Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 259, Matters of Prison

After Tuolei ascended to the throne of Khan, he outwardly used the banner of benevolence and righteousness to provide large-scale aid to the two tribes with the resources of his own tribe.

But in reality, Tuolei was using the guise of providing aid to secretly control the two tribes.

It was for this reason that the two tribes responded to Tuolei's call, forming an army with the few remaining able-bodied men and some boys who were about to come of age, and sent them to support Tuolei's war.

Meanwhile, Gao Li urgently reported the news back to the capital, and at the same time transferred 40,000 troops from Datong to confront Tuo Lei's grassland troops.

Because of his serious injuries, Gao Li dared not start a war easily. He tolerated the minor skirmishes before the battle and only hoped that Fang Yong could send someone over as soon as possible.

In the capital, Jia She interrogated Liu Congli.

I thought Liu Congli could hold out for a while.

To Jia She's surprise, Liu Congli seemed to have been interrogated beforehand, and as soon as he asked him, Liu Congli confessed everything.

The 17,000 taels of silver was obtained by him from embezzling county tax revenue and selling autumn grain. Of this, 10,000 taels were used to bribe Luo Rulin, the senior official of the Ministry of Personnel, 5,000 taels were used to bribe Wang Chengzuo, the assistant director of the Ministry of Revenue, and the remaining 2,000 taels were used to treat the two men to wine at Juxian Pavilion.

He didn't dare spend a single penny of it!

But when the accident happened, both of them, without prior agreement, shifted the blame onto him, urging him to find a way to fix it as soon as possible.

Liu Congli had no choice but to come up with a donation for spring buds.

After Liu Congli finished explaining the matter, Jia She immediately sent people to the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue to bring the person in.

Meanwhile, assassins sent by Cheng Dun also infiltrated the Shuntian Prefecture government office.

Since it was a case personally arranged by Fang Yong, Jia She arranged for Tian Yuquan to reside in the government office so that he could be summoned at any time.

The assassin was named Li San. He was skilled in light-footed martial arts and had a good reputation in the martial arts world. He was known as "Swallow Li San" and had also helped Fang Yong attack the capital, intimidating Luo Daqing and assassinating Tartar traitors, among other things.

However, when those Tartar traitors arrested him, he fled to the deep mountains outside the city with his wife and daughters overnight to avoid capture.

After Fang Yong entered the city, in order to commend some of the Jianghu people, he generally assigned some official positions to those who had made contributions. Among them, Li San was assigned a junior officer position in the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

However, because Li San had run away in advance, the Imperial Guards made several trips back and forth but failed to find his whereabouts, so the matter was delayed.

Li San hid far away in the mountains, concealing his identity. When he occasionally went out to buy supplies, he would go and return quickly, never lingering. Therefore, he knew nothing about what was happening outside.

Until recently, Li San felt that the time was about right, so he returned to the city alone to gather information.

However, after hiding for many days, he was short of money. Just then, Cheng Dun offered a high price to hire someone to kill him, and Li San immediately accepted the job and sneaked into the Shuntian Prefecture government office.

Undeniably, Li San did make contributions.

However, he was also a江湖人 (jianghu person, a person of the martial arts world), not bound by the laws of the imperial court.

Li San had no resistance to the idea of ​​taking money to solve problems for others.

During the day, he used his lightness skill and bone-shrinking technique to hide on the roof beam, with a dry pancake made by his wife in his mouth to fill his stomach, and no one noticed him all day long.

When night fell and all was quiet, Li San leaped down, smashed the window, and blew in the sleeping gas.

Tian Yuquan was already fast asleep inside the house, but after Li San blew on the sleeping powder, Tian Yuquan fell into an even deeper sleep.

After a while, Li San used his dagger to pry open the door and entered the room.

Tian Yuquan was fast asleep at that moment.

Li San raised his dagger and stabbed it towards Tian Yuquan's heart!
Clang! The dagger pierced the armor.

Since Fang Yong personally arranged for them, how could they not be on guard?

Li San's expression changed, and he withdrew immediately.

The crossbow bolts were already flying.

"Catch him alive!"

The Huaiyin army, which was lying in ambush, shouted.

Li San jumped out of the window, leaping two or three meters in a single bound, and quickly escaped using his light-footed skills.

However, the Huaiyin army was prepared, and large nets were deployed from both sides to lure them in.

Li San dared not charge forward. Although he had a dagger in his hand, in reality, the dagger could not cut through the large net at all, so he could only retreat to the ground helplessly.

The Huaiyin army had already charged in from behind, each carrying a long spear.

Li San threw out several swallow darts.

Unfortunately, these Huaiyin soldiers were all wearing armor, their only weaknesses being their eyes and necks, which were not easy to hit. Li San turned around, and on the other side was another large number of Huaiyin soldiers.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the crossbow bolts shot out.

Li San quickly dodged.

Suddenly, a large cloud of lime flew over, and Li San, unable to dodge it, was immediately blinded by the lime.

The Huaiyin army once again cast out a large net, wrapping Li San up and capturing him completely.

"puff!"

A bucket of cold water was splashed on him, and Li San opened his still somewhat painful eyes.

"Tell me your name and who sent you."

Li San was quite principled in the ways of the underworld; having accepted Cheng Dun's money, he refused to confess.

Jia She ordered his men to torture him severely, but Li San still refused to speak.

In the end, Jia She ordered him to be imprisoned in a death row cell.

"Brother Xue, another one has arrived!"

"Oh, this guy got really badly beaten!"

Xue Pan sighed.

He pressed his body close to the edge of the cell and asked:
"Hey, brother, are you still breathing? What year is it outside?"

Xue Pan and Song Yun were imprisoned in this death cell, in utter darkness.

Sometimes the jailers would bring some food on time.

Sometimes I forget about the two of them and don't come over for days.

The two could only rely on each other for survival, feeding on moss, cockroaches, and rats, barely managing to get by. Sometimes they would faint from hunger and wouldn't be woken up for days, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

However, recently the prison guards have been bringing meals to the prison on time every day.

Although it was only one meal, and the food was just bran and rotten vegetables, it was still much better than before. The two guessed that something had changed outside, but when they asked the jailer, the jailer refused to talk to them.

The two men acted erratically every day; one claimed to be the nephew of the military governor of the capital, and the other claimed to be a top scholar in the imperial examinations. The jailers, fearing they might catch the men's madness, dared not pay them any attention.

Only today, with Li San conveniently assigned to the cell next to the two men, did they finally have the opportunity to learn about the situation outside.

Li San gritted his teeth as he got up in the cell. He had been severely tortured and was badly injured. Fortunately, he knew a skill that allowed him to hold his breath and pretend to faint in time, thus avoiding further beatings.

When Xue Pan and Song Yun saw Li San get up, they quickly struck up a conversation with him.

Li San, however, was unwilling to waste time dealing with the two.

He simply sat cross-legged and regulated his breathing.

The next day at noon, the jailer brought food.

Li San quickly pretended to faint.

Seeing that Li San was still unconscious, the jailer checked his breathing and, finding he was still alive, gave him two hard tugs to wake him up, saying:

"Eat quickly, the adults will interrogate you later!"

After saying that, he left.

Seeing this, Xue Pan and Song Yun brought the food they were carrying to Li San.

They are used to being hungry and can sometimes go four or five days without food, so missing a meal is no problem for them.

"Brother, tell us about what's happening outside!"

Song Yun said.

Xue Pan said, "We didn't expose your act of faking fainting!"

Seeing this, Li San felt that the two men were indeed righteous, so he clasped his hands in a fist and palm salute to them and said:

"Gentlemen, I have just come out of the mountains and do not know much about the outside world. I only know that the Tartars have probably been driven away and that the Duke of Yonghuai should have already helped His Majesty to regain the throne."

(End of this chapter)