Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous
Chapter 412: The people are eager to see the truth, and the court is far-reaching!
Chapter 412: The people are eager to see the truth, and the court is far-reaching!
The bronze sword in Su Yun's hand fell to the ground with a clang, and the sparks from the broken edge made his pupils turn blood red.
Ping Zicheng had never seen the gentleman like this before.
——His usually calm brows twitched suddenly, his knuckles were pinching the broken sword fragments, blood beads flowed down along the grooves of the hilt, forming small blood pools on the blue bricks.
"Send the message to Baqiao."
His voice seemed to be squeezed out from deep in the frozen earth. "The whole army retreats twenty miles and sets out to cook."
The guards outside the tent looked at each other in bewilderment, but Ping Zicheng immediately understood the meaning.
The so-called "burying the pot and cooking" is actually a code word - this means that the light cavalry will take off their heavy armor, soak the arrowheads with strong liquor, and prepare for a charge at all costs.
"Sir, the corpse from Zhengjiazhuang..."
Before Ping Zicheng finished speaking, Su Yun suddenly grabbed the jar of wine on the table, poured the amber wine on the broken sword, and a pungent white mist rose.
"The old dog Wen Yanbo wields his butcher knife against women and children."
Amid the crisp sound of the wine jar breaking, Su Yun knelt on one knee among the porcelain shards on the ground, "Back then, he suppressed me and made things difficult for me, and even lied to me that he would suppress me for ten years, but I didn't care about it.
Now he is using the life of Zheng's young son to establish his authority. This is really... insane! Cough cough cough!"
The fishy-sweet taste rising in his throat choked him, and he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his fingertips.
The black flag on the sand table representing Wen Yanbo’s reinforcements was suddenly overturned.
Su Yun used his broken sword to pick up half of the map, and the wax-stamped word "wen" on the torn page was twisted like a ghost face.
"Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., the Jingyuan Army will surely come out in full force.
They thought Zheng Chaozong was seriously injured, but they didn’t know…”
There was a sudden sound of horse hooves outside the tent, and the scout dismounted from his horse, letting a half-rolled blood-stained silk book in his arms fall out.
When Su Yun picked it up, Zheng Chaozong's unique cursive calligraphy made his eyes hurt.
Zheng Chaozong's calligraphy has always been majestic and sharp, but the words on this silk book are messy, and the text makes Su Yun see that he is heartbroken.
The six words "Sir, please help me to kill all the literary thieves" were so powerful that they could be seen through the back of the paper. The last stroke left a long blood mark, which glowed with a strange luster under the candlelight.
"This letter is comparable to Yan Zhenqing's memorial to his nephew, and the sorrow expressed is ten times greater!"
Su Yun held the silk book against his chest, his calloused skin rubbing against the bloodstained words.
"Qinglan, put this copybook away and keep it well. When we conquer the world, we will let the people know what Haifu and thousands of Suxuexue people and Jingsai Army have sacrificed for the rise of China, and how many cruel and inhumane evil deeds the perverse and corrupt Song Dynasty regime has done!"
Ping Zicheng's eyes were filled with tears. He took the silk book with both hands respectfully. When he saw the messy handwriting on it, tears finally burst out and he said, "Sir, Haifu is suffering!"
Su Yun's mouth twitched when he heard this. He pondered for a moment and said, "Send an order to the entire army: Anyone who encounters Wen's relatives, regardless of age, should be killed without mercy."
Su Yun's voice was like a poisoned arrow. "If there are civil officials who advise with 'benevolence', then tell them about the tragic situation in Zhengjiazhuang. If benevolence can't save lives, what's the point of this benevolence!"
When these words were spoken, Zheng Nian'an and his generals were shocked.
The tent was as silent as a grave, with only the ticking of the clock.
Zheng Nian'an was shocked when he heard this and said, "Think twice!"
He staggered and held onto the sand table. The fragment of the black flag representing the Wen family was stuck between his trembling fingers. "Although Wen Yanbo deserves death, the Wen family has been a family of high rank for generations. His brother Wen Yanzhang is a Hanlin scholar, and his cousin Wen Yanhe is in charge of the grain transport. Killing his family may anger all the scholars and officials in the court!"
The young military officer Lu Mingyuan was so anxious that his face turned red, and he said, "Emperor Taizu of Song has vowed not to kill scholars for a hundred years. If we set this precedent, scholars all over the world will regard our army as tigers and wolves!
In the past, Huang Chao massacred Chang'an and Li Chuang burned down the academy, both of them failed because they lost the hearts of scholars!
Su Yun suddenly pressed his broken sword against the table, and with wood chips flying, he lifted the hem of Lu Mingyuan's brocade robe, revealing the fragments of the pages of "Taiping Yulan" on the lining: "Do you know what Wen Yanbo annotated with cinnabar under the article "Those who plot rebellion will be exterminated along with their entire family" in the "Qingli Code" that he privately kept?
'Only the scholars and officials are exempt!'
The sword blade swept across the "Encouraging Learning" hanging in the tent, and the words "Books are the golden house" with the ink not yet dried were scratched into pieces.
"But Wen's disciples are all over Liangzhe Road. If..."
"enough!"
Ping Zicheng suddenly grabbed Zheng Chaozong's blood-written letter on the table and threw it hard on the sand table, "Three hundred and seventeen women and children, seventeen of whom are newly enlightened schoolchildren!
Wen Yanbo strung their brushes into a rosary and hung it on the city wall. Is this the benevolence of the scholar-officials?
Su Yun stood up slowly, and his blood-stained clothes swept the "Zizhi Tongjian" on the desk. A half-dried maple leaf slipped between the yellowed pages - that was the bookmark that Zheng Chaozong brought back from Yuelu Academy three years ago.
"Scholar-officials?" Su Yun sneered, and lit the candle with his broken sword.
"While Wen Yanbo was filling the moat with the bones of his children, those Hanlin scholars who were full of benevolence and righteousness were busy writing epitaphs for the Wen family who had "made great contributions to the suppression of the rebellion"!"
Suddenly, a shrill horse neigh was heard outside the tent, startling the crows in the sky.
Su Yun looked at the gradually whitening sky in the east, and snowflakes fell on his bloody eyelashes: "Pass the order down, whenever you come across the Wen family's mansion, even the wall paint must be scraped off three inches. If any civil servants try to stop us..."
He clenched the broken sword tightly. "Let them see the charred bones of Zhengjiazhuang, and then ask themselves - in this world, is writing more important, or is living people more important!"
Amid the sound of the night watch, the faint sound of sharpening knives came from the direction of Baqiao.
Su Yun walked out of the tent holding the broken sword. Snowflakes fell on his blood-stained clothes and quickly turned into dark red water marks.
The outline of the Chang'an city wall in the distance looked as ferocious as a giant beast in the night, and the saber at his waist was making a buzzing sound as if it was thirsty for blood.
……
Facing the city wall that had become like hell on earth, Zheng Chaozong finally retreated.
Zheng Chaozong fell down in the snow, and the frozen soil under his iron boots showed dark red blood stains.
The fire from Chunming Gate made his armor burn, but his ears were filled with the screams of the dying eight hundred Jingsai soldiers - the sound mixed with the explosion of burning white phosphorus left permanent scorch marks on his eardrums.
"General!" The personal guard commander Wang Meng knelt on one knee, with half of his arm wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth. "I am unable to protect the camp, please General."
"roll!"
Zheng Chaozong punched the city wall, his knuckles cracking instantly, "I personally sent the lives of eight hundred brothers to hell!"
His roar scared away the last few crows, and their black wings swept over the top of the city wall, cutting Wen Yanbo's sneering face into pieces.
Suddenly, I felt something hard in my arms.
He trembled as he took out the half piece of broken jade. The jade that his mother had given him before her death had already turned cold.
As his fingertips stroked the cinnabar blood on the crack, he suddenly remembered that when his uncle's white-haired and bloody head rolled down the stairs, the jade pendant on his neck also shattered like this.
"I feel sorry for the Zheng family ancestors."
Zheng Chaozong whimpered like a trapped beast and pressed his palms hard into the frozen soil.
"Three hundred and seventeen babies, including those in swaddling clothes."
He suddenly began to dry heave violently. What was churning in his stomach was not wine and meat, but the smell of burnt milk when the children of Zhengjiazhuang were set on fire with kerosene.
Wang Meng suddenly hugged the general and shook him: "General, you promised Mr. Su that you would keep him alive!"
This sentence was like a cold shower on his head. Zheng Chaozong suddenly laughed wildly, his laughter carrying the bloody smell of rust: "Saving the green mountains? I should have died in the fire with those eight hundred brothers!"
"But what about the revenge of Zhengjiazhuang?"
Wang Meng suddenly drew his sword and put it to his throat. "If you kill yourself, I will send your head to Wen Yanbo's tent!"
Zheng Chaozong's pupils suddenly contracted.
"Send a message to the whole army."
His voice seemed to come from the deepest part of his chest. "Take three jars of strong liquor and sprinkle them on the ruins of the city."
His fingertips stroked the word "revenge" carved on the broken blade on his waist, and blood seeped into the ravine. "Give each brother a sip of the remaining wine."
When the first ray of morning light pierced through the snow curtain, Zheng Chaozong looked at the black smoke rising from Chunming Gate.
He suddenly took off his helmet, letting the snow particles hit the old wound on his scalp - there was a crescent-shaped scar there, left by the time he blocked an arrow for his cousin when he was twelve years old.
"Wen Yanbo, you are courting death step by step, and destroying your family step by step!
First you suppressed my husband, and now you're slaughtering my entire Zheng family!
Haha, just wait, I will kill all the members of your Wen family one by one!
No matter where they are, or what name they have, I will find them all and kill them all! . "
He stuffed the broken jade into the deepest part of the heart-protecting mirror.
"Zheng Chaozong is not dead today because he wants your Wen family to know what it means to be vindictive."
The sound of horse hooves was approaching, and the messenger dismounted and handed a letter to Zheng Chaozong.
When Zheng Chaozong opened it, he immediately burst into tears and sobbed silently.
Wang Meng quickly asked in a low voice: "General?"
Zheng Chaozong handed the letter to Wang Meng.
When Wang Meng unfolded the letter, snowflakes were falling on the cinnabar annotations on the silk. Ping Zicheng's small regular script was as powerful as a knife: "Sir, you broke your sword and swore in public that all relatives of the Wen family, young or old, would be killed without mercy.
If a civil official exhorts with benevolence, the charred bones of Zhengjiazhuang will be carried before him.
Zheng Chaozong suddenly staggered and held on to the saddle, his knuckles turning blue from the leather gauntlet.
Wang Meng quickly supported Zheng Chaozong, and then saw the last few lines of handwriting blurred by tears: "Haifu, please bear with it, the master has laid a net of heaven and earth.
If the Jingyuan Army marches out, the Wen family will be wiped out.
"General." Wang Meng's voice trembled, and the word "revenge" engraved on the broken blade cast a shadow on his blood-stained armor. "Mr. Su is willing to serve the Zheng family."
"I was just a nobody back then..."
Zheng Chaozong bent down and took the letter from Wang Meng's hand. Snow drops dripped down his eyelashes onto the four words "Kill without mercy".
"…it was the master who picked me out from among the crowd, taught me the art of war, and gave me a name."
He suddenly coughed violently, and drops of blood seeped from between his fingers and fell on the place where Ping Zicheng's signature was.
"...Sir, you not only made me what I am today, but you also have to seek justice for me and the Zheng family. I, Zheng Chaozong, can only return my life to you!"
Zheng Chaozong slowly knelt on the snow and held the letter against his heart - there was still the amulet that Su Yun had given him three years ago. The four words "海納百川" (sea embraces all rivers) on the yellowed amulet were shining due to the blood stains.
"Inform the entire army," his voice suddenly became terrifyingly calm. He reached out to take the liquor handed to him by his personal guard and crushed the seal on the jar in his palm.
"Make a hundred copies of this letter and give one to each deputation officer. Let the brothers know."
The wine was poured onto the Zheng emblem on his chest, and the steaming wine smell was mixed with blood. "Is there anyone in this world who is willing to overthrow this cannibalistic world for our innocent souls?"
Wang Meng was also in tears. Tears flowed down his face where half of it was cut off. The pain was nothing compared to the grief in his heart!
When the first copied letter was handed to the fireman Lao Zhou, he was flipping the wheat cakes on the iron pan with his blistered hands.
His rough fingertips stroked the words "Kill without mercy" on the silk. Suddenly, he knocked the cake spatula to the ground, and the charcoal ash fell on the words "Zhengjiazhuang charred bones".
"Lao Zhou, this letter."
The head cook, Lao Zhao, came closer, clutching the wine gourd, and swallowed his saliva with his Adam's apple rolling.
"Mr. Su, do you really want to offend all the officials in the world for us peasants?"
Old Zhou's eyes lit up slightly. "Several years ago, I followed Mr. Su to defeat Xixia. Mr. Su gave his warhorse to the wounded and walked a hundred miles on foot."
At this point, Lao Zhou stopped talking, but Lao Zhao understood.
——Mr. Su really treats these soldiers as human beings.
Old Zhao felt a surge of hot blood rising in his heart, burning his entire chest.
"For the sake of us peasants, the governor is actually going to fight to the death with the Wen family, a noble family. He might even offend all the scholars in the world... Governor... I give in."
The news spread across the camp along with the smoke from cooking fires.
When Wang Meng was bandaging the new recruits, he made sure to read every word of the letter clearly.
The clerks copied in the moonlight, their pens dipped into ink with such force that it could have cut through silk.
When the morning light dyed the reeds of Baqiao red again, there was half a piece of letter stained with the scent of wheat stuck in the breastplate of every Jingsai soldier.
“Checkmate!”
A young soldier with milk stains on his face suddenly broke into the central military tent, holding a frozen pancake tightly in his arms.
"This is what my mother gave me before she left. Now I want to place it in front of the tablet in Zhengjiazhuang!"
Snow water seeped out of the boy's cloth boots, forming a small stream on the blue bricks, reflecting the large flag with the word "Zheng" fluttering outside the tent.
Zheng Chaozong looked at the flames that flickered in the camp - they were not bonfires, but torches lit spontaneously by the soldiers. Hundreds of flames formed a river of stars in the snowy night.
He suddenly remembered what Su Yun often said, "The people's hearts are like fire." At this moment, the flames were burning from the scorched earth of the eight hundred dead souls towards the deep mansion where the Wen family had been entrenched for a hundred years.
"Pass my orders."
His voice echoed in the empty tent, and he reached out to take off the broken jade pendant from his waist, "From today on, every brother who died in battle must be offered a piece of pancake in front of the spirit tablet."
The jade pendant fell on the table, and drops of blood seeped out of the cracks and dripped right onto the starting point of the word “kill” in “kill without mercy”.
……
The copper bells on the corners of the eaves of the Chuigong Hall rang clearly in the night wind, and Empress Dowager Gao's hands, which were holding the back of the gilded dragon chair, trembled slightly.
When Liang Weijian unfolded Wen Yanbo's victory report, the eight characters "Eight hundred Jingsai troops burned in the city wall" on the battle report wrapped in vermilion satin shone brightly under the candlelight.
"Good! Good! Good!" The old woman said "good" three times in a row, and the pearls on the phoenix crown swayed. "Lu Gong really lives up to the praise of 'minister of the country'!"
She turned around suddenly, her purple robe sweeping across the pile of new policy memorials on her desk, "Lord Lu, tell me, does the traitor Zheng Chaozong still have the guts to invade now?"
Lu Dafang stepped forward, stroking his gray beard, and knocked his ivory tablet on the ground with a sound: "Old Madam, you are wise! Duke Wen Lu defeated the enemy with fire, which not only enhanced the military power of the Song Dynasty, but also frightened Su Yun's gang of rebels."
He caught a glimpse of the unburned Qingmiao Law fragments on the imperial desk and raised his voice deliberately, "It can be seen that the old system of our ancestors is the foundation of governing the country!"
Fan Chunren's fingers holding the congratulatory letter were slightly stiff.
This usually gentle scholar looked at the falling snow outside the palace, but the tragic scene of "300 women and children in Zhengjiazhuang lying dead all over the ground" in the secret report seemed to echo in his ears.
When Empress Dowager Gao threw the petition for title from the Wen family in front of him, he smelled the lingering smell of blood on the rice paper.
"Mr. Fan is a very talented writer," said the Empress Dowager Gao, tapping the imperial desk with her brown-spotted fingers. "Draft a commendation edict for me, and say 'Lu Gong is so powerful that the Song Dynasty has no worries.'"
She suddenly coughed violently. Liang Weijian hurriedly held up the candied kumquats, but saw the old woman laughing with tears in her eyes. "Back then, Taizu gave up military power with a cup of wine. Today, Lu Gong conquered Chang'an with a cup of kerosene. Such achievements... cough cough should be engraved on stone to remember!"
……
When the morning bell broke through the mist in Bianjing, the red steps of the Chuigong Hall were already crowded with people in red robes and purple ribbons.
Zhao Xu watched as Empress Dowager Gao supported Liang Weijian as they slowly walked up the stairs.
After all the officials paid their respects, Empress Dowager Gao spoke first, "Have you read the report of Duke Lu's victory?"
Without waiting for an answer, she threw the memorial stained with pine soot ink on the jade steps, "Eight hundred rebels were buried in the sea of fire, which reminds me of the great ruthlessness of Taizu when he pacified Huainan."
Lu Dafang immediately stepped out and said, "The Queen Mother is wise! Cheng Yi's lies are misleading the people. Only by abiding by the laws of our ancestors can we keep the country peaceful."
"Since the late emperor implemented the new laws, the people of the world have been complaining. After the empress dowager took over the throne, Sima Gong abolished all the new laws, so the people of the world were able to rest for a while.
Now Cheng Yi is trying to imitate that reform villain, deceiving Your Majesty by claiming that he is young, and is actually trying to bring back the harmful new law. I beg you to execute Cheng Yi! "
Zhao Xu clenched the armrests of the dragon throne, his knuckles turning white as frost.
Just as Cheng Yi was about to speak, Empress Dowager Gao waved her sleeves and summoned officials from the Honglu Temple.
When the Chang'an victory report wrapped in yellow silk was unfolded, a child's crying suddenly sounded in the palace - it turned out to be the Wen family's young grandson who was carried into the Golden Palace, with a longevity lock made from the arrowheads of the Jingsai Army hanging on his chest.
"In order to ensure the safety of the people, Duke Lu even sent his young children to the battlefield to pray for blessings."
The old woman trembled as she picked up the child, and her pearl necklace swept across Zhao Xu's pale face.
"Now that Duke Lu has defeated the rebels in the northwest, this means that the actions taken by many ministers before were not ineffective. On the contrary, they were very effective. It was just that there were some flaws in the personnel they used at that time.
In this case, let’s just follow the ancestral law and forget about the new policies or not. "
Fan Chunren held the drafted edict of commendation in his hands, the scent of ink mixed with the smell of blood.
He saw Zhao Xu's Adam's apple rolling, but he suddenly fell silent when he touched the jade bracelet given to him by Emperor Taizu on Empress Dowager Gao's wrist.
The inscription "Stop war, be strong" on the jade bracelet was reflected in the remaining snow outside the window, like a knife hanging over the emperor's head.
"deliver an imperial order."
Empress Dowager Gao thrust the child into the hands of the wet nurse, and pointed her nail-stained fingers at the dark clouds rolling in the sky, "Wen Yanbo is promoted to Grand Tutor, and is granted a red-lettered iron certificate.
All the soldiers who participated in suppressing the rebellion will be given benefits for three generations. As for...
She paused, her eyes sweeping over Cheng Yi's trembling sleeves, "Mr. Cheng's family is highly educated, why not go to the White Deer Cave Academy to give lectures, and stop delaying the government's administration."
When the morning court was over, Zhao Xu looked at the Empress Dowager Gao's receding carriage and heard the sound of his own teeth chattering.
The whispers of the imperial censors below the steps mixed with the falling snow. Amid the voices of "traitors" and "disobeying the ancestral teachings", only Cheng Yi's sigh pierced through the noise: "I am afraid that the incident of Wu Zetian in the Tang Dynasty will be repeated. Alas, when the hen crows at dawn, how can this country be good?"
The censors' faces immediately turned pale. A young censor jumped out and wanted to reprimand Cheng Yi, but was stopped by an elder who whispered, "Don't meddle in other people's business!"
(End of this chapter)
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