The flower hall fell into a suffocating silence, and the power full of chilling breath leaked out from Xie Yan, overwhelmingly pressing towards Dingyang Marquis.
Marquis Dingyang was not a martial artist. His face turned pale in an instant, and a trace of blood overflowed from his lips.
Xie Yan quickly withdrew his strong strength and looked coldly at the middle-aged man in front of him who was leaning on the armrest to hold himself upright.
Marquis Dingyang raised his hand and wiped the blood from his lips, looked down at his bloody fingertips, and smiled casually at Xie Yan.
Xie Yan looked at him calmly and said, "You don't regret it...or, in other words, you don't think you did anything wrong."
Marquis Dingyang sighed lightly and said: "To be honest, even after so many years... I still don't regret what I did. Although... the final result is indeed a bit beyond our expectations."
Xie Yan's eyebrows furrowed slightly, "You were only in your early twenties at that time. It's impossible for you to make such a big decision. The person who really made the decision was your father."
The Marquis of Dingyang was indeed young and vigorous at that time, but with his age and ability at the time, even if he really wanted to exterminate the Yao family, if the old Marquis of Dingyang did not have such an idea, he would not be able to convince him
. And there is absolutely no way that he could bypass the old Marquis of Dingyang and do this alone. So it is self-evident who is the leader of this matter.
Marquis Dingyang made no secret of his malice towards the Yao family, obviously not wanting him to associate this matter with the old Marquis Dingyang, but they all knew this was impossible.
Xie Yan is not a fool, and he doesn't just believe whatever he says.
The expression on Marquis Dingyang's face faded away. He stared at Xie Yan coldly and said, "My father has been dead for many years."
Xie Yan said solemnly: "I have no intention of ruining the reputation of Marquis Shang after his death, but this matter... I am afraid it is not something that the Marquis can solve by himself." Marquis Dingyang remained silent for a long time before he raised his head and chuckled.
He said: "Since the matter has been done, what is supposed to come will come sooner or later. What is the use of talking about it now? I have been waiting for this day for more than twenty years. My lord, you are the grandson of the Yao family, and you are also the grandson of the Yao family."
As for the blood of the Xie family, you’d better not get involved in this matter.”
Xie Yan said: "Dingyang Hou sent his son to learn martial arts since he was a child, just for today?"
Marquis Dingyang nodded and said: "Yes, before A Yue was born, I made an agreement with the Master of Wenjian Pavilion. When A Yue is a little older, I will take him as my disciple and take him away from Shangyong. My father once rescued Master Wenjian Pavilion.
, he owes the merchant a favor and will definitely protect Ayue Zhouquan."
"But Prince Shang is back." Xie Yan said calmly.
Dingyang Hou frowned slightly, but in the end he could only sigh and said: "He is the son of a merchant after all, and he will come back after all. Your lord, I can't control what that person wants to do, I only hope you can
Let Ah Yue live."
Xie Yan did not answer immediately, but looked at Dingyang Hou and asked: "What happened back then."
Marquis Dingyang did not expect him to agree straight away, and said calmly: "Didn't the prince already guess it? It's what you thought."
Xie Yan said: "What I'm asking is how you did it. The merchants are not ordinary small households. At that time, your father had no military power. Even if he could mobilize the local government, he might not be the opponent of the Yao family. According to my king
As far as I know, the soldiers and horses near Shinshu didn't know about this at that time. I'm afraid my father and the marquis alone couldn't do this. The imperial aunt told me that only one of my uncle and the people she wanted to protect was still alive, and this king
It is speculated that it should be the Marquis. Then...there must be other people who are still alive, but they are not that important to my uncle and aunt."
Marquis Dingyang remained silent.
Xie Yan said: "Since Lord Marquis has admitted what happened back then, it must not be so difficult to tell me some details."
Marquis Dingyang looked at Xie Yan calmly and said: "I have one condition. The prince agrees that I can tell you everything."
Xie Yan raised his eyebrows and said, "Master Hou, you might as well talk about it."
Marquis Dingyang 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 the Marquis mean?"
Marquis Dingyang said in a deep voice: "Everything was done by me alone, without my father's knowledge."
Xie Yan said: "Master Hou, do you think anyone will believe it?"
"It's not important." Dingyang Hou said coldly: "I believe that the prince will not go back on his promise. As long as the prince agrees, I can tell him anything I know."
Xie Yan lowered his eyes and thought, and Marquis Dingyang sat down quietly and waited without any hurry.
I don't know how much time passed before Xie Yan raised his head and said, "The Marquis of Shang has been dead for many years. Does the Marquis know the consequences of doing this to the merchants?"
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 Dingyang Hou is still alive. Once these things are leaked, the world will never forgive Shang.
of.
Marquis Dingyang said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, just tell me your answer."
Xie Yan said: "Okay, I promise you."
Hearing this, the expression on Marquis Dingyang's face softened a bit, as if he was relieved.
The flower hall was quiet for a moment, and Marquis Dingyang leaned back in his chair and said with hollow eyes: "Back then... after my father and I were kicked out by the Yao family, my father quickly sent a letter back to Beijing to ask for help from the imperial court, and at the same time visited other people in Xinzhou.
The aristocratic families and wealthy families. Unfortunately, they all got nothing, and some families even avoided seeing them. Not only that, all parts of Xinzhou closed their city gates tightly and refused to allow the people who had fled from Qinan to enter Xinzhou. At that time, the Xinzhou government was unable to do anything about it, and Dasheng's foundation was
There is still a war in the unstable northwest. If the wealthy families in these places are pushed into a hurry, it is difficult to say whether they will also raise troops and plunge the relatively stable Shinshu into turmoil."
"At that time, there was even a tragedy of cannibalism in Qinan, and there were riots in several of the worst-hit places. What's even worse is that there were heavy rains for several days... I really couldn't bear it at the time. My father and I
He said that we couldn't handle this situation at all and asked father to leave it alone. We just need to write to the court to report the situation in Qinan and wait for His Majesty to send someone again."
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Dingyang Hou’s voice was steady, as if he was narrating someone else’s affairs, “But my father told me that there are no people in the court, and there is no money or food. If we can’t raise food and grass,
We have only two options. One is to mobilize all the troops and horses from all around Qinan to block all entrances and exits from Qinan to the outside world, leaving the people inside to fend for themselves. The other is to completely let go, and then the victims of Qinan will be
They all rushed into Xinyang, which was closest to them. No one knew what would happen then. The terrain of Qinan was special. The victims would get lost in the vast mountains if they went north or west. They had to cross the natural chasm and river to go east, so they only had to
I would run to Shinshu. I actually hoped that my father would choose the latter. Don’t those wealthy people in Shinshu think that they can be safe and secure if they don’t care? When they are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of hungry and crazy victims, I would like to take a look.
How do they plan to deal with it calmly?"
Xie Yan didn't speak, just listened quietly.
"Just when my father was hesitating and tossing and turning, someone came to find him." Marquis Dingyang 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."
"That's not right." Xie Yan interrupted him and said in a deep voice: "You didn't have any troops at that time, and the Marquis of Shang didn't mobilize the imperial troops near Xinzhou. Even if Bai Jingrong wanted to deal with the Yao family, he wouldn't come to you. Besides,
, In fact, on the night when the Yao family was finally destroyed, the Bai family did not show up."
Dingyang Hou took a deep look at him and said: "We do not 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 message
Give it to Prince Ancheng, so that Prince Ancheng can successfully intercept the Bai family in Lingzhou."
Xie Yan frowned and said, "Why is this? The Marquis of Shang did not want to cooperate with the Bai family and wanted to be alone... No, it must have been the Marquis of Shang who first sent the message to Prince Ancheng and then decided to plunder the Yao family."
Dingyang Hou glanced at Xie Yan with some surprise, nodded and said: "Yes, my father originally thought that Bai Jingrong only came for us, and directly detained the Bai family people and did not agree to this plan. Later we found out that the people who were watching the Yao family were
The Bai family is not alone. If the Bai family cannot arrive in time, it will have no impact on them. Those people will only be happy that there is one less person to divide the property."
"Who were there at that time?" Xie Yan asked.
"There were two wealthy families in Xinzhou who had conflicts with the Yao family at that time, there were Jianghu gangs that had been entrenched in Xinzhou for many years, and there were some people whose background we couldn't tell. And..." Dingyang Hou looked at Xie Yan deeply,
Said: "King Mu."
Watching the change in Xie Yan's expression, Marquis Dingyang said calmly: "Although the Yao family does not have an army, there are many guards under the aristocratic families who occupy one side. The ancestral home of the Yao family is not in Xinzhou City, and there are many sentries within a few miles of it.
and fortress, it is not easy to break into them. They even have a secret passage that can allow the core members of the family to retreat in case of sudden situation. Less than two hundred people entered the Yao family that night. How did the prince think they managed to evacuate the surrounding people?
The Yao family, which had at least two thousand guardsmen, was wiped out? Except for the eldest son of the Yao family who was not at home at the time, no one from the Yao family was left alive."
Xie Yan did not answer. Dingyang Hou smiled and said: "Yes, it was the eldest lady of the Yao family who gave King Mu the defense map near the Yao family. I don't know how long these people have been staring at the Yao family, but since we received Bai Jingrong's
It only took seven days for the news to reach the Yao family and the entire family was wiped out. I guess these things must not have been so comprehensively imagined in just seven days."
"Your Majesty, there is no need to think that I am blaming King Mu and Princess Mu to shirk responsibility. If Your Majesty wanted to find out, he could of course find out. King Mu was indeed near Xinzhou at that time. He even arrived in Xinzhou earlier than my father and I," said the Marquis of Dingyang.
Xie Yan said: "Since these people have planned so carefully in advance, why did Bai Jingrong want to temporarily recruit you into the gang?"
Dingyang Hou shook his head and said with a smile: "I don't know, we didn't care about this issue at that time. It was indeed me who did this. I personally took people to the Yao family that night, and we went in very smoothly.
It took almost no effort to resolve the matter. Afterwards... those people took away most of the treasures collected by the Yao family for generations. The two local wealthy families later divided up the Yao family's sea and land trade routes, and we took away the Yao family's inventory.
Grain. The government didn’t know what had happened until the next day, but at that time no one in the Yao family was left, and the property under the Yao family was taken over by the government. Then my father used his status as imperial envoy to transfer the inventory in the Yao family’s granaries and shops in various places.”
"That's what happened." Marquis Dingyang sighed and said, "Since my father passed away, I have never told anyone about this matter. Now that I finally said it, I feel a lot more relaxed."
Xie Yan looked at him and said solemnly: "Have you really never regretted it?"
Marquis Dingyang smiled, "So what if you regret it? So what if you don't regret it? The thing has been done, can you still regret it? Speaking of which, I have been thinking about it for a long time over the years, and I have some idea of why Bai Jingrong wanted to pull the strings at that time.
Let's join the team. I just don't know if it's right or not. 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 involve the royal family. After all, the Yao family is an influential family. If word spreads that the royal family looted the Yao family for money, all the families in the world will be affected.
How do we view the Royal Family? Who dares to believe in the Royal Family?"
"But Bai Jingrong did not spread this matter." Xie Yan said.
Marquis Dingyang said: "That's because she has no evidence. Except that I took people to the Yao family that night, my father did not do anything. The Yao family's grain, grass and money were all transferred through formal procedures. Besides, the prince really thought that at that time
Are there no rumors?"
"At that time, there were indeed rumors in the Xinzhou area that the royal family had no money to send secret guards for disaster relief and wiped out the Yao family. Even now, if the prince goes to Xinzhou, there are some rumors among the people. In response to 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 took the initiative to donate money and food. If the Bai family hadn't declined too quickly later, Gaozu gave a series of preferential treatment to appease those families, and said
Not sure what will happen.”
Marquis Dingyang said, "Even in the court...no one doubted my father. But a few years later, my father passed away, so naturally no one mentioned this matter."
"How did Shang Hou die?" Xie Yan suddenly changed the topic.
Marquis Dingyang closed his eyes, as if he was enduring something, and after a while he said: "He died of poisoning."
"Who poisoned me?" Xie Yan frowned.
Marquis Dingyang sneered and said: "It's not that one. Although the truth was vague at the time, there were always some people who were particularly well-informed. They destroyed a large family that had been handed down for generations, but they were not punished in any way. The prince felt that the others
What would families with or without ties to the Yao family think? Would they want such people to continue to live, and perhaps attack them again one day in the future?"
Without waiting for Xie Yan to answer, Marquis Dingyang added: "My father was not the only one they originally wanted to kill. After my father passed away, it was Gaozu who intervened and those people stopped. If not for this, I'm afraid the prince would 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?"
Marquis Dingyang said lightly: "Who knows?" He obviously knew that Xie Yan was not asking him, but his father who had been dead for many years. With the passing of old Marquis Dingyang, no one can answer this question, even if
