After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 480 Evidence of crime
Everyone was stunned.

Who would have thought? The affair between Mrs. Ma and the old Khan King of the Hu people when she was young actually hid such a big secret!
What is she planning? ! She is a noble daughter of the clan!

Mrs. Zhou Ma looked at her stepmother-in-law in disbelief, and couldn't help but turn around and ask her husband Zhou Shigong: "Master, did you hear that right?"

Zhou Shigong also looked confused. He originally thought that it was the ultimate for his stepmother to pretend to be a good wife and mother to plot his future and family property, and that colluding with foreign spies was already extremely evil. Who would have thought that she could do something more extreme?
He looked blankly at Duke Zhen Guo, who was looking up to him: "First cousin, Pingxihou Mansion... used to guard the northwest, right?"

The Duke of Zhen Guo nodded slightly with a solemn expression. Before the Zhou family became the head of the northwest frontier army, Ping Xihou was the commander-in-chief of the northwest army, and he could be said to have made great achievements in battle back then. His grandfather was originally just a mid-level general, but his father was promoted by Marquis Pingxi and was able to lead a single guard. Later, he achieved great military exploits. Only after Marquis Pingxi was transferred back to the capital, he became his successor's deputy general and rose to prominence from then on.

Speaking of Ping Xihou's transfer back to the capital, there was a lot of discussion back then. At that time, Ping Xihou returned to Beijing and was granted the title. He originally planned to stay in Beijing for only two months before returning to the northwest. However, an old injury suddenly occurred during this period and he could no longer return to the front line to lead the army. After hurriedly getting married to his son, he submitted a letter to resign. . Emperor Yongchang, who was in power at that time, took pity on his veteran minister and refused to let him disarm and return to his fields, so he transferred him back to Beijing and joined the Ministry of War as Shangshu until his death a few years later.

It's just that the title of Marquis of Pingxi was not passed down. After the eldest son turned seven, the prince of Pingxi went to the northwest to participate in the war and made military exploits. When the court awarded him another reward, his title had become Marquis of Yingchuan. Compared with Pingxi, Hou was demoted two more levels, but the Zeng family finally managed to hold on and never lost the glory of their ancestors. It's just that the Zeng family, which once dominated the northwest, no longer has the prestige, and the leading general family in the border army has become the Zhou family.

When the first generation Yingchuan Marquis was granted the title of Marquis, all the old men of the third family of the Zhou family had already retreated to the rear, and the father of Zhen Guogong had been killed in battle. The Duke of Zhen Guo once lamented the ups and downs of the fate of these former veterans, but he never expected that there was also a scandal of a clan girl treason and collaboration with the enemy hidden behind it.

The Duke of Zhen Guo looked at Mrs. Ma. From the moment Tu Rong read out the "Mother's Dark History" in Zhou Shuyi's confession, she seemed to have lost her energy and spirit. She collapsed on the armchair in a decadent manner and no longer made any struggle.

She had always dreamed of finding out what was behind her in the Zeng family ancestral hall, and pinned all her hopes on her daughter Zhou Shuyi. Unexpectedly, it was her daughter who finally exposed her. She was filled with anger and despair, but she didn't even have the strength to say a word.

But no matter how decadent she was, the Duke of Zhen would not let her go.

He asked Mrs. Ma with a straight face: "Is what Shuyi said true?! What did you steal from the Pingxihou Mansion back then? Why did you do this for the Hu people as hostages?! "

Mrs. Ma closed her eyes and did not answer.

When the Duke of Zhenguo saw that she didn't answer, he just sneered twice, turned to Tu Rong and said, "Tu Tongzhi, please continue reading. I think Marquis Yingchuan has already asked us the whole story."

Tu Rong hid the shock in his eyes, nodded with a straight face, and continued reading the confession. Everyone guessed that the heartless man that Mrs. Ma had fallen in love with back then was the old barbarian Khan who had been a hostage in Da Chu. He said all the sweet words to Mrs. Ma, coaxing her to want to stay with him forever, and even told her parents about it. Unexpectedly, her father Qin Guogong was furious and not only refused to agree, but also sent his daughter to the countryside under house arrest. By the time Mrs. Ma tried her best to find a way to return to the capital, the heartless man had found a new love. Only then did Mrs. Ma realize that she had been deceived, and angrily reported the crime of the Hu hostages stealing military planes. When the Hu hostage fled in panic, he remembered the secret passage of the Pingxihou Mansion ancestral hall that Mrs. Ma once took him to, and took advantage of it.

It's just that he had a grudge against Mrs. Ma for reporting him, so he hid the letter she wrote in the ancestral hall, thinking that once the people in the Pingxihou Mansion found out about it, they would definitely take revenge on Mrs. Ma, and he would be the one to do so. took revenge on her.

Zhou Shuyi heard this from her mother, and there are many differences from the version that everyone knows. It seems that Mrs. Ma embellished the big mistake she made back then, so as not to let her daughter know how stupid she had been.

As for how Mrs. Ma knew that the old Hu Khan had hidden information about her in the Zeng family ancestral hall before he fled... According to what she told her daughter, it was the old Hu Khan who found out about her after he fled back to the country. A spy was sent to tell her where she was hiding. The purpose was to frighten her day and night and never have peace, as revenge on her.

Mrs. Ma didn't want to sit still and wait for death, so she had to find a way to save herself. It was no longer possible for her to marry back to the Pingxihou Mansion, and she was afraid that Pingxihou would recognize her. She could not even keep her marriage at that time, so she never dared to return to the capital, nor did she dare to contact the generals and their families from the capital. She could only carefully cultivate her daughter, teach her to be obedient and filial, and then plan to marry her back to the Yingchuan Hou Mansion.

There is a long paragraph at the end, which is what Zhou Shuyi said after she collapsed under the high-pressure cross-examination by her husband and uncle. She regretted that she had done so many things for her mother. If she had not followed her mother's arrangements, she would have married into another prince's mansion and enjoyed a lifetime of wealth and honor. How could she have ended up in the embarrassing situation she is in today? ! She used to feel that it was her duty to be filial to her mother and do things for her, but now she is worried about the future of herself and her children. She already knew that her sister-in-law was going to take a good concubine for her husband. If she died, her husband might still have a new wife. How much suffering will her pampered children have to suffer in the future if they have to live in the hands of their stepmother! She saw with her own eyes how her biological mother became a stepmother, and she simply couldn't imagine the future of her children!

Marquis Yingchuan probably copied this part of the confession on purpose, hoping to poke Mrs. Ma's heart. After Tu Rong finished reading, he looked at the numb expression on Mrs. Ma's face, said nothing more, and continued reading.

The father and son brothers of Yingchuan Hou were also shocked after receiving Zhou Shuyi's confession. Marquis Yingchuan personally took his son to the ancestral hall, and searched carefully in the main room at the rear. After searching for three full days, he found a small paper package from a very hidden gap above the beam and pillar. The color is yellow, obviously showing its age.

The Marquis of Yingchuan opened the paper package and took a closer look. As expected, there was a letter written by a clan girl named Song Yuzhu to her lover. The letter explained the details of the new defense line that the Marquis of Pingxi planned to deploy in the northwest frontier. There was also a rough drawing that was quite clear. The map contains the names of the leading generals at several important defense points of the Northwest Frontier Army, and there are even descriptions of the temperament, preferences, and character shortcomings of those generals. If this information fell into the hands of Hu hostages and was successfully returned to the Hu State, the northwest frontier army would have suffered a major setback.

Duke Zhen Guo recalled several unsuccessful battles mentioned by his father and said that the Hu generals seemed to have suddenly become smarter. They could guess the weaknesses of the Chu army and defeat them one by one, and his expression became more serious.

I'm afraid that Duke Qin also found out what his daughter had done, right? He did not dare to say anything, but he quickly sent his daughter away to house arrest and canceled her marriage to Prince Pingxihou. Otherwise, if Song Yuzhu is allowed to successfully marry into the Pingxi Hou Mansion and then be disconnected from the Hu hostage, God knows what more terrible things will happen? !

Everyone in the room looked unhappy. Haitang watched coldly, and suddenly remembered something, so she leaned into her aunt Zhou Ma's ear and whispered softly: "When the old Hu man King Khan escaped from the capital, he didn't know Mrs. Ma's new identity. Why did Mrs. Ma act like this? Are you worried that even if someone finds the evidence, it won’t be found on her head?”

(End of this chapter)