Chapter 64
Gongsun Yin was surprised that he knew there were candies on the plate, but he didn't think it was a big deal that he ate a few of his candies, so he said calmly, "Yeah, what's wrong?"
Xie Zheng ordered his men with a cold face: "Throw him out!"
The two bodyguards looked at each other, then glanced at Xie Zheng's expression. In the end, they had no choice but to carry Gongsun Yin out.
Gongsun Yin was stunned. When he came to his senses, he was already being carried to the door of the tent. He jumped up and accused, "Xie Jiuheng! Do you think you are being so rude? I just ate a few of your candies!"
During the struggle, the candy in his pocket fell out.
Gongsun Yin and Xie Zheng's eyes met, and he felt that his expression had become even colder.
Gongsun Yin was stunned when he saw the usually arrogant guy squatting down to pick up the fallen stale candies one by one.
He straightened his expression, freed his hands, and ordered two guards: "You go out first, I have something important to discuss with the Marquis."
The guards did not dare to really throw Gongsun Yin away at first, but after hearing what he said, Xie Zheng said nothing and they all retreated.
Gongsun Yin walked back to the low table, frowned and asked, "Did the woman surnamed Fan give it to you?"
Xie Zheng did not answer.
Gongsun Yin knew that it must be the case. Seeing him like this, he couldn't help but say, "It's just a few old candies. Can't I compensate you for it?"
Xie Zheng put the stale candy he had picked up back into the porcelain plate. The hard candy made a crisp sound when it hit the plate. He raised his eyes and looked at Gongsun Yin. His dark eyes were cold and heavy, like rocks at the bottom of the sea that had never seen the sunlight for thousands of years. Just by looking at him, he felt an inexplicable chill run down his spine.
Gongsun Yin rubbed the goose bumps on his hands and finally shut up.
Xie Zheng asked, "What do you want to see me for?"
When talking about this, Gongsun Yin's expression suddenly became strange. He looked at Xie Zheng and asked, "You have a daughter?"
Xie Zheng did not answer, but just sneered.
Gongsun Yin knew that it was Zixu Wuyou's business, so he took out the letter from Yanzhou and handed it to him, "This is from the order of the Prince of Changxin, saying that your daughter is in his hands. He doesn't want your daughter to be sacrificed, so he wants to exchange her for Yanzhou."
Xie Zheng did not accept the letter, apparently he was too lazy to even read it, and sneered: "Old Sui Tuo knows that he will never be able to sit on the throne in this life, so he has lost his mind?"
Gongsun Yin also felt that this matter was strange in every way. Logically speaking, if Prince Changxin dared to send an envoy to deliver such a letter, he must have been sure of victory. As it stands now, this letter is too ridiculous.
He asked, "Could it be that he got some false information and thought you had a daughter who was wandering among the people?"
At this point, Gongsun Yin reached into his sleeve pocket and took out a bamboo whistle, which he placed on the low table. He said with a smile, "Oh, this bamboo whistle was sent along with this letter. It's said to be a token of your daughter's love."
Xie Zheng's eyes swept across the bamboo whistle indifferently, but suddenly stopped.
He recognized this bamboo whistle.
When he was seriously injured in Fan's house, Wei Yan's assassins went to Fan's house to look for something and kill people to silence them. On the way he was escaping with the child, the child kept blowing the whistle.
Weren't she and her sister escaped danger? Why did the whistle allow Prince Changxin's men to take it?
Xie Zheng picked up the bamboo whistle and looked at it carefully, then ordered in a cold voice: "Go and check what happened to the child from the Fan family who was sent to Jizhou Prefecture."
When Gongsun Yin heard that it was related to the Fan family, he quickly reacted and asked, "The one who fell into the hands of Prince Changxin could be the sister of Miss Fan?"
Xie Zheng pursed his lips and said nothing, which was considered as his tacit agreement.
Gongsun Yin had not expected such an oolong. He opened and closed the folding fan in his hand, and finally looked up at him: "If she is really her sister, what are you going to do?"
-
Jizhou.
Although it is early spring, winter in the north always comes later than in the south. The red plum blossoms in the yard are still covered with a thin layer of snow that has not completely melted. The icicles under the eaves are crystal clear in the sunlight, and water droplets are slowly dripping down.
Fan Changyu stood under the eaves, staring at two birds hanging on the courtyard wall, hopping and pecking at food. His back was straight, but there was a faint dark blue under his eyes, and he looked obviously haggard.
Since the day Changning disappeared after the fire at the post station, she has hardly slept a wink.
Her sister was kidnapped, but she didn't even know who the enemy was.
That day, the post station caught fire. Aunt Zhao ran out with Changning in her arms, but was stabbed. She fell to the ground in pain and watched Changning being kidnapped by a group of masked men.
Thanks to the fact that the knife did not hit her vital parts, Aunt Zhao was able to save her life.
After investigating, the government speculated that it was revenge, saying that since the other party chose to take Changning away instead of killing her on the spot, they would definitely use Changning as a bargaining chip to negotiate terms with them.
But three days have passed, and the people who kidnapped Changning seem to have disappeared without a trace, and no news has been sent.
Fan Changyu asked himself if he had made any enemies, and if there was only one who might be retaliated against, it would be Qingfeng Village.
However, the remaining criminals in Qingfeng Village were all wiped out by the government. Even if there were one or two that escaped, they would never dare to cause such a big commotion in the main city of Jizhou.
She originally thought that the officers and soldiers who rescued her that day were behaving strangely were bandits in disguise. But in the end, she learned from Li Huaian that Lucheng was afraid that too many troops had been withdrawn from the main city of Jizhou and would be unable to suppress the bandits, so they sent a team of light cavalry to help.
It was impossible that Changning was kidnapped by bandits. Fan Changyu remembered what the leader of Qingfeng Village said, that the person who escorted the treasure map was not her father, but a eunuch named Ma Taiyuan. She then suspected the enemy of her parents, who was still a mystery.
She had also been asking around for news about the Sihai Escort Agency and Ma Taiyuan over the past two days, and found that the bandit leader was not lying.
The only breakthrough was the files of the government's interrogation of the men in black. Fan Changyu was really at a loss for a solution, so she thought of asking Li Huaian for help and looking at the files about the death of her parents and the two times her family encountered criminals.
After the servant came into the mansion to report, she had been waiting in the front hall for a cup of tea. Because she was weighed down by something, she felt suffocated after sitting for so long, so she went to the corridor to get some fresh air.
The clerk came quickly from the other end of the corridor, met Fan Changyu, and said politely: "The master is in the Wenjing Pavilion, young lady, please follow me."
After expressing his thanks, Fan Changyu strode after him, having no time to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the mansion.
Wenjing Pavilion has a floor heating system, and as soon as you enter the room you feel warm, keeping the early spring chill out of the house.
Li Huaian, wearing his life-long red official uniform, sat at his desk, reviewing documents with his pen. Compared to the gentle and amiable manner when Fan Changyu first met him, he seemed a little more distant and stern in this official robe.
The clerk said respectfully, "Sir, Miss Fan is here."
Li Huaian then raised his head from the pile of documents and wrote, "Sorry to have kept Miss Fan waiting for a long time. All the files of Jizhou Prefecture are stored in the library. It took some time for the staff to arrange them. Now you can go."
He was a member of the Li Party and came to Jizhou to temporarily take over He Jingyuan's position. He started by checking the files in the library. It would not sound good if he told anyone about it. Moreover, he brought other people in, so he had to send away all the irrelevant people for the time being.
Fan Changyu said: "I am sorry for causing trouble to you, sir."
Li Huaian looked at her and smiled, as if he had turned into that gentle and pure scholar again: "If it weren't for Miss Fan, I might have died at the hands of bandits. Checking the files is still within my ability. Miss Fan, there's no need to be polite."
Before he was about to leave, he took a look at Fan Changyu's attire, called the clerk to bring a cloak, and said, "If you want to borrow the files in the library, you must record them. Miss Fan, please come with me to take a look. It's better to put on this cloak to avoid attracting attention."
Fan Changyu knew that he was abusing his power to help him, and was afraid of bringing trouble to him, so he put on his cloak and hood, instantly covering most of his face, leaving only a part of his jaw and pale pink lips exposed.
Li Huaian's eyes passed by and lingered for a moment.
On the way out, Fan Changyu didn't meet anyone else. I guess he was sent away by Li Huaian.
When they arrived at the place, they saw a team of heavily armored guards standing outside the gate. Only after Li Huaian showed his token did the armored guards let them in.
Fan Changyu followed him into the tall and gloomy attic, only then he found that all the doors and windows were covered with a layer of black cloth, with only a small lamp burning dimly. There were rows of bookshelves inside that seemed to have no end, and the bookshelves were densely packed with bamboo slips and documents.
Li Huaian walked in front holding a candlestick, searched for a while according to the number on the bookshelf, and picked up a volume: "It's from December last year, I found it."
He handed it to Fan Changyu, who quickly flipped through it. Li Huaian seemed to be standing closer with the candlestick in order to help Fan Changyu, yet still kept a small distance of half a step between them so as not to make people subconsciously reject him.
Fan Changyu quickly flipped through the file, but his expression became more serious: "This file says that my parents were killed by bandits who wanted the treasure map."
Li Huaian's eyes moved slightly. After all, he didn't say that someone had tampered with the files. The only person who could tamper with the files in Jizhou was probably the Jizhou governor who went to Lucheng to guard the pass.
He said gently: "Perhaps the bandit leader deceived the girl in order to save his life."
Fan Changyu didn't say anything. She only dared to come to Li Huaian after she had inquired around and confirmed that the bandit leader had not deceived her.
Was this file intentionally written like this by the government, or was it written hastily and sloppily in order to close the case?
She could not find any trace of her parents' enemies in the official files. She was in a heavy mood and said goodbye to Li Huaian after leaving the library and returned to her temporary place.
Aunt Zhao was injured and needed no one around her. When Fan Changyu was not around, the few neighbors who were left after the fire in the post station that day helped take care of her.
There were only a few elderly, weak, women and children left in the entire Qingping County. The government of Hezhou settled them directly in the main city and provided them with money and food on a monthly basis.
What Fan Changyu didn't know was that when she went to the library to look at the files today, someone had already rushed the news to Lucheng that same day.
-
It was a cold and dewy night. He Jingyuan finished reading the letter sent from Jizhou under the lamp. After a long while, he muttered to himself, "I have already given him the things. Those two children know nothing. In the current situation, he can't do anything to them."
His old eyelids were full of wrinkles. Thinking of a certain possibility, his originally elegant face became a little colder and harder: "Could it be that Master Li deliberately set up a trap for the things in the hands of the Fan family?"
He thought for a moment, and finally picked up his pen and quickly wrote a letter. After sealing it, he told his personal guards outside the tent: "Hurry and send this letter back to Jizhou and hand it to Wen Chang."
Zheng Wenchang was his favorite student. Although he was not in Jizhou at the moment, Zheng Wenchang was in charge of the military in Jizhou and could do some things for him. The fact that Li Huaian took Fan Changyu to see the files was brought to him by Zheng Wenchang.
The bodyguard took the letter and left quickly.
He Jingyuan looked at the dark night and finally sighed: "The world has not yet been in chaos, but the people have suffered so much. If there is really chaos, how many people will die?"
-
In the Yanzhou camp outside Lucheng, the central military tent was also brightly lit.
The spies have brought back accurate information that the little girl lost from the post station is undoubtedly Changning.
Gongsun Yin pointed at the locations of Yanzhou and Chongzhou on the map and said, "I think there is something fishy going on. Not to mention that the King of Changxin's proposal to exchange a child for Yanzhou is too ridiculous. Yanzhou is to the north of Chongzhou, and the Northern Jue people are now attacking Jinzhou. Behind Jinzhou, there are only Huizhou and Yanzhou blocking. You deliberately weakened the defense of Yanzhou before, hoping to induce him to abandon Jizhou and attack Yanzhou to lift the siege of Jizhou, but he didn't fall for it. Why do you want you to give up the land now? Even if Jin, Hui, and Yanzhou all belong to him, he still has to allocate troops to resist the Northern Jue people. How can it be better to let you block the foreign tribes in front while he leads his troops to the south?"
Xie Zheng sat in an armchair, his eyes coldly swept across the two places pointed out by Gongsun Yin, and suddenly laughed: "They are using their own tricks against us."
Gongsun Yin was startled for a moment, then reacted. When he looked at the map again, he suddenly understood: "Prince Changxin is pretending to have discovered the weakness of our Yanzhou defense, but he really wants to protect Jizhou. Now he is pretending to take Yanzhou, but in fact he wants to lure the tiger away from the mountain and continue to take Jizhou?"
He suddenly couldn't hide his excitement and looked at Xie Zheng: "If Prince Changxin mistakenly thinks we have fallen into a trap and really leads his troops back to support Yanzhou, then when the rebels attack Jizhou, our previous tactics will come in handy!"
Xie Zheng finished the second half of the sentence for him: "The difficulty lies in how to make Prince Changxin believe that we should go back to Yanzhou to help."
Gongsun Yin said: "That's right. Although there are several brave generals under your command guarding the pass in Jinzhou, we still have to be prepared for any unexpected events. The troops stationed in Huizhou must not be moved. Without any major military movements, it is difficult to lure Prince Changxin into a trap."
Xie Zheng lowered his eyes and looked at Yanzhou on the map for a moment, then said, "I will go to Yanzhou myself."
Gongsun Yin was shocked, thinking that he was going to use himself as bait.
He couldn't help but worry about him: "What if Prince Changxin thinks your life is more valuable than Jizhou, and really wants to go back and take Yanzhou?"
Xie Zheng raised his eyes and said, "Didn't you also say that Prince Changxin still expected me to block the foreign enemies for him so that he could take the opportunity to go south?"
Gongsun Yin wanted to say something, but he just smiled, his nonchalant eyes revealing a sense of arrogance: "If he really dares to take my life, I will chop off his head on the battlefield, and the chaos in the northwest will be completely quelled."
Gongsun Yin wanted to say that this man was really crazy, but suddenly he realized something and his eyes became complicated.
In the battle of Chongzhou, he fell into a trap and nearly died on the battlefield. The rumor of his death had been circulating for so long that the army's morale had long been unstable. The Xie family army was taken over by Wei Xuan, that idiot, and suffered countless defeats, so the morale of the army dropped greatly.
Now that he is back, he must win an absolutely brilliant victory in order to restore the morale of the Xie family army that was completely destroyed by Wei Xuan.
Gongsun Yin even suspected that Wei Yan could not find his body and was afraid that he would make a comeback, so he deliberately sent Wei Xuan to take over Huizhou, but Jing'er ruined Xie's army.
It takes at least three to five years to raise an elite army, but it only takes a few defeats to destroy it.
Since he was doing this for the sake of the overall situation, whether he wanted to help his sweetheart bring back his sister, Gongsun Yin did not ask at this time, but only said: "If you want to use this plan, either recruit He Jingyuan into your army, or... get rid of him. After all, the current military forces in Lucheng are all in his hands. If you want to make a pocket to swallow the 50,000 troops of Prince Changxin, you must use all the troops in Lucheng."
Xie Zheng's half-drowsy eyes revealed some deep meaning: "I have been in Lucheng for so long, it is time to meet him."
He had people investigate the secret behind the Fan couple for such a long time, but found nothing. Apart from Wei Yan, I think only He Jingyuan knew it.
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