"Helian Jue, you're deliberately feigning weakness! You...you harbor treacherous ambitions!"
In Huangzhou, at the governor's office, a dark-skinned, lean, and strong man was bound hand and foot.
His eyes were bloodshot, his face was full of resentment, and he was shouting and cursing.
"A lone wolf's ambition?"
Helian Jue's bright silver armor, the red tassel on his helmet, stained even brighter with blood.
Helian Jue rushed from Yuezhou to Huangzhou, shooting wild beasts and wiping out mountain bandits along the way, and his sword finally drew blood.
He was tempered in the flames of war.
The once noble and aloof royal prince has now transformed into a cold and ruthless demon.
He was like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath, gleaming with a terrifyingly cold light.
If Helian Jue, a prince of high status, has undergone such a transformative change, then the five thousand soldiers must have undergone an even more remarkable transformation.
The large force successfully stormed into Huangzhou and defeated Huang Zhida and his men with an overwhelming force.
The troops entrenched in Huangzhou were either besieged, surrendered, or fled into the deep mountains.
Claiming to be an army of 30,000, it actually consisted of only 10,000 soldiers who "vanished" in an instant.
Only Huang Zhida and a few of his staunch confidants remained, and Helian Jue immediately ordered them to be tied up.
Helian Jue walked around the main hall of the government office.
After three years without a prefect, the government offices had fallen into disrepair.
Wild grass grew luxuriantly on the high walls outside the courtyard, and weeds also grew in the cracks between the floor tiles inside the courtyard.
In the courtroom, a layer of dust covered the tables, pillars, and other items.
Some of the walls even had black, dried blood on them.
"Huang Zhida, you are the traitor!"
"When you killed Li Jin, did you ever think he was an official of my Great Zhou Dynasty?"
Helian Jue's voice was cold, and his gaze was even colder!
The Li Jin he mentioned was the Prefect of Huangzhou.
Three years ago, the sage finally unified the North and South and established the Great Zhou Dynasty.
After the establishment of the new dynasty, the sage announced it to the world.
Most of the former officials of the Lingnan prefectures and counties, as well as the local powerful families, expressed their intention to submit to the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The sage dispatched troops to attack the few who refused to submit.
After a fierce battle, the entire Lingnan region was eventually incorporated into the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Subsequently, the sage appointed officials to fill the vacant positions.
Li Jin was one of them.
Although his surname was Li, he was not from a prominent family, but a scholar from a poor family.
It was precisely because of his poor background that he was sent to Lingnan by the imperial court, and he neither refused nor fled.
He was full of ambition and wanted to educate the people and govern Huangzhou to make them live in peace and prosperity.
However, there was another man in Huangzhou named Huang Zhida. He had always wanted to establish himself as king, but he was afraid of the imperial army, so he pretended to submit, but in reality he was plotting a rebellion.
After taking office, Li Jin re-registered the population and land in his jurisdiction.
He was eager to achieve political success, which allowed Huang Zhida to exploit a loophole.
Huang Zhida incited the Li people, saying that the corrupt officials of the imperial court were here to seize their land and to force them to work as laborers and fight in wars.
Several tribes of the Li people were deceived and actually launched a rebellion.
The mob stormed the governor's mansion, and Huang Zhida's men mingled among them, taking advantage of the chaos to kill Li Jin and a group of other officials.
After killing people and seizing the governor's mansion, Huang Zhida also tried to frame Li Jin, claiming he was corrupt, tyrannical, and forced good people into rebellion!
Huangzhou was too remote, and by the time the news reached Guangcheng, it was already two or three months later.
The governor of Guangcheng sent people to investigate the situation while simultaneously writing a memorial to the court.
Two months had passed before the memorial was received in the capital.
It was six months later when the officials sent from the capital arrived in Huangzhou to investigate.
So much time has passed, the evidence has long been destroyed.
The truth is known only to the mob and Huang Zhida; no one else knows.
Oh, no, there's another person who also knew about it.
"Your Highness, Huang Zhida deliberately harmed my father!"
In the main hall of the government office, there stood a girl in white, about fifteen or sixteen years old. Her name was Li Lizhi, and she was the orphan of Prefect Li Jin.
Li Lizhi, true to her name, possessed a beautiful appearance, an elegant temperament, and an air of scholarly refinement.
She vividly demonstrated what it means to be "well-read and educated, naturally elegant."
“When my father first took office, that scoundrel Huang Zhida even tried to drag him down with him!”
When Li Lizhi mentioned her tragically deceased father, tears welled up in her eyes, and her slender body trembled.
"The Yellow Dog Thief said that Huangzhou is far from the emperor's reach, so even if he establishes himself as king, the imperial court will be powerless to intervene."
He also said that Huangzhou originally belonged to the Southern Dynasty, and the Great Zhou Dynasty had invaded the former territory of the Southern Dynasty. It was greedy to even try to take over Huangzhou.
"The scoundrel Huang knew that my father's ancestral home was in Jiangnan and that his ancestors were all from the Southern Dynasties, so he tried his best to mislead me!"
“My father said that the unification of the North and South was an inevitable trend. The sage was a wise and powerful ruler.”
"The unification of the world is a great achievement for generations to come. As subjects, we should follow this trend, be loyal to the emperor, and serve the country..."
By the end, Li Lizhi was sobbing uncontrollably.
The Li family was poor. The father studied hard for more than ten years, but because of his background, he was not even qualified to enter officialdom.
It was only after the establishment of the Great Zhou Dynasty that the sage, regardless of social status, recruited talented individuals, which gave my father the opportunity to become an official and realize his ambitions.
As a result, his ambitions remained unfulfilled!
When Li Jin died, his entire family, who had followed him to his new post, were also slaughtered.
Only one daughter remained, who was left behind in her hometown in Jiangnan due to illness.
The old servant, who had managed to escape, returned to his hometown with great difficulty, found Li Lizhi, and told her the whole truth.
Li Lizhi originally wanted to go to the government to plead for her father's innocence. Her father had already been tragic enough to be killed innocently, but now he was also burdened with the infamy of being a corrupt and incompetent official.
However, Li Lizhi had no evidence, only an old servant, but this old servant was originally from the Li family, and the court would not easily believe his testimony.
Although Li Lizhi was a woman, she possessed a heroic spirit. She even took her old servant and traveled thousands of miles to Huangzhou to try every means to find evidence.
This search took two or three years.
Li Lizhi couldn't find evidence that Huang Zhida had framed her own father, but she did find evidence that Huang Zhida had been secretly raising troops and manufacturing weapons.
Li Lizhi took the evidence and prepared to return to the capital.
But they were discovered by Huang Zhida's men.
Just when Li Lizhi was cornered by the pursuers and was about to jump off a cliff to commit suicide, the wise and mighty Prince Yue descended from the sky.
No one could understand Li Lizhi's feelings; in her heart, Helian Jue had become a god.
Subsequently, Li Lizhi was even more grateful to Helian Jue—he believed in her father and was willing to help him avenge his father!
Li Lizhi's heart was completely captivated.
Without the slightest hesitation, she handed over all the evidence she had gathered to Helian Jue, and watched as Helian Jue led his troops into Huangzhou and captured Huang Zhida alive.
Faced with the defeat of Huang Zhida, Li Lizhi finally had someone to vent her pent-up hatred.
She spoke tearfully, each word dripping with blood and tears, accusing Huang Zhida of his crimes.
Helian Jue: ...
You look so ugly when you cry!
However, considering that Li Jin's daughter had helped him find the way, Helian Jue refrained from giving her the cold shoulder.
Li Lizhi misunderstood...
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