Due to the hot weather, the soldiers under Cui Nan were all wearing light and breathable chain mail, which they took off without any fuss, and folded them neatly and placed them in front of them. They only wore a red undershirt that was soaked with sweat.
Cui Nan was still not satisfied and ordered again: "Keep taking off your clothes. Don't put any clothes on your upper body."
Just as he said, the soldiers took off their clothes one after another, revealing their extremely strong muscles and bronze skin.
Just as all the civil and military officials in the room were astonished, Cui Nan shouted, "Lord Yin, raise your head! Look up, look at these soldiers under my command!"
Yin Chengliang was startled by his sudden roar, and hurriedly looked up at the group of soldiers who were guarding the main entrance of the hall like an immovable Vajra.
The skin of these soldiers was covered with scars of varying depths, which expanded and contracted with their breathing, as if they were telling of countless thoughts.
Yin Chengliang and the civil and military officials of Jiangnan Road were watching in a daze, when they suddenly saw Cui Nan also take off his battle robe, exposing his upper body skin. Everyone looked closely and saw that Cui Nan's upper body was covered with scars, without an inch of good flesh.
Cui Nan looked proud and said to Yin Chengliang, "Governor Yin, please take a good look at all the scars on my body!"
Cui Nan, who was originally taciturn, suddenly became eloquent.
He pointed to a nearly foot long knife wound on his body that extended diagonally from his shoulder to his right chest and said, "My Lords, please look at this knife wound. It was left when I led my brothers to chase the Turks when I was a general. The Turks, who were already in disarray, chased us for dozens of miles and suddenly turned around and counterattacked, catching us off guard. Because our army was in chaos, I had no choice but to fight desperately and finally killed the Turks, leaving this knife scar. The emperor at that time saw that I was ruthless, so he promoted me to the position of centurion and made me his personal bodyguard."
After that, Cui Nan pointed to a palm-sized black scar on his stomach and said, "This happened in the autumn when the emperor led his army north to burn grass. He saw a young man grazing on the grassland and called him to ask about the terrain and route. I didn't expect that this man was a spy of the Turks. He took advantage of our unpreparedness and tried to stab us with a dagger. I didn't have time to draw my knife to fight back, so I could only take the knife on my stomach. I originally thought that this was just a minor injury and I would be fine after resting for seven or eight days, but I didn't expect that the thief's knife was poisoned. The bean-sized wound became more and more rotten and almost rotted through my stomach. Fortunately, the emperor felt sorry for me and immediately sent me back to Guangyang and sent the best doctor to treat me. I had to rest for half a year before I could go out. Later, the emperor said that I had made great contributions and asked for any reward. I said I wanted to lead the troops. The emperor promoted me to captain without saying a word and assigned me 3,000 people to command."
Even though Cui Nan had a good memory, he still had dozens of scars of varying sizes on his body. No matter they were serious wounds that could have caused life-threatening injuries or minor cuts caused by arrows, he remembered them all clearly and described them one by one as if they were his own treasures.
Cui Nan spoke for a whole hour, and the twenty or so civil and military officials in the hall of Shanyin County Government listened to him patiently in silence, without even a cough or a gasp.
The Han officialdom has always had a tradition of valuing civil officials over military officials. Jiangnan Road is a place where cultural relics flourish, and this trend is even stronger.
The military officers from Jiangnan were used to being bossed around by the civil officials of the same rank. Seeing General Cui Nan recounting his military exploits in a majestic manner, they admired him and felt very comfortable. The civil officials who originally had prejudices against military generals also knew from Cui Nan's narration that he had achieved his success entirely by merit and without any luck.
At the end of his speech, Cui Nan suddenly changed the subject and pointed at Yin Chengliang who was slumped on the ground and said, "Sir Yin, you and I are both third-rank officials. It's not that I look down on scholars - the official hat on my head was earned through hard work. What about you? You are just a pedantic article that happened to suit the examiner's taste. You also flattered people and took many shortcuts to get to your current position."
Cui Nan's mouth was dry as he spoke, and he swallowed half a mouthful of saliva angrily and continued, "With an official like you, you dare to hold a blade and commit murder? If it weren't for the face of the emperor and the court, do you believe that I would crush you to death right now?"
Yin Chengliang collapsed into a ball, frightened out of his wits by Cui Nan. He feared that the general in front of him would really kill him in a rage, so he had no choice but to lower his head and look at the blue brick floor beneath his butt.
However, Cui Nan was aggressive and unyielding, as if he wanted to say all the words he had saved for decades of silence today, and continued: "Lord Qiu asked me to temporarily guard you here. I originally thought it was a bit unnecessary. But now seeing that the governor is so impatient, I know that Lord Qiu must have a reason for what he did. In this case, let's rest here for a few more days. I still say that I will not mistreat you. You can just ask for food and drink, but you are not allowed to step out of the hall!"
After such a turmoil, the officials of Jiangnan Province were almost completely frightened by Cui Nan. They seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate and were about to accept the reality.
However, the governor Yin Chengliang suddenly reacted, let out a strange cry, and shouted: "My lords, you have to think clearly. If the case of 'Liaochen Palace' is exposed, everyone's future will be ruined, and there will be no chance of recovery from now on!"
When the officials in the hall heard his reminder, they remembered that they were not clean either. Once the matter was exposed, they would be implicated. Moreover, this case was not a small offense such as embezzling a few taels of silver or making a few wrong judgments. It involved respectability. After the truth was revealed, they would lose face and would never be able to gain a foothold in the world again!
Thinking of this, several officials who were deeply involved immediately pulled over a few familiar colleagues around them, gathered together, and whispered to each other.
They discussed with each other for quite a while, and seemed to have finally reached a consensus. Then they saw several brave military officers, all of whom held the rank of General of the Central Army, stepping forward step by step, confident of the sharp swords in their hands.
One of them was bold enough to shout at Cui Nan with his big belly showing off: "I have to pee urgently. I need to go out to pee now. Do you dare to stop me?"
Cui Nan said with a wooden face: "You can pee here too!"
“Hahahaha!” The general laughed wildly and cursed, “Bullshit! This is Jiangnan, not the barbarian Gobi Desert in the north. You have to go to the toilet to pee! Don’t show off in front of me. I’ve killed a lot of people!”
After that, the general also took off his shirt, revealing his white flesh. Although this general is now fat and bloated, he had fought several fierce battles when he was young. Although the scars and burns on his body are not as horrifying as those on Cui Nan, there are still more than a dozen of them.
He was about to imitate Cui Nan and brag about his military exploits, but he heard Cui Nan say without any room for negotiation: "Anyway, I said you can't go out, and you can't go out!"
"Oh!" The general laughed contemptuously, "You, General Cui, are the former general of the Imperial Guards, but I am the general of the Jiangnan Jiedu Army, you have no right to interfere with me! Why should I obey your military orders?" After saying that, he took a step and was about to walk out the door.
Cui Nan thought: I left Quzhou in a hurry, and I didn't expect the matter to become so serious. I only brought less than a thousand cavalrymen, and they were scattered all over Shanyin County. If tens of thousands of government troops were organized to fight with me, it would be really difficult to deal with them.
Cui Nan then stretched out his right hand, pushed the Zhonglang general, and shouted: "If you dare to take another step forward, watch out for your head!"
The general was also a reckless person. After hearing what Cui Nan said, he plucked up his courage. He simply stretched out his head like a turtle, patted his neck, and said, "Here is my head. If you have the guts, chop it off!"
Before he finished speaking, several generals and other civil and military officials behind him started to clamor, saying, "Yes, go ahead and chop it off!" The situation was about to get out of control.
Cui Nan glanced coldly at the exposed neck, thinking: If I could really chop off the fat head of this man now, it would surely serve as a warning to others, and the situation would be completely settled. However, the other party was a general of the imperial court after all, and he had not committed any serious crime on the battlefield. It would be horrifying to be behead him in public - but he could not let him go.
Thinking of this, Cui Nan suddenly remembered that he had a golden command arrow obtained from Qiu Yizi in his personal cloth bag - this item could represent the current emperor in commanding the world's armies. Although the power was great, it could not be shown to others easily - but now, at this critical moment, he could no longer hold back.
So Cui Nan pushed the military officer away, and amidst the astonished gazes of all the civil and military officials in the hall, he walked straight to the large desk in the front of the hall that was used for hearing cases and working.
He took a deep breath, carefully untied the cloth bag beside him and placed it on the table, then carefully took out the pure gold object from it with both hands, held it firmly in his palms, raised it upwards, and shouted loudly: "Here is the golden order, all civil and military officials in Jiangnan, kneel to receive it!"
All the officials in the hall looked towards Cui Nan's hand - they saw the four characters "As if I were here in person" clearly engraved on the command arrow in his hand in extremely simple and neat small seal script, which glowed red under the reflection of the setting sun.
The officials in Jiangnan Province had long heard of the regulations regarding the golden medals and arrows used by the emperor to mobilize troops from all over the country, but they found it hard to believe that the supreme authority in the world would appear before their eyes. They did not dare to doubt it, but were unwilling to surrender easily.
The governor Yin Chengliang had seen a lot of things, so he took a few steps forward tremblingly and asked, "General Cui, is this really the golden medal arrow used by the emperor?"
Cui Nan snorted: "What kind of thing is this? How dare I pretend to be it?"
Cui Nan's simple words made Yin Chengliang believe it. He asked tentatively, "I am ignorant, but I know this item is extraordinary. When did the emperor bestow it on the general?"
Cui Nan did not answer, but said: "It is good that you know this thing is powerful, and you cannot ask about other things. I just want to ask you, is this still the Han Dynasty?"
Yin Chengliang has always been a man of great power in Jiangnan, but he was also intimidated by the royal majesty and could only say no and no: "Yes, yes!"
Upon hearing this, Cui Nan immediately shouted: "Since you know, why don't you bow to the emperor when you see him!"
At this point, Yin Chengliang was completely convinced. He let out a long sigh, said nothing, then knelt on the ground with his knees softened, and kowtowed three times and nine times towards the golden medal in Cui Nan's hand.
Seeing this, the civil and military officials from Jiangnan in the hall had no choice but to follow suit and perform the etiquette.
Cui Nan saw a crowd of people kneeling down in the hall, and he finally put his heart at ease. Before he knew it, he was sweating profusely. (To be continued)