Cage (12)
Feng Siji squatted down in front of Ye Shu, grabbed his collar, and his eyes were red with tears: "Say it again?"
Ye Shu coughed up a stream of frothy blood from the corner of his mouth. His throat seemed to be filled with blood, and a gurgling sound came out as he spoke. "The county lady thought that Prime Minister Zhang would set an ambush. There are three routes to the mass grave: Jingji, Qingxian, and Yashan... but she doesn't know which route he will set the trap on."
The county lord has more or less known Zhang Zhouzhu over the years. He always does things without leaving any room for maneuver, so he will not take the risk of choosing any of the three paths as an ambush. Once the county lord does not choose that path, he will lose.
The county lady thought that he would not set the trap at the mass grave at the end point, because when she arrived there, her men would be all in place, and if she set a trap there, it would not be called a trap, but a confrontation.
Only one location remained. During the war, plagues were rampant everywhere, and His Majesty ordered the mass grave to be as far away as possible, so it was located deep in Yashan. To reach the mass grave, Yashan is the only way to pass through the halfway point. Furthermore, Yashan's terrain is high and steep, rugged and flat, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Compared to the other two routes, it is the best place to set a trap.
So the county lord led them along the Qingxian Road, crossed Yashan Mountain, and directly skipped the half of the road that had to be passed.
However, none of them expected that Zhang Zhouzhu also guessed that the county lord would do this.
The two of them have been working together since Li Qi came to Kyoto. Li Qi understands his determination to hold nothing back, and he also understands Li Qi's intelligence.
So Zhang Zhouzhu hadn't set up an ambush along that road at all, but rather at the destination, where Li Qi would never have thought it was. He had dug a massive pit, one that must have been dug long ago. The surface layer of gray soil had been tanned to match the color of the surrounding soil, though it was still slightly soft and invisible unless one looked closely.
They were all on horseback at the time, and the horses were moving very fast. No one noticed anything unusual, but then they heard the horses neighing in pain. Then everyone lost their balance and fell down. When they stepped on the surface dust, yellow soil splashed all over the sky, blinding their eyes.
Ye Shu's eyes were red as he said, "I have followed your instructions... I will not let the county lady get involved alone. I led my men to fight to the death to protect her. However, Prime Minister Zhang brought too many people with him. The county lady said that he wanted to use all his strength to eliminate us and would not leave any trouble behind.
"We were almost completely wiped out, but the county lady later fought with Qingsong to save her subordinates, and was then taken away by Qingsong..."
He never expected that the county lady would save him. At that time, he asked some people to stand in front as human shields to withstand the arrows shot by Zhang Zhouzhu's hundreds of archers, while he climbed up from behind with the backbone of the Wu army.
By the time they climbed out of the pit, they had lost half their men, but there was no time for grief as they were busy fighting a fierce battle. Amidst the flashing swords and clashes, he didn't notice Qingsong coming at him with a sword. It was the county lady who fended Qingsong off for him, taking a sword blow to the arm.
Qingsong may have noticed that Li Qi's kung fu was extraordinary, and he sneered and said, "How much clumsiness have you hidden in front of the Prime Minister over the years?", and then he kept pestering her to fight.
They were already exhausted from climbing over the cliff and out of the deep pit, and half of their men were killed early on, so their fighting spirit was greatly reduced. The outcome was decided soon, and they were defeated step by step.
Finally, the county lady asked him to go find Shengxiang. Before he left, the county lady was defeated. Qingsong put a knife to her neck and took her away.
Thinking of the bloody battlefield and his companions falling one by one in front of him, Ye Shu seemed to be blinded by the dust in the deep pit again. He shed tears in pain and let out a hoarse howl in his throat. He coughed suddenly, coughing out the blood stuck in his throat, staining the collar of Feng Siji, who was squatting in front of him, red.
Feng Siji's eyes were stung by the red spot on his collar. He almost felt dizzy for an instant and felt as if all his strength was gone, as if the skeleton that had been supporting him had been forcibly peeled off and his limbs suddenly went limp.
He suddenly supported himself against the ground, breathing rapidly, his eyes gradually turning red as he tried hard to digest the bad news brought by Ye Shu.
"Take him inside and find a doctor..."
Feng Siji, as if in a daze, ordered the servant guarding the gate, staggered to his feet, then stumbled back to the stable in the mansion, pulled out the black horse that he and Li Qi had ridden in Qianzhou, and climbed on it.
He had no patience to wait for anyone, nor did he have the energy to explain what he was going to do. As soon as he got on his horse, he whipped it and rushed out of the mansion.
Jiao Lan, who was riding behind him, chased him frantically: "Sir, wait for me!"
Two horses galloped into the busy street, one in front and one behind. The sun was strong in the spring afternoon. The stall owners on both sides of the street were dozing lazily, or gathered in groups of three or five to chat about their recent business, and some were eating lunch. The peaceful and quiet street was startled by the two flying horses. The person who was eating recognized Feng Siji on the horse's back and was so shocked that the chopsticks in his hand dropped.
By the time he reacted, Lord Feng's horse had already galloped past him, leaving only a gust of cold wind blowing on his face. He hurriedly shouted, "It's Lord Feng!"
"What? Lord Feng?" The stall owners who were crowded around in the afternoon all became alert. As they leaned over to look, they saw another horse galloping past. It looked like there was a woman on the horse.
The people on the busy street were so shocked by the sound that they stood to the sides of the road, making way for the spacious path in the middle. If it was someone else riding a horse in the street, they would be the first to report him to the authorities. But this person was the Bao Qingtian in their hearts, so it was a different story.
Someone shouted, "Your Excellency is in such a hurry, he must be going to catch the murderer. I believe there is a clue in the Empress's case! Everyone, make way for our great judge!"
"It is understandable that the lord is letting his horse go, but no one is allowed to report it to the authorities!!"
“…”
These sounds were blown into Feng Siji's ears by the wind. He looked at the wide road in front of him that had spontaneously opened up, and he felt as if he was torn into two halves. One half was given to these simple people who were trapped in the truth, and the other half was given to Li Qi, whom everyone wanted to get rid of, but not to himself.
He suddenly felt a dryness in his throat, as if he was about to choke and cry. He bit his cheeks tightly and tried to hold it back, but suddenly found that he could not see the rapidly receding scenery on the street. When the wind blew, he felt a chill on his face. It turned out that he had tears, and the tears blurred his vision.
He raised his hand and wiped his eyes heavily. At the same time, the horse finally neighed and rushed out of the city. The noise of the busy street disappeared from his ears, and the vision in front of him suddenly became wide.
He whipped the horse more and more desperately, and the horse ran faster than ever, rushing along the cliff road closest to the mass grave.
The sun above his head sank slowly, and finally, before jumping off the hill, Feng Si ran to the mass grave.
The tragic scene after the war gradually emerged before his eyes. He reined in his horse suddenly. The horse raised its front hooves high and stopped, breathing out hot air from exhaustion.
Beneath the horse's hooves lay the blood-stained dirt, sinking three inches with each step. A few paces further, corpses lay scattered across the ground. Behind the pile of corpses lay a burned-out house, its walls shattered to the ground, a few dying flames still flickering.
The smell of burning and blood filled the air, mixed together to form an extremely unpleasant stench. The horse under him tilted its head in disgust and turned around to leave.
Feng Siji had no choice but to jump off the horse. The moment he landed, his feet sank into the soft mud soaked with blood. He looked at it in horror, lifted his feet and continued to move forward.
In front of him was the deep pit that Ye Shu had mentioned. He stood at the edge of the pit and looked inside. The bottom was also filled with corpses.
He silently shifted his gaze and looked around. He found no weapons in the surroundings or among the corpses in the deep pit. He thought they had been collected by Zhang Zhouzhu's men.
He looked around, and even he didn't know what he was looking for or what he was expecting. Zhang Zhouzhu took her away, so could it be that he would wait here for him to find her?
But he just couldn't give up. How could he give up without taking a look?
He walked towards the burnt-out house. With every step he took, he became more and more panicked about the possibility of seeing her dead inside. He stared at the dilapidated house that was gradually approaching, and his breathing unconsciously became faster and faster.
He wanted to see her very much, but he was even more afraid to see her. If possible, as long as she didn't appear in front of him at this moment, he would be willing to never see her again.
Suddenly, a hand grabbed his robe.
His rapid breathing stagnated, and he lowered his head with a vague expectation. When he saw the man's face clearly, the hope in his eyes gradually turned into disappointment, but there was also a hint of relief that Qinglan was not dead yet.
Feng Siji squatted down, grabbed Qinglan's shoulders and helped her up, and asked anxiously: "Where is she?"
Qinglan's hair and clothes were covered in blood, and her cheeks were covered with dirty mud. She opened her mouth to speak with her dying breath, but seemed to have no strength left. She slowly raised her hand and pointed in a direction.
Feng Siji looked in the direction she pointed and saw the dilapidated house with broken walls. His heart sank.
"Sir!" Jiao Lan's voice came from the distance. Jiao Lan followed on horseback. She quickly dismounted and ran to his side. Seeing Qinglan gasping for breath, she was startled and quickly squatted down and hugged Qinglan in her arms.
She and Qinglan had been together since childhood. Seeing her like this, she couldn't help but feel her eyes turn red.
She didn't have time to feel sad. Seeing Feng Siji walking towards the dilapidated house, she grabbed Feng Siji's robe, looked up at the back of his head and asked, "Sir, what are you going to do?"
Feng Siji's voice came slowly, "I'll go see her...you take Qinglan back."
After he gave these instructions, he ran towards the dilapidated house.
The beams of the house collapsed due to the fire, blocking his way. He lifted his robe and stepped over, looking around, but he didn't see her. There were only a few gorgeous and expensive gold hairpins lying on the ground, but they were not her hairpins.
He had no time to think about who these hairpins and rings belonged to. Since he couldn't see her, he couldn't help but squat down and dig at the ruins with his bare hands.
The sparks were still there, and when I stretched out my hand, my palm was burned and a bloody hole appeared on it.
He seemed to feel no pain, his heart and eyes were filled with her, thinking that even if he died he wanted to see her body. Even in such a big fire, it would be good if there were some traces left, not a body.
But no matter what it was, even if it was just the dagger she carried with her, he had to see it.
"Sir!" Jiao Lan tied Qinglan to the horse's back. Seeing Feng Siji digging non-stop with his bare hands, she was frightened and hurried to catch up. She pulled Feng Siji's arm hard and said anxiously: "We can't stay here for long, sir, you'd better leave!"
Pulling up his arms, Jiao Lan discovered that his palms and wrists were covered in pits of flesh, a bloody mess. She was shocked, her eyes widening. "Will you hold a pen in the future? How can you write case files if you can't hold a pen?"
Feng Siji ignored him and bent down to continue digging. Jiao Lan wanted to pull him away, but he pushed her away with great force. She fell to the ground and her trouser legs were almost burned by the flames. She hurriedly reached out to pull her trouser legs, looked up, and saw Feng Siji was still digging.
His clothes were stained with blood and mud, his hair was messy and hung down, and he looked so disheveled that Jiao Lan had never seen him look so disheveled.
The hot flames made sweat appear on his face and dripped down his temples. Jiao Lan saw some of the sweat dripping into the palm of his hand and mixing with the blood in his palm.
Seeing his dazed look, Jiao Lan stood up from the ground, looked down at him and said, "Look at how useless you are. It's just a woman who has deceived you several times. Is she worth your shameless digging and scratching?"
Feng Siji paused, turned around, and stared at her with bloodshot eyes.
That look seemed to break her bones, but she was not afraid and said coldly: "What are you looking at me for?"
"Why are you looking at me?" There was no fear on her face. Having been the master of the palace for a while, she had developed a certain arrogance in her demeanor.
"I can't find her. Qinglan said that Zhang Zhouzhu will definitely come back here, either to search for survivors or to set an ambush for you to find her.
"Only then will we be truly annihilated. It's better for you to die, so you don't have to sacrifice yourself every day for a woman, but in return you won't get any sympathy or pity from her."
"I'll tell you the truth. Eunuch Li is missing. He actually went to look for Dong Mingrong. He said he received news that Dong Mingrong was in Zhang Zhouzhu's hands." Jiao Lan snorted coldly and said harshly:
"Just wait here, digging and waiting, waiting for Zhang Zhouzhu to return with his men and kill you as well. If you die, Zhang Gui will probably use Dong Mingrong to blackmail Eunuch Li, and then he'll die at his hands. He'll then kill Mingrong and put an end to it all. All of us will die at Zhang Gui's hands just because you were looking for Li Qi. That would be a perfect ending for everyone!"
Feng Siji stopped digging, knelt in the pile of ashes, slowly lowered his head, and his drooped shoulders twitched.
His waist bent inch by inch, and he knelt there hunched over, suddenly choking with a whimper.
As if afraid that she would hear or see him, he quickly suppressed the tears. He tried his best to swallow them back, but he couldn't help it, and a hoarse, gurgling sound kept coming out of his throat.
Jiao Lan just watched coldly until she heard the sound of scales colliding. Alarm bells rang in her heart. She bent down and helped Feng Siji up: "Hurry up!"
Feng Siji let her tear him apart and pull him out of the dilapidated house where Li Qi was buried.
He was pulled to the side of the horse, the sounds of scale armor and swords gradually approached, and his mind slowly returned. Thinking of what Jiao Lan said, he couldn't help but clench his fists tightly. He knew that there was no time. Looking at the horse in front of him, he wanted to get on, but he couldn't take a step.
In the end, it was Jiao Lan who supported him and pushed him shakily onto the horse.
She raised her whip and said, "Sir, I'm sorry." Her subordinates swung the whip hard and hit the horse. The horse neighed and rushed out with Feng Si on its back.
Lying on the horse's back, Feng Siji took a last look at the burnt-black house. All he could see were the dying flames, sparks and smoke flying in the air, and dust floating in the sunlight.
He thought that he would never see her again, which was more despair than a dead heart. He was completely desperate.
The horse ran farther and farther away, and Feng Siji kept his eyes open. As the horse ran, the fur on its back would prick his eyes from time to time, causing stinging, but he never blinked until the dilapidated house and the pile of corpses in his sight gradually shrank into a small black dot and completely disappeared. Only then did he close his eyes heavily.
The moment his eyes fell into darkness, his other senses were suddenly magnified several times. The pain of losing Li Qi came over him instantly, entangled in him more fiercely than before. A fishy and sweet taste surged in his throat. Without time to suppress anything, he suddenly hugged the horse's neck, and with a wow, vomited a large pool of blood.
His last sight was fixed on the horse's snow-white fur being stained red by his own blood, and then everything went black before his eyes and he lost consciousness.
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When Feng Siji woke up, the sky was extremely dark. A jade moon was hanging above his head, and the light it shed was mottled by the branches of the trees, and scattered here and there.
With the help of these scattered lights, he found himself still lying on the horse's back. The horse was standing under a tree, carrying him patiently. As if it felt that he was awake, the horse turned its head and snorted hot breath at him.
Feng Siji touched its head and looked ahead. It was an unfamiliar forest. A few steps away was a river. The gurgling river water turned the reflection of the jade toad in the sky into broken waves.
Jiao Lan must have lost him, and the horse, in search of water, had carried him here. Not knowing where its owner was going, it simply waited by the water source for him to wake up.
He was awake, but he didn't have the strength to get up.
He saw his dried blood on the horse's neck, and felt as if Li Qi had dug out a piece of his heart and taken it away, leaving him feeling empty.
He lay on the horse's back, too weak to even move a finger.
I don’t know what happened in Kyoto. He Zhangjing might have been released by Chen Hu and others. What about Ye Lan? Will they attack Ye Lan?
During this period, although he kept Ye Lan Sheng Xiang imprisoned, he provided them with good food and drink. He was afraid that Li Qi would be angry, so he did not dare to let them suffer any hardship other than being imprisoned.
Later, Shengxiang took the initiative to find him and said that he wanted to beat the drum to appeal for justice and bring up the previous cases. He joined forces with Li Ke and the useless Emperor Liang to transfer those reopened old cases to him.
Everything went on in an orderly manner. He found Queen Zhang Wan. Zhang Wan wanted Zhang Zhouzhu to die more than any of them, so she would naturally testify for them because her former husband was a fourth-rank official in the court and died at the hands of Zhang Zhouzhu.
He also used the Yunzhou case to threaten He Zhangjing. He Zhangjing's legs were crippled by Zhang Zhouzhu, and he agreed to testify as long as he could survive.
There are also the most crucial cases of Shengxiang and himself, the two cases of Xianglai Inn and his father. With so many things going on and so many people testifying, Zhang Zhouzhu will definitely lose.
The only thing he didn't expect was that Zhang Zhouzhu would threaten the lives of the people in order to take Shengxiang away. A man like him would have such great destructive power when he was at the end of his rope, and he wanted to eliminate all threats without leaving any room for maneuver.
He never expected that Dong Mingrong fell into Zhang Zhouzhu's hands and became his means of threatening Li Qi and Shengxiang. Trapped by love, Li Ke left everything in Kyoto and ran to find Dong Mingrong.
He and Li Qi couldn't handle it alone...
Feng Siji suddenly felt lucid. Where was Dong Linche? This general, who held all the military power over Kyoto's defenses, had never appeared before when such a major incident occurred.
Did something happen too?
Feng Siji quickly rejected his idea. Dong Linche's kung fu was superb. He could fight against a hundred people at once. He also had so many soldiers at his disposal that even Zhang Zhouzhu could not hurt him.
Something seemed to be happening. Could this be Li Qi's plan? But if that was the case, how could she have killed so many of his men?
Although she was a bit unscrupulous, she had experienced the battlefield of Yunzhou and seen endless corpses. She had empathy and would not kill innocent people indiscriminately.
Feng Siji blinked his eyes. No matter how many questions he had, he would have the answers once he met Dong Linche.
He supported himself on the horse's back, climbed up with difficulty, cleared his dry throat, and jumped off the horse by holding onto the tree trunk beside him.
His feet became numb from staying in one position for too long, and he couldn't stand steadily, so he fell to his knees.
Feng Siji supported himself on the ground with both hands, feeling a sharp pain in his palms. He raised his hands and saw only the pitted and burned flesh. The memory of digging out the broken house came back to him, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
I had no choice but to raise my hands and not touch it, and slowly wait for the stiffness and numbness in my legs to subside before I stood up.
He walked to the river, endured the pain, put his hands in the water, let the flowing river water wash the wound clean, then walked back to the horse, took out the arrow from the sack, used the arrow to cut a piece of cloth from his clothes, and wrapped the wound with the cloth.
After finishing his work, he put the arrow back, picked up the water bag hanging on his horse, went to the river to fill it with water, drank a few sips, and hung the water bag back.
He wanted to mount his horse and leave, but it was too dark and he was not familiar with the place, wondering if there were any big beasts. He was cautious and did not act rashly.
He squatted down under the tree, picked some weeds and chewed them.
No matter what it is, having something to fill your stomach is better than nothing.
The horse found this place by itself. It must have eaten the grass before, so it was fine and the poison would not kill it.
Fortunately, it was spring. If it was a winter like before, his horse might not have survived, and if it hadn't, he wouldn't have survived either.
Feng Siji only ate a little wild grass and then stopped, leaning against the roots of a tree and closing his eyes to rest.
He couldn't sleep, so as soon as the sky became a little brighter, he got up, waited for the horse to finish eating grass, and then rode away to find a way.
It was already afternoon when Feng Siji arrived at Dong Linche's military camp outside Beijing.
He was so haggard that his cheeks were pale, his hair was messy, and his hands wrapped in gauze were holding the reins. He stood outside the military camp, listening to the soldiers' training sounds.
Before he could even enter, a soldier stopped him and asked fiercely, "Who are you? This is a very important military area. How can you just walk into it?"
Feng Siji glanced at him, cleared his dry throat, and introduced himself before saying, "Please inform General Dong."
The soldier glanced him up and down. He had never seen such a miserable official from the imperial court, but he was also afraid of delaying any military intelligence, so he asked his companions to take care of him and ran inside.
After a while, the soldier came out. His attitude towards him was much better. He smiled and said, "Sir, please go in quickly. The general is waiting for you in the tent."
Feng Siji nodded and thanked him, asked him to help feed his horse, and then walked in.
Someone led him into Dong Linche's military tent.
There were two lanterns on the left and right sides of the military tent, and a long table in the middle, on which were models of the mountains and rivers of Daliang and Nanyan.
Dong Linche stood beside the long table, looking thoughtfully at the mountain and river model. Behind him hung a huge map of the country. Hearing Feng Siji's footsteps, he looked up with an impatient look:
"What are you doing here?" He told him, but they were not close enough to pay him a visit.
Feng Siji didn't see Li Qi in his tent, or any trace of her. He felt a tightness in his chest and asked, "Do you know what happened to your sister?"
After he said that, he looked at Dong Linche closely, hoping to find even a little clue from him.
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