Jiaohua

Chapter 1497: Lamenting the Hardships of People's Livelihood

Seeing this, Zhu Zhe hurriedly said, "I still have more, I still have more!!"

He turned around and prepared to take it from the back of the saddle. Xia Zhaoyi stretched the spear forward a few inches: "Do you want me to move?"

Zhu Zhe froze, turned around slowly, and suddenly thought of something. He looked at Xia Zhaoyi in horror: "...No, when did the Daping Dynasty have a female general? Who are you?"

Xia Zhi shouted: "Look carefully, we are the Xia family army!"

Zhu Zhe was dumbfounded: "You are...A-Li?"

"Spare his life!" Lin Lilei rushed over at this time, "Generals, spare his life!"

As soon as he came over, he was controlled by countless spears.

Xia Zhaoyi looked at Zhu Zhe and said, "I was just about to ask you, whose head is that in his hand?"

Zhu Zhe trembled and said, "Yes, it belongs to Weng Enhou."

"Weng Enhou?" The name sounded familiar, and Xia Zhaoyi's brows knitted slightly. "Could it be that he is Weng Baoshan's eldest son?"

"right……"

Xia Zhaoyi thought it was strange and turned to look at Lin Lilei.

Lin Lilei was held on the shoulders by numerous spears, and he said anxiously: "Generals, listen to my explanation. Don't fall for Weng Baoshan's scheme to alienate us! Look, I've brought Weng Enhou's head here! We, the Zhu family army, are loyal to the emperor and have no second thoughts. Generals, don't let their little tricks alienate us!"

Xia Zhaoyi said: "Bring his bag here."

Jenning rode over immediately.

The blood on the bundle was half dry and half wet, with a strong and pungent fishy smell. Zhan Ning opened the bundle and found a man's head inside. His expression still showed the fear and astonishment before death. The broken neck was very smooth, as if it was cut cleanly by a knife.

"Is he really Weng Enhou?" Xia Zhaoyi looked at Zhu Zhe.

Zhu Zhe's face was extremely pale. He stared blankly at Xia Zhaoyi. This time he did not reply, because he suddenly realized clearly that he could not escape death today, and no matter what he said, it would be of no use.

Xia Zhaoyi turned his horse around and walked towards Lin Lilei, leaving a message: "Kill him."

Zhu Zhe's eyes widened, and then Xia Zhi shot him in the throat.

Seeing Zhu Zhe being shot in the throat, Lin Lilei yelled: "My Lord! ... General, female general, spare my life!!!"

Zhan Ning followed behind Xia Zhaoyi and raised the head in his hand to Lin Lilei: "Is this person really Weng Enhou?"

"Yes, it's him! He is Weng Enhou! He is the son of Weng Baoshan! Weng Baoshan is the famous man next to Tian Dayao! Female general, you can't kill me, I am very useful! I can help the emperor deal with Tian Dayao!"

Zhan Ning continued to ask: "Why is Weng Enhou in Shucheng?"

"The father and son of the Weng family wanted to deal with Nie Huimo, so he specially brought jewelry to find our General Zhu! General Zhu did not agree, no!" As he spoke, Lin Lilei looked at the body of Zhu Zhe who fell off the horse.

It seems there is no point in saying this, Zhu Zhe is already dead.

Zhan Ning nodded and looked at Xia Zhaoyi.

Xia Zhaoyi thought for a moment and said, "Search Zhu Zhe and his followers' clothes carefully, and then send someone back to the Zhu family's army camp to search again to see if there are any letters."

"Yes!" Zhan Ning responded.

Xia Zhaoyi looked back at Lin Lilei: "Weng Enhou's head is here, but where is his body?"

"In the city, in Cuiling Tower in the city! I killed him, I cut off his head with my own hands! General, does this count as a meritorious service?"

Xia Zhaoyi said calmly: "Then, go find Zhu Zhe to claim the credit."

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhao Ya stabbed Lin Lilei away with a knife.

Lin Lilei's men followed closely behind him.

Xia Zhaoyi looked at the still-warm bodies on the ground indifferently for a long time without moving, until a gust of wind blew in the distance, and the weeds on the ground swayed. She blinked her eyes, collected her thoughts, and said to her men beside her: "Let's go."

Half an hour later, the people sent to the city came back to the land temple to report that someone had indeed died in Cuiling Tower in the city, and that they were the distinguished guests who had just been warmly entertained by Zhu Zhe. No one knew why, but they were hacked to death by the generals around Zhu Zhe in the blink of an eye.

Now, the bodies have been carried to the government office. Because it is too late, the government officials may go to the barracks to question them tomorrow.

Xia Zhaoyi knew that this questioning was just a formality. Zhu Zhe was the Marquis of Shucheng and was in charge of real military power, so the government would not do anything.

Not long after, Zhan Ning led his team back with several boxes of jewelry and a thick stack of letters, all from Weng Baoshan. Xia Zhaoyi read all of them without missing any, and only two letters mentioned Hengxiang. From the content, it seemed that Zhu Zhe mentioned it in the letter. Weng Baoshan replied that he did not want to cause any trouble and would not involve Hengxiang if possible.

Seeing her put down the last letter after reading it, Zhan Ning could finally speak: "Second Miss, Tian Dayao has robbed a lot in recent years. Look at the men around him. They have so many boxes of gold and silver treasures at once."

Xia Zhaoyi looked at the open wooden boxes and said in a deep voice, "Whether it's Tian Dayao or Zhu Zhe, those who gather victims of disasters and rise up in war in troubled times will inevitably plunder everywhere."

"We can't!" Zhan Ning said, his voice full of pride, "Second Miss, we are an orthodox army!"

Xia Zhaoyi smiled and said, "Yes, we don't have it. Not only us, Yun Bozhong doesn't have it either, nor does Li Qian, who was still here before, the Guanning Marching Army, the Bi Family Army, the Li Family Iron Cavalry, and the troops led by the various princes. They don't have it either."

"Does Zhuang Mengyao from the Jiangnan Barracks have one?"

"I haven't heard of it," Xia Zhaoyi shook his head. "It shouldn't be, but he imposed a lot of heavy taxes. The people in the provinces and cities in the south of the Yangtze River under his rule were no different from being robbed."

Zhan Ning sighed, "The people are suffering so much. If they had a few mouthfuls of food to eat, who would want to start a rebellion? Those disaster victims were starving, so they went to rob. Unfortunately, the victims were also suffering ordinary people."

Xia Zhaoyi smiled faintly: "Yes, the people... lament the hardships of their lives."

Outside the land temple, the moon was dim and the stars were sparse. The sky was clear and bright, and the clouds were thin. Three miles away, on the banks of the Shushui River, thousands of corpses of Zhu's army lay, and the stench was so strong that it attracted crows to fly.

Xia Zhaoyi handed over Weng Enhou's head, Zhu Zhe's letters, jewelry, etc. to Shi Guoxin, asking him to return to Hengxiang immediately and give them to Mrs. Qu.

Mrs. Qu has her own way to get these things to Nie Huimo.

After all, she still owed Nie Huimo a promise to kill someone.

After disguising himself, Shi Guoxin rode away on horseback.

Xia Zhaoyi did not stay here for long. She set off overnight, leading the Xia family army to bypass Shucheng and head towards Zeyang Road in the northwest as quickly as possible.

The news of Zhu's army's annihilation was not delivered to Song Zhiyi until the third day.

In the autumn when osmanthus was in full bloom, Song Zhiyi took his most favored concubine to appreciate the osmanthus in the imperial garden on the outskirts of the city, which was renovated by Li Ju at great expense of manpower ten years ago.

The eunuch Tian Cheng knelt down and reported without looking up.

After waiting for a long time without hearing Song Zhiyi's voice, he slowly raised his eyes.

But Song Zhiyi was neither angry nor annoyed. He was holding a cassia branch and teasing the young and beautiful concubine beside him.

The concubine was obviously uneasy about such big news. She acted very timid when being teased by Song Zhiyi, but she had to go along with him.

The other attendants around did not dare to say a word. They looked at their noses with their eyes and their mouths with their noses, not daring to breathe.

Because the cinnamon twig tickled her chin, the concubine pushed Song Zhiyi away slightly and said coquettishly, "Hmm~ Your Majesty!"

"Hahahaha!" Song Zhiyi was very satisfied with her charming appearance. He changed Guizhi's hand to his other hand, gently lifted her chin with his fingers, and asked, "My beloved, how old are you this year?"

The concubine lowered her eyebrows and said coquettishly, "Your Majesty, I am twenty."

"You are in your twenties, a good age," Song Zhiyi said, "I went to the capital once when I was your age. That was my third visit to the capital."

The concubine blinked her eyes and asked with an innocent look, "Was the capital city fun at that time?"

"Haha, it's fun! If the capital city isn't fun, where else in the world would be fun? Thinking back to that year, there was one person who left a deep impression on me."

"Who is it?"

"The prince of Duke Dingguo's mansion, Xia Zhaode."

As he spoke, Song Zhiyi raised his hand to gesture: "He was not very old at that time, just a young boy of twelve or thirteen years old, but he was this tall."

The concubine looked at Song Zhiyi's palm and said, "That's really high."

Song Zhiyi's eyebrows turned sad: "When I saw him at that time, I had to lower my eyebrows and greet him."

"So is he easy to get along with?"

"He has a good personality, he is steady and reserved. His second brother was still very young at that time, but when he grew up, he was full of passion to be a hero and wanted to roam the world. He even had a few drinks with me."

"Is it that Xia Zhaoxue?"

"Yes," Song Zhiyi nodded, "If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have known Madam Yan."

When the concubine heard the three words "Madam Yan", her face changed slightly and she dared not respond.