Chapter 59 Tonight, walking on this road is...
In the still of the night, the only sounds besides the rumble of carriage wheels on the official road were the rustling of the wind through the trees on both sides of the road.
Hengbo pulled the outer garment covering her body tighter, her eyes half-closed.
"It will take at least three more hours to get there. You should get some sleep first." Shen Guitang handed her a soft pillow from beside him.
Hengbo took the soft pillow, but instead of going to sleep as instructed, she opened her eyes and stared straight at him: What exactly did you come to Quzhou for?
Shen Guitang leaned against the carriage and sighed softly: "I thought you would ask when you were on the ship, but it seems that the princess still doesn't care enough about me."
Hengbo was speechless. She had indeed been intentionally or unintentionally avoiding getting too involved with Shen Guitang, but she thought he hadn't noticed. Only now did she realize that he knew perfectly well what was going on.
"After the floods in Quzhou, the people suffered greatly. The Japanese pirates who were active in the Lingnan area set their sights on Quzhou. Quzhou had convenient waterways, which made it easy for the Japanese army to invade. The Japanese army was brutal and greedy, and the people in the coastal counties of Jing and Bin were living in misery."
"General Xiao Pingjiang, unable to bear the slaughter of the people, persuaded Li Yu, the then prefect of Quzhou, to evacuate the people to Pingzhou in the north. At the same time, he sent his son Xiao Huai'an to guard Lingnan, while he himself led the Tengjiao Battalion, the best swimmers, to Quzhou to eliminate the bandits."
"However, when Xiao Pingjiang arrived in Quzhou, he discovered that Li Yu had indeed evacuated the people, but the garrison stationed in Quzhou had also disappeared without a trace, leaving him with only an empty city."
"No, it's not exactly an empty city. There's also the Japanese army that suddenly launched a large-scale attack."
"The Zhennan Army's mission to Quzhou to eliminate the Japanese pirates was originally a secret plan between Xiao Pingjiang and Li Yu, but who knew that the Japanese army would learn of the plan in advance. Ishikawa Ichiro, who was the leader of the Japanese army at the time, sent a small team of Japanese soldiers to harass the southern border of our Great Jin to distract us, while he himself led the majority of his troops to ambush in Quzhou, waiting to catch them like turtles in a jar."
"The Tengjiao Battalion has a total of 5,000 soldiers, but Ishikawa Ichiro had a full 20,000 Japanese troops lying in ambush in Quzhou. His intention to kill Xiao Pingjiang is evident."
"Five thousand against twenty thousand, even the best-dwelling Tengjiao Battalion has little chance of winning. Moreover, Quzhou has just suffered from floods, and even if there was any surplus relief grain, it was all taken away by the people. Without supplies, the Tengjiao Battalion can only fight with their lives."
"After struggling for half a month, the countless swollen and bloated corpses floating on the canal were unrecognizable. All they knew were that they were their brothers who had fought alongside them. This could no longer be considered a battle; it was a massacre and annihilation."
His tone was so calm that one might think this old story had nothing to do with him, yet his emotions were as turbulent as the wrinkles on the fabric he was clutching.
"Half a month has passed, how could Xiao Pingjiang not understand that this is nothing but a conspiracy?" Shen Guitang asked Hengbo, but Hengbo knew that he did not need her answer.
"But Quzhou cannot fall." Quzhou is connected to Pingzhou, which is rich in rice and can be considered the granary of the Great Jin Dynasty. Furthermore, Quzhou faces Lingnan across the sea, and beyond the other side of Lingnan lies the stronghold of the Japanese pirates, Japan. If Quzhou falls, Lingnan will be attacked from both sides…
"So even if he had to gnaw on tree bark, he never gave an inch to Pingzhou. It's just a pity that after the flood, how much tree bark will be left?"
"Finally, before Quzhou fell completely, the vanished Quzhou garrison and the Pingzhou garrison that had refused to come to the rescue reappeared. But they were not there to suppress bandits, but to quell a rebellion. Their swords and spears were not aimed at the menacing Japanese pirates, but at the Tengjiao Battalion, which had suffered heavy casualties."
"What were the soldiers who didn't die under the bayonets of the Japanese army but died at the hands of their own people thinking in the end? Would they have preferred to have long since become swollen, stinking white flesh in the sea?"
"No one will know anymore. All the world knows is that the Pingzhou garrison was meritorious in suppressing the rebellion, the Quzhou garrison was helpful in resisting the Japanese pirates, and Prefect Li Yu exposed Zhennan and put righteousness before family, while the traitor Zhennan colluded with the Japanese pirates and intended to hand over Quzhou. He deserves to die a horrible death."
"Princess, do you know what the most despairing thing is?" Shen Guitang asked softly, her voice trembling as she tried her best to suppress it.
Hengbo looked at him sadly and shook her head.
"For the next month, the wind blew north. They never made it back to Lingnan."
What he didn't mention was that while Xiao Pingjiang was fighting desperately in Quzhou and his fate was unknown, his son Xiao Huai'an was already imprisoned in Yujing.
A light rain was falling that day, and the late autumn wind carried a frosty chill that seemed to pierce to the bone. The person he always looked up to knelt on the ground with his head bowed. The crowd around him was bustling with noise, but he stood alone in the center of the crowd, as lonely as a silver spear that stood firm amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
That's his older brother.
He disappeared into the crowd, turning his head away, unable to bear to look any longer. But the whispers around him kept getting into his ears—some were surprised, some were indignant, and some were cheering…
But what finally shattered all of this was the urgent news brought by a fast horse: "Good news! Good news! The traitor Xiao Pingjiang of Zhennan has been executed! The traitor Xiao Pingjiang of Zhennan..."
He abruptly turned his head, meeting his brother's unfocused eyes, which held no doubt, no anger, only the bewilderment born from overwhelming pain. His father was dead, burdened with a stigma.
He desperately pushed through the crowd, trying to rush over and cover his brother's ears. Please, don't listen anymore.
But when he finally broke free of the crowd, he saw his brother, who had snatched the executioner's knife, staring at him. He shook his head, then ended his own life.
He ultimately couldn't take that next step. It turned out his brother had always known he was there, even though he had said those hurtful things in prison that day, saying he would never see him off...
On this day, Shen Guitang, only twelve years old, lost both his father and his elder brother. From then on, he was defeated and left to die, waiting only for justice to be served.
...
“So, Princess,” Shen Guitang looked back at her, “what I ask for is the same as yours: to set things right.”
This conspiracy against the Zhennan Army could not have been accomplished by Li Yu alone. At that time, the only person in the world who could command the troops stationed in Quzhou and Pingzhou was undoubtedly the late emperor.
However, the late emperor is already dead.
Thinking of her relationship with the late emperor, Hengbo's eyes were somewhat complicated. Shen Guitang, however, was unwilling to delve into this matter: "To overturn the case now, there are three pieces of evidence that are indispensable: the late emperor's decree to Li Yu, the letters between Xiao Pingjiang and Li Yu, and," he said, his tone filled with barely concealed murderous intent, "the late emperor's collusion with the Japanese pirates back then."
"And the purpose of my trip is this last thing."
Hengbo understood perfectly; no wonder Shen Guitang was so sensitive to Li Jian's connection with the Japanese pirates.
She drew back the curtains and looked at the tall trees rushing past outside the carriage; it was heading towards the sea.
Don't you regret it?
Shen Guitang chuckled: "After all these years, I'm not so impatient as to lack this much patience."
After traveling about halfway, the carriage slowly came to a stop. Hei Feng pulled back the curtain and climbed into the carriage: "Young master, we've reached a fork in the road ahead. We haven't noticed anyone following us along the way."
Shen Guitang nodded, indicating that Qiu Yun had indeed lowered his guard against him, and given that their destination was Bin County, it was not enough to arouse his suspicion.
“Young master,” Black Wind hesitated, “let me go to Bin County with you.”
As arranged by Shen Guitang, Heifeng went to Jing County to protect Zhang Mutou, while he and Hengbo went to Binzhou, which borders Jing County, for disaster relief. However, Heifeng's primary task had always been to protect Shen Guitang's safety, and the thought of being separated by such a great distance made him very worried.
Shen Guitang saw the worry in his heart and comforted him, "But your martial arts are not better than the princess's. If she can't save me, then adding you won't make any difference."
Upon hearing this, Hengbo, with his arms crossed, nodded in deep agreement.
Black Wind: ...
Take care.
Leaving those words behind, he rode off on a horse without looking back toward another fork in the road.
After Hei Feng left, Heng Bo took over driving the car, but Shen Guitang also crawled out and sat next to her in front of the car.
Two days until the fifteenth, the bright yellow moon hanging in the sky is just one inch away from being full, and sparse stars are scattered throughout the sky. It is a rare clear night.
“You’ve never asked me who I am,” Shen Guitang said abruptly.
Hengbo was surprised that he would ask such a question, though she had thought about it before.
Without a doubt, he was a member of the Xiao family, but he also happened to have the surname Shen. Moreover, after the Xiao family was labeled as traitors, he was not implicated, as if the world did not know of his existence.
It's hard not to be curious about his identity, but Hengbo refrained from asking.
“I won’t hide anything from you,” he seductively said. If she reached out, he would open his heart for her to touch, but she would never be able to pull it back.
Hengbo knew that he was inviting her to dissect him.
The night was pitch black, and she needed to focus on the road ahead. Yet, she still managed to spare a hand to respond to the lonely soul beside her.
She said, "I don't need to know who you are. Sometimes I don't even know who I am. It's enough that we're sitting together right now."
Tonight, two nameless people are walking on this road.
...
As dawn broke, the two finally arrived in Bin County. The deeper they went into Bin County, the more difficult the road became, with the water already reaching above the knees of an adult woman.
Jing and Bin counties are located in low-lying areas, and the people of these counties usually make a living by fishing and sand mining. As taxes on the people become increasingly heavy, the excessive sand mining eventually leads to the riverbed sinking. When this is combined with continuous heavy rains, it is not uncommon for seawater to overflow.
The roads were already difficult to traverse due to the persistent floodwaters, and with the rising water levels, the carriage struggled to move. The two had no choice but to abandon the cumbersome carriage and ride together towards the most severely affected coastal area.
At this moment, Hengbo's back was pressed tightly against Shen Guitang's chest, but neither of them could care less about any romantic thoughts, as the scene before them was simply too shocking.
The boats that were moored at the sea were capsized, and the houses built on the shore were completely destroyed. But that was nothing compared to the fact that boats and houses could be rebuilt, but the people swept away by the waves would never return.
The seawater intruded for nearly three kilometers in Bin County, and most of the people who depend on the sea for their livelihood live along the coast. This single tidal wave caused countless deaths.
When they arrived, the floodwaters had stopped flowing, but no one knew when it would happen again.
Hengbo dismounted and looked around. The dead were either swept away to who knows where or were floating on the sea without dignity, while the living had no joy of survival on their faces, only numbness and sorrow.
The woman who lost her child wept, the man who was seriously injured groaned, and the old man who had narrowly escaped death resented why he hadn't been the one taken away by fate...
She sniffed; this world, washed by the sea, was too salty.
Just then, a small figure on a wooden plank being tossed about by the waves in the distance came into her view. She rushed over and plunged into the water. In the hazy water, she saw a child who was about to lose consciousness.
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Author's Note: Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 23:49:26 on March 17, 2024 and 00:09:21 on March 20, 2024!
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: JOJO (1 bottle);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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