Hidden Dragon Do Not Use
Mu Yao originally thought of taking Xiao Luochen away first, and then finding a random excuse to lose this "imperial criminal" that the governor wanted to capture. As long as Xiao Luochen left Xizhou City, he would be able to fly freely in the sky and jump freely in the sea. But the facts proved that she seemed to have underestimated the weight of Xiao Luochen in the hearts of that group of people.
The moment he saw the person coming, Su Musong knew that Xiao Luochen's being escorted to Kyoto was a foregone conclusion.
"I haven't seen you for many years. Young Master Xiao Qi is even more charming than before."
Wang Zheng was dressed in military uniform and riding a tall horse. With the support of the Yunzhou soldiers behind him, he actually had the air of a great general. However, the tone of his voice was still as annoying as it was twelve years ago.
The Yunzhou army is as brave and good at fighting as the Zhirui Camp, and Wang Zheng is the commander of Yunzhou, with a higher military rank than Mu Yao. For the sake of the overall situation, Mu Yao can only wait and see.
Xiao Luochen walked through the messengers brought by the governor and Mu Yao's elite battalion and strode to Wang Zheng. As soon as he saw Wang Zheng, he knew that he would not be able to escape today.
"The war in the north was ongoing. I thought the prince had died for his country. Who would have thought that you and I would meet again one day."
Wang Zheng was exiled to the northern border that year, but later it was said that he had made great contributions and was acquitted. Since then, with the support of his family, he has risen rapidly and is now the governor of Yunzhou.
"I am loyal to my country. Even if I am framed by treacherous officials, I will always be able to recover and serve my country again. I am naturally different from those traitors who collaborate with the enemy and betray the country and execute their entire clans and exterminate their entire families."
Su Musong was furious when he heard this. He only regretted that he had not thrown Wang Zheng directly into the South Lake to put an end to it. Otherwise, how could Wang Zheng be so arrogant today? Just as he was about to explode, he heard a scream.
"ah!"
Wang Zheng rolled off his horse with his mouth covered. The personal guards behind him immediately stepped forward to support him, but were slapped twice in the face.
Wang Zheng spat out a mouthful of blood, mixed with his two front teeth and a gold bead the size of a soybean.
"Xiao Luochen...you...!"
No one saw how Xiao Luochen attacked, but Wang Zheng's mouth was indeed swollen an inch high, half of his face was covered with blood and dust, and he looked extremely embarrassed.
Mu Yao was also secretly amazed. She knew that Xiao Luochen was usually elegant and easy-going, looking like a scholar, but she didn't expect that he had such skills.
The Yunzhou army was approaching with swords and axes, but Xiao Luochen showed no fear at all. He just glanced at Wang Zheng and said
"Over the years, I've learned two things: revenge for every slight, and blood debt must be paid with blood. Back then, you injured my leg with your horse. Today, these two tusks are my small profit."
Seeing Xiao Luochen's move, Su Musong thought he was going to break out of the encirclement, so he put his hand on the hilt of the sword, just to kill him by surprise. However, Xiao Luochen seemed to have heard his thoughts and gave him a look to stop him in time, and then said to Wang Zheng:
"As the saying goes, fortunes change. Today you are the butcher and I am the meat, but who knows if one day you, Prince Wang, will become the meat on my chopping block?"
Xiao Luochen said the second half of his words while looking at Su Musong. Su Musong immediately understood what he meant. Since being escorted to Beijing was a foregone conclusion, there was no need to argue about it in vain. It might be a good idea to take the opportunity to overturn the old case.
The Yunzhou army was afraid that Xiao Luochen would attack again, so they stepped forward and tied him up.
Wang Zheng grabbed the spear from the guard beside him, raised it high, and wanted to hit Xiao Luochen's bound arms, but was stopped by Su Musong.
"Master Wang, there's only a little of the ink left on your desk. I have some of the best quality. Would you like to give me some?"
Wang Zheng was shocked when he heard this. There was indeed not much ink left on the desk. The study was a sensitive place and no one in the mansion was allowed to enter without permission. He was confident that he was very strict in his rule, but he did not expect that Su Musong knew such trivial matters so clearly. It can be seen how deeply his influence has penetrated.
"What do you want?"
"I don't mean to do anything. I just want to remind you, Prince, to think more about Jing'an Temple, Naimi Hibiscus Pastry, and Golden Silk Thin Fragrant Cake when you go to Kyoto."
If he had a choice, Su Musong did not want to use Wang Zheng's wife and children as a threat, but he could not stop Wang Zheng from attacking Xiao Luochen again during the escort, so he could only threaten him with words.
"Su Musong! How dare you!"
"Perhaps you've heard that I've been focusing on unorthodox methods these past few years." Su Musong's eyes suddenly became fierce, which actually frightened Wang Zheng. "If you dare to hurt Luo Chen in the slightest, I can't guarantee that you'll be able to see them alive and well when you return to Yunzhou."
Wang Zheng helplessly lowered his spear. Su Musong knew his family's situation well, and he had no doubt that Su Musong could secretly harm his wife and children. The priority now was to escort Xiao Luochen back to Kyoto. By then, it would be easy to double back the humiliation he had suffered today.
The Yunzhou army took Xiao Luochen into the prison van, and the group left in a mighty procession.
"Are we just going to let them take Brother Luo Chen away like this?"
Mu Yao was puzzled. Su Musong was clearly preparing to draw his sword and kill the governor, so why did he let Wang Zheng take Xiao Luochen away so easily? From the situation just now, it seemed that Su Musong had the upper hand.
"Let's go back."
Su Musong only said this, and without waiting for Mu Yao's response, he mounted his horse and galloped away.
Ning Zhen, who had been hiding in the dark, rode his horse to catch up. Although Xiao Luochen did not allow him to see him off, he still followed secretly. Seeing that the governor surrounded Xiao Luochen, he hurried to invite Mu Yao over, and then kept observing secretly.
"What are your plans?"
Ning Zhen didn't believe that Su Musong would watch Xiao Luochen die, so he guessed that the two of them must have some plan.
"I'll tell you in detail when we get back."
In the Marshal's Mansion, Su Musong gathered everyone together and talked about the Xiao family's case of treason and the clues he and Xiao Luochen had found over the years.
When the Qingning invaded the south, Xiao Luochen's second brother led his troops to resist, but within ten days they lost two cities, and over half of their army was destroyed. As if with divine assistance, the Qingning army crushed Xiangping in retreat. At the time, the western border was also in turmoil, and with two fronts fighting, Xiangping could no longer withstand the onslaught. Voices for peace began to circulate in the court.
Under the manipulation of the Grand Tutor's party, Prime Minister Xiao was eventually sent as the chief envoy, and the current Right Prime Minister, who was then the Grand Herald, was sent as the deputy envoy to the northern border to negotiate peace with Qingning.
When the peace talks were about to be concluded, a secret report from the deputy envoy arrived in Kyoto along with witnesses, stating that Xiangping was losing ground because the Xiao family had sold the border defense map to the enemy, and that Prime Minister Xiao had also made many selfless moves in the peace talks with Qingning.
The Grand Herald, a student of Prime Minister Xiao, had been personally promoted by him. When the Grand Tutor read out this secret report in court, all officials were shocked. Emperor De, though unconvinced, could not ignore it and ordered the peace talks suspended. Prime Minister Xiao and his two sons returned to the capital to confront the witnesses.
Initially, the investigation was just an investigation, but as evidence against the Xiao family continued to pour into the capital, Emperor De ordered the Xiao family imprisoned. Five days later, Prime Minister Xiao pleaded guilty, and the Xiao family was sentenced to death, along with the extermination of three generations of their clan.
After years of investigation, Su Musong and Xiao Luochen finally pieced together the truth. The Wang family promised the Grand Herald a position as prime minister, and persuaded him to betray his teacher. He took advantage of his position to establish a relationship with Qingning, and cooperated with Wang's cronies in the army to steal the defense map to Qingning.
All of this was done just for the purpose of eradicating the Xiao family. Ever since Xiao Luochen's second brother led his troops to the northern border, the Xiao family had fallen into the trap set by the Grand Tutor.
After hearing Su Musong's account, everyone fell silent. The Xiao case had shaken the government and the public. Initially, many people didn't believe the Xiao family would collude with the enemy, but after all, the whistleblower was a student whom Prime Minister Xiao relied on, and Prime Minister Xiao later pleaded guilty. So, people simply assumed that people were treacherous and that Prime Minister Xiao was a traitor disguised as loyal.
"If it's a false accusation, why did Prime Minister Xiao plead guilty?"
"Marquis Wuning is trapped in Xizhou, Prince Rui has his troops stationed outside Yongjing. Most of the military forces in the capital are controlled by the Wang family, and there's a subtle sign of a coup. The Grand Tutor went to great lengths to set this trap, determined not to give up until his goal is achieved. If the late emperor had insisted on protecting Prime Minister Xiao, chaos would have ensued. Upon learning of the situation, Prime Minister Xiao risked his life, confessing to the charges they had falsely accused him of, and quelling the situation."
Although Su Maoyi hadn't personally witnessed it, he learned from Emperor De how dire the situation had been back then after returning to Yongjing. It was a pity that the Xiao family, with its entire talented family, had been succumbed to the machinations of the power struggle, and now it seemed the same group was poised to make a comeback.
Su Musong didn't want to know what difficulties Emperor De had. He only knew that Xiao Luochen's family was broken up and he was forced to live in a foreign land because of this.
After hearing the whole story, Mu Yao was filled with indignation.
"Brother Luo Chen is the only one left in the Xiao family. He's not serving in the court anymore, so he poses no threat to them. Yet they're determined to kill him all!"
The fact that Xiao Luochen was the leader of Chixia Mountain was obviously unknown to the Grand Tutor and his party, otherwise Wang Zheng would have sent troops to Chixia Mountain instead of directly capturing Xiao Luochen.
Although Su Musong was not in the court, he could see clearly the power relationship. The Xiao family had already been destroyed. If they just wanted to get rid of Xiao Luochen, they could just do it directly in Xizhou. There was no need to go through the trouble of taking him to Yongjing City. Xiao Luochen also saw this clearly. He knew that they would not kill him before achieving their goal, so he did not fight to the death. Instead, he hinted to Su Musong to take the opportunity to overturn the case.
"Their target isn't just Luo Chen. The Empress Dowager and the Emperor are already at odds, and the Grand Tutor's faction, wary of Prince Ding's military might, has long sought to eliminate him. Uncle Mu was responsible for Luo Chen's arrest in Luzhou. Ten years ago, he was publicly beheaded, and now he's alive and well. Uncle Mu can't escape responsibility. Xizhou is where the Marquis of Jingxi is stationed, and Luo Chen was arrested there. Mu Yao and Mo Lin are married, and Mo Lin was once Prince Ding's deputy general, and Prince Ding is my son-in-law in the Anguo Mansion. As for the Anguo Mansion, its relationship with the Xiao family goes without saying."
Su Musong spoke slowly, and Mu Yao felt a chill on her back. Although she was usually too lazy to pay attention to state affairs, she knew that the Grand Tutor and his party wanted to take advantage of these intricate connections and use an old case from ten years ago to uproot Prince Ding, the Duke of Anguo, the Marquis of Jingxi, and the Liguan General.
"So how do we deal with this?"
"Since they've already started, we should just take advantage of the situation and try to overturn the case. Luo Chen and I have been collecting quite a bit of evidence over the years, but we're still lacking a testimony from Qingning regarding his connections to the Right Prime Minister. This will probably require some effort."
Ning Zhen seemed to be lost in thought when he heard this, and suddenly all the unreasonable things that Xiao Luochen had asked him to do in the past had answers.
Su Musong asked Mu Yao and Xun Molin to stabilize Xizhou first, and wait until he returned to Kyoto to see what happened. He also called Ning Zhen alone.
"When you return to the mountain, don't tell Bu Yi about Luo Chen. Just say that there's something unfinished and that Luo Chen won't be able to return for a while. If we haven't returned in two months, I'll ask you to take him to Shenghuang Wanhua Fort. The people there will take good care of him. I'll leave Qingzhu Village in your care. You've been with Luo Chen for many years, so you'll be able to take care of everything."
After hearing these words of entrusting the orphan to someone, Ning Zhen finally understood the danger Xiao Luochen and Su Musong were facing, and also saw what it meant to be in tune with each other. They had not spoken to each other when they parted, but Xiao Luochen's eyes were enough for Su Musong to understand his thoughts. From then on, Ning Zhen completely understood that he had never intervened between Xiao Luochen and Su Musong. Thinking of his previous confession and questioning to Xiao Luochen, Ning Zhen felt that he was a little ridiculous.
"I'll take your words to you."
Su Musong was only thinking about returning to Yongjing as soon as possible and did not think about what was wrong with Ning Zhen's words.
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