Li Yi was surprised and panicked.
How could it be Wei Shuyi!
Where's Yu Jae?!
He subconsciously looked around Wei Shuyi, but there was not a single trustworthy face in sight... Where had all his people gone?
The answer was not difficult to guess, but Li Yi found it hard to accept for a moment, and murmured in panic: "Impossible... How is it possible!"
How did the imperial envoy bypass his sight and go to the place where Yu Zai and the 80,000 troops were camped in front? The 80,000 troops were controlled by Yu Zai, and all the important positions were controlled by his people. How did Wei Shuyi, a mere civil servant, subdue the 80,000 troops in such a short time without making any noise? He couldn't figure it out, and there was no way to figure it out, but the facts were already in front of him.
The young man rode slowly over and looked at the man with a crooked chin and blood all over his face, who was wearing ordinary military uniform and was kneeling down in disgrace. He was somewhat surprised and asked, "...Li Yi?"
With this outfit and appearance, it’s hard to recognize him.
Chang Suining nodded: "It's him."
Wei Shuyi looked in the direction of the voice and was also a little surprised this time: "Madam Chang?"
Even though he had seen her in men's clothing many times, he was still a little surprised to see her standing here in military uniform.
Chang Suining nodded again: "It's me."
Wei Shuyi then dismounted.
His official uniform was clean as new, without any dust on it, and his face was as clear and elegant as the color of spring mountains. At first glance, it gave people the feeling that such a person was born to be in the government, to write articles, to appreciate flowers and the moon, but he should not be in this place where war horses were rudely spewing white air, the eyes were full of blood and soldiers, and dangers were everywhere.
But whether he "should" or not, he came.
Seeing him coming, Chang Suining raised his hand: "Minister Wei."
"It's been a long time since I last saw you, Madam Chang." Wei Shuyi looked at her with a smile in his clear eyes. After a moment, he looked at Li Yi and said, "I never thought that it would be like this when we meet again."
But this is not the time to reminisce.
"I am here to capture the traitor Li Yi in accordance with the imperial decree." He said, "Thank you for your hard work, Madam Chang, in capturing the traitor. I will report your achievements to the emperor. In this case, please hand him over to me first."
As soon as he finished speaking, two people came forward and tried to take Li Yi from Chang Suining's men.
The person holding Li Yi did not let go for a while, but looked at Chang Suining for instructions.
Including Deputy General Jin and others, they subconsciously looked at Chang Suining, waiting for her to speak.
Wei Shuyi didn't mind. He just looked at her with a pair of eyes that always contained a faint smile. At the same time, he couldn't help but realize that she was very popular now.
It seemed that all the stories he heard were true.
She won this people's hearts with her own abilities.
Chang Suining seemed to think for a moment before he said, "I can hand him over to Minister Wei, but I need to kill him first."
Wei Shuyi was slightly stunned. Does that mean, handing him a dead person?
"...You can't kill me!" Li Yi's expression changed immediately after hearing this, and he hurriedly looked at Wei Shuyi: "I have already surrendered, I already know I was wrong! My father is Huainan King Li Tong, how many contributions has he made to the court? You can't deal with me privately! I want to return to the capital to see the emperor... I want to confess my guilt to the saint in person!"
Then he hurriedly said, "By the way, I also know Xu Zhengye's important secret... I will report it to His Majesty in person after I return to Beijing!"
Chang Suining just found it funny. This person was not good at other things, but he had an endless supply of ways to save his life.
She looked at Li Yi, but asked Wei Shuyi: "Does Minister Wei believe it?"
Wei Shuyi didn't comment, he just looked at her hesitantly: "Madam Chang..."
He did not say the words of dissuasion directly, but Chang Suining understood.
But she still said: "I must kill him."
Wei Shuyi looked at her: "What do you mean by 'must'?"
"My father was supposed to lead an army of 100,000 to support Hezhou, but after my father left the camp, he arbitrarily changed the marching route of the remaining 80,000 troops. He wanted to trap him to death in Hezhou, under the pretext that a general could not bear to watch Hezhou fall and the people of Hezhou suffer.—"
"He held a large army, but for his own benefit, he ignored the people of Hezhou and caused countless people to die in vain—"
"He used sinister means to assassinate He Wei in order to seize military power." Chang Suining said: "A general can die on the battlefield or die from dangerous and treacherous tactics, and it is not a pity, but dying at the hands of such a stupid and vicious person, in my opinion, is really unjustified and should not be allowed to happen."
Wei Shuyi looked at the pair of eyes that were expressing their unwillingness for He Weiming.
The owner of the eyes continued, "Going back further, when Jiangning fell, Xu's army was able to grow stronger and cause chaos. The entire Jiangnan region was in danger, with refugees everywhere and starving people everywhere. There are countless other things like this, all of which are directly or indirectly caused by him—"
"As a commander, he never cared for his soldiers. This is unrighteous. As a descendant of the royal family, he showed no mercy to the people of the country. This is immoral. He led an army of 200,000 but did nothing. This is useless. Such a useless, immoral and unrighteous person is guilty of a heinous crime. Letting him continue to live would be unfair to others."
He was right. His father, the King of Huainan, had made many contributions to the court and the saints. He was always good at pretending to be cowardly and pitiful in front of others when admitting his mistakes.
If someone had pleaded for him by citing the King of Huainan's merits, he might have been able to save his life.
Even if he was deposed as a commoner, demoted to a criminal, and imprisoned, what about the future? The situation was unstable, and it was hard to say when the throne would be taken by someone else. If someone could really overthrow the empress, then those who opposed the empress in the past would become heroes.
If he really waited until that day, and he was welcomed out as a meritorious official of the royal family, then what would those who died in vain because of him be? Who would remember how they died?
She didn't want to give such perverse ideas a chance to come into being.
As early as the day when she received the imperial edict from He Wei, she was determined to kill Li Yi.
Finally, she looked at Wei Shuyi and asked, "In Wei Shilang's opinion, are all the above 'musts' enough for me to kill him a hundred times?"
Mrs. Shepherd's Purse on the side clenched the axe in her hand, and the tragic scene of Hezhou defending the city appeared in front of her eyes. She wished she could cut Li Yi into pieces.
Wei Shuyi was silent for a moment, still a little hesitant: "But he said... he knew Xu Zhengye's secret."
Then, he looked at the aide and thought: "This should be his aide, right? If there is a secret, it should be the same to ask this aide..."
"Thinking in this way, we only need to keep one of the two alive." He looked back at Chang Suining and said to her, "Madam Chang, just keep one alive."
Li Yi was horrified: "...Wei Shuyi, how dare you!"
He began to struggle violently: "I have already surrendered. I am a descendant of the royal family... How can you execute me privately!"
"The emperor once said that if the rebels dare to resist, they will be killed on the spot." Wei Shuyi turned around and looked at the confidants of Li Yi who fell to the ground after the fight: "These, I think, are the evidence of resistance."
"Wei Shuyi... you are just afraid of her and Chang Kuo's power. You will not have a good death if you neglect your duty like this!" Li Yi said in panic: "Where do you regard the law and rules!"
"Rules are dead—" Chang Suining raised his hand and swung his knife.
The sharp blade quickly slashed across Li Yi's neck, leaving only a very thin blood mark at first.
With a slight "swoosh" sound, Chang Suining pressed the knife back into the scabbard, looked at Li Yi's wide eyes, and said calmly: "You can be too."
Rules are dead, and of course people can also be dead.
When Wei Shuyi turned around, he saw that Li Yi's neck was almost broken, and his head was tilted to one side as if it had lost support, with thick blood oozing from the wound and mouth.
"Don't look at it. Be careful of nightmares. Aren't you most afraid of ghosts?" Chang Suining advised kindly, then turned around and left with the knife in his hand.
Wei Shuyi shuddered as Li Yi's curse of a bad death echoed in his ears. He then looked at her hurriedly: "Where is General Chang?"
The figure didn't look back, but got on the horse directly: "Follow me."
Wei Shuyi asked someone to put away Li Yi's body, no, the body that had not yet completely turned into a corpse - it would be useful later.
He also asked someone to look after Li Yi's aide, and then mounted his horse and followed the figure leading the way.
The army is behind, moving like a surging cloud.
The fighting between the two armies on Chang Kuo's side had been mostly calmed down as the news of Li Yi's escape spread.
With the commander-in-chief gone, the morale of the army is bound to collapse.
Now the coach is back, but what he brought back is a corpse.
When Li Yi's body was displayed to the public, Wei Shuyi took the opportunity to show the imperial edict, "I am Wei Shuyi, the Minister of the Imperial Court. I have been ordered by the emperor to arrest the traitor Li Yi. Now Li Yi has been executed. You should surrender quickly. Afterwards, if it is found that you were deceived by Li Yi, you will all be pardoned!"
At this point, the arrival of the imperial envoy and the imperial edict had completely confirmed Li Yi's rebellion.
The soldiers who followed Li Yi were in a panic and put down their weapons one after another, no longer daring to resist stubbornly in the hope of getting away with it.
The winter sun slides down the western hill, a cold moon rises high in the sky, and the coldness silently erodes all things between heaven and earth.
The army gathered together and chose an open place nearby to set up camp. They lit a fire outside the tents to dispel most of the cold.
Chang Kuo, Wei Shuyi, and the general who came with Wei Shuyi were handling the follow-up matters and investigating Li Yi's accomplices in the army.
Chang Suining stole some time to relax and sat in front of the fire, warming himself by the fire and gazing at the stars with A Dian.
Adian raised his head and looked at the stars and the moon for a long time. Then, he thought of something and looked thoughtfully at the girl sitting next to him.
She changed out of her military uniform and wore a sandalwood round-necked robe with a black cloak on the outside. Her ponytail was draped behind her head. She sat there with her hands casually supported behind her, looking up at the stars. There was not much expression on her face. It was unknown what she was thinking.
Adian was staring at it in a trance, as if he felt dizzy. He blinked hard and looked again, but was staring at it again.
Noticing his gaze, Chang Suining turned around and asked him, "What's wrong?"
The firelight made her face somewhat hazy. Hearing this question, Ah Dian somehow managed to hold back her tears for a moment, and then suddenly burst into tears.
Chang Suining was stunned: "What happened?"
"I miss your highness!"
Ah Dian cried and squeezed closer to her, staying close to her, hugging his knees and burying his head on her shoulder with some difficulty, like a wounded lion leaning on a little white rabbit.
He didn't understand what it meant to be reminded of someone by the sight of something, or to be moved by the sight of something. He also didn't understand where this overwhelming longing came from, and he could only bury his head in tears.
Chang Suining patted his back gently, and when she was about to say something, a voice spoke before her.
"Why, General Adian was bullied by Madam Chang?"
Wei Shuyi came over and said, "You can tell me and I will do you justice."
Ah Dian also knew that crying loudly was embarrassing, so he quickly raised his head to wipe his tears and choked up, "Little Ah Li will never bully me... She is as good as Your Highness."
Then he looked at Chang Suining with a pair of pitiful and tearful eyes: "Little A Li looks exactly like Your Highness, so much alike."
Wei Shuyi's eyes flickered with a smile: "General Adian, are you talking about His Royal Highness the late Crown Prince?"
Even though Ah Dian didn't know the difference between the three words "late crown prince", he had heard it so many times over the years that he knew that this "late crown prince" was his highness, so he wiped his tears and nodded.
Wei Shuyi was about to ask more, but a voice interrupted him: "Is Minister Wei here to warm himself by the fire as well?"
"Yes." Wei Shuyi came back to his senses and sat down cross-legged slowly.
Chang Suining asked A Che to take A Dian back to the tent to sleep.
"It's been a long time since I last saw Madam Chang." Wei Shuyi said with a smile, "I've heard a lot about Madam Chang's deeds along the way. Now that I see that Madam Chang is safe, I feel relieved."
Chang Suining smiled and asked him, "How did Minister Wei think of secretly rushing to the vicinity of Yangzhou to subdue the 80,000-man army?"
"If we want to send troops to conquer various places, we will inevitably have a lot of verbal battles, which will be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Instead of asking others for help, it is better to remove the firewood from the bottom of the pot." He said with a smile: "Of course, only half of it is removed."
"But this is very risky." Chang Suining asked him, "The 80,000 troops must be controlled by Li Yi's confidants. It is not easy to subdue them. Moreover, the camp is close to Yangzhou, where Xu Zhengye's spies are. Isn't Minister Wei afraid that he will never come back?"
"Of course I'm afraid." Wei Shuyi looked at her and smiled, "But I heard that Hezhou was saved. I guessed that General Chang and Madam Chang would come from the direction of Hezhou to intercept Li Yi. This move is also very risky... In order to meet Madam Chang in time, even though I'm afraid, I still want to take a risk."
"But I didn't expect that although Wei was not late, Madam Chang had already captured Li Yi. It turned out that she had borrowed soldiers from Chuzhou." As he said this, he sighed, "I took this risk in vain."
Chang Suining: "It wasn't a waste of time. At least it saved us from worries and unnecessary casualties... So many lives have been saved. Minister Wei has done a great deed."
Wei Shuyi laughed after hearing this, and then added: "There is one more thing, at least I didn't hold Madam Chang back."
Chang Suining was not modest and polite, and nodded: "That's right."
She was really afraid that a fool would come and not only be of no help, but would make the situation even more chaotic.
"But I'm very curious, how did Minister Wei subdue those 80,000 troops?" She rarely asked Wei Shuyi for advice.
He was a civilian official and had no prestige in the army. Even though the military general followed her, she thought that man was a stranger and not someone she knew well or had great prestige.
Even with the imperial edict in hand, under such circumstances, Wei Shuyi was able to subdue the 80,000-strong army controlled by Li Yi's confidants in such a short period of time and almost without anyone noticing. It was truly admirable, but also truly puzzling.
She had just opened her mouth with the intention of asking about what had happened, but he did not answer, so she asked him directly again.
"Ms. Chang, do you think that I, Wei, don't have this ability?" Wei Shuyi asked instead of answering.
"That's not the case." Chang Suining said truthfully: "I just like to learn."
"Ms. Chang has already shown such extraordinary talent and is so eager to learn. Are you not going to leave a way out for mediocre people like me?"
Chang Suining looked at him suspiciously: "Why, is it some secret to winning that cannot be told to others?"
"I wanted to avoid talking about it, but I couldn't avoid it..." Facing her curiosity that would not stop until she got the answer, Wei Shuyi sighed half-truthfully, took out something from his sleeve, and handed it to Chang Suining: "The secret to winning that cannot be passed on to others is here."
Today's 4300-word update is delivered. I am holding Li Yi's grave rice and asking for monthly tickets (*^▽^*). Thanks to Shi Gan Dang Dang, likesleeping, I am a sister, book friend 33021204301270, book friend 20200422080747982, Mi Weidiandian and other book friends for their rewards~
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