Chapter 55
The bruises on Xie Zheng's eyes had faded a lot. He leaned back on the couch with his eyes slightly lowered, not knowing what he was thinking. Gongsun Yin's arrival did not attract his attention. Only after Gongsun Yin made a joking remark did he raise his eyelids and said, "If you have too much free time, go to Jinzhou to supervise the battle."
Gongsun Yin found a place to sit down, poured himself a cup of hot tea and drank it while saying, "How can I be idle? You asked Xueluan to deliver a letter, and I led the soldiers from Yanzhou to travel hundreds of miles to Lucheng. I worked like a slave for you and only got such a sentence in return. It's really disheartening!"
Xie Zheng was in a bad mood and became more and more ruthless: "You gave that stupid thing such a name, and you don't think it's hypocritical. Since you have been a beast of burden, I think you don't need a carriage from Lucheng back to Yanzhou, you can just walk back."
Gongsun Yin choked. Everyone said he had a sharp tongue, but he had never used this tongue to gain any advantage over Xie Zheng.
He couldn't help but say, "Why are you so angry? If you don't like Xueluan, just give her to me to raise!"
When he said the last sentence, he couldn't help but glance at the Saker Falcon in the corner of the tent with his foxy eyes.
For some reason, the Saker Falcon now likes to use the bamboo basket as a nest. The bamboo basket was originally used to hold dirty clothes, and when the Saker Falcon saw it, it squatted in it and used it as a nest.
Xie Zheng raised his eyes calmly: "Didn't you hear that I don't like the name you gave me?"
Gongsun Yin was so angry that he threw his sleeves and was about to leave: "Xie Jiuheng, don't go too far!"
Xie Zheng let him walk away.
Gongsun Yin walked to the door of the big tent, but suddenly turned back, sat down again and said: "I almost fell into your trap and made you run away. I was able to hurt you and make you so unhappy..."
He narrowed his eyes and said, "I heard that the Crown Prince of Changxin went to Qingping County a few days ago. You were tricked by him and defeated him on the battlefield in Chongzhou. The army said that he was extremely brave. Could it be that he was the one who gave you the wound on your face?"
Xie Zheng sneered: "You think highly of him."
As soon as Gongsun Yin heard what Xie Zheng said, he knew it was impossible for him to follow Yuan Qing.
He frowned and said, "It can't be that you got into some romantic trouble and got beaten by a woman..."
As soon as he said this, he started to laugh: "That's absolutely impossible. Not to mention that you, Xie Jiuheng, don't have the luck to have romantic relationships. Even if you do, no other girl would be able to do that."
Xie Zheng's expression froze slightly, and he spoke impatiently: "Is this what you came here to tell me?"
Gongsun Yin saw that he looked unhappy, so he stopped joking and said, "Of course, there is something serious to say. When the soldiers of Yanzhou went to meet the merchant surnamed Zhao to transport grain, they did not reveal any clues. Instead, the merchant surnamed Zhao left a trail for the government of Hezhou, which allowed He Jingyuan to find Yanzhou."
"When I ordered people to raid the Zhao family's secret base, I deliberately spread the news so that they could move ahead of time. Only then did I find their bases that were hidden deeper. After a thorough investigation, I found a lot of interesting things."
He smiled mysteriously, and when Xie Zheng looked over, he said, "The Zhao family also has contacts with Prince Changxin."
Xie Zheng looked calm, "When Zhao Wen met me, he hinted that he was the grandson of the emperor who died in the fire more than ten years ago. It is not surprising that the people behind Zhao Wen had some kind of deal with Prince Changxin when Prince Changxin rebelled."
When Gongsun Yin heard the words "Emperor's grandson", his face changed and he asked Xie Zheng, "What do you think, Lord Hou?"
He addressed him as "Hou Ye" instead of "you", which meant he was not asking him as a friend, but as a counselor, asking him about his next stance.
Xie Zheng said: "After the battle of Chongzhou, Wei Yan and I have been at loggerheads."
Gongsun Yin pondered for a moment and said, "Prince Changxin is definitely not a good person. If the emperor's grandson is still alive, I wonder what kind of deal he has reached with Prince Changxin."
Xie Zheng half-bent one leg, tied up his long hair, with dark eyebrows, and spoke in a casual and cold tone: "The emperor's grandson has contacts with Prince Changxin, but Prince Changxin did not use the name of the emperor's grandson when he rebelled. Either this so-called emperor's grandson was a smokescreen released by Prince Changxin, or... Prince Changxin is ambitious and unwilling to be inferior to others after he came to power."
Gongsun Yin was also shocked when he heard Xie Zheng's guess. He said, "Even if Prince Changxin is unwilling to be inferior to others and rebels in the name of the emperor's grandson, it will be more legitimate. When the world is settled, he will hold great power and it will be up to him to decide whether the emperor's grandson sits on the throne. In this way, the matter of the emperor's grandson really seems to be the plan of Prince Changxin."
He frowned, "But Wei Yan seems to have been investigating the emperor's grandson's case, and has arrested many people these days. Even your re-investigation of the Jinzhou case made him want to kill you. So it seems that the news that the emperor's grandson is still alive doesn't seem to be false, otherwise why is Wei Yan so panicked?"
Xie Zheng pondered over what Zhao Wen said that day. Zhao Wen hinted that he was the emperor's grandson's man, but he had no idea what the secrets of the Jinzhou tragedy seventeen years ago were. Even how the emperor's grandson survived the fire in the East Palace were just his family's words, without any evidence to prove it.
He felt it was quite suspicious at the time, so he asked the person behind Zhao Wen to come and talk to him in person. However, as the Zhao family's properties were seized one by one by the government, the matter was shelved.
He asked, "Before the government closed down the Zhao family's base in Qingping County, what did the people you sent out find?"
Gongsun Yin said: "Those bases in Qingping County are temporary, such as shops and wine shops. They were bought by the Zhao family less than two months ago, so there are very few things that can be found."
Xie Zheng paused as he tapped his knuckles on the table. "When the Zhao family's shop was closed down by the government, I had only been in Qingping County for a month. These bases were obviously not set up for me."
Gongsun Yin also felt that the matter was becoming more and more confusing: "You mean, something must have happened in Qingping County a month before you fell into trouble, which allowed the Zhao family to set up so many bases in Qingping County?"
What happened in Qingping County a month before he fell into trouble...
Xie Zheng's eyes dimmed, that meant only the Fan couple were dead.
Wei Yan sent people to kill the couple, and sent assassins to Fan's house several times to look for something. It is impossible for people who were paying attention to Wei Yan's movements not to notice these actions.
So...those strongholds of the Zhao family were set up for the Fan family?
The reason Zhao Xun was able to find him was not because he came to visit him out of respect after reading the contemporary essays he wrote and happened to discover it was him, but because the Zhao family had always been paying attention to the Fan family, so they discovered his whereabouts by chance.
Something is about to come out.
Xie Zheng said slowly: "It seems that Wei Yan also asked Prince Changxin to set a trap."
Gongsun Yin was so smart that he immediately understood what Xie Zheng meant when he heard this: "You mean, Prince Changxin deliberately spread the rumor about the battle between Huangsun and Wei Yan in Jinzhou to cause Wei Yan to lose his balance?"
Xie Zheng expressed his guess: "The grandson of the emperor may be a real person, or he may just be a cover. But Prince Changxin must know some of the things that happened back then, and because he has no evidence, he deliberately spread these rumors to make Wei Yan think that he did not clean up the mess back then, and when he went back to cut the weeds and root them out, the evidence was exposed."
Gongsun Yin was stunned for a moment, frowning, "If there is no grandson of the emperor, then the man surnamed Zhao bought 200,000 dan of grain for you in order to lure Wei Xuan to collect grain and force the people of Qingping County to attack Lucheng from the inside?"
He stood up and paced back and forth in the military tent: "It just so happens that the Northern Jue have begun to attack Jinzhou. With the 200,000 shi of grain, it will be very difficult for the Northern Jue to capture Jinzhou. Otherwise, once Jinzhou is lost, the northwest gate will be wide open, and the Northern Jue will march straight down, and Prince Changxin himself will have a hard time. His 200,000 shi of grain can be said to kill three birds with one stone!"
"Wei Yan wants you dead. Prince Changxin is guarding the food supply route to Chongzhou, and you are holding off the northern Jue people. His army will continue to move southward. When you are at the end of your strength, you will either starve to death in Jinzhou like your father and Prince Chengde did, or you will be forced to form an alliance with Prince Changxin and offer your military power."
When Gongsun Yin sat down again, he frowned and said, "This is really a very thorough and vicious plan!"
Xie Zheng looked a little distracted, as if he didn't take the dead end he mentioned to heart: "I thought you would persuade me to form an alliance with Prince Changxin."
Gongsun Yin's face was not very good: "Don't treat me like a good-for-nothing. Not to mention that you are Wei Yan's nephew, just the fact that you have a large army under your command, even if you surrender to the Prince of Changxin, he will not dare to use you. In this world, no one can sleep peacefully with a sword hanging over their head."
He is the most powerful sword in the world, and no one can match his sharpness.
Wei Yan was forced to train him accidentally due to the situation, but when he heard some signs of trouble, he decided to kill him.
Even those who hold power in the court and the country are so wary of him, so how could Prince Changxin dare to hold the knife?
If Xie Zheng rebelled, it would be hard to say who would be in charge between him and Prince Changxin. Prince Changxin was such a shrewd man, how could he leave such a huge hidden danger around him?
However, Xie Zheng's words gave Gongsun Yin an idea. He narrowed his eyes and asked, "Does the Marquis want the whole world?"
Xie Zheng sneered: "I want the truth about the battle in Jinzhou seventeen years ago."
This made Gongsun Yin laugh: "This is the Xie Jiuheng I know."
Gongsun Yin straightened his robe and said goodbye. When he reached the door of the big tent, he couldn't help but turn around and said, "I'm still quite curious, who hit you?"
He had no other injuries on his body, but his face was beaten into this state. It was really unbelievable.
When Xie Zheng's icy gaze swept over, Gongsun Yin quickly lifted the curtain and left.
Xie Zheng closed his eyes, and the emotions that he had deliberately ignored inexplicably surged up again because of Gongsun Yin's words.
It was probably because I hadn't experienced many setbacks in my life, so besides feeling sad, I also inexplicably felt a bit unwilling.
Not to mention all the noble ladies in the capital, even princesses, as long as he wanted, he could marry them home, but that woman was the only thing that was enough to abandon him like a weed on the roadside.
My chest felt stuffy and a bit annoyed.
However, the curtain was drawn aside at this moment. Xie Zheng raised his eyes impatiently and saw Gongsun Yin who had returned with a big bag in his hand. He looked familiar.
Meeting his unfriendly gaze, Gongsun Yin shrugged and said, "A lieutenant from the military camp in Jizhou sent it to me, saying that a carpenter cured his rheumatism with a few plasters. He accepted the carpenter's favor and wanted to find a nephew-in-law for the carpenter. It just so happened that the carpenter's nephew-in-law was named Yan Zheng. Among the thousand people I asked He Jingyuan for, only you changed your name to Yan Zheng. I thought, isn't this for you?"
He couldn't help but teasing in his foxy eyes as he spoke: "Niece-in-law? Are you getting married?"
When Xie Zheng saw the package, he was slightly startled, then his lips curled up, his expression looked a little cold: "Put it in the back account."
When Gongsun Yin heard this, his foxy eyes widened and he looked a little silly: "No, you really got married?"
Xie Zheng pursed his lips and said nothing.
We got married, but it was fake.
Gongsun Yin frowned when he saw this, and suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He looked at Xie Zheng in disbelief: "Are you planning to just give up?"
His eyes fell on Xie Zheng's face, and he felt that his guess was getting more and more correct: "Could it be that the wound on your face was caused by you betraying that girl? Was it caused by the girl's family members beating you up?"
Xie Zheng looked unhappy: "Shut up."
He is the one who is discarded.
Gongsun Yin, however, was indignant on behalf of Fan Changyu and looked at Xie Zheng with great sorrow: "Jiuheng, Jiuheng, I never thought you would be this kind of person..."
Xie Zheng raised his eyelids impatiently, "Do you want to get out of here by yourself or do I have someone throw you out?"
Gongsun Yin frowned and said sternly: "Jiuheng, even if she is of low status and not worthy of being your wife, at least she followed you when you were at the end of your rope. You can bring her back and make her a concubine. How can you be so heartless..."
Xie Zheng was silent for a long time before he said, "She didn't want to follow me."
Gongsun Yin's expression instantly became as strange as it could be.
The author has something to say:
I don't feel very well after taking the nine-valent vaccine. My arms are sore all the time. I write slowly. I haven't finished the 10,000-word update yet. I'll make up for it~
Give 100 red envelopes to the long-awaited babies~
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