Han official!

Chapter 173 Shady story
At this time, a cavalry from the Dai State passed by Dongwei Bridge, temporarily easing the tension between the two sides.

The ice on the tributaries of the Bashui River has just begun to melt, and the willow branches at the Dongwei Bridge have sprouted.

Wait until the Dai cavalry leaves Dongwei Bridge.

Guo Jie tied two ring-handled swords crosswise on his back, with the silver-inlaid dragon pattern on the sword handles pressing against the skin on the back of his neck.

He leaned over and grabbed a handful of moist river sand. As the sand fell through his fingers, the distinctive creaking sound of the wooden axle of an oxcart came from the bridge.

Wei Guang used deerskin to wipe the ox-horn bridle of the ten-stone bow, and fine water droplets condensed on the bowstring in the morning mist.

He suddenly pressed down the triangular arrowhead, and the bronze arrow shaft reflected the smoke rising from the west of the bridge.

That was the sound of hundreds of pairs of hemp shoes stepping over the thawed ridges of the fields.

"Here it comes." Guo Jie spat out the licorice root in his mouth, and the juice tasted bitter between his teeth.

He untied the reed mat covering the cart, and twenty crossbows shone with tung oil in the morning light.

These heavy crossbows, urgently allocated from the armory, still had the cinnabar mark of the Shaofu Gongguan on the hilt.

As Wei Zifu's carriage drove onto the bridge, a crow was suddenly startled from the woods on the opposite bank.

Dong Yan's red fur hood was the first to pierce the mist, and the gold foil-wrapped armrests were so dazzling in the morning sun that people could not open their eyes.

The eight hundred garrison soldiers behind him marched in a disorderly pace, and the salt stains on their leather armor showed that they were county soldiers urgently transferred from Hedong County.

"Let him go!" Guo Jie swung his sword and cut the rope.

The thorny boulders that had been hung on the bridge railings in advance fell down with a loud bang, smashing the vanguard soldiers into the glacier that had not yet melted.

Amid screams, Wei Guang's arrows had pierced the throats of the three crossbowmen.

The hollow hole in the arrow shaft tore a shrill whistle in the air.

Dong Yan kicked the driver over and took the reins himself. The four-horse chariot knocked down the fleeing soldiers and rushed straight towards the carriage.

He swept the halberd in his hand, but the twigs of the halberd caught the willow branches hanging down from the bridge railing.

Guo Jie seized this fleeting opportunity and swung his ring-handled sword in a crescent arc. The left blade cut through the halberd shaft, and the right blade chopped into the spine of the right horseman of the chariot.

When the mad horse fell into the riverbank dragging half of the cart shaft, Wei Guang's continuous arrows had killed seven armored soldiers holding hooks.

But more garrison soldiers set up a tortoise-shell shield formation. The cowhide on the roof of the Wugang car was as hard as iron after being soaked in brine, and sparks flew when the arrows hit it.

"Switch to fire arrows!" Guo Jie kicked open the hot crossbow trigger.

Wei Guang tore off the curtain of the carriage and dipped it into the fish fat tank. The rocket flew over the shield array and ignited the dry grass hidden in the Wugang carriage.

That was the fire starter Dong Yan prepared to burn the carriage.

Twenty assassins armed with horse-slaying swords suddenly appeared from the thick smoke. They were the private soldiers that Empress Chen transferred from Changmen Palace.

The silk linings of their brown robes were fluttered in the fight, revealing the unique patterns of the weaving room in the Weiyang Palace.

Guo Jie used his two swords to entangle the sword tip that thrust forward first. When he turned around, the copper ring on the back of the sword smashed the cheekbone of the attacker, and with the backhand blade he lifted the crotch armor of the third man.

This was a vicious move he learned at the Hedong Salt Field.

Wei Guang's bowstring had broken twice, and the blood oozing from his knuckles dyed the Zhemu Mi red.

He switched to using the captured horn-end bow, and when his quiver was almost empty, he actually used the scattered gilded components of Dong Yan's chariot as arrows.

A copper yoke from a cart balance pierced the throat of the soldier holding the banner, and the salt-soaked banner blocked the vision of the crossbowmen in the back row.

Guo Jie rushed into the gap in the shield formation, and his two swords stirred up waves of blood in the tortoise shell formation.

The left knife cut through the mortise and tenon joints on the edge of the shield, and the right knife pierced the shield holder's armpit along the crack.

This was the armor-breaking technique he learned when he was interrogating salt smugglers in the You Nei Shi prison.

The screams of the guards woke up Wei Zifu in the carriage. The moment she opened the curtain, she saw Dong Yan's halberd thrown at Wei Guang's back.

"Qiang!"

Guo Jie turned around and threw out his left knife. The blade collided with the halberd in the air, and the sparks ignited the falling willow catkins.

Wei Guang dodged the sweeping halberd blade by leaning sideways, and the last arrow in his quiver brushed past Dong Yan's ear and pierced into the shaft of the carriage.

"The mortise and tenon joints on the right wing of the tortoise shell formation are loose!" He roared at Guo Jie, and used his bow arm to block the slashing attack of the horse-slashing sword. The jujube wood bow was cracked by the collision with the iron.

Guo Jie used his two swords to clamp the gap between the two shields, and the bronze-edged shield edges made a teeth-grinding creaking sound under his force.

"Break!" With a loud shout, the left knife cut into the salt-corroded lines on the shield, and the right knife pierced through the chain mail of the shield-bearing soldier.

At the crack in the tortoise shell formation, three county soldiers immediately inserted their hooks into the hinges of the shield formation, imitating the method of breaking the formation as recorded in the armory's "Illustrated Book of Weapon Defense".

"Switch to a cone formation!" Dong Yan pointed his halberd at the wheat field east of the bridge, and twenty heavily armored soldiers immediately took off the cowhide bags on their backs.

Salt grains mixed with iron sand poured onto the ice, and the charging county soldiers slipped one after another.

Seeing this, Guo Jie turned around and chopped off the bridge railing. The camphor wood guardrail hit the iron sand and splashed poisonous mist.

Those iron sands were actually tempered with saltpeter from the Hedong Salt Pond.

Wei Guang pulled down the hem of his robe to cover his mouth and nose, and shot three consecutive arrows through the crossbowman who was loading the crossbow with poisonous smoke.

"Use the fire rejection method from Mozi's Preparatory Acupuncture Points!"

He kicked over the burning Wugang car, and the fire spread along the fish fat to the poisonous gizzard.

Guo Jie understood what he meant, crossed his swords and chopped off the long spear that was coming towards him, then kicked the burning salt bag into the enemy camp.

Dong Yan's furious roar echoed through the thick smoke: "Zuo Qu, move forward! Use your hook to lock his ring-handled sword!"

Eight assassins suddenly emerged from under the burning Wugang car, and the barbs in their hands were so hooked that they caught Guo Jie's double swords accurately.

This is a grappling weapon specially made by the Shaofu Kaogongshi, specifically designed to counter the curved blade of the ring-handled sword.

"Brother-in-law, catch the bow!" Wei Guang threw the ten-stone bow. Guo Jie grabbed the bow arm in mid-air and put a knife instead of an arrow on the bowstring.

The blade tempered with brine tore through the smoke and nailed the two assassins to the bridge pier.

The broken hook fragments flew and drew bloody marks on Dong Yan's face.

"How dare you, you brat!" Dong Yan swung his halberd and cut off the burning flagpole, and the sparks ignited the purple silk hanging from the carriage.

Wei Zifu's maid screamed and put out the flames, but saw Wei Guang leap onto the roof of the carriage, tear off the leather straps between the yoke and plunge into ice water.

"Come on!" He threw the wet leather to Guo Jie and rolled over to avoid three poisonous arrows.

Guo Jie swung the soaked leather belt to wrap around the 10-foot-long halberd. The salted cowhide shrank when it came into contact with water, and he actually dragged Dong Yan and his halberd to the edge of the bridge.

"Get up!" He shouted and exerted force, and Dong Yan's rhinoceros armor waist belt broke under the huge force.

At the critical moment, three guards rushed forward to press down the halberd, and the bronze halberd shaft bent into an arc in the struggle.

Suddenly, a sharp bone whistle sounded from the west side of the bridge, and twenty carts covered with raw cowhide rushed out from the wheat field.

This is the siege weapon recorded in Chao Cuo's "On Military Affairs". The salted cowhide on the roof can resist rockets.

Wei Guang's pupils suddenly shrank: "They are going to use the battering ram to ram the carriage!"

Guo Jie snatched the hook from the garrison soldier and stuck the barb into the gap of the chariot axle.

"Remove the wheel!" The muscles in his arms flexed, and the iron-clad axle broke with a teeth-grinding friction sound.

The out-of-control ram crashed into a pile of salt, and the kerosene tank hidden inside the ram exploded.

"Change formation!" Dong Yan pointed his golden halberd at the riverbank, and the garrison soldiers suddenly abandoned their shields and retreated.

Guo Jie suddenly felt the ice surface trembling under his feet. The fleeing soldiers had actually dug a spider-web of cracks under the bridge.

"They are going to destroy the bridge!" Wei Guang's whistling arrow pierced the throat of the soldier guarding the bridge, but more soldiers emerged from the reeds.

Guo Jie inserted his two swords into the ice to steady his body, and threw the captured dagger with his backhand.

The dagger pierced through the ice and nailed the chisel soldier's palm, and blood spread out red lines under the ice.

Wei Guang took the opportunity to tie the reins of the carriage to the broken flagpole. Ten county soldiers shouted the "Bow Drawing Song" and pulled the ropes, forcibly dragging the carriage away from the danger zone.

"Use the flying hook in the armory!" Guo Jie blocked the poisonous arrow shot towards him.

The county soldiers threw out hooks with iron chains, and the barbs bit deeply into the willow trees on the opposite bank.

Wei Guang jumped into the air with the hook chain, and fired seven arrows in a row from the bow on his horn to suppress the ice-cutting soldiers.

An arrow shot through the hemp rope net under the ice. It turned out to be the bridge-destroying mechanism set up by Dong Yan in advance.

Dong Yan suddenly pointed his halberd toward the sky, and thirty crossbowmen emerged from the reeds on the riverbed.

The crossbow mechanisms in their hands glowed blue, and the arrow slots were filled with armor-piercing spikes stolen from the armory.

……

The Ba River, wrapped in the melted spring mud from upstream, swirled into a muddy shape around the bridge piers.

Guo Jie's deerskin boots sank into the soft mud on the shore, and the hemp rope wrapped around the handle of the knife absorbed moisture and became increasingly slippery.

He caught a glimpse of two soldiers spreading caltrops into the wheat field. They raised their feet to pick up a broken pottery jar on the mudflat and threw it at it, startling the sparrows pecking at food among the ridges.

"Kill!" Dong Yan's halberd knocked the burning haystack away.

Twenty battering rams covered with wet cowhide rushed out of the wheat field, with cymbals and sickles for harvesting tied to the shafts, shining coldly in the morning sun.

Wei Guang's whistling arrow shot through the reins of the first chariot, and the frightened horse rushed into the enemy formation, dragging the cymbals and sickles, and cut the three garrison soldiers in half, turning them into bloody gourds.

Guo Jie gripped the wooden handle of the sickle with his two swords and threw the farm implement at Dong Yan.

The moment the halberd shattered the wooden handle, the chaff hidden between the cymbals and sickles flew all over the sky.

Wei Guang took the opportunity to shoot flaming arrows. The dry husks caught fire when they came into contact with the wind, burning Dong Yan's personal soldiers and making them roll on the ground.

"Change the plowshare formation!" Dong Yan spat out the chaff from his mouth.

The soldiers suddenly took off the bamboo stalks on their backs, and tied short swords to the inverted tusks of the stalks, turning them into strange weapons that could be used for both attack and defense.

Guo Jie turned around and chopped off three vine tusks. The bamboo thorns at the broken ends pierced his palm, oozing out fine beads of blood.

Wei Guang loaded his bowstring with an arrow and pulled it to its full length of ten stones. The arrow, wrapped in wheat awns, pierced through the leather caps of the two crossbowmen.

Suddenly, a shepherd boy's willow flute was heard from the depths of the wheat field. Thirty warriors disguised as farmers stood up from the fields, with daggers hidden in the plows in their hands.

"Protect the carriage!" Guo Jie kicked over the assassin who was rushing towards the carriage. The pottery jar in the man's arms broke on the shaft of the carriage, and it turned out to be half a jar of fire-starting ointment.

Wei Guang tore off the tarpaulin from the carriage and dipped it into the puddle. When the wet cloth covered the sulfur, he turned around and shot an arrow through the throat of the assassin who was setting the fire.

Dong Yan's halberd suddenly swept across the fields, and the raised straw blinded the county soldiers.

The five assassins took the opportunity to throw out the rice rope, which was the hemp rope used by farmers in Hedong to tie wheat. The iron hook at the end of the rope was shining with a dark blue poisonous light.

Guo Jie cut three vine ropes with his left sword, and chopped off the attacking plow with his right sword. The short sword slipped out from the broken handle and almost cut through Wei Guang's armor.

"Use the flail!" Wei Guang suddenly rolled towards the pile of farm tools on the mudflat.

Guo Jie understood, and at the moment he blocked the halberd with his two swords, Wei Guang had already thrown the flail used for threshing wheat at him.

The iron-clad wooden hammer hit Dong Yan's shoulder armor, causing him to stagger back and the soles of his boots to drag deep grooves in the spring mud.

The soldiers suddenly took off the gourds from their waists and poured the smelly liquid onto the carriage.

"It's tung oil!" Wei Zifu's maid screamed.

Guo Jie grabbed some sackcloth that was drying in the fields and swung it over the burning wheat straw to form chains of fire.

The sackcloth was wrapped around the ankles of the soldier who had poured oil, and the flames followed the oil stains up to his collar.

Dong Yan's halberd suddenly stabbed into the mud, and the blade lifted up a large piece of grass.

The caltrops hidden under the grass roots attacked Guo Jie like flowers scattered by a fairy.

Wei Guang's quiver was empty, so he grabbed a handful of loach-like eels in a hurry. Last night's spring rain had filled the ditches with these creatures.

"Next!" Wei Guang threw the twisting eel towards the enemy formation.

The slippery creatures burrowed into the collars of the garrison soldiers, throwing their formation into chaos.

Guo Jie took the opportunity to rush in, and his two swords cut the two hooks like scissors. The copper ring on the back of the sword hit the temple of the third person, and his brain matter mixed with wheat husks splattered on his spring clothes.

"You brats!" Dong Yan's halberd chopped down the willow tree, startling the shrike that was building its nest.

The three crossbowmen hiding in the treetops fell to the ground. The crossbows in their hands were transformed into continuous-fire mechanisms using spinning wheels.

Wei Guang picked up the crossbow trigger and used a poisoned dagger instead of arrows. He fired three shots in a row, nailing the hands of the torch-holding assassins.

Suddenly, the sound of tamping music came from the east side of the bridge, and twenty farmers wearing straw hats came over carrying the gates of the spring canal.

Just as Dong Yan's personal guards were about to rebuke them, a two-meter-long spear suddenly shot out from under the gate. It turned out to be a disguised material officer of the Northern Army.

Wei Guang laughed: "Lord Zhao Yu's spring gift is truly timely!"

Guo Jie crossed his swords and blocked Dong Yan's halberd, sparks flying from the bronze halberd in the struggle. "Have you heard of Fan Sheng's book? Wildfires burning the fields are the most taboo during spring plowing."

He suddenly pulled back his strength, and Dong Yan was unable to stop and fell into the mud. His jade-inlaid rhinoceros armor was covered with manure, which was the base fertilizer that the farmers had just applied that morning.

Wei Guang hooked the dung scoop with the tip of his bow, scooped up the tadpoles from the mudflats and poured them towards the enemy camp.

When the sticky black spots blurred the crossbowman's eyes, Guo Jie's blade had already reached Dong Yan's throat.

……

The wheat seedlings on the east bank of the Ba River were crushed into green pulp under the iron hooves. Dong Yan's halberd picked up the half-broken spear, and the bronze halberd's branches hooked onto three tortoise-shell shields.

"Change to the Yuli formation!" He roared and pushed the shield formation towards the mud on the river bank.

The fifty garrison soldiers were immediately arranged in groups, with the long spear bearers in front and the hook-and-hook soldiers protecting the wings, imitating the mixed chariot and cavalry formation in "Sun Bin's Art of War".

Guo Jie thrust his two swords into the ground and pulled the specially made crossbow from the arsenal from the baggage cart.

The moment the three tempered iron arrows were pressed into the arrow grooves, Wei Guang's whistling arrows had already killed the drummer holding the flag in the formation.

"Break their head and tail!" He shouted at the county soldiers, and the vibration of the crossbow when it was pulled out passed through his arm armor to his teeth.

A hail of arrows fired from ten drawn crossbows tore through the morning mist, and the rhinoceros armor of the front row of spearmen looked as white as silk within fifty steps.

Dong Yan swung his halberd, slashing two stray arrows away. The copper spike on the halberd's shaft slammed into the shield: "Encircle them from both wings!"

Twenty carts covered with raw cowhide suddenly emerged from the wheat ridges. The salted cowhide on the roof was actually specially made from Gongge, the tribute from Hedong County.

"Use the hook to lock the wheel!" Wei Guang fired three arrows in succession from his horn-end bow, and the arrowheads were accurately nailed into the mortise and tenon joints of the axle.

Guo Jie led the county soldiers and rolled forward. The specially made three-edged hooks in the armory were stuck in the gaps between the spokes, and the five chariots overturned with a harsh friction sound.

The kerosene tank hidden in the car shattered, but the fire stick thrown by Dong Yan's personal soldiers was shot down by Wei Guang.

Dong Yan suddenly blew a bone whistle, and thirty winches stood up deep in the wheat field.

This is a tool used by farmers to draw water, but hanging on the rope is a stone specially made by the Shaofu.

"Release!" The soldiers cut the hemp ropes and threw millstone-sized river pebbles at the carriage.

Wei Guang tore off the carriage door panel to use as a shield, and the hardwood cracked into a spider web under the heavy blow.

"Switch to Wugang chariot!" Guo Jie kicked over the burning wreckage of the chariot.

The county soldiers used the captured tortoise shell shields as a base and tied the broken long spears together to form a temporary chariot formation.

Dong Yan's halberd struck the iron clad part of the Wugang chariot, and the sparks ignited the spring-sown millet seeds stored inside the chariot. The smell of burnt rice mixed with the smell of blood filled the riverbank.

There was a sudden commotion among the garrison troops, and twenty heavily armored soldiers pushed out the Linchong Lu Gongcha used for siege.

This ladder was originally used to climb the city wall, but now it was tied with poisoned daggers.

"They are going to use a battering ram!" Wei Guang's quiver was empty, so he picked up the dead soldier's halberd and threw it. The iron halberd pierced through the winch of the ladder, and the battering ram hanging in the air crashed into the wheat field.

Dong Yan's gilded armor was stained with mud. He pointed his halberd at the halberd that was loading the stone cannon: "Switch to the fireball!"

The soldiers stuffed the glutinous rice balls soaked in fish fat into the gun bags. The burning glutinous rice balls streaked across the sky and exploded into a rain of fire on the roof of the Wugang carriage.

Guo Jie tore off the curtains of the chariot and dipped them into the riverbank. When he used the wet silk to extinguish the flames, he threw his dagger and killed three artillerymen.

"Cone formation!" Wei Guang picked up the flag of the fallen officer.

The county soldiers used hooks as blades and tortoise-shell shields as wings, imitating the Xiuli Camp's drill of charging and thrusting.

Dong Yan's personal soldiers blocked with horse-slashing swords, but they didn't know that the hooks and barbs were specifically designed to counter chopping weapons.

The broken sword blade pierced into the spring mud, startling the field mice hiding there.

Suddenly, ten Mengchong warships floated on the river. This was the standard equipment for the Shuiheng Duwei to patrol the river.

The crossbow mechanism on the bow of the ship shone with the luster of tung oil, but Guo Jie's pupils suddenly shrank.

Those sails were actually sewn with the Suzaku pattern of Nagato Palace!
Dong Yan laughed wildly and swung his halberd to cut the cable, and the sound of the ship's crossbows firing in unison was like thunder.

"Dodge the arrow!" Wei Guang pulled Guo Jie down, and the iron crossbow arrow brushed past Wu Guan and nailed into the willow tree, causing the trunk, which was as thick as a man's embrace, to explode.

Guo Jie's two swords danced like wheels, and at the moment he chopped off the second wave of crossbow arrows, he caught a glimpse of the unusual draft of the Mengchong ships. These ships were actually carrying iron ingots, a specialty of Hedong County.

"Break the belly of their ship!" He roared and threw out the ring-handled knife.

The blade rotated and cut into the waterline of the Mengchong ship, and the salt-corroded ship planks cracked under the huge force.

Wei Guang's ten-stone bow trembled for the last time, and the whistling arrow shot through the ship's stern steering gear. The out-of-control Mengchong ship crashed into the river bank, startling the wild ducks hatching eggs in the reeds.

Dong Yan's halberd suddenly pierced the gap in Wu Gang's chariot, and the halberd's branch hooked Guo Jie's rhinoceros armor belt.

As the two men wrestled in the mud, rapid gong sounds were heard from the opposite bank, and the black flag of the Weiyang Palace Guard was faintly visible.

"Retreat!" Dong Yan shouted and drew his spear, and the garrison soldiers abandoned their seriously injured comrades and fled into the wheat fields.

Wei Guang's arrow chased the golden armor and penetrated into the green seedlings, but only cut off half of the gilded shoulder.

Guo Jie was panting while leaning on his sword, and the blood grooves on the ring-handled sword were covered with black and red residue.

Wei Guang tore off his robe to bandage the arrow wound on his arm, and suddenly saw a golden light flashing in the mud. It was the bandit-shaped pendant that Dong Yan had dropped when he struggled.

He picked up the jade pendant and sneered, "Empress Chen's reward is even more generous than the annual gift."

……

In the middle of spring in the third year of Jianyuan, the citron trees in Shangguanli dropped their down.

Guo Jie stroked the "forty-six" mark on the ring-handled scabbard, which was added when he copied the last batch of salt and iron preparations last night.

Twenty officers behind him were checking the copper seal on the inside of the hook. This was the thief-catching weapon used by the officers under the command of the Prince's Gate Doctor. Each barb was engraved with the "Tianlu" emblem.

"Leave it to me at the main gate." Wei Guang stuck the ox-horn hammer of the mulberry wood bow into the groove of the wall and aimed the three-edged arrow at the pepper-shaped auxiliary head on the vermilion lacquer door.

Half of the plain silk lining of his trousers was exposed, and the cinnabar seal of "Hedong Salt Permit" on it was blurred by sweat.

When Guo Jie kicked open the side door, the old salt grains accumulated on the door hinges fell down.

As soon as the two retainers armed with horse-slaying swords rushed out of the screen wall, they were pierced through the knee bones by Wei Guang's whistling arrows.

The hollow whistle from the arrow startled a dove from the eaves, and its wings flapped, dropping pickled fish hanging from the beams. "Do you know this is Princess Guantao's villa?" Dong Yan's rhinoceros-hide armor gleamed deep in the corridor, and his bronze halberd lifted a burning lantern.

The fireball hit the sacks of tribute salt that were drying in the sun, and the exploding salt crystals looked like star rain in the morning light.

Guo Jie split the burning bamboo curtain and used both swords to entangle the sneak attacker Gou Xiang: "I am under the order of the Supreme Court to investigate the case of secret communication with the Xiongnu."

He threw out the blood-stained iron contract, and the sound of tearing parchment when it unfolded scared away the servant holding the crossbow.

It was a Xiongnu horse, Ma Shiqi, salvaged from the wreckage of the Mengchong warship. The wolf-head sealing wax had been swollen by salt water.

Wei Guang's barrage of arrows kept the guests from showing their heads. Amidst the muffled thuds of arrowheads piercing the cypress pillars, he suddenly shouted, "There's a wall on the third threshold of the west wing!"

Guo Jie turned around and smashed the window frame, and the salt bricks hidden behind the pepper room poured out.

Rolling out from between the salt grains were not only poisoned arrowheads, but also the Huns' unique half-moon-shaped stirrups.

"What a 'Sui Ci'!" Guo Jie lifted up a piece of broken armor with the tip of his sword, and the wolf pattern in the style of Yinshan rock paintings appeared hideously in the morning sun.

He kicked away the retainer who tried to set fire to the account book, and crushed the ink marks of "lost a thousand horses" on the bamboo slips with his deerskin boots.

Dong Yan's bronze halberd suddenly broke through the wall, and its branch hooked Wei Guang's bow.

Wei Guang rolled over, and the jujube wood bowstring was wrapped around the halberd shaft and pulled hard, causing the jujube wood to crack in the struggle.

Guo Jie's two swords were like scissors, twisting towards Xijia's throat, but he stopped abruptly at the last inch.

Under the neck guard that was opened by the blade, there was fish scale armor specially supplied by the Weiyang Palace's Artisan Supervisor.

"How dare you!" Princess Guantao's carriage roared and smashed the gate of the village. The tassels hanging from the white canopy swept the ground full of salt crystals.

The princess's gown brushed against the blood-stained salt bricks, and her fingers grasped the spine of Guo Jie's sword. "This boy is a jester presented to Your Majesty by me."

Wei Guang suddenly shot a whistling arrow, which hit the yoke of the four-wheeled carriage and was nailed into the salt pile.

In the phosphorus fire that ignites when it comes into contact with salt, the Xiongnu characters in the interlayer of the salt bricks are revealed. It is a grain delivery note written in horse blood.

"Princess, please look at the handwriting of 'Jester'." Guo Jie unfolded the white silk soaked with fish fat. The cinnabar seal written by Dong Yan, "Autumn of the Second Year of Jianyuan, Yinshan Horse Market", was in the same style as the official script on the jade ring around the princess' waist.

When the material officer's shackles were fastened around Dong Yan's wrists, the salt particles that bounced up from the bronze lock spring blinded everyone.

Wei Guang found the final evidence from the base of the fallen salt god statue: half of a bone-carved quiver of the Xiongnu Zuoxian King. Inside the quiver, there was a sheepskin pattern on the private salt route from Daigu to Hedong. The eighteen pavilions and barriers along the way all marked the farms of Princess Guantao.

When the prison cart rolled over the spring mud in Shangguanli, the newly added "卌七" mark on Guo Jie's scabbard was reflected in the salt-stained "童約" stele on the roadside.

……

The blue bricks in the deepest part of Chang'an Prison were oozing with blood.

Guo Jie tied a tendon rope soaked in brine around Dong Yan's thumb, with half a Xiongnu bronze stirrup stuck in the knot.

"In the autumn of the second year of Jianyuan, this object appeared in the Hedong Salt Pond."

He yanked the rope tight, the wolf markings on the stirrup's edge searing into his flesh. "Tell me the time of your meeting with the Xiongnu horse dealer."

Dong Yan's prison uniform was riddled with holes etched like honeycombs by the salt. He laughed hoarsely, "Captain Guo is so adept at torture. Is he trying to snatch a job at the Supreme Court?"

The iron gate burst open, and Wei Guang came in carrying a copper clepsydra specially made for the armory. The steam rising from the spout was filled with a pungent medicinal smell.

"This is the 'Spirit-awakening Soup' newly formulated by the Imperial Medical Bureau."

He poured the boiling hot medicine on Dong Yan's ulcerated ankle, "Using Hedong saltpeter as a guide, supplemented with Sichuan pepper and aconite, it is best for refreshing the mind."

The screams hit the salt bricks on the dome, startling the spider webs off the beams.

Zhang Tang dipped his chin in freshly ground cinnabar and traced the cloud-thunder pattern on the bronze fingernails with his fingertips. "The Law on Bandits states that those who collaborate with the enemy will be torn to pieces by chariots. If Mr. Dong is willing to elaborate on the share of the Xiongnu horse market, perhaps the punishment can be reduced to beheading."

"I am the eldest princess"

"On the 23rd day of the twelfth month of the second year of the Jianyuan reign, Princess Guantao's salt cart was robbed in Yunzhong County."

Zhang Tang suddenly flipped open the wooden slips and found that the arrow wounds on the garrison soldiers' bodies were caused by Xiongnu whistling arrows.

He grabbed a handful of salt and pressed it between Dong Yan's fingernails. "That same day, the Xiongnu Zuoguli King's tribe was using Hedong salt to preserve meat for the winter."

Guo Jie grabbed Dong Yan's hair and pressed his face against the salt pile against the wall.

Embedded in the cracks of the salt bricks was half a bone counting chip, engraved with Xiongnu counting symbols.

"I found this in the secret compartment of your bed." Wei Guang picked up the bone token with his bow. "Each notch corresponds to ten war horses. This total of 230 horses matches the number of horses that went missing from Dai County."

Zhang Tang suddenly thrust his iron bar towards Dong Yan's right ear and asked, "Mr. Dong, do you know the art of 'salt listening'?"

He clapped his hands to summon the jailer, and the two of them carried in a clay jar covered with cowhide. "Pour the brine from Hedong into your ears. It will corrode your eardrums in half a minute. By then, you won't even be able to hear your own confession."

Dong Yan's pupils contracted in the salt mist, and Guo Jie had already pried open his jaw.

Wei Guang approached, carrying a ceramic pot of brine. Amid the sizzling sound of liquid dripping onto his prisoner's uniform, Dong Yan roared, "I said! Spring of the second year of Jianyuan."

"No hurry." Zhang Tang suddenly clamped his throat with an iron ruler, and used the ruler tip to pry open the wooden box that had just been delivered.

The head of Hedong Salt Commissioner Jia Xin stared between grains of salt, a fragment of a seal with the inscription "Tribute Salt of the Second Year of Jianyuan" still tangled around his festering neck. "Before his death, Commissioner Jia Yan left behind a generous gift."

He unfolded the blood-stained silk, which recorded in detail the amount of salt and iron supplied to the Xiongnu every quarter.

Guo Jie pressed the salt brick against Dong Yan's chest and said, "In the autumn of the second year of Jianyuan, the Xiongnu cavalry raided Dai County, using ring-handled swords mixed with fine iron from Hedong."

He ripped open his prison uniform, revealing an old scar on his left shoulder. "The quenching pattern on this knife mark is exactly the same as the blade Jia Xin forged privately."

Wei Guang suddenly shot out a whistling arrow, and the arrow pierced the salt brick under Dong Yan's crotch.

Amidst the hollow whistle of the arrow shaft, he slowly drew the full length of his mulberry wood bow. "Should I aim for the left or right eye with my next arrow? Mr. Dong is an expert in horse physiognomy. Why don't you guess when the salt poison on the arrow will take effect?"

"You guys." Dong Yan's curse was cut off by Zhang Tang's iron ruler.

Zhang Tang, the Imperial Court Supervisor, opened the "Prisoner Laws" and read: "According to the law, anyone whose stolen goods are worth more than 500 coins shall be branded and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mr. Dong smuggled salt and iron worth 1 million coins, so he shall be crucified."

He suddenly pressed the finger-torching mechanism, and the wooden teeth suddenly tightened three inches. "But if you reveal your accomplices in the court, the sentence might be commuted to beheading."

Brine dripped from the ceiling, leaving winding bloody marks on Dong Yan's face.

Guo Jie opened his mouth and stuffed a piece of salt into it: "Try it, this is the tribute salt you sold to the Xiongnu royal court."

Wei Guang pulled the tendon rope at the same time, and the copper stirrup embedded in the bone joints tore off large pieces of flesh.

"A trick! On the seventh day of the third month of the second year of Jianyuan," Dong Yan's confession, splattered with blood, "through the mediation of Dou's retainers, I exchanged salt and iron for Xiongnu war horses."

Zhang Tang suddenly circled a name with a cinnabar pen: "But this person?"

He unfolded the impeachment letter that had just been delivered, which recorded in detail the abnormal amount of land that Yang Wang had purchased in Hedong.

Guo Jie took the opportunity to pile salt bricks on Dong Yan's back, and Wei Guang's bowstring had already cut into his neck.

"The annual gift of zhujin from Changle Palace." Dong Yan struggled to breathe, "melted and mixed with Hedong gold."

When willow catkins were flying outside the iron bars, the confession had already filled three rolls of white silk.

Zhang Tang examined the bloody fingerprints on the signature and suddenly pointed to a blank spot. "Tomorrow, the Imperial Court will be checking the military registers in the armory. Please carefully recall who was responsible for the handover at the Xiongnu horse market."

The newly engraved "Fifty-Four" on Guo Jie's scabbard was shining with blood, and Wei Guang was wiping the tip of his mingdi arrow with salt.

In the brine pool at the deepest part of the imperial prison, the red seal of "Changle" was slowly emerging from the newly soaked bamboo slips.

……

Guo Jie rubbed the newly carved "Fifty-four" knife marks, and the prison oil lamp cast his shadow on the salt-stained wall.

Zhang Tang unfolded Dong Yan's confession, and the cinnabar pen suddenly stopped on the words "Jianyuan 2nd Year Sanfu Iron Official": "This ink mark..."

He used his fingertips to press open the undried ink stain, revealing a silver line as thin as a hair. It was written with ink mixed with ink specially supplied by the Shaofu.

"Someone has tampered with the confession."

Wei Guang's bowstring lifted up a fragment of bamboo slips. The dark pattern on the back of the slip was the Vermillion Bird pattern from the Weiyang Palace's weaving room. "Last night, when the jailers were changing shifts, an usher from the Changxin Palace brought me some food."

Before he finished speaking, there was a commotion outside the prison.

The three of them rushed to the outer courtyard of the prison and saw Dong Yan's cage soaked in a pool of blood.

The incision on the corpse's neck was as smooth as a mirror, and the murder weapon was actually a specially made ring-handled knife from the armory.

What was even more bizarre was that the corpse was holding half a jade talisman in its left hand.

The shape is exactly the same as the one on Wei Guang's waist.

"It's a frame-up." Guo Jie kicked the corpse away, revealing a fresh tattoo on the back: a twisted "five" character, exactly the same as the mark used by the Hedong salt workers during their rebellion.

Zhang Tang squatted down and dipped his fingertips into the blood. When he rubbed it open, he could hear the rustling sound of salt grains. "This isn't human blood. It's brine mixed with cinnabar from the Hedong Salt Pond."

Guo Jie stood in the courtyard of Chang'an Prison, clutching Wei Guang's jujube wood bow. The copper bells on the eaves remained motionless in the hot wind.

The bloody mark "Fifty-five" he had just carved with his scabbard still smelled fishy, and the officials in black clothes from the Supreme Court had already surrounded the courtyard gate.

"Wei Guang is suspected of having secret dealings with the Xiongnu and he shall be arrested immediately!" The red ribbon and silver seal of the Chief Justice, Prince Wenzhi, were glaring in the scorching sun. The copper chains held by the twelve imperial guards behind him were stained with grains of red salt, a characteristic of Hedong County.

Zhang Tang's Xiezhi crown dripped with sweat: "This case is under the personal jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, why bother with the Supreme Court Justice Wang?"

"Snapped!"

The blood-stained jade chariot smashed onto the blue bricks.

Guo Jie recognized that this was Wei Guang's personal item, and the gap that had been broken during the battle at Baqiao was still there.

At this moment, the jade purlin was soaked with black blood, and a Xiongnu bronze arrowhead was embedded in the wolf head pattern.

"Last night, soldiers from the Northern Palace intercepted a Xiongnu messenger. This item in his arms fits perfectly with the jade talisman of the General Wei."

Wang Wenzhi's black boots rolled over the jade pendant. "There are also secret reports that Wei Sima secretly kept Dong Yan's death letter in blood."

He suddenly unfolded half of a piece of white silk, and the crooked word "Wei" on it was exactly Dong Yan's handwriting.

The string of Wei Guang's ten-stone bow suddenly broke. Guo Jie caught a glimpse of the new burn marks on his knuckles, which were clearly caused by the burns he got when he was checking the brine last night.

Twelve copper chains had been wrapped around Wei Guang's limbs, and the salt crystals on the locks glowed blue in the sunlight.

"Wait!" Zhang Tang pressed his iron ruler against Wang Wenzhi's throat. "This copper chain was produced in the Hedong Salt Pond workshop and was just listed as a prohibited item in military equipment last month."

The ruler lifted the "five" brand on the inside of the lock and asked, "Where did Wang Tingwei get this?"

The rainstorm came suddenly.

In the rain, Guo Jie grabbed Wei Guang's wrist armor and felt a tiny bump on his fingertips. It was the Chinese character "Ba" made of salt grains.

When Wei Guang was dragged out, the broken jade chariot reflected strange patterns in the rain.

"This is a Xiongnu totem." Zhang Tang squatted in front of the puddle, stirring the broken jade fragments with an iron ruler. "But the carving technique is the same as the jade craftsmen of the Shaofu."

He suddenly used a cinnabar pen to trace the turning points of the lines, "Look at the hook when the knife is put away, it is clearly..."

The sound of galloping horses came from outside the rain curtain.

The housekeeper of the Pingyang Marquis's mansion fell on the steps, and half a volume of "Gongyang Zhuan" rolled out of the lacquer box in his arms, and black salt seeped out from the cracks in the bamboo slips.

"This morning, the princess was attacked at Baqiao. The murder weapon."

The housekeeper trembled as he unfolded the blood-stained linen, on which was nailed Wei Guang's whistling arrow.

Guo Jie crushed the salt grains between the bamboo slips and tasted the familiar bitterness on his tongue. This was the saltpeter specially supplied to the ice cellar in Weiyang Palace.

Zhang Tang suddenly split the Gongyang Zhuan with an iron ruler. The core of the book was actually filled with a thin white silk cloth, which was as thin as a cicada's wing. It was painted with the private salt route from Daijun to Yinshan. The "Five Pavilions" marked along the way were circled in cinnabar.

"Go check on Dong Zhongshu's disciples." Zhang Tang's Xiezhi crown grew increasingly dim in the rain. "Last month, the Gongyang School debated at the Bashui River, saying, 'The profits from salt and iron should all be returned to the kingly way.'"

Guo Jie stared at the bloodstains on the linen.

The salt crystals at the edge of the bloodstains were arranged into strange symbols, exactly the same as the salt bricks used to wrap the body that were dug out in Wuting three days ago.

He suddenly opened his clothes, revealing an old wound on his left shoulder. It was caused by a crossbow arrow when he was investigating Dou's illegal salt trafficking in the second year of Jianyuan. There was also a similar "five" mark on the arrow shaft.

In the middle of the night, the sound of water seeping in the dungeon of the Supreme Court was particularly clear.

When Guo Jie reached the cell where Wei Guang was imprisoned, the fish fat lamp hanging on the fence suddenly exploded.

The salt stains on the inside of the lampshade revealed bloody handprints, and the lines on the knuckles matched the edge of the plain silk that Wang Wenzhi had unfolded yesterday.

"Someone wants to use Wei Guang to muddy the water." Zhang Tang used his iron ruler to pry open Wei Guang's food box. Half of the seal script of the character "Dou" was hidden in the twisted character "Wu".

"This is the stone poison that is a specialty of Hejian Country."

Torrential rain pounded the dome of the imperial prison, and Guo Jie thought of the salt tax case in the second year of Jianyuan.

At that time, poisonous salt mixed with stone poison was also found in the villa of Dou Ying, a relative of the Dou clan.

But at this moment, the salt grains in the corner of Wei Guang's cell were mixed with the unique sea smell of Jiaodong County, which was a specialty of the fiefdom of Pingyang Marquis Cao Shou.

"Tomorrow's court session." Zhang Tang suddenly thrust his iron ruler between the bricks. "The Imperial Censor wishes to request an investigation into the iron officials in Guanzhong."

Among the broken bricks brought out by the ruler, there were actually fragments of jade rings that were specially worn by the guests at Tian Fen's mansion.

At cockcrow, Guo Jie sneaked into the place where Dong Yan's body was placed.

The tattoo behind the left ear of the corpse was swollen by salt water, and a closer look revealed that it was the character "五" (five) inside the character "田" (field).

As he used the tip of the knife to pry open the festering flesh, a dark shadow flashed outside the window.

When they chased them to the Bashui Wharf, they saw a white banner hanging on the mast of the Mengchong ship, which was embroidered with the "Salt and Iron Strategy" chapter from Dong Zhongshu's "Spring and Autumn Annals".

Guo Jie clutched three "five" characters with different patterns.

The malachite powder of the Dou family, the Jiaodong sea salt of the Tian family, and the fragments of white banners of the Gongyang School.

He stood at the foot of the north gate of the Weiyang Palace.

Wei Guang's prison car was rolling over the bluestone road, and the salt seeping out of the ruts formed a new puzzle in the sunlight.

The wooden wheels of the prison van rolled over the broken salt grains on Zhangtai Street.

Wei Guang's wrist shackle hit the bronze fence, and the salt-eroded wound oozed blood mixed with the smell of rust.

He looked at the parallel ox cart through the three-inch wooden fence. Guo Jie was carving peach wood sticks with a ring-handled knife.

This is an autopsy tool commonly used in Chang'an Prison.

"They sewed Xiongnu wolf-patterned silk into the lining of my armor."

Wei Guang lowered his voice, and the iron chain on his wrist jingled with the bumps.

The new tattoo on his neck glowed with the blue light of stone poison. It was the word "Five Vermin" branded on him by the jailer last night as a punishment for Dou Shi.

Guo Jie dipped a peachwood stick into the jar of fish fat, and with a flick of the fire stick, a flame ignited: "This is hidden in the salt on Dong Yan's body."

He flicked the wooden stick with his fingertips, and a silver thread as thin as a hair appeared at the burnt part. It was the silk specially supplied by the Shaofu Weaving Room.

The prison van suddenly turned sharply, and Wei Guang's forehead hit the brine-soaked fence.

The leader of the Ti cavalry escorting from behind raised his whip, but put it down awkwardly when Guo Jie glanced at him coldly.

These elite soldiers of the Supreme Court all recognized the fifty-six bloody marks on his scabbard, each of which depicted a death row prisoner whose skin and flesh had been corroded by salt.

"Jia Xin's widow hanged herself in Hedong this morning."

Guo Jie suddenly carved the number "seven" on the carriage board with the tip of his knife. "But she had half a jade scepter pressed under her tongue, with a picture of the Baqiao embankment glued to the inside with salt grains."

Wei Guang's pupils suddenly contracted.

He ripped open the collar of his prison uniform, revealing an old arrow scar on his collarbone, the result of a crossbow wound he had sustained when he intercepted and killed a salt smuggler at Baqiao.

Guo Jie passed the burnt peach wood stick into the fence, and the charcoal ash gathered into the three words "Weiyang Stable" in Wei Guang's palm.

"The mechanism of the jade talisman must be soaked in Hedong brine before it can be activated."

Guo Jie's voice blended into the sound of cowbells, "Dong Yan's right hand is buried under the third ancient willow tree on the west side of Ba Bridge. He wasn't just clutching a jade scepter before he died."

When the prisoner car reached Hengmen, the guards deliberately delayed while checking the talisman.

Wei Guang took the opportunity to knock on the car floor with his heels, and a hollow sound came from the salt-stained bottom.

Guo Jie pretended to tidy up his robe, and the salt grains that fell from his sleeves formed the shape of the Big Dipper on the wheel ruts. This was the secret signal they agreed upon at the salt field.

"The ox cart from the Pingyang Marquis's mansion passed by the weaving room at 1:00 AM."

Wei Guang coughed and uttered, "The shaft of the carriage smells of Jiaodong sea salt, but the carriage is loaded with millet from Dai County."

Guo Jie suddenly swung his sword and cut off the weeping willows by the roadside, startling the Ti cavalry so much that they drew their swords.

Black salt crystals oozed out of the broken willow branch, and he threw it to the ground with a sneer.

The escort team was forced to stop in front of the Tingwei Temple.

Wei Guang looked at the salt ship floating under the bridge and suddenly remembered something: "Dong Yan's horse halberd that day"

"The halberd shaft is an old design from three years ago."

Guo Jie used his scabbard to pull the moss off the bridge railing. "But the copper hoops that secure the halberd's branches are from Hejian State, from the mines that the Queen Mother gave to Tian Fen last year."

He deliberately raised his voice in an attempt to alert the enemy.

When the prison carriage started on its journey again, Wei Guang discovered that the hem of Guo Jie's robe was stained with a strange red powder, which was the sand used to prevent bookworms.

Before he could ask a question, the other party had already carved the word "Bing Yin" on the shaft of the carriage with the tip of a knife, which was the date half a month later.

"Don't touch the filthy food in the Tingwei Prison."

Guo Jie suddenly threw out an oil-paper bag, which contained bitter salt cakes, a specialty of Chen County. "Take half a penny of salt grains at the hours of Mao and Shen every day, and it can relieve the poison of stone."

Wei Guang crushed the salt cake and found three bronze fish symbols inside.

The two characters "Shui Heng" on the talisman were blurred by salt corrosion, but the map of the tributaries of the Ba River engraved on the back was clearly visible, which was exactly the route taken when Dong Yan was ambushed that night.

"Zhang Tang found this in Dong Yan's stomach."

A piece of jade slipped out from Guo Jie's sleeve, and when it came into contact with the light, it revealed the pattern of the Pepper Room in Weiyang Palace. "Put it under your tongue to avoid poison. Tonight..."

Before he finished speaking, the prison van suddenly stopped.

Twelve eunuchs holding halberds blocked their way, and the leader raised his halberd high: "According to the order of Changle Palace, the prisoner is transferred to the Imperial Prison in the Silkworm Chamber!"

The iron chain on Wei Guang's wrist suddenly tightened, and the shackle mechanism popped out with barbs piercing into his flesh.

Guo Jie suddenly jumped up and split the shaft, but saw that the ox pulling the cart was foaming at the mouth, and the salt bag tied to the ox's horns was oozing green liquid.

The Langguan's halberd array had closed in, the salt frost on the halberd blades gleaming with the sheen of death under the scorching sun.

"Remember! Bingyin day!" Guo Jie's last roar was drowned out by the sound of cowbells.

As dusk fell, Wei Guang painted a picture of Ba Bridge on the wall with bitter salt cakes in the salt brick cell in the deepest part of the Canshi Prison.

The Dou family, Gongyang Confucianism, and the Tian family...

Who is framing him?

(End of this chapter)