Huaihua General Guo Jun died
Chapter 39: Death of Huaihua General Guo Jun
Guo Jun led two teams of men and set off for Lizhou to inspect the defenses. Following the usual practice of expediting and carefully inspecting the area, Qian Dashi led his men on a detour to Qizhou. Qian Dashi had a special skill: a natural talent for exploring and identifying roads. Not only in the northern borders, but even on the vast grasslands around him, he could accurately locate locations.
Following the previous direction, they found the path that Chu Huaibei took into the mountains. Guo Jun and his men stood at the intersection and waved without hesitation to signal the team to follow.
The moment they entered the path, the guards noticed them and quickly notified the people inside the workshop, telling those who needed to hide to hide and the others to gather, as there was an enemy intrusion. Fifty guards and twenty-one-five people joined forces to fight.
Chu Huaibei made it known at the beginning of the workshop establishment that except for the people she brought in, anyone else who entered this place would be an enemy and would be killed without mercy.
Less than a cup of tea had Guo Jun and his group entered the forest when they were ambushed by masked men holding scimitars, the mongol scimitars. A myriad of emotions surged through their hearts, and they only managed to shout, "Fight!"
The disparity in strength was significant. Guo Jun only brought twenty men, double the number of his usual patrols. He hadn't expected so many to be stationed there. Ultimately, Guo Jun was fatally stabbed by one of the twenty-one. The bodies on the ground were quickly cleared and dumped on the grasslands at the border of Lizhou and Qizhou. This was the route that had been planned.
As soon as the battle ended, the palace soldiers sent a pigeon to the palace with the news. Chu Huaibei immediately made the necessary arrangements, but she hadn't expected her whereabouts to be discovered so quickly. It seemed she would need to be more cautious heading into the mountains in the future.
The sentries she had previously arranged on the grassland began to operate, disguising Guo Jun and his men as Mongolian troops and ambushing them.
Sun Mingsi received the letter on the 21st. Chu Huaibei's workshop had not been exposed yet, but the address had been discovered. It was not clear whether Guo Jun had left any useful information.
At the same time, a letter from Jin Yi was received: the evidence that the eldest prince had stolen military rations was delivered to the second prince by the third prince.
Sun Mingsi lowered his head and thought for a moment, then picked up his pen to write back: expose the secret agent buried by the second prince in the first prince's mansion, who was actually used by the third prince, so that the second prince would think that the first prince already knew that he had the evidence of stealing military rations.
Guo Jun was a member of the Second Prince's faction, and anyone with keen eyes would surely see Huaibei's arrangements as a carefully orchestrated scapegoating. However, the sheer coincidence of the two events served just enough to deflect suspicion from Huaibei.
He then ordered Jin San to hide several used Mongolian scimitars in the home of General Guide Li Guyan's concubine west of the city.
After doing all this, Sun Mingsi continued to read Uncle Deng's medical books. If he didn't understand something, he would go to Uncle Deng for help. Uncle Deng's explanations were simple and easy to understand, and Sun Mingsi became more and more obsessed with them.
In recent months, he has been reading medical books when he has nothing to do. He originally read them to kill time, but he didn't expect that he has actually learned some medical theories. Occasionally, he would help pass things or catch living things when Uncle Deng was doing experiments. Uncle Deng's experiments were very interesting. Many of them were things that were not in line with common sense in the eyes of outsiders, but Uncle Deng did them as a matter of course, and the results were unexpectedly good.
Deng Ran wanted to ask Hu Zhi many times whether he was willing to inherit his mantle, but looking at his manners and upbringing, as well as the guards who followed him, they were not something a merchant family could have. His identity was a problem, and he was just interested, and it was unknown how long he could persist. Inheriting his mantle would require years of learning, which was a process that required a lot of patience.
Forget it, let's just go with the flow. I just regret that the prince is a useless piece of wood when it comes to studying medicine and cannot be carved.
That night, Sun Mingsi first washed Hengheng and sent him to the left ear room to sleep. After the two of them were ready and lying on the bed, Sun Mingsi asked Chu Huaibei for his opinion on something he had been thinking about for the past few days: "Huaibei, I want to learn medicine from Uncle Deng. What do you think?"
"Huh? Really? That's fantastic. Uncle Deng always calls me a piece of rotten wood, saying that no one has inherited his skills. If you could inherit his legacy, he would be so happy that he would go crazy. Uncle Deng has already hinted at this to me, but I thought you were just killing time with medical books, so I kept it to myself."
"I only decided recently. I don't think I have the talent for studying medicine, but I still want to give it a try."
"Of course you can do it. At least you are much better than me, otherwise Uncle Deng wouldn't ask me." Chu Huaibei's tone was extremely firm.
"Okay, then I'll ask Uncle Deng tomorrow if he's willing to accept me as his disciple." Sun Mingsi no longer hesitated after receiving Chu Huaibei's strong approval.
The next day, Sun Mingsi went to Deng Ran's residence and bowed respectfully, "Uncle Deng, I would like to become your disciple and learn medicine from you. Would you be willing?"
When Deng Ran first saw Hu Zhi bowing respectfully, he didn't know what was going on. But when he heard that he was here to become his disciple, a smile appeared on his face instantly, and wrinkles formed around his eyes, covering them.
"Yes, of course I am. Come on, take the teacup. After you offer me this cup of tea, you will be my disciple, Deng Ran." Deng Ran stuffed the teacup on the table into his hand and walked quickly to the main seat in the main hall, waiting to drink the tea offered by the disciple to his teacher.
"Isn't this a bit too simple? Should I ask someone to prepare a complete apprenticeship gift before I become your disciple?" Sun Mingsi was shocked by Deng Ran's casualness.
"It's okay, no need, I don't care about these things, come on, good disciple."
"Okay, then I'll listen to Master."
"Master, please have some tea." Sun Mingsi knelt in front of Deng Ran and offered the teacup with both hands.
Deng Ran took the teacup, drank it in one gulp, put it down, helped Sun Mingsi up, and praised him repeatedly: "Good! Good! Good! Good! My dear disciple, you will inherit my legacy from now on!"
While the situation at the Zhenbei Palace remained calm, suspicions swirled within the military camp. After a sentry lured the Lizhou guards there, news of General Guo's death spread quickly.
After the military doctor examined the wound, it was confirmed that the wound was caused by the Mongolian army's scimitar. For a moment, General Guo's subordinates were furious and wanted to rush to the grassland to avenge their commander.
Chu Huaibei asked everyone to calm down first and sent people to the Mongolian grassland to investigate and see if there was any tribe that was nomadic nearby recently.
The generals behind him were all thinking about something. They returned to their respective tents and started writing letters.
Chu Huaibei reported Guo Jun's death to the court. The emperor, unusually generous, promoted him to the rank of Second Rank General of Valor, returned him to the capital for a lavish burial, and granted Guo Jun's wife an imperial decree. Since Guo Jun had no adult sons in the army, he could not succeed his father in the lineage. This honor was considered a reward for the benefit of an entire generation. Whether the family could rise again depended on the succession of their descendants.
The second prince was the first to receive the secret letter of Guo Jun's death. Combined with the fact that his secret agent was recently eliminated by the eldest prince, it is very likely that the eldest prince knew that he had evidence of stealing military rations. This was a demonstration to him: What can you do with the evidence, general of the Zhenbei Army? I can kill your people whenever I want.
The third prince had previously experienced the assassination of a spy, and thought that it was because he did not handle it properly, leaving a tail that was discovered. Unexpectedly, a few days later, he received the news that Guo Jun died in a surprise attack by the Mongolian army. If one thing had not happened to rush another, the third prince would have been able to calm down and think about the real cause of Guo Jun's death.
After discussing with the advisers in the palace, most of them believed that it was the eldest prince's doing. Only one adviser thought that the matter was too coincidental and there might be other strange things. They needed to send people to the scene of the incident to investigate before making a decision.
Other counselors firmly believed that such coincidences were man-made, otherwise why would General Guo and not another general be in trouble? He couldn't explain this, and sending people to investigate now would easily lead to their whereabouts being discovered. The King of Zhenbei must have already arranged more troops for patrol.
Meanwhile, in the study, Lord Zhao questioned the eldest prince, asking if he had ordered the murder of Guo Jun. The eldest prince defended himself, and he realized how Guo Jun could have been killed. Lord Zhao, seeing that he refused to admit it, felt both disappointed and sad. He considered himself as intelligent as anyone else, and the daughter he had sent to the palace was also beautiful and intelligent, and still held the emperor's favor. So why was his grandson so mediocre—not too mediocre, anyway—that he used those little tricks on women? He was a bit arrogant, relying on the emperor's favor.
He had discovered it last year when the Crown Prince replaced his military rations. He had connected with Fan Liang, the Imperial Censor of the Northern Frontier, through Wang Jing. He had initially thought it would be a good idea to bring Fan Liang into their camp, so he didn't stop him. Even if it were exposed, it would be a minor matter that could be dealt with.
Unexpectedly, he was even bolder this year, directly replacing 100,000 dan of military rations and selling them through grain merchants affiliated with the Zhao Mansion. He was simply courting death, no wonder the Second Prince found evidence. Now Guo Jun had died inexplicably on the grassland, and even he refused to believe that it wasn't the First Prince's doing.
Elder Zhao rubbed his brows and asked, "Really, it wasn't you who did it?"
"Grandfather, I really didn't do it. I had no reason to lie to you." The eldest prince died unjustly.
"You've lied to me quite a few times."
"Grandpa, you must believe me this time. I really didn't do it. I've been staying in the backyard lately and have no time to do anything else!"
"Have you brought the courtesan from Qiushui Pavilion back to the backyard?"
"Grandfather, this is just a play."
"Now that you know, stop wasting your time on material things and have a legitimate son with Yan'er as soon as possible."
"Yes, grandpa, I know." The eldest prince complained in his heart. Yan'er was like a dead fish on the bed, which made him lose interest.
The eldest prince returned to the palace, thought for a moment, and decided to go to the main room. Seeing the eldest prince's wife working quickly on an abacus and sorting through the palace's account books, his thoughts instantly vanished, and he turned and walked towards the backyard. The nanny beside him looked on anxiously, wondering what was going on.
Chu Huaibei saw that several generals in the camp who had people behind them were unusually well-behaved, and felt that this matter might be related to something the eldest prince had done again. Since no one suspected her, that was great. However, he didn't know which general the emperor would send to replace Guo Jun this time.
New generals always try to assert themselves. Hoping this time, they'll find someone who understands what's best. Whether they're smart or just plain average, as long as they stay put, do their job, and don't jump around all the time, that's all that matters. I still remember Guo Jun's ambitions when he first arrived, wanting to get involved in everything. He thought he could replace the Prince of Zhenbei and lead the Zhenbei Army. But before he'd even been a year old, he was terrified by the Mongol army and had to keep his head down.
Moreover, this year's major patrol would begin in less than a month, and she didn't know if the new general would be able to make it. If he couldn't, there would be one less person stationed there, and then she couldn't follow the old rules, so she would have to make new arrangements, which would make things even more complicated. Just thinking about it gave Chu Huaibei a headache, and he held his head and sat in his tent for a while, stunned.
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