Facing Pei Xuanqing's questioning, Shen Yu fell into deep thought. He felt that this matter seemed simple on the surface, but it was actually a complex matter.
After a while, he turned to Pei Xuanqing and asked, "Did the emperor instruct you to ask me this?"
"Yes." Pei Xuanqing did not deny it.
"Tell me, what does the emperor want me to do?" He asked this question with a sense of sadness, having already foreseen the difficulty of the matter.
Pei Xuanqing did not answer in a hurry. He turned to look at Wan Xueying and asked, "Miss Wan Er, could you please step aside for a moment?" His tone was quite gentle.
"You two can chat first." Wan Xueying was trying to avoid the topic. Before leaving, she said to Shen Yu, "The exile team is about to leave. I'll go with them later. If you need errands or money, let me know anytime."
The entire family of the Duke of Pingguo was thrown into the prison, so if they wanted someone to take care of them, they would definitely need money. By that calculation, the money Shen Yu earned from his belongings wouldn't be enough to do anything.
"I still have some money." It was given to him by Meng when she visited him in prison. "As for manpower, Shunzi and the others are enough. By the way, they can't come with you these days, so don't worry about them. Just be careful and take care of yourself on the way."
"I understand. You two continue chatting."
After Wan Xueying left, Shen Yu pressed Pei Xuanqing, "What exactly did the Emperor want me to do? After this is accomplished, will the Emperor show leniency to the people in the Duke of Ping's Mansion?"
Pei Xuanqing smiled and said, "That's why they say it's easier to get things done with smart people."
Wan Xueying didn't use her mental power to eavesdrop on what the two of them were talking about. Shortly after she returned to the carriage, the exile group regrouped, accompanied by the sound of a life-threatening gong.
After the assembly was completed, the bailiffs called out the names of the exiles on the list and found that several people were dawdling and had not returned to the team.
When the escorts found the person, they raised their black and shiny whips, which were soaked with the blood of countless people, and started whipping him without saying a word.
"Sir, please spare my life! I won't dare to do it again!" Although those people cried and begged for mercy, the bailiff did not stop whipping them.
"Are you deaf, but you still want to take the opportunity to escape? If you do it again, it won't be solved by just a few whips!" The exile had just begun, and the escort was very ruthless in order to give the exiles a warning.
Even if some of them had once held high positions, or even if they randomly called out a single person from the exile group, they might have been prominent figures in the past, they were now like ants in the eyes of the escorts. Never mind the death of a few people on the way to exile; as long as no more than half of the people died, they would be considered to have successfully completed their mission.
After whipping them more than ten or twenty times, until their skin was torn and blood was dripping, the escorts felt relieved and let them return to the team.
Finally, accompanied by the threatening and intimidating sounds of the bailiffs whipping the ground with whips one after another, the exile team gradually sped up from the initial slow progress.
At the beginning, Shen Yu was at the end of the team with a lot on his mind. It was only when the whip almost hit him a few times that he quickened his pace and walked in the middle of the team.
The people at Dingyang Marquis's residence thought that with the Crown Prince's reward, the escorts would treat them preferentially. In reality, they were overthinking it. Among these exiled prisoners were several high-ranking officials of the second and third ranks, and many of their relatives and friends held significant power. Wouldn't they all be treated equally after the journey began? If any of them walked even slightly slower, the whip would fall mercilessly.
It was the middle of summer, and they were traveling at noon. There was not a cloud in the sky, and not many trees on either side of the official road. Not to mention the nobles who had never traveled far, even the servants who had served as guards and did heavy work were sweating profusely.
Even worse, each person had only a dry bowl of coarse grains and a bowl of water for breakfast, and the escorts didn't even offer water. They were exhausted, hungry, and thirsty before they had even gone far. Not to mention the men's shackles, which had already worn away their skin, making their lives unbearable.
Even though they have fallen into such a state, there are still people who like to act like masters and want the servants who used to serve them to carry them on their backs.
In this ancient time, when "equality for all" was finally achieved, how could those servants give them a good face?
In the past, even if their masters were furious, they dared not express it. Now that they had finally gotten the chance, how could they miss it? Besides, some of them had done a lot of things that took advantage of their masters' power and were very good at scolding people.
Now, they were scolding their former masters like they were scolding their grandsons, and they even wanted to curse their ancestors for eighteen generations. What's more, they exposed all the immoral things their former masters had done over the years.
Those explosive news not only opened people's eyes, but also provided a lot of topics to talk about along the way, and also added a lot of vitality to the lifeless team.
But this vitality did not last long as both sides stopped fighting, because everyone had to use all their energy to get on the road, and that kind of meaningless verbal dispute would only make people more thirsty.
By the time the sun set, they had all stopped thinking. Their legs felt like they were filled with lead and every step they took weighed a thousand pounds, but the exile team showed no intention of stopping.
Someone couldn't help but ask the escort when they could take a break. The escort gave a uniform and unpleasant reply: "Soon! We'll be there soon."
In fact, the escorts were also complaining in their hearts. In the past, they always set out before dawn, but this time it was changed to noon, which delayed half a day's journey. They had no choice but to travel in the dark!
Fortunately, the nearest post station to the capital is only about twenty miles away. If you miss it, you will miss your lodging for the night. The exile team will most likely rest there.
There were a total of twenty-two escorts on this trip, and they participated in the escort from beginning to end, also known as the long escort. The counties and prefectures along the way would send people to assist in the escort, and these people were called short escorts.
The post station was the preferred place for exile teams to stay, and the two groups of people would usually have a simple handover there.
The leader this time was a centurion named Hao from the Yulin Guard. He brought a small flag officer named Ma from the Yulin Guard as his deputy, and the remaining twenty people were runners drawn from various government offices.
Only Captain Hao and Ma Xiaoqi were qualified to ride horses, and the rest of the escorts had to walk. However, in order to provide food and drink for the escorts and the exiles on the way, and to store the luggage of the big guys, they also brought four carriages on this trip. If the escorts got tired, they could take turns to rest.
Everyone on the exile route was to obey Captain Hao's orders. He was forty years old and had been on this sort of mission frequently, so he was quite experienced. Seeing that everyone was exhausted, he ordered them to rest for the night at the post station. The next day, they would rise at the end of the Yin hour, pack their bags, and depart promptly at 5:15 AM.
This was also the itinerary he had planned early in the morning, but he would make some adjustments at any time based on the weather, conditions along the way, etc.
Everyone was relieved to hear the news. However, when some people rushed to the post station, they were stopped by the post station guards and told that if they wanted to stay overnight, even if they had to sleep in a large bunk bed, they would have to pay one or two taels of silver per person.
"How much? One or two taels?" A penny truly stumped a hero. This amount was originally nothing to these nobles; they'd often rewarded their servants with even this much. But most were currently short on cash. It was only the first day of exile, and they had to budget carefully for the future.
Some who were smart but reluctant to spend money quickly found a place to stay that was sheltered from the wind and rain. Some relatives and friends who had given them a lot of money generously chose the more expensive rooms to stay in.
Those who had some money, but not much, and still wanted to enjoy themselves were in a dilemma. Among them were the people in Dingyang Marquis's Mansion.
The author has something to say:
There is a reference network about long solutions and short solutions
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com