No. 1 Girl in the Imperial City

Chapter 281 Good and Evil

The flower hall fell into a suffocating silence, and the strength full of chilling breath leaked from Xie Yan's body, pressing towards Dingyang Hou overwhelmingly.

Marquis Dingyang was not a martial arts practitioner, his face turned pale in an instant, bloodshot from his lips.

Xie Yan quickly withdrew that strong strength, and looked coldly at the middle-aged man in front of him who was leaning on the armrest and trying to support himself to sit still.

Dingyanghou raised his hand to wipe the blood from his lips, looked down at his blood-stained fingertips, and smiled at Xie Yan indifferently.

Xie Yan looked at him calmly and said, "You don't regret it...or rather, you don't think you did anything wrong."

Dingyanghou sighed lightly and said: "To be honest, even after so many years... I still don't regret what happened at the beginning. Although... the final result is indeed somewhat beyond our expectations."

Xie Yan frowned slightly, "You were only in your early twenties at the time, so it was impossible for you to make such a big decision. The person who really made the decision was your father."

At that time, Dingyanghou was indeed young and vigorous, but with his age and ability at that time, even if he really wanted to destroy the Yao family, if the old Dingyanghou didn't have such thoughts himself, he would not be able to persuade him. .And it is absolutely impossible for him to bypass the old Dingyanghou and do this by himself.So who is the leader of this matter is self-evident.

Marquis Dingyang showed his malice towards the Yao family without any concealment, obviously because he didn't want him to associate this matter with the old Marquis Dingyang, but they all knew that this was impossible.

Xie Yan is not a fool, it's not that he believes everything he says.

The expression on Dingyanghou's face faded away, he stared at Xie Yan coldly and said: "My father has been dead for many years."

Xie Yan said in a deep voice: "This king has no intention of ruining the reputation behind the Marquis of Shang, but this matter... I am afraid that the Marquis cannot solve it by himself." Said: "Since the matter has been done, what should come will come sooner or later. What's the use of talking about it now? For this day, the Marquis has been waiting for more than 20 years. My lord, you are the grandson of the Yao family and also the Xie family." blood, you'd better not meddle in this matter."

Xie Yan said: "Marquis Dingyang sent his son to learn martial arts since he was a child, just for today?"

Marquis Dingyang nodded and said: "That's right, before Ah Yue was born, I made an agreement with the Master of the Pavilion of Wenjian. When Ayue grows up, I will take him as an apprentice and take him away from Shangyong. My father once rescued the Master of the Pavilion of Wenjian. , he owes the merchant a favor, and he will definitely protect him more comprehensively."

"However, Shang Shizi is back." Xie Yan said lightly.

Marquis Dingyang frowned slightly, but in the end he could only sigh softly and said: "After all, he is the merchant's son, and he is going to come back. My lord, I don't care what that guy wants to do, I just hope you can Let Ah Yue survive."

Xie Yan didn't answer immediately, but looked at Dingyanghou and asked, "What happened back then."

Marquis Dingyang didn't expect him to agree, and said calmly: "Didn't the prince already guess it? It's what you thought."

Xie Yandao: "What the king asked is how did you do it. The Yao family is not an ordinary small family. At that time, your father had no military power in his hands. Even if he could mobilize the local yamen, he might not be the opponent of the Yao family. According to this As far as Wang knows, the soldiers and horses near Xinzhou didn't know about this at that time. I'm afraid I can't do this with your father and Lord Hou alone. The emperor's aunt told me that only one person was left alive, my uncle and the person she wanted to protect. Wang speculated that it should be Lord Hou. Then... there must be some other people who are still alive, but they are not so important to uncle and aunt."

Marquis Dingyang remained silent.

Xie Yan said: "Since Lord Hou has admitted what happened back then, it shouldn't be that difficult to tell me some details."

Marquis Dingyang looked at Xie Yan calmly and said: "This Marquis has one condition, the prince has promised that I can tell you everything."

Xie Yan raised his eyebrows and said, "Master Hou might as well talk about it."

Dingyanghou said: "This matter...no matter what the final outcome is, I hope the prince will not mention my father."

Xie Yan was a little surprised, "What does Lord Hou mean?"

Dingyanghou said in a deep voice: "All the things were done by me alone, and my father didn't know about it."

Xie Yan said: "Master Hou thinks, will anyone believe it?"

"It's not important." Marquis Dingyang said coldly: "I believe that the prince will not backtrack, as long as the prince agrees, as long as I know, I can tell the prince."

Xie Yan lowered his eyes and thought, and Dingyang Hou sat down quietly and waited without rushing.

I don't know how long it took before Xie Yan raised his head and said, "Shanghou has passed away for many years, does Lord Hou know what consequences this will have on the merchant?"

Everyone in the world thinks that the dead are the most important. Even if Shang Hou did something crazy and died, people will be more tolerant.But Marquis Dingyang is still alive. Once these things are leaked, the world will never forgive the merchant.

Dingyang Hou said in a deep voice: "My lord, just tell me your answer."

Xie Yan said: "Okay, I promise you."

Hearing this, the expression on Dingyanghou's face eased a little, as if he was relieved.

The flower hall was quiet for a moment, Dingyang Hou leaned back in his chair and said with empty eyes: "Back then... after my father and I were kicked out by the Yao family, my father sent a letter back to Beijing to ask the imperial court for help, and at the same time visited other people in Xinzhou. It is a pity that none of them found anything, and some families even avoided seeing them. Not only that, the city gates of all parts of Xinzhou were closed, and the people who fled from Qinan were not allowed to enter Xinzhou. At that time, the Xinzhou government could do nothing about it. The unstable northwest is still at war, if the powerful families in these places are pushed into a hurry, it is hard to say whether they will follow suit and plunge the relatively stable Xinzhou into turmoil."

"At that time, the tragedy of human cannibalism even occurred in Qinan, and there were already riots in several of the worst-hit places. What's worse, it rained continuously for several days... I couldn't bear it at that time. My father and I Saying that we can't deal with this situation at all, let father leave it alone. We just need to report the situation of Qinan to the imperial court and wait for His Majesty to send someone again."

Dingyanghou said in a steady voice, as if he was talking about other people's affairs, "But my father told me that there is no one in the court, and there is no money and food. If we can't raise food and grass, we have only two options. One is to mobilize the people around Qinan. All the soldiers and horses from all over the country blocked all the entrances and exits from Qinan to the outside world, leaving the people inside to fend for themselves. Second, completely let go, the victims in Qinan will all rush into Xinyang, the nearest place to them, what will happen then? No one knows. Qinan has a special terrain. The victims will get lost in the vast mountains to the north and west, and have to cross the Tianzhu River to the east, so they will only run to Xinzhou. I actually hoped that my father would choose the latter. Don’t the noble families in Xinzhou think that they can be safe and sound if they don’t care about it? When they are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of hungry and crazy victims, I would like to see how they plan to deal with it calmly.”

Xie Yan didn't speak, but just listened quietly.

"Just when my father was hesitating and tossing and turning, someone came to my father." Dingyanghou continued: "It's from the Bai family. Bai Jingrong hates the Yao family for regretting their marriage and wants to teach the Yao family a lesson."

"No." Xie Yan interrupted him and said in a deep voice: "At that time, you had no soldiers and horses, and the Marquis of Shang did not mobilize the soldiers and horses of the imperial court near Xinzhou. Even if Bai Jingrong wanted to deal with the Yao family, he would not look for you. Besides , in fact, the Bai family did not show up on the night when the Yao family was destroyed."

Dingyanghou took a deep look at him and said: "We really don't have many soldiers and horses in our hands, but there are countless people in Qinan who want to survive, and there are many people with good strength among them. As for the Bai family... it was my father who sent the letter. Give it to Ancheng County King, let Ancheng County King successfully intercept the Bai family in Lingzhou."

Xie Yan frowned and said, "Why? The Marquis of Shang didn't want to cooperate with the Bai family and wanted to be alone...No, it should be that the Marquis of Shang sent a message to King Ancheng before deciding to loot the Yao family."

Marquis Dingyang took a look at Xie Yan in surprise, nodded and said, "That's right, my father originally thought that Bai Jingrong only came for us, and directly detained the people in the Bai family and didn't agree to this plan. Only later did we know that the people who were watching the Yao family It's not just the Bai family. It doesn't affect them if the Bai family can't arrive in time, those people will only be happy that there is one less person to divide up the property. "

"Who were there at that time?" Xie Yan asked.

"There were two powerful families in Xinzhou who had conflicts with the Yao family at that time, there were gangster gangs who had been entrenched in Xinzhou for many years, and there were some people whose history we couldn't see. And..." Dingyanghou took a deep look at Xie Yan, Said: "Mu Wang."

Watching the change in Xie Yan's expression, Marquis Dingyang said calmly: "Although the Yao family has no army, there are quite a few guards under the command of those aristocratic families occupying one side. The Yao family's ancestral house is not in Xinzhou City, and there are many sentry posts within a few miles. And the fortress, it is not an easy task to break into it. They even have a secret way for the core members of the family to retreat when a sudden situation occurs. Less than two hundred people entered the Yao family that night. There were at least [-] guards around the Yao family who exterminated them? Except for the eldest son of the Yao family who was not at home at the time, none of the Yao family was left alive."

Xie Yan didn't answer, Dingyanghou smiled and said: "That's right, it was Miss Yao who gave King Mu the defense map near Yao's house. I don't know how long these people have been watching Yao's house, but since we received Bai Jingrong's It only took seven days for the news to reach the Yao family's destruction, I guess these things must not be conceived so thoroughly in just seven days."

"My lord doesn't have to think that I'm blaming King Mu and Princess Mu to shirk responsibility. If my lord wants to find out, I can find out. King Mu was indeed near Xinzhou at that time. He even arrived in Xinzhou one step earlier than my father and I." Dingyang Hou said.

Xie Yan said: "Since these people have planned so well in advance, why did Bai Jingrong temporarily pull you into the group?"

Dingyanghou shook his head and said with a smile: "I don't know, we didn't care about this issue at the time. It was indeed I who did it. I personally brought people to Yao's house that night. We went in very smoothly. It took almost no effort to solve the matter. Afterwards... those people took away most of the treasures collected by the Yao family in the past, and the two local wealthy families divided up the sea and land trade roads of the Yao family afterwards, and we took away the treasures in the Yao family's inventory Food. The government didn’t know what happened the next day, but there was no one in the Yao family at that time, and the property under the Yao family was taken over by the government. Then my father used his status as an imperial envoy to transfer the stocks in the granaries and shops of the Yao family.”

"That's how things are." Marquis Dingyang sighed, and said, "I haven't told anyone about this since my father passed away. Now that I've finally said it, I feel much more relaxed."

Xie Yan looked at him and said in a deep voice, "Did Hou Ye really not regret it?"

Marquis Dingyang smiled, "So what if you regret it? So what if you don't regret it? The matter has already been done, so can I go back on my word? Speaking of which, I have been thinking about it for a long time over the years, but I do understand why Bai Jingrong pulled Let's join the gang. I just don't know if it's right, Bai Jingrong is also in Shangyong now, so the prince can ask her."

Xie Yan raised his eyebrows slightly, and Marquis Dingyang said: "I speculate that Bai Jingrong wants to bring the royal family into it. After all, the Yao family is an influential family. If it is spread that the royal family looted the Yao family for money, all the families in the world will What do we think of the royal family? Who dares to trust the royal family?"

"But Bai Jingrong didn't spread the matter." Xie Yan said.

Marquis Dingyang said: "That's because she has no evidence. My father didn't do anything that night except that I took people to Yao's house. The food, grass and money of Yao's family were all transferred through formal procedures. Besides, the prince really thought that at that time Are there any rumors?"

"At that time in Xinzhou, there were indeed rumors that the royal family had no money to send secret guards to destroy the Yao family. Even now, if the prince goes to Xinzhou, there are some rumors among the people. Regarding this rumor, His Majesty Gaozu did not order People clarified and suppressed them. So some people took it seriously. At that time, there were still a few timid families who volunteered to donate money and food. If it wasn't for the fact that the Bai family lost too quickly afterwards, Gaozu gave a series of preferential treatment to appease those families, and said Not sure what will happen."

Dingyang Hou said, "Even Chaozhong...is not without doubts about my father. But after a few years, my father disappeared, so naturally no one mentioned this matter."

"How did Marquis Shang die?" Xie Yan suddenly changed the subject.

Marquis Dingyang closed his eyes, as if he was enduring something, after a while he said: "He died of poisoning."

"Who injected the poison?" Xie Yan frowned.

Dingyanghou sneered and said: "It's not that one. Although the truth was vague at the time, there were always some people who were very well-informed. They wiped out a family that was handed down from generation to generation, but they were not punished. The prince feels that the other What will the family with or without connection with the Yao family think? Will they hope that such a person will continue to live, and perhaps attack them someday in the future?"

Before Xie Yan could reply, Marquis Dingyang said again: "My father wasn't the only one they wanted to kill. After my father passed away, it was Gaozu who intervened and those people stopped. If it wasn't for this, the prince might not be able to see me now."

Xie Yan was silent for a long time, and asked, "Is it worth it for Marquis Dingyang to do this?"

Dingyanghou said indifferently: "Who knows?" He obviously knew that Xie Yan was not asking him, but his father who had passed away for many years.With the passing of the old Marquis Dingyang, no one can answer this question, not even his son.

　Sorry for the lateness, I am a bit tired of writing this chapter (*^_^*)
　　
　
(End of this chapter)