Li Zhong thought carefully about what happened that day.
There shouldn't be any loopholes, as all those who knew about it died in that battle, he thought.
He is a retainer of the Helan Family. When he was young, he always followed the old patriarch of the Helan Family, Helan Yanzhi. Later, he followed the young newcomer of the Helan Family, Helan Zhen, and became one of Helan Zhen's trusted lieutenants.
Helan Zhen ordered him to be stationed in a small county twenty miles west of Zhengzhou, which was an important outpost for Zhengzhou's defense against the Western Rong.
A few days ago, he led several trusted men back to Zhengzhou City and informed Helan Zhen that they had discovered signs of suspected Quanrong spy activities near their base.
Helan Zhen had no doubts at all and personally selected hundreds of his personal soldiers to accompany him to the garrison to investigate the enemy situation.
As they walked along the road, Helan Zhen chatted with him casually as usual. But Li Zhong was a little absent-minded, his heart pounding, and he was uneasy about what was about to happen.
"Uncle Li." He Lanzhen suddenly called him.
"What, what's wrong, Young General?" Li Zhong was startled.
"I feel like there's something wrong with the road ahead." Helan Zhen pulled the reins and stopped the horse. He frowned and looked at the eerie forest ahead.
"Yes, there's nothing wrong with that. This is our own territory." Li Zhong suppressed his heart that was beating like a rocket, and said with a forced smile, "Not far from this forest is my base. I have already sent people to the other side of the forest to welcome you, General."
He Lanzhen smiled as usual: "Yes, with Uncle Li taking care of everything, I have nothing to worry about."
…
Above the mourning hall, looking at the white flags flying in the sky.
As Li Zhong knelt on the ground and said everything above, he inexplicably felt a sense of guilt.
He kept spouting those carefully woven, flawless lies.
The story describes vividly how he fought bravely against the enemy, ignored his own serious injuries, risked his life to snatch Helan Zhen's body from the enemy, and managed to break out of the encirclement, which makes everyone who hears it sigh.
Even those members of the Helan family who changed into sackcloth clothes and came to the mourning hall looked at him with tears of gratitude in their eyes.
Even the clan leader Helan Yanzhi bowed and thanked him personally. If it weren't for the fact that the lord was still sitting there, Helan Yanzhi would have almost come over to help him up and expressed his gratitude.
However, the lord sat in front of him, staring at him with his dark eyes, without saying a word, and remained silent for a long time.
The lord's unusual silence made the entire air seem to freeze, with a suffocating sense of oppression.
Li Zhong knelt on the ground. Under Cheng Qianye's gaze, he felt a little breathless.
It was late autumn and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his back.
At that time, they ran headfirst into a trap carefully set by the Quanrong people.
The tripwires, pitfalls and rockets fired from all directions did not make the young general of the Helan family lose his composure. He calmly commanded the well-trained guards to quickly form a circle.
Point the spear at the enemy and keep your own people at your back.
Work together to defend against the enemy's attacks.
Li Zhong had no choice but to quietly pull out the dagger and approach Helan Zhen from behind.
He succeeded.
At that moment, Helan Zhen suddenly turned her head and looked at him in disbelief, looking at the dagger that stabbed him from behind.
Helan Zhen's dying expression seemed to be frozen, swaying back and forth in front of Li Zhong's eyes. He felt panic for no reason and almost couldn't keep himself steady.
Li Zhong kept telling himself in his heart to stay calm, he must stay calm, his lord knew nothing and he must not reveal his true identity in front of his lord.
This can't be blamed on him, it can't be blamed on him.
He has worked like a slave for the Helan family for so many years, first following the old doctor Ling Da, and then following the young General Helan Zhen. He has experienced life and death several times, but until now he is still just a small deputy general.
Helan Zhen seemed to be very courteous to him, calling him Uncle Li, but she actually didn't really take him seriously.
Helan Zhen was even willing to support a lowly slave and did not even remember himself as an old man who had served the Helan family for many years.
He is already old and it is impossible for him to fight on the battlefield for many more years. He has to think about his descendants.
The lord from Xirong approached him secretly again and again, sending him box after box of treasures and promising to give him and his sons high positions and generous salaries.
The dazzling mountains of gold and silver and the tempting prospects finally shook his heart.
If a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth, isn't it
Li Zhong raised his head quietly with a sinister look and glanced at Madam Tianxiang behind his lord.
His plan had already succeeded.
He brought Helan Zhen's body back to the city openly, set up a mourning hall in front of all the soldiers and civilians in the city, cried loudly, spread rumors, and the morale of the army was almost broken.
Unfortunately, it was just a little bit off.
If this woman had not happened to come into the city, and climbed to the top of the city wall on her own initiative as the lord's concubine, guarding the city gate and stabilizing the people's hearts, he could have quietly opened the city gate and let the Quanrong troops enter the city while the chaos was going on.
"I see." The lord finally spoke.
The lord seemed to believe his words, his eyes turned red and tears filled his eyes.
Li Zhong heaved a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and said, "General Helan's spirit is above. I am very happy to hear that our lord..."
"So it was you who killed him."
Cheng Qianye's tears froze in her eyes. She looked cold and almost angry.
"No, no, my lord, what did you say?" Li Zhong could hardly believe his ears. He waved his hands, trying to figure out what was going on.
Cheng Qianye stood up and called softly, "Qiao Sheng."
Mo Qiaosheng stepped forward, twisted Li Zhong's injured arm, and pressed him to the ground with one move.
Li Zhong struggled desperately, and everyone was surprised to find that his injured arm with a splint was surprisingly flexible, and it seemed that the injury was not as serious as it appeared.
Mo Qiaosheng held his shoulders and twisted his arms back hard.
The people at the scene only heard a clear click, and Li Zhong started shouting like a pig being slaughtered.
His arm was broken.
Mo Qiaosheng did not stop, stepped on his forearm, and pried his fingers back with great force.
Li Zhong grabbed his arm tightly and rolled on the ground in pain.
His wrist and fingers were dislocated and twisted into a horrible shape.
"I'm innocent! It's innocent!" he screamed desperately.
Cheng Qianye just looked at him expressionlessly and said two words indifferently: "Continue."
Mo Qiaosheng struck without hesitation.
The people at the scene looked at each other in bewilderment.
They looked at their lord with a frosty face and the cruel General Mo.
I didn't understand what was happening for a moment.
Until the Argentine Primera Division comes back.
Ajia brought back one man, who had obviously been subjected to brutal torture in a short period of time.
He was covered in wounds and tied up with hemp ropes. He fell to the ground, curled up in a ball and shivered.
Ajia held a confession in both hands.
"Only five people returned alive with Li Zhong from that battle. One of them has confessed that they colluded with the Quanrong and framed General Helan. The other four are currently being interrogated and have not confessed yet. Please make the decision, my lord."
The whole audience was in an uproar.
Helan Yanzhi drew his sword and pressed it against Li Zhong's neck. His hair and beard trembled and his voice was hoarse: "My Helan family has never treated you unfairly. Why did you want to kill my Zhen'er?"
Li Zhong gritted his teeth, he knew that his crimes could no longer be concealed.
The muscles on his face trembled repeatedly, and after a moment he said fiercely: "You treat me well? You just treat me as a dog of your Helan family. Have you ever really thought about me?"
Helan Yanzhi was furious and trembling all over as he held the sword. The young men of his nephews and nieces behind him held him back and prevented him from acting impulsively in front of their lord.
Ajia looked at Cheng Qianye. She hoped that Cheng Qianye could hand these traitors over to her for trial so that she could better obtain enemy intelligence and make use of it.
At the same time, she was very curious.
She was trained to be a professional spy since she was a child.
She felt intuitively that something was wrong about this matter.
But the lord was more decisive than her. He found the traitor without hesitation and convicted him without interrogation.
How did the lord do it
Ajia found it very novel, and she thought excitedly in her heart: It would be so interesting to be able to follow this lord.
Cheng Qianye looked at Ajia. She knew that Ajia was the person Zhang Fu left for her and was good at handling this kind of things.
"Then I'll leave it to you. You and the doctor-in-chief Helan Yanzhi will try this case together. You must get a detailed confession. After the trial..."
Ajia was waiting for her next words.
"The principal offender shall be executed by slow slicing in the middle of a busy city, and his body shall be thrown into the city without being collected. The followers shall all be beheaded and hung at the city gate for three days for public display."
Li Zhong was covered in cold sweat and collapsed to the ground, his lips trembling and he was unable to speak.
Cheng Qianye didn't look at him. She looked at the pitch-black coffin above the mourning hall.
Jiujiu sighed softly: "What's the use? No matter what, you can't come back."
…
Mo Qiaosheng stood on the city wall. A white funeral procession carried the coffin of General Helan back to his hometown. There were more than a thousand funeral carriages, winding towards the north.
Someone approached behind him, Mo Qiaosheng turned sideways and bowed: "My lord, you are here too."
Cheng Qianye and Mo Qiaosheng stood side by side: "Well, I'll see him off."
The wind was very strong on the top of the city. The fierce cold wind ruffled Cheng Qianye's clothes and chilled her heart.
Mo Qiaosheng said, "As long as there is a war, there will be casualties."
He was trying to comfort Cheng Qianye, even though he couldn't even comfort himself.
"I have always known that the road to success must be paved with countless bones." Cheng Qianye looked at the white paper money flying all over the sky, as if talking to himself, "But when my friend really died in front of me. I still find it hard to accept it in my heart."
"General Helan is the first person who sincerely befriended me after I came to the Lord's side. Although he was born into a noble family, he did not mind my background at all. Every time someone criticized or embarrassed me, he always thought of ways to help." Mo Qiaosheng slowly clenched his fists, "He is such a gentleman, it is natural that he will not easily see the darkness around him, so he will not be harmed by villains."
Cheng Qianye recalled the past, "He beat you up once at that time. I was dissatisfied with him, so I secretly did something bad to him and locked him up in jail for several days before releasing him. I never thought that you two would become friends later."
"Let me go to fight the Quanrong, my lord." Mo Qiaosheng looked to the west.
Cheng Qianye followed his gaze to the west and saw a gorgeous sunset on the horizon.
"Okay, let's go out and defeat the Quanrong."
The author has something to say: I am reluctant to write about Helan’s death directly from his perspective, so I have to write about it from the side.
At first, it was planned that only two characters would be offline in the book, one was Cheng Feng and the other was He Lanzhen. Later, Cheng Feng was reluctant to let go, so his ending was changed.
I have always been reluctant to write too many scenes of Helan, for fear that I would be reluctant to let him go offline. So I only briefly mentioned Helan, so that many readers don't remember him very much.
What I want to say is that on the battlefield, a famous general may also die of an illness, an assassination, or a frame-up, and may not have a truly glorious death. So I set this ending for him. Touch my little General Helan, I am sorry for wronging you.