In the inner hall of the state capital, Sima Xiaonan looked at the censor's body that was secretly sent here, with a complicated expression on his face.
If he had been a bit disapproving of the Censor's immigration investigation before, he could not help but care less now. The Censor died within his rule. To say the least, it was because he was careless in handling affairs, so that within the borders of the country
Bandits were everywhere, and in the worst case, it was possible that he himself ordered his subordinates to kill the censor in order to conceal evidence of his crimes.
In short, no matter which situation the court considers, the punishment that finally falls on Sima Xiaonan will not be light. If someone wants to take advantage of the situation and impose severe sanctions on him, then this matter will be no different to him.
Disaster!
Fortunately among the misfortunes at the moment, because the incident occurred in an official warehouse that was not open to the public, and it was already night when the incident occurred, the news had not spread yet, and Sima Xiaotian still had some time to make amends.
But compared to this good news that is better than nothing, there is another disappointing bad news, that is, the thug who killed the censor ran away after committing the crime and was not caught on the spot.
"The official warehouse is small and closed, how could there be thieves hiding in it? They escaped without a trace after hurting people. You and other guards deserve to die!"
Sima Xiaonan pointed at several members of the hall who were involved in the matter and cursed angrily.
These subordinates were all downcast, not daring to raise their heads, and they all silently endured the master's scolding.
"Things are very serious. There must be a demon! Zheng Ziyun, the master of the warehouse, was there before, but now he has disappeared. It seems that he had a premonition. Even if we dig deeper into the rest, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get to the root of it!"
Sima Xiaonan's confidant, Pei Zao, who joined the army, soon discovered that the key person in charge of the official warehouse was not there, so he immediately spoke in a deep voice.
Sima Xiaonan frowned when he heard this, and then cursed loudly: "Could it be that this dog thief trapped me? But what's the use to him?"
Although Sima Xiaonan serves as the governor of Northern Yuzhou, not all state officials are his personally selected staff. Some have been working in the state since early in the morning and are often representatives of powerful families in the state. For example, Sima Xiaonan
The person being scolded was Zheng Ziyun, a member of the army from Cang Cao, who was a member of the Zheng clan in Xingyang under the rule of Northern Yuzhou.
As the Zheng family in Xingyang is a well-established clan in the county, Sima Xiaonan also needs the support of these clans in order to properly exercise his powers and handle state affairs. Therefore, after he entered the state, he did not revoke his position, but the result was unexpected
Such an accident happened.
Although it is not yet certain where the problem lies, there is no doubt that Zheng Ziyun, Cang Cao, is the most suspected of joining the army. And Sima Xiaonan couldn't figure it out even if he tried hard. He had no enmity with the Zheng family in Xingyang. After entering the state,
He was also treated with courtesy and care, so why did Zheng Ziyun frame him?
"Please dispatch the state soldiers quickly to capture Zheng Ziyun and his disciples. If they escape, once the court investigates them, it will be even harder for me to defend myself!"
Now that he had found a suspicious target, Sima Xiaonan immediately ordered that he should be picked out first anyway. He was really worried that someone would take advantage of the situation and slander him.
There are usually two groups of military forces in a state. One of them is the troops stationed by the imperial court, usually commanded by the governor of the town. The other is the state and county soldiers, which are the armed forces of the state and county and are led by the governor.
Dispatch to maintain domestic security.
After hearing this, Pei Zao shook his head and said: "If it was really Zheng Ziyun who did it, I'm afraid the inside story is not that simple. The Zheng family in Xingyang is not an ordinary family, and the master is also in a lot of uneasiness now. If he attacks rashly, it will be difficult to control it. That's not all.
The matter cannot be decided quickly, but it may be leaked to the outside.
If the rest of the censors return home and report rebellion, and the imperial court sends more capable people into the state, things will get even more out of control! The urgent thing now is to control the remaining censors as soon as possible and then think about how to remedy the situation."
Sima Xiaonan was not a shrewd and capable person to begin with, but when he suddenly encountered such a change, he was already in a mess. In addition, Pei Zao was his father's chief clerk in the past years, and now he is his subordinate.
The officials also have a deep friendship with each other, so they are convinced of Pei Zaoduo.
After hearing Pei Zao's suggestion, he nodded repeatedly and said: "Yes, yes, the current plan is to control the other censors as soon as possible, do not let them escape from the city, and buy time to make remedies. However, now they are all
Being protected by the people of the town, can you control it?"
"There are two thousand state soldiers outside the city, and hundreds of the lord's confidants. If we suddenly attack while the situation is pending, we will definitely succeed!"
Pei Zao saw that although Sima Xiaonan was interested in taking action, he was still hesitant, so he gave another advice to strengthen his confidence.
"Then, please ask the soldiers to quickly gather the troops for me to carry out this matter. The lives of my whole family will be sacrificed by the soldiers. I will live in the mansion until the soldiers return the good news!"
Sima Xiaonan truly trusted Pei Zao and directly handed over all his talismans and belongings to him, asking him to act on his behalf. However, he himself was truly timid and did not dare to leave the house in person.
Pei Zao had known Sima Xiaonan's character for a long time, so he didn't care about it. After receiving the order, he clasped his fists and said, "My lord, please live in peace in the mansion. It will only take a few hours for good news to come back!"
The reason why he was so confident was, of course, because he was well prepared. Sima Xiaonan acted like an aristocrat and was elegant, leaving many tedious state affairs to Pei Zao, and he also used this to run a lot of business. Even Sima Xiaonan
It’s hard to know much about people.
When Pei Zao left the city with the talisman in hand, there was a group of people waiting in the dark outside the city. When he saw Pei Zao walking out, the leader of the group immediately strode forward to greet him and shouted in a low voice: "Pei Zao has joined the army, someone has already joined the army."
I’ve been waiting here for a long time!”
If Sima Xiaonan was present, he would definitely be able to find that this person formally reported to Zheng Ziyun, who had disappeared from Cang Cao's army. Pei Zao had reported that he had disappeared without a trace before, but now he was not surprised at all when he saw him. He walked up to Chen Ziyun.
He said in a loud voice: "Everyone is ready?"
"Since I received the order from Pei to join the army, I sent out the troops to gather the troops. Now I have collected more than 1,300 elite soldiers, who are ready to go into battle at any time!"
After hearing the words, Zheng Ziyun quickly nodded in agreement, and immediately introduced a young man behind him and said: "This gentleman, Pei Canjun once met in a humble family. At that time, he was introduced as a younger brother of the humble family.
Although the truth is true, there are still other things to hide. This man is indeed a humble subordinate of the clan, but he is also a disciple of Zheng Piaoqi in Xiangcheng, Wei State."
When Pei Zao heard this, his face immediately became solemn, he clasped his fists towards the young man and said, "It turns out that he is actually a disciple of Duke Xiangcheng. How disrespectful and disrespectful!"
The young man was Zheng Quan, the son of General Zheng Wei of the Western Wei Dynasty. Because Zheng Wei was now in charge of Xiangcheng in the south, Zheng Quan often went to and from Xingyang Township to contact people. He had met Pei Zao at Zheng Ziyun's house in Hulao City before.
"Pei Canjun doesn't need to be polite. I'm really sorry that it was inconvenient for me to tell you frankly when we met a few days ago. But now Canjun is willing to return to the court with righteousness, which is really admirable. My father asked someone to join us here to cooperate, and he also expressed his attitude that he will never give up! As long as I
When the city is secured this time, reinforcements from Xiangcheng will arrive in an instant."
Zheng Quan also clasped his fists and returned the salute to Pei Zao, and spoke to appease him.
When Pei Zao heard this, he was very excited and said happily: "The Lord of Qi is cruel and unkind, and the people of the country are suffering from worry and fear. My lord is also deeply in trouble, and he secretly plans to go west to return to his righteousness."
, just because it is still difficult to give up, Grand Master Sima is unable to make a decision on this person's accidental merits.
This time the imperial court sent the imperial censor back to press him, but my lord still had no idea what was going on and was thinking of luck, so I had no choice but to make my own decision and help him make a decision. I just hope that after returning to Wei, Prime Minister Li Da, Duke of Tang, can be kind and protect him.
Make me not regret what I did today!”
"Tang Gong treats his scholars generously and will reward meritorious deeds. If the plan here is successful, Pei will be able to join the army for the rest of his life without worries!"
After Zheng Quan heard this, he said seriously again.
There were two thousand state soldiers outside the city, plus more than a thousand elite soldiers brought by Zheng Quan and Zheng Ziyun. Under the guidance of Pei Zao, they quickly entered Hulao City under the cover of night.
This time they want to control the city in one fell swoop. In addition to controlling the censor and his entourage from Yedu, they also need to control the town and the garrison troops under their control. Since Hulao City itself is not a major military town, daily
There are only a little over 2,000 garrison troops. More than 500 were dispersed by the censor before, and there are still hundreds of people left behind in the town government. In addition to the scattered defense and rest residents in various places in the city, this is the entire armed force in the city.
With the cooperation of local snakes like Pei Zao and Zheng Ziyun, the troops who entered the city first took advantage of the unpreparedness and controlled the defenders at the city gates, and then attacked the town government and the military camp where the censor was.
Due to the gathering of armored soldiers in Zhencheng Mansion, there was a moderate battle. Zhencheng Fu Jingyuan originally wanted to put on armor and fight to the death, but when he saw a burly general suddenly rushing out of the enemy team, his expression suddenly froze.
Then he stared at the other person and exclaimed: "Are you a human or a ghost..."
Dongfang Lao was too lazy to listen to the other party's nonsense. Taking advantage of his shock, he struck back with his sword and immediately killed his former friend on the spot. With the death of the general, all the other enemies who were still resisting were killed.
They abandoned their weapons and surrendered.
As for the censor's camp, the battle was even smoother. Under Pei Zao's personal attack, he quickly captured the censor and all his followers.
It was hard for Sima Xiaonan to fall asleep that night, and he finally managed to stay up until dawn. When he saw Pei Zao walking into the hall wearing a blood-stained military robe, he hurriedly stepped forward and asked quickly: "How is the situation?"
"Failed to fulfill the Lord's orders, all the censors were captured, and Fu Jingyuan of Zhencheng was beheaded in the military mansion!"
Pei Zao reported to Sima Xiaonan that things were going so smoothly, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.
"Zhen, Zhencheng? Why do you want to kill Zhencheng?"
Sima Xiaonan was shocked when he heard this. He looked at Pei Zao and asked, "Could it be that Zhencheng also has harmful intentions for me?"
"It doesn't matter whether there is a town or not. It's just that I have planned a bright future for my lord. Instead of worrying about living in the country, it is better to make a quick decision and find another life! In the old days, Gao Zhong secretly occupied Hulao and surrendered to Wei, and then Li Boshan occupied Guanxi.
To rule the roost. Now that my lord has embraced his homeland and offered the city as a surrender, the Wei State is thirsty for talents. How can we not go back to welcome him?"
Pei Zao explained in front of Sima to relieve his troubles.