Upon hearing this, Hu Shanwei's face turned pale, and the captain vomited on the spot. He had been a thief among the people, a bandit in the mountains, and even experienced all kinds of disasters and famines, but he had never heard of such a cruel and insane thing, and yet he actually encountered it in the wealthy and prosperous Qin/Wang Mansion!
Hu Shanwei's mind was confused, and the wind and snow blew on his face, and he immediately woke up. He tried to comfort the captain who was about to vomit and said:
"Don't be so anxious to vomit. Liu Siyan and his group disappeared in the summer. It's winter now. Even if you put them in the ice cellar, they will rot and have a bad smell. How can you chop them up and eat them for people? And they will taste so delicious?"
"Also, when we passed by the kitchen today, we saw people carrying all kinds of meat into it. The agent also said that the Qin Palace bought half of the goods in the meat market. Moreover, if we cut up the flesh of more than 70 people and chop them into minced meat to destroy the evidence, what about the bones? What about the hair? Instead of doing this, it is better to find a place to dig a pit, burn it with fire, grind the bones and scatter the ashes, so that we will never find evidence."
When Bai Hu heard this, he thought it made sense. In summer weather, even to make pickled meat, it had to be smoked and roasted with heavy salt to remove moisture so that it could be preserved until winter. It was impossible for the Qin Palace to go to so much trouble to deal with the corpse.
The more people involved, the easier it is for the news to leak out.
This was in conflict with the cautious attitude of Liu Siyan and his group when they blocked the streets and prohibited ordinary people from watching on the day they left Xi'an.
Princess Qin said sternly: "No, it's impossible. You can't touch meat. Anything oily and greasy could be Liu Siyan. I killed her. It's all my fault. If I could hold back and not say anything, Liu Siyan wouldn't have had her tongue cut off..."
The Qin Prince's wife cried to the smoke rising from the Qin Prince's mansion in the distance, "I'm sorry, I have hurt you, I'm sorry."
Hu Shanwei and others looked at each other in bewilderment: Princess Qin seemed to be mentally a little unwell.
At this time, the palace maids who came with the princess hugged Princess Qin tightly, fearing that she would jump off the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in an impulse.
Hu Shanwei also went over and pulled the Princess of Qin to sit down in the tower. When he touched the princess's arm, he felt that she was extremely thin, like a piece of dry firewood, as if she would be crushed if he applied the slightest force.
The palace maid took out a pill, dissolved it in hot water, and fed it to the Princess of Qin mouthful by mouthful.
Hu Shanwei asked: "What happened? Liu Siyan's tongue was cut off? Why? Where is she? Where are the Jinyiwei?"
Princess Qin drank the medicine, and her pupils, which had just been dilated wildly, gradually gathered. She said, "Before I answer your question, I need to see your badge to confirm your identity."
Hu Shanwei gave the ivory plate that he kept close to his body to the Princess of Qin. The Princess placed the round ivory plate on her palm, which was as thin as a piece of paper. Her palm was almost lighter than the ivory plate, and the ivory plate seemed to be able to crush her palm.
The front of the ivory plaque reads: "Gong Zhengsi, Dian Zheng, Hu Shanwei", and the back reads: "Female officials are not allowed to borrow or lose this plaque, and those who violate the rules will be punished." There is also a line of shallow regular script engraved on the spine, "Made in the 13th year of Hongwu".
It was very similar to Liu Siyan's waist badge. The Qin Wangfei returned the ivory badge to Hu Shanwei, and in a voice as cold as the breaking of a jade hairpin, she told the shocking secret that the Qin Wangfu, who seemed noble and kind, harbored filth and corruption, and that the prince and concubines jointly bullied the principal princess and took human lives lightly!
It turned out that the King of Qin had always had fantasies about the position of the crown prince. He thought that since he was only one year younger than the crown prince, he was skilled in martial arts and brave in battle. How could he be worse than the crown prince who was only good at studying
Unfortunately, Emperor Hongwu married him to Princess Wang of Beiyuan, completely cutting off his path to the throne.
In his imperial edict granting marriage, Emperor Hongwu said:
"I rule the world and make my sons kings. I must choose virtuous women from famous families as their consorts. Now my second son, Prince Qin, has grown up. I choose you, the sister of the former Grand Tutor, the Right Prime Minister, and the Prince of Henan. I grant you a golden book and make you the prince's consort. You must follow the rules of being a wife and help my country. Respect you!"
The imperial edict had already clearly stated that the marriage with Wang was to "help our country." If the King of Qin resisted the marriage, he would be unfilial to his father and disloyal to his country.
So no matter how unwilling the King of Qin was, he had no choice but to accept reality.
The King of Qin and the Princess of the Ming Dynasty treated each other with respect and acted in front of the Emperor and Empress. Behind the scenes, the King of Qin basically did not touch her. The Princess of Qin shouldered the heavy responsibility of marrying the Princess of the Ming Dynasty and had long since stopped taking love between men and women seriously. It was a political marriage and mutual respect was enough. Everything else was superfluous.
The two have never had any children.
Seeing that his second son had finally grown up and was willing to accept reality, Emperor Hongwu gave Deng, the eldest daughter of Duke of Wei, Deng Yu, to him as a concubine in order to make up for the King of Qin and continue his lineage.
With Deng's status, she should have married the prince as his principal wife. Now she was granted marriage as a concubine, which was really unfair. After all, a concubine was also a concubine. It should be noted that Xu, the eldest daughter of Xu Da, Duke of Wei, married the Prince of Yan and became his consort. Feng, the eldest daughter of Feng Sheng, Duke of Song, married the Prince of Zhou and became his consort.
In order to compensate the Deng family for their grievances, Emperor Hongwu specially dispatched Zhang Du, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, as the chief envoy and Sun Min, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Works, as the deputy envoy. In addition, he also gave generous gifts to the Deng family, which were no less generous than those to the empress.
The day after the wedding, the Prince of Qin and Concubine Deng went to see Emperor Hongwu and Empress Ma. Except for the absence of the jujube, chestnut and 腶修 ceremony, the other procedures were the same as those for the principal concubine. The ceremony was much higher than the canonization ceremony for other concubines.
The only difference between her and the principal wife is that there is no decree, no certificate, and no personal reception.
Concubine Deng married into the Qin Wang Palace and was deeply favored by the Qin Wang. It seemed that they were husband and wife. Concubine Deng also abided by her duties and behaved like a concubine in front of the Qin Wang's wife, never overstepping her boundaries.
Everyone praised Concubine Deng for her virtue. Even the Princess of Qin herself was deceived and often praised Concubine Deng in front of the Emperor and Empress.
However, in the eleventh year of Hongwu, the Prince of Qin came to Xi'an to establish his fiefdom. The emperor was far away and the Prince of Qin was the "little emperor" of the northwest. His ambition and brutality, and the grievances and unwillingness that Concubine Deng had endured for years, were like a volcano hidden underground for thousands of years, and they all erupted together!
The King of Qin was smart, and he even understood the principle of "a rabbit does not eat grass near its burrow". He governed Xi'an carefully, disciplined the army, and defended the northwestern border. Therefore, the people in the vassal state loved the King of Qin very much and praised him highly.
But in the palace of the King of Qin, it was a completely different scene:
The King of Qin made a five-clawed nine-dragon bed in his palace. It should be noted that the princes could only use four claws, and the only one who could use five claws was the emperor.
The King of Qin secretly ordered weavers to secretly make clothes for the Queen and gave them to Concubine Deng to wear.
He went on an expedition to the Western Barbarians and forcibly abducted people's children. Among them, he provided 150 girls for the King of Qin to play with. He also castrated 155 boys. Since they were seriously injured and had not yet recovered, he forced them to work in the king's palace. As a result, almost all the boys died. He was as cruel as a devil.
In addition, the King of Qin and Concubine Deng came up with various tricks to humiliate the King of Qin's wife. They imprisoned her in a separate courtyard like a prisoner, and made her eat unclean fruits and vegetables every day, hoping to make her die of illness.
He also ordered the palace maids who came with the Princess of Qin to roll up their trousers to their thighs, exposing their knees. After wiping their knees with ginger slices, he ordered them to crawl up the hillside on their knees.
On the hillside was the villa where the Princess of Qin was imprisoned. If one wanted to send food to the Princess, one had to kneel down and carry the food to the villa, otherwise the Princess would starve.
Poor these loyal servants, they did the humiliating job just to give the princess a bite of unclean food. Their knees that had been rubbed with ginger slices were scratched by the rough road surface, like needles, causing even more pain and bleeding. Every time they delivered food, there were two lines of blood trailing from their knees on the hillside!
If someone could not stand the pain, they would fall to the ground, rolling down the hillside with their food. The King of Qin and Concubine Deng would ridicule them and say that they were "fighting like a tumbler", and they enjoyed it...
The evil deeds committed by the Prince of Qin and Concubine Deng in the palace are as heinous as those committed by King Zhou and Su Daji who invented the punishment of burning people with fire.
Princess Qin suffered both physical and mental abuse, and her mental state was already poor at that time.
This was the purpose of Prince Qin and Concubine Deng. They did not dare to kill Princess Qin directly and arouse the suspicion of the Emperor and Empress of Northern Yuan and Ming Dynasty. So they deliberately tortured her body and mind and drove her crazy. In this way, even if the Emperor and Empress sent imperial doctors to Xi'an Prefecture to check, they could only say that the princess was insane.
It was common for a mad princess to fall into a pond or jump off a building and die. At that time, Concubine Deng would be promoted to the new Princess of Qin, and the couple would work together to govern the vassal state, and then secretly raise private soldiers and assassins to assassinate the prince.
When the crown prince died, according to the succession rule written in the Ming Dynasty's "Imperial Ming Ancestor Instructions" that "if there is a legitimate son, the legitimate son shall be appointed as the heir, if there is no legitimate son, the eldest son shall be appointed as the heir", the second prince, Prince Qin, would be the only candidate for the crown prince's position, and Deng would become the crown princess... Then it would be the Empress of the Ming Dynasty, who could wear the empress's clothes that she could only wear in private as she wished.
However, the wishful thinking of Prince Qin and Concubine Deng was shattered by Liu Siyan and his group who came to present the book.
If it was just an ordinary reward, it would be fine. The princess kowtowed like a puppet, and the King of Qin used a large sum of money to send away the eunuch who gave the reward, and everything went on as usual.
But it was different for female officials. In addition to giving the letter, they also had to explain it to the Princess of Qin and Concubine Deng, which could easily cause trouble.
Upon hearing the news, the King of Qin quickly took the Princess out of the villa and ordered the doctors to treat her well, taking good care of her both physically and mentally, and not letting Liu Siyan find out anything unusual.
Then, all the things that were inappropriate in the palace, such as the five-clawed nine-dragon bed and Concubine Deng's queen clothes, were hidden in the ice cellar of the palace.
After everything was settled, Liu Siyan and his party arrived in Xi'an Prefecture.
The King of Qin received Liu Siyan warmly. Liu Siyan gave books in the palace. While reading the books, Concubine Deng pretended to be respectful and sat below the King of Qin's wife. In fact, she was supervising the princess and did not want her to have the opportunity to be alone with Liu Siyan.
On the other hand, the King of Qin took the accompanying Jinyiwei to play in the city under the pretext of sightseeing, so as to minimize the time the Jinyiwei spent in the palace.
However, there is always a loophole. The loyal servant of the Princess of Qin wrote down the ten evil deeds of the Prince of Qin and Concubine Deng on a piece of paper and stuffed it into Liu Siyan's breakfast bun.
Liu Siyan was shocked and did not dare to act on his own. He secretly discussed countermeasures with the accompanying Jinyiwei. After all, it involved the Qin Wang's rebellion and seizing the throne. Without evidence, how could they return to the palace to report? The Qin Wang was the emperor's beloved son, not a civil or military minister, so he could be executed first and reported later.
Since the evidence is in the ice cellar, let's go to the ice cellar to find out, find the evidence, and then return to Beijing.
The Jinyiwei went down to the ice cellar at night and saw the five-clawed nine-dragon bed and a complete set of queen's clothing.
However, they were also discovered by the surveillance people. They closed the door of the ice cellar and tried to catch the turtles in the jar. They captured all the Jinyiwei in one fell swoop and killed Liu Siyan. They cut off her tongue and mixed it in the food of the Princess of Qin. After she ate it unconsciously, they told her the whereabouts of Liu Siyan.
The King of Qin threatened the vomiting Princess Qin: "If you continue to disobey me and talk nonsense, I cannot touch you, but I can touch the tongues of others."
From then on, Princess Qin dared not touch any meat, not even cooking oil. She became as thin as a paper man. Not only that, she was almost mentally collapsed. She felt that any meat might come from the human body, and she could not even stand the smell of meat.
When Concubine Deng gave birth to a son, the Qin Palace gave out meat buns. When Concubine Qin smelled the meat, she was immediately stimulated. Recalling the terrible scene of being tricked into eating Liu Siyan's tongue, she immediately became crazy and thought that there was something wrong with the meat buns. Liu Siyan and the others were in the buns, on the chopping board, in the smoke, and everywhere.
Liu Siyan and his group never returned. The King of Qin knew that the imperial capital would definitely send a second wave of people to question them, so he took away Liu Siyan's Jinyiwei clothes, ivory cards, flags and other belongings, destroyed his body, and used his trusted Qin/King's palace soldiers to disguise Liu Siyan and his group, pretending to leave the city, walked all the way to the Zhuoying County Post Station, and then "disappeared".
The bandits from the Eighteen Villages here are quite famous and are perfect targets for framing.
When the second wave of people from the capital came to ask, the Prince of Qin/Mansion fully assisted the Jinyiwei in "suppressing the bandits". This is very simple, just secretly frame the Eighteen Villages with a few items on the gift list given to the Emperor and Empress.
The person disappeared in Shibazhai, and the things were found in Shibazhai. As for why the person has never been found alive and the body has never been found - Zhuoying County has a complex terrain, with many bottomless canyons and caves, which are perfect places to dump bodies. All evidence points to the Shibazhai bandits.
The King of Qin knew the Jinyiwei's usual style of handling cases—not relying on wisdom, but basically relying on beatings and scolding.
It doesn't matter if the bandits refuse to plead guilty. Once the Jinyiwei use all kinds of torture in the imperial prison and force them to confess, the blame will be firmly placed on the bandits. The Jinyiwei will behead all the bandits, and the case will be settled, and everyone will be happy.
After listening to the tearful accusation of the Princess of Qin, Hu Shanwei and others wished they could peel off the flesh of the Prince of Qin and Concubine Deng to see if they had evil hearts!
The loyal servant beside the princess rolled up her trouser legs, revealing the horrible scars on her knees. This was the hard evidence that she had to rub ginger slices on her knees and climb the hillside on her knees in order to bring food to the princess, leaving two lines of blood on the gravel road!
Hu Shanwei turned his head away, unable to bear to watch. The captain pounded the ground and cried, "This is too cruel! Compared to this pair of bastards, we bandits are all kind-hearted."
The Qin Wangfei also said: "The servant next to the butler who was in charge of summoning was called Ma Sanbao. He was one of the boys and girls plundered by the Qin Wang during his conquest of the Western Regions. Ma Sanbao was smart and tough. After being cruelly castrated, he was sent out to work before his wounds healed. I felt sorry for him and secretly gave him some pills. He was the only boy who survived."
"In order to repay his gratitude, Ma Sanbao endured humiliation and lived a life of seclusion, and attached himself to the chief steward. Because he was a eunuch, he could move freely between the inner and outer courtyards. He contacted my brother's men and planned a way to save me. It was he who secretly told me that the fox fur you were wearing today had exposed your identity."
Hu Shanwei recalled that when he was inspecting the goods for the chief steward in the Qin/Wang Mansion, there was indeed a handsome servant who was responsible for reporting, and he turned out to be a poor eunuch.
The Qin Wangfei said, "The Qin Wang is worse than a beast. He will definitely treat you like he treated Liu Siyan and cut off your tongue. So I will just use the excuse of coming to Da Ci'en Temple to burn incense and fulfill a vow. I will send a message to bring you out and leave the city with me. I will go back to the capital with you to file a complaint and expose the true face of the Qin Wang."
Hu Shanwei asked: "All the major gates of Xi'an City are guarded by soldiers from the Prince of Qin's palace. You came to Da Ci'en Temple to burn incense and fulfill your vows. There are spies from the Prince of Qin outside. How can you escape?"
Before the Princess Qin could speak, the loyal servant beside her knelt down and said, "I will take the Princess' place at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. The Princess will disguise herself as a monk and go with you."
After saying this, the loyal servant put on the black sable cloak of the Princess of Qin, put on his hood, stood on the top of the tower, leaned on the railing and looked into the distance, laughing from time to time, looking like a madman.
The Princess of Qin changed into a monk's robe, and the servant Ma Sanbao came up with a sharp blade, shaved off all her troublesome hairs, and threw them all into the brazier.
A man without hair was like having a new head. The Princess of Qin put on a monk's hat and shaved Ma Sanbao's head. The boy immediately turned into a bald little monk.
The four people and two monks escaped from the city when it was almost dusk. The captain released unique blue-green fireworks into the sky. This was their agreed retreat signal. When the other six people saw the signal, they would no longer go to the inn to meet up. Instead, they would go their separate ways and return to the capital to meet up again.
Bai Hu hired two carriages at the mule and horse shop outside the city. Hu Shanwei opened the map and said, "Return along the original route. Don't take the small roads. If we are lucky, we will meet Ji Gang halfway. Ji Gang is accompanied by 300 elite Jinyiwei soldiers. He will protect us back to Beijing."
At that time, Baihu obeyed the order, drove the carriage back along the original route, and disappeared in the flying snow.
When night fell, the guards of Da Ci'en Temple walked up to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and urged the princess to return home, but the princess ignored them.
Not only that, the princess's frail body also flipped over the railing and fell, like a black butterfly, dancing in the air with the goose feather snow, and then, with a snap, she turned into a blood butterfly...
At the prison at the gate of Xi'an City, a bandit captain of the Nine-Man Team was caught by the butler's spy when he was trying to sneak out of the city. After being tortured in every way, the bandit captain revealed the truth: "The blue-green fireworks above the south gate just now were the signal to retreat. They have already returned to Beijing."
When the news reached the King of Qin, his joy at having a son immediately turned into rage.
"Tell General Lu to dispatch 5,000 soldiers from the Prince of Qin's palace and chase them immediately! Don't leave any of them alive!"
General Lu took the order and left, deploying his troops under the cover of darkness.
On the post road, Hu Shanwei and his group indeed ran into Ji Gang's three hundred Jinyiwei.
However, Hu Shanwei did not feel the joy of a victorious meeting. She yelled at Ji Gang, "Turn around! Go back! Don't go forward!"
Ji Gang was confused, "Why? I finally got here, and Xi'an city is just ahead."
Hu Shanwei didn't have time to explain. He opened the car door and pointed at the Princess Qin who was wearing a headscarf: "You have been working in the palace for several years. You should know her, right?"
Ji Gang shone the torch, "Qin...Princess Qin?"
The Princess of Qin nodded and said, "The Prince of Qin and Concubine Deng are plotting to seize the throne and have made their own dragon bed and queen clothes. I will go to the capital to report this to the Emperor and Empress."
Ji Gang asked: "Where are Liu Siyan and the others?"
When Liu Siyan was mentioned, Princess Qin became ill again, pinching her neck and vomiting non-stop, "It's my fault, I shouldn't have told her, I hurt her..."
He is talking nonsense and seems crazy.
Ji Gang didn't understand what was going on, but he also knew that Liu Siyan and his group were in trouble. At this time, the spy came with a telescope and reported: "Master Ji! There are pursuers ahead! Judging from the length and width of the torches, there should be more than three thousand people!"
Hu Shanwei's face changed, "It's the Qin/Prince's palace soldiers! The palace has 5,000 palace soldiers!"
Ji Gang only has three hundred Jinyiwei. Even if they are well-equipped, they are still unable to resist!
what to do
At this time, Chen Xuan, the leader of the Eighteen Villages beside Ji Gang, said, "It's hard to run with so many people. Our Eighteen Villages are easy to defend and difficult to attack. With the firearms of the Jinyiwei, we should be able to hold out for a while. Wait for our Weifeng Escort Agency to send out your letter for help. Once the reinforcements arrive, we can rescue you. If you don't mind the simplicity of the Eighteen Villages, you can follow us to the mountain village to hide. We can take the small road and take a shortcut to avoid the pursuers."
Things have gotten out of control now, and this is the best option.
Ji Gang and Hu Shanwei looked at each other and said in unison: "Let's go!"
They fled on a dark and windy night to Eighteen Villages. When they closed the mountain gate, the soldiers from the Qin Palace had already caught up with them and it was already dawn.
General Lu was about to launch a general attack and lit the fuse of the artillery, intending to blow up the mountain gate when suddenly a flag floated out from the southeast skyline.
The font is unclear, but it's clearly a triangular military flag.
Not knowing where the enemy came from and for fear of alerting the passing troops, General Lu had no choice but to cut the fuse and wait for the troops to pass by before launching the attack.
Under the half-worn "Feng" military flag, the untidy commander Mu Chun raised his whip, snowflakes forming icicles on his beard. He pointed to the Zhuoying County Post Station ahead and imitated Cao Cao, trying to quench his thirst by looking at a plum. "Everyone hold on for a while! We'll be at the Zhuoying County Post Station soon. You can eat, take a shower, feed the horses, and rest for a day. We'll set off again tomorrow!"
Mu Chun escorted the military cotton clothes to the northwestern border, and in order to reunite with his sister Shanwei in Xi'an as soon as possible, he traveled day and night, braving the wind and snow.
All the men under the Eagle Guard were scolding him:
"Right away! You only know how to say right away! There are already more than a dozen people right away, who are you kidding! Why did I think so hard that I came to the northwest to guard the border with a shameless bastard and a big liar like you? I must have lost my mind at that time!"
"I'm not going to leave. I'm going to camp in the snow and sleep. I'm dying of exhaustion."
In Shibazhai, Hu Shanwei stood on the watchtower and used a Western telescope to see the young general who was arguing with his men.
Several of his men were furious and pulled the young general off his horse, insisting that they set up camp in the wild to rest. The young general fought with his men, and during the fight, the men pulled off the young general's cotton hat, revealing his true face.
Even though he had an untidy beard, she recognized him at a glance.
It’s Muchun indeed!
Hu Shanwei's eyes lit up. Mu Chun might be late, but he would never be absent. Somehow, he had already walked into her life.
The author has something to say: To comfort everyone, I have sent red envelopes to all readers who left messages as of 8:50 tonight, more than 400 in total. Congratulations to reader Jingjingjingjingjingjing for receiving a 100-point red envelope~
Reader Xiao Ha pointed out that in Chapter 48 of "Hu Shanwei", the age difference between the Crown Prince and the King of Qin is one year younger, not one month younger. After verification, I found that I was wrong and have corrected it. Thank you for pointing it out.
in addition:
I asked the publisher and they said tomorrow is Double 12, and the Biography of Empress Xu, one of my Ming Dynasty Quartet, will be on sale at a 50% discount. With the price of two cups of latte or a KFC family bucket, you can take home two magnificent epic novels about a generation of empresses and keep them forever. I hope all the little angels can support me and show their support~
Congratulations to reader Jingjingjingjingjingjing? Received a 100-point red envelope~
№1 Netizen: Jingjingjingjingjingjing? Comment: "Hu Shanwei" Score: 2 Published time: 2018-12-10 20:52:52 Reviewed chapter: 49
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