Seven hundred and twentieth chapters until the point
Jiantan frowned, lowered his head and said, "I don't know."
In fact, he didn't even know who Zhao Xi was. Jiantan stayed in Wancheng for a long time, but most of the time he was busy with city defense and military affairs. How could he have any extra time to pay attention to the old officials in the city?
Zhou Jun reminded in a low voice from the side: "General, Zhao Xi once served as a lieutenant general under Liu Xuan, and has always had a good relationship with Deng Feng."
Hearing this, Jian Tan frowned even more, bowed to Liu Xiu and said, "Your Majesty, I failed to find out that there are also Deng Feng's masterpieces hidden in the city. This is a dereliction of duty. Please punish me!"
Liu Xiu waved his hand to the side and said, "Ziji, please sit down first!" It was not easy for Jiantan to hold Wancheng, and it was impossible to do everything comprehensively.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Jiantan bowed again, then knelt down beside Yan Guang.
Not long after, the yamen sent by Zhou Jun to pick up letters from Wu Luo's home also returned to the county government and handed over several letters.
Liu Xiu picked up a scroll, unfolded it, and looked at it carefully. This letter was written by Zhao Xi to Deng Feng. There was no shady secret plan in it. On the contrary, it was a letter from Zhao Xi to persuade Deng Feng. A letter to give up rebellion and submit to the imperial court.
After reading the letter from beginning to end, Liu Xiu put it down and picked up another one. The content was similar. It was also written by Zhao Xi to Deng Feng. It still advised him not to rebel and not to confront the imperial court.
This letter contains a lot of content. Zhao Xi analyzed the current situation in detail to Deng Feng.
The only county Deng Feng relied on was Nanyang. As an ally, Dong Xin was weak and not worth mentioning. Yancen had lost his foundation and could not become a great weapon. As for Qin Feng, he was selfish and timid. It is difficult to collude.
Therefore, the coalition force formed by Deng Feng in Nanyang seemed to be strong, but in fact its foundation was too weak. On the other hand, the Luoyang court had the huge power of Hebei as its backing. It needed troops, horses, money and food, and it had defeated Chimei not long ago. The army has left no threat to the west of Luoyang. Under such circumstances, the Luoyang court will definitely concentrate its energy and use all its strength to deal with you, Deng Feng. What can you do to compete with the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Luoyang court?
After reading Zhao Xi's letter, Liu Xiu also looked at the date. It was written by Zhao Xi just after he forced the surrender of the Red Eyebrow Army and before he led his troops south.
There was an affair between Zhao Xi and Deng Feng. Liu Xiu did not notice it, but he could see that Zhao Xi was quite talented and could actually deduce that after surrendering Red Eyebrow, he would fight Deng Feng with all his strength.
Then he picked up other letters and read them carefully one by one. Almost without exception, these letters written by Zhao Xi to Deng Feng were all urging Deng Feng to give up the rebellion and lead his troops to surrender.
After Liu Xiu had finished reading them one by one, he put the letter aside, looked at Wu Luo, patted the letter with his hand, and asked: "Wu Luo, this is the evidence you said that Zhao Xi had an affair with Deng Feng. ?”
Wu Luo had read the content of the letter a long time ago, and had read it many times. He wanted to study every word in it to see if there was any hidden meaning in it.
He shrank his neck and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the grassroots people... the grassroots people think that there must be secret words hidden in these letters from Zhao Xi, but... the grassroots people can't find it for a while."
Liu Xiu casually picked up another letter, looked at it, then put it down and said, "How do you conclude that there must be an affair between Zhao Xi and Deng Feng?"
Wu Luo said seriously: "Reporting to your majesty, Zhao Xi and Deng Feng have an irreversible friendship. When they worked for Liu Xuan, they were even brothers. Now that Deng Feng has rebelled, Zhao Xi has no reason not to participate! He did not follow Deng Feng, but lurked behind the scenes. Wancheng, there must be... there must be another agenda!"
Liu Xiu curled up his lips and said, "So, what you believe is an affair between Zhao Xi and Deng Feng is all your own conjecture?"
Wu Luo still wanted to argue, but when he saw Liu Xiu staring at him sharply, he trembled, lowered his head, and whispered: "The common people...the common people just couldn't find any real evidence, so they didn't report the matter to the police." ...General Jian!”
Liu Xiu tapped his fingers lightly on the table, pondered for a moment, turned to look at Jiantan, and asked: "Ziji, Wu Luo bullied men and women in the market, and robbed people of their wealth. How do you think we should handle it?" ?”
Jiantan's face darkened, he leaned forward and said, "As a humble minister, I should kill chickens to scare monkeys, knock mountains to scare tigers, and behead Wu Luo to show the public, to serve as a warning to others!"
When Wu Luo heard this, he immediately collapsed to the ground, trembling non-stop, and almost peed his pants on the spot. Liu Xiu smiled and said: "Wu Luo is certainly hateful, but his crime is not worthy of death. Moreover, he can doubt Zhao Xihe Deng Feng had an affair and secretly intercepted the letters between the two, which is enough to prove that he was not confused when it came to major issues of right and wrong, but was quite scheming."
Having said this, he turned to look at Wu Luo and said: "Wu Luo, although you are loyal to the Han Dynasty, you have also violated the laws of the Han Dynasty. I punish you with thirty sticks. You should use this as a lesson in the future and you will not do it again!"
Wu Luo was surprised and happy. He knelt down on the ground, kowtowed like pounding garlic, burst into tears, and said in a tearful voice: "The common people are very grateful to your majesty for not killing. The common people are very grateful to your majesty for not killing..."
Zhou Jun waved to the government officials below, and two government officials immediately walked in from outside and dragged Wu Luo out. Until he was dragged out of the lobby, his voice of gratitude could still be heard.
Liu Xiu turned to look at Zhou Jun and asked: "Wu Luo used the name Ziji in the city to bully the weak. Does County Magistrate Zhou know about this?"
Zhou Jun knelt down on the ground with a bang, sweating like rain, and stammered: "Wei Chen... Wei Chen has heard something..."
"Since you know this, why aren't you punished?"
"This this……"
"You were originally the director of Junyou (Wanxiu), and were promoted by Ziji to become the magistrate of Wan County. You indulged Wu Luo, but are you reciprocating the favor?" Liu Xiu asked expressionlessly.
Zhou Jun kowtowed forward and said: "The sin of a minor minister deserves ten thousand death! The sin of a minor minister deserves ten thousand death!"
His confession was tantamount to acquiescing to Liu Xiu's statement. Jian Dan glared at Zhou Jun, stood up, walked up to Zhou Jun, raised his hand, pointed at him angrily, and reprimanded: "You! You are so confused!"
Zhou Jun was appointed magistrate of Wan County on the recommendation of Jian Tan, and although Wu Luo and Jian Tan were not very close relatives, they were indeed distant relatives. Zhou Jun only treated Wu Luo for Jian Tan's sake. Luo turned a blind eye to what he did.
Liu Xiu stared at Zhou Jun for a moment and said: "In view of his meritorious service in Wancheng, I will not punish you for the time being. If you act for personal gain and bend the law again in the future, I will punish you severely!"
Hearing this, Zhou Jun quickly kowtowed and thanked him.
After finishing all the matters, Liu Xiu stood up and said, "Okay, that's it for today. Zi Ling can handle the rest."
Zhou Jun said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the government officials are bringing Zhao Xi to the county government."
Liu Xiu said: "Zi Ling can interrogate him on my behalf. If Zhao Xi does have an affair with Deng Feng, he will be imprisoned on the spot. If he does not have an affair with Deng Feng, he can be brought to our army camp. I will
Receive in person."
Yan Guang stood up, bowed and saluted, and said: "I obey my orders!"
Liu Xiu didn't stop any longer and walked out. At the gate of the county government, many people gathered, as well as Wu Luo, who had just been executed.
Wu Luo is not considered the top tyrant in Wancheng. He has not been in Wancheng for a long time. Normally, he and a few of his men only hang out in the market. But even so, those who have been bullied by Wu Luo and others
There are also many traders and ordinary people.
Now I saw Wu Luo being tortured with a cane and howling and screaming as he was beaten. All the people watching around clapped their hands and cheered. When they saw Liu Xiu coming out of the county government, the people present knelt down and said in unison: "
His Majesty!"
The common people also saw the scene where Zhou Jun kowtowed to Liu Xiu at the gate of the county government just now, and knew that the handsome young man in front of them was the emperor of Luoyang.
Seeing everyone kneeling down, Liu Xiu waved his hand and said, "Everyone, please get up quickly!"
When the people stood up one after another, Liu Xiu said loudly: "Wu Luo, in the name of our general of the Han Dynasty, ran rampant in the city, bullying men and women, and it is hard to escape the blame. I remember that he has done no great evil, and I will punish him with thirty sticks.
, let’s see the effects! If Wu Luo behaves maliciously again in the future, all fellow villagers can report it to the county government, and the county government will definitely punish him severely!”
When the people heard this, they were all happy. They knelt down and kowtowed again, saying: "Your Majesty is wise!"
Liu Xiu said: "If there are such bullies in Wan County, you can also report them to the county government. Once the county government finds out, they will be severely punished!"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" The people who were kneeling kowtowed in unison.
Now Liu Xiu's most important thing is to win over the people of Nanyang, and Wan County, as the county seat of Nanyang, is the top priority.
Liu Xiu comforted the people present again, and was about to leave. At this time, a young man walked quickly to Liu Xiu, knelt down, kowtowed forward, and said: "The common people pay homage to your majesty!"
Behind the young man, there were two government officials. One of the officials took two steps quickly, bowed to Liu Xiu and said, "Your Majesty, this is Zhao Xi!"
Oh, it turned out that this person was Zhao Xi. Liu Xiu looked at the young man kneeling in front of him. He looked to be about thirty years old, handsome and elegant.
Liu Xiu should have met Zhao Xi when he was in Kunyang. However, Zhao Xi was just an unknown person at that time, and Liu Xiu could not remember him.
But Zhao Xiu remembered Liu Xiu firmly. In the Battle of Kunyang, Liu Xiu led 3,000 death squads and dared to attack the 400,000 reckless troops head-on. This battle left such a deep impression on Zhao Xi that he will never forget it.
Liu Xiu looked down at Zhao Xi who was kneeling on the ground and asked, "Are you Zhao Xi?"
"Exactly!"
"Someone reported you for having an affair with Deng Feng." Liu Xiu said slowly.
"The common people did not have an affair with Deng Feng."
"..."
After Zhao Xi finished speaking, he fell silent, and so did Liu Xiu. After a while, without waiting for Zhao Xi's next words, Liu Xiu couldn't help but ask, "You have nothing else to say? This is what you said to me.
explanation of?"
Zhao Xi said: "The pure will self-purify. No matter how many rumors and rumors there are, they will not dye the black into white or the white into black. Your Majesty is a wise king and holy master of the generation, and he can naturally distinguish right from wrong. The common people think that too many explanations in front of Your Majesty are actually harmful."
This is a great disrespect to His Majesty."
The implication is that I still want to explain to Your Majesty that this is obviously false. Isn’t this an insult to Your Majesty’s intelligence?
Liu Xiu didn't expect that Zhao Xi would give him such an answer. He was stunned for a moment, couldn't help but smile, nodded, and said: "Zhao Xi, I hope to see you in the camp."
He didn't have that much energy to personally check such trivial matters as whether Zhao Xi had an affair with Deng Feng. If Zhao Xi could pass Zi Ling's test, it basically meant that there was nothing wrong with this person and he could reuse him.
After finishing speaking, he walked away without waiting for Zhao Xiu's reaction. Zhao Xiu did not ask any further questions. He turned around while kneeling on the ground, kowtowed to Liu Xiu's leaving back and said, "The common people send you your majesty's greetings."
!”
Two government officials came forward, patted Zhao Xi on the shoulder, and said cheerfully: "Get up, His Majesty has already gone far! Zhao Xi, you are really capable. You can coax His Majesty into laughter as soon as you see him."
Laugh, you will really prosper in the future, but don’t forget to support us brothers!”