It was daylight, and more than an hour had passed since the time limit proposed by Magistrate Weng. However, the township army had not even entered the granary and captured those Jurchen spies. Even the governor Chu Mingsheng had not shown up here yet.
This made Magistrate Weng's face become even more ugly, and at the same time he had already made up his mind. He must take this opportunity to deal with Chu Mingsheng, or at least take away his military power so that he could no longer fight against him. . In the whole of Shandong, one Sun Tu is enough to make people uneasy, but there cannot be a second one.
Just when Magistrate Weng was about to send another person to urge them, a large group of people were slowly walking on the long street behind them, and soon arrived at the open area in front of the granary. Although he felt that there were too many people coming back, Magistrate Weng didn't think too much about it at this time. He just fixed his eyes on Chu Mingsheng, who was standing in front of the team, and said in a dark voice: "Chu Mingsheng, do you know? crime?"
Before the other party could react, he scolded loudly and sternly: "As the military commander of Lingzhou Prefecture, you have the responsibility to guard the land and defend the city, but you neglected your duties on weekdays, which led to the intrusion of thieves. Few people in the city knew about it, causing innocent people to die tragically. This is a crime!
"The second crime is that in the face of such a situation, you didn't even think about sending troops to quell the thieves, but you just hid in the army and ignored the life and death of the people in the city. It's really disgusting!
"The third crime is that I have strictly ordered you to come here immediately to quell the thief, but you still disobey the order, arrive late, and treat the safety of our Lingzhou as a child's play! For these three crimes, I will decide I cannot allow you to continue to serve as the Superintendent of Soldiers and Horses. Come here, I will strip him of his official uniform, take his sword, and put him in prison, waiting for me to report everything to the Ming court before I deal with him! "
Magistrate Weng, who had already made up his mind to kill Chu Mingsheng quickly, immediately became angry as soon as he saw the person. He quickly made up these unfounded charges, intending to use this to seize his official position and put him in prison. . Although the officials around him were slightly surprised by the magistrate's move, because they believed that the magistrate had defeated him, they all pounced on him without hesitation. They did not compare those around Chu Mingsheng to them at all. Much stronger soldiers are in his eyes.
Seeing these officers rushing towards them like wolves and tigers, Chu Mingsheng seemed to be frightened and did not react at all. But if you look at his face, you will find that he is not panicked at all, and there is even a heavy look in his eyes. Sarcastic sneer. And at the moment when those people were about to come into contact with his body, a loud shout sounded from beside him: "Whoever dares to use your dog to take one of my subordinates, get out of here!"
Several long legs came out in response, and almost simultaneously kicked the defenseless officers in the chest, causing them to scream and fall back like a gourd on the ground. This moment immediately surprised everyone present, including the soldiers under Chu Mingsheng. When did Chu Dujian become so courageous? Not only did he scold the people in the government office, but he even took action directly!
Magistrate Weng was so angry that he was trembling all over, his face was turning blue and white. This was not a kick by a servant, it was clearly a kick in the face of him, the prefect who gave orders! In a rage, he didn't even think about the meaning of the words of the person who just spoke, and immediately shouted: "Rebellion! Chu Mingsheng, are you going to rebel? How dare you rebel against me?"
The subordinates of my government office take action! "
Only Shi Qian and others who were farthest away from them showed a calm expression in their excitement, and their eyes fell on the young man who just spoke - Sun Dujian is here, and of course he will not tolerate this troublesome Magistrate Weng acting recklessly in front of them. !
Seeing that the other party had not yet figured out the situation, Sun Tu finally couldn't bear it anymore. He took a step forward and said in a cold voice: "Prefect Weng, right? I want to ask you, what is your purpose in taking down Chu Mingsheng?" Could it be that you want to cede the entire Lingzhou Mansion to the Jinren, or have you colluded with the Jinren and everyone in Zengtou City?"
Although his words were not loud, his intimidating momentum was much stronger than that of Magistrate Weng. He quickly suppressed the other party. Magistrate Weng was stunned for a moment before he finally realized that the real decision maker here was not Chu Mingsheng. , but this young general who looked heroic and had a trace of murderous intent in his body. Also, it was only at this time that he suddenly realized that the state of the soldiers following Chu Mingsheng this time was also very different from before. The whole spirit was much stronger than that of the Lingzhou Township Army. .
"You... you are..." In the entire Shandong Province, as far as Magistrate Weng knows, there seems to be only one young general with such a strong army, such momentum, and such an age! The moment he turned away from this thought, the anger in his heart was quickly extinguished, replaced by deep panic, and for a moment he couldn't even utter a complete sentence.
In the shadow of the famous tree, all Sun Tu's actions in Shandong over the years have brought him to a very high level of fear in the hearts of Shandong officials, especially civil servants. In their eyes, this man is a mourning door god. It is an existence like King Yama. The title of "Iron-faced Yama" that used to be passed down on Tokyo Road is now widely spread in Shandong official circles.
But now, this god of death, Yama, actually came to Lingzhou, appeared in front of him, and even asked questions. This made Magistrate Weng suddenly feel fear in his heart, and his legs became a little weak, and he almost fell to his knees. The more arrogant and arrogant a person is on a daily basis, the more vulnerable they will be when faced with a real threat.
At this time, Shi Qian led the soldiers from the scout battalion to quickly come forward, knelt on the ground and saluted, saying: "General, I have seen the governor. We did not do our job well and failed to capture the Jurchen spies in advance. As a result, Lingzhou There are many casualties among the people, please ask the governor to punish them!"
With his statement, even those who had not yet thought about Sun Tu's identity were aware of it at this moment. Everyone had strange expressions on their faces. Some were panicked. Some were from the government office, while others were surprised. Naturally, they were Chu Mingsheng’s subordinates.
Sun Tu ignored Magistrate Weng's overly frightened look and only softened his expression. He then stepped forward and helped Shi Qian and others up one by one. He said warmly: "You don't have to apologize, you have done a good job too." Yes. If you hadn’t reported the suspicions of those spies and guests to Qingzhou before, I wouldn’t have been able to show up here in time, let alone achieve a great victory today and annihilate all the Jin soldiers who entered our Song Dynasty.”
This sentence made everyone present change their expressions again. Sun Dujian actually defeated and annihilated a band of Jin soldiers outside the city? In addition to being ecstatic, everyone was amazed. They had seen the abilities of these Jurchens with their own eyes, and even learned them personally. Just a dozen or so people
Everyone had been killed and there was nothing they could do, but they were defeated so easily in front of Sun Dujian and the Qingzhou Army. This Qingzhou Army really deserves to be called the elite of the world!
Sun Tu glanced at the injuries on these scouts again: "You have tried your best. The enemy is too strong, so it is not your fault that you failed to catch them." As he said, he patted Shi Qian and another sergeant on the shoulders: " Come back to the team."
When they received the order and rejoined the Qingzhou Army, Sun Tu's eyes fell back on the face of Weng Zhifu, whose expression had changed several times and his body was still trembling slightly: "My officer, Sun Tu, is a Jingdong Road soldier named by the imperial court. Ma Dujian. Now, in this capacity, I would like to ask you, when did you, a civilian official, get involved in matters in our army? Does the imperial court have a clear rule that you, a civilian prefect, have the right to seize the troops and horses of a government? The position of governor? Who gave you the power? Huh?"
A series of questions hit each other in the face like stones, but Magistrate Weng was unable to say a word.
In fact, he really wanted to tell Sun Tu that the situation is like this everywhere now. Civil servants want to impeach military attachés, and they only need to take away the military attache's position with just one sentence. No one dares to ask why, because this is the unspoken rule of officialdom - to rule by civil servants. Wu.
However, the so-called unspoken rules are things that cannot be mentioned openly. Although everyone agrees on this matter, when someone really wants to compare this truth, it is completely untenable. It's just that ordinary military commanders don't have the qualifications, nor the courage to ask this question, unless they are not afraid of being accused of being a self-respecting soldier and having evil intentions.
But Sun Tu is definitely an anomaly among military generals in the world today. He dares to say things that others dare not say, and he does things unscrupulously that others dare not do, which makes him put even more pressure on those officials.
Under this pressure, Magistrate Weng was speechless again, and he really could not provide any explicit laws to support his decision just now.
"The affairs of the army are free and we can wait for the military attachés to decide for themselves. It's just that you, a civil servant, are overstepping your authority. You actually intend to destabilize the morale of our army. Isn't this an attempt to hand over Lingzhou to the Jin people?" Sun Tu took the opportunity to shout, but instead Come here to impose the crime on the other party.
Now, no matter how frightened Magistrate Weng was, he had no choice but to speak out to protect himself: "Sun Dujian, you are trying to incriminate me. I have received great favor from the imperial court, how can I do anything to liaise with foreign enemies..."
"Really? Then why are you doing this? Also, you can't say that you have no connection with Zengtou City, can you? But I have found out that the Jin people can easily enter the city this time and plan to attack Ling The state launched the attack because people from Zengtou City were assisting them, and they themselves are actually Jurchens!"
"What..." Magistrate Weng was completely dumbfounded now, and he couldn't believe his ears.
Sun Tu stared at him and continued to exert pressure: "As far as I know, you are going to marry the Zeng family. Isn't this enough to prove that you have colluded with the Jurchens early on?" said After a pause, he shouted loudly: "Come here, capture this thief for me. He will be interrogated strictly and no spies will be let go!"
Well, as soon as Sun Tu entered the city, he quickly turned the whole situation around. Magistrate Weng, who had wanted to arrest people before, was about to become a prisoner in the blink of an eye...