Looking at the angry Ye Tian, Lian Dan frowned secretly and felt a little unsure. Could it be that the news revealed by Chen Yuan was false? Is he really framed the Ye family? If so, it would not end well for him.
Got it!
Thinking of this, he turned his head and said, "Lin Yu, Ming Yue!"
"My subordinates are here!" Lin Yu and Ming Yue both dismounted, walked up to Lian Dan, and stepped in to salute.
Lian Dan pointed at Chen Yuan and said, "You two take him in and ask him to find Xia Ruoyan!"
"Yes!" Lin and Ming agreed, grabbing Chen Yuan's collar and taking him into Ye Mansion.
After waiting for more than half an hour, Lin Yu and Ming Yue hadn't come out yet. Lian Dan felt impatient. When he was about to enter Ye Mansion in person, Lin Yu and Ming Yue finally came out.
Both of them looked bad. They looked at Chen Yuan as if they wanted to eat him alive. Chen Yuan's face was ashen and his legs were weak. If it weren't for the collar on his back, Lin Yu would have killed him.
He was dragged so hard that he probably couldn't even walk.
Lin Yu and Ming Yue came to Lian Dan. The former pushed Chen Yuan aside. When they came to Lian Dan, they whispered in his ear: "General, Xia Ruoyan is not found in Ye Mansion!"
What are you afraid of? Lian Dan glanced at Lin Yu and asked in a low voice, "Have you checked everything? Didn't you miss anything?"
Lin Yu nodded and said, "Chen Yuan revealed all the secret rooms in Ye Mansion, but there is no Xia Ruoyan he mentioned in the whole manor!"
Hearing this, Lian Dan felt his brain aching. He winked at Lin Yu and Ming Yue, and the two met, returned to Ye Mansion, and brought out all the officers and soldiers who were searching Ye Mansion.
Seeing many officers and soldiers filing out of his mansion, Ye Tian suppressed his anger and asked: "General Lian, have your people found Ruoyan?"
"Uh, haha -" Lian Dan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing. He walked up to Ye Tian, cupped his hands and said, "Let me just say, the Ye family is a prominent family in Hanzhong and the pillar of the imperial court, how could they harbor assassins?"
?This is simply nonsense!”
"The villain is asking General Lian if he found Ruoyan in his humble abode!" Ye Tian said in a serious tone.
Lian Dan was rarely speechless when being questioned. When he was in such embarrassment, the dry smile on his face froze. After hesitating for a moment, he bowed deeply to Ye Tian and said with an apologetic smile: "Mr. Ye, it's true this time."
It was my mistake, the commander-in-chief, to believe the villain’s slander!”
"Then, does General Lian also have to give an explanation to the villain?" Ye Tian's face was still as dark as water.
Lian Dan and Ye Tian looked at each other for a moment. Suddenly, he drew out the sword from his ribs and without any warning, swung the sword to the side.
Sand! Zhou Zong, who was standing next to Lian Dan, didn't even understand what was going on. His neck was torn open by the edge of the sword. Hearing the sound of sand, a blood arrow spurted out.
Zhou Zong's eyes widened in disbelief. He covered his neck with both hands and looked at Lian Dan in shock and horror. His mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to speak, but he couldn't spit out a word.
Lian Dan slowly took out his handkerchief, wiped the blade of the sword, then sheathed the sword and smiled at Ye Tian: "Mr. Ye, I was deceived by this villain Zhou Zong. I offended you just now. I hope you will."
Ye Gong has many connotations."
Looking at the cheerful Lian Dan, Ye Tian and everyone in the Ye Mansion couldn't help but shudder secretly. Who would have thought that Lian Dan, with such a smiling posture, just cut his eyes without even blinking?
Killed the county household Cao Zhou Zong.
"Mr. Ye, everything is just a misunderstanding. Mr. Ye doesn't really take it seriously, does he?"
Ye Tian naturally understood the meaning of when enough is enough. He cleared his throat and said, "General Lian, I hope there will be fewer misunderstandings like this in the future!"
"Definitely, definitely!" Lian Dan burst out laughing again, cupped his hands and said, "Mr. Ye, I've caused a lot of trouble today. I'll make a special trip to Ye's Mansion to apologize to Mr. Ye some other time!"
"General Lian is serious!"
"Farewell!" After saying this, Lian Dan turned around and walked onto the carriage. Before approaching the carriage, he waved his hands to the left and right and shouted: "Retreat the troops!"
Lian Dan left Ye Mansion with a large group of troops.
Looking at the back of the carriage as it drove away, Ye Tian couldn't help but let out a long sigh and secretly said, "It's really dangerous!" If Liu Xiu hadn't come in time to report the news and take away Ruoyan, the Ye Mansion would have been in danger today!
Chen Yuan, who was not far away, saw Lian Dan leading the people away and didn't care about him at all. He backed away quietly and silently. After retreating a certain distance, he turned around and ran away.
However, he had not taken two steps before he was chased by a nurse. The nurse raised his knife and chopped off Chen Yuan's head with one blow.
Looking at the body that fell to the ground and the severed head that had been driven far away by the windlass, the nurse spat and cursed fiercely: "You are shameless, and you will die unjustly!"
Ye Tian looked at Chen Yuan's body, sighed, shook his head, waved his hand and said, "Take the body and bury it!"
"Master, this is too cheap for Chen Yuan, a dog thief! He should be thrown into a graveyard outside the city and fed to the dogs!"
Ye Tian shook his head and said: "After all, he has worked in Ye Mansion for more than 20 years. He has no credit but hard work."
Ye Tian had a lot of feelings about Chen Yuan's high density. As the saying goes, you know the person, the face, but not the heart. Now Ye Tian had to re-examine the people around him.
Speaking of Liu Xiu, he, Gai Yan, and Long Yuan took Xia Ruoyan back to the rebel camp. Originally, the rebels lived in the county army camp in the west of the city, but with the arrival of Lian Dan's troops, the rebels were driven to the north of the city.
The camp of the Hanzhong Rebel Army.
This camp located in the north of the city is not much better than the camp they built outside the city. It is also dilapidated and chaotic.
The only difference is that the previous camp was overcrowded and noisy like a vegetable market, while the current camp is deserted and desolate, like a deserted ghost camp.
However, there were still several rebel guards standing guard at the gate of the camp. The guards knew Liu Xiu, Gai Yan, and Long Yuan. When they saw them coming back, they greeted them with a smile.
Naturally, the guard also saw Xia Ruoyan, but she was wearing men's clothes at this time, and her face was still stained with mud, black and white, and she couldn't see clearly what she looked like. The guard thought she and Liu Xiu were together, but they didn't
After more questioning, he was simply let go.
Entering the camp, Liu Xiu handed Xia Ruoyan to Gai Yan and Long Yuan and asked them to arrange a place for her to live. There are not many people left in the camp now, there are more wounded soldiers than healthy people, and there are many empty spaces.
There are many tents.
Liu Xiu himself went to find his eldest brother Liu Yan. The barracks Liu Yan lived in was a thatched house with an independent courtyard. The house had four bare walls. Apart from the meadow for sleeping, there was only a dilapidated table.
When he came in, Liu Yan was in the room, as were Feng Yi, Zhu Yun, Zhang Ping, Li Tong, Li Yi and others.
Everyone gathered around the table, sitting cross-legged, staring at the map spread on the table.
Hearing the footsteps, everyone turned around and saw that the person coming was Liu Xiu. Li Tong stood up and asked with concern: "Uncle Wen, where have you been? Why did you come back?"
Liu Xiu smiled at Li Tong and patted his arm to express that he was fine. He walked to the table and took a closer look. It turned out to be a map of Zhushan County.
I don’t know where this map came from. The painting is very rough. If there were no words Zhushan County on it, I wouldn’t be able to tell that it was a map.
Liu Xiu looked at Liu Yan and Feng Yi and asked: "Brother, Brother Gongsun, are you really going to work hard for Lian Dan and fight against the Green Forest Army?"
Feng Yi sighed softly and said helplessly: "This battle is not fought if we want to, or we don't have to fight if we don't want to fight. Lian Dan has given the order, what can we do about it?"
If they were acting alone, it would be easy to say. The key issue is that they were accompanied by Zhang Ting and a thousand soldiers and horses under Zhang Ting.
Liu Xiu said quietly: "Those who took refuge in the Green Forest Army were all common people who could no longer live, and those who joined the rebel army were mostly common people who could no longer live. They were all people who had the same fate and were forced by life. Is it because of integrity? With Dan’s order, we will kill each other?”
Feng Yi remained silent, while Zhu Yun and Zhang Ping nodded repeatedly, indicating that Liu Xiuyan was right. Li Tong responded: "Brother Bo Sheng, Brother Gongsun, and Uncle Wen are right. We should not help Lian Dan fight this battle! "
"This is not a question of whether we should or should not, but a question of what we have to do!" Feng Yi said with a bitter smile. He was unwilling to fight the Green Forest Army, but who would dare to disobey Lian Dan's order?
At this moment, someone at the door answered: "Have you ever thought about why the Green Forest Army is in Zhushan?"
Upon hearing the words, everyone present was stunned and looked towards the door.
Three people walked in from outside. Two of them were familiar to everyone, they were Gai Yan and Long Yuan, and the other one was a young man with a face full of mud.
No one had seen this young man before. Seeing her coming in from outside, everyone stood up in unison, raised their hands, and touched the weapons at their waists.
No one else knew this young man, but Liu Xiu naturally knew him. She was Xia Ruoyan, who was disguised as a man.
He looked at Gai Yan and Long Yuan and asked them with their eyes why they had brought her here. Long Yuan helplessly shook his head at Liu Xiu, indicating that he failed to stop her.
Seeing that everyone in the room was staring at her with wary faces, Xia Ruoyan calmed down and said straight to the point: "I am the female assassin who failed to assassinate Lian Dan yesterday and escaped!"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of everyone present changed.
Is she a woman? And she is the female assassin who was ordered to die by Lian Dan and must be brought to justice no matter what? Before everyone could recover, she added: "My name is Xia Ruoyan!"
"You...how did you get in?" Liu Yan looked at her in disbelief.
This is the rebel camp. Today and yesterday, the rebels also cooperated with Lian Dan's men to capture the assassins. If she ran into the rebel camp, wasn't she throwing herself into a trap?
Before Xia Ruoyan could speak, Liu Xiu carefully told the whole story to everyone present. After listening to his words, people realized that Liu Xiu had done so many things secretly behind their backs.
After Liu Xiu finished speaking, Xia Ruoyan continued: "When Lian Dan led his army into Hanzhong, there was a barbarian army making trouble in Zhushan. The barbarian army only had a thousand soldiers. Lian Dan sent an army of 20,000 to Zhushan to encircle and suppress it.
The barbarian troops who caused trouble in Zhushan were basically killed by Lian Dan's men. However, when they were seeking rewards, Lian Dan's men handed over 5,000 heads and falsely claimed that they had wiped out 5,000 barbarian troops, but the barbarian army only had 1,000 people.
Yu Ren, where did those extra 3,000 heads come from? Do you know?"