Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 680 The Embarrassing Six Military Villages

Ye Chen glanced at Ma Wentao, who was astonished, and asked intentionally: "Sis Li, I see Mr. Ma's face is upright and impassioned, he doesn't look like an anti-thief who participated in the regicide and rebellion, are you catching him wrong?" Otherwise, if these evidences are handed over to the imperial court, Mr. Ma’s family will punish the nine clans. This will involve the lives of thousands of members of the Ma family, so it must not be mistaken.”

Li Junhao said solemnly: "My lord, being an official in a humble position has always been fair and honest. The late emperor once said this. Since the establishment of our Supervision Department, we have never wronged an official, and we will never let one go." Prisoner. Regarding Ma Wentao's participation in the conspiracy, the humble officer has carefully interrogated the relevant criminals and has obtained sufficient evidence. Please see, my lord, these letters are physical evidence, and these captured messengers are personal witnesses."

Ye Chen said seriously: "Letters can be imitated, and prisoners can be falsely accused. I am afraid that these evidences... are not enough to commit crimes?"

Li Junhao immediately replied solemnly: "My lord, these letters have the official seals of the rebels Zhao Guangyi, Pan Mei and Ma Wentao respectively, so they cannot be faked."

Ye Chen was surprised and said: "There is such a thing? Hurry up and let me have a look."

Ma Wentao looked at Ye Chen and Li Junhao's pretentious play, just sneered, but his heart had already begun to feel uneasy. His majesty is now suspicious of murder. The deeds of the court officials have already spread to the northwest. The most important thing is that Zhao Pu, the prime minister who now controls the government, has a feud with him. It would be strange if he didn't seize this opportunity to kill him and thousands of people in his nine clans. !

So Ye Chen said that he colluded with King Jin and Pan Mei's rebels to rebel, even if there is no evidence, the consequences would be unimaginable if it was heard by His Majesty the current Emperor and Prime Minister Zhao Pu.

Ma Wentao's heart was cold, but his face remained cold. He watched Li Junhao take the letter, walked up to Ye Chen, opened one and looked at it. Li Junhao smiled and said, "Well, my lord, this letter is Written by the traitor Zhao Guangyi..."

As he spoke, he took out a stamped letter from his bosom, moved it over to the cinnabar stamp pad on the table in front of Ye Chen, dipped it, and stamped a big stamp on the letter. Ma Wentao's eyes widened and he trembled with anger. He had expected that Ye Chen would forge evidence to frame him, but he never expected that the other party would do so in public. This... this... this is too arrogant, too despicable, right?
After stamping the seal, Li Junhao opened another letter, looked at the signature, and said with a smile: "This letter is written by Ma Wentao to the traitor Zhao Guangyi."

Then he took out another seal, and Ma Wentao could see clearly that this seal was the official seal he used when he was the magistrate in Longzhou, and the brass button was polished to shine.

Li Junhao grabbed the seal of the prefect of Longzhou and stamped another seal on the letter.

In this way, Zhao Guangyi, Pan Mei, and Ma Wentao covered all the letters and put away the seals.Finally, he smiled at Ye Chen and said, "Look, my lord, these letters are true and correct. The official seal on it is compared with the mutual trust between Zhao Guangyi and Pan Mei that we captured in Kaifeng. It is definitely not a forgery. The evidence is solid and there is no falsehood." , The lower official said that the lower official is in charge of the Supervision Department, and the mirror hangs high.

Ma Wentao witnessed such a scene with his own eyes, and he was already on the verge of going crazy. On a hot day in August, he felt icy cold all over his body.He is not afraid of death, but if thousands of people in the whole family are executed by the court because of him, that is definitely not what he wants to see.

At this time, I saw Ye Chen holding the letter card, looking at it pretendingly, nodded and said: "It really isn't false at all."

Ye Chen blew on the ink that was still wet on the letter, and shouted to the prisoners kneeling in the hall: "Who ordered you to send these letters, quickly identify the murderer for me, if you know everything, There are endless words, this king will save you from death."

The prisoners were overjoyed, and hurriedly raised their heads to point at Ma Wentao, and said decisively: "It's him, it's Ma Wentao, my lord, we were all ordered by Ma Wentao to deliver letters to the rebels Zhao Guangyi and Pan Mei for him, so we have to obey, please also ask your lord Forgive me, spare the villain from dying."

Ma Wentao was already so angry that his seven orifices were filled with smoke, but he was powerless.

Ye Chen grinned and said, "Master Ma, what else do you want to say now?"

Ma Wentao watched the performance of framing him on the spot with cold eyes, and at this moment he fully understood in his heart.Ye Chen concocted evidence in front of him, not to hand over the evidence to the imperial court and His Majesty the current emperor, and to kill thousands of people in their Ma family, but to threaten him nakedly.Not to mention such a despicable threat, with Huaxia Weifu's means, as long as he wants to, I am afraid that Huaxia Weifu and Ye Chen don't need to come forward, and it is probably easy to frame him as a traitor by other means.

Ma Wentao is a wise man, a truly smart person, he thought through all the causes and consequences in an instant, and his expression was also changing.

Ye Chen looked at Ma Wentao's wonderful expression, and said with a smile, "Why, Mr. Ma has nothing to say?"

Ma Wentao sighed deeply, and said, "King Xiangfu, I count you as ruthless! I admit it."

Ye Chen said: "There is a saying in the ancients: good birds choose trees to live in, and good ministers choose their masters to serve. Mr. Ma is a great Confucian in the world and famous all over the world. He should enter the center of the Song Dynasty and serve as a prime minister. It’s just that as far as I know, Mr. Ma was squeezed out by Zhao Pu, and he refused to attach himself to the King of Jin. In his early years, he was disliked by the late emperor because of a wild poem, so he became the magistrate of a state in a remote place in the northwest. It’s all about serving each other. Now the king rules the northwest, and the Western Regions are in chaos, and the heroes are vying for the throne. This king is thirsty for talent, and it’s time to employ people. Mr. Ma’s strength of character and ability are all respected by this king. Now I am a king Honestly, is Master Ma willing to be used by this king?"

Ma Wentao stared at Ye Chen, and said: "If the prince wants to be loyal to the official, he must agree to the two conditions of the official."

Ye Chen laughed loudly, waved his hands, and the Huaxia Wei Chao retreated on both sides, and dragged the death row prisoners, and they also left completely. After a while, only Ye Chen and Ma Wentao were left in the meeting hall.

After the crowd was gone, Ye Chen looked serious and said, "What conditions?"

Ma Wentao said: "First, if the lord does not establish a country and proclaim himself emperor, even if I am loyal to the lord, I will not do my best."

Ye Chen was startled when he heard the words, let out a long laugh, looked deeply at Ma Wentao, and said solemnly: "Master Ma is indeed a wonderful person, a true gentleman."

"Well! On this point, Lord Ma, you can rest assured. Since Zhao Dezhao has forced this king to this position, he naturally wants to establish a country and proclaim himself emperor. Moreover, this king wants to unify the Western Regions, destroy the Khitan and the Great Song, In this way, we can unify the world and restore our China's glory in the prosperous Han and Tang Dynasties."

Ma Wentao's eyes flashed brightly, and he said, "Okay! The prince has such ambitions, and he has already won half of this official's loyalty."

Having said that, Ma Wentao paused for a moment, stared at Ye Chen closely and said, "My second condition is that I must be the leader of all officials."

Ye Chen smiled and said: "It's nothing to be a prime minister with Master Ma's reputation, but the rewards and punishments of my king have always been clear, with pragmatism as the first priority, and the emphasis on seeking truth and being pragmatic. Master Ma wants to be a prime minister, but he has no experience." With the experience of the prime minister, how does this king know that you are qualified for the post of prime minister."

Ma Wentao was very novel about the truth-seeking and pragmatic words in Ye Chen's words. After chewing for a while, he felt that the meaning fit his personality, and his eyes became brighter and brighter. He was also confident, and said: "Lingzhou, Yan Zhou, Dingzhou, Longzhou, and Shengzhou were attacked by the lord with the party's alien army. Although I don't know what method the lord used to make those party members so obedient and rarely disturb the people, but for more than 100 years, the party members entered our Han territory to burn, kill and loot I don’t know how many times, I have formed an indelible hatred with the people of the five states. If the prince wants the people of the five states to truly return to his heart, he can’t use the soldiers of the party to garrison and suppress them. I am confident that within three months , after the party members withdrew, and the people of the five prefectures initially returned to their hearts."

After Ye Chen pondered for a while, he had a decision in his heart and said, "Alright, this king will hand over the civil rights of Lingzhou, Yanzhou, Dingzhou, Longzhou, and Shengzhou to Mr. Ma, just as Mr. Ma said. , with a period of three months."

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The territory under Ye Chen's current rule includes Yinzhou, Xiazhou, Lanzhou, Lingzhou, Yanzhou, Dingzhou, Longzhou, and Shengzhou, the prefectural cities of the eight states, and the counties, towns, and villages under the jurisdiction of the eight states. The Hengshan prairie where the Dangxiang Bashi is located, and some foreign tribes and cottages in the nearby mountains and rivers.As for the six military villages between Lingzhou, Yanzhou and other five states and Hengshan Grassland, they are now in a very awkward and delicate state.

Ye Chen also didn't have any intention of sending troops to attack the six military camps, but he also didn't intend to let the army and the people in the six military camps leave.

Leaving aside the six army villages, apart from the Han people in the Bazhou territory and the Dangxiang people on the Hengshan grassland under Ye Chen's rule, there are also some other tribes or cottages in the nearby mountains and rivers.For example, seven small and large Tubo tribes, five Huihe tribes, and three Tu tribe cottages. These foreign forces are not only the people under his rule, but also the source of turmoil.

In a blink of an eye, more than a month has passed since Ye Chen took over the eight states, busy expanding the army and regulating the people, controlling households and setting taxes, delineating administrative divisions, punishing the military and dispatching officials.Although Han Xizai is in overall charge, Ma Wentao is specifically in charge of Lingzhou and other five prefectures, officials from the Southern Tang Dynasty are in charge of Yin, Xia, and Lanzhou, and Ye Chen only walks around on the surface and occasionally gives orders, but in fact, various arrangements and disposals, Coordinating decisions and appointing meetings are still very busy.So I haven't been able to meet with the leaders of the Dangxiang Ba clan in Hengshan except for the Tuoba clan and the Li clan, and the leaders of the surrounding Tubo, Huihe tribes, and Tu ethnic villages.

(End of this chapter)