Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 104 Generous tears stained with tassels (5)

As soon as Zhao Xingde lived at the home of Fu Zhiren, the inspector of Xihe, it was the end of September. According to Fu Zhiren, the Liao Kingdom and the Song Kingdom were still in a stalemate in Hebei. The lieutenants of the national government were at loggerheads over whether to send troops to intervene, so the return time of the lieutenant rotation was delayed, and Qiu Shiliang's departure time for Dunhuang was also delayed accordingly.

The weather was getting colder and more clothes were added. As September entered, all kinds of flowers bloomed one after another. Fu Zhiren's wife Xiang Shi even joked with Li Ruoxue that they missed the Double Ninth Flower in Chang'an.At present, only Chang'an flowers can be as famous as Luoyang peonies. As the saying goes, "the fragrance soaring to the sky penetrates Chang'an, and the whole city is covered with golden armor."The peonies are rich and peaceful, the flowers are heroic and heroic, and each is good at winning.It is said that Chang'an also has many famous varieties such as "Golden Terrace", "Suet White", "Tuanyuanshou", "Lion Head", etc. Li Ruoxue was also fascinated by hearing this.

On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, even in the small city of Tongzhou, every household "planted" large golden flowers at the door, and restaurants tied flowers into door openings.Zhao Xingde and his wife climbed high with Fu Zhiren's family and looked into the distance, and then had a banquet on the ground at a hill called Mochou Terrace.Fu Zhiren's wife, Mrs. Xiang, was quite ingenious. She used flour flour to make various steamed cakes, such as chicken, duck, pig, beef, and sheep, and topped them with seasonal fruits, such as pomegranate, chestnut, ginkgo, and pine nuts.Whether to eat or not to play at home, I have given a lot of relief to relatives and friends.

On September 29, Fu Zhiren said happily that someone had finally discussed poetry and papers with Zhao De, and brought some scholars from the Kanto to his home for dinner.It's strange to say that the scholars from Kanto usually come from Hangu Pass with customs clearance certificates, but this time, like Zhao Xingde, these few people smuggled across the Yellow River, but they didn't use iron chains, but paid people to use them. Leather bag raft ferry.

However, it was these few scholars who brought Zhao Xingde a sad news that he never wanted to hear.

"Mr. Zhang Bing passed away." Luo Shoudao from Xijing said in a daze.

"The traitor Tong Guan returned to Bianjing, and he didn't know how to trick Shangyi into believing his nonsense. Kaifeng Mansion used torture to force a confession, but Mr. Zhang Bing refused to confess, and died in prison. After the news of Guozi Jiansheng's death in the prison of Kaifeng Mansion came out, scholars from all over the country criticized the imperial court for being "treacherous". More than a dozen adults including Yang Shi, Shao Wu, Qin Hui and others jointly signed a petition. However, the scholars involved in this case are still classified as cronies. Most of the county officials on the Northwest Road of Jingbei are the henchmen of Cai Bandit and Tong Bandit. I escaped because I posted a debunking post in Luoyang and was exposed."

"What?" Zhao Xingde was stunned for a moment, Zhang Bing's voice and smile seemed like yesterday, sometimes impassioned, "The scholars of my Taixue want to send off Mr. Zhoushan, Shaoyang, Shouyi, Yuanzhi with great fanfare, Gentlemen, do you dare to go!" "San Si, I will bear it with all my strength, and I will not allow the 'treacherous' party to impose the crime of rebellion on us." The law of the Ming Dynasty is the most important."

Sometimes it is gentle and concerned, "Yuan Zhi, if you are short of money, just say a word, and don't borrow money from that merchant again."

Sometimes it is rigorous and wise, "The Khitan people are good at horseback and are good at 'shooting' hunting. If you blindly compete with them in riding bows and crossbows, you will use your own shortcomings to attack the enemy's strengths. The law is rather cumbersome, and the Khitan people may not be able to do it, but it is suitable for our country and our people's meticulous disposition cultivated through years of farming." "My way is to rule the world with the law, not to abolish the law because of people."

"Zhang Minghuan, did you just go like this?" Zhao Xingde had such a thought in his mind. Although he knew that being framed for treason would be life-threatening, he still had a little bit of the family law of the imperial court not to kill scholar-bureaucrats. hope.But now, this hope has been completely shattered, leaving only regret and guilt for Zhang Bing.

When Zhao Xingde was in a state of despair, Liu Cang, a scholar from Caizhou, interjected and asked, "Is it true that the Holy Majesty does not pursue the crime of treason? It's just that crony gangs don't mean that families are ransacked and exterminated."

Liu Duanfang, a scholar from Ruzhou, said: "Exactly, except for Mr. Zhao Yuanzhi, who was deliberately framed by Fang La, the demon leader of the Ming Cult, no one will be prosecuted for the crime of treason. I heard that Mr. Deng Su and his sons in Beijing have been released. Just to be exiled back to the hometown, even the absconded Mr. Chen Dong and others have surrendered to the local yamen." He paused, and then added, "But I think that Mr. Yuanzhi is upright This strange man will never join hands with the devil Fang La."

Zhao Xingde's face was pale, and he murmured in his heart: "You are all wrong, he is just a rat who put his friends in danger and ran away alone." He got up and left in a hurry.

Zhao Xingde stood alone in the courtyard, with his head bowed and his eyes full of grass and trees that were withered by the autumn wind, the resentment and grief that he had suppressed just now welled up in his heart.Looking up at the thick clouds hanging down in the sky, the sun's light was blocked by the clouds, making the sky look very dark, he suddenly wanted to stretch out a hand, smash and tear the clouds.At this time, he really wanted to cry bitterly, but he couldn't cry no matter what. He just felt like there was a huge black hole in his heart, as if it was going to swallow his entire soul into it.

At a loss for how long, Li Ruoxue came behind him and gently held his hand.

Zhao Xingde turned his head to look at her, and said in a hoarse voice, "Ming Huan was killed by a 'traitor'."

Li Ruoxue looked at him worriedly, and said in a low voice, "I know everything. Yuan Zhi, I'm very worried about you now."

Zhao Xingde remained silent and did not answer.

With tears in Li Ruoxue's eyes, her lips moved, but she still didn't say anything.Only holding Zhao Xingde's hand, leaning on his body lightly, as if to help him bear something.

After a long time, Zhao Xingde finally let out a long sigh, his face regained some anger, and sighed: "I'm just not worth it for Ming Huan. He wants to sacrifice his life to understand the weight of the country's law, but he doesn't even have a joint trial by the three divisions."

Two days later, the first day of October is the Cold Clothes Festival. Seeing that the cold winter is approaching, every family sacrifices to the dead on this day. In order to prevent them from being exposed to the cold in the underworld, they burn clothes made of five-color paper, as if giving them gifts. Go for warm clothing.Zhao Xingde not only paid homage to his parents and relatives, but also bought some for Zhang Bing. Watching the curling green smoke rising into the sky, he secretly said, "Brother Minghuan, have a good journey."

Because of his impolite behavior of leaving the banquet in a hurry that day, several Song scholars looked at him a little coldly, and Zhao Xingde didn't care. If he understood his identity, everyone would be embarrassed instead.The Xia Kingdom’s court unexpectedly issued a government order specifically for this matter, and any scholars who fled to the Kanto due to being involved in the case of exposing posts, even if they did not have a customs clearance document, they were specially allowed to be evaluated by the Chang’an Scholars’ Office to approve their status as scribes.Because Zhao Xingde didn't tell Fu Zhiren earlier, he kept it a secret for so long, and now it is even more impossible to admit that he is Zhao Yuanzhi who was paid special attention by the government order because of the case of exposing the post, and wanted the attention of the patrols everywhere.

On the tenth day of October, five lieutenants of the Iron Bone Army returned to the camp from Dunhuang, while Qiu Shiliang and other five left at the same time.There were ten soldiers of the iron-skeleton army guarding them, and Zhao Xingde and Li Ruoxue also followed this group of people and embarked on a journey to Dunhuang, the western capital of Xia Kingdom.

Captain Qiu Shiliang is a middle-aged officer in his 40s. He is very serious, but he treats the sergeant very well and considers things very carefully.The news of Zhao Xingde's ability to open the three-stone bow has already spread in the military camp. Qiu Shiliang felt that his bravery was a little bit buried in the Tiger Wing Army. In the Tiger Wing Army, most of them did not have the prospect of being promoted to generals. On the contrary, after retiring, they were more businessmen and county officials.With his archery skills, he should go to the Anxi Military Division to join the army.Xiaowei's Mansion has decided to take advantage of the opportunity of Dashi and Turks to attack Lu Mei, and send troops to intervene. If Lu Mei country can fight for its own strength, it will help them.If you don't live up to it, you will swallow it.

Qiu Shiliang is old and sophisticated, he will neither reveal his thoughts to Zhao De, nor will he reveal the military plans of the Huguofu's determination to advance westward.He is quite familiar with the vertical and horizontal connections of the Huguo Mansion. Along the way, he was secretly thinking about how to combine the strength of the military commanders in Guanzhong, and how to win over some of the commanders in Bashu and Anbei. The benefits of this war cannot be overwhelmed Anzai had it all to himself.No matter what, Guan Zhongjun won a piece of the pie. Although the Guan Zhongjun was unable to fight because of the distance, the Guan Zhongjun had to take part of the bonds from the Prime Minister’s House that had been spent on this military deployment, and the interest on the debt would be subsidized to the retired sergeants.