lowered his hand from the Taiyangxue point.

Qi Xiaoman raised her head.

The person who was beaten was a talented young man who had come to Shengzhou from out of town to participate in a competition.

He and his companions strolled around the South and West markets of the prefecture and found that Shengzhou had everything except brothels and places where courtesans played music and sang.

The man was quite depressed, so he went to a restaurant to drink. After drinking too much, he went crazy and grabbed a young woman who was having dinner with her best friend, insisting that she drink with him.

The woman was startled. As she struggled, a strong man stepped in to help, separated the two of them, and then kicked the scholar out of the restaurant.

The two started fighting.

Qi Xiaoman was furious after hearing this, "What the hell is going on? He comes to our Shengzhou and dares to harass women! This kind of scoundrel with such terrible character should not be allowed to participate in the competition!"

Ni Changkong glanced at her and said, "Xiaoman, where is your professionalism?"

Qi Xiaoman: "..." She coughed and straightened her tone, "How are they? Are they injured?"

Fortunately, although the talented man was injured, his injuries were not serious, and the strong man had acted with restraint.

The burly man himself suffered minor superficial injuries.

Ni Changkong said, "It's good that they weren't seriously injured. Call them over and transfer them."

The patrolman said, "The woman who was harassed has also arrived."

She was also involved, so her presence was timely. Ni Changkong nodded, "Bring her in as well."

The talented man was initially arrogant because he felt he was the victim.

However, Ni Changkong, a criminal judge with rich experience in handling cases, directly invoked the "Yun Guo Law," bringing up "indecent assault against women" and "legitimate self-defense," and pointed out the talent's mistakes with righteous indignation, making the talent even more vulnerable.

The talented man reluctantly agreed to the mediation, and the strong man paid his medical expenses.

Qi Xiaoman didn't show it on her face, but she had indeed decided in her heart that she must go to the competition organizers to complain about this talented man.

He came all the way to Shengzhou, hoping to find a brothel! And when he couldn't find one, he started acting drunk and harassing passersby! How can such a rude person be allowed to win an award!

The talented man's companions were very surprised when they learned of this.

"You mean, all those brothels in Shengzhou have been shut down?"

The scholar nodded helplessly, "The first thing the new administrative office did after it was established was to shut down all the brothels, punish the madams and prostitutes, and recruit the prostitutes into the workshops."

One of the laws of Yun Kingdom is that it is strictly forbidden to force women to engage in prostitution and to open brothels; violators will be severely punished.

"No, why would Shengzhou do such a thing?"

"Throughout history, although officials were prohibited from patronizing prostitutes, they were not forbidden from engaging in this business." After all, it was quite profitable.

The scholar said, "Perhaps it's because He Qinglan is a woman."

He rubbed his swollen lips. Was it really necessary? There wasn't even a place to listen to music.

If it weren't for the fact that Shengzhou had banned brothels, I wouldn't have gotten drunk and made such a fuss.

The talented young man, who didn't think he had made a mistake, was unaware that he had already been reported to the competition organizers.

The person in charge of □□ informed the heads of other departments about the matter.

“Talented but lacking in virtue, if he wins an award, I will have no face to promote him publicly.” Although the head of the publicity department is a man, he has several young girls in his family, so he particularly hates men who bully women.

The head of the department laughed, "Then delete him. I don't want someone like him to win an award either."

The head of the publicity department said, "This is a good opportunity to promote the fact that prostitution is strictly prohibited in Shengzhou."

Qi Xiaoman was quite happy to hear the news, "Now that we've come to Shengzhou, we must abide by the rules of Shengzhou!"

Ni Changkong said, "To truly have a deterrent effect, we need to handle a few major cases and then drag all the criminals out and behead them."

Qi Xiaoman: "..." Brother Ni, you've gone too far. Threatening with beheadings at the drop of a hat, no wonder people say the people in our criminal investigation department are cold-blooded.

She twirled the calligraphy brush in her hand, thinking to herself, "Where am I cold-blooded? I'm clearly hot-blooded and can't be cooled down!"

Time flies like an arrow, and the days pass like a shuttle.

Two or three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

During this period, there were two rebellions in the Northwest, which were forcefully suppressed by Zhu Youchuan.

A rebellion broke out in the southwest, and the governor, Meng Zhi (a native of the southwest), was wounded during the suppression. He Qinglan urgently summoned Fang Qin to the region. Upon Fang Qin's arrival, he swiftly and decisively quelled the rebellion.

Although Sun Yannan encountered resistance from the garrison commanded by Liang Shanguang in Xing and Ping prefectures, he still managed to capture Ping prefecture and advance towards Xing prefecture.

The young emperor in Xingzhou was terrified, fearing that Sun Yannan would one day conquer the capital and depose him. Liang Shanguang reassured the young emperor and worked tirelessly to find ways to prevent Sun Yannan from quickly annexing Xingzhou.

After Meng Junping, Yue Yao, Zhong Mingqi and the others successfully conquered Ganzhou, they quickly wiped out the bandits, thugs and hooligans within the territory and suppressed the powerful and wealthy families.

Then, Ganzhou underwent a transformation in the style of the Yun Kingdom.

Next, Meng Junping led his troops to Chuzhou to assist Ye Hui's Ningzhou army, while Yue Yao led his troops to Shengzhou to intercept Lu Hong.

Ye Hui's campaign in Chuzhou was not going smoothly, but like in Ganzhou, the main force had been taken to Shengzhou by Lu Hong.

Therefore, Ye Hui commanded his army to slowly gnaw away at the territory, one county at a time, and eventually took over most of it.

Later, with the support of Meng Junping, they attacked from both sides and captured the prefecture.

Ye Hui invited Meng Junping for tea.

As they chatted, the conversation turned to Sun Yannan's territory.

Ye Hui smiled slightly, "He's in Xingzhou now, so aren't his Maozhou, Liangzhou, Chaozhou... just like Ganzhou and Chuzhou?"

Meng Junping feigned disagreement, saying, "We are allies."

Ye Hui looked up at her, "An ally?"

After some back and forth, the two happily reached an agreement: Chaozhou would belong to Ye Hui, and Maozhou to Meng Junping.

Meng Junping said, "Then let's rely on our own abilities."

Ye Hui raised her teacup and clinked it against Meng Junping's in a toast, using tea instead of wine.

"If we meet on the battlefield someday, we'll each rely on our own abilities," Ye Hui said with a smile. "But personally, I'm very happy to have you all as allies and enemies."

Thank you, He Qinglan.

On Lu Hong's side, over the past three years, he led his troops in several battles against Ning Huai'an and Hu Dazhu, but ultimately suffered more defeats than victories and incurred significant losses.

Ying Yanzhou had uncovered spies within their organization, but the two of them always felt that there was a deeply hidden spy they hadn't found.

A year ago, Ying Yanzhou planned to lead his troops back to Chuzhou. However, Shengzhou learned of this plan in advance, blocked their way, and forcibly kept them on the battlefield.

This forced Lu Hong and Ying Yanzhou to watch helplessly as Yun Kingdom reorganized Ganzhou and Ye Hui attacked Chuzhou.

Since then, Ying Yanzhou has tried several methods to identify the spy, but all of them have failed.

Lu Jun spent another year on the battlefield in Shengzhou.

Internal information was always leaked to the other side by spies. Ning Huai'an and Hu Dazhu made good use of the intelligence, not only annihilating tens of thousands of Lu's troops, but also cutting off Lu's supplies several times.

Judging from their expressions, it's clear they intend to kill Lu Hong just as they killed Lu Wei.

Lu Hong will not become the next Lu Wei.

Ying Yanzhou was not Xue Rang who was on the opposite side from Lu Wei.

The two of them re-examined their own personnel, listed suspicious individuals, and then set targeted traps.

Ultimately, Tang Yu came into their view.

Ying Yanzhou couldn't help but laugh. "Truly impressive, no wonder you're a spy sent by the Yun Kingdom."

Lu Hong remained silent.

Ying Yanzhou said, "Whether we can get out of our current predicament depends on her."

If she is, she will pass on false information to Shengzhou, allowing them to escape their predicament by diverting attention from elsewhere. If she is not…

Lu Hong took a deep breath, his voice turning cold, and said, "I will cooperate with you."

Xia Zhao fell for the trap.

She failed to see through the trap that Ying Yanzhou and Lu Hong had meticulously set for her, and transmitted incorrect military intelligence back to Shengzhou, where people made the wrong judgment.

Lu Hong seized the opportunity and led his army out of the Jinzhou army's encirclement.

By the time Shengzhou realized they had been tricked, Lu Hong had already led his troops to the neighboring prefecture.

Hu Dazhu hurriedly dispatched several thousand cavalrymen to pursue them.

Ning Huai'an, worried about Nightingale's safety, sent a message by carrier pigeon to Ying Shanqing, urging him to rescue Nightingale at all costs.

Lu Hong led his troops on a long march all night, and the next day, just as dawn was breaking, they set up camp in the mountains to rest.

Ying Yanzhou patrolled the camp and went to see Lu Hong, asking in surprise, "You haven't gone to see her yet?"

Lu Hong's expression was complicated. "I'm waiting for you."

Ying Yanzhou: "..." He couldn't understand.

Lu Hongdao said, "I don't know what kind of person is behind that face I like, so I'm quite nervous."

In his presence, she was beautiful, gentle, delicate, understanding, and multi-talented.

But what is she really like?

Xia Zhao was waiting for Lu Hong.

She was still meticulously made up, wearing an embroidered and gorgeous dress, and on her beautiful face was the gentle smile that Lu Hong was familiar with.

The only difference was in those eyes; they no longer revealed attachment, but rather courage and resilience.

Ying Yanzhou spoke first, "May we have the honor of knowing your real name?"

Xia Zhao smiled gently, "My code name is Nightingale."

nightingale?

Lu Hong and Ying Yanzhou exchanged glances, unable to understand, and Xia Zhao did not explain that the code name came from a foreign story from another world.

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Author's Note: My office computer suddenly lost internet access, which is annoying.