Suspect in Jinling

In the early morning, the haze in the sky refused to dissipate for a long time.

The hut in the west of the city was simple and unadorned, and the two of them couldn't sleep well, so they woke up early at the same time, and sat at the dining table after each of them washed and washed, looking at each other without saying a word.

In front of you are two wontons.After getting up, Sha Xiangyue ordered someone to buy breakfast. She was talking about the essentials, but she didn't expect her subordinates to buy two sets of wontons with plain fillings. Obviously he didn't have much appetite, his face was very bad, the aggression last night was like a fire, and this morning all turned into a mountain of motion, his expression was almost numb holding the chopsticks, chewing and swallowing mouthfuls.

"Are you going back to Beijing?" Sha Xiangyue asked, knocking on her chopsticks.

Kuang Jian shook his head: "No, I stay in Jinling." His voice sounded hoarse and calm: "Last night, scouts reported that a large force of Japanese pirates had landed in Juexi, Shangyu County, and Nanling County and Jiangning Town were looted at the same time. I will stay here for the Jinling they have planned.”

Sha Xiangyue's expression changed violently for a moment, and she immediately put down her chopsticks and stood up to give the order outside the house. I don't know what he said, but the believers outside took the order and ran out. He had just put down the bowl and chopsticks, and had already finished his share of ravioli that still had Sha Xiangyue left over. He picked up the cloth towel and wiped his mouth as usual, then raised his head: "I have something to do later, come out with me."

A majestic and tall yamen adjacent to the imperial city in the east of the city, passing through a wooden and stone archway, is the gate of the garrison yamen.

Outside the gate, a large number of officials dressed in official government hats and black hats were stopped outside by a horse thorn. Those who inquired about news and sent official documents, the long wings of the black hats trembled in fear, confusion and anger. A group of people They were waiting like headless chickens to see the garrison noble and Marquis of Fengcheng, Li Xian. In the waiting space, everyone was buzzing, scolding the dead eunuch who brought disaster to the country and the people, while scolding the dead eunuch who brought disaster to the country and the people, while scolding the pot like ants. Discuss what to do next.

Kuang Jian covered Sha Xiangyue's face and quickly walked through a narrow passage next to the garrison yamen, and knocked rhythmically on one of the corner doors. After a while, the guards of the garrison yamen opened the door for him from the inside. Kuang Jian immediately dragged Sha Xiangyue in.

After a simple body search, Kuang Jian grabbed Xiangyue's arm and went to the back hall. It was the first time Shaxiangyue entered the Jinling highest authority yamen, and he looked at the layout here in surprise. Unexpectedly, the garrison yamen was even more chaotic. The book office was sweating profusely holding a stack or several stacks of official documents, not daring to pass them back and forth for a moment. , People have not yet entered, they are first rushed by the strong smell inside.

I saw more than a dozen young and middle-aged officers in the room, dressed in short shirts, discussing the situation of the North-South War between the two capitals around the sand table. It seemed that they had been discussing the whole night. From the looks of it, there are Zhe Army, Jinling Bei Cao Army, and Bei Wa Army. The small table next to the door is full of breakfast food, but very few have eaten. Obviously most of them are too busy to have time to eat.

When Kuang Jian walked in, there happened to be a young general in Linmen who was filling his stomach angrily. Before he had eaten two bites, he put down the bowl angrily, turned his head and interjected at the sand table, saying, "What are you going to eat! I can't eat at all!" Seeing Kuang Jian's expression, he subconsciously wanted to say hello. After all, this young man who was once the highest officer of the military had often visited their barracks in the past. Unexpectedly, he was taken aback when he saw Sha Xiangyue, and then looked down. Yi saw the jade wrench in his hand, and immediately rushed back to the sand table without saying a word!

"Now the capital is vulnerable to a single blow. The elite of the three main battalions are wiped out, and the remaining people are less than [-]. They are all old, weak, sick and disabled. According to Ye Xian's marching speed, they will surely reach Bauhinia within three days. Guan, if the north cannot hold for seven days, it will be useless for us to arrive!"

Many of these officers had white cloth strips tied on their arms. It was obvious that their relatives and family members had died in the war in the past few days. Slamming his fists on the sand table—the Ming Dynasty has encountered an unprecedented crisis. These people who defended the land and defended the country stayed safely in the barracks a few days ago, thinking that the war in the north would be settled soon. A country has become like this overnight!

"The Japanese pirates have also landed here, and the southern side is still able to cope with it now, but once we pass by, Jinling doesn't know if it can hold on..."

"And what about Yu Qian? Anyone who can fight in Beijing is dead. He is a scholar. Although he has been Meng Zhigong's deputy, he has never really fought. Can he command the defense of Beijing this time? Got it!"

Sha Xiangyue was a little embarrassed, he heard that Kuang Jian brought him, an outsider, directly into the internal military discussion in Jinling, and he was still wanted, so he just brought him in like this.

The others also saw him, and with keen ears, they immediately realized that this was the "Ghost Seeing Sorrow" who had made Jinling's face change in the past six months, but they just looked a little weird, didn't say anything, but turned their heads away Return to work status to continue the discussion.

Kuang Jian was calm and expressionless, and led Sha Xiangyue to sit outside a cubicle.Beside them is a big case that is slightly smaller than the sand table. The files on the case are piled up like a mountain. The three scribes are constantly sorting out the incoming official documents, sorting them according to the degree of urgency, sending them to the small room in batches, and taking out another batch. It was approved, and then delivered to various regions in Nanzhili without delay.

Just when the group of people were discussing intensely and immersed themselves in their work, a book office moved out of the inner room with a handful of official documents in his arms, and asked loudly with his chest up, "Where is Mr. Lu from the town government department? Is Mr. Lu here?"

Immediately someone answered through the door: "Master Lu is not here, he is no longer in the residence!"

The secretary stomped his feet anxiously, quickly put down the official document in his hand, and shouted: "Go to the town government secretary to find someone who can take care of it, and Master Hou is calling!"

From their point of view, officials outside the door also know that officials who come to inquire about news and obey orders are good. At least they have no other thoughts at a critical moment. At this time, they are most afraid of "smart people" who have other plans behind their backs and find another way out, but Lu Duanxian should not belong to this category. He is just a mediocre old bureaucrat. He should not see anyone now to avoid trouble. After all, after the death of Pang Zhengying on March [-], he always thought that he could become a regular, but he did not expect to be active for three months. However, in June, Li Mengliang, the head teacher of the Taiping Sect, got in the way. After that, he gave up his desire to be promoted. A dead pig is not afraid of boiling water, so he doesn't care about anything...

But now that the yamen is employing people, how can it be ignored with so many manpower in the yamen!

After the book office finished yelling, he saw Kuang Jian and Sha Xiangyue next to him. This person should have been instructed to report to the inside when he saw Catcher Kuang. After a while, he bowed and nodded, asking Catcher Kuang to go in.

Several large candles were lit in the small room of the verandah. A 60-year-old man was sitting behind the case, with a majestic figure and gray hair. On the paper, all the information received by the Jinling garrison office was densely recorded. A letter signed by Ting Yi was placed on the desk, as if he had been busy all night.The secretary led the two into the room, silently pointed to the two round piers in front of the case, then lightly put away the memorial that Lord Hou had approved in a blink of an eye, and walked out swiftly.

"Have you heard the talk outside?"

The old man's voice was thick and firm, he was too busy with official business to spare time, so he lowered his head and asked first.

Kuang Jian responded, "Yes."

Only now did the old man raise his head from the thick stack of official documents—this man had spent his entire life in the military service, and was used to strong winds and waves. Even though the world was falling outside, his face was still calm, not angry but majestic.Only then did the old man notice that Kuang Jian had brought another person to come. When his eyes touched Sha Xiangyue, his majestic face was startled, and he showed a rare kindness: "This is the famous Jinling arrester who wants to be rescued by Tuo Gongfu." Master Xiaosha? He looks so handsome."

There was a trace of vigilance in Sha Xiangyue's eyebrows, and she nodded in response: "Marquis of Fengcheng."

The old man nodded kindly to him, his gaze was like that of a grandfather looking at his grandchildren, but the situation was urgent and there was no time to greet him, so he could only turn his eyes away and picked up a page of paper at hand and said to Kuang Jian: "I came from Beijing this morning. The transfer order, Jinling prepares the army, Jinling prepares the Japanese army, the Jiangbei grain transport army, and the Ningyang Houzhe army are ordered to be sent to Beijing to guard - you also read the military report last night, the Japanese pirates have already landed, if these teams leave again, Jinling City's defense forces will be empty."

You can tell by the names, the Army of Preparations, the Army of Preparations, and the Army of Transporting Grain. These are already the reserve troops and logistics troops of the Ming Dynasty, but there is no way. Extremely insufficient, the reserve force is the strongest force that can be produced.

"The problem is," the old man's voice was serious and deep, "all these people's support may not be able to save Beijing's crisis. Now I have two memorials at hand. One is ordered to transfer troops from Jinling to the capital for defense. There is another "The Marquis of Fengcheng paused for a moment, then said slowly: "Let's persuade the imperial court to move southward, and stay with all the troops to keep Jinling—these troops can't hold thousands of miles of land, but they can always hold half the country."

The situation has gotten so bad.

In the northern and southern capitals, even the toughest duke Xungui dare not promise that as long as they fight hard, they can turn the world around. Their country can't afford another failure. No one dares to spill the last blood of the soldiers, no one dares to believe that the distant city in the north really has the determination to resist to the end... The situation has collapsed to the edge of the cliff, and they must close down along the cliff. Take every step correctly, otherwise even if you make a slight mistake, the consequences will be unimaginable!

"...If Master Hou asks his subordinates for their opinions," Kuang Jian took a deep breath, and then said without hesitation, "My subordinates will choose the former."

"Protect Beijing."

"Correct."

"Then Jinling City will not have any military support. The Governor's Mansion, Bingma Division, Yingtian Mansion, Jinyiwei, and the 2000 troops here are the entire strength of Jinling City. The total number is less than 5000."

Sha Xiangyue's heart tightened, surprised at the old man's frank attitude in front of him, an outsider, he tried his best to pretend that he didn't hear it, and turned his head away.

"The subordinate still chooses Beijing."

The pros and cons are so obvious, but Kuang Jian still said clearly: "Whether to fight or to flee, the Beijing side must have gone through a lot of debate before finally making a decision. That is the capital of the country, the emperor can be re-established, and officials can be re-established." However, once the city of Beijing is destroyed, the entire Ming Dynasty will be over, and all resistance in Jinling will be meaningless."

The emperor was trapped in the enemy's camp, half of the court was wiped out, and the Oirat cavalry was just showing off outside the Zijing Pass, and the gate to Beijing had been opened. This kind of crisis also appeared in the Jingkang year of the Northern Song Dynasty 230 years ago. Du, the shadow of the Song Dynasty is right in front of you.

"Yu Qian used to be my father's deputy. He has been cooperating with my father all these years. He is upright and upright, and his ability is unquestionable. He is a scholar, but there is still such a scholar in Beijing who will stand up. The iron cavalry was so frightened that they did not allow the fleeing faction to gain the upper hand, and they had already stabilized the situation in the leaderless capital. Since he was in urgent need of rescue, Jinling should send troops quickly... As for this place, it is the largest in the southeast. Jiancheng, surrounded by walls for 96 miles, is full of food, the walls are strong, the officials and soldiers in the city are not attrition, and there are more than [-] residents in the city, as long as the people's hearts can be kept alive, this place can survive."

Sha Xiangyue was taken aback, feeling her hand was being held forcefully——

"If Lord Hou makes up his mind," Kuang Jian said with a calm expression but a firm voice, holding Sha Xiangyue's hand tightly in front of the old man of three dynasties, and said without hesitation: "This subordinate is willing to defend Jinling. "

A needle can be heard in the small room, and the impetuous meeting outside the small room is still going on——

Marquis Fengcheng fell into deep thought, and Sha Xiangyue turned her head to the side, staring intently at the people around her——

At the same time, he was moved and wanted to understand the reason why Kuang Jian brought him in. His fingers were faintly stiff, his breathing was heavy, and he wanted to pull out his fingers without any trace. Kuang Jian didn't look at him, but continued to exert force. He took his hand and clamped it tightly in his palm.

"Xiangyue...is that right?"

After a long silence, Li Xian's gaze fell on Sha Xiangyue first, Sha Xiangyue frowned slightly, wondering what kind of trick this was from the high-ranking officials, but the old man lowered his head and buried his head on his desk Looking for things, the table was a bit messy, and some urgent but urgent official documents were piled up here. Finally, he finally found a volume on the bottom floor, got up, and handed it to him——

Sha Xiangyue stared at the old man defensively, and didn't pick it up, but Kuang Jian beside him knew how busy Feng Chenghou was, and it took too much time for him to talk to him, so he immediately reached out to take it, then bowed and pulled Seeing Xiangyue, she went out.

With a gloomy expression on her face, Sha Xiangyue broke free from Kuang Jian's self-assertive hand, went straight through the crowd and turned back the same way. Kuang Jian quickly followed him, and whispered his name in a low voice.

"You should have told me in advance."

Sha Xiangyue kept walking and gave him a cold look.

Kuang Jian confessed in a low voice, her straight back slightly lowered, "Yes, I didn't think carefully, and I couldn't be sure what was going on here before I came here."

Sha Xiangyue smiled narrowly, and said softly: "If you want me to help, you can go and tell that old man, I want the imperial court to rectify the name of the Taiping Sect, forgive sins, and invite you to enter the state religion. I will help the catastrophe in Jinling." .”

The imperial court spared no effort to suppress the Taiping Sect before, but now the government has no time to care about it. Do you know that the Taiping Sect has private power?Know that the city can't stand the civil strife and tearing down below?Today, they prostituted their Taiping Sect to work hard, pretending to let go of the past, will they come to Qiuhou to settle accounts tomorrow?

Kuang Jian underestimated Sha Xiangyue's appetite. She didn't expect him to ask for such a request. She could only lower her brows and said patiently: "It's all negotiable, but the things you said are too big and I can't promise you. , even if you ask the Marquis of Fengcheng, he has no way to overstep the bounds and make this agreement for you."

Sha Xiangyue sneered, and shook off Kuang Jian's entangled hands: "Then there is nothing to talk about. Your Great Ming Dynasty is dead, and no one will pursue my teacher's mistakes after death."

Although he knew that these were angry words to kill Xiangyue, a chilly air shot out from Kuang Jian's body uncontrollably, his arms trembled slightly, and he did not hesitate to stop Xiangyue from killing Xiangyue. A soft sentence: "Do you want to learn from your adoptive father?" Kuang Jian's expression suddenly became very sad. Question: "You want foreigners to come and occupy our land, humiliate our compatriots, and trample our cities... Do you want to see Jinling City's corpses piled up in mountains of blood, blood flowing into canals..."

Kuang Jian closed his eyes in frustration, knowing that Xiangyue was just talking harshly to him, but still felt very sad, very sad... In fact, when he woke up and learned that Xiangyue was leading people to bomb Jinling City, he Seriously reflected on whether Xiangyue was angry with himself by doing these things, because he knew that he had an obligation to guard the city, so he used so many people as chips to retaliate against him for failing him.

"That's all." There are still many things to do, and there is really no time to worry about the spring and autumn.

With red eyes, Kuang Jian calmed down her emotions, handed him the official document in her hand, choked up slightly, and said, "This is for you, you can think about it yourself." She said without stopping, bypassing Sha Xiangyue, without touching a piece of his clothes walked out.

In the long and narrow aisle at the southeast corner of the imperial city, Sha Xiangyue held the official document tightly with her cold palm, stared at Kuang Jian's back, and stood there for a long time——

The noise of officials waiting to be seen at the gate of the garrison yamen is still there, buzzing, people are panicking, the clouds in the sky are very low, Sha Xiangyue is trapped in a whole group of towering and tall buildings, her heart is blocked. Suddenly, he felt an unprecedented loneliness: he didn’t want to please the government, and it wasn’t because he didn’t want to defend against the enemy when the country was in crisis. Use him for his own good... Sha Xiangyue trembled all over, opened the official document in her hand as if venting her anger, suppressed her sore nose, and went to see what was written here.

"On June 14th, the [-]th year of Zhengtong, the various ministries in Jinling were sent to Jinling. After the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate jointly reviewed and submitted for reconsideration, it was announced that in the third year of Zhaoxue Zhengtong, the governor of Huai'an Prefecture, Wu Guanli, was involved in the Taiping Sect. The grievances spread everywhere... ...After investigation and re-examination, and verification of witness and material evidence, the case was found to be the case of Li Mengliang, the former guard of Jinyi, deliberately framed and framed by his position. , Hu Zhao, the former governor of Huai'an water transportation, forged a secret letter and connected the Poyang Jiang family to frame him...

Sha Xiangyue suddenly held her breath, and suddenly realized what this official document was——

"What you want to do, I can do for you."

Under Babu's bed, someone once held his hand and whispered to him, "I can fulfill your wish for you..."

"Thirty-six members of the Wu family were wronged for nothing, and the whole family was wiped out... The first offenders, Li Mengliang, Wang Zhen, and Tang Guan, were sentenced to treason, and the accomplices Hu Ye, Hu Zhao, Jiang Xingbang, etc., were punished according to their crimes..."

The entire official document is very long, starting from the Hubu case of the cause of Wu's grievance, to the Ministry of Rites collaborating on compensation for the unjustly deceased and survivors... Sha Xiangyue held her breath, and the muscles on her face kept contracting , his fingers trembling little by little, those long-term pains of fate, those pasts full of despair, those pasts full of despair, those old wounds twisted by more than ten years of hatred, anger, unwillingness, when he didn't know, someone silently He collected old physical evidence bit by bit in exchange for this official document that revealed the truth, like a pair of belated hot hands, gently covering his years of pain, and then softly told him:

Xiangyue, the Wu family...rehabilitated.