serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 198 The Curtain Opens
On the night of September 22th in the third year of Jianwu, Jia Hu led an army to raid Luzhen Pass, broke through three passes in one night, opened the passage to Anqing Mansion, and defeated the rebels who besieged Tongcheng in the early morning of September [-]. On the evening of the [-]nd, he led his troops to Jixian Pass and wiped out the rebels with the cooperation of Anhui Wei.

On September 23, Jia Hu mobilized 4000 Anhui Guards and [-] Patrol Battalions to assist the Yongwei Battalion to go north to attack Luzhou Prefecture. At this time, Jia Hu still had less than [-] cavalry under his command, of which there were less than [-] Mongols left. , Most of them died in Luzhen Pass.

On the evening of September 28, the army besieged Lujiang City. In the early morning of the next day, the rebel general killed Yang Kaiwu's confidant and surrendered in Kaesong.

On October [-], Yang Dayong led his army to recover Wuwei.

On the seventh day of October, Jia Hu led the main force and the newly reorganized [-] criminal army to break through Shucheng, the last big city west of Hefei. , The Yunguang Department joined forces.

During this period, Wang Ziteng finally completely defeated the rebels in Chuzhou, and regained Hezhou on September 27.

The coalition forces led by Liu Fang, Ma Shang and Wang Dalei also paid off the rebels in Fengyang Mansion on the third day of October, and could enter Luzhou Mansion at any time.

At the beginning of October, the autumn atmosphere in the capital is getting stronger. After a gust of autumn wind, the dead leaves from the big trees on both sides of Yongdingmen Street are falling down one after another, and some of them fall on the bodies of the onlookers.

Martial law was imposed inside and outside Yongding Gate.

Today is the tenth day of October, the day when the Manchu and Qing missions entered Beijing.

In front of the city gate, officials from the Ministry of Rites and members of the Criminal Division were already standing, all waiting there with indifferent expressions.

The right servant of the Ministry of Rites stood in the middle of the line of officials, Zhen Yingjia stood beside him, and on both sides were the officials of the Ministry of Rites and the team of criminal officials.

Zhen Yingjia was the hardest these days. The successive blows made him physically and mentally exhausted, and he was on the verge of collapse. He lost his former vigor, his face was abnormally pale, and his hair under the official hat was completely white.

Finally, the old concubine was able to get out of bed and stretch her muscles and bones. Another bad news came from Liaodong. E Bi, the servant of the Ministry of Punishment, came to the capital for talks, so he delayed entering Beijing until today.

When the news reached Zhen's family, Zhen Yingjia couldn't catch her breath and passed out.

After waking up, Zhen Yingjia lay on the bed for three days, and then, despite Mrs. Zhen's dissuasion, went to the palace to meet the emperor, knelt outside the upper study for half an hour, and finally begged for this job. Guaranteed, I won't say a word to that beast, just look at him.

"Here we come." The right servant of the Ministry of Rites whispered in Zhen Yingjia's ear.

Zhen Yingjia came back to her senses and looked into the distance.

In the distance, a horse team appeared on the official road, and all eyes were on it.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites stood there quietly without making a sound, and neither did the people who joined in the fun on both sides, just watching the horse team getting closer and closer.

Three hundred steps, two hundred steps, one hundred steps!

As the horse team approached, the crowd on both sides of the moat immediately started clamoring.

Seeing it clearly, Cao Yi, the deputy general of the Liaodong Army, took the lead and led ten cavalry to the front.

In the middle are Manchus in plain clothes, followed by more than [-] Liaodong cavalry at the end.

Cao Yi reined in the reins.

The whole group stopped.

The right servant of the Ministry of Rites led the officials of the Ministry of Rites to welcome them.

Cao Yi dismounted from his horse, took ten soldiers and Manchus onto the suspension bridge, and walked towards the gate of the city.

The right servant of the Ministry of Rites walked towards Cao Yi: "General Cao?"

Cao Yi walked up to the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, clasped his hands together and said, "I was ordered to escort the Manchu and Qing missions to Beijing."

The right servant of the Ministry of Rites nodded with a smile: "I'm sorry, General Cao, I'll leave it to the Ministry of Rites." Then he took out a cabinet document from his sleeve.

Cao Yi glanced at it, waved his hand, and the soldiers behind him immediately made way for a passage, and the Manchus came over.

E Bi, the servant of the Ministry of Punishment of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, walked in front, and beside him was Wuya Ruixing, who was wearing a blue brocade arrow robe, wearing a melon cap and a long, thin braid behind his head.

The right servant of the Ministry of Rites suppressed his smile: "Let's go." He turned around and walked towards the city gate.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites who came with him glanced at "Zhen Fu", all showing disgusted eyes, followed the right servant of the Ministry of Rites and walked towards the city gate.

E Bi showed deep smile lines at the corners of his mouth, waved his hand, and walked towards the city gate.

The other Manchu people showed gloating expressions and walked over.

A gleam of coldness quickly flashed in Wuya Ruixing's eyes, and he regained his composure in an instant, and followed.

Wuya Ruixing stood about ten steps away from Yongdingmen, and he saw Zhen Yingjia.

He was stunned for a moment, is this the gentle and elegant Zhen family head in his impression?At this moment, he stared at himself as if looking at a stranger, his lips moved, as if he was chanting something.

Wuya Ruixing walked over slowly, and stopped diagonally opposite Zhen Yingjia. At this time, Zhen Yingjia was still looking at him with strange eyes.

"Zhen Fu" looked at Zhen Yingjia in pain: "Father."

Behind them, there are pairs of eyes with different expressions, and everyone is waiting to see.

The word "Father" reminded Zhen Yingjia of the tragic death of her youngest son and old mother, her eyes were full of fierceness, she suddenly caught a glimpse of the big knife in the waist of Fan Zi, and stretched out her hand to draw out the waist knife of Fan Zi.

Zhen Yingjia had a knife in his hand, and raised his hands, he was about to slash at Zhen Fu!
Everyone was stunned, and the right servant of the Ministry of Rites shouted loudly: "Can't kill!"

"Zhen Fu" closed his eyes, and Fanzi beside him jumped up with sharp eyes and quick hands, and rolled to the side holding Zhen Fu.

Zhen Yingjia suddenly remembered the emperor's words, sighed, raised the corner of his robe with one hand, and raised his waist knife with the other.

Everyone saw a flash of white light before their eyes, followed by the sound of a waist knife falling to the ground.

Looking at the waist knife and a piece of broken robe on the ground, Zhen fell to her knees.

Looking at the back of Zhen Yingjia going away, a look of disappointment appeared in E Bi's eyes.

It was still the same teahouse, or the same private room. King Yizhong stood in front of the window, looking at the staggering Zhen Yingjia through the half-open window, with a sneer on the corner of his mouth.

Suddenly, the door of the private room was opened.

The king of Yizhong County turned around, and the old housekeeper hurried over and said in a low voice: "It's done, Mei Changwen received the complaint, and he was also taken to the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Mei Changwen brought the complaint and the letter We went to Wenyuan Pavilion, King Zhongshun is on duty today."

The King of Yizhong had no expression on his face, and said word by word: "Deal with all those who know about this matter, and don't leave any clues!"

The old butler was startled, thought for a moment, and then said: "He doesn't know our identities, now is the time to employ people, why don't we let them go out?"

King Yizhong shook his head, looked out the window, and said: "This matter is of great importance, and it will even affect the war in Anhui. The emperor, the emperor, and the military, any one of them can crush us to death. There can be no negligence! "

The old butler replied: "Yes." He withdrew.

At this time, the Manchus, led by the officials from the Ministry of Rites, walked towards Qianmen Street. The King of Yizhong had a sneer on his face, saying, "Invincible, invincible in field battles, bullshit!"

Suddenly, a light flashed in the eyes of Yizhong County King, and those Liaodong troops turned to Xuanwumen. Are they planning to go to Jia's house?

Imperial City
At this time, Wenyuan Pavilion Square was full of officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

At the door of the cabinet duty room, Chief Assistant Song Chengliang stared blankly at the petition in his hand, motionless.

Elder Yang Ge, Wang Hetang, Zhao Zixun and Qian Shangshu stood aside without saying a word.

Niu Jizong who had just arrived threw the letter into the arms of King Zhongshun: "It's fake."

King Zhongshun's face immediately turned ugly, and he sneered: "Just now, this king has gone to the side hall to compare this letter with the handwriting on file. It is Wang Ziteng's personal letter."

Niu Jizong smiled lightly: "I can have someone find ten masters of fake letters from Liulichang right now."

"you"

King Zhongshun was stunned, and then said loudly: "The truth can't be fake, and the fake can't be true. Now he is in the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and it will be clear after the first trial."

The officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate nodded solemnly.

Niu Jizong's eyes slowly swept across the faces of the officials, and then he looked at King Zhongshun: "Now that the war in Anhui has entered the most critical moment, you have fabricated it for no reason and framed the frontline commander. If because of this The incident led to the failure of the counter-insurgency, and even the entire Central Plains fell into corruption, can you take this responsibility!?"

King Zhongshun's face turned pale.

Mei Changwen's face also turned pale.

All the officials in Wenyuan Pavilion Square turned pale with shock.

(End of this chapter)